Cultwar battle report

So we'd already played two games of Shadow War and Lee had taken a beating in both. Despite this he had still got a fair few advancements and the support of a Deathwatch Marine so its not all bad. He still wanted to stamp out the Xenos Cult they had discovered.

Of course he would be playing game three without his Inquisitor who had somewhat suffered at the hands of the Ochre Prince, the Purestrain Genestealer I had taken as an operative who had actually been a bit crap at combat. Still, he'd done enough to ensure the Inquisitor's absence and that gave me the idea for a nice narrative scenario. Although Lee had failed to access the data in the last mission I decided that he had managed to access SOME of it (remotely or something, I dunno, Machine Spirits are inscrutable things) and they were now retreating with the data and the wounded Inquisitor. This would be a simple get three models off the far board edge mission, with Lee having to traverse about 30" in total. My Cult would be trying to stop him and I wouldn't have the whole team at once, I would have a reduced starting force and more would turn up later.

Lee had added a Squat to his warband (another suspiciously diminutive model) and I had added a Seismic cannon to mine (scavenger FTW)

Lee would start just between the two small buildings on the right. 

Lee deployed everyone except his Injured Inquisitor:
Deathwatch Marine: Death's Head
Savant: Andrukas McCuan
Imperial Guard Veteran: Lt Dolf Luminak
Squat: Grummond ‘Tinpot’ Drakkensson
Short Range Pug Mutant: Ulo
Long Range Pug Mutant: Ulk
Crusader: Aurelius Leuker

My force was split up into 5 teams:

Tarn with his Seismic Cannon and Larz with a Heavy Stubber.
My Leader Skarn and the Flamer Karll
The two Autogun Toting Cultists Brothers Lek and Hesh
The two with Lasguns Brothers Cid and Jaq
and The Ochre Prince, a Purestrain Genestealer.

I'd start with D3 of these on the board and naturally rolled a 1. Great. I decided on the heavy weapons as I didn't want them moving anyway. We decided to roll for deployment. 1-3 they would set up behind Lee at the far table edge 4-6 they would be ahead of him. I rolled and duly set them up in firing positions ahead of his fleeing  tactically withdrawing force.

Turn 1:

My remaining groups would come on each turn if i rolled a 5+ 4+ 3+ and so on, you get it.  I went first as I was doing the ambushing, and with a lucky roll got both Skarn and Karll AND the Ochre Prince, who's claws were sharp and ready to rend.....

I set them all up in cover and hiding (GSC can do that) close to Lee's units. Hopefully I could stop him in his tracks here and with some supressive fire stall him before he started making headway towards the escape point.

Sneaky Genestealer Cult being Sneaky. 

The only real action of the turn was Tarn putting Down Mutant Ulo with a seismic blast. Larz couldn't really see much with his Heavy Stubber so bade his time (I completely forgot about the Overwatch rule)

Lee's turn 1:

Lee started off with a fairly cautious advance, I think I would have chanced it and run the gauntlet while most of the opposing warband were not on the table. At least then he would have got the -1 to hit.  His Deathwatch Marine aimed his Boltgun at Tarn but the cultist spotted the red dot and dodged to the side. Sadly he moved right into the dot of Long Range Pug Ulk who luckily inflicted nothing more than a flesh wound. Tarn was still in the fight, but pinned.. Elsewhere Lee had got a bit close to the Hidden and skulking Ochre Prince, that was going to cost him. Grummond had also wandered in view of Larz and failed to hit the Heavy Stubber toting cultist. Looked like I wouldn't need the overwatch after all.

Turn 2:

The Lasgunners Jaq and Cid turned up and took up firing vantage points. With a malevolent hiss the Ochre Prince pounced from cover onto the hapless Guard Veteran, I knew from experience how dangerous he could be and he was a priority target. Larz sighted the diminutive Grummond gunned down the Squat in a hail of Stubber fire. Skarn looked to Web Aurelius, another dangerous foe but missed the Crusader! That could be very bad. Karll was advancing towards the Deathwatch Marine and Pug with his Flamer. They were already causing me problems and I wanted them on Fire, people on fire cause less problems on the whole.

In the combat phase, despite a few deft parries, the Guardsman was taken down by the Ochre Prince who stayed crouched over him ready to finish the veteran off. (I messed up the rule that said it would have been OOA and thought that the Stealer had to stay there another turn to take the Guard out.)

The Ochre Prince vs Dolf

Lee turn 2:

We decided that Lee was immune to Bottle Tests, after all he was already running away. He started the turn by pinning the Ochre Prince with the Deathwatch marine. This actually lead to a bit of a conundrum. The rules for Purestrain Genestealers say that they are immune to pinning from all but High Impact weapons. Problem is none of the weapons in Shadow Wars seem to be High Impact, certainly not in the summary or weapon profiles. After a bit of discussion we decided that a Boltgun WOULD be a high impact weapon. After all it is technically a miniature rocket launcher so the Ochre Prince was duly Pinned.  The Savant went to shoot Skarn but missed.

Still, Mutant Ulk did Down Tarn, who had just got to his feet so it wasn't all bad. His Squat had had enough though and went Out of Action.

Turn 3:

Time to twist the Knife. My Autogunners Lek and Hesh turned up and deployed where all the action was going on. They managed to pin the Andrukas and Aurelius with accurate but weak shots. Karl, who had obviously remembered to fill his Flamer took down both the Marine AND Mutant Ulk. Lee's rolls were pretty bad at this point and his entire remaining warband was pinned or down.

Lee Turn 3:

Lee spent his entire turn getting to his feet. Well Ulk didn't, he went out of action.

Burninating the Inquisitors lackeys.....

Turn 4: 

The Ochre Prince was free to murder again but instead of finishing off Dolf I charged the Crusader, he was the only real threat left and I wanted him out of the way. I had completely failed to web him so I would have to Rend him asunder instead. Most of the rest of my turn was relocating, or getting up from being pinned, though Karll did douse the Marine in Promethium again for good measure. Larz dropped down from his perch, he couldn't see anything and I honestly didn't see Lee making much more progress towards me.  The Ochre Prince managed to get ONE hit on Aurelius and Lee managed to fail his 3+ Invulnerable save! The Crusader went OOA and Lee's bad luck continued. Still,, Tarn went OOA so there was one silver lining for him I guess.

Lee: Turn 4:

Not. Much. The Savant Pinned the Stealer, the rest of his Warband were very very still.

Turn 5:

I think this was about it to be honest. Karll Charged his burning Marine and it was night night yes?
Lek took Andrukus Out of Action with a precision shot between the eyes and with the Prince Pinned Skarn Shivved the Guardsman, taking him out.

We called it there. It was all over and all that remained was the aftermath.



The Savant Andrukus DIED. apparently having a hole burned through your brain is fatal. Who knew? Dolf suffered a head wound and would miss the next game. I was happy about that. Everyone else was fine and Ulk had the cheek to learn a lesson! On top of that he was really the only one who achieved much so we decided he could be MVP and Level as well. So he ended up with Nerves of Steel and Iron Will. For me it had to be Karll with his flamer. Karll became a medic which was handy. Lee could have used one of those for his Savant.

The last game we played was a straight up Gangfight scenario as Lee looked to regroup and have one last crack at the Brotherhood of the Yellow King before we move on to games of 40k. Look out for that report soon!