Chaos never sleeps! So the Inquisition have called upon the Militarum Tempestus to help them winkle out the heretics. This time it's the Alpha Legion - Hail Hydra!
After so many years of playing the good guys (and Orks), I've clearly found my home in the Eye of Terror. I, Stylus, will continue my whistlerstop tour of the Traitor Legions with the enigmatic XX Legion.
Orks are the good guys, aren't they?
Kraken here, hosting in the depths of a Hive World tonight. My Imperial Stormtroopers have some reinforcements and are desperate for battle. So under the guidance of an Inquisitorial Sect, it's time to set fire to these traitors and show them Vengeance for Cadia!
Smash that peace pipe!
Imperial soup time! With the new improved recipies, of course, so no blending of army books within a detachment for me. A fairly standard roundup of my Stormtroopers for the battalion, although I'm trying out a Commissar as the Warlord for a change. Of course, I forgot his Old Grudges, so the senile old fool couldn't remember who it was who short-changed him that time at the supermarket, and it played no bearing on the fight.
The newbies to the list are the Ogryn Bodyguards. Three is probably excessive, but should be fun to try out. I don't lose the Tempestus trait for taking them, they'll make my squishy characters a bit more durable and I've just finished painting them, so kind of a must-take. As such, the heroes get close combat gear, just in case that's where they end up.
The secondary detachment is Inquisitors - the bigger, harder Ordo Malleus Terminator guy, and a smaller regular one. The Daemonhost is padding to flesh out the list, as they're a liability for First Blood, but the Acolytes are a solid choice, especially with such frail characters about.
A third detachment too! These vanguarding assassins don't get me any CPs, but they're both pretty dangerous. The Callidus in particular makes it harder for the enemy to use strategems in the first turn of the game, and knowing the Alpha Legion, there's going to be deepstriking or sneaking or such going on. Plus who doesn't like a Neural Disruptor, am I right, ladies and gentlemen?
The army is mostly disguised as Primaris Crypt Angels - but isn't that just like the Alpha Legion? A few standard squads and a cultist mob to fill out the Battalion detachment, with a couple of Helbrutes to move forward and apply pressure.
I also went with some heavies in the Spearhead Detachment - a squad of Havocs with Autocannons and Missile Launchers; a Predator (here represented by a dragon) and some Obliterators (featuring one of the original lead models!). I spread around the mark of Slaanesh, so I would have access to Endless Cacophony, but I forget to use it all battle, so it's moot.
My three characters all have the ability to deepstrike in, and with Warlord (or is he?) has the I Am Alpharius trait, which I already love.
All told, I have a robust base of fire, with some strong close-combat units and enough surprise drops to keep my opponent guessing.
Points: 1500 | Battalion + Spearhead: 9 CPs
Objective Draw - Supremacy
Interesting - there I was, thinking Stylus was giving me first turn because I wouldn't be able to shoot anyone. And then he very sportingly places a massive unit of heretic scum right in range of most of my army. Excellent!
Sure enough, everything I have roars forward so they can either see the Cultists lurking out of the back of the bunker or dashes in through the internal corridors. I even bring the Terminator Inquisitor down inside, although he can't actually see them.
Then I let rip with everything I've got, and I mean the works. The worry is that if I don't wipe this unit out entirely, Stylus will be splashing out on Tide of Traitors, allowing him to replace the whole lot elsewhere.
Luckily, I roll some pretty hot dice. The Battlecannon Taurox alone accounts for something like eight of them, and between Acolytes, Taurox missile launchers and whatever else I'm throwing (I think even the Daemonhost warp gazes some poor sod down), fourteen of the junior rotters snuff it.
So Stylus is left with a conundrum - if he spends CPs on making them immune to morale for a turn and then more CPs to Tide of Traitors them back in, he could be spending as many as 6 CPs! This is because of the lurking disruption my Callidus Assassin is sowing, which can force you to spend extra on CPs in the round 1 of the game.
In the end, Stylus bites down and decides its not worth splashing out. The remaining Cultists breathe a sigh of relief and leg it, safe in the knowledge that they won't have to die all over again in subsequent turns.
As for everything else, well, my plan is to try and claim as much of the battlefield as possible and then scrape VPs up whenever my card draw allows. I can't quite claim Supremacy (which needs three objectives) yet, but I did get First Blood, so that's nice.
Objectives Scored: First Blood (1)
Objectives Drawn: Defend Objective 6, Mission Critical Objective - Capture 4, err, something else too?
The Daemonhost, who is wandering about in my back lines aimlessly, suddenly grows a purpose - he can get to Objective 6 easily, and goes and camps on it. Likewise the Vindicare (not shown above) decides his sight is off and goes to pick up Objective 4.
I don't have a lot of other fights to resolve, I'm running low on troops now. The Ogryn Bodyguards have no bodys left to guard nearby and head off to deal with that rogue Obliterator, backed with plasma fire from the nearby Acolytes. That merely fries myself, but the Ogryns get the job done with aplomb when they charge in.
