The PCRC presents: Cold Feet on Frigia

Thoughts of a dying Farseer

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So, another year draws to a close and takes our annual campaign with it. I've enjoyed playing with a different army to my usual Imperial forces, but I've come to the conclusion that the Eldar aren't for me – or at least, not in this form. They've been a great opportunity to practise my painting and experiment with a striking colour scheme, but I really haven't got my head around how to play with them. You can probably tell that from poor Kelmonyr's record in-game! :)

I'm glad I got the army (mostly) finished, and had a blast during the year. Kelmonyr's Last Avowal also let me write some fun self-contained stories for Eldar, which tied up neatly with the death of Prince Kelmonyr on the cold depths of Friga. Of course, with victory (go Eldar-Tau alliance!) goes the opportunity to evacuate the lifeless bodies of my troops, so perhaps some will be nursed back to health, or even join their deathless brethren as Wraithtroops in the future.

I'm looking forward to small one-off games here and there with Kelmonyr (perhaps exploring his early life), and seeing what Culen did next.

Thanks to the rest of the gang for a great year of campaigning, and here's to 2014!

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Wow guys, it's nice to see it all come to a close but in sad I've gotta wait for the next campaign haha. Keep it up please

A Burst of Pallative Enlightenment - the excuses of a games master

after my fondness for far fetched comic book sci-fi movies led to the suggestion of "Descending into Frigia" as a title for our 2013 campaign, which subsequently ended up on an ice world, when it came to nominating a GM for the big final game I felt it was my turn to step up and accept the responsibility.

this led to a minor minor wave of apprehension flowing through the PCRC, due to my reputation for over complication and fondness for random tables, but as no one else volunteered...

looking through the wonderful stories posted by the PCRC's more literary gifted members, ideas began to form.

most of the armies were converging upon the planetary capital so it seemed like a great setting.
happily this would prove much less taxing than building a mighty spire-city. Apologist's idea of having the colonists living in "Ravines" sunk into the ice around geothermal vents meant that the scenery would be much easier.
the image this gave me was of gigantic "Dredd" style "Hab blocks" but instead of rising towards the sky they were sunk into the ground.

to completely reverse the traditional spire, the nobles would inhabit the lower layers, closer to the heat where life was more comfortable.
way below this the "Under-vene" is a system of tunnels used to transfer and regulate the heat of the geothermal vents

The Search for Sibley

the original idea for this mini game was as something to occupy players during the hours of downtime associated with apocalypse games.
but as it turned out, with the complexity of the main game, the players asked for it to be played the night before.

Planetary Governess Sibley, the beloved and seemingly altruistic ruler of Frigia, has gone missing during the most dire episode of the planet's history. all information points to her seeking refuge in the heating vents of the under-vene.
The Astartes suspect her of heresy and consorting with xenos.
The Sororitas know she has her people at heart and can be redeemed.
The Eldar have seen that she is a vital part of the future.
The Tau are responding to a direct plea for aid from the Governess herself.
Snazzguts wants a prize,
the nids are hungry,
chaos is always recruiting.

but who will find her first?

Mission objective:

find the Governess and escort her to the courtyard for evacuation.

unknown to the players at the time, the one to find her would have control of the governess when she emerged from the Ravine on turn 3 of the main game.

Game rules.

the mission was played under kill team rules (minus the bonus USRs) on a space hulk board.
Using 2 space hulk sets the board was split in 2 and mirrored to provide a corridor system with 18 rooms each containing a blip (hmm, 9 players...).
The board was not joined in the middle. instead there were 12 entry arrows placed, these represented doors to the courtyard that capped the the thermal vent so the heat could be directed around the ravine. Anyone exiting via one arrow could enter via another next turn.

using 40k rules as a guideline;
each model could move 6 squares in the movement phase.

the danger of dimly lit corridors meant that running was not an option.
models could shoot individuals they could see.
difficult to see clearly past several people in a tight corridor, but you could ask the guy next to you to move aside. though all figures are acting as independent units, models could ignore adjacent friendlies when determining LOS.

assaulting could be done in a straight line, rolling 2D6 for distance. the charge target and any adjacent friendlies could fire overwatch. models were allowed to divide their melee attacks amongst the charge target and adjacent targets as they saw fit, but must nominate targets before rolling.

additional special rules

"oohh its a tight squeeze!"
walking in a straight line is easy but turning can be tricky if your shoulders scrape the walls.
bulky models turning a corner in a corridor must roll a D6 on this table.
4+ the figure makes the turn and may continue as normal.
1-3 the figure gets stuck its movement ends and it may not finish the turn or charge. may attempt the turn again next turn. a friendly model ending its move in an adjacent square may free the stuck model on a 4+.

"damn that's a low ceiling!"
any model attempting a jump or jet move must roll a D6 on this table.
4+ they skillfully guide their flight down the narrow corridor with only minor bumping
1-3 BAM! they jet/jump straight into the ceiling and land back on the starting square dazed ending the move.

secret special rule revealed if necessary.
"out in the cold"
any models spending 2 turns in the courtyard must pass a toughness test or get frozen/stuck (removed as a casualty).

BLIPS:
there is a life form reading in each room. due to interference from the heating ducts you do not know what it is until you enter the room and turn on the lights.
as you flick on the lights you must roll on the startle table to determine the occpant's reactions:
D6
1-3 = "blink" the occupants squint trying to see who has entered.
4-6 = "startled" the terrified occupants immediately open fire, resolve a round of overwatch against the intruding model.

any model ending its movement in the doorway to a room may flip the blip.
1= D3+3 terrified civilian workers (9 blips)
3= D3+3 termagants (8 blips)
2= the governess and her entourage (1 blip)

at the end of each round the civillians and termagants had a turn.
unknown to the players if a "blink" had been rolled the civillians/termagants were only hostile if fired upon.

for the LOLs I shuffled the blips and randomly distributed them so even I didn't know what was where.

:evilgrin:

more explanations will follow...

whilst watching the game it was interesting to note the way 40k affects people's attitude.
genocide seems to be the assumed style.

Every group of civilians or termagants encountered were systematically exterminated by their discoverers regardless of whether they displayed any hostility or not. often several turns were spent purging the area of inhabitants before moving on and continuing with the mission.

I had set up a way for people to recruit the civilians to their cause, but it had to be requested and noone even asked about it, they just mercilessly gunned down or butchered everyone they encountered.

Fate of Frigia - the main game.

Having played many apocalypse games it generally boils down to several hours lining up two armies facing each other then rapidly clearing models off the table before they do anything. everyone blasts the nearest thing and victory is dependent on the big toys. can you drop the titan before it wipes out your army?
I've tried running multi-faction games, people get trigger happy and shoot their immediate neighbours breaking down a big battle into lots of small isolated skirmishes, that is unless you give them a very good reason not to.

I wanted to do something a little different.
In previous apocalypse games other PCRC GMs had introduced the idea of personal secret objectives, so, I decided to expand on this idea and gave each army its own agenda. This was an attempt to encourage them to do more that just shoot their neighbour, more on that later.

Scenery

The first thing to sort out was the battlefield.
It needed to fit with the story and provide interesting terrain to fight over.

Starting with our 12'x6' snow board (3 6'x4' boards side by side courtesy of Apologist, GrahamGilchrist and Omricon), the first thing to design was the Ravine its self. This would be the central feature and would provide objectives for many of the factions.

being supposed to be almost entirely subterranean, all it really needed was the ramparts. the centre would be an open hole a mile deep. so, impassable to all but skimmers and fliers. jump/jet units can jump in but not out ;)

we had recently got one of each of the new fortification sets, so with an aquilla strong point, firestorm redoubt, and the 2 wall of martyrs sections all I needed to do was dig out the bunkers from our cityfight terrain and we had a convincing ravine top.

but what to count it as?
to make it more interesting each section of the ravine wall was a neutral building controlled by those occupying it.

Individual Buildings:

The Aquilla Strong point
The rules for the Aquilla strong point are in the new apocalypse book so I decided to use the building as it is, An AV 15 large building and medium building both with ramparts.
But the cannon was a bit extreme (in a "BOOM, pack up and go home" way), so I modified it.

