Permission to Buzz the Tower: Imperium vs Genestealer Cults

Kraken reporting to the flight deck, along with Pootle - here's a narrative battle report for you!

Captain Okita Nampo knelt on top of a huge defunct coolant fan and looked out of the cavernous hangar doors. 

The valley beyond was bright beyond imagining after a month of skulking in the tunnels below Crenel. Spring had finally come to Drawbridge, long afternoons of tentative sun finally bringing the rich forests beyond the city wall back to life. The colours out there matched his armour, brilliant yellows and greens. Birds called to one another, insects flitted from pool to pool under the trees. 

The hangar's interior was a total contrast, a world of dead metal and silent death. Bristling with gun emplacements and build into the rocky cliff at the end of the valley, it had been envisioned as a final option to destroy an attacker. The resting place of various cataclysmic weapons that could be launched into the city itself if it was taken, it was a secret to all but the highest commanders of the planetary defence force. Now it was useless, its command centre destroyed when the city had been blasted from orbit during the war the year before. 

Nampo had stumbled upon it, along with the few remaining Mantis Warriors he'd been able to locate in the labyrinth of tunnels under Crenel, as they tried to evade the growing Tyranid swarm that still infested the ruins. They had opened it after a week and a half of hard work, using whatever equipment they could find to slowly destroy the massive bars holding the bay doors shut. Then they'd sent a message for help using improvised vox equipment. 

None came. They weren't alone, however, the scattered remnants of the original Imperial workforce were living out in the valley. They'd come back into the hangar that had once been their home, gladly restoring some functionality to the installation but keeping warily away from the godlike Marines waiting there. Months of living rough in the woods, evading the Tyranids, had driven the men somewhat feral, Nampo felt. They made for poor exemplars of Imperial peons. 

After that, Hagan Lamprey Scions had arrived in drips and drabs, rather more model citizens of the Imperium. Soon, the Marines found themselves shepherds of a not-inconsiderable flock of determined survivors. And finally, a more skilled vox operator than Nampo had got the message out. Help was on its way. Aeronautical cavalry, hoping to get in and out to rescue them before the Tyranid pack in the city could respond.

"My Lord?" It was First Lieutenant Dunwich, the de facto commander of the Scions, approaching with the slightly wide-eyed awe the troopers assumed in the presence of the giant Marines. 

"Honourable but incorrect, I fear, First Lieutenant. I am a Captain merely, no Lord." Dunwich looked horrified, so Nampo smiled at him. "No matter, we shall let honour stand on brevity. Please, your news."

"Lord Captain, our aircraft are on final approach. We are ready for their arrival, but our orders are to ensure you and your bodyguards board the first Valkyrie while we ensure a safe perimeter. If that is acceptable to you, of course."

"Many thanks to your commanders, their consideration is greatly appreciated. All of us shall be glad to leave this place, I think."

"Yes, Lord." 

Nampo stood and signalled to his brothers. As one, they formed on him as guards, the irregular ranks of Scions coming to attention as though by the same signal. Nampo wondered briefly if he should say something, some brief speech of thanks. But out in the gentle sunshine beyond the hangar, he could already see a trio of dots in the sky, hear the distant whine of supersonic engines. There was nothing left to say; they were finally leaving this place, returning to the Imperial fold where he could begin the long and doubtless dangerous process of hunting down the imposter who had taken his place. The first step on a long journey, but one he was heartily glad of all the same. He took a deep breath, let it out with a sigh, relaxed for a moment. 

Then the shooting started. 

Fly By White

Following on from our previous game, missing Mantis Warrior Captain Nampo is attempting to escape from an isolated military installation. Mustering together the ragtag survivors of months of guerilla warfare against the Tyranids, he's going to try and escape by airlift. 

This means a few special rules, and an army I have picked for Pootle to represent the forces. 

First up - Lamprey Scions, four smaller squads of special weapons led by a Tempestor Prime and a Primaris Psyker. Vicious if short-ranged firepower in abundance, plus some helpful bodies to protect the Marine. 