The Inquisitors smite the wounded Hellbrute apart, the Valkyrie misses all its shots against the Predator aaand... that's it, really. Lucky objective draws are keeping me in the game, here, I'm a spent force or too far out of position to be of use.
Objectives Achieved: Mission Critical Objective 4 (1)
After so many years of playing the good guys (and Orks), I've clearly found my home in the Eye of Terror. I, Stylus, will continue my whistlerstop tour of the Traitor Legions with the enigmatic XX Legion.
Orks are the good guys, aren't they?
Kraken here, hosting in the depths of a Hive World tonight. My Imperial Stormtroopers have some reinforcements and are desperate for battle. So under the guidance of an Inquisitorial Sect, it's time to set fire to these traitors and show them Vengeance for Cadia!
Smash that peace pipe!
It's Fight Night on Skype!
Hunt The Traitors - Imperium
Imperial soup time! With the new improved recipies, of course, so no blending of army books within a detachment for me. A fairly standard roundup of my Stormtroopers for the battalion, although I'm trying out a Commissar as the Warlord for a change. Of course, I forgot his Old Grudges, so the senile old fool couldn't remember who it was who short-changed him that time at the supermarket, and it played no bearing on the fight.
The newbies to the list are the Ogryn Bodyguards. Three is probably excessive, but should be fun to try out. I don't lose the Tempestus trait for taking them, they'll make my squishy characters a bit more durable and I've just finished painting them, so kind of a must-take. As such, the heroes get close combat gear, just in case that's where they end up.
The secondary detachment is Inquisitors - the bigger, harder Ordo Malleus Terminator guy, and a smaller regular one. The Daemonhost is padding to flesh out the list, as they're a liability for First Blood, but the Acolytes are a solid choice, especially with such frail characters about.
A third detachment too! These vanguarding assassins don't get me any CPs, but they're both pretty dangerous. The Callidus in particular makes it harder for the enemy to use strategems in the first turn of the game, and knowing the Alpha Legion, there's going to be deepstriking or sneaking or such going on. Plus who doesn't like a Neural Disruptor, am I right, ladies and gentlemen?
- Lord Commissar (HQ)
Bolt pistol, Power fist
Warlord Trait: Old Grudges
Relic: The Emperor's Benediction - Tempestor Prime (HQ)
Power maul, Tempestus Command Rod - 10 x Militarum Tempestus Scions (Troops)
Tempestor (Chainsword, Hot-shot Laspistol), Vox-Caster, 4 x Hot-shot Lasgun, 4 x Hot-shot Volley Gun - 5 x Militarum Tempestus Scions (Troops)
Tempestor (Chainsword, Hot-shot Laspistol), Vox-Caster, Hot-shot Lasgun, Meltagun, Flamer - 5 x Militarum Tempestus Scions (Troops)
Tempestor (Chainsword, Hot-shot Laspistol), Vox-Caster, Hot-shot Lasgun, Meltagun, Plasma gun - Nork Deddog (Elite)
Ripper Gun - Ogryn Bodyguard (Elite)
Bullgryn Maul, Bullgryn Plate, Slabshield - Ogryn Bodyguard (Elite)
Bullgryn Maul, Bullgryn Plate, Slabshield - Valkyrie (Flyer)
Hellstrike Missiles, Lascannon, 2x Heavy bolter - Taurox Prime (Transport)
Heavy Stubber, Taurox Missile Launcher, Two Autocannons - Taurox Prime (Transport)
Storm Bolter, Taurox Battle Cannon, Two Hot-shot Volley Guns
- Inquisitor (HQ)
Combi-plasma, Force stave, Ordo Malleus
Powers: Dominate - Inquisitor in Terminator Armour (HQ)
Nemesis Daemon Hammer, Storm bolter, Ordo Malleus
Powers: Terrify - 2 x Acolytes (Elite)
Acolyte (Laspistol, Plasma gun), Acolyte (Chainsword, Laspistol), Ordo Malleus - 2 x Acolytes (Elite)
Acolyte (Flamer, Plasma pistol), Acolyte (Chainsword, Laspistol), Ordo Malleus - Daemonhost (Elite)
Unholy Gaze, Warp Grasp
- Callidus Assassin (Elite)
Neural Shredder, Phase Sword, Poison Blades - Vindicare Assassin (Elite)
Blind Grenades, Exitus Pistol, Exitus Rifle
Alf Alpha - Alpha Legion
The army is mostly disguised as Primaris Crypt Angels - but isn't that just like the Alpha Legion? A few standard squads and a cultist mob to fill out the Battalion detachment, with a couple of Helbrutes to move forward and apply pressure.
I also went with some heavies in the Spearhead Detachment - a squad of Havocs with Autocannons and Missile Launchers; a Predator (here represented by a dragon) and some Obliterators (featuring one of the original lead models!). I spread around the mark of Slaanesh, so I would have access to Endless Cacophony, but I forget to use it all battle, so it's moot.
My three characters all have the ability to deepstrike in, and with Warlord (or is he?) has the I Am Alpharius trait, which I already love.
