Harlequin Solitaire in the Blackstone Fortress

On Wednesday I actually got my daughter, Keira, to play Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress with me. For some time now, she's been less interested in playing games, and, it seemed, had completely lost interest in anything to do with the Warhammer 40,000 universe - even dropping out of the Wrath & Glory game I was running for the family - that I ran almost specifically FOR her!? So I was pretty excited that she was interested enough to play.

What got her interested enough to play was the Army of One and rules for Harlequin Solitaires presented in the 2019 Annual for Blackstone Fortress. The Army of One rules are for running expeditions with ONE super bad ass explorer... And the one character they had in the Annual was a Harlequin Solitaire.

Keira does (or, at least, DID) love her Aeldari - and had a special soft spot for the Harlequins.

I decided, rather than just run her through a one-off regular old expedition, I'd use one of the stronghold missions - to give it all a bit more meaning. A REAL reason for a Harlequin to BE there in the Blackstone Fortress. Used the Deathmaze scenario - which ends with a confrontation with Obsidius Mallex, the Chaos Lord bent on taking control of the Blackstone Fortress. Her mission was to take out this threat to Galaxy - and, in particular, the dwindling Aeldari race!

I COULD have had her do a series of regular expeditions to collect CLUES to do then do a stronghold mission... but decided it'd be better just to cut right to the exciting confrontation with the ultimate big bad guy!

The scenario had an access route of four Exploration Cards and then the "boss battle" as she called it.


Exploration Card #1 - Challenge: Smash it Open



Not a big deal - wasn't successful... but it didn't provide any setbacks... so... moving on...

(if anyone has been paying REALLY close attention and finding that you've seen these cards before and are wondering if there's really not that much variety in the cards - there is! And there is a reason you are seeing the same ones again. I've been putting the ones Amanda and I have used in our Quest for the Hidden Vaults campaign in a separate bag when they've been used - so we only see new ones in our new games - so it's always a bit of a surprise - until we've gone through them all and I shuffle and start using them again. The cards I used in the ToonCon game were using cards we'd already seen, and the cards I pulled for this game were from the previously used pool...)

Exploration Card #2 - AMBUSH! 



As stealthy as the Solitaire is, she was somehow lured into a trap set by the denizens of the Blackstone Fortress... or.. was she...? Perhaps it was HER that lured THEM into HER trap!!!



Regardless... as an ambush, they got to go first.

The Solitaire has an amazing ability that allows her to ALWAYS get a free Gambit at the start of EVERY turn! With TWO d12s, she is rarely taken by surprise and almost always takes the initiative... except, in instances such as these, when she rolls failures on BOTH!?



The Solitaire stands at the centre of a trap... but who is trapping whom!?



Many hostile surround her.



They come pouring in from all sides.

But she just dances past them in a blur of light, leaving a trail of dead in her wake...

The Solitaire is SUPER mobile she has a base move of FIVE! The fastest in the game, as far as I know. If that weren't enough, she has a special ability in that when she makes a move action, rather than expending an activation die as normal, she just reduces it's value by two. So if it's a five, it is reduced to a three - and can be used again as a three. If she uses that three to move, it is further reduced to a one. If using an activation die to move would reduce it's value to zero, it is expended.

Oh, and she can re-roll any activation dice.

Oh, and her basic, super-deadly melee action (the Harlequin's Kiss) is a 1+ (meaning ANY activation die can be used to do that action) - so if she rolls a five or six on an activation die, that one die can be used to move twice, up to a total of 10 hexes, and THEN still be used to strike an opponent... which gets her a d12 and a d8... and any damage caused is doubled... (which we forgot about until the final showdown...)

Oh, and not only can she move into and out of hexes adjacent to enemies without ending her move (she just dances past them, not slowing down at all), she can ALSO move right THROUGH theses containing Hostiles, as long as she doesn't end her move in such a hex.

Oh, and that's just on her regular, starting, uninspired side!




when she finally activated she danced about murdering foes here and there, and danced back to the middle for the end of her turn.



Tiring of this game and wanting to move on with her mission...



She struck at the Negavolt Cultists...



Then just danced past them, striking them from behind.



She managed to kill one on the way to the exit point and summoned a Maglev chamber and was on her way... all by the end of turn two... screw the searching for clues and archaeotech. She's on a MISSION!


Exploration Card #3 - Another Combat! 

 

More Traitor Guard - and spindle drones.



Now the Solitaire has 2d12 defence - which is AMAZING - and can dodge pretty much anything... anything, but Negavolt Cultists who have an ability that no one they hit can make a defence roll against them - which makes them pretty much the deadliest thing in the Blackstone Fortress - at least for a Solitaire. In the previous Ambush she let them get a little too close and ended with two wounds.




