Comrade's Wargames

After a couple of large, multiplayer sessions in our grimdark sci-fi campaign (The Cauldron), it was a nice to downshift a little bit and try a smaller, more intimate affair for this most recent game. We crafted a custom scenario centered on THE TECHNOBRIDGE, a terrain creation that you can read about at the link.

(Spoiler: It’s a big bridge.)

We had three players: Rian commanding his beautiful Adeptus Sororitas warband, and Josh and I splitting duties with my heretical Dark Mechanicum warband. The cultists, if you recall, were victorious in our previous session after they routed the defenders of the Imperium.

For this game, we set up a custom, somewhat assymetric scenario that saw Rian’s Battle Sisters assaulting the heretics’ fortified hideout. The Sororitas had three objectives that they had to complete in sequence: lower the bridge, enter the bunker on the far side to retrieve the corrupted data cores, and then escape into the sewer pipe.

The heretics had more forces (500 points compared to 400 points for Rian) but they arrived in piecemeal fashion over several turns. It was an interesting custom scenario that forced some do-or-die decisions on Rian as he advanced across the Bridge of Faith!

The game began with the Bridge of Faith raised (i.e. not present on the table, as you can see in the photo above). The small control station on the far side of the chasm operated the bridge. Rian would need to seize the control station in order to lower the bridge.

The sandbagged area represents the heretics’ fortified hideout. They also had an armored bunker and some other emplacements under their control – a potentially tough nut to crack, except that they had a limited number of warriors on the table at the start of the game.

Rian’s Sister of Battle deployed near their side of the bridge. They intended to seize the control panel as early as possible, to effect an assault across the relatively open bridge.

The game began with the Battle Sisters laying down covering fire from elevated ruins near Rian’s deployment zone.

The fast-moving Sisters Repentia, unarmored and wielding gigantic chainswords, raced ahead under withering fire and captured the control panel. The bridgehead was under the Imperium’s control!

I realized at this point that I didn’t get too many shots of my own miniatures. I didn’t have a ton of guys on the table at the start of the game, and my figures mostly lurked in their fortified hideouts taking potshots at his advancing soldiers. Interestingly, both Rian and I chose purple accent colors for our respective factions.

Now, most of the Adeptus Sororitas chose to advance up and over the bridge…except for Rian’s badass newly painted biker! She spent the game motoring around the lower level of the battlefield, engaging my warriors at range and generally creating havoc in my backfield.

The first clash came as the Battle Sisters consolidated their position aroud the bridgehead. The first wave of heretic reinforcements arrived, and Josh sent one of his cyborg brawlers charging headlong into combat with the Sororitas.

The clash was brutal and short-lived – the Battle Sisters mobbed the cyborg and dispatched him with ruthless efficiency. With that little threat out of the way, they advanced at a cautious, implacable pace.

Unfortunately, a “cautious” pace wasn’t going to cut it for our scenario! The two remaining locations that the Sisters of Battle had to visit (the bunker and the sewer pipe) were still fairly far away, and the clock was ticking. For Rian to succeed, he would need to abandon his cautious approach and light a fire under his nuns’ collective rear ends.

We quickly realized that the Adeptus Sororitas would have to take a “leap of faith” from the platform at the end of the bridge, onto the roof of the bunker, in order to secure the corrupted data core and escape through the sewer pipe by the end of the game.

Thankfully, Grimdark Future: Firefight has simple rules for jumping. Just roll some dice and hope for high results. If you fall, you’re pinned. Can’t be that hard, right? Wellllll…..

As you can see from the photo above, the Sisters’ attempts at jumping across to the bunker left a lot to be desired. Three nuns flubbed their rolls and fell flat, one after the other. The execution was so abysmal that we suddenly wondered whether the Sisters of Battle were going to be slaughtered outright. My Dark Mechanicum leader (Rho-Terak, the Enslaver of Logic) rushed into the fray, killing the Sororitas leader as she lay prone on the groud. Big yikes!

Thankfully, the Sororitas champion on the bike was still present as a threat on my flank. She kept up the pressure just long enough for one of the Battle Sisters to successfully make the leap over to the bunker. Hurray – Rian was two-thirds of the way to victory!

Beyond this point, I did not capture photos of the final moments of the game. The last wave of heretic reinforcements showed up – two small fire teams of three models each – but alas, Josh and I didn’t place them particularly well, and the new arrivals were unable to interdict the Adeptus Sororitas as they raced from the bunker to the sewer pipe to make their escape.

So it was a major victory for Rian and the Sisters of Battle – but only just! If he had dithered, or if the heretics had been able to stall his advance even for one turn, the outcome would have been dramatically different.

This was a fun game with a nifty scenario that featured creative input from all the players. Oh, and we got to use THE TECHNOBRIDGE. So that was a win all around.

Stay tuned for more games set in The Cauldron!