Aquilla Cannon
may be fired by any unit that is the soul occupant of the strong point ramparts.
when fired the cannon may fire one of the following shells:

Ionic pulse shell
designed for disabling star-ships in orbit, the ion cannon fires a charge that completely disables electronic systems, magnetises metals and polarises heavy atoms.
Range anywhere on the board
apocalyptic blast (10”) any vehicle touched by the template is stunned on a 4+ (including losing a hull point)
super heavy vehicles must roll once for each main system (primary weapons and drives)
other models take a S4 hit but it is resolved against their armour save rather than toughness. And at AP2. centre hole is S10 Ap2

Quake Shell
range 180” S 8/6/4 Ap 4/6/- (small 3” blast in the centre is S10 AP2 ) Primary weapon 1, apocalyptic mega blast (15”).

Redoubt, Ravine Walls and Bunkers

there were no rules for the firestorm redoubt, so the redoubt, bunkers and walls of martyrs sections were all AV14 medium buildings with ramparts.

any unit occupying the relevant section of the redoubt ramparts may fire the TL double icarus lascannons.
any unit occupying a bunker can remotely fire the nearest vengeance battery.

Bastions

not being bought as fortifications the bastions were also neutral buildings...with a twist.
AV13 medium buildings with 2 levels and battlements, armaments as on the model. the door faces the ravine.
any unit that is the soul occupant may use the weapons.

there are several bastions scattered around the ravine. Cowering inside are terrified civilians.
Any army may attempt to coerce them into joining their war effort by making a “do not shoot we are here to help”roll
to do this the army must have a model in base contact with the door of a bastion that contains civilians, roll a D6.
Natural 1 = utter failure the civilians immediately open fire on the unit trying to coerce them
2-3 = failure, the civilians remain locked inside the bastion.
4+ = success, the civilians join your army, a unit of 3D6 civilians is placed within 6” of the ravine door. They are now under control of the army that coerced them.

Civilians: WS2 BS2 S3 T3 W1 I3 A1 Ld7 Sv6+
equipment: lasgun and laspistol (the bastions are well stocked)

once the occupying civilians have left, a bastion may be occupied by any other unit (that can fit).

as to any other terrain. the small huts were AV9 small buildings, defence lines, woods and other terrain follows the rules in the rule book.

Apocalypse Guns

we got a copy of the new apocalypse rules and I have to say that I really like the apocalyptic mega blast idea (different strengths at different distances), and the new destroyer weapons are much better (everything has a chance of survival now) but I still think that GW have a tendency to make their guns too powerful. its not fun losing 40 models to a single shot.

my big concern was that the large apocalypse units would blast to crap out of everything on the board before any other players got to play with their toys, so, to rectify this I thought I would set them a challenge.

The Ravine Shield

Shield Generators

The ravine shield has 2 generators. The generators are AV12 buildings.

the shield is designed to protect the ravine from orbital lance strikes and other energy based weaponry.
While both shield generators are active ALL ranged energy weapons* on the board have their strength and AP reduced by 3, this cannot reduce a weapon's strength below Strength 7.

(NB strength D is 1 point higher than S 10. so a S D AP1 weapon would become S8 AP4)

Whilst only one shield generator is active ALL ranged energy weapons* on the board have their strength and AP reduced by 1, this cannot reduce a weapon's strength below Strength 7.
(so a S D AP1 weapon would become S10 AP2)

*energy weapons are those described as laser, plasma or lance, and those affected weapons include:
turbo laser destructor, plasma blast gun, plasma cannon, plasma gun, plasma pistol, bio plasma, ectoplasma cannon, lascannon, scatter laser, pulse laser, prism cannon, bright lance, dark lance, blaster, star cannon, ion accelerator, cyclic ion blaster, ion cannon, ion rifle, quad ion turret, and the ionic pulse shell ;)

if neither generator is active there is no shield. So everything functions as normal.

A shield generator can be taken off line in one of 2 ways:
1) it suffers a catastrophic breach, total collapse, or detonation result on the building damage table
2) a model moves into base contact and makes a successful “Shield Console Hack” roll

Shield console hack test:
one model per unit (ICs count as separate units) in base contact with a shield generator may attempt to hack the console instead of shooting in the shooting phase.
To make the test roll a D6 on a 6+ the test is successful.
Modifiers:
+1 to the roll if the model is a character
+2 if the model can normally repair vehicles. (e.g. has mek's tools, a servo arm...)
-1 if the model has no fingers.
A successful shield console hack test can be used to reactivate a shield generator that is offline, unless the generator is offline because it detonated.

(and for the LOLs) A shield generator is a small building, so holds 10 models
however, if the generator is active when a model attempts to embark on a shield generator, each model must roll on the table below:
"are you sure this massively powerful energy emitter is safe to climb on?"
roll a D6
on a 5+ the model is thrown 4D6" in a direction indicated by the scatter dice and makes a leaping down roll using the distance rolled as distance fallen.
on a 4 or less the model is vaporized and removed as a casualty. .



Game results:

Victory points:

The winner is the player who has the most victory points at the end of the game.

However, should a player feel disadvantaged, during any break he may spend victory points to reinforce his army.
Spent victory points are deducted from the total already scored, so you may not spend points you do not have. :)

Spend 1 victory point to place a single destroyed troops choice back in reserve .
spend 2 victory points to place a single destroyed heavy support, elite or fast attack choice back in reserve.
Spend 2 victory points to buy a strategic asset of your choice. (not including strategic resources)
Spend 3 victory points to buy a strategic resource of your choice.

The "Teams"

As already stated, each army would receive its own (secret?) objectives and would be "going it alone" during the game.
(though, as usual the making and breaking of alliances and misleading of friends/foes is to be encouraged, for entertainment purposes)

But, turns would take hours and hours if we had 9 separate teams, so I decided to pair up the players. not "teams" as such, more allies of convenience.
Factions with similar objectives or whose deployment was so far apart they were highly unlikely to interact were paired up to take their turns simultaneously.

the teams were

Xenos Hordes
The Tyranids and Orks,
deploying in opposite corners on the short board edges, the two xenos invaders have an uneasy accord brokered by the genestealer magus and Snazzgutz "negoshiataz". In return for his help against the others Snazzgutz can loot the ruins if the orks vacate immediately afterwards and leave the planet to the tyranids.

The Ravine Defenders
having been told by both the sharks and the wolves to "prepare the faithful to meet the emperor" the sisters are short of friends and hope.
however an unrecognized small space marine force has made planet fall and offered to assist the sisters in their defence of the populous.
any help is welcomed in these dire times. and the space marines say they have reinforcements following.
the sisters and wordbearers are the defence team.

Wrath of the Emperor
here to purge the planet of the xenos invaders and the chaos taint, the Sharks and Jet's space wolves are approaching from either side of the ravine. the sharks have landed to one the west side but on the tyranid end of the ravine, the wolves are on the east side opposite the orks.
with orders to engage everyone except each other...they may not like it but they may have to work together.

Meddling Xenos
The Tau are responding to a plea for help with a view to annexing the colony. and the Eldar are just meddling as usual. an uneasy but useful alliance.
the eldar deploy between the sharks and orks.
the Tau between the wolves and nids.
both are encouraged to take large reserve forces and have additional deployment options.

The Lost Nights
The night Lords are rumoured to also be here.
however, there is no designated night lord deployment zone.


Turn Order

To shake things up so that no one can guarantee always having the upper hand on another player, turn order will be determined randomly.
At the start of each turn, each player rolls 2D6 and adds the result together.
Each team uses its highest player roll to determine the order of play.

Every player has his objectives known only to him and the GM. no one knows what his team mate's agenda is, let alone his enemies plans.

in fact, the next few posts will be a revelation to several players as they finally realize why certain actions were taken.

Army Lists

A month before the game, players were asked to provide the GM with some information:
army list roughly 2000-3000pts containing the units they wanted to use in the game,
additional units they had,
characters they would like to use,
stories they wanted to tell,
scores they wanted to settle,
and anything else they thought would be fun or entertaining to include.

Everyone was given interesting missions to promote interaction, and, if successful help tell the story they wanted to tell (and in some cases encourage backstabbing treachery).

Those that replied in time got story and character specific objectives, special rules, assets and wargear (where appropriate).
Others were given missions I thought would be fun, but not knowing what they were taking they had to be more tailored to their general army and play style rather than the specific force.
and those who wrote or changed their army lists last minute (within the 3 days before the game) had seen their objectives and all the game special rules so did have the option to tailor their force to fit the game, (even though they'd missed out on having the game tailored to fit their force).

The Xenos Hordes - Mission Objectives

The earliest replies were from the Tyranid and Ork players. so I had plenty of time to plan interesting and fun objectives for them.
they requested a partnership and even provided reasons and story behind it, so who was I to say no?

