Skullduggery in The Underhive!

Interrogator Jenna Persuivant strode into the small apartmentium in a hab-slum on Lower Skunkton. the other members of the group were ready and awaiting orders. The group were eager for action. Jenna simply said 'target acquired.' she went on 'a dataslate containing vital blueprints must be recovered from subsector SV1298Q. There may be hostiles also trying to obtain said plans. Arm yourselves!' . As one the group grabbed their gear and started filing out the door.

Necromunda  Jim, But Not As We Know It!

As is my wont, I have jumped from one game system to another without a by your leave. This time it's Inquisimunda. Not the most well known or even played game by GW. It is actually an offshoot of Necromunda but with the emphasis on small warbands of Inquisitor Cells, Mutant Mobs, Ecclesiarchy Delegations and many more besides. Using the *NCE version of the rules and with the ability to use several Xenos races it really is up my alley! To download the rules go to Yaktribe Community and get reading! for my inaugural gang I decided to go for an Inquisition Cell, led by Interrogator Jenna Persuivant (as this is a skirmish level game, big guns like Inquisitors themselves are far too busy to show up) and here motley crew. They are Ordos Xenos (radical) which means they hate aliens but don't mind using their stuff and also having one in the **gang. My opponent Pat has a goodly amount of Squat models (very oldskool) so he formed a gang of Squat Void Pirates - just like pirates but with the word Void in front of them. They are actually a fun choice as they can have multiple races and a good selection of weapons.

The Mission

As I wanted to keep the game simple and also make it not so much an out and out gang fight the scenario was using gang fight rules for purposes of bottling etc but I placed an Imperial Rhino in the centre line of the board, the objective being simple - any ganger that spends a full turn doing nothing and making a successful I test grabs the terribly important dataslate and wins the game. Of course stopping your opponents more homicidal warband members from chopping you up is the tricky part.

The Battlefield

Below is a picture of the board just after set up. The valiant Inquisitorial group are at the bottom with four models out of shot to the left (intending to use the Necromunda scenery) with my heavy and ganger in the centre by the zombie pen, and the gang leader, Wyrd and general hangers on to the right by the big toxic chemical pool. My overall plan was to position my heavy in cover centrally making a large 'no fly zone' whilst two or three groups use cover to enfilade the abhuman scum winning the day. Although I placed some Spiker plants they weren't being used as such because I couldn't readily get hold of the White Dwarf that contained the rules. The table being played on is my table tennis ***table, and I think the blue gives it an alien world type vibe.

Battlefield ref;45325620/X#1

The Warbands

My as yet unnamed warband has the following elements:

Interrogator Jenna Persuivant, armed with a bolt pistol, knife, sword.
Acolyte Tefal, level 2 ;wyrd, Cursed Luck, Cast Glow, Dominate, autopistol, power maul, knife.
Acolyte buxom, lasgun, knife.
Acolyte Hellion, autopistol, knife, 2 x swords.
Acolyte Shades, autogun, knife.
Acolyte Ensign, autopistol, knife.
Disciple Bangs, heavy stubber, knife.
Tech Adept Derric, Plasma gun, knife.
Recruit Spazz, laspistol, knife.
Recruit Chubbs, autopistol, knife.
Recruit Greylocks, stub gun, knife.

Left to right (back row) Buxom, Hellion, Ensign, Tefal, Jenna, Derric, Shades

(front row) Chubbs, Greylocks, Spaz and Bangs.

Pat's Void Pirates consisted of:
Captain leader Connery (Eldar), Wyrd level 1; Unerring Aim, autogun, chainsword, knife.
Randall quartermaster (Squat), Wyrd level 1; Ground Swell, shotgun (scatter & manstopper), knife.
Gilliam ganger (Jokaero), Wyrd level 2; Trigger spasm, Cast Glow, Mind War, autogun, knife.
Wally ganger (Eldar) autogun, knife.
Strutter ganger (Tau) autogun, knife.
Og Swabies (Tau) autogun, knife.
Kevin Swabies (Squat) autopistol, knife.
Brian Swabies (Squat) autopistol, knife.

As you can see, I have numerical advantage but there's a lot of Wyrdness going on in there!

The Game

The first few turns were cagey enough, I ran my heavy, lasgun armed acolyte and Chubbs the newly recruited bullet catcher into the scatter terrain in the centre. My Tech Adept, and two acolytes went left, accompanied by another recruit - Spazz, whilst Tefal, Hellion and Greylocks went right to avail themselves of my rather natty walls over there. After a bit of pondering Jenna decided to move centrally to advance up with Chubbs to get the goodies in the Rhino. Pats warband was split into three groups, four fighters including the Eldar leader moved to intercept my group on the left (whilst avoiding the heavy stubber) a group of two were placed centrally to raid the Rhino when the opportunity arose and a further four went right to also avail themselves of the aforementioned natty walls. This was a total united colours of Benetton type deal, with a Tau, a Jokaero and two Squats going that way.

