Kill Team • Battle Reports

[Rogue]

My friend has recently been getting back into 40k for the first time since 2^nd edition. He’s only got a few primaris marines painted up so far, but it’s enough to get a kill team together. So that’s what we did. Having temporarily escaped the attentions of the Ad Mech, my Genestealer Cult would now be taking on the might of the Adeptus Astartes.

 

Pre-Game

 

My friend’s team consisted of 6 Marines:

Intercessor sergeant and two intercessors

Reiver sergeant and two reivers

 

My team (the Red Brotherhood) was 10 neophyte hybrids and a genestealer:

Leader (bolt pistol and power pick), seismic cannon, mining laser, flamer, grenade launcher

2 neophytes with auto guns, 3 with shotguns (one with a cult icon)

Genestealer with rending claws, toxin sacs and acid maw

 

With this being his first game, we left out specialists, command points and stratagems. We played the ‘search and rescue’ mission – I was the defender. Whoever could locate and hold the vital objective (a data-slate containing key schematics for this section of the hive) would win.

 

Deployment alternates in this mission. By the end of the phase, the marines had spread out into a rough line along their deployment zone, with the reivers in the middle and the intercessors covering the flanks.

 

 

Facing them, the cult concentrated around the two nearest objectives (detecting signal sources that might indicate the data-slate). On the left, the assault team – Ilia (leader), Sergei (icon), Mikhail (flamer), Vitaly and Timur (shotguns) prepared to secure the manufactorum and threaten the junction. On the right, Pavel (grenade launcher), Nicolai and Yakov (autoguns) were heading for the roof of the cathedral, accompanied by the genestealer, And between those two groups, Dimitri (mining laser) and Yegor (seismic cannon) took up positions to fire down the main street. Finally, Timur used his ambush move to scale the manufactorum and close on the first objective.

 

The assault team - nothing in this group has a range over 12"

 

The rest of the cult, ready to advance into the cathedral

 

Dimitri, holding the main street to prevent the marines driving a wedge between the two groups

 

The last objective marker is in the manufactorum to the lower left, on the second floor (hidden by the third floor). The assault team are in that manufactorum too, and there's one more intercessor under the ruin to the top right. 

 

Turn one – Astartes initiative

 

The marines moved cautiously forward, content to take ground and remain in cover. On the cult right, one intercessor hauled himself up to the first floor, heading towards a faint data pulse.

The Red Brotherhood, equally cautious of this new enemy, moved to hold two of the objectives. On the left, Vitaly joined Timur in rooting through the debris on the second floor of the manufactorum. Below them, at ground level, Ilia, Sergei and Mikhail moved into the shelter of the wall, keeping out of sight of the marines. On the right, Yakov and Nicolai moved to the roof and took control of the cathedral objective; the Maw ascended too, moving ahead of the neophytes but remaining hidden from the marines; and below, Pavel moved to the edge of the ruin, covering the empty ground on the right flank. In the centre, both heavies readied themselves to fire on the reiver behind the barrels.

There was no sign of the elusive data-slate this turn.

 

 

In the street, Dimitri shot first – his mining laser took the reiver in the shoulder, twisting him back from the force of the impact, but the ceramite held (on a 6) and the marine survived. Yegor added his firepower but caused no damage either. Clearly shaken, the reiver failed to hit Yegor in return. On top of the cathedral, Nicolai and the intercessor exchanged fire, but the shots went wide and no damage was done.

 

 

It had been a cagey first turn, as both sides sized up the other, exchanged exploratory shots and hunted for the objective.

 

Turn two - Astartes initiative

 

Determined not to concede battlefield control to their opponents, the marines moved forward again. On the cult left, one of the intercessors scrambled to the top of the second manufactorum (another potential location for the data-slate). At ground level, his sergeant and a reiver took up position against a broken wall, covering the street and the cultists in the manfactorum opposite. In the centre, the reiver sergeant moved out into the open, taking control of a second objective and threatening the cult heavy weapons. Further right, the last two marines moved up in support.

Seeing a target, the genestealer leapt from the roof of the cathedral and charged into the reiver sergeant. Following suit, Ilia charged across the street into the intercessor sergeant, engaging him across the wall. Behind him, Mikhail moved to target the reiver, and most of the remaining cultists readied themselves to fire – a shoot-out with the marines was far from ideal, but there was nowhere to retreat too, and they needed to find the data-slate before the marines did. Holding it would be tricky, but getting it back might be impossible.

With three objectives now being checked, the data-slate still remained hidden.  

 

 

Sergei and Mikhail offer moral support as Ilia charges in

 

Having readied, most of the Brotherhood were able to fire first. Once again, Dimitri scored a wounding hit with his laser (on the intercessor atop the manufactorum), and once again the power armour held. That set the tone, and the rest of the cult firepower proved ineffective, scoring no wounds.

The marines, unfazed by the small-arms fire, shot back – the reiver on the street corner fired along the front wall of the cathedral, flesh wounding Yegor (seismic cannon), and the reiver in the manufactorum gunned down Mikhail (flamer), taking him out of action.

 

Worse was to come. In the combat phase, the charging genestealer failed to land a single wound on the reiver sergeant, and Ilia failed to even hit the intercessor sergeant, who failed to hit him back. But the reiver sergeant excelled himself, felling the genestealer with a single blow, then holding his ground to retain control of the objective.

 

Ilia fights the sergeant, and survives

 

The fight in the street, just as the Maw is taken out by the reiver sergeant

 

That was less than ideal – Mikhail’s flamer tends to be one of my more effective weapons, and the Maw was my one serious option for taking down the marines. Losing both for no return hurt.

 

Turn three - GSC initiative 

 

A little shaken by the loss of the Maw, the Red Brotherhood elected to hold ground, unwilling to advance towards adversaries who were beginning to show their teeth. The only exception was Sergei; leaving Mikhail’s prone form behind the shelter of the manufactorum wall, he charged across the street to join the fight between Ilia and the intercessor sergeant. Maybe the icon could sway the outcome in the cult’s favour.

With the objective still not located, the marines largely held position too. On the cathedral, the intercessor leapt across the gap in the ruins to gain sight of Nicolai and Yakov, and one of the reivers moved up to support his sergeant. Otherwise, the marines readied.

It was at this moment that Timur uncovered the data-slate, on the second floor of the manufactorum. The cult had their prize. But could they keep it till the end of turn five?

 

 

Vitaly and Timur locate the objective high in the ruined manufactorum

 

Long story short – the shooting phase was all but a washout. Three reivers, two intercessors, two auto guns, two shotguns, a mining laser, a grenade launcher and a bolt pistol – all missed. There was one glorious exception. Despite his wounds, Yegor’s seismic cannon managed to wound the reiver sergeant (who had two wounds, so it didn’t have any real effect. But still, I'd wounded a marine). Moving on.

 

 

Not that the combat phase was any better – Sergei, Ilia (power pick and all) and the intercessor sergeant all failed to damage each other. This was not humanity’s finest at their finest.

 

By this point, I was worried. Yes, I had the objective, and yes, I still had nine cultists in play. But I was doing very little to damage the marines, and I didn’t expect my luck to hold much longer with their dodgy wound rolls. At some point, saves would be failed and neophytes would start dropping.

 

Turn four – Astartes initiative

 

The intercessor on the cathedral roof tried to charge Yakov, but he retreated and remained just out of reach. No longer needing to hold the centre of the main street, the reiver sergeant led his brother marine in a long advance move around the manufactorum, ready to fire their carbines and then charge in the last turn. The marines in the other manufactorum held their ground, trying to shoot the cultists off the objective.

With the exception of Sergei, who stayed put to tie up the intercessor sergeant, the Red Brotherhood closed on the objective. Ilia fell back from combat; Dimitri scaled the manufactorum wall to hold the first floor; and the others simply got as close as they could, hoping to swarm the objective next turn.

 

 

The marines circle as the cultists race to protect their prize

 

The shooting phase was largely ineffective again. Only four of the marines could fire, and two had advanced – between them, they put a flesh wound on Timur as he guarded the data-slate. The cultist fared no better, although most had advanced or tried to hide as far as possible, so options were limited.

 

And in the combat phase, Sergei and the sergeant once again exchanged blows but failed to land any telling hits.

 

At this point, with one turn remaining, I had two neophytes on the objective (the shotguns of Timur and Vitaly), another on the floor below, and five more crowding around the ruin. Only two marines could realistically reach the objective, but the others (combat-locked sergeant aside) had line of sight to the defenders. This could go either way, and initiative would be vital.

 

Turn five – GSC initiative

 

At the critical moment, the cultists reacted quicker. Ilia charged into the reiver sergeant; Pavel and Nicolai charged into the other reiver. Dimitri and Yegor joined Timur and Vitaly around the objective, and Yakov advanced to the summit of the manufactorum.

With three marines locked in combat, and the other half of the team unable to get close enough, the only option was to clear the area with bolter fire. The intercessor on the cult right moved back onto the cathedral to give himself a clear view of the defenders; his brothers readied themselves.

 

 

The manufactorum becomes the focal point, as all the surviving warriors from both sides pile in or level their guns

 

With just two bolt rifles and a bolt carbine available, the marines needed their shots to count. But with the cultists in cover, the task proved too much. In the end, the Brotherhood rode out the storm, with only the already wounded Timur taken out of action, leaving three neophytes holding the objective.

 

As with every combat phase since the genestealer was taken out of action, everyone failed to damage their opponents.

 

With the data-slate securely in the Brotherhood’s hands, and with auspex scans indicating the imminent arrival of significant cult reinforcements, the marines withdrew. There would be other opportunities, other skirmishes. But for now, this patch of the underhive belonged to the Red Brotherhood.

 

 

Conclusion 

 

That was a fascinating game. Once again, the cultists proved that they can be pretty effective as long as you don’t need them to kill anything. Over five turns, they put one wound on a marine. Which is pretty much what I expected (although two 6 up saves in the first two turns to deny the mining laser meant things could have gone differently early on).

 

More surprising was the marines’ damage output. Or rather, the lack of it. They took out just three of my team over five turns; and aside from whacking the stealer, completely failed to even wound any cultist in close combat. In the end, this really highlighted their lack of numbers as I could throw bodies onto the objective knowing that the marines didn’t have the manpower to make a direct challenge.

 

I did get fortunate in places – trying to take the objective from under the marines would have been a lot harder. And taking the initiative in turn five, when I was poised to launch charges that tied up the reivers, was a key moment. That said, I felt that I maneuvered well, put bodies on the objective markers from turn one to maximise my chances of finding the critical one, and kept my team compact enough to close in on the objective when it turned up.

 

Having done such a good job last time, the genestealer failed completely here – losing an attack (no combat specialism this time out), coupled with the marines’ extra toughness and armour save compared to the rangers meant that it was going to find it harder, but I expected a little better. On the plus side, his threat bubble in the first two turns did keep the marines somewhat at bay on the right flank.

 

And with Ilia having gone (briefly) toe-to-toe with the marines’ sergeant, I feel that there could be another rivalry in the making. After all, the marines are unlikely to give up on the data-slate as easily as that. The Red Brotherhood had better watch their backs.

[Rogue]

Back to the Ad Mech. And back to the ‘lines of battle’ mission. When we played it last time, we both wondered what would happen if the gunline of the Ad Mech had to advance past the potentially more close-quarters-oriented Cultists. As I’d won the last one, the forces stayed pretty much the same, although my wife opted to replace the arquebus with another galvanic rifle for this one – we discussed the utility of sacrificing one line-breaker for increased firepower, but in the end she went for more bodies and more pressure close up.

 

Pre-Game

 

My wife’s team consisted of 9 Rangers:

Alpha (arc pistol and power sword), arc rifle (sniper), plasma caliver (heavy)

6 Rangers with galvanic rifles (one with an enhanced data-tether, one with comms)

 

My team (the Red Brotherhood) was 10 neophyte hybrids and a genestealer:

Leader (bolt pistol and power pick), seismic cannon (heavy), mining laser, flamer (demolitions), grenade launcher

2 neophytes with auto guns, 3 with shotguns (one with a cult icon)

Genestealer with rending claws, toxin sacs and acid maw (combat)

 

With only nine rangers in the team, they’d need to get five off the table to win (ideally, before the end of turn four).

 

With a significant proportion of the local cult forces having converged on the Red Brotherhood’s position as they secured the data-slate, Imperial Command decided to commit their troops too. Across this section of the hive, the servants of the Emperor moved rapidly to contain the cultists before they could escape. One kill team, led by the Alpha designated Treville, was tasked with hunting down one of the cult’s magi; noting their incursion into the cult positions, Ilia’s team were dispatched to intercept, and to buy the magus time to withdraw

 

The Red Brotherhood spread out across the rangers’ path. Ilia, Pavel (launcher) and Dimitri (mining laser) held the centre, with their more lightly-armed brothers on either flank.

 

Facing them, the rangers split into three groups. The Alpha, arc rifle and two others behind the sanctum, ready to challenge on the cult left; the plasma caliver and two others within the sanctum itself; and the last two rangers on the far side, facing the cult right.

 

Finally, having scouted the enemy forces, the cult specialists deployed, with Mikhail (flamer) and the Maw near the cathedral on the left, and Yegor (seismic cannon) supporting the right of centre.

 

Initial deployment - there's another ranger under the balcony to the upper right, and two more on the central roadway, under the gantry.

 

Alpha Treville prepares his rangers to advance into the cultists' lines...

 

... as the Red Brotherhood spread out to defend the magus.

 

Turn one – GSC initiative [ benediction of the omnissiah ]

 

Attack was going to be my best form of defence here, I figured. The further up the board I could engage the rangers, the less chance there was of them slipping through my net. To that end, both Mikhail and the Maw advanced forward into the shelter of the cathedral that dominated the left flank, whilst Timur advanced onto the roof. From here, they’d be well-positioned to threaten the end of the rangers’ line as they advanced.

In the centre, the team readied, their guns already covering the lines of advance through the shell of the sanctum. To the right, Nicolai burst forward, hoping to advance onto the sanctum balcony, but fell short and took cover behind the wall instead. Behind him, Sergei and Vitaly moved forward to block the gap in the wall; and behind them, Yegor moved to his right, aiming to gun down the two rangers making up the Ad Mech left flank and remove the threat on that side of the board.

 

The rangers, aware that swift action was needed to prevent the magus slipping away, pressed forward with their attack. On the cult left, a single ranger moved onto the cathedral roof to challenge Timur. On the other flank, one ranger failed his charge against Nicolai, whilst his companion moved up into cover behind a stack of crates.

In the centre, the plasma caliver (designated Porthos) advanced almost into the cult lines. The rest of his team moved up in support, with two rangers taking cover behind the crates in the centre of the board, and two more holding the first floor of the sanctum above them. Only the Alpha, Treville, held back, ready to counter-strike should Mikhail and the genestealer attack from the cathedral.

 

The rangers push forward in the centre, as the cultists try to take control of the flanks.

 

The right flank - Sergei, Vitaly and Yegor defend the gap in the wall.

 

The Red Brotherhood's fire-base readies for action.

 

Rangers swarm over the sanctum imperialis, determined to break the neophytes' resistance.

 

Mikhail stares out of the cathedral arch on the left flank. Bonus points for spotting the Maw in the shadows.

 

In the shooting phase, Dimitri and Pavel combined to bring down one of the rifle-armed rangers behind the ammo crates. Ilia was able to draw line-of-sight to the plasma caliver, but his bolt pistol missed.

The rangers were clinical in return. On top of the cathedral, Timur took two rounds to the body, and went out of action. On the right, Sergei suffered the same fate, leaving a gap in the defences. And in the centre, the main body of the ranger force took down Yakov with galvanic rifles, Pavel with the arc rifle, and Nicolai with the plasma caliver (to prevent him charging any of the rangers next turn). Five of the cultists had fallen in a single round of shooting – suddenly the Red Brotherhood’s picket line looked horribly fragile.

 

With five cultists out of action, the Ad Mech look dominant.

 

The turn had not gone well for me. I’d hoped that the rangers would move up, I’d charge into them, and everyone would get tied up somewhere in the middle of the table. Instead, moving second had allowed them to get the drop on my line, and their firepower had been devastating. Another turn like that and I’d have no-one left at all. On the bright side, I still had all my specialists, both heavy weapons, and the genestealer. But it would be a scramble from here on in.

 

Turn two - Ad Mech initiative [ litany of the electromancer ]

 

Confident that they had control of the battlefield, and keen to press on towards the real target, Porthos (plasma caliver) advanced again and left the table. On the cult left, the ranger who’d gunned down Timur atop the cathedral also moved forward, reaching the top of the wall. On the cult right, one of the rangers charged into combat with Vitaly, making it over the wall as he did so. His companion ignored Vitaly, electing to drift towards the attack on the centre where his firepower might be more useful.

In the centre, the ranger behind the crates moved up into the space left by the caliver, and the pair on the balcony moved down to take his place in turn. The leader remained at the back, indecisive in the face of the genestealer threat to his flank. At this point, the rangers had four men within a potential advance move of the table edge (although one was locked in combat).

 

On the left, the Maw sprang from the shadows of the cathedral, charging into the closer of the rangers behind the crates. Mikhail followed him, advancing close enough to flame the arc rifle whilst avoiding the firing lines of the lurking Alpha. Ilia attempted to follow the example of his four-armed idol, but fell short of engaging the most forward ranger (and so held his position). Sensing the danger, and leaving Vitaly to hold the wall on the right, Yegor moved back to his starting position to cover Ilia’s putative target. Dimitri readied his mining laser.

 

Dimitri hit the arc rifle (Athos), scoring a flesh wound. Mikhail used a decisive shot to try and finish him off, but the flames washed over the Ad Mech armour, doing no damage beyond a singed robe. Yegor was also unsuccessful, failing to wound the nearest ranger.

Having done so well in the first turn, the rangers were unable to conjurer a repeat performance. With five of the team either off the table, advancing, out of sight or tied up in combat, and with the arc rifle wounded, their significantly reduced firepower failed to cause any damage to the cultists.

 

In the combat phase, the power of the electromancer was unable to bring down either enemy combatant, although Vitaly suffered a flesh wound. On the right, Vitaly and the ranger fought fiercely, but were unable to land damaging blows. In the centre, the Maw made quick work of its target, and consolidated into the wounded Athos (who missed with his attack).

 

The Maw crashes through one ranger, and into Athos.

 

Vitaly and Yegor try to stem the red tide as the rangers sweep forwards.

