Shadow War (Inquisition War Campaign)

On Tuesday, Inquisitor Schmidt played in the monthly Kill Team meet-up for Endgame's Inquisition War campaign. Here's the setup:

After the catastrophic destruction of Kali M4 and the subsequent failed assault on the Renegade and Radical Inquisitors home bases by the Puritans, the balance of power among the warring factions is in a bloody stalemate! All bets are off now as the battle becomes even more personal. Grudges and vendettas exacerbated by the war are causing the Inquisitors to begin to realize that in the end, it may come down to every Inquisitor for themselves.

Dun, dun, dun!!! People always talk about competitive versus narrative gaming, and these Kill Team games really show how good background and fun mechanics add so much value. In this case, it was some really interesting fog of war rules created by Adan meant to represent fighting in a bustling hive city (minus the chasing down replicants part).

Obligatory Blade Runner Reference 

During deployment, players placed numbered tokens (representing troops) and cards (representing vehicles) rather than their miniatures and hid their lists.  When a token moved within 12" of an enemy model they could test to "reveal" them on a +5 roll (or +4 for vehicles). The cool wrinkle here was that some tokens were "civilians" or "trucks", represented by additional models provided by Adan. The scenario created many more cool situations, and really captured the feeling of fighting in a populated area. My favorite was when one of my hidden troppers was taken out by Inquisitor Preod Levat with a Hellfire shot. It ended up being an acolyte, but Stephen's Renegade Chaos Inquisitor shooting into a crowd of people just makes so much sense! Awesome job, Mike and Adan!

The initial setup (tokens=troops, cards=vehicles)

The end result

The Recap

Won 5-1

Inquisitor Schmidt hated crowds almost as much as he hated people. They moved to slowly, smelled awful, and made him feel extremely nervous. And, on this day, he was doubly nervous. His hated enemy, Inquistor Preod Levat, was here. It wasn't hard to find him, all you had to do was track his location to the nearest city and head to it's red light district. Schmidt's entourage was dispersed amongst the evening crowd, their armor covered by simple hiver rags. He felt comfortable for a moment, until the shooting started. 

He heard it first, then turned to his right and saw Loki on the ground. Schmidt looked around and saw the golden gleam of a Hellrifle. It was Levot. The Inquisitor gave the signal to his acolytes, and all hell broke loose. Lasgun shots ripped through the panicked crowd. Nervous energy was everywhere, adrenaline bouncing off of the alley walls. Schmidt's Chimera, originally hidden under make-shift camouflage, cut down Levot's henchmen in a torrent of multi-laser and bolter fire. Absolute chaos.

But Ziggy heard none of this. All he could see was the death of Levot at his own hands. Over and over again. He moved forward, eyes locked on the Renegades position. And suddenly, he was gone. They were all gone. The bastard had escaped! Again! Two of Ziggy's men ran to up to him in the now empty street.

"God dammit! What the hell guys? What happened?".

"He got away. We were moving on his position and then he just vanished. But, I did find this.".

Schmidt grabbed the relic from his acolyte's hands. It put a smile on the alien hunters face. A glimmer of hope.

At that moment Hoof walked up to him, bloody and incredibly content. He looked up to the stars and bayed praise to his god's for the victory they had won.

"BBBBLLLEEEAAAATTTTTTT!!!!!", he bleated.

"SHUT UP, Hoof!", yelled the Inquisitor.

Hoof shut up.

"Ok, good job guys. Now let's go get drunk!".

Until next time!

In Your Inquisitor's House, Breaking Stuff

Yesterday was the monthly Kill Team meet-up for Endgame's Inquisition War campaign. As always, the setting was awesome:

The ruins and structures represent the Defender's personal estate and the valuables therein. The Attacker is trying to get inside and do as much damage to the enemy Retinue as possible, and steal as much loot and intel as possible.

Get to the hedges!!!

Inquisitor Ziggy and his Eldar from Mars were tasked with breaking into two Puritan Inquisitor's estates. The goal was to hold objectives (each worth 3 VP) and take down the enemy Retinue. The whole game was played under Nightfight rules, and each area of the estate was booby trapped (pass an initiative test or get blown up by frag grenades). Another great example of how simple rule changes can add so much to the narrative of your games.

The first game was against Inquisitor Preod Levat, Wayward renegade of the Ordo Malleus, Slave to Tzeentch, and eternally marked by warpfire (aka Steve) and his warband. The sneaky Eldar snuck up behind two unsuspecting acolytes, only to miss all of their shots and do absolutely nothing. Steve's scatter die was on fire, and his plasma cannon servitor made good use of it against Ziggy's hapless, probably drunk retinue. It ended with Hoof locked in combat with the Inquisitor, and Ziggy hiding behind his Chimera. Steve took this one 9-4. 

