I'm playing through the missions in the Pariah Nexus Crusade book, in order of appearance. The fourth mission is called Outflanking.
Story
The Blood of the Omnissiah regiment has broken through the defenses of a combined Tyranid and Genestealer Cult. After making their way to a dig site and confirming a vast amount of Noctilith has been discovered in the mines, they proceeded to the control centre to disable the quantum shields protecting key locations across the planet's surface.
What they didn't expect were corrupted Machine Spirits, manipulated by Genestealer Cultists over the course of years, conspiring against the holy will of the Tech-Priests. Through diligent prayer, sacred rites, and sacrifice, they managed to bring down a single quantum shield, which was all the opening they required to proceed their cleansing rampage toward the promise of more Blackstone, and hopefully whatever xenos abomination has siezed control of the planet.
Following their auspex scanners, the Cohort Cybernetic detachment proceeds across the barren war-torn landscape, finding it impossible to discern what air raids by Necrons destroyed, and what the Genestealer Cult and subsequent Tyranid invasion got to first.
They push forward through dusty darkness. Amid city ruins, an army is caught off guard, with enemies pressing in from unexpected sides. The question is, which army is prey and which army is predator? Well, a dice roll will of course decide that, but first here's a look at the players.
The Blood of the Omnissiah consists of a customised Cohort Cybernetic detachment. For this mission specifically, I've had to leave the Battle-hardened Armiger Warglaive behind because the deployment zone is small and elevated, and it just felt silly to stick an Imperial Knight up on a platform. To make up for it, I've finally brought out Scipio Ω5-Quintus, the Technoarcheologist running this campaign. I also converted my Requisition Points into New Zealand Dollars and purchased, built, and painted a Tech-Priest Engineseer, which is a model I've wanted to own since playing Mechanicus.
Combined, the Technoarcheologist and Tech-Priest Engineseer only make up half of the Armiger Warglaive's Wound count, and only about two-thirds of its firepower, so I have no idea what effect they'll have on this mission.
- 10 Skitarii Vanguards [Blooded]
- 2 Kastelan Robots [Blooded]
- 1 Cybernetica Datasmith [Blooded]
- 1 Technoarcheologist [Battle-ready]
- 1 Tech-Priest Engineseer [Battle-ready]
My Tyranid Cult army is equally customised. The Reductus Saboteur proved interesting in the previous mission, so he's back again with a fresh set of demolitions. I'm still painting my Termagaunts, so a fresh unit of Neurogaunts are back. I've also added some Aberrants, which I literally, legitimately, fear. I wake up in cold sweats because of Aberrants. I almost believe I could pit just 5 Aberrants against basically any army and the Aberrants would win.
Otherwise, I'm using the Insidious Infiltrators Compat Patrol rules from White Dwarf 497, and the default Genestealer Cults detachment. Yes, it's a mess and yes it's fun.
- 1 Neurolictor (Death's Shadow) [Blooded]
- 1 Lictor
- 10 Neophyte hybrids
- 10 Neurogaunts
- 1 Reductus Saboteur
- 5 Aberrants
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 on page 105.
This time around, both the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Tyranid Cult chose Balanced. That means everything's down to roll-offs.
The Tyranids roll high, and they choose to be the Attacker.
The Adeptus Mechanicus rolls high to gain a mission-specific Advantage. In this mission, the player with the Advantage gets to choose between two sets of deployment zones. Deployment zones B places the Adeptus Mechanicus in the centre of the board, which feels like a vulnerable position but it has 2 very obvious advantages:
- Defender goes first
- The centre objective grants a bonus 20 Victory Points in the end
Deployment zones B it is. The Adeptus Mechanicus is in the centre of the board, and the Tyranid Cult approaches from the northeast and southwest corners.
Round 1
To begin with, the Adeptus Mechanicus enacts the Protector Imperative, granting all weapons Heavy and -1 on enemy to Hit rolls against units within range of the deployment zone.