 

The net closes on the stragglers, but is it too late?

 

With five out of action, and Vitaly wounded, the Red Brotherhood had to take a break test, but passed. Aware of how finely balanced the skirmish was, both Vitaly and Athos (arc rifle) used command points to pass their nerve checks (Vitaly would have failed on a 3, the ranger on a 5).

 

Turn three – Ad Mech initiative [ invocation of machine might ]

 

The Alpha, frustrated at the turning of the tide, moved forward onto the first floor of the sanctum, determined to sort things out at the point of his arc pistol. On the cult left and in the centre, both  forward rangers advanced off the battlefield (taking the Ad Mech score to three of the required five, with two more out of action, and four rangers still in play). The ranger fighting Vitaly elected to remain in combat (a fall back move would have put him on the edge of the table, but not off it), and his colleague charged in to support him. Athos also remained in combat, hoping to hold the genestealer in place rather than letting him charge again.

 

Once again, Dimitri readied himself. Mikhail continued to advance towards the right flank, but remained within flamer range of the Alpha (the only Ad Mech not in combat at this point). Yegor charged forward to support Vitaly, and Ilia advanced towards the right flank too, in case the rangers should break through in the combat phase.

 

Dimitri, firing with uncharacteristic accuracy, caught the Alpha full in the chest with the laser, causing two damage and taking him out of action.

 

In combat, the charging ranger (attacking over the ruined wall) failed to hit Vitaly. Yegor, waving his seismic cannon wildly as he charged in, caught the other ranger a resounding blow on the side of his head, stunning him out of action and allowing Yegor to consolidate into Vitaly’s opponent and close up the gap in the wall again. Finally, the Maw pulled down the wounded Athos, taking the arc rifle out of action.

 

With five rangers now out of action, there was no way for the Ad Mech to win the game, and they conceded.

 

The end of the fight, just before the Maw pulls Athos apart.

 

Vitaly and Yegor stand firm - there is no way through for the rangers.

 

Conclusion 

 

That was a game of two halves. By the end of turn one, I was down five neophytes, with only six models left on the table. But over the next two turns, the rangers took five casualties, caused no futher damage beyond a flesh wound, and saw their attack falter.

 

One of the things I’ve been teaching my wife is ‘play the mission’. In this one, for example, it doesn’t matter how many cultists you kill – if you get five rangers off the table, you win. Focus on that. But when we came to discuss this one afterwards, we concluded that this time, it probably counted against her. After a highly successful first turn, she gave up her plasma caliver in turn two, and two galvanic rifles in turn three. Instead, if she’d simply carried on as she had in turn one, focusing on shooting the cultists off the table, she might have left me with so few troops that there would be nothing I could do to stop the rangers strolling off the table in turns three and four.

 

She was also disappointed with her use of the Alpha. Having held him back for two turns, partly to protect his extra command point, and partly to have some sort of counter-charge to the genestealer, he only came to the party in turn three, and promptly took a mining laser through the chest. Had he been further forward earlier, and maybe in a position to charge into that mining laser instead, my weakened centre could have been pushed completely aside, with the genestealer and flamer left high and dry back up the field. Yes, they might have picked up stragglers, but it would have been too little, too late. Speculation, of course, but in a finely balanced game, the Alpha’s weight might have tipped it.

 

Both of my heavy weapons did well. Dimitri was able to stay readied all game, and caused damage each turn. Yegor spent the game running back and forth, but his heavy specialism allowed him to do so without penalty, and meant he could be in the right place at the right time to present a constant threat. And taking out a ranger on the charge was a bonus, but a decisive one.

 

It's surprising how much difference the genestealer makes to this force. The neophytes are still individually weak (Dimitri rolled exceptionally well to buck that trend), but the genestealer provides a constant threat to the rangers – anything within 12” feels in danger, and its ability to consolidate after combat means it can tie up multiple models each turn. Having said that, my wife really doesn’t like it, and I fully expect the Maw to take a transuranic arquebus round through the head next time we play.

 

But until then, the magus is safe, and the Alpha will have pull back, consolidate his team and get his torso repaired before his next hunt of the Red Brotherhood.

[Rogue]

We’re off to a new kill zone – the terrain is all painted, the board looks good, and I’ve got heavy rock weapons to try out. Not only that, the Ad Mech are having a bit of a revamp; for this battle at least, the rangers will be playing the role of vanguards (for a bit of variety, and why not).

 

I won the last game, so wasn’t building up my team any further, but I was swapping out my genestealer for an acolyte (as chosen by my wife, who cunningly went for the rock drill because it seemed least likely to do horrible things to her team).

 

Pre-Game

 

Ad Mech

Alpha Treville: arc pistol and power sword (leader)

Athos: arc rifle (sniper)

Porthos: plasma caliver (heavy)

Aramis: transuranic arquebus

D’Artagnan: radium carbine, omnispex

4 vanguard with radium carbines (one has comms)

 

The Red Brotherhood

Ilia: bolt pistol and power pick (leader)

Sergei: shotgun, cult icon

Yegor: seismic cannon (heavy)

Dimitri: mining laser

Mikhail: flamer (demolitions)

Pavel: grenade launcher

Yakov and Nicolai: autoguns

Vitaly and Timur: shotguns

Alexei: heavy rock drill (combat)

 

The Red Brotherhood had been dispatched deep behind Imperial battle-lines, tasked with disrupting supply lines wherever and however they could; so blowing up an ammunition dump seemed like a good start. If the team can plant at least four charges around the site, it’ll cause a chain reaction and take out the whole depot; otherwise, it’s just pyroptechnics.  

 

Our teams deployed into opposite corners of the board. The cultists bunched up on the right, with the heavy weapons covering the centre and a smaller group to the left. The vanguard formed a rough line, with the arc rifle (Athos) atop one of the containers on the far right.

 

Initial deployment - the sixth objective marker is directly under the crane engine.

 

For once, the cult ambush ability went off in a big way – coupled with the scouting move, eight of the team moved forward. On the left, Yakov and Pavel (grenade launcher) took cover behind the smaller servohauler, whilst Timur moved up into the shelter of the crane. On the right, Nicolai, Mikhail (flamer), Ilia (leader), Sergei (icon) and Alexei (the acolyte with the heavy rock drill) all moved forward, taking cover between the ammo crates.

 

The cultists spring forward on either flank. Timur is beneath the arm of the crane - you can see his shotgun barrels sticking out.

 

On the down side, that much rapid movement had triggered the alarms – the Brotherhood would now be under serious time pressure.

 

 

Turn one – GSC initiative [ benediction of the omnissiah ]

 

The Red Brotherhood held onto the momentum of their ambush as the right flank continued their headlong advance. All six ended up hard against the containers, hidden from the Ad Mech line for now, at least. Further back, Dimitri moved his mining laser out of sight of Aramis’ arquebus, and Timur edged closer to the crane, leaving the vanguards’ support weapon without any targets. The rest of the team readied, hoping to limit the vanguard options as they moved up.

 

Aware of the need to hold ground, and with three objectives in and around the lines of containers, the Ad Mech team moved up around the larger servohauler, with a few pushing out towards the flanks – the Alpha took the left, supported by a carbine and the advancing arquebus; on the right, the arc rifle moved forward to cover the objectives on the cult side of the board.

 

The end of the first movement phase.

 

 

The vanguard advance through the supply depot.

 

 

The Brotherhood take cover wherever they can.

 

 

The readied cultists opened up, and with the first shot of the game, Yakov took the arc rifle out of action with his autogun. Yegor’s seismic cannon hit the plasma caliver, and almost took him out too, but his armour held. The other shots went wide. In return, the caliver put a flesh wound on Yegor, and one of the vanguard did the same to Dimitri – both of the Brotherhood’s heavy weapons were unlikely to hit much for the rest of the battle.

 

There was no combat, and no chance of either Yegor or Dimitri failing their nerve tests.

 

In the end phase, Pavel set charges on objective 3 (by the servohauler), and Ilia set more on objective six (by the containers).

 

 

 

Charges are set by the sevohauler and the containers.

 

The first turn had gone well – I never expect the autoguns to do anything, so Yakov taking down the arc rifle this early was a real bonus (somewhat balanced by the wounds to both heavies). The assault team were close to the vanguard lines, and completely untouched, and I’d set demo charges on two objectives – just two more to go.

 

 

Turn two - Ad Mech initiative [ litany of the electromancer ]

 

Without a shot for a second turn, Aramis shouldered his arquebus and charged around the corner of the container into Ilia and Sergei; a second vanguard made it into Sergei too. On the other side of the container, the Alpha charged into Vitaly. In the centre of the Ad Mech line, the team used a stratagem to take control of the servohauler, moving it towards the crane as they advanced around it. Porthos took point in the shelter of the crane, his plasma caliver covering the cultists in the backline. And on the right, the last vanguard made a 6” advance, carrying him all the way to the barrels on the cult’s left flank.

 

 

Despite the risk of the electromancer canticle, Alexei charged into the Alpha and the arquebus. Feeling that the close-combat situation was in hand, Mikhail and Nicolai moved forward to cover the next objective, and to draw line-of-sight to one of the vanguard. Dimitri, too injured and too distant to have any chance of making a shot, moved forward to control an objective. The rest of the team readied.

 

 

The battle for objective 6.

 

Nicolai and Mikhail push forward, getting behind the Ad Mech lines.

 

The view from the fire-base.

 

With no vanguard readied, the Brotherhood had a chance to inflict quick damage, but only Pavel was able to land a flesh wound on one of the vanguard holding the centre. Between the containers, the vanguard tried to take out the dangerous Mikhail and his flamer, but the demolitions specialist saved. In return, Nicolai fired past him, taking the vanguard out of action (the second casualty caused by an autogun this game). The unengaged vanguard fired at the cult backline, flesh wounding both Pavel and Yakov, before a final radium carbine shot (supported by the omnispex), wounded on a 6, caused three damage and took Yakov out of action.   

 

Before the combat phase got under way, the curse of the electromancer struck down Vitaly. Seeing the danger, the Alpha struck at Alexei with his power sword, but failed to wound; in return, Alexei swung his rock drill, but only managed a flesh wound. A little disappointing, but still the highlight of the phase, as everything else on both sides failed to cause any damage.

 

 

Alexei takes on Treville in a vital combat.

 

In the end phase, Dimitri set charges on objective two – with three charges now set, the fate of the supply depot hung in the balance.

 

 

Turn three – Ad Mech initiative [ invocation of machine might ]

 

Having tied up the cult’s advance team, the Ad Mech continued to push forward in the centre, whilst on the flank, the lone vanguard charged into Pavel in an attempt to recover objective 3.

 

With both machine might and rad-saturation in play, the vanguard would be wounding the cultists on 2s in the combat phase. Rather than submit to that, Ilia and Alexei fell back, moving over the adjacent container and taking control of another objective. Nicolai moved up to join them, whilst Mikhail spun on the spot, pointing his flamer at the now exposed Alpha – kill him, and Sergei would be able to retain control of objective 6, as long as he survived the round…

 

 

Timur broke cover from behind the crane, charging in to support Pavel by the small servohauler. Yegor, now the only viable target for the readied plasma caliver, moved sideways to take himself out of sight of everyone except the advancing, wounded vanguard beside the crane. Dimitri readied himself.

 

 

 

Having readied, Mikhail hosed down the Alpha with promethium, but could only singe his robes. Wreathed in smoke, the Alpha fired his arc pistol at point blank range into Mikhail, taking him out of action. Yegor responded for the cultists, taking another vanguard out of action with his seismic cannon, before Nicolai added a second flesh wound to the Alpha.

 

In the combat phase, the vanguard only landed a single hit, on Sergei, but it was deflected by his armour. The Brotherhood fared no better, failing even to wound the Ad Mech fighters.

 

With three of the team wounded, and three out of action, the cultists took a break test, but passed. All three of the wounded made their nerve tests. On the other side, the wounded Alpha would fail his nerve test on a six, and promptly did so, twice. So much for rerolls. With the Alpha shaken, Sergei’s survival meant that objective 6 was contested, and couldn’t be defused.

 

Finally, in the end phase, the Brotherhood set a fourth charge on objective 4. The Ad Mech would now need to defuse at least one charge in turn four, or the whole supply dump could go up in smoke.

 

 

The fall back move had given the cultists control of a fourth objective, but the failure to take the Alpha out of action could still hurt – he wasn’t likely to stay shaken for more than a single turn. And whilst they held four objectives now, taking control of the other two looked tricky, and the vanguard were poised to make a move on the critical objective 6.

 

 

Turn four – Ad Mech initiative [ invocation of machine might ]

 

With most of the Ad Mech tied up in combat, shaken or out of action, their options were limited. One vanguard charged into Ilia and Alexei, preventing them from advancing on the second objective between the containers. The plasma caliver readied, determined to hold on to the objective under the crane.

 

Dimitri charged into the caliver – taking him out of action in combat would be unlikely, but moving to shoot him would mean taking a round from the caliver first, and then require 6s to hit with the mining laser. Nicolai readied – he already had sight of the Alpha, and had more chance with his autogun than with his fists. With nothing to shoot at, Yegor charged into the ongoing struggle around the small servohauler.

 

 

The only shooting was Nicolai, who took the Alpha out of action (meaning that he’d now taken two vanguard out of action, and caused a flesh wound).

 

The combat phase was surprisingly deadly: the charging ranger took Alexei out of action, whilst his surrounded brother by the servohauler evaded Yegor’s wild charge before felling him with his carbine. Under the crane, the plasma caliver put a second flesh wound on Dimitri, before Ilia took revenge for Alexei, punching his power pick through the vanguard’s shoulder and taking him out of action too.

 

Dimitri and Porthos slug it out in the shadow of the crane.

 

Critically, both the arquebus and the other vanguard fighting Sergei were able to make pile-in moves, bringing both of them within range of objective 6. Here, no damage was caused on either side, leaving the Ad Mech in control of the objective, by two to one.

 

Aramis dodges around Sergei, taking control of the objective.

 

By this point, the Brotherhood and the Ad Mech had each lost five, with two more cultists carrying wounds. Both sides took break checks, and both passed on a reroll. Dimitri and Pavel passed their nerve tests.

 

At the start of the end phase, the Red Brotherhood had already set charges on four objectives, sufficient to win the game. Objective 2 had been abandoned by both sides; 3 was contested (by the servohauler), as was the objective under the crane that had no charges set; objective 4 was held by Ilia; but vitally, Sergei was unable to maintain control of objective 6, and the vanguard were able to defuse the charges there, leaving only three set charges – if the game ended now, as the defenders they would win.

 

 

Usually, the game would end on a 1 or 2, but with the alarms sounding (thanks to the munitorum environment table), it would also finish on a 3. Which is exactly what happened. The Ad Mech had saved the day in the nick of time. The Brotherhood disengaged, fading back into the shadows as the remaining charges detonated – the supply dump had suffered serious damage, and the Ad Mech efforts would certainly be set back, but it was far from the result the cult had hoped for. And whilst it might not have felt like it amidst the explosions and shrapnel, the vanguard had won the victory.

 

 

Conclusion 

 

So close. One more turn and I’d have had it, but the Ad Mech played for the quick finish and sneaked it at the end. It’s hard to feel bad about it – I took out five of the vanguard, including three with autoguns. Autoguns, I tell you.

 

The only real disappointment was Alexei, who totally lived up to new model syndrome and only managed a single flesh wound all game. Not the combat juggernaut I’d hoped for. In fairness, my wife chose Alexei because she figured he’d be the least effective of the three heavy rock weapons, and I think she was right – even with WS3+, S8 and a -3 to save, he’s still only causing one damage, so only has a 50/50 chance of taking someone out of action (assuming it gets that far). Even Ilia did more damage, and that’s saying something.

 

Switching over to vanguard was interesting. They feel much more mobile, and have to be more aggressive because of their shorter range. Suddenly, I feel a lot less able to hide, to out-maneuver – the vanguard are coming at me, rather than trying to stand off. Overall, I think it was good for them, and whilst I looked on top until the last minute, the game seemed more closely balanced than some we’ve had so far.  

 

In my head, the Ad Mech are a shooting army (particularly the skitarii), but the canticles do a lot to counter-act that – electromancer, and machine might coupled with rad-saturation, do a lot to make me not want to be in combat. But then, I don’t really want to be taking three shots per vanguard per turn either. It presents challenges either way, and makes things a lot more interesting.

 

Next time, I’ll be picking the acolyte, and I’m planning to give the rock saw a go (I’m saving the cutter for last). Until then, the Brotherhood will lick their wounds whilst they plan their next strike.

 

[Dosjetka]

I've enjoyed all of your battle reports so far and the latest one is no exception. It's nice to see you refining the format of your battle reports over time, too.

 

Anyway, great work and I appreciate the work put into them. Thank you! :tu:

[JaM_TW]

Thanks for posting, good read!

I, too, enjoy these kind of write-ups so please keep posting them :)

[Rogue]

Thanks - I’m glad you like them :)

[Rogue]

Something new today – a battle report that I’m not fighting in. Instead, it’s my wife’s Ad Mech (restored to Ranger status) taking on my friend’s Primaris Ultramarines. It’s Imperium versus Imperium (as the cultists sit off to one side chuckling and eating popcorn, probably).

 

As this is only the Ultramarines’ second game, we’re introducing specialists and command points, but not stratagems, so there were a lot of rerolls going on.

 

Pre-Game

 

Ad Mech

Alpha Treville: arc pistol and power sword (leader)

Athos: arc rifle (sniper)

Porthos: plasma caliver (heavy)

Aramis: transuranic arquebus (comms)

D’Artagnan: galvanic rifle, enhanced data-tether

4 rangers with galvanic rifles

 

Ultramarines

Intercessor sergeant (leader)

2 intercessors (sniper and comms)

Reiver sergeant (combat)

2 reivers

 

Once again, the Ad Mech supply depot is under threat. But this time, the invaders are the Ultramarines. Over the course of the Kursk campaign, the Ad Mech have ‘acquired’ a wide range of tech, some of it xenos in origin. To the Ad Mech way of thinking, such prizes are another potential weapon in the arsenal of the Emperor, if only they can be made to work in his service. To the Ultramarines, with their deep-seated hatred of the Tyranids and their minions, such heresy can only end in disaster (and summary execution of said heretics, even if they are Ad Mech).

 

Each objective marker represented an item of tech. As the teams take control of them, their value is revealed. Each item is worth 0, 1, 2 or 3 victory points, although the 2 and 3 point objectives need to be held at the end of the game to score those points.

