Review: The Eye of Night

Eye of Night CD cover.

Back in the fall of 2018 I picked up an audio drama while visiting the Warhammer store in Richmond VA. The one I picked up was Eye of Night by Gav Thorpe.  I listened to it on the long way home, but decided I needed another listen before I could give it a proper review. Well, I have finally done that and what follows are my thoughts.

It's a fun audiodrama, and I enjoyed it, particularly the cheesy bits.

So what's it about? As you can see from the cover it involves Inquisitor Greyfax. She has been assigned (or "volun-told") by Primarch Roboute Gulliman to seek out an artifact that could aid the Imperium against Chaos in these troubled times. While catching up on some of the history he has missed while he was sorta dead, the Primarch has discovered that Inquisitor Horst had located the Eye of Night but was never heard from again when he went searching for it. She is sent with a squad of Grey Knights to go seek out whatever happened to Horst and retrieve the Eye of Night. The Eye of Night, which is an ancient artifact that Abaddon once razed Ornsworld (a Rattling world) to obtain.

OK, that was my synopsis, now for some breakdowns and some possible (and likely) spoilers!

After getting her orders from Guilliman, Greyfax and a small squad of Grey Knights take a jaunt out to the ruined world of Savaven which was blasted apart by Abaddon's Planet Killer during the Gothic War. It;s now an asteroid field mostly.  In fact this whole story is clearly inspired by the background from the Battlefleet Gothic game, and I can't help but wonder if a copy of the book was one of the many tomes described to be on Guilliman's desk in the first scene. 

After slaughtering some traitors, they find the body of Horst in an Inquisitional crypt, who is strangely animated and conscious despite being a skeleton in power armor. After some back and forth, Horst earns enough of Greyfax's trust enough for him to lead the band to the lair of Moriana the Crone, an old chaos witch who further directs the band of Inquisitors to another foe who she says will reveal to them the location of the Eye of Night. It's a bit of a convoluted path which ends in a straight up psychic battle with a Daemon Prince that doesn't disappoint. 

• Did I like it? Yes. 
• Was it hard to put down? No, it was engaging despite some cringe-worthy moments. 
• Could I care about the characters? Yes, but more so the secondary characters. I thought Inquisitor Horst was far cooler than the zealous hardline depiction of Greyfax. But I also had a hard time accepting that the Grey Knights would continue to allow a skeleton in armor, pious good guy or not, to continue to exist let alone walk around giving orders, after all this was over, so you can imagine that his fate was somewhat sealed regardless of how this drama played out. 
• Did the writer  "get" the 40K universe and how it works? It's Gav! Of course he does. However I can not be sure that some of the actors do. How it's written and how it's  said can come off differently when heard by the listener and intention or tone can be distorted or even lost. I maybe paraphasing, but there is a quote that Harrison Ford once told George Lucas that "you can type this stuff, but you can't say this stuff." I think there is a little bit of that taking place. There are some stand out examples of this: The Imperial Palace Custodian that tried to stop Greyfax in the very first scene was almost corny. He sounded so...campy. Seriously, it reminds of kind of pantomime-esque performance one expects to see when visiting London's tourist destinations. Moriana steals the show in over-the-top creepy/cheese witch. Yet I was enthralled by her, and sort of rooted for her over the crazy zealous attitude of Greyfax (hey, she appealed to my inner heretic).. 
• Was I being talked down too? No, but there are some cheesy moments, especially Greyfax's final speech at the end of the tale. 
• How predictable is this story? Fairly, yet not. I mean, the whole concept of dead Horst getting up and walking around and assisting the Grey Knights and Inquisitor Greyfax was pretty unpredictable. I guess the story isn't so much predictable as some of the dialog is, particularly the battle banter. However, the ending, Greyfax reflecting upon the cost of her victory which culminates with her unsheathing of her sword and yelling out "For the Emperor!" struck me as unintentionally funny. It was as if Gav just didn't know how to end this thing, and a rally cry (to apparently no one) was what made the most sense in the face of a deadline. 
• Do I recommend this book? Yes, good fun, but not vital, unless you are a fan of Battlefleet Gothic background. This stands alone just fine. In fact, I was unaware that the Eye of Night has been in the 40k background since 1999 (ugh, I suddenly feel old!) and didn't uncover that info until I researched the Battlefleet Gothic material for this review. So if you see it some where, this one is a fun one to pick up and give a listen. it does have less cringeworthy moments than good content. But you will cringe when those moments happen, of this I am sure!

