With the increase in intensity of the insurrection, elements of the Imperial Guard (The Gravalaxian XXXIIIrd Infantry Regiment) have been brought into Gehardog Fol to bolster the flagging Planetary Defence Forces. With them, a LOT of fresh supplies have arrived as well - to keep the Imperial War Machine running! With only the temporary wire currently surrounding their compound, it should be super easy to slip in and plant demolition charges on some of those supply containers!
This is Game Two of Rise Up!: A Narrative Campaign for Warhammer 40K
You can read more about the campaign background here:
Rise Up! ANOTHER Short Narrative Campaign for Warhammer 40K
You can read about Game One here:
Rise Up! Scenario One: The Ambush!
Scenario
This scenario uses Sentries - as detailed in the Narrative section of the Warhammer 40000 (8th Edition) Core Rulebook (we are still using the 9th edition core rules, but we only have the core rules that were released in the free PDF which don't cover additional rules like sentries or terrain or anything like that - so we have to still use the 8th edition versions of these rules).
The Wire
Units cannot advance or charge across the wire. Moving across reduces their movement by 2" (counts as climbing up 1" on one side and climbing down 1" on the other) but they must test toughness - roll a d6, if the result is equal to or lower than their Toughness score they have passed, if they fail, the unit suffered d3 Mortal Wounds!
Alternatively, a unit that is in contact with the wire in the Command Phase and not within engagement range of the enemy, may choose to remove wire. They must remain stationary throughout the turn and may not shoot of fight in the shoot and fight turn. If they are still in contact with the wire and not within engagement range at the beginning of their next Command Phase they may remove one section of wire.
Demolition Charges
A Genestealer Cult Unit (Characters or Troops) in contact with one of the shipping containers, and not within engagement range of any enemy during their Command Phase may attempt to plant a Demolition Charge. To do so they must remain stationary throughout their turn and not shoot or fight or use Psychic abilities while engaged in this task. If they are still in contact with the shipping container - and still not in engagement range of any enemy units - at the beginning of their next Command Phase the bomb is set.
for each bomb a Unit of Troops successfully sets, they gain a bonus experience point.
At the end of the game the Genestealer Cultists roll d6 - if the result is equal to or less than the number of charges they have set during the game they have done significant damage to the Imperial War Effort and have "won" the game. Troops will gain a bonus three experience points, and
Forces
Imperial Forces
4th Platoon, C Company, XXXIIIrd Gravalaxian Infantry Regiment
Patrol Detachment - Cost: 2CP - Command Benefit +2CP
HQ
Lt. Cargall - Company Commander - PR2
Troops
Infantry Squad - PR3
Infantry Squad - PR3
Infantry Squad - PR3
Elites
Command Squad - Pr2
Commissar - PR2
Power Level: 15
Sentries - One squad of Imperial Guard Infantry (10)
Genestealer Cult Forces
Battalion Detachment - Cost: 3CP - Command Benefit +3CP
Ian:
Xenofobix - HQ - PR4 - 1AP
Abilities: Psychic Might, Directed Fire
Warlord Trait: Shadow Stalker
Psychic Powers: Smite, Psionic Blast, Might From Beyond.
Troops -Neophyte Hybrids (10) - PR4 - 1XP - Green
Finnegan:
Ehxmuhnxd Ebonyviper II - HQ - Primus - PR4 - 1AP
Abilities: Stealthy, Camouflaged
Troops -Neophyte Hybrids (10) - PR4 - 1XP - Green
Oliver:
Phil Lip - HQ - Primus - PR4 - 1AP
Abilities: Impervious, Toughened Armour
Troops -Brood Brothers Infantry (10) - PR4 - 4XP - Green
Power Level: 24
The Game
Da Boyz were back on Thursday to play Game Two in the Rise Up! Narrative 40K Campaign!
ROUND ONE
Our heroic revolutionaries approach the wire...