 

The Ultramarines deployed in a rough arc, amongst the containers and ammo crates, with the reivers on the left and the intercessors on the right.

 

The Rangers positioned their special weapons in the centre of the line, with galvanic rifles on either side, and Alpha Treville at the back as he assessed the situation before committing.

 

Initial deployment (within 8" of the centre of the baseline)

 

In the scouting phase, the Ad Mech traps were neatly disabled by the Primaris.

 

 

Turn one – Ad Mech initiative [ benediction of the omnissiah ]

 

Taking the initiative, the rangers moved forward cautiously. On either flank, two galvanic rifles took control of objectives 3 and 4. In the centre, Aramis (arquebus), Athos (arc rifle) and D’Artagnan (data-tether) all readied, but Porthos (plasma caliver) moved forward into the shelter of the servohauler. Alpha Treville continued to hold position.

 

The rangers move forward onto objective 3.

 

Porthos takes cover behind the servohauler.

 

The Marine response was equally cautious. Looking to avoid the worst of the Ad Mech firepower, they drifted left, moving forward between the containers, hoping to isolate part of the ranger force and overwhelm them. The reivers pushed up to the front edge of the containers (taking objective 2), with the intercessors a little further back in support positions (and holding objective 5).

 

The marines advance between the containers.

 

Turn one movement. The reivers have markings on both shoulders (and are in the lower right of the battlefield here). Both sergeants are bare-headed.

 

Come the shooting phase, it seemed that the Marines hadn’t been quite as careful as they’d intended – all of the Rangers’ big guns were able to find targets, and with the benediction of the Omnissiah ringing in their aural sensors, Athos and Aramis both wounded the nearest reiver, taking him out of action, before Porthos’ plasma fire wounded the reiver sergeant too.

 

Aramis and D'Artagnan chip away at the Ultramarines' line

 

The Marines, caught off-guard by the ferocity of the Ad Mech attack, were unable to respond effectively, and caused no wounds in return.

 

There was no combat to resolve, and no nerve tests to make either.

 

In the end phase, we rolled for the various objectives. On the Marine side, objective 2 turned out to be a small, portable little gizmo (securing 1 victory point straight away), whereas objective 5 was heavier, and would have to be defended for 2 potential victory points. For the Ad Mech, objective 3 turned out to be nothing, with objective 4 resolving as an immobile energy source, also worth 2 victory points to its controllers.

 

The comms specialist takes control of objective 5.

 

End of turn one. Objectives 2 and 3 have been removed; 4 and 5 are marked as worth two points each. The die next to the reiver sergeant indicates that he's been reduced to one wound.

 

Ad Mech: 2VP, no casualties

Marines: 3VP, 1 OoA

 

 

Turn two - Marine initiative [ shroudpsalm ]

 

Having taken a casualty last turn, the Marine push on the left flank faltered – the intercessor sergeant and the reiver both readied, whilst the wounded reiver sergeant pulled back from his exposed position and took shelter behind the container. On the right, the intercessor sniper moved forward towards objective 1, whilst the comms intercessor moved into the cover of another container, covering the advance.

 

On the Ad Mech left, both rangers readied, determined to defend their prize. On the right, with no objective to worry about, the rangers split, with one looking to harass the reivers from the cover of the ammo crates, and the other moving to a more central position, nearer to objective 1. Athos and Porthos moved forward too, ending up against the crane and in control of objective 1. Behind them, Treville finally moved forward, leaving only Aramis (arquebus) and his spotter D’Artagnan in the backline. 

 

 

Alpha Treville moves up as his rangers defend objective 4.

 

Turn two movement: the marines hold their ground, and the rangers move forward.

 

A storm of bolt shells from the reiver and the intercessor sergeant took the ranger behind the ammo crates out of action. In return, Aramis’ arquebus wounded the intercessor sniper near the crane. The rest of his team, however (with the exception of Porthos, who had no shot around the crane) fared less well, either missing or seeing their shots deflected by power armour. The intercessor sniper did no better, with shroudpsalm keeping Aramis safe for this turn.

 

 

Porthos, Athos and the intercessor sniper stalk each other around the crane.

 

Once again, there was no combat, and no nerve tests to make.

 

With the rangers in control of objective 1, we rolled to discover that it was worth 3 victory points to the controlling side. Clearly, this was the unholy bio-weapon that had drawn the fury of the Ultramarines down upon Treville’s force. But for now, at least, it remained in Ad Mech hands.

 

End of turn two. All the objectives have now been revealed - objective 1 could be critical.

 

Ad Mech: 5VP, 1 OoA

Marines: 3VP, 1 OoA

 

 

Turn three – Marine initiative [ litany of the electromancer ]

 

With the bio-weapon revealed, the Marines moved on the objective. The intercessor sniper charged into Athos and Pothos, taking no damage from the overwatch. His brother marines moved up in support, with the comms intercessor taking a firing position atop the container, and the sergeant moving alongside the front of the crane. On the left, the reiver advanced over to the container shielding the Ad Mech firebase, and his sergeant moved forwards again, towards the centre of the battlefield.

 

With Athos and Porthos already in combat, the rest of the rangers readied themselves, with one notable exception. The lone remaining ranger on the right charged into the reiver, preventing the marines from taking full control of that flank.

 

Turn three movement. The first charges go in.

 

The rangers concentrated their fire at the intercessor on the container, but despite taking accurate rounds from three rifles and an arquebus, he suffered only a single wound. It clearly spoiled his aim, though, as he was unable to cause any damage in return. The reiver sergeant was more successful, putting two carbine rounds into Aramis and taking the arquebus out of action.

 

At the start of the combat phase, the crackling energies of the electromancer mortally wounded the reiver (but having been previously uninjured, he stood firm). The intercessor by the crane split his attacks, landing a flesh wound apiece on the rangers, but failing to finish off either. Athos and Porthos proved ineffective in return, failing to hit the intercessor. In the second combat, the charging ranger was unable to wound the electrified reiver, and was then struck down by the marine, going out of action.

 

In the morale phase, Athos (arc rifle) failed his nerve test, and became shaken. Objective 1 was now contested, with Porthos and the intercessor both within 2”. However, the Ultramarine advance had left objective 5 unguarded for the time being, and with two rangers still standing over objective 4, the Ad Mech still held the lead in victory points.

 

Ad Mech: 2VP, 3 OoA, 2 flesh wounds

Marines: 1VP, 1 OoA

 

 

Turn four – Marine initiative [ invocation of machine might ]

 

This could be the last turn, so the intercessors on the right flank pulled back to secure objective 5 and two victory points. With no objectives on the marine left, both reivers attempted to charge into the fight around the crane – the sergeant made it in, but his brother reiver fell short, and elected to remain where he was rather than leave himself in the open under the Ad Mech guns. There were now two marines facing one unshaken ranger for control of objective 1.

 

Intercessors holding objective 5.

 

The rangers holding objective 4 readied themselves again. In the centre both D’Artagnan and Alpha Treville successfully charged into the reiver sergeant. Suddenly, control of objective 1 was back in the hands of the Ad Mech, three rangers outnumbering the two marines.

 

The shooting phase was a wash-out. With the intercessors sheltering behind the container, neither side had targets. And in combat, the intercessor’s bolt pistol failed to cause any damage.

 

Having charged, the reiver sergeant (the Ultramarine’s combat specialist) went first, putting two attacks on the both the Alpha and the ranger who’d counter-charged him. D’Artagnan was taken out of action, but Treville evaded the marine’s blows and remained unharmed, before two clean strikes with his power sword saw the previously-wounded reiver sergeant taken out of action in turn. In the other part of the combat, Porthos and the intercessor exchanged blows, but no harm was done. 

 

Treville bests the reiver sergeant.

 

End of the combat phase, turn four. In the centre, D'Artagnan and the reiver sergeant have both fallen, leaving only Treville standing in that part of the fight. At the bottom of the picture, the reiver took his opponent out of action in turn three, but failed his charge this turn.

 

With four rangers out of action, and two more carrying flesh wounds, the Ad Mech took, and passed, a break check. Porthos continued to hold his nerve, but Athos was unable to pull himself together, and remained shaken for a second turn. Even so, the rangers held objective 1 by weight of numbers, and so they held the lead.

 

Unfortunately for them, the dice dictated that the skirmish would continue into at least turn five.

 

Ad Mech: 5VP, 4 OoA, 2 flesh wounds

Marines: 3VP, 2 OoA

 

 

Turn five – Marine initiative [ chant of the remorseless fist ]

 

Hoping for litanies of the electromancer again, the Ad Mech rolled for their canticle, but got the remorseless fist instead.

 

On borrowed time by this point, the marines needed to clear the rangers off at least one of the two objectives the red-cloaked forces held at the start of the turn. The reiver who’d failed his charge last turn didn’t make the same mistake again, barreling into the Alpha, determined to avenge his fallen sergeant (and with Athos still shaken, objective 1 was contested again, putting the marines into a virtual lead). On the marines’ right flank, the intercessor pushed forward into the cover of a few barrels, leaving his sergeant to hold objective 5.

 

The two rangers holding objective 4 leveled their rifles at the intercessor. The other three remained locked in combat around the crane.

 

Turn five movement. The central conflict continues to draw in both teams, but a firefight breaks out around objective 4.

 

Shooting went well for the advancing intercessor. Shielded by the promethium barrels (a dubious advantage), he avoided taking any damage from the rangers ahead of him, before flesh wounding one of them in return.

 

The comms intercessor threatens the Ad Mech objective.

 

In combat, the charging reiver failed to harm the Alpha, who once again showed himself to be quite the swordsman, impaling the marine and taking him out of action. Behind him, Porthos and the other intercessor continued to parry each other’s blows, and no damage was caused.

 

Treville continues to cover his men, cutting down every threat.

 

Once again, the Ad Mech passed their break test (thanks to a reroll), and Athos finally cleared his head enough to re-enter the fight alongside the seemingly unflappable Porthos. Over by objective 4, though, the ranger wounded by the intercessor’s shooting lost his nerve and became shaken.

 

End of turn five. The ranger to the top left is shaken.

 

The remaining combatants. Only the intercessor sergeant is out of sight, defending objective 5 behind the container.

 

The Ad Mech team still held objective 4, despite the shaken ranger, and had control of objective 1 by three to one. The marines held objective 5, and still had their instant victory point from turn one. Overall, the rangers held the lead by five points to three, a winning position had the game not continued into turn six, which it did.

 

Ad Mech: 5VP, 4 OoA, 3 flesh wounds

Marines: 3VP, 3 OoA

 

 

Turn six – Marine initiative [ benediction of the omnissiah ]

 

The Ad Mech rolled for their canticle again, but ended up with the benediction.

 

On the marine right, the intercessor charged into the rangers holding objective 4; his sergeant remained put on objective 5. In the centre, Alpha Treville charged into the other intercessor.

 

Turn six movement. The marines have spread out to contest all three objectives.

 

At this point, the marines held objective 5 (for two points), were contesting objective 4 (due to the shaken ranger), and held one bonus victory point. The rangers held objective 1 (for three points), meaning that the game was currently tied. To win, the marines would have to take at least one of the rangers guarding objective 4 out of action, or two of the rangers holding objective 1. It was a tall order, but possible.

 

With no shooting, we went straight into the combat phase.

 

The intercessor went first. Splitting his attacks, he made hits but saw them turned aside by the Ad Mech armour. Morale could still play a part, but for now, objective 4 remained contested.

 

The intercessor and rangers fight to a standstill.

 

Treville charges in again...

 

In the centre, Treville’s charge proved decisive, as for the third turn in a row he took a marine out of action with his power sword. The bio-weapon had been secured.

 

... and finally clears out objective 1. The Ad Mech hold.

 

However, both sides would need to survive the morale phase before claiming victory. With four brothers fallen, the marines failed their break check, but remembering that they knew no fear, passed on a reroll. The Ad Mech, on home turf, also passed their break check, but would need to make several nerve tests too. Critically, the flesh wounded ranger at objective 4 failed, even on a reroll – with him shaken, the other ranger was only able to contest the objective rather than claim it.

 

Objective 4 remains contested.

 

The battle ended with the marines holding objective 5, the rangers holding objective 1, and objective 4 contested by both sides. The Ad Mech had secured the primary objective, but the Ultramarines’ bonus point from turn one had secured them the draw.

 

End of turn six, and end of the game.

 

Ad Mech: 3VP, 4 OoA, 3 flesh wounds

Marines: 3VP, 4 OoA

 

 

Conclusion 

 

That was a proper nail-biter. The Ultramarines snatched a draw at the last moment, having lost two thirds of their leam over the course of the game.

 

In general, though, the marines proved pretty resilient, especially once the arc rifle and plasma caliver had been tied up in close-combat (which happened in turn three, although the plasma had no shot in turn two either). Only one of the marines went down to the rangers’ firepower – the reiver double-teamed by the arc rifle and arquebus in turn one.

 

The rest of the marine casualties were caused by the rampaging Alpha Treville, who personally took out three marines (a reiver, the reiver sergeant and an intercessor). He was punching well above his weight, and repeatedly swung the battle for the central objective in the Ad Mech’s favour.

 

The rangers made good use of their canticles, buffing their shooting and cover early on, before switching to the close-combat enhancements mid-game. Long games don’t benefit canticles, though, and the last two turns saw random rolls because neither of the remaining options seemed particularly helpful in the moment.

 

Overall, I thought that experience told. My wife has had quite a few games with her rangers now, and knows how to utilize their strengths and weapons (apart from her tendency to send Porthos and his plasma caliver headlong into exposed forward positions). On the other hand, this was only my friend’s second game of kill team, and he’s still working out how to get the best out of his team (plus, with only a limited number of primaris models to choose from, he’s not yet able to bring any of the more interesting weapon options or war-gear).

 

That said, even with half a team (just three models), the marines were still pressing at the end, and were perhaps one flesh wound and a failed nerve test away from taking the victory. It was that close.

 

[Rogue]

The Red Brotherhood are back up to bat, once again taking on the Ad Mech vanguard (who just happen to look like rangers) in the continuing fight for the supply depot. My wife just edged to victory in our last game, so I’m upgrading Alexei’s rock drill to Daniil’s rock saw, for some 2 damage goodness.

 

Given the mission, my wife dropped the arquebus, preferring another radium carbine vanguard for increased mobility, and to help exploit the rad-saturation rule as much as possible. With no other models to bring in to round out the points deficit, the two teams would be starting closer in value than in any previous game.

 

Pre-Game

 

Ad Mech (88)

Alpha Treville: arc pistol and power sword (leader)

Athos: arc rifle (sniper)

Porthos: plasma caliver (heavy)

D’Artagnan: radium carbine, omnispex (cooms)

5 vanguard with radium carbines

 

The Red Brotherhood (85)

Ilia: bolt pistol and power pick (leader)

Sergei: shotgun, cult icon

Yegor: seismic cannon (heavy)

Dimitri: mining laser

Mikhail: flamer (demolitions)

Pavel: grenade launcher

Yakov and Nicolai: autoguns

Vitaly and Timur: shotguns

Alexei: heavy rock drill (combat)

 

The Red Brotherhood

 

In the aftermath of the Ultramarines' abortive attempt to destroy the Ad Mechs' hoard of captured bio-weapons, the Cult has taken its opportunity to strike whilst the shattered Imperial forces are still rebuilding their defences. Cultists have poured into the supply depot, and Treville’s only option is to get out of Dodge or disappear under a wave of hybrid bodies. His team will attempt to stow-away in the last few containers to be lifted out of the depot, before they lose control of the automated systems to the cultists.

 

The Ad Mech forces will score one point for every stowaway. The cultists will score one point for every vanguard taken out of action or shaken at the end of the game. In order to hide in a container, a model must start the turn within 1”, do nothing in that turn, and have no enemy models within 4” at the end of the turn.

 

There’s no scouting phase with this mission, and the environment table turned up nothing out of the ordinary.

 

 

Deployment

 

The Ad Mech deployed within an 8” square centred on their baseline. The regular vanguard took the forward positions on either side, with the various specialists in cover further back – Porthos (plasma caliver), D’Artagnan (comms) and Treville (leader) in the shelter of the servohauler, and Athos (arc rifle) on his own to the right.

 

 

With four of the containers on their left flank, the Red Brotherhood put most bodies on this side. Vitaly, Sergei (icon) and Ilia (leader) took the far left, with Daniil (rock saw) and Mikhail (flamer) in support, and Yakov covering the next container over.

 

 

Behind them, Dimitri (mining laser) and Pavel (grenade launcher) took up positions to cover the open ground in the centre.

 

 

This left Yegor (seismic cannon), Nicolai and Timur to cover the right flank. The cult were potentially exposed here, but would only give up two points at most on this side of the board.

 

 

Initial deployment

 

 

Turn one – Ad Mech initiative [ benediction of the omnissiah ]

 

Knowing that the cultists would be unable to move this turn (a mission restriction), the vanguard front line moved forward to take up firing positions – two behind crates near the centre of the board, one by the crane, and two more taking shelter behind the nearest container on the busier side of the depot. The rest of the team readied, hoping to thin the cult ranks before they could advance in later turns.

 

 

Vanguard secure their deployment zone...

 

... and move towards the containers.

 

The Brotherhood readied themselves (this being their only option).

 

Turn one movement. The two cultists at the bottom are sharing a counter, as I ran out. Vitaly is just out of sight behind the container at the top.

 

Athos fired his arc rifle at Vitaly (incautiously peering around the end of the container) but missed. Yegor took advantage of the plentiful ammunition available to reroll his misses, and his seismic cannon flesh wounded Porthos. Despite that, Porthos utilised D’Artagnan’s comms ability to fire accurately into Vitaly, taking him out of action. The rest of the shooting on both sides produced no further damage, with Pavel and Dimitri missing the vanguard front line, and the Ad Mech failing to pick out Yegor and Pavel in return.

 

There was no combat, and in the morale phase, the wounded Porthos automatically passed his nerve test.

 

End of turn one.

 

Ad Mech: 0 VP, 1 flesh wound

Brotherhood: 0 VP, 1 OoA

 

 

Turn two - GSC initiative [ litany of the electromancer ]

 

Hoping to tie up the Ad Mech troops before they could get in among the containers, several cultists charged. Sergei failed (and chose to stay in place), although his icon would still be within 6” of the combat, but Ilia and Yakov made it into the vanguard against the end of the container. Daniil (too valuable to risk losing to the electromancer ability) advanced over one container, taking cover beside the next. Finding himself without a target on the right flank, Nicolai moved back to join Yegor amidst the promethium barrels. Everyone else readied.

