Battle For Hell's Gorge

 

The torment of the Void Spectres on Tuberosum continued. Harassment of isolated squads led to great sport and insignificant casualties. That was not to say that there were none, just unimportant vassals who would not be missed. The Void Spectres were seemingly retreating through a gouge in the earth that had once been some kind of mining settlement. The area itself had been named by the indigenous dross as 'Hell's Gorge'. Within the centre of the settlement were a series of defensive bunkers that the pathetic humans were fleeing to. The Void Spectres were deployed to enable as many Imperial citizens could enter the bunkers and avoid the depredations of Adraxys' raiders. Digging out prey like common labourers would not be a productive use of his menials time so a swift strike to capture the entire human populace would gain a great deal of booty for his avaricious desires.  So with a slight gesture towards the enemy the battle for Hell's Gorge began.

Greetings all. Quite a while back I played a few Crusade missions from the Beyond the Veil book set in the Pariah Sector against Dylan's Space Marines. Here is the report of the game. The game represents a swift strike against a foe that was on the receiving end of an arse kicking. So; The Void Spectres Last Stand was the event in question. If want to read up the entire mission rules here it is on Wahapedia.

The deployment map.

Agendas 

I decided to take credit, reaper, breakthrough. 

Requisitions

I spent two RPs and removed (the injury) leg wound (or wounds, I don't know) from the  Hellions, and the mark of shame for Wyches.

The game was pretty tough for Dylan, he deployed quite far forward to hold the objectives which unfortunately for him meant I could get some early charges in. The strangely worded set up rules for the attacker meant I could get into him turn one. The Dreadnaught took a barrage from my heavy weapons and died again.

The start of the battle and the enemy is almost within fiddling distance!

A good view of the worried Void Spectres.

The Reavers prepare to murder some marines (as do many other Druchari). 

Eradicators try their normal try to look inconspicuous on building tactic, this isn't the Hellions first rodeo though.

I could almost feel pity for the marines in this scenario, but as the living embodiment of alien evil, I don't. If anything I can't stop smiling. 😇

The blood letting has begun! To be fair Primaris Marines are pretty tasty  in combat with numerous attacks but Drukhari are better (this game was pre Armour of Contempt)

A 5" vertical engagement range meant the Eradicators were eradicated!

Up close and personal, just how the Dark kin get their kicks.

Wyches jump out of a transport to kick someone some nicks.

The suddenness of my early charges nearly backfired as both Venoms had their passengers still in them when they struck the marines. It would have been very embarrassing for Adraxys had he been blown up with his Incubi entourage!

 

Now that the Wyches and Succubus arrive from the transport, it's pretty much game over.

By turn three Dylan conceded as my force has done a rather fine job of decimating his army. Yes I had gotten lucky with the taking out of certain key enemy units (the dread and eradicators). Combat went very well as I had thrown the two Venoms into the fray possibly a little prematurely but it left some of Dylan's shooty units unable to do so. Once again the Incubi and Wyches proved to be horrific butchers of Marines as do Hellions. It's probably worth reiterating that this game was pre Armour of Contempt and as such the Drukhari are probably ideal Astartes killers.  So after the game it was time to do the accounts.

Battle traits 

Two units got battle traits, The Sinister Path; Quentifel's own Wych escort got headhunters, this means any characters need to keep the flip away from them! Seven Cliques of Terror, the Hellion unit got fleet of foot which is their second advance. They now move 1" faster and get +1 to advance and charge rolls. Coupled with Lightning Strikes (exploding 6's in melee) they are very dangerous!

Territorial Dominance 

Due to the sucessful nature of the game and take credit agenda I received 6 raid spoils. Adraxys gained control of the shrine of cursed night (incubi temple), drudge pit (sprawl slum), bladewrought lanes (gang territory), and the netherweir (shadow district). Unfortunately there was an assassination attempt and my Archon received battle scar (insentate). This ultimately means he halves damage received but can no longer benefit from Power from Pain. 

Weapon Enhancements 

None

Battle Scars 

the Reavers got mark of shame, so they are skating on thin ice within the force. As noted above the Archon is now Insensate, but I heard of another crusade gamer whom received this battle scar for a character, he vowed that he cannot remove said injury until he commits some incredible  act of wanton slaughter to regain his lust for life (or more likely death). 

Crusade Relics 

None.

With the masses of slaves taken from Tuberosum Adraxys had the necessary leverage and resources to attack several other Archons holdings. The Incubi temple Shrine of the Cursed Night was now under his control as was the Netherweir which was part of the shadow district. The Drudge Pit and Bladewrought Lanes also became his territories due to bribes and threats.  Unfortunately the minor moves garnered attention from some rival leading to an attempt on his life. The attempt was unsuccessful but the assassins blades were laced with a powerful neurotoxin attacking his nerves, rendering his ability to enjoy the suffering of others severely curtailed. This insidious toxin was not fatal but excruciating. Someone would have to pay. The thought gave him a slight glimmer of enjoyment but it quickly dissipated. A cure needed to be found but in the interim my raids must increase to stave off the hollowness. 

The End

So a rather brutal game that ended well for the good guys! Well, morality is in the soul of the beholder I think so think the Druchari are my version of good guys. They definitely identify as being justified anyway. So next up for the Crusade is an attempt at playing some planetstrike missions,

Thanks for reading.

Skirmish inside the Great Gout

Greetings one and all. Following the release of Arks of Omen; Abaddon, I decided to give it a go. I saw some videos on YouTube and got the itch to play some space hulk type games. I had pre ordered the book from GWs website only for it to arrive some 10 days after it was supposed to on the day of the game. Never being one to let ignorance of rules interfere with a game, myself and Dylan decided to plough on with a game. Another thing to note is I am too scabby to buy the GW boarding actions terrain (for now anyway) so I am using Necromunda bulkheads, Warhammer Quest doorways and various other terrain that if you squint really hard could pass for the inside of a space hulk. 

