Warhammer Underworlds - The Chaos Gargant Hunt!

I recently finished up my Stand-In Chaos Gargant, so of course we needed to try out the Chaos Gargant scenario from the December 2018 edition of White Dwarf! 

The scenario pits multiple Warhammer Underworlds warbands against a Chaos Gargant! In the scenario Objective decks are not used, instead Glory is only gained from dealing damage to the Gargant or taking out Enemy Fighters - so, good to play a hard-hitting murder-y warband! Until the Gargant is at half wounds, warbands get One Glory for EACH POINT of Damage dealt! After it's down to half wounds warbands recieve One Glory each time they deal damage to the Gargant, regardless of how much damage they dealt. 

The Gargant itself is treated as an additional player which always goes first each round. Each turn, the players roll-off to see who controls the Gargant. On it's first turn each round, the Gargant goes on Guard. Thereafter the Gargant moves (if it can't move it does a Furious Bellow action - dealing One Damage to EVERY fighter on the table). Then it kicks an adjacent fighter, dealing one damage and pushing it one hex. Then it does one of it's attacks - Smashing someone adjacent, or throwing a boulder at someone up to 3 hexes away! 

Instead of playing three rounds, up to four rounds are played. If the Gargant is dead at the beginning of any End Phase the scenario ends and whoever has the most Glory Points wins. If the Gargant is still alive at the beginning of the fourth End Phase, the players ALL LOSE!!

I'd mentioned planning to play the scenario on Reddit and someone mentioned they'd played the scenario and it was fun... but they rarely made it past TWO ROUNDS! Modern Warbands are much more powerful than the warbands of the Shadespire/Nightvault era - when the scenario was written. 

Because the rules were written BEFORE Stagger was a thing, we just said that the Gargant could not be Staggered (otherwise it would just be two easy if Cyreni's Razors showed up. Cyreni's Hammertide action would just BREAK the Gargant's AI)

(I think maybe after the first turn or two, we forgot to 

Nic and Orion joined us to try out the Gargant Scenario. Orion brought she super-deadly Hexbane's Hunters. Nic decided to try out Ephilim's Pandaemonium. Amanda decided to try Storm of Celestus - because it's a shooty warband and they wouldn't have to get that close! I rolled out with Magore's Fiends! 

Just because of the way the boards worked out and where the Gargant was in relation to my starting hexes - I started with Zharkus the Bloodsighted adjacent to the Gargant. As the Gargant spent it's first turn going on Guard, I figured I'd get to hit it first and deal some damage and not even have to charge... 

Zharkus missed... 

Fighters started moving in - mostly shooting the first few activations

Conveniently, I controlled the Gargant the first turn it did things and I moved it forward, Kicked Apo'trax and chucked a boulder at Flamespooler. I was a little concerned that flamespooler might just start throwing it's flamsplash attack every turn - which splashes all adjacent fighters with warpfire... which deals a damage to each at the end of the round (I did not realize at the time, it just deals ONE damage, regardless of how many warping counters are on the affected fighters... still...) 

It was kind of funny watching all these fighers that would normally be fighting each other chasing after the Gargant, side-by-side trying to bring it down. 

Hexbane got thumped good at this point - but survived! 

Started getting a little crowded... when Orion blocked my path to the Gargant with Aemos and a dog... I just starting hitting who ever I could get to!

Once Aemos was in there, Orion started racking up the Glory! 

SMASH FLAMESPOOLER! 

Once the Gargant has taken damage equal to half it's health it inspires and gets MEANER... 

We probably COULD have ended it by the end of Round Two... but I think Nic had snuck just ahead of Orion for points.... 

So pretty much everyone that was NOT WINNING just started hitting other fighters to keep the Gargant from dying off, giving us all another round to get points from the Gargant - AND taking out a few fighters... 

We did finish off the Gargant in the third round.... Actually I think it finished itself off, by backing into a hazard hex and dealing itself one last point of damage 

The last few activations were spent trying to finish each other off for a few more points... but no one really had any chance of catching up to Orion at that point... Maybe Nic could have, but the Pandaemonium wasn't really positioned to strike at anyone they could potentially kill... 

Orion ended with 13 Glory points! Nic wasn't too far behind with 11 (which was pretty amazing, considering they were playing the warband for the first time without ever having looked at the cards - and playing with a Rivals deck!). I had 7... and Amanda only scored 4!? She just could not get fighters positioned to shoot and the few times she attack, she just missed (also she was playing with a Warband she'd never played before and their rivals deck that she'd never even looked at - and there weren't a lot of Power Cards that were particularly helpful - most were for positioning to get the warband onto Objectives and help them hold them - which are useless in this scenario)! 

