Moriartis
12-17-2012, 01:22 PM
Hey everyone,
I had an idea on an article based on what I've been doing with my hobby recently and I decided to pull the trigger and do a write up and see if you guys like it. I have no idea how one would go about making it an article or if that's even an option, but I thought it would be cool to put it out there and see if anyone's interested. Please let me know what you guys think. Here's the article:
Rewriting History
Warning: I am a “fluff bunny” and care more about the narrative than anything else, hence this article will appeal greatly to “fluff bunnies” and probably less to more competitive war gamers, take away from it what you can.
I am a huge fan of any storyline that has convoluted plot twists and surprises(with the notable exception of M. Night Shyamalan, someone needs to stop him). Nothing to me is more exciting than watching the new BBC Sherlock series or a movie like Ocean’s Eleven and trying to figure out what devious deceptions are taking place. This naturally leads me to be a BIG fan of the Alpha Legion. The trouble with this is trying to turn these devious deceptions into something you can actually have on the table top. So how does one go about creating these plot twists and flights of fancy?
Do you become a master of deception on the battlefield and trick your opponent into charging his fire warriors into your Terminators instead of rapid firing them or running to safety? Do you roofy your opponent by “buying” him a soda and knock his models over and declare victory? Well, tragically I’m not by nature this sly, devious, cunning or evil, so none of those will work for me(if they work for you, you have my envy). So instead I will do what the writers in the movies do: write the story backwards. My philosophy with my Alpha Legion is simple: whatever happened, it was exactly what my army wanted to happen. I have plans and schemes that you can’t even imagine and that you’ll never know until it’s too late. If I seemed to have been utterly annihilated, it’s because I had other goals or I’m laying a trap. So for each of my battles I take whatever happened and rewrite the context/history of the battle to fit some hidden agenda that my army must have had(they totally did, I just didn’t tell you).
I’ve recently had a couple of really small battles that were part of a slow grow league to get our armies painted up that I tested this out on. Even though the battles were extremely small and ended very poorly for me, writing the background and context for the battles was one of the most satisfying things I’ve done with my hobby in a very long time. It has enriched the hobby for me in a very real way and made me excited to play even the smallest of games. Here are the examples.
Battle Report 1: A display of my utter inability to lead an army.
In this battle, I took 5 chosen with plasma guns and two units of 10 cultists, one close combat oriented and one ranged. My opponent took a Talos and 4 incubi in a raider. We had altered force org charts due to the slow grow rules and he used them to his advantage, I did not. We had base objectives, mine was represented by an Imperial Commander, his was irrelevant because I was entirely on the defensive.
I had my chosen unload on the approaching raider only to lose a couple members to gets hot rolls without so much as scratching the raider. He bailed out, charged my chosen and began the slaughter. The Talos were charged by my cultists purely to prevent him charging me and resulted in all of my cultists being exterminated. The chosen eventually won out against the incubi due to overwatch casualties prior to combat. The game ended with 2 chosen firing at the talos and killing themselves with gets hot rolls. Overall a pretty “meh” game from an action standpoint, albeit with quite a bit of humor. It wouldn’t have been a terribly fun game, but thanks to common sportsmanship and the spin I put on the battle report, it was a blast. That being said, here’s my write up of the game.
Subject Moriartis Field Test
Studies of the virus confirm expected results on human hosts. Confirmation is necessary to see if infection will spread to Eldar physiology. Step 1 of initiation into Imperial society is authorized.
Objective:
Test virus in field on Eldar specimen to confirm results.
Secondary Objectives:
Infect Talos Pain Engine with virus to ensure spread throughout Imperial society.
Remove infiltrators from our ranks without causing suspicion amongst enemy as to our knowledge of said infiltrators.
Remove loyalist Imperial Commander by convincing enemy that he is an asset to Chaos.
Neutralize threat of Incubi cabal in area which could threaten success of further objectives.
Expected casualty rate: 100%. In order to leave the Talos intact with infection and remove infiltrators without arising suspicion, no operatives are permitted to survive the completion of laid out objectives.
