Crusade Battle Report - Adeptus Mechanicus (and Imperial Knight) vs Genestealer Cults

Hello!

Here's what turned out to be my last game in the Grim Dice Crusade League, where 100 power level of Ryza Ad Mech, ably assisted by Lady Helena of House Taranis in the Knight Valiant 'The Defiant Flame' took on Ben and his Genestealer Cult. The battlefield was on a world or red sands and partially buried technology, so Helena presumably felt right at home as the Helios Explorator Fleet aimed to purge the xenos taint from this holy place - obviously this was what this Crusade was leading up to! 

The mission was Tech Recovery from the Plague Purge mission pack, a mission in which there are six 'covered' objectives, of which two are fake blips and four are valuable technology. Points are available for uncovering the objectives with an action and holding the tech once it has been found.

My force now consisted of units of Kataphron Breachers and Destroyers, Skitarii Rangers, Vanguard (10 of them), Rust Stalkers, Sulphurhounds (6 of them), two units of Sterylizors, Kastelan Robots and an Archaeopter Fusilave. They were led by a Dominus, Manipulus and a Cybernetica Datasmith, and as mentioned, accompanied by the Knight Valiant.

The Genestealer Cult forces were led by a Patriarch and pretty much one each of the other characters, and had a selection of Acolyte and Neophyte units, a mob of Aberrants, a full brood of Purestrain Genestealers, two units of Atalan bikers, a trio of Ridge Runners, a truck and a Rockgrinder. Their cult creed meant they could reroll charges and had a bonus for using mining weapons. That Rockgrinder was important, because I took the Tech Scavengers agenda so I'd have to kill it and then loot the wreckage for archeotech.

Deployment against GSC - the auspexes were pinging away with all sorts of crazy blips out there! I got first turn so the AdMech forces moved up to uncover some objectives.

Movement and Genestealer Cult Deployment done! Thanks to the terrain I didn't have that many shooting options - the Valiant was largely out of range, but the Destroyers backing it up could get at the Ridge Runners.

With uncharacteristic effectiveness, they killed off two in one volley! A good start that probably meant the Valiant would remain unmolested for the game.

Genestealer turn one, they largely ignored the objectives, uncovering one to my two. Instead they instigated an assault on the oppressors, swinging round on the flank to light up my Rust Stalkers with a truck full of hand flamers, and chip away at my Breachers with the bikes.

On the other flank the mining lasers took down one of the Robots, while the Patriarch made a bold charge in, reducing the other down to a single wound. However his quickness at dodging the power fists meant he survived the return attacks.

Admech turn two, time for some purging! Waiting for the opposition reserves, the Pteraxii stayed in the skies, but the Serberys Sulphurhounds sallied forth to engage the bikers on an objective. The Fusilave flew over and between it's bombs and stubbers nuked a bunch of cultists, with the Sulphurhounds mostly finishing the job - their particular brand of high volume fire coming in handy. Elsewhere shooting chipped wounds off the trucks and the Valiant finished the last Ridge Runner, while the Breachers killed off the last of the bikers on the left flank in melee. However the Patriarch managed to survive another round of combat, splitting his own attacks and reducing both the repaired robot and the Datasmith to one wound!

Time for the jaws of the trap to close on my poor Ad Mech! GSC turn two saw most of the reserves coming in behind, while the flamer unit dropped out of the truck to claim an objective and incinerate some Rangers in the process. Shots rang out from all around, and then the charges came in - the Aberrants making it into the Dominus, Eldane Katronosa, and dropping them, piling in to the remaining Vanguard. The Patriarch finally did the deed and killed off the Robot.

Elsewhere the damaged Rockgrinder, holding that vital archeotech, charged the Breachers. I interrupted to try and finish it off, but reduced it to a single wound, in exchange for two of the Kataphrons over the turn.

It was a hard counter punch, but those cultists are just flesh and blood, unlike us...