It was a super fun scenario to play, though!! Definitely looking forward to trying it again. I really want to get my Gen-u-ine Games Workshop Chaos Gargant finished up and take it out to the Warhammer Store to play on a Friday - as I think it would be a fun one to play as a four-player game there! 

El Akarm Market Massacre

Just outside the Snake Den lies the El Akarm Market. Close enough to the Den itself, it is considered Delaque territory - under their control - and protection.

After the One-Eyed Red Snakes brazen attack on the Cawdor gangers of Durango Pipe, their leader, Willem Campbell, declared that violence would be met in kind - but rather than an attack directly on the Snakes, they would terrorize those they claimed dominion over - show those under their "protection" that House Delaque truly is incapable of offering them any REAL protection... Impotent to save them from the cleansing flame of the Cult of Redemption....

 

Sunday evening my friend Brent stopped by to try out a game of Necromunda.

I thought I'd try out another new scenario from the Book of Ruin. the scenario is called called "Meat Harvest" and the idea is that one gang (presumably the Corpse Grinder Cult) is out to collect some fresh vittles if the form of dead peoples. I figured the scenario could easily be re-skinned to be a scenario where one side is simply trying to terrify the other sides populace (something it seems like gangs might do!).

Twelve unarmed hivers are placed on the table and the attacker is trying to kill them all, the defender is trying to help them all escape (by use of a special action "Shepard (Basic)", which allows them to lead a group of hivers away to safety.

The Attackers get ONE victory point for each Hiver taken out of action, the Defenders get TWO victory points for each they successfully get off the table - by leading them back to their own table edge where, if within 2" of the edge and 2" of a defending ganger (to prevent randomly wandering hivers from leaving on their own!) they can skedaddle! That's it. No points for taking out enemy gangers - you do still get experience points if you take one out... and less enemy gangers means less likely that they'll be able to do the thing that gives their side victory points... but I really, REALLY like the fact that the FOCUS of the scenario is NOT taking out enemy gangers and that one could potentially - in theory - win the game without even coming into direct conflict with the other gang!

Another interesting aspect of the scenario was that both sides started with d3+2 random crew!? But both gangs started getting reinforcements at the end of Round Two - so as the scenario goes on, there is the potential for more and more arriving on both sides... but as Bottle Tests are based on the number of the STARTING crew - it seemed VERY likely that one or both gangs could Bottle Out as soon as they started taking injuries!

Again, though, this is a scenario with odd game end/victory conditions which present a loophole that could be abused. The game ends when either all the Hivers are removed or only one gang has Fighters remaining on the battlefield - then victory goes to whoever has the most victory points. So, technically, the attacker could waltz onto the table, kill ONE Hiver and then voluntarily bottle and leave before the defender can get any off... and the attacker would "Win" because they scored one victory point and the defenders had none...



El Akarm Market - a relatively open area where guilders and other merchants and pedlars and vendors of all varieties hawk their wares to the residents of the south end of the Bronze Gates region.



Normally a bustling bazaar, it was early in the shift, as the scenario began, and few people were present at the moment.

The Durango Pipe Moors arrive on the scene to terrorize the residents and scare them away.



Round one Willem and Gib burst into the market square, Willem lighting up two small merchants just arriving to set up their wares.



Trinitatis rushed forward into cover and check out the situation while Rotis lead a couple of workers a the Corpse Starch vats away.



Lex and Hinton burst in at the other corner of the market - Lex threw a frag grenade - luckily the market wasn't as crowded as it is at time and only one servitor was taken out by the blast.



Hintone unleashed a long burst from his Bolter and took down a fabric merchant and one of his customers!

Things were looking pretty bad for House Delaque at this point - FIVE Hivers taken out in the first round!



Willem then tried to burn two more - but failed and ran out of fuel for his hand flamer.



Gib threw a grenade at them, but the also managed to survive that blast!



Neo65395 burst on to the scene and started blazing away at the Cawdor gangers with his stub guns. His shots were ineffective and was largely ignored as they went about their massacre.

In the following turn he got close enough to hit and wound Hinton - the Champion - TWICE (Two Guns Blazing)! Unfortunately he bled out during the recovery phase at the end of the turn before Neo could get in there and finish him off with a Coup De Gras!