Hive Fleet Cerberus

Requests:

Oooo, yes and alliance with the Ork would be fun, as he says it's nice to plot together. :) I think an out-and-out-deploy-next-to-each-other-best-buds alliance would look a little weird, but mutual cooperation and a non-aggression*pact sounds good to me. Our goals aren't that*dissimilar; we both want to loot Frigia, I want the biomass and he wants the non-biomass. ;)

There will be a Genestealer Magus (counts-as Zoanthrope) in my main force representing Ravine-Governor*Demetrius of Ravine Var-Golsec (where the first Tyranid infestation on Frigia originated). My sneaky force will be joined by a Hybrid Psyker (again, counts-as Zoanthrope) representing Acolyte Vladmyr, one of Demetrius' chief*advisor.*Perhaps Snazgutz could be joined by Acolyte Raspotin - emissary of the Church of the Four Armed Emperor - come to whisper in his ear? :)

I'm not suggesting he's controlling Snazgutz (he's too well psychically protected for that), rather that he's come to suggest some mutually beneficial things. I'm sure Snazgutz will only pretend to listen to him for as long as it's to his advantage to do so. I'm not sure whether he should have rules in the game or just be for looks, but I'm happy to provide a model for him. :) Remind me how Snazgutz and his unit are based, so I can make him fit in?

Anyway, here's my main list:

1. If you're looking for personal objective ideas, then Old Growler is always partial to nomming enemy characters, even if he might struggle to catch them in his new form. ;)
2. If you still think it's a good idea then I'd like the Hybrids and the Warriors to have 'Without Number' from the Apocalypse data sheet please. :) Note the Genestealers though, as they have the Patriarch with them, so should probably be unique.
3. As indicated, the Carnifexes are a Crusher Brood formation.

brilliant! He even provided a full army list

And the result:

tyranid assets;

Dormant stage over.
one use only.
play this at the start of your turn after a mob of civilians have been rescued from a bastion. Replace the liberated civilians with genestealer hybrids. The hybrids are yours and may act normally this turn.

Rapid embryonic acceleration
one use only. (does not affect wraith constructs or daemons)
The corpses of the infantry unit the patriarch and his unit just wiped out convulse expand and a new purestrain genestealer hatches out of each corpse and joins the patriarch's unit replenishing its numbers. (you can have as many extra genestealers as there were enemies slain, as long as you have models for them)

special characters

Old Growler Evolved
hive tyrant
armoured shell, lash whip, bonesword, heavy venom cannon, regeneration, old adversary,
psyker mastery level 2. knows all the tyranid hive tyrant psychic powers

special rules

Hero with a hint of tragedy...my favourite!
If old growler kills an independent character in a duel he may immediately devour them adding their strength to his. May immediately make a set of “it will not die” rolls, Or may let out a psychic scream from the tyranid psychic powers.

The will of the hive mind compels you
at the start of the movement phase choose one tyranid unit within 12” of Old Growler, including his own unit. The hive mind forces the chosen unit to move faster than they could whilst constrained by physical limits and pain. The chosen unit adds an additional D6” to its movement. However, if a 1 is rolled or the additional movement something has given under that strain and the unit takes one wound with no saves allowed (distributed like shooting attacks)

Genestealer Patriarch
WS8 BS0 S5 T5 W4 I7 A4 Ld10 Sv 3+
infantry, independent character,
psyker mastery level 2. fearless, fleet, infiltrate, move through cover, synapse creature, shadow in the warp, rending,
killing strike (rending on 5+),
aura of despair; unlike a broodlord the patriarch's aura of despair is always active, All enemy models within 12” of the broodlord suffer a -1 penalty to their leadership.
Psychic powers; the patriarch has hypnotic gaze AND 2 other psychic powers which may be chosen from the tyranid hive tyrant and tervigon psychic powers (which hit automatically so don't need a BS) or may be rolled from biomancy, telekinesis or telepathy.

Genestealer magus
Zoanthrope with Mastery level 2 and independent character
may have a retinue of up to 5 genestealers

Endless Swarm: both the hybrids and the warriors are in separate formations following the “endless swarm” formation rules from the apocalypse book.
Tyranid objectives:

Tyranid Objectives

Om nom nom nom nom! (Primary objective)
The main objective of any tyranid invasion fleet is consumption of all natural resources.
This is done by tyrannoforming the planet, first the warrior forms are sent in to battle and devour all sentient species that may oppose or interrupt their lesser forms, then seeding their other fast growing lifeforms designed to burrow in and devour all natural resources, before the big ships crack open the crust and suck out all the heat.
The objective of your swarm it to clear the opposition and seed the tyrannoforming lifeforms. The board will be divided into 12 areas, at the end of each tyranid turn and the start of each break any area that contains nothing but tyrannid units is considered tyrannoformed. (I will provide digestion pools to mark the tyrannoformed areas)

Each tyrannoformed area is worth 1 Victory point to the tyranids.

any non tyranid model in a tyrannoformed area:
treats all terrain, including open terrain, as dangerous terrain. tyrannoformed forests will attempt to devour non tyranid occupants and follow the rules for carnivorous jungles.

any tyranid model in a tyrannoformed area:
counts as being in a venomthrope's spore cloud.
Tyrannoformed forests will move to protect any tyranids sheltering in them and count as ironbark forests (3+ cover save).

Tyranid reserves may enter play moving on from the table edge of any tyrannoformed board section, or from any spawning pool.

Mm mm mmmmm a full spread of Rich Genetic Material (secret secondary objective)
one VP for each different flavour of genetic material collected by destroying a non vehicle unit of the types listed below:
Blessed (Battle Sister)
Post Human (Space Shark or Night Lord)
Tainted (Cultist or Word Bearer)
Canis Helix (Space Wolf)
Tau
Eldar (guardian aspect warrior or seer, wraith constructs do not have genetic material)
Ork (can you steal a cheeky sample?)

+2 vps if you get the whole set

Apex Predator
to assert his dominance he must devour his competition. If Old Growler can kill more named characters (independent or special) than any other character, he can claim the title of Apex Predator and score 2 Victory points.

Interesting tit bits
if the imperial saint is born, score 1 Vp if a tyranid eats her.
Devour a space marine librarian to score 1Vp

Maximum score 25 Vps


WAAARGH Snazgutz!

Ork Requests

an alliance with the tyranids. looting privileges in return for help against the others and the evacuation of the (now worthless due to being thoroughly looted) planet.
the main force, Snazgutz has mustered everyone he can for this engagement. *Special Notes:
1, The three Big Meks below are going to form a SAG Formation. *The final mek rides with the flash gitz
2. The dakkajet will have a grabba claw on it hopefully - theres no rules so I didnt write it below
3. Snazgutz will use the special PCRC rules
4. Trukk Convoy will be 5 trukks, 10 of the orks in a squad are deathskulls for the battlewagon who will be joined by their warboss

again, requests granted. ;)

Ork special rules:

Warboss*Snazgutz*
WS5 BS2 S5 T6 W3 I4 A4 LD9 Sv 4+/4+
Infantry, unique*
special rules:**
Furious charge*
Mob rule*
Very bulky*
Big lazy git:*Snazgutz' great bulk and infamous laziness grants him a 5+*Feel No Pain*save, and a Hammer of Wrath attack when he charges. Due to his laziness he will never move further than he has to; may not sweeping advance.
Lay-zee Boy: The gilt-and-trophy covered throne grants*Snazgutz*a*cover save**of *4+*; and the numerous runt minions and*hangers-on that struggle under his weight*grant*an additional D6**attacks*at**the *initiative 2* step, resolved at S3 AP-
Prophet margins:*Snazgutz' greatest trophy is the stasis-casket of the Eldar prophet Hierel de Heirerra. Through careful tweaking of the worky-bits, the stray psychic potential can be used for the orks' advantage.*Snazguts*may attempt to cast a random blessing from the Runes of Battle (determined at the start of each turn) on his own unit, as though he were a level 1 psyker. If he fails, the malediction is cast on his unit instead.
Equipment:**
Meat cudgel (power maul*),*dakka gun, 'eavy armour, mek's tools, bosspole.

shokk attack battery additional special rules on top of the apocalypse formation.

“Locked on an' bringing dem in boss”
as long as you have not rolled a double for strength and triggered a special result, if after placing templates if you find that one template is over something you'd rather not risk killing (i.e. one of “Da Kollekshun”, though it doesn't have to be) you can make a “tweakin' da gizmos” roll.
On a 1-2 the tweaking fails and the shot is resolved as normal
on a 3+, the tweaking is successful, the mek manages to reverse the field and instead of teleporting the snotlings inside the target he teleports the target towards the snotlings.
No damage rolls are made, instead remove all the models under the template and deep strike them somewhere else on the board within 24” of the shokk attack mek that was firing.


