No Mantis Left Behind: Mantis Warriors vs Genestealer Cults

Stylus and Kraken here, with a narrative game! This is picking up a rather neglected campaign, following my Mantis Warriors as they attempt to reunite Captain Nampo with his original command and challenge the imposter who has taken his place. 

Last time, he'd fallen foul of a pocket of Genestealer Cultists. Can his bodyguard rescue him?

The space marines ran full pelt through the undergrowth. 

The trail was easy enough to follow. The Atalan bikers they were tracking had driven straight through the light woodland that covered the nearby hills, dragging the marines' fallen captain with them. Initially, torn grass, deep ruts in the soft soil and broken branches marked the path. Just for half a league or so, then they'd crashed through a last thicket and found themselves following a well-beaten track, sheltered from nearby eyes behind carefully-planted hedgerows that blended seamlessly into the rest of the forest. 

It led here. A small bowl of muddy ground nestling within the forest, dark reedbeds surrounding a squat industrial building. Decrepit generators stood around the main complex, rusting slowly into the marsh, but one of them was still running. Other signs of life registered on the marines' scanners - guards posted around the perimeter, hidden in sentry posts that resembled little more than haphazard piles of scrap. But cunning hands had piled the wreckage. There plenty of cover there. 

Veteran Brother Kaiju caught up to his brothers. His ancient terminator armour was spattered with muck and torn vegetation. Keeping pace with the others in their lighter power armour had been a challenge he never expected to win, but had added an enjoyable element of competition to their hunt. 

Now, as he finally caught up to the others, he realised with a shock that they were not alone. 

His three brothers stood around a fourth marine. His armour was scarred and pitted, his robes drab shreds of dark blue cloth plastered to the ceramite beneath with a mix of earth, oil and blood. The complex armature of his heavy helm steamed lightly in the damp air. Fat cables that connected the marine's temples to an additional layer of hooding over the carapace of his armour flexed as he turned to face the newcomer. 

"A Librarian?" Kaiju said, surprised. "I did not think..."

"There is no time to apprise you of how I came to be here," the Librarian said. "I know you seek Captain Nampo. I am Nagai Ryozo, and shall assume command of this task force. We may yet be able to rescue our honoured captain, but we must hurry. Here is my plan..."

The Dirty Not-Quite-A-Dozen

Narrative is all in this game! So Stylus is lumped with the 'historical' forces that previous games have dictated for him. 

In fact, I was going to just give him the four Company Veterans who rather failed to protect the Captain last time, but he asked very nicely for a Librarian. And the original Drawbridge campaign did feature one who survived the initial Tyranid assault, Primaris Librarian Ryozo. So here he is, leading this attack after months of guerrilla warfare. 

The others are a set of four homebrew vets, each with entirely ridiculous combos of weapons. Any passing Ultramarine is going to choke on their coffee on seeing this. Each of them gets a bonus wound and counts as a character, because it's that kind of game!

Mantis Warriors Last Hope Detachment, 3 CPs

• Librarian Ryozo - Force Sword, Bolt Pistol, Spirits of Chorogis, Ride the Winds
• Brother Kaiju - Terminator Veteran with two Pistol 2 Heavy Bolt Pistols, Sensorium
• Brother Massanori - Company Veteran with Bioscanner, Lightning Claw and Plasma Pistol
• Brother Bunko - Company Veteran with Scout Sniper Rifle, Chainsword and Chameleoline Cloak
• Brother Kyoshi - Company Veteran with Multi-melta and Chainsword

Gene Stealers and Cap-nappers

On the other hand, I'm taking an entirely legit force, 500 points worth of Cult of the Four Armed Emperor. Nothing wildly vicious, but there's just a few Space Marines to deal with. I should be fine!

Two blocks of Neophytes to man the base, the Atalan Jackal squad that swiped Nampo plus an Alpha to lead them. Then a smaller squad of Hybrid Acolytes to guard tonight's guest villain, the Cult Magus who's hoping to extract a nice smoothie of Astartes DNA for what we can only assume are purposes. 

