Stellaris 30,000: Under One Rule, The Grim Dark Future Awaits

[Arithmetician]

Hi! Arithmetician here!

Nearly two years ago, I did a Warhammer 40K-based Stellaris run, "Stellaris 42,000: The Imperium Reformatus - As Ever in the Grim Dark Future, There Is Only War"

Stellaris 42,000: The Imperium Reformatus - As Ever in the Grim Dark Future, There is Only War

The Imperium of Man, as it was, has fallen. Centuries ago, the raging Warp Storms that cut across the galaxy encroached on the Sol System and Holy Terra itself, the heart of the Imperium. The rest of the Imperium was immediately cut off from...

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Since then, the ‘Under One Rule’ Origin came out, and I had the inspiration to do another Warhammer based run, but this time in the 30K / Great Crusade era, which the origin was practically written for.

Unfortunately, at the time that I was setting up such a run, my father passed away in May, and then I had a serious health issue myself (which is going better now), which made me not be in the mood for Stellaris for some time. But fast forward to November, I was finally ready to revisit the idea for the campaign.

Humanity in this play through is largely modeled after baseline humanity, with the addition of Perfected Genes, from the origin, Rapid Breeders (to represent how numerous humanity is in 30K/40K), and Unruly, to pay for that trait, and since when is humanity good on actually agreeing on things?

Starting civics are Crusader Spirit (it is the Great CRUSADE, and it allows for more interesting options than if we were just Fanatic Purifiers), and Distinguished Admiralty, which is both a very strong militaristic civic that works well with Crusader Spirit, but more importantly, synergizes with our Luminary.

Xenophobe is obligatory for the Imperium, whether as 30K or 40K, and crucially, it allows us to purge xenos. While I am pragmatic enough not to purge ALL xenos, since pops are power in Stellaris, I will make it a roleplaying rule that any Khornate, Nurglite, Tzeentchian, Slaaneshi, Chaos Demon, or Chaos Cultist pops MUST be purged via an Extermination purge, Armageddon bombardment, or world-cracking Exterminatus via a Colossus, if possible. Chaos is NOT to be tolerated in the Imperium.

Militarist is also key, since we will focusing on building a powerful navy to subjugate both xenos empires and scattered human empires that are not in compliance with the Imperial Truth.

And lastly, the 30K Imperium is definitely Materialist, being explicitly anti-religion (at least officially). This will also allow us to take on Relentless Industrialists as a planned third civic later, representing the environmental degradation (and enormous output) of the Mechanicum’s Forge Worlds.

And our Luminary is Sethano, in a nod to our eventual Empress of Mankind from Stellaris 42,000K. Sethano is an admiral, which with her Origin and Distinguished Admiralty means she will start at Level VI. As for her traits, she starts with Genome Artist and Titan of Industry as positive ones, and Blunt as her negative trait.

Early game, a leveled up Genome Artist is actually more impactful on one’s economy, as if one levels it up twice (which Sethano starting at Level VI will allow me to do), it gives -30% pop upkeep. That is a lot of extra food and consumer goods for an early colonization rush, which is highly incentivized by the Origin, which gives points for leveling up the Luminary trait based on how many planets and systems you control within the first 40 years of the game. Moreover, it is very fitting with the canonical backstory of the Emperor of Mankind, or in Sethano’s case, the eventual Empress of Mankind.

Titan of Industry doubles down on the economy-boosting traits, and not only reflects Sethano’s alliance with the Tech-Priests of Mars, but also the industrial tendencies of Sethano from my 42K game.

Given that the Origin rewards being highly aggressive, Blunt is practically a free pick for us. Xenos are to be subjugated or enslaved (or purged if they are Chaos-aligned). Any negotiations with xenos are with the eventual goal of subjugating them, but war will be our preferred instrument of expansion. Moreover, Blunt is the only starting negative trait of the ones available to use with our ethics that does not damage our economy or unity production in some way.

This is NOT an ironman/achievements compatible run. I do use Gulli’s planet modifiers as the main gameplay altering mod, along with a mod that permits Armageddon bombardment stance for all empires of certain ethics - after all, what would 30/40K be without a proper Exterminatus? Wild Space is another key mod, making some parts of the galaxy entirely uncolonizable, representing regions of space where Warp Storms rage, which will at times lead to interesting galactic geography, and make it so that we are still discovering secrets in the galaxy even late into the game.

