Carthis Prime - The Imperium Strikes Back

This Good Friday I play host and umpire for 8 of my regular gaming mates.  This will see the next major event on Quintas Maelstrom's primary world.

Since the Battle for Carthis Prime in December, the Quintas Maelstrom campaign has been progressing at a steady pace.  Tau and Eldar forces continue to take worlds across the western sector hedging in the Dark Angels.  Ultramarines and Necrons move their forces through the eastern sector maintaining an uneasy ceasefire.

Killteams from these Empires have battled in ruined Forge worlds and through the ruins of lost civilisations to gather intel on the enemy and secure better transit for the greater armed forces of their races.

The different armies have met across the Maelstrom and come to blows upon unclaimed worlds, slowing the losers progress while the victors make small additions to their total force.

The Imperium lost control of Carthis Prime in spectacular fashion the last time everyone got together.  Now they return to push the entrenched Xenos forces from the planet.  The Tau have forged a truce with the Necron forces gathering about Carthis Prime and have negotiated the services of a renegade chaos marine force to fight back against the Imperium's loyal sons and daughters.

The Imperium races towards Carthis Prime with a combined force of Ultramarines, Salamanders, Black Templars, Adeptus Sororitas and allies from the Mechanicum's Knight Worlds.

Communications intercepted from both forces also report the presence of Eldar meeting with both sides...

So all players have been instructed to bring an 1850 point army each.  They are allowed to use an allied force, formations and Knights as long as they are approved by myself before the day.  After a morning of 1v1 games all players on a team will unite their armies and add an additional 1850 points for a massive 4v4 pseudo Apocalypse game.  The Additional points can buy Lords of War, further units from parent codex's ignoring FoC, Fortifications and Formations.  These must be checked by me before the day.

Here is how the teams look,

Imperium
Cody(Captain) - Ultramarines
Joel - Salamanders
Ryan S - Black Templars
Wil - Adeptus Sororitas

Xenos
Stu(Captain) - Necrons
Aaron - Tau
Ryan L - Tau
Alex - Chaos Marines

Here are the 1v1 games which the players have already been sent - the teams may choose who on their team plays what scenario.  Hopefully making tactical choices to better ensure victory and rewards for the big game.

Due to the fact that Xenos forces control Carthis Prime, the Xenos players will be the defenders in each scenario.

Table 1
Encounter at Relay Station Carthis 149/X
SPECIAL RULES - SLAY THE WARLORD, Night Fighting turn 1 only, Variable game length
The table will be divided into quarters.  The defending Xenos players quarter will have terrain representing as heavily fortified outpost, including a usable Quad gun and Icarus Lascannon.  The Imperial attacker will have the opposite quarter.
The Xenos defender sets up first then the Imperial attacker.
The Imperial attacker will go first unless the Xenos seizes the initiative.
From the third turn onwards Imperial reserves may enter from ANY table edge.
VICTORY CONDITIONS
At the end of the game the force with the greater number of SCORING units within the defending table quarter is the winner, alternatively once one side has no scoring units left, their opponent wins immediately.

REWARD

The Relay Station also contains control cogitators for a Void Shield Generator in the ruined capital city.  The winning players team gets a Void Shield Generator to use in the team game with a total of 3 projected Armour 12 Void Shields - see page 31 Stronghold Assault

Table 2
Battle across the Tharxian Plains
SPECIAL RULES - SLAY THE WARLORD, Roll for Night Fighting from turn 4 onwards, Variable Game length
The table will be played on length ways but deployment zones will be up to 18" onto the table instead of 24"
Each side must choose half of their number of units to be in reserve at the start of the game rounding up.
Roll to choose sides as normal.  The side which chooses their deployment zone sets up first.
Once setup roll to see who goes first, no seizing the initiative.
VICTORY CONDITIONS
Imperial - The Imperium's goal is to push through the Plains towards the ruins of Carthis Prime's capital.  For every mobile vehicle or scoring unit in the Xenos deployment zone at the end of the game they gain 3 Victory Points.
Xenos - The Xenos objective is to attack and contain the Imperial advance.  Every Imperial unit destroyed is worth 1 Victory Point.
REWARD

The winning players team gains a Comms Relay to use in the team game, Any player with an unengaged model within 2" of a comms relay can re-roll Reserve rolls for their Teams forces.