Next, Nampo himself, who is coming with a squad of veteran bodyguards. These guys have a total mismatch of weapons and are being played by the kitbashed squad I made earlier this year. 

Finally, the transports. All the Valkyrie-chassis fliers I own, yes, GW, all three of them. You're not the boss of me! So that's a Vulture with the gatling cannons, a Valkyrie and a Vendetta. That's a lot of firepower, armour and empty seats in the air, and we're also ruling that the Marines will be allowed on board today, regardless of what the machine spirits might have to say about it. 

Militarum Tempestus Battalion

• HQ - Tempestor Prime with Power Maul
• HQ - Primaris Psyker with Nightshroud and Psychic Shield powers
• Troops - 8 Scions, chainsword and bolt pistol for Sarge, Vox, 2 Hotshot Volley Guns
• Troops - 8 Scions, same again but this time with 2 Plasma Guns
• Troops - 8 Scions, same again, but now we've got a Grenade Launcher and a Flamer
• Troops - 7 Scions, bare bones this time apart from a pair of Melta Guns
• Fliers - Vulture with Gatling Cannons
• Fliers - Valkyrie with Multi-laser, twin Heavy Bolters and Rocket Pods
• Fliers - Vendetta with more Lascannons than you've had hot breakfasts*

Space Marine Reinforcements, Mantis Warriors

• HQ - Captain Nampo, Warlord with Chogorian Storm, Plasma Pistol and Power Sword
• Elites - Company Veterans, one with Combi-melta and Chainsword, one with Plasma Pistol and Lightning Claw, one with Bolter and Bolt Pistol and a Terminator with twin Heavy Bolt Pistols because why not Wysiwyg 

Is Anything Worn Beneath the Cult?

Facing this lot are my newly painted Genestealer Cults. Look, I'll be honest, it's been a tiring month and I really don't quite have a handle on the rules and possibilities for these guys yet. Fielding pretty much exactly what I have and padding it out with some fun-looking whistles and bells seems like a start on getting a handle on them, but I suspect this is not quite a functional army in some ways. I also picked it before we decided on the mission, so it's not really built around what I have to do here, but I reckon it can just about cope.

There's plenty of them for a start, with a surprisingly potent amount of shooting. In some ways, it's an army that's the dark mirror of the Tempestus Scions, being something of a glass cannon with immense potential mobility and deep strike shenanigans. A little less gun-liney and with more melee flex, of course, but it should be an interesting match-up. 

The Four Armed Emperor Cult has a nice Warlord trait (cheap strat every turn!), a sneaky strat (expensive strat for your enemy!) and some handy army rules (reroll charges and get light cover at a distance), and seems easy enough to get my head around. I'm paying for an extra relic to give the Reductus access to some handy Crossfire shooting too. 

Those fliers have me scared, though. They can probably delete a unit or two per turn, and not only are they slightly above my paygrade in terms of what I can shoot down, but fliers are something GSC don't have special tools to deal with. They have none of their own, for one, plus several of their more explosive tricks (looking at you, Reductus) can't affect fliers at all. Luckily, I have a plan to balance this somewhat...

Genestealer Cults Battalion, Cult of the Four Armed Emperor

• HQ - Magus, Warlord with Inscrutable Cunning trait, Unwilling Orb relic, Psychic Familiar and Mass Hypnosis and Psychic Blast powers
• HQ - Primus
• No Slot - Reductus Saboteur
• No Slot - Acolyte Iconward 
• Troops - 10 Neophytes with Icon, Webber, Flamer, Heavy Stubber, Seismic Cannon and Web Pistol for the Leader, Proficient Planning: A Perfect Ambush
• Troops - 10 Neophytes with Cult Shotguns, Proficient Planning: Lying in Wait
• Troops - 12 Neophytes with Mining Laser and Grenade Launcher, Autoguns
• Troops - 6 Acolyte Hybrids, Icon, Lash Whip and Bone Sword for the leader, two hand flamers, a Rock Saw and Cutter, Proficient Planning: They Came From Below
• Elites - 10 Purestrain Genestealers, Proficient Planning: Our Time Is Nigh
• Elites - 10 Purestrain Genestealers, Proficient Planning: From Every Angle
• Elites - Reductus Saboteur, Relic - Oppressor's Bane
• Fast Attack - Achilles Ridgerunner with Missile Launcher and Flare Launcher
• Fast Attack - Atalan Jackals, 2 with Power Weapons, 2 with Demolition Charges, Wolfquad with Mining Laser, Proficient Planning: Excavate