So in this one, she was determined to keep her distance and just get out of there - hoping to heal some of them in the recovery phase between combat encounters.



having a few less dice, she danced out and killed ONE Traitor Guard...



...and then danced away to a secluded corridor where none were likely to get to her on their activation. And give her a chance to catch her breath and recuperate!



Though they did try!



On the next turn, she danced out of that corridor, past all the waiting hostiles - attacking a few along the way.



She made it to an exit point...



Killed the Guard lurking there and summoned the Maglev Chamber - again, second turn...



Of course they all went after her and came piling in behind her.



Two even made it INTO the Maglev Chamber before the doors slid closed.

There isn't anything IN the rules about Hostiles that follow explorers into maglev chambers... it just says, if all of the conscious explorers make it into the Maglev chamber, the combat ends at the beginning of the Event Phase...

So we just said the doors slid closed and the Traitor Guard left behind could only hear the diminishing screams of their comrades quickly fade away.

When the Maglev Chamber arrived at it's next location the Solitaire stepped out of a chamber - the insides of which were splattered with blood and viscera...


Exploration Card #4 - Challenge... but kind of a Combat...  



The next challenge was played out like a mini-combat. Usually it involved ONE of the four explorers - and it really is a bit of a challenge - like a knife fight in a phone booth with eight or nine hostiles!



and MORE Negavolt Cultists!



No matter... they missed her...



And the dance of Death began.

Splash! Rancid organs and augnetics of on of them were violently dispersed about the room.



Then it was the Ur-Ghuls in the corner that drew the attention of the Solitaire.



The first sniff they had of her presence was the smell of one of their kin being shredded from the inside - and back she danced to the Negavolt Cultist.

 

He was dismembered in short order and the Solitaire danced back to the corner with the Ur-Ghuls and  butchered a second. The remaining one clawed wildly but could not find that which hunted it in the dark.



The three guard got up their nerve to advance - despite the horrid sounds of slaughter... they took shots into the void and could not hit anything.



One second ur-Ghuls were dying in front of them, next they were being shredded from behind. They did not even see her move.



One turned briefly, to look into the eyes of death itself, before being utterly vanquished.


The Final Confrontation...



Then we set up the big, final confrontation... with it's hordes of hostiles and special rules about lanes of fire where characters will be shot if they end up there at the end of an activation and a rotating door that limits the approaches to the final chamber where Obsidius Mallex lays waiting with his guard of Chaos Space Marines and Rogue Psykers...

 

The Maglev Chamber door opened.



The Solitaire took in all before her for only the briefest of moments...

And she was off - dancing through Kill Zones and fire lanes so fast, the overmatching guard never even saw her pass - only the briefest flash of light... One Move Action.

A second move action took her past a second squad of Traitor Guard, that barely noticed her passing. 

A third move action brought her into contact with Obsidius Mallex, Chaos Lord. Not a single die had even been expended at this point - only three reduced. 

Mallex had special rules of his own - if he was struck while Chaos Space Marines were in adjacent hexes the damage would first be dealt to them... 

First strike - dead Chaos Space Marines. Struck down before anyone even knew she was there... 

 

Second Strike - another dead Chaos Space Marine.



Third Strike - time to try out the Harlequin's Caress - now this one was a 2+ action... but that wasn't a problem at this point... a critical success with this instantly kills the target... down went Obsidius Mallex, Chaos Lord.



She even had enough dice to make good her escape - got to the escape location, summoned the Maglev Chamber, and strode on in!

Then everyone else - that was still alive went.

 

The Rogue Psykers DID actually manage to cause a single wound. Everyone else came running after her, but just couldn't get to her before the doors slid shut and she was whisked away to some other part of the Fortress.

It.

Was.

AWESOME!!!

We both had a lot of fun playing that all out! But what to do now that Mallex is gone! Never fear - there is another mini campaign in the Annual involving a Master of Possession named Astroth Mythrak and his two Greater Possessed (which, conveniently, I HAVE - a Master of Possession and two Greater Possessed just happened to come in the Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines box I picked up just over a month ago!

I will be working on those soon - so I can get them done before she looses interest again!

I am also keen to try out this same scenario using the Eversor Assassin - to see how it stacks up!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a few guard I've been working on...



I finished up a few earlier this evening and I'll probably post pics of them tomorrow.



I've also been doing a bit of work on the Aeldari Phantom Titan!

After this game, though, I'm pretty excited to get the Master of Possession and Greater Possessed finished up, so expect them in the not-too-distant future as well!