Things that go bump in your face.

Back to the battle of the cults, and the 3rd Protocol have been on a recruitment drive picking up a scraggly techpriest named Colitis from a nearby sumpworks as well as Gastroenteritis, an unfinished electropriest found wandering the pipes- more importantly both brought with them Lasguns, reliable ranged support for the autogun heavy Nurgle worshippers.

The Nepotism Brotherhood had also been out recruiting, and added Ghrylls, a Neophyte with the most pimped out Lasgun you have ever seen- Hotshot pack, las-projector and telescopic sight giving him an accuracy only the boss could equal.

both gangs also had a few increases after the last game, Tetanus was the focus of a ritual and regained the point of Movement he lost to a leg injury a while back, whilst the hulking Mhogg-Rhyse gained a point of Toughness to make him a terrifying T5. The genestealer's were further enhanced when their patron back in hive secundus sent a specialist trainer out who gave them tuition in the finer points of gang warfare spreading some more increases out amongst the crew. The chaos elders finally decided it was worth spending some creds on the Protocol as they deigned to send a supply crate down, giving Tetanus frag grenades and giving everyone who needed one a backup autopistol or knife. 

We're going for another GW 3 scenario here Monster Hunt, one that luckily doesn't require us to force our morons to take intelligence tests for a change! This is not going to be my most accurate record because this game went crazy at several points, and the absolute carnage that followed disrupted note and photograph taking, so bear with me if not everything in the photo's and notes match up!

also yeah I forgot pre-game photos of my crew- mainly because the new guys aren't 100% painted yet..

Both cults had been briefed by their respective patrons of a large creature devouring imperial citizens in a slime reclamation plant down sump bottom, and whilst neither cared much for the victims the potential that it could be recruited to their cause if it was a potential ally or sold for a bounty if not was too much of a temptation for them to pass up. Once again the rival cults found themselves facing off, this time in the cramped confines of the zone mortalis slime tunnels beneath the plant.. 

Scenario- Monster hunt- Deployment

For deployment the compiler infiltrated purely to force the infiltrating acolytes backwards and deny them the centre room. The rest of the Nurgle skitarii deployed in three groups of three forming little Nurgle symbols on the board which was hopefully pleasing enough to the boss he’d give us a hand this time..  The Genestealer cult deployed second and chose to go heavy on their right flank, with only Hidlystrom and his heavy stubber holding the left. The acolytes predictably infiltrated fairly central behind a bulkhead door. 

Turn 1

t's all gone a bit quiet...

Nothing much happened in the first turn (unusually for one of our games, this could be down to the denser nature of Zone mortalis or maybe we were just getting cagey;) Lots of moving up and getting into position, Rotbringer summoned levitation and nipped forward whilst the rest of the cultists on both sides moved towards the centre. The central corridor was starting to look like a choke point and I wanted to get into a position where I could take advantage of that.  

Turn 2

Door based pop up attacks are both big and clever apparently

 It got heavy real fast in the second turn when Sepsis opened the heavy bulkhead in front of him and opened fire into the Acolytes, followed by Urban Decay and the mouth, who closed the bulkhead again with his last action.  This only pinned the abominable Spinsser and his nasty saw, but the combined fire did flesh wound Johrnson, summoning the first tentacle which Steve placed in the doorway by ventrot and sporeslinger to stop my crossfire getting into place, the tentacle took no time making it’s mark on the game, giving Sporeslinger a slap that seriously injured him, knocking him to the floor. This in turn allowed me to place another tentacle, this time right on top of the Acolytes. On the other flank a sporadic exchange of fire saw both Glodsmyth and Colitis take hits, with Colitis taking a flesh wound and bringing up another tentacle from the gaping chasm between the two.  The compler continued to move to safety whilst Gastroenteritis sprinted up behind the far wall to close down the tough Heavy Stubber of Hidlystorm. 

Turn 3

The first tentacles start causing havoc. 

