PAGE Apocalypse 2015: The Fall of Kimball Prime

kingbreakers-iconThe Kingbreakers’ First Squad burst from their Drop Pod even before it hit the ground, running as one toward their objective. Flamers swept away a pack of zombie cultists without pause. Sergeant Scolirus’ powerfist dispatched an intercepting greater daemon on the fly, preserving momentum. The battle brothers each felt the tingling energy crackle as they breached the overlapping void shields but none had a moment to reflect on it. Their target in sight, Captain Angholan jumped in a single bound to the top of the shield generators, ran across the battlements, and leapt into space, hurling an ancient Vortex Grenade into the smoking maw of the corrupted Warhound directly in front of them. At this range the wildly unpredictable warp attack might prove as deadly to themselves as the traitor Titan itself. But none would ever be able to say they had not given everything for the Emperor that had saved them.

This past weekend the Philadelphia Area Gaming Enthusiasts (PAGE) crew held its roughly annual major Apocalypse match. The event was expanded this year to two days: One of Recon Squad skirmishes and a Cataclysm mini-mega battle, and another day of full-on Apocalypse battle royale. Sixteen players participated, with 24,000 points per side in the finale.

A largely successful push was made by the entire group this year to field painted armies and terrain, and tons of photos are up in the Flickr galleries:

A full report of the campaign follows below.

IMG_9619

We march to war!

The Long War

This was basically the finale of a series of events loosely connected by narrative and players over the past half decade:

Campaign map from the 2010 Combat Patrol League.

Campaign map from the 2010 Combat Patrol League.

For 2015’s climax of this story arc, the Legions of Discord brought The Scythe of Unbound Light to the gates of the Kimball Prime Manufactorum, bulwark of the Forces of Order on the planet and last bastion of the Imperium in this system. Meanwhile the instigator behind this entire campaign was also revealed…

Kimball Prime

The entire weekend was fought over a single board, representing the main gate to the major Manufacturom on Kimball Prime (the venue, my house, being on Kimball St and my painting log being the Kimball Prime Manufactorum Log). Though we’ve previously done well at building good Apocalypse boards, this year a bunch of people built even more terrain so we’d have a single unified look.

The table was just over 6′ by 17′ long, following our usual calculations on sizing multiplayer and mega-battle tables. Apocalypse deployment zones were L-shapes, with the teams taking one short edge and all but 4′ of their respective long edges, creating a 2′ strip of S-shaped no-man’s land. At one end was the parade ground and main gate fortress of the Kimball Prime Manufactorum, built for a display board at this year’s NOVA Team Trios Tournament. The other end was anchored by a series of giant skulls emplaced on Chaos temples, representing The Scythe of Unbound Light. Both were essentially played as Aquila Strongpoints with Macro-cannons, the fortress actually being two strongpoints but one cannon, and The Scythe having two annexes. These were blended into an urban core in the middle, with the ruins progressively more dense toward the center. Between and among all this both sides deployed defensive constructs, with Discord’s Iron Warriors in particular laying down extensive siege works.

The field of battle prepped and ready.

The field of battle prepped and ready.

Recon Squad + Cataclysm

The first part of the campaign used our Recon Squad rules for 200 pt skirmishes. These are very similar to the traditional GW Kill Team variant, but with tighter rules and better adaptations to 7th edition. Around these we used our Twilight on Caldor IV campaign mechanics, in which each player picks a legacy like Bodyguards, Sentinels, Headhunters, or Scouts from eight options, and tries to achieve that legacy through winning several specific scenarios from eight missions like Assassination, Installation, Excavation, or Breakthrough. The main table was divided up with twine into four 4×4 Recon Squad boards, with two more side boards assembled for fighting at the poles and in the swamps of Kimball Prime.

Legacy card for the Sentinels.

Legacy card for the Sentinels.

A pack of Screamers dominated their matches, helping the Legions of Discord to a healthy 116 to 83 victory in the vanguard battles of the imminent Apocalypse. In a key moment, however, a squad of The Fallen were run to ground in a ruined Imperial chapel, yielding the first hints of the greater forces at work behind the scenes.

kingbreakers-iconBrother Teleos stepped carefully among the rubble, futilely trying to avoid crunching in the loose debris. The shadowy figures had clearly retreated into these chapel ruins once the cultists they’d been using as meat shields had been pulped. At the distinctive boom of a bolter firing behind him, instinct spun Teleos around instantly even as another part of his mind registered that it was too late already. It took a moment then to process that he was still functioning, and then another to fully register the robed, power armored figure falling to the ground mere feet away, a long monoblade raised toward him. Framed in the archway beyond stood Ghost Sergeant Harmon. The black clad Kingbreaker gave Teleos the sign for eyes-up before silently stalking on deeper into the chapel.

Fallen and Kingbreakers have a standoff in a ruined Imperial chapel.

Fallen and Kingbreakers have a standoff in a ruined Imperial chapel.