 

Yegor and Nicolai survey the vanguard positions.

 

The front line vanguard all readied their radium carbines (or in one case, prepared to fight for his life in close combat). Athos and Porthos both advanced across towards the cult left – they would have no targets this turn, but were in position to move and fire next time. Treville, more cautious than his warriors, took time to pilot the servohauler across the deployment zone, keeping him and D’Artagnan in cover as they too moved towards the cult left.

 

Treville (and the servohauler) arrive on the left flank.

 

Tactically, the Ad Mech were hoping to overwhelm the Brotherhood on the container-heavy side of the board, where they could then move to occupy as many as four containers whilst the cultists moved forces across from the right.

 

Turn two movement.

 

The close-quarters combat around the container and crane.

 

The shooting phase proved largely fruitless for both sides, as the three vanguard holding the centre of the battlefield exchanged shots with the cult support weapons. Nothing even made it as far as armour saves, except one shot into Nicolai, which inflicted a flesh wound.

 

Having charged, both Ilia and Yakov struck first, but both were clearly feeling the effects of rad-saturation and failed to hit their opponent. In return, the vanguard landed a critical blow on the weakened Ilia, taking him out of action. The Brotherhood had lost their leader.

 

Neither Porthos nor Nicolai (who was within 2” of Yegor) could fail their nerve check.

 

End of turn two. Ilia has fallen.

 

Ad Mech: 0 VP, 1 flesh wound

Brotherhood: 0 VP, 2 OoA, 1 flesh wound

 

 

Turn three – Ad Mech initiative [ machine might ]

 

In a bold move, the Ad Mech used the initiative to launch pre-emptive charges into the Cult lines. The vanguard by the crane charged over the container into the acolyte, Daniil, and was joined by the unengaged vanguard adjacent to the ongoing combat nearby. Treville charged into that combat to support his trooper against Yakov, and at the very edge of the battlefield, Athos attempted to charge Sergei, but the icon bearer retreated and the charge fell just short. Porthos advanced up to support Athos.

 

 

The vanguard and Treville all charge into combat.

 

Sensing that Sergei was about to be overwhelmed, Mikhail moved to his left, bring both the arc rifle and plasma caliver into range and sight of his flamer. On the far side of the board, Timur moved along the side of the container to bring the nearest two vanguard into short range of his shotgun. The rest of the Brotherhood’s guns readied themselves.

 

Mikhail moves to support Sergei against Athos and Porthos.

 

Turn three movement.

 

As the range closed, shots began to tell with increasing frequency. Timur’s advance simply took him into fire from one of the vanguard, and he was taken out of action. Dimitri managed to flesh wound the other vanguard behind the central crates. The rest of the guns in the central firefight  came close, with saves made on either side, but no further damage was inflicted. The vanguard had more success on the cult left, where Porthos, despite his flesh wound, took Mikhail out of action before the cultist could fire.

 

In combat, the combination of machine might and rad-saturation meant that the Ad Mech would be wounding on 2s (S4 vs T2). In an act of self-preservation, Daniil made a decisive strike, taking one assailant out of action, and flesh wounding the other, who failed to hit Daniil in return. Treville also missed with his attacks, but his companion took advantage of Yakov’s focus on the power sword to land an undefended hit that took the neophyte out of action – the vanguard then consolidated into Daniil.

 

With five neophytes out of action, and Nicolai wounded, the Brotherhood took and passed an break test. However, Nicolai failed his nerve test, and became shaken.

 

End of turn three. 

 

Ad Mech: 0 VP, 1 OoA, 3 flesh wounds

Brotherhood: 1 VP, 5 OoA, 1 flesh wound

 

 

Turn four – Ad Mech initiative [ chant of the remorseless fist ]

 

This was potentially the last turn of the game, and the Ad Mech had yet to stow away in any of the containers. Five of the vanguard were near enough to get in, but would have to do nothing all turn, and then rely on others to clear away any cultists within 4”. Things were looking tricky for Treville’s men.

 

On the cult left, Athos charged into Sergei (whose overwatch hit, but failed to wound), pinning him in place. On the other side of the field, the two vanguard who’d held the centre all game broke cover and advanced into the shadow of the container on the cult right. They couldn’t get in this turn, but would be well-placed in a possible turn five. Treville, D’Artagnan and Porthos all readied to defend against a cultist counter-strike.

 

Not that there were many cultists left to hit back, with only five active fighters, and two of those tied up in combat. Pavel and Dimitri quit their positions – Pavel advanced forward to join the fight around one container, and Dimitri moved sideways to bring his mining laser to bear against Porthos by the other container. Yegor readied himself again.

 

Turn four movement.

 

D’Artagnan attempted to take the wounded Nicolai out of action with his radium carbine, but the neophyte saved. Yegor then fired on the advancing vanguard who’d appeared around the side of the container, taking him out of action. Dimitri, despite firing on the move, hit Porthos square on, but then failed to wound and the vanguard survived. Porthos opted not to fire back, hopeful that a combat victory for Athos would allow him to sneak into the container.

 

It nearly worked – Athos landed a wound, but Sergei’s armour protected him (the first save I’d made all game), and the icon-bearer survived. In the other combat, the consolidating vanguard missed Daniil, before the acolyte flesh wounded him and took the second vanguard out of action.

 

Both teams were now making break checks. The Brotherhood scraped a pass (on a seven), but the Ad Mech failed, even with a reroll. In the ensuing nerve checks, the only failure was Treville himself, which prevented him from scrambling into the nearby container.

 

Daniil continues to batter the Ad Mech, as Treville becomes shaken.

 

With the Ad Mech broken, and their leader unable to respond to the approaching threats, the vanguard withdrew – their escape attempt had failed.

 

End of turn four, and end of the game.

 

Ad Mech: 0 VP, 3 OoA, 4 flesh wounds

Brotherhood: 3 VP, 5 OoA, 1 flesh wound

 

 

Conclusion 

 

I need to start by pointing out how difficult that mission is for the attacker (the Ad Mech, in this case). To score a single victory point, you need to be within 1” of a container at the end of one turn, remain there for a whole turn whilst doing nothing, and prevent any model from the other team coming within 4”. Manage all that, and you then get to reduce your fighting strength by one model as a reward. When we were setting up, it felt very similar to the lines of battle mission from the rulebook; but in that one, your whole team can potentially burst over the line in one go, supporting each other all the way. Here, even attempting to get into a container meant sacrificing a model’s utility for a turn, with no guarantees that it would be worth anything anyway.

 

In the end, it was relatively uncomplicated for me to defend the crates, because at the start of each turn I could see all of the potential stowaways (because they’d moved into position the previous turn), and then had my own moves, shooting, combat and even consolidation moves to either eliminate them or get within 4”- just standing on the other side of the crate would do it. Not to mention the potential for the prospective stowaway to end the turn shaken and unable to board anyway, as happened to Treville in turn four.

 

Objectives aside, it seems that we’re coming up against the limits of the way that we’re playing the Ad Mech. With only ten models, all built as rangers, we’ve been switching back and forth between rangers and vanguard, but not mixing the two to avoid confusion. But that leaves the Ad Mech forces tied to a single approach across all of their men – stand off and shoot with galvanic rifles or get in close with radium carbines and rad-saturation, but not both. Next time, we might try the special weapons as vanguard (so they get the rad-saturation rules), with the rest as rangers. We’ll see how it goes. And there are a few sicarians on the horizon too, which will give a lot more flexibility to the Ad Mech team.

 

On my side, Daniil was a bit of a beast in close combat – he hits on 3s, wounds on 2s, only allows a bionic 6++ save, and rolls two dice on the injury table. In two turns of combat, he took two vanguard out of action, and flesh wounded two others. I like him a lot. My wife less so.

 

The rest of the team reverted to type in this one, mostly acting as bodies to be throw into the combat around the containers to tie up potential movement and provide that anti-stowaway bubble, or acting as fire support. The two heavy weapons managed an OoA and two flesh wounds between them, less than Daniil scored on his own, but enough to make the vanguard want to stay in cover and consider their moves. The other eight members of the team didn’t score even a flesh wound between them, not that I really expected them too – their job is to charge in, tie up and try not to die for a bit. Mikhail was interesting: he didn’t fire his flamer once during the game, but was a very tangible threat in amongst the containers where he was hard to get a shot at, and he certainly made the vanguard think hard about some of their moves.

 

Overall, this one felt too one-sided to be much fun. It felt in the balance a lot of the time, but the Ad Mech victory conditions were so difficult compared to the Cult ones (take people out of action for victory points) that it was a real uphill struggle for the vanguard. We did talk afterwards about approaching narrative games like this as we would a Space Hulk game, where you’d play as both attacker and defender before calling a winner, but then, that’s going to take something away from the idea of it being a narrative game.

 

For now, then, the Red Brotherhood have pushed the Ad Mech out of their supply depot, and will now have the opportunity to hunt them back into the underhive, where reinforcements might be waiting for both sides.

[Dosjetka]

Definitely a tough set of mission parameters for the AdMech. It'll be interesting to see some more variety among them soon though. :tu:

 

Got anything new plannes for the Brotherhood? Some bigger, scarier models perhaps?

[Rogue]

I'm working on a pair of metamorphs at the moment - a new leader and a new icon bearer. They're the rest of the box that provided the three close-combat acolytes (Alexei, Daniil and Marat).

 

Beyond that, I'm planning to pick up Tooth and Claw in the new year, which'll give me access to genestealers and aberrants. So the cult will continue to grow over the next few months.

[Dosjetka]

Sounds good! The amount of attacks on the Metamorph Leader make it one of my favourites. :devil:

[Rogue]

Yes. I feel like he might be good in combat, unlike my current neophyte leader, who occasionally comes good, but usually doesn’t.

 

Plus, the metamorph has his claw, talon, bonesword and a hand flamer, so he’s got the tools for pretty much everything he might face :)

[Rogue]

Time for phase two. We’ve both been painting recently, and I’ve completed three acolytes (Daniil and Alexei have already been in action) and two metamorphs; my wife has finished a ruststalker and an infiltrator. With all these reinforcements on hand, we’ve decided to try campaign mode and see how it goes.

 

We’re also leveling up the teams, so that they both play with 100 points. However, I’m still modifying my choices a little, so some of the newer hybrids will be sitting this one out.

 

Pre-Game

 

Ad Mech

Vanguard Alpha Treville: arc pistol and power sword (leader)

Vanguard Athos: arc rifle (comms)

Vanguard Porthos: plasma caliver (heavy)

Ranger D’Artagnan: galvanic rifle, omnispex

Vanguard; radium carbine

Vanguard; radium carbine

Ranger; galvanic rifle

Infiltrator; stub carbine and power sword

Ruststalker; chord claw and transonic razor (combat)

 

 

The Red Brotherhood

Koschei: metamorph leader; bonesword, hand flamer (leader)

Marat: acolyte; heavy rock cutter (combat)

Daniil: acolyte; heavy rock saw

Sergei: shotgun, cult icon

Yegor: seismic cannon (heavy)

Dimitri: mining laser

Mikhail: flamer (demolitions)

Pavel: grenade launcher

Yakov and Nicolai: autoguns

Vitaly and Timur: shotguns

 

 

Although the Red Brotherhood had taken control of the Ad Mech supply dump, Ilia had fallen during the battle and was (for now at least) unable to continue leading the team. His place would be taken by Koschei, one of the metamorphs beginning to manifest amongst the cult ranks. And with new Ad Mech reinforcements arriving in the sector too, another clash was inevitable.

 

We’re playing Sweep and Clear. Break the other team and win outright. Failing that, every enemy model taken out of action is worth a point, and every objective controlled at the end of the game is worth three. Either way you look at it, taking people out is the name of the game for this one.

 

 

Deployment

 

The Ad Mech forces chose to deploy in the top left corner, around the ruined cathedral. The ruststalker, infiltrator and Athos formed the front line, with the arc rifle warrior also holding objective 2. Supporting the ruststalker, Porthos (plasma caliver) and a vanguard held the cathedral arch, whilst D’Artagnan’s galvanic rifle and omnispex backed-up Athos. On the roof of the cathedral, the ranger and the other vanguard took firing positions (the ranger holding objective 1), with Treville hidden in the shadows beneath them.

 

 

The newly arrived sicarians hold the front line...

 

... as Treville issues his orders from within the remains of the cathedral.

 

The Red Brotherhood stationed Dimitri (mining laser) and Pavel (launcher) high in the abandoned manufactorum to cover the advance. At ground level, the right flank was held by Nicolai and Yakov, with Vitaly and Timur taking more forward positions at the edge of the plaza. The cult’s assault element covered the left flank, with Marat (cutter), Daniil (saw), Mikhail (flamer) and Sergei (icon) all within the smaller ruin. Koschei took station just behind them, and Yegor positioned himself behind the ammo crates, ready to provide covering fire.

 

Dimitri covers the cult advance.

 

The assault team gather in the ruins - Koschei is partially visible behind the broken wall.

 

Initial deployment - the acolytes are under the ruin by objective 4, and the Vanguard Alpha is inside the cathedral on the left, underneath objective 1.

 

In the ambush and scouting phase, the combat team moved forward, with Sergei, Marat and Daniil all advancing, and Koschei repositioning himself to cover the plaza. Timur moved up on the balcony, and Nicolai moved across under the other wing of the manufactorum. I’d used the scout phase to move some of my models, but they were positioned so that the Ad Mech snipers couldn’t see them, and so couldn’t use their own scouting option to fire at them.

 

Scouting phase and ambush moves.

 

 

Turn one – Ad Mech initiative [ litany of the elctromancer ]

 

With the teams so close together, the Ad Mech began chanting the litanies of the electromancer, expecting to be in combat at any moment. Seeing an opportunity, the ruststalker sprang forward, charging into Sergei and Daniil.

 

 

The infiltrator and Porthos moved up into the shadow of the statue, as the vanguard moved forward more cautiously, sheltering behind some of the crates littering the plaza. The rest of the team readied.

 

Treville remains in the shadows.

 

Despite the risk of mortal wounds, Koschei and Marat both charged – Koschei into the infiltrator, and Marat into the vanguard.

 

 

 

Mikhail moved up to the window to line up his flamer. On the right, Nicolai moved up a level, taking a firing position at a window too.

 

 

 

Seeing him, Timur dropped from the balcony, joining Vitaly behind more of the crates in the plaza. Both heavy weapons, the launcher and Yakov’s autogun readied.

 

The plaza is suddenly full of combats as both sides charge in.

 

Turn one movement.

 

The shooting phase opened with Athos’s arc rifle – at rapid fire range, he easily took Timur out of action. The cult guns on the manufactorum failed to deal any damage in return, leaving the vanguard on the cathedral free to shot Mikhail, flesh wounding him. Porthos then added a further flesh wound, this time on Yakov, before Mikhail finished a fairly destructive round of shooting by taking Porthos out of action with his flamer.

 

In combat, Koschei took a mortal wound from the electromancer’s aura, but was only flesh wounded. The ruststalker lashed out, taking both Daniil and Sergei out of action (he missed with his chord claw, but inflicted a mortal wound on Danill, and two regular wounds on Sergei) before consolidating into Mikhail.

 

Marat eviscerated his vanguard opponent, and consolidated into the infiltrator. Koschei struck at the infiltrator too, but caused only a single wound. In return, the infiltrator directed one attack against each of Marat and Koschei, and took them both out of action with his power sword. Mikhail missed the ruststalker.

 

The Ad Mech regain control of the plaza - the infiltrator has one wound remaining.

 

With twelve on the team, the Brotherhood were now just a single flesh wound or out of action away from taking a break test. Yakov passed his nerve check, but faced with the ruststalker who’d just dropped Daniil and Sergei, Mikhail failed his and became shaken.

 

The unsurprisingly shaken Mikhail - the skull marks his flesh wound.

 

End of turn one.

 

Ad Mech: 11 VP, 2 OoA,

Brotherhood: 2 VP, 5 OoA, 2 flesh wounds

 

 

Turn two – Ad Mech initiative [ machine might ]

 

After the carnage of turn one, the Ad Mech largely held their ground. D’Artagnan clambered over the wall to join Athos behind the barrels in the plaza, and the infiltrator charged forward, engaging Vitaly in combat (Vitaly did land a wounding hit from overwatch, but the already wounded infiltrator saved it). Treville, seeing that the plaza had been cleared, moved forward into the cathedral archway.

 

The cultists, with their forward element almost entirely gone or tied up, decided that their best chance of survival lay in their guns, so everyone readied themselves.

 

Much of the shooting proved ineffective – Nicolai took fire from several of the Ad Mech, but Athos and the vanguard both missed before D’Artagnan nailed on a flesh wound with his rifle. The other ranger (on the cathedral roof) put a flesh wound on Yegor. The only success for the Brotherhood was Dimitri, who rolled a six to hit Treville, wounded him and then taking him out of action,    

 

The sicarians proved their worth in the combat phase, with the ruststalker putting Mikhail out of action before consolidating towards Yegor’s seismic cannon (taking control of objective 4 in the process); the infiltrator did the same to Vitaly, and consolidated into combat with Yakov, who failed to wound him.

 

With seven cultists out of action, and another three carrying flesh wounds, the Brotherhood took and passed a break test. But with the individual neophytes isolated and adding seven to their nerve rolls, all of Nicolai, Yakov and Yegor failed and became shaken, leaving only Dimitri and Pavel able to act in turn three.

 

That being the case, it felt pretty pointless to carry on, and we ended the game here.

 

End of turn two, and end of the game.

 

Ad Mech: 16 VP, 3 OoA,

Brotherhood: 3 VP, 7 OoA, 3 flesh wounds

 

 

Conclusion 

 

That couldn’t have gone much worse. More than half of my team out of action, and more than half of the survivors shaken, all inside two turns. And I have to point the finger at me, on this one. I made way too many tactical mistakes, and once I’d lost the initiative in turn one, there wasn’t really any way back.

 

Where to start? I completely underestimated the ruststalker, who chopped his way through the left flank, taking out my icon-bearer, rock saw and flamer specialist in short order. It’s the first time the Ad Mech have played with real combat specialists, and I’d not really considered how to defend myself against a charge like that. What I should have done is start Vitaly and Timur on that flank, ahead of the acolytes. Positioned right, they’d be able to prevent the ruststalker (who has a massive base) from charging past them, whilst leaving space for the acolytes to counter-charge.

