[Review] Warhammer 40,000 Crusade | Pariah Nexus (Tenth Edition)

+++ TRANSMISSION CORRUPTED +++
+++ REGIONAL ADEPT REPORTS DELAYS OF UP TO THREE STANDARD WEEKS +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: WHERE THE SOUL IS WILLING THE FLESH IS SURE TO FOLLOW +++

Due to the aforementioned affair of the festering blobule in my leg (Nurgle clearly isn't happy that I gave up my Chaos career, I shall have to appease him with some Death Guard randos or something), it's taken me a while to lay my hands on a copy of Pariah Nexus.

I'm not sure what to think of it.

I know this is concept art from the animation,
but I rather enjoyed that, so shush ye.

Other outlets with far greater reach and clout than Your Correspondent have already covered this book in the manner of their kind, which is to say "talked the rules to death with nary a peep about the background or scenarios." I want to avoid that, although it might be a bit difficult, since I'm really not into the first half of the book...

The Background

I suspect this is down to taste - I'm not big on world-building, and I tend to think from the bottom up, from an example of a specific conflict or encounter or revelation into bigger ideas that are implied for me to infer. This book's very top-down, describing what's happening at galactic scale as troops are moved across sectors and segmentae, and the impact is factional and broad. Individual instances of battle are occasional welcome little handholds on the sheer slope one has to climb to give a damn, but they're only little: fragments glimpsed through the downpouring "lore."

What's going on in the Nephilim Sector is, in and of itself, quite interesting - a psychic phenomenon that deadens individuals' souls, making warp travel even more of an unreliable slog than usual and reducing even the most ardently psycho-conditioned of warriors to their base instincts and basic training. Only faith - the act of belief - seems able to disrupt the effect. That's pretty cool. Good stuff. Suitably horrific, and gives both the Sisters and the Mechanicus a chance to take point.

Likewise, the story of the specific personalities works. Inquisitor Draxus showing up with suspicious insight into how the Nexus works and even more suspicious alignment with the strategic actions of Imotekh the Stormlord; Imotekh's relatable and actually quite nuanced disagreement with the Silent King; Cawl and Szarekh's mutual hubris escalating the conflict out of control; and a man-behind-the-man element as Vashtorr shows up and prevents the third axis of conflict in the actual Crusade rules being quite so much of a bolted on "anyone who doesn't fit anywhere else." That's all neat.

The problem with all this sector-wide scale and galactically significant events metaplot is, after a while, it's all just stuff, and half a book stuffed with stuff isn't terribly compelling. The basic ideas could convey themselves and point to their significance in a fraction of the page count on offer here: they didn't need great slabs of "and then, and then, and then" grand scale narration to work. Again, I don't think I'm the target audience for this sort of thing; I'm willing to read between the lines and flat out make things up based on what I can divine, and I think the "lore" people want definitive answers.

Some nice artwork, though. That sidebar of Imotekh majestically surveying the rest of the two page spread, in profile? I like that a lot. Studio paintjobs on built-up terrain with dramatic lighting and composition are always welcome, too: a glimpse of the peak Warhammer aesthetic that our actual games don't quite evoke.

Crusade Rules (General)

Crusade-as-written is the classic "RPG elements" school of narrative wargame design. How do you achieve a sense of story and progression for your lil' guys, gals and nonbinary pals? Development over time. Experience and injuries. The notion being that it's the army, and the accumulation of rules affecting the experience of playing it, that forms most of the continuity. 

 

Personally, I don't really need the RPG elements to want to do this, even games with randos would find their way into the story-never-to-be-told of My Dudes if they fit - but I suspect I'm an outlier, and the sturdy fishhook of rules is necessary to snare the lip of yr. average Jo gamer, and I do like having rules for experience and injuries. It's necessary to knock some complexity out of the game elsewhere to create brain space, but that's fine... as long as it happens...

 

Anyway. The baseline systems for Crusade used to be put together from the assumption that you'll be playing pick-up games and linking them rather than participating in a campaign. I'm never sure how much that actually happens, though: I think the general assumption is that Narrative Play is Organised Play of a different sort to Tournament Play, and a pickup game sort of hovers in between in a kind of "practice" zone.

The Studio seems to have caught up with that, as new-and-tenthified Crusade doesn't have any setting-neutral Relics or Traits; there are d6 charts for Weapon Modifications and Battle Scars, so it is possible to play a Crusade outside of a specific Crusade supplement, but if you want the juicy bits you're committing to a warzone from a book.

Crusade Rules (Specific)

We're going to widen our lens here, not talk so much about the specifics of Adeptus Mechanicus & Adepta Sororitas vs. Necrons vs. Chaos Space Marines and look more at what kind of conflict is being presented. After all, Pariah Nexus' metaplot will be on the back burner again in about six months, and we need to think more neutrally if we're going to Forge our own Narrative out of this thing. 