Battle Report:
All objectives achieved. Cultists were able to infect Talos with Moriartis without sustaining any long term damage to the Talos. Cultists also aided in neutralization of Incubi cabal. "Chosen" were able to test Moriartis on Incubi, neutralize enemy armor and ensure that no operatives survived the mission, ensuring the elimination of infiltrators. The guarding of the loyalist Imperial Commander ensured the Dark Eldar assumed he was aiding Chaos. The Commander was taken prisoner and will be eventually killed by the Dark Eldar, threat has been neutralized.
Field test of Moriartis on Eldar physiology confirms that disease has no demonstrable effect on Eldar specimens. Disease is now satisfactory and field ready. Step 2 of initiation into Imperial society is authorized.
Battle Report 2: No amount of bad teamwork beats good generalship and spammy lists.
The second battle was a team battle. I was allied with a Death Guard player against a Space Wolf/Imperial Guard team. I took a unit of 20 ranged cultists and a unit of 5 Raptors with 2 Meltas. The Death Guard player took a small unit of Death Guard and a unit of raptors. The Space Wolf player took 2 fully kitted out units of Long Fangs, 1 with heavy bolters and plasma cannons and the other with missle launchers. The Imperial Guard player took a Command Squad and a Leman Russ.
The Death Guard player camped his Death Guard unit in a building and they never contributed to the battle in any way. His Raptors ran forward in the open and were obliterated by Long Fangs(he was understandably doom and gloom the entire game and wasn’t really trying). My cultists ran forward and drew fire from Long Fangs to prevent my Raptors from being wiped out. My Raptors ran forward using cover and killed the Leman Russ with a melta, assaulted a building with the command squad and one Long Fang unit in it, eventually causing the Command Squad to flee due to the building collapsing and then the raptors died trying to assault the Long Fangs thanks to a very lucky overwatch missle launcher shot. The battle was pretty much a complete massacre. The Death Guard player had no fun whatsoever. I however was extremely thrilled at getting to write another over the top justification for turning an obvious tactical blunder into victory through propaganda. Here’s the spin:
Subject Moriartis Implementation
Field test of Moriartis on Eldar physiology confirms that disease has no demonstrable effect on Eldar specimens. Previous field test of Moriartis on human subjects confirm disease functions as expected. Disease is now satisfactory and field ready. Step 2 of initiation into Imperial society is authorized.
Objective:
Infect Imperial Command with Moriartis, ensure infected survive battle without drawing suspicion.
Secondary Objectives:
Neutralize enemy armor.
Neutralize as many Space Wolf members as possible.
Expected Casualty rate: 100%. In order to infect the Imperial Command without arising suspicion, no operatives are permitted to survive the completion of said objectives.
Battle Report:
All objectives achieved. Cultists and local Death Guard "allies" successfully drew fire from Space Wolf heavy support to allow infiltration of Raptor unit loaded with Moriartis specimen. Raptors successfully neutralized enemy armor. Raptors then assaulted bunker with Imperial Command with a weaponized Moriartis grenade. Imperial Command fled the battle infected and were successfully extracted from the battle. Raptors proceeded in assaulting Space Wolf heavy support to throw off suspicion for not pursuing Imperial Command. Several Space Wolf heavy support members killed during encounter.
Disease is now spreading throughout Imperial society. Local spies are tracking the outbreaks to discover location of Imperial Tank Depots for use once destabilization of populace is complete. Estimated time to populace destabilization: 3 weeks. Impact of destabilization of planet on Imperial supply lines: catastrophic.
Step 3 of Operation Moriartis to commence in 3 weeks. Militarization of destabilized "population" will be seen as a product of the local Death Guard, leaving Alpha Legion involvement completely unsuspected.
So… where’s this Going?
So the idea here is that my Alpha Legion are spreading a Zombie Apocalypse through this region and it will conveniently be blamed on the Death Guard, leaving me the unsung hero(which is exactly how masterminds should do it, in my opinion). This also allows for me to add Imperial Guard allies as well as adding in some Death Guard/Plague Zombies into my list to spice it up a bit(thank you Mantic Zombie Corporation bundle deal). I have no idea what I will add after that, as it has everything to do with how the next battle goes and how I justify it.
So there you have it, I turned two generally crappy battles into a really cool story line(or at least I think it is) and have really inspired myself to do more.