Kharn and friends vs. Grey Knights

This Friday before last, I got to play again with the Khorne boys, but at a higher point level. We agreed to play 1750, however I accidentally left my bikers home and he was able to drop a unit with the same point cost, so we played at approximately 1580 points.I was playing my Khorne force led by Kharn the Betrayer, and using the Chaos Codex. Scott H. was fielding his Grey Knights. This is the first time Scott and I have had a chance to play each other in well over 10 years!

My deployment

The only non-khornate force in this list are a squad of Plague Marines. Despite the red wrapper, they would be hitching a ride in the Land Raider. This mission has objectives, each one is in our respective deployment zone.  His whole army is using a formation that allows him to Deep Strike everyone, therefore he has no set-up.  So we begin, with first two of Scott's forces beaming in...

"We have arrived!"

An impressive display of firepower was launched against the Berserker unit that contained Kharn, as Scott was doing what he could to decapitate my army in the first round. However, he only managed to mow down half the unit.

Just imagine the corpse pile in the middle. 

On my turn I maneuvered the Land Raider closer to the Terminators so as to take advantage of the Dirge Caster's ability to shut down my enemy's Overwatch. This worked a lot better than the shooting, which for the most part was ineffective, although I did whittle away one or two before I had the Berserkers and the Hellbrute charge in. However, I botched the Berserkers charge roll, leaving the Hellbrute on it's own. It did manage to kill a few Grey Knight Terminators on this round before falling to the Grey Knights.

The Bloodbrute charges in

On the 2nd round, a very note worthy even happened on Scott's turn as his Interceptors attacked my Chaos Space Marine unit with the Mark of Khorne. A lot of them were chewed up by the CSM's shooting in the previous turn and by their Overwatch fire when they initiated their assault, However my Champion had to challenge his Sgt, and well, it didn't go well for the champ!

"Seriously, there can be only one."

The CSMs broke from this and were swept away by the halberd wielding fiend!

Kharn's unit of Berkers where all but swept away by this point by the firepower unleashed against them by remainder of Scott's army who all arrived on Turn two.  On my Turn two, I sent Kharn over to eliminate the Interceptor Sgt, as he just had to go!

Kharn and the Berserker shoot the Interceptor Sgt. 

I had the Landraider tangling with the Terminators on my right flank, while the Vindicator was lobbing shots at the send group, which was starting to whittle them down with AP2 death.

Scott sent the sole survivor of the unit that killed the Hellbrute over to take the objective away from the other CSM unit, and after some amazingly bad rolling for me (see below) the Terminator was able to kill enough of my guys to force them to route off of the objective!

I switched to my big dice for this game. It mattered not! LOL

This left Kharn to run over on the next round to finally get a go at some hand-to-hand blood letting, only to have the (now rallied) CSMs shoot the guy to death!

"Seriously?!" He said, outraged. 

In the previous turn my Landraider had been lucky to survive an assault from the Grey Knight Terminators, and I had tried to tank-shock them and to capitalize on the Destroyer Blades rigged up to the front of this thing. They failed their route test, but were able to rally (you know, 'cause they Know No Fear), and charge the Land Raider again and blowing it up on the last turn of the game, liberating the Plague Marines within.

Last shot of the game

The game pretty much ended there, with Scott getting 1VP for First Blood, and my CSMs being the only ones to be holding an Objective, earning 3 VP, which managed to pull off a win for the forces of Chaos! Oddly enough, Kharn, close-combat nightmare incarnate, never managed to make it into an assault the whole game! Also, another fun aspect of this game: the entire battle took place on just half of the board!

