Introduction

This was the game played against my son, Matthew (age 8), at the BeachHead Wargames Event in Bournemouth, hosted by BattleScar (a local retailer and wargames club, see their website http://www.battlescar.co.uk/). Matthew had some help from another boy, Andrew (age 13).

The game went very well and I would recommend the scenario to anyone looking for something to try.

The Armies

The Inquisition/Blood Angels army consisted of:

• Inquisitor-General Ja’ar, Power Armour, Rosarius, Rune Staff (counts as power weapon), Plasma Pistol.

• Librarian and Honour Guard, including Sanguinary Priest, Power Fist, Plasma Pistol, etc. All equipped with Jump Packs.

• Two six-strong tactical squads, one with Flamer, one with Missile Launcher.

• Land Speeder with Multi-Melta.

• Baal Predator.

• Chaplain leading Death Company in armoured Rhino.

This army was my standard Blood Angels army of 1000 points. The Inquisitor uses the list from the back of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook so is 100% official. I would have liked to make him a little more characterful with a master-crafted weapon, purity seals, etc. as shown on my model, but I decided to keep with the official rules.

The Genestealer Cult army consisted of:

• Genestealer Patriarch with Bodyguard of ten Purestrain Genestealers.

• Small brood of five Purestrain Genestealers.

• Magus leading a brood of Hybrids armed with heavy weapons (one Lascannon, one Autocannon, two Missile Launchers). Brood also includes an Icon Bearer with Flamer (poor choice, with hindsight).

• Former Imperial Guard squad of Brood Comrades, led by a Hybrid with Boltgun. Includes an Autocannon and Melta Gun.

• Former Necromunda ganger squad of Brood Initiates, led by a Hybrid with Boltgun. Includes a Heavy Stubber.

• Leman Russ battle tank.

This army is compiled from my own Genestealer Cult Codex, which is largely based on the work of Tim H. (of GW USA?) which was sent to me by Jervis Johnson. Tim’s list has since been published in the Citadel Journal. I do not have a copy of the published list but I presume mine is very similar.

I should also say that the Cult army is almost exclusively made up from Imperial Guard, Necromunda gangers and Space Hulk Genstealers, which determined what models were used. The only model specifically created for this army was the Hybrid Icon Bearer.

On the objective was D6 Necron Warriors (see scenario).

The Terrain and The Scenario

There was not a massive amount of people at the BeachHead event (this is an understatement), so we had the choice of tables. I picked a long table which was cut across the middle by a river. The centrepiece of the table was an elaborate bridge model over the river. This was to be the objective.

The scenario was as follows:

The Inquisitor-led Blood Angels were racing against the Patriarch-led Genestealer Cult forces to obtain an ancient and powerful artifact of Necrontyr origin located on the Bridge, right at the centre of the table.

The artifact will be protected by D6 Necron Warriors which only materialise when a squad of infantry (not vehicles) reach the centre of the bridge. If the Necrons are defeated, the squad may take the artifact. Once they have it, they may move as normal carrying the artifact, and may pass it to another friendly squad or character during the movement phase. To take the artifact off of the unit or character, the enemy must win a close combat against them.

Each force deploys within 12” of their own end of the table, except that infiltrators may deploy anywhere on the table more than 18” away from both the objective and the enemy. The only infiltrators in the game were the Cult squad of Brood Initiates (strictly, this particular squad of Brood Initiates should not be able to infiltrate because they have a heavy weapon).

To win, a force must capture the artifact, either from the Necrons or from the enemy, and return it to their deployment zone.

The Game

The forces were initially deployed as follows:

The first thing to do in the game was for me to roll to see how many of my Marines succumbed to the Black Rage on the eve of battle, and how many would join the Chaplain.

I rolled up a large Death Company of nine models, including three from one of the tactical squads (tactical squad 2 with the Missile Launcher), which reduced their number to half. Generally this was good news, because I had rolled up a large number of Death Company without losing any models from my elite Honour Guard. However, it meant that there was no room in the Rhino for the general, who decided to follow on foot!

Opening Shots

The battle started well for the Cult. The Leman Russ opened up with its Battle Cannon and killed all but one of tactical squad 1 with a single shot. The remaining soldier fell back to the table edge. In the next turn I decided to remove him rather than roll to see if he comes back to the fight. In my opinion, if all other five members of your squad are blown up in one turn, you don’t stick around!