Flappy boy time! The Pteraxii descended from the skies to incinerate a chunk of the cultists, while the Fusilave went into hover mode and started gunning down characters, starting with the Nexus.

Then the cavalry unloaded, before charging in behind a wall of flame! They took out the Patriarch, though their shooting didn't finish off the Aberrants. This move at least denied the objective to the GSC at least.

On the other flank the Pteraxii made it into melee to kill off the remaining Cultists, though not before they interrupted and cut down a couple. Elsewhere amusingly the Destroyers made a charge and finished off a depleted Acolyte unit.

A decent counter-counter attack! However with both sides only picking up a single objective here and there, the score was still pretty close, with me in the lead after having uncovered two in turn one.

GSC turn three saw the Purestrains arrive and charge into the Sulphurhounds, but thanks to their rad-saturation reducing their strength (and some abysmal dice), 50 attacks translated into a single wound. The Aberrants did finish the Vanguard though to contest that objective, while the Kellermorph killed off a unit of Steryizors.

In my turn four the bomber flew over and killed off some Genestealers, while the Sulphur-breath burned a chunk more. I also had my last Pteraxii leave combat with the Truck to charge the damaged Rockgrinder, losing two more to it's attacks, the lone Alpha finally killed it!

This meant he was left standing over the Archeotech marker - which I thought I'd be able to grab in turn five, but re-reading the agenda I discovered the action finished in my next command phase! So once again denied some Archeotech by game length!

In the last couple of turns the remaining GSC units brawled with my Sulphurhounds, eventually killing them and having enough time to go flip one last objective. This left the final score close, but a win to the AdMech, 26-23!

Awesome, bloodbath of a game. Great to finish the Crusade League off on a high of course, but I'm bitterly disappointed to have missed out on that sweet Archeotech loot! I did get a bunch of XP though, and thanks to winning I got a free weapon enhancement - which I used to buff a Kataphron Destroyer Plasma Culverin. The destroyers got the MFG XP as well since they were actually good this game, eventually finishing off the Goliath truck in melee to cap things off!

Since the league used 'artificial' escalation I've now spent some requisition to go up to 65 supply limit, and removed a couple of units that were putting me over. Sadly that means Lady Helena is out of the Crusade once again, though I would one day like to include her again!

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe!

Crusade Battle Report - Adeptus Mechanicus vs Tau

Hello!

Another Crusade game for the Grim Dice league - this time the Adeptus Mechanicus of Ryza took on the Tau from a currently unknown Sept. Regardless of where they come from, those Tau holding tightly onto their strange, valuable xenotech is clearly and affront to the Omnissiah that cannot be allowed to stand. We were escalated to 75 power level now, so I once again had a few new units. The mission, once again from the Plague Purge pack, was Extermination Sweep - a six objective mission with a very complicated set up map but pretty simple objectives - hold the points at the end of the battle round. There's an action to make an objective 'sticky' and fast attack choices became ObSec.

As mentioned, the Helios Explorator fleet brought in some reinforcements. Tech-Priest Eldane Katronosa (now in the new body of a Tech-Priest Dominus) lead a new Manipulus (Gwoll Zygan), a Datasmith (Cykent Bosk), 10 Skitarii Vanguard, 5 Rangers, 3 Kataphron Breachers, 3 Destroyers, 5 Ruststalkers, 5 Sterylizors, 6 Sulphurhounds, two units of 2 Kastelan Robots and some air support with an Archeopter Fusilave.

For the Agendas, we went with Calculated Eradication (kill units on objectives - quickly becoming a go to for me from the Plague Purge options), the classic Reaper, and Break the Seals - search a random objective for archeotech - which turned out to be one that I had a chance of grabbing for once!

The Tau, piloted by Hikowa Dean (clearly a Tau name), were running a custom Sept. A mega buffed Commander led the force with special characters Shadowsun and Aun'shi but their side. Three Strike teams with a Fireblade and some pathfinders made up the bulk of the force, with Stealth Suits, Sniper drones and a Broadside for fire support and a squad of Crisis Suits kitted out with cyclic ion blasters for the 'hammer'. Lots of dakka!