 

I also didn’t expect the infiltrator to do so well – his taking down of my leader and my rock cutter in a single turn really closed the door on any come-back from the cult forces. Consolidating Marat into him was a big mistake, allowing the infiltrator the chance to kill him. Marat should have stayed clear, and then hopefully charged into someone else next turn. I went in against the infiltrator mostly because I realised that it’s what I should have done with Marat in the first place – his ability to put multi-wound models out of action without even rolling would have seen the infiltrator killed off in turn one, leaving me both Marat and Koschei to face the ruststalker.

 

(Koschei underwhelmed me in this one. With four attacks, I has hoping that he’d do better than a single wound, even on the infiltrator. But the electromancer struck again, and once flesh wounded, it was difficult to utilise his weapons to good effect. I’m tempted to go back to Ilia, accept that he won’t do much, and keep him safely at the back to provide a counter-charge if anyone gets too near the heavy weapons…)

 

Talking of which, I also made a mess of positioning Dimitri and Pavel. Seeing the elevated fire positions, my 40k instincts cut in, and I put the fire support team up high. But with only 24” of range, it meant that both Dimitri and Pavel were hitting on 6s all game, and not really a threat (lucky killing of the Alpha aside). I should have left the manufactorum roof alone, and had Dimitri where Yakov started, overlooking the plaza and within range of pretty much all the Ad Mech. He might have taken more incoming fire, but that would have taken pressure off some of the others.

 

A steep learning curve, but hopefully a helpful one.

 

 

Campaign

 

Not a lot to report here. No one managed to use any specialist tactics, and the only fire team who achieved anything were the neophytes (Dimitri took Treville out of action with the mining laser), so they’ve ended up with two experience points each compared to everyone else’s one. A couple of neophytes did fail injury rolls, and wound up permanently dead, but I like their names and story, so that got mitigated to amnesia-causing injuries, meaning they lose their experience points and will fight as new recruits next time they’re up, but get to stay the same people. Because why not.

 

[Dosjetka]

I'm curious as to how you decide the placement of terrain. So far in my games we've been following the suggested terrain layouts in the rulebook scenarios and it hasn't been great for armies that like to get close.

[Orpheus108]

@Chaplain Dosjetka,

 

When we play and layout the terrain, we just take it in turns to lay out one piece at a time til we have used it all. Or one person lays out the terrain the other gets to choose which side they are on

[Rogue]

I've never used the recommended layouts. We also stopped using just the starter box terrain on its own fairly quickly, as it doesn't cover enough of the board and leaves lots of large gaps (or ends up with everything bunched in the middle - being modular and stackable, you can end up with three or even four smaller pieces on top of the larger ones, which doesn't leave much else to cover the board. 

 

In practice, I've found that the starter box stuff plus two of the older sector imperialis pieces is about right - I've got a couple of manufactorum pieces, and a couple of sanctum pieces, so we've made use of those, plus some smaller bits like crates and barrels, and in the last battle, a giant statue as well. The munitorium stuff is easier to play with - the containers block line of sight completely, unlike the head-height windows of the imperial sector, so when we've used that set, it's been without extra pieces.

 

Generally, I keep putting scenery down until the board feels right - I can see vantage points for shooters, areas of cover and blind spots for assault troops, open areas, narrow passages, enough obscuring cover to make shooters work for clear shots, that sort of thing. As a rule of thumb, if my wife looks at the board and feels little claustrophobic, it's about right. 

[Chaeron]

Have really enjoyed catching up on those bat-reps Rogue - thanks so much! Be interested to see how the new campaign goes.

[Rogue]

Right. Last time out I got hammered; the game was all over in two turns and there were bodies all over the place. So this time, no mercy. Which is the dramatic way of saying that I’m playing with a full-strength team. And even so, I’m still worried about that rust-stalker…

 

Pre-Game

 

Ad Mech

Vanguard Alpha Treville: arc pistol and power sword (leader)

Vanguard Athos: arc rifle (sniper)

Vanguard Porthos: plasma caliver (heavy)

Ranger D’Artagnan: galvanic rifle, omnispex

Vanguard; radium carbine

Vanguard; radium carbine

Vanguard; radium carbine

Infiltrator; stub carbine and power sword

Rust-stalker; chord claw and transonic razor (combat)

 

 

The Red Brotherhood

Koschei: metamorph leader; bonesword, hand flamer (leader)

Dhampir: metamorph; hand flamer, cult icon

Marat: acolyte; heavy rock cutter (combat)

Daniil: acolyte; heavy rock saw

Alexei: acolyte; heavy rock drill

Ilia: neophyte; power pick, bolt pistol

Yegor: neophyte; seismic cannon (heavy)

Mikhail: neophyte; flamer (demolitions)

Vitaly: neophyte; shotgun

Timur: neophyte; shotgun

 

 

Following the debacle in the Astartes Plaza, the Red Brotherhood were after revenge, and the obvious target was the devious Alpha who’d masterminded the ambush – Treville. With Koschei and his brothers sufficiently recovered, he was determined to hunt down the Ad Mech leader and teach him a lesson.

 

This one is Take Prisoners. Kill (capture) the opposition leader in close combat to score 3 VPs; kill anyone else in combat for 1 VP. Whoever racks up the most VPs wins. It’s as simple as that.

 

 

Deployment

 

The Ad Mech took the top right corner of the map, hoping to gain some tactical advantage from the higher ground. Treville, aware of the value the cultists had put on his head, hung back, with the infiltrator, rust-stalker and a vanguard in the ruins of the basilica in front of him. Porthos (plasma caliver) and another vanguard took the floor above the combat specialists. Athos (arc rifle) and D’Artagnan (omnispex) took cover on the first floor of the sanctum, with the last vanguard covering the gap between the buildings.

 

Treville and his sicarians

 

Athos leads the team on the sanctum; Porthos takes the high ground on the basilica roof

 

The Red Brotherhood split into two groups. On the right, the three acolytes and the two neophytes armed with shotguns clustered at the south-east corner of the basilica. On the other flank, Koschei (leader), Dhampir (icon) and Mikhail (flamer) prepared to advance through the left wing of the sanctum. Yegor positioned himself behind ammo crates, with lines of sight across the crater, with Ilia just to his left.

 

 

The cultists prepare to launch a two-pronged attack

 

Initial deployment - the sicarians are hidden under the spur of the basilica, near Treville on the far right

 

A combination of scout and ambush moves saw Koschei’s group move deeper into the sanctum.

 

 

 

Turn one – Ad Mech initiative [ benediction of the omnissiah ]

 

Unsure of the Red Brotherhood’s plan of attack, the bulk of the Ad Mech forces swept up onto the roof of the basilica, hoping to draw the cultists into an uphill charge, or if not, to fire down on them.

 

 

Athos and D’Artagnan held their position on the sanctum, covering the open ground around the crater, whilst the vanguard beneath them moved to cover the narrow passage along the back of the building, hoping to deter Koschei’s group from advancing too quickly.

 

 

Unwilling to assault headlong into plasma fire and power weapons, the acolytes at the foot of the basilica decided to stay at ground level, advancing along the line of the ruined wall and finding shelter behind the remains of the supporting pillars.

 

The acolytes push forward, leaving Vitaly and Timur to guard against a charge from behind

 

On the other side of the battlefield, the metamorphs moved up to the corner of the sanctum; Mikhail moved ahead of his blessed brethren, bring his flamer to bear on the lone vanguard in their way. Ilia dashed forward, ending up against the wall just below Athos, and Yegor, realizing that he was the only target left for the Ad Mech guns, retreated into the shadows of the ruin behind him.

 

Turn one movement

 

With most of the Brotherhood hidden from view, there was only one exchange of fire. The vanguard covering the back of the sanctum fired on Mikhail, but rushed his shot and missed. In return, the demolitions specialist made full use of his custom ammo to hose down the Ad Mech with fire, taking him out of action (thanks to a reroll).

 

There was no combat to resolve, and no nerve checks to make.

 

End of turn one (taken after an overnight break...)

 

Ad Mech: 0 VP, 1 OoA

Brotherhood: 0 VP

 

 

Turn two – GSC initiative [ litanies of the electromancer ]

 

Seeing an opportunity to turn the Ad Mech flanks, the cultists pressed forward with their attacks on both sides. The acolytes and shotgun neophytes rounded the corner of the ruined wall, finishing within charge distance of Treville, who was suddenly very much in the wrong place. On the other flank, the metamorphs were too far back to make charges – instead, they continued to advance through the sanctum.

 

 

Protecting his leader, Ilia charged up the wall of the sanctum, engaging Athos and tying up his arc rifle.

 

 

Finally, Yegor moved to the window to line up a shot against D’Artagnan (whilst remaining out of sight of the firepower on the roof of the basilica).

 

In the sanctum, D’Artagnan counter-charged Ilia. In the ruins of the basilica, the Ad Mech on the roof threw themselves back down to ground level, closing on Treville’s position to threaten the acolytes’ lines of attack.

 

 

Only a single vanguard remained on the roof, and even he moved to fire down on the acolyte group.

 

 

Turn two movement - the cult acolytes are against the board edge to the right, and the metamorphs are hidden behind the sanctum building at the top

 

After the relative lull of the first turn, the paths around the ruined basilica exploded into fire. Timur tried to take out Porthos before he could fire his plasma caliver, but the shotgun missed. The infiltrator’s stubcarbine flesh-wounded Alexei, who responded by trying to shoot the nearest vanguard with his autopistol, but couldn’t make the shot. In return, the vanguard gunned Alexei down – the heavy rock drill had been taken out of action. Marat fired through at the infiltrator, but failed to wound, before Treville’s arc pistol was deflected by Timur’s armour. Porthos used more bullets to hammer plasma rounds into Daniil, taking him out of action too, before the vanguard on the roof fired down into Timur, flesh-wounding him. In a single round of shooting, the Ad Mech had caused two casualties (Alexei’s heavy rock drill, and Danill’s heavy rock saw), and wounded Timur. Marat was the last acolyte standing.

 

In the combat phase, things only got worse for the cultists, as Ilia was struck down by the power of the electromancer before he could do anything against Athos. As a close combat casualty, this meant the first victory point went to the Imperials.

 

Timur passed his nerve check, but the tide of the battle had swung heavily in the Ad Mech’s favour.

 

End of turn two

 

Ad Mech: 1 VP, 1 OoA,

Brotherhood: 0 VP, 3 OoA, 1 flesh wound

 

 

Turn three – GSC initiative [ litanies of the electromancer ]

 

Unwilling to waste the sacrifice of his fallen brothers, Timur hurled himself forward into Treville, engaging him in combat; Marat charged into Treville too, before Vitaly charged the vanguard to the left, surrounding the Alpha and blocking the shortest counter-charge paths to Marat. In the sanctum, Dhampir charged up and into D’Artagnan, but Mikhail and Koschei both failed their charges – Mikhail ended up below Athos, with Koschei a few paces behind Dhampir, back around the corner.

 

 

Yegor hauled his seismic cannon to the top of the ruin, drawing lines of sight to Athos in the sanctum and the vanguard on the roof of the basilica.

 

Yegor surveys the field - Dhampir is fighting in the darker sanctum building, and the battle around Alpha Treville is behind the basilica

 

Athos, confident that his arc rifle would outgun Yegor, readied himself. In the basilica, the infiltrator charged into Timur and the rust-stalker into Vitaly, whilst Porthos and the vanguard from the basilica roof both succeeded in charging Marat – the three cultists were now engaged with six Ad Mech, and were in danger of being dragged down by sheer weight of numbers.

 

 

Turn three movement

 

Athos took careful aim, but at range, and with Yegor in cover, he still missed. Yegor, making use of more bullets, fired back five times, needing sixes to hit and making one; he then wounded on a second six, and with Athos failing his armour save, took him out of action with a third six in a row.

 

Behind the stricken Athos, Dhampir made short work of D’Artagnan, taking him out of action and scoring a point for the Brotherhood.

 

Dhampir clears out the sanctum, followed by Koschei and Mikhail

 

Marat then made use of the up and at ’em tactic to strike next, aiming to decapitate Treville, but the acolyte missed with all of his attacks, even with a reroll. But all was not lost – industrial brutality allowed him a chance to attack again, and the roll fell in his favour. Three more attacks produced a single wounding hit, which Treville’s bionics could do nothing to prevent, and with that, the Ad Mech leader was taken out of action.

 

Marat snarls in triumph as Treville falls

 

The infiltrator struck at Timur, but his power sword failed to wound. The rust-stalker, also making use of the combat specialist tactic, smashed his chordclaw into Vitaly, taking him out of action. The rest of the phase saw Timur, Porthos and the two vanguard all miss their attacks.

 

Treville and Vitaly both go out of action, but the cultists are heavily outnumbered

 

Once again, Timur passed his nerve check. The Red Brotherhood had taken the lead, but both sides were now just one casualty away from taking break checks.

 

End of turn three

 

Ad Mech: 2 VP, 4 OoA,

Brotherhood: 4 VP, 4 OoA, 1 flesh wound

 

 

Turn four – Ad Mech initiative [ machine might ]

 

Having elected not to consolidate after beating Vitaly last turn, the rust-stalker now charged into Marat, who was already fighting off three vanguard. The infiltrator remained in combat with Timur. With the sanctum cleared of Ad Mech presence, all five of the remaining imperial troops were involved in this combat.

 

Already wounded, Timur decided to fall back, leaving Marat alone but stranding the infiltrator. Seeing an opportunity, Mikhail moved out of the sanctum to within flamer range of the sicarian. Behind him, Dhampir charged forward, engaging the rust-stalker in an attempt to defend Marat.

 

Dhampir piles in to the combat as Timur withdraws

 

 

Koschei, aware of his own value in this skirmish, ascended to the top floor of the sanctum, well out of harm’s way. Finally, Yegor moved down from the ruin, almost back to his starting place, trying to trace a line of sight through the basilica to the ongoing combat.

 

 

Turn four movement

 

Sensing danger, the infiltrator fired on Mikhail, but missed. Mikhail returned the favour, but the infiltrator’s armour proved effective – he made three saves, and only one wound got through.

 

With Marat and the rust-stalker finally facing off, both sides attempted a decisive strike, but the sicarian was quicker. His chordclaw missed Dhampir, but the transonic razor put a flesh-wound on Marat. Marat struck back, but missed (needing fives). The three vanguard added their attacks against Marat – only one hit, and the acolyte saved. Behind them, Dhampir managed to wound the rust-stalker with his claws.

 

With six cultists out of action or wounded, the Red Brotherhood passed a break test, but both Timur and Marat failed nerve checks and became shaken. Only Dhampir remained active in the brawl for the cultists.

 

End of turn four

 

Ad Mech: 2 VP, 4 OoA,

Brotherhood: 4 VP, 4 OoA, 2 flesh wounds

 

 

Turn five – Ad Mech initiative [ chant of the remorseless fist ]

 

With almost all the Ad Mech forces engaged, only the infiltrator was free to move around the edge of the fight and charge into Dhampir. For the Brotherhood, Koschei and Mikhail continued to stand off, whilst Yegor moved nearer through the ruins.

 

With all the Imperial forces engaged in combat, there was no shooting.

 

Despite the Ad Mech taking the initiative, Dhampir was able to make a decisive strike and hit first. One attack missed the infiltrator, but the other two landed on the rust-stalker, taking his final wound and causing a flesh-wound on him. In reply, the infiltrator missed Dhampir twice with his power sword; the rust-stalker saw Dhampir save his chord claw attack, but the transonic razor cut down Marat, taking him out of action (and leaving the vanguard no targets).

 

Both sides took break checks, and both failed. The scattered cultists all failed the subsequent nerve checks, whereas the closely gathered Ad Mech all passed (all were within range of at least three supporting models).

 

But before the Imperial forces could take advantage of their foes’ paralysis, the dice fell in the Brotherhood’s favour, and the game ended. With a sudden whine, the struggling power units for this section of the hive finally failed, throwing the streets into darkness; the surviving cultists faded back into the shadows, dragging their fallen comrades and Treville’s comatose form…

 

Ad Mech: 3 VP, 4 OoA, 1 flesh wound

Brotherhood: 4 VP, 5 OoA, 2 flesh wounds

 

 

Conclusion 

 

Dice are funny things. In the last game, the infiltrator and rust-stalker went through anything they touched like hot knives through butter. The rust-stalker didn’t do badly here, taking Vitaly out of action in turn three, wounding Marat in four and taking him out of action in five, but by then Marat had already done his job, cutting down the Alpha and securing a decisive three VPs. And the infiltrator had a terrible game – failing to wound in turn three, stranded in turn four, and failing to even hit in five.

 

I’m going to claim some credit here. Having badly underestimated the sicarians last time, I was careful to use my neophytes (Timur and Vitaly) to shield the more useful acolytes from being charged by the opposing combat specialists. When they went in on Treville in turn three, the neophytes were positioned in such a way that both the rust-stalker and the infiltrator would have to go right round the outside of the fight to reach Marat. Instead, they chose to try going through the neophytes, which bought time for Marat to do his thing.

 

Having more specialised fighters in my team was fun. It felt as if everyone was contributing something (even if as a bodyguard for someone else). Even Ilia, who fell to the evil of the electromancer without doing much, still tied up two vanguard in combat and prevented them from moving to shoot at my metamorphs for a turn, which then allowed Dhampir to get close enough to charge in the following turn.

 

I’m unsure about Yegor in this configuration – he did take Athos out of action, but that was the only time he fired all game, having spent most of the time either hiding, or having no targets due to combat. His points might have been better spent on another metamorph or a genestealer (once either of those are painted up). Then again, had the Ad Mech decided to come after me more aggressively, covering fire across the open ground would have been much more valuable.  

 

 

Campaign

 

On the campaign front, things have moved forward with several warriors on both sides leveling up. On the Ad Mech side, one of the vanguard took Alexei out of action, giving that fire team two points and gaining them the skilled advance (the shooting version). Athos, Porthos and the rust-stalker all made use of their tactics and all leveled up too. On the casualty front, Athos’ encounter with the business end of the seismic cannon has left him needing time to convalesce, and Alpha Treville turned out to be dead (although given that he wasn’t really killed, just taken prisoner, he’ll likely reappear (minus experience points) at some point in the nearish future).

