[Battle Report] Head in a Jar | Tenth Edition | Crusade | The Gathering Shroud | Necrons vs Space Marines

What had happened here?

Kopekh led his phalanx between crumbling buildings, ripped apart from beneath, blackstone core exposed and trailing like - what was the memory? Query, query, resolution: viscera. Trailing as though ripped free by some beast. Mere analogy. Yet concerning. The signal was strong, though; Pharekh Tekeshi, and her answers to that central and puzzling question, were here.

The ground was cracked and dessicated - consideration: unstable - and they moved with caution, the larger cohorts not even deployed, awaiting in hypercrypts for a steadier footing. To facilitate, the core of the Black Star had been opened, and the monolith permitted to descend. A radius had formed around its downdraft, just in case. Kopekh's immortals moved from building to building, staying well above the street: as such, one on the upper levels was in prime position to announce the sighting of targets. The same bio-anomalies that had come on them when they explored the captured facility after landing - and the signal was coming from their lines.

Preamble

Ahhh, Crusade! After the back and forth of learning games, we are in a position to attempt the finest form of modern 40K, the kind with RPG elements and asymmetrical scenarios and... um, sorry, news just in, the book of scenarios (from which I was going to derive my ideas of what would work mechanically) isn't out yet. Thus, while Garbutt was in warp transit, I had a flick through the scenarios in Tabletop Battles and picked the one with the scoring I could understand without having to look in a book I don't own. 

Thus: The Gathering Shroud. Seven divots available for touching with bonus points available for touching the divots in your opponent's table quarter. However, this is Crusade! The Objective may be to touch divots, but the Agendas determine how experience points and campaign currencies are acquired and as such give us both different things to play for.

We have a few minor house rules running that have bearing on the choices here:

1. Each player selects one Agenda rather than two, because we're old and dim and don't fancy doing too much brain work. Garbutt still had his bonus one for being Space Marines on an Oathsworn campaign because it didn't seem fair to choke him out of honour points, but two is still easier to think about than three.
2. Units gain experience for each unit they destroy, not every third unit they destroy. I can never be arsed with tracking those kills between games, and it means experience can be done and dusted in the post game process when we work our way down our rosters and establish who killed what, who levels up, who gets a Battle Scar - it keeps each game self contained. That also offsets the experience deficit from having fewer Agendas in play. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
3. Players nominate each other's Marked for Greatness unit, and select Battle Honours and Battle Scars together, based on the events of the game. I deeply dislike "narrative means random tables" as a design choice, it's based on an assumption that narrative = casual = not giving a shit, but I understand the desire not to pick the absolute best thing on the list each time. Having to have the conversation about why you should have it seems to be working for us so far.
   

Using these principles I gave Garbutt a walk through the experience/battle scars systems using the results from our previous encounter. Then it was time for Agendas:

He chose A Show of Dominion (drive forward to touch a divot in no-mans-land or, for bigger Honour bennies, my table quarter) and Know No Fear (units gain experience for not failing battle-shock tests and being under half strength at the end... which we assumed still applies if the unit have all been removed as casualties? they're definitely below half strength...). 

I took Immortal Servitude, the easy one, where reanimating twelve wounds activates a Reanimation system and gains my Warlord a bonus experience point. There are two more bonus experience points up for grabs per additional twelve wounds recovered, and crucially all I need to do is count the results of rolls I'd be making anyway.

We were ready for the off!

I'll talk about our Orders of Battle in another post, but the setup looked a little bit like this:

Still on one of the standard symmetrical layouts, partly because the scenario seemed to call for it, mostly because the scenario didn't inspire anything else. Brand new Suppressor squad set up in a high place ready to rain down fire and death, the Triarch Stalker going wide in an attempt to occupy the Eradicators' attention for a bit. There's a squad of Inceptors waiting to Deep Strike, and a large unit of Necron Warriors and a trio of Skorpekh Destroyers loitering in hypercrypt reserve. (The other Skorpekhs are hiding behind the Monolith.)

Engagement

Rising electromagnetic interference from repeated teleportation and the awakening of Necron technology below the surface has made pict-capture technology somewhat... unreliable... also we actually had two goes at this game, because the 6'x3' board I originally set up really doesn't work for corner deployments, and by the time I'd reset to the 5'x4' stipulated in DA ROOLZ it was necessary to crack on and play rather than stop and take photos.

You are, therefore, requested to imagine the gunship Foehammer swinging around those Necron structures, switching to hover configuration, and blasting the Triarch Stalker to kingdom come (after it was lightly toasted by Eradicator fire). Likewise the entrenched Suppressors on the tower directing fire every which way, blasting away at the Monolith's protuberances in an effort to damage its weapon systems and apply Suppression. 

(This would only prove semi-effective; when you're throwing out as many shots as this thing does, a minor hit malus doesn't matter. You're still quite capable of deleting a three-man Astartes specialist squad every turn and putting a dent in another. For the rest of the game, I had the gauss arrays shooting whichever Astartes were closest and the particle whip going for whatever I really wanted dead - result, both Inceptors and Suppressors blown back to where they came from.)

Cinema of the mind is what you'll need to picture Skorpekh Destroyers powering forward through the cascade of autocannon and boltgun fire and an extremely overclocked psychic attack from Kathartes Aura, one lurching back to its feet as they stride forward to charge the Aggressors, while the Monolith's particle whip drives Talassar Kaine and his Intercessors out of cover (it's not doing them any good).

What we can illustrate, however, is this round of combat...

Teznet stepped forth from the Eternity Gate, taking their place at the apex of the crescent their warriors had formed. In the vision of the Necron all physical things were drab and decayed, the gloss red of lacquered armour fading before the onslaught of overlaid data, assessment, analysis, output... and the cold simulation of fury. After all, one of these creatures had torn Teznet's face off the last time they'd fought.

