The Crusade rules never assume a second player. A unit earns experience for fighting and surviving, takes an Out of Action test when it is destroyed, and gains a Battle Honour when it ranks up. All of that works the same whether the army across the table belongs to a friend or to you.
Two things do go missing when you play alone. Nobody else is making decisions for the enemy, and nobody else is checking the result. Solve those two and a solo campaign is a real campaign.
Choosing your opponent
Most solo players use one of two approaches, and plenty switch between them depending on the mission.
Play both sides. You control your Crusade force and an opposing army, and you try to win with both. It works better than it sounds, provided you commit to each side's plan at the start of its turn and never let one side go easy on the other. Writing three or four priorities for the enemy on a card ("hold the centre", "kill the Warlord", "never leave the objective unguarded") stops you quietly steering it towards a loss.
Give the enemy a script. Instead of thinking for the opposing army, give it simple standing orders: move towards the nearest objective, shoot the closest visible unit, charge whatever it can reach. A scripted enemy is less clever than you, so make up for it with numbers. Field more points against yourself than you bring.
Give the enemy a name
An opposing force that recurs, with a commander and a grudge, turns a run of games into a rivalry. It does not need its own Crusade progression. It needs to keep turning up.
Deciding the result before you roll
In a two-player game the victory points settle who won. Solo, you are both players, so decide what winning means before the first turn and write it down. A Victory Point target, an objective held at the end of the final round, a named unit still alive at the end: anything works, as long as you set it in advance.
This matters more than it seems. The result feeds your force's record, and every result you nudge after the fact makes the next one mean a little less.
Keeping yourself honest
- Take every Out of Action test. Re-rolling a failed test because nobody saw it removes the only real risk a solo campaign has.
- Let units die. Battle Scars and permanent losses are what make a surviving veteran worth something.
- Record straight after the game. Who earned what is easy to remember for an hour and impossible a week later.
Giving a solo campaign a shape
A solo campaign has nobody to keep it going but you, so it needs an end in sight more than a group campaign does. Split it into three or four chapters, give each one a place and a goal, and decide what finishes it. The pacing and victory conditions guide covers both, and the homebrew campaign guide covers writing the story itself.
Raise the points as the force grows. Starting small and building up to larger games gives you a reason to spend Requisition Points on a bigger Supply Limit, which is half the fun of watching a force grow.
Playing solo in Echelon
Echelon has no separate solo mode, because it does not need one. A solo campaign is an ordinary campaign with one player in it: click Create Crusade and do not invite anyone. Stages, the Order of Battle, experience, ranks, Battle Honours and Battle Scars all work as they do with a group.
- You are the host, so you create and schedule your own battles.
- With nobody else in the battle there is no opposing score to compare, so you record the result yourself. Click End Battle and choose Win, Loss or Draw.
- Echelon tracks one force per player, so the opposing army has no Crusade Card of its own. Put its name in the battle's mission or narrative if you want it on the record.
- A solo campaign counts towards the campaigns you can host. On the free plan that is 1 active campaign.
Muster before you start the battle
Experience only goes to units that were mustered for the battle. Mustering closes when the battle starts, so choose your units first. Start without mustering and the post-battle report has nobody to give experience to.
If you want an opponent who is not you, click Invite players on the campaign overview at any point. Everything you have recorded stays as it is.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you play Warhammer 40K Crusade solo?
Yes. Nothing in the Crusade rules needs a second player. You still need an army to fight, and most solo players control that one themselves.
How do you decide who won a solo battle?
Set the victory condition before the first turn, write it down, and hold yourself to it. Deciding afterwards is how a solo campaign stops meaning anything.
Do solo battles still earn XP and Requisition Points?
Yes. Units earn experience, take Out of Action tests and rank up exactly as they would against another player, and the force gains its Requisition Point for the battle.
Can I add players to a solo campaign later?
Yes. In Echelon a solo campaign is an ordinary campaign with one player in it, so you can invite people whenever you are ready and nothing you have recorded changes.
This guide covers playing Warhammer 40,000 Crusade on your own. Echelon is an independent campaign tracker and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Games Workshop.