Throughout the game, I kept making most of my "Deny the Witch" rolls! This was definitely a factor in stymieing the Grey Knights plans!

So far, I like how this force is starting to work in the game. I used it again the following Friday, and it was a radically different game. Stay tuned for that report soon.

Relic fight!

War!!!

A weekend or so back, we gathered at the local Hobbytown USA for some gaming and somehow we decided to have a two vs. two game. I haven't done one of these in some time so I was keen to give it a try. It would be a fight to retrieve and capture The Relic. Who knows what that would be from a background perspective considering the Grey Knights (RT Voril) and Imperial Guard (Screech) would be sent to prevent the Space Wolves (your very own Neverness) and Lions of Harlech (Kushial's space marine chapter) from taking possession of it! We ended up using a metal nuclear symbol as The Relic. So whatever it is, it must be a bit of  radioactive STC or something else rare and warpy.

The Space Wolves and Lions of Harlech prep for battle. This is a combined 3k in points.

The Grey Knights, right after their Psychic Friends Hot line call-center shift ended... "Time for real work boys..."

The Imperial Guard, unwrapping their flyer spam to add to the Grey Knight cheese! ;)

The battle field. Note the dilapidated bastion at the edge of the shelled city.

Space Wolves and Lions deploy. Note my Lone Wolf way over by himself in the Lion's side of the table.

Close up and field view of Space Wolf deployment. The RT era Land Speeder hamming for the camera

Turn one- The Wolves and Lions Drop Pod into the Grey Knight's DZ and start messing things up. The Lions deploy a dreadnought and it takes out a basilisk (First Blood!). Sven and his four Wolf Guard quickly discover that they showed up a bit under equipped to charge the GK terminators, so they focus on the chimera but fail to destroy it.



Drop pod assault! Turn 1: Lion and Wolf pods line-break the GK & IG deployment zone!

Sven and Wolf Guard attack that Chimera, and fail....heads down, incoming!!!!

Combined wolf and lion attacks bring down the bastion!

Combined fire from the Lions and Wolves weaken the dilapidated bastion which has a unit inside and a command unit in and on it, A final shot from the SW vindicator sends the bastion crumbling down, killing a lot of IG!


Lots of retaliatory shooting from the Grey Knights and Imperial Guard! The wipe out my Fenrisian Wolves (surprise!) and wound my Rune Priest.

Well, that hurt!

The Lions took the Relic near the imperial statue, but they got blasted up pretty bad...


Also, the Grey Knights brought the pain the my Wolf Guard! One single Wolf Guard survived (sounds impressive but there were on four to start with, so...) and Sven, who break, and knowing no fear would advance on the surviving command squad in the crater.



Fight for the crater! Sven and his Wolf Guard attempt to get a Slay the Warlord VP!

...my favorite pic from this game, right before the Dreadknight dove into the fray!

The Dreadnought said as this picture was being shot "Watch me make this Grey Hunter squad disappear..."

Bird's eye view of mid game carnage.

...and he did!

In fairness, those damned purifiers or whatever they are called just would NOT DIE!!! I shot so many things at that unit, and by game's end I think half the squad was left. Anyway, that last GH squad and that unit would be trading bullets for the rest of the game. By this point you can also see that the IG flyers had arrived, one went over to harass my Long Fangs (probably their worst performance in many games I think) and unload a Vet. Squad into the ruins where the Lions where holding onto the relic. On Kushial's flank he as storming the field pretty hard, but he did lose a Landraider (I want to say it was to a basilisk hit?).

Lions and Wolves hunt down the rest of the Grey Knights...

 The Relic is lost....


The last stand of the relic holder...looks like a firing squad doesn't it?

 ...however the Long Fangs and Lions would tear into this unit before they could claim The Relic!



The Lone Wolf finally sees some action in this game!

