--- title: "Pariah Nexus battle report 9" subtitle: "False intel" author: Seth publish_date: 2025-12-08 00:01 date: 2025-12-08 00:01 hero_classes: text-light title-h1h2 overlay-dark-gradient hero-large parallax hero_image: book_pariah-nexus.webp show_sidebar: true show_breadcrumbs: true show_pagination: true taxonomy: category: gaming tag: [ wargame, report ] --- I'm playing through the missions in the **Pariah Nexus** Crusade book, in order of appearance. The ninth mission is called **False intel**. In this mission, there's just 1 objective in the dead centre of the warzone. Armies deploy in the northeast and southwest corners of the battlefield. The twist is that at the start of each Round, players roll for the right to place an additional objective. This new objective can be within 1" of one of their units (and 9" from any other objective) as long as that unit is neither battle-shocked or engaged in melee. The winner of the mission gains a Battle Trait for free. ## Story The Blood of the Omnissiah regiment, led by Technoarcheologist Scipio Ω5-Quintus, has just successfully sent their plundered Blackstone fragments back up to their orbiting fleet. The Technoarcheologist believes there is yet more to be uncovered, and he's convinced that the mining company, now fallen to the unholy worship of Tyranids, will have had records about the location of more Noctilith. He leads a detachment of faithful into a mining ghost town, searching for information on where to find harvested but abandoned Blackstone. Unfortunately, they find that the ghost town itself is not abandoned. There are Tyranids, and the obligatory Tyranid Cultist hangers-on, infesting the town, and corrupting or destroying data caches whenever possible. Can the Adeptus Mechanicus uncover enough intel to continue on their quest? Or will the Tyranid Cultists successfully falsify the geological records? Or will the Tyranids themselves destroy both armies in their insatiable hunger? ## Armies It's my campaign, I can do what I want. When I started **Pariah Nexus**, I'd intended to field a mix of Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knights. For many of the missions, it didn't feel appropriate to bring out a really big Knight, so I played it relatively safe with the Armiger Warglaive. I'm not 100% sure this mission justifies it, but my big gaming table has recently become free after a month-long **Mansions of Madness** campaign with friends, and I'm eager to field an actual Questoris pattern Imperial Knight. Aside from that, the Blood of the Omnissiah regiment has a familiar cast: Scipio Ω5-Quintus the Technoarcheologist, a Tech-priest Engineseer, 2 units of Skitarii, and a Vindicare Assassin. * Skitarii Vanguard [Battle-hardened] * Technoarcheologist [Blooded] * Tech-Priest Engineseer [Blooded] * Skitarii Rangers [Battle-ready] * Vindicare Assassin [Battle-ready] * Canis Rex [Battle-ready] I'm using the Questoris Forgepact detachment, released during the Grotmas 2024 event. This detachment grants one model each Command Phase to regain 1 lost wound. If that unit is within 3" of one or more friendly Tech‐Priest models, it regains d3 wounds instead. It also (officially!) permits an Imperial Knight army to include Adeptus Mechanicus. I've obviously been including Imperial Knights in my Adeptus Mechanicus army all along, but this is the official inverse of that. It may not be worth it, or it may be over-powered. We'll find out! The **Tyranid Cult** has some new units, as well. Requisition points have been spent on some Termagants and a Goliath Rockgrinder truck. I'm also bringing back the Sanctus. I'm using the **Brood Brother Auxilia** detachment rules, which allows Astra Militarum units to be included in a Genestealer Cults army. Because I don't imagine the Rockgrinder is equal to a Questoris, I'm bolstering it with half a Field Ordnance Battery set up the factory rooftop. * 1 Goliath Rockgrinder [Battle-ready] * 1 Field Ordnance Battery [Battle-ready] * 1 Death's Shadow [Blooded] * 1 Lictor [Blooded] * 10 Termagants [Battle-ready] * 10 Neophyte Hybrids [Blooded] * 1 Sanctus [Battle-ready] ## Strategic footing **Pariah Nexus** uses a subsystem for deciding which player is Attacker and which is Defender on page 105. For this mission, both sides choose the Agressive strategy, so it's a roll-off to determine the Attacker and Defender. The Tyranid Cult rolls high, so it's the Attacker, and neither side gains an Adantage. Also, I use this roll result as initiative for Round 1. ## Round 1 The **False intel** mission requires a special Intel Discovery roll at the start of each battle round to determine who's gained intelligence about the location of an objective. The Tyranid Cult are too busy gearing up for a fight, I guess, because they roll 1 and the Adeptus