They were charging. They were always charging. Teznet's perceptions shifted as they assumed command override; raised the flayers in twenty pairs of hands and unleashed the supreme technology of the ages; and still they came on.

Crude weapons roared, howled, chewed: sounds acknowledged and buried in Teznet's perceptual capacity. Green flashes spiked the visual array as warriors vanished back to the crypt. Too many. 

The monolith drifted back, and Teznet led the last of their cohort into the dust cloud, still firing, orderly and precise, slaved to their superior processing pace and tactical engrams, and for a moment all seemed well as the Overlord's cohort crossfired down from above and the left...

And then their perceptual arrays took in the gunship, and the streams of tracer fire tearing up the dust around them and the bronzed forms of their warriors alike, and the rockets cracking and barking as they struck the monolith, and Teznet realised they were alone.

Tactically speaking, it was time to take cover.

While the Astartes made a confident drive into the Necron Warriors, they were somewhat surprised to see more Skorpekhs hyperphase in behind their lines (on top of an objective, and within pouncing distance of the tactical Intercessors and Librarian in charge of holding it). It became necessary for Eradicators, Infiltrators and tactical Intercessors to redirect their attention onto this unit - only for the last one to be pulled back to the Monolith's portal, out of the Suppressors' line of sight, and then vanish back into their hypercrypt again... and then reappear in almost the same place, threatening the same objective, a handful of minutes later. Except now there were two of them.

Captain Kaine continued his relentless advance, leading the remains of his squad into the teeth of the Immortals' firepower and suffering from outrageously bad dice on the big "I call Assault Doctrine, Honour the Chapter and Our Finest Hour" turn. Four Immortals died for three Astartes, and the thing is, four Immortals were immediately propelled back to full field readiness with the Resurrection Orb. The second round, therefore, looked a little more like this...

The cohort parted their ranks, the misbegotten foe struggling against the swing of bayonets and the clutch of hands out of hyperspace, the dead crackling back to electric life to clutch at greave and gauntlet. Their leader was howling, furious and defiant, unable to free his sword or shield, mere oaths and curses all he had to wield.

The cohort parted their ranks, and Kopekh stepped between them, and brought the scythe of the void goddess around in an arc almost theatrical in its extent. This was no longer combat; this was execution.

With Captain Kaine's assault blunted, salt levels rising, and teatime impending, we called the proceedings there, as a marginal win for the Necrons.

Debrief

It's actually pretty close, and I was short enough on units that I couldn't do much more than hold the three objectives I had. In particular, if the gunship Foehammer had pushed into the centre to take the fourth objective, I think an Astartes win was on the cards. I'd be relying on two Skorpekhs surviving another turn of Space Marine firepower and getting to chop up the tactical Intercessors - certainly possible, but by no means a given.

As such, the Narrative Forge was engaged to put the Astartes' "defeat" in the context of a strategic win. We'll get to that in due course. What I'd like to do, quickly, is talk tactics.

We concurred that Garbutt hadn't really done anything wrong as such, bar playing too cagily with his Storm Talon (missing out on a turn's scoring) and splitting fire too much with the Suppressors (you don't beat Necrons by pinging a few to death, you beat Necrons by focusing down one unit at a time and ensuring it won't be back). 

He was a bit surprised to see my Monolith that far back, expecting it to move forward and bully the centre. I was tempted but thought it might be more use as a castle, a safe haven to which I could recall damaged units to reanimate, then pass them back into reserve, all while unleashing hell at everything that stepped into my table quarter. 

I do wish I'd held on for another turn with the big Warrior unit - they didn't really do much other than distract Kaine for a moment, and if I'd had that big unit to bring on across the table I'd have been able to take control of the divot economy more decisively and save the Skorpekhs for clearing out my own zone.

In terms of Crusade outcomes, the Aggressors' staunch efforts across both engagements earned them the Aquila Imperialis battle trait (reroll Out of Action tests, can still receive Stratagems while Battle-shocked) and the gunship Foehammer now has extra Armour Penetration on its assault cannon - presumably salvaged carbonite from the city ruins or dropped Necron weapons. The Suppressor squad, as yet unnamed, picked up the battle scar Fatigued - but have been rotated out of the line for recuperation (i.e. Garbutt burned a Requisition Point to get rid of that one).

For the Necrons, my Immortals picked up Undying Revenants (+1 to their Reanimation Protocols rolls, and I'm starting to hang unit names around them - not quite settled yet), and Kopekh now has Martial Apotheosis (reroll one hit and one wound roll in melee, very handy when one only has two attacks).

But none of that is what you're here for, is it, gentle Reader?

Advancing The Narrative

Earlier

"Stand down, brothers. You are needed elsewhere."

 

The company's Reivers were well drilled, as any Astartes, and little sign of disappointment or resentment crossed any face. Barely even curiosity - an instruction had been given, and it would be completed, and they would obey to the best of their ability.

 

"Take the primary gunship - and this." 

 

Bors, beside him, held out the artefact they'd recovered from the previous engagement. A heptagonal trapezohedron of black stone, colder than the desert night around them. An Astartes knows no fear, neither apprehension, nor superstitious dread of xenotech, and yet the squat shape - small enough to carry one-handed, in armour - nagged at Kaine's sense for battle. It registered as a threat, despite its inertia. It was, somehow, familiar.

"We have to assume these necrons are here to recover the artefact. We'll stall them a klick to the east, for as long as we can, then fall back to the landing site. Get to high altitude, then rejoin us."

"In the Emperor's name, brother-captain."

"For the honour that was lost."