Catch The Genestealer!

Interrogator Jenna had received word of strange groups scouring the farmlands of Nora searching for something or someone. When evidence pointed towards The Ambull Hunters, the matter gained a little more urgency, whatever that degenerate group was searching for, The Jokers would do their best to spoil the party. When approaching the small hamlet of no name worth remembering, not one but two armed groups converged heading towards the only tavern there. What was worse was one of the groups was made up entirely of mutated monstrosities looking like their intention was mayhem. Jenna recognised a member of the the other group - the leader of The Ambull Hunters. Then a loud roar focused attention back on the other group and the enormous Ogryn leading them. Two groups of hostiles, "Attack pattern Trident! I want information!". Thus the battle of nowhere began.

Planet Nora

Nora is an agricultural world of little consequence in the Eastern Fringe located in the Seldom system.  Boasting one spaceport and a single city it is sparsely populated. It's main export is wheat and the climate is ideal for growing it. There are few native predators other than the rather large forest bats that can sometimes be  encountered in the wilds. Noran soldiers are not renowned as the greatest fighters in the imperial guard and are generally fit only for garrison duty. Because of this lack of decent manpower, when a series of strange occurrences (disappearances and excessive mutant sightings) started help was required. An Astropath sent message requested Inquisitorial assistance and the Jokers was the best that could be dispatched to such an unimportant backwater.
The reason for the strange occurances were twofold: firstly the disappearances were caused mainly by a damaged shuttle crashing, unknown in the wilds containing three immature genestealer hybrids. Two were fatally wounded but the third was wounded but survived, this genestealer was responsible for a number of livestock deaths and farmers reported the small purple alien to the authorities, the recent large number of mutant sightings was simply caused by a group landing on the planet to resupply and move off to cause mischief. Added to these circumstances The Ambull Hunters arrived on the planet after receiving some promising readings from a long range xenos probe.
That battle begins as all three groups reach the Genestealer's hiding place and each one has a different motive for capturing the critter.

The Scenario

The scenario was basically a modified Scavengers game. Six loot token were placed on the table (a 6' x 4' as there were three gangs). As we had to dice off for table edge it was a case of all the tokens were well out of the deployment zones. When a model reached a token he had to see what was there (with hindsight a successful investigation test would have made sense). The test was made during the shooting phase, a roll on a D6:

1-2 attacked by d3 giant bats

3 a gas fungus shoots spores out roll a second D6

                                                                          1-2 Scare

                                                                          3-4 Choke

                                                                          5-6 Hallucinogen.

4 an item from the Outlanders trade chart.

5 an item from the Necromunda trade chart

6 the immature genestealer.

The winner of the game had to subdue the stealer (defeat it in hand to hand) then carry it to the nearest table edge. Exp was 10 for winning gang leader and getting the stealer off the table. wounding hits and surviving as normal. As you can see a pretty simple game that I hoped would prove challenging and fun. In this game as only d3 models per side were allowed to use their infiltrate skill and not with 8" of a token. 

The Gangs

Once again I took Jenna's Jokers, Pat took The Ambull Hunters and an as yet unnamed Mutant Mob made up the team. The first two gangs lists can be found on Operation Duck & Weave, whilst the mutants consisted of:

An Ogryn leader with ripper gun and sword,

A Blaster with a heavy stubber abd

8 dregs with autopistols and knives (or possibly swords).

The Game

In the picture below, Pat choose deployment zone first (he opted for the short edge to the right) then Shane (he took the top end near the woods) and I got the leavings which in this case was bottom left deployment zone. All six token markers can be seen two in the cottage and barn, one in the woods at the top and two out in the relative open. My plan (if you can call it that) was to advance on two fronts, my more close combatty gang members to advance towards the cottage using the walls as cover and hopefully blag the nice things, whilst my leader and some of my shootyish guys go up towards the spikey plants and grab some stuff there. Apologies for all the technical jargon. It all sounds very straightforward, surely nothing could go wrong?

The Battlefield

Shane won the roll for first turn and I came third. He ran his entire gang up towards the woods with the token in it (all woods halved movement) and ended up with a mutant close enough to the token to reach it next turn. There was no shooting as the only model with range (the heavy stubber) had moved.