The autopistol Trio behind the bulkhead repeated their pop-up attack from last turn but due to cover and the intervening flailing tentacle of death their shots went astray. Spinsser had more luck, allowing the shockingly lucky familiar to draw the tentacles lash out then carving it cleanly in half with his buzz saw before backing off and letting Mhogg –Rhise take the lead. The rest of the Genestealer cult gathered around the barricades that lined the crucial corridor and waited for an opportunity to strike. The other flank was dominated by a large exchange of fire at the lone tentacle in the centre, with both sides managing to wound the beast but neither being able to finish the job. Ventrot managed to wound the tentacle that had injured Sporeslinger with is Autogun, but it didn’t stop the beast lashing out at Rotbringer who luckily dodged the attack. 

Turn 4

wait- just how big is this thing? 

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this map sums up how mental this turn got pretty darn well… Genestealers won initiative for the first (and potentially only?) time of the game and sent the familiar in running past the tentacle in the doorway. The beast lashed out but missed, however if the familiar was to take a hit (or open the door next turn) the Chaos Skitarii using it as mobile cover would be left very exposed ad at risk to tentacle death.  I decided to seize the moment rather than letting the Xenos dominate the play, and opened the door with a tactics card before exploding out with my gangers. Firstly the Mouth heaved a frag grenade into Mhogg-Rhise before ducking to one side, this missed bloody spectacularly, scattering all the way down the corridor and landing in the heart of the alien scum! Ghrylls, Turnha and Caamrhone were all hit, with flesh wounds on both Neophytes summoning more Tentacles in the surrounding area, nice arm boss! Urban decay then charged the diminutive Familiar, smashing it to paste then ducking behind a wall, unfortunately the tentacle called by the mini-me’s blood appeared right next to Sepsis, who was smashed down and seriously injured by it before he could take part in the glorious charge into the mouth of hell. Johrnson activated next, but he was just within the furthest reach of one of the newly summoned tentacles which lashed out, crushing his ribs and sending him into recovery.  The witch and Ventrot hammered away at the tentacle before them, giving sporeslinger time to crawl away but having no effect on the monster itself. Even more fire poured from both sides into the tentacle in the central chamber, (including the Compilers long las, although he was actually aiming at Glodsmyth) with Hidlystorm moving into range the Xenos finally destroyed the beast- 2 down, 4 to go (tactics cards hijinks at this point meant Hidlystorm’s stubber went Click too…). Sporeslinger and Sepsis both succumbed to their injuries at the end of the turn (one day I’ll remember Nurgle’s blessing and re-roll one!) although only Sepsis injuries were grave enough to damage him permanently, the beasts acid melting part of his spine.

Turn 5

right, we've got this..

With a swathe of casualties starting to mount up on both sides it was time to start checking for bottling, but both sides held their nerve so far. The mouth opened things up with his last grenade, though it missed and scattered into nowhere so he hid round the corner before they returned fire. Mhogg-Rhise finally got his claws in and after Caamrhone tricked the tentacle into striking at him far at the end of his range the Aberrant charged into the it, gouging a great chunk out of it’s rotting hide with his pick. Spinsser revved his saw up again and Put urban decay down for the count, though again he was only knocked out (we both got hellish lucky with injury rolls for such a brutal game) in the other room Gastroenteritis decided to make his debut game a bit more interesting by popping round the corner and gunning down Hidlystorm at very close range, the Las rounds only pinned the Neophyte, but between pinning and lack of ammo he wasn’t a threat for one more turn at least. Small arms and scattered shots littered the rest of the table but the turn was a suspiciously quiet one after the initial carnage.. 

Turn 6

Hidlystorm facing ineffectual lasgun death. 