Mechanicus rolls 2. Based on the intel they receive, the Blood of the Omnissiah places an objective wholly within No Man's Land, more than 9" away from any other objective, and 1" away from a friendly unit. The Tyranid Cult gains 1 Command Point and then the Infiltrators deploy. The Lictor claims the centre objective, but he's now out in the open. Death's Shadow deploys in the open near Scipio Ω5-Quintus and his Skitarii Rangers (and their new objective.) The Neophyte Hybrids Deep Strike nearly behind enemy lines, on the left flank of the Skitarii Vanguards. The Termagants advance, which unfortunately keeps the Goliath Rockgrinder at bay. This is, by design, a side effect of combining Genestealer Cults with Tyranids. They get to play together, but when any Tyranid lacks a target but there's a Genestealer Cults unit within 6", then the Genestealer Cults unit becomes a target. To avoid that, the truck lingers in the factory garage. The Field Ordnance Battery fires at the looming Canis Rex across the battlefield and fails to hit. The Sanctus gets Scipio Ω5-Quintus in his scope and takes a shot, and hits AND wounds. The Sanctus's sniper rifle deals 3 Wounds, and is -2 AP, and because I'm using the Questoris Forgepact detachment there's no reduction in AP. If Scipio fails his save. he's dead. Miraculously, Scipio rolls 6 for his Invulnerable Save, taking no damage. Lucky this time around, but the Sanctus is obviously going to be a serious problem. The Neophyte Hybrids fire into the flat-footed Skitarii Vanguard, gaining +1 to Hit rolls from a Battle Trait. They remove 3 Skitarii. Death's Shadow charges the Skitarii Rangers. Thanks to 2 successful Invulnerable Saves, only 2 Skitarii are killed. The Field Ordnance Battery chooses quantity over quality, firing 11 shots at Canis Rex. They quickly learn that it's going to take precision targeting to get through the hull of an Imperial Knight. On the Adeptus Mechanicus turn, the Vindicare Assassin targets the Sanctus camped out on a rooftop across the battlefield. She hits her target but the Sanctus is well armoured, rolling a 6 for a 5+ Invulnerable Save. In retrospect, this would have been the moment for a Shieldbreaker round, and it's a mistake that could well cost Scipio Ω5-Quintus his life on the next Round. The Skitarii Vanguard return fire at the Neophyte Hybrids, removing 4, but of course reinforcements are on the way. Canis Rex moves toward the centre objective. It can't get there without an Advanc. Ser Hekhtur concedes control in favour of destroying the Field Ordnance Battery, which he nearly does with a shot of Canis Rex's Chainbreaker las-impulsor (14 Strength with -3 AP!) That knocks it down to 2 Wounds. During the Combat Phase, the Scipio Ω5-Quintus, wishing he had the Engineseer's Omnissian Axe, and his Skitarii Rangers take a few swings at Death's Shadow. The Skitarii get 2 Wounds through the tyranid's leathery skin and thick carapace, and Scipio himself scores 2 Wounds at -2 AP for 4 more Wounds. Death's Shadow fails its Invulnernable Saves and spends a Command Point to fail it again, leaving it with just 1 Wound at the end of Round 1. Then again, Scipio is still out in the open and there's no question that he's in the scope of the Sanctus's sniper rifle! The score at the end of Round 1 is equal, but the scoring conditions are highly specific so I'm going through the motions just for transparency. There's no bonus for controlling more objectives than your opponenent, in this mission. Instead, you score for the centre objective and for the latest objective that appeared during the Round. The score may be equal, but the conditions are different: * **Adeptus Mechanicus**: 20 VP (1 objective that appeared this round, and a bonus for controlling an objective) * **Tyranid Cult**: 20 VP (centre objective, and a bonus for controlling an objective) ## Round 2 Adeptus Mechanicus rolls high on initiative (just by 1), which could possibly save Scipio's life. Whether it'll help win the battle or not is another question. For the Intel Discovery roll, the Adeptus Mechanicus rolls high (by 1 again) and places a cheeky objective 1 inch in front of the Vindicare Assassin. She's way up on a rooftop, she's uninjured. I think there's a good chance of her maintaining that objective. The Skitarii Vanguard know the Termagants are on their way, so they're all in on ridding the battlefield of the Neophyte Hybrids as quickly as possible. By sheer force of will, they roll several Critical Hits and remove 4 more Genestealer Cultists. The Alpha Vanguard removes 1 more, and the Engineseer scores yet another Critical Hit (with Anti-Infantry 4+) to remove the final Cultist, the Cult Icon standards bearer. So much for reinforcements! The Vindicare Assassin takes a step forward and claims the