In the next part the Recon Squads gained 300 points of reinforcements and piled into a single Cataclysm battle over half the main board. On the edges of the parade grounds a seesawing conflict was fought between Mechanicum automata and Chaos Cultists joined by summoned daemons. Across the battlefield, an isolated band of Imperial Fists were rolled off the flanks of the temple grounds by daemons and traitor Marines. Coming to reinforce the position, Clan Raukaan troops found themselves ambushed by Night Lords. Despite a steady armored push up the center of the battle, Major Zdarsky’s 59th Armageddon crashed onto the enemy objectives too late to swing the Imperials’ fortunes.

By the end both warmasters were slain but Discord continued its successes, holding the majority of the six primary objectives in scoring rounds after Turns 2, 4, and 6 to earn 20 points to Order’s 14, both having also assassinated several opposing warlords. Squads on both teams squads secured their legacies, with the daemons’ Penetrators claiming an Order objective and the Kingbreakers’ Bodyguards successfully executing a flying block for Major Zdarsky and his armored column.

Lizardmen fight against the Imperium that would scorn them.

Lizardmen fight against the Imperium that would scorn them.

Night Lords stalk the shadowed alleys and ruins.

Night Lords stalk the shadowed alleys and ruins.

The Cataclysm underway.

The Cataclysm underway.

Apocalypse

The next day the conflict at the Manufactorum gates expanded again. Companies of Space Marines, packs of Cultists and Daemons, Mechanicus war engines, and all manner of armies descended on the battlefield.

Setup

Six primary objectives were placed before deployment in a ring around the board:

  • The main gates of the Kimball Prime Manufacturom;
  • The base of The Scythe of Unbound Light;
  • The headquarters of Discord’s siege works;
  • Clerics’ dormitories at an Imperial Shrine;
  • An Imperial Aquila Strongpoint with Vortex Missiles;
  • A newly arisen Necron Citadel.

After all deployment was complete, each player additionally placed a secondary objective anywhere 12″ from table edges and other objectives.

apoc-board

Scoring was held after turns 2, 4, and 5 (game end). Primary objectives could only be scored by troops in the mid-game rounds. All troops had Objective Secured regardless of detachment structure. Primaries were each worth the current turn number. Secondaries were worth one point each. Warlords, superheavies, gargantuan creatures, and mighty bulwarks were additionally worth a point each, with an additional point for slaying the designated warmaster (chief warlord).

Having handily won the preceding day, Discord took the prerogative of choosing to deploy and play first or second and chose second. They also got a free Macro-Cannon on The Scythe for their successes throughout the campaigns. Each team took up to 30 minutes to deploy, with Seize the Initiative unavailable. Modified Apocalyptic Reserves were applied, with a schedule of earliest arrival based on maximum unit movement speed. Each turn the commander for each team could designate one unit to make an All Out Attack, advancing at triple its movement but foregoing shooting/running/moving flat out. Both commanders also selected eight Strategic Asset cards to be given to their warlords in need throughout the match.

The Sentinels of Terra and the 59th Armageddon await the onslaught.

The Sentinels of Terra and the 59th Armageddon await the onslaught.

Battle

The Forces of Order had a nearly decisive first turn, inflicting major losses. The Kingbreakers’ Librarius of Rorschach make a suicidal Drop Pod strike into the heart of the enemy deployment zone. Binding their psychic potential together, they cast a massive Warp Vortex directly on top of a corrupted Hellhammer, blasting it immediately into the Immaterium. Though the entirety of the Librarius gave their lives for the action, their angry spirits lived on in the vortex they’d spawned, sucking a number of Greater Daemons back into the Warp throughout the battle.

Nearby, punishing bombardment from the 59th Armageddon and a contingent of the Sentinels of Terra on the parapets of the main gate fortress obliterated a Void Shield Generator and a corrupted Baneblade on the leading edge of the Discord siege works. Covered by the withering hail of fire, the Knight Errant Greenheart simultaneously charged across the battlefield and plowed through the zombie cultists futilely blocking its way, stomping through their lines and crushing the other Void Shield Generator guarding the Discord siege headquarters.

At the far end of the battlefield, Clan Raukaan Centurions and Sternguard made a mass drop on the Necron Citadel and astoundingly earned a critical first turn kill of the emerging Transcendant C’Tan before it could wreak havoc.

A Great Unclean One exchanges mighty blows with a Terminator Sergeant.

A Great Unclean One exchanges mighty blows with a Terminator Sergeant.

Reeling from these blows, the Legions of Discord worked grimly to pull their battle plan back together. Four greater Daemons bound together in a Tetragon of Darkness shrouded the Chaos troops in protective wards from the enemies now running amok among their lines, while the nanites and scarabs of the Necron Citadel did the same for the automatons. A massive blind barrage shielded the advance of hordes of Lizardmen, Night Lords, and other traitors in the shadows of a many-legged Greater Brass Scorpion toward the Mechanicum’s Aquila Strongpoint. One of Ahriman’s Covens sacrificed itself en masse ahead of the group to spawn a bevy of warp rift vortexes that would plague the soldiers of Mars for the entire battle. Responding in kind, a Dark Angels Librarius began tearing at reality ahead of the oncoming army. Together the two bands of psykers turned that entire quadrant of the battlefield into a crazed, unpredictable nightmare where instant death might come at any moment, no matter how brave the warrior or thick the armor.

