The strategy phase at the end of the second round of our ongoing campaign for Divinius brought with it plenty of shifts across the besieged city. To quickly round up our previous battles, the mighty Astartes, marshalled by Jake, continue their unbeaten run and even forced a brutal concession against my lowly GSC. Jim’s brave Guardsmen comfortably crushed the cult uprising too in order to cement their position on the board.
Establish Initiative
The first thing we have to do is quickly calculate who gets the initiative. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Jake’s faultless Astartes campaign had provided him the initiative once again, whilst Jim had moved nicely into middle position. A disappointing collapse in GSC performance saw the Cult of the River Wyrm slide into last.
Earn Campaign Points
After totting up our campaign points from the battlefield map we factored in our strategic campaign (to have as many connected locations controlled as possible) and the campaign points came out as a surprising mirror of our overall performance so far.
Campaign Points
Chris’ GSC 9
Jim’s IG 8
Jake’s Marines 7
Strategy Calculations
After adding together our strategy points, the totals looked imposing for Jake, who had a bountiful 11 to spend. Jim’s paltry total still reflected a tricky start to the campaign. These points determine what cards you can purchase to affect the various stages of the game and, as a result, something special was about to happen.
Strat Points to spend:
Jake’s Marines – 11
Chris’ GSC – 7
Jim’s IG – 4
Jake used his initiative to purchase a card which gains you d6 campaign points. Based on his performance so far, can you guess what he rolled?
Jake gained 6 Campaign points straight away, catapulting him into the lead. He also purchased the card which allows him to move into an extra territory.
Chris immediately purchased two of the ‘control through subversion’ cards to allow him to take some territory given that he’d lost against both the other players. He also installed some comms into the bottom left square of the map to increase its strategic value. This would prove important. Jim, meanwhile, took advantage of his orbital shuttleport to threaten the entire board.
Seize Territory Phase
And then things went a little mad. The bottom left quarter of the board saw Jake’s red marine counters advance almost unhindered whilst Chris and Jim tried to fend him off. Unfortunately for Chris, his attempts to halt Jake by taking his newly fortified position backfired on the roll of a 2 (those spaces need a 4+ to succeed).
The final map, strategy cards and campaign points are all in the photos above. As for Jim’s choice of random event, he chose the card that makes all CP re-rolls cost 2 CP rather than 1. Ouch.
Join us for the next battle round-up, where we get to see just how the Cult will respond to their pummelling, who can stop the unstoppable advance of the Astartes, and how many guardsmen will be sent to meet their emperor in the name of the faith.