All told, I have a robust base of fire, with some strong close-combat units and enough surprise drops to keep my opponent guessing.
- Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour (HQ)
Combi-plasma, Lightning Claw
Warlord Trait: I Am Alpharius + Exalted Champion - Sorcerer with Jump Pack (HQ)
Combi-bolter, Force Sword
Powers: Warptime, Prescience - 5 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
Aspiring Champion (Chainsword, Combi-plasma), Boltguns, Heavy Bolter - 5 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
Aspiring Champion (Chainsword, Combi-plasma), Boltguns, Heavy Bolter - 20 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
Autoguns, 2 x Flamers, Mark of Slaanesh - Helbrute (Elite)
Helbrute Fist (Heavy Flamer), Heavy Bolter - Helbrute (Elite)
Helbrute Fist (Heavy Flamer), Heavy Bolter
- Chaos Lord with Jump Pack (HQ)
Chainsword, Combi-melta
Relic: Blade of the Hydra - 7 x Havocs (Heavy)
Aspiring Champion (Chainsword, Boltgun), 2 x Missile Launchers, 2 x Autocannons, 2 x Boltguns, Mark of Slaanesh - Chaos Predator (Heavy)
Predator Autocannon, 2 x Lascannons, Havoc Launcher, Combi-flamer - 3 x Obliterators (Heavy)
Mark of Slaanesh
Battlefield and Deployment
Apologies - my camera was out of action last night, so no pictures of the game in action. You'll just have to use your imaginations.
An experimental battlefield. I cracked out a bit of Space Hulk tiles and made two internal layouts, representing bunkers inside massive overhead bridge supports (or hive city pillars, or something. Again, use your imaginations). The outside edges of these blocked all movement and line of sight, even for flyers, and the insides were only accessible to infantry, and then only if they used the doors politely. You could deep strike into them, though.
Otherwise, relatively light cover outside, although two smaller buildings to further tinker with line of sight across the battlefield. With the objectives out, Stylus picked Hammer and Anvil. We're fighting an Escalation, so you draw Objectives up to the number of the turn. The longer the game goes on, the more there will be on offer in terms of VPs, balanced by the fact that you'll probably have less to claim them with.
You also have to nominate one type of tactical objectives. You get an additional point for scoring these, and lose point if you discard them. At the end of the game, the one who scored the most gets a bonus point. We both went with out codex-specific objectives - because that sounded like the most fun.
My massive army can pull all sorts of deep striking tricks, as well as containing three large transports. But I need at least nine units on the table, so in the end I go with a relatively conservative presence in the warp. Both Assassins, of course, the Terminator Inquisitor and a single small unit of Stormtroopers.
Nork and the Warlord get in the Valkyrie, the other Stormies get in the backs of their vans, and everyone else cowers round the backs of the large pillar complex, so they can't be shot off in turn one.
I put as much as I can into deep strike: Obliterators and the three characters. I also use the Forward Operatives stratagem to move my Cultists forward - although when all's said and done, I can't find a really good place for them. If they could all fit inside the bunker, that would have been aces, but half the unit is left dangling temptingly outside.
After some complex dithering, Stylus kindly offers me the first turn. So I accept!
It was not dithering, it was mind games! I was sowing misdirection and confusion (mostly in myself). But since my guns can't reach Kraken in this turn, he may as well come to me.
Heretic Hunters - Turn 1
Objective Draw - Supremacy
Interesting - there I was, thinking Stylus was giving me first turn because I wouldn't be able to shoot anyone. And then he very sportingly places a massive unit of heretic scum right in range of most of my army. Excellent!
Sure enough, everything I have roars forward so they can either see the Cultists lurking out of the back of the bunker or dashes in through the internal corridors. I even bring the Terminator Inquisitor down inside, although he can't actually see them.
Then I let rip with everything I've got, and I mean the works. The worry is that if I don't wipe this unit out entirely, Stylus will be splashing out on Tide of Traitors, allowing him to replace the whole lot elsewhere.
Luckily, I roll some pretty hot dice. The Battlecannon Taurox alone accounts for something like eight of them, and between Acolytes, Taurox missile launchers and whatever else I'm throwing (I think even the Daemonhost warp gazes some poor sod down), fourteen of the junior rotters snuff it.
So Stylus is left with a conundrum - if he spends CPs on making them immune to morale for a turn and then more CPs to Tide of Traitors them back in, he could be spending as many as 6 CPs! This is because of the lurking disruption my Callidus Assassin is sowing, which can force you to spend extra on CPs in the round 1 of the game.
In the end, Stylus bites down and decides its not worth splashing out. The remaining Cultists breathe a sigh of relief and leg it, safe in the knowledge that they won't have to die all over again in subsequent turns.
As for everything else, well, my plan is to try and claim as much of the battlefield as possible and then scrape VPs up whenever my card draw allows. I can't quite claim Supremacy (which needs three objectives) yet, but I did get First Blood, so that's nice.