The Death Guard deploy.

The Scenario

We decided to play Access Junction Primus, the first scenario in the book which has a central open space with four objectives. Points are scored for 1, 2 and more than your opponent with additional CP's for purging the ship of enemies. Nice and simple.

The Narrative

My initial boarding force are a splinter cell of The Assembly of D'Keddes  who have resided on the Great Gout, a space hulk for several centuries. Unknown to the assembly it has been given to a Nurgle warhost by Abaddon to further his spikey plans. When a routine Nurgle patrol discovered Aberrant dung along some of the walkways a group was sent to investigate and kill. Due to the enormity of The Great Gout quite a sizeable force of Genestealers reside on it and have been running a racket whereby incautious explorers get waylaid and infected with Genestealer genetic material then released back into their respective 'people' to begin the breeding cycle elsewhere. When within the deepest bowels of the Gout the Patriarch became aware of a large number of invaders, the cult was mobilised.

The Boarding Parties

The cult force consists of two Acolyte Hybrid units, a neophyte squad, 5 Aberrants,  Biophagus Nerm and force leader Stumbleklunk an Abominant. They are of the Twisted Helix strain so +1 strength and +1 move make them ideal close quarter fighters. Dylan took two five man units of Plague Marines 10 Poxwalkers, five Deathshroud Terminators and their leader was a minor character, a Foul blightspawn if memory serves.

The Disclaimer

I do not have boarding party terrain so a quick search of my terrain collection enabled me for the most part to construct an approximation of the map in the book. This includes necromunda  bulkheads, Warhammer Quest doorways and various other bits. the game itself was to figure out what the boarding parties games would be like and let myself and Dylan know if we want to play more in that vein. Photography was a bit meh too, as I have to yet sort out adequate lighting in the loft.

The Game

The fun thing with Cult armies in boarding actions is that due to the lack of being able to use blips, my army always sets up last, regardless.  So the Death guard set up with the Terminators in a teleportarium somewhere. I set up with all my bodies on the ground (gravity permitting). In the centre was the Abberants, five Hybrids and Stumbleklunk. North of them was another five Hybrids and to the south were the Neophytes.

The idiotically deployed Neophytes skulk through small chambers rather than set up where there is the only long firing lane.

The red blips denote closed doorways until I manage to either create hinged doors or beg steal or borrow the proper terrain.

My Neophytes slink through a doorway.

The game was hella fun with plenty of killing and holding of objectives. My troops weren't as durable as the Death Guard but they were slightly more mobile. Grabbing objectives and stealing the DG home objective put me in a great position early doors. What seemed amusing to me at first but actually gave me an unassailable lead was my Northmost Acolytes holding a door closed for two turns while holding an objective. By the time the Plague Marines did get the door open I had spent two turns racking up the score. 

The central 'claw' of my boarding party made up of the Aberrants and Acolytes make for Junction Primus, presumably to Access it. Biophagus Nerm follows behind while the Stumbleklunk makes a racket in the vicinity.

Through the bizarrely semi transparent walls five Plague marines walk out on the set. The Foul Blightspawn (or whatever) hides behind them.

The Poxwalkers do their thing, walk with pox. They grabbed the objective and held it until wiped out by Acolytes.

One thing I really missed was using some of the ultra fun Genestealer strategems. This was particularly missed when the Deathshroud Terminators started whaling on my poor innocent Aberrants. Had I been able to use Monstrous Vigour they might have  stuck around for a bit longer. Also using the Biophagus to give my Abominant a 5+ feel no pain when he already had it was a bit dumb. Read your Codex's kids! Had I been a bit more savvy with my army rules I possibly would have survived until Dylan's final turn. As it was the strategy of holding a door closed against all comers was a sound one.

The Aberrants duke it out with the Deathshroud terminators while the Hybrids decide on whether to save the day.

This rather snazzy scoring sheet is from an app made by goonhammer.

The Hindsight

My deployment was wrong, the Neophytes should have gotten the central objective and thusly be able to use their long range weapons, particularly as they were opposite the Poxwalkers. I also should have put a unit into deepstrike to react to whatever stunts the Death Guard would pull. I used the Biophagus to give Stumbleklunk a 5+ fnp when he already had it! D'oh! The Acolytes were the ones who won it for me however with one unit wiping out and therefore taking Dylan's home objective and the other unit by holding a door closed for 2 turns, stopping the Plague Marines from contesting another objective.   

The Conclusion

I sometimes find games of 40K don't sit well narratively speaking with my own armies, ie. why would Drukhari be fighting Aeldari on an Imperial world? Boarding Actions removes this bugbear of mine as pretty much everyone is fighting on somebody else's turf. The other narrative hook for me is space hulks in general are the home of genestealers and therefore I am perfectly happy to have Orks vs the Cult as it makes much more thematic sense. Anyway, as far as the game went, it was 40k with less stuff for me to forget (only three strategems to use) and LoS considerations. I like it and hope to play a good few more games of this type.

The Future

Next time I'm going to use GSC I think I will try to get a Magus in there. In particular using the power to advance and charge could be crucial to get into the right position mid game. With that in mind I think my Druchari will be very tasty in boarding actions as power from pain isn't affected by boarding actions. Some of the obsessions could make quite an effect on small scale skirmishes. Anyway I would recommend boarding actions as a fun little diversion. I wouldn't buy the terrain until you've had a few games to see what you think. Of course, GWs books Angron and Vashtorr are already sold out so whether I will get to play any of the later scenarios remains to be seen.

Thanks for reading.