We're playing fast and loose with squad coherency, but morale will affect me as normal.

Cult of the Four Armed Emperor Patrol Detachment, 500 points, 3 CPs

• HQ - Magus with Strength From Beyond and Psionic Blast
• No Force Org Slot - Jackal Alpha
• Troops - 10 Neophyte Hybrids with shotguns, one with a webber
• Troops - 11 Neophyte Hybrids with autoguns, leader has a power mail and bolt pistol, someone brought an Icon and there's a Mining Laser and grenade launcher in there somewhere too. 
• Troops - 6 Acolyte Hybrids, two with hand flamers, one with an icon, one with pincers and one with rocksaw, leader has an autopistol and knife
• Fast Attack - 5 Atalan Jackals, Wolfquad with Mining Laser, leader has power weapon and demo charges, someone brought a grenade launcher and the rest have small arms but muscular legs to make up for it

Terrain and Mission

It's a hidden base in a swamp! The swamp was specially requested, so I stuck a bridge over it by way of showing off some of the Archon Rampart stuff that I'd finished recently. 

I've gone and mapped out various items of interest on this map, but Stylus doesn't get to know what or where. He can see the central building, the outlying building behind it as well as two power generators, one of which doesn't look like it's currently active. And there are a few sentries out and about, but most of my guys are (in proper Cult style) using hidden deployment. 

The mission is simple - get in there and find the captain, then save him by whatever means seems best (counter kidnapping or murdering all the cultists). There is a time limit, but Stylus won't get told what it is. GM Machination, that's how I roll. 

What he will get is a Scan action that several of his guys can use. Start at the end of the movement phase, finish at the end of your turn, pick a point on the table and I'll reveal any points of interest or bad guys within 3" of it. The Librarian can also do this as a psychic action. 

As well as intel, the scan will also give a direction to the Captain and his current health status. We agree to use the old Knightmare scale, as so many hospitals do these days, so green with a helmet for 100%, dropping down to a crimson skull at 10%. 

We're also using a limited deck of strats. Stylus takes Fierce Rivalries (an extra d6 for the first unit to charge) and Feigned Retreat (fall back and shoot) plus a new one I made up for the occasion:

• Duty Imperative - 1 CP for a Marine or 2 cp for a character. If it died this phase, return it to life on 1 W at the end of a phase

I'm taking Return to the Shadows (put a unit back into deep strike after movement) and Fanatical Devotion (heroic intervention for a unit near a charged character), plus another new one:

• And Stay Down - if the final wound dealt to a marine is Mortal, pay 2 CPs to prevent it coming back this phase

My chaps will start in sentry mode, where we both roll a dice and the winner moves the sentry that many inches. And I can't attack until the alarm is raised, which means keeping a track of the noise the Mantis Warriors make. Noise points for each of the following:

• shooting a noisy weapon (e.g. chainsword or multi-melta, the latter more for the explosion of whatever gets shot rather than the hiss of the shot itself!)
• casting psychic powers
• standing in the open, one point for each sentry that can see you. Not noise exactly, but you know what we're aiming for here
• attacking one of the Cultists and they survive to the end of the round scores two points for each survivor

At the end of Stylus's turn, I roll a dice, and if I score equal or less than the total Noise, the jig is up and the alarm is raised. Perhaps a touch complex, but should be fun!

Deployment

Well, I've got four visible sentries (two on the bridge, two in nearby sentry posts) and the Atalans, who are lazing around near a fuel stockpile. 

Stylus can deploy within 12" of the corner he's arrived from, and sticks everyone hidden in the bushes, ready to start their run. He gets first turn, and the sinister words 'Good Luck' from me to cheer him on. Let the Narrative commence!

With due apprehension, I put my small strike team at the mercy of the four-armed gamesmaster.

Turn 1

The Marines immediately burst into action, leaping from cover to cover as they head for the nearest sentries. The only one staying back is their sniper, who (with a bit of rerolling) picks off one sentry. Another one goes down when he gets tag teamed by the Psyker and the Lightning Claw veteran, who are taking point on this one. 