Ork Objectives

"I WANT DAT ONE!"
there are 2 ded flash gizmos that Snazgutz has his eye on.

The shield generator in the ravine;
a big mek, mek, flashgit, or deffskullz warboss must spend 2 turns in base contact with the shield generator or end the game in base contact with it. 4 Vps,
if done while the shield is active. +2Vps
If it is inactive anyone with meks tools can make a meks toolz roll to attempt to reactivate it.

The warhound titan:
destroy the warhound titan 2VPs,
the wreck of the titan is an objective worth 3Vps to the orks.

Iz da biggest an' da 'ardest: - secondary stompa goal
+2 Vps if the stompa survives.
+2Vps if you hit the warhound with your stompa's combat weapon And say “Puny god-machine”


Da Kollekshun: - Secret objective:
to Kollekt (score) them the orks have to be able to pick up the bits. So these targets must be removed as a casualty whilst:
in combat with orks, or within 6” of an ork unit,

for 1 VP each,
kollekt:
1 eldar psyker
1 human psyker (imperial or chaos, extra point for both)
1 tau battlesuit (extra VP for a riptide)
1 terminator suit (imperial or chaos)
1 wraith construct.
1 tyranid psyker (oooh, controversial!!)
+2 Vps if you score everything on the list and announce: “Iz got da 'ole Zoggin set!!”

maximum score 25Vps


hopefully both armies now had a nice fun characterful set of objectives.

The Ravine Defenders

A desperate alliance between two factions facilitated by the dark apostles inhuman charm and oratory skills painting himself (and possibly his minions) as stalwart imperial heroes rescuing the faithful in their hour of need...
the alliance will hold as long as he doesn't do something obviously chaotic.

The Order Of the Unvanquished Night

requests:
My force for the final game isn't likely to include any formations as I don't think any exist for the Sisters.
*
In terms of theme, I'm going to have at least one squad of Repentia (more if I can build and paint them in time, not too likely) and a full squadron of Penitent Engine. These will be led by a Canoness and probably a priest.
*
Characters will be:
*
Canoness Ashideena - operational commander; trying to find out what's happened to Sibley and establish Ecclesiarchical influence on Frigia. Unlikely to do much in-game but will be co-ordinating the Imperial*defence of the ravine. I'd rather her objectives revolved around the army achieving something as she's not really a combat character, more a political and operational figure.
Lady Ashara (using Celestine's old*rules if everyone is happy to let me) - figurehead of the Crusade; looking to inspire Imperial forces in battle. Likely to be used in the most heroic way possible! make her a cannoness.
Canoness Neba - commander of Repentia; seeking to lead the Penitentiary to salvation by hitting the biggest targets available (or by leading the most reckless assault imaginable).
Confessor Volon - senior priest; will lead a conclave of sorts to search and destroy enemy characters.
*
how about a strategic asset that allows you to raise a character to sainthood if they perform a suitably heroic action?

the sororitas special rules:

strategic assets

an abundance of faith.
Play if a sisters of battle character survives 2 rounds in a challenge with an enemy character.
A saint is born, replace the character with saint celestine. Model and rules.
If using the new codex All the faith powers the sisters have used so far are refreshed
if using the old codex you have 6 faith points to spend next turn and powers automatically work.

Faith is my shield
use once
play immediately after a weapon is used and has rolled to hit but its damage has not yet been resolved.
On a 1-3 your faith is misplaced and nothing happens
on a 4+ the faithful are rewarded and miraculously escape harm. The weapon does no damage this turn but counts as having made all its shots/attacks.

The emperor protects
use once
play when a single sisters of battle character loses its last wound.
On a 4+ the character survives with 1 wound remaining.


Sororitas Objectives.

Hold the Ravine
The ravine is a strategic objective for the sisters. They score:
1 Vp if they are holding it at lunch
2 Vps if they are holding it at dinner
3 Vps if they are holding it at bed time
4 Vps if they are holding it at the end of the game
to hold the ravine, the sisters must be occupying it with no enemy models within the ravine boundaries.


Rescue the stranded citizens
There are 6 bastions around the ravine.
If you can get a squad to leave the ravine and make it to the door of a bastion they can open it and rescue any civilians inside.
Roll on the “don't shoot! We are here to help” table:
natural 1 = civillians are hostile and open fire, 2-3 = indifferent, 4+ = friendly and join your army.
Sisters of battle may add +2 to the “don't shoot! We are here to help” roll

Any group of rescued civilians that leave their bastion and join you are worth 1 Vp
if you get them back to the safety of the ravine they are worth 1 extra Vp

civilians; WS2 BS2 S3 T3 W1 I3 A1 LD7 SV 6+
equipment; las pistol and lasgun. (the bastions are well stocked)



discover a new saint. - secret objective
3 victory points

maximum score: 25 victory points.



the Word Bearers

Deployment:

the army is split into a 1500pt all infantry defence force that deploy in the Ravine (NB Marduk's special rules) and a 2000pt relief force.
your relief force may be split into 1, 2, or 3 roughly even sections any way you wish.
one section will turn up on turn 3.
the other sections can turn up on the turn you choose (after turn 1) from the side you nominate (turn choice and side nominations must be done before the game starts)

Special characters and rules

the traitor guard do not have company and platoon command squads.

independent characters in the defence force may issue orders to squads of guardsmen as if they were company commanders.
Aspirng champions may issue orders to guardsmen as though they were junior officers


Marduk - Exalted Dark Apostle (Chaos Lord stats)
wargear: power armour, bolt pisol, power maul, frag and krak grenades, sigil of corruption,
special rules: champion of chaos, independent character, Zelot, beseech the dark gods, demagogue. *
*
Marduk should have;
veteran of the long war
adamantium will
gift of mutation
,
aura of dark majesty
all human (cultists, guardsmen, sisters of battle, space marines, chaos marines)* infantry within 12" of Marduk are overwhelmed by his presence and captivated by his constant orations.
all human models that start the game and remain within this 12" sphere of influence assume that Marduk is their lord and saviour standing for the epitome of everything they believe in..he is the greatest of heroes, fighting for them and they will follow him. Human models that start the game within the aura of dark majesty, count as friendly models as long as they remain within the aura.

* enemy humans entering this 12" sphere of influence suffer a -1 Ld penalty and if they wish to shoot at or charge another unit under Marduk's influence YOU may CHOOSE to make them pass a leadership test in order to do so, if they fail they may choose a different target.

in case it is not blatantly obvious, this is Marduk's way of beguiling the sisters of battle, no witch craft or glamours just good old fashioned hero worship, and misplaced trust. the wizards first rule (you believe it cos you want it to be true)
this does have its limits.though;
if Marduk is seen to be consorting with daemons, the spell is broken and the aura no longer has any effect this can happen one of 2 ways:
1) if a model with the "daemon" rule is within the aura without Marduk or some of his followers openly attacking attacking it,
2) if Marduk or one of his followers transforms into a daemon prince or spawn,

no amount of sweet talking can worm him out of such an obviously chaotic act and should this happen his aura of dark majesty will no longer affect imperial humans. ,* *

whilst within the "Aura of Dark Majesty" you may add +2 to "don't shoot We're here to help" rolls.


Word Bearer Objectives

Hold the Ravine
the ravine is a strategic objective for the word bearers.
If they are in control of it, they can claim:
1 VP at lunch
2 Vps at dinner
3 Vps at bed time
4 Vps at the end of the game
The word bearers control the ravine if there are no enemy models within the ravine boundaries. (remember that humans within marduk's aura are friendly models)

Spread the Word
there are 6 bastions outside the ravine.
Any unit that gets to the door of a bastion can liberate the occupants, unless they have already been liberated by someone else.
Roll on the “don't shoot we are here to help” table.
Natural 1 = hostile immediately attack, 2-3 = indifferent, 4+ join your army
Add +2 to the roll if the bastion is within the “aura of dark majesty”

any civilian unit that joins your cause is worth 1 victory point

Keep the Wolves (and sharks) from the Door.
If the space wolves do not enter the ravine during the game claim 3 VPs
if the space sharks have not entered the ravine during the game claim 3 Vps

Superior Firepower
if you destroy an enemy superheavy walker. claim 2Vps

maximum score: 25 Vps

NB; 2 Day event starting on Saturday morning ending at Sunday tea time hence the "bed time" objectives.