intel drop. Witnessing the righteous zeal of the Skitarii, she loads a Shieldbreaker round into her exitus rifle, aims at the Sanctus, and blows his head off. No saving throw of any kind is allowed, the Sanctus is just dead. The Skitarii Rangers land several Hits against Death's Shadow. An Invulnerable Save blocks one, but 2 Wounds get through, and Death's Shadow falls. Canis Rex claims the centre objective with its 10 objective control (OC) rating. It fires its Chainbreaker las-impulsor at full force into the Goliath Rockgrinder, dealing 4 Wounds (after a Command Re-roll, which costs 2 Command Points due to the **Meticulous Planner** Genestealer Cult detachment rule) and leaving it with 6. On the Tyranid Cult turn, the Field Ordnance Battery unleashes an attack on Canis Rex and deals 4 Wounds. The Goliath Rockgrinder moves out of the garage and sets Canis Rex on fire, dealing another 4 Wounds. The Lictor makes a Charge and deals 3 Wounds, and then the Termagants Charge and deal 2 Wounds. That's a total of 13 Wounds against the Imperial Knight, which is over half its total Wound tolerance. Canis Rex seemed invincible at first, but up close it's just a matter of disassembling the thing piece by piece, and that's exactly what the Tyranids and Genestealer Cultists seem to be doing. More importantly, the influx of Termagants overwhelm the objective control of Canis Rex, stealing back the centre objective for the Tyranid Cult. * **Adeptus Mechanicus**: 40 VP (1 objective that appeared this round, and a bonus for controlling an objective) * **Tyranid Cult**: 40 VP (centre objective, and a bonus for controlling an objective) ## Round 3 Initiative roll is a tie, so initiative [finally] goes to the Tyranid Cult. However, the Blood of the Omnissiah wins the Intel Discovery roll (6 to 2.) I place the objective an inch away from the Skitarii Vanguard and exactly 9 inches away from the Skitarii Rangers. Scipio Ω5-Quintus has a plan that'll probably backfire, but if it works could mean a huge lead for the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Blood of the Omnissiah needs to barrage the centre objective to clear as many units away from it as possible, and then send in the Skitarii Vanguard to saturate the region with radiation, while the Skitarii Rangers make an Advance back to the intel drop. But first they need to survive a round of abuse from the Tyranid Cult! Things don't start off well for the xenos. All 10 Termagants and the Lictor fail to Wound Canis Rex. Not even a scratch. I guess they already pulled loose the low-hanging cables, so they're just pawing at metal plating now. The Field Ordnance Battery powers up and gits a Hit through, threatening 7 Wounds at -3 AP. Canis Rex miraculously rolls a 5 for a 5+ Invulnerable Save and takes no damage. The Goliath Rockgrinder veers left to give its mounted mining laser a good shot, and the manœuvre works, dealing 5 Wounds to Canis Rex. However, the truck can't get close enough to contribute to objective control due to the swarming Termagants (this isn't because of my rule about becoming a target of Tyranids when there's no valid enemy target, there's just literally no physical space for the truck, between 10 Termagants, 1 Lictor, and the Canis Rex's huge 100mm base.) On the Adeptus Mechanicus turn, the Skitarii Vanguard Moves and Advances toward the centre objective. The Skitarii Rangers high-five them as they Move and Advance to the latest intel discovery. It feels weird to move and not have the benefit of **Assault**, but that's what I get for choosing the Imperial Knight detachment. It's a coin toss to decide between the Goliath Rockgrinder and the Field Ordnance Battery as target for Canis Rex. The truck has been doing a lot of damage lately, so Canis Rex targets it. The Chainbreaker las-impulsor rips through the Rockgrinder's chassis, dealing 4 Wounds in excess of what's required to remove it. The Goliath Rockgrinder has the **Deadly Demise** keyword, and Canis Rex rolls a 6, meaning that every unit within 6" suffers d3 Mortal Wounds. The only unit within range are the Termagants, so 3 are removed. The Vindicare Assassin targets the Lictor, and rolls a Critical Fail to Wound, and then another Critical Fail after spending a Command Point for a Re-Roll. Maybe it was all a distraction technique, because just after the Lictor deflects the incoming fire, the Skitarii Vanguard Charge towards it, saturating the centre objective with radiation. They manage to inflict 2 Wounds in melee combat, which is really just a bonus for them. Their primary goal was to sicken the xenos with radiation, and they've done that by proximity. All models suffer -1 to OC, which reduces the Termagants to 7 OC and the Lictor to 0 OC. Even with Canis Rex at half OC, the Blood of the Omnissiah