Scans reveal that the bridge is just as it seems, a bridge, with no traps or sentry turrets. It also points towards the Captain - he's in rude health right now, looks like being over towards the low building at the back. There's also some chancer with a mining laser up in the watchtower.

In my turn, my sentries potter about hopelessly. One goes back inside to get crisps from the vending machine, the other strolls calmly down to the foot of the bridge, perhaps going to check on his mates. He seems destined to become a stepping stone for these leaping marines on their way into the compound. No alarms, sadly, the marines all used their knives in combat!

Turn 2

Sure enough, the Terminator and the Multi-melta chaps rush the wandering sentry, who lasts no time at all. The Psyker and the Claw Marine muster briefly by the door, with the Librarian scanning the building ahead and finding a trio of cultists manning the balcony, one with a grenade launcher. 

The sniper takes aim on the tower, but his shot just misses the mining laser guard even after rerolls. Although the rifle itself is silent, the cultist may realise he's being shot at, which gives me a ray of hope.

Thinking to rush these dupes from behind, the marines then charge blindly into the room beyond. Alas, it's full of more cultists! And the Claw guy can't actually reach them, ending up just short. 

Luckily, the Librarian makes it in; unluckily, he whiffs his attack and only kills three of the four, leaving their leader alive. He bops a wound off with his power maul, then legs it off into the next room in my turn.

He should have done better. His psychic powers failed, his grenade was a dud. Never send a Mantis to do a Wolf's job.

But that's kind of it for my turn! Despite having two guards survive, a 66% chance of sounding the alarm fails. I guess they're too surprised to do more than splutter and stagger about. The cultist who survived the Claw can't save his own life again (and isn't eternally grateful), so the Mantis Warriors have dodged a bullet here. 

Brutal melee with an armoured foe? Nothing to see here, I'll carry on with my rounds.

Turn 3

The marines capitalize on this by pressing further into the complex. The marines on the bridge dash across, pouncing on and murdering the few sentries still alive up there, whilst the Librarian chases after the Neophyte leader who got away. 

My sniper guy is now left well behind in the bushes of the original starting point. This isn't perhaps the best use of 20% of my assault force, but I'm playing the narrative here and having him covering the advance.

Alas, this gets him his own Han Solo moment, as he runs straight into a room packed with shotgun-toting cultists. There's also some kind of power cell charger device in there, and an archaic artillery piece - clearly this is the cult's armoury.

Unfazed by being outnumbered eleven-to-one, he immediately starts murdering with witchfire, pistol and sword, and makes a pretty good fist of it! Half of the cultists fall, and it would probably be more if he'd managed Spirits of Chogoris too. But that power fails, blocked by a psychic dispel from somewhere nearby, and to add to this headache, the five surviving cultists claw another wound off the Librarian and the rest then pass morale.

Wait, that guy is wearing the wrong colour green! Open fire!

With five alerted cultists, even I can't fail the alarm roll! Finally, my troops notice that nearly a third of their number are already dead and start running about panicking or being mugged from behind by the infiltrators.

"Watcha doing?"
"We're on the lookout for astartes."

The Atalans unleash a proper hail of fire on Brother Kaiju, the terminator on the bridge. Despite mining lasers, grenade launchers and a peppering of small arms fire, he's entirely unscathed. The rest of the shotgun cultists get clobbered by the Librarian, but they at least buy time for the Cultist Leader who kited the Librarian in here. He legs it outside, now holding the power cell from the charger. What could it be for?

Turn 4

The battery was actually for the back-up generator, but nobody got to find that out

The Librarian easily catches and kills the guy with the battery, while the marines on the bridge attempt to shoot the Atalans. But they're jinking about all over the place, and the shooting all goes wild.

Stylus sends his backfield sniper charging forwards. He's in assault doctrine now, where Mantis Warriors (White Scars) often shine, and this lone gunman is hell-bent on attacking the Atalans. Much to my horror, he makes it through a hail of overwatch to kill over half the squad!