Trinitatis gathered a bunch of the remaining hivers in hopes of leading them away to safety...



Rotis managed to get two out of harms way and into the needleways where the Cawdor gangers would not dare to follow.



checking to see where Hivers that weren't close to defending gangers ran - this one ran TOWARDS the Cawdor gangers!?



Reinforcements started arriving - as reinforcements can arrive ANYWHERE along the edge that isn't within 6" of an enemy fighter. Cawdor Gangers started showing up along the Delaque base edge - to potentially block any escaping Hivers! Oh, those devious Cawdor gangers!



Mus showed up behind the Cawdor gangers though and started shooting them up from behind!



Trinitatis moved off hoping to lead the terrified Hivers away - but they were too afraid to follow...

GAH!? STUPID HIVERS!



Lex, who has been pinned by fire from Mus (and took a Flesh Wound!), stood up and shot the nearby Hiver that mistakenly believed that the devout Cawdor gangers would be his salvation.... That's HALF of the hivers taken out by Cawdor at the start of Round Three...



Rotis took cover and fired on Babe, who'd just arrived, scoring a Flash Wound.



Then the big man himself arrived on the scene - Artifex was in the House!



Trinitatis, frustrated with the cowardly Hivers, decided to give up on leading them away to safety and charged back out, both guns blazing and took down Gib (seriously injured) and pinned Willem!



Neo65395, drunk with power from having taken out Hinton, charged in to try and finish off the pinned Gang Leader. HIs shots were wild, though, and totally ineffective.



Lex then charged him from the rear and stabbed him in the back!



More Cawdor gangers showing up in the Delaque deployment zone... Honestly, when Henry showed up with his Heavy Stubber, I figured it was ALL OVER and it would be another crushing defeat for the One-Eyed Red Snakes - with MORE permanent injuries... but the Cawdor gang had bottled out the previous turn and when Henry arrived on the scene and saw Hinton was down, he decided it would be a better idea to help his brothers to safety (Arrived as reinforcement at turn end, fled at the beginning of the next turn! Whew!)



Artifex took the cheap shot and finished off the seriously injured Gib while Trinitatis tried to finish off the pinned Willem.



Willem recovered, however, and charged Artifex... not sure how he did that if he was pinned... maybe it was the following turn...? Regardless, he failed to take out the Delaque leader with his chainsword and Artifex mercilessly cut him down with his Power Axe!



he the followed through charging Lex, but got a las shot in the face for his troubles...

Things were winding down at this point - both sides had bottled out and the Cawdor gangers were fleeing MUCH faster than the Delaque gangers.

Eventually ALL the Durango Pipe Moors were out of action or fled off the table... Which ended the game. At that point, however, the Cawdor gangers had SIX victory points - from taking out six Hivers, and Delay only had FOUR - from evacuating two off the table... So... technically the Moors won...? Doesn't really make sense...

I mean, the game COULD have kept going - with more Moors showing up as reinforcements at the end of each round (unaware that the rest of their gang had fled?) and try to block the fleeing Hivers being shepherded away by the Snakes. But that's not what the scenario says... and that would take forever...?

I guess they showed up, killed a bunch of Hivers and fucked off before the defenders could make safe enough of the others for the residents to really continue having faith in them...?

So the winners gained d3 reputation (I rolled one) and both sides lost one reputation for bottling out. The Moors took control of the dock access to the The Puddle - a vast underground Sludge Sea.

Neo65395 - the only Delaque ganger taken out of action in the skirmish was quickly patched up and will be ready to fight again when next the gangs clash. The Durango Pipe Moors took some more serious casualties. Hinton's armour took most of the damage from the hail of bullest he was subjected to and the bruises will heal up quick enough. Gib and Willem were more seriously injured and will need a bit of time to recover. Ernie was critically injured and nearly bled out. HE was rushed to a Rogue Doc just in time to save him, but his arm was seriously enough injured he won't be able to swing it to well when it's healed up as much as it can (-1 WS).


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Still have gang posts to finish up... WHY did I think it would be fun to write background fluff for EACH gang member of EVERY gang!? maybe I'll just stop and post what I've got so far!!

Probably won't be a game of Necromunda next Sunday...

bellboy miniatures keep maneuvering closer to the painting table... but so far I have failed to get it cleared off and ready to focus on just Hellboy things... maybe this evening I'll get to that!!