have claimed control of the centre objective. I don't know whether Canis Rex can withstand 2 more Rounds of battery from the Brood Brothers Battery, but this is a major shift in battlefield control that may be irrecoverable for the Tyranid Cult. * **Adeptus Mechanicus**: 70 VP (1 objective that appeared this round, centre objective, and a bonus for controlling an objective) * **Tyranid Cult**: 40 VP ## Round 4 It's the revenge of the Tyranids! For the first time in the game, the xenos roll high for both initiative and Intel Discovery. The obvious right thing to do is to place an objective up on the rooftop with the Field Ordnance Battery so one of the operators can claim it. (The rules aren't very explicit about how to treat the Field Ordnance Battery teams. I default to intuition, treating them as a unit bound to the piece of artillery by the same coherency rules as any other unit.) If Canis Rex survives this turn, it's going to walk over to the Battery and smack it with a power fist. The Termagants claw at Canis Rex to no effect. The Lictor unleashes its usual 6 Attacks at the Skitarii Vanguard and scores 5 Wounds. This removes 2 Skitarii Vanguard straight away, but the Lictor's talons have **Precision**. The Tech-priest Engineseer is selected as the target for 3 of the Wounds, who barely escapes death with an Invulnerable Save but as a result he's only got 1 Wound remaining. Now to kill Canis Rex. The Field Ordnance Battery team steps over to the intel drop and claims this Round's objective, and then takes aim at the Imperial Knight, even as the Tech-priest Engineseer hastily makes repairs to it in a desperate attempt to bolster its defenses. But alas for the Brood Brothers and Sisters, it was not meant to be. The artillery's machine spirit recognises its superiour and refuses to fire true. Lest there be any doubt, a Command Re-roll produces a Critical Fail. The Imperial Knight demands respect, and though battered its machine spirit dominates. During the Command Phase of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Canis Rex regains d3 Wounds, and rolls 2. Ser Hekhtur is determined to make a show of this confrontation, stepping over the Termagants and makes a Sweep attack with Freedom's Hand, dealing 21 Wounds. The Field Ordnance Battery of the heretic Astra Militarum is destroyed, along with much of the manufactorum they'd overrun. Bringing up the rear, the Scipio Ω5-Quintus and his Skitarii Rangers hurry toward the centre objective to help clear the xenos threat. It's all Tyranids now, and there's no Canis Rex standing in the way. The Rangers open fire. The galvanic rifles ping off the Tyranid carapace, but plasma calivers cut through it, removing 2 Termagants. The Skitarii Vanguard gear up for melee until the Lictor falls dead at their feet. The Vindicare Assassin's back on the job! The Skitarii turn their attention to the Termagants and open fire, removing 2 more. The scales have tipped, and there's no recovering. There are only 2 Termagants left on the board. Out of spite, I allow them to fire, as they run away, their Fleshborers into the Skitarii. They do manage to kill one, so maybe that's some consolation for the Four-armed Emperor? * **Adeptus Mechanicus**: 90 VP (centre objective, and a bonus for controlling an objective) * **Tyranid Cult**: 40 VP ## Post-game administration I didn't think this mission was going to be as fun as it ended up being. The idea of adding objectives an inch away from one of your own units just seemed silly, on paper. Obviously you'll add an objective conveniently within reach of your army and out of reach for the opponent. It's basically free Victory Points. Except that's not how it works. What happens instead is you have to choose a unit 9 inches away from any other objective, which sometimes forces you to grant an inconvenient unit the objective. Or else, an objective suddenly appears that you'd be stupid to ignore with a unit that you had other plans for. Hard choices, they just never fail! I went into this mission believing the Adeptus Mechanicus were going to lose, and I was OK with that. I thought the Goliath Rockgrinder and Field Ordnance Battery would bring Canis Rex down, and the Lictors, the Neophyte Hybrids, and Termagants would cut right through the Skitarii. I admit that adding Canis Rex was arguably over-powered, although 1 or 2 Rounds ago I wasn't so sure. It lost 17 of 23 Wounds, and its only saving grace was the Field Ordnance Battery misfire in Round 3. Of all my battles in this campaign so far, this was easily the most diverse and nuanced. I had big war machines, but also Lone Operatives seeking to cause pointed mayhem, and then obviously a fair number of infantry to fill in the gaps. There were several surprises in this mission and they were, by