Yeah boy! Clearly he was a chainsword specialist that just happened to be carrying a sniper rifle!

It cost me a CP (and a healthy slice of luck) to make the armour save when I got hit by an overwatch demolition charge, but was clearly well worth it. I also look like a tactical genius for leaving a rearguard to ambush the bikers, rather than it being something of a fluke.

My retaliation is to run away from the sniper, keeping the Jackal Alpha protected to shoot back. Typically, she misses her shot, and that means I don't have a lot else going on, what with everyone else being dead. 

Turn 5

Which means the Mantis Warriors are clear to consolidate, and this they certainly do - the Librarian powers himself forward, blasts away the remaining Jackals, charges the Alpha and cuts both her and her bike cleanly in half!

Whilst watching this from the bridge, Brother Kaiju uses his sensorium to scan the building at the back. To nobody's surprise, this is where the Captain is being held, along with my Magus and the Acolytes. But they're well protected - a power field, connected to the local grid, seals the door. And whatever they're up to in there, they've reduced Captain Nampo to 50% health. The marines had better hurry up!

Turn 6-8

The marines now try and work out how to get into the compound for a few turns, moving up to get into position for a tactical strike. Scanning the area reveals that there are two generators, and one of them is way over the other side of the board. As their sniper runs to try and turn it off (hopefully powering off the door), the others have a think. 

It took him the rest of the game to get there, and in the end, he reached it too late!

Stylus wonders about pulling out the artillery piece and using it to break into the prison, but sensibly decides that high explosives probably won't help Nampo come out alive. Instead, he remembers his multi-melta...

This is exactly how I approach roleplay games. The GM has left a delightful puzzle of deactivating the generator to power down the door and I decide to nuke my way directly through the walls instead.

Over two turns, the marines make their own door by slagging a hole in the wall! Ryozo, the Librarian, completes the entrance by smiting in an elegant door jam, and the marines come pounding in the moment they can. Time to switch to the narrative camera for the last two turns!

Turns 9-10

Red hot metal drooled from the edges of the hole. Even as Kyoshi finished his blast, shifting the multi-melta back over his shoulder to draw his chainsword, Ryozo ran full tilt toward the makeshift entrance, screaming a battlecry. 

Kaiju echoed it, thundering forward in his armour, both his pistols outstretched. 

Fire blasted out of the hole in sheets, the enemy within attempting to discourage their charge with flamers. Massanori and Ryozo spun aside, leaping to positions either side of the door. Kaiju kept storming forwards, his ancient Terminator armour fully proofed against such feeble heat. 

The others still got there first. There wasn't much room in the hole, the blasted remains of scanning equipment jutted across it, smoking and sparking. Ryozo and Massanori darted in ahead of him, and the narrow gap forced him to slow a little until they'd vanished through the hanging curtain of smoke the defenders' sprays had left behind. 

Kaiju focussed on his sensorium. Blind in the smoke, his mind parsed the information projected across the inside of his helm, effortlessly translating them to a working map of the room ahead. 

A blazing map of energy covered the space with snaking tangles - power cables across the floor and ceiling, he realised, powering the field that still blocked the doorway. A cruel maze of barbed and alien sigils designated the device where his Captain's vital signs hung, flashing alarmingly as they dwindled. Dotted around this labyrinth of traces were the tell-tale blips of the foe, as well as the energy signatures of their weapons. 

Ryozo's trace was in amongst the enemy already, Massanori covering his flank. For a split second, Kaiju hung back in their ingress, pistols sweeping the room. There! A clear shot - the heavy handguns bucked against the powered frame of his armour, and a lifesign went from spiked to flat as the rounds connected. 

Something gripped his stomach, a sick feeling like that before a combat drop. His sensorium flickered and flared, blaring nonsense for a moment as static rushed the scene. It was cold in his armour, frost glazed the viewplate. 

A psyker. 

The sensorium went dark. He couldn't see the psyker. Had the others sensed it too? He swung his pistols about, trying to spot the heretic. 

