I'm playing through the missions in the Pariah Nexus Crusade book, in order of appearance. The missions don't have to be played in order, and in fact the book provides random tables for selecting a mission to play. I want to play through each one, though, so I'm just starting at the first in print order, entitled Gheists in the static. I play Adeptus Mechanicus normally, so it seems appropriate to use them for Pariah Nexus and really lean into the hunt for Blackstone.
I don't own a Necron army, so expect Tyranids and Genestealer Cults and maybe Astra Militarum, but zero Necrons. The book's premise is that Necrons have invaded the Nephilim sector of space, looking for Noctilith (commonly known as Blackstone). This backstory serves as a setting for my campaign. Amidst the Necron invasion, this is a story of Scipio Ω5-Quintus, an Adeptus Mechanicus Technoarcheologist searching for new archeotech and a payload of Noctilith.
The first mission in the book is mostly about capturing 4 objectives and holding them. There's an objective in the north, east, west, and south of No Man's Land, and you must be controlling an objective to gain your usual Command Point during your Command Phase.
Story
I'm adapting the Pariah Nexus campaign to suit my armies, so this isn't exactly official canon, but appropriate for what toys I've got to play with.
The Nephilim sector is an active war zone. Amidst reports of an incoming Necron invasion, a remote mining crew excitedly reports their discovery of vast amounts of Noctilith. Then, like the rest of the Nephilim sector, they went strangely silent.
The Blood of the Omnissiah regiment, a mix of Adeptus Mechanicus with Imperial Knight support, was sent in to investigate. A detachment touches down on the planet and enters one of the miners' cities, only to find an infestation of Tyranids.
In the story of the Pariah Nexus, the Nephilim Anomaly severely hinders communication. In this mission, that's the theme. Because comms are down, you must control an objective in order to earn a Command Point at the start of the Round.
There are 4 objectives out in no-man's-land, and each army predictably deploys along opposing edges of the battlefield.
Armies
The Tyranid Combat Patrol from White Dwarf 497 ("Insidious Infiltrators") contains these models:
- 1 Neurolictor
- 1 Lictor
- 9 Von Ryan's Leapers
I don't have any of those models, so I'm proxying 2 Tyranid Warriors for the lictors and barbgaunts for the Von Ryan's Leapers.
Here's my Adeptus Mechanicus custom Combat Patrol:
- 10 Skitarii Vanguards
- 3 Kataphron Breachers
- 1 Armiger Warglaive
This is an advance guard and doesn't include Scipio Ω5-Quintus herself yet. Once they clear a path, she'll join the missions.
I've granted the Legio Cybernetica keyword to the Armiger warglaive so that it fits in with the Cohort Cybernetica detachment from the official codex. I could have just used my Kastelan Robots, but I have it in my mind that I'm going to integrate Imperial Knights into this game, and I just felt like unleashing a Knight from the start. I have lots of games to play, so there's plenty of time for Kastelan Robots, and also for more and bigger Knights.
Strategic footing
Pariah Nexus has a fun subsystem for deciding which player is Attacker and which is Defender. First, each player secretly chooses Aggressive, Balanced, or Defensive. Then you cross-reference the intersection of the 2 choices in the Strategic Footing matrix.
For this mission, both the Tyranids and Adeptus Mechanicus happened to choose the Aggressive strategy. This had to be settled by a roll-off, and the Tyranids ended up as Defenders and the Adeptus Mechanicus is Attacker, with nobody winning any special right to take the first turn.
Round 1
I play 40k with an initiative roll at the start of each round, and this time around the Adeptus Mechanicus rolled high. As part of their Army Rule, they get the Conqueror Imperative from their Leader, which gives all weapons the Assault keyword for the Round, and improves AP by -1.
The obvious priority is to grab some objectives to get those comms back up and running, so the Kataphron Breachers move to the central objective and claim it. The Vanguards move and claim a second objective, and the Armiger Warglaive stomps forward 10" to claim an objective near the Tyranid's deployment zone.