A Dark Angels Librarius recklessly tears rifts in reality all about the incoming Chaos Marines from their Aquila Strongpoint.

A Dark Angels Librarius recklessly tears rifts in reality all about the incoming Chaos Marines from their Aquila Strongpoint.

A band of Chaos Marines marches toward the Mechanicum's Strongpoint.

A band of Chaos Marines marches toward the Mechanicum’s Strongpoint.

With little left in reserve following the punishing first round strike, the Forces of Order were stretched thin to cope with seemingly endless Discord reinforcements and slowly the momentum shifted.

Deep in the Discord lines, isolated bands of Kingbreakers, Dark Angels, and Raukaan fought brave tactical battles to claim important ground, but were repeatedly swept away by outnumbering opponents: Once the Siege HQ was threatened by Order forces, Land Raiders full of Chaos troops appeared to fight them back. With the Necron Citadel about to be overrun by combined arms, a large band of Cultists arrived to hold it until the Maynarkh could regroup. Again and again the story repeated, snatching victory from the loyalists.

On the Imperial side, wave after wave of Necron flyers harrassed the Mechanicum position. Though many Tech Thralls and reinforcing Raukaan gave their lives to shore up the Strongpoint and the Greater Brass Scorpion was eventually brought down, the redoubt was inevitably overcome in a flood of Chaos Marines.

Deathwing drag down a daemon spawned on the parapets of the main gate fortress.

Deathwing drag down a daemon spawned on the parapets of the main gate fortress.

Most devastatingly, late in the battle several small squads of Chaos space marines outflanked onto the Imperials’ position around the shrine dormitories. Having already repelled a large attack of Soulgrinders, lesser daemons, and zombies, the position had been thought secure. Heavy shelling from the 59th Armageddon combined with sustained fire and assaults from the Kingbreakers and allies eventually cleared the position, but the damage had been done. Stretched thin across the multiple objectives in the area, there wasn’t enough time for Order forces to shore up the position before a final, desperate, high speed strafing run of an entire squadron of Necron Doom Scythes managed to wipe the defenders off the primary objective in the closing moments of the battle.

Inquisitor Hersch and Kingbreakers Tacticals investigate noises in the alleys around the shrine dormitory.

Inquisitor Hersch and Kingbreakers Tacticals investigate noises in the alleys around the shrine dormitory.

Maynarkh Doom Scythes make a high speed formation strafing run through the occupied city ruins.

Maynarkh Doom Scythes make a high speed formation strafing run through the occupied city ruins.

Midway through the battle, however, the last of Discord’s primary siege works had been finally cracked open. Exposed therein was the treacherous mastermind of the entire campaign: No less than Cypher himself! His position was immediately obliterated beyond all recognition by the Sentinels of Terra and the 59th Armageddon. Presumably nothing could have survived the severe overkill, but the Fallen’s fate is unconfirmed: Deathwing rushing to the site were intercepted en route and unable to gather evidence either way.

apoc-movement

Outcome

The Imperial bulwarks on Kimball Prime are lost before the might of The Scythe of Unbound Light and the Manufacturom lost to Chaos, but the instigator of this campaign throwing the sector into disarray is revealed!

Both teams claimed 5 superheavy/gargantuan/bulwark and 3 warlord kills, though Order also dispatched the Discord warmaster—Cypher cowardly hiding in a bunker! After Turn 2 Order had a small lead (19 to 15), but Discord gained a slight advantage by Turn 4 (40 to 37), and then Order’s long edge collapsed in Turn 5, yielding a final total score of 65 to 51 in favor of the traitors, heretics, and xenos.

A solitary sniper eyes up the battlefield.

A solitary sniper eyes up the battlefield.

Analysis

A few points on the game play itself as well as the design of the match.

Game End

With 120 points up for grabs, the 65-51 Apocalypse outcome certainly wasn’t a blow out. With another turn before scoring the end several of the objectives would have been closely fought, potentially dramatically changing the outcome. The Kingbreakers in particular were setup for 6 turns, and didn’t have time to move back onto the Dormitory objective when the game ended early. By that point though most of the (merely mortal) warlords were ready to pack it in after a long, brutal campaign. We did a reasonable job of keeping things to our schedule, but this was a packed weekend of two long days of gaming. Regardless, in the future we’ll probably score every turn and commanders will have to be prepared for the game to end early in the event that the group starts to flag.

The Mechanicum's Strongpoint is overwhelmed in a combined tide of living and corrupted metal.

