Shadow War - Round Five

I've been very slack about updating the blog lately, but that isn't because I haven't been gaming. With the new year just round the corner, I thought I would rush to the end and summarise the whole of Round Five before the new year. Belt up, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

My plan was for this to be the last normal round of the campaign. After this I only want to play one final fight which will involve all six teams and settle the overall winner of the campaign. But that's going to take a fair bit of time and planning, so probably won't happen for a little while yet. This round will be crucial though, as it will establish the final leader board, which will determine which teams have the advantage in the final fight.

Game 5a - Wyches vs Sisters of Battle

I rolled up the Ambush scenario with the Sisters as Defenders. The Sisters took up a defensive position on top of the Promethium Refinery. This gave them a good vantage point, but, unfortunately for them, all the Sisters had to deploy in the centre, with none of them able to deploy anywhere else on the table.

Thanks to their accompanying Haemunculus (and the fact that I remember the rules) the Wyches got two rolls on the combat drugs table giving them +1 to both Weapon Skill and Toughness. They relied on the toughness boost and their speed to avoid the worst of the bolter fire and get under the promethium refinery.

Despite this, they still suffered some casualties as Hexar and Syren Cyrix were both downed, Melris was flesh wounded and Selkis pinned.

Having weatherd the worst of the fire, the Wyches were able to scale the ladder and engage in hand to hand where they excelled. The Sisters held their own at first, but couldn't bring their fire power. It didn't help that Sister Superior Winnifred failed her fear test in the face of Hyldar's horrible scars, keeping her out of the fight for a turn.

Meanwhile, the Sister's attention was diverted by the Haemonculus taking pot shots at them from the walk way.

The Sisters held out in hand to hand as long as they could, but were overmatched by the Wyches.

Then Syren Cyrix recovered to flesh wound and joined the fight, the Sisters were not just outmatched, but outnumbered.

Soon it was all over and the Sisters bottled.

This was a confident win for the Dark Eldar, who gained 3 Data caches, putting them at the top of the table. The Sisters gained 1 Data cache but, tragically, Sister Hildegarde died, causing their Kill Team rating to drop. Rather than recruit a new Sister, the Sisters choose to recruit a Seraphim for the final round. The Dark Eldar had already paid to keep their Haemonculus for two games, so recruited a Succubus as well!

Game 5b - Blood Axe Orks vs Chaos Space Marines

I made a silly mistake setting up the scenery in this scenario. I left far too much open space in the centre of the table, allowing both side to take pot shots at each other from right across the other side of the board. This would have a nasty impact on the game. The scenario was a straight Kill-Team fight, chosen by the Plague Marines because it didn't give the Orks any additional numerical advantage.

Both Plague Marines and Orks set up sentries at key vantage points on opposite sides of the table.

Meanwhile, with the centre of the table exposed to fire, Sergeant Bogrot lead a flanking force to try and out sneak the Chaos Marines.

Meanwhile, the Orks and Chaos Marines took pot shots at each other from across the battlefield.

The Chaos Marine Champion Brother Corpulous lead a group down the centre of the table, relying on their sheer toughness to keep them safe. This worked up to a point, as a pattern emerged in which the Orks would hit and pin the Chaos Marines, but completely fail to wound them.

Sergeant Bogrot's flanking force were distracted shooting at Brother Corpulous' advance party in a bid to stop them advancing up the table. This worked, but lead to deadlock as neither side were able to actually hurt the other and their was no incentive for either side to do anything other than shoot each other and hope their luck changed.

Finally Brother Leprous took up a better firing position in an attempt to break the deadlock.

He was quickly taken out by Fragrap's flamer, but at least that put Fragrap in the firing line of Brother Pox and he was taken down along with Razan.

Most of the flanking force were now stuck, keeping the Chaos Marines pinned.

But Sergeant Bogrot continued his original plan single-handedly, sneaking his way around the rear of the enemy lines.

With the game having dragged on for nearly ten turns, the Orks tried something desperate as Korporal Frix and Dagroll broke cover to try and get into better firing positions.

Finally Sergeant Bogrot was in a position to spring his trap, just as Brother Pox was downed by Big Shoota fire from Snagrip.

Amazingly, both Brother's Scrofula and Buboes fled in fear from Sergeant Bogrot's horrible scars  (which he picked up all the way back in round 1) one after the other, and he was able to finish off Brother Pox before following up and taking out Brother Scrofula.

With Dagroll locked in combat with Brother Corpulous, but still holding his own and the Orks now having overwhelming numerical superiority, the Chaos Marines bottled.

This game dragged horrendously because of my silly mistake with the scenery. Both sides could see and shoot each other, but had no luck wounding, so most of the first six or seven turns were spent in futile dice rolling. I actually considered giving up on the game half way and treating it as a draw, but in the end I took a break for a day before carrying on afresh.

