SKIRMISHES ON FORSAKEN WORLDS
Infestation A DEADZONE SUPPLEMENT
Contents
Credits 1
Concept & Game Design:
6
www.quirkworthy.com
• Veer-myn
8
• Enforcers
18
• Forge Fathers
22
Tim Jackson Arthur Monteath-Carr Mark Smith Gaetano Ferrara
• Rebs
26
• Marauders
30
• Asterians
34
Introduction
CONTENTS
Exham IV Deadzone Factions Elite Army Lists
Rules Development:
Additional Rules Development: Mike Early Pat Lewis Lee Montgomery Jonathan Peletis Shannon Shoemaker
Playtesting:
Campaigns Campaigns on Exham IV 38
• The Sack of Priory Station
41
• Missions
43
Nell Monteath-Carr Robert Grange Jon Peletis Ronnie Renton Leon Chapman
Editing:
Matt Gilbert
Exham IV Exploration Table Exploration Table
Jake Thornton
Additional Background Material: 48
Michael Grey
Cover Art:
Shen Fei Chan
Logo:
Luigi Terzi
Internal Art:
Dave Allsop Shen Fei Chan Roberto Cirillo Daniele Comerci Heath Foley Michele Giorgi Hai Hoang Luigi Terzi
Layout and Graphic Design: Francesco Volpe
Photography: Ben Sandum
Painting:
Leigh Buckett Dave Neild Chris Webb ©Mantic Entertainment 2016 Mantic, Deadzone and all associated characters, names, places and things are ® TM and © www.manticgames.com
containment protocol: infestation dormant and content, until a SanMar long range scout ship anchored itself over the world and tagged it as Category D planet fit for immediate exploitation, with a footnote for massive mineral potential. What followed was a bidding war in the most factual sense only possible within the GCPS. Conglomerate-busting bribes, persuasion teams, and even out-and-out warfare were used in the days before the almost instantaneous tendering system of today. In the end, a young and hungry Mi-Gan emerged with the sole lease to exploit Exham IV and its vast potential wealth. And exploit it they did.
Exham IV is well-known in the Galactic CoProsperity Sphere. Even among the hundreds of thousands of inhabited systems throughout GCPS space, Exham is one of a handful every schoolchild can name. In itself, Exham was responsible for the expansion into the Perseus Arm. Discovered on the cusp of what would become known as the third wave of human expansion, the rocky inner planets of the Exham star were the fuse that would see Mi-Gan become one of the richest corporations within the Sphere. In its formative years, Exham collided with another system, swallowing the errant star whole while their planets collided in an apocalyptical display of pure inertia. At least one exoplanet smashed into Exham IV’s surface, infusing its mantle with the dense concentration of the precious ore of two worlds, and giving the planet an almost solid outer shell of asteroids.
Tunnelers the size of ocean liners were rapidly constructed and plunged into the planet’s skin. Manpower was shipped to the new colony in the tens of thousands, lured with the promise of a more comfortable life, only to find even the meagre health and safety guidelines of Mi-Gan bypassed for the sake of its bottom line.
There Exham IV remained for billions of years. Cultivating and erasing complex ecosystems like millions of planets galaxy wide, it grew
1
INTRODUCTION
Settlements spread quickly from the initial survey sites, swelling out across Exham’s iron-red soil like an affliction. Within decades entire landmasses crowded with low grade housing, quickly running to slums of ultra-high concentration, until the worker’s ancestral memories harkened back to the uncramped apartments of Sao Paolo and Neue Berlin as some kind of spacious utopia. These accommodations were built directly over the mines Mi-Gan’s worker population laboured in, keeping manpower transit to a minimum. The scant air-quality regulations were conveniently lost under a sea of yield projections. Beneath the surface, seam after seam of ore was cleaned out; rhodium, iridium, palladium, iron, francium. All were chased and hunted down until the mantle was a honeycomb, more stagnant tunnel air than solid rock.
of GCPS space. Within days McKinley drives could take the military and executives to stars so distant as to be unknown a generation ago, but the bulk haulers which were the lifeblood of interstellar commerce needed fuel and supplies on their outward journeys. Journeys which took them within hauling distance of Exham. Above Exham, Priory Station was refitted; docking ports were added, habitation blocks restructured, faux-grav drives installed, and storage hangers expansive enough to refit stargoing vessels constructed. Its size mirrored its growing importance, until at 1.4 x 109 kg mass it officially became the largest man-made object in Sphere skies. Exham became the primary hub for any voyage to third stage space, until all a flight officer had to say was, “We’re going to Priory” for someone to know they were in for a long journey.
As each mine ran dry the pitheads shifted, taking the machines and people with them. Entire cities were abandoned, left to moulder in an ever growing industro-urban sprawl until not a scrap of the original ruddy earth could be seen. In a final indignity the seas were boiled away, exposing even more land, while the water was broken down into its component elements and sold when the pan-galactic resource market gave acceptable dividends. Not even the groundwater was spared as Exham’s earth was sucked dry, leaving the wind to blow oxidised red dust over every building, vehicle and smelting plant.
Over time, Priory Station’s importance to MiGan’s bottom line waxed as that of the planet below waned. Every day it arced over Exham’s sky, insultingly visible to those on the surface. Teasingly close, but unreachable for workers stuck on the planet-slum for their whole lives. To Mi-Gan these people did not register. They had the most lucrative and busiest port in the GCPS; a constant and unlimited credit supply to buy themselves a seat on the Council of Seven. Until Exham IV’s orbit was knocked outward from its sun.
From then on the importance of Exham may have been consigned to a footnote in history, a textbook example of how to leverage maximum profit for minimum outlay, were it not for an unforeseeable turn. As humans moved on to leave their footprint on ever more distant planets, Exham’s location became a natural stepping stone onto the ever-expanding boundaries
The culprit was a rogue planet. If Mi-Gan had not been headstrong, so focused on the winning the contract they might have completed their due diligence. They might have cross-referenced long term star charts, might have identified the nomad gas giant designated MJ-6674cK, noted
2
its long term circuit around the galactic sector, and how its passage could take it through the Exham system, across Exham’s IV’s path and pull its orbit a sliver away from system centre. Within a decade Exham IV slipped 0.3au away from its star. Barely a scratch in the galactic map, but enough to see what would have been an ice age had most of the surface water not been ionised. Exham went into deep freeze. Away from the equatorial band daytime temperatures scarcely broke into the positive. Shifting weather systems battered the surface, driving blizzards of frigid air between abandoned apartment buildings, coating everything in Exham’s red dust. The population fell. Deaths were in the millions from the official citizens. Among the poor souls cramped in the tunnels and decommissioned cities, the labour surplus as demand dropped, the numbers were so high as to be deemed not worth counting.
decision to compartmentalise the data to avoid panic spreading to the Station.
Entire manufacturing centres were shut down as fuel stocks ran low. Engines began misfiring in glacial temperatures, accidents saw operations drawn inwards to centralised hubs, leaving even further stretches of Exham hollow and empty, filled with nothing but frozen dust and the wind’s howl.
However, the concentrated use of the word ‘virus’ on Mi-Gan’s comm bands triggered the latent subroutines of the Council of Seven’s defence forces. When the words were cross referenced against the stress levels in the speaker’s voice an alert was sent to Corporation Central, tagged Magenta level critical. The closest Enforcer Task Force was alerted and a Recon Unit dispatched with Grounding and Containment protocols on hold pending investigation.
And the sound of scurrying. It was as the remaining citizens gathered around the controlled profit centres; the remaining smelting plants and the sole spaceport to Priory Station; that the bleeding sickness struck. It came without warning, coursing through a tightly packed populace huddling three families to an apartment.
By the time the Recon Unit, ID designate P126-12, arrived at Exham two cycles later another 150,000 people had fallen to the bleeding sickness. 6-12 arrived on a planet virtually abandoned but for the concentric bands circling the remaining spaceport. Millions frantic to leave the planet crowded into areas designed for thousands, held out by the equally desperate ring of Mi-Gan Marine Corps. To all purposes Exham was derelict, a planet waiting for its remaining inhabitants to die.
Mi-Gan moved quickly to protect their investment. Security cordons were thrown up around the last spaceport and immediately began repelling the riots of the sick and the desperate trying to get off-planet. The medicos on Priory Station set every expert they had to studying the sickness. The results found that it used a select agent similar the Lujo Virus of Old Earth, granting the highly contagious sickness a mortality rate of 80%, but only among the grown and healthy. Children, the aged and the frail shrugged off the virus, while other sufferers would quickly go into haemorrhagic shock, and drown in blood as their lung tissue broke down. But for all their effort, the experts on board Priory could find no hint of a cure other than to let the sickness run its course, and Mi-Gan made the
For 6-12, a veteran recon trooper with two decades of successful missions behind her, those empty industrial streets held similarities to previous missions which were too apparent to ignore. Virus pandemics were not uncommon in the GCPS, but the abrupt nature of the outbreak on Exham; its lethality, the unnecessary foulness of the deaths; bore the hallmarks of missions she had been on before. 3
INTRODUCTION
The city above ground was nigh-on deserted. Only the hopeless and mentally deficient walked between the derelict manufacturing plants and heavy machinery, and even then, the blasts of frozen wind desiccating the air finishing off the job the bleeding sickness began. Knowing she would find nothing among the abandoned heavy machinery, 6-12 descended below street level to the sewers, and immediately her suspicions were confirmed. Holes had been knocked upward from the extinct mining tunnels, too frequent and too ragged to be the result of erosion. Through those holes and into the tunnels beyond, even more evidence to support her suspicions; dirt disturbed by the passage of clawed feet, discarded bones gnawed upon by over-large incisors, and thin scratches along the walls; too purposeful to be anything but deliberate, and disturbingly similar to those she’d seen light years away, below the surface of other planets. The circumstances built up until the chance of coincidence was negligible. Following protocol, 6-12 left a vigilance control system to trigger if she did not return and moved towards the remaining spaceport.
The chance of such a potently virulent disease reaching Priory Station and spreading through the core worlds was alone enough for 6-12 to order an immediate Containment Protocol, but the sheer size of the Veer-myn brood was a danger in itself. If the brood splintered, confirming the elimination of all Veer-myn on Exham may be impossible. To increase the chance of mission success she would have to tag the Brood Mother; the dominant female around which broods were centred. 6-12 knew that would mean she would never leave those tunnels. Loading her rifle with tracer darts, she tagged the Brood Mother. The effect was instantaneous; the entire colony was roused at their Mother’s keening wail and, drawing on the brood’s group perception, focused on 6-12. In her last act she released a drone cloud to record the discovery and return to the vigilance control system.
6-12’s suspicions were confirmed with ominous speed. The shafts delved by Mi-Gan’s tunnelers had been excavated to the limit of structural integrity. They criss-crossed in intersections wider than highways, and disappeared kilometres underground until it could almost be called a city. And among the cavernous shafts creatures had indeed made their homes.
A Grounding Protocol was triggered. Instantly, nav data to and from Priory Station was severed. All traffic stopped, and shuttles in transit between the surface and the Station found themselves unexpectedly under manual controls. Unable to compensate many crashed, some into the station, some in the forest of asteroids around Exham, and some into the cities.
There were Veer-myn beneath Exham IV.
On Exham, having noticed the break in nav transmissions, a horde of Veer-myn erupted from beneath the surface. The Marine battalions guarding the spaceport were unprepared. Already reeling from the sudden loss of communications, they found themselves swamped from below as hundreds of Veer-myn Night-Crawlers sought to take control of the remaining launch facilities. Meanwhile on Priory Station, access hatches and air ducts burst open, and the Veer-myn smuggled up in ones and twos over months poured through, swamping Mi-Gan’s unprepared guards and sending the hundreds of visitors into panic.
She ran out of ammunition before she ran out of targets. P12-6-12’s drone cloud executed their final order, and 6-12’s last recorded moments were returned to the VCS and the files transmitted.
