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.
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| 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.
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| The idiotically deployed Neophytes skulk through small chambers rather than set up where there is the only long firing lane. |
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| The red blips denote closed doorways until I manage to either create hinged doors or beg steal or borrow the proper terrain. |
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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| Through the bizarrely semi transparent walls five Plague marines walk out on the set. The Foul Blightspawn (or whatever) hides behind them. |
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| 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.
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| The Aberrants duke it out with the Deathshroud terminators while the Hybrids decide on whether to save the day. |
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| 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.
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