Setting Up The Campaign

Source: Necromunda Core Rulebook (2023)

Setting up a Dominion Campaign is a task that falls to the Arbitrator. To set up the campaign, the Arbitrator must make sure that all the players have founded their gang and been given their starting Territories. This is best done in a single evening or session, where everyone playing in the campaign meets and goes through all the steps of setting up the campaign together, and generally gets excited about the fun ahead.

Set Start And End Dates

The Dominion Campaign is divided into six campaign cycles, separated by a single cycle of Downtime after the first three cycles, meaning the campaign will last a total of seven cycles. For ease, we have set each cycle as a week, as this is usually how often gaming groups or groups of friends get together to play; however, if the players choose, then a cycle can represent a longer or shorter period of real time. The first step in setting up the campaign is for the Arbitrator to determine the start date, the end date and when the Downtime cycle will fall. They then share this information with the players.

Determine Territories

The number of Territories used in a Dominion Campaign depends on the number of players committed to the campaign – see the following table:

Players	Territories Generated
3	9
4	12
5	15
6	18
7	21
8	24

Territories are generated using the following method:

1. For each House represented by a player’s gang, take the cards for those Territories that offer Enhanced Boons to gangs of that House and make a deck of them.
2. Draw one Territory from each of these House decks of cards and put them aside until step 5 (note: one card is drawn, no matter how many gangs there are from an individual House).
3. Take all of the remaining cards, add the cards not drawn during step 1 back in, shuffle them together and draw a number of additional Territories until the number of Territories required for the campaign have been drawn.
4. All non-selected Territories are discarded.
5. All of the selected Territories are revealed to all of the players

Making A Deck Of Territories

You can build a deck of Territories by using half a deck of playing cards to determine the Territories for a campaign. Remove all Hearts, Clubs and Jokers, leaving just Spades and Diamonds. Each card in these remaining suits corresponds to a Territory, as per the table shown below:

Card	Territory
Ace of Diamonds	Settlement
2 of Diamonds	Old Ruins
3 of Diamonds	Rogue Doc Shop
4 of Diamonds	Promethium Cache
5 of Diamonds	Wastes
6 of Diamonds	Sludge Sea
7 of Diamonds	Workshop
8 of Diamonds	Collapsed Dome
9 of Diamonds	Refuse Drift
10 of Diamonds	Corpse Farm
Jack of Diamonds	Bone Shrine
Queen of Diamonds	Drinking Hole
King of Diamonds	Gambling Den
Ace of Spades	Needle Ways
2 of Spades	Synth Still
3 of Spades	Stinger Mould Sprawl
4 of Spades	Narco Den
5 of Spades	Slag Furnace
6 of Spades	Fighting Pit
7 of Spades	Smelting Works
8 of Spades	Mine Workings
9 of Spades	Tunnels
10 of Spades	Toll Crossing
Jack of Spades	Generatorium
Queen of Spades	Archeotech Device
King of Spades	Tech Bazaar

Issuing And Accepting Challenges

During a Dominion Campaign, battles are fought on a challenge basis:

• During each cycle, each player may issue one challenge to another gang to do battle over control of a Territory nominated by the challenger:
  • In the first campaign cycle, challenges are made in a random order.
  • In later cycles, they are made in ascending order of Gang Rating, starting with the gang with the lowest Gang Rating. If two gangs have the same Gang Rating, the winner of a roll-off makes their challenge first.
  • During the Occupation phase, the challenger nominates one uncontrolled Territory to be the stake of the battle. This is then removed from the pool by the Arbitrator until the battle is concluded. If there are no uncontrolled Territories, the challenger instead nominates one Territory controlled by the gang they are challenging to be the stake of the battle.
  • During the Takeover phase, the challenger nominates one Territory controlled by the gang they are challenging to be the stake of the battle.
• If one of a gang’s fighters has been captured by another gang, rather than challenging for a Territory, that gang may issue a challenge to the captors to play the Rescue Mission scenario.
• When a gang is challenged, they may accept or decline. If the challenge is accepted, a battle is fought. If the challenge is declined, the Territory is automatically claimed by the challenger.
• If a gang receives two or more challenges within a single campaign cycle, they may decline the second and any subsequent challenges without penalty.
• If a player has played all outstanding battles (including their issued challenge and any challenges accepted) and there is still time left in the campaign cycle, they may issue another challenge.

The gang that wins the battle takes control of the Territory (or retains control of the Territory, as the case may be). If the battle results in a draw:

• During the Occupation phase, neither gang takes control of the Territory if the Territory is unclaimed.
• During the Takeover phase, the gang that controlled the Territory before the battle retains control of the Territory.

Scenario Selection Table

When a challenge is issued, roll 2D6 on the table below to determine which scenario is used. If the scenario dictates there is an attacker and a defender, the player that issued the challenge is the attacker.

2D6	Result
2-3	The player with the greater number of Territories chooses which scenario to play. If both players have the same number of Territories, the winner of a roll-off chooses which scenario to play.
4-5	Play the Border Dispute or the Fuel Hunt scenario.
6-7	Play the Smash & Grab or the Settlement Raid scenario.
8-9	Play The Trap or the Cargo Run scenario.
10-12	The player with fewer Territories chooses which scenario to play. If both players have the same number of Territories, the winner of a roll-off chooses which scenario to play.

Players should now agree whether they will fight an Underhive or Ash Wastes battle. If they cannot decide, the player who chooses the scenario decides. If neither player chooses the scenario (for example, because a 4-9 was rolled on the table), the players should roll off and the winner’s choice applies.