+ inload: 2nd edition gaming – Genestealer Cult versus Steel Legion on Armageddon +

+ Turbulent Priests +

+ 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000 battle report +

+ 'To arms!' A Clamavos of the Church of Cosmic Wisdom broadcasts an emergency address by the Cult Magus to the faithful of a particular diocese. +

... Nor were the back lines of Armageddon, far from the greenskin threat, reliably safe. Ghazghkull's invasion had thrown law and order into disarray, and the planet's criminals, terrorists and heretics emerged to make good on the disruption. Stemming this inner corruption fell largely to the Defence Forces of the individual Hives and Mega-factories – though where more severe or grave threats emerged, elements of the Steel Legion were deputised.

Such was the case with the Church of the Cosmic Wisdom, a previously innocuous sect of seeming anchorites centred upon a spire of Hive Acheron. During the ork invasion, their true nature as a powerful Genestealer cult emerged, forcing their hand.

Their aim was eventually revealed to be the capture one of the hive's spaceports and ensure the Patriarch and as much of the cult as possible could make good its escape in the chaos of war. With the ports locked down by the Armageddon military, this led to inevitable conflict.

– The Later Histories of Armageddon: Hidden Conflicts

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+ Today's inload involves a few notes on a fun evening of gaming with Bob Hunk. We'd arranged to meet up to play a 1,500pt game of 2nd edition 40k after dipping our toes in again at Stuntwedge's house a few weeks back with a game of Tyranids versus Space Marines. +

+ With some more points on the table, we decided to swap over to Genestealer Cults against Imperial Guard. +

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+ General thoughts +

I confess to not taking any notes, so the 'report', such as it is, is more a collection of scattered thoughts – but I hope the pictures (a combination of my own and Bob Hunk's) at least offer something nice to look at! 

This isn't a general review of the second edition 40k, but I did want to highlight what a lot of fun we had with this battle! It felt refreshing to have the complexity baked in to the core rules, rather than layered onto a very stripped-back system, and I'd forgotten how immersive it feels, and just how many odd (and amusing) things can happen in second edition. Bob Hunk commented on how it felt good to just know what the result was once you rolled the dice – no re-rolls, no surprise cards or stacking rules – and I agree completely. It feels intuitive in a way that a lot of modern games don't; the older simulation approach being largely replaced with more abstract, speedier rules.

With that said, I didn't miss the constant back-and-forth to the rulebook to find odd outlying cases – and while I like the more discursive, conversational tone of the 2nd edition rulebook over the 'legal manual' framework that is most modern GW game rules, it was a pain in the backside to actually find answers to things, and we ended up glossing over quite a bit in the name of getting on with the game, or stumbling over the answer to something while looking up something else.

Fundamentally, of course, that's an inevitable result of coming back to a game we last played anything like regularly nearly thirty years ago. It felt simultaneously very familiar and very strange – and happily ended with both of us keen to do some more 2nd edition gaming.

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+ The Armies +

Having played a 1,000pt game, we thought we'd go to 1,500pts this time, and bring in some more unusual or specialist units. 

+ Steel Legion 7th Army, 707th Regiment +

‘General Grünhold came to command the ‘High-and-Dry’ 7th Army Group, taking the reins from General Marlen as Commander Dante’s reforms were enacted and the Steel Legion as a whole prepared for the ambitious counter-offensive envisioned by the Astartes.

‘Known as ‘Asbach’ – though not within earshot – the General’s nickname stemmed from his supposed similarity to the old Helsreach distillate: short, bitter, fiery, and best faced as swiftly as possible.’

– The Later Histories of Armageddon: Heroes and Villains of the War

+ Grünhold and aides-de-camp, addressing selected Regiments of the 7th Army Group prior to them being cycled out of the front line to recuperate in Acheron. +

Characters (up to 750pts)

• Imperial Guard General 'Asbach' Grünhold – 65pts + Wargear card: Bionic Eye (5), Bionic Arm (5) and Bionic Leg (3) (He's been in the wars!)
• Tech-priest Engineer – 30pts
• Commissar – 40pts + Power sword (6)
• Command Section – 75pts + power sword (6) and bolt pistol (2)
• Command Section – 75pts + power sword (6) and bolt pistol (2)

Squads (at least 375pts)

• Tactical squad – 100pts + Veteran sergeant (10) + Heavy bolter – (10) + Plasma gun – (6)
• Tactical squad – 100pts + Missile Launcher (30) + Grenade Launcher (10)
• Tactical squad – 100pts + Missile Launcher (30) + Grenade Launcher (10)
• Tactical squad – 100pts + Missile Launcher (30) + Grenade Launcher (10)

Support (up to 750pts)

• Space Marine Captain – 90pts + Boltgun (3)
• Space Marine Tactical Squad – 300pts
• Leman Russ Battle Tank – 205pts

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+ Church of Cosmic Wisdom +

The Cult Magus makes his presence known.

