It was supposed to be my Heretics’ big rematch… And it almost was!
Following on from last time’s rout, I completely rethought my Heretic warband (read: I bought as much shit and put it on as many bodies as I possibly could). I even used the two Glory Points I’d gained last time around and used them to bolster my ranks with Trench Dogs.
We also made a couple rules mistakes, the first being my Heretics using both a Bayonet and a Trench Club to perform melee attacks each turn – which is reflected in their equipment list below.
The Scenario we attempted was Hunt for Heroes, the table was a 4ftx4ft extravaganza of ruins and barbed wire (most of it handmade by yours truly, bar a couple WarCry ruins), the Warband values were upped to 800 ducats from the initial 700, and as seems to be the case in recent times, we were late to start because my toddler just wouldn’t go to bed.
Points in this scenario are scored by controlling the three objective buildings, taking out enemy Elites, and keeping one of your (secretly nominated) Elites alive through the end of the 4-turn game.
Here are the two lists we used:
Heretic Legion, Naval Raiding Party Variant, 12 soldiers, 2 of which were Elites, for a total value of 800 ducats and 2 Glory Points:
Heretic Priest (E) SMG, Bayonet, Trench Club, Standard Armour, Helm; 135d
Death Commando (E) Silenced Pistol, Tartarus Claws, Helm; 145d
Anointed Heavy Inf Heavy Flamer; 150d
Heretic Legio +1D Melee SMG, Bayonet, TC; 70d
2x Heretic Troopers SMG, Bayonet, TC 60d ea.
4x Heretic Troopers Bolt Action, Bayonet, TC 45 ea.
2x Trench Dog 1 Glory Point ea.
New Antioch, Stosstrupp of the Free State of Prussia Variant, 9 soldiers, 3 of which were Elites, for a total value of 794 ducats:
Lieutenant (E) – SMG, Sword, Axe, Rapid Assault; 113d
Trench Cleric (E) – SMG, Sword, Axe; 98d
Sniper Priest (E) – Automatic Rifle; 90d
2x Combat Engineer – SMG, Satchel Charge, Engineer Armour, Shovel; 120d ea.
3x Shock Trooper – Grenades, Sword, Axe, Rapid Assault; 63d ea.
Combat Medic – Knife 66d
For those of you who are more visually inclined, the video batrep follows.
For further tactics, thought processes, and a few more rules comments, I’ve written down a veritable trove of keyboard diarrhoea after the totally professionally made video package… Hope you’ll stick around and have a read!
Turn 1
After setup, which goes by very fast, with each player deploying one model in turn order, it became clear to me that Ian’s scoring building, on my left flank, in his third of the table, would take a lot of bodies to overrun.
Thankfully, I’d set up more than half my force on the corresponding half of the table, so it should’ve been easy to do that, eventually.
My plan was to take advantage of the Death Commando’s Infiltrator Keyword and deploy him right onto the centre building (Church), thus allowing me to get a couple first easy scores in, before the Stosstrupp could move in to challenge.
This worked out fine, but I also brought up one of the Trench Dogs, with a leaping 8″ move x2 in order to keep control of the main building while the DC went out haunting for Prussians. Mistake #1 – should’ve kept him in cover for longer.
While he did manage to take an Engineer out, I also forgot to use his Tartarus Claw ability to move him further into cover. And he also failed his Hide RISKY Action, which left him open to a threeway grenade party, which ended in plenty of Shrapnel and lots of harumphing as the DC did crap-all and was summarily taken Out of Action early in Turn 2.
Meanwhile, the rest of my Troopers on that side were pushing up, making one casualty, and getting ready to pick up the pieces from the DC’s less than stellar foray into enemy territory.
On the right flank, all was quiet, two of my Troopers moving up and scoring the ruined building on my edge of the table.
Score: 4-2 for the Heretics.
Turn 2
Somewhere between losing the DC and foreseeing myself well into the lead by the end of the second turn, I pushed my Heretic Priest up alongside the left flank Troopers, for support.
Mistake #2, as it would turn out. With every grenade the Prussians threw came a Hail Mary, and boy, was she in a good mood that day… Shrapnel hit big, eventually being a major contributor to me losing my Priest as well as the bulk of my left flank Troopers.
