That's so many subheadings.
On Saturday 29 November,
a small part of Sydney was transformed into a bloody battlefield, re-enacting a gore-soaked conflict of the
Badab War.
One of the more fleshed-out parts of the Warhammer 40,000 background, the Badab War was expanded from a two-page spread in Rogue Trader's Warhammer 40,000 Compendium supplement into a two-book series during Forge World's short-lived Imperial Armour series. These books were the precursors to what became the sprawling Horus Heresy series. They included detailed examinations of the factions involved, maps, art, supplements for then-current game (6th edition), and since have become a firm fan favourite.
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| a handful of Warriors, painted for a 1st-edition Kill Team |
When I came crawling back into the hobby at the tail-end of 7th edition and decided to paint my very first Space Marine, this was the space I joined. I vacillated between a few choices, settled on a
Mantis Warrior, and haven't looked back. (I've looked
sideways a lot - I have so many projects - but not
back.)
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| III Squad - I think he's one of the guys in the back. |
That first Space Marine is still in the army, although he didn't make it to Saturday's game.
The
Badab War Reenactment Society has been intending to run game days, campaigns, and other events for years. For once, this community is actually based in Australia and, while I do not live in Sydney, this means that I am more able to attend. (Well, depending on child care responsibilities!) So when an event was announced for November, I jumped at the chance.
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| 1500 points of Mantis Warriors |
The rules were simple enough,
as mentioned last time. Either bring a Battlefleet Gothic fleet or 1500 points of 28-mm scale warriors. The
rules are Heresy 2.0, using custom-built lists - which is great, as it meant that I didn't waste too much money on the Heresy 2.0 rules, given that I played
very few games of it. While I do have a BFG fleet, it's not-yet-painted, so ground soldiers it was. I brought together a list of 'neat stuff that everyone in the Facebook group liked' rather than 'good' or 'strong', and away I went.
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| One of the first Battlefleet engagements; Howling Griffons engage Mantis Warriors |
We weren't told of the day's missions ahead of time, to help reflect the confused state of affairs on the ground, although we did know a) that the space conflict could affect the ground; b) that there would be some kind of map system; c) that it wasn't intended to be competitive, but narrative (although we could bring special characters).
As the final week approached, we were told that each map would have some special features and would start under the control of each faction. These were the Governor's Palace, Industrial Zone, Alpha & Beta Hab Zones, Space Port, Orbital Defense Battery, and Armoury. Controlling a given territory would give advantages - for instance, controlling the Industrial Zone could give one player (in the whole day, not just on that board) It Will Not Die 5+ to any non-AV-14 vehicle to represent improved repair facilities; that entire faction would also gain +1 to Reserves die. A faction had to control the Governor's Palace in order to win the campaign day, otherwise the best to hope for would be a (bloody) draw.
In the end, my Mantis Warriors didn't wind up using any of the map-based advantages, although I heard from the shouts and chaos of other tables that my allies certainly did.
GAME ONE: DEFEND THE ARMOURY: MANTIS WARRIORS VS IMPERIAL GUARD
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| Snipers-eye view of the mortal defenders |
The
first mission was sneaky. The idea was that the secessionists had melted away under the initial assault of the loyalists, allowing them to secure their objective. We then closed on them from every side. The mission objective (for both sides) was simply to eliminate HQ choices - these earned VP, as did Slay the Warlord, and nothing else.
I had been sent to defend the Armoury from the enemy, who was the only Imperial Guard player (a nice chap named Peter). He had brought a 600-point super-heavy in an attempt to avoid choking the whole game with moving small infantry models, which basically meant that this boxed-in scenario was absolutely horrible for him. His army was lovely though, included a great many classic Steel Legion models.
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| Armoured Ogryn crawl around the armoury |
Peter deployed all around the armoury as best he could, keeping his HQ within the fortress walls, flanked by his massive beast. Unfortunately, that meant that I had two choices: Kill his entire army to get to the HQ
or concentrate on going
through the big tank and then easily kill his HQ while his infantry were out of position.
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| Scout bikers whoop and holler as they skate in |
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| IX Devastator Squad take up positions in a flanking redoubt |
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| Ancient Kamacuras cautiously keeps beyond the forest edge |
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| why yes i forgot about template weapons in deployment |
I chose to do the latter. Aside from the snipers in one of the flanking towers, my entire army deployed in one corner, hoping to crunch past the super-heavy and fly up the barricades. I also hoped that this would distract him from the
sniper squad who, of course, could easily execute his Lord Commissar and Colonel.
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| Imperial Guard squads deploy around their secured objective... |
And that's pretty much what I did. Tactical squad II ‘Aunan’ and their Rhino moved to block the Ogryns and their heavy tank (a Malcador or something? it's not a Leman Russ), while the rest of my guys went for the super-heavy and the squads guarding it. I did get a little lucky with a very soft initial shooting phase from the Imperial Guard, but I really don't think there was much Peter could do.
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| Tactical Squad II gun down most of the Ogryns in a single turn |
I was too close, and Space Marines are too hard.
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| Niijima leads her scouts against the heavy weapons squad |
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| the youth show off a little |
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| Squad I 'Renegades' charge out of cover and all but annihilate a squad of baseline humans |
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Niijima's scouts gun their bikes,
preparing to hit the survivors of the command squads |
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Turn 2 or so, the Guardsmen slowly redeploying -
too late by far |
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Nimcha's lascannons finally tell against the super-heavy,
which explodes with a fury that nearly annihilates the Guard platoon |
I snipered the Colonel to death on my first turn of shooting, while gradually whittling away at the super heavy with nearly everything else. When the Hellhammer exploded, it wiped out nearly every baseline human standing nearby, including Instant Death-ing the Lord Commissar, and left Peter with about four men and his Malcador left. We shook hands and called it there.
Given that it was the most nightmarish scenario imaginable for him, he took it with very good humour. Hopefully, I'll see him at the next one and we can have a less one-sided game.
MANTIS WARRIORS VICTORY
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| Astral Claws vs Salamanders |
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| Astral Claws Land Raider |
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| Mechanicus.... guy |
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| The other Mechanicus player |
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| I have no idea what these are but I love a walking tank |
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Executioners bikers vs Howling Griffons
The Executioners army was entirely mounted on bikes! |
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Battlefleet Gothic!
Mantis Warriors cruise past some asteroids on the edge of the system |
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| Howling Griffons in spaaaaaace |
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| sick as hell |
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| Dreadnought fight! |
I was originally going to post everything in one blog entry but Arthur is probably going to wake up soon, so let's make it a two-or-three part series... UNTIL NEXT TIME