Mission and Terrain

It's a massive hangar at the end of an overgrown canyon today, as interpreted by my scenery collection. Woods, hills and generators outside, industrial clutter and huge pillars on the other, and it's a 6x3 board. 

On either side of the hangar's opening are fortified redoubts. These are also capturable Objectives. The one on the left of the overhead maps has an Icarus Stormcannon, the one on the right has a Stormspear Rocket Launcher (armaments borrowed from the least popular Space Marine Tanks in the world, the Hunter and Stalker). If you hold the objective in your own shooting phase, the weapon can fire at a flyer (and only a flyer) using the lowest BS from the holding models. This is my answer to the illegal jets! If I can hold them, anyway. 

So what are we doing here? Well, Nampo has to get off the board. Specifically, from deploying within 18" of one short edge, he has to get off the other side. The three fliers will deploy touching that opposite edge, and we've added a couple of rules to them. First, the Marines can get on board. Second, their bases are effectively just part of the tabletop unless they're hovering, none of that charge blocking nonsense here thanks. Third, you can only get on board if they are hovering, so they can't scoop and swoop. 

The narrow board probably means they have to hover for a turn anyway, so I can try and time my counterstrike to grab them at that point. And just for 'fun', the tall pillars in the hangar are hazardous to the jets, so if they end a move within 3" of one in supersonic mode, they have to pass a Ld test or take a d3 Mortal wounds. This is what passes for balance in my mind, anyway!

The Imperium under Pootle win if Nampo escape. I win if I stop that happening. 

Deployment

I'm setting up in the middle, 24" away from the Imperial troopers, and I'm already confused by my own ambush markers despite practising a bit beforehand. I know I have the Jackals, the Acolytes and the Shotgunners in Underground ambushes, and everything else turns up as blips to start with. My sincere hope is this will be as confusing for Pootle as it is for me.

My set-up is simplified by not having a clue what Kraken intends each blip to represent and not really knowing what the various capabilities of each unit are anyway. I spread the Scion units out front, staggered slightly to prevent (well, slightly limit) deep-strike.

The Marine bodyguard go behind the Scions, protecting Nampo, with the two Scion characters also fairly central.

Revealing the blips, the Acolytes use their They Came From Below planning to nip underground, as the small Genestealer squad uses a strat to sneak off into early Reinforcements, so I might hit a flank early with a bit of luck. 

Otherwise, I've got the Ridgerunner and the big Genestealer pack on the left, then the Mining Laser Neophytes and all the characters on the right. They've got some woods to hide in, but the characters in particular are looking a bit exposed...

Final positions

I'm going first (on the grounds that this is an ambush and that we both think there won't be much army left if the fliers get first shots). Go!

Genestealer Cult Turn 1

Tracer fire sprayed out of the forest into the belly of the lead aircraft, raising sparks and smoke. The other two in the formation immediately sped up, lifting higher, breaking out of their linear flight paths into weaving evasive patterns. 

Nampo stared into the greenery, senses straining for the foe. 

There - men and women in drab uniforms, armed with a motley assortment of basic firearms. Cloaked figures amongst them, shouting orders and directing the sudden attack. The hangar workers - he'd wondered where they'd been in the last few hours. Now he knew. 

