Well, the final tally for the crusade came out. Chaos wound up tied for second with the Imperium, with one sector controlled each and 7 Crusade Points each. The Xenos took first with two sectors and 9 points total. A pretty good showing from Chaos, with us being down a player. Don't know if we could have done anything better, to be honest- the Imperium put everything they had into taking the sector we had controlled in phase 2, while I chose to split the Chaos points towards taking the Imperium's only sector and then slightly reinforcing ours. It worked out that we just flip-flopped control of the two sectors, while the Xenos kept control of their two. Xenos had a better gameplan from the start- they split up their focus to three sectors while both the Imperium and Chaos chose to fight over two. From the end of phase 1, it was pretty apparent that the Xenos had the edge because they chose two sectors that the other alliances didn't, and they were able to get such a large lead in those two sectors that it was basically untouchable unless the other two had decided to focus them down. It was a good move on their part, made them able to spread out in phase 2 and 3, use their strategic goals to stop both Chaos and Imperium from really getting any sort of foothold and relegated them to fighting each other. 

The Nachmund Gauntlet rules definitely added something to Crusade. The Alliances were nice and fluffy, and the bonuses from controlling a sector definitely came in handy. The downside is that you had to carefully balance between choosing Agendas that benefited your personal army that were generally from your Codex and those that gave SAP, a Nachmund special resource that went towards controlling sectors. For Chaos, this was especially difficult- CSM Crusade rules are pretty much designed to buff up your Warlord and other Characters, which means taking Agendas that aren't in the Nachmund book. For me it wasn't too much of an issue, as the Forgotten are not trying to make the Chaos Gods happen as they don't really need their favor, and I personally was not looking to get my Warlord Xaphan to turn into a Daemon Prince. So aside for the first phase or so, I wasn't taking any CSM Agendas and just chose to try to get as much SAP as I could to benefit the Alliance. For regular CSM however, I can see it being an issue and I think my CSM Night Lords partner had some trouble with that.

Overall, I liked the leveling up and RPG-lite elements. I don't think that rolling for your Battle-Honors or traits is ever really a good idea; I can imagine the pain of getting +1 WS on Havocs for example, which means that one of their two upgrades (unless you spend valuable resources to let them go higher) is completely worthless in 99% of situations. For me, I chose to make any upgrade I got for a unit both thematic and useful- Chosen who can Advance and Charge got an upgrade that gave them more rules around Advance, or Havocs who were shooting got extra Ballistic Skill. My normal gaming buddy who was playing an Imperial Fists variant took extra Ballistic Skill on almost all of his units and given that his stuff was mostly Gravis units that wanted to stay still, that didn't seem like a meta-game move but one that was leaning into the army's natural inclinations. Crusade does have a lot of extra stuff that can possibly affect your army, so keeping it easy to remember also helps out on the brain-load during the game. 

Missions were fun- some were very lopsided, but then again real war isn't a perfect balance of two forces fighting against one another. Even missions that favored my very fast and melee-centric style didn't always work out for me, as I bounced off of several armies that just had better deployment or dice rolls. Dark Pacts was also a real toss-up, some games I didn't do more than one or two Mortal Wounds at all and others I wiped out half a squad in two rolls because of bad dice. Very fun and narrative, if annoying for the gamer in me at times (no one likes taking three mortal wounds because you can't roll a 6+ even with a re-roll).

For my first real, i.e.- not just me and a buddy messing around, Crusade this was quite an enjoyable experience. The leveling up, the asymmetric missions, the worry about potentially injuring a unit and having it not able to perform the next mission properly... all of it was fun and added a lot to the games. Next Crusade should be in a month or so, and I'm looking at using my Necrons. The Necron Crusade rules are a little odd to get your head around, but once you do they make sense and I can see them helping out quite a bit. The Crusade itself will be using a mix of Pariah Nexus and Armageddon rules, collecting Blackstone but using the Armageddon Alliance narrative pathways to advance, so it should be less impactful for the Alliance if a player takes an army-centric Agenda than this Crusade was, as most of the Blackstone stuff is directly about upgrading a personal army. It will also be interesting to play a Necron army without any named characters, as I usually use at a minimum the Silent King in my lists and/or at least one named C'tan, but I'm up for the challenge. I also have a new model for another Transcendent C'tan, so the Crusade should be a good place to get that model painted and a backstory written up for it.  I'm looking at running what I consider an elite vanguard of my Necron force, the Empire of Sarkon/the Severed, so it will be a compact force rather than a silver tide. Truly looking forward to it, as fun as this Crusade has been I'm eager for another.

Anyway, thanks for looking and I'll see you in a month!