It is known that some of the enemy has Deep Strike. The adepts know reinforcements are on the way. This round must be used to head off arriving units by seizing the 2 available objectives in the southeast and northwest.
Scipio Ω5-Quintus and his Engineseer make an Advance toward the southeast objective. Scipio Ω5-Quintus is able to claim it, with the Tech-Priest Engineseer not far behind.
The Skitarii Vanguard, with +1 to Advance and +1 to Move, rolls a 6 to Advance. That's 14" in one turn, which allows the Plasma division to claim the northwest objective with the Radium division serving as cover.
The Kastelan Robots stays behind to guard the Critical Objective at the centre of the board. One of them fires its Phosphor blaster at the oncoming Neurogaunts and toasts 4 of them.
The Skitarii Vanguard's Radium division fires into the Neophyte Hybrids guarding the northeast objective and takes out 3. The Vanguard's Plasma division fires at the Lictor guarding the southwest objective and, impressively, deals 3 Wounds.
On the Tyranid Cult's turn, 5 Aberrants make a Deep Strike move toward the northwest objective.
The Reductus Saboteur Deep Strikes toward the southeast objective currently held by Scipio Ω5-Quintus and the Tech-Priest Engineseer. He throws a grenade over to them, and both take 1 Wound. Death's Shadow (the neurolictor) moves toward the same objective, gearing up for a Charge.
The Neophyte Hybrids Advance toward the rear flank of the Skitarii Vanguard, leaving the neurogaunts to hold the northeast objective. It's obvious that the Kastelan Robots are too much a threat for any of the Tyranid Cult units to confront. Whether that's a smart strategy or not remains to be seen.
The Neophyte Hybrids take aim and fire, bringing down a Skitarii Vanguard.
Death's Shadow Charges the Techno-Priest Engineseer and makes 6 melee Attacks. In a blur of talons and teeth, 3 Wounds get through even after a Command Re-roll for a failed Save, and the Tech-Priest Engineseer makes a very unceremonious early exit. It doesn't make me very happy to see my newest miniature removed on Round 1, but I have learned an important lesson. Just because a miniature is sold in a blister pack doesn't mean you can field it as a Lone Operative. He only had 3 Wounds, he should have been leading a unit. My fault.
The Aberrants roll 2 for their Charge and spend their last Command Point to re-roll a 7. As expected, they practically decimate the unit, removing 5 Skitarii.
Things are not looking great for the tech priests of Mars.
- Adeptus Mechanicus: 10 VP (2 objectives, 1 contested)
- Tyranid Cult: 10 VP (2 objectives, 1 contested)
Round 2
Desperately clinging to the mission's Advantage, the Adeptus Mechanicus invokes the right of first turn and skips the initiative roll. The Protector Imperative didn't seem to help all that much during the previous Round, so they switch over to the Conqueror Imperative for +1 to Hit and the Assault keyword.
The Kastelan Robots and Cybernetica Datasmith do their best to provide cover to their allies on the ground. They manage to deal 0 Wounds to the Aberrants and 2 Wounds to Death's Shadow. Scipio Ω5-Quintus does no damage to Death's Shadow (possibly because I forgot about his pistol having Devastating Wounds.)
The Skitarii Vanguard Alpha does 1 Wound to an Aberrant, but each Aberrant has 3 Wounds so there are still 5 Aberrants on the battlefield. The Skitarii sniper deals 1 Wound to another Aberrant.
As you can imagine, the Technoarcheologist is ripped to shreds by Death's Shadow, and the remaining Skitarii Vanguard are beat into a pulp by the Aberrants. Literally only the Kastelan robots and the Cybernetica Datasmith remains on the battlefield.
- Adeptus Mechanicus: 5 VP (1 objective)
- Tyranid Cult: 35 VP (4 objectives, +5 VP for holding more objectives than the enemy)
Round 3
The battle is over, but not the war. The Cybernetica Datasmith is determined to survive, and to hold that Critical Objective. The Conqueror Imperative is activated.