The Wrath of the Emperor

the wolves and Sharks are deploying diagonally opposite each other on either side of the ravine.

with very little info except the Sharks will be led by Echinor the Librarian and potentially have a storm eagle.
and the wolves player loves special characters and is borrowing a warhound titan...
I just had to attempt to steer them in the right direction.

we are playing "The Battle for Hoth" (in case you hadn't guessed) and this is "The IMPERIUM"

The Sharks

knowing how much he enjoyed the librarian during the campaign...
and how much we love the shark and dark shark jokes...

special wargear

Teeth of the Dark Shark
Rumoured to be a unique set of highly potent psychoreacive blades where each has its own individual eerie glow. The teeth have only ever been seen in the hands of a few specifically talented space shark librarians. Less than a handful of these blades are thought to exist, their origin and composition are unknown, even their existence is unconfirmed.

They all have the following profile some have an additional ability.
Range Melee, S as user, AP3, force, bite of the shark, future echos.

Bite of the shark: At the start of the fight phase the wielder may expend one warp charge point and take a psychic test, if successful he gains fleshbane and armourbane on his melee attacks until the end of the phase.

Future echos: the psyker focusses his power through the blade opening up visions of the immediate future allowing him to avoid and deflect incoming attacks. blessing, warp charge 1. psyker gains a 4+ invulnerable save.

The Blood Blade of Dark Shark
this vampiric blade glows red and thirsts for blood, absorbing the life force of its victims and using the energy to strengthen its wielder.
Tooth of the Dark Shark.
If one or more wounds are caused by the blood blade during a phase its wielder may regain one lost wound. This cannot take him over his starting number of wounds.

"mmm, always 2 there are..."


Echinor “the Silent Shark” Master Librarian
WS6 BS 5 S4 T4 W3 I5 A3 Ld 10
infantry
independent character
psyker mastery level 3 (must take at least 1 telepathy power)
wargear;
power armour, bolter, bolt pistol, psychic hood, The Blood Blade of Dark Shark.

The Apprentice
WS5 BS4 S4 S4 W2 I4 A2 Ld 9
infantry
independent character
psyker mastery level 2
wargear;
power armour, bolter, bolt pistol, psychic hood, Tooth of the Dark Shark.


Shark's objectives

Breach the Ravine
Deactivate the shield 1Vp
Destroy a wall section 1Vp
get 2 space space shark units inside the ravine 1Vp

Purge the Taint
cleanse the ravine. Exterminate or drive out the defending forces 2Vps
bring justice to the fallen. kill all the chaos marines (units without the daemon rule) 2VPs
destroy the chaos landraiders 2VPs

Terminate the Xenos.
Halt their advance by eliminating key units
slow the ork advance by eliminating the convoy and battle wagon 2Vps
exterminate the carnifex formation 2VPs
ground the eldar; destroy both wave serpents 1VP
eliminate all the crisis teams 2Vps

Superior Hunters
kill more chaos units than the space wolves 1Vp
kill more ork units than the space wolves 1Vp
kill more tau units than the space wolves 1Vp
kill more eldar units than the space wolves 1Vp

the dark shark's agenda
psychic mastery of the sector
eliminate the eldar psykers 2VPs
kill the hive tyrant 1Vp
slay the genestealer patriarch and magus 1Vp
banish the daemon prince 1VP

maximum score 25Vps


The Jets....I mean Wolves

Frigia, Space Wolves

roughly 2500 + a titan.
army suggestions:

Special Characters

Jet Darkfang Wolflord of the great company (Ragnar Blackmane model and rules)
Wolfric Von Lupus the Hound of Cannis (Cannis Wolfborn model and rules)
Olaf Redbeard (Logan Grimnar model and rules, the model is ginger)
Shadow the ThunderSeer (Nijal Stormcaller model and rules) + "Apprentice" Runesmith.
Ulric the Johnson (Ajak Rockfist model and rules)


On my army list,
I was thinking of including the following:
unit of Thunderwolves
A Runepriest (perhaps Njal Stormcaller) and perhaps a Wolf Lord
Wolf Guard
A few units of Grey Hunters
A unit of Blood Claws
A couple of dreadnoughts
Some tanks (maybe a Land Raider and a Predator)
Hopefully that will all fit into the points allowance.

the Warhound titan is in addition to your 2500pt army.
Choose one of these classic weapon load outs:
1) turbo laser (D weapon) and vulcan mega bolter (15 shot gun)
2) plasma blast gun (multi shot or MASSIVE blast) and inferno gun (hellstorm)


Wolves objectives

Breach the Ravine
Deactivate the shield 1Vp
Destroy a wall section 1Vp
get 2 space wolf units inside the ravine 1Vp

Purge the Taint
cleanse the ravine. Exterminate or drive out the defending forces 2Vps
destroy all the daemons (daemon engines, princes, possessed, warp talons) 2VPs
destroy a superheavy daemon engine 2VPs

Terminate the Xenos.
Halt the xenos advance by eliminating their most powerful weapons
Destroy the stompa 2Vps
exterminate the carnifex formation 2VPs
kill the riptides 1VP
eliminate the wraith constructs (wraithguard and wraithlord) 2Vps

Pride of the wolves
kill more chaos units than the space sharks 1Vp
kill more ork units than the space sharks 1Vp
kill more tau units than the space sharks 1Vp
kill more eldar units than the space sharks 1Vp

Challenge of Heroes
slay a chaos lord in a challenge. (there are 3 chaos lords to choose from can only score 1) 1Vp
sever the hive mind, kill a tyranid HQ in a challenge (2 to choose from) 1Vp
hold back the (green) tide defeat an Ork warboss or Warlord in a challenge (one of each) 1Vp

Honour the Saga
the heroes have taken battle oaths to uphold the honour of their sagas.
Great are the rewards for fulfilling their oaths.
Saga tasks:
For each model with saga of the wolfkin one thunderwolf or fenrisian wolf unit must make a kill (wipe out an enemy unit) and survive to the end of the game.
models with the saga of majesty must not fallback or go to ground.
all models with the saga of the warrior born must personally kill more than 10 models each in combat during the game.
every model with the saga of the beast slayer must personally kill a monster or wreck a walker.

Claim 2 Vps if you complete all the saga tasks.

Maximum 25 victory points

NB: the "purge the taint" and "exterminate the xenos" objectives are different for both factions.

Meddling Xenos

though they were sharing a turn, the Eldar and Tau had very little in common, but very little conflicting either.

The Eldar

requests/ideas:

Here's a rough list, along with thoughts as they pop up.
*
Prince Kelmonyr is single-minded in his pursuit of persecuting the Tyranids, and denying the Great Devourer further victories. In order to accomplish this, he has brought along his loyal houseguard and kinsmen: the Guardians, along with their support weapons,*tanks etc; and the Wraithlord and Wraithguard. All are loyal followers, prepared to sell their lives dearly if necessary.

Kelmoyr's gang is proper old-school good guys – fighting against the odds and doing their utmost to save the galaxy from the evil space monsters. I'd like him to survive – or at least be evacuated if he dies!
Autarch with the sword that powers up (+1S for every enemy killed)

[Random ideas]
In theory, Kelmonyr has a fleet of ships at his disposal. http://www.pcrc.org.uk/antona_austra...d-craftwo.html
While an orbital bombardment might be a bit OTT, it might be fun to have some sort of psychic bomb that mimics the effect of the Hemlock wraithfighter... Lots of people running screaming for the hills – even fearless ones!
*
Meanwhile, Culen the Insufferable*has inveigled himseld on to Kelmoyr's expedition, along with half a dozen warlocks*and Spiritseers. Having foreseen the possibility of Imperial Commander Sibley being seen as a martyr and a saint – and thereby inspiring volatile Imperial reaction across the sector – Culen is determined to*make sure*she*'disappears'. He has called in favours from across the Craftworld and beyond; including from the Shrine of Pure Vision (Dire Avengers), and the Harlequins of the Black Library,*in order to make this happen.

Culen is turning out to be not a very nice character. Some backstabbing – or suddenly disappearing to do something else and leaving Kelmonyr's group high and dry – would be fitting. Similarly, some sort of control override he's managed to implant in the allied Tau might offer you some fun Zoolander-style assassin ideas.
*
Eldar special rules

Deployment.

