3rd Play: Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons

Deeper into the Dungeon, erhm, Labyrinth, Our Heroes did go...

The adventure continues in this third outing. In the first, we played the first two levels and experimented with a few house rules, like Necrons shooting back. The second [unrecorded] play, we replayed the first and second levels, this time with the Rules As Written, as I made a few key errors with the RAW first time out.  This third time, we played the second level, then finished with the third where we met - the Necron Lord!

Well into Level 2, we killed a key Necron personality, a Lych Guard, and gained the exit via the control console. Brothers Cassius and Gabriel have just made their exit, followed by Bro. Frostclaw. The rearguard was Bro. Infernus of the Salamanders, who needed to make an exit path one way or the other - and he definitely chose "other"!  

Making a sweep around a corner, he rolled a '6' on his attack and toasted a Lychguard and an adjacent warrior - cleansed by the purifying holy fire, they melt into puddles of metallic goo.

Bro Frostclaw hesitates at the exit, impatiently awaiting Infernus' arrival.

But just as he hurries to join the team, new Necron warriors teleport in, blocking his escape!

Meanwhile, various Necrons pile up in the distant teleportals, clogging up space. Below, Frostclaw rectifies the situation, blasting several apart in the main corridor.

Bro. Infernus roasts the last impediment to his exit. He hurries and with his final moves, enters the stairwell down to Level 3 where the rest of the team awaits him.

Well, that was a bit nerve-wracking at the end, but we were fortunate that most of the Necron reinforcements arrived at the most distant portals, and the team was able to exit without much trouble.

And that is really one of the biggest challenges in a game with an AI like this - card driven. If the Necron cards come up a certain way, you can go very quickly from situation excellent to situation desperate, as we will soon see.  While you can certainly play and plan conservatively, occasionally risks must be taken, and the cards can go against you - causing SM to lose a turn, or have one less action for an entire round.

I would say that following basic tactical sense will see you succeed in getting thru levels 1 and 2. But it is the Necron cards that dictate if all your team makes it through the level.

Level 3 was an unusual board, with four of the portals right down the main corridor, in the same line as the stairwell down which the SM entered. We got cluttered up exiting the stairwell, and this forced Sgt Cassius of Ultramar to advance quickly to engage the Necron Lord, at board center [on a hovercraft]. Unfortunately, the next Necron card placed 3 Necrons along that axis, and he took one, then another wound and went down! The Emperor's Hand was not upon him this day...

And really, there was little else I would have chosen to do with Sgt Cassius - he needed to advance out of the way, and with his close combat bonus thanks to his trusty chainsword, he had double the chance to bring down the Necron Lord compared to anyone else. While he could have made a flanking maneuver, this could also have resulted in him being isolated and overwhelmed on a side corridor.

Anyway, Brother Frostclawdid work around the flank, and engaged the Necron Lord to no effect. Bro. Infernus then managed to wound him and destroy both adjacent minions on a '6'! This included a Lychguard.

Brother Gabriel then fired away with his trusty bolter, and also rolled a needed '6' on his second shot, then repeated it with his third shot, and the Necron Lord went down, despite having three wounds!  Well, "That was Easy!"

As a great game designer once said, "When in doubt, roll well".

The exit plan wasn't too solid, we were somewhat surprised that the Necron Lord was dead. Brother Frostclaw felt he hadn't killed enough Ancient Evil, and played his "Warrior Born" card to massacre a few more Necrons on the way to the exit.

After his last game bringing up the rear, Bro Infernus wasted no time in getting to the exit stairwell, quickly followed by Bro. Gabriel. Frostclaw didn't wait over-long, however, and soon joined the surviving team at the exit, as more Necrons arrived, but too late to help their Master.

So, the verdict is that the straight-up RAW Basic game should, with just a bit of tactical sense, result in the players gaining all three levels with only 1-2 Space marines lost. In our case, it was one. While it was unfortunate that my son was running Sgt Cassius when he went down, he had his revenge by rolling two 6's in a row to blast the Necron Lord, so he was happy with that.

There are a number of additional challenge cards, and a few Necron and other cards that make the game more difficult, as-is. However, it goes somewhat against the grain to not have Necrons shoot back, so I think our next play-through we will try a campaign with an extra wound for each SM, and with Necrons that move [slowly] and attack [poorly] and see how that goes.

Again, this is the perfect little setup, easily played on a dining table, with each level taking about an hour including setup and take-down. Makes for a quick evening of entertainment for up to 4 family members, and is easy enough that you can play with children and perhaps even coax Mom into blasting a few evil robots - depends on how 'game' she is, of course.

I can't see how one can go wrong with this purchase - the $25 price tag [delivered] is the price of the models alone, and the components are nicely done, solid and with good graphics. The levels and AI will work with any team you want to send in - another choice would be my commissar and a few of his guardsmen! And one can vary the Necrons easily, sending in scarabs [move 2, attack 5+ if adjacent], Warriors [move 1, attack 5+ in LoS], Flayers [move 1, attack 4+ if adjacent] or Wraiths [move 1 in any direction, including through walls!, attack 3+] etc etc, you get my drift, once you feel that the original necrons are not challenging enough.

And why stop at Necrons?  Chaos may want to get into the tunnels, also, searching for arcane technology. Or rogue adeptus mechanicus personnel, or dark eldar raiders...

Most importantly, Mr. Winkie enjoyed it, and asked to play on subsequent nights. I'm already cleaning and assembling the Chaos Cultists from Doomsday Countdown, which I plan to have us tackle after we've gotten our "house rules" down with the Necrons.