In the second game, against Puritan Inquisitor Thalomin Montus (aka Kevin), Inquisitor Schmidt couldn't hide behind his Chimera because it was melta'd into a crater on turn one. Once again, Hoof charged into the middle of the Inquisitor's house and wrecked the place. On the last turn, he knocked Inquisitor Montus back and chased down a poor acolyte to grab a booby trapped objective. He survived, bleating at the moon. Kevin won the game 10-7.

Big thanks to Steve and Kevin, Mike for running the show, and Endgame in Oakland for being such an incredible LGS. I'll post a story for one of these games when I get a chance. Enjoy the pictures below.

Until next time!

Game One

Lost, 4-9

Sneaky Eldar. The surprise is that they are terrible shots

Epic!!!

Game Two

Lost, 7-10

Pre-melta Chimera

Post-melta Chimera

"Baaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

Ziggy and the Eldar from Mars

Currently, I am playing in the Inquisition War campaign at Endgame in Oakland. In order to sign up, it was required that players write some background fluff for their Inquisitor and his retinue. Enter Radical Ordos Xenos Inquisitor Zigfried "Ziggy" Schmidt and his motley crew.

(L-R) Loki, Xavi, Inquisitor Schmidt, Jordi, Hoof, and Charlie

The campaign is based on on two meetings per month. One is a weeknight Kill Team event, and the other is a Saturday 1500-2000pt themed game. This week is the Kill Team event, so I thought I would let you all get to know Ziggy, Hoof, and the Starborn brothers. Below is the 250pt Kill Team list, and the background story I wrote for them on 40k Fight Club. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as they enjoy getting slashed to bits by Grey Knights!

The List

Ziggy Schmidt, Radical Ordos Xenos Inquisitor (98)

-  Pysker w/ Combi-Melta, Power Sword, Rad Grenades, Power Armor 

Loki Starborn (41)

- Ministorium Priest w/ PW & Shotgun 

Jordi Starborn (18)

- Acolyte w/ Carapace Armor, Flamer 

Xavi Starborn (13)

- Acolyte w/ Carapace Armor, Hotshot Lasgun 

Hoof (15)

- Crusader 

Charlie (10)

- Daemonhost 

Chimera (55)

- Multi-laser, Heavy Bolter, Smoke Grenades

The Story

::INCOMING MISSILE, T-MINUS 60 SECONDS TO IMPACT:: 

"Space flight is the f****** worst!", Ziggy screeched. He was beginning to feel very claustrophobic. "Why are these belts so TIGHT!". The Inquistitor was in a bad mood. Most people would be in a bad mood if their ship was being piloted by Loki Starborn,the Corsair "King" of the Crucis Sector. Being shot at by Imperial Crusiers wouldn't help, either. 

::INCOMING MISSILE, T-MINUS 30 SECONDS TO IMPACT:: 

The ship jolted quickly to what felt like the left. "Grace under pressure, Ziggy", the corsair yelled, "B**** like that again and I'll be tempted to turn into this thing". 

Ziggy shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Loki was good at many things, and great at a few. He was great at pissing off Inquisitor Zigfried Schmidt. 

The other Starborn brothers, Jordi and Xavi, were busy punching away at the controls of the ship, shouting at each other over the whirls and hums of the ancient escort. They had done this together thousands of times, but normally they were running exotic drugs or bandit kings. The Ordos Xenos Inquisitor made them nervous. Most people wouldn't have noticed their nervous twitches, or the sing-songy way they spoke to him. But, most people haven't studied aliens since they were ten. 

Ziggy's head slammed against the headrest as the ship pushed upwards. A loud boom, followed by a bunch of rattles, hums, and whines, then stillness. 

::IMPACT AVERTED, IMPACT AVERTED:: 

Suddenly, a gigantic beastman burst through the door to the bridge. He had vomit all over his chest. "You pointy-eared s***!", he bellowed. "If you do that again I'll rip your face off!". The Starborn brothers looked at each other with coy smiles, then started laughing. The beastman lowered his horns, but was quickly stopped by the Inquisitor. "Easy, Hoof. That pointy-eared s***. just saved your mutton!". More laughter. Hoof examined them all with evil yellow eyes. 

"Fine," he mumbled, "Just try not to rock the boat when I'm hungover". 

"I'll do what I can, goat boy." Loki smirked. 

"Bite me, elf". 

The claxons blared, red lights flashing. Ziggy turned to Loki, "Just get us out of here!" 

::INCOMING MISSILE, T-MINUS 60 SECONDS TO IMPACT:: 

Inquisitor Schmidt and Hoof grabbed seats and buckled themselves in. The beastman turned and said, "I'm going to rip his arms off". "When we land, you can rip his arms off when we land", Ziggy interjected weakly. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "This is the last thing I...". As he spoke, the ship banked quickly. It felt like down, and to the left. Before he could orient himself, Hoof turned his head and threw up on the Inquisitior's lap. The beast smiled sheepishly. "... need". The Starborn's laughed. 

::INCOMING MISSILE, T-MINUS 30 SECONDS TO IMPACT::