Warbanned

 
Zamaroon! And a second Inquisitorial attempt at fomenting rebellion.

Having stashed actions by biding my time this round, I’ve got a couple of battles to play out. Originally, I was going to do this one with a simple dice roll, but then the Easter holidays turned up and Kas had free time. So a slightly more complex set of dice rolls was in order to settle the fate of a world.

2000 points and a full objective game! That’s quite a bit more complex. Not many photos, though, it's a Zoom match tonight, so you'll have to imagine how amazing it all looked. 

Crypt and Torn

Renegade Warband did some mean things to me in the hands of Stylus, so I’m keen to try it out. Lots of vicious infantry and some tanks to hide them in, plus the full range of Kas’s collection to choose from - that’s a lot of choice, and it’s easy to get sidetracked. Crypt Angels for both of us here, but I'm on team traitor. 

A pair of Huntsmen backs up a list that has bits of everything in it. There’s a Termite (that old staple of 8th ed horrors), a big pack of Possessed and even the all-new Masters of the Maelstrom. Lots of killing power but possibly a bit light on defence.

Zamarooners

• The Masters of the Maelstrom
• Lord Discordant
• Winged Daemon Prince (Slaaneshi)
• Warpsmith with Weaponised Hatred
• Master of Possessions with Empyric Symbiote
• 5 Legionaries, missile launcher and heavy close combat weapon
• 5 Chosen with a variety of gear
• 5 Warptalons
• 10 Possessed
• A Forgefiend, triple ectoplasma
• A Termite
• A Rhino
• 2 Huntsmen

Shady Characters

Kas has taken a Raven Guard list to represent the Imperium’s defenders here. It’s chock-full of fast infantry and very capable of a lot of redeployment. No vehicles in sight, which makes my Disco Lord and Huntsmen a bit sad, but then there’s only one unit that can give my big vehicles much pause.

That unit is a full block of lascannon-armed Centurions! Not seen any of those on a table for a long time. Not sure I’m glad to again…

Neither of us are getting points for fully painted here, which I take as a personal challenge

Shadowmark Talon

• Aethon Shaan
• Kayvaan Shrike
• Captain with Jump Pack, Relic Weapon, Plasma pistol
• Chaplain with Jump Pack, Hunter's Instincts, Bolt pistol
• Judiciar, Blackwing Shroud
• Lieutenant with Combi-weapon, Coronal Susurrant
• 5x Intercessor Squad
• 5x Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs
• 6x Bladeguard Veteran Squad
• 6x Centurion Devastator Squad
• 3x Inceptor Squad
• 3x Inceptor Squad
• 5x Infiltrator Squad
• 3x Suppressor Squad
• 10x Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs
• 5x Vanguard Veteran Squad with Jump Packs

Mission and Deployment

We’re playing Scorched Earth, so the primary mission is 5 VP for each objective you’re on to a max of two. You can also perform a long action to burn the objectives down, getting five for the midfield or ten for your opponent’s home base. Everything else is in secondaries.

Zamaroon means the twist is set as ’no strats at all for the first two turns’ to represent the Tyranid menace lurking in the jungles. This concerns Kas greatly! A lot of his army power comes from movement tricks and uppy downy stuff, whereas mine is a bit more focussed in the detachment rule itself. I’m more worried about losing rerolls, I know my luck.

We’re deploying from the corners into a clutch of ruined research buildings.  Very professional-looking stuff, this - masses of places to hide and stage, but a long shooting alley across the middle.

Both of us play it fairly safe, knowing we might want to preserve forces for a big strat turn later on, but Kas sneaks Infiltrators and Bladeguard (the Justicar has a relic) on the outer midfield objectives. There’s a loner Lieutenant out there too - the rest is castled up at home or in the sky.

For my part, the big guns lurk in a clump back at hone base with the Possessed, Disco Lord and Rhino (Legionaries) taking the flanks. Warptalons and a Termite full of Chosen and Masters ready to ambush, and I get first turn!

Fight!

My first draw is Assassins and Marked for Death. Kas slaps that latter bonus on a bunch of people I can neither see nor reach, but I get to pick the Bladeguard. Purely by coincidence, they're also my Vendetta target (that's chaos Oaths, if you're wondering). 

And then there's lots of coy shuffling behind ruins - the bulk of my army stays pretty much put, with just the Possessed sneaking along inside their ruin for later. The Rhino and the Lord Discordant both opt to advance and charge, however, but they also both fail their battleshock tests. That's fine! I can't play strats on them anyway. The Termite pops up near the midfield after Kas's Lieutenant uses an ability to run away from the incoming Chaos chaps. No escape for you, pal. 

The little shooting I've got bounces off the ruins that the Bladeguard are in, but successfully melts the Lieutenant. Then I charge the Bladeguard rather reluctantly, as they've got a Fights First Judiciar with them, and I know what he can do to a spindly Disco Lord. 

He doesn't! He merely hacks off four wounds, and that with the squad helping him. My saves are on point, but so are Kas's, and only a couple of Bladeguard fall in return. 

Kas hits back by hurling a ten-man Vanguard Vet squad at the Termite. They all turn out to be holding inferno pistols, to my horror, but luckily the shooting doesn't really connect. They more than do the job in melee, though, ramming home and perforating the tank in short order. It blows up, but not hard enough to kill anyone, and the Chosen stagger out towards the middle. 

The Bladeguard quite like being wrapped up in combat - they kill the Disco Lord fairly easily this time, and try as the Rhino might, it can't claim any more of their lives. 

And I've got a Chaplain in the backyard - leading some Assault Intercessors, he's dropped in and killed all my cultists before hiding in the ruins! Annoying!