Massanori struggled with a monstrous freak wearing the ragged remains of a ground crew uniform. The mutant was wielding a high-yield welding torch, something that belonged on a powered rig, driving the burning tip steadily towards Massanori's face with one arm as the veteran struggled with two more appendages. No clean shot. 

Ryozo was down, Kaiju realised with dismay. Another of the malformed hybrids squatted over him, hooting in triumph and smashing an enormous rotary saw over and over against the pinned Librarian's cowled armour. Kaiju shot it without another thought, but another one pounced him from the other side, thickly-muscled arms grappling his pistol and forcing the barrel up to the roof before he could fire. Twisting, he tried to bring the other gun to bear, but his opponent quickly let go, ducked round behind him and dug its claws in, hugging his back where the pistols couldn't reach. 

Kaiju staggered about, trying to dislodge the treacherous creature. Ryozo was trying to get up, trying to focus energy through his force sword. Flickers of blue lightning reached out across the room but sputtered and died out before they could connect. 

A robed figure stalked out of the darkness holding a slim, brass stave. It speared the Librarian where he lay, a dark energy seething round the tip of the staff. Even seeing it made the pit in Kaiju's stomach feel deeper. Ryozo groaned deeply, then lay still. 

Lights chimed in his helm - his sensorium was crackling back to life. Urgent warning signs told him that Nampo was moments from death, that Ryozo was already there. That Massanori was dying! A glance told him that his veteran brother was twitching and spasming as the hybrid slowly pushed its electric torch through his neck. 

It was too much. 

With a mighty bellow, Kaiju planted both feet firmly on the ground and hurled himself backwards against the wall. There was a resonant crack as the enemy scrabbling on his back was caught between the mass of his Terminator armour and a still-glowing spur of burnt metal beside the breach. Ready for the impact, Kaiju was already pushing himself forward from the wall, firing both pistols behind him as he did so just to make sure. 

Then he charged the robed psyker, roaring and firing as he did. 

A thin smile on its twisted lips, the robed heretic let go of its staff. The slender weapon began to spin in front of him, impossibly fast. Bolt rounds detonated against it, adding yet more chaos and noise to the broken room. That terrible dark energy flickered and blossomed, spreading out around the staff, seeming to fill Kaiju's vision like a black hole that sucked all light and warmth out of the world. Warp-chill filled his armour as he sprinted towards the endless void. 

Good, he thought. Now I have your attention. 

Kaiju couldn't feel the warmth of Kyoshi's multi-melta, but he knew it was there. The robed figure was blindsided, transfixed by the heat ray as Kyoshi fired from just outside the breach. Caught in that searing energy, its flesh ran like wax for a few seconds before its blood boiled explosively. The poised malice of the cultists' leader was obliterated in a brief wet blast. 

Then Kaiju finished his charge, reaching the device that held Captain Nampo prisoner and unloading both pistols into it until his sensorium couldn't detect even a trace of energy. 

Locker Room

It went to the wire! 

If I could have just kept the marines back for one more turn, I'd have extracted all that genetic goodness from Nampo. But no, the cultists were just too squishy - those veterans weren't stopping for anyone. 

All the same - Stylus started cannily enough, but nearly fell victim to his own bloodlust. I'd expected him to scan more thoroughly, finding the power generators and perhaps blowing them up early with the multi-melta. By the time he'd worked out that was the way to get into the jail, he was out of position. His scout wouldn't have made it in time. Tunnelling with the multi-melta was a great idea, and a very fun bit of narrative to improvise round!

Brilliant stuff! I loved running my elite strike team through the innumerable foe. I even stuck to the script for a while - hugging cover and silently taking out sentries. I'm afraid once the lid was blown, I only had eyes for killing xenos, not scanning for additional clues. 

I got very lucky at the end, although I was quite proud of the idea that the best way to deal with an impassable door is the remove the walls.

Excellent fun. But does this mean Nampo is finally free to get off Drawbridge? Or will these cultists have alerted their synaptic overlords to the presence of some escaped lunch?