So what are your thoughts? Am I just justifying being a terrible list writer/bad general, or have I come across something kind of cool/inspiring? Is this something you can/will use to spice up your games? Are the Alpha Legion the best “chaos” legion ever?(just kidding, we all know they are)
I had an idea on an article based on what I've been doing with my hobby recently and I decided to pull the trigger and do a write up and see if you guys like it. I have no idea how one would go about making it an article or if that's even an option, but I thought it would be cool to put it out there and see if anyone's interested. Please let me know what you guys think. Here's the article:
Rewriting History
Warning: I am a “fluff bunny” and care more about the narrative than anything else, hence this article will appeal greatly to “fluff bunnies” and probably less to more competitive war gamers, take away from it what you can.
I am a huge fan of any storyline that has convoluted plot twists and surprises(with the notable exception of M. Night Shyamalan, someone needs to stop him). Nothing to me is more exciting than watching the new BBC Sherlock series or a movie like Ocean’s Eleven and trying to figure out what devious deceptions are taking place. This naturally leads me to be a BIG fan of the Alpha Legion. The trouble with this is trying to turn these devious deceptions into something you can actually have on the table top. So how does one go about creating these plot twists and flights of fancy?
Do you become a master of deception on the battlefield and trick your opponent into charging his fire warriors into your Terminators instead of rapid firing them or running to safety? Do you roofy your opponent by “buying” him a soda and knock his models over and declare victory? Well, tragically I’m not by nature this sly, devious, cunning or evil, so none of those will work for me(if they work for you, you have my envy). So instead I will do what the writers in the movies do: write the story backwards. My philosophy with my Alpha Legion is simple: whatever happened, it was exactly what my army wanted to happen. I have plans and schemes that you can’t even imagine and that you’ll never know until it’s too late. If I seemed to have been utterly annihilated, it’s because I had other goals or I’m laying a trap. So for each of my battles I take whatever happened and rewrite the context/history of the battle to fit some hidden agenda that my army must have had(they totally did, I just didn’t tell you).
I’ve recently had a couple of really small battles that were part of a slow grow league to get our armies painted up that I tested this out on. Even though the battles were extremely small and ended very poorly for me, writing the background and context for the battles was one of the most satisfying things I’ve done with my hobby in a very long time. It has enriched the hobby for me in a very real way and made me excited to play even the smallest of games. Here are the examples.
Battle Report 1: A display of my utter inability to lead an army.
In this battle, I took 5 chosen with plasma guns and two units of 10 cultists, one close combat oriented and one ranged. My opponent took a Talos and 4 incubi in a raider. We had altered force org charts due to the slow grow rules and he used them to his advantage, I did not. We had base objectives, mine was represented by an Imperial Commander, his was irrelevant because I was entirely on the defensive.
I had my chosen unload on the approaching raider only to lose a couple members to gets hot rolls without so much as scratching the raider. He bailed out, charged my chosen and began the slaughter. The Talos were charged by my cultists purely to prevent him charging me and resulted in all of my cultists being exterminated. The chosen eventually won out against the incubi due to overwatch casualties prior to combat. The game ended with 2 chosen firing at the talos and killing themselves with gets hot rolls. Overall a pretty “meh” game from an action standpoint, albeit with quite a bit of humor. It wouldn’t have been a terribly fun game, but thanks to common sportsmanship and the spin I put on the battle report, it was a blast. That being said, here’s my write up of the game.
Subject Moriartis Field Test
Studies of the virus confirm expected results on human hosts. Confirmation is necessary to see if infection will spread to Eldar physiology. Step 1 of initiation into Imperial society is authorized.
Objective:
Test virus in field on Eldar specimen to confirm results.
Secondary Objectives:
Infect Talos Pain Engine with virus to ensure spread throughout Imperial society.
Remove infiltrators from our ranks without causing suspicion amongst enemy as to our knowledge of said infiltrators.
Remove loyalist Imperial Commander by convincing enemy that he is an asset to Chaos.
Neutralize threat of Incubi cabal in area which could threaten success of further objectives.
Expected casualty rate: 100%. In order to leave the Talos intact with infection and remove infiltrators without arising suspicion, no operatives are permitted to survive the completion of laid out objectives.
Battle Report:
All objectives achieved. Cultists were able to infect Talos with Moriartis without sustaining any long term damage to the Talos. Cultists also aided in neutralization of Incubi cabal. "Chosen" were able to test Moriartis on Incubi, neutralize enemy armor and ensure that no operatives survived the mission, ensuring the elimination of infiltrators. The guarding of the loyalist Imperial Commander ensured the Dark Eldar assumed he was aiding Chaos. The Commander was taken prisoner and will be eventually killed by the Dark Eldar, threat has been neutralized.
