A great Warhammer campaign needs more than a collection of missions.

It needs pressure.

An army should have somewhere it must go, something it cannot afford to lose, and more problems than it has forces available to solve. A bridge captured in a 500-point game should open a reinforcement route. A failed raid should leave an armored column without support. A desperate last stand should buy time for another player fighting elsewhere in the theatre.

Military history offers plenty of campaign structures capable of creating those decisions.

These are not attempts to recreate historical battles with Warhammer miniatures. They borrow the strategic problems that made each campaign memorable and translate them into objectives, deployment decisions, supply limitations, asymmetric missions, and consequences that can shape an unfolding Warhammer war.

The result is a campaign in which Combat Patrol-sized forces can alter the theatre—and the largest armies only appear when the story has earned them.

1. The Second Punic War: Win the Battles, Then Try to Win the War

The historical idea

Hannibal invaded Italy by an unexpected route, won extraordinary battlefield victories, and repeatedly punished Roman armies that confronted him directly.

But winning battles did not automatically give Carthage control of Rome’s alliances, manpower, or political system. Rome absorbed terrible losses, avoided some of the decisive engagements Hannibal wanted, attacked Carthaginian interests elsewhere, and eventually carried the war into North Africa.

The Warhammer version

An elite invading force enters enemy territory far from its own reinforcement base. It can defeat almost anything concentrated in front of it—but it cannot defend every captured sector, replace every casualty, or force the defender to fight on favorable terms.

The defender begins with scattered forces and may lose several early battles. Its strategic objective is to survive, preserve critical strongholds, deny the invader permanent control, and build enough pressure elsewhere to force the invading army to turn back.

This works especially well when an aggressive Chaos Space Marine, Drukhari, Ork, Tyranid, or Space Marine force invades a world defended by several Imperial, T’au, Necron, or allied armies.

Battles to include

• The Unexpected Crossing: A small advance force must secure a mountain pass, void dock, webway gate, or orbital insertion zone before the main army can deploy.

• The Ambush: The invader chooses the battlefield and attempts to trap a larger defending force between blocking units and fast-moving reserves.

• The Allies Decide: A local militia, planetary governor, Knight household, or minor xenos faction joins whichever side wins a limited engagement.

• The Fabian Response: The defender scores campaign success by evacuating assets, delaying the invader, or escaping without offering a decisive battle.

• The War Comes Home: A second defending army attacks the invader’s home territory, fleet anchorage, or principal supply base.

The campaign mechanic

Give the invader a powerful veteran army but few replacement points. Give the defender more opportunities to raise new forces, but require those forces to enter through controlled recruitment worlds, cities, or landing zones.

Add an allegiance track for important regions. Winning a battle may frighten a region, but holding it, defending it, or completing a political mission is what earns its permanent support.

This creates the central tension of the campaign:

Can the attacker convert battlefield victories into strategic control before accumulated losses and threats elsewhere make the invasion unsustainable?

2. Alexander’s Persian Campaign: Momentum Against an Empire

The historical idea

Alexander did not defeat the Persian Empire in one battle. His army crossed into Asia, forced river crossings, captured coastal cities, survived sieges, defeated larger armies, seized administrative centers, and continued advancing before the Persian leadership could fully recover.

His greatest weapon was not simply battlefield strength. It was momentum.

The Warhammer version

One compact, highly experienced army attacks a much larger empire whose forces are spread across many sectors.

The attacker cannot conquer everything simultaneously. It must win quickly, preserve its best units, and choose a route through river lines, fortress worlds, fleet bases, and regional capitals. The defender has greater total resources but struggles to concentrate them before the attacker reaches the next objective.

This is ideal for a player with one developed army facing several players with smaller forces.

Battles to include

• The River Crossing: The attacker must establish a bridgehead while fighting through restricted deployment lanes.

• The Coastal Fortress: A siege or boarding action determines whether the defender can threaten the attacker’s supply fleet.

• The Satrap’s Stand: A regional commander must decide whether to defend alone, retreat, or wait for reinforcements.

