The Shadow War begins...

Harlequins in the Underhive.

Finally we got in a game of Shadow War: Armageddon. Warfrog and I have been itching to play a game together for...well, way too long now, and we finally managed to get our schedules to align. Both of us are veterans of the 2nd edition era of Warhammer 40,000 and the 1st Edition of Necromunda, and Shadow War speaks that same language but with a few subtle variations. So we agreed to give it a shot.


I decided to give my Harlequins a go as they haven't hit a gaming table yet and the equipment they come with (Flip Belts and Holo Shields) gives them a special in game edge in the type of environments we tend to encounter in these Underhive games.  I pulled together a Harlequin Kill Team from the models I have been clowning around with off and on. I was a bit shocked with how quickly the points were exhausted during list building and with some of  the sacrifices I had to make as well. I arrived with a Leader, the Troupe Master,  with a monomoleculer  sword and a shuriken pistol, a Virtuoso with a Neuro Disrupter and a mono sword, a Trouper with a Harlequins Kiss and Shuriken Pistol and a Mime with no additional equipment other than his concealed knife and wicked ability to walk against the wind. -That's just 4 miniatures!

Warfrog had a similar challenge while creating his Tyranid Kill Team and ended up with only 3 models, however they have a total of 12 Wounds to my 5 Wounds. His Leader had q Bonesword and a Lash Whip, a Warrior with Scything Talons and a Devourer and a Weapon Beast with a Venom Cannon. Note that Warfrog's miniatures were not physically armed as he hasn't managed to get that far with his magnetizing project yet, but with the list this small we had no problem remembering these details.

Warfrog brought some of his old Necromunda terrain which we set up into an appropriate underhive themed kill zone. We chose the first mission in the book which is pretty much a straight up fight. I deployed and went first.

The Underhive and Deployment.

Zipping through the Underhive, dashing up ladders, across cat walks while avoiding incoming fire from the Tyranids, the Troupe made it's way into the realm of the 'Nids.

Maneuvering through the Underhive.

The Virtuoso took the first wound off of a Nid  using his Neuro Disruptor only to have it fail it's ammo roll. The Tyranid Leader and the Warrior jumped the Harelquins on the cat walk, and removed the Trouper with the Harelquin Kiss from the game. The Virtuoso and the Troupe Master soon joined the fray and the dance of death began and continued for many rounds.

Warfrog and I had a lot of fun re-engaging with these particular Assault rules. In the Necromunda games we played since 40k 3rd ed came out, the Assault phase was usually over in a round with combatants not being as specialized as our Tyranids and Harlequins in this fight were.

Melee on the catwalk.

Somehow, and in time, the Harequins eventually overcame and defeated the Tyranids, only to find the Weapon Beast, who had been shooting up the Mime while the others where locked in combat, waiting for them with his Venom Cannon primed and pointed in their direction.

"Now Space Elves, you face your final trial!"

The last few rounds of the game were quick and ammusing. The Sustained Fire Dice kept providing the Venom Cannon with many shots, that ment the Harlequins could do nothing but stand up at the end of their turn due to the pinning. Eventually the Troupe Master went Out of Action.

Crawling towards cover.

The Mime eventually rushed over to aid the Virtuoso only to fall victim to the same trap!

Finally, after many rounds of both of us passing Bottle Tests on or just under the number, the Harequins decided they had enough and fled the field.

Anyone familiar with Necromunda, Gorkamorka or Mordheim can attest to the post-battle phase where you determine if anyone gets stat advances, new skills or lingering injuries. Shadow War uses a similar, although stream-lined, system. My Troupe Master ended up with a head wound that resulted in him now having Frenzy. Reading over that rule this maybe more of a benefit for him than a hindrance but we'll see if this Team ever gets a 2nd game. I used my 100 points to buy some extra gear and to get my Troupe Master that Power Sword I wanted him to have from the get-go. Now it's just a matter of seeing if the locals only want to do one-off games or if we're going to allow a loose campaign to happen or not. Time will tell in regards to that, but for now, I can say that Warfrog and I had fun romping around the Underhive again.