6-12 worked her way closer to the spaceport, and at a convergence of four tunnels hollowed out into a vast cavern she found reason enough to order an immediate Containment Protocol; more Veer-myn than she had encountered in any operation, a seething mass of thousands. Enough so the tunnel’s floor and lower walls were lost beneath their writhing bodies. The situation had become clear; Exham with its ultrahigh population had bred a Veer-myn colony of prodigious size. A colony which could perhaps have gone unnoticed forever in the swathes of empty cities, until the unforeseen onset of an ice age. It was then a choice of freeze or escape, and the Veer-myn had recognised the potential of Priory Station and acted upon it. Viral outbreaks had long been documented as tools of the Veermyn, and the bleeding sickness could only have been a first strike on the Mi-Gan troopers already struggling with a dying population in open revolt.
When the Grounding protocol was executed P12-6-12’s task force was already en-route, standard operating procedure to backup first contact recon units. The Drakon class vessel Terminal Intervention arrived with a full strike company of Enforcers. It ignored the panicked activity and impotent comms from Priory Station, and instead dispatched its drop ship, loaded 4
on Exham’s surface. The ship’s distress call was relayed through the now-crewless Drakon and then direct to Corporation Central, where, as per procedure when an Enforcer ship is shot down, a Containment Protocol was activated.
with the Intervention’s full troop compliment. Their mission; to confirm the possible threat vector identified by P12-6-12, and exterminate if necessary. The Enforcers’ insertion went to plan until the drop ship entered the asteroid field making up Exham’s outer orbit. Centuries of traffic around Priory Station had left the entire field in a constant state of excitement, with rocks the size of hab blocks in a perpetual uncoordinated dance. The Enforcer pilot was more than capable of navigating the almost solid shell of asteroids, and managed to do just that, until an unexplained explosion ripped through the ship’s hull, destroying its gyroscope and sending it uncontrolled through the asteroids. The fuselage was shredded and most of the troop compliment killed, punctured by dozens of hyper fast rocks. It was a testament to the pilot’s skill that any managed to survive the crash landing
Exham IV to all intents and purposes winked out of existence. On the ground, the remaining Enforcers were left in arctic conditions with limited supplies and no chance of immediate support. Their mission, however, remains. If the Veermyn were able to take the remaining spaceport and reach Priory Station they could spread their bleeding sickness throughout Second Sphere space, infecting billions. The Enforcers must eliminate the Veer-myn threat before they can reach the station and be lost among the stars of the GCPS.
5
FACTIONS
EXHAM IV DEADZONE FACTIONS
The crisis on Exham IV has brought death, disease and terror to both the unemployed ex-mining families living in the planet’s abandoned shanty-towns and derelict mine workings, as well as the travelling Executive-class businessmen caught on board Priory Station. It also brings opportunity for those brave, desperate, or foolhardy enough to seize it. This section describes the various factions fighting in the Exham IV Deadzone, and their motivations for doing so.
ELITE ARMY LISTS The Army Lists found in the Deadzone Core Rulebook describe the most common fighting forces found in the war-torn battlefields of the GCPS, and offer the most flexibility when making a Strike Team to fight in a Deadzone.
Strike Teams made using the Elite Army List. You must take the Character model; it will count as both a Leader type and Character type model during the game for any objectives or other rules that refer to model types. Like leaders from standard army lists, these characters have a recon value and an Army Special ability. These attributes are only relevant when the character is the leader of the Strike Team, not when they are a hired mercenary.
However, the galaxy is a big place, and within each faction there is often great variation in the leadership styles and composition of units within them. In Deadzone, these elite commando units are represented by Elite Army Lists.
In all other ways, the Strike Team is built in the same way as normal. Hire a leader, and a number of units. Unless otherwise specified by the army list, specialists and vehicles are restricted according to the number of troops as normal, although units that count as Specialist models in the standard Army List might count as Troops in the Elite army list (and vice versa). Elite Army Lists may not hire mercenaries with the Character model type, but may still hire Mercenaries of other model types, and are limited to one per strike force. Additional equipment is restricted by the total point size of the battle and the rarity of the equipment.
Using an Elite Army List to build your Strike Team works largely in the same way. The major differences are the units available when building the Strike Team. Many commanders favor certain styles of combat and strategies. As a result, they tend to prefer specific units over others. So while N7-117 is an enforcer, and theoretically has access to Peacekeeper units, they would not requisition such assets when given command of their own Strike Teams. As a result, when using these rules, you may only draft your Strike Team from those units listed in the chosen Elite Army’s list.
An Elite Strike Team is of the same faction listed in their title, for example, a Strike Team drawn from “Enforcer Elite Army List: Recon Unit N7117” is considered to be from the Enforcer faction.
When using an Elite Army List, the Character model in the list serves as the Leader for any 6
Elite Army Lists in Campaigns It is possible to play with Elite Army lists in campaigns as well. When using an Elite Army list in a campaign, the same rules apply to building your Army roster as for building your Strike Team, with a few small adjustments. Normally, Character models are not added to an army roster. This rule does not apply to the leader of an Elite Army however, so purchasing the leader puts him on the Army list permanently.
Additionally, the Leader of an Elite Army is immune to permanent injury and will never permanently die from injury. If the Leader rolls a Permanent Injury or Death result during the post-game sequence, their troops sink all of their available resources into saving them. You will forfeit any RP earned for winning or losing the game; though you will still earn RP for completing any non-Kill objectives and from the Exploration Table (and from the Exploration Table result) as normal.
7
THE VEER-MYN
Veer-myn forces
glands have been found post-mortem from female Veer-myn which are thought to release a dense concentration of hormones into the body, promoting the growth of the reproductive system found inside a Brood Mother.
Brood Mother There are many aspects of the Veer-myn which worry the Council of Seven. But the greatest concern is not the sicknesses the creatures spread carelessly, nor the ease with which they Brood Mothers’ bodies are larger than other can spread undetected throughout GCPS space; Veer-myn. Topping well over two metres, the it is that so far there has been no indication to Mother’s physiology is mostly in proportion to its what drives these clearly intelligent creatures. size, with the exception of its abdomen, which is Broods had been found to abandon their nests distended with the enlarged reproductive organs and migrate from one city to another, or to within. take residence on bulk haulers to jump planet completely for no outward reason. There was It is unusual to see a Brood Mother in direct no suggestion they’d outgrown local resources, combat. The purpose of conflict is usually to nor did the planet later suffer some cataclysmic protect her at all costs, as without her there is event* which would posit some group prescience. no brood. However in the direst circumstances the Mother may take to the field, urging her There was also a pattern to the supplies they brood onto feats of extraordinary savagery in took and the apparatus they would rip from machinery, a correlation which would not their need to protect her, and laying into any become apparent until the materials were turned enemy who come within striking distance with on their erstwhile corporation owners in ways the ferocity of a mother bear. more devious than even the foulest mind among them could devise. It suggested there was a *Except for the Continental Shearing Incident of deliberate intention behind the thefts towards a Axiom Secunde, however that was deemed to be anomalous. calculated purpose. It was not until the Auditing of Santa Catarina Sete when a Veer-myn nest was located, isolated, and gassed, that the question was believed to be answered. The result was the most complete specimen group the GCPS had yet seen, including a Veer-myn of a genus not yet encountered. What the scientists on Santa Catarina had discovered was a Brood Mother, and while they knew they had found the driving intelligence behind a brood, their wildest postulations would not come within touching distance of the importance the Brood Mothers played in Veermyn life. Brood Mothers are the matriarchs, the one binding factor relating every member of a Veer-myn brood, for it is through her that every member is related. That is not to say that the Brood Mother gives birth to each member of the brood personally. Instead there is a caste of females within each nest whose sole purpose is to aid the Mother in populating the brood. This serves the dual purpose of helping to support a larger population and also providing a measure of security, as it’s thought that when a new Mother is needed it is from this caste that one is selected. How is not known; however, 8
Physically, the Brood Mother looks like any other Veer-myn on a larger scale, although with a distended midsection where her organs are.
She is the very heart of the brood; without her, the nest does not exist. Because of this, her midsection has the best armour the Maligni can provide.
The release of hormones within a normal Veer-myn female to create a body capable of holding the swollen reproductive organs required to support an entire nest has augmented her size to a frightening degree, bringing with it great strength.
Her body is encased in solid armour, although it is manoeuvrable enough to allow her to strike with her powerful arms to any enemy that comes close enough, or escape swiftly if needs be. 9
THE VEER-MYN
Progenitors Because of the lack of solid data, there have been many far-reaching and eccentric theories surrounding the Veer-myn, their habits, abilities and social structure. Some of these theories have been supplanted as slowly more is learned of these creatures. One such theory which survived until only recently was that there was only a single male in the brood which bred with the Brood Mother.*
*The theory was replaced after evidence of exponential growth in some broods was proved to be impossible with a single breeding male. It is currently thought that an unto-now undiscovered caste of males are instead used as breeders, milked of their reproductive DNA until they die and are replaced by their own male offspring.
The reason why the hypothesis remained for so long was due to combat encounters. In almost all cases the Veer-myn were led by a single male, apparently of the Malignus caste but with obvious authority across the brood. It was, and is still, believed that there is no discernible rank below Brood Mother, and the conclusion that this male would hold a unique place among the nest and therefore on the battlefield was accepted as logical. Even though this theory has been dismissed no other has been proposed as to how these males attain their authority, and the reasoning is marked down as another mystery surrounding the Veer-myn.
10
The Progenitor looks like a regular Malignus, armed with the most valuable, and usually experimental, weaponry available as befits its station. This weaponry tends to come in two load outs; a Spitter Rifle, or a Chem-Pistol and Hand Drill. The Spitter Rifle fires a nitrogen based liquid, literally ‘spitting’ out a small glob at tremendous pressure. The result is a highly accurate cryogenic fluid bullet which can eat through armour. The Chem-Pistol and Hand Drill are lighter, more mobile versions of the weaponry carried by the Scourer Malignus, not requiring the heavy, Scourer armour for support.
Nightmares One reason the existence of the creatures which would become known as the Veer-myn took so long to become accepted was the nature of the stories told by the ships crews who encountered them. In these stories the Veer-myn were mysterious, half-seen creatures scuttling away into the dark before one could be captured or, in the cases where the story tellers were more reluctant to convey what they’d witnessed, hulking monstrosities formed from the stuff of nightmares.
In combat Nightmares live up to and surpass their name. In stature they vastly outstrip the more common Veer-myn, reaching over three metres tall at a minimum. Their frame is bulked out with hard muscle, and further enhanced by overlapping layers of armour which offers an impressive degree of protection for the wearer. The Nightmares are almost exclusively encountered in tunnel and internal combat zones, leading to the theory that they are the tunnel clearers of the Veer-myn nest, a hypothesis supported by the close ranged nature of the weapons they carry.
The stories had more than a flavour of the tales told by sailors of Old Earth who were quick to ascribe the unexplained to monsters and spirits, so it was no wonder that until the Sitakund incident that is how the tales were treated.
The uncharacteristic ferocity of the Nightmares and their size has long been a mystery for scientists. Why are these Veer-myn so large and aggressive compared to all the others encountered? Study of Nightmare remains have given some clues. The non-repetitive DNA strands stand apart from that of their smaller kin, suggesting these Veer-myn have been purposefully altered post-birth to fit a niche unfulfilled in their society. If this is the case, what else the Veer-myn may be able to create from their own race is genuinely concerning.
The disappearance of the Jindal Manjula sparked a re-interest in those initial stories as people tried to put what they were learning into context, and when Corporation troops first encountered a huge breed of Veer-myn they had a name ready: Nightmares.
