Test game: Genestealer Infestation

 Back as promised with another test game on the Qala Debdou board! A bit chaotic in terms of preparation, as you will immediately see, but immensely fun, as I hope I’ll be able to convey in what follows.

A window of opportunity opened up for this very weekend, so I asked my mate Rodrigo if he fancied seeing the board in person and trying out what it could do. It all came together surprisingly easily (unusually so, in fact), but it was a total rush and our gaming time was going to be very, very short. That meant there was no chance to read a new rulebook or put together proper warbands, nor could we afford to stop every three minutes to check the rules. So we ruled out the ideas I’d had in mind (Stargrave, Planet28, Inq28 and a few others) and went for something we both know by heart and can play almost on autopilot. The good old reliable 2nd Edition.

Yup. We're that crazy.

More stuff! To make the whole thing even more entertaining, as soon as my Suberlings (10 and 6 y.o.) heard what was going on, they made it very clear they weren’t going to just sit and watch two bearded forty-somethings play. They wanted in!

Up to now we’ve played a few board games at home. HeroQuest, Zombicide, that sort of thing. And although they’re constantly messing around with my minis going pew pew, we’d never actually tried a proper wargame before.

Well, that’s about to change: their first game will be WH40K2, right there on the Qala Debdou board. I mean, really… what could possibly go wrong?

 Let's set the game!

The board

Since it’s still under construction, I left the upper module as it is. You might notice there’s a new addition since last time. That’s all the progress I’ve managed so far since the previous post.

What's that... thing?

It’s an elevator with a walkway. Since it’s already built, I just left it there. I’ll explain what on earth that thing is in my next post about Qala Debdou — hopefully with a bit more progress to show!

Faced with this new situation, my friend proved the true gentleman he is and immediately offered to take on the role of GM for a game involving the kids (with me giving the younger one a bit of help). When you’ve got friends like that, life’s just better.

Anyway! A Genestealer outbreak has erupted in a remote mining town on some far-flung planet out in the Eastern Fringe! Terrifying purestrains are roaming free everywhere, and the Genestealer Cult has come out into the open. Horror. Panic. Mayhem.

After a few encounters, the Blood Angels have already paid a painful toll. 

You see that foul xeno with rests of  a fallen Blood Angel?

A squad of Blood Angels has just landed to fight the filthy xenos and recover the geneseed of the fallen. Their objective is to find that particular Genestealer and retrieve the geneseed before it takes down in the caverns and it's irremediably lost.

They arrive in an assault ship: 

I bought that thing second-hand before I even had kids. Haven’t so much as touched it since then. But it was absolutely necessary for this scene

Suberling Primus will manage the Genestealers while Suberling Secundus (and me) will encarnate the Blood Angels. Our generous GM will handle the civilian population and any random events that may happen if the game unbalances too much.

Deployed!

The squad soon had to face their first enemy, who wasn't really that a hard match, but certainly slowered them. By doing so, it allowed a much more dangerous peril to show...

The Genestealer Magus!

 The Magus didn't hesitate to use his psychic powers on the Space Marines. Oh, yes, I didn't mention. Of course we used the Dark Millenium cards. You think I'm going easy on my kids for their first game? That's life, if you learn to play, you learn WH40K2 with Dark Millenium.

The Magus cast the psychic power The Horror, which fills the minds of living beings with visions of their worst fears. Given the kind of game we were playing, we decided it wouldn’t affect the squad as a whole. Instead, we rolled separately for each member (more tension that way!).

The sergeant was the only one affected, forced to fall back until he could pass a Leadership test. The rest of the squad, however, pressed on relentlessly and took down the Magus in a storm of bolter fire.

Move, move move!

 Three Space Marines moved forward, the sergeant fell back and another Space Marine stayed behind to face the Genestealer Primus.

In the meantime, the Genestealers feasted on the terrified civilians who tried to escape:

Om nom nom

Aaah! Too hot, too hot! I burnt my tongue!

Against all odds, the Genestealer Prime managed to kill a Space Marine in close quarters combat!

O-oouch

The Sergeant recovered and advanced towards his foul enemy, while the rest of the Squad reached the main building and stayed ther in overwatch.

Yes. Overwatch. Because this is 2nd Ed.

The Genestealer Patriarch, feeling the death of hs most loyal acolyte, came into the open and also casted his psychic powers. He used the Catalyst on a Genestealer (we're micromanaging the game), which became frenzied (doubled its attacks, among other delicacies!) and gained a 2D6 saving throw (just like a terminator). Gasp!
 