 My Lone Wolf assaulted and broke an IG unit. The pic above shows the last guy about to flee the table. The Lone Wolf would run clear across the table, kill these guys, and then lose a turn in the woods as I totally forgot he was there! Perhaps he was bloodletting? Or snacking on IG flesh? Or doing what dogs tend to do when they spot an awesome tree. Who knows! But that blunder would prevent him from finding his death in battle...


Die tank, die!!

 The Lions claim the Relic, while my surviving Grey Hunters try running up to assist.




Another squad get The Relic, and is shot to death!

 The purifiers or whatever those guys were shoot the Lions to death, along with a barrage of fire from the two IG flyers. My surviving Long Fangs failed to bring either of those damned things down! But they refused to leave their post either.

Game ends, and no one has The Relic!

End game, no one has the Relic!

GH & IG Deployment zone at game's end.

 Awesome game... oddly enough, I don't recall the VP score. I believe Kushial and I won by a point. I think we killed both Warlords, I had mine still alive (though with a wound), I think Kushial's might have lived, and we both had Line Breaker and my Lone Wolf awarded them a point by not dying. We got first blood as well. Truth be known, it doesn't matter, we all wanted that Relic and we had a lot of fun failing to get it! LOL


 Fun game, we all had a total blast! It was challenging for all of us, but that made it fun for all too.

Sven vs. the Inquisition

Last night I battled Da Masta Cheef and his Inquisitional forces on the broken world of...Endlessbattleastan (just made that up, I have no idea what we're calling his warzone). After our Dark Heresy session was cancelled we decided to add another chapter in the ongoing friction between Wolflord Sven Axegrinder and the radical elements of the Inquisition. Seriously, there is a history here, and before I proceed with the battle synopsis (and explain the pic of the green Bloodletter above -don't they look like they're playing craps? LOL) I shall share that history with you...

Sven has been my Wolf Lord since at least as far back as the day the 3rd edition SW Codex was released, but he may have been around as far back as the last days of 2nd edition. The model I use is an old RT Terminator Captain (they're be an article/showcase on him eventually, fear not!). He's tangled with Warfrog's 'nids on countless occasions and stymied Da Cheef's forces for years. One day back in '09, we were supposed to get together for a mega-battle. Da Cheef and I were sending these in-character transmissions to each other to hype ourselves up. We were supposed to be playing against Warfrog's Eldar (Xenos scum!!!) but I had a scheduling conflict arise and couldn't come. With feelings of abandonment, Cheef's IG were forced to take on the Eldar (Xenos scum!!) on they're own. This led to more in-character transmissions which led to declarations of suspicion that the IG force were in fact infested with the taint of Chaos, however the Inquisition instead tried to accuse the SW force of heresy and treason by stating that the IG force did not actually appear on any formal Munitorium inventory rolls, and that the whole thing was a concoction invented to avoid combating the Eldar (Xenos scum!!!), here is that Inquisitional communique and the SW responce:

FAO: Wolfpriest Jorvik

TRANSMITTED: CLASSIFIED

RECEIVED: Colcha

DATE:4916998.M41

TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath-terminus: CLASSIFIED

AUTHOR: Inquisitor Kemp, Ordo Hereticus

CLEARANCE LEVEL: Magenta

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It is not your right to question, only to obey.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There is no Colonel by the name of 'Extra hands' Straken, nor a 728th Sabbat

Irregulars listed within the ranks of the Emperor's most glorious Imperial

Guard. Further inquiries as to the identies of those you have mentioned above

has garnered the attention of the Ordo Hereticus. As such I have taken command

of this investigation and am aboard my cruiser 'Interrogator' which is enroute

to rendevous with your strike cruiser for further investigation. You and your

crew will stand down and submit to MY authority upon my arrival, and will

cooperate fully with any 'cleansing' operations should they be necessary. The

thought of the Astartes being so easily misguided by, if not outright consorting

with the ruinous powers is one that shall be quashed with much haste & vigor!

The Emporer Protects.