The main column of Blood Angels advanced on the bridge, while the land speeder tried to manoeuvre around the left without getting hit. The Hybrids and/or tank always seemed to find a line-of-sight to the land speeder, but luckily it escaped destruction except for a temporary “can’t shoot“ result.

Middle Game

The Brood Initiates decided to hang back and shoot and not to try and tackle the Necrons defending the objective, while the Blood Angels elite used their jump packs to close on the objective as quickly as possible. The Brood Initiates shot at the marines, but their shots bounced off the marines’ power armour.

The Baal Predator stormed across the bridge, past the objective. The Rhino, however, stopped just short of the bridge and discharged the Death Company. It then positioned itself to the side so it could use its Storm Bolter against the Brood Initiates on the opposite river bank.

The Baal Predator used its smoke launchers to cover itself from the fire of the Leman Russ, while the land speeder manoeuvred for a shot at the battle tank’s side armour. The main objective of the Predator was of course to protect the troops behind and give them time to take the objective. If the Librarian and Honour Guard couldn’t do the job, then the Inquisitor, Chaplain and nine-strong squad of Death Company should do!

We rolled for Necrons on the Objective and it came up a maximum six! So, the Blood Angels Librarian and Honour Guard were locked in combat with the Necrons in the centre of the bridge.

The Leman Russ opened up on the Predator, but only managed to knock out its main armament, the twin-linked Assault Cannon. Undeterred, the Predator fired the Heavy Flamer in its side sponson on the unfortunate Brood Initiates and burnt several to a crisp.

However, the Purestrain Genestealers with their “fleet of foot/claw” were nearly upon the Blood Angels tank, with the Patriarch and his bodyguard following close behind.

End Game

The Hybrids failed to bring down the land speeder, which fired its Multi-Melta into the side of the Leman Russ. The Battle Cannon was put out-of-action, but otherwise the tank was ok.

The Genestealers caught up with the Predator. We decided to use the “Rending Claws” rule for Genestealers from Codex Tyranids, rather than the “counts as power weapon” rule from Codex Genestealer Cult. This gave the ‘stealers a chance at ripping through the armour of the Predator [As an aside, I’ve always thought they ought to have some chance of ripping through light tank armour, because they are described in the background as ripping through Terminator armour almost as if it were paper]. With a total of nine attacks, Matthew managed to roll one “six”. The “six” is necessary to get an extra D6 armour penetration. In this case, the Genestealer must have managed to hit something volatile, because the tank exploded and slewed towards the close combat between the Necron Warriors and Blood Angels Honour Guard.

In the centre of the bridge, after a couple of rounds of close combat with only a single Necron casualty, the Space Marines managed to slay all of the Necron Warriors and take the artifact. Now of course Necrons can self-repair at the beginning of their turn, and when we rolled for this ALL five of them repaired and stood up again. But by this time, the Space Marines had engaged their jump packs and left the bridge. Without jump packs, they would have been chased down by the Warriors, but as it was they managed to make a clean getaway with their prize, and next turn they would be back to their deployment zone.

Victory or Defeat?

The Blood Angels won the battle, but this was not a competition game and winning was secondary to enjoyment (as it always should be). I tried to be fair to Matthew but without any handicapping.

The scenario worked out very well and the game was lively right from the very first shot when Blood Angels Tactical Squad 1 was all but wiped out.

Lessons Learnt

With hindsight, the Cult army was at a disadvantage because of its lack of mobility, and the list was not as fine-tuned as the Blood Angels list. I would like to play the game again, this time taking the part of the Genestealer Cult.

I would change the Cult list as follows:

• Move some Genestealers from the Patriarch’s bodyguard to the unit of Genestealers, because these get the extra movement benefit of “fleet of foot/claw” only as long as they do not accompany the aged and slower Patriarch.
• Move the Magus and Icon Bearer from the Hybrid unit with heavy weapons, where they are wasted. Instead, consider forming a close combat group of Hybrids and/or humans and mount them in a Chimera or Battle Trucks.

The tactical challenge for the Cult army is how to stop the Blood Angels Honour Guard. With their jump packs and close combat prowess, they are the perfect troops for jumping onto the objective, fighting and beating the Necrons, then getting away again before the Necrons can self-repair.

I would consider deploying the Brood Initiates on the other side of the bridge and using them as a human shield, or even trying to take on the Necrons themselves. They are poor fighters, but they are a large unit and might tie up the enemy for a turn. I would also consider racing the Leman Russ across the bridge. Ideally, I would shoot the Honour Guard up as much as possible from the start of the game.

© 2004 Mike Adams
www.smallbattles.co.uk