Objectives Scored: First Blood (1)
Alpha Legion - Turn 1
So much for the Cultists. Thinking about it, it would have been better to keep them hidden in my back lines and then send them forward with Tide of Traitors. Ah well, they were only Cultists and I've forced Kraken to use up valuable lasgun battery packs in annihilating them.
Damn you, Alpharius!
My first objective is a bust: Advance. That's not going to happen with my gunline, so I'm already on the back foot.
Inside my bunker, I move the Chaos Marine squad onto Objective 3, just in case it turns up, and leave everyone else in their assigned cowering positions. The Jump-Pack Chaos Lord and the Jump-Pack Sorcerer pop down into the shooting castle to provide buffs.
(I actually got a bit mixed up with my Chaos Lords - I had originally intended the Terminator Lord to join the castle, and the Jump Lord to go in with the Obliterators. Which is why the Terminator has the longer-range plasma, and the Jump Lord has the shorter-range melta. Damn Alpharius impostors are even confusing me!)
The Sorcerer casts Prescience on the Predator and then we're off to the races! The battle tank blazes away at the Valkyrie, knocking off a healthy amount of wounds. The Havocs follow up, loading the Flakk Missile to knock off a full three mortal wounds. The airbus is now chugging along at a single wound, which is clearly easy prey for my Helbrutes.
Or not. Despite standing still, and getting the Lord's re-reroll, and my using the Fire Frenzy stratagem, they roll an improbably amount of 2s and fail to damage the flyer at all! Indeed, I should have gotten in more shots, since I forget that I had twin heavy bolters, not just heavy bolters (how can I play Alpha Legion and forget about twins?).
So that concludes my shooting phase: it began brightly, and ended in disappointment - that flyer is still airborne. It's shooting has been seriously nerfed, but it can drop its passengers anywhere it likes. I discard Advance so I can stay tucked up in my shooting castle.
Objectives achieved: none
Heretic Hunters - Turn 2
Objectives Drawn - Defend Objective 3
The Valkyrie wheezes off behind the big bunker up ahead, and drops the Lord Commissar and Nork off as he does it. They leg it for the corner of the bunker, as I need to get inside and squat on Objective 3 for two turns, according to my latest update from command.
To help them, I grav-chute in the small Flamer squad of Stormtroopers. I also stick the Vindicare down ahead of Objective 4, get the other small Stormtrooper squad out into the same building and advance pretty much everything else up towards the middle of the field. This gives the Tauroxes line of sight on the Predator, which is a big priority as I'm terribly afraid of its big guns.
Shooting is a massive bust. Although the big guns on my jeeps are pretty nasty, they don't connect much. Too much moving about on my part, and too much sneakily painting his tanks black from Stylus, I expect - I don't do much of great use, including the forward Tempestus Squad failing to pick off any Chaos Space Marines in my forward deployment. Even the ruddy Vindicare misses his shot.
I do manage to pick about half the wounds of the Predator with a lucky bit of autocannon fire, but this is the one turn I'm going to be firing on all cylinders, I suspect, so I was hoping for a bit more.
Nork sighs to himself, unimpressed as ever by human incompetence, and charges off round the corner of the building. No overwatch (they can't see him when he sets off), so the Alpha grunts are dismayed to meet a massive ton of Ogryn pounding uninjured towards them. The combat is as one-sided as you'd expect, and Nork murders four of them for no returns.
At which point I remember he's supposed to be a bodyguard, and he's left the man he came to look after all by himself round the other side of the building...
At least I claim the Supremacy Objective from earlier, so I'm keeping my slender lead for now.
Objectives Claimed - Supremacy (1)
Alpha Legion - Turn 2
The Imperium are loose on my left flank, and there's a ruddy great building preventing me from shooting at them! More troubling, they are dominating the whole field. This a problem for my next draw: Defend Objective 1 and Defend Objective 5. At the moment, I can't even get to those objectives, so staying there for two turns is even less likely.
But I need to get on the move: my surviving Champion pulls back from the combat with Nork Deddog and my Sorcerer jump-packs into Smite range. My intact squad of Chaos Marines run to the opposite end of the bunker, just in case Nork wants to step inside, and my two Helbrutes romp forward towards the centre (if anyone can last on the central objectives, it's that pair).
And then it's time for my favourite part of every battle: making a mess of the deepstrike! I plonk my Obliterators down by the opposite bunker, forming a triangle around the Terminator Lord.
The Psychic phase goes off nicely (although, for a player used to Thousand Sons, all too briefly): Smite takes off two wounds from Nork, and Prescience is put on the Predator, cancelling out his damage bracket.
Here comes the shooting! The first Helbrute opens up on the foolishly-exposed Lord Commissar, and takes three wounds off him. The second one can't target him, so tries his luck on the last wound of the Valkyrie, and misses entirely (so just shoots his bolter into the air, then).
It's my first try of the Obliterators, and they don't disappoint: S8 shots at -2AP and 3Damage. They even roll well - hitting with all twelve of their shots without the Lord's re-rolls and putting everything into the Missile Taurox. Despite saves, 18 wounds still make it through and the transport explodes, doing 3 more wounds to its neighbouring Taurox and killing two of it's passengers. Yikes!
