--- title: "The Tran-Lo Tribute part 4" subtitle: "Battle Report" author: Seth publish_date: 2025-06-08 08:00 date: 2025-06-08 08:00 hero_classes: text-light title-h1h2 overlay-dark-gradient hero-large parallax hero_image: miniature_chaos-space-marines.webp show_sidebar: true show_breadcrumbs: true show_pagination: true taxonomy: category: gaming tag: [ wargame, report ] --- In the [third battle report](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/game_battle-report-tranlo-tribute-3) of the **Tran'Lo Tribute** campaign, the Adeptus Mechanicus team plundered the archeotech vault of the heretical Vo family. When the emerge from the tunnels, however, they find that the city they just left behind is already in ruins. It seems that once they understood they were under attack, Vo family agents here on Tran'lo foolishly broadcasted a plea into the darkness of space, invoking an ancient contract for protection. Their call was unfortunately answered, and the protectors that descended in great metal pods from the atmosphere were Heretic Astartes. The ships of the Adeptus Mechanicus had little choice but to initiate an air strike, in hopes of containing the Chaos Space Marines. The Arcuitor Magisterium and her remaining team of Skitarii Vanguard must navigate the city streets in search of the extraction point, and avoid becoming victims of either the Chaos Space Marines or their own air strike. ## Battlefield setup For this scenario, I created a ruined city jam-packed with detritus. There's an ongoing air strike, which is reflected in the special rules for the scenario, but I also wanted it to be reflected in the game board itself. I wanted it there to be almost no empty space that wasn't a ruin or scatter terrain. I placed Extraction Point markers around the battlefield. Some are in the upper floors of buildings, some are out in the streets. When the Hero Army controls an Extraction Point marker, they can roll 1d6. On a 5 or 6, they get extracted and any enemy unit within 3" (8cm) gets 3 Mortal Wounds. On anything else, it turns out not to be a valid Extraction Point and the Hero unit gets 1 Mortal Wound from an air strike effect. There are also two traps on the battlefield. There are two barrels near one of the buildings, and on each round I roll to see whether they detonate. Their blast radius is 2 inches, and while they're not right next to any Extraction Point marker, they're definitely along the way to one. The Hero Army starts just off-centre of the battlefield, and they're surrounded by potential Extraction Points as well as opposing units. The Hero Army at this point consists only of 1 unit of Skitarii Vanguard and 1 Skitarii Marshal (my custom Arcuitor Magisterium). The opposing army is considerably stronger in force, with 1 unit of Chaos Space Marines Legionaries, 1 unit of Possessed, and a group of Chosen. ## Upgrades Lucky for the Adeptus Mechanicus team, they recovered 3 archeotech parts in the previous scenario. I spent time between games choosing what archeotech they would build while sequestered in the relative safety of the escape tunnel. It was not an easy choice, but I eventually settled on either the Void Shell (once during a battle, a unit gets a 2+ Invulnerable Save) or the Nanoshard Projector (a pistol with Lethal Hits). Because I'd grafted a pistol onto my custom Arcuitor Magisterium miniature when converting her to Cult Mechanicum, I decided that cool specs for the pistol was better than a shield. After all, she kind of already has a shield. Skitarii Vanguard make for great shields. ## Round 1 I'm ruling that for round 1, the Adeptus Mechanicus have complete cover. My intent is that they're only just crawling out of the escape tunnels, and besides there's a lot of debris and obstructions around them. I'm also granting (or forcing?) them the first turn, because the opposing army would otherwise just have to skip round 1. There's no move the Skitarii Vanguard can make that keeps them unseen and in complete cover. Once they move, at least one unit of Chaos Space Marines are going to spot them. At least in the current configuration of the battlefield, some Extraction markers threaten to pull the Vanguards into a corner, so they decide to go vertical first. They move swiftly up the floors of the central building to close in on their first (and last?) potential Extraction Point. From their new vantage point, they're in full view of the Chaos Space Marines Legionaries, so they make a ranged attack. They don't score a kill, but manages to deal damage to the entire unit. Obviously the Lethal Hits pistol helped, but even without that, they rolled really well. The supercharged plasma caliver overheats and nearly kills 1 Skitarii Vanguard, but a Command Point re-roll negates the effect. Additionally, one of the Skitarii Vanguard is in engagement range of a loot box. He searches and finds 1 Armour token, which