Deployment - most of the units hiding behind buildings and the weird deployment setting the core of our forces quite far apart. The Pteraxii, Sulphurhounds and Crisis Suits were all in reserve, while the Stealths were taking a sniping position in the central tower.

We rolled off, and the choice went to the Tau - opting to take the second turn. A wise move since we scored at the end of the battle round.

First turn and the Archeopter did a bit of a suicide run to bomb the Stealth team and blast away at the Pathfinders. The rest of the force moved up cautiously and plinked off some wounds on the Stealths.

The return fire from the Tau took out the Archeopter and killed off a couple of the Breachers. The last Stealth Suit jumped onto an objective to put the Tau in the lead.

Turn two, and the reserves arrive, including the Ruststalkers who had previously left the board to sneak over to the other side. Operation apply pressure and kill off what we can - while Katronosa made their way to the Archeotech site.

Shooting from the Robots and the Destroyers was ok - killing off the Stealths and Pathfinders and removing a bunch of drones. The Sulphurhounds lit up the Tau commander, removing the drones. Then a disappointing charge phase - thanks to Tau charge reducing tactics all three of the reserve units failed to reach melee. A mixed turn for sure.

Turn two and the Tau suits came out to play. Shadowsun and the Crisis Suits both removed a Kastelan robot, while massed shots from firewarriors killed off the Ruststalkers and the Commander made short work of the Destroyers. My right flank just about hung in there as the Broadside whiffed against the Suphurhounds, rolling double ones to wound with the railgun. I think at this stage we were equal on objectives so the Tau maintained the lead.

Turn three saw the remaining robots make it into melee, punching out Shadowsun and most of the Crisis suits. Shooting from the Rangers with their Transuranic Arquebus combined with the Sulphurhounds to kill off the Broadside, and the Vanguard unit took out most of a Strike team. It went pretty well...

Apart from the charge of the light brigade here, when the Sulphurhounds charged the Commander, getting overwatched to death immediately, thanks to exploding sixes from multiple sources.

Once again, a mixed turn, with some good damage dealt but forces were dwindling. Though outside of the fighting, Katronosa succeeded in digging up an Archeotech weapon part - Digital Cannon acquired!

Going into Tau turn three and it was getting fairly interesting, with Aun'shi doing his agenda to hold a secret meeting in the middle of the board, and the rest of the remaining Tau forming a big firing line. The Pteraxii and Kastelan got taken out by a blistering fusilade of fire, but the Vanguard were still in play. This once again tipped the objective game in the favour of the Tau - at this point pretty much an unassailable lead.

I got a turn four to try and make a dent in the remaining Tau forces, but some excellent work from a shield drone negated most of the firepower and melee was a little disappointing thanks to the active Doctrina Imperative. Katronosa got into melee with the Commander but they both bounced off each other's armour.

With that we ran out of time - a clear victory for the Tau but an early finish probably saved a few units from potential battle scars.

This was a fairly even game in terms of damage output but I probably needed some charges on turn two to go off. Going second was definitely the right choice for the Tau, and probably made the difference. Overall though, while the Tau were clearly up to some shady business with the local populace, the forces of Ryza picked up some valued Archeotech so quite frankly the Tau can have the rest of this ruined city.

In addition to the archeotech, we also got a battle honour for the first of the Kastelan units - Elite 'Crew', meaning they would get to reroll ones to hit - very valuable for their fists in the Conqueror protocols with they hit on 2s. The next game is scheduled to be against Nick and his Custodes, so we get to be naughty AdMech going against some other Imperials again.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, and stay safe!

Crusade (Mini) Battle Report - Adeptus Mechanicus vs Orks

Hello!

Fourth game of the Grim Dice Crusade League for the Helios Explorator Fleet, and this was a quick one! After suffering defeat at the hands of the Crimson Fists, Eldane Katronosa's cohort went scavanging through the ruins on a Tech Hunt (hurr), and were jumped upon suddenly by Matt's Snakebite Orks!