• The Decisive Center: The attacker wins by breaking through to the enemy command element rather than destroying the entire army.

• The Pursuit: Fast units attempt to capture fleeing leaders, transports, relics, or intelligence before they escape.

The campaign mechanic

Give the attacker a momentum rating. Consecutive victories allow better deployment choices, earlier reserves, or first choice of the next campaign route. A defeat—or even a victory that costs too many units—breaks that momentum and gives the defender time to concentrate.

Regional defenders should also have individual loyalty. A commander abandoned by the imperial army might withdraw, surrender, or pursue a private objective instead of fighting to the last model.

The final battle should depend on the route taken. If the attacker neutralized fleet bases and fortresses, the decisive army arrives intact. If those objectives were bypassed, the attacker faces raids, delayed reinforcements, and enemies arriving from behind.

3. The First Silesian War: Take the Objective Before the Enemy Can React

The historical idea

Frederick the Great invaded Silesia while Austria was politically vulnerable and its forces were committed elsewhere. Prussia rapidly occupied much of the region, but fortresses, counterattacks, winter conditions, and the wider war prevented the campaign from being a simple march to victory.

This was a war over a limited but extremely valuable objective.

The Warhammer version

One faction launches a sudden offensive to capture a wealthy industrial province, forge-world district, mining moon, or chain of manufactorums.

The attacker does not need to destroy the defending faction. It needs to seize enough strategic locations to make its conquest a completed fact before the defender can assemble a major counteroffensive.

Battles to include

• The Border Posts: Several 500-point games determine how much warning the defender receives.

• The Open Manufactorums: Fast-moving attackers race to claim undefended industrial sites.

• The Holdout Fortress: A small garrison ties down a much larger army while relief forces approach.

• The First Counterattack: The defender tests whether the invader can hold ground as effectively as it captured it.

• The Peace Line: The final battle determines which objectives remain in the attacker’s hands when the campaign ends.

The campaign mechanic

Begin with incomplete information. The defender should not know exactly where the main blow will fall until the opening games are complete.

Make campaign victory depend on holding specific locations, not accumulating destroyed units. The attacker may win four battles but still fail if the critical fortress remains in enemy hands. The defender may lose most of the province but win the campaign by keeping the principal forge operational until reinforcements arrive.

This is a strong structure for a short campaign because it has a clear objective and a natural time limit.

4. The Seven Years’ War: A War Too Large for One Battlefield

The historical idea

The Seven Years’ War connected several coalitions and theatres across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, West Africa, India, and the world’s oceans. Different allies fought for different goals, while victories in one region changed what could be reinforced, supplied, or defended elsewhere.

The Warhammer version

This is the template for a large club campaign.

The war spans multiple planets or several continents on one world. No player participates in every battle. Each commands a faction, expeditionary force, fleet, or regional army with its own objectives.

One front might feature Imperial and Chaos armies fighting for a hive city. Another might have Aeldari and Necrons contesting an ancient site. A third could revolve around boarding actions that determine which reinforcements reach the surface.

The factions do not need to divide cleanly into two permanent teams. They only need reasons to cooperate temporarily.

Battles to include

• The Colonial Outpost: Small armies fight over remote locations that generate campaign resources.

• The Fleet Action: A boarding or narrative mission determines which faction can transport reinforcements.

• The Allied Offensive: Two players combine smaller forces against one established army.

• The Distant Victory: A battle on another world cuts off supplies to the main theatre.

• The Coalition Crisis: An ally must choose between supporting the larger war or completing its private objective.

The campaign mechanic

Give every faction one public goal and one private goal.

The Imperium may publicly defend the sector while one commander privately tries to recover a relic. An Aeldari force may support the defenders only until a particular tomb complex is secured. An Ork player may nominally join an invasion but score additional campaign success by ensuring the war continues.

Resources earned in one theatre can be spent in another, but moving them takes time. This gives small games on distant fronts genuine importance.

The Seven Years’ War model is excellent for a community with many armies because players can enter the campaign without forcing every matchup into the same central narrative.