Pat's turn saw his two beastmen run like the clappers to be able to rummage around in another two tokens. Shooting hit two muties, pinning but not wounding either. Another group of Nobles advanced towards my half of the table.

I moved both my money grabbing groups towards their respective loot tokens and moved my heavy to peek out 2" from the edge of the woods (I had decided that the woods were oldskool ones where you could only shoot through 2" of woods otherwise you were woodblind).

The Muties march sideways.

Shane advanced all his mutants towards Pat's beastman nosing around in some crates as if someone had deliberately left them there for the purposes of providing cover. He also tried to ruin the game by investigating the loot token an finding the immature Genestealer. He further tried to ruin my carefully crafted masterpiece by twatting the 'stealer over the head and stuffing him into an old moldy *sack. Some shots were exchanged with Pat's Nobles but he definitely had the upper hand in the game.

A caped mutant tries to ruin the game!

A splat of mutants (collective noun).

Pat's turn involved shooting at both mine and Shane's gang with his horrible little ratlings. I think due to my wonderful walls my gang remained pretty much intact. Shane had a mutant get a fleshwound and another go down**. Also Pat investigated two loot tokens, bagging himself a silencer by the crates and 2 bats in the barn (which I thought was rather thematic). Sadly (for the bats) it was a big beastman who found them and soundly pulped the poor creatures even though they are an endangered species on Nora. If the Ambull Hunters are not careful a battle between themselves and the Nora Bat Protection League may soon occur!

It was about this time that realised that Pat's new red dice were rolling very high and a bit of discretion was in order. Three of my gang Spaz, Hellion & Chubbs decided to hide by the wall and Tefal my Wyrd ran to get to the base of the wall (but couldn't hide in time). My other group advanced towards the first loot token.

A rather alarming mutation

 Shane continued his advance towards the Ambull Hunters and his heavy wounded a ratling I think. The mutant with the 'stealer in the bag dragged the little fecker towards the table edge.

Mutants on the run!

Pat's dice were the star of the turn again as Lord Farquahar shot Tefal with a controlled burst of automatic fire (hitting on a 6) and then passing his ammo roll to makes matters worse Tefal went out of action! Spaz failed his nerve test and cowered at the base of the wall like a dog in a thunderstorm. Also Shawty got hit and went out of action despite the heavy stone walls, perhaps the geology on Nora is actively trying to thwart me? I think another of Shane's gang got hit (but only fleshwounded). Mellox, the other beastman made his way back to the bosom of his gang before any rabid environmentalists came after him.

A large number of shooty Nobles

As I was two men down with nothing at all achieved Hellion & Chubbs made a run for the cottage - this was tricky enough as I had to stay well out of Lord Farquahar line of sight and hope Lord Ruprect and the ratling accompanying him wouldn't take them down. One ray of light was Bangs my heavy took Lady Sophia out with some accurate shooting. I also advanced Jenna onto the token whilst putting Ensign out as a meat shield to take any long range bullets for ***him/her. Unfortunately I forgot to see if there was any goodies under the token. D'oh!

Slight scale mismatch, but two large behemoths try to kick the shit out of each  other

Shane's unnamed Ogryn charged poor old Yagosh whilst his remaining gaggle of mutants advanced towards the Noble gang. The only exception was the 'stealer in the sack mutant who dragged towards the table edge. It was around this time that Pat noticed neither me or Shane had exchanged a single bullet- probably because of range and cover issues. There had not been any kind of detente  anyway. The shooting phase was I think unremarkable. Close combat had only one combat but it was very remarkable - mainly because the Ogryn inflicted 7 hits on Yagosh.

Pat continued to roll appalling well taking poor old Ensign out, taking Hellion down and pinning Chubbs. I think the inexorable advancing mutants had unnerved Pat somewhat as the Nobilist Faction started edging away from their less genetically stable opponents.

I passed my bottle test but things were getting pretty desperate! I think Bangs wounded something (an uppity ratling) and Hellion made her recovery roll (she was now suffering from a flesh wound). In all the commotion I once again forgot to look for something nice (but to be honest the way the game was going it probably would have been fatal).

