Badaboom!

And so I took myself back down to Warhammer World for a second day of playing Combat Patrol as part of the Badab War narrative event run by Arbitor Ian's YouTube channel.

The war was heating up and things were about to explode...well the game sizes and turn lengths were, at any rate.

The second day saw me being involved in two four player games, essentially using the doubles format, with scenarios reflecting specific actions in the Badab War.

Despite liking the game so far, I'm not sure how well Combat Patrol doubles up in this way as we came across a few rules interactions which became a bit too powerful when applied to two armies at the same time.

However, fun was had nonetheless.

Game 4 - The Vyaniah Raids

The secessionist world of Vyaniah was a hub of shipping for the war efford, defended by the Astral Claws, and as such became the target of  raids by the loyalist forces. But the Astral Claws were not the only defenders, and the raids were hampered by the emergence of a new threat - the Tyrant’s Legion!

This game saw my Astral Claws defending the Vyaniah orbital defence batteries against a raiding force of my old nemeses the Minotaurs and the Howling Griffons.

To bolster the lines I was joined by the somewhat numerous Tyrant's Legion who had the benefit of a scenario rule that allowed their destroyed units come back on from reserve.

Therefore the defending forces under the command of myself and Clarkie were:

Astral Claws

Corpsetaker Apothecary and 2 Servitors
10 Tactical Marines
5 Devastator Marines
Dreadnought

Tyrant's Legion

Command Squad

10 Shock Troops

10 Shock Troops 

Field Ordnance Battery

Armoured Sentinel

However, intent on overrunning our positions were the somewhat familiar forces controlled by Andrew and Will, who I had played yesterday.

Minotaurs

Captain in Gravis Armour 

3 Bladeguard Veterans 

5 Helblasters

10 Intercessors

Howling Griffons

Captain in Terminator Armour

Librarian in Terminator Armour

5 Terminators 

5 Infernus Marines

The Loyalists had the first turn and advanced upon our lines and the Minotaurs' Helblasters somewhat predictably started to bully my Devastators as they had yesterday.

Return fire on our following turn did reduce their effectiveness, but I remain somewhat traumatised that across two games Andrew didn't fail a single hazardous check for his plasma guns.

On our right my Dreadnought and melee troops advanced towards a rematch with the Minotaurs' Bladeguard.

The second turn saw Clarkie use a strategem which slowed the enemy advanced and stopped them charging. This is the one that felt a bit too powerful in a larger game as it affected both enemy forces and benefitted me significantly in a way no other strategem could.

However, Will brought his Terminators in anyway, but these were in the mid-table area as we had used our numerical advantage to screen out our deployment zone.

Withe the enemy unable to charge, the Astral Claws took full advantage and the Dreadnought ploughed into a squad of Intercessors, obliterating them, whilst the Corpsetaker and his compatriots brought down the Minotaurs' Captain and braced for the counter charge from the Bladeguard.

However, when it came, the Dreadnought was able to use a heroic intervention to get into combat, but could not stop the Corpsetaker from being killed.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, a thin silver line of Tactical Marines took heavy casualties from the Infernus Marines, but served to hold up the advance towards our deployment zone.

Eventually, the Terminators were able to charge and drive back the Shock Troops, but could not capture the objective due to clever use of a flag.

Ultimately, the Loyalists couldn't close the gap that had been caused by the Tyrant's Legion (Astra Militarum) secondary objective which allowed us to score points for keeping the enemy out of our deployment zone.

Again, this felt a bit much as usually they would be holding the line with squishy humans rather than power armoured Space Marines, and so it felt like Will and Andrew had walked into a perfect storm.

Secessionists 51 - Loyalists 35

Game 5 - The Fall of Surngraad

The Raptors’ taking of the fortress of Surngraad was a stroke of tactical genius. Raptors forces were landed hundreds of km away from the 

fortress, and marchd through frozen blizzards to take the defenders unawares. The Astral Claws garrison was misdirected and confused, and 

once the Raptors took the citadel, their allies in the Salamanders could teleport heavy assault elements in to finish the job.