5. Operation Barbarossa: The Front Is Wider Than the Army

The historical idea

Operation Barbarossa opened an enormous front with multiple objectives, rapid early advances, vast encirclements, and increasingly severe logistical problems. Distance, resistance, competing priorities, depleted formations, and the arrival of worsening weather helped turn early operational success into an unsustainable campaign.

The Warhammer version

The attacker begins with overwhelming strength but must divide it among several strategic axes.

One army pushes toward the political capital. Another targets the enemy’s industrial centers. A third attempts to secure resources or destroy field armies. Every objective matters, but pursuing all of them stretches supply lines and reserves.

The defender should not be expected to hold the frontier. Its decisions are about what to preserve, where to delay the attacker, and when to commit forces to a counterstroke.

Battles to include

• The Frontier Breakthrough: The attacker receives significant advantages but must win quickly.

• The Encirclement: Mobile forces attempt to seal escape routes while defenders evacuate surviving units.

• The Supply Convoy: A 500-point raiding force can delay an entire armored spearhead.

• The Crossroads: Both sides need the same transport hub for different reasons.

• The First Counteroffensive: Fresh defending reserves strike an exhausted or overextended attacking force.

The campaign mechanic

Place supply routes directly on the campaign map.

An army that advances beyond a connected supply route can still fight, but it loses access to some combination of replacement units, campaign requisitions, reserves, or pregame advantages.

Allow the attacker to change objectives—but charge a strategic cost for doing so. Redirecting an army from one front to another might consume a campaign turn or give the defender time to fortify.

The campaign becomes a race between territorial expansion and logistical collapse. The attacker may still possess the strongest armies on the table while becoming unable to place those armies where they are needed.

6. Stalingrad: The City That Consumes Armies

The historical idea

Stalingrad became a brutal struggle for factories, streets, buildings, river access, and narrow strongpoints. The fighting inside the city drew enormous attention and resources. Meanwhile, Soviet forces prepared attacks against the more vulnerable forces protecting the German flanks, ultimately surrounding the Axis army inside the city.

The Warhammer version

One faction is determined to capture a hive district whose symbolic or industrial value has become greater than its original military value.

Each block becomes a battlefield. The central army grows increasingly committed to the city, while smaller armies fight over ferries, landing zones, roads, supply depots, and the exposed sectors outside it.

This structure is perfect for dense terrain and asymmetric missions.

Battles to include

• The Factory Floor: Infantry fight at extremely close range over machinery and production controls.

• The Ruined Strongpoint: A small defending force must remain in control of one building until the game ends.

• Across the River: Reinforcements attempt to cross under fire and establish a foothold.

• The Northern Flank: A beginning player commands a smaller force defending a supposedly quiet sector.

• The Encirclement: Multiple attacking forces attempt to link up behind the army committed to the city.

• The Relief Attempt: An outside army tries to open an escape route while the trapped army fights toward it.

The campaign mechanic

Divide the city into districts and allow control to change building by building.

The attacker gains prestige or production by taking city objectives, but every committed unit becomes harder to withdraw. The defender earns encirclement resources by winning games outside the city.

When the encirclement begins, physically mark the available supply routes. If the trapped army cannot reopen one, later battles begin with fewer reserves and increasingly limited replacement options.

The dramatic question is no longer merely who controls the city.

It is whether the army fighting inside realizes the strategic danger before the route out disappears.

7. Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign: Make a Small Army Impossible to Ignore

The historical idea

Stonewall Jackson used speed, secrecy, interior lines, and the geography of the Shenandoah Valley to threaten several Union forces in succession. His army was much smaller than the combined forces opposing it, but its movements created uncertainty and helped keep troops away from the main Union offensive against Richmond.

Even a tactical setback could create a strategic effect if it convinced the enemy that the threat was larger than it truly was.

The Warhammer version

A small, mobile army operates along a side front while a much larger campaign unfolds elsewhere.

Its job is not to conquer the entire map. It is to threaten enough objectives that the enemy must keep diverting armies to contain it.

This is one of the best campaign structures for a newer player or someone with a smaller collection because their army’s influence is measured by the enemy resources it occupies—not by how many models it destroys.