Webway Portals
Note down two places on the map.
These may not be:
in anyone else's deployment zone,
inside the ravine boundary,
or within 6” of a bastion.
These points are webway portals. Which appear when your first unit enters via them and they count as your board edge. I'll bring my webway portal markers.
Your army may enter play via the webway portals on turn 1, reserves enter on turn 2 or turn 3 you may choose.

Artillery may fire on the turn it arrives though it is reduced to BS 3 for that shot.

The nightwing may enter and leave play from any board edge or webway portal.

Special Characters

Prince Kelmonyr
Autarch with Iyanden remnant sword and disarming strike exarch power.

Culen the Insufferable
Farseer.
May choose to exchange one of his psychic powers for puppet master, with the exception that he may target ANY model or unit with it (friend or enemy).

Strategic Assets.

Mind-shock bomb
play at the start of one round after priority has been rolled for but before the first player takes his go., duration 1 round.
the chill and dread of impending doom is felt by all. even the most stalwart feel a trembling of the soul and the icy grip of fear.
until the start of the next round all morale enhancing rules and rules that allow units to automatically pass any leadership based tests (including "fearless", "stubborn", "And they shall know no fear", "daemonic instability"...) are ignored and ALL units on the table MUST follow the morale rules from the rulebook.
yes, this means that units can flee out of buildings, and be pinned whilst in transports. and monsters and walkers can flee from combat.


Spirits Awaken
Before the game secretly nominate and mark (on a secret map) up to 6 giant ice crystal formations.*
As long as you have a Farseer, spiritseer, or "kelmonyr" in play (did you see what I did there) you may Reveal this asset at the start of one if your turns.*
The nominated ice crystals shatter. each shattered crystal formation is removed and replaced with a squad of 5 wraith guard or a wraith lord. The wraith constructs revealed in this way count as having been in play all along and may act normally this turn.*


Eldar Objectives

Fate of Frigia
the seers have seen that the imperium must remain in control of the planet.
Claim 3 Vps if the ravine shield remains intact.
Claim 3 Vps if the tyranids spend less than a turn in the ravine
Claim 3 Vps if the orks spend less than a turn in the ravine.
Claim 3 Vps if no daemons are in the ravine at the end of the game

Kelmonyr's Troth
the Prince has personally vowed to halt the tyranid advance.
Take the head of the beast!
3Vps if he slays old Growler. +1 bouns VP if he does it personally.

“Power Level Over 9....!”
score 1Vp if Kelmonyr's strength reaches 10 due to his sword.
Must be announced dragon ball Z style to score the point.

False Prophets
Culen must stop the prophecy of the imperial saint coming true.
Saints are created when the faithful perform deeds of extreme heroism in times of desperate strife and hopelessness.
Save the sisters from themselves.
Score 3VPs if the imperial saint does not appear.

NB if they are involved in the same combat Eldar characters may perform a glorious intervention treating sisters of battle characters as friendly models.

In Battle I live again!
Score 1 Vp if a challenge is won by your wraithlord.

The Mon Kai cloud the future
Slay the space wolf Psykers. 1 vp per psyker slain
Slay the space shark psykers. 1Vp per psyker slain

Maximum score: 25 Vps


The Brightsword Protectorate

requests:
Story/theme:

Not sure exactly why the army would be there - is there an overall story I can tie into?
They have been defending Tau science outposts on Frigia, mining rare minerals critical for the supplies of the Brightsword protectorate. Could be they need one final rare element to complete a new prototype design, but the only mineral vein runs close to the main hive, and the outcome of the battle is critical to whether they can retrieve it somehow? That's not very heroic though. I need to think of something cooler...

Basically Shas'Ka Nan uses drop-in-your face close assault tactics. I'll probably do something with him and a large Farsight bodyguard squad deepstriking. The army is designed as a rapid assault force, so some sort of storyline where they have to make a rapid strike assault on something and then get out out fast would be cool :)

Heres the list of all my stuff:

Orca and rapid insertion force requests accepted.


Tau Objectives:

Rescue the Governess 3Vps
the governess will emerge from the ravine at the start of turn 3. she has cannoness stats and equipment, a medic and a savant, and may or may not be guarded (depending on the outcome of the mini mission)
find her, and recover the information she is carrying.
She is claimed like a relic (get within 3” with no enemies within 3”) and becomes and independent character and part of your army if you claim her.

Evacuate the Governess. 3Vps
the Governess must safely leave the battlefield escorted, or transported, by tau unit. Any unit that escorts her off the table must accompany her to the Tau HQ so may not return to the battlefield unless it would usually be placed in ongoing reserves if it left the table (e.g. like a flier).


Locate the spy drones. 2 Vps per drone
4 drones were sent out to map the planet, scout enemy positions, determine resource levels, etc. They contain vital information that must be recovered before any major plans can be made.
R1 and R3 have returned safely but R2 and R4 are missing, presumed damaged.
Find them.
Any tau unit that makes in into base contact with one of the damaged drones can fix it. A mended drone is a recon drone that will join the unit that fixed it.


Retrieve the spy drones 2Vps per drone
the drones must be taken back to HQ so their data can be recovered and assessed.
The drones must leave the battle field escorted, or transported, by a tau unit. Any unit that escorts a drone off the table must accompany it to the Tau HQ so may not return to the battlefield unless it would usually be placed in ongoing reserves if it left the table (e.g. like a flier).

Systems test
the Brightsword Protectorate are testing the new advanced targeting system. To prove it is a success, and justify fitting 12 suits with it, you must use the ATS to snipe and kill:
1 space wolf character, score 1Vp
1 space shark character, score 1Vp
1 chaos character, score 1Vp
bonus: score an additional 2 Vps for getting the whole set, and announcing “systems test successful”.

Superior Fire Power
Titan hunters
bring down a super heavy walker. 3 Vps
Tank hunters
destroy 3 land raiders 1 Vp per land raider.
(there will be 5 to choose from)

maximum score: 25 Victory Points

The Lost Nights

an excellent and exciting night lords list joined us with a few weeks to go...it deserved something exciting to play with.

Night lords Special rules

Night lords;
all night lords space marines and bikes cause fear and have hit and run.
All night lords terminators cause fear.

Deployment
All units in the army that cannot deep strike may infiltrate.
Any infiltrating units may deploy hidden inside unoccupied terrain pieces that they could hide in. (the bastions and ravine are occupied buildings) there will be plenty of cargo containers, bunkers, buildings, etc outside the ravine.
Note down which units are hiding where.
The units deployed inside buildings are occupying the buildings from the start of the game, so may shoot out of fire points or exit the buildings as normal.
But noone else will know they are there until you do something with them. ;)

special character

Chaos Lord, Baron Falkenrath.
Chaos Bike, Power Fist, Sigil of Corruption, Frag + Krak, Dimensional Key, Veteran of the Long War
Gift of mutation,
Ws Bs S T W I A Ld Sv
6 5 4 5 3 5 3 10 3+ (4+)
Champion of Chaos, fearless, independent character
Chaos Bike: Hammer of Wrath, Jink, Relentless, Very Bulky, Pavore Noctis, Tormentor stone

Pavore Noctis (the nightmare gauntlet)
Bound within the weapon is a fear daemon. As it bites into its victims it warps their flesh and gorges on their terror and agony. When it has had its fill it unleashes waves of terror into the minds of those around it panicking its victims, leaving some cowering in fear and sending others mad.

Strength as user, AP3, melee, Daemon Weapon, Warp Mutation, Fear Charge, Nightmare Shriek,

Warp Mutation: if the bearer slays an enemy character or monstrous creature, roll a D6: on the roll of a 2+ the victim is transformed into a chaos spawn under the control of the chaos player, replace the character or monster model with a chaos spawn model. if there is no spawn model available the model is just removed as a casualty.
The spawn joins the bearer's unit and follows the rules for chaos spawn from codex chaos space marines.

Fear charge: every wound caused by the daemon weapon (including failed daemon weapon rolls) generates 1 warp charge that can be used by the daemon next turn.

Nightmare Shriek: the daemon bound in the weapon is its self a psyker. It knows the telepathy powers dominate, terrify and hallucination. The daemon may cast as many powers as it generated the required warp charge for in the previous turn, but each power may only be cast once per turn. When casting powers the daemon uses Ld 9, is immune to perils of the warp, and counts as a level 1 psyker for deny the witch purposes. (i.e. it'll struggle to cast them on other psykers)

Tormentor Stone
the tormentor stone is a jewel that gleams with a malign glimmer. when the bearer takes a wound he may immediately transfer the wound to a chaos spawn model in his unit instead of taking it himself.