(Note to future self: this would be an excellent time to play the Endless Cacophony Stratagem on the Obliterators. Slaanesh isn't just there for claws and nipple clips, you know)
The rest of the shooting is something of a bust. The surviving Scions use the Go To Ground stratagem and so survive my Havoc's fire. The Predator whiffs most of its shots and only puts a few more wounds on the Taurox. In better news, the Sorcerer's combi-bolter chips off two more wounds from Nork.
No assaults for me (although, thinking about it, charging in the Terminator Lord wouldn't have been the worst idea), and no objectives either. I've done a fair bit of damage, and most of my army is intact, but I still feel like I'm playing catch-up here. I discard Defend Objective 5, since there are still a lot of Tempestus between it and me.
Objectives achieved: none
Heretic Hunters - Turn 3
Objectives Drawn - Death from Afar, Advance
Tricky Objectives again - I could get Advance right away, but only if I run away from the large unit of deadly shooting mutants in my back field. Death from Afar is never going to happen, I'd have to stand in my deployment zone and shoot something in the enemy end to death, but I'm stuck with it for now.
The last of my units appear on the field, namely the Callidus Assassin. Who pops up right on Objective Three, having been polymorphed as a girder. Elsewhere I scramble about trying to get guns or assault troops to bear on all the new threats that have arrived, or hide my suddenly vulnerable troops in heavy cover.
The twin Inquisitors (twinquisitors?) both run back to get psychic powers in range of the Obliterators. And it works out well when the Terminator Inquisitors manages to Dominate the Chaos Lord. Ordering him to crank up his plasma gun to maximal and let rip on the Obliterators works out well, as despite rerolling ones he still manages to explode himself. I can't even take the credit for it entirely, Stylus rolled the dice for it. To add injuries to this insult, he even wounds an Obliterator.
No Warlord killing points, though. This was clearly not Alpharius, he's now one of the other two remaining characters.
After that heartening attack, though, it's pretty weak elsewhere. I finish off the Chaos Marine Champion with hotshot fire, the Vindicare misses another shot, the Callidus fries a pair of traitors with her Neural thingummy and then fails an easy charge, and I totally fail to wound the Predator despite pouring fire into it from everything I can. Er, which is a damaged Taurox and the Valkyrie, which is somehow still flying in crazed circles at this point.
At least the Ogryn Bodyguards don't disappoint. Between frag bombs and a double charge, they batter and blast two and a half of the Obliterators off the field. Ha.
Objectives Scored - Nil
Alpha Legion - Turn 3
This is getting worrying: my counterstrike has been counterstruck and I'm in danger of getting overrun in my own bunker. My tactical objectives come a turn too late: Behind Enemy Lines and Priority Orders: Defend Objective 6. I could have dropped my Obliterators on that quite happily.
However, Kraken helpfully points out that I have one surviving Obliterator, so he waddles out of combat and secures me Behind Enemy Lines (my first point of the game!). The Helbrutes continue to march forward towards the centre.
In the bunker, I decide I need some bold moves: the Sorcerer and Chaos Lord jump inside, while the two remaining Chaos Legionnaires move forward to support the Sorcerer and screen their newly-appointed Warlord.
In the Psychic phase, I fail to get Prescience on the Predator, but do manage to Smite off three wounds from the Callidus. He follows up the the shooting phase and guns her down with his combi-bolter. Assassins - hah!
The Havocs and the Predator combine to blast apart the remaining Taurox, and one of the Helbrutes continues to hunt the White Whale that is the Valkyrie's last wound. He fails, so the other one blasts away at the small Scion squad on the roof. He only managed to kill one with Heavy Bolter fire, but then it's revealed that the squad is in heavy flamer range of both Helbrutes. Bathed in promethium, the rest of the squad burns to a crisp.
This is particularly galling, as I'd spend VPs on Go to Ground to boost their save, then reminded Stylus he had the heavy flamers and rolled a fabulous selection of ones and twos against the flames.
No close combat for me, so I ditch Defend Objective 6.
Objectives achieved: Behind Enemy Lines (1)
Heretic Hunters - Turn 4
Objectives Drawn - I'm afraid I get a bit vague here, there were a lot about. Something like Defend Objective 4, Capture Objective 5 and Kingslayer, if I recall?
Whatever it was I was supposed to achieve, I had bigger fish to fry. Those Hellbrutes were looking like a big problem, but I had a clever plan to deal with it. The large Scion squad advanced as close as they could, backed by all the Inquisitors and the Tempestor Prime.
First up, some softening Smites, that deal five wounds between them. Nice!
As a consolation for all those mortal wounds, the Helbrute becomes Crazed! This is excellent - he can blaze away at that Scion squad with Heavy Bolter and Heavy Flamer and wipe them out before they get a chance to fire! ... except that doesn't happen. Bad rolling and good saves mean that nothing at all happens. As you were, Kraken.