Battles to include

• The False Advance: The smaller force earns points for convincing the enemy that a major attack is underway.

• The Forced March: A fast redeployment allows the same army to appear on a different battlefield.

• The Divided Enemy: The mobile force attacks one detachment before another can arrive.

• The Valley Exit: The enemy attempts to block the roads leading toward the primary theatre.

• The Strategic Distraction: A battle’s result determines whether reinforcements can leave the valley for the main campaign.

The campaign mechanic

Use hidden orders.

At the beginning of each campaign turn, the mobile player secretly chooses an objective or route. The opposing coalition must assign armies before that choice is revealed.

If the coalition assigns too little, the raider may capture something important. If it assigns too much, those armies remain unavailable elsewhere.

A smaller force can lose its game but still earn a campaign victory if it delays or diverts enough enemy points. That makes every movement threatening and gives a beginning player a profound role in the larger war.

8. The Peninsula Campaign: The Advance That Keeps Losing Time

The historical idea

In 1862, Union forces attempted to approach Richmond by moving up the Virginia Peninsula. The plan used waterborne movement to bypass a more direct overland approach, but fortifications, cautious advances, difficult river lines, command uncertainty, and Confederate counterattacks repeatedly disrupted the timetable.

Jackson’s campaign in the Shenandoah Valley also influenced the wider operation by helping keep Union reinforcements away from the force approaching Richmond.

The Warhammer version

A powerful invasion force lands on a narrow continent, island, or hive corridor and begins advancing toward the enemy capital.

The attacker possesses the larger field army, but geography restricts its movement. Fortresses, destroyed bridges, rivers, void-shield barriers, and raids against communications repeatedly slow the advance.

Elsewhere, a smaller enemy force creates enough danger to keep potential reinforcements away from the main front.

Battles to include

• The Amphibious Landing: The invader must secure docks, landing pads, or teleportation beacons.

• The Fortified Line: A small garrison attempts to delay a much larger army.

• The Siege Batteries: Raiding forces target the weapons or generators needed to break the next defensive position.

• The Flooded Crossing: The attacker must establish routes across a river or hazardous terrain.

• The Distant Threat: A separate battle determines whether reinforcements join the main army.

• The Counterstroke: Several defending players attack different sections of the invasion force in consecutive or simultaneous games.

• The Fighting Withdrawal: The invader must preserve its army while retreating toward its original base.

The campaign mechanic

Give the attacker a timetable.

Capturing the capital might require reaching it by Campaign Turn Six. Every fortress bypassed, bridge destroyed, convoy raided, or cautious delay consumes time.

The defender does not need to win every battle. A garrison that survives four turns, destroys a siege engine, or forces the attacker to deploy reserves may accomplish exactly what the campaign requires.

This makes delaying actions meaningful and connects distant, smaller engagements directly to the largest battles.

9. The Battle of Kursk: Break the Defense Before the Reserves Arrive

The historical idea

At Kursk, German forces attacked a salient whose defenses the Soviets had prepared in depth. The attackers had to penetrate successive belts of mines, anti-tank positions, artillery, infantry defenses, and reserves. Even a local breakthrough did not guarantee operational freedom, while Soviet forces retained the ability to counterattack elsewhere.

The Warhammer version

The defender knows where the attack is coming and has had time to prepare.

The attacker brings elite formations, heavy armor, monsters, Knights, or siege engines. The defender builds several layers of resistance and keeps mobile reserves away from the opening battles.

The attacker must breach the defensive system before those reserves enter the campaign.

Battles to include

• The Reconnaissance Raid: Small forces attempt to identify defensive assets or conceal the true attack route.

• The First Belt: Infantry clear obstacles and forward positions.

• The Breach: Heavy units attempt to create a route through a fortified battlefield.

• The Counterattack: Fresh reserves strike forces already damaged in earlier games.

• The Armored Collision: Large armies, Knights, tanks, and anti-armor units meet in the campaign’s centerpiece battle.

• The Offensive Beyond the Salient: If the breach fails, the defender becomes the attacker on another part of the map.

