Blackstone Fortress: Null-Gravity Abyss

Saturday Afternoon and Evening, Amanda and I went on another expedition into the Blackstone Fortress. We made use of the clues collected to make a run at another Stronghold.



This time we drew the Null-Gravity Abyss!

Amanda took Amallyn Shadowguide, Asuryani Ranger and Pious Vorne, Missionary Zealot - as always... I took Espern Locarno, Imperial Navigator (as I usually do) and  Dahyak Grekh, Kroot Tracker - as he had proven himself quite resourceful in our last expedition to rescue the missing Ogryn. Speaking of the missing Ogryn - Dorg "The Wall" Brogan also accompanied the group as a Retinue Character!

There was a short access route of four cards - randomly selected from ALL Exploration cards shuffled together - could have been four Challenges or four Combats - or some mix of the two.



First card turned out to be a Combat...



Grekh went one way and set up his bomb, while Vorne and Dorg when the other.

Dorg took his special Defence action - which allows him to park behind his massive shield and reroll all defence rolls AND take a Maul attack at the first enemy that moves into an adjacent hex. AND Dorg's Special Agenda (that which makes his card flip to the Inspired side) is to take out an enemy on THEIR activation (i.e. when they move into contact with him and he hits them using the Defence special action)



and BOOM! That's just what he did... first turn of the game Dorg flipped to his inspired side!



Vorn mopped up the rest with some overwatch-flame-action.



On the following turn, Vorne raced forward and burned the Spindle Drones that were lurking out of sight of the Kroot Tracker, from behind!



And that cleared out the area...



Until reinforcements arrived... or others stood up with the "Not Dead Yet" event at the end of the turn - we rolled SO MANY of those!! I swear we rolled "Not Dead Yet" more than ALL of the other Events COMBINED!!!



Everybody safely made it to the escape chamber - no one injured and a couple of bits of Archaeotech collected up!



The second card was a challenge and ended with both Locarno and Shadowguide injured... Grekh got some more Archaotech.



The third Exploration Card was another Combat! This time with a couple of Rogue Psykers and a PILE of Traitor Guard!

Initially we just let them come to us though a bit of a bottleneck.



But it wasn't long before Vorne was using out again and hunting down the Hostiles!



More Rogue Psykers arriving!



This area wasn't too much trouble either... No serious injuries, a couple pieces of archaeotech acquired...



The final card in the Access Route to the Stronghold... Also a Combat Card... but also not a terribly big or challenging one...

Maybe it's time to add in Abominable Intellect! (another all-card expansion I picked up with, apparently, way harder encounters - unfortunately it says it requires MORE miniatures - which I'm still painting, so....)



Didn't even bother waiting - took the fight right to them!



Vorne roasting some freshly arrived Spindle Drone reinforcements.



and off they went...

Finally it was time to set up the Stronghold.



Initially we'd talked about maybe playing part of the expedition on Saturday and part on Sunday - like maybe the Access Route on Saturday, and the Stronghold itself on Sunday... but the Access Route took so little time, we just forged ahead with the Stronghold Assault!

This had three hostile groups in the upper level - but they were hidden and we didn't know which was which (markers put out randomly and revealed when one of the characters got "eyes on"). So we couldn't really just sit behind a bottle neck and take them apart one-by-one as they came to us!



So Grekh scouted ahead and triggered the first and then backed up into a tunnel and set up a bomb. Vorne threw a wall of fire down there as further disincentive... and then went on overwatch.

Unfortunately all the Negavolt Cultists were killed in either the fire or with overwatch fire... and none of them triggered Grekh's bomb-trap... so that route was now barred to us, as those Rogue Psykers NEVER come to you... they just cause trouble from a distance, ideally out-of-sight!



So Grekh went scouting the other way and bumped into a whole squad of Traitor Guard that were having a smoke break... or... something...



Grekh shot a few, and the rest followed him down a hall (unfortunately, he didn't have a 6 activation die - as that's what he needs to set a bomb!). So Dorg was sent down the hall to help out.

By this time, we'd rolled ANOTHER "Not Dead Yet!" event which resurrected one of the Negavolt Cultists next to Vorne... who was still standing over by Grekhs trap... and so it blew itself up, conveniently clearing the way to press on in the original direction.



Vorne, Locarno, and Shadowguide pressed on and found the Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Beast Men!



Dorg ang Grekh cleaned up the Guard.



Vorne was on fire... or... actually it was the Marines that were on fire!



She burned up all of the Marines and Beastmen in ONE TURN!!!!



Grekh tried to catch up, but ran into ANOTHER "Not Dead Yet!" Negavolt Cultist.



The explorers made their way to the entrance to the final chamber - accessed through a gravel-chute.



Everyone stacked at the entrance - Dorg slowly trundling along... trying to catch up...



Locarno was the first to drop in. These Spindle Drones were on Threat Level 3 (for four) which made them a bit more deadly - AND they were protected by some special field that made them effectively six wounds (normally, they have only two each)!



Locarno managed to blow up one of them by exposing it to the raw power of the WARP through his third eye... then retreated to a corner and set up his own protective force field.