11
THE VEER-MYN
Night Terrors / Terrors The pro-existence movement, as the supporters of the theory that the Veer-myn were an existing species before the GCPS encountered them are known, have often postulated what an early Veer-myn would look like. With so few workable specimens recovered intact from battlefields, and virtually none from nests (it may be that Veer-myn perform cannibalism on dead brood members, perhaps due to some religious significance or a base drive), regressing the Veermyn through potential past evolutionary steps is difficult. And the discovery of a massive Veermyn in the Rzeszow System had pro-existors in gleeful victory at the discovery of a proto-Veermyn sub-species. Or it did, until they had the chance to study it.
elongated blades to scythe through any enemy the Terrors passes, or have a Chem-Thrower strapped between their shoulders, dousing the beast’s path in acrid chemicals. However, post mortem examinations have shown the Terror to be, at least at the base level, genetically identical to other Veer-myn. The artificial bloating on hormonal glands and certain organs suggest these are not evolutionary offshoots, but deliberate creations; normal Veermyn fed a soup of chemicals which force growth in the subject to many times its original size and weight. Such exponential growth could only be agony to the Veer-myn, which would explain the extreme aggression it shows on the battlefield. However, given the uncontrollable aspect of the Terror and the variations in physiology between individual specimens suggests the Terrors are not intentional creations, but mistakes put to use on the battlefield.
Variants Reaper: The Terror reaper is fitted with a harness across its shoulders, on which are grafted long scythed blades, intended to cut down infantry as it runs by.
The troopers on Rzeszow report initial contact with the Veer-myn went as expected when the extermination of a nest was attempted, until they met stiff resistance, and the Veer-myn let loose a monster. The report states a large group of Night-Crawlers approached the troopers’ line, causing the officer in charge to hesitate at the unusual tactic, before their ranks opened and a Veer-myn the likes of which had never been seen charged forward and tore into the human line. The creature took an extraordinary amount of firepower to put down, by which time the Veermyn horde overran one of the human flanks, forcing the troopers back and making the theatre commander order a firebombing to contain the situation. Showing the unimaginative simplicity encouraged in Sphere line troopers, the soldiers dubbed this Veer-myn the Terror. Terrors are quadrupedic and heavily muscled around the front shoulders. Those seen in battle either wear a harness across the backs, grafted with 12
Cutter: The Cutter is the ranged variant of the Terror. Like the Reaper it is fitted with a harness, fixing a ChemSprayer between its shoulders. The Chem-Sprayer is a variant of the ChemThrower, less accurate and shorter ranged, but with a larger injection reservoir, allowing it pump much more fluid over a target cube. The Sprayer is strapped firmly onto the Terror, and as such can only fire in the direction it is facing. However, given that that would be in the direction of the closest enemy that is not always a negative. The Cutter has been seen to spray its chemical ammunition continuously throughout an engagement. It’s thought the firing mechanism on the Chem-Sprayer is able to be triggered to spray continuously until empty. A simple tactic, but one which can misfire if the Cutter loses direction and charges through Veer-myn lines, as has been witnessed on more than one occasion.
Night-Crawlers The average Veer-myn possess a cunning which can be fatally surprising to any corporation trooper who underestimates them. This resourceful aggression is not the level of intelligence most sentient races possess however, and can only take them so far. The use of complex tools and tactics are beyond these Veer-myn, and instead weight of numbers is employed in the place of martial prowess. These Veer-myn are collected into large packs and armed with simple weapons. Ray guns are rifles of comically primitive appearance, using an unsophisticated laser technology which fractures what would usually be a tight beam of focused energy into an inaccurate spread of high
intensity light, capable of flash burning a whole area in a second. As with all sections of Veer-myn society, within the Night-Crawlers there sit identifiable sub classes, one of the most numerous of which have been dubbed Frothers. Frothers are some of the few Veer-myn which human troops have seen close up as the rabid creatures are driven into close combat with their enemy. Whether this is due to a genetic disorder or disease which overrides the Veer-myn’s natural caution, or the result of drugs bringing on violent episodes is unknown, and usually at the back of a corporation trooper’s mind as the Veer-myn leap across the battlefield, gobs of froth foaming across their jaws.
13
THE VEER-MYN
erupt from vents and gratings, fall from ceiling The Piper Very little is known about Veer-myn culture. ducts onto the Troopers below, clawing at their Corporate and Council authorities view the larger eyes and biting at gaps between armour. and more complex colonies as infestations, and deal with them as they would any other vermin. As such, GCPS exobiologists rarely have any other data to gather than the smoking ruins of emptied nests and the eye witness accounts of Corporation Troopers. Most of these accounts are suspect, tinged with emotion, and come from untrained eyes. Most could not discern the difference between the average Veer-myn than they could one pig from a herd. But there is the sighting of one individual which pops up consistently from one conflict on Exham to another. The accounts tell of a Veer-myn; sleeker and healthier than most; who stalks the battlefield with no fear. It directs the Tide of vermin, using them like a weapon. At his direction vermin
Often this Veer-myn will follow his minions into combat, falling on the distracted troopers with knives and teeth. The vermin swarm over his body, acting as a living ablative armour to the shots and blows which come its way, only to replenish and surge toward the shot’s source to wreak terrible vengeance. The troopers have dubbed this Veer-myn The Piper after a folk tale of Old Earth. A tale which has come to terrible life on the streets of Exham.
14
Maligni Pathology and chemistry permeate Veer-myn culture. It is thought that hormones play a major part in deciding what caste a Veer-myn will belong to, and evidence suggests pheromones are a central element in Veer-myn language. For this reason, the social caste of the Maligni are one of the highest bands within a brood’s structure. It’s through the chemistry experts of the Maligni that the Veer-myn cultivate the viruses which act as their first strike weapons. Whether these are created artificially, or form part of the Veer-myn natural biology is not known. What is known is that the Maligni also act as the brood’s engineers, and are responsible for the creation of the Ray-Guns and Chem-Throwers, as well as the more esoteric machinery such as the armour worn by the Brood Mother. Their primary role on the battlefield is to carry and operate the more capable weapons that the Night-Crawlers are deemed either too slow-witted to use or just too small to carry. The mainstay of these weapons is the ChemThrower. More feared than the ray guns carried
by the Night-Crawlers, and for good reason; the Chem-Throwers fire a jet of highly corrosive sludge over a wide area. The inherent inaccuracy of the weapon’s delivery means nothing when it is likely to hit everything in its path. Anything hit by the liquid will bubble and dissolve, and the GCPS scientists have yet to find a compound which can nullify the chemicals used. In addition, they oversee the testing of new and experimental weapons, be they mechanical or biological. Only recently has it been identified that the more extreme Veer-myn specimens recovered from battlefields are not entirely natural. GCPS biologists have failed to sequence the genome of the various monstrosities encountered by human troops, however the lack of consistency outside of the non-repetitive DNA are clear signs of purposefully experimental mutation. This ability of the Maligni to manipulate biological matter is one of the few consensually accepted theories among the small group of GCPS Veer-myn experts.
15
VEER-MYN ELITE ARMY LIST THE VEER-MYN
The Piper
S 2-3 1
34 pts / 3 VPs
F Sv
The Piper lives on the outskirts of the colonies on Exham IV. His affinity for the lesser vermin makes the other Veer-myn nervous. But the coming calamity on Exham has made for strange bedfellows – while not a natural leader, the Piper has been forced by the invasion of his home to lead those who would ordinarily shun him into a desperate defence of the colony.
6+ 5+ 4+ • Agile • Tough
1
• Swarm Lord
Tide of Vermin: Choose an unactivated, friendly Troop model and immediately make a full activation with it. Mark the model as activated, afterwards, as usual. Recon: 4+ The Piper may also be used as a Mercenary for Veer-myn Strike Teams using other Army Lists
Shock Baton: RF, AP1 Weapon Options: None
New Ability: Swarm Lord
The Piper has the power to direct swarms of lesser vermin. When deploying your models, in addition to your strike force, deploy up to two vermin swarm bases in your deployment zone. If there are fewer than two vermin swarms in play, The Piper may use a Special action to “call” a new swarm. Place a single vermin swarm in The Piper’s cube. The target cube must have enough available room to fit the vermin swarm. If no such cube exists, The Piper may not call a vermin swarm. Vermin Swarms are not part of the Army List, gain no experience, and are not added to a player’s roster.
Name
Points Type Speed Shoot Fight Survive Size Armour VPs
ELITE ARMY LISTS
Campaign Ability Options: None
Vermin Swarm -
Weapons & Equipment
Abilities
- 2-3 - 6+ 5+ 2
-
0
Teeth and Claws: RF
Crawlers
12 T 2-3 6+ 5+ 5+ 1
-
1
Ray Gun: R4, Weight of Fire (1)
Stalkers
10 T 2-3 7+ 4+ 5+ 1
-
1
Ray Pistol: R2
Nightmares
23 S 1-2 6+ 4+ 4+ 2 - 2
Night Terror with Scythes
26 S 2-3 - 4+ 5+ 2
-
3
Scythes: RF, AP1, Frenzy (1)
Rampage
Night Terror with Spitter
26 S 2-3 5+ 5+ 5+ 2
-
3
Heavy Chem Spitter: R5, AP3
Rampage
16
Agile, Beast, Horde
Name
Weapon Upgrades
Skill Table(s)
Item Points Rarity
Vermin Swarm
None None
Ammo 2 Common
Crawlers
Small Arms
AP Ammo 4
Stalkers
Small Arms, Light (Melee)
Nightmares Hardpoints: 2 (Small Arms, Light (Melee, Assault), Heavy (Assault, Melee)
Ranged Melee Ranged, Melee
Night Terror Beast (Melee) W/Scythes
None
Night Terror Beast (Ranged) W/Spitter
None
17
Rare
Frag Grenade 6
Common
Smoke Grenade 3
Common
Medi-Pack 5
Common
ENFORCERS
Enforcers ThunderHeads The twelfth division of the Perseun task forces is officially designated P12 in the Council of Seven’s records. Anyone with the requisite security clearance would be hard pressed to find another with a more accomplished history. It is P12 under Captain Kellman Morrow which has applied the Council’s peace in the wedge of unincorporated systems along the GCPS’s coreward border for 24 years. When Draugheime III was invaded by the Marauder forces of selfstyled Chief Skodde, it was P12 that responded and turned them back with only a 0.44% drop in local corporate production and an acceptable 31.2% civilian casualty rate. When an Almar Inc. star caravan destined for newly terraformed worlds was assaulted and stolen by insurgents, it was P12 that located the responsible base world and recovered the shipment, annihilating the local rebel cell so utterly that six years later the Council Protection Agency still registers no insurgent activity in the sector. They have
a reputation for lethal efficiency that has permeated the ordinarily complete secrecy around Council military, and are one of the few Enforcer task forces which have been christened on GCPS infotainment nets. To the Council they are P12, but to anyone who knows their reputation they are ‘The ThunderHeads’. The uprising on Exham is an embarrassment to Captain Morrow. Never mind that the prediction of Veer-myn outbreaks is beyond even the best supercomputers in the Sphere, nor that never had a Veer-myn infestation been prevented and barely ever contained; this one happened in the ‘Head’s sector, and that would not stand. The crash landing on Exham left the question of honour as moot. Morrow must improvise if he is to salvage the mission, let alone pride. His surviving units must operate without Peacekeeper or heavy support in conditions far beyond anything they have fought in before. But they are the ThunderHeads. And if any force can tear a victory from such a mountain of odds, it is them.
18
19
ENFORCER ELITE ARMY LIST 34 pts / 5 VPs
ENFORCERS
Long Range Observer N7-117
S 1-2 1
F Sv
While he often works alone, once N7-117 has identified a threat requiring an escalated response his preferred approach is to eliminate targets before they can close to CQB. After all, if an enemy has to die, N7-117 would rather it happen before he has to walk all the way over to them. N7-117 is nothing if not pragmatic.