The 6th Turn is usually the end of our games to ensure they don’t go on forever, but as I was actually looking to at least draw for a change I was hanging on for more if we had time. Gastroenteritis started play with another pinning shot on Hidlystorm- no injuries were inflicted so unfortunately he’d be able to fire this turn… oops. The stealers continued to spread out, backing Ventrot and the Witch further into a corner after they failed to inflict any wounds with their firing. The mouth Inadvertently helped the Stealers with this when he and Colitis hammered fire in to the Aberrant’s back, giving Mhogg a flesh wound which then summoned a tentacle right in front of the two trapped skitarii… doh! Things got a little better when The compiler managed to pick off Glodsmyth who was sneaking round the back again, the resulting tentacle was out of the way even with a 6” range, and although it tried to swipe Glodsmyth it didn’t connect. Hidlystorms  time to return fire finally came and he unleashed an epic 5 shots into Gastroenteritis, and somehow missed him entirely! Tetanus saw his opportunity and quickly sprint up past the crevasses in the floor to give Gastro support next turn. 

Turn 7

the tentacles are starting to outnumber the cultists..

The skitarii inevitably did what they have become renowned for and failed their bottle test under mounting pressure, however for a nice change the filthy Xenos scum also decided it was a bit too hot down here for their liking. The Chaos amusement at this turn of events was only increased when Caamrhone himself promptly failed his cool check and did a runner, leaving the rest of his boys to fight the beast leaderless! That almost took the sting out of both Ventrot and Rotbringer (the most cowardly rogue psyker in history) also legging it, though based on the tentacle right in their face this was probably the right decision.   More impressively a fair number of the Chaos did decide to stick around for a change, (in retrospect not their greatest plan) so I was still in the game. The Stealers won the initiative now the dithering Caamrhone wasn’t about to complicate things and Spinsser opening proceedings by charging into both the Mouth and Colitis, seriously injuring the Mouth and cutting Colitis down so badly he’ll be out of action for a while with a gushing head wound. The tentacles this produced burst around the melee in the small room and they began flailing around, flesh wounding Spinsser for his temerity and mouth in the process. Ghrylls put a hot shot round squarely into the tentacle before him, but Redmayhne was in turn taken out by a grasping tendril of the beast. The compiler took pot shots at another pseudopod but failed to hit. Gastroenteritis finally managed to put a flesh wound on the super tough Hidlystorm but his jubilation was short lived when his skull was crushed by a tentacle appearing right behind him taking him out for at least the next skirmish. Finally Tetanus skipped round the back with the intention of ambushing the remaining Xenos from the rearand Glodsmyth bled out on the floor near him.  

Turns 8 and 9

Having rarely played to turn 8 before it was no surprise that both gangs were looking a trifle battered at this stage, and with only two fighters active and in play the Chaos gods were obviously happy enough to see a bit more carnage as they both decided to stick around for at least one more turn (though the Mouth fled the table at this point, escaping serious injury at the last second) . Reallising that the tentacles were the biggest threat to his gang Spinsser directed all their fire and melee attacks towards the tentacles round them, finally bringing down enough to summon the beast we had been hunting all along into play! It appeared within charge range of Spinsser unfortunately, and wasted no time taking revenge on the unfortunate acolyte before it was lightly wounded by the Compiler’s long-las. The ineffectiveness of his prized rifle was seemingly the last straw for the Compiler as turn 9 was  cut short when he called a full retreat, both tetanus and himself disappearing back into the shadows leaving the Xenos scum to deal with the problem they had brought to the surface. I gave Steve the option to finish out the duel with the beast but as it was past midnight and he wasn't exactly tooled for the job he declined. 

We're going to need a bigger... everything? 

Look at the carnage in the large corridor- just look at it!  It was an absolute slaughterhouse in there on both sides but we had an amazing game, and were both spectacularly lucky with injuries, I only had one in recovery (Gastro) and two proper injuries (Sepsis took a spinal injury and Colitis a head trauma), and Steve took a head wound on Glodsmyth with Jorhnson going into recovery. 

Not exactly a win, but as both gangs bottled, and the beast was still standing not a loss either- a draw for a change, could this be a turning point in my fortunes? This is a savage scenario, let alone in the close confines of the Zone Mortalis tiles, so I'd recommend not opening that particular trapdoor until you have some very tooled up individuals on board.