 

The Red Brotherhood had mixed results. Koschei’s cunning reluctance to engage in combat meant just a point for him, and no advance; and Dhampir’s lack of a kill team meant that he scored a single point for his kill but no more. The neophytes turned up, which gained them the single point they needed for an advance, and they gained die hard, which might prove useful.

 

Of the specialists, Yegor and Mikhail both moved to level two: Yegor gained suppressor (which doesn’t even require him to successfully hit, helpfully), and Mikhail became a fully-fledged pyromaniac – he now hits automatically, and against the Ad Mech will usually wound on twos and reroll ones. Ouch.

 

Unfortunately, Marat and Vitaly both died (which makes sense – they finished the battle out of action in the middle of the entire surviving Ad Mech force, so getting them out would have been almost impossible). Luckily, the Brotherhood know a good biophagus who’s already working on Nicolai, so once the dust settles and neophytes are sent in to recover the bodies, they’ll be back.

[Rogue]

Treville, the Alpha master-minding the Ad Mech kill-team, has been captured by the Red Brotherhood. A rescue force, led by Princeps de Winter, is hunting down the cultists, and has stumbled across a cluster of access points to the hive’s data-net. This is their opportunity to track the Brotherhood and uncover Treville’s location.

 

Pre-Game

 

Ad Mech

Princeps de Winter, rust-stalker: chord claw, transonic blades (leader)

Rochefort, rust-stalker: chord claw, transonic razor (combat 2 – deadly counter)

Richelieu, rust-stalker: transonic blades (zealot)

Brisemont, infiltrator: stub carbine, power sword

Porthos, vanguard: plasma caliver (heavy 2 – suppressor)

D’Artagnan, ranger: galvanic rifle, omnispex

Planchet, vanguard: radium carbine

 

 

The Red Brotherhood

Koschei, metamorph leader: bonesword, hand flamer (leader)

Dhampir, metamorph: hand flamer, cult icon

Marat, acolyte: heavy rock cutter (combat)

Daniil, acolyte: heavy rock saw

Mikhail, neophyte: flamer (demolitions 2 - pyromaniac)

Vitaly, neophyte: shotgun

Timur, neophyte: shotgun

The Maw, genestealer: acid maw, toxin

The Terror, genestealer: flesh hooks, toxin

 

 

As the campaign progresses, both Rochefort and Porthos have advanced to level two for the Ad Mech; Mikhail and Yegor have followed suit for the Brotherhood, although Yegor isn’t in the team for this one. De Winter has stepped in to lead the imperial forces in Treville’s absence, bringing with him Richelieu the zealot (as Athos the sniper is currently convalescing). And the cultists have been reinforced by a pair of genestealers.

 

Following the narrative, this is the Musketeers’ attempt to recover intelligence and locate the captured Treville. Points are scored at the end of each battle turn – 3 for the central objective, 1 for the two nearest, and 2 for the two further away.

 

This section of the hive has only recently been fought over, and many of the buildings are still smoldering – the smoke in the air meant that all shooting would be at a -1 penalty to hit.

 

 

Deployment

 

The Brotherhood, on home turf, had the advantage, and deployed around the high ground to the south of the map. On the left, both genestealers deployed into the ruined building, one on each floor, with Timur alongside. The rest of the team deployed on the right, in the shelter of the container, intending to move into the derelict manufactorum and take cover there.

 

 

 

Opposite them, de Winter elected for the straight-forward approach, preparing to lead his rust-stalkers directly onto the primary objective. The Ad Mech flanks were covered by Porthos (plasma caliver) and d’Artagnan (omnispex) on one side, and Brisemont (inflitrator) and Planchet (vanguard) on the other.

 

 

Initial deployment

 

The cultists had laid traps around the ruined wall closest to objective 1, in the centre of the board (not that the Ad Mech knew this yet).

 

And in the ambush phase, Marat and Dhampir both moved forward towards the statue, hoping to disappear into cover again before the shooting started.

 

 

Dhampir and Marat move up past objective 5 as the cult springs an ambush

 

 

Turn one – GSC initiative [ benediction of the omnissiah ]

 

Lacking much in the way of ranged firepower, the Brotherhood needed to close on the imperial interlopers. On the flanks, Timur and Vitaly moved to cover objectives 2 and 5, freeing the rest of the team to advance.

 

 

Dhampir and Marat, within charge range due to their ambush move, elected against a potentially suicidal rush, and ducked into the shelter of the alleyway between the manufactorum buildings. Behind them, Daniil and Mikhail moved up to the statue, and Koschei took position a little further back – all three were threatening objective 1, although not yet in range of it.

 

 

On the left, the Terror advanced into the shelter of the basilica, and the Maw, less fleet-footed than his brother, dropped from the roof of the ruin to find cover behind the barrels in the courtyard.

 

 

 

 

The rust-stalkers faced the same problem that the cultists had – charges were possible, but long. Instead, de Winter led Rochefort and Richelieu up to the other side of the statue, almost on top of the cult forces – de Winter positioning himself to claim objective 1 at the same time. On the Ad Mech left, Brisemont and Planchet both took objective 4, and prepared to fire down the street at the advancing cultists. 

 

 

On the Ad Mech right, d’Artagnan moved into the cover of the wall nearest to objective 3, claiming it, whilst Porthos scrambled forward to the next line of cover. In his haste, he triggered the cult’s booby trap, but was uninjured by the blasting charge concealed in the rubble. 

 

 

Turn one movement - Timur and Vitaly are both concealed in the ruins adjacent to their respective objectives

 

Mikhail, perhaps sensing that he was about to become a target, fired his flamer into the Ad Mech on objective 4. He caused four wounds, but three were saved – Brisemont was reduced to a single wound remaining. In return, the infiltrator fired his stub carbine through the smoke, taking the cult’s demolitions specialist out of action. Koschei fired his flamer at Princeps de Winter, but his armour held firm. Planchet’s shots at Koschei were saved too, before Porthos and d’Artagnan fired plasma and galvanic rifle at the Maw, but between the barrels, the smoke, and the genestealer’s incredible reflexes, everything missed or was saved.

 

At the end of the turn, both teams held their home objectives (for two points), but the Ad Mech also controlled the centre, scoring another three points.

 

End of turn one

 

Ad Mech: 5 VP, 0 OoA

Brotherhood: 2 VP, 1 OoA

 

 

Turn two – Ad Mech initiative [ litanies of the electromancer ]

 

With the teams well within charge range, initiative would be critical, and it fell to the Ad Mech. In short order, de Winter charged into both Koschei and Daniil, ready to take on both bonesword and rock saw. Following his example, Rochefort went in against Daniil too, but Richelieu found himself too far back to charge the Maw with his transonic blades and ended up stuck in place. The last of the sicarians, Brisemont the infiltrator, successfully charged around the corner into Dhampir and Marat – Dhampir’s reflexes allowed him to overwatch his hand flamer, but Brisemont shrugged it off. D’Artagnan and Planchet readied themselves on their objectives, and Porthos advanced forward to take control of objective 1 (once again avoiding damage from the booby-trapped wall).

 

With the cult’s right flank locked up in combat, and Timur and Vitaly unwilling to leave their objectives, only the genestealers were left to move. The Terror reappeared from inside the basilica, charging into d’Artagnan, whilst the Maw counter-charged both rust-stalkers by the statue (Princeps de Winter and Rochefort), aiming to neutralize them before they could cut down the Brotherhood’s centre.

 

 

 

Turn two movement

 

With the entire Botherhood either engaged in combat or hiding, there was nothing for anyone to shoot at.

 

Close-combat, however, was to prove more interesting. As is their habit, the Ad Mech had begun chanting the litanies of the electromancer as soon as it became clear that combat would be joined this turn. But even with six cultists engaged, none fell to the crackling energies. Aware that the charging sicarians would have the advantage of striking first, Koschei attempted to swing the initiative with a decisive strike; de Winter countered with a strike of his own, but this time, Koschei came out on top – the metamorph leader slashed at the Princeps with his bonesword, causing a single wound, before utilizing his lead by example tactic to have the Maw strike next. The genestealer plunged his rending claws into de Winter’s back, and with toxin sacs making the wound count for two damage, the Ad Mech leader was taken out of action. Infuriated by this cult trickery, Rochefort swung and missed with his chord claw at the Maw, but cut down Daniil with three transonic razor attacks, and the acolyte was taken out of action.

 

Princeps de Winter and Daniil fall in combat

 

Away from the centre, the Terror reached through the broken wall to eviscerate d’Artagnan, taking the ranger out of action (and claiming objective 3 for the cult). Over by the manufactorum, Brisemont’s power sword cut down the icon-bearer, Dhampir, but missed Marat; a fatal error, as Marat’s rock cutter beheaded Brisemont in return. Both Dhampir and Brisemont went out of action, meaning that five warriors had fallen in a single, brutal phase.

 

Marat consolidates towards Planchet and objective 4

 

With d’Artagnan down, the cult now controlled objectives 2, 5 and 3, scoring four points. The Ad Mech still held objectives 4 and 1, also scoring four points.

 

End of turn two

 

Ad Mech: 9 VP, 3 OoA,

Brotherhood: 6 VP, 3 OoA

 

 

Turn three – GSC initiative [ machine might ]

 

Having taken the brunt of the Ad Mech assault in the previous turn, the Brotherhood struck back. The Terror abandoned objective 3 and charged into Richelieu (still stranded from last turn’s failed charge), and Marat charged into Planchet at objective 4, taking a flesh wound from overwatch. Finally, Koschei charged into Rochefort (who was already engaged with the Maw). Timur and Vitally remained out of sight, holding objectives 2 and 5.

 

 

Only Porthos remained free to move for the Ad Mech, but the vanguard specialist held position on objective 1, unwilling to sacrifice his firepower advantage in close-combat.

 

Turn three movement

 

With no clear shots, there was no shooting phase.

 

In combat, and with the Ad Mech almost out of command points, all the Brotherhood fighters would strike first. The Terror, surprisingly, failed to wound Richelieu; Marat hacked down Planchet with his rock cutter, taking him out of action and claiming objective 4. Koschei put a single wound on Rochefort, before the rust-stalker made two bionic saves against the Maw. The vanguard had fallen, but both rust-stalkers were about to fight back.

 

Marat cuts down Planchet...

 

... but Koschei is less successful, and pays the price

 

Rochefort grabbed at the Maw with his chord claw, but the genestealer dodged away and saved. Koschei was less fortunate, cut down by the transonic razor and taken out of action. Richelieu, having parried the Terror’s attacks, swung back with his transonic blades and inflicted a flesh wound.  

 

 

With four Ad Mech out of action, they took and failed a break test – with a leadership of only 6, and spread out as they were, all three of the remaining team failed their nerve checks and became shaken.

 

On the cult side, they also took a break test, but with genestealers still in play, they passed. However, both the Terror and Marat were flesh wounded, and both failed their nerve checks too (the genestealer rolling a 6, and rerolling another 6). In the centre of the field, only the Maw would be able to act next turn.

 

 

With Planchet down and Porthos shaken, the Ad Mech no longer held any objectives. But with Marat shaken too, the cult could only claim objectives 2 and 5, closing the gap but leaving them behind by a point.

 

End of turn three

 

Ad Mech: 9 VP, 4 OoA,

Brotherhood: 8 VP, 4 OoA, 2 flesh wound

 

 

Turn four – GSC initiative [ iron soul ]

 

Vitaly and Timur had no intention of leaving their objectives, so with the Maw already in combat and everyone else shaken, there was no movement and no shooting.

 

In combat, the Maw overwhelmed the frozen Rochefort, taking the rust-stalker out of action, and consolidating into Porthos (who was unable to strike back).

 

The Brotherhood made another break test and passed. This time, the Terror passed his nerve check, as did Marat (with the help of a reroll). The Ad Mech, already broken, and nerve checking against leadership 6 with a +5 modifier, saw both Richelieu and Porthos pass on 1s first time, and didn’t even need to use the iron soul reroll. The Ad Mech were back in the fight.

 

The cultists now held objectives 2, 5 and 4 (thanks to Marat’s regained nerve), scoring 4 points. The Ad Mech held none, but were contesting objective 1.

 

Ad Mech: 9 VP, 5 OoA,

Brotherhood: 12 VP, 4 OoA, 2 flesh wounds

 

 

Turn five – GSC initiative [ chant of the remorseless fist ]

 

With both genestealers engaged, and the neophytes still hiding, only Marat was free to move, and he charged past the statue into Porthos. Both imperial warriors remained in combat, determined to fight till the bitter end.

 

 

Turn five movement

 

With everyone engaged in combat (or behind walls), there was no shooting.

 

Marat, now hitting on fives due to his flesh wound, completely missed Porthos. The Terror landed several hits on Richelieu but saw all of them saved. Porthos struck back at Marat (fancying that he had better chances of felling the acolyte) but missed his attack. That momentary shift of attention was enough for the Maw to see an opening, and the genestealer struck, taking the vanguard out of action (and consolidating towards the other fight). In response, the last Ad Mech standing, Richelieu, drove his blades into the Terror, taking him out of action too. He consolidated towards objective 1, but the way was blocked by the Maw, and the rust-stalker was unable to get near enough.

 

 

With six Ad Mech out of action, Richelieu had no chance of passing his nerve check, and became shaken. Marat could have passed, but didn’t, leaving the Maw in control of objective 1. With the neophytes still holding objectives 2 and 5, the cult scored 5 more points this turn.

 

And at this point, the battle came to an end.

 

End of turn five, and end of the game

 

Ad Mech: 9 VP, 6 OoA

Brotherhood: 17 VP, 5 OoA, 2 flesh wounds

 

 

Conclusion 

 

That was carnage – the ground around the statue must have been slick with blood, oil and acidic ichor. Leaving the neophytes out of it, that was pretty much a seven-a-side brawl from turn two, and by the end of turn five we had 11 out of action, with two of the three survivors shaken to boot. Ouch.

 

Turn two felt like the critical one, with the advantage going one way and then the other – when the Ad Mech took the initiative, I was in trouble – with the rust-stalkers and infiltrator charging in, I was taking a lot of nasty hits with little chance to respond, and I thought I was going to lose my leader, both combat acolytes and maybe even my icon bearer in a single turn.

 

Instead, we ended up playing decisive strike roulette (not for the first time) – I spend the points to have at least one guy fight first; my wife counters with the same tactic; and it feels like the fate of the game hangs on a single roll-off. This time, I won, meaning that Koschei could strike first, and then use his tactic to have the Maw jump the queue too. If I’d had the point available, I could even have triggered Marat’s combat specialist tactic to have him fight out of order too (which might have kept Dhampir in the game). That’s a lot riding on a single roll. This time it fell for me; next time it might not.

 

Mikhail was interesting. Now he’s level two, he feels seriously powerful – his flamer hits automatically, wounds Ad Mech on 2s (naturally 3s, but dropping to 2s against anyone in cover due to breacher, or against anyone in the open with the custom ammo tactic), rerolling 1s to wound thanks to pyromaniac. Auto-hits, all but auto-wounds. Only to see it all shrugged off by the Ad Mech armour save of 4+, and then Mikhail gunned down as a priority target (my wife really doesn’t like him at all). He’s a massive threat, but also a massive bullet magnet, which doesn’t combine well with an 8” range and a 5+ save. It feels like he’s best used as a threat, rather than as an actual weapon – area denial rather than trying to kill someone and getting shot for his troubles.

 

And on the subject of threats, the rust-stalkers are intimidating. They’re fast, tough to kill with their two wounds, and really dangerous in combat. My wife’s set-up, with a Princeps, combat specialist and a zealot, means that all three have four attacks on the charge, can all cause mortal wounds, and all outclass anything I can field. Just having them set up in the middle left me feeling that I couldn’t make a direct go for objective 1, so they give battlefield control even from deployment.    

 

Campaign

 

It was a slow game for campaign purposes. For the Ad Mech, Princeps de Winter came in as a new leader, but was taken out of action and then died. He’ll be back, but without the leader specialism (so that he can fight alongside Treville at some point). With Athos convalescing, Richelieu came in as a zealot specialist, and gained two experience points – he should go to level two next time out, enhancing the rust-stalker threat.

 

The Red Brotherhood saw Daniil (rock saw) put into convalescence, and the Terror killed, but there are plenty more genestealers where he came from. Vitaly returned from his own (temporary) death as a new recruit alongside Timur. Mikhail gained one experience point to move to five in total – he’s potentially one game away from going to level three (although what I really want is level four and the siegemaster ability).

 

And Koschei’s use of his tactic moved him up to level two, gaining the bold skill. I’m not too enthusiastic about either level two skill, but paragon looks useful as a mini-icon aura, so I’m heading that way.  

 

Although the Ad Mech lost the game, they did recover intelligence from three of the data-nodes, and held (or contested) the key node right up till turn five. They didn’t manage to get as much data as they wanted, and what they have is incomplete, but they do now know where Treville is being held, and a cutting-out operation is about to be launched.

 

[Orpheus108]

@Rogue, always enjoy reading your battle reports, very in depth

[Rogue]

Thanks Orpheus - I'm glad you're enjoying them. Here's the next one...

 

As a birthday surprise, my wife wrote her own mission, complete with birthday present objective markers and a custom tactic. She set the whole thing up while I was out, and surprised me with it when I got home. It’s not part of our ongoing campaign, but I’m going to write it up anyway, just because.

 

Pre-Game

 

Ad Mech

Alpha Treville, vanguard: arc pistol, power sword (leader)

Princeps de Winter, rust-stalker: chord claw, transonic blades

Rochefort, rust-stalker: chord claw, transonic razor (combat)

Richelieu, rust-stalker: transonic blades (zealot)

Brisemont, infiltrator: stub carbine, power sword

Bernajoux, infiltrator: flechette blaster, taser goad

Wardes, ranger: galvanic rifle (sniper)

Essarts, ranger: galvanic rifle

 

The Red Brotherhood

Ilia, neophyte: bolt pistol, power pick (leader)

Sergei, neophyte: shotgun, cult icon

Yegor, neophyte: seismic cannon

Dimitri, neophyte: mining laser

Mikhail, neophyte: flamer (demolitions)

Vitaly, neophyte: shotgun

Timur, neophyte: shotgun

Yakov, neophyte: autogun

Nicolai, neophyte: autogun

Marat, acolyte: heavy rock cutter (combat)

Daniil, acolyte: heavy rock saw

The Maw, genestealer: acid maw, toxin (zealot)

 

In this mission, the Red Brotherhood need to collect up as many of the presents scattered across the battlefield as they can – to collect a present, they need to have more wounds within 2” of it than the Ad Mech. Each present is worth d3 points, and if the Brotherhood reach 8 points (or collect all five gifts) they win.