On the other side of the valley, a sudden engine roar, and a rusting, mud-encrusted vehicle suddenly burst from a hidden culvert at the base of one of the defensive towers that flanked the hangar door. Streaks of fire and smoke lifted from a crude missile rack on the buggy's back, hammering the incoming flyer with bursts of flak. 

The driver was standing proud in the open cab of his jeep, overalls stripped back to the waist as he hunched over the wheel. He was steering it with both hands. Both hands and a single armoured claw, and Nampo immediately knew why these traitors were attacking them.

"Tyranid thralls! Flank overwatch, now!"

He was almost too late. Inside the hangar, the shadows suddenly filled with swift, deadly life as the jaws of the ambush began to close around them. 

The Ridgerunner repositions so it can still shoot at the fliers but is shielded from fire from the Scions. The Primus and Reductus Saboteur make a beeline for the ladder leading up to the anti-aircraft missile system.

The two units of Genestealers pop out of hiding on the right and left flanks, but both fail their charges (with the 5-strong unit losing two of their number to overwatch from a Flamer-armed Scion).

The Magus Smites and then Psychic Blasts four wounds off the Vendetta and then, although the Ridgerunner misses its target, the Mining Laser embedded in the Neophyte Hybrid squad manages to take another five wounds off the flier!

Imperium Turn 1

The Scions were fast to respond, Nampo noted with approval, darting towards the foe and felling them with well-timed volleys. He'd fought more than enough Genestealers in the cramped passages under Crenel, seen their inhuman speed and terrible strength too often. But with the actual mother swarm in the city above, he'd forgotten their other ghastly abilities, the way they could capture the minds and hearts of men, bringing them lower than mere death could. 

A brood of the vile xenos swarmed out of cover, pouring down the access gantry that led to one of the defence platforms. The nearest Scions fireteam opened up on them, bringing a few down, but there were too many, they were too close, leaping and sprinting towards the men and entirely heedless of their own dead. Before even his own pistol was up, they were gone in a shattering blast - a gunship screamed into the open hangar, the echoes of its blazing cannons deafening in the enclosed space. 

Dunwich was shouting at him, waving one arm at his nearby troopers to clear a space and beckoning to Nampo to approach. A second aircraft was heading in, a Valkyrie, wingtip landing jets roaring with the effort of slowing down enough to make a safe landing. His ride was finally here.

The three fliers head towards the southern flank and I start rolling dice. A lot of dice!

I can't get many Scions within range of the two units of Stealers, and I really, really want to kill them before they gobble up my squads. But I don't need many. The Plasma-armed Scion unit on the southern side, opposite the ten-strong unit of Stealers does sterling work all by itself and their northern Flamer-armed brothers also drop a couple.

Time for the fliers! The Vendetta's Lascannon (just) manage to destroy the Ridgerunner, and the other two have plenty of gun to drop not only the remaining Stealers, but the Reductus Saboteur as well, who was just about to climb up the ladder to the Stormspear.

Genestealer Cult Turn 2

Even as the Valkyrie swung in the open doorway, belly tilting forwards as it lowered itself gracelessly towards the metal decking, Nampo saw more figures on the defence platforms. In overalls and jump suits, hunched crews were desperately working cogitators and cranks, teasing turret weaponry back into unwilling life. A triple barrelled autocannon slowly nodded its barrels towards the Valkyrie, straining to face in an angle it hadn't been intended to fire in. 

From the opposite platform, a single missile launcher sudden spat fire. The rocket looped into the valley. Straight for the third jet, the one that had first taken fire and was now limping towards the hangar, trailing smoke. Nampo clenched his teeth, powerless to help, but then the missile then flipped round and sped straight back into the hangar, faster than the Valkyrie could hope to evade as it settled heavily downwards. 

Light and flame bloomed above him like a volcanic flower.

A relatively quiet turn as I opt to keep reinforcements in my pocket for later, just adding one unit of Shotgun-armed Hybrids, who climb up through a hatch to grab the Stormcannon.