Inquisitor Kemp

-Ordo Hereticus-

FROM JOEL

FAO: Inquisitor Kemp, Ordo Hereticus

TRANSMITTED: Colcha

RECEIVED: Scintilla

DATE:4918997.M41

TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath-terminus: Loki

AUTHOR: Wolfpriest Jorvik

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Men can be replaced, data is precious.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lord kemp, we are not surprised to once again bear witness to your witless

observations and shortsighted determinations with regards to imminent threats to

the Imperium we hold dear. Of course "There is no Colonel by the name of 'Extra

hands' Straken, nor a 728th Sabbat Irregulars listed within the ranks of the

Emperor's most glorious Imperial Guard." It's what they have come to call

themselves! Do you honestly think to believe that a group of traitors would

resubmit to the Departmento Munitorium a name change after they turn traitor?

No, why, in their current guise they can continue to seek requisitions and

supplies thus not only draining the Imperial Guard of resources, but by also

acting in a manner counter-productive to the aims and wishes of the

Administratum. Besides the obvious act of subterfuge, if such a group were

bold/stupid enough to attempt such a request, it would take decades for the

change to actually occur! We both know that the Administratum is not known for

expediency. For example, we're still waiting to hear back on our Request of

Censure against you for that decision you made six years ago to pull back the

Imperial Guard that we were sent to support against a combined Tau and Necro

assault. You stated on the Voxcast that the regional Governor's botanical

gardens were to be protected at all costs, leaving us to pursue the routing Tau

(we're still happy to have crushed the Necrons in the campaign). When advised

against this decision, you had the Guard fire upon our force. If the Tau were

not a bigger threat at the time, your bones would be lining our wolf kennels.

Back on the point, `Extra Hands' Straken, and his 728th Sabbat Irregulars,

regardless of whether or not you can produce a record of their existence, will

be pacified. We welcome you to join us –from a distance- in monitoring their

destruction, but if you intend or dare to assume that the sons of Russ will heel

to a paper-pushing simpleton, you better not show up with a pack of women this

time.

Chewing up Treachery,

-Jorvik.

Needless to say we met in glorious battle! The Space Wolves were victorious, but only technically. Many a wolf-brother died to the undignified and dishonorable chemtanks of the irregulars, but most humbly Sven Axegrinder fell to lasguns! Revealed in this battle was the Renegade Inquisitor, 'The Khornedog' whose treachery set up this ambush against Sven and his battle brothers. So like a dog chasing a car, Sven has been seeking out these rogue elements ever since, determined to extract retribution!

And tonight, it happened, sort of... it would appear the Inquisition really doesn't like when you attack one of theirs even if they are bit 'radical'. The Inquisition, led by this guy, Matt Fucking Ward, caught up to Sven's battlebarge Ragnar's Breath, and taking a prisoner (some Lonewolf who's name I can't recall) they proceeded to publicly torture and humiliate him in order to entice Sven into their trap. Of course it worked brilliantly.

The Inquisition list (I think this is it, Cheef correct me if I'm wrong) can be reviewed here: http://dlwdg.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-gk-failing-circus.html

The force I brought to the table was:

# of models in unit	Unit Type	Unit name	Points	Notes
1	HQ	Wolf Lord Sven	175	IC,
		Terminator w/SB, Power Fist, Wolftooth Necklace, Wolftail Talisman, Saga of Beastslayer
1	HQ	Rune Priest master of Runes	195	IC
		Psi: Jaws of WW, StormCaller, Runic Weap, Term/SB, Chooser of Slain, WTN, WTT,
10	TROOPS	Grey Hunters	255	AV for rhino
		Powerfist, Meltagun, plasma gun. Rhino with additional storm bolter, extra armor, Hunter killer
9	TROOPS	Grey Hunters		AV for rhino
		Powerfist, Meltagun,.Wolfstandard, Rhino with additional storm bolter, extra armor, Hunter killer	250
1	FA	Landspeeder Tornado	70
		Heavy flamer, multi-melta
1	HEAVY	Vindicator	130
		Demolisher Cannon, Storm Bolter, Searchlight, Smoke Lr, Extra Armor
6	HEAVY	Long Fang Pack	185
		SL: PF. MB. LC, MLx2, MMx2,
	ELITES	Wolf Guard Pack*	55	Drop Pod
		(see below for individual breakdown)
1	ELITE	WG Thorgar	43
		Terminator w/Sb, Powerfist
1	ELITE	WG Svengi	43
		Terminator w/Sb, Powerfist
1	ELITE	WG Tor	63
		Terminator w/assault cannon, Powerfist
1	ELITE	WG Ygarl	38	GH2
		Power armor, bol pistol, frag/kraf grenades, wolf claw, melta bombs
TOTAL
33			1502