Into turn two, and I'm now trying to cleanse some objectives. The Possessed mass a charge into the Infiltrators nearby and clean them out easily; the Huntsmen surge into the middle so one can cleanse it and the other can lend firepower into the reeling Vanguard Vets pack. 

They're my Vendetta right now, and the Masters with the Chosen make a reasonable attempt to get rid of them. After shooting and charges, there's only three left, but one of them is a nasty character who butchers a couple of Chosen in revenge. 

The Forgefiend dashes round the corner of the back ruins and lights up a couple of the Intercessors, then the Warpsmith bursts through a wall and kills the others. Alas, the Chaplain is still alive and promptly clobbers him in return, so it's a scoring draw back there. I'd hoped for better from the Forgefiend's shooting!

Legionaries pile out of the Rhino and start Cleansing the nearby objective, but the Bladeguard are having none of that. They reclaim it from me after eating the Rhino in a single turn. 

Kas doubles down on all this by bringing in some of his deep strikers. Inceptors pop up along my back line, reinforcing the Bladeguard as they run to deal with the Chosen and threatening the Forgefiend with plasma fire. 

More than threatening, in fact - the Forgefiend dies to a single volley of overcharged plasma! Not good - and after various shots and charges, the Masters of the Maelstrom meet their match in the Bladeguard squad. The veterans kill off the Chosen, and the Judiciar kills everyone else except the Enforcer, boosting his number of attacks to horrific levels. 

What Kas is still worried about, though, is the Possessed. His Centurions are stuck in the back field, unable to draw lines of sight without access to their uppy-downy abilities, and if I can connect with them, they'll be in trouble. So he screens them with some valiant Intercessors and hopes for the best. 

Turn three, and finally we've got strats! And heaps of CPs to spend on them, so it's very much off to the races now. 

As the Enforcer limps backwards on the home objective, one Huntsman heads for the Bladeguard, the other for the Plasma Inceptors. The Daemon Prince, who's done nothing so far at all, takes aim on that infuriating Chaplain, but the ruins screen him all too well, especially when he runs away from the DP's charge. At least that leaves him open to a beating from the other Huntsman, who duly squishes him in melee. 

The Possessed roar forwards and slaughter the screening line of marines, leaving the objective stickied as they go. The midline Huntsman totally fails to shoot any Bladeguard, kills a pair on the charge and then gets duffed up by the Judiciar and his nine attacks. Battered but not quite dead, at least. I've scored a bit too, ten on primaries and another on storming Kas's backline objective with the Possessed. We're both doing reasonably well so far, the scores are pretty level in the mid-forties, and there's plenty left to play for. 

Kas's turn sees the Centurions finally leap into the air and redeploy, taking a back corner with sight on the DP and the Possessed. Most of the rest of his small squads are busy securing assets all over the place, but that one unit has enough firepower to riddle the Daemon Prince with lascannon holes and devastate the Possessed with missiles. The staggered survivors get double rammed by Vanguard Vets and Assault Intercessors, and it's game over for them - I had the CPs to interrupt, but getting them there last turn left them battleshocked with Twisted Doctrines, and they're cut down before they can respond. 

What I can do is Intervene with the Warptalons, who could threaten almost anyone. They take a hit from bolter fire and pull Reavers' Reaction towards the middle objective, sticking a clawed foot on it for a little score next turn. 

Although next turn is looking a bit clutch - one Huntsman falls to the hyperactive Judiciar, the other is left reeling on four wounds after another plasma blast from the Inceptors. They've overdone it a bit, though, two of them blow up on their own guns. My army is left looking distinctly iffy, though, there's only two units left!

Well, taking a pounding never put me off before. The damaged Huntsman manages to shoot the last Plasma Inceptor down and even wounds some of the bolter ones, then charges what's left of the Vanguard Vets unit. Battle damage mars its attempts, but it kills the rest of the squad and leaves the character out of range, which lets me romp home again to the rear objective. 

The Warptalons, boosted with Never Outgunned, descend screaming on the Assault Intercessors and kill them all! But they leave their Captain alive, and he doesn't return the favour, killing all four of them when I botch the saves. 

We leave it there - the Centurions are going to uppy-downy my last survivor to death in short order, and Kas has mini-units hopping round the board like fleas scoring stuff in his predicted last turns. The final scores are clear, the Imperium has held firm once more!

Imperium Victory, 86-53

Locker Room 

Great fun, one of those where it was close until it suddenly wasn't. I made Kas sweat for as long as I could, but the early loss of the Forgefiend and the Disco Lord left me a bit short on punch. 

I also wasted that Daemon Prince! He ponced about and did nothing at all, where he could have gone forward and assisted the push on the loyalist's back line. I think I'd still probably have just lost though, those bouncing jetpackers are a right pain to pin down and finish off. 

I'd also sunk way too many points in the paired Huntsmen. No vehicles to target and a distinct vulnerability to massed lascannons left me playing them too carefully (or maybe just carefully enough, having seen what happened to the Daemon Prince). 

I'd give Kas's Bladeguard/Justiciar men of the match. They stuck around for ages and dealt with far too many of my key squads to be forgiven. Good showing for them. My unit at home is only three deep and tends to feel a bit of a featherweight in attack. Running the full six makes them much nastier. 

It was fun having a game where neither of us used a Reroll or Overwatch strats! And having the first two turns as vanilla made for some interesting play. Kas suggested having the first turn with the strats switched off but then random chance for them to fade in and out during the rest of the match as being interesting, we could try that another time.

What does this all mean for the fate of Zamaroon? Well, not much, really! This represented my Inquisitor once more trying to seed Insurrection on the planet, and failing has no negative consequence for me (which is why I was risking it, great coward that I am). He's not there in person to oversee matters, though, he's heading to invade Drawbridge later this week...