The Mechanicum’s Strongpoint is overwhelmed in a combined tide of living and corrupted metal.

Balance

Our group consciously works to make our Apocalypse battles more than just Titans point & clicking at each other from across the table. In this match basic troops, heroic warriors, and giant war machines all felt equally important and critical. To a very large extent the game came down to a couple combat squads of Tacticals slugging it out with some Chaos Marine stragglers over a primary objective in the last turn. Among the factors contributing to this are:

  • Major units, defined as anything with more than 9 hull points/wounds, are “negotiated” between the teams. For this match we agreed not to allow Reavers, though we have in the past, mostly because one in the group isn’t painted and very very few of our players are familiar enough to use them effectively. Otherwise everything was allowed and this rule basically just prevents surprises, and enables some shifting around of excess Baneblade-chassis to roughly balance the superheavies across the two teams.
  • Tons of line of sight blocking terrain as well as barricades, rubble, and other smaller terrain providing places for the little guys to hang out. In addition to the board pieces placed pre-game, we ignore the official Apoc rules and leave ruined vehicles in place (as destroyable wreckage) as well as amending the 7th edition core to still replace exploded vehicles with craters, so that infantry have places to hide, particularly after spilling out of a transport.
  • Permitting only Troops to hold the primary objectives in the mid-game scoring obviously makes them critical. Giving all Troops the Objective Secured rule regardless of detachment is also a nice and very relevant buff. A good number of points came down to having Elites vs Troops on the secondary objectives.
A full handful of plasmacannon Sentinels lurched about in Order's backfield waiting for deep striking traitor Terminators to squish.

A full handful of plasmacannon Sentinels lurched about in Order’s backfield waiting for deep striking traitor Terminators to squish.

Deployment Zones

The funky deployment zones used here definitely made things interesting. It’s certainly not uncommon in Apocalypse for a section of the board to get blown away early. This setup though makes the long ends of the L-shapes “obvious” focal points for massive bombardments and attack because they’re exposed on two sides.

Despite Discord’s significant siege works, most of their forces on that point were obliterated early on. Probably Order’s Sentinels and 59th Armageddon should have advanced en masse to roll down that flank a bit after it was opened up, but they were harassed enough by deep striking Oblits and Daemons to stay put. In turn, that gave space for the large number of reserves Discord had held back to roll on and just barely mantain that point.

On the opposite end, Discord didn’t manage to knockout Order’s Strongpoint at that leading edge for quite some time, but the writing was on the wall with an inexorable wave of enemies working toward it from multiple angles. Order placed a ridiculous amount of forces around the main gate objective for mostly psychological reasons, as well as not wanting to split up commanders’ forces, but we should have allocated some of them down at the opposite end.

So, both sides expected the brunt of the fighting to be at those points, but neither adequately realized how true that would be. Encouraging that kind of analysis is a good thing, so I think this deployment setup worked well without being more punishing on any particular player than Apocalypse can be anyway.

Grenadiers oversee the battlefield.

Grenadiers oversee the battlefield.

Strategy

To that end, this match was actually really strategic. Though definitely not a perfect game, 40k done well is by no means a beer and pretzels affair. That’s surprisingly also true of Apocalypse. With enough attention to terrain, scenario, schedules, and balanced teams, there’s a ton of strategy to be had.

For the most part, Apocalypse doesn’t have the same tactical game that standard 40k does. There’s just too much going on, and not enough time to micro-optimize play or avoid all mistakes. I almost certainly removed my warlord on a failed save he didn’t actually fail but was too harried to catch that the power weapon attacking him didn’t defeat his artificier armor. At the same time, I know his unit lived through a turn when they could have gotten crushed because an opposing player was moving too fast trying to get in all of his actions, and accidentally blocked the Discord Warhound from going after them. It was actually jarring going from Recon Squad, which is very tactical, to this monstrosity. My skirmish Saturday against Colin’s Fallen was extremely chess-like and tight (and awesome!), whereas Sunday’s chaos was all about the broad strokes, having a well designed list and making the appropriate large scale moves that sailed well above all the really fine grained stuff.

A Typhoon heads out on patrol.

A Typhoon heads out on patrol.

To a large extent, 40k is a game of resource management and area control rather than micro-maneuvering, and in my eyes is a better game for it. Apocalypse done right takes that to a different level even as it swings on pivotal dice rolls just like any other match. Discord won this game because they kept a large number of units in reserve and combined them well with strategic asset cards to bring them on in the most effective places at just the right times. Ultimately it came down to just a couple Chaos Marines posing a significant threat, combined with a few flyers in position to sweep away the counter-response.

Though the gambit looked very promising at the start, Order didn’t have enough oomph left after its initial alpha strike even though it was largely successful. Compounding that, we didn’t wipe out enough of the opposing defenders in the mid-game to prevent Discord from sneaking small groups of reserves into critical positions. Most importantly though, the alpha strike and serious buildup around the main gates left all our troops committed in the wrong places going into the end game, and we just weren’t as able to adapt as the opposing army bringing in new troops all around the board.