The Warglaive fires its Melta at the Lictor. The Lictor has Stealth so there's a -1 to Hit, but the Warglaive succeeds with a roll of 5. Strength 9 against Toughness 6 requires 3+ to Wound, and the Warglaive rolls a 4. The Lictor's Save is 4+ but the Warglaive has an effective -5 AP, and the Lictor rolls a 2 with no Command Points yet to spend on a Command Re-roll. It's not looking good, and then the Warglaive rolls 4 for Damage plus Melta 2 for a total of 6, which kills the Lictor.
The Vanguards fire a volley at 1 unit of Von Ryan's Leapers and remove 2 thanks to some very poor Saves.
Finally, Kataphron Breachers fire heavy arc rifles at the Neurolictor and would have dealt 6 Wounds but for the Neurolictor's warlord enhancement. When selected as a target for a ranged Attack, the Neurolictor gets to make a free move up to 6", which it uses to duck behind a building for cover. The Breachers roll to determine whether they can target the Leapers instead, and fail.
At this point, I'm frankly shocked that the Adeptus Mechanicus (and a very minor Imperial Knight) can output this kind of damage. This never happens. Are Tyranids actually this weak? I've lived in fear of them all this time.
Well, next up is the Tyranids, so we'll find out.
First, at the end of the Tyranid's Command Phase, the Neurolictor sends out some bad warp tremors and cause the Skitarii Vanguard to take a Battleshock test. They pass, but just barely.
A unit of Von Ryan's Leapers move toward the Armiger Warglaive, and another moves toward the Breachers, and the lone Leaper on the east side of the battlefield moves toward the Vanguards. Everybody charges, obviously.
The Warglaive shrugs off all 18 Attacks from the Leapers, with 15 failed Hit rolls and 3 successful Saves.
The Breachers endure all but 1 Wound from their attackers.
And finally, the Vanguard unit loses 1 soldier to a Von Ryan's Leaper.
- Adeptus Mechanicus: 2 VP (1 for controlling objectives, 1 for controlling more objectives than the Tyranids)
- Tyranids: 0 VP
Round 2
Adeptus Mechanicus rolls high again for initiative. Nobody needs to move, so it's just the Fighting. The Conqueror Imperative is in effect again, which gives all weapons the Assault keyword for the Round, and improves AP by -1.
The Warglaive sweeps its Reaper Chain across the Von Ryan's Leapers, dealing 4 Wounds to remove 1 Tyranid.
The Kataphron Breachers use their arc claws and roll the way I'm used to Adeptus Mechanicus rolling. They manage to get 1 Hit through and, with AP at a ridiculous -3, a Leaper is removed.
Finally, the Vanguards start chipping away at their solitary Leaper attacker, surrounding it and dealing 1 Wound.
On the Tyranid turn, the Von Ryan's Leapers choose to make a Desperate Escape from the Warglaive and hurry toward the smell of Victory Points wafting from a nearby objective. Their plan works, and they plunder a battery pack for raw energy, or whatever Tyranids do with electronics.
The Leapers playing with the Breachers at the centre of the board also make a Desperate Escape. One dies trying to get away, but the other falls back to signal the Neurolictor to come out from hiding.
On the east end of the battlefield, the lone Leaper also makes a Desperate Escape and gets to the nearest unoccupied objective.
The Neurolictor sweeps in from behind the building and then makes a Charge at the Kataphron Breachers. It tears at the nearest Breacher, dealing 2 Wounds and laying it to waste! Worse yet, the other 2 Breachers are within 12" of the Neurolictor and so must take a Battleshock test, which they fail. Their objective control plummets to 0 and the Neurolictor has now claimed the central comm station. That's 3 objectives under Tyranid control, and now it's a tied game! How did that happen??
- Adeptus Mechanicus: 3 VP (1 for controlling objectives)
- Tyranids: 3 VP (1 for controlling objectives, 1 for controlling more objectives than the enemy, and 1 for controlling an objective previously owned by the enemy)
Round 3
OK, the Adeptus Mechanicus was feeling bad for slaughtering so many Tyranids in Round 1 but now it's time to get serious again. They grit their teeth and roll 6 to 2 for initiative.