I also sparingly used console commands, but this was primarily either to correct the occasional bug, or trigger certain events to challenge me for AAR narrative purposes.

(It took me HOURS to get a proper spawn right near the center of Segmentum Solar... fortunately, I was doing other things in the meantime. It was still frustrating though, so I’m glad I was able to get a good campaign from that start.)

Difficulty is Grand Admiral with Midgame Scaling, set to maximize by 75 years in. Given the early game emphasis of Under One Rule, I wanted to have a more active start, rather than just turtling for the first several decades.

And now that I’ve got that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this AAR!

 

[Arithmetician]

As of the end of the Unification Wars, Sethano had drawn a number of skilled individuals to her cause.

Chief among them was her War Master, Faustus Tancus. Known for his aggressive, skirmishing tactics and his zeal, he had adopted a wolf as his battle standard, and would lead the Great Crusade’s fleets into the galaxy

Stansilav Paseski was a Tech-Priest which a knack for archaeology, which Sethano hoped would help them uncover the secrets of mankind’s lost technology for use in the Crusade and Imperium to come.

And supervising economic affairs back on Terra was Thecia Aquissius, who had risen far from the lowly position of Clerk with her excellent administrative skills.

Yet while Terra was unified through the luminous vision that Sethano had promised of mankind’s future glory as the rightful masters of the stars, as well as copious amounts of bloodshed, there were still those who quietly questioned if she was actually capable of delivering upon that promise.

Sethano would prove them wrong.

Warmaster Faustus immediately departed from Terra, scouting nearby systems for any surviving human colonies or hostile xenos, while Sethano started recruiting more tech priest Explorators to survey these systems for usuable resources and artifacts.

It wasn’t long before they started reporting valuable finds.

Sirius III, which was soon renamed Sothis, was rich in resources, especially on its floating continents, and there were deposits of a rare aerosol known as Zro that strongly enhanced the abilities of any Psykers who consumed it, at the cost of being highly addictive.

It didn’t take long for the Imperium to encounter hostile xenos, in the Alpha Centauri system. Automated Mining Drones, and their expansion fleets, were found busily exploiting the system.

The drones had originally been a human invention during the Dark Age of Technology, but they had long since gone out of control, and were at best a nuisance, and at worst a menace to all who encountered them. Indeed, the drones tried to strip the hull of the Explorator vessel that encountered them before it managed to retreat.

But the greatest trove of treasures was found on the ancient archaeopolis of Wasat IV.

It had a thin atmosphere. Most of what remained was fairly toxic without special equipment. And it was crawling with mutated xenos monstrosities.

But its vast planetary shipyards from the Dark Age of Technology, as well as obelisks that channeled psionic power and appeared to be connected to the ancient Aeldari Webways, made it a prize that Sethano could not possibly ignore.

And docked among the ruined shipyard, an ancient battleship was discovered.

It was quickly pressed into service and given the name Enigma due to its unknown origins.

Its technology was incomprehensibly beyond anything that the Imperium was capable of.

And it was perfectly suited for disposing of the Mining drones menacing Alpha Centauri.

But Sethano and Warmaster Faustus knew that where there was one group of mining drones, others were sure to be found in nearby systems.

So with the Enigma as their flagship, they moved to purge the sector of the threat.

 

[Arithmetician]

The Engima continued to clear out hostile mining drones, next in the Formalhaut System.

More ancient ruins from the Dark Age of Technology was discovered on an arctic world orbiting van Maanen’s Star, which Explorators were eager to study.

Meanwhile, the new cities being built on Sothis were a testament to the splendor of the Imperium, all the more so after Sethano not only allocated generous funding to the project, but stepped in to personally direct the construction process.

The citizens of the Imperium celebrated in their shared triumph, made possible through their hard work and Sethano’s guidance.

The Imperium continued to expand to nearby systems. Alpha Centauri had an exceptionally mineral-rich moon, which would go a long way to fueling the Imperium’s growing industry.

And still more seams of valuable minerals were later discovered on Sothis as well.