Phew, because I was relying on them for phase two of my plan: Krak grenades! The Prime barks out the command that lets the squad fire even though they advanced, and then I spend CPs on the Grenadiers strategem. Five Krak grenades ought to have a decent chance of finishing the reeling 'Brute.
Not with my dice, of course. No, it's a total bust, and the points are wasted despite a total of six grenades, two Volley Guns, various plasma and bolter fire from the Inquisitors and some extremely approximate attempts at shooting from the lurching Valkyrie. The Viudicare keeps firing randomly into the air.
Over by Objective 3, which I still have a chance of getting, the Scion squad pour in through the door to back my Warlord and Nork. Between all three I gun down the Chaos Sorcerer and his Legionnaire chums, and the Objective is nearly mine! I also nick cheap points by getting the Daemonhost out of my deployment zone for Advance. It's a slow but steady drip...
Objectives Claimed - Advance (1)
Alpha Legion - Turn 4
This is it: time to get stuck in and turn the tide of the battle back in my favour. Tactical objectives are pushing me on: Secure Objective 1, Secure Objective 6 and Mission Critical Objective 4. Clearly the centre ground holds the key to victory.
The Helbrutes move into the centre, where they cannot fail the charge. The Chaos Lord jumps closer to the Scions squad (but keeps himself hidden from Overwatch, around a corner) and the Havocs step into the bunker to train their heavy weapons on Nork.
When it comes to shooting, the Helbrutes don't really impress: taking down only five Scions between them. Although they do better than the Predator who, deprived of Prescience, can only manage one kill. Even the Obliterator seems demoralised, and rolls low for his fleshmetal guns, only chipping off one wound from the Ogryn.
It's a different story inside the bunker: Nork is shot to pieces by the Chaos Lord, and three Scions are felled with Havoc fire.
In the assault phase, the Chaos Lord charges the Scions, and kills them many times over with his Hydra Blade and newly-acquired warlord trait (Hatred Incarnate). The Havocs also make short work of the Commissar's last wound, securing me the bunker and, more importantly, a point for Slay the Warlord!
Killed in close combat by a heavy support squad! The shame!
But the main event is going on in the centre: one Helbrute makes a long charge into the Terminator Inquisitor, but his size blocks the other one from charging anything other than the Tempestus Prime and Scion squad.
The other Inquisitor, knowing that this is going to be short and ugly, performs a Heroic Intervention and joins in.
With the fickleness of fate, the Helbrute against the Scions does wonders - smacking all his attacks with his Helbrute fist and even rolling a few Death to the False Emperor bonus attacks that turn the Prime to strawberry jam. However, the attack I really need to succeed - against the Terminator Inquisitor - suddenly blossoms a load of 1s and I don't even get to test his invulnerable save. He whacks back with his daemon hammer, his comrade joins in with a Force Stave and the Helbrute is destroyed.
It doesn't look like I'll be grabbing anything in the centre right now (where's a Tide of Traitors when you need it?) and I ditch Mission Critical Objective 4, since I definitely don't want to put my warlord on the same rooftop as the Vindicare who's been looking for him all battle.
Objectives achieved: Slay the Warlord (1)
Heretic Hunters - Turn 5
Objectives Drawn: Defend Objective 6, Mission Critical Objective - Capture 4, err, something else too?
The Daemonhost, who is wandering about in my back lines aimlessly, suddenly grows a purpose - he can get to Objective 6 easily, and goes and camps on it. Likewise the Vindicare (not shown above) decides his sight is off and goes to pick up Objective 4.
I don't have a lot of other fights to resolve, I'm running low on troops now. The Ogryn Bodyguards have no bodys left to guard nearby and head off to deal with that rogue Obliterator, backed with plasma fire from the nearby Acolytes. That merely fries myself, but the Ogryns get the job done with aplomb when they charge in.
The Inquisitors smite the wounded Hellbrute apart, the Valkyrie misses all its shots against the Predator aaand... that's it, really. Lucky objective draws are keeping me in the game, here, I'm a spent force or too far out of position to be of use.
Objectives Achieved: Mission Critical Objective 4 (1)
Alpha Legion - Turn 5
Is victory even possible? I've still got a few guns left, and maybe I can annihilate my way to the finish line. At least I draw some killing objectives, although as before, they would have been more useful on turn earlier: Blood and Guts and Witch Hunter.
I run all my units out of the bunker, so they can get shots on anything if the game continues. That only leaves my Predator, who unleashes all its guns against the Valkyrie, who was sneaking into Linebreaker position. I finally break through to that last wound and bring the gunship crashing down.
I ditch Blood and Guts - possibly prematurely, now I think about it. It's more likely my Jump-Pack Warlord will kill something in melee than I am ever going to get onto an Objective.