Vorne Dropped in next and just ROASTED two of them with her Vindicator Flamer!



Shadow guide dropped in next and hacked one with her Powerblade, before retreating to the safety of Locarno's force field.



Grekh dropped in last, but he was a little disoriented by the null-gravity-chute and lost most of his activation dice... and then couldn't hit... only caused one wound!!!



Then another popped back up... NOT DEAD YET!!!!

Luckily on the next turn Locarno went first and destroyed BOTH remaining spindle drones and recovered the special amulet - the reward for conquering this stronghold... but it wasn't over yet! The Stronghold isn't FULLY conquered until all CONSCIOUS members of the expedition make it to the bottom chamber...



And Dorg is very, VERY slow....



And then then reinforcements started arriving...



and more...



and more...



Dorg seemed to be holding his own. but it went on for-EVER! Every time he knocked two down, three more would show up!?



Finally two beastmen showed up and pushed their way past the crowd (and heaped up bodies of fallen Traitor Guard and Negavolt Cultists...



And THEY finally finished off Dorg...

Strangely, he SURVIVED! In the Recovery phase, a character only DIES if they roll equal or less than the number of Grievous Wounds they had... and Dorg had NONE!



Heading back to precipice, we drew our legacy card - ANTOHER tick on the countdown clock!



Amallyn Shadowguide went to the Kravv'Cha'To and bought EVERYTHING there. That Antedil Orb looks pretty bad-ass! One use, but potentially instadeath for a big baddie! She didn't bother with the pit-fighting.



Vorne went back to her own ship, the Clarion and picked up the Personal Laud-Hailer and a med pack.



Locarno headed home to the Traveller and Grekh with him. Grekh traded in archaeotech for the Warpgate Amulet and Locarno selected the Mindtrap Sigil. Locarno also successfully resuscitated the  Raus twins... so perhaps we'll be seeing THEM back in the Blackstone Fortress. Locarno had, some time ago, found that which they had been seeking - the card that was their Secret Agenda and always makes them inspired... so he passed that along to them!


I have to say, I'm really loving Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. So it was with mixed emotions that I read, earlier in the day, about the FINAL release in the series....



ASCENSION!

(the above pictures is ©2020 Game Workshop and used here entirely without their permsission)



With GIANT spindle drones!!!

(the above pictures is ©2020 Game Workshop and used here entirely without their permsission)

I'm a little saddened that it's coming to an end and that means support for it will dry up pretty quick. But I'm king of okay with it as well. I mean, there is a LOT of it out there already - that will keep me busy for some time! I haven't really even played through the stuff included in base boxed set yet! (oh, I've added in some spare cards... and the Ogryn... and have been working on extras of the hostiles for the base set... but it's all STILL just the base set we're playing with!). I have two of the other expansions  - The Dreaded Ambull and Escalation - I've painted the Ambull and ONE of the characters from Escalation (Crusader Gotfret de Montbard) - the rest are still in the works - but there's no rush... we still have a long way to go with the Quest for the Hidden Vaults!

There are two other expansions that have been released (Traitor Command and No Respite) that I was back and forth about whether or not to get, and I think I am going to pick them up... at some point... probably sooner rather than later, in case they sell out... which things seem to do, once GW stops supporting a product. And then there are two more to-be-released expansions Ascension (above) and Deadly Alliance (with the ZOAT!).

As I said I'm okay with it coming to an end - for a couple of reasons. I won't likely tire of it and end up keeping on buying expansions out of habit... long after I've given up on the game. The fact that they're calling an end to THIS story, when I think the game is still doing well, gives me hope that they have SOMETHING ELSE planned!

Some have been talking about maybe there's another Fantasy Warhammer Quest in the pipe... I'm wondering if it could be another 40K one, thought. I feel like there were some rumours about more expansions for Kill Team - along the lines of Rogue Trader... but with an Inquisitor! But there has been no hint of any such thing in a year or so now, and I am wondering if Kill Team will kind of peter out at this point. Perhaps we'll see a new Warhammer Quest with new narrative around an Inquisitor and their retinue - hunting down Heretics, Aliens and Daemons!

As I said, I'm having a lot of fun playing this so I'm excited to see where it all goes... I just hope it isn't until later this year! Maybe in time for Xmas! (Like the first boxed set for Blackstone Fortress was!)


In Other News..

This weekend lists were supposed to be submitted for Battleforce Recon, which was supposed to be happening in a week!? There's been no sign of public venues opening any time soon, but there had been no word/nothing posted from the tournament organizer as to whether it is being postponed or cancelled - so I checked in with them and it is indeed postponed, but, understandably, they have no idea until when. I am happy about this, as there is a possibility I may get to play in it later in the fall... hopefully... or maybe it will be postponed until NEXT SPRING - which will give me plenty of time to finish up my NOISE MARINES (which have kind of fallen by the wayside these last couple of weeks!)


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a load of Traitor and not-so-traitous Guard on the workbench at the moment - along with Cultists of the Abyss and some more Chaos-y things... but the Guard will likely be finished up first and I'll be posting pictures of them in a day or two.

After that...? Another April Games update...? MORE Blackstone Fortress!?