4+ 6+ 3+ • Tactician (1)
1
On My Mark: Spend an Army Special result when one of your models has taken a Shoot action. A second un-activated model with LOS to the target of the first Shoot action may take a Shoot action aimed at the same target. Mark the second model activated once this second Shoot action is resolved. Recon: 3+
Laser Rifle: R6, Rapid Fire Grenade Launcher: R5, Indirect (3) Weapon Options: None
Name
Points Type Speed Shoot Fight Survive Size Armour VPs
ELITE ARMY LISTS
Campaign Ability Options: None
Weapons & Equipment
Pathfinders
15 T 1-2 4+ 6+ 4+ 1
-
2
Tag Rifle: R6, Tag
Scout
Pathfinder Specialist
15 S 1-2 4+ 6+ 4+ 1
-
2
Tag Rifle: R6, Tag
Scout
Enforcer
16 S 1-2 4+ 6+ 4+ 1 1 2
Laser Rifle: R6, Rapid Fire; Jump Pack
Enforcer Specialist
15 S 1-2 4+ 6+ 4+ 1 1 2
Laser Rifle: R6, Rapid Fire; Jump Pack
Enforcer Medic
20 S 1-2 5+ 6+ 4+ 1 1 2
Laser Rifle: R6, Rapid Fire; Jump Pack
Enforcer Strider
30 V 1-2 4+ 5+ 4+ 4 3 3 -
20
Abilities
Medic
Name
Weapon Upgrades
Skill Table(s)
Item Points Rarity
Pathfinder
Small Arms, Recon
Ranged
Ammo 2 Common
Pathfinder Specialist
Small Arms, Recon, Light (Sniper)
Ranged, Specialist
Enforcer
Small Arms
Enforcer Specialist
Small Arms, Light (Automatic, Explosive, Sniper, Assault)
Enforcer Medic
Small Arms
Enforcer Strider
Hardpoints: 2 – Walker (all)
AP Ammo 4 Frag Grenade 6
Melee Ranged Ranged, Specialist Ranged
21
Rare Common
Holo Sight 8
Rare
Medi-Pack 5
Common
Smoke Grenade 3
Common
Thermal Mines 4 Mono-Wheel Scout Bike
Rare
12 Unique
FORGE FATHERS
Forge Fathers When the Mi-Gan Corporation first landed on Exham IV and began to exploit its mineral wealth the Star Realm was insulted twice over. Firstly, the Forge Fathers had long ago earmarked the planet for full and complete coring and secondly, what the humans called ‘mineral exploitation’ was offensively incomplete compared to what the Forge Fathers could do with Exham. While Mi-Gan thought they were utilising the planet’s resources to the fullest, they were being wasteful in a way only a short-lived species could. The Star Realm watched as Mi-Gan missed the choicest seams, prematurely moved operations leaving thousands of tonnes of ore untouched, and most insultingly, remained blissfully unaware of the galactic region’s densest concentrations of osmium - right beneath their noses. But the Forge Fathers are rich in the most valuable commodity in the galaxy, one so priceless the humans fail to appreciate they don’t have; time.
When the shortest lifespan of a dwarf is measured in centuries, the plans of the Forge Fathers take on the kind of long term view impossible to humans. The Forge Fathers could have taken Exham IV by force, but chose instead to persuade the humans to leave of their own accord. For a race who’s Forge-Stars can rob a sun of its energy, finding a rogue planet with a trajectory through Exham’s region and influencing its course so its transit would intersect Exham’s own; far enough to leave each planet untouched, close enough to nudge Exham’s orbit; it was simply of a matter of applying existing engineering. Exham’s modified orbit would be nothing short of catastrophic for the human inhabitants, and either they would leave or they would die. It may take 20 years, it may take 60, but they would leave. All the Forge Fathers had to do was wait.
A Quiet War The Forge Fathers watched from a distance as Exham sank into chaos. As the inhabitants fell upon themselves and their own troops in desperation, it became possible the dwarves
22
could take Exham sooner than expected. In response, a Clan Formation of Steel Warriors and Brokkrs were posted in a neighbouring system just in case. When it came, the bleeding sickness was not surprising. Humans are filthy creatures, and their frail constitution is nothing against a dwarf’s. The outbreak was not unexpected. The Veermyn, however, were. The Forge Fathers know of the Veer-myn. Like many star faring races, the Forge Fathers have found the foul creatures nesting in their colonies and ships, and long since decided the pests deserved the bare minimum of attention. Their diseases were too weak to find a hold in the robust dwarven metabolism, even assuming they could penetrate their sealed armour. In return the Forge Fathers find the Veer-myn too expensive to deal with. The amount of time and energy needed to properly eradicate a nest is almost always more profitably spent elsewhere. Best to leave poison traps to keep their numbers low until operations have finished.
That a nest of such magnitude had been allowed to grow beneath their own homes confirmed the Dwarf’s prejudices of the humans, but it was still an eventuality the clan elders had not planned for. The sudden drop in communications from the surface meant an Enforcer task force may only be days away, perhaps hours, and if they found the infestation too large to be contained the human Council might enact a more permanent solution. The Forge Fathers had witnessed what happens when a planet suffers the Council’s Steenkamp Plan, and if they chose to sanction its application Exham would be a no-go area for thousands of years. Therefore the nearby Clan Formation was ordered into action. Before covertly landing on Exham they peppered the planet’s meteor bands with mines to take out the Enforcer ships, delaying any reports back to the human Council. If the Clan Formation could eradicate the Veermyn, or at least kill the Brood Mother, before more Enforcers arrived they might still be able to win Exham without a war.
23
FORGE FATHERS
FORGE FATHERS ELITE ARMY LIST 30 pts / 4 VPs
Bjarn Starnafall
S 1-2 1
F Sv
Bjarn Starnafall is a firm believer in the benefits of an unannounced, overwhelming strike. As the spokesman and face of the Hammerfist Drop Armour line, he has negotiated a cut-rate deal with the supplier to outfit his closest armsmen with the heavy, atmospheric resistant armour – and they come in very handy when plummeting into the heart of a Deadzone to plunder its riches.
4+ 6+ 3+ • Tough
1
Fist of an Angry God: Spend an Army Special result to call in a model equipped with Hammerfist Drop Armour. Place the Hammerfist model as per the usual rules for Hammerfist Drop Armour, with the exception that the cube may be occupied by an enemy model. When the model lands, instead of the usual rules for Hammerfist Drop Armour, resolve a Frag (4) explosion in the cube against any models that were in the cube prior to the Hammerfist model’s arrival. If any enemy models remain alive in the target cube, the Hammerfist model initiates a Fight action against one enemy model as if the enemy model was pinned and the Hammerfist model had entered the cube. Recon: 5+
Weapon Options: None Campaign Ability Options: None
Name
Points Type Speed Shoot Fight Survive Size Armour VPs
ELITE ARMY LISTS
Mining Laser R4, AP2; Hammerfist Orbital Drop Armour
Weapons & Equipment
Militia
14 T 1-2 5+ 5+ 4+ 1
1
Hailstorm Rifle: R6, AP1, Rapid Fire
Steel Warrior
21 T 1-2 4+ 5+ 4+ 1 1 2
Hailstorm Rifle: R6, AP1, Rapid Fire
-
Abilities
Hammerfist 28 S 1-2 4+ 5+ 4+ 1 1 2 Inferno Drills: R4, AP2 Drop Trooper Forge Hammers: RF, AP1 Hammerfist Orbital Drop Armour Steel Warrior Specialist
21 S 1-2 4+ 5+ 4+ 1 1 2
Forge Guard 30 S 1-1 4+ 5+ 4+ 1 2 3
24
Hailstorm Rifle: R6, AP1, Rapid Fire
Hailstorm Rifle: R6, AP1, Rapid Fire Life Support Forge Hammer: RF, AP1
Skill Table(s)
Item Points Rarity
Small Arms
Ranged
Ammo 2 Common
Small Arms
Ranged
AP Ammo 4
Name
Weapon Upgrades
Militia Steel Warrior
Frag Grenade 6
Rare Common
Hammerfist Small Arms Drop Trooper
Ranged, Melee
Holo Sight 8
Steel Warrior Small Arms, Light (Automatic, Specialist Explosive, Assault), Heavy (Automatic)
Ranged
Smoke Grenade 3
Common
Medi-Pack 5
Common
Forge Guard Heavy (Automatic, Assault), Hardpoints: 1 - Light (Explosive)
Ranged
25
Thermal Mines 4
Rare
Rare
REBS
Rebs Wherever there is disaffection within the GCPS you find the roots of Rebellion, and on Exham there is a lot of disaffection. Mi-Gan treats their workers as any other commodity, spending less capital on them then they do on their machinery. The watch word of the foremen on the fledgling colony was “life is cheap, machines are not,” an in-joke at the expense of workers’ lives. Little did Mi-Gan know they had given a rallying cry the insurgency already germinating onplanet. The Rebs have had assets on Exham IV for a long time. Its vast population of low grade workers has always been a ripe source of discontented men and women more than ready to take up arms against Mi-Gan, and it only took some slight suggestive re-education to spill the resentment against one corporation into outright ideological hostility against the GCPS as a whole. Since the orbital slip the Rebs’ activities on Exham has increased. The progressively draconian treatment of the citizens compounded by the changing climate alone could have pushed the planet to out-and-out revolt. The bitterness and suffering of an entire population cast off and left to choose between starving and freezing would inevitably boil over into an uprising against its corporate masters.
an unhealthy, twisted weight around her neck. She has long since passed the point where the troops under her command were people and not assets to be used and, if necessary, sacrificed. Were it not for her record of mission successes perhaps her superiors would have admitted Adrienne was a catastrophe waiting to happen. But in her short life Adrienne has been responsible for dozens of successful ops against key corporate interests; diverting data, freeing prisoners. The destruction of Midas Corps’ military shipyard around the Homunculus Nebula was officially reported as a disastrous accident, brought on by unforseen problems with the nearby Eta Carinae’s duel stars. In reality it was the result of hundreds of demolition charges on all of the yard’s fuel tankers, planted by Adrienne and her cell. The explosion was mistakenly reported as a supernova on news channels, and such was the level of destruction that the site is a still a tourist attraction for the morbidly inclined.
Only, the Rebellion did not want that. At least not unless it was under their control.
Insurgency It is not widely reported by the tightly controlled infotainment nets, but riot and revolts are a common occurrence throughout the Sphere. Where workers are treated like property they rise up, only to be ruthlessly put down. And that won’t do for the Rebs. When Exham rises up the Rebs want it to stay risen. Exham is well known, if it were to throw off the shackles of corporatocracy it would be impossible for the Council to hide. Exham would become a beacon for rebellion throughout the galaxy, and Priory Station would be the vector to spread the word of revolution. Exham’s potential to the cause needed a special hand to guide its upheaval, and the Rebel command in the Perseus arm believed it could choose no better than Adrienne Nikolovski. Adrienne does not look like the kind of person who could command an entire planet’s insurgency. That is, until you look her in the eye. Adrienne’s dedication to the cause borders on sociopathic. Her level of devotion is 26
It was perhaps the success at the Homunculus Nebula which gave her the idea that the Rebs high command was not thinking big enough about Exham. That, yes, they could take the planet, but so what? They could not hold it. The destruction of Priory Station on the other hand…? If the legendary Priory could be destroyed it would do more than just hurt the GCPS’s revenue stream. The safe little planets in the inner spheres would know fear. In the core worlds, where war was just another sport to cheer on from the infotainment channels, they would know none of them were safe. And the loss of so many lives on the station was a price she was more than willing to pay.
The infestation on Exham, while a surprise, did nothing but move the timetable forward. Adrienne’s private army have thrown off their shrouds and revealed themselves. While her trusted troops will rush to complete their true mission on Priory, on the surface, the recruited Rebs are determined to take back Exham, though they might just let the Veer-myn clean out the last of the Mi-Gan troopers first. Adrienne is nothing if not practical…
Over the course of years she followed the official plan, recruiting men and women from Exham on the pretence of liberating the planet, while troops she trusted infiltrated Priory, gathering intelligence and preparing for the day the GCPS would change forever. 27
REBS ELITE ARMY LIST 28 pts / 4 VPs
Adrienne Nikolovski
S REBS
1-2 1
F Sv
One sentient’s terrorist is another sentient’s freedom fighter. Adrienne doesn’t make that distinction: In the struggle against the GCPS, if you’re not with the Rebellion, you’re a collaborator. If the tree of Liberty is watered with blood, then Adrienne has fed that tree very deeply indeed.
