Deep within an unnamed hive on a backwater Imperial world, a xenos menace has been brewing. The only forces within range to respond are a small band of Grey Knights, returning to Titan after crushing a demonic cult.
Out in the wasteland despicable mutants have been developing a virus bomb to cripple Imperial Rule and finally turn this planet over to the Hive Mind.
Descending to the wastelands outside the hive, 17 heroes of the Imperium to face a horde of monsters.
This was effectively a test game for the Vigilus Weekender, my entire collection comes to 996 points. We played relic (technically not going to come up but neither of us had brought
GH 2017), and it was one cracking game of
40k, definitely the best game of 8th I've played. In total I had 17 models, he had 60 inc chimera. I deployed a Nemisis Doomglaive Dreadnought, 4 Paladins and 5 Interceptors. he deployed 30 neophytes, a Magus, a chimera full of half mutants (they had some nasty power drills). He went first and rushed up the chimera to the relic and advanced the neophytes to grab the relic. I rushed up my units to blow up the chimera and kill a fair few of the guys inside. Second turn 27 genestealers appear with a primus who gave them plus one to hit and they charged in. The interceptors fell instantly, the dread lasted till my turn 3 and gave a fairly good account of itself and three of the paladins went down. It was looking like the game was over already on turn two. I responded by deep striking voldus, a generic
GM with psilencer and my strike squad. Using gate I pulled out the last paladin on two wounds and left the dread in, then charged in with the
GM and paladin, and killed most of the remaining genestealers by start of turn 4 whilst voldus chased the neophytes back to his deployment. The strike squad went down to the drill guys.
By the end of turn 3 all I had was voldus, the
GM and one paladin. He still had 4 genestealers, 3 drill guys with a third carrying an icon, 20 or so neophytes and the Magus. with two turns to go it was looking bleak, the neophytes were running like all hell was chasing them and it was going to be a struggle to pin them down before the game ended on turn 5. The other guy said we were at the action movie stage, can our three heroes fight through the horde of extras to save the city? The stakes were high and the odds daunting, but there was hope. Voldus and the
GM had gate, so one guy could jump around a turn. So off the paladin pops to his deployment zone to herd the neophytes to the right corner and cut off the left. The genestealers were dispatched with psilencer fire and gakky smite, and a few neophytes fell to storm bolter fire. The chase was on.
The
GM dispatched the drill guys and Voldus charged in to the sacrificial neophytes sent to delay me. He smashed a few heads and on turn 4 the neophytes fell back towards their brethren. With laz fire Voldus was knocked down to one wound left having taken damage from rending claws earlier. The Paladin moved close to get gated again to the far right corner to create a pincer. The neophytes had nowhere to run, in front lay voldus and a
GM, behind them stood the last paladin. Voldus charged in again, but took a grenade (or lazbolt) to the face and went down. This is the emotional climax of the action film, where the commander falls, the situation looks truly lost, but our heroes dig deep for one last surge of strength.
As time starts running out, with one squad of 9 neophytes in the centre of his deployment zone (the squad voldus charged) and the squad with the relic and the Magus further back towards the right, the paladin 9” away in the back right corner, the dice would really have to fall well for the Emperor’s most dedicated servants to stop the virus bombing. The
GM charges in after voldus and cuts down another 3 neophytes, but the paladin fails to charge. The neophytes fall back from the
GM into a ruin, and the other neophytes (still with nine men) pass the bomb to the magus and line up in between him and the paladin.
Here we are at the beginning of my turn five, the last chance for our two heroes to save the day and avenge their fallen brothers:
The biggest problem is the spread of neophytes stopping a charge to the magus, but if there’s anything the Grey Knights do well, it’s shooting infantry. Between gakky smite and the psilencer and storm bolter, both squads are halved, a gap opened up on both sides, but there are still neophytes, it’s going to be a long charge to walk around them. The Paladin declares a multi-charge. It’s 4” to the neophytes, but 7” to walk around to the Magus. The dice roll, an 8! He gets inbetween them. Then comes the
GM, for him it’s a 10” charge to get around the neophytes in the ruins, but he does have First to the Fray, giving him a charge reroll. He makes it in, there’s still a chance in the very last phase to save the Emperor’s flock! The
GM splits three attacks into the neophytes and two into the magus. He smashed down the Magus, but only one neophyte. They have objective secured, if they aren’t eradicated they will hold the relic and all will be lost. Now it comes to the Paladin. With his three brothers being cut down before they could do anything, he has put in a real shift since, and it all rests on him. Three attacks to try and force a moral check. Two neophytes go down, leaving two left. Despite the huge odds against the Grey Knights after letting myself be ambushed, I had managed to get to a situation where the game hinged on a single dice roll in my favour. Having lost 7 neophytes this turn, a roll of one on the moral test was the only thing that could save the
GSC. We removed the second neophyte as he had to run, then came the roll. No
CP left on either side.
A six! The last neophyte scrambles away from these silver gods who had slaughtered his mutant brethren.
The day is saved, our heroes pull through in classic action movie style, leaving the board looking like this at the end, with only two neophytes left the threat had been neutralised and the virus bomb secured!
Maybe not the best practice for a tournament, but a huge amount of fun and a great turn-around, back-from-the-brink story.