More Grimdark Future

We played another game of Grimdark Future, Marines (Dextra Manus) vs Chaos Marines (Red Corsairs). We rolled up a random setup and mission, which gave us only one objective- to be the last man standing in the centre! Clearly vital intelligence was on the body in the crater.

Red Corsairs approach the objective, but there are
lurking loyalists...

Both sides hastened to the objective, abandoning some degree of caution in the rush. I knew that the Dextra Manus Invictor Warsuit would be a tough nut to crack, and had craftily added a lascannon to my traitor squad with a clear view over the battlefield.

Mutual exchange of fire between marines...

Lascannon keeps trying to blast the Invictor Warsuit

What I hadn't expected was... cyberwolves!

No-one expects cyberwolves.

After they tore up one mob of cultists, the lascannon accurately blasted a hole in one. My Sorcerer flamed a second, and the third gloriously charged my daemonically possessed marines. After a tough fight, they took the wolf down.

Lascannon kills one wolf.

Sorcerer kills another

The last wolf has a glorious charge into the Possessed.

I then kept missing with the lascannon, and my possessed were gunned down by the Warsuit. Victory to the loyalists.

Deja vu as the Invictor guns down the Possessed.

I will need to build up a reliable anti-armour capability for this campaign, and maybe look into some mobility.

The wolves have to be shot; fighting them in hand-to-hand is a losing proposition.

Grimdark Future: Chaos vs Marines

I've started to dabble with Grimdark Future. This is a ruleset by One Page Rules, and is available for free here*. GF is a very light alternative for 40K (or other similar games of around platoon- company size). It achieves this by removing nearly all the strategems, rerolls, auras, exceptions, shenanigans, errata, updates, and other special rules that really bog 40K down and prevent it being a casual game. GF remains tense with competition for objectives, and interesting with alternating activations. There are buckets of dice, and units getting destroyed/ routed frequently makes for a quick game! Not to forget it isn't spread across multiple books, and is free.

I lined up my Red Corsairs against my opponent's Space Marines, the Right Hands. The Right Hands all had hand-painted markings on them- respect! We played on a 6'x4' table with three objectives. We chose 1000 points as a smaller game as it was our first with these rules.

Red Corsairs:

• 2x squads of Chaos Marines
• 2x mobs of Cultists
• 1x pack of Possessed Marines

Right Hands:

• 1x Assault Squad
• 1x Infernus (flamethrower) Squad
• 1x Tactical Squad
• 1x Invictor Warsuit

Right Hands Invictor Warsuit

The Right Hands advance on the refinery facilities.
Chaos taint is suspected.

The Warsuit and Assault Squad cover the Marine right.

Here's an overview of what happened. I advanced over a broad front, and my Possessed Marines went loping around from my right. The Right Hands tried to stop them, and did a similar sweep with their Assault Marines on my left.

The Battle. Objectives are numbered.

Right Hands Tactical Squad holds Objective 3

My traitors try to gun them down.

My terrifyingly fast Possessed rip the Right Hands apart.

On my left, cultists face off against Assault Marines...

...and the melee unsurprisingly goes the way of the Astartes.

The Possessed leap onto the Warsuit, and
damage it but cannot take it entirely out.

Final result was a 2:1 win to the Red Corsairs. The cultists were weak and the Warsuit was strong, but the number of bodies gave me an edge. I am going to need to up my anti-armour capabilities...

We're going to try this as a light campaign**, with experience, wounds, and a slow trickle of reinforcements.

The objective markers are Wargames Atlantic Zombies with the bases cut off and limbs reposed. I can see myself making more with era-specific weapons and accoutrements as required. They're on 40mm MDF bases.

*An expanded and still free version of the rules can be found here, and the excellent army builder is here.

** Campaign rules here. They're free as well...

40K Genestealer Cult characters

I've painted a few special characters for my Genestealer Cult, the Guiding Hands.

The villain in my Five Parsecs finale, the Locus is a sort of bodyguard character. His hooded robe hides a hunch with some spinous protuberances and a tail.

Genestealer Cult locus

The Nexos is a planner and coordinator, with a very cool floating holomap. This has an easter egg- it depicts Warhammer World! I used Contrast Aethermatic Blue, and might go back and enhance the glow effects.

Genestealer Cult Nexos

Note the clawed imperial eagle

Five Parsecs. Campaign Game 19. The Close

Last time, in Hive Primus...

Gallius Marbec had entered the Underhive and stolen a blasphemous totem. As the crew load their shuttle to leave Necromunda, the cultists send a crack team to exact their revenge...

"Stop them! Get back our sacred icon!"

The cultists tactically advance across the shuttle bay.

The crew run from the shuttle after hearing the blast.

Roma takes a commanding position, but realises she is exposed.

Chugger doesn't waste time thinking- he comes out blasting!

Marbec directs his crew to a hasty defence behind the pipes.

The cultists still have a way to go.

The crew put a weight of fire across the hangar.

A marksman tries to slip into the room...

... but Chugger guns him down! (Deafening poor Hezel.)

The cultists' fire is becoming more accurate. Hezel goes down.

As the cultist deploys his heavy stubber, Lady Heldycryn takes him out.

Marbec slags a cultist with his plasma gun.

The marksman is back! But Lady H snipes him first.

The cultists are closing the gap, but Marbec feels confident.

Stazie Rendir tries to flank the cultists with her shotgun.

A second wave of cultists appears, led by an ominous cloaked figure.

Chugger downs another!

But the numbers are great.

Stazie misses with her shotgun!

She, too, is taken out.

Roma Jyan goes down under the weight of incoming fire.

Marbec decides to run for it.

The flanking cultists get a clean shot on Chugger- the ogryn goes down.

The cultists close the trap.

Marbec's armour saves him from multiple shots.

A cultist commander is at the shuttle!

Lady Heldycryn leaps off the pad. The exit door is so close...

She fights off a cultist, as the flamer gets a clear shot at Marbec.

Marbec staggers to the door- he reaches out to the control panel, but collapses. His campaign is over.

Whew! What a finale! I had planned to complete a twentieth mission, but after such a dramatic and definitive battle I've decided to wind up this campaign here. I haven't done any post battle rolls. Did the crew live or die- who knows!

I used an 'elite' force from the Five Parsecs Compendium as enemies, as well as some of the variant and random rolls. Not only were the enemies tougher and better fighters, but there were more of them coming on in waves. I think there were fifteen in the end against the six crew.

The shuttle is an FDM print from The Dragon's Rest. The ramp opens and closes.

Did Marbec escape? Is he nursing his horrific wounds in the Underhive and planning vengeance? Would anyone listen to his crazy tales of monsters in the ducts? Or did he die forgotten, his crew destroyed?

Postscript:

"I have saved the icon for you, masters."

Betrayal! I never trusted Corvin anyway. Where was he in this battle? How did he fight off three genestealers last time?

Next time: my thoughts on Five Parsecs from Home.