This little feller performed the task of overwatch bait, he remains in a threatening position keeping a member of Pat's gang on overwatch for fear of shooting someone in the back!

Shane was going a bit No Retreat No Surrender! and charged his Ogryn into a very unfortunate ratling. Another ratling took an autopistol round in the back (he'd spent the last 2 turns on overwatch covering my own ratling) fleshwounding him I think. The mutant with the big sack was now within 4" of the edge and thus 1 turn from winning. The Ogryn wasn't as impressive this turn casing a mere 3 wounds on his adversary. Battering him into jelly made the Ogryn feel invincible I'm sure as he used his follow up move to get closer to the retreating nobles.

The Ogryn Boss hyped up on growth hormones and wolf estrogen goes on a Noble hunt 

Pat's shooting was thankfully getting less accurate as both Hellion & Chubbs got shot at but not wounded. A lot of gunfire was directed at the mutant leader but he wasn't taken out. I think Spaz got shot and went down meaning that another bottle roll was needed next turn.

I bottled out.

Shane came to his senses and left the table with his Xenos prize.

The survivors

Despite it being the sensible thing to do, the retreat left a bitter taste in Jenna's mouth. Both Shawty and Ensign were dead, and Tefal was in a bad way too. Jenna had watched how the big Ogryn had dispatched two opponents with ease. Jenna had a feeling that that wasn't the time the Ogryn would cross the Jokers path. 'I must be ready next time'. 

Conclusion

Even as I'm writing this I'm not 100% certain of who did the best out of that rather enjoyable game. I know who did worst, it was me. Both Shawty and Ensign died on Nora. Yagosh was captured by the mutants and The Ambull Hunters got a silencer. Experience was handed out but the advance rolls for Shanes gang haven't been done. The game was tremendous craic and this game system does lend itself to multiplayer games. As far as tactical punditry is concerned, my plan wasn't that bad. Pat rolled really well (in direct correlation with how bad he rolled last game) and having two dead acolytes has probably put me at the bottom of the heap. My biggest mistake was forgetting to search my loot counter.  In terms of moving the story along Pat has to decide whether he wants to launch a rescue mission for the imprisoned Yagosh. Also, what purpose has the Mutant Mob got for the little 'stealer? Also what exactly is the mutation in that last picture? The Jokers now have a proper grudge against the Ambull Hunters and after the short detour to Nora, a trip to Oirlund is probably their next step. 

Thanks for reading.

Operation Duck & Weave

Interrogator Persuivant's examination of the dataslate provided little information regarding the alien weapons place of origin. As this particular lead was proving fruitless, a thorough reexamination of the original crime scene might be of benefit. Providing the place hadn't been picked clean by the sort of bottom feeders that congregate at the recesses of Hive Primus. As the warband entered the area, other furtive figures were sighted. "Attack Pattern Saturn! Lethal Force!" with the orders given it was time to find out who else had interest in this semi collapsed dome.

More Skullduggery!

The saga of Jenna Persuivant's warband continues as this week a Nobilist Faction on a galactic safari get in the way of Imperial investigations. As Jenna's Jokers (finally given them a name) successfully thwarted the plans of some Void Pirates ; Skullduggery in the Underhive. This week it was the turn of some thrill seeking nobles slumming it in the underhive looking for trouble. As narratives go, this one was pretty basic, after retrieving vital blueprints for an advanced alien technology that could prove terrible for the Imperium of Man but not being able to find the planet of origin Persuivant's band returned to the battle site only to find another group of armed fighters seemingly searching too. Inevitably, by the Underhive *code battle must be joined.

The Mission

A simple gang fight scenario with no additional rules was the name of the game today. The terrain was set up as per the rulebook so nothing out of the ordinary there. Lots of pictures were taken except for a vital before the start of the game one. 

The Gangs

Jenna's Jokers

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, Sprint, autopistol, knife, 2 x swords.
Acolyte Shawty, autogun, knife.
Acolyte Ensign, autopistol, knife.
Disciple Bangs, heavy stubber, knife.
Tech Adept Derric, Plasma gun, knife.
Recruit Spazz, laspistol, knife.
Recruit Chubbs,  Catfall, Evade, Sprint, autopistol, knife.
Recruit Greylocks, stub gun, knife.

