Hi all,
Recently I had the opportunity to head down to West Virginia to attend the event I mentioned in a previous article. I was intrigued to see how they would run an event that included army progression through the event. This was the campaign finale, so they did allow new comers some catch up points (4 units getting a free level up, and 10 requisition points, also allowing Chapter Command for Space Marines). The missions were the last two from the Pankallis book in Warzone Octarius. Here are my forces:
Space Marine Detachment – Characharodons – Dark Angels Successor
Tyberos
Chief Librarian – Combi-Plasma, Terminator Armor, Tome of Malcador, +1 Core Adv./Charge w/in 6″ Warlord Trait
10x Relic Terminators – Lighting Claw and Combi-Bolter, Plasma Blaster, 2x grenade harness, – Master-crafted Plasma-Blaster Req, Lion and the Wolf Req. (+1 Adv./Charge Battle Honor)
5x Assault Terminators – Thunderhammers, Teleport Homer – +1 Save on turn 1 Pankallis Battle Honor, Master-crafted Weapon Req., Lion and the Wolf Req.
Venerable Dreadnought – Twin lascannon and Close combat weapon. (+1 Adv./Charge Battle Honor)
Before everyone gets up in arms about using the Dark Angels rules for Charcarodons let me explain:
1: The space marine Crusade rules are terrible outside their supplements which are just mediocre. I would have used Raven Guard but they have no custom crusade rules, and are dull as ditch water. Furthermore, only supplements have the strat allowing you to give squad sgts. special issue wargear which is the type of thing made for crusade.
2: I was tying this into my own crusade event I am currently running. Tyberos has taken the first company into this sector to investigate the reappearance of a Thousand Sons Librarian not seen since the Siege of Terra. Thus I wanted a First-Company army list, and I only have the Dark Angels supplement.
Game 1: Space Wolves
One wrinkle of these missions was that any unit that was killed got recycled on a 2+. This led to some interesting agenda choices. For example, I took the “Dark Rumor” agenda which allowed me to get 3 experience points and 5 Unforgiven points for killing the enemy warlord which I was able to do multiple times. Since this was the last event it doesn’t really matter but keep that in mind if you design your own missions using similar rules that aren’t at the end of a campaign. My other agenda was Know No Fear which gives you experience for passing morale tests.
For this mission, I was playing a newer player, who brought a fairly basic Space Wolf list, He had a Captain on a wolf, a Primaris Chaplain on a bike, a small Thuder Cav unit, an attack bike squad,one unit of heavy intercessors, two units of regular intercessors and an Invictor. Our mission involved me as the attacker trying to capture and sabotage four objectives across the board. The recycling of units made this a bit challenging to hold the objectives long enough to complete the action to sabotage them but perma-transhumaned terminators can hold objectives pretty well.
The Space Wolf Player went first but had limited shooting into the 5 assault terminators and characters which were in a forest. On my turn I moved up and sabotaged the closest objective. The Librarian de-buffed the Thunder Cav unit with -1 to hit, and -1 Attack. The Venerable Dread takes out one of the attack bikes in shooting and kills the Invictor on the charge.
On his next turn the Invictor does not come back, he charges the terminator block with the Wolf squad and Wolf Lord Tyberos and the Librarian heroically intervene. The Wolf Squad goes first and bounces off the terminators due to some unlucky rolls and the debuff. The Termis interrupt and wipe out the Wolf Lord (the Lion ad the Wolf Req. gives the Termi. Sgt full re-rolls to hit and wound vs Space Wolves with a 4 damage Thunderhammer). The Characters finish off the rest of the squad. On my turn the Termi brick comes don and guns down the chaplain, the Venerable dread kills the attack bikes.
The rest of the battle follows this pattern: the terminators move up take a few casualties but hold the objectives and complete their actions. Tyberos gets killed heroically sabotaging an objective on the final turn but other than that I don’t lose any units (since it was the final turn he didn’t get a chance to come back on the board). It was during this game I realized the terminator list might be a little strong for this event. However, my opponent was very new, so I took the opportunity after the battle to go through his list and use his requisition points to improve his list. The Space Wolves have a lot of crazy upgrades you can get and the consolation for the loser of the battle was that they got to pick two units to mark for greatness.
I got to pick three to mark for greatness, which alongside my agendas allowed both of the terminator units to level up (Know No Fear awards 2 exp for every passed morale tests, RAW you must test every time you take casualties even if you cannot fail, one termi squad took casualties every turn except the first, but never more than 1-2 thus getting an easy 8 exp.) I also got a lot of experience and Unforgiven points for killing the enemy warlord 3 times during the game. Like I said it’s a bit of a grey-zone with the custom rules but the laid back atmosphere of the event meant that many players took advantage of the opportunity to load up on similar agendas haha.