In sum: Two very different strategies, both almost worked out, one wound up with a solid win through intentful strategic play and a lot of pre-game thought. That’s exactly how it should work. And along the way there were ridiculous piles of armies and huge models being pushed all around the table…

The Apocalypse somewhere in the early turns.

The Apocalypse somewhere in the early turns.

Closing

It took a lot of advance work and was a looong weekend, but this was a stellar event encompassing a huge swathe of 40k gaming: Skirmishing, Apocalypse, campaigns, narrative, frantic late night painting, the whole shebang.

Again, lots of photos are up in the Flickr galleries:

g6587We’ll also be posting the PDFs driving all of this, and are also considering hosting a larger event around the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) area sometime in the future. If you are interested in either of those, please sign up for our very low-volume, announcements-only mailing list!

Next up is our regular tournament/event at Redcap’s Corner on Saturday, January 24th. Details will be posted to the store’s 40k mailing list and the PAGE Forums shortly, but armies are 1850 points and entry $10. Be there or be forever a traitor enslaved to laughing gods!

kingbreakers-iconCaptain Angholan subtly motioned for his men to wait as he stepped forward onto the dais. In the complete silence he could hear the soft boom and crunch of the colossal battle going on outside the courtyard. Here though the air was completely still and stale, dead. Ahead stood the motionless monarch, flanked by row after row of his automatons. Eyes locked on his opponent, Angholan swept his softly flaming Vorpal Blade languidly across the arc of the room, then pointed it straight at the Nemesor. Deep in its hollowed eye sockets he thought he could see a slight upbeat in the small lights set there. Then, wordlessly and as one, the ranks of automatons slowly moved forward, enclosing their leader safely behind. The licks of flames at the edge of Angholan’s blade burst to life as First Squad stepped up to join him. It could go down that way too.

The Kingbreakers' Captain Angholan and Squad Scolirus fight their way onto the Necron Citadel to challenge Nemesor Zahndrekh personally.

The Kingbreakers’ Captain Angholan and Squad Scolirus fight their way onto the Necron Citadel to challenge Nemesor Zahndrekh personally.

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40k: Redcap’s 1000pt Tournament

kingbreakers-iconTen people showed up for Redcap’s May tournament, once again an excellent production. For whatever reason the theme was definitely strife within the Imperium, with Orks and Tyranids making an appearance but everybody else loyalists battling amongst themselves to determine who the Emperor loves most. Even the Sisters came to fight for the title of most blindly dedicated to the empire. Also notably, the overwhelming majority of armies were painted, and most of those pretty well. Full results and armies in play are up on the tournament page on Torrent of Fire. I will say, ToF’s interface remains amazingly terrible, specifically the non-intuitive navigation among pages, but it’s super cool to be able to see details of who played who and so on.

More photos, including other games/armies, are in the Flickr gallery.

It almost killed him, his dad, and even Tom M to get in done in time for Adepticon, but Colin's Blood Angels came out impressively well and superbly retro-40k styled.

It almost killed him, his dad, and even Tom M to get them done in time for Adepticon, but Colin’s Blood Angels came out impressively well and superbly retro-40k styled.

Army

I dropped the Predator and downgraded a Razorback from Thursday’s games to add some bodies and a quadgun:

  • Capt Angholan—Vulkan
  • Ghost Squad Harmon—Sternguard x5 w/ 3x Combi-Meltas, Poweraxe, Drop Pod
  • Squad Scolirus—Tacticals x10 w/ Vet Sgt, Powerfist+Boltgun, Flamer, Multimelta, Drop Pod
  • Squad Titus—Tacticals x10 w/ Vet Sgt, Chainsword+Bolt Pistol, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Rhino
  • Scouts x5 w/ Camo Cloaks, Sniper Rifles
  • Imperial Bunker w/ Quadgun

Of course, having made that quadgun swap, nobody brought any flyers and only the Tyranids brought a flying monstrous creature…

Sniper Scouts fresh from the training yards infiltrate into position.

Sniper Scouts fresh from the training yards infiltrate into position.

Round 1

First up was John L and his Clan Raukaan Iron Hands Space Marines, fielding something like:

  • Librarian
  • Sternguard x10 w/ 5x Combi-Meltas in Drop Pod
  • Tacticals x10 w/ Rhino
  • Scouts 5x
  • Centurions x3 w/ Grav-Amps
  •  Stalker

The mission was 12″ table edge deployment, Scouring objectives. I went second by choice, both of us picked normal scoring.

Fight

Raukaan Sternguard dropped directly in front of the Kingbreakers’ bunker with massed combi-meltas, an ironic twist for the latter. Those Sternguard had some back and forth about which targets to prioritize—the bunker or the nearby troops—but eventually cracked the bunker open. They were in turn obliterated when Squad Scolirus dropped onto the Kingbreakers’ own base in a dramatic reinforcing action.

