40K Narrative Campaign Year 2 Game 2

Another year of slogging through the mud, orks everywhere, but what should appear across the battlefield than the Astra Militarum. Do they have a new book? Is it even out yet? Do they still die from massed bolter fire? We’ll just have to find out.

Somehow we got to the Sentry Box extra early, this gave us time to get coffee or tea, set up the terrain, then rotate the entire battlefield as this mission was to be played with the battlefield arrayed differently than last week. The mission was “Critical Targets” and once again I got to my choice and this time I chose to be the defender. I had to nominate five critical targets including all my characters, then one of those targets would secretly be nominated as the primary target and another the secondary target.

So I arranged my models so Daniel could see them and then secretly wrote down who would be primary and secondary target:

1. Bagonhead the Unbearable
2. McFly the Malevolent
3. Boris the Defiler
4. Killious Bilious the Silliest
5. Billalexdevin

Once again I took Subterfuge as my primary agenda, this time I didn’t bring the rhino instead deciding that with the battlefield being less wide I’d just hoof it. Of course I took Turn their Hope to Rot because you always need more Virulence Points.

As this was Daniel’s first game with the new book, he’d barely gotten everything glued together in time. I had no idea the book was even out and didn’t know any of the rules, but it turns out the Astra Militarum could have used some more cover and my veteran troops that had been campaigning for over a year had picked up some experience so Daniel got 9 extra command points!

The Forces of the Diseased Sons

This week we had more points and I brought my two big blocks of ten purple plague marines. I of course brought McFly and my one long range gun platform, then to round it out two Chaos Spawn. I deployed as seen below, as I knew the Astra Militarum would be able to shoot indirectly somehow. The plan was of course to cross the open ground as that is what passes for subterfuge in Games Workshops eyes.

Daniel had a lot of guardsmen from different regiments which apparently means something, he had a command squad, a very valuable and well hidden commander and lots of artillery, but with Bill’s preference for small battlefields they are less valuable, I predict more armour will be incoming.

Death Guard Turn One

So not only did I get to be the defender I got to go first and would you look at that there had to be over forty models arrayed before me, time for another Blight Bombardment! I wasn’t able to do anything in the psychic phase, but I opened fire on the big blocks of troops, in hindsight maybe I should have targeted other units or split my fire but I generally shoot at what is in front of me.

Boris killed several Astra Militarum soldiers, then Syphilis did 14 wounding hits. I actually advanced some models too, as I had to cross the killing ground as fast as possible.

Astra Militarum Turn One

I don’t recall the Astra Militarum moving much but they had Heavy Lascannons which fired at Boris, hitting three times, but I saved one so I ended up taking seven wounds. The indirect fire went into the Chaos Spawn and even behind a wall the Astra Militarum got +1 to hit.

The new Imperial Guard roll a lot of dice, I had to lend Daniel more. Three plague marines failed all their Grizzled rolls and everything that shot at the Scarlet Fevers hit, so I played Insane Bravery as they were my human shield for McFly and I don’t think I remembered which of my critical targets I made primary and secondary, but it was all written down.

Death Guard Turn Two

There were a lot less models on the table now and the Blight Bombardment hadn’t even landed, perhaps I shouldn’t have shot at the squads I planned to bombard, but I wanted to thin the herd so I could target the artillery behind. In the end the Blight Bombardment only did two wounds, my best ever was against Daniel’s Sisters of Battle, this is his third campaign army at least.

I think I killed one artillery piece but then in the pictures later they are all back, so I think the Astra Militarum have a way to resurrect dead models, just like the Alpha Legion can bring back Chaos Cultists.

The Chaos Spawn managed to kill a guardsmen unit then consolidated into the next squad, this really is a technique you need to master in 9th Edition. My next note isn’t clear but I think the commander failed to do something.

Astra Militarum Turn Two

“Grizzled!” is what I wrote to start this turn, so I take it I made some die rolls and remembered some rules. I also stabbed a gun to death and even got to use the Chaos Spawn’s Fearsome Aura, it was not looking good for the Astra Militarum.

Death Guard Turn Three

All I wrote down this turn was “one gun left!”

Astra Militarum Turn Three

And so the maiden battle of the Astra Militarum ended with me accomplishing both my agendas according to Daniel. McFly was still alive and had several turns to walk across the battlefield. There was no enemy models left so obviously I turned Daniel’s Hope into Rot.

Post Battle Book Keeping

One of his squads, Farstein took an injury, but they may have just retired from the campaign. Bagonhead the Unbearable survived, this caused Syphilis to become legendary. And after like an hour of book keeping, the end result was -1 armour penetration to his plasma gun.

As McFly completed his agenda too, he earned a Corruption Point and gained an ability called “Murmurs of Disorder”. Take that Beastsnagga Boyz! Of course I had to spend one requisition point too but I had several, I ended up spending another one adding Acidic Malady to McFly’s Staff of Corruption as he needs to hit harder in hand to hand surrounded by all the campaign’s killers.

Who knew I was a Warhammer 40,000 genius, the Las Vegas Open just completed and they all better look out as the Diseased Sons may show up someday. I don’t know if they’ll be Death Guard but that is how they’ll likely start 10th Edition with the pace I’m painting. I have a lot of ideas on how to do better with the current rules, but ultimately the Irony Warriors of Nurgle will happen.

During all the book keeping I recruited another suboptimal, long missing from the battlefield squad, three Beasts of Nurgle that I spent months painting. I’m not sure how zero more guns will help me but I’m leading the campaign in tentacles. If you have thoughts on the superiority of tentacles over guns, artillery, air support, and armour you can leave a comment below.