Playing 2nd Ed: Hunt for Red Host

Taking a look back, I hadn't played WH40K 2nd Ed since July. About time! Trustworthy Rodrigo (my usual rival when playing this game, you know) came home, grabbed the first minis he spotted here and there (besides bringing his own Chaos Space Marines) and designed an scenario in about two minutes. I always wonder how he manages to do that. As I had not used my new gaming mat nor the Crescent Root houses, here there was an excellent chance to see them!

 

The gaming board

 

As in all my previous 2nd Ed games, be ready to expect the unexpected! There we go!

INTRO:

Poor Khornelius ben Calavernius never felt like a normal boy. His parents always dressed him in red, despite it was quite a strange colour for the dwellers of their village. Always making him obssesive about blood, skulls and blah blah. Khornelius, now grown adult, has always been quite reluctant to the Imperial Faith and the Ecclesiarchy dictates, maybe because of the way he was raised. But he can't avoid feeling... strange. The other people at the village don't speak about the blood thirsty Emperor, and they speak about the Golden Throne, while he has always believed his throne was made of skulls. Weird life he has at that remote enclave. This morning he feels... special. Like something great was about to happen. Maybe the God-Emperor had set his furious eyes on him and addressed him with his claws...?

Inquisitor Publius B. Adass, Demonhunter, is on the hunt for a dangerous heretic. His informants have reported him about a worshipper of the Dark Powers who is about to turn into a demonic host any moment from now. He immediately travels to the desert planet Kishar to avoid the possesion and kill the host. With no other forces at hand, he recuits local henchmen on the go (almost everyone in the vicinity has some kind of autogun or rudimentary weapon). He has also sent notice to the local Adeptus Arbites post and, of course, to the Order of the Grey Knights. If only they can arrive in time...

Nurgcissus P. Stilens, powerful Sorcerer of the Great Unclean One, is fully aware that the bloody Powers of Khorne are trying to reach this realm, by a crude possesion on one of his devotes. It is his purpose to avoid that at any cost! Only Nurgle deserves the truly coming! He has gathered a squad of Plague Marines and, escorted by his loyal Nurglings, immediately moves onto the blood god worshipper, in that small town in the desert. Having requested help from a group of Night Lords in exchange for the opportunity to take slaves, Nurgcissus hopes they arrive in order to see that bloody demon fall.

That's it. We'll have a sigle mini in the middle of the town, wandering randomly. If we get 10 Khorne invocation points (i.e., ten losses, don't matter in wich side), Khornelius will be possesed by Demon Prince Squll, servant of Khorne with a Bloodthirster profile. The Inquisitor has to kill Khornelius before that happens and Nurgcissus after it happens. Killing a rival demon is always truly satisfying!

Deployment ready

I'll act as the Inquisitor and Rodrigo as the Nurgle Sorcerer. Khornelius will move randomly this way:

 

Scatter die

Servants of Nurgle advanced:

 

I suffer of mucus drying in this desert

 And killed the first of the hastily recruited civilians.

 

Man down! Man down!

 

BTW, yes the local civilian henchmen are the Taliban by Empress. I told you, we took the first minis we had at hand :)

 

Civilians retaliate using their missile launcher and AK's

And Rodrigo's Plague Marines succumb

The Inquisitor used his Psycannon against Khornelius...

There you are!

But the displacement field he was carrying prevented him from suffering any harm.

During the Psychic phase, the Sorceror forced the Inquisitor to discard one of his powers

Turn 2 would see the first reenforcements. I rolled my die and got a 6! Wohoo! I was going to get my Arvus Lighter with a squad of Adeptus Arbites! Thumbs up!

Then the inevitable happened.

I got the model. I made the usual stupid things and sounds, you know. 'Wooosh! Whoomb! Dakka dakka!' That stuff.

And then the model slipped away from the flyer base. It just crashed into the floor and totally broke off in a hundred pieces.

Yup, that's right.

So the moral of this story is never act that stupid. Believe me. At the moment of writing this I still haven't found the edge of one piece.

Buuuut, well, show must go on! I took the only responsible decision at the moment: The Arvus Lighter had crashed!! Dark Powers had made it down! We set the pieces on the board and kept on playing.

 

Two Arbitrators died in the crash, with all my self-esteem

 

A harsh gunfire burst out between the Arbitrators and the Plague Marines, but...

 

The plasma gun jammed!!