This was the Ork's fourth win, giving them a clear lead in simple victories. They found two data caches, putting them on 10, joint top of the leader board. The Chaos Marines were left on seven. The Orks recruited a freebooter for the final round, while the Chaos Marines kept their Terminator, not that he had been much use in this game.

Game 5c - Blood Angel Scouts vs Tau

After my chronic mistake in the last game, I set up the scenery to off no clear firing lines. The scenario was another ambush, with the Blood Angels defending and, with the Promethium Refinery in the centre. The Tau rolled "it's quiet" on the event table, while the Space Marines rolled "Fear and Confusion" which meant both sides would have to add one to their bottle rolls.

The Scouts mostly set up on the refinery, but placed a few at ground level, to stop the Tau sneaking underneath. They weren't going to make the same mistake as the Sisters, not that they knew anything about that.

Meanwhile, Novices Marco and Angelo were able to deploy behind the Tau lines. Though this was a high risk strategy, leaving them exposed to fire if they didn't win the first turn.

They didn't win the first turn.

Novice Marco was quickly taken out and Angelo pinned.

However, the Tau opening salvo was pretty blunted only Brother Niccolo took a wound and the Veteran was taken down by Ree'va's Rail Rifle.

Brother Sergeant Antonio and Brother Paolo used hip-shooting to run and shoot, while Brother Sebastiano advanced. Sebastiao took out Bry'ch and Brother Fillipo took out Tri'spa.

Shooting from on top of the Promethium refinery Brother Michael managed to miss on a 1 when he needed a 2, while Brother Raphael managed to hit and downed Gen'tu. With two fighters OOA and one down, the Tau managed to fail a bottle check, rolling an 8 which became 9 thanks to “Fear and Confusion.” The Space Marines won after only one turn!

If it hadn't been for the last game, I might have fudged the bottle roll and let the game continue, but, as it was, I was just relieved to not have to play for ten turns. The Blood Angels found 3 data caches, which put them on 10 as well, redeeming themselves after their recent run of failures. The Blood Angels retained the services of their veteran while the Tau recruited a Cadre Fireblade for the final round.

With round five at an end, the leader board looks like this:

Kill Team	Data Caches	Wins	Losses	Team Rating
Orks	10	4	1	2064
Adeptus Sororitas	10	3	2	2154
Dark Eldar	10	2	3	1963
Space Marine Scouts	10	2	3	1785
Tau	8	2	3	1743
Chaos Space Marines	7	2	3	1881

It's a surprisingly balanced result with four teams on an equal number of Data caches and every team having at least two wins. Only the Sisters and Orks have managed to pull slightly ahead, and, in the former case, this was as much luck as judgement.

The Dark Eldar have finally managed to pull themselves back up, now that I figured out how to use them, while the Tau's impressive fire power hasn't actually translated into wins in a lot of cases.

I'm taking a bit of a break from Shadow War while I work out the details of the final scenario and finish off some other painting, but hopefully I'll have something suitably epic for the new year as the Kill Teams finally uncover the archive or Inquisitor Rudolphus.

Shadow War - Blood Enemies

For the first time in the campaign, Loyalist Space Marines faced Traitors as the Blood Angel Scouts fought the Plague Marines. The scenario was a straightforward Kill Team Fight. Both Kill Teams would try to break the other, with the first to bottle lose. The Blood Angels were one man down as Novice Marco's old battle wound kept him out of the fight.

The Blood Angels deployment made best possible use of cover....

...while the Plague Marines advanced through relatively open terrain relying on their superior toughness and armour to keep them going.

In fact, this proved unnecessary as both sides shooting bounced ineffectively off each other's armour.

The Plague Marine's implacable advance continued until they reached the Promethium Refinery in the centre.

The Blood Angels were pressed hard on both flanks.

But the Plague Marines still struggled to bring any scouts down, simply pinning them behind cover.

On their right flank, the Blood Angels held up, despite concerted fire by the Plague Marine Champion.

But on their left flank, the Scouts started to push back hard.

The Scouts right flank started to give, although they made the Plague Marines pay for each inch of ground.

But on the Scouts right flank pushed back hard as first one...

...then two fell in close combat. The fight seemed to be turning the Scout's way only for them to suddenly fail a bottle test. The Plague Marines had won the day.

This was a quick and dirty fight in which neither side had a clear advantage. Both sides were pretty level until the end when things started to look up for the Blood Angels, but with both sides having lost enough troops to bottle it was just as likely that either side would fail.