Jenna's Jokers

The Ambull Hunters

Pat's new **gang is of the Nobilist Faction and a bit of a mishmash. Three humans, six ratlings and two beastmen make up the starting 11. The list is as follows:

Duchess Sophia, human leader : Wyrd (level 1) Cursed Luck, Nailer, Sword, Bio Booster, 

Lord Farquhar, human noble heavy : Heavy Stubber,

Lord Ruprecht, human noble heavy : Scatter Gun, Musket,

Rusty O'Charmless, ratling retainer (ganger) : Scatter Gun, Musket, Infiltration,

Goldie McWhiskey, ratling retainer (ganger) : Scatter Gun, Musket, Infiltration,

Tater O'Looney, ratling retainer (ganger) : Scatter Gun, Musket, Infiltration,

Sprinkles O'Lyin, ratling retainer (ganger) : Hunting Rifle, Infiltration,

Potsy McWickless, ratling retainer (ganger) : Hunting Rifle, Infiltration,

Lucky O'Wobbles, ratling retainer (ganger) : Hunting Rifle, Infiltration,

Yagosh, Beastman Slave (juve) : Big Mutie, Snake Tail, Sword,

Mellox, Beastman Slave (juve) : Big Mutie, Snake Tail, Sword.

Pat's gone for a lot of sneaky ratlings, backed up by some big inexperienced beastman muscle, overseen by human Nobles. One feature of the ratlings names are their distinctiveness, presumably all hailing from the agricultural world of ***Oirlund. The six ratlings all have infiltration which means they don't show up until the end of Pat's first turn so it leaves me with some problems right off the bat - not knowing where your enemy shooters are at the start of the game hampers your opening moves, but with luck if I stay in cover for the first turn, this worry is minimalised. Also the two big Muties give a bit of punch to the gang, and the heavy stubber provides long range support.

The Ambull Hunters

The Fight

The roll for selecting sides was won by Pat, but I got to chose who went first, so with the infiltrators in mind I decided to go second. At least then I wouldn't (hopefully) present a massive gaping autowin type situation by rushing off and leaving my rear undefended (ooer). So Pat advanced with his non-infiltrators and then deployed all six sneaky ratlings in cover and in forward positions making my job a little but trickier.

Two meat shields for Disciple Bangs

My right flank fire team

 My first turn involved my main group faffing around behind the pub type building as I wasn't sure what order I wanted my troops to advance in. I also discovered that the Dominate wyrd power is activated in the opponents turn instead of my own.

My left flank assault force

Sneaky Sneaksters!

Some skulking Nobles with beastmen retainers

Billy No mates AKA Lord Ruprecht

The next few turns were as cagey as a fox in a minefield as both myself and Pat didn't want to give any clear shots away. My gung ho-ness broke first as ****usual, and I started darting troops forward to try to outmaneuver the rich kids with their abhuman flunkies.

Team Indecision!

When my eagerness to advance got too hard to resist I advanced both Greylocks and Ensign up the middle with Shawty attempting a flanking move soon to be accompanied by Buxom. One thing I did do was put Bangs on overwatch and hope my two weaponsmith ammo roll rerolls would allow for some effective area denial.

Run Meat shields, run!

Meanwhile stuff was going on on Pat's side of the table. In the picture below Pat's main combat group (two big muties and the Duchess - at the top) shadowed my combat group, although if shit got real my numbers should prove telling. Also Lord Ruprecht advaced up to one of the ratlings (possibly Rusty O'Charmless). I did get an overwatch shot on who I think was Goldie McWhiskey, fleshwounding him (or her). the ensuing ammo roll was failed but I ignored it with my weaponsmith territory.  It was around this time both Spaz and Ensign were both hit but not wounded.

To confuse matters more, a portrait view of the Nobles.

A fleshwounded ratling (centre) and an overwatching ratling (bottom left). There is also a shot-his-bolt ratling on the right.