The survivors of the gunfight looked out for some shelter

 

Nurgcissus threw a devastating psychic power over one of the groups of local henchmen:

It s called 'smite' so yes, it is quite dreadful

The Inquisitor is quite on his own over here

More reenforcements! The Chaos side got the Lord on motorbike and the Imperial side got the other motorized Arbites squad.

 

Man, this is rush hour, this village has never seen so many vehicles

 

In the meantime...

 

...the only two surviving henchmen inflicted a wound to Khornelius!

In the psychic phase, the Inquisitor used a 'Daemonic Attack' card on the Nurgle Sorcerer... and succeeded! Then we decided to change things. Khornelius had only one injury left, and here we had the opportunity of using the demon we were expecting.

So, in a twist of events, Demon Prince Squll, almost summoned by the slaughter in the village, saw his perfect opportunity to take a physical body and become incarnate in that puny sorcerer!!

 

Important guideline: a good story is always more important than strict rules

 

Sooo Nurgcissus P. Stilens not only miserably failed on his attempt to kill his rivals, but in fact ended up becoming his most reviled enemy, a demon from other power. Aaaaaaagh!

Poor Khornelius, who by the way was beginning to find his place on this world and felt predestined to something great, just couldn't resist the enormous deception of seeing how his parents' god had incarnated in anyone else's flesh, and the poor guy collapsed and died of a heart attack (as a matter of fact, we simply didn't need a now useless civilian wandering along the village, we made up that story).

Angry Nurgle (as he was terribly upset by now) summoned some of his children and (as we had enough Nurgle points to invoke them), seven Plaguebearers appeared next to the Nurglings and surrounding the Inquisitor:

 

Errr... Were you here a moment ago?

 

Besides, we also got two Beasts of Nurgle:

 

Ugly citizen! May I see your ID?

 

But such a concentration of daemonic entities could not be overseen. As I rolled the die for reenforcements, a cracking light appeared on the village and, with the scent of ozone of a teleportation... the Grey Knigths arrived.

 

Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!

 

More reenforcements! The Night Lords Rhino appeared just behind the Arbitrators at full speed:

Bump! Crash with no consequences. The Marines disembarked

Nurgle wanted an active role:

 

'Om nom nom blurp blurp' 'Aieeeee'

A general overview

Nurgle demons do their part

Seriously, guys, you are smothering me

 

The Arbitrators rammed into the bike:

 

Crash!!

The bike burst into flames, killing the rider. It will move randomly next turn and explode. Ouch!

 

Well, this is a bigger 'ouch'. Having 10 wounds, the Demon is almost impossible to kill

 

The Inquisitor fought and fought the foul tide, and being injured as he was, he was beginning to prevail. As expected, the bike exploded, inflicting more wounds to the demons.

 

Believe it or not, the bike was more efficient than the Imperial terminators

 

The Night Lords shoot their missile launcher towards the Arbites Vehicle:

Boom!

It exploded, killing all the passengers, and it would move randomly next turn. We have an issue with vehicles, I think...

What happened? It directly smashed the Plague Marines and Beast of Nurgle, exploding with the same effects than a Heavy Flamer. So there were some casualties and the survivors got caught into flames!!

Mass destructionn weapons? Meh, let me use my vehicles in battle!

The Inquisitor moved away from the Demon, who had killed all the Grey Knights. Shoot after shoot of his Psycannon, he weakened the creature. 

The other Beast of Nurgle approaches!

The Demon Prince, forced to charge the nearest model, went over the Beast, while the Night Lords shooted the Inquisitor.

 

Another wound for the Inquisitor

 

All the Nurgle forces died next turn; the Plague Marines and one Beast burned to death, and the other Beast slain by the Prince Demon. But he had only one wound left by now! So had the Inquisitor!

One shoot. One final successful psycannon shoot and it will be over...

Dead! Victory!!

 

So it ended this way. The badly injured Inquisitor had accomplished his mission by a hair's breadth. The daemonic menace had been totally purged from the area. The Night Lords had no further interest there, as they had also fulfiled the targets they were contracted to achieve, so they ran to get some slaves and stuff. Only Nurgcissus P. Stilens had totally failed his patron god, and of course poor guy Khornelius had died meaninglessly without realizing what the hell was happening around him, surrounded by 40K Taliban guys. Oh, the dark universe of WH40K is cruel indeed!

That's all what happened that day! Once again, an exhilarating experience of a game; I always end up crying with laughter in these battles, where everything happens... but what you expected in the beginning!

Hope you have enjoyed it too, let me know your thoughts about our unorthodox way of playing!

Cheers!