Characters

• Patriarch (72) + Hypnotic Gaze (20) + Catalyst (40) [132]
• Cult Magus (107) + Displacer Field (20) + Force Staff (10) [137]
• Cult Icon Bearer (45) + Sword (1) + Mesh Armour (3) [49]
• Neophyte Leader (10) + Needle Pistol (5) + Power Sword (6) + Carapace Armour (7) + Frenzon (5) [34]
• Acolyte Leader (9)  + Psychic Mastery Level 1 (25) + Scanner (1) [35]

Broods

• 12 Purestrain Genestealers [336]
• 10 Neophyte Hybrids (90) + 2 Hand Flamer (12) + 6 Swords (6) + 4 Power Fists (40) [148]
• 10 Acolyte Hybrids (80) + 1 Power Maul (6) + 9 Autoguns (9) [95]
• 10 Acolyte Hybrids (80) + 1 Chainsword (2) + 9 Shotguns (18) [100]
• 5 Acolyte Hybrids (40) + 2 Heavy Stubbers (20) + 2 Grenade Launchers (20) [80]

Support

• Leman Russ [205]
• Goliath Truck (counts as Chimera) [140]

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+ The battlefield and deployment +

We got into the swing of the game itself nice and quickly, with mission determined through cards. The Steel Legion ended up with Dawn Raid, which meant I had to get an above half strength squad into the Church's deployment zone; while the Genestealers got The Assassins, meaning they'd have to decapitate (literally and figuratively) General Grünhold ...

The board looked like this, and with the higher strategy rating, I could look forward to deploying second and (probably) going first. As it happened, I had a strategy card (Forced March) that allowed me to deploy units 18in onto the table – very useful for my mission, though the wisdom of advancing towards Purestrain genestealers is perhaps questionable...

Units deployed this way had to be set up before the opponent, so I used it to get a squad into a good firing position on each flank, and a combat squad of Salamanders in the centre. The Church then deployed as shown below, and with their positions now clear, I got to set up the rest of my army:

The opening turn saw the Goliath and broods in the centre advance on the Salamanders. Space Marines aren't quite as superhuman in 2nd as they later became, so the Salamanders quickly grew to appreciate the cover they were skulking in as the Leman Russ (the 'Lovely Girl') opened up on them. Fortunately, poor maintenance meant two of the heavy bolters fired fitfully, then jammed; and the battle cannon missed

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Over on the right, the Steel Legion advanced on a large building held by the Cult. I wanted to comment on this flank of the battlefield, because it's a good example of what I mean by the game feeling more 'realistic' – we had soldiers advancing into scant cover on an otherwise exposed position, then laying down fire on a dug-in enemy. 

The cover from the building meant that the small unit of Genestealer cultists was able to hold off twice their number of infantry – and it was only the presence of a Leman Russ battle tank that enabled a squad to flank the building in the closing stages of the game.

... of course, realism only goes so far... the highlight for both of us was the Magus' Displacer Field successfully saving him from a lucky shot – only for it to bring him back into reality outside the building, leading to a long plummet to the cold hard ground: ouch!

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These mid-game shot of the battlefield shows how the genestealers overwhelmed the Space Marines in the centre. This skirmish threw up lots of cool twists – a lucky shot from a missile launcher (just out of shot at the top) killed the crew of the Goliath as the Space Marines advanced, sending it slewing into the Salamanders and crushing one... after which the dazed cultists hopped out and hosed down the Marines with autopistols, downing one (the shame!), before the hand flamers opened up, sending the remaining three stumbling around on fire!

+ 'No resistance to flamers in this edition, Imperial lap-dog!' +

The lone survivor, still burning, was eviscerated by the Patriarch's brood as they redeployed from the north into the centre. 

The Imperials were thoroughly outmatched, outnumbered and outclassed here, and the Command HQ and surviving Space Marines raced to get into position to anchor the centre and prevent the battle turning. 

With the brood realising the threat, the cultists turned their fire on the surviving Salamanders, but as the heavy stubbers jammed, only one fell – who was swiftly patched-up and returned to battle by the Command HQ's medic (who had clearly paid attention at the 'administering first aid to allied superhumans' session).

+ The 707th Command HQ advance behind Lieutenant Nomix Nor'Jagan and a combat squad of  his 2nd Company Salamanders +

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This shot shows the state of play at the end of the third turn (I think), with honours largely even. The Steel Legion had pulled ahead slightly in VP, though I think this was rather a quirk of the number of single-wound characters present in the Genestealer list than any reflection of my tactical ability.

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With time pressing on, the final turn saw the Imperial Guard advance reach the deployment zone, securing their victory – although as you can see, the prospects for an extended fight did not look to be in the Steel Legion's favour!

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+ Aftermath +

All in all, a great deal of fun – and the flexibility and granularity of the army-building was fun to see. I never saw hand flamers or needle pistols or so forth fielded in the 90s, so to use these rules alongside a mix of classic and modern models (and notably Bob Hunk's always beautiful armies) to get the best of both worlds  – was a treat.

The game has already got me thinking about more battles and ideas, as it just lends itself so beautifully to narrative gaming. Will Grünhold and his allies report the infestation, or attempt to suppress it themselves? Where will the Cult strike next?

You could bring in an Inquisitor whose carefully-laid research has been upended; the local Arbites demanding to know what all the gunfire is; or perhaps some ork-genestealer hybrids to tie into the broader Armageddon campaign?

...and that's just this particular setting. One of the great joys of playing this now, rather than 30 years ago, is that we've both got access to loads of different armies, so we can hop around the astrography and history of Antona Australis as we please.

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