 

All the campaign advances are being ignored for this game, so everyone is back to level one with no experience.

 

 

Deployment

 

The Ad Mech forces were unable to deploy within 6” of any of the gifts, and so positioned themselves in two groups to the north and south of the map. The northern group consisted of the rust-stalker Rochefort (chord claw), infiltrator Brisemont (power sword) and Wardes, the sniper specialist ranger. To the south, Treville led a larger force, with rust-stalker Princeps de Winter, rust-stalker Richelieu (blades), infiltrator Bernajoux (taser goad) and another ranger, Essarts.

 

 

The Red Brotherhood elected to concentrate to the east (although in two groups), hoping to claim objectives by weight of numbers. The assault specialists gathered in the north-east corner – the Maw and Marat (rock cutter), supported by Sergei’s icon, and the shotguns of Vitaly and Timur. The second group formed up near to the statue, with Ilia leading Mikhail (flamer), Daniil (rock saw) and the autoguns of Yakov and Nicolai. Between the two groups, Yegor and Dimitri took cover with their heavy weapons.

 

 

 

Initial deployment

 

In the scout phase, the cultists booby-trapped the imperial statue, whilst the Ad Mech sicarians to the north both moved closer to the cultists. In response, the Brotherhood’s ambush moves allowed Vitaly and Timur to move and contain the oncoming rust-stalker, and Yakov moved across to prevent a charge into the heavy weapons.

 

​Scouting phase maneuvering around one of the objectives...

 

... as the Red Brotherhood prepares to advance

 

 

Turn one – GSC initiative [ electromancer ]

 

With the Ad Mech forces close by, the Brotherhood made use of the canticle cutdown tactic to negate the effects of the electromancer canticle for that turn. With the threat of mortal wounds removed, the cultists to the north charged forward. The Maw engaged Brisemont, whilst Marat and the two shotgun-wielding neophytes took on Rochefort. Sergei chose not to charge in but positioned himself near enough that the cult icon would affect both fights.

 

The other group were a little too far from the next objective to take it this turn, so Yakov and Nicolai moved forward to cover it with autoguns, with Mikhail moving up behind them. Daniil, out of charge range with his rock saw, elected to remain in place, concealed from imperial firepower, as did Ilia, whilst Yegor and Dimitri readied their heavy weapons in case the Ad Mech forces tried to take control of the central objective.

 

To the north, the ranger sniper Wardes scaled the nearby ruin to gain better sight lines.

 

Across the plaza, the other ranger and Treville both moved to target the cult positions, whilst the unengaged sicarians moved out of the basilica towards the objectives – de Winter and Richelieu near the centre, and Bernajoux to the south-east.

 

 

 

Turn one movement

 

The readied cultists fired first, but Ilia and Dimitri missed their shots at princeps de Winter, even with a reroll for the mining laser. Yegor also missed, his seismic cannon going wide of Bernajoux. As the teams began to fire at will, they exchanged a series of failed wounds and armour saves, until the final shot of the phase saw Treville take out the Brotherhood’s leader, Ilia, with an arc pistol shot to the head.

 

In the combat phase, Marat employed the rock cutter with deadly skill, and took Rochefort (the Ad Mech combat specialist) out of action. The Maw looked likely to do the same to Brisemont, rolling a 6 to wound and activating his toxin sacs, but the infiltrator’s bionic save deflected the damage; Brisemont was unable to wound the genestealer in return.

 

 

There were no morale checks to make at this stage. With Rochefort out of action, and Brisemont too far back, the cult took control of the north-east objective, which turned out to be worth 3 points.

 

End of turn one

 

Ad Mech: 0 VP, 1/8 OoA

Brotherhood: 3 VP, 1/12 OoA

 

 

Turn two – GSC initiative [ machine might ]

 

Retaining the initiative gave the cultists the opportunity to push for more objectives. To the north, Vitaly and Timur moved past the combat between genestealer and infiltrator, advancing toward the north-west objective. Marat, fresh from felling Rochefort, charged into Brisemont; Sergei followed suit, aware that he was a potential target for the sniper otherwise.

 

 

Further south, Daniil and Nicolai charged into Bernajoux – if they could finish him off, they’d take control of a second objective. Yakov moved forward to the ammo crates, effectively blocking any lines of advance for the other two sicarians (although probably not for more than this turn). Behind him, Mikhail moved into the shelter of the statue, flamer at the ready, and Yegor moved forward to find new targets for his seismic cannon.

 

Keen to defend the threatened objective, Treville dropped to the roadway and charged into Nicolai.

 

 

De Winter and Richelieu, cut off from the rest of the battle by Yakov’s sacrificial gambit, charged into the brave neophyte – de Winter took a wound from Yakov’s overwatch, and then tripped the booby-traps around the statue, but avoided any further damage.

 

 

On the rooftops, Essarts moved across to target Timur, whilst Wardes readied to take full advantage of his sniper skills.

 

Turn two movement

 

Seeing the danger, Dimitri fired up at Wardes, but missed again. The ranger was not so careless, and a well-placed round took the mining laser neophyte out of action. The only other shot was Essart, firing through a broken window at Timur, but the shot failed to wound.

 

In combat, Nicolai swung at Treville, hoping to wound the alpha before he could strike, but the blow glanced off. De Winter made short work of Yakov and consolidated into Daniil. Daniil swung at both Bernajoux and de Winter, knowing that a single wounding hit on either would almost certainly take them out of action – he missed the infiltrator, but wounded de Winter, only to see the saw deflected by the princeps’ bionics. Treville failed to hurt Nicolai, but Bernajoux’s taser goad made short work of Daniil, taking him out of action.

 

 

In the other fight, Marat missed all three attacks, and missed a reroll too. To compound matters, the Maw also failed to cause a single wound, and Sergei missed the infiltrator completely. Brisemont had survived, and rubbed salt into the wounds by cutting down Marat with his power sword. The tide of the battle had turned.

 

 

All five cult casualties had been taken out of action, so there were no nerve tests to make, and with only Nicolai facing off against Treville, Bernajoux and de Winter, the Brotherhood hadn’t claimed any objectives this turn.

 

End of turn two

 

Ad Mech: 0 VP, 1/8 OoA,

Brotherhood: 3 VP, 5/12 OoA

 

 

Turn three – Ad Mech initiative [ remorseless fist ]

 

With most of the cult threat neutralized (both acolytes out of action, and the genestealer tied up in combat), the Ad Mech moved in against the neophytes. De Winter charged into Yegor.

 

 

Richelieu tried to do the same against Mikhail, but his charge fell short – the rust-stalker took a wound from the flamer for his efforts. In the north-west corner, Wardes left the rooftop to charge into Vitaly before the cultist could reach the objective – Vitaly retreated, but the charge was still successful. Treville and Bernajoux stayed in combat with Nicolai.

 

Only Timur remained free to move for the cultists, and charged into Wardes to help Vitaly.

 

Turn three movement

 

With several ongoing combats, pistols suddenly came to the fore. Despite the Ad Mech stub carbine and flechette blaster, it was only Sergei’s autopistol that caused any damage, putting a single wound on Brisemont. And with all the Brotherhood engaged, there was no other shooting.

 

The combat phase began with princeps de Winter cutting down Yegor,and his seismic cannon before Brisemont finished off the Maw and flesh-wounded Sergei. The other combats were less decisive: Timur and Wardes missed their attacks, and although Vitaly landed his, it was saved; further south, Nicolai, Treville and Bernajoux all missed each other across the objective.

 

 

With more than half of the team out of action, the Brotherhood took and failed a break test. Which meant that all of the team still in play were taking nerve tests with a base +7. Only Timur and Vitaly could possibly have passed (as they were stood next to each other), but once Timur failed, there was no way back for the rest. The whole Brotherhood became shaken, and we decided to end the game there.

 

Ad Mech: 0 VP, 1/8 OoA,

Brotherhood: 3 VP, 7/12 OoA, 1 flesh wound

 

 

Conclusion 

 

That didn’t quite go to plan. Early on, I thought I had things pretty much under control – I’d made good use of the initiative to seize the first objective and make a strong play for the second; the scary combat specialist rust-stalker was out of action; and only my leader was out of action in return (and he rarely contributes much beyond CPs anyway). The only fly in the ointment was the bionic save that kept the infiltrator alive against my toxined-up genestealer. Still, Marat will make short work of him, I thought.

 

And then the turn two combat phase happened. The rock cutter missed completely, the genestealer failed to land any wounds, and just as I thought the rock saw might at least take down the princeps as a consolation, another bionic save turns up. Oh, and the rock cutter went out of action too (which was less of a surprise - strength 4 power swords aren't healthy for cultists).

 

The acolytes are great, but they’re very fragile. As soon as they’re not hitting first, or if something survives long enough to hit back, they’re in serious trouble (not least because the things I tend to throw them at, high value targets where the two-damage side of the weapons comes into play; those things hit back hard). That said, Nicolai survived two turns against Treville’s power sword, and one against Bernjoux’s taser goad (they just couldn’t land a hit), so sometimes it works out.

 

I think the plan was okay: clump up, swarm objectives, take them through weight of numbers, move on. Had the genestealer nailed Brisemont in turn one (as he was a bionic save away from doing), then that group (rock cutter, genestealer, two neophytes and an icon bearer) only had one ranger between them and a second objective, and could have then turned as a unified force against the remnants of the Ad Mech forces. Likewise if either Marat or the stealer had managed it in turn two. I also considered splitting into four groups, trying to hit all the objectives at once – the target saturation approach, I guess – but I thought it would leave me open to having all four groups charged by sicarians, and potentially losing a lot of bodies very quickly.

 

On the other hand, the Ad Mech plan was good too - start in a position to cover all of the objectives with a sicarian, and then converge as quickly as possible once the cultists were in play. Once I'd failed to break through at the top, the Ad Mech at the bottom were able to cut down half my force before the rest could arrive. It was a well-executed divide and conquer.

 

In the end, though, it wasn’t a complete loss. Although the Brotherhood had failed in their present-gathering efforts, my wife (who felt a bit bad for beating me on my birthday) decided that she’d give a present anyway, leaving me an excited owner of the new Genestealer Cults codex. Happy birthday indeed.   

 

[Rogue]

The Ultramarines are back. My marine-playing friend was over again, determined to up his game with the Emperor’s finest (and to try out tactics for the first time, after we introduced specialists last time out when they played the Ad Mech). It’s hordes versus elites, part two.

 

Pre-Game

 

Ultramarines

Sergeant Titus, reiver: bolt carbine, combat knife (leader)

Gaius, reiver: bolt carbine, combat knife

Cassius, reiver: bolt carbine, combat knife

Sergeant Marius, intercessor: bolt rifle (scout)

Cato, intercessor: bolt rifle (combat)

Agnathio, intercessor: bolt rifle (sniper)

 

The Red Brotherhood

Koschei, metamorph: bonesword, hand flamer (leader)

Ilia, neophyte: bolt pistol, power pick

Mikhail, neophyte: flamer (demolitions)

Vitaly, neophyte: shotgun

Timur, neophyte: shotgun

Yakov, neophyte: autogun

Nicolai, neophyte: autogun

Marat, acolyte: heavy rock cutter (combat)

Daniil, acolyte: heavy rock saw

The Maw, genestealer: acid maw, toxin (zealot)

The Terror, genestealer: flesh hooks, toxin

 

We were playing recover intelligence – 3 points for the central objective, 1 for the nearer ones, 2 for the furthest ones. The Ultramarines had dropped Titus’ small force into the hive near an abandoned manufactorum that appeared to be generating a surprising amount of data-chatter. Suspecting the location to be a command hub for the cult uprising within the Kursk hive, the marines approached with caution, ready for the inevitable ambush…

 

 

Deployment

 

In the scouting phase, both teams elected to take up forward positions, but the Red Brotherhood won the roll-off.

 

Both teams deployed within in a wedge at the centre of their baseline. The marines fanned out into a semi-circle, with intercessors Agnathio and Cato on the right, reivers Gaius and Cassius in the centre against the wall of the manufactorum, and both sergeants on the left, covering the roadway.

 

The Ultramarines - intercessor sergeant Marius is hidden behind the pillar

 

The Brotherhood took an aggressive position, with the shotgun neophytes on point, backed up by both genestealers, both acolytes and Koschei, the metamorph leader. On the flanks, Ilia and Yakov took the left, near objective 3, whilst Mikhail and Nicolai took the right, near objective 2.

 

Initial deployment - the dice around the cultists mark the ambushers; the reivers are up against the manufactorum, hidden by perspective (you can see a bolt carbine near the intercessors)

 

Before the Ultramarines could do anything, the cultists burst forward – five of them triggered ambush moves, and with three more taking forward positions, most of the Brotherhood moved forward. They finished the move with Ilia and Yakov holding objective 3, Mikhail holding objective 2, and Timur, Vitaly and Marat holding the central objective 1, with both genestealers already halfway to the imperial lines. The ambush had gone off in a big way, and the marines were on the back foot before the start of turn one.

 

The cult spring forward, taking possession of three objectives

 

Ilia and Yakov guard objective 3

 

Marat and two neophytes push forward to objective 1

 

Maw and Terror head directly for the marine positions

 

 

Turn one – Ultramarine initiative 

 

Unfazed by the oncoming threat, the marines moved to secure their positions. On the right, Cato planted himself firmly on objective 4, whilst his sniper brother, Agnathio, took position by one of the shattered manufactorum windows – both had clear lines of sight to the neophytes and acolytes advancing through the ruined building. On the roadway, both reivers moved to their left. Gaius headed directly towards the genestealers, allowing Cassius to move across the road to the foot of the basilica – he couldn’t climb up to objective 5 this turn, but was on the way. Behind them, the two sergeants, Titus and Marius, readied themselves.

 

On the Brotherhood’s left, Yakov and Ilia readied themselves too – they had control of objective 3 and felt no need to get any closer to the intercessors’ guns. On the right, Mikhail advanced onto the roof of the basilica, and Nicolai took his place below, taking possession of objective 2. Both neophytes were able to position themselves out of sight of the marine forces.

 

In the centre, both genestealers charged. The Terror went in against Cassius by the basilica, taking a flesh-wound from overwatch on the way; the Maw barreled into Gaius unharmed.

 

 

In the manufactorum, Vitaly and Timur moved forward a little as Daniil brought up his rock saw directly onto objective 1 – all three were within 2”. Marat advanced onto the first floor with his rock cutter, using the broken flooring to conceal him from the marines below. Finally, Koschei moved forward into the shelter of the manufactorum wall, saving himself as a potential second wave.

 

 

Turn one movement

 

The shooting phase proved largely ineffective. The marine sergeants had been left without targets as the cultists clung to the shadows; the reivers were both in combat. Agnathio’s sniper expertise helped him to land a flesh-wound on Daniil, but Cato was unable to harm either of the shotgun-armed neophytes. The smattering of long-range autogun, shotgun and auto-pistol fire that the intercessors took in return failed to even force an armour save.

 

 

The combat phase was little better. Neither genestealer was able to cause a wound – the Maw came close, but a potential two-damage strike was saved on a 6. The reivers were clearly putting most of their efforts into defending themselves; Cassius was unable to wound the Terror, but Gaius did manage to flesh-wound the Maw. Both genestealers were now wounded but remained active.

 

With their high leadership, the genestealers automatically passed their nerve tests.

 

At the end of the first turn, the Ultramarine controlled objective 4, scoring 1 point. The Red Brotherhood, aided by their rapid advance, controlled objectives 1, 2 and 3, scoring 5 points.

 

End of turn one

 

Ultramarines: 1 VP, 0/6 OoA

Brotherhood: 5 VP, 0/11 OoA

 

 

Turn two – Ultramarine initiative 

 

With his reivers engaged in combat, and with no targets for his bolt carbine, sergeant Titus moved forward to the basilica, preparing to scale the wall to take objective 5 next turn. Sergeant Marius charged into the fight against the genestealers, and on the right flank, Cato (the combat specialist) charged into both Vitaly and Timur, taking no damage from their shotguns. Agnathio readied himself again, covering the approaches through the manufactorum.

 

On the cult left, Ilia left Yakov holding the objective, and advanced along the side of the manufactorum towards Agnathio’s position (although remaining out of sight). At the same time, Marat dropped back down to ground level, charging into the sniper specialist with his rock cutter. In the manufactorum, Daniil charged into Cato to support Vitaly and Timur; behind them, Koschei moved forward to protect objective 1.

 

 

On the right flank, Nicolai remained in control of objective 2, and Mikhail moved along the roof to claim objective 5. The genestealers remained in combat.

 

Turn two movement

 

With five of the marines engaged, and sergeant Titus out of sight by the basilica, there was no shooting this turn.

 

In the combat phase, both Marat and Daniil made short work of the intercessors, their heavy mining gear cleaving through power armour and taking both out of action. On the roadway, the reivers and genestealers continued to swing at each other, but neither side was able to land a critical blow.

 

 

At the end of the turn, the injured cultists passed their nerves tests.

 

By this point, things weren’t looking good for the Emperor’s finest. With the fall of Agnathio, the Brotherhood now held all five objectives, for a total of nine points this turn, and taking their total to 14. With only four marines left, with cultists bearing down on them from every side, and with no realistic prospect of making up a 13-point deficit over the next two turns, we decided to call this one a cult victory.

 

Ultramarines: 1 VP, 2/6 OoA

Brotherhood: 14 VP, 0/11 OoA

 

 

Conclusion 

 

That was a tough mission for the marines (that’s on you, random mission generator table) – with only six models, covering five objectives is almost impossible, and even doing enough to stay in the game is tricky. Add on that spectacular ambush move, with eight of my eleven models either ambushing or taking forward positions, and the marines were under serious pressure before they’d had a chance to do anything.

 

Interesting thing – a genestealer and a reiver are pretty evenly matched in combat. Both have three attacks, both hit on 3s, and they wound each other on 4s. Of course, the stealers have rending claws, and toxin sacs, with the potential to do armour-shredding multi-damage hits; but the reivers get a better save most of the time, and guns. It feels like a bit of a let-down when you discover that your bio-engineered xenos killing machine only hits as hard as a reiver. Perhaps I’m just too rooted in Space Hulk, where you were shocked if a terminator even survived a round of close-combat, let alone killed a stealer up close.