Meanwhile, Capt Angholan and the Ghosts claimed first blood by taking out the opposing Stalker on the drop, but were immediately knocked down by the Raukaan Centurions. The Centurions then began a slow march across the bridge dividing the table, a wall of hurricane bolter & grav-amp fire sheltering their advance and withering Kingbreakers all across the board. Kingbreakers Tacticals played a tight game of desperate and decreasing chances to pull off a win by hiding around their now-burning bunker to hold and contest their two home objectives in the endgame, but ultimately the margins grew too thin.

Whoah buddy, watch where you're pointing those things!

Whoah buddy, watch where you’re pointing those things!

Outcome & Analysis

A crushing loss for the Kingbreakers, finally swept off the table in Turn 7, one bonus point earned for John having no elites left.

The huge mistake I made here was underestimating the Centurions. I played John and basically this list plus some flyers and dreadnoughts in the January tournament. In that game the Centurions were very hard to eliminate, but didn’t actually achieve much either. However, that was on the dockyard cathedral board were they had almost no sightlines and I was able to drop all my guys into protective cover right near them before running in Angholan and Scolirus to tie them up (2+/3+ save on the captain) and slowly take them down (powerfist on the sergeant). On this bridge board however, once they got on the bridge they literally had sightlines to every part of the board except the tiny space behind my bunker.

So, in the drop I went for the assured First Blood kill with the Sternguard tagging the Stalker because that secondary is frequently critical, five Sternguard weren’t going to be able to wipe out the Centurions, and from that previous game I wasn’t super worried about them anyway. That was wrong. The Sternguard should have attacked the Centurions. Even if they’d only killed one that would have been a dramatic reduction in their firepower throughout the remainder of the game.

Alternatively, I could have gone for the Rhino with his Tac Squads. I saw that as a much less probable drop to get melta bonuses, but even without that I still would have had a good chance to pop it. Potentially I could even have separated the Sternguard and Angholan to crack it with the Sternguard and then heavy flame the guys inside. It would have been really helpful later to have his troops advancing slower, as well as to prevent him from using that Rhino to block in my own Rhino.

Raukaan and Kingbreakers apparently do not agree on Imperial philosophy.

Raukaan and Kingbreakers apparently do not agree on Imperial philosophy.

Round 2

Next was David H and his Sisters of Battle. I can’t recall when I last played against the Sororitas, so that was pretty cool. He fielded something like:

  • Celestine
  • Inquisitor
  • Battle Sisters x10 w/ Rhino
  • Battle Sisters x5
  • Seraphim x7
  • Dominion Squad x5 w/ Immolator
  • Exorcists x2

The mission was table corners deployment, four Big Guns Never Tire objectives. I went second by David’s choice, both of us picked alternate scoring.

Fight

Kingbreakers Scouts camped out on top of an objective while Tacticals did double duty manning the quadgun and covering another objective by their bunker. In the opposite corner, Exorcists (a scoring unit under Big Guns) attempted to hold down objectives alongside a small squad of Battle Sisters protecting an Inquisitor.

Angholan and the Ghosts tried to drop on the Exorcists but scattered badly, well out of direct contact. Squad Titus advanced quickly along the flank to support them, but was hung up by immobilizing missile fire. Hoofing it on foot, the squad was then raked and decimated by an outflanking Immolator and melta toting Dominions outflanking onto their side. Angholan and Harmon returned the favor, pivoting to wipe out Immolator and Dominions both in assault before switching back to march on and crush the nearest Exorcist.

Situation: Not good.

Situation: Not good.

Directly in the midst of all this, Squad Scolirus dropped onto an objective in the middle of the firefight. One combat squad took up defensive positions on that objective with their multi-melta while Scolirus lead a running gun battle through and under the dockyard ruins against the Sisters and Inquisitor on the other objective. Eventually clearing them off, the remains of Tactical 1 then hunkered down in dense ruins in hopes of outlasting sniping fire from the remaining Exorcist.

On the opposite table edge, the Kingbreakers quadgun immobilized an oncoming Rhino and forced a contingent of Battle Sisters to advance slowly toward their target objectives. Scout Snipers killed Saint Celestine but she resurrected to lead her Seraphim in overwhelming the Kingbreakers’ bunker and cruelly turning the quadgun against the snipers in retribution. Battle Sisters eventually took the bunker objective, but the Sororitas’ advance on the other was halted by a precision multi-melta shot from across the battlefield that put Celestine out for good.

Come down here and fight us!  No thanks!

Come down here and fight us! No thanks!

Outcome & Analysis

Max points for the Kingbreakers, a crushing victory and two bonus points for more secondary objectives (all three) and opponent having no HQs on the table.