However, this mining opened up a cavern filled with a large number of cave mushrooms that released spores that caused feral behavior in a number of the colonists on Sothis. It was also soon determined, however, that these spores could be filtered and processed into industrially useful exotic gases, another boon to the Imperium and its economy.

The war against the mining drones continued around Banard’s Star. The Enigma absorbed the drone’s fire with its powerful shield, and then made short work of them with its strike craft and powerful lance weapon.

While the Imperial Navy continued to expand under Sethano’s leadership, she also led the development of an experimental starbase in the Wasat System, ideally situated to exploit its precursor shipyards.

Next on the agenda would be expanding her council to bring in more qualified leaders who she could entrust portions of her vision to...

 

[Arithmetician]

Under Sethano’s leadership, the Imperium continued to steadily expand throughout Segementum Solar, with regular but intermittent skirmishes against fleets of mining drones. No signs of living Xenos could be found, though they had to be out there, and the ruins of both ancient xenos civilizations and human colonies from the Dark Age of Technology dotted Segmentum Solar.

In the course of a surveying Segment, one of the Mechanicum’s exploratory, Catarina von Tannenburg, encountered an anomaly that transformed her into a Perpetual, a being that was immortal, like Sethano herself. Tannenburg did not have an immortal’s lifetime of experiences yet, but given that she now promised to be one who could last through the ages, Sethano took a new interest in her as a potential confidant.

And further excavations unveiled a relic that boosted the longevity of the leaders who worked the most closely with Sethano.

In 827M30, the Imperium located what appeared to be the hub of the Mining Drones’ operation throughout Segementum Solar. It was actually right outside of the Segementum, bordering the dense stars that constituted the outer boundaries of the galaxy’s core. It was too well-defended for the Imperium to make an immediate strike against it, so Sethano’s admirals instead focused on eradicating the drones’ expeditionary fleets and their outlying mining operations.

As Explorator vessels pushed north, into the region of the galaxy designated as 'Segmentum Tempestus', a cluster of irradiated worlds that appeared to have been the center of a now-lost civilization from the Dark Age of Technology was discovered.

Orders went out to claim these worlds for the Imperium.

But the Abominable Intelligence of the Mining Drones had started colonizing Segementum Tempestus as well, leading to new clashes with the Imperial Navy.

Meanwhile, Explorator vessels had made a treacherous journey past Warp Storm-filled space to reach another region of the galaxy, named ‘Segementum Pacificus’. A pre-FTL xenos species was discovered on the third planet of the Fevallion System.

They would have to be dealt with in time.

It was then discovered that the Mining Drones were more widespread than previously thought, and had already established operations in Segmentum Pacificus long before the Imperium’s arrival.

But the appearance of the Xenos codenamed the 'Daleth Menace’ in 832M30 would soon inspire far more fear and revulsion than the Abominable Intelligence that had, until that point, been the Imperium’s most prolific opponent....

 

[Arithmetician]

While the Imperium was busy laying claim to the worlds around the old ‘Ruinous Core’ and their invaluable treasures from the Dark Age of Technology, the Daleth Menace was not idle either, laying claim to the Gallamun system, near the border of Sgementum Obscures and Segmentum Tempestus.

Meanwhile, through further negotiations with the Mechanicum, Sethano brought about a new wave of industrialization throughout the Imperium. A few dissenters may have complained about the resulting pollution and environmental degradation brought about at the hands of the Priests of Mars as they established new forge worlds on the behalf of the Imperium. But Sethano knew that the Imperium had to be relentless in its crusade to bring her ideals to every corner of the galaxy.

On 07.05.837M30, hostilities with the Daleth Menace officially commenced, as the foul xenos boarded Catarina von Tannenburg’s Explorator vessel. She, along her crew, took their own lives to prevent critical knowledge about the Imperium from passing into the possession of the Daleth Menace. Though their sacrifice could only do so much - by studying what remained of their ship, the xenos would have a rough grasp of the Imperium’s current level of technology.

Sethano was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment when she heard of the loss, suddenly bereft of a fellow Perpetual whom she had hoped would long stand by her side.

Then, she finally spoke.

“There is to be no quarter with these vile xenos. Upon their perfidious civilization, I hereby declare Exterminatus. We shall scour them from the galaxy!"