Night Lords Objectives.

Panic the Masses
score 1Vp for every unit that fails a morale test caused by the night lords.
(from 25% shooting casualties, beating them in combat, certain psychic powers...)

Hunt the Weak
score 1Vp for charging a unit you outnumber more than 2-1.

Replenish the Slave Quota
The bastions may contain cowering citizens. These may be liberated by the first unit to get close enough to convince them. If you can get a squad within 3” of the door without any enemies within 3” you can attempt to coax them out.
Roll on the “do not shoot! we are here to help” table below: roll a D6
natural 1 = hostile, the civilians immediately open fire
2-3 = indifferent, they keep cowering in the bastion but don't open fire.
4+ = friendly, they believe you will save them, come out and join the unit that convinced them.
Slave WS2 BS2 S3 T3 W1 I3 A1 Ld7 Sv6+
each slave has a laspistol and lasgun. (the bastions are well stocked)
All the chaos marines in the unit gain a 4+ look out sir roll against shooting as they move the slaves in the way of incoming fire. If passed a slave takes the hit instead.
Only marine casualties count for morale check purposes (they don't care if the slaves die).
Score 1Vp for every unit of slaves you obtain.

“Oh, but They Shall Know Fear!”
score 1 Vp for every space marine unit that falls back off the board as a result of the night lords actions.
Remember: if a unit is falling back it automatically fails any morale check it is forced to take, (e.g. from taking 25% casualties) and has to immediately fall back another 2D6”.

“You're My Wife Now”... “All Your Boss Am Belong to Me”...
(and other comedy one liners to that effect. comedy comment is mandatory to score the point)
score 1 Vp for every chaos spawn created by “Warp Mutation”
(NB, any daemon of tzeentch character can swap a greater reward for a mutating warp blade)
bonus “Gotta catch 'em all!”
+2vps for each of the following sets of characters you turn into spawn.
Space wolf set: All 5 special characters
Eldar set: farseer, spiritseer, wraithlord
Ork set; warboss and 4 big meks (not Snazzgutz)
Tau set: 4 commanders + 2 riptides (+2 additional bonus points due to difficulty)
Tyranid set: 3 carnifex, hive tyrant, genestealer patriarch, genestealer magus (+2 additional bonus points due to difficulty)

Appease the gods
Khorne: let the blood flow: score 1Vp for 16 wounds caused in combat.
Slaanesh: introduce new sensations: score 1Vp if your enemies fail 6 fear tests caused by you.
Nurgle: spread the contagion: score 1 Vp if you infect 14 models with diseases (nurgle powers) or killed by poison attacks (chaos spawn mutation beyond reason).
Tzeentch: change the fate of the planet; 1Vp if you have 2 daemon units in the ravine at the end of the game. (any unit with the daemon rule)

+2Vps if they are all in balance (i.e. achieving all or none of them)


no upper limit...so how many points can you score?

This was a great game, an opportunity to get the orks out after playing chaos in the previous campaign. A big thank you to Alex for GMing so well!

Orks/nids came a close second but in Snazgutz's mind he won as he achieved all his collection and most loot related objectives and as da biggest flash git/gut in the sector nothing could make him happier. Bob_hunk is a great person to ally with as well, we had a lot of fun working out how to intertwine our plans

I was particularly pleased with the Shokk attack gun secret objectives which teleported units in front of snazgutz and his unit allowing him to get stuck in straight away much to the amusement of everyone else except his victims! Special rules like this which add amusement without unbalancing or being too complicated is what gives these games memorable moments. The result also allowed me to think about developing the Snazgutz dead psyker story line further (see website for details).

I am curious to know where the ice crystals that you guys used as terrain came from.

While Marduk and his Grand Host failed to hold the Ravine, it was great to see so much going on and I’m very grateful to Graham for allowing Marduk to trade blows with Shas’ka Nan after the battle had officially ended – I was on tenderhooks during the epic duel, particularly when Marduk felled his opponent and got to roll on the Eye of the Gods table – alas although daemonhood would have been a suitably satisfying conclusion to the campaign, it was not to be.

I was and still am impressed by how much hard work Lord Bloody the Hungry put into organising the event and it played very smoothly and as the great photos show, it proved to be an immense spectacle.
In terms of my own generalship, there’s a lot I would have done differently. I should have had more reinforcements coming on from the same side as the Space wolves/Tau – as that would have given me more of a chance to gain victory points at the Animus Dominus’s expense. It would have also alleviated the massive log-jam that occurred, with both my reinforcements and those of the Space Sharks having to arrive on top of each other.

I also should have thought more about how to replace my defenders as they got wittled down over the course of the game and in the end, were too weak to mount a credible defence against wave after wave of Tau Battlesuits. In a rather sleep-deprived state, I also failed to realise that a squad of Space Sharks had managed to get into the lower reaches of the complex, until it was too late.
Warmtamale, my team-mate, proved to be a great help and very graciously took temporary control of my forces while I trigged my sus-an membrane and got some much needed half-sleep. Our alliance held for most of the game, until I inadvertently brought both the Scorpion and the Maulerfiend too near. My decision to fire the Aquila Cannon at the Tau and the Governess proved costly, but the deed was too despicable to resist.

In hindsight, I wished I had put time into establishing the narrative behind the Word Bearers need to hold the ravine. Part of the issue was that I’m a bit precious of my Word Bearers and their Ecclesiarchy-hating ways and I would have preferred to have been attempting to crucify the Sisters than have them as my allies (from a background sense). It was also a bit hard giving up the more daemonic elements of support (I’ve come to rely on my Obliterators and my Forgefiend when it comes to static firepower). However, these are minor quibbles and didn’t spoil the fun of watching huge amounts of chaos unfold. It was particularly fun to see Mekboyz teleporting units over to the Ork side and the sheer visual spectacle of Graham’s Tau.

For those keen to try something like this themselves, I’d say that although fun, it would have made for a more engaging game with only two teams and if we all had been game-sharp. Many of us, myself included were ignorant of some of the finer parts of the rules (I somewhat cringingly, forgot that you can’t assault out of a Landraider on the turn you arrive from reserves) and that slowed things down.

I'd therefore recommend that everyone makes a spirited attempt to reread the rules in the week leading up to the game so that they're fresh in everybody's memories. I'd also recommend that there be at least one tape measure per two people, as the constant search or requests for one really did waste quite a bit of time.

It was also difficult to keep remembering the massive impact that the Shield Generators had on Lascannons and plasma weapons. While I think that without them, Warmtamale’ and my forces holding the Ravine would have bought the farm a lot sooner without them, I think they caused quite a bit of frustration over the course of the game.

Those observations aside, I’m looking forward to the next campaign and our next major Apocalypse game. We’ve been discussing the possibility of Stars of Dorn versus Ork game and I expect it could prove to be a lot of fun :)

The Shield generators.
I had imagined that, as they had a big effect on the game, they would been a hotly contested vital objective, causing armies to converge on them.
with people trying to destroy them to get their big guns to work, and others trying to save keep them running so they stayed safe.

but, as it was, I think everyone just accepted that their guns were less powerful and played the whole game like that.

I actually had a whole set of rules we never got to use.
the shields were keeping the weather out!

TBH I had thought that the MOST difficult objective in the whole pack would be the Eldar's "Fate of Frigia: 3Vps if the shield remains intact"
even though intact just meant "not destroyed".

as the shield generators were inconveniencing ALL armies (pretty much equally), and were easily accessible AV12 buildings, I did not anticipate it being long before several players had enough and decided to smash them...or at least turn them off!

As Apologist pointed out (loudly to all) before the start; it was entirely possible, if a tad risky, to have one unit/character turn the generators off at the start of your shooting phase (with a successful hack test), fire all your guns at full power, then have a different unit/character turn them back on at the end of your shooting phase (with another successful hack test)...

but noone even attempted a hack test and only 2 shots were fired at the generators in the whole game. :(

I had expected a coordinated strike from the wolves and the sharks to disable the shield completely in turn 2 (3 at the latest) to power up the titan and all their tanks.
that is why it was only a 1VP objective for them...I thought it was very easy, and the obvious first step that made their other objectives easier.
but I think they ignored it because it was only worth 1 VP.
both had dreadnoughts in charge range, both had melta guns in firing range. there were thunderhammers, chainfists and armourbane weapons galore, or could have got characters to just flick the switch.


Rules Confusions

The general unfamiliarity with the rules did hamper a lot of players during the game.
(It may well have doubled the length of the game!)