4+ 5+ 4+ • Tactician (1)
1
Special Delivery: Spend an Army Special result at the beginning of one of your Survey Drone’s activations. The Survey Drone gains the BOOM! (3) ability until the end of the round. This does not count as an action. Recon: 4+
Dual Needle Pistols: R2, Toxic Magma Lance: R6, AP2; Holo-sight Weapon Options: None
Name
Points Type Speed Shoot Fight Survive Size Armour VPs
ELITE ARMY LISTS
Campaign Ability Options: None
Weapons & Equipment
Rebel Trooper
7
T 1-2 5+ 6+ 6+ 1
-
1
Rifle: R6, Rapid Fire
Sphyr Lancer
18 T 1-2 4+ 6+ 5+ 1
-
2
Mata Magma Lance: R5, AP2
Survey Drone
7 S 2-3 - - 4+ 1 - -
Zee
6
S 1-2 7+ 7+ 6+ 1
-
-
Pistol: R3
Rebel Sniper
16 S 1-2 4+ 6+ 6+ 1
-
2
Sniper Rifle: R8, Sniper Scope
Abilities
Construct, Agile Scavenger
Rebel 30 S 1-2 6+ 4+ 5+ 3 1 3 Ceremonial Blades: RF, AP1 Teleport, Teraton Grenade Launcher: One-use, R3, Tough Frag (3); Hand Flamer: One-use, R2, It Burns! Rin Nomad 17 S 1-2 4+ 5+ 5+ 1 1 2
28
Twin Pistols R3, Weight of Fire (1) Twin Knives: RF, Frenzy (1)
Skill Table(s)
Item Points Rarity
Name
Weapon Upgrades
Survey Drone
None
Rebel Trooper
Small Arms, Light (Melee)
Ranged
AP Ammo 4
Sphyr Lancer
Small Arms, Light (Assault, Automatic)
Ranged
Frag Grenade 6
Zee
Small Arms
Specialist
Rebel Small Arms, Light (Sniper) Sniper
Ranged, Specialist
Rebel Teraton
Small Arms, Light (Melee, Assault)
Melee, Command
Rin Nomad
Small Arms, Light (Sniper, Automatic, Melee)
Ammo 2 Common
Melee, Ranged 29
Holo Sight 8
Rare Common Rare
Smoke Grenade 3
Common
Medi-Pack 5
Common
Stun Grenade 4
Rare
Defender Shield 5
Rare
MARAUDERS
Marauders The Mandrake Rebellion, or the ‘Mandrake Betrayal’ as Sphere textbooks have to refer to it by law, saw the end of GCPS militarisation of the Orc race. After the initial uprising battalion after battalion of Orc troops were systematically wiped out by corporation forces, often before they were even aware of their peoples’ revolt, and usually from orbit with no warning. However the rebellion might be called, within five years the resulting war was officially concluded in GCPS records. By then, the ultra-secret Enforcer program had already begun, and GCPS citizens were tacitly being encouraged to think of Marauders as dangerous pirates instead of the soldiers once responsible for their safety. For some, however, the war never ended. In the century and a half since the Mandrake Rebellion most surviving Marauders have been content to slip into the roles of mercenaries for hire, or ply the inter-system trade lanes on the hunt for undefended caravans. Some, however, were not. Some want more. Whether it be their own planet or colony, these Marauders, unsatisfied with the miniscule payments for winning others’ wars, want to be strong enough to wage their own.
Inside the Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere this is easier said than done. The GCPS sprawls across thousands of systems and each inhabitable plot of land is already logged and notionally owned. The Corporations guard their property jealously, and the Council will do everything in its power to keep the current status quo, lending entire planets dedicated to arming its vast military complex to this aim if need be. In addition, the Corporations are undeniably cunning. Their intelligence networks are everywhere, and as could be expected the Council of Seven is aware of many of the antagonistic Marauder groups. These warbands are allowed small victories; a destroyed frigate here, an overrun outpost there; until they gather enough followers to become a possible threat. Then the Council destroy them, as thoroughly and ruthlessly as they did their grandparents in the Betrayal. However, this constant harvesting leads to a Darwinian motion within the surviving Marauders, until only the most cunning and most dangerous Orcs remain. One such Orc is Chief Mauhulakh, and he was on Exham IV when the Containment Protocol came down.
30
The Enemy Within Mauhulakh has built himself a reputation for meticulous and long-term planning compared to other Orc chiefs. His operations are daring and their success often beyond belief. The only known assassination of a corporation planetary governor is at Mauhulakh’s hands, when his warband’s coordinated strike of explosive and well-aimed auto-piloted shuttles knocked a communications satellite out of orbit and onto the governor’s mansion with the power of a meteor strike. His successes are often attributed not only to a shrewd grasp of tactics but also to his recruitment regime. Mauhulakh is one of the Orc chiefs to make regular trips to Gora, making use of the innate aggression and natural combat ability of the Orc natives. His Auxiliaries often go on to become successful mercenary captains in their own right, but none so far have managed to match the successes or reputation of their teacher. But mission after mission of such success has left Mauhulakh empty. All his work has gone for the benefit of others while he walked away with only money. Now Mauhulakh has decided he wants more. He wants his own little empire, and he has decided Exham IV and its prized Priory Station is the perfect place to begin. Mauhulakh is not stupid. He has seen firsthand the obscene capacity of the GCPS military, and knows there is no one who could defend an entire station if they decide to take it back. Which is why he will use the human’s biggest
weakness against them; greed. Priory Station is too important to too many corporations to lose. If he can take control and threaten its destruction, he will be more than willing to allow the human ships to carry on using it. For a price, of course. The mission stages took months of preparation. Mauhulakh smuggled his troops into jobs as deck hands and security at space ports on Exham and also directly on board the station, confident in the human’s opinion that all Marauders look alike. As the mission’s go time approached Mauhulakh himself arrived on Exham, taking up temporary residence at the planet’s primary spaceport in the guise of a mercenary captain looking for work. When the signal was sent his troops would overthrow the human guards and take the station and the only way to access it from the surface, and Mauhulakh was there on the ground to oversee the whole operation. All was ready and just waiting for the signal. And then the Containment Protocol came down. Mauhulakh was not ready for all comms and navigational data to switch off, and certainly not for the furry little monsters suddenly pouring through windows of abandoned buildings and from beneath the street, but he had been in enough Deadzones to know what would happen next, and his plan would not survive contact with the Enforcers. If Priory Station was to be his he would have to work quickly.
31
MARAUDERS ELITE ARMY LIST 28 pts / 4 VPs
MARAUDERS
Chief Mauhulakh
S 1-3 1
F Sv
Assassin. Brigand. Pirate. Soldier of fortune. Chief Mauhulakh has been all these things and more. But now, with the right crew, the right plan, and with a whole lot of luck, he might yet become something more: The King of Priory Station.
4+ 4+ 4+ • Tactician (2) • Tough
1
Twin Heavy Pistols: R4, Weight of Fire (2); Jump Pack
Move It! Move it! Move It!: Spend an Army Special result at the start of your model’s activation. Increase the active model’s speed by +1/+1 until the end of its activation. This does not count as an action.
Weapon Options: None
Recon: 4+
Name
Points Type Speed Shoot Fight Survive Size Armour VPs
ELITE ARMY LISTS
Campaign Ability Options: None
Weapons & Equipment
Commando
12 T 1-2 5+ 5+ 4+ 1
-
1
Rifle: R6, Rapid Fire
Commando Specialist
12 T 1-2 5+ 5+ 4+ 1
-
1
Rifle: R6, Rapid Fire
Skyscraper
17 S 1-3 5+ 5+ 4+ 1
-
2
Rifle: R6, Rapid Fire; Jump Pack
Goblin 14 S 1-2 5+ 7+ 6+ 1 - 2 Heavy Rifle: R8, AP1, Sniper Heavy, Sniper Scope
32
Abilities
Name
Weapon Upgrades
Skill Table(s)
Item Points Rarity
Commando Small Arms, Light (Melee)
Melee
Ammo 2 Common
Commando Small Arms, Specialist Light (Automatic, Assault)
Ranged
Skyscraper Small Arms, Light (Automatic, Melee)
Ranged, Melee
Goblin Sniper
Ranged
Small Arms, Light (Sniper)
AP Ammo 4 Frag Grenade 6
33
Holo Sight 8
Rare Common Rare
Smoke Grenade 3
Common
Medi-Pack 5
Common
ASTERIANS
Asterians To the Asterians, all creatures have their place in the galaxy. Every species, from the sentient down to the most base single-celled organism, exist for a reason, even if that reason is beyond the understanding of a people as ancient as the Asterians. Through millennia of observation the Asterians have come to understand that it is the very presence of all creatures, and the myriad changes they each effect, which keeps the galaxy in balance. It is the butterfly effect writ to a schema so large no one individual could ever hope to understand it. This observation is key to the psyche of an Asterian, from each of its members to the race as a whole – every creature has its place, and no one species has the right to decide if another’s place is better off in the past, extinct. The humans, however, have pushed that belief to the very limit. In the few centuries the humans have swaggered among the stars there is not a species they have not butted against, nor a danger they have not prodded with no thought of the consequences. The re-emergence of the Scourge was the just the latest danger the humans have unthinkingly unleashed upon the galaxy, and even in the face of a threat so lethal to their survival the humans seems quite content to carry on as if the future is filled with nothing but their continued prosperity. It is as if the humans suffer from a racial adolescent belief in their invulnerability. They are the infants of the galaxy; just knowledgeable enough to be dangerous, lacking the wisdom to realise they know nothing.
So, for their own good and that of the galaxy, the Asterian Clades monitor the humans so extensively that an AI has been conceived for the sole purpose of tracking their movements and communications. Over the centuries hundreds of potentially catastrophic events the humans would otherwise have blundered their way into have been averted by anticipating their primitive thought processes and influencing their actions. The sudden and unexpected trade concessions given to the Forge Father clan House Varll - averting war across the heavilypopulated emission clouds of the Eagle Nebula - were the direct result of this practice, as is the unquestioned existence of a blank area on human starship nav computers, which would otherwise contain the densest concentration of systems with Scourge artefacts outside of the Death Arc. On only a handful of occasions has direct military force been deemed necessary to stop the humans causing irreparable harm to the galaxy. The severing of transmissions around the planet they call Exham attracted the humanfocused AI’s attention, but nothing more. The burst of imagery from their Recon Unit’s final transmission, however, was enough to jolt it into action. The AI‘s infiltration into the Mi-Gan’s communication network was seamless as it was invisible. It sequestered the results from the bleeding sickness examined by the human technicians, and before the results could be fully translated the AI was already searching for the Clade closest to Exham star.