Sentries patrol and a team with a heavy bolder scan the wire for possible intruders... or... maybe they're playing cards because it's "a quiet night"
Trooper Alice Dalder thought she heard something and went over to investigate! INTRUDERS! ON THE WIRE! Bew! Bew!
And just like that... the alarm was raised... on Round One...
It was like Game Two of The Signal all over again... but in reverse!?
So the Guard took their turn - The night was suddenly lit up with lasgun and bolted fire - the Heavy Bolter lit up a squad. Lasgun fire caused a couple of wounds on Xenofobix, the Magos.
The Command Squad arrived arrived as reinforcements.
ROUND TWO
Feeling they needed to MOVE, the Magos Tried to cross wire - failed his Toughness roll - and took 3 mortal wounds - the worst possible outcome - and because he'd already taken a few wounds from Lasgun fire, he was out of action... (and the died when we later checked for survival)...
Wow...
Primus Phil Lip's squad move uped and fire on Sentries and the Heavy Bolter - taking the Heavy Bolter out of action!
Ehxmuhnxd Ebonyviper II's squad also moved up to wire, shooting down a few of the nearby sentries. Ehxmuhnxd Ebonyviper II is a little more... prudent... than the Magos and always tried to position himself to the REAR of his troops - so he... um... could get a better eye on their positioning and be better albe to direct them in combat... yeah...
The Command squad moved up and the Commander and two Infantry Squads arrived on the Guard turn.
MOVE IT UP! HUP! HUP! HUP!
Grenade launchers fired on the interlopers.
ROUND THREE
Xenofobix's squad briefly debating the merits of just crossing the wire after watching their leader get tangled in it... then started crossing crossing anyway. They must have learned from his mistakes, because THEY passed test...
But not all of the troops were close enough to make it all the way!
Phil Lip's troops shifted along the wire to get a better line of sight on the advancing troops. Ebonyviper II ordered his troops to start cutting the wire!
The Commissar and theThird Squad arrived, while the others continued to fire on the insurrectionists!
The platoon's medic was doing a good job of returning his fellow grenadiers to action - who kept pumping frag grenades into the enemy masses.
BEW! BEW! BEW! Angry lasgun shots take down another cultist!
ROUND FOUR
Ebonyviper II's troops successfully cut the wire and poured through - followed by the Brood Brothers under the command of Phil Lip.
One squad of the Gravalaxians moved up on the invaders and shot a few of them down.
Then followed up with a devastating charge! URRAAH!
Th other squad did the same to over on the other flank - all but one of the intruders were wiped out!
ROUND FIVE
At this point, after having seen me, very effectively, make use of Command Points and Stratagems in my previous turn (Grenadiers, Insane Bravery, Fight to the Death, and the ever useful Command Re-Roll!) they decided to take a moment and actually READ though the stratagems at their disposal - awn start USING all the Command Points they'd been accumulating since Round One!
First they used Cult Reinforcements to return SIX of the seven they'd lost so far to Xenofobix's squad of Neophytes! Yikes!
Worst thing about these Genestealer Cultists... Not only do you have to kill them, but you have to knock them over too!
The sole survivor of Ebonyviper II's fell back so Phil Lip's squad could fire upon the Astra Militarum squad! Ebonyviper himself, saw an opportunity to sneak around the flank with a bag full of demolition charges!
Fire was exchanged between Phil Lip's Squad and the Astra Militarum... Phil Lips Squad may have assaulted...? I don't actually remember how all of that action went down, save that by the end of the turn Phil Lip's Squad was utterly wiped out and the Gravalaxian squad that had lead the assault on that flank was reduced to the Sergeant commanding...
The resurgence of the Cultists over on the other flank started to turn the tide in that melee...
ROUND SIX
This time Ebonyviper made use of the Cult Reinforcements stratagem to return four to his squad... which were immediately all gunned down by the fresh squad of Gravalaxians!
The Gravalaxians then charged Primus Phil Lip
The Commissar and the Lone Sergeant charged Ebonyviper II!