Objectives achieved: noneImperium: Defend Objective 6 (2)
Heretic Hunters - Turn 6
Objectives Drawn:Secure Objective 4
The game rolls on! I pick up a slew of objectives, most of which are unlikely. If I can somehow kill the enemy Warlord, I'll be well ahead, as I've got Scour the Skies and Kingslayer all in hand. But he's hiding behind a mass of concrete, and nobody can see him. The Inquisitors take their remaining acolytes and dash towards the final heretics, everyone else heads for the nearest Objectives in the hope I'll draw well.
Between smites, snipes and storm bolter fire, I pick off a trio of Havocs. But that's it.
Objectives Achieved: Secure Objective 4 (1)
Alpha Legion - Turn 6
The tactical objective cards finally do me a favour: Hold the Line means I need to get all three of my units back into my deployment zone. Since they barely left, that's an easy one. I also get Mission Critical Objective 1, which I add to the pile of Things I Won't Capture.
I move everything back into my own deployment zone, then open up on the closest enemy model - which happens to be the Terminator Inquisitor. Though his two Acolytes bravely though themselves in front of the shells for him, the slayer-of-helbrutes is finally brought low - and that's Witch Hunter!
Objectives achieved: Hold the Line (1), Witch Hunter (1)
Heretic Hunters - Turn 7
Objectives Drawn: No Prisoners, Secure Objective 5
Miffed by the death of his big chum, the smaller Inquisitor keeps on trucking, and gets close enough to cast Dominate on the Chaos Lord. Who's holding a combi-melta, which is interesting as killing a unit will now net me No Prisoners. Stylus once more rolls the hits and damage, and sure enough the melta hits and wounds! But he picks the lowest result he can, wisely, and the tank escapes with a nice burn mark.
I'm still claiming a steady drip of VPs from sitting on Objectives I've already got, which is lucky - it's looking very close at this point.
Objectives achieved: Secure Objective 5 (1),
Alpha Legion - Turn 7
Final turn, and the tactical objectives throw me a ray of hope: Kingslayer, Assassinate, and Secure Objective 2. Kingslayer is in the bag (for D3 points too); I can kill the last Inquisitor for Assassinate and, now I don't have to worry about Vindicare sniping, I can bounce my Lord out in the open on Objective 2 - maybe going second wasn't so dumb after all. I could steal this game!
Sadly, my Chaos Lord's jump-pack runs out of fuel at the wrong time - only needing a 3 to secure Objective 2, I instead roll a 2. I console myself with gunning down the last Inquisitor, and even get an improbable 3 VPs for Kingslayer, but I don't think that will suffice. I don't have the firepower or the angle to shift the Imperium units off Objective 5, so they'll get 2 points for defending it. That ought to be enough to tip the balance.
Objectives achieved: Assassinate (1), Kingslayer (3);
Imperium: Defend Objective 5 (2)
Imperium: Defend Objective 5 (2)
Result: Millitarum Tempestus Victory (10 VPs to 8)
Locker Room of Terror
That was a belter of a game! We both tore chunks out of each other, and yet it was relatively low scoring until the end. The bunker terrain really added something, especially as we were both tooling some very shooty armies, and combat devolved into a number of small skimishes that were a lot of fun to play out. Huge line-of-sight blocking terrain is a must-have for these battlefields.
Yep - the internal spaces and shooting angles made it a very cagey and tense game. Neither of us could just sit still and shoot, we had to move into range and LOS before engaging, and that was always risky as it traded early shots with less accuracy against your opponent's counterfire. 40K is a great game for gambling in this way, and playing it sat in your own deployment area, upending buckets of dice from leaf-blower armies seems very dull to me.
I wasn't sure about having parts of the board denied to vehicles, that could easily be very tough for certain armies and I hadn't checked it with Stylus before the game. That's probably a necessity for next time, but otherwise I'm definitely thinking about how to model this kind of scenery for future use.
I was cursing the tactical objectives throughout the game, but it's my own fault for ceding board control to Kraken. Being able to sit on 4-5 of the objectives a turn meant that he was well-placed to claim the cards when they came up, whereas I just had to hope for killing ones or Objective 3 inside the bunker. A bit of fortunate rolling almost had me back in the game, and it's a sobering thought that, if I'd drawn just one of my chosen objective cards (out of 15), it would have been worth at least 3 points and a (probably undeserved) victory.
Yeah, my spread out and cling on approach really paid off. Which is lucky, because I got shot to shit! Against the armoured might of a Predator and the Havocs, my light vehicles took a beating. The Valkyrie too, although it managed to survive that deadly alpha strike (ho ho), it did exactly nothing for the rest of the game. Despite this, and also because of the fortunate failure of the Hellbrutes to sweep the middle, I still picked up enough cheap and easy VPs to pull through.
I liked playing Alpha Legion (oh no, not another Traitor Legion, please). I Am Alpharius is especially fun and characterful, and the -1 to hit (when I remember to apply it) adds some nice survivability. I like the Obliterators (though they didn't last long) and I reckon I'd rather have a second unit of them than a Predator, who seemed to fade away once he'd dropped a damage bracket.