The Kastelan Robot with a Flamer burns 1 Aberrant off the battlefield. Death's Shadow takes just 1 more Wound from 5 Attacks of a Phosphor blaster.
The Tyranid Cult doesn't need to do anything, so the Neophyte Hybrids Advance toward the northwest objective currently held by the Aberrants. The intent here is to relieve the Aberrants of standing idly around holding an objective so they can go disassemble the Kastelan Robots. Unfortunately for them, they roll 1 for their Advance and then a 2 after a Command Re-roll.
The Reductus Saboteur doesn't have any better luck. He hurries up the stairs toward the Kastelan Robots. He can't throw a grenade because the A) the Neophyte Hybrids weren't near an objective at the start of their turn so couldn't fish for bonus Command Points and B) the Neophyte Hybrids use the Command Point the army did have for a botched Advance roll. But he does have a special remote explosive he can use once a battle. He rolls 5+3 for Attacks, but amazingly only threatens the Robots with 1 Wound, and they save against it.
- Adeptus Mechanicus: 5 VP (1 objective)
- Tyranid Cult: 60 VP (4 objectives, +5 VP for holding more objectives than the enemy)
Post-game administration
There's no way the Adeptus Mechanicus can win this battle. Even with a bonus of 20 VP for holding the centre objective, they just don't have the units to hold additional objectives. The Robots are Tough, so we can safely assume they survive and do secure the critical objective, but the battle ends with a definitive defeat.
I'm pleased with this outcome, painful as it is for my favourite cyborgs. I wanted to see the power of the Tyranids, and I feel like I got a little taste of it this time. Admittedly, the Aberrants did a lot of the hard work, and I knew they'd come through because frankly they always do. With 6 Toughness and 3 Wounds, they're probably the most durable unit among this Tyranid Cult. In addition to that, 4 of them have 3 Attacks plus an extra tail Attack, at Strengths of 6 and 5 respectively, and 1 has an Attack of 5 at 8 Strength. They put Death's Shadow to shame.
The lesson of the mission for both sides is that in war, you're only as powerful as your squad. Had I attached my Engineseer and my Technoarcheologist to Skitarii units, they'd both have survived a few more rounds at least. And even Death's Shadow would probably be more effective, in general, with a swarm of Neurogaunts or Termagaunts or even Neophyte Hybrids hanging around for support.
Adeptus Mechanicus
The Army gains 1 Requisition Points (1 for the battle.)
Each unit gains 1 XP for taking part in the crusade.
In total, here's where the army is:
- Army: 1 Requisition Point, 7 Blackstone fragments
- Armiger Warglaive [Battle-hardened]: 16 XP
- Skitarii Vanguard [Blooded]: 14 XP
- Kastelan Robots [Blooded]: 10 XP
- Cybernetica Datasmith [Blooded]: 8 XP
- Technoarcheologist [Battle-ready]: 1 XP
- Tech-Priest Engineseer [Battle-ready]: 1 XP
Tyranids
The Tyranids get 1 Requisition Point and 1 XP for partaking in a battle.
I'm awarding the Aberrants the Marked for Greatness bonus 3 XP, because obviously.
A list of the Crusade Forces that have seen action so far, whether they were in this battle or not:
- Army: 9 Requisition Point, 3 Blackstone fragments
- Neophyte Hybrids [Blooded]: 12 XP
- Aberrants [Battle-ready]: 4 XP
- Death's Shadow [Blooded]: 9 XP
- Lictor [Blooded]: 9 XP
- Von Ryan Leapers Omega: 3 XP
- Von Ryan Leapers Chi: 3 XP
- Neurogaunts: 2 XP
Downgrades
The Adeptus Mechanicus passes all 3 of its Out of Action tests, so nobody gains a Battle Scar this time around, by the grace of the Omnissiah.
Next mission
The next mission is Overwhelming Dread.