Thankfully, Ian’s midpoint assault was staggering a bit because of failed Climb rolls and some long range shots that didn’t do much damage. I also took out his Trench Cleric, for the second game running, which softened the DC loss just a bit.
Score: 10-8 with the Heretics still very much looking to make it one-all for the Campaign. Two, and four points a side respectively were scored for taking an opposing Elite out.
Turn 3
With the left flank all but scuppered it was time to focus on retaining the centre and hopefully stalling any incoming advance down my right flank.
I pushed my Anointed up the walkways that were precariously balanced above dangerous terrain (barbed wire) and took out Ian’s Combat Medic while also dropping his Lt. to nullify his Tough keyword.
The Anointed was then swiftly fired at by Ian’s Sniper Priest, but his -2 armour meant he would only be Downed.
I would have probably been able to take the Lt. out of action but for v1.3.2 of the rules stating that the player with the least amount of models on the table gets to decide who goes first each turn. With my superior troop count for pretty much the entire game, with a list built for superiority in numbers, I obviously thought this was some grade-A meta-christ bullshit.
Especially when the Lt. got up, then on halved movement traveled precisely the required amount of ground to Charge my Anointed in Melee, and subsequently take him out.
A glorious activation, to be sure, but hell to be on the receiving end of.
Down the middle, Boris the Bullet Dodger was soon to make a claim on the centre building, but for my Legionnaire and Trench Dog still standing firm and in control.
Score: 14-10, and it was time for me to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!
Turn 4
Finally, the battle collapsed on me from all sides. The left flank was but a distant memory, with a single Trooper still living and being able to take a shot off on that end, with no ultimate effect on the battle.
Down the middle, my defense was finally broken as bodies, both human and animal, fell to Prussian fire, with the Lt. literally bursting in through the window to help finally claim the Church for the mighty Stosstrupp.
A couple stray shots at Boris from my right flank stragglers, who couldn’t make it up a rampart if their master’s whips were at their backs, also did little in terms of the final tally. With just one building under my control I couldn’t do much to prevent Ian from making comeback player of the month. Twice.
Final Score: 16-17, the Prussians turning the building scoring on me 4-2 AND keeping the Sniper Priest alive for a final 3-point boost to win it all.
AAR
In spite of playing the lower-bodied warband, and arguably a scenario that didn’t favour his roster, Ian managed a nail-biting victory, decimating me in the process.
I’d like to restate that mistakes were made. These happened on both ends – not the least of which being my illegal melee loadout of Bayonet + TC, the Trench Cleric’s ignorance of his own Heretic-related Fear, or us misreading the rules on attacks against Downed models.
In spite of these mistakes, which tend to happen on your second ever game of a new system, I don’t believe the overall experience or enjoyment suffered in any way.
The core system flowed even faster than our first go of it, we had a lot more fun with using BLOOD MARKERS during most of the individual skirmishes, and the focused scenario added another layer of tactics that kept shining brighter and brighter as the turns wore on.
There were a couple more of the “I just hit your guy with a shovel over the head and somehow made him feel better” type interactions. As before, these happen when you spend BLOOD MARKERS in order to either hit or injure a model, and the end result is leaving it with the same (or fewer) BLOOD MARKERS than before.
One of these is commented upon in the video, when a Grenade thrown at one of my Troopers “duds” late in the game.
Neither Ian nor I were bothered by these or had our immersion broken in the process. Frustrated? Sure. Foiled? Definitely. But… c’est la jeu de guerre?
Still to come…
It might be a little while until our next game, but I’m looking forward to an increased ducat value (900 for the third game in a campaign), and actually putting together a more balanced list rather than “just throw EVERYONE at them and pray to Furcas”.
Plus, I’m definitely using that lone Glory Point I gained to make Fidos into a proper Hellhound. Complete with a Cerberus-y new model I’ll be scavenging from my old Hell Dorado lot.
We’re also looking to expand into various other factions, I’m personally really taken by Black Grail while Ian is considering some Romanian Trench Pilgrims…
the Tank Hunter Communicant miniature looks without his weapon.
We’re also aiming for a quaint little village scuffle for next time, because I haven’t been able to work on the trench system anymore.
Hope it inspires!
Cozzy
Gung-Ho Geeks 
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