 It was a Capture and Control /Dawn of War scenario. The Lone Wolf being one object and the other a herectical piece of archeotech that had to be controled.  It was sort of a rough start, with my notorious dice undermining me in random ways. Without going all full blown battle-report, I will sum up the highlights:

•  Sven lands in a drop pod with 3 Wolfguard and engages the enemy! Despite the hail of bullets and deathwind missiles, the enemy loses only 2 models! Eventually, Sven cuts these foes down, but not before losing the Drop Pod's DW missile to the autocannons of the inquisition Dreadnought.
• The Longfangs are undermined by the rules of Dawn of War, and before they can even get into a good position have lost members of their unit. To make matters worse, when they finally get into a good position, the dice gods deny them their glory! They are eventually cut down by the concentrated fired of the Inquisition tanks.

This next batch of highlight all happened in the last turn of the game.

• My old school Landspeeder Tornado ("The Flying Chair-lift of Death") hounded a chimera for the entire game. Neither vehicle could get the upperhand until, on like turn 4, I blew up the Chimera with the Tornado's multimelta. After surviving a stormbolter attack, the heavy flamer toasted the unit, but still, seemingly fearless and ever defiant, the storm-bolter weilding guardsman stood readying for the next round...

• The pic at the top of this post shows my Wolf Guard and a squad of Grey Hunters eliminating the last of the Daeomonhosts (Cheef hates the official models, and, when I think about it, these -alternately colored Bloodletters- are probably a better idea anyway) to take the objective and free the Lone Wolf. (Who is within 3 inches on the otherside of the wall).
• Matt Fucking Ward shows up and dives out of his Landraider Cruesader like some dreamy fan-boy action star and utterly destroys my Runepriest (through a window! LOL!)

• Seeing the GK embodiment of everything wrong with the Grey Knights Codex standing before me (and hearing Cheef tell me everything that he can do and for how little points!) I knew that my guys, who had just bailed out of their Rhino to take possession of the STC tech objective, would not last long against that combat monster! Not to mention that the Rhino bearing Inquisitor Corteaz was bearing down on them super fast as well! So I whipped the Vindicator around, and stood there wondering what to shoot. MFW's Cruesader, even if I penetrated it I probably would do something lame like shoot off a gun or something, or worse scatter on to my tightly packed Grey Hunters in the crater...

The Grey Hunters opened on MFW, but only score a single wound. Then the Vindicator targeted him and scored a direct hit, send Matt Fucking Ward back to oblivion.

• Sven Axegrinder and the final Wolfguard shoot their remaining shots at the Dreadnought that had been hasseling them the whole game, but they just can't take it out.

So, with a roll of the die, the game ended! And lucky it did too. I honestly did not know if my Grey Hunters at the crater could hold that objective. Yeah, MFW was dead, but Corteaz was about to hop out and bring some pain. Not to mention that pain-in-the-ass Landraider Cruesader was more than ready to cut them down as well. The dreadnought above was ignoring Sven and the WG, and had been picking off my GH at the Lonewolf objective for a few rounds now, and could, if so much as one more casualty had occurred, have forced a LD test that probably (as fickle as my dice roll) forced me to route off the objective or worse, actually kill them!

All in all, a fun game, although at the halfway point we were both annoyed by our dice not wanting to cooperate with us. But, I stuck to the mission objectives and managed to pull off a win.

...I'm afraid Sven might have truly caught the eve of the Inquisition now! ...