Luckily, in their clever bid for objective control, most of the Tyranids disengaged from melee. They're obviously very powerful in melee, but I feel like most of this Adeptus Mechanicus force favours ranged attacks, so this is theoretically a good board state for them.
I say theoretically, but the Warglaive fires its Melta at the Von Ryan's Leapers, and rolls a 2 instead of its required 3+ to Hit. A Command Re-roll solves that, and it would have even scored a Wound but for the Leaper's Invulnerable Save of 6. It should have Charged and used that Reaper Chain instead.
The Breachers are locked in melee with the Neurolictor, which successfully Saves to avoid 2 Wounds.
The Skitarii Vanguards come through, though. They fire their Radium Carbines (that's 15 Attack rolls) and manage to score 3 Wounds, 2 of which the Leaper successfully Saves against even with its bonus -1 AP. The third Wound, however, it fails to Save even after a Command Re-roll, and that's the shot that obliterates it. Although the cult can't claim the objective yet, it is at least free of Tyranids.
The Von Ryan's Leapers on the west end of the battlefield decide to attack on the Warglaive, while also holding their objective. They create a cheeky daisy-chain from their current objective over to the base of the Warglaive. The attack is more a statement of contempt than anything, and fails to even trigger a Save.
The Von Ryan Leaper that summoned the Neurolictor Charges the Breachers, so now it's 1 Breacher against the Neurolictor and the other against the Leaper. Luckily, the Breachers pass their Battleshock test for being so near a Neurolictor. Because they passed their Battleshock test, there are no penalties in effect and they scrape by with just 1 Wound getting through. I think they got lucky this round. There are still 2 Rounds to go, so the Adeptus Mechanicus may need to consider how to get that Neurolictor off the battlefield.
- Adeptus Mechanicus: 4 VP (1 for controlling objectives)
- Tyranids: 4 VP (1 for controlling objectives)
Round 4
Tyranids roll high for initiative this time, and so the Adeptus Mechanicus issue a Protector Imperative to give all weapons the Heavy keyword for the Round, and worsen enemy AP by -1.
The Kataphron Breachers succeed their Battleshock test again, so no penalties there. The Neurolictor doesn't need penalties, apparently, and gets 4 Wounds through to one Breacher, removing it from the battlefield. The Von Ryan's Leaper doesn't do much worse with 3 Wounds, but thanks to the Protector Imperative its AP is 0 and the Breacher Saves.
The Von Ryan's Leapers on the west side of the battlefield continue to scratch at the Armiger Warglaive's hull and can't even scratch the paint.
On the Adeptus Mechanicus turn, the Armiger Warglaive raises its Reaper Chain for a sweep attack. It saws one in half, leaving 1 more to contest the objective.
The Skitarii Vanguards form a daisy chain (there must be a tougher, military term for that) to control the nearby objective they cleared of Tyranids in the previous Round. With the unit stretching half across the battlefield now, there's still one sniper available to take a shot at the Leaper harassing the Kataphron Breacher at the centre of the board. He rolls a 6 on his to Hit, which hits even with -1 Stealth penalty. He rolls low to Wound, but a Command Re-roll solves that, and so he scores 2 Wounds against the Leaper. The Leaper's still standing, but barely.
The Kataphron Breacher attacks the Leaper and misses entirely. It's embarassing, and I kind of hope the Breacher dies for this crime against the Omnissiah. The other Kataphron Breacher does a little better, scoring 1 Wound against the Neurolictor's 7 Wounds even after a Command Re-roll to Save.
- Adeptus Mechanicus: 6 VP (1 for controlling objectives, 1 for controlling more than the enemy)
- Tyranids: 5 VP (1 for controlling objectives)
Round 5
Final round, and the Tyranids roll high again, and the Adeptus Mechanicus initiates the Protector Imperative to worsen the AP of incoming Attacks. I couldn't be bothered to roll an Attack for the Leaper fighting with the Warglaive. I'll let the Leaper succeed and deal 1 Wound, so the Warglaive has 11 Wounds remaining.
