First off the fact this mission was Genestealer based was a complete fluke that is coincided with the release of the Genestealer Cult models and Codex. I have been out of the 40K loop for a while so I hadn’t even seen the rumours. We had a new player taking part and he had a lot of old models plus many Genestealers from Space Hulk and other sources I believe. So we picked them up and used all 30 of them for a custom mission.

I’m going to just detail my Astra Militarum’s game here as I cannot remember what happened for the whole game for all players. There were three of us in a Free for All fight plus the Genestealers who were autonomous.

Side note (because I always get asked); All the MDF Laser Cut terrain is from War Games Tournaments – their new site is now live which I had a tiny little hand in building :-)

The Genestealer Mission

Genestealers Guard their Single Central Objective

Genestealers

We set out three groups of Genestealers each with a Broodlord and 9 ‘stealers. They would start in the centre of the table guarding a single objective worth 3 VPs. The objective was from the Space Hulk box set, its a dead Marine from the looks of him. The Genestealers were Fearless and would charge anyone who came within 12″ of them – they would also move D6″ towards the nearest enemy at the end of everyone’s turn.

Forces

The forces were kind of made up on the night as we were not sure what we were doing that evening and we had a new player (Greg) with his new models. He hadn’t played for some time so we quickly made a list of Dark Angels.

Astra Militarum 750 point list – Me

• Punisher Pask with Battle Cannon wingman
• Scout Sentinel with Heavy Flamer
• Veteran Squad with Camo Cloaks and 2x flamer
• Platoon made up of 3 squads blobbed into one group with 3x Sergeants with Power Axes and a Vox Caster
• Platoon Command Squad with a Vox Caster
• A Priest to join the blob

Dark Angels 750 point list – Greg

For memory of Greg and Tom’s lists is not going to be great but here goes;

• 2 units of three bikes with Homing Beacons and Sergeants with Melta Bombs
• 5 Terminators
• Tac squad with Plasma Cannon and Plasma Gun (10 Marines in total)
• A command squad of some sort that contained the Dark Angel force’s Warlord (5 Marines in total)

Chaos Space Marines 750 point list – Tom

• Cypher
• 2x units of Cultists in some sort of formation with a Hellbrute
• Rhino with some Chosen and Cypher
• Bike unit

Deployment

The three of us had to deploy one at a time after a roll off at least 24″ from the Genestealers and at least 24″ from another enemy’s deployment. We also had to deploy in a kind of bubble. No placing things on the other side of the table. We would roll off at the start of each Game Turn to determine the order of players. Thus mixing it up so that no one player would always go last.

The Mission

The mission was to basically take and hold the objective in the centre. If you were under the objective (it was on a tower) that counted as holding it. The game was fixed length at five turns so we all knew when the game would end – thus forcing people forward and into the mix. Rather than gambling on the game lasting seven turns.

Victory Points

• The central objective was worth 3 VPs
• Each Genestealer Broodlord was worth a single VP
• Each Warlord kill was worth a single VP

Early Game

Astra Militarum Deployment Vs Genestealers

With 24″ to cover between me and the Genestealers and my closest enemy (the Dark Angels) on the right flank things were really tight. Hence the inclusion of the blog, to simple get in the way and get on the objective to bog everyone down. The first turn I didn’t move the blob, but each turn after that they were moved 6″ plus a run move using the Move! Move! Move! order. The Leman Russ gradually moved away to try and get decent lines of fire onto the Chaos and Dark Angel units as well as the Genestealers.

The early game was a calm affair, each force shot at his batch of Genestealers and gradually started to whittle them down into a more manageable chunk. Movement forward was steady as was any flanking movement. Thank goodness. I was really worried about the Dark Angel bikes to my right (see image below) as they had Melta Bombs and would be up on me really fast. Pask doesn’t take well to Melta Bombs on his rear.

The Veterans and Sentinel were fairly useless at the start of the game as they both had flamer weapons and so needed to get into the mix a bit more before getting any kills.

Mid Game

A Crude Overview of the Genestealers Custom Mission

So I think my crude image shows best what was going on in the early/mid game.

• Red shows Chaos Space Marine forces
• Green shows my Astra Militarum forces
• Yellow shows the Dark Angels
• Purple shows the three groups of Genestealers
• Orange (in the centre) shows the objective
• The Genestealers in the lower right corner are dead

You can see from here the threat of the Dark Angel bikes on my right flank, but by this point in the game they had headed back into the table centred and were gunning for the objective. Pask was safe. As a precaution though I took my Platoon Command Squad and placed it between the grey solid building and the wooden ruin. This would give the bikes something to move through or around before engaging my tanks.

By the mid game I had killed my Genestealers and was making for the objective with my Blob. The Veterans pictured next to the Sentinel on my left flank would swing right and in front of my Leman Russ to approximately where the Genestealers are now, by the green arrow. The below image shows my position in the mid game before things get very very messy in the middle of the battlefield.

Astra Militarum hold fast before advancing into the cluster f***

From this position in front of the Russ my Veterans cook off the last of the Genestealers giving me a free route right into the objective. Meanwhile the Command Marines of the Dark Angels and the Cultists of the Chaos are bogged down in melee with their Genestealers.

End Game

The Veterans with their flamers are now in front of my Leman Russ and attempting to stop the Dark Angel bikes from sweeping around the front of the grey solid building and charging my Leman Russ.  The problem is that they are really badly cut down my the 10 Tactical Marines. They go to ground to try to survive but still lose six men. This opens an alley up for the bikes. You can just see the bikes at the top of the below image. The bikes move forward right in front of the Leman Russ and charge in the assault phase – exploding one of them (Pask) with ease.

The Veterans fall to Bolter fire – opening an alley up for the Dark Angel bikes

With Pask gone and the Veterans gone to ground its now up to my running blob to move into the objective. The Vox-Casters have been a real help here with the orders and with moving the blob forward and come the penultimate turn they are on the objective.

But it all turns to s**t. As the Chaos and Dark Angels beat away their Genestealers they move in too onto the objective. I take very few deaths to be honest which is amazing. But the models I do take beat me away and off the objective. The game ends with Cypher on the objective. If I had moved my blob in the first turn they would all be at least 7″ closer (6″ from the movement phase in turn 1 and +D6″ from running). That would have swamped the objective with bodies!

Curse myself again for not moving up sooner! Again! Argh! A classic mistake which has lead to another classic defeat.

The table centre towards the game end – my blob makes it under the objective!

Summary

So its come down to my lack of movement, again. But this time I started moving on turn 2 which is good for me! Usually its turn 4 or more. So I am showing improvement there at least.

It was a great game and good introduction for Greg (I hope) – well we are playing again in 5 days time so it cannot have been that bad!

The blob is beaten back – just before Cypher moves in under the tower

The final scores;

• Chaos 4VPS (objective + 1 Broodlord)
• Dark Angels 2VPS (1 Broodlord + Pask)
• Astra Militarum 1VP (1 Broodlord)