Table 3
Scour the Starport
SPECIAL RULES - Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Variable Game Length
The table will be setup to represent one of the derelict Starforts orbiting Carthis Prime.  "Empty" portions of the table represent space and can only be moved over by Flyers, Skimmers, Jump Infantry and Jetpack Infantry.  Jump Infantry must begin and end their movement
on solid terrain.
Primary Objective - There will be 4 objective areas on the table, they are worth 3 Victory points each.  A Player controls one of these if he has a non-vehicle model within 6" of it and there are no non-vehicle enemy models within 6" of it.
Secondary Objective - Planetary Defence Lasers, There are 2 Defence Lasers that can be fired at enemy forces on the Planet below.  A controlling unit may fire a laser instead of their own weapons in the shooting phase.  On a 5+ they hit an enemy target and score 1 Victory Point.
Hard Vacuum - The Atmospheric field generators are in poor condition.  Whenever you roll a 6 to wound they count as an AP2 hit.  Daemons, Necrons and Wraithbone units are Immune to these effects.
Reserves may enter from ANY solid starport edge, representing shuttles or other transports dropping them off.
REWARD

The winning players team gains D3+1 one shot Orbital Bombardments as per the Space Marine Chapter Masters rule to use during their shooting phases.  These can be used all at once or spread over multiple shooting phases.

Table 4
The Relic
This will use the standard Relic scenario from the main rulebook and all normal rules involved.  However in addition to the normal Relic rules when the Relic is first taken control of please roll on the Archeotech Artifact table on page 106 of the main rulebook, these effects if any will emanate from the Relic for the rest of the game.
REWARD
Whatever the Relic's Archeotech results in, it also contains a powerful Vortex weapon.  The winning players team gains 1 Vortex Missile!  In any controlling players shooting
 phase they may use the Vortex Missile.  It has Infinite range, Strength D, AP 1, Ordnance, Large Blast, Vortex - see page 13 Stronghold Assault - it can remain in play! ;)

TEAM GAME
There will be 5 Objectives worth 3 VP each spread out across the ruins of Carthis Prime's capital and a lot of Warlords on the table to slay.

I  have most of the lists in and they all look good so far.  I am really looking forward to this.

40k - Carthis Prime - Invasion

Last weekend I hosted a 40k get together with the local lads and some of the regular visitors.

It was a narrative team event where all victory points were added to a players team total.  This is the brief I sent out to the participating players.

Carthis Prime is a forgotten world on the fringe of the Ultima Segementum.  Carthis was once a populous world until disaster fell upon it's people. Overnight the cities of the world were torn apart, it's people vanished and the air itself was ruined with a toxic concoction causing it to be uninhabitable for centuries. 

Explorator teams from the Adeptus Mechanicus studied the world trying to divine what had caused this blight but if it was an attack or global disaster was never determined.  So Carthis was left abandoned for a very long time.  Eventually the Mechanicus installed massive atmosphere regulators on the surface.  Towering pieces of machinery which processed the trace toxins and finally brought Carthis back from its blighted torpor.

The Imperium has since deployed defence forces from the 'Hub' and installed minor fortifications on the surface and a Starport was built in orbit to sustain ships and troops moving through the region.

Now something on Carthis has attracted the attention of outside forces, be they xenos or human is unknown...

As we wanted to mix it up from the usual 1750 point games we play, each round was using different points and scenarios.

Some of the players were only available for certain rounds so I was to act as GM and fill in player where required.

So the Invading forces were

Ryan L - Tau

Aaron - Tau

Dan - Chaos Marines

Stu - Necrons

We figured the Chaos forces posing as Imperials would provoke the Tau into launching an attack on Carthis Prime.  Stu was available for the larger later game, so the Necrons reasons could be left up to the players.