Clade Sekauteu The Clades, of course, are aware of the Veermyn, even if they know them by a different name. The creatures have tried to insinuate their way onto the underside of Asterian civilisation as they have with every other culture advanced enough to reach the stars. But where Asterians trap and relocate the furred creatures, the humans treat them as a minor impediment to expansion; to ignore when possible, or ineptly attempt to exterminate when not. The Clades watched as the Veer-myn blossomed beneath the human’s profligate society, thriving off the refuse thrown away half-used and forgotten, and witnessed as the inevitable diseases and infections which grew with the nests seeped out and took their toll in human lives. 34
But all creatures have their place. And perhaps the Veer-myn’s is to limit the pace of human expanse through disease. Except that the sickness the AI found on Priory Station was something new. What the Maligni on Exham had created was not simply a disease, it was a biological agent so virulent, so evolved as to be pan-species; a self-developing bioweapon which could re-write its own genetic code to adapt to any potential host. Humans, Sphyr, Grogan, Judwan, Dwarf… Asterian. Through complex mathematical models the AI mapped how the bleeding sickness could reach across the stars, riddling the galactic arm as a virus would infect every living body, until system after system would be left dead and empty and the galactic balance devastated. The complete and thorough annihilation of all faster-than light craft from Exham was suddenly
of the utmost importance, and the rare use of military force was deemed a necessity. The AI identified Sekauteu as the Clade closest to Exham. Bearing a noble history reaching almost to the birth Asteria’s star empire, Clade Sekauteu may not be the largest Clade, nor one with a martial reputation, but Sekauteu, and its current Master Overseer Suu Thein, is known for doing what has to be done, no matter how distasteful. A summons to battle from an AI is an action of last resort, and Master Suu Thein will follow his directives to the letter. This is not a matter of honour for Sekauteu, but of balance, and therefore of infinitely more importance. Sekauteu must cut Exham off from the rest of galaxy far more comprehensively than the half measures of the humans and their Containment Protocols. It must be excised from space as a surgeon would cut out a cancer, and then left for the galaxy to heal.
35
ASTERIANS ELITE ARMY LIST 30 pts / 3 VPs
Nem-Rath
ASTERIANS
S 1-2 1
F Sv
In his long life, Nem-Rath has observed and directed over a thousand battles. To him, the ebb and flow of warfare is like a symphony to a conductor: Multi-layered, complex, and alive with its own horrific harmonies and deadly melodies. As a shuuvatar, Nem-Rath rides the crescendo of combat to inevitable victory, bringing the cosmos ever closer to true balance in his every action.
4+ 6+ 5+ • Tactician (2)
1
Noh Pistol: R3 Charge Glove: RF, Knockback Energy Pulse: R1, Knockback
The Balance is All: Spend an Army Special result to re-roll any number of your remaining command dice.
Weapon Options: None
Recon: 3+
Points Type Speed Shoot Fight Survive Size Armour VPs
ELITE ARMY LISTS
Campaign Ability Options: None
Weapons & Equipment
10 T 1-2 5+ 6+ 5+ 1
Noh Rifle: R5
Construct
Cypher 15 T 1-2 3+ 5+ 5+ 1 1 2 Noh Rifle: R5
Construct, Vulnerable, Toxic Smokescreen
Cypher 15 T 1-2 3+ 5+ 5+ 1 1 2 Noh Rifle: R5 Specialist
Construct, Vulnerable, Toxic Smokescreen
Name Marionette
-
1
Black Talon 20 S 1-2 3+ 5+ 5+ 1 1 2 Noh Rifle: R5; Energy Shield (2); Jump Pack
Abilities
Construct, Vulnerable, Glide
Sky Razor 20 V 2-4 4+ - 5+ 2 - 2 Twin Noh Rifles: Vehicle R5, Weight of Fire (1)
36
Name
Weapon Upgrades
Marionette Small Arms
Skill Table(s) Ranged
Item Points Rarity Ammo 2 Common AP Ammo 4
Cypher
Small Arms,
Ranged
Frag Grenade 6 Holo Sight 8
Cypher Specialist
Small Arms, Light (Explosive), Heavy (Lance)
Ranged, Specialist
Smoke Grenade 3
Rare Common Rare Common
Stun Genade 4
Rare
Black Talon Small Arms, Light (Melee) Ranged, Specialist
Energy Shield (2) 5
Rare
Energy Shield (3) 7
Unique
Sky Razor
Energy Shield (4) 9
Unique
Bike (Automatic)
Ranged
37
CAMPAIGNS
CAMPAIGNS ON EXHAM IV Exham IV presents many opportunities for creating exciting stories through your games. Unlike the frontier world of Nexus Psi, Exham IV – or more accurately, Priory Station – is an integral part of the Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere, and when it goes dark, people are bound to notice, leading to any number of chances for adventure, intrigue, and profit. This book presents a narrative campaign detailing the mission of the Enforcer Pathfinder team sent to investigate the Deadzone, and the Veer-myn’s defense of their home and their desperate attempts to leave the planet before it is forever plunged into an ice age. However, this is not the only story to be told on Exham IV: The Marauders, Forge Fathers, Rebs, and Asterians all have reasons for getting involved in the conflict.
The Plague Officially, there have been no signs of a Plague outbreak on Exham IV. Unofficially, however, Exham IV’s warren of abandoned mining tunnels served by a network of gray-market scrap metal shipping to Priory Station makes the perfect cover for a covert research base; perhaps, in your campaign, the Plague escaped its confinement during the chaos caused by the Bleeding Sickness epidemic, or one of the planet’s many wildcat ore scavengers disturbed a Plague Artifact partially embedded in millennia-old bedrock. In short, you shouldn’t feel constrained by the ‘canon’ narrative – Mantic is in the business of making great games that inspire the imagination, and not in the business of telling gamers how they should or should not have fun. Whatever you and your friends agree to, in the spirit of respectful collaborative wargaming, is just fine by us. With a bit of work, the scenarios in this book can be adapted to fit the goals and desires of the other factions with a stake in Exham IV’s fate; alternatively, players might feel inspired to create their own conflicts and custom scenarios to share with their friends.
Broadly speaking, the various faction’s strategic objectives for Exham IV boil down to three categories: Escape, Containment, or Conquest.
Escape Factions that wish to escape the environmental catastrophe of Exham IV include the Veer-myn, Plague, and potentially a Rebs cell or Marauder crew caught on the planet when the Containment Protocol went into effect. A campaign involving one of these factions might take the role of the Veer-myn as outlined in the Sack of Priory Station campaign, or might re-arrange the order of the scenarios so that the Exodus mission is the climax of the campaign. Containment Factions that seek to contain the Bleeding Sickness and ensure that it does not spread throughout the stars include the Asterians, Enforcers, and Forge Fathers. These factions make great opponents for Escape factions, and can take the role of the Pathfinders in the Sack of Priory Station campaign, with the Evacuation mission being a natural climax. Conquest Factions that seek to take control of Exham IV or Priory Station (or both) include the Rebs, Marauders, and Forge Fathers. The Evacuation mission makes an excellent climactic mission; alternatively, the Elimination mission can be also be adapted to change the target to a key enemy commander of the opposing faction who is standing in their way.
CAMPAIGNS
Environmental Hazards
Slurry Storm The wind has carried a fast-moving slurry of Environmental Hazards are random events that arsenic, mercury, lead, and other hazardous affect both sides during the battle. waste left behind after the Mi-Gan corporation was finished strip-mining the planet. Soldiers The hazards presented here represent Exham caught in the open risk being injured by the IV’s unique ecosystem and environment – the storm of toxic chemicals. shift in its orbit is rapidly turning Exham IV into an arctic desert – the temperature ranges from Roll a d4. This is the turn in which the slurry cold to below freezing as vicious winds carry storm arrives. At the start of the turn in which flurries of toxic mine tailings in massive, acidic the slurry storm arrives, randomly determine a sandstorms. The network of access tunnels, board edge from which the storm enters. Any mine shafts, and improvised housing has left the model without a solid wall (ie, one without any ground unstable and susceptible to tremors and gaps that a model could see or move through) between it and the slurry storm’s board edge is earthquakes. affected. Before the game, once both players have deployed their forces, resolved any Recon effects The Slurry Storm rolls a and Scout redeployments, roll a single dice and 3 dice 5+ test (x) consult the following table: Roll once to determine the strength of the storm Dice Result Environmental Hazard for all affected models. 1-2 Gale Force Winds Each affected model rolls a 3-4
Unstable Ground
5-6
Slurry Storm
Draw or Survive wins: No effect.
7-8
Frigid Cold
Slurry storm wins: The difference in successes is the potential damage suffered by the affected model.
3 dice Survive test (x)
Gale Force Winds The wind whips through the battlefield, kicking up dust and debris and chilling the fighters to Frigid Cold the bone. All Shoot actions suffer a -1 penalty to The chilling temperatures and sudden blasts of frozen winds blowing across the arid landscape Shoot tests during this game. can often wreak havoc with biological organisms Unstable Ground and technological constructs alike. Living things The battlefield lies atop one of Exham IV’s may freeze to death from prolonged exposure treacherous patches of unstable ground – under while sensitive electronic equipment and the soldier’s feet lies miles and miles of mine sensors are prone to malfunction in such an tunnels propped up by bearers which didn’t meet extreme environment. safety codes even when they were new. At the beginning of each turn, roll one dice and At the start of each turn, roll two dice, one for add the turn number. If the result is 8 or higher, a random column, one for a random row to give this is the turn on which the frigid cold reaches a grid reference. All models in any cube in this its maximum intensity. For this turn only, short actions count as long actions. If a model wants stack must take a 3 dice Survive (2) test. to attempt to take a long action (such as Sprint Success means the model keeps its footing, and or a Shoot action with a weapon with the Heavy is unaffected. ability), it must take a 3 dice Survive test (2). If it succeeds, it may take the long action. Failure means that that the model is Pinned. In addition, any items not held by a model in any After this turn, the models left in play acclimatize cube in this stack will scatter one cube in a to the sudden drop in temperature, and the Frigid Cold ceases to have any effect on play. random direction. 40
THE SACK OF PRIORY STATION Introduction This campaign outline presents a series of five linked scenarios representing the conflict between the Veer-myn colony of Exham IV and the detachment of Pathfinders from P12 – the ThunderHeads – sent to investigate the bleeding sickness outbreak and Veer-myn infestation. The Pathfinders are cut off from their main supply lines and must live off the land while they infiltrate behind Veer-myn lines and assassinate the Brood Mothers that hold the colony together; the Veer-myn, in turn, seek to secure passage off the planet before the Containment Protocol is enforced in earnest. The campaign concludes with a dramatic showdown in the maintenance sectors of Priory Station in a last-ditch effort to either contain the Veer-myn (and the bleeding sickness) or for the Veer-myn to escape a dying world and spread throughout the GCPS.
Using These Scenarios The Sack of Priory Station is a narrative campaign for two players. One player takes the role of the Pathfinder team sent to investigate the outbreak of the bleeding sickness; the other Emerging Narrative
It’s all very well to talk about narrative wargaming, but what does that mean in practice? Surely it’s just a game, with clear rules, winners and losers, right? Tabletop Wargames (and their close cousin, Tabletop Role-Playing Games) are played as much in the imagination as they are on the table. Your playing pieces aren’t merely pawns on a chessboard: They are heroes and villains in a larger-than-life battle between diseasecarrying alien vermin and the jackbooted thugs of a Capitalist oligarchy that spans the stars. On one level, a game of Deadzone tells a story of who wins and loses the battle; the scenarios in this book will talk about the stakes of the conflict, and the consequences for each faction should they win or lose. On another level, Deadzone gives rise to an emergent narrative through play – Maybe there’s one Stalker in your strike team who, through improbable luck, survived three turns in combat with an Assault Enforcer, denying your opponent the VPs they needed to win the game
player represents the vanguard of the Veer-myn colony as they defend against the invaders and seek to secure their passage off-world. Each player should create an Army as described on page 46 of the Deadzone rulebook; one player using a Veer-myn Army List or an Enforcer Army List. Each player should feel free to use one of the Elite Army Lists presented in this book; in any case the Enforcer player (referred to throughout the campaign as the Pathfinder player) should weight their forces towards including Pathfinders and away from Peacekeepers to better represent the forces deployed during the initial stages of the Exham IV Containment Protocol. Before and after each game, the players should follow the Pre-Game and Post-Game sequence for campaign games as per the Campaign rules in the Deadzone rulebook; we recommend using the Exham IV Exploration table on page 48 of this book in place of the standard Exploration Table, and the inclusion of the environmental effects on page 40 during setup, to give the campaign the flavour of Exham IV. – this obviously isn’t just any Stalker: He’s Jarrat Kelkarn, veteran of a hundred battles, with the scars to prove it; and every game in the campaign after that, your opponent might make a point of trying to take him out as payback. These moments will live on as anecdotes in your gaming group and grow in the telling; a story that you created, a unique experience for you alone. Of course, this aspect of the hobby will have a greater or lesser appeal to an individual gamer. Some players find their enjoyment more in the tactical play of the game itself, or collecting and painting their miniatures to a high standard, or anything else to enjoy about the game – and that’s fine. There’s no wrong way to have fun - unless your fun comes at the expense of the enjoyment of others, of course – and if you find yourself on the receiving end of a ‘let me tell you about my character!’ story from your opponent without any need to share one of your own, just smile in appreciation of their enthusiasm for your shared hobby as you plan your devastating pincer assault on her unsuspecting strike force. She’ll never see it coming.
