Day three of this second edition of one post a day for a week. I don’t know why I always wait until the evening to start writing. It’s silly because I could start earlier, and it’d give me more time to write something compelling, but hey, as long as I end up writing the post, it’s alright.
Last Saturday I played a narrative game of Warhammer 40k with two buddies of mine. I’ve made a custom scenario, with a few custom rules and some improv’. It was really fun, and we’re gonna go over the custom scenario if you want to run something similar.
Pre-requisite
I suggested running a narrative game because it was the first time Justin, one of my friends, was going to play Warhammer with the Grey Knight combat patrol he just finished building. It was not enough for a standard game, and we thought it would be a good excuse to play an asymmetric three-player game!
We did a short inventory to see what we could bring to the game, and we ended up with ~1000pts of Sisters of Battle from me, ~750pts of Tyranids, ~1300pts of Necrons, and ~2200pts of Space Marines from Emmanuel and ~700pts of Grey Knights from Justin. We also had access to a good variety of non-standard terrain pieces that I have from other games.
With that in mind, I started cooking.
Planning the game
We had a weird mix of miniatures available for a narrative game. My first instinct was to maybe play a sort of last stand from the marines/ grey knight and assault them from all sides, but I didn’t manage to find an arrangement of points that was good enough for my taste. I didn’t want to mix Tyranids and Necrons in the same army, as it was too odd lore-wise, and a full force of Space Marines was way too lethal against the Necrons force as well.
So I started exploring the idea of playing two smaller games at the same time. Grey Knights could be on one table against the Tyranids, and on the other table I could have a small Marines force fight against the Necrons. I would be playing both Xenos forces, while Justin and Emmanuel would be playing the Imperium.
I also wanted them to end up on the same table at some point, and with their teleporting abilities, the Grey Knights were the obvious candidate to switch from one table to the other. As soon as I had this, everything fell into place, and my narrative game was ready.
On the big table (a full-size table for a 2000pts game), 1000pts of Space Marines would face off against 1300pts of Necrons. But I’d keep the big Necrons characters in reserve, and rely heavily on the basic troops. The Space Marines’ objective would just be to survive, so I told Emmanuel to bring a shooting list. I’d revive the smaller Necrons units on demand on this table to put pressure on the Space Marines.
On the second table (maybe half-size?), I’d put a small, disorganized force of Tyranids against the Grey Knights. They would ambush them, but without a lot of cover or any game plan. Justin would have to find a few relics in the ruins to be able to leave the table and deep strike on the main battlefield and reinforce the Space Marines.
At this point, hopefully both Imperial forces would be severely hurt. I’d then reveal the last Necrons characters with a final wave of bigger reinforcements, and we’d see if they managed to stay healthy enough to win this fight.
I also decided to give them each a few Sisters of Battle units as reinforcements around turn three to allow me to not pull punches at all since the Imperium side would be getting 700pts later in the game.
Creating the Scenario
If we were to play a narrative game, we needed some narration! Now that I had my rules, I created some lore to explain to both players what was about to happen and what they knew of the situation.
Here is the global overview:
Vesperan System… Planet Kharon IX
The planet is under attack. It’s now understood that Kharon IX was a Necron Tomb World, and they have awoken.
Necrontyrs have launched a massive offensive across the entire planet, but Kharon IX is heavily militarized, so a vast number of Imperial units were already in place and currently hold the line.
On Sector Gamma, a Necron structure is delivering a swarm of enemies and the zone is on the verge of falling.
A small Ultramarines contingent is on the way to help the planet. We also got word from the Inquisition that they had a few agents with business on the planet that would probably assist us in executing their goal.
I then prepared one briefing for each player.
Brother Captain Alaric of the 5th Brotherhood.
We received reports mentioning an old menace deep below Kharon IX. Our analysis detected a powerful Artifact in Sector Theta.
We do not know the nature of this artifact yet. We have to make sure it’s not warp-related, and we think it might help against the threats faced by the entire system.
Your mission is to secure this artifact, send your discoveries to the Brotherhood and, if possible, help the planet hold.
The Emperor protects.
Now the Grey Knights had their objectives: the artifact first, then help the defenders of the planet.
Capitaine Varro, 3rd Company of the Ultramarines
Your presence is more than welcome, Captain.
We are on the back foot, but the planet is not lost yet. Imperial forces still hold their positions in most sectors. Sector Gamma is on the brink of falling.
We need you to reinforce their positions and hold the Sector while we redirect available units and supplies there. This position is primordial for the logistics of the frontline.
Hold the sector at all costs. We cannot afford to lose it.
And the Space Marines also had their assignments.
At this point, I decided that the Sisters of Battle reinforcements would include only fast units, the ones that could have been redeployed rapidly. Seraphim and Zephyrim in the first wave, then an Exorcist and a Rhino. I also wrote a short message to read to them when the reinforcements arrived.
Capitaine Varro !
It’s an honor to fight alongside the sons of the Emperor!
We received news from the Inquisition. Another Imperial force led by Grey Knights is uncovering an artifact that could allow us to permanently disable the reanimators system in this Sector.
Our orders are to hold these positions and prepare a counter-offensive while they arrive.
Let the emperor guide our blades!
And that was it for the lore!
The game
We took a few photos, but we definitely need to take more for the next games, I’m not learning!! Especially since I want to write reports like this one!
The game went mostly like I planned. I got scared at first on the small table because I thought that I would not be able to deal sufficient damage to the Grey Knights, but then the Screamer Killer touched the Nemesis Dreadknight and dealt 9 wounds, leaving it with 4 remaining.
On the large table, the pack of Necron warriors was unkillable. The chronomancer, the overlord, and some strategems made it extremely tanky. The Heavy Lockhust Destroyers managed to kill the Gladiator, and the Skorpek Destroyers cleaned up two squads of marines before getting obliterated by the Zephyrims and the Jump Pack Canoness.
The Terminators held the line until the Nekrosor came, but they did their job, and the Sisters of Battle and Grey Knights swooped in to save the Captain at the last moment.
In the end, four Space Marines remained on the table, and the Grey Knight strike squad and Nemesis got wiped out by the Scarab swarms and the Ophydian Destroyers, but they closed the reanimators on Sector Gamma and managed to give time to the Imperium. Great Victory!
Final words
I’m definitely planning on playing more narrative games, and as usual, after a game like this I’m hyped up to paint my Sisters of Battle!
Next time I’d like to play with secondary objectives, and in a 2 or 3 game mini-campaign to raise the stakes. It felt a lot like DM-ing a TTRPG tbh, and I think there are plenty of things in common between the two. I’ll probably write another post completely on the narrative game because I don’t want to hijack this one, but there is more to say on the topic.