Despite winning, the Plague Marines only won one Data Cache, which seemed only fair given the narrow victory. The Scouts suffered no serious casualties, while Brothers Pox and Rancid were left with old battle wounds and Brother Legionela “suffered” Horrible Scars (causes Fear). For the next round the Scouts recruited a Space Marine Veteran and the Plague Marines a Chaos Terminator.

This fight marked the end of Round Four and at the end of the round, the results looked like this:

Kill Team	Data Caches	Wins	Losses	Team Rating
Adeptus Sororitas	9	3	1	2257
Orks	8	3	1	2064
Tau	7	2	2	1697
Dark Eldar	7	1	3	1805
Space Marine Scouts	7	1	3	1730
Chaos Space Marines	6	2	2	1881

The Adeptus Soritas still held the field, with the Orks snapping up behind them, though the Dark Eldar had leaped ahead leaving the Plague Marines trailing.

According to the official rules, Shadow War campaigns are supposed to be played until a Kill Team gets 15 Promethium Caches. I had originally planned to reduce this number to 8, but decided to go to 10 as this would leave one more round and mean every team would have faced every other. Round Five would be the final round and would see the following line ups:

Adeptus Sororitas vs Dark Eldar

Orks vs Chaos Space Marines

Tau vs Space Marine Scouts

Although Round 5 would be the regular round, but I still have something special in mind to finish off the campaign.

Shadow War - Turning it around

Sorry, I'm not getting any better at getting these Shadow War updates out there. I'm still playing the games, but lagging behind on editing the pictures and writing them up.

This fight was always likely to be "interesting" in that it saw the Tau, one of the most successful kill-teams going up against the Dark Eldar, who were pretty much the worst. After the Tau's last impressive, but really rather boring, victory I was worried this was going to turn into a massacre. Suffice it to say, things didn't pan out as I feared.

The scenario was Scavenger, meaning that both teams would be competing to secure loot counters scattered about the field. This actually favoured the Dark Eldar a little, as the Tau couldn't simply sit back and open fire. The Tau rolled "hidden cache" which meant the winners would get an extra 100 credits to spend at the end of the mission and the Dark Eldar rolled "Toxic Ash" meaning injured fighters were more likely to go out of action if they were down at the end of the game.

The Dark Eldar deployed mostly in a group, as much for lack of space as anything else. While the Tau tried to take up a strong firing position.

Pathfinder Uk'alt, a Tau with the infiltrate skill, opened proceedings but darting foward to secure the first loot counter.

Only to find himself swarmed by Dark Eldar. With the Tau's marker lights eliminating the effect of cover, there was little point in the Dark Eldar being cautious. Instead they ran forward on mass, hoping that sheer numbers and the -1 to hit effect caused by their running would blunt the Tau's effectiveness of the Tau's shooting.

It was a risky, but largely effective strategy. Tau firepower forced the Dark Eldar to disperse, but not before securing most of the loot and taking few casualties.

Uk'alt, the only Tau with a loot counter, quickly found himself taking on two Dark Eldar in hand to hand combat.

While the Dark Eldar Heskar, escaped with the first loot counter.

The Tau kept up the pressure, with Shas'ui Tas'vou leading a flanking manoeuvre that caught the Dark Eldar in a crossfire.

The Dark Eldar took some casualties, but unencumbered team members acting as fire shields and a ruthless willingness to leave the injured behind allowed them to secure all four counters.

The Tau maintained the pressure, but it was to no avail and the Dark Eldar escaped with the loot.

Casualties were heavy. Four Dark Eldar went down thanks to toxic ash and suffered a series of lasting injuries. But they secure four data caches, three for winning and another from the loot, putting them on seven, level pegging with the Tau and only two behind the Adeptus Sororitas, the current leaders.

The Tau  suffered fewer casualties in total, but Pathfinder Net'ra died from his injuries. The Tau were forced to spend their credits to recruit a new cadet Kel'zar, who was sure to experience a baptism of fire. With a full roster and no shortage of gear, the Dark Eldar had nothing to spend their credits on put recruiting a special operative (which they were allowed to do as per my campaign house rules). They recruited an Homunculus and, as they had a bonus 100 credits, I decided they could have her for two games.

Having looked at the Homunculus rules, I realised that I had been missing a special rule for the entire campaign. The Dark Eldar had been entitled to roll on the combat drugs table at the start of every mission and I hadn't been doing it. Given their stunning victory in this round, it can't have been the sole cause of their poor performance, but it certainly couldn't have helped.

In fact, it was only in this game that I figured out how to use the properly. I had panicked after round 1 in which the Blood Angels shot them to pieces, but actually, running forward as fast as possible is the best way to use them. I just had to use weaker members of the team to screen the stronger and make sure they ran to gain the -1 to hit penalty. It will be interesting to see how they get on now that I've figured that out and they have their combat drugs (and the Homunculus bonus).