These guys fought through the Genestealer Cults turn but then the Astra Militarum troopers fell back so that the Company Commander and what remained of the Command Squad, could fire on them (as they had little else to do as all others were engaged in melee!
In the ensuing melees Ebonyviper II killed both of his assailants!
ROUND SEVEN
As Ebonyviper II started the Command Phase in contact with one of the supply crates and no enemies within engagement range - he started setting up bomb!
More cultists got back up and attacked the Sergeant over on the other flank
The Captain and the sole surviving sentry decided to move out and rush to his aid!
Primus Phil Lip wiped out a squad of Guard Troopers pretty much single-handedly!
ROUND EIGHT
Ehxmuhnxd Ebonyviper II was still in contact with the Supply Container at the beginning of the Command Phase, so a bomb was successfully planted! Ebonyviper II and Phil Lip then ran to the next containers in line to try and plant more bombs
Uggggh... this squad of Genestealer Cultists were like a bad case of herpes... The Captain and sentry did charge in... killed a few... they came back... the captain and sergeant and sentry were all eventually overwhelmed and taken out of action...
END GAME
I said they could count as having planted those last two bombs and they could roll to see if the explosives did enough damage to win... they rolled a 4... nope...
Checking for survival, Xenofobix died of the injuries he sustained attempting to cross the razor wire... He will be missed... but not really...
Phil Lip and EbonyViper II both survived this game, but failed to cause substantial damage to the Imperial War Effort, so they only received ONE Advancement Point.
Ebony Viper's Squad of Neophytes lost one point of experience for being taken out of action, as did Phil Lip's Squad of Brood Brothers - luckily, before they were taken out of action, they'd taken out the Heavy Bolter - which I had said would gain a squad an experience point. So they remain at four - still Green.
The Late Xenofobix's Squad of Neophytes took out the warlord... and another unit... and survived the game - thanks to using the Cult Reinforcement Stratagem over and over and over... and thus, they gained four experience points, raising them to FIVE - they are now "BLOODED" and gain a Level One Battle Honour. Ian chose "Sharpshooters", which allows them to reroll hit rolls of one in the shooting phase... which make sense given all the melee fighting they did...?
I wonder if a better way of doing the reinforcements would have worked better... maybe just one squad arriving per turn... but one squad EVERY turn - recycling squads that were taken out of action! And maybe also put a cap on the number of turns. If we'd had more time to play, they could have spent turns running around setting all the bombs they wanted and won, simply by killing EVERYYONE. If this were part of a larger Astra Militarum base, there would be MORE troops that would continuously be arriving.
Ah well... next time.
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
There are a few things on the workbench that are nearing completion... perhaps I'll be posting pictures of those...?
Next week there will be two more game reports - one for each of the narrative campaigns I am running; Rise Up! and The Signal
Posts
Scenario design is tricky. I find it best to think of an ideal outcome and try add elements that help get to that outcome. It sounds, from your reflection, that have a good grasp on how to add elements to this design and it will help you on the next one.
ReplyDeleteYou still ended up with an interesting game and that's always good. Hopefully the players enjoyed it as much as I did reading it.
Cheers!
DeleteOne player was a just little sulky about his Magos - first tripping the alarm - and then dying, ignominiously, by getting caught up on the wire while trying to cross it (all situations that could EASILY have been avoided!) ... and then complained, viciously, all through the game that; "Well! WE'RE NOT GOING TO WIN THIS ONE, BOYS!" in, what felt to me like, a very disapproving tone... It's hard to stay positive and keep everyone engaged and feel like all the hard work you did trying to put this campaign together while facing that... Especially when *I* could see that they really would eventually overwhelm my forces and utterly wipe them out!
I think constant single squads being deployed would not have been as overwhelming - at first - and given them a bit more of a chance to get TO the crates and START planting explosives... while at the same time creating a sustained level of tension and stuff for them to deal with while continuing to try and plant the devices...