Once again on the defensive, I was joined by some Astral Claws veterans (in every sense of the word, there were some extremely old models in play) commanded by Nathan.

The scenario saw Ben's Raptors trying to capture an objective to allow Simon's Salamanders to teleport in and catch in a vice.

The Secessionist forces defending the citadel, and spread out as much as possible to prevent shenanigans, were as follows:

Astral Claws Garrison

Corpsetaker Apothecary and 2 Servitors
10 Tactical Marines
5 Devastator Marines
Dreadnought

Astral Claws Veterans

Captain in Terminator Armour

Librarian in Terminator Armour

5 Terminators 

5 Infernus Marines

Meanwhile the infiltrating enemy force that began the game consisted of:

Raptors Infiltrators

Captain in Terminator Armour

Librarian in Terminator Armour

5 Terminators 

5 Infernus Marines

However, the attack got of to a somewhat limp start as after lighting up the Dreadnought and dropping it to just two wounds, both the Terminators (with the Librarian) and the Terminator Captain failed to charge into contact, despite both units being able to reroll. The Terminators rolled snakeyes twice!

Needless to say l, this reprieve for the Dreadnought was about to be exploited as it and the Veteran Terminators charged the Raptors elites and cut them down to a man.

Meanwhile, the Corpsetaker's unit cane under metaphorical and literal fire as the Infernus Marines bathed them in flames causing significant casualties.

In return, half of the Raptors unit was cut down in close combat.

On the second turn, success on a different table saw reinforcements dropping in all over the board:

Salamanders

Captain in Terminator Armour

Librarian in Terminator Armour

5 Terminators 

5 Infernus Marines

Whilst the Terminator squad arrived on one flank, looking to avenge the Raptors, the Salamanders Captain sought out his opposite number in a duel that would ultimately see the Astral Claws commander come out on top.

The Infernus Market nes demonstrated the Salamanders' vaunted skill with flame when they beat the Devastators to the punch and used overwatch to kill half the unit.

Unfortunately, the return fire inflicted similar damage in them.

The second Terminator on Terminator clash was initiated and getting the charge was proven once again to be crucial as the Salamanders had the better of the exchange.

That was until the Dreadnought piled in, killing almost the entire squad across two rounds of combat and although the reverted hero ultimately succumbed, when the dust settled, only the two Librariand were left standing.

Targetted fire brought down the last of the Loyalist Infernus Marines, leaving just the Raptors Captain and the Salamanders Librarian in play.

Whilst battered, the remaining Astral Claws were more than enough to prevent the enemy from catching two of the three objectives, meaning that victory was assured and rendered the secondary objectives both sides had scored somewhat meaningless.

This game was defined by Ben's hideously bad luck with his charge rolls on his first turn, causing the Loyalists to lose a third of their forces without reply. Ben and Simon fought well to keep the game in doubt despite that.

Secessionists 58 - Loyalists 19

With a second victory complete, my tally for the event was 3 wins, 1 draw and a loss. I definitely feel the beneficiary of circumstances that were nothing to do with me for two of those results, but it's still a better ratio than I've had in most versions of 40k that I've played.

As my results were part of a larger campaign, I'm not going to reveal the overall result of the weekend. You'll need to watch Arbitor Ian's next Tale of Four Badab Gamers video to find out the fate of the sector.

As for me, well I set a resolution to get out more this year and this weekend proved why. I met some really nice people and played some really fun games. The next Badab War event will be sometime in the spring, so I'm going to see if I can make it.

Is Combat Patrol an enjoyable format? Yes, very much so. Does it work as a doubles game? I'm not sure, both games overran significantly. Am I now hooked on 40k 10th edition? The jury's out as I probably have to play a couple of larger games before I can commit to an answer.

Nevertheless, I've had a cracking good time, and that's what matters.