The Defenders were

Ryan S - Space Marines

Alex - Space Marines

Cody - Grey Knights

All Imperial so a pretty straight forward alliance

KILL TEAM
Each player picks a force worth 200 points using the following FOC
0-1 Elite
0-2 Troops
0-1 Fast Attack

No unique units

SPECIALIST TROOPERS
Each player is allowed to pick 3 different models as being specialists.  Each player picks these models before the battle and assigns them a USR in the 40k rulebook.  For example Tank Hunter, Feel No Pain, Fearless, It Will Not Die etc  You may not duplicate special rules.

The 2 Tau forces commanded by Ryan and Aaron had very convincing wins against Alex's Marines and Dan's Chaos marines posing as Imperials.  That put the attacking forces well in the lead on campaign points.

GAME 2

SCOUR THE STARPORT
Its on page 350 of the hardcover rulebook if people have it, otherwise
Standard FOC 1000 points

 

Cody and Ryan S had then arrived for the Starfort Assault.  Both joined Alex on the defending team while Dan revealed his true allegiance and sided with the Tau.

All 3 starforts had areas of open space where only flyers or skimmers could move.  All to wound rolls of 6 were AP2 to represent explosive decompression.  All forts had a laser battery which a controlling unit could shoot instead of their own weapons, hitting either the planet or enemy fleet to score additional VP.

I allowed the teams to have a good look at the Starfort tables before hand and they independently decided who would play on which table.  I thought this was more interesting  than random table assignment as they could attempt to put their forces on suitable terrain and predict who they may end up playing.

Ryan L played Cody.  Ryan has kindly sent me a full report of his games including a couple quick snaps of the action.  I will share these soon.

 
Alex played Dan's CSM.  Dan's Helldrake was invaluable as it swept across the starport, purging the strongpoints and bastions of the defending marines.  Dan also took control of objective areas early and managed to hold onto them for a convincing win.  Alex had the laser battery and managed to score a hit on the enemy fleet.

Aaron played Ryan S.

Aaron deployed a lot of crisis suits and Broadsides in a central tower.  He did alright early on but the defending marines soon took control of the outlying asteroid objectives.  Ryan's bike star got stuck into the crisis suits and in the end the marines had a big win.

Ryan L had to head home after that and Stu soon arrived for the big Planetstrike game.  

GAME 3

PLANETSTRIKE - 1750 points per player
uses the basic planetstrike rules on page 8 in the PLANETSTRIKE book

Attackers FOC

Compulsory 1HQ... that is all
Optional - 2 HQ, 6 Troops, 6 Elites, 6 Fast Attack, 3 Heavy Support

Defenders FOC

Compulsory 1 HQ, 2 Troops

Optional - 2 HQ, 6 Troops, 3 Elites, 3 Fast Attack, 6 Heavy Support

They played over a 12'x 4' table with 5 bastions and fortifications set centrally by the defenders.  So each side had 5250 points in total.

The Defenders opted to leave a lot of stuff in reserve and crammed as much as they could under a central Skyshield and in the bastions.  After the fairly ineffectual firestorm the attackers came on in mass.  They took advantage of the central deployment and were able to concentrate fire on the entrenched defenders.  The defenders had bad luck and 3 of the 4 Land Raiders carrying some elite forces came on the most isolated board edge.  This allowed the attackers to easily take control of the fortress then hinder any reinforcements.  By turn 3/4 I think the attackers had destroyed every defending unit so a massive win to the Invasion force.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and look forward to continuing Carthis' plight.  I didn't end up playing at all, but that proved handy as I was able to remind and clarify the odd scenario rules during the rounds for the players.  It also kept the massive Planetstrike game running along in some sense of order.

So Carthis Prime has been lost to Xenos invaders, how will the Imperium react?  Did the late revelation of a Necron presence have something to do with its initial downfall?  Will the invaders maintain their uneasy alliance?