6th edition did bring in quite a lot of changes, but I had thought that after a whole year of playing with the rules we would have been used to them by now.
(then again some people were still playing some 2nd ed rules...!)

the main 6th ed changes that caused the most trouble;

Reserves.
couple of booboos in this area (the first one I missed).

you have to state how your reserves are arriving when you place them in reserve, and the units must arrive by that method. i.e. if you say your units are going to arrive via deep strike they must arrive via deep strike and cannot move on from your board edge.
if you nominate a unit as deep strikers they must actually be able to deep strike (*coughwolfguardcough*)

Assaulting.
It is no longer possible to assault on the turn you arrive from reserve. regardless of how you arrive on the board, you cannot assault on that turn.
EVEN vanguard veterans lost the ability ("Heroic intervention" now ignores the penalty for disordered charges, and auto passes "glorious intervention" in challenges. yes GW kept the name but changed the rule to catch out everyone who uses the army list for reference).
(despite me intervening and explaining that reserves cannot assault; to the word bearers on their turn, the sharks and the wolves on their turn, the eldar on their turn, people still tried it in subsequent turns!)

Terrain - specifically Buildings
as I have mentioned many times, the new terrain rules are massively overlooked by most players.
the building rules especially (I had asked you all to read over them again before the game, and kept passing round the book on the relevant pages...).
when 6th edition first came out, lots of people (myself included) assumed that buildings followed the vehicle rules as in the previous edition. but if you look into it all they have in common is an armour value, they have a separate set of rules which make them function quite differently on the battlefield.

e.g.
when the wolves attacked a wall section with melta bombs destroyed it then asked "how do I occupy it now it is impassable terrain" the answer was "you can't".

I didn't want to tell players how to achieve their objectives, that would be playing their armies for them (and I know how much people hate "back-seat gaming").
but I did try to give lots of hints

however as its hindsight now, its ok ;)

an unoccupied building is fair game and can be occupied by any unit that can move into contact with an entry point (and fit in the building)
an occupied building is treated like a transport vehicle with several exceptions;
each part of the building is separate, (usually interior and battlements, but this can relate to floors, and some buildings, e.g. aquilla strong point and fortress of redemption, have several sections)
just as you can move from one section of a building to another, you can assault the occupants of one building section if you are occupying another part of the building or an adjacent building. so units on the battlements can assault units inside and vice versa.

there are plenty of ways to get rid off the occupants of a building without destroying the building its self.
glancing hits hurt the occupants but not the building.
template weapons that hit fire points also hit the occupants.
when assaulting a building you can choose to use grenades like you can against vehicles, but you can also drop grenades through the vision slits and blow up the people inside. (i.e. a grenade that has a blast hits D6 occupants and the building, a grenade that doesn't have a blast hits D3 occupants and the building)

when the eldar "Mind-shock bomb" went off everyone lost their morale enhancing rules (stubborn, fearless ATSKNF etc) the more tactically minded amongst you should have seen the opportunity and been able to send the defenders fleeing out of the buildings with a few well aimed flamers and nicely placed grenades.

I'm pretty sure that a psyker with LOS to a building's vision slit can "terrify" a unit inside, forcing them to leave if they fail the morale check. you can definitely do this to those on the battlements. (one reason I love the hemlock!), there were 6 telepaths on the board...

Thanks very much for the detailed insight of the GM Lord Blood, it was an interesting read. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lord Blood the Hungry

whilst watching the game it was interesting to note the way 40k affects people's attitude.
genocide seems to be the assumed style.

Every group of civilians or termagants encountered were systematically exterminated by their discoverers regardless of whether they displayed any hostility or not. often several turns were spent purging the area of inhabitants before moving on and continuing with the mission.

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Hah, actually when I opened one door with the Genestealer and found out that it was a dead-end full of civilians I simply shut the door again and walked off. There didn't seem any point in stopping to collect a bit of extra biomass when Sibley still hadn't been found. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lord Blood the Hungry

The Shield generators.
I had imagined that, as they had a big effect on the game, they would been a hotly contested vital objective, causing armies to converge on them.
with people trying to destroy them to get their big guns to work, and others trying to save keep them running so they stayed safe.

but, as it was, I think everyone just accepted that their guns were less powerful and played the whole game like that.

---

It's an interesting one! I think it might have been because most of us had quite a lot of foot slogging infantry and there were a few super heavies with big nasty templates floating around. I think most of us came to the conclusion that we could live with our big guns having reduced fire power in exchange for not having our infantry annihilated. ;) Speaking personally, it made my Crusher brood's plasma hellstorm pretty ineffective but I was happy with that in exchange for the extra survivability it leant Old Growler and the Warriors. :)

Anyway, some interesting thoughts, thanks for posting them. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zaljin

I am curious to know where the ice crystals that you guys used as terrain came from.

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They're from the 'Operation Frostbite' expansion to 'AT-43', an out-of-print miniatures game. Some online games stores are still clearing stock if you're interested in picking some up, so it's worth a quick Google.

Tyranid Conclusion

So, another campaign done! Old Growler has been cast down and Hive Fleet Cerberus is finally repelled from Frigia to limp back into the Bolten nebula cloud and lick its wounds. Still, at least they acquired some interesting genetic samples during the final battle for Ravine Golosc! Meanwhile the Church of the Four Armed Emperor has been effectively destroyed as a viable threat with the death of the Patriarch and the Magus. Still, it was fun while it lasted. ;)

I was fairly pleased with the performance of my army throughout the campaign. It was great to get back to the Tyranids, they were my first army back in the day and I always think of myself as a Tyranid player, despite not having had a playable army since the start of 3rd edition! I enjoyed repainting the classic models, although I did handicap myself slightly with the Warrior theme. In the small games at the start the Warriors proved very powerful (and Old Growler in Prime form kicked ass!) but as the games size increased and S8+ weapons became more common I started to suffer from Instant Death quite a lot. The game against Graham's Tau is a perfect example, where I believe overheating nova reactors caused more damage to his army than any Tyranid action! ;)

As I write this there are still rumours floating around that January's new Tyranid codex will restore immunity to Instant Death to models in synapse range. I kind of hope this is true, but I'll believe it when I see it. Although this would benefit my army greatly in terms of games mechanics, if I'm asked why fluff-wise a Tyranid Warrior should be able to shrug off an armour busting anti-tank missile then I'm not sure I have a convincing answer.

Frustratingly this is now the second campaign where my chosen army has received a brand new codex immediately after the campaign ended, the same thing happened with my Daemons and Shale! Never mind, I'm quietly confident that my chosen army for the next campaign will receive their update around halfway through...

I was a little embarrassed that I didn't finish painting a few bits before the final game, especially the Hybrids. Ah well, here's what they should have looked like!

Genestealer Hybrids
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps7f9ce40c.jpg

So what next for the 'Nids then? Well I'll have to wait to see what the next codex has to offer, although I quite like the look of the Harpy and the Exocrine. But what about Old Growler? Well, I'm sure they Hive Mind won't let a useful servant like him stay dead for too long. Something tells me he'll be re-spawned bigger and badder than ever... ;)

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps0b6d7560.jpg

really like the hybrids. they look great!
so glad you got them finished.

eager to see what you do with the new tyrant.

Hive Fleet Cerberus came pretty close to devouring the planet. It was only the Meddling Xenos that got in their way.

you have managed to totally rekindle my tyranid enthusiasm....which is a shame as we are supposed to be doing orks next (D'Oh!).

Quote:

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Frustratingly this is now the second campaign where my chosen army has received a brand new codex immediately after the campaign ended, the same thing happened with my Daemons and Shale! Never mind, I'm quietly confident that my chosen army for the next campaign will receive their update around halfway through...

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its likely to be Nids, then Guard, then Orks, but if they slip space wolves or blood angels in then you should be bang on schedule for 3 in a row!
I wouldn't mind a short Tyranid campaign before we hit the Scallop Stars...

To be fair, the Daemons codex change was so radical, you might not have even had a fieldable army afterwords! Would be kind of awkward to have the point values of your force cut in half during an escalation league.

The I n depth scenario and commentary is awesome guys, I may steal some ideas for our next big clash :)

Really looking forward to more from the whole pcrc! :)

Next up is a bigger campaign entirely – rather than the fate of a world, the PCRC are diving into the 37th Millennium for an historical campaign to see just what happened in the Scallop Star Purges...

Basically, classic 40k: Orks vs. Marines :)