One small trouble I had here was that I should have picked the laterally opposite corner with a nice ruin, and placed my fortification better.  As-was, the impassable building in my corner was a touch too high to claim the objective from on top of it so some of my Scouts had to hang out on the ground floor. Similarly, by putting an objective next to that my fortification wound up too close, so my second objective had to go a bit off and some Tacticals similarly had to hang out on the ground floor. When I selected that corner and set the bunker I was thinking in terms of running to claim on Turn 5 as for normal scoring, but I’d opted to go with alternate, per-turn scoring, for this round, so my defensive position was a little more brittle than it should have been.

I thoroughly enjoyed the one point where I had a choice between sniping at the oncoming Battle Sisters to try and pin them, or sniping my own now-vacant quadgun in hopes to sabotage it before the Seraphim could take it over…

Well, that used to be a nice quadgun. *sigh*

Well, that used to be a nice quadgun. *sigh*

Round 3

Finally up was Rob W and his Imperial Guard, forcefully debating which army had the true heroes of the February doubles tournament. He fielded something like:

  • Company Command w/ Officer of the Fleet, Artillery Spotter, Voxcaster, Autocannons
  • Inquisitor w/ 3x Servo Skulls, Liber Hereticus, Powerfist
  • Primaris Psyker
  • Ministorum Priest
  • Platoon Command Squad w/ 4x Flamers
  • Infantry Blob x20 w/ Lascannons
  • Conscripts x30
  • Veterans x10 w/ 3x Plasmaguns
  • Basilisk
  • Aegis Defense Line w/ Quadgun

Mission was 12″ table edges, four Crusade objectives. I went second by Rob’s choice, both of us picked alternate scoring.

Rob placed his two objectives surprisingly far apart, one in his corner artillery encampment as expected, the other near the opposite corner across from my base camp. I chose to deploy my Scouts as normal so that he couldn’t block their infiltration with his servo skulls. They then made a scout move up onto an objective in ruins just outside my deployment zone. This wound up being important as it upped the velocity toward combat on that flank, as well as eventually getting me a critical bonus point for having a troop mid-field.

Come get some.

Come get some.

The blob advances.

The blob advances.

Fight

Supporting the planetary governor to investigate rumors of imminent rebellion, Kingbreakers Scouts had just moved into reconnaissance positions to surveil a huge gathering of Conscripts suspiciously milling about a shadowy Inquisitor, Primaris Psyker, and a Ministorum Priest when they were shocked to see the blob suddenly leap to life and charge at their position under the trio’s raging exhortations! Facing a substantive threat to the Marines’ base camp as well as their own lives, all possible reinforcements were coolly called in as the tremendous volume of lasgun shots forced the Scouts to ground. Captain Angholan and Scolirus’ First Tactical themselves immediately dropped from orbit, bringing the flaming heart of the chapter to burn away the heretics before the psyker theology insurrection could continue. Gouts of flame halved the Conscripts’ numbers and rebuffed their countering assault, while the Kingbreakers’ fire-tempered armor shrugged off the blistering heat of the Platoon Command flamers come to reinforce the felons.

With fire & flame in the Emperor's name.

With fire & flame in the Emperor’s name.

Right back at ya!

Right back at ya!

The forecasted rebellion suddenly under way, the Kingbreakers’ camp found itself under barrage from the local Guard artillery corps. Marines dove for cover in their bunker and surrounding ruins, spooling up their quadgun and krak missiles to take out the Guard’s own anti-air defenses. The skies cleared, Harmon’s Ghosts dropped square into the heart of the traitors’ encampment, taking out the primary artillery before being forced out of the fight by crippling mass shooting surrounding their position.

Meanwhile, Angholan and Squad Scolirus hurled themselves into the Conscripts amid the whirling flames, Angholan bellowing forth challenges to any who would stand against the Emperor. Driven mad by his false visions, the Primaris rallied first but was cut through as quick as air. Stepping into his place, the Priest was similarly slain but not before driving in a near-fatal power blade. Leaping over the bleeding body of his crippled captain, Scolirus met the rogue Inquisitor in mid-strike, powerfist hammering powerfist and blasting both down in the titanic energies unleashed. Their heroes down but the rotten core of the rebellion excised, Tactical 1 redoubled their efforts and eliminated the stragglers before following Sergeant Titus, overdriving his Rhino through the thick of the combat, to take up defensive positions preventing the rebels from claiming their leaders’ bodies for martyrdom.

The Psyker's powers do nothing to stop Angholan's relic blade.

The Psyker’s powers do nothing to stop Angholan’s relic blade.

Titus leaps from his Rhino to halt oncoming traitors.

Titus leaps from his Rhino to halt oncoming traitors.

Outcome

Victory for the Kingbreakers, with a bonus point for having a troop in no-man’s land.