 

Leaving aside the ironmongery of harvesting Blackstone and dealing with the Stilling, what Pariah Nexus gives us is a campaign fought over resources (as opposed to territory or ideology or the ephemeral favours of interventionist gods). The warzone itself is disruptive - once you're in, you're not coming out again, and the conditions of conflict are going to erode morale, gumption and identity among your soldiers. These characteristics can have their specific terms filed off and be dumped more or less anywhere in the galaxy, as there's very little here that's explicitly keyed to Necron or Imperial armies in its rules. Flavour text and names, yes, but as the ancient wisdom hath it, fluff ain't rules.

 

I'm not going to dwell on the ins and outs of Traits and Scars here, but I do want to highlight two things before we go on to What I Actually Bought This Book For. 

 

One - this book was courteous enough to explain what Crusade Badges are for (and gosh, there'd be a lot of copying and cutting and sticking if you were doing all this on paper like what GW seems to think you are). I can't clock any upgrades that are unlocked by Crusade Badges in this book, but it seems the intent is for metaplot addicts to play through a Leviathan campaign and then a Pariah Nexus campaign and then a Vashtorr's Armpits or whatever comes next campaign, and maybe that book will start showing unlockables. Which is fine. Not something I'm here for, especially, but I'm glad it exists for them as likes that sort of thing.

Two - some elements of this warzone are very familiar. Establish an Attacker and Defender? D6 charts to randomly determine the scenario you play, different charts for different scales of game? This is all feeling a bit... third edition. The vapours are clearing... it's 2001 again... I still have hair... maybe I'll actually pass Food Technology this time...

 

Anyway. I quite like the Strategic Footings concept, where both players choose an offensive, balanced or defensive approach to the mission, and that determines who's the Attacker or Defender, and who has a mission specific Advantage to draw on. It adds a layer of agency to the usual "roll a d6 and hope" start of turn sequence, especially since a couple of the scenarios automatically grant the Attacker the first turn, in accordance with tradition.

Scenarios

So! On to the reason for the purchase. Three are highlighted as Onslaught (3000 point) specials; the rest are for either Incursion (1000) or Strike Force (2000) play, with extra conditions at work for the bigger games in a few of them. The majority are arranged on two random tables - given a choice of "roll to see which table to roll on" I say nay, I'd like to roll once and look at both tables, but let's be honest, I'm all about picking these things in concordance with m'learned opponent anyway.

 

Having gone through all of these, there are three broad opinions I can apply here.

 

1) Some of these are pretty much "basic Matched Play with a special rule evoking one kind of battlefield problem," the sort of thing you'd use to take someone's tiny hand in yours and encourage them to step into Narrative play while still having something they'd recognise as a "proper game."

 

2) A couple of these are depressingly "someone forgot they were working on a tabletop wargame: this is a sport sim or a video game or something else that doesn't work in the medium." Not as many as I'd thought, but more than I'd like.

 

3) Some of these are already giving me ideas for the Maledicta Crusade...

Gheists in the Static

This one's all about bad communications. Basic divot touching antics, with Command Point renewal contingent on proximity to divots and additional points available for divot seizure to encourage movement between divots and reduce divot camping. (I'm going to keep using the word "divot" until it loses all meaning to me, but considering it was my first girlfriend's favourite insult, I think I'm going to be here for a while...)

Dig Site Raid

There are divots, but they're there to provide reliable scoring. The other objective, the point of the mission, is having characters seize resources and then duelling over them, dropping them when they're taken out of action and scoring big points for them at the end of the game.

Quantum Siege

The first asymmetric mission, with divots aligned to the Defender's slightly deeper deployment zone. The divots, in this case, represent shield generators that hand out an Invulnerable save to units within range to control them; however! players who contest but do not control an objective can turn off the shield, deprive the nearby units of their save, and affect the final scoring (since disabled shields are scored for the Attacker, and enabled ones for the Defender). I like this one, and I can see how my terrain collection would align to it.

Outflank

Interesting. Strategic Footings play a major role here, with the Defender able to grab a significant Advantage, breaking up the attacker's forces, grabbing the centre ground, and automatically taking the first turn. Divots are present and correct, in a five-pip formation, with the central one worth a hefty chunk of VP at the end.

Garbutt and I have been batting back and forth ideas for a "downed flier" scenario as the next stage in our Crusade, and with the right terrain in the middle (gotta ask if he has that crashed Aquila from fourth-or-was-it-fifth edition) I think we could make this work for it.

Overwhelming Dread

Corner deployment, divot control (four of 'em), but controlling divots inflicts a malus to Leadership and Aura abilities, and passing Battle-shock tests while subject to this malus is worth Victory Points. This is fine.

Unstable Archaeotech

Divot football! One in each deployment zone, and units must punt and/or yeet the divots toward hon. opponent's table edge. There's a modest progressive score for controlling objectives during the game, and an XP bonus for holding them at the end, but the big scores come from the end of the battle. At that point, objectives detonate, and detonating them in the other player's deployment zone carries one of the biggest point payouts so far. I... don't like this one. It's too symmetrical, and the detonations are anticlimactic, no Mortal Wounds or anything. Feels too much like a sporting event. Divot football (derogatory), as it were.