I reckon what you need is your own homebrew chapter here, that can legitimately swap between various Traits of your choice. Which is what I've got with Hivefleet Kraken, for example. I know it's not quite the same as following the official schemes, especially for ones with great fluff and colours like the XXth Double Crossers, but it also lets you go Renegade when you want. That's another very decent trait worth looking at.
Yes, I think I might apply my Black Legion like that - judging by the novel, they're a very broad church, so it wouldn't be absurd to have them absorbing other Traitor Legions. But I could never play a Renegade Legion: I'm too much of a classicist, I have insufficient imagination to create one and, critically, they're not allowed to play Veterans of the Long War stratagem.
The Helbrutes had so much promise, but failed when I really needed them. A buffing character like a Dark Apostle or Chaos Lord would have helped mitigate their whiffs (plus ... extra characters to play the I Am Alpharius whack-a-mole game) but I like their load-out of flamer-fist and heavy-bolter.
For my part, I should probably observe that Ogryn Bodyguards should actually guard bodies, not run off by themselves like lone assassins. That accounted for the deaths of both my Guard characters, particularly on Nork's part. Mind you, at the same time, the bloody assassins were pretty useless! I'll be taking them again, I think they are probably capable of more, but other than useful psychological pressure they didn't really justify their points.
It was very enjoyable to see the Vindicare miss or flunk every shot (somebody left his bullets at home...), but it greatly limited the freedom of movement for my fast-moving and quite killy warlord. Keeping heads down is as much a sniper's job as killing folk, so I don't reckon he was a total bust.
Huge fun. Now I wonder if I could squeeze in a wee Alpha Legion warband into my cabinet...
Yep - the internal spaces and shooting angles made it a very cagey and tense game. Neither of us could just sit still and shoot, we had to move into range and LOS before engaging, and that was always risky as it traded early shots with less accuracy against your opponent's counterfire. 40K is a great game for gambling in this way, and playing it sat in your own deployment area, upending buckets of dice from leaf-blower armies seems very dull to me.
I wasn't sure about having parts of the board denied to vehicles, that could easily be very tough for certain armies and I hadn't checked it with Stylus before the game. That's probably a necessity for next time, but otherwise I'm definitely thinking about how to model this kind of scenery for future use.
I was cursing the tactical objectives throughout the game, but it's my own fault for ceding board control to Kraken. Being able to sit on 4-5 of the objectives a turn meant that he was well-placed to claim the cards when they came up, whereas I just had to hope for killing ones or Objective 3 inside the bunker. A bit of fortunate rolling almost had me back in the game, and it's a sobering thought that, if I'd drawn just one of my chosen objective cards (out of 15), it would have been worth at least 3 points and a (probably undeserved) victory.
Yeah, my spread out and cling on approach really paid off. Which is lucky, because I got shot to shit! Against the armoured might of a Predator and the Havocs, my light vehicles took a beating. The Valkyrie too, although it managed to survive that deadly alpha strike (ho ho), it did exactly nothing for the rest of the game. Despite this, and also because of the fortunate failure of the Hellbrutes to sweep the middle, I still picked up enough cheap and easy VPs to pull through.
I liked playing Alpha Legion (oh no, not another Traitor Legion, please). I Am Alpharius is especially fun and characterful, and the -1 to hit (when I remember to apply it) adds some nice survivability. I like the Obliterators (though they didn't last long) and I reckon I'd rather have a second unit of them than a Predator, who seemed to fade away once he'd dropped a damage bracket.
I reckon what you need is your own homebrew chapter here, that can legitimately swap between various Traits of your choice. Which is what I've got with Hivefleet Kraken, for example. I know it's not quite the same as following the official schemes, especially for ones with great fluff and colours like the XXth Double Crossers, but it also lets you go Renegade when you want. That's another very decent trait worth looking at.
Yes, I think I might apply my Black Legion like that - judging by the novel, they're a very broad church, so it wouldn't be absurd to have them absorbing other Traitor Legions. But I could never play a Renegade Legion: I'm too much of a classicist, I have insufficient imagination to create one and, critically, they're not allowed to play Veterans of the Long War stratagem.
The Helbrutes had so much promise, but failed when I really needed them. A buffing character like a Dark Apostle or Chaos Lord would have helped mitigate their whiffs (plus ... extra characters to play the I Am Alpharius whack-a-mole game) but I like their load-out of flamer-fist and heavy-bolter.
For my part, I should probably observe that Ogryn Bodyguards should actually guard bodies, not run off by themselves like lone assassins. That accounted for the deaths of both my Guard characters, particularly on Nork's part. Mind you, at the same time, the bloody assassins were pretty useless! I'll be taking them again, I think they are probably capable of more, but other than useful psychological pressure they didn't really justify their points.
It was very enjoyable to see the Vindicare miss or flunk every shot (somebody left his bullets at home...), but it greatly limited the freedom of movement for my fast-moving and quite killy warlord. Keeping heads down is as much a sniper's job as killing folk, so I don't reckon he was a total bust.
Huge fun. Now I wonder if I could squeeze in a wee Alpha Legion warband into my cabinet...
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