Field test of Moriartis on Eldar physiology confirms that disease has no demonstrable effect on Eldar specimens. Disease is now satisfactory and field ready. Step 2 of initiation into Imperial society is authorized.
Battle Report 2: No amount of bad teamwork beats good generalship and spammy lists.
The second battle was a team battle. I was allied with a Death Guard player against a Space Wolf/Imperial Guard team. I took a unit of 20 ranged cultists and a unit of 5 Raptors with 2 Meltas. The Death Guard player took a small unit of Death Guard and a unit of raptors. The Space Wolf player took 2 fully kitted out units of Long Fangs, 1 with heavy bolters and plasma cannons and the other with missle launchers. The Imperial Guard player took a Command Squad and a Leman Russ.
The Death Guard player camped his Death Guard unit in a building and they never contributed to the battle in any way. His Raptors ran forward in the open and were obliterated by Long Fangs(he was understandably doom and gloom the entire game and wasn’t really trying). My cultists ran forward and drew fire from Long Fangs to prevent my Raptors from being wiped out. My Raptors ran forward using cover and killed the Leman Russ with a melta, assaulted a building with the command squad and one Long Fang unit in it, eventually causing the Command Squad to flee due to the building collapsing and then the raptors died trying to assault the Long Fangs thanks to a very lucky overwatch missle launcher shot. The battle was pretty much a complete massacre. The Death Guard player had no fun whatsoever. I however was extremely thrilled at getting to write another over the top justification for turning an obvious tactical blunder into victory through propaganda. Here’s the spin:
Subject Moriartis Implementation
Field test of Moriartis on Eldar physiology confirms that disease has no demonstrable effect on Eldar specimens. Previous field test of Moriartis on human subjects confirm disease functions as expected. Disease is now satisfactory and field ready. Step 2 of initiation into Imperial society is authorized.
Objective:
Infect Imperial Command with Moriartis, ensure infected survive battle without drawing suspicion.
Secondary Objectives:
Neutralize enemy armor.
Neutralize as many Space Wolf members as possible.
Expected Casualty rate: 100%. In order to infect the Imperial Command without arising suspicion, no operatives are permitted to survive the completion of said objectives.
Battle Report:
All objectives achieved. Cultists and local Death Guard "allies" successfully drew fire from Space Wolf heavy support to allow infiltration of Raptor unit loaded with Moriartis specimen. Raptors successfully neutralized enemy armor. Raptors then assaulted bunker with Imperial Command with a weaponized Moriartis grenade. Imperial Command fled the battle infected and were successfully extracted from the battle. Raptors proceeded in assaulting Space Wolf heavy support to throw off suspicion for not pursuing Imperial Command. Several Space Wolf heavy support members killed during encounter.
Disease is now spreading throughout Imperial society. Local spies are tracking the outbreaks to discover location of Imperial Tank Depots for use once destabilization of populace is complete. Estimated time to populace destabilization: 3 weeks. Impact of destabilization of planet on Imperial supply lines: catastrophic.
Step 3 of Operation Moriartis to commence in 3 weeks. Militarization of destabilized "population" will be seen as a product of the local Death Guard, leaving Alpha Legion involvement completely unsuspected.
So… where’s this Going?
So the idea here is that my Alpha Legion are spreading a Zombie Apocalypse through this region and it will conveniently be blamed on the Death Guard, leaving me the unsung hero(which is exactly how masterminds should do it, in my opinion). This also allows for me to add Imperial Guard allies as well as adding in some Death Guard/Plague Zombies into my list to spice it up a bit(thank you Mantic Zombie Corporation bundle deal). I have no idea what I will add after that, as it has everything to do with how the next battle goes and how I justify it.
So there you have it, I turned two generally crappy battles into a really cool story line(or at least I think it is) and have really inspired myself to do more.
So what are your thoughts? Am I just justifying being a terrible list writer/bad general, or have I come across something kind of cool/inspiring? Is this something you can/will use to spice up your games? Are the Alpha Legion the best “chaos” legion ever?(just kidding, we all know they are)