The beginning of Operation Duck & Weave

A bit of sprinting later Chubbs took a fleshwound and myself and Pat had a 5 minute arguement over whether a model could see another one. It involved several getting down to eye level squints and even waving a phone with it's torch on. I was adamant he couldn't see and Pat was equally adamant he could. Then it turned out that I had completely gotten the wrong end of the stick and it was a different model he was trying to shoot with. I apologised and hastily agreed there was definitely line of sight. I can only apologise for what must have seemed to Pat, me being a complete dick. The upshot was, Hellion didn't get hit so no harm done. Perhaps***** a laser pointer will have to be obtained.

A lot of faffing later......

The ******penultimate turn arrived with Pat putting a lot of his ratlings on overwatch (again) with many of his shooters in good cover as opposed to my combat troops who had to run the gauntlet of BS4 ratling sniping.  A few shots were fired but no one seemed to be hit, I'm sure there was more than one member of my warband who had to fill in requisition forms for new Imperial underwear but that is matter between the fighters and the laundry servitor.
I had to get close to the ratlings to avail myself of the free *******+1 to wound that you get against them, with this in mind Ensign and Greylocks ran up the centre hoping to not be dead in the following turn. A distinct lack of death ensued (much to their surprise - and mine). Also Spaz ran out into the open as Chubbs was pinned and Spaz hasn't done anything worth mentioning in our first games, if I had to lose one it has to be Spaz.

Both Greylocks & Ensign cannot believe they're not dead yet! 

Spaz runs off to take one for the team.

This is the turn that broke Pat's heart********. Pat had two of my gimpy gangers out in the open with three shooters on them, two were hitting on 3+s and one on a 2+. Three 1's later Pat knew it wasn't his day! Some other desultory fire elsewhere hit nothing and I had escaped another turn scot free!
In my turn I moved Deric out to attack the lone ratling situated just out of sight of the picture below, his overwatch shot missed and a single hit from the plasma gun did him in. A failed ammo roll later meant my second workshop bonus was used up. I decided to open up with Bangs on a now in cover ratling! Needing 7's to hit I went fully auto getting 5 shots, then some 6's followed by 4+'s meaning the little mite was hit and wounded 3 times. I very nearly got away with it by passing 2 out of 3 ammo rolls. The both Ensign and Shawty took down two more ratlings forcing The Ambull Hunters to bottle it. Once again the Emperor protects!

If you look carefully you can see Deric's plasma gun!

 Damaged Ratlings A Gogo!

Conclusion

Amazingly I hadn't taken any casualties in that game (a fleshwound was all) due to my gang causing 4 I got to muscle in on one of Pat's territories. I took over his Prizefighting business. As far as income went I ended up with 80 Throne Geld which I bought a blindsnake pouch (which I decided to give to Jenna) and ratling recruit (as I was impressed with them). Advancewise Jenna got +1 WS, hellion got the Juggernaut skill, Shawty got +1 BS and Bangs got +1 LD. The Ratling was issued the previously captured Jokaero's autogun.
The injury roll was kind to Pat as he didn't get any lasting injuries. Goldie McWhiskey got a +1 BS advance (which puts him at the top of my hit list) and +1 WS to both Tater O'Looney and Lucky O'Wobbles. Weapon skill advances of ratling infiltrators can be annoying, but not as irritating as a BS5 shooter who infiltrates! This is one of my favourite aspects of Necro/inquisimunda the ever changing gang stats.

Jenna was troubled, the Necromundan underhive seldom saw one ratling, let alone six. Also two very large mutants were seen acting as guardians for the apparent leader of the group. All this pointed to an organised well funded and unscrupulous outfit. One that needed to be eliminated. The skirmish itself went well with only Chubbs taking a minor wound. The warband's tenacity had helped to defeat the other group and sent them scurrying back into the shadows. Unfortunately no captives were taken for interrogation. This new group were presumably looking for the same thing as the Jokers, without knowing anything about them this investigation would be subject to unwanted scrutiny. The nearest ratling planet was Oirlund , in the Cark system. There may be answers there. 

What Now?

Moving the narrative forward, I think a trip to Oirlund to find out a bit more about The Ambull Hunters is probable (I will get to use my WFB terrain as it is an agriworld). This will also be the planet of origin of my new ratling recruit. I have a scenario planned involving an immature genestealer and a few other critters.

Thanks for reading.