The campaign mechanic

Build three defensive belts on the campaign map.

Winning one game opens the next belt, but units destroyed or badly damaged during the breakthrough remain unavailable unless the attacker spends limited replacement resources.

Give the attacker a fixed number of campaign turns. If it has not broken through before the deadline, the defender unlocks fresh armies and chooses where the counteroffensive begins.

The attacker may win every early battle and still discover that it has spent too much strength breaking positions that were designed to be expendable.

10. The Crimean War: The Siege Depends on Everything Behind It

The historical idea

The Crimean War brought together an allied expedition against Russia, with the siege of Sevastopol becoming its central operation. Amphibious movement, fortified positions, coalition coordination, supply routes, weather, disease, and the ability to sustain an army far from home shaped the campaign as much as the major battlefield engagements.

The Warhammer version

Several factions form an uneasy coalition to capture a heavily fortified port, hive, spaceport, or orbital-defense complex.

The fortress cannot be taken in a single game. The attackers must establish a landing base, protect their supply route, position siege weapons, and prevent relief forces from breaking through.

Meanwhile, the defender can attack the coalition’s weakest links instead of confronting the entire alliance at once.

Battles to include

• The Landing: Coalition forces establish a beachhead or planetary landing zone.

• The Heights: Control of elevated terrain determines where siege weapons may deploy.

• The Supply Road: A small escort force protects ammunition, fuel, food, or reactor components.

• The Coalition Misunderstanding: Allied forces receive different objectives during the same multiplayer battle.

• The Sortie: Fortress defenders raid siege positions before returning to safety.

• The Relief Column: An outside army attempts to break the siege.

• The Final Bombardment: Earlier games determine how many breaches exist in the fortress walls.

The campaign mechanic

Give the coalition a shared supply pool but separate political goals.

Players must decide whether to spend resources on the siege, replace their own casualties, or pursue objectives important to their faction. A player who feels ignored might withhold reinforcements at exactly the wrong moment.

The defender loses ground slowly but can attack roads, depots, landing zones, and coalition unity.

This campaign makes logistics playable without turning the game into accounting. Every convoy or siege battery exists because someone fought for it on the table.

11. Napoleon’s War of the Fourth Coalition: One Campaign, Several Armies in Motion

The historical idea

During the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon’s corps advanced along separate but supporting routes, allowing them to move quickly and concentrate for battle. The Prussian army was defeated in the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt, followed by a relentless pursuit. The war continued into Poland, where difficult conditions and hard battles preceded the decisive French victory at Friedland.

The Warhammer version

Several armies advance across parallel routes. Each must be capable of fighting alone for a time, but close enough to reinforce the others.

The defender begins with powerful forces that are poorly positioned or operating under uncertain orders. Its challenge is to determine where the primary attack is coming from and concentrate before separate formations are defeated one at a time.

This structure is ideal for linked tables and multi-player action.

Battles to include

• The Screen: Fast units fight to conceal or reveal where the main armies are moving.

• The Twin Battles: Two games occur simultaneously, with reserves allocated before either result is known.

• The Forced Concentration: A nearby army may enter another player’s battle if it controls the connecting road.

• The Pursuit: A defeated force must save units, artillery, transports, or commanders from a faster enemy.

• The Winter Standoff: Both sides fight limited engagements while rebuilding.

• The Decisive River Battle: One army is caught with restricted withdrawal routes as enemy reinforcements arrive.

The campaign mechanic

Require each army to occupy a specific route on the campaign map. Adjacent armies can support one another, but concentrating too heavily leaves other routes exposed.

Run two battles during the same campaign round. Players must assign reserves before knowing which battle will need them most. A force sent to the wrong table may arrive late—or not at all.

After a major victory, do not immediately end the campaign. Begin a pursuit phase. Retreating units that escape can return later, while captured depots and blocked routes may cause entire formations to disappear from the next battle.

This makes speed, positioning, and coordination just as important as the result of the largest game.

Turning One of These Ideas Into a Warhammer Campaign

Whichever historical framework you choose, keep the first version manageable.