41
missions
Scoring The winner and loser of each mission will be awarded Campaign points. Keep track of these on your Army Roster. At the end of the campaign, the player with the most campaign points is the overall winner of the campaign.
These challenge scenarios should not be considered fair or balanced, or suitable for tournament play, but they can offer a refreshing change in perspective or chance to stretch your tactical acumen in new directions.
Force Composition & Terrain Considerations This section of the scenario will set out the points value for the game, along with any restrictions on model types. The forces available to each player may be limited by terrain, logistics or the results of previous games in the campaign. It will also discuss whether a particular terrain piece (such as a fortification or landing pad) is required or recommended for the scenario, as well as offer guidelines to use your existing terrain collection to depict the type of battlefield envisioned in the scenario. If your terrain collection doesn’t contain the exact pieces required or recommended, don’t worry – do your best with what you and your friend have.
Deployment This section will contain a map of the board showing the deployment zones for each side, and any cubes containing objectives. Victory Conditions This section specifies the victory conditions for each player. Each player may have the same victory condition, or a unique condition to their side to model the different strategic priorities of the two factions. Challenge Scenarios War is not fair. While Deadzone aims to be an enjoyable game, balancing the various factions available to players so that each player has a path to victory, in life this is quite often not the case. To represent this, the missions presented in the Sack of Priory Station will have an optional, Challenge scenario, which will unbalance the mission on favour of one player or another.
Gaming Well With Others
Tabletop Wargames are a unique social activity. On the one hand, they are a competitive game: A contest of skill and luck, with winners and losers. On the other hand, they are a great excuse to spend time with friends, or forge new friendships over the clatter of dice. Usually, these aspects work together to create a rewarding hobby experience for all involved; sometimes, however, the clash of miniatures on the table can lead to a clash of personalities outside the game. More than half the time, these disputes arise because each player has a different expectation of the game they are playing: Anne might have been playing competitively, while Bob thought he was in for a night of tossing d8s and tossing back Mountain Dew. Neither player is wrong and Deadzone is designed to accommodate and enable both styles of play; the issue is that they didn’t hash out what they were after from the game beforehand, and so a simple rule dispute or ruthless ploy can lead to hurt feelings. Always check with your opponent to make sure you’re on the same page before playing a game. A simple ‘I’m bringing my powergamer list, do you want to try and break it?’ beforehand will go a long way to prevent misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Remember: Deadzone is a game, and games are about having fun! Good sportsmanship and clear communication will go a long way to making sure an evening spent around the table is enjoyable for everyone.
Consequences Our intention in presenting these is to offer a This section will describe any ongoing effects change of pace for players looking for something for the remainder of the narrative campaign. For to challenge their mastery of the game. Try example: If the Pathfinders fail the first mission, playing these scenarios turn-about, with one Infiltration, they will be unable to take Vehicleplayer playing the Pathfinders, and then using type models in scenario 3, as they will not have his opponent’s list to see if he can do better than been able to secure a path through the Veershe did. myn’s territory for the bulky, noisy equipment. 42
Mission 1: Infiltration The Pathfinders must move through Veer-myn held territory to reach the site Recon unit P12-612 identified as the heart of the infestation.
Force Composition & Terrain 150 points per side. The Pathfinder player may not take any Vehicle models, representing a small, silent infiltration force. This battlefield represents the outer edges of the Veer-myn’s territory; this might be a light industrial area or exploited mine. To make best use of the scenario’s special rule, ensure to use a moderate to high amount of LOS-blocking scatter terrain. Deployment The Veer-myn player uses the Red deployment zone. The Pathfinder player uses the blue deployment zone.
In this scenario, the Pathfinder player’s models are considered to be using any scrap of cover they can find to conceal themselves, and the strike force as a whole is considered to be Undiscovered. While they are Undiscovered, the Veer-myn player may not target any model on the Pathfinder player’s strike team with Shoot actions, including from Indirect, Frag, or Grenade weapons. At the end of either player’s activation, check to see if the activated model has LOS to any enemy model. If so, the Veer-myn player must roll to see if they Discover the intruders, rolling 3 dice 5+ test (2). If successful, the Pathfinder player’s forces have been Discovered, and the Veer-myn player may freely target their enemy in the normal way. Either player can move into a cube containing an enemy model and Fight them as usual; if the Veer-myn player’s model lives through the Fight, they are able to raise the alarm; the Pathfinder player’s strike team has now been Discovered.
Challenge Scenario The Veer-myn player may deploy four models as if they had Scout to represent a roaming patrol. Additionally, try using two battle mats stacked one above the other. The deployment zones remain the same but there will be a lot more space between them.
Victory Conditions To win, the Pathfinder player must have 12VP worth of his Strike Team leave the board from the Veer-myn player’s deployment zone. The Veer-myn player must kill 16 VP worth of the enemy Strike Team.
Consequences • The winning player will earn: 2 Campaign Points.
Special Rules: Stealth Mission The Pathfinders are employing every tactic and trick drilled into them to avoid detection by the Veer-myn patrols, but the Veer-myn’s keen sense of smell and sheer numbers mean that it’s not a question of if they’ll discover the intruders, but when.
43
• The losing player will earn: 1 Campaign Point • If the Pathfinder player wins this mission, they will be able to include vehicles in their strike force for Mission 3. • If the Veer-myn player wins this mission, they will count as scoring seven successes in the Recon roll for Mission 2.
missions
Mission 2: Acquisition
Victory Conditions VPs are scored by: P12-6-12’s final transmission from her personal • Killing enemy models (VP value of model) nanodrone cloud was partially corrupted by an • Claiming VP counters. unknown third party to the conflict. The original data remains in the memory banks of the cloud; the Pathfinders need this crucial data to identify The first player to reach 16VP is the winner; the location of the Veer-myn colony’s Brood however a player must have earned at least one 3VP token in order to declare victory. Mother. In turn, the Maligni believe that they will be able to use the data contained in the drone cloud to reverse-engineer a transponder code that they can use to evade the Grounding Protocol. This data presents a crucial step towards saving the lives of the entire colony.
Force Composition & Terrain 150 points per side. The Pathfinder player may not include any Vehicles in their strike force, as they have not yet secured a corridor into this sector of Veer-myn territory as yet.
Challenge Scenario Killing enemy models is worth 0VP; VPs may only be earned by claiming objective tokens. The first player to 9VP is the winner. Consequences • The winning player earns: 2 Campaign Points
This battlefield represents one of the typical abandoned industrial facilities that litter the surface of Exham IV. No special terrain is required for this scenario.
Deployment The Veer-myn player uses the Red deployment zone. The Pathfinder player uses the blue deployment zone. The Objective cube is yellow.
Place five 3VP counters in the objective cube. A player may claim one of these tokens at the end of a round if they have the only models in that cube; the token is treated as an Intel item worth 3VP. A player may claim only one token per turn up to a total of 4 tokens. 44
• The losing player earns: 1 Campaign Point • If the Pathfinder player wins this mission, they count as scoring seven successes in the Recon roll for Mission 3. • If the Veer-myn player wins this mission, they count as scoring seven successes in the Recon roll for Mission 4.
Mission 3: Elimination The Pathfinders have located the Veer-myn’s nests, and have deployed an elimination detail to several key locations throughout the Veer-myn’s warren in order to eliminate the Brood Mothers. The Veer-myn, warned of the intrusion by the precognitive talents of their Tangles, are prepared to put up a stiff resistance in the face of the invasion of their home and hearth. For them, this is a matter of life or death; for the Enforcers, this is simply pest control.
Force Composition & Terrain 200 points per side. If the Pathfinder player won the Infiltration mission, they may include Vehicle models in their Strike Force. The Veer-myn player must include (and pay for) a Brood Mother in their Strike Team, even if their Army List does not normally allow for one to be included in the Strike Team. For this battle, the Brood Mother acts as the Strike Team’s Leader, using the Recon value and Army Special ability from the core Victory Conditions VPs are scored by: Deadzone Rulebook. • Killing enemy models (VP value of model) This battlefield represents the warren of the largest and most influential of the Veer- The Veer-myn player must reach 20VP to win. myn Brood Mothers. As much as your terrain The Pathfinder player must reach 16 VP to win. collection will allow, try to represent a maze However, the Pathfinder player must have killed of corridors drilled from the rock and shored up the Brood Mother in order to declare victory – if they have reached 16VP but the Brood Mother with scavenged habtainer slabs, or otherwise yet lives, continue to play until either the Veergive the impression of a dark, claustrophobic Myn player reaches 20VP or the Brood Mother environment. is slain. Deployment The Veer-myn player uses the Red deployment zone. The Pathfinder player uses the blue deployment zone.
Challenge Scenario The Veer-myn player receives 6 free Crawlers or Stalkers (in any combination) in addition to their regular Strike Force. Additionally, the Veer-myn player has the option of taking a second Brood Mother as well as the first; in this case, the Pathfinder player must kill both Brood Mothers in order to win.
Consequences • The winning player earns: 2 Campaign Points • The losing player earns: 1 Campaign Point • In addition, the winner of this game will receive +1 Command Dice each round for the duration of Mission 4. 45
missions
Mission 4: Elimination
Victory Conditions VPs are scored by: After the Elimination Detail finishes it’s grisly • Killing enemy models (VP value of model) work, the Veer-myn decide to push towards the last intact spaceport on Exham IV in a desperate The first player to reach 20VP is the winner; however if at the end of any round, the Veer-myn attempt to leave the planet. player is the sole occupant of all four objective The Pathfinders, cut off from heavy support, cubes simultaneously, they win the game. must try to stop them seizing the landing pad. Challenge Scenario Force Composition & Terrain The Veer-myn player receives 250 points with 200 points per side. The Pathfinder player may which to build their Strike Team. Additionally, include vehicles, but not any Peacekeepers. consider using two battle mats: The Pathfinder player receives two free Sentry Guns, which may be deployed emplaced as if they had one cube’s worth of Scout movement. This battlefield represents the last intact spaceport on the planet. You will need to represent a landing pad of at least 2 x 2 x 1 size, and have a way of designating which cubes are the objective cubes.
Deployment The Veer-myn player uses the Red deployment zones. The Pathfinder player uses the blue and yellow cubes as their deployment zone. The Objective cubes are yellow.
Consequences • The winning player earns: 2 campaign points If your landing pad terrain piece is larger than 2 x 2 x 1 cubes, this is perfectly acceptable; simply ensure you and your opponent know which cubes are the objective cubes, and which are not. Likewise, if the landing pad terrain piece overlaps with the Pathfinder’s deployment zones, this is also not an issue for the scenario. 46
• The losing player earns: 1 campaign point • If the Pathfinder player wins, the Veer-myn player only has 225 points with which to choose their strike team for Mission 5. • If the Veer-myn player wins, they will have 275 points with which to choose their Strike Team for Mission 5.