The Primus hops up onto the roof to take control of the AA missile. The former manages to down the already-damaged Vendetta and then we discover that the Stormspear missile has pretty impressive stats against aircraft, though Pootle spoils it for now by squeaking out a six for the Valkyrie's armour save. In fact, boosted by a strat and some very hefty dice rolling, the squad's shotguns actually take off more wounds than the missile does!

Imperium Turn 2

Somehow, the Valkyrie was still in the air, still operational. Still setting down in front of him, a blackened boarding ramp lowering. 

"Brother Captain! You must leave immediately!" Brother Kaiju instructed him calmly over the vox. The veteran, leader of his impromptu bodyguards, had survived in the tunnels for over a year, killing Tyranids all the while. His ancient Terminator armour was damaged almost beyond recovery, his original weapons long gone. He now fought with a pair of heavy bolt pistols he'd salvaged from somewhere or other, mostly using them as vicious clubs to preserve his ammunition. 

"This perimeter will hold, but those turret weapons alarm me," Nampo observed. "You and your squad will kindly eliminate the threat, Kaiju. I am boarding now." 

First order of business is to get as many Scions with LoS on the units shooting the AA batteries. Once they've moved forwards, this frees up space for the Valkyrie to drop down and pop its hatch near to Nampo, who runs forward and leaps inside. Meanwhile the marine bodyguard and the psyker spread out to try to prevent the next wave getting too close to the transport.

The Vulcan similarly drops into hover-mode and spins around to aim its many gun barrels back up towards the GSC.

With almost all the Scions able to shoot now alongside the Vulture, the Primus and Neophyte Hybrids manning the guns on top of the buildings are reduced to a red mist with relative ease.

Genestealer Cult Turn 3

He was up the ramp in a heartbeat, leaving the gloomy expanse of the hanger for a more intimate metal enclosure. His head scraped the cramped confines of the transport. The hanging straps were too low, too thin to comfortably support his frame, and he contemplated activating the magnets in his armoured boots for safety, then decided against the power drain. His armour hadn't been charged for months, it was an unnecessary expenditure. 

"Captain! Tell your pilot to depart, the platforms have been clear... no! Captain, wait, there's..."

Light and fury engulfed him.

All my remaining reserves come out to play: more Neophyte Hybrids appear on the roof with the Stormspear missile launcher, with a unit of Acolyte Hybrids on the southern roof, and the Atalan Jackals popping up from their hiding place in the centre of the battlefield.

The big anti-aircraft guns speak, with the Stormcannon dropping six wounds off the Valkyrie and then the big missile streaking in. Pootle can't pull another six out of the bag for the armour save, but does produce one for the explosion test! Only one squad isn't within 6" of the big bird, so we spend an entertaining few minutes handing out mortal wounds.

The Acolyte Hybrids charge the Vulture and tear through it with relative ease. All the fliers are now down and Pootle is in quite a fix!

Imperium Turn 3

I was right not to engage magnets, Nampo thought as thought returned to him. Whatever had hit the Valkyrie had done so hard enough to burst it apart like a wet cardboard box. He'd been thrown straight out of the still-open ramp by the blast, and his armour had saved his life. If he'd been clamped to the flight deck, he'd have died inside with the crew.

Even as he staggered to his feet, taking in the burning wreckage and dead Scions strewn around him, he saw the gunship hovering uncertainly in the mouth the hangar, rotary cannons blazing as it strafed the treeline outside. 

Impossibly, a formation of bikers emerged from the soil just underneath it, bursting out of a covered trench. The gunship was too low, the angle of attack too unexpected - the lead biker hurled some kind of explosive device just high enough before the pilot could react, and the blast demolished the cockpit in a flash of shrapnel and fire. The gunship pivoted violently, then spun wing first into a copse of trees, tail pylons snapping off as easily as the branches it sheared through. 

More of the degenerate groundcrew were emerging from the trees, guns rattling. He was right out in the open, the great mouth of the hangar spitting him out at them, no cover, nowhere to hide. 

"Charge!" Nampo shouted, trying to clear his throbbing head, drawing his blade and making for the bikers. "Kill them all, in the Emperor's name!"

