Scourging of the Belphagor Cluster - A Casual's review
'Primarch's are a Problem'
The first weekend of April, myself and two others from the group took a trip up to Newcastle to play in a 4-game Narrative weekend. And that means I should do a little write-up about my experience at the event. Especially since it’s been a while since my last post.
About the Event
The Scourging of the Belphagor Cluster was the first event ran by the guys from November Echo Wargaming (Shortened to NEW) that I’ve atteneded. It was not there first event, and the guys running it aren’t new to events in general as they are regulars, at least at those hosted at Warhammer World. So with that in mind how did the event run and how did they manage it over the weekend.
In short, really well. I’ve been to other events where I’ve come away at the end of and thought ’no, I don’t want to do that again’. That is not the case with this one. Let’s break down how the event flowed over the course of the weekend, and hopefully that will help explain why.
Vaguely a Team Event
Unlike some other events, the main focus of the Scourging was taking control over 7 planets in a cluster. Each round the Loyalist and Traitor teams would decide where to send forces in an attempt to capture these planets, with some requiring 3 wins whilst others would need 7. If a planet was held, that faction would gain a bonus. For example, one of the worlds the Loyalist forces focussed on in the first round gave a benefit of ‘Seizing on a 5+’. So the benefits of claiming a planet had an impact on the games you would play over the rest of the weekend. Additionally if a Faction wholly controlled a planet at the end of the first day, they would control it for the second day. Effectively denying that world to the other side.
Each round, each team would be pulled to one side by one of the EO’s, and a group consensus on where to attack, where to defend would be decided. As players, we’d then write the names of the planets we were fighting over onto our results slip and then go play games. So it didn’t matter if I was on an industrial world and my opponent had a different world that they were attacking/defending - what would matter was who won/lost as that added towards the results for the planets each Faction was fighting over. A really nice and simple thing to manage.
Did I mention that this team discussion happened every round, with an update on what worlds each side held or were contesting. And that there was graphics that you could see being coloured in for either side that you would pass multiple times during the day, giving you that feeling of being involved in the conflict. It may seem like a minor thing, but in comparison to an event where you get a narrative brief on the 1st day and then no real update until the closing ceremony on the 2nd, this felt involved.
No notes, this format of Narrative event is one that I’ve been to a few times and it is nearly always a good format. This one was absolutely solid, well displayed, and I’m going to use that word again, but made the attendees feel involved.
What About the Gaming Space?
The event was hosted at Northern Alliance Games, a short walk from the hotel we were staying in West Jesmond and not that far from the city centre. Two floor, near chest-high tables with a a good amount of terrain1 that covered 15-16 tables including a 12’ x 8’ Doubles table off in the corner. Snacks were available and with the location it meant grabbing snacks from nearby businesses was an easy option over the weekend. Only complaint was the lack of stools or seating during games which meant most people spent all weekend on their feet. But for location, amenities, cleanliness and the tables themselves it’s a really solid gaming space. Would go back to.
The Games What I Played
The Unbroken Vow
Seeing as this was a Narratively focussed event where named characters weer available but limited to first come I decided I wanted to play something that’s a bit of a novelty. And arguably the worst of the Dark Angels specific Rites of War: Unbroken Vow. It did not do well. We’ll get to that.
# Unbroken Vow Rite of War
Corswain & 9 Companions
Herald
Esoterist
1x 5 Inner Circle Cenobium Knights
1x 10 Deathwing Veterans with Apothecary
2x 15 Deathwing Despoilers with Apothecaries
1x 10 Deathwing Assault Marines
1x 5 Deathwing Plasma Cannon Jetbikes
3x Land Raiders (for Corswain, the Veteran's and the Cenobium)
1x Knight Lancer
The benefits of the Rite aren’t terrible, you can have Veteran’s as troops but they don’t gain Line. Instead they gain Heart of the Legion which can make them really tough to shift. Deathwing Independent Characters also gain +1A when within 12" of an objective, of which you need to add an extra one to the centre of the table2. The downside is that at the end of the game if you (the DA player) don’t control this bonus objective, your opponent gains between +1 and +d3 victory points at the end of the game. This is why it is so disliked in a system where Line units are fairly sparse3, you will nearly always give up VP’s at teh end of every game.
How Did It Play?
Overall I’d say the list had one good game over the weekend, two alright games and one actually bad one.
Game 2 - Vs Traitor Iron Hands + Allied Mech.
This was not a good game for me. The scenario was 3 objectives that pinned you if you chose to score them. Not bad considering the scenario allowed you to Un-Pin at the beginning of your next turn, so it only really affected what you could do with them during your opponents turn. A solid mission, love the idea. The problem? My opponent didn’t know his army, or around half of his rules. So there was Iron Hands Castallax that had a Techmarine join it, there was confusion on a Moritat having Get’s Hot or not, after dice were rolled. I had to, numerous times, find one of my rulebooks and walk my opponent through how his units played and what the option were. And these are the notable ones, there were others. This was a hard loss for a game, and not one where I think I was as pleasant to play as I try to be.4
End of Day 1 - The Quiz
After a certainly frustrating afternoon we stayed around for the quiz. Of which we kind of nailed, that might have been because all of the rules questions covered things that at least one of us had played in the last year. We even have the trophy to show for it.
Game 3 - Double Trouble
Billy, one of the lads that I had traveled with for this event, had brought a Warhound Titan along with Scoria and his Dark Mech. Thankfully the other DA player at the event had also brought a Warhound, so we had bit of fun on the Doubles table. And Billy was joined by those well known Traitors, the Salamanders(?).