Build a map with six to ten important locations

You do not need to map an entire planet. Start with the places armies must control:

• A bridge or transit corridor

• A vox relay

• A manufactorum

• A landing zone

• A supply depot

• A fortified city

• A spaceport

• A regional headquarters

Every location should answer one question:

What changes when someone controls this?

Give every strategic location one clear effect

Keep the effects meaningful but limited.

Controlling a vox relay might reveal an enemy mission before forces are assigned. A landing zone might allow one unit to enter from Strategic Reserves earlier. A manufactorum might provide additional replacement resources. A bridge might connect two sectors that otherwise cannot reinforce one another.

Avoid giving so many cumulative bonuses that the player already winning becomes impossible to stop.

A campaign consequence should create a new decision—not decide the next game before it begins.

Use different battle sizes for different military problems

A small game is not an inferior version of a large game.

It has a different job.

• Combat Patrol or roughly 500 points: Reconnaissance, sabotage, convoy escort, ambushes, rescues, and last stands.

• Around 1,000 points: Bridgeheads, raids, flank attacks, defensive positions, and battles between regional forces.

• Around 2,000 points: Major offensives, counterattacks, and decisive battles between primary armies.

• Multiplayer or exceptionally large games: Sieges, encirclements, relief attempts, converging fronts, and campaign finales.

A new player’s 500-point army might determine whether a veteran player’s 2,000-point force receives reinforcements. That is how the smaller game becomes part of the same war.

Let players win without destroying the enemy

Campaign missions become more interesting when survival, time, position, and information matter.

A force might win by:

• Holding for four turns

• Escaping with one surviving unit

• Destroying a bridge

• Identifying the enemy commander

• Delaying reinforcements

• Escorting a transport

• Capturing a communications node

• Forcing the opponent to deploy reserves

• Drawing an enemy army away from another front

These objectives also make mismatched armies easier to use. A beginning player does not have to destroy a veteran’s collection. They may only need to make that army arrive one campaign turn late.

Let the campaign escalate

The opening battles should reveal the war.

The middle battles should force difficult decisions.

The final battles should bring the consequences together.

By the time the largest armies reach the table, players should know why every road, ruin, reinforcement route, and objective matters. The finale should not feel like an unrelated 2,000-point mission added to the end of the schedule.

It should feel like the collision everyone created.

Which War Will Your Army Fight?

The best historical inspiration is not necessarily the campaign with the largest battles.

Choose the one that creates the decisions your players will enjoy.

Choose the Second Punic War if you want a brilliant invader struggling to turn victories into conquest.

Choose Alexander’s Persian campaign if you want momentum, sieges, and an elite army racing across a larger empire.

Choose the First Silesian War if you want a focused campaign over one valuable region.

Choose the Seven Years’ War if you want many factions, multiple theatres, and competing objectives.

Choose Operation Barbarossa if you want a vast front where supply becomes more dangerous with every advance.

Choose Stalingrad if you want close-quarters battles, strongpoints, and the threat of encirclement.

Choose Jackson’s Valley Campaign if you want a small force to shape a much larger war.

Choose the Peninsula Campaign if you want fortresses, delays, distant threats, and an offensive racing against time.

Choose Kursk if you want defenses in depth, armored breakthroughs, and powerful reserves.

Choose the Crimean War if you want coalition politics, supply lines, and a prolonged siege.

Choose the War of the Fourth Coalition if you want separate armies maneuvering, reinforcing, and converging on decisive battles.

Whatever structure you choose, remember the question at the heart of a great Warhammer campaign:

What will this battle change?

When the players care about that answer, a ruined relay station can matter as much as a primarch. A 500-point delaying action can save an entire front. A beginning player can change the fate of the sector.

And the largest battle becomes impressive not simply because of how many models are on the table—but because everyone knows how the war reached that moment.

If you want to fight a Warhammer campaign where every battle becomes part of the story, talk to us at Monkey Llama Games in downtown Portland, Michigan.

Bring the army you already have.

Find your people.

Then discover how much of the war your force can change.