Polarising Energies

Four divots in a square, two start the battle giving out Cover and two start the battle dealing Mortal Wounds. Each round, the polarity reverses and each pair does the other thing, except the player with Advantage can choose not to shift one during one round, but you're still going to deal with the impact of that next turn as you now have - three and one? Can't work it out in a vacuum. I am going to lose track of this. A faff. Dislike.

Amidst the Miasma

Fog of war! A classic! Reduced Advance movement and a malus to hit in no-mans-land, and pretty bog-standard five divot scoring, with a secondary objective to get bodies into the opponent's deployment zone. This is fine.

False Intel

Ooooh. I like this one. A divot at the centre of the board, corner deployment, and each round, roll off to place a fresh divot under your control. The catch? In scoring terms, holding one or more divots scores, holding the central divot scores, and holding a divot placed this turn scores. What that means is there's no incentive to camp your objectives - you want to keep moving, keep placing, either setting up new ones or taking the ones your opponent's plopped out. It's a reasonable attempt at the mission's premise: seeding false intelligence in the battlezone and hoping the other lot pick it up. I think there's a use for this.

Tortured Worldscape

On the one hand, this is another "too many video games, this is a faff" scenario, with two progressive objectives (always an opportunity to fumble) with different and suspiciously regular areas of the battlefield becoming perilous and inflicting Mortal Wounds on units standing in them. The issue: all divots are located in just such an area, and divots in a currently dangerous area are worth double points every turn. I... want to dislike this one, but I'm already thinking about how my Necron terrain breaks apart down the middle and how I could exploit this to simulate the crevasses opening up during play and I'm sorry this one's cool even though I don't think it's exactly an elegant design.

Interdimensional Clash

Now we're talking. A deep deployment for the Attacker, a narrow line for the Defender, recommendations to clutter the Defender's end with terrain and three divots under Defender control at the start. Scoring is very simple, control one/control more, but it's the narrative premise of this one - a battle fought in the shadow of an activated Nexus pylon - that has me hooked. You know I have that giant Art Deco lamp piece of Necron scenery kicking around, on a base that would sit nicely at the back of the Attacker's deployment zone. I can picture this battlefield; the Mourning Sun activated as planetary invaders fall back.

Nullification Field

Almost as much fun as the previous one: there's a big circle in the middle with divots in or adjacent to it, and within that circle the Defender may deploy units and nobody gets to take their Invulnerable saves. Divots become more valuable for scoring purposes the closer they are to the middle of the board, with the dead central one being the most valuable of all. 

 

This would be my Mourning Sun scenario if the aforementioned giant pylon didn't take up most of the prerequisite 12" circle (and if it was possible to place models close enough to the middle to contest it). But if I set up the big square ruin - the Ruined Cyber Relay, as its manufacturers describe it - in the centre, now we're cookin', now we're groovin'...

Into the Tomb (Onslaught)

Great title. Interesting opposed-arrows setup. Four divots under Defender control, accumulating Power each turn (uh oh) and losing it when under Attacker control (OK...). I was ready to call this one a steaming great faff and write it off as more videogame silliness until I saw that both the mission objectives are scored at the end. THIS is how you do it - balance the cognitive load, don't have too much progressive detail to track, get it ticking nicely and evoke the Defender collapsing their own structures to spite the Attacker. Works nicely with my terrain set. Could have a rockin' old time with this one.

Reawakening (Onslaught)

I don't know how I'd do terrain for this one, but it's pretty cool. A line of five divots in the middle of the battlefield, activating and becoming controllable from the outside in, the middle one being the last to activate and turning off all the others for a big endgame score. I like the tempo of it, I like what it's trying to evoke (systems lurching slowly back into full activation), but I'm stuffed if I know how I'd represent it on the tabletop - maybe a row of obelisks or something?

Final Acquisition (Onslaught)

A "back to basics" option for your Onslaught scale finale games. Six divots in diagonal formation, corner deployment, control one/control more/control theirs for scoring purposes ("control theirs" being worth double). All divots are sticky so your units have no excuse for standing around at the back. Nice to have the option, and maybe there's so much stuff going on at 3000 points that I'd be glad of the simplicity... but it's still a bit of a wet fart to end the book on.

The Bottom Line

SO. That's Pariah Nexus. Something of a mixed bag, I feel. The missions vary between the inspired and the "bribe your competitive friend into Crusade" but there are only a couple of genuine duds. The background is overcooked and heavy handed but not bad; just could have been presented more elegantly. The actual Pariah Nexus campaign mechanics could work for any resource accumulation context... including, for instance, that fabulous new mineral dioxazine, liquid at lab temperature but inclined to bond with any metallic surface it encounters. There's certainly enough here for me to harvest... and that is, after all, the point of the whole endeavour.