The monster immediately leaped upon the Space Marines

In the meantime, the Cultists made their way through the maze of alleyways, doorways and whatnot to take up their positions

  

The frenzied Genestealer killed a Marine

 

The Sergeant dealt with the Genestealer Prime

 

 Things were going awfully hard for the Space Marines. The Cult was really getting control of the town and killing civilians everywhere. So our GM introduced new elements. A valiant cop...

Sir, I'm gonna need your license to drive that machine and the documents...

It didn’t pass the inspection! Administrative offence! Call for backup, now!

At another point of the town, the Genestealer Patriarch was getting ready to cast his psychic powers again. But when he did so... I played the Daemonic Attack card which I just got on this round!! A breach in the Warp opened and...

A Daemon claimed the Patriarch! (Miniature added for dramatic purposes only)

Wow. So wild!

I’d really missed these crazy plays and those sudden twists of fate that can change the whole flow of a game in an instant. Needless to say, I was absolutely loving it, the GM was in stitches, and the kids were already hopelessly hooked on the game.

The civilians were slowly getting to the (relative) safety of the landing pad

While the Space Marines covered them

Along the game we were finally using the board. There were some movements within the inner stairs, some risky jumps Prince of Persia style, miniatures in risk of getting injured or stunned...

Parkour!

Genestealers proved to be quite lethal during all the game!

 Finally! The ship arrived to evacuate the civilians:

(I took some risks placing that model on that landing pad hanging into the void!!)

The murderous Genestealer climbed and climbed up the wall like a roided-up cockroach.

How did you get in here?

But was slain and fell down again:

Dramatic pic

The ship finally took off, evacuating the remaining civilians. Not that there were many left, to be honest. I forgot to mention it earlier, but among the townsfolk were the governor and his wife, and let’s just say their story didn’t have a happy ending...

At least for them...

 The Genestealers had a quite happy ending with them -and it's been reported that some Imperial citizens showed different degrees of happiness when the news spread. Of course there's an ongoing Inquisitorial investigation pending.

 

OK, this was it all! A few civilians were rescued, though the authorities consider the losses massive. The Genestealer Cult was somehow contained, waiting for future tougher action to be taken. The Blood Angels had some severe casualties and didn't retrieve the lost geneseed, so they may have to come back again anytime soon...

The possibilities are still open!

 

Some quick conclusions:

The game works nicely with four or five minis per side, even with a ruleset like WH40K2 (though you’ve got to treat each mini individually rather than as part of a squad). With larger forces it would probably get a bit more complicated, though still manageable, I reckon. Anyway, the game you’ve just seen took us less than two hours from start to finish. I don’t think we could’ve pulled that off with a ruleset we weren’t already so familiar with — but that’ll come in time.

Playing on a 3D board is brilliant fun. We pulled off some crazy, risky moves, made full use of the different levels, and the game was constantly on the move, hardly any static firefights at all. That said, the board is massive; you really have to decide where you want the action to take place, otherwise it’s just too much to handle. There are still loads of corners I haven’t tried yet, but I’ve already seen that it’s perfectly playable and genuinely has loads of potential.

However, one small issue — the landing platform. Not in terms of gameplay, but practicality. It’s right at the front and gets massively in the way, making it tricky to reach the back areas of the board. I was honestly worried a couple of times we’d knock it and break it. The painful conclusion is that I can’t keep that piece there. I need the board closer to the players so we can reach everything properly, and that’s impossible with such a big obstacle in the way. Luckily, it’s a removable section, so taking it out will be easy, though it’s a shame after all the work that went into it. I’ll see if I can fit it somewhere else.

No complaints though: this is exactly why I wanted to play, to figure out what works, what doesn’t, what needs tweaking or ditching altogether. So as far as testing the board goes, I’d call it a roaring success.

As for the game itself, I had an absolute blast. It was tense, full of twists and packed with action. I can’t thank Rodrigo enough for being such a generous and committed GM. The Suberlings were blown away by the game and by what a wargame can offer. A whole new world just opened up for them. In fact, they barely left the board all weekend. Looks like it’s going to be a busy week ahead… but if that’s my biggest problem, I’ll take it any day!

As soon as I can, I’ll get back to building the city. I still owe you an explanation about that structure from the beginning — and hopefully I’ll make a bit more progress too!

Hope you liked it!