My close combat/annoying psychic team.

My putting the heavy stubber on overwatch was a bit of a buzzkill for the Pirates as no one wanted to come out to gather the info in the Rhino. some shots were exchanged on the left where two of my gang were hit, but neither were wounded. On the right Tefal was also hit by the Tau, not wounded and to make matters worse the Tau's autogun ran out of ammo****. This was rather annoying as Tefal - in his infinite wisdom had moved out of range of Hellion & Greylocks so he couldn't even attempt to escape pinning next turn.

My heavy bravely hides behind a new recruit, Chubbs.

In my turn both Derric & Spaz rolled under initiative to escape pinning and kept running towards the bulkhead where the Emperor's righteous fury could be rained down on the conga line of Pirates sneaking up along the large building in the centre. Below them two more members tried popping off shots that missed due to range and cover issues. I was this turn I realised that plasma guns on full power aren't all that when I put a flesh wound on the conga lining Squat . The Eldar pirate captain proved to be annoying with his psychic power that makes his shot automatically hit! Spaz got hit and not wounded again! Derric wasn't so lucky he got shot and fell off the gantry hurting himself. Over on the right Tefal was once again hit but not *****wounded! Hellion and Greylocks were now getting into beating up abhumans & Xenos range. Meanwhile Jenna and Chubbs were getting quite close to the Rhino.

Peek A Boo!

Pat blew away poor old Greylocks and miraculously missed Hellion. Gilliam, the Jokaero tried to Mind War her too only to have the alien ape blow his own mind and putting himself Xenos down. The Emperor protects! Chubbs ran to the Rhino, whilst Jenna moved forward to a covering position. Also in my turn Hellion charged in and chopped up her Squat opponent Randall, neatly dodging his Ground Swell ability. Tefal violated the next Squat's mind making him turn round and shoot the another pirate! Sadly the Squat's underlying stubborness shone through only giving him a flesh wound.

The centrally positioned Squat shoots his mate. 

Pat had to stop Chubbs so he charged a pirate into him and at the same time sent another pirate to ransack the Rhino! Hellion continued to lead a charmed life despite being very close to some angry space dwarfs! The conga liners failed to hit any more of my troops in cover. The model that charged into Chubbs rolled a 1 for combat and Chubbs managed 4 hits on him. Chubbs butchered his opponent forthwith. Jenna charged into combat with the pirate rummaging around in the Rhino. In my shooting turn the heavy stubber took down a flesh wounded Squat. Jenna dispatched her opponent and all Chubbs had to do to win the game was pass an Initiative test which he obligingly did. Game over, dude!

Conclusion

Well that went pretty well. I have to admit Pat did some awful dice rolling in that game, namely at least 4 failures to wound at important times, and an unsuccessful mind war with a +2 modifier. The post game phase wasn't any kinder as he ended up with 5 injuried fighters. 2 Old Battle Wounds (Randall & Vermin), leg wound for Og, Kevin died and probably most telling Gilliam the Jokaero was captured! I got off lighly, Greylocks and Derric rolled on the injury table - Greylocks now hates Connery and Derric got a full recovery. Experience wise I managed to get 3 advances for Chubbs (Catfall, Evade, Sprint) and one for Hellion (Sprint). Income was pretty sparse. As it was now midnight in the real world we didn't roll on the rare trade charts (even if we did neither of us had disposable income) and called it a day.

Jenna Persuivant's band returned to their apartmentium with the unconscious Xenos. Bringing a neural psionic inhibitor was standard operating procedure. The NPI would be implanted on the Jokaero's skull making it unable to use it's Wyrd powers. Ultimately an ideal solution would to coerce this Xenos to the warband, this would take both time and Throne Geld. In the meantime a thorough examination of the dataslate would hopefully provide clues to the whereabouts of the weapons designer. 

What Now?

In game terms Jenna's mission was a success, even more so as they have captured a Jokaero Wyrd. If the Wyrd can be subverted then I will save up to buy a Jokaero as my token alien for the warband. That is of course, if Pat's Pirates (not their real name) don't make an attempt to spring him (or her). Returning to the mission, the dataslate contains incomplete plans for a highly advanced weapon system that if the complete blueprints were to get into the slimy ******tentacles of an enemy of the Imperium could spell the doom of countless millions! Pat Pirates are probably even now, knee deep in alien floozys drinking their fill of Space Rum and plotting horrible Void Pirate revenge. So next thing to do is see who's available next week to take on my unnamed warband.

Thanks for reading.

*Necromunda Community Edition.
** Presumably to keep an eye on them.
***Very early 90's GW style.
****Imagine bringing a machine gun with only one bullet!
*****I think that Delaques were tampering with their weapons!
******Hands, suckers, pseudopods, feet etc......