turns, caused by mission design, army list, emotional decisions, and of course rolls of the dice. ### Adeptus Mechanicus The Adeptus Mechanicus gains 3 Requisition Points (1 for the battle, 2 bonus for winning this specific mission.) Each unit gains 1 XP for taking part in the crusade. I'm giving the Skitarii Vanguard one **Marked for Greatness** award for actually removing the Neophyte Hybrids from the equation, and then for Rad Saturating the Termagant objective control. What a bunch of troopers. Because they won, they also get to roll for archeotech. They need a 5+ to find archeotech and they roll a 5, which means they've _finally_ discovered archeotech for the first time this campaign! You can't really do anything with archeotech until you find 3 parts, but this is a start. In total, here's where the army is: * **Army**: 3 Requisition, 10 Blackstone, 1 archeotech * **Armiger Warglaive [Battle-hardened]**: 17 XP * **Skitarii Vanguard [Battle-hardened]**: 22 XP * **Skitarii Rangers [Blooded]**: 7 XP * **Kastelan Robots [Blooded]**: 14 XP * **Cybernetica Datasmith [Blooded]**: 12 XP * **Technoarcheologist [Blooded]**: 12 XP * **Tech-Priest Engineseer [Blooded]**: 12 XP * **Sydonian Dragoon [Battle-ready]**: 1 XP * **Vindicare Assassin [Battle-ready]**: 2 XP * **Servitors [Battle-ready]**: 1 XP * **Canis Rex [Battle-ready]**: 1 XP As an additional reward for winning the mission, 1 unit gets a free Battle Trait. I award this to the Skitarii Rangers, who did a great job of running around the battlefield to ensure maximum objective control. They roll 6 for an infantry battle trait, and earn +1 Movement and +1 Advance (which brings them conveniently in line with the Skitarii Vanguard.) ### Tyranids The Tyranids get 1 Requisition Point and 1 XP for partaking in a battle. I haven't been tracking Crusade Points because I didn't see the point of them, but now I get it. Even without Crusade Points, it's obvious that the Tyranid Cult has lost the majority of missions, which qualifies them as the "underdog" in this campaign. There's an allowance for that in the **Pariah Nexus** rulebook called Crusade Blessings, and I'm granting the Tyranid Cult +1 Blackstone fragment. There may be further Crusade Blessings in the future. I'm convinced there's an accounting error in the Blackstone Fragment subsystem in **Pariah Nexus**. The cheapest upgrade you can buy costs 15 Blackstone fragments. This is mission #9 and the Adeptus Mechanicus, as aggressive as they've been to harvest Blackstone, has only acquired 10 fragments so far. I would have thought the point of having upgrades available in exchange for Blackstone is so you can buy them and use them in the game, but at this rate I can only assume I'll only be able to afford something at the end of the campaign, at which point I won't need it because the campaign will be over. I guess I'll keep track of whatever the army earns so they're available next time. Here's the Crusade Forces that have seen action so far, whether they were in this battle or not: * **Army**: 7 Requisition, 4 Blackstone * **Neophyte Hybrids [Battle-hardened]**: 16 XP * **Aberrants [Blooded]**: 6 XP * **Death's Shadow [Blooded]**: 13 XP * **Lictor [Blooded]**: 13 XP * **Von Ryan Leapers Omega**: 4 XP * **Von Ryan Leapers Chi**: 4 XP * **Von Ryan Leapers Psi**: 4 XP * **Neurogants [Blooded]**: 4 XP * **Termagaunts [Battle-ready]**: 1 XP * **Reductus Saboteur [Battle-ready]**: 3 XP * **Sanctus [Battle-ready]**: 2 XP * **Kellermorph [Battle-ready]**: 1 XP * **Cadian Shock Brood Brothers [Battle-ready]**: 2 XP I'm treating the Field Ordnance Battery as a subset of the Cadian Shock Brood Brothers. It's not accurate, but I'm self-conscious about how thin I've spead the Tyranid Cult army list, so I'm trying to make up for it by forcing all Astra Militarum units to count as a single entity. The Neophyte Hybrids, now at 16 XP, earn the Battle-hardedened Battle Honour. The roll 2 for the **Guerillas** Battle Trait, which grants them the Benefit of Cover against any ranged attack. #### Downgrades Both the Sanctus and the Brood Brothers pass their Out of Action tests, gaining no Battle Scars. The Neophyte Hybrids, however, roll a 1 and fails the test. They roll 4 for a Battle Scar, revealing an unfortunate gene affliction that reduces their Toughness from 3 to 2, and also worsens their Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill by 1. Both penalties have a chance of interacting with their new Battle Traits in some interesting (and probably over-complex) ways, and I'm morbidly curious to see it in action! The Neurolictor, Lictor, and Termagants all pass their Out of Action tests. ## Next mission The next mission is [Tortured worldscape](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_battle-report-pariah-nexus-10).