Mission 5: Evacuation
Victory Conditions VPs are scored by: While the ThunderHeads and the Veer-myn • Killing enemy models (VP value of model) have been battling on the surface of Exham IV, a desperate guerrilla war has been raging in the service corridors and maintenance ducts below The first player to reach 20VP is the winner; Priory Station. Its objective: Control over the life however in order to declare victory, a player must be the sole occupant of both objective support and docking control modules. cubes, and have at least a 2 VP lead over the If the Enforcers are able to seize these systems, other player. they can vent the entire station into the void, sending passengers and vermin alike into hard Challenge Scenario vacuum to freeze and die. Doing so, however, will ensure that the bleeding sickness will Consider having both players deploy their entire be contained, with the minimum necessary remaining Army, regardless of the relative points damage to the station itself, preserving a vital values of each Army. infrastructure and trade hub for the Council of Alternatively, the Pathfinder player’s Strike Seven to refurbish once the crisis is contained. Team might represent a different detachment of For the Veer-myn, control of Priory is essential Enforcers sent to seize control of the station. to their salvation. If they can seize enough of the freight and passenger ships docked with If this is the case, both players should make a it, they may yet be able to overwhelm the strike team worth 300 points. While the VeerThunderHead’s control cordon through sheer myn player is free to use troops from their strength of numbers and save at least some of regular Campaign Army Roster, the Pathfinder their society. player must choose a new Strike Force from Force Composition & Terrain any Enforcer Army List. The troops chosen are 250 points per side. See the Consequences all Rank 0, but do not have any permanent section for Mission 4 for more details. injuries. The Pathfinder player will be eligible The battlefield represents the maintenance for Underdog dice as described in the Deadzone network that supports Priory Station. Space will Core Rulebook. be cramped, and fixtures and structures are not likely to be more than one or two cubes in height. Consequences • The winning player earns: Deployment 2 Campaign Points The Veer-myn player uses the Red deployment zone. The Pathfinder player uses the blue • The losing player earns: deployment zone. 1 Campaign Point The objective cubes are yellow. • If the Veer-myn player has the most Campaign Points and has won Mission 5, they win a Major Victory; otherwise, they win a Minor Victory. • If the Enforcer player has the most Campaign Points and has won Mission 3, they win a Major Victory; otherwise, they win a Minor Victory.
47
EXPLORATION TABLE
Exham IV Exploration Table D88 Result
Event
11 Terminal Intervention - Your Strike Team finds some wreckage from the dropship released by the Terminal Intervention, a Drakon-class Enforcer warship. Your team finds large quantities of high-grade military gear. Add 3 AP Ammo and 2 frag grenades to your stores. 12-13
Pandora’s Box - While searching for Intel in the vault of a comms station, your team discovers something extremely valuable – encrypted logs from the CSS Sloveshy Vassily, transferred upon its docking with Priory Station. Your superiors will be extremely interested in decrypting and analyzing the contents, to discover what really happened on Exham IV, and why Mi-Gan attempted to keep it secret for so long… Add +2d8 RP to your roster.
14-15
Verminium Ingot - While searching through the detritus inside a local mining depot your team finds something extremely valuable. Perhaps this explains why Exham IV was mined so thoroughly. Roll 2d8, and discard one result. Add this number of RP to your roster.
16-18
Mi-Gan Outpost - The GCPS troops stationed on Exham IV were well equipped by corporate standards, but ultimately unprepared for the waves of Veer-myn that overran them. Your team recovers what they can from the dismembered, half-eaten bodies. Add 1 Ammo and 1 AP Ammo to your stores.
21-23
Slurry Pit - Your Strike Team notices an intact weapons depot, sure to be filled with useful munitions. Unfortunately for your team, it is half-submerged in thick chemical slurry, leaked from the extensive abandoned mines. If you choose to retrieve the munitions, pick one member of your Strike Team to make a 3-dice Survive (2) test. If they succeed, add 3 Ammo, 2 AP Ammo and 2 Frag grenades to your stores. If they fail, gain nothing and the model must roll on the injury table.
24-26
Survival of the Weakest - While searching the tunnels, your team becomes aware of the presence of hundreds of lifeforms lurking in the shadows. Fearing the worst your team retreats to a safe distance and takes another route. As they press further, the scent of roasted meat leads them to a chamber filled with the charred bones of Mi-Gan troops and Veer-myn alike. In the distance a small figure darts away into a crack in the tunnel wall. Your team instantly realizes what many of the children orphaned by the bleeding sickness are doing to survive. They notice some useful gear amongst the discarded clothes and armour and hastily retrieve it before leaving. Gain 1d4+1 RP.
27-32
Research Lab - Your team finds a medical lab, filled with victims of the bleeding sickness floating in stasis fluids, hooked up to various tubes and monitors. The scientists that once worked here must have been searching for a cure. While there is an abundance of medical supplies here, their experimental nature may yield unpredictable results. Add 2 Experimental Surgical Kits to your stores.
During the Resolve Casualties phase of the post-game sequence, you can use these items to try to heal a Permanent Injury instead of spending a Medi-pack to re-roll the result. Discard an Experimental Surgical Kit and roll on the following table:
1: The Experimental Surgical Kit has no effect. The model suffers the permanent injury you originally rolled.
2-4: The Experimental Surgical Kit works, but the model will need some time to recover from the surgery. They must miss the next game (as if they had rolled a 4-7 on the Casualty Table).
5-7: The Experimental Surgical Kit works as intended. The model makes a full recovery (as if they had rolled an 8 on the injury table).
8: The kit contains some highly advanced (and effective) nanotechnology. The model makes a full recovery (as if they had rolled an 8 on the Casualty Table, and the model may heal one previous Permanent Injury which had reduced its stats.
33-36 Spaceport - STRATEGIC ASSET: Your Strike Team finds and secures a spaceport. The frozen bodies of those attempting to board the last ships off-world are strewn everywhere, some with laser burns puncturing through them, others with gashes and gnawed limbs. While there are no shuttles remaining here, automated drones ferrying supplies from Priory Station still arrive on schedule, although some of the cargo they deliver is dangerous and unexpected. Gain 3 extra RP post-battle during the exploration phase after every game you play, and roll a d8. On a roll of 1, choose one member of your Strike Team to roll on the injury table.
48
37-42
Abandoned Hab-block - Your team searches some of the many cramped civilian quarters that cover the surface of Exham IV, all of them are now either abandoned or filled with corpses, the walls slick with frost. While signs of life are non-existent, there are still items of value to be found here. Gain +1d4 RP.
43-46
Mi-Gan HQ - STRATEGIC ASSET: Your strike team stumbles upon the local headquarters of the Mi-Gan corporation, its doors burnt open with acid. Claw marks and bloodstains coat the interior. Your strike team is able to repair the HQ to set up as a forward base of operations, and hacking the core database yields a wealth of information about hidden caches and assets to use in the event of “outbreak”. Before each battle you may place an additional item crate in any cube of your choice within the limits defined by the mission. Rolling this result has no further effect if you already have a Mi-Gan HQ.
47-52
Frozen Corpse - You discover the dead body of a Mi-Gan security officer, stiff and frozen, with most of his face nibbled off. Roll a d8 to see what you find:
1: The officer died of the bleeding sickness. You leave the corpse alone.
2: +2 RP
3-4: 1 Ammo
5-6: 1 AP ammo
7: Intel: Treat this result as a roll of 81-83 (“The Hive”) instead.
8: Mi-Gan master key: Treat this result as a roll of 43-46 (“Mi-Gan HQ”) instead.
53-56
Industrial Complex - STRATEGIC ASSET: You find a functioning Industrial Complex, fully fitted with manufacturing capabilities. With some modifications, you are able to produce military-grade munitions. After each battle during the exploration phase, gain 1 Ammo. Rolling this result has no further effect if you already have an Industrial Complex.
57-62
The Sickness - Your team finds a group of survivors infected with the bleeding sickness.
VEER-MYN: The survivors will make excellent test subjects for the Maligni, new and virulent strains of the sickness may be present in their blood. Gain +d8 RP and choose a model from your strike team to gain +1 XP.
REBS: Your team takes pity on the survivors and provides them with supplies and medicine to ease their suffering. They reveal the location of some of their surviving relatives, some too old or young to be infected, others simply lucky enough to have survived or avoided infection. You locate the survivors and offer them refuge. Some of them are good fighters, too. Deduct 3 RP from your roster if possible (or as much as you have if you have less than 3 RP), and add 1 Rebs Trooper or 1 Rebs Specialist (your choice) to your army.
ENFORCERS: Interrogation techniques approved directly by the Council of Seven are highly effective, even on the dying. Your team uses the information gained to locate and eliminate elements of the native population, securing valuable resources in the process. Gain +d8 RP.
OTHERS: Your team gives the survivors a quick death, either out of mercy, or simply to eliminate the threat. You find some supplies in their hideout. Add +1d4 RP to your roster.
63-66
Hypertunnel Network - STRATEGIC ASSET: Your strike team finds and secures an underground transport hub. This will allow you to rapidly explore the vast honeycombed interior of Exham IV, if you are willing to risk disturbing the dangers that lie within… After each battle, during the exploration phase you may choose to make an extra roll on the exploration table which cannot be modified by Scout/Scavenger or any other means. If you do so, roll a d8, on a roll of 4+ choose a member of your strike team to roll on the injury table as the creatures lurking underground attack. Rolling this result has no further effect if you already have a Hypertunnel Network.
67-72
Lost in the Caverns - A member of your strike team goes missing while exploring the underground caverns of Exham IV. You assume they are dead, either devoured by the many creatures lurking within the planet’s crust or simply killed by exposure. When they return much later, they bear the scars of their ordeal, but have become adept at surviving the many dangers the underground holds. A random, non-leader model from your Strike Team must miss the next game. At the end of your next game, they return and gain +5XP, but must also roll on the injury table.
49
EXPLORATION TABLE
73-75
Acid Cloud - While searching some industrial ruins, your strike team hears the screeching of metal as a pipe breaks, spilling acidic vapour into their midst. Choose one model from your strike team to roll on the injury table. If you have a model with Engineer in your strike team, ignore this result as they recognize the structural instability in advance.
76-78
Drone Swarm - Some of the Recon drones released by P12-6-12 are still active on Exham IV, their emergency programming activated by the containment protocol. Their primary directive is to identify and report threats to pathfinders still active in the deadzone.
ENFORCERS: In the next game you play, the enemy leader counts as being Tagged for the entire game (Tag rifles gain +1 dice when making a shoot action against the model).
OTHERS: You may shoot down the drones in an effort to disable the drones and learn valuable intel from them. If you choose to do this, spend 1 Ammo, and add +1d8 RP to your roster. If you do not or cannot spend 1 Ammo, you do not get the +1d8 RP.
81-83
The Hive - Your team finds a map detailing a mass of 3-dimensional tunnels known locally as “The Hive” due to their honeycombed structure. You can use this to your advantage, if you want to risk attention from the dangers that lurk below. An extra 4 of your models may deploy as if they had the Scout rule in your next game. If you choose to do this, roll a d8, on a 4+ one of the models that you would have deployed as if they have the Scout ability is instead removed as a casualty before the game begins. This does not grant your opponent VPs, roll for injury after the battle as usual.
84-85
The Horror - Your strike team heads deep underground, following a path one of them saw in an incredibly lucid dream.
VEER-MYN: Visions of glory and greatness enter the minds of your underlings as they burrow deep into the heart of the world and emerge with an oracle of your people. Add a Tangle to your Army for no cost.
OTHERS: Pain and terror pierces the minds of one of your squad, driving them insane. Choose one model in your strike team to receive a “2” result on the injury table as their brain becomes permanently damaged. You may discard 1 Medi-Pack from your stores to sedate the victim before the seizures consume them and ignore this result.
86-87 Cave-in - While exploring some of the more unstable tunnels underneath the surface, a cave-in traps a member of your team. In the time it takes to clear the rubble by hand and extract them, their injuries become severe. Choose one model to roll on the injury table. You may discard 1 frag grenade from your stores to breach through a tunnel wall and ignore this result. 88 Frostbite - A member of your squad becomes isolated amidst the freezing gales that scour the surface of Exham IV. When they return, they are in dire need of medical attention. Choose one model to roll on the injury table. You may discard 1 Medi-Pack from your stores to administer timely first aid and ignore this result.
50