The scenario may not be in the Event Pack linked above, but there were 6 bunkers that you could score at the end of the game. Any unit controlling a bunker would still be shot at, and any combats would be fought ‘at the door’. NEW was trying to make fortifications matter in a game, without needing to use the fortification rules.
With it being a 4-player game, over a 12’x8’ table, not much happened to start with apart from the two Titans taking pot shots at each other to drop the shields, and then just blowing up any Line infantry unit that it could see. My Lancer got jumped by a Decimator, survived that and fought a mostly wounded Contemptor before, again, getting blown to pieces. WS4 vs WS5 is extremely problematic on a Knight5.
Corswain fought some Terminators, my Veteran’s fought a pinned Flame Support squad so they didn’t have to take the Overwatch of 10D6 S5 free Flame hits. Both Warhounds survived the game, which was a shame.
And it turned out to be a Loyalist victory, which was a bit of a surprise.
Now I do have a comment on this game that is something I talked to Derek (one of the EO’s) during and after the game. We don’t mind people popping their head in to see the big game. However when people have finished there game, and spend the duration of the Doubles talking rules and interrupting the game throughout, that’s a problem. I don’t think any of the four of us that were playing that game actually got time to take lunch of anything more than a cookie and a drink because of how long these kinds of game stake, and the disruption didn’t help. That’s not a note against the EO’s though, just something that is a problem when you get into large games at events like this. We left them some feedback at the time because running a Doubles game as an option is still a good thing and was still a very enjoyable experience.
Game 4 - Vs Dark Mechanicum + Allied Iron Warriors
I’ll own this one, I lost on Primary Mission selection from the beginning of this game. This was Mission 4 - Forces Unleashed wheer prior to the game we would each select 2 Primary Missions to attempt during the game. I chose:
- Capture the Flag - If you control the objective in your opponents deployment zone AND the objective in your own deployment zone, at the end of the game, score 5 VP
- Glory Hunter - For each challenge issued score 1 VP. For each challenge won, score and additional VP (the challenge must be won by the participants, spill over damage or sweeping advance does no count for this)
Look up at my list again, these are not bad choices to make. Except when playing into 2x 5 Volkite Myrmidons, 3 Heavy Bolter Rapiers, Thallax, Thanatar, 3 Decimators and the Ordinatus Drill to deliver them. The Allied Iron Warriors being a Master of Signal and Tactical Marines. They chose to gain Vp’s for progressive scoring objectives and for every infantry unit they destroyed, both good choices in a game with 5 objectives and against someone playing mostly melee infantry. I did not score a single point in this game, and that really comes down to having made the ‘interesting’ choice that fit what I was playing and not the correct options to actually win the game. That all being said, it was a pleasant enough game. Decimators really are as good as most other Dreadnought units, and 3 of them arriving via a form of deep-strike that allowed them to charge in the same turn makes them incredibly deadly.
This was also a fully converted Dark-Mech army that, although not my tastes, did win Best Traitor Theme force for obvious reasons.
Final Score? - 3 Losses, 1 Win (and I was really only an ’extra’ in that game).
Event Wrap-Up and Thoughts
That was the weekend. 3 honestly good games, one bad one. 3 losses, of which only one was due to the Rite of War I was playing. But I wont be playing that list again outside of ‘kitchen table Heresy’. Not because I don’t like the theme, or the models, or don’t want to show off the standard I’m at after rebuilding and repainting the Legion over the last 6 months.
But because, even at Narrative events, players gravitate towards the good and efficient options. Both Mech lists had a Thanatar Calix, some people running Primarchs were running them with Herald, Chaplain and 10 Terminators (or similar big death-balls). There was a Stone Gauntlet with 40 Phalanx Warders with attached Apothecaries. Lots of WS5 or better units, lots of efficient anti-infantry. There may only have been one player with a 10-man Lascannon squad, but that didn’t mean people were bringing novelty units that you wont see on the table.
And that’s an Edition issue, especially at this point in an Edition’s life. we all know what the good and bad options are, and we’ll gravitate towards playing the good because no-one wants to lose the games they play. Which is perfectly fine and fair. But it means that players like myself, that enjoy some of those novel lists that are ’not good’, have to stop playing those and start looking at other options. For example I didn’t play a single Dreadnought in my list, but played against them in every game. Do I just start bringing them again, even though as a larger community we don’t want or like to see them across the table. It’s a tough decision, especially because one of my goals at events like this is to make sure my opponent has a good and enjoyable game, so there is a balancing act with how hard a list you play is and how enjoyable it will be to play against.
I have a Teams event next month to worry about, and then Throne of Skulls. And then Vardis in Leeds. Do I take something a bit nastier that allows me to punch back into tough lists, or play novelty again knowing that I’m probably going to end with a 1-4 or even 0-4 result, depending on whether it’s a 5 game or 4 game event.
I believe that a fair amount of the terrain was provided by the NEW guys themselves, which was amazing. ↩︎
Fun thing about this, depending on the wording of any scenarios you play this extra objective can be included in any progressive scoring rules. ↩︎
Unless you’re Monty and you turn up with 8 Line units ↩︎
I am aware of how I come across, and it’s an ongoing work-in-progress. ↩︎
Even if I broadly think the current WS chart is perfectly fine even with the gap that is WS4 to WS5 ↩︎