Oh dear...well that's pretty much game over, but Kraken and I discuss that their might be a narrative way out of this if Nampo can kill the Bikers and leap Bond-style onto one of the bikes.

Once more the Scions shooting is impressive and all the Neophyte Hybrids on the roof with the Stormspear are dispatched, along with all but one of the Acolyte Hybrids in my midst.

Nampo charges into the Bikes, but everyone else fails their charges. Admittedly none were easy (all at least 9") and I regret the lack of support not so much for the damage they might have caused, but the lack of screening troops for Nampo next turn.

Even alone, I expect Nampo to cause some havoc with the Bikes, but rolling 6 ones to hit does not help... ooops...

At this stage we decide to draw a discreet veil over proceedings. If the GSC had another turn it would have been easy for the Magus to stroll forwards and Smite Nampo, and the remaining Bikes can pull some tricks too. So it's story time again.

Aftermath

Kaiju watched helpless as the Captain ran, staggering, into the group of bikers. His sword carved straight through the first one, taking the front fork off the bike as well, then he discharged his pistol into a second, the plasma charge igniting the fuel tank and flinging the rider into the air, burning and screaming. 

A fat quad-bike slewed round sideways, smashing into the armoured captain and knocking him over, weapons tumbling from his grasp. Before he could get up, the rider attached some kind of magnetic cable to the marine's armour, then gunned the powerful engine and sped away, towing Nampo behind him in a tumbling heap. 

"I don't have a shot!" Dunwich swore beside him. Kaiju looked at his twin bolt pistols furiously, threw them down. Nor did he. He snatched a hotshot gun from the nearest Scion, knocking the man over and having to hold him still with one foot so that his thrashing wouldn't jerk on the gun's power cable and spoil his aim, but it was too slow. The laser blast dissipated over the steadily-increasing range to the quad, doing nothing more than searing the driver's overcoat. 

Then they were gone, the Captain vanishing into the treeline along with the rider. 

"Provide us with covering fire," Kaiju told the dismayed Lieutenant. "We will recover him shortly." And he broke into a run, the rest of his squad alongside him. 

That was shorter than I hoped, but also more fun! 

Absolutely! I was worried that I'd either swoop in too easily (with Kraken unable to deal with the jets) or the GSC's infiltration would unpeel my defensive lines and prevent the jets being able to land anywhere nearby.

I'm a bit out of practice, I haven't played 40K in a few months, and if I'd have thought about it more carefully, I would have probably stipulated that you needed control of the gun platforms at the start of your turn to fire them. That might have encouraged a bit more back and forth over them. Or not, the Imperials could easily rinse me off them in short order! Perhaps a pair of Stalker cannons instead of the ridiculous rocket launcher, then, might have made it rather closer. 

I don't think either of us knew quite how good the Stormspear is against fliers (+2 to hit, damage D6+6), but it was still tremendous fun to pilot all three jets! Someone tell GW that it's possible to do this, have fun and still lose.

As it was, it was still nice to get the new army into action. I clearly have a lot to learn there, but I like what I've seen so far. Lots of nice tricks, but such fragility that you need to queue them up carefully or really make sure you take out all potential counterpunches very effectively. And don't run the characters about by themselves, you fool! 

This mission was really a poor first outing for the Cult, but perhaps that did mean that Kraken wasn't overwhelmed with opportunities to try out different tricks. We had a chat afterwards that perhaps I could have made things harder for him by sending some Scions forwards to dispute ownership of the AA guns, but I was worried that that would expose Nampo to deep strikes and might just end up feeding a unit into the claws of some Stealers.

A good narrative twist too - I look forward to finding out how Nampo gets out of this pickle in whatever the next instalment turns out to be! 

Yes, I've got to get him out of there. And quick smart, before the Mantis Warriors are forced to choose between a doppelganger fake Captain and one who's been "persuaded" to help the GSC. Gulp!

*assuming a disappointing life total of less than 6