The Kataphron Breacher fails its Battleshock test, and understandably so. He's got 2 Wounds remaining and is about to be attacked by both a Neurolictor and a Von Ryan's Leaper. I think we all see how this is going to end. The Leaper gets 1 Wound through, and then the Neurolictor attacks. The Kataphron Breacher rolls snake eyes on its Saves against 2 Wounds, and perishes. I'm not sad.
On the Adeptus Mechanicus turn, the Armiger Warglaive executes a Reaper Chain strike against the Von Ryan's Leaper. That's fewer attacks, but a Strength of 10, and with nothing but good rolls it resoundingly slices through the Tyranid.
The Skitarii Vanguard move more soldiers into view of the Neurolictor, carefully maintaining unit cohesion and control of 2 objectives. From around the corner they fire their Radium Carbines and that one sniper-rifle-with-a-long-name. They get 2 Wounds through, but of course the Neurolictor is still standing. Still felt good to do it, though.
- Adeptus Mechanicus: 8 VP (1 for controlling objectives, 1 for controlling more than the enemy)
- Tyranids: 6 VP (1 for controlling objectives)
Post-game administration
Gheists in the static is a pretty darned standard mission. Fight each other while grabbing objectives. What makes it fun is the Strategic Footing method of assigning Attacker and Defender roles, and the story of the Pariah Nexus crusade itself. It's one thing to shoot each other while grabbing objectives, but it's another to partake in the story. Once the Tyranids started playing for objectives, the concept of them draining energy from the comms stations made the mission feel like it had purpose. It's non-canon, and I'm pretty sure there's nothing anywhere about Tyranids feeding on raw energy, but I liked the idea for this mission. And maybe that's not what they were doing. Maybe the hivemind was instructing them to sabotage the comms stations. It works either way, and it added purpose to their surprise withdrawals followed by staunch immovability.
After the slaughter that was Round 1, I was genuinely concerned that I'd tipped the balance too far against the Tyranids. I think it's arguable that I did, but then again a victory of 8 to 6 isn't exactly severe. By Round 3, it was very unclear to me who was winning.
Adeptus Mechanicus
The Adeptus Mechanicus ended up victorious, and so they gain 3 Blackstone fragments along with 2 Requisition Points (1 for the battle, 1 for winning this particular mission.) Additionally, the army gains 1 more Blackstone fragment because it played the Aggressive Strategic Footing and all 3 units were within engagement range of the enemy at the end of Round 1.
Each unit in the army gains 2 XP for the Aggressive Strategic Footing, plus 1 XP for taking part in the crusade. I'm awarding the Skitarii Vanguard with the Marked for Greatness bonus 3 XP.
In total:
- Army: 7 Requisition Points, 4 Blackstone fragments
- Armiger Warglaive: 3 XP
- Skitarii Vanguard: 6 XP and the Blooded Battle Honour
As part of their codex crusade rules, an Adeptus Mechanicus army can attempt to gain archeotech parts. They roll 3, which fails to meet the required threshold of 5+, so they gain nothing.
Downgrades
The Kataphron Breacher unit was destroyed, so it must take an Out of Action test. They roll a 2 for a required 2+, so no Battle Scars or Devastating Blows are imposed.
Tyranids
The Tyranids were also Aggressive, so they earn 1 Requisition Point, 1 XP for showing up, and 1 Blackstone Fragment. I'm awarding the Neurolictor the Marked for Greatness bonus 3 XP.
- Army: 6 Requisition Points, 1 Blackstone fragment
- Death's Shadow (Neurolictor): 6 XP and the Blooded Battle Honour
- Lictor: 3 XP
- Von Ryan Leapers Omega: 3 XP
- Von Ryan Leapers Chi: 3 XP
Downgrades
The Von Ryan Leapers (Psi) unit was destroyed, so it must take an OUt of Action test. They roll a 3 for a required 2+, so no Battle Scars are imposed.
Next mission
The next mission is the Dig Site Raid.