This was a 50 Power Level mission for the Plague Purge pack, where both sides have to search and reveal hidden objectives and control the 'real' ones. Seems like quite a cool mission. As before the AdMech forces from Ryza consisted of Tech-priest Manipulus Katronosa, 10 Skitarii Vanguard, Kataphron Destroyers, Kataphron Breachers, Sicarian Ruststalkers, Pteraxii Sterylizors, 6 Serberys Sulphurhounds, a Cybernetica Datasmith and a pair of Kastelan Robots.

The Beast Snagga heavy Ork force had two big units of Squighog Boyz, a couple of grot mobs, a couple of Beast Snagga Boyz mobs, a Painboss, a Nob on Smasha Squig and a big beefy Squigosaur riding Boss with a load of upgrades. The force had accrued some additional experience to get the Squighogs moving even faster and gave me a few bonus CP to start with.

Here's deployment. A big central blob of Orks with some units on the flanks to grab objectives vs a couple of mini castles and the Ruststalkers on the flank. The Sterylizors were in the sky and I spent a command point to put the Sulphurhounds into strategic reserves. 

We rolled off for turn one, and I won. I contemplated going first to try and put some hurt on with the Destroyers, but I wouldn't really have been able to do much else (and they have been whiffing a fair bit recently so I wasn't confident in them!) Instead I opted to go second, in the hope that the Orks would move up and fail a few charges to give me the counter attack. In hindsight this was a mistake.

Turn one for the Orks, WAAAGH! Matt's greenskin forces made it rapidly across the board and succeeded on all the charges they needed - a couple of them bang on the 8 or 9 needed on the dice. This was going to hurt!

The Ruststalkers were the first to fall, their newly earned improved bionics not able to withstand the avalanche of attacks from six Squighog boyz!

In the middle of my lines I was able to Electro-shock the other Squighogs to hold them off for a moment while the Kastelans smashed them with their fists, killing most of them. The Boss on Squigosaur diced up the Breachers, while a mob of Boyz ran through the Vanguard to tie up the Destroyers and stop them shooting.

In the return attacks I really needed my Manipulus and the Kastelans to power up and do some damage, but the Warlord wasn't quite able to finish off a Boyz mob, and the robots rolled very poorly to only put a couple of wounds on the big scary boss. He chopped into them to cut them down in response. 

In Orks turn two they were holding all the objectives and mopped up the remaining AdMech forces on the board in short order. With victory well out of the picture we went onto my turn two to see if my reserves to grab some experience - I had assassins and Cold Logic - which gave Skitarii units bonus points for doing stuff while the right protocols were in effect - in this turn it was to kill stuff in melee.

The cavalry arrived, and tried to kill the two weakest characters while also doing some damage with their shooting. However some slightly poor rolling (or very poor for the Pteraxii who managed a sea of ones and twos to wound the Painboss) meant that neither of them accomplished their goal - though the Sulphurhounds did roast a load of Orks.

And with that, we went into turn three, and it was all over, the remaining Squighog boyz snuffing out the last of the Ryza resistance. Victory for the Orks!

Well that was Brutal (if not very Kunnin). Really all over with the Orks first charge phase, and definitely over once my Robots couldn't manage to wound the Boss. In hindsight I definitely should have taken first turn and gambled on the Destroyers supercharging with Plasma Specialists to remove a bunch of piggies. Even if they didn't succeed I would at least have got my reserves in before the Orks could do too much damage so they could actually support something. Obviously Eldane Katronosa needs to update their databanks on Ork tactics - they aren't all slow moving infantry and poorly built vehicles!

Hope you enjoyed this quick report - it's unfortunate the game was so one sided but I still enjoyed myself (it is fun to see Orks win after all!) Next time the Mechanicus take to the field the power level will have increased again and I think we'll be taking some more heavy firepower! Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.