Game 2: Grey Knights
After the first match we had lunch and amended our rosters. I gave the assault terminators the +1 Adv./Charge Battle Honor and accidentally improved plasma blaster again forgetting it was a relic – _ – (which fortunately didn’t affect the mission but let this be a reminder that special-issue wargear counts as relics.
This mission was based on controlling 4 objectives with the standard Hold 1/Hold More scoring. I was going against a Grey Knight player and went ahead and tried out the Hunt the Fallen mission (even though I was technically a few points short, but hey “end of campaign”). Thus I provided him the librarian I had been hunting. I quickly realized that it wouldn’t be possible for me to both win the mission and hunt the Fallen as he hid the Librarian in the back of the board. Thus, since it would be more fun, and fluffy, to hunt the traitor I figured that would be my plan. Thus the mission became a very simple game as my opponent decided he would rather evac his forces (aka. play the mission) rather than protect the Fallen we both got our wish. This was another game where I re-thought my army list. I never lost a whole unit (largely due to an insane amount of Feel-No-Pains on the Ven Dread but didn’t kill a lot either (not that it mattered with the unit recycling rules). Some great moments (for me anyway) involved getting an almost full relic terminator squad and Tyberos into combat with some Grey Knight Terminators for the S5 Lightening Claw, re-roll to hit and wound, additional -1 AP for assault doctrine goodness.
A unit of Interceptors getting killed by the Terminator Librarian in melee thanks to failing 3/3 3+ saves, only to come back, Kill the librarian in two rounds of combat, have the Librarian resurrect himself (more on that later) and then kill them again.
Also my opponent got to use a free teleport on his Grandmastor Dreadknight to save it from the ven dread’s last chance to kill him on the final turn. As the dust settled my opponent got his victory, I got my quarry and we both had a great time.
Wrap Up:
Overall, I had a blast! The organizer had events for best painted army, and the leaders of each faction who played the best. The venue provided pizza and cake as part of the $10 entry fee, which was very kind of them, and a 20% off discount!
I think the event was well structured. The recycling of units prevented any game getting too out of hand and, while it did affect some agenda choices, only made things more fun. The organizer had a series of buffs that faction leaders for the event could hand out, as well as ones that individual players could trigger (like the resurrection of the librarian mentioned earlier). While I liked the concept of these, many players just forgot, so unless you were referencing them constantly you could easily miss them. However, they did help create some cinematic moments, and team work amongst players which is never a bad thing.
For my own list, I think the narrative concept worked, I probably won’t run a first-company list again, as it is just too tough and killy. If it weren’t for the free resurrection rules I likely could have tabled my opponents which would have just ruined things. If I do make another first company detachment I might go with 1 termi squad and two ven dreads to balance things out. At the same time, they did just release a new marine crusade army type that I am intrigued by.
Narrative Conclusion
Tyberos watched implacably as the last of his forces withdrew from the planet. The pell-mell nature of the evacuation was hampered by the fleeing motley forces, as xenos and human alike fought to get off the wretched world. The system was lost to the Tyranids, but he had achieved his goal. Tyberos remembered a time when turning his hand against the forces of the Imperium would have been inconceivable. However, the realities of command on the outer rim, and the dread knowledge of what the traitor was capable of eased any faint embers of remorse.
The fight with the Space Wolves had been the hardest. Their refusal to willingly disclose that the traitor had been captured by the Grey Knights was borne, not out of spite, but from duty. When the Pale Nomad at last wrested the knowledge from their disabled lord Tyberos not failed to notice his chief librarian’s sorrow.
Tyberos cared little for the Grey Knights, and doubted even they knew the nature of the man they had detained. He assumed they had stumbled upon the former Thousand Sons librarian by accident as they seemed content to sacrifice him in lieu of some other purpose. Tyberos knew their would be consequences for these actions, but also knew that there were many within the Inquisition that already hunted him. As the last of the ancient Stormbirds and Thunderhawks settled in the transport bay Tyberos gave the order to depart.
As the blast shutters descended he spared one final look at the doomed world and brave soldiers of the Imperium sacrificing themselves to buy time for their comrades to escape. This was not his lien to hold. Silently turning he made his way off the bridge. In the chaotic space of Pankallis the Nicor and her escorts quietly slipped from reality.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