gives the unit a 2+ Invulnerable Save for 1 round. Next, the Chaos Space Marines Legionaries returns fire. Blame it on them occupying lower ground, but the Chaos Space Marines do no damage. They choose _not_ to pursue the Skitarii Vanguard into the building, because the Chaos Space Marines are actively occupying an Extraction Point Marker and don't want to relinquish it just yet. This could be a huge mistake. Should the Extraction Point on the top floor turn out to be valid, the game is essentially over. But here's the logic behind this difficult choice: The alternative is that the Arcuitor Magisterium likely slips past the marines to the Extraction Point on the ground, while the Vanguard continues on to the rooftop Extraction Point marker. That's probably worse for the marines than keeping the entire group together. Chaos Space Marines. The Possessed didn't see the Skitarii Vanguards move from cover to cover, so they stand their ground. The Chosen are way over on the other side of the building and are looking for the Skitarii Vanguard to turn the corner on a path toward a different Extraction Point. Again, they have no visibility on the Skitarii, but they make a slow Advance through difficult terrain toward the Extraction Point that happens to be in the trapped building. They get funneled such that they're right up against one of the explosive barrels, so they're really taking a gamble. But they were the only unit that wasn't controlling an Extraction Point, and they aim to correct that. Speaking of traps, I roll for traps at the end of the round. The gamble paid off, and the traps do not detonate. ## Round 2 It's time to get serious. This round returns to my usual rule of rolling for initiative at the start of each round, and the Chaos Space Marines roll high. The Legionaries fire again into the Skitarii Vanguard unit and kills 2 Skitarii. A supercharged plasma pistol overheats and does damage to a space marine, but he shrugs it off. The Chosen continue toward the next Extraction Point, making it saferly beyond the range of any threat from a trap. The Possessed see all the gunfire across the battlefield, and move toward the Skitarii Vanguard's position. If this isn't a valid Extraction Point, things could get very bad for the Skitarii! On the Skitarii's turn, they return fire at the Legionaries. Making good on the promise of damage they dealt in the previous round, they kill _three_ Legionaries. And neither supercharged plasma caliver overheats! Things are looking good (except for the unit of Possessed approaching from the North and the unit of Chosen who surely will notice all the commotion). It's raining plasma and nanoshards. Anyway, the whole Adeptus Mechanicus unit is at the [potential] Extraction Point now. They roll to make contact with a ship, and get a 6, which means that the very first Extraction Point attempted is valid. A ship is inbound. All they need to do is survive 1 round while the ship arrives. I roll for traps, and they again do not detonate. ## Round 3 The Chaos Space Marines roll high for initiative. In response, the Arcuitor Magisterium attaches to the Adeptus Mechanicus unit and they activate the Shield token they got from the loot box. That means the adepts now have 2+ Invulnerable Save until the end of the round. The Possessed advance but can't get within range for what they're really good at. One takes a shot, but misses. The Legionaries fire as well, and might have killed a Skitarii but for a successful Invulnerable Save. The Chosen notice it's time for a break, and use an explosive barrel as a table for their biscuits and tea. The Skitarii board the ship that's now hovering over the building. I roll for traps, but alas the Chosen's tea party is in no way disrupted. ## Post-game administration This was a resoundingly successful campaign for the Arcuitor Magistierium. She had to requisition some reinforcements, but still managed to acquire 3 archeotech parts and a Battle Trait. In terms of the battle line, the Skitarii Vanguard turned out to be the stars of this campaign, I think. In practice, I find their Rad Saturation ability underwhelming, although I always think it'll be useful. However, I have no complaints about their performance in the field. Radiation or no, most of them made it out alive, and they did their fair share of enemy removal. And supercharging is definitely the only way to use a plasma weapon (that's an emotional opinion, I haven't crunched the numbers so don't take this as tactical advice). As a reward for a job well done, the Adeptus Mechanicus army gains a Crusade Relic and the **Archeotech Questors** Crusade badge. That's the end of this campaign, but I'm working on a new one that adds a few more opportunities to fork the story off to different branches. Until then, I'll be agonizing over which Crusade Relic to take!

Photo by Seth Kenlon, Creative Commons cc0.