When the blob first started coming at me I was really worried about being swamped through sheer numbers, and it got really close to my forward line very quickly! With all the orders and special dudes going on it also caught me off guard (!) with a bunch of tricks—Scout move, 4+ Invulnerables, Fearless, debuffs on my guys, etc., in addition to then having a couple multi-wound power weapons buried in the blob. Fortunately in deployment I’d put Angholan with Tactical 1 specifically to go flame that blob, and that’s what they did. Flamer overwatch did me a huge service when it took out the whole front rank of the Conscripts, causing them to fail a charge by about half an inch. The Salamanders’ anti-flame buff also negated the Platoon Command flamers. Together that meant the whole squad got to charge rather than be charged in Turn 2, at full strength, and got in two rounds of flaming the blob beforehand.  Following that, neither of us remembered Rob’s maledictions forcing re-rolls on Invulnerable saves for a turn or so, which certainly helped Angholan survive longer.

That said, I’m not sure how much all those specifics mattered. All I really needed to do was tie up the Conscript blob for a while so that objective wasn’t being claimed, with Titus coming forward to claim or contest against the Platoon Command that came in. With that blob blunted Rob didn’t have much that’d be able to cross the board to claim or contest my objectives. The limited sightlines, Scout camo cloaks, and my bunker then basically ensured the large blasts coming down from his Basilisk and artillery officer wouldn’t be able to blast away all three of the troop units I had in my backfield to claim two objectives, particularly with the Sternguard available to most likely take out one or the other of those (the Basilisk in the end). So, this was a tight game of quarter inches and critical rolls, but once that blob wound up in combat back by its own objective I felt I was playing for the victory, and I don’t really see how he could have avoided that combat. Caveat some supremely bad scatter on Angholan and poor luck on run or charge rolls (very short for me and/or very long for him), I don’t think the blob could have kept pressing forward to change that basic calculus of two objectives for me, one for him, and his other contested or unclaimed.

Thwarted again!

Thwarted again!

Tournament Results

All of that was enough to take 2nd place, as I have in each of the three Redcap’s tournaments I’ve played in 2014 (one the doubles tournament teamed with Rob). John L’s Raukaan took top honors, beating my points by exactly that crushing victory in our first round battle. Tom M picked up a nice result, taking third with his Custodes (Grey Knights). Tom also drew the random award for painted armies, so he actually took home the biggest slice of the pot.

General Thoughts

Just a couple general tournament thoughts follow.

Painting

Obviously it’s a comparatively easy target at the 1000 point level, but my impression was that the random painted army award has already motivated quite a bit of activity. There was noticeably significantly more painted dudes around. Lots more players than previously were talking about last ditch efforts to finish up new units, or putting more emphasis in army selection on what they have painted.

You just made my list of things to do today...

You just made my list of things to do today…

The Scouring

Probably the Scouring mission should be tweaked for tournament play. I still got swept by John—after a grueling seven turns!—but it worked out that I had both the 4 point and a 3 point objective in my corner, versus the 8 points available across all four other objectives. An easy fix to this mission would be for players to alternate placing an objective along the centerline of the table, otherwise following the usual rules (6″ from table edges, 12″ from each other). These could also just be fixed at the 1st & 3rd quartiles on the centerline. Then the players alternate placing two objectives each in their deployment zones. A small tweak would be to place one in their own deployment and the second in their opponent’s, Apocalypse style. Then each player makes the obvious roll to determine which objective in their zone is a 3 point, the other being a 2 point. Another random roll is then made to determine which of the centerline objectives is the 4 point, the other being the 1 point.

If both players pick Redcap’s alternate scoring none of that matters as those points are irrelevant. But that’s also unfortunate as it makes the Scouring just a 6-objective mission rather than the actually different structure the variable value objectives give it compared to Crusade and such. In terms of increasing the number of interesting strategic decisions being made, having different missions, and eliminating random advantages (“I picked normal & the 4 pt objective is in my base, excellent!”), for the Scouring you should know which objectives are worth what before selecting normal or alternate scoring. But then scoring selection needs to be moved to just before any deployment, which sounds reasonable to me off the cuff as a general change. Then, of course, the previous about fair Scouring objective placement applies.

Custodes investigate a Chaos shrine.

Custodes investigate a Chaos shrine.

Alternate Scoring

This was my first tournament under Redcap’s new alternate scoring. It actually totally caught me off guard as I forgot about that entirely. In the first mission I picked normal scoring just because I didn’t have time to process what was going on and make an actual decision so I just went with my usual type strategy. With my half-castle and half-alpha strike contest army it would have gone better for me to pick alternate, though that’s not clear given I had the imbalance of valuable objectives.

In general though I think that’s probably true. I have trouble envisioning many armies or strategies that shouldn’t pick alternate scoring as it is currently. This is particularly true without any cap on how many times the objectives can be continually scored, offering a strong potential for that scheme to simply offer more points than the normal scheme. Neither of those is a problem if you’re actually effectively changing the game but leaving in the normal scoring just in case that does work better for someone, which isn’t an unreasonable position. But if the intent is to offer different victory paths than the rules should perhaps be tweaked, though I have to think about it more.

Closing

All in all, once again another excellent tournament at Redcap’s. More photos, including other games/armies, are in the Flickr gallery.

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