 

It’s difficult to assess this one tactically. After the pregame moves, it felt very much as if it were mine to lose, and once the acolytes got into combat and started eviscerating intercessors and grabbing objectives, there was no way back for the marines. I don’t think they did much wrong here – castling up might have made them more survivable, but would have conceded control of the objectives, and I could have won through board-control alone. A more aggressive advance might have given board control (certainly they could have gone after objective 5, and a gunfight against Mikhail on the roof of the basilica would likely have favoured the marines, leading to an avenue of attack along the roof towards objective 2), but that’s tricky to execute with stealers already in charge range, and the central objective already flooded with bodies and a couple of nasty combat weapons.

 

Still, it was a fun game, lessons were learned on both sides, and the marines are going to get a pretty quick chance at revenge.

 

After our first game finished a bit early, we decided to play another. For speed purposes, I wasn’t taking any photos, so the report is going to be a lot shorter than usual. But I didn’t want to miss it out, so here it is. The teams are unchanged from the last report.

 

Pre-Game

 

Ultramarines

Sergeant Titus, reiver: bolt carbine, combat knife (leader)

Gaius, reiver: bolt carbine, combat knife

Cassius, reiver: bolt carbine, combat knife

Sergeant Marius, intercessor: bolt rifle (scout)

Cato, intercessor: bolt rifle (combat)

Agnathio, intercessor: bolt rifle (sniper)

 

The Red Brotherhood

Koschei, metamorph: bonesword, hand flamer (leader)

Ilia, neophyte: bolt pistol, power pick

Mikhail, neophyte: flamer (demolitions)

Vitaly, neophyte: shotgun

Timur, neophyte: shotgun

Yakov, neophyte: autogun

Nicolai, neophyte: autogun

Marat, acolyte: heavy rock cutter (combat)

Daniil, acolyte: heavy rock saw

The Maw, genestealer: acid maw, toxin (zealot)

The Terror, genestealer: flesh hooks, toxin

 

This time, we went for assassinate. The marines would be the defenders – if the Brotherhood could take reiver sergeant Titus out of action, they’d win. Otherwise, victory would go to the Ultramarines. We played on the same board as the previous game – the marines chose the end with the containers and the statue, meaning that the cultists’ assault would begin from the basilica.

 

 

In the scouting phase, the Brotherhood chose to take up forward positions, and the Ultramarines laid traps (along the wall to the south of the mnufactorum, and amongst the crates to the north).

 

The marines took up firing positions to either side of the manufactorum, with Agnathio the sniper on top of the northernmost container. The cultists spread out in a line along the front of the basilica (as far forward as they could get within their deployment zone) – there was a genestealer on either flank, with the acolytes in the centre and the neophytes filling the gaps. A few cultists moved forward across the roadway, with the genestealers pushing forward on either flank.

 

 

One the left, the Maw charged into a reiver, and was counter-charged by the intercessor sergeant. In a flurry of claws and good rolls, the zealot genestealer scored four hits, four wounds (two on 6s), and took his opponent well and truly out of action. Unfortunately, all the attacks had been directed against the reiver, and the sergeant survived to fight on, taking the genestealer out of action in turn two. On the other flank, the Terror attempted a charge, but was overwatched on the way in, and taken out of action.

 

The rest of the Brotherhood advanced through the ruined manufactorum. Unable to find anywhere out of the line of sight of the marines, they instead opted for a target-saturation approach, hoping to flood the marine lines before too many of them fell to bolter fire.

 

Knowing that their sole objective was to protect sergeant Titus long enough for the evac stormraven to arrive, the marines slowly fell back before the oncoming horde, deliberately targeting the acolytes as they did so. Danill fell in turn one, and Marat in turn two, and by the end of turn two, most of the cult's main threats had been removed. The cultists were doing damage too, through sheer volume of fire – closing the distance meant that everyone was within rapid fire range, and whilst power armour was deflecting most things, wounds were slowly adding up.

 

By turn three, the marines changed tactic – as Titus moved away from the fray into the corner, his men charged into the neophytes, tying them up to prevent them moving after the sergeant. This allowed Koschei to charge into combat too, and his bonesword cut one of the intercessors down. On the right, both shotguns had been charged by the sniper, and in the brawl that followed, Vitaly managed to unload his shotgun at point blank range, taking a wound from the marine.

 

By the end of turn four, four of the marines were wounded (but with two wounds each, completely unaffected combat-wise), but had formed a solid barrier to the cult’s advance. Koschei had cut down his opponent, freeing up Yakov and Nicolai to sweep sideways after Titus, but a combination of booby traps and firepower saw them brought down before they could threaten him.

 

By the time the game ended after turn five, the marines still had most of their force intact (although almost all carrying wounds), but the Brotherhood had lost their key combatants, and a number of neophytes. Most significantly, sergeant Titus was alive (having not been fired at all game), and his team had registered their first victory.   

 

 

Conclusion 

 

Funny how quickly things turn around. This time out, the marines felt much more like an elite force, calmly cutting down the priority threats with bolt rounds until the cultists were on top of their lines, at which point they charged in and locked down the survivors. And all that with only five men, as Titus sensibly hung back to prevent any stray autogun rounds causing an upset.

 

One thing we’ve learned over the games we’ve played is that marines (especially the primaris variety) are hard to kill – toughness 4, two wounds, a 3+ save, and even if you do put a flesh-wound on them (which I managed once in this game, for the first time), they get to ignore it. With that in mind, and knowing that the game could end after four turns, I was keen to get into combat as quickly as I could, rather then spend most of the game sneaking up on the marines – arriving safely in turn four, but without enough time to crack the line and then go after Titus would have been a pointless exercise.

 

They key difference here, I think, was the victory conditions. In the previous game, the marines were trying to spread out, to cover large sections of the board – spread thin, I was able to overwhelm them locally, and small groups of marines couldn’t cover all of the approaches to their various positions. In this game, the marines were defending a single point – they were going nowhere, and could set up to create overlapping fields of fire.

 

By booby-trapping the terrain pieces on either side of the manufactorum, they were also able to funnel the majority of the cultists through the factory ruins – this lined them up nicely for the intercessors’ guns, gave them a longer route through, and, importantly, put them into a section of the board surrounded by line-of-sight blocking terrain (the lowest level of the manufactorum pieces is almost completely solid) – there was no way to even attempt pot-shots at Titus until I’d fought through the manufactorum, past the marines, and then (if I’d got that far), tracked him around the containers.

 

This was the Ultramarines’ first victory, following two loses to the cult and a hard-fought draw against the Ad Mech, and I’m expecting that strike rate to improve as we become increasingly familiar with their strengths and capabilities.  

[Rogue]

And so we’ve arrived at the end of the campaign. After the initial success of Treville’s Musketeers, and his subsequent capture, the Ad Mech forces were able to pull enough from the hive’s data nodes to effect a rescue operation. However, gaps in the imperial forces’ intelligence slowed their approach, and allowed the cultists to muster their own strength in an attempt to close the gap and prevent Treville’s escape.

 

Pre-Game

 

Ad Mech

Alpha Treville, vanguard: arc pistol, power sword (leader)

Rochefort, rust-stalker: chord claw, transonic razor (combat, level 2)

Richelieu, rust-stalker: transonic blades (zealot)

Bernajoux, infiltrator: flechette blaster, taser goad

D’Artagnan, ranger: galvanic rifle, omnispex

Porthos, vanguard: plasma caliver (heavy, level 2)

Aramis, vanguard: transuranic arquebus

Planchet, vanguard: radium carbine

Grimaud, vanguard: radium carbine

 

 

The Red Brotherhood

Koschei, metamorph: bonesword, hand flamer (leader, level 2)

Sergei, neophyte: shotgun, cult icon

Yegor, neophyte: seismic cannon (heavy, level 2)

Mikhail, neophyte: flamer (demolitions, level 2)

Vitaly, neophyte: shotgun

Timur, neophyte: shotgun

Nicolai, neophyte: autogun

Marat, acolyte: heavy rock cutter (combat)

Maw, genestealer: acid maw, toxin

Terror, genestealer: flesh hooks, toxin

 

 

In this terror tactics mission, both teams are trying to either take the other side out of action, or break through their lines (the Ad Mech in order to escape; the Brotherhood to drive them back and regain the ground). A model taken out of action is worth 1VP; a model moving off the far side of the board is worth 2VP.

 

 

Deployment

 

The Ad Mech team had freed Treville from the heart of the Brotherhood’s industrial territory, and were almost back to the relative safety of the ruined basilica when the cultists appeared in their path. The imperial forces deployed in three groups: in the centre, Porthos, Planchet and Grimaud had reached the archway of the basilica with plasma caliver and radium carbines; on their right, the infiltrator Bernajoux, rust-stalker Rochefort and ranger d’Artagnan prepared to advance along one side of the ruins; on the left, Alpha Treville and the second rust-stalker, Richelieu, moved up under the aegis of Aramis’ transuranic arquebus; he took up position high on the containers.

 

Planchet and Grimaud hold the basilica archway

 

The Brotherhood took their stand on the shattered aquila in the centre of the basilica, forming a rough line across the Ad Mech advance. Timur and Vitaly took their shotguns out to either flank. Between them was the metamorph leader Koschei, with a genestealer on either side of him; and to his right, Sergei held his icon aloft over Mikhail’s flamer and Marat’s rock cutter. Behind the line, Yegor and Nicolai readied their seismic cannon and autogun as a last resort should the Ad Mech break through.

 

 

Initial deployment

 

In the scout phase, the Ad Mech had swept for traps, but found nothing. The cultists had chosen to take up forward positions: coupled with their ambush moves, eight of the ten cult warriors – the whole forward line – were able to move into the largest part of the ruins. Timur, Vitaly and Terror remained on the flanks to hinder imperial charges, whilst the others gathered centrally, ready to burst forward.

 

 

 

 

 

Turn one – Ad Mech initiative [ electromancer ]

 

With the bulk of the Red Brotherhood almost into their lines, the Ad Mech decided that attack would be the best form of defence. On the right, d’Artagnan advanced across the crater and into the shelter of a ruined wall. Inside him, Bernajoux charged into Terror, brandishing his taser goad; but his companion, Rochefort, was unable to complete his charge through the basilica archway into Mikhail.

On the left, both Richelieu and Treville advanced forward, again heading down the outside of the basilica walls. Behind them, Aramis held position, readying himself to cover his Alpha. And in the centre, Porthos and Planchet advanced onto the first floor of the basilica, leaving Grimaud to take cover behind some barrels at ground level as he tried to slow the cult’s inevitable advance.

 

Having remained largely unengaged, the Brotherhood were free to make their own strikes. Maw charged in against the infiltrator, looking to support his gene-brother. Marat, wielding his rock cutter, charged in against the stumbling rust-stalker Rochefort, followed closely by his leader, Koschei. Vitaly moved up against the inside of the basilica’s front wall, hidden for now, whilst Sergei moved cautiously forward to make sure that his icon would influence both fights without exposing himself to sniper fire from Aramis. Mikhail remained still, readying his flamer, and Timur moved out to the right, preparing to unload his shotgun into Treville. Yegor and Nicolai, in sight of the vanguard on top of the basilica, readied themselves to fire first.

 

The Brotherhood take control of the basilica 

 

Turn one movement

 

With no Ad Mech readied, the cult opened up. Nicolai and Yegor targeted Porthos, hoping to take the dangerous plasma caliver out of the battle early on, but even with Yegor’s extra ammunition they failed to land any wounds. Mikhail fared better, firing his flamer through the basilica arch into Grimaud; he caused five wounds, several beat the armour, and Grimaud took a flesh wound. Then Grimaud fired back and took Mikhail out of action – first blood to the Ad Mech. Continuing the tit-for-tat gun fight, Sergei unloaded his shotgun into Grimaud too, and this time the vanguard fell. Elsewhere, Porthos and Planchet fired down from the basilica into Yegor, taking him out of action with plasma fire, and Timur tried to take out Treville himself, but the Alpha’s armour held firm.

 

 

There were two combats to resolve: infiltrator Bernajoux against two genestealers, and rust-stalker Rochefort against Marat and Koschei – combat specialist against combat specialist.

 

 

 

Bernajoux struck at both genestealers; he was unable to beat Terror’s incredible reflexes, but flesh-wounded Maw. Marat then assailed Rochefort with his rock cutter, wounding twice and instantly taking him out of action. Maw then retaliated against Bernajoux, and scored a critical wound on a six, bringing his toxin into effect and taking the infiltrator out of action too.

 

 

Aramis watches helplessly as the sicarians are cut down

 

Although casualties had been taken on both sides, neither side need to make a break test, and Maw couldn’t fail a nerve check. With no-one breaking through the enemy lines so far, the Brotherhood had taken the lead on body count.

 

End of turn one

 

Ad Mech: 2 VP, 3/9 OoA

Brotherhood: 3 VP, 2/10 OoA, 1 flesh wound

 

 

Turn two – Ad Mech initiative [ machine might ]

 

Taking the initiative for the second turn running, the Ad Mech continued to press forward towards the safety of imperial territory. Porthos and Planchet dropped down from the basilica, moving onto the shattered aquila and towards the gap left by the fallen Yegor. On the flanks, d’Artagnan and Treville continued their advances. Four Ad Mech were now within a single move of the board edge. Behind this red wave, Aramis remained stationary, prepared to sacrifice himself to cover his comrades’ escape. Likewise, Richelieu turned and charged towards Timur – the neophyte retreated, leaving the rust-stalker short, and isolated in the middle of the ruins.

 

Unwilling to lose his grip on Treville, Koschei send part of his forces back in pursuit of the fleeing Alpha. Terror risked plasma overwatch to charge into Porthos; Maw took the bait offered by the proximity of Richelieu and charged into the rust-stalker. Behind them, Sergei moved back to cover both fights with his icon.

 

 

Beneath the baleful gaze of the statue, Koschei and Marat closed in on the containers that had provided Aramis with his sniper’s nest. Timur also moved forward, taking cover by the statue itself.

 

 

Turn two movement

 

Ignoring the threat beneath him, Aramis tracked the retreating Timur – in his rush to avoid the oncoming rust-stalker, the neophyte stepped across Aramis’ line of sight, and was dispatched with a single transuranic round. Nicolai and Sergei both fired at the unengaged vanguard, Planchet, on the aquila, but both missed; he returned fire, but failed to wound Sergei.

 

Despite his injuries, Maw caused two wounds on Richelieu – the acid maw made short work of the armour, and the second rust-stalker was taken out of action. Maw then consolidated into Planchet. Atop the aquila, Terror made equaly short work of Porthos, taking him out of action too.

 

 

 

With five warriors down, the Ad Mech took and passed a break test. But with only Treville and d’Artagnan able to escape next turn, and with both Planchet and Aramis almost certain to be taken out in combat, the imperial forces conceded.

 

End of turn two, and end of the game

 

Ad Mech: 3 VP, 5/9 OoA

Brotherhood: 5 VP, 3/10 OoA, 1 flesh wound

 

 

Conclusion 

 

Treville ducked behind the ruined wall. He could hear the cries of his team as they were cut down by the merciless alien creatures. But that was of little matter – he had a clear path to safety, and with d’Artagnan causing a further distraction on the other side of the basilica, this was his moment to get away. Leaving the remains of his team to cover his retreat, Treville disappeared into the smoke and shadow…

 

 

It was a win, but Treville got away, and will almost certainly resurface at some point in the future (although as I type, my wife [now on here as roguechaplain] is assembling a vanguard alpha, so Treville is going to get some competition (or a new set of weapons)). That was a tricky mission for the Ad Mech, as all the ones requiring a lot of mobility seem to be. They were torn between defending their baseline and attacking mine, and in the end didn’t quite manage either.

 

After the game, we talked about the composition of the team, and wondered if the Ad Mech would have been better off with a more specialized division of labour – a backline of galvanic rifles, and a forward group of sicarians. Everyone would have had a clear role, and it would have put more pressure on the cult to either divert the main thrust of their attack to deal with a mass of close combat attacks and mortal wounds coming down table at speed, or allow a lot of VPs to go past with no certainty of escaping the board themselves in the face of the Ad Mech gunline.

 

Alternatively, we also talked about holding the sicarians back behind the gun line as a counter-charge unit: either the cultists stand off and try to outshoot the Ad Mech (unlikely), or close in and risk being charged by rust-stalkers. It’s less aggressive, and less likely to score high in VP terms, but prevents the cult from scoring freely too.

 

In the end, though, the story was Treville’s escape, and aggressive play from the Ad Mech certainly made it exciting. Unfortunately for them, the massive cult ambush move that saw eight of my ten cultists almost at the halfway line before the game began put the imperials on the back foot from the very beginning. With so many of my team moving up, I was able to put out pickets to stop my valuable combat assets (like Marat) from being charged, whilst still having him close enough to make charges of his own in my turn.

 

And those combat assets delivered – Marat cut down a rust-stalker in short order, and was about to do the same to the arquebus; Maw took out an infiltrator in turn one, and the other rust-stalker in turn two; and Terror finished off the plasma caliver that was threatening my back lines.

 

Tactically, having my forces in a central blob with the Ad Mech split down either side (with a third group going over the top via the basilica) meant that I was a serious challenge to assault, as everything was in counter-charge range of everything else. But in my turn, I could choose which elements of the Ad Mech forces to target, and leave the rest for later. Oddly, losing the initiative in both turns really helped with this – by the time I came to move, I knew where everything was, and where to avoid standing to keep out of line of sight too (Timur aside – I still feel bad for him about that one).

 

We’re calling it a day on the campaign at this point. It’s been interesting, but with lots of level two specialists in play, and with almost all the fire teams having gained a skill, there’s an awful lot of rules and abilities to keep track of, and we’re going to go back to the simpler approach of playing on a game by game basis, trying out new combinations and specialisms and that sort of thing. We’ll keep the campaign rosters around, and might come back to them another time.

 

I’m also going to stop writing such long battle reports. I’m finding that they’re taking pretty much as long as the games themselves, and I’d rather be painting new cultists or just playing another game. So the next one will likely be more of a summary than a shot by shot account. The story of the Red Brotherhood doesn’t end here.

 

[Excessus]

Always fun to read others game reports, I'm horrible myself at remembering to write them down...both in KT and regular 40k...

[Dosjetka]

All good things must come to an end. It's been an absolute pleasure to read every single one of your battle reports and I certainly appreciate the work that has gone into creating these. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to seeing what else you and roguechaplain (Heresy! ) have in store for us. :tu: