Welcome back to another Sprues & Brew review, and I’m pleased to say we are checking out a brand new narrative release for Warhammer 40,000 in the shape of a brand new Crusade book.

Matched Play is cool, but for me Crusade is where it’s at currently with Warhammer 40k. Over the past 12 months I can safely say I’ve had more fun playing through Crusade missions than I have Matched Play games. Whether that has something to do with the state of 40k right now, or more about where I am at with tabletop gaming remains to be seen, but in any case I was really excitied to be given the chance to review the latest Crusade release.

This is the third Crusade supplement release for Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition. The first, Tyrannic War, launced with the edition whislt Pariah Nexus came out later.

Crusade: Nachmund Gauntlet is up for preorder right now, and you can save some pennies vs RRP by ordering your copy from our affliates at Element Games. You’ll also be massively helping us out too!

Our thanks also to Games Workshop for sending us a copy to review.

So without further ado, let’s delve in to this latest book.

What is the Nachmund Gauntlet? A Look at the Lore

The Nachmund Gauntlet is a location previously visited in past narrative and supplement books. It is the name of a passage through the Great Rift (aka the Cicatrix Maledictum). It is a key route in the galaxy, so of course it’s swarming with trouble, in particular the Chaos kind, led by Haarken Worldclaimer.

This new Crusade book opens up more of the lore focused around the Nachmund Gauntlet, specifically a planet, Sangua Terra, and the assualt upon it by the forces of Chaos. This planet is also the focus of the narrative content later in the book.

The stories and dialogue in this book are up to GW’s usual high standards, as well as the general overall presentation. A mix of reused and original art is sprinkled throughout. One of my favourite ‘sections’ is when the book talks about Planet Killer, the ultimate Chaos warship which immediately took my mind back to Battlefleet Gothic. Oh man I hope they bring that back at some point…

If you enjoy reading lore then this book will be right up your street, in particular if you are aligned with Chaos.

Crusade Rules

A whopping 52 pages in, and we are presented with Crusade rules, or more specifically, an overview of how Crusade works. This is of course really helpful if this is your first time playing with the Crusade mechanics. It runs througfh everything including creating an Order of Battle and tracking Requistion and Battle Tallys.

Speaking of, the next page reveals a standard set of Requistions that are common place in Crusade. These include increasing your Supply Limit (aka allowing you to add 200 pts to your Order of Battle at the cost of 1 Requistion Point, RP for short), Rearm and Resupply and Fresh Recruits. All standard Crusade Requistions for those who have played this way before.

Following on from this we have some more Crusade content which is commonplace. The book explains how Crusade cards work (almost like a Datasheet for each unit in your roster) and, should one of your units fall in battle, how the ‘Out of Action’ mechanic works (along with accompanying table of Battle Scars for those units that gain them.)

Should your characters and units do well they’ll gain experience, which is the next part that is explained. As your units gain experience they can gain Batle Honours, buffs which can unlock Weapon Modifications, Relics and Battle Traits.

With those basic rules out of the way, it’s time to turn to some brand new content…

The Sangua Terran War: Narrative Crusade Campaign Rules

This is where the fun really begins, as we get to see how all the previous lore etc is portrayed on the tabletop.

Firstly, the book recommends having a Campaign Master, basically someone who will organise and help the lore/games along. It then recommends splitting any players taking part in the campaign in to one of three groups:

• Guardians: Those wishing to protect the planet of Sangua
• Despoilers: Yup, you guessed it, the folks who want to conquar the planet
• Maruders: Those who don’t really fit in either catergory, perhaps they are just looking for skulls and a good time pillaging!

The book chats about Campaign length, which it recommends as two weeks, and further recommends you play as many games as their are players.

Strategic Sites

Right, now to really get stuck into some new content. The next part of the book discusses Sangua Terra Strategic Sites. These are 4 areas of the capital city of the planet, Urbanosprawl Alpha, of which the alliances are fighting over. Should your alliance be controlling one of said sites at the start of the Campaign Phase (of which a campaign is made up of 3), then you gain a bonus:

• Praefectus Bastion: You gain 4 Reinforcement waves instead of 3. (More on this later)
• Tower of Mumaration: Select an additional Strategic Goal (again, more on this later)
• Emperor’s Voice Grand Battery: Each time an enemy unit is set up from Strategic Reserve roll a D6, and on a 5+ that unit takes D3 mortals.
• Accrandor Spaceport: Your alliance can perform up to two Surgical Deep Strikes (yes yes, more on this later!). In addition, once per turn you can reroll the Deep Strike test roll.

Controlling Strategic Sites is next up, detailing how your alliance works to control these key areas. A lot of this is based on the end result of your games, with each of the mission rules stating how the outcome of the battle affects your foothold in these strategic sites. There is 5 levels of Control for each site, and it is possible to lose control, as well as gaining.

Campaign Phases

A major part of playing the campaign is understanding the Campaign Phases. The general idea is that each alliance is working to gain Battle Points which are awarded by playing games. The amount of points on offer depends on a) how big of a game you are playing and of course b) if you won, lost or drew. As an example, here are what Battle Points are on offer if you are playing a Strike Force sized game:

• Win: 3 BP
• Draw: 2 BP
• Loss: 1 BP

I like the fact that even with a loss you can contribute to your alliance. Each player attributes there BP to one of the four aforementioned strategic sites. This doesn’t mean you have to put all your points in to one site however, they can be divided out.

Strategic Goals

Another key mechanic is Strategic Goals. At the start of every campaign phase each alliance must agree on a Strategic Goal for that phase. This is kept private from the other alliances, so the only people who should know your alliances Goal is other members of your alliance and the Campaign Master. Each Strategic Goal will have a set of requirements which will earn players Strategic Assest Points (SAP). Again, these points at the end of the battle can be assigned to one of the four strategic sites.

Once all games have been played in this particular phase, and all points allocated, the results are then declared by the Campaign Master. Each alliance will score Control Points depending on how many points they sunk into each strategic site. The alliance that assigned the most points gain more Control Points than the 2nd and 3rd place alliance. Every camapign is played out over 3 overall phases, with the amount of Control Level points increasing with each phase. I really like this, working with your alliance to decide how many points you are assigning to each site, completely unaware of what other alliances are doing.

All of the above may sound quite complicated, however it isn’t really when you are able to read the section in full. I found the example as the best way to explain, which I have included below:

Example: At the end of the first phase of a Nachmund Gauntlet campaign, the Guardians have a total of 12 Battle points and 6 Strategic Asset points; the Despoilers have 8 Battle points and 8 Strategic Asset points; the Marauders 6 Battle points and 9 Strategic Asset points.

The Guardians collect their Battle points rewards first, as they have the most, increasing their Control Level over each strategic site where they have they came first by 2, and each strategic site they came second by 1.

The Despoilers then collect their Battle Point rewards, increasing their Control Level over strategic sites in the same way.

Finally the Marauders, who have the fewest Battle points this phase, collect their rewards from Battle points.

After all the Battle Point rewards have been awarded, the Marauders, who have the most SAP, collect their Strategic Goals rewards first( assuming they have met its requirements). The Despoilers then do likewise and finally, the Guardians, with the fewest SAP, do the same.

Hopefully that now makes a bit more sense!

Each overall campaign phase has its own unique Stratetgic Goals. For each phase you have a choice of, in essence, 3 goals. One of them will be unique to your alliance (Guardian, Despoiler or Maruder) and two generic ones that can be chosen by any alliance.

Again, to give you an idea of what these are/mean I’m going to take you through every goal for Phase 1.

Name of Goal	Can Be Selected By	Requirements	Reward
Counter-Strategies	Guardian Only	Gain more SAP than one or more enemy alliance	Gain +1 Control Level in each strategic site that one or more opposing allaicnes have increased their Control Level over this campaign phase
Bloody Winnings	Despoilers Only	Select two strategic sites. Your alliance has assigned more SAP to thos strategic sites than one or more other alliance (this does not need to be the same alliance for each selected strategic site	Your alliance gains +1 Control Level in one Strategic Site where you are Establising Foothold and a +1 Control Level in one strategic site where one or more opposing alliances are Establishing Footholds.
Unopposed Gains	Maruders Only	Your alliance has assigned one or more SAP to a strategic site where one or more other alliances have not assigned SAP	Your alliance gains +1 Control Level in each strategic site where your allaicne has assigned SAP and where all other alliances have No Presence.
Decisive First Strike	Any Alliance	Select One Strategic Site. Your alliance has assigned more SAP to that stratehic site than the combined SAP assigned to the strategic site of all other alliances.	Your alliance gains +1 Control Level in that strategic site
Recon in Force	Any Alliance	Your alliance has assigned one or more SAP to each strategic site	Your alliance gains +1 Control Level in each strategic site that your allaince has No Presence

Now, normally, Crusade campaigns are really geared and aimed towards your own heroes. The ones you name yourself. The Cadian Castellans that go toe to toe with a Daemon Prince, the Eldar Farseer staring down a T’au Supremcy Suit… however…in this book we actually have some content for Epic Heroes, which is pretty sweet!

Mighty Champions

If you add an Epic Hero to your roster, then you need to inform your Campaign Master. They will then assign a Crusade Ability to said Epic Hero should they choose. There are 7 to choose from, and are clearly aimed at certain types of heroes. For example, the book advises that Haarken Worldclaimer would likely be gifted the Front-line Champion ability (Select a Battle Trait, Epic Hero and their joined unit gain that Battle Trait), Junith Eruita would be a good fit for a Straetgic Champion (During the Crusade Blessing step and if you are the Underdog you get to choose one additional blessing. If you are not the Underdog then you get one) and finally Saint Celestine could be assigned Inspirational Champion (You can select one additional Marked for Greatness unit at the end of the battle and the unit this character joins ignores all Battle Scars).

Unlockables (Badges, Relics, Traits)

Crusade Badges for the Nachmund Campaign are available in the book so that you can photocopy them and add them to your army roster as you earn them, with different badges available for each alliance.

The book takes a pause from gameplay mechanics at this point and takes you on a tour of what lovely stuff you can unlock/gain during the course of the campaign as your units gain experience.

Firstly, you have Battle Traits. There are 6 different charts to represent battle traits for each different type of unit. So, for example, you have a chart for Infantry, a chart for Monsters and Vehicles and a chart for Mounted keyworded stuff. Lots on offer here, including allowing units/models to advance and charges, re-roll dice, use stratagems for free, etc.

Next up is something I always enjoy checking out, the Crusade Relics. As with other available relics for Crusade, these are in three tiers (Artificier, Antiquity and Legandary Relics). To give you a flavour I’ve decided to pick out one from each tier to wet your appietite:

• Strategic Laurels: At the start of the first Command Phase, if the bearer is on the battlefield, you gain a CP. In addition, if the bearer is still on the battlefield at the end of the game you gain an additonal 1 Strategic Assest Point (SAP).
• Displacer Field: Once per battle, at the end of your opponent’s shooting phase, if the bearer’s unit is not within Engagement range and has been shot at, you can remove the unit and place it in to Strategic Reserves. When you come to redeploy this unit at the end of your next Movement phase, you can treat the unit as having the Deep Strike rule.
• Fate-Forged Weapon: Each time an attack is made with this weapon, reroll the Wound roll. Once per battle, at the start of the Fight phase, you can unleash it’s power. This gives said weapon Devastating Wounds as well as additional pips of Strength AND Attacks equal to the Battle Round number (so Turn 3 you’d get 3 extra Strength and Attacks with said weapon. Niiiiiicceee!!).

Crusade Sequence

With a lot of the mechanics now out of the way, you’ll be itching to actually play the game. The sequence of how to play Crusade using this book is almost identical to the Crusade books that have come before it (Pariah Nexus and Leviathan). For each size of mission (1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 point games) you have a choice of missions, that you can either pick or roll for. Incursion and Strike Force share missions, whilst big Onslaught games have 3 unqiue missions. I’ll cover Missions a little more shortly.

Any one new to Crusade will be pleased to hear that all the core rules and mechanics are covered in this section, such as performing actions, declaring formations and selecting Agendas.

Something that is a little new is Crusade Blessings. The player who has the lowest amount of Crusade points in the battle gets to choose a Crusade Blessing, which is in essence a buff. I’ll get to these in a moment.

Tactical Reserves

Something else that is new is Tactical Reserves. Once you know what size of game you want to have, you then have to split your army into a Primary Wave and a Reinforcement Wave. You can have a minimum of two Reinforcement Waves and a maximum of three. You have three army ‘stances’ that you can choose from, which determines how large in points your waves can be.

To explain better, here is a chart showing the wave building exercise described above for Strike Force missions:

Formation Stance	Alpha	Beta	Gamma
Points per Primary Wave	900	1000	1100
Points per Reinforcement Wave	550	500	450

This really mixes up the status quo, and better represents the sudden waves of forces descending on the battlefield.

To help with the paperwork involved, I like how to book has Mission Records you can scan and print out, so that you can jot down which units are in which waves, the Agendas you have picked for the game, Crusade Blessings and of course points scoring.

The rules for bringing on Tactical Reserves are the same as full fat 40k, with the following exceptions:

• You cannot use the Rapid Ingress strat
• Unless performing a Surgical Deep Strike, your units can come on within 1″ of your board edge even if an enemy unit is within 9″. You cannot however go straight into Engagement Range and also the unit you have bought on within 9″ of an enemy unit will automatically be Battle-Shocked.

Now, you may be thinking, what on earth is a Surgical Deep Strike. And you’d be right in thinking that.

Surgical Deep Strikes

Once a turn, a unit with the Deep Strike ability currently in Reserves can enter via Surgical Deep Strike. This reminds me a little of the old Deep Strike rules! When performing a strike like this you can be setup more than 3″ of any enemy models. You must then take a Deep Strike test (remember those?! and yes I know you Heresy players will be like, we do Dave…) A Deep Strike test is made by rolling 2D6 and subtracting 1 per enemy unit within 9″ of your unit. You then take a look at the Deep Strike Test table.

The higher the combined score after any deductions, the safer your unit is. 4+? Your fine. 3+? You have to take a Battle-Shock test. 2+? You are Battle-Shocked. A 1 or less?! Well, you’ve got to cast your eyes on the Mishaps table (so much nostalga!). So much fun stuff in this table, from taking D3 Mortal Wounds, to having to perform the Surgical Strike again. The worst result? Your unit takes D6 mortals, is battle-shocked and cannot shoot or charge until the end of your turn.

Ouch.

I LOVE this. I think it’s my favourite mechanic in the book!

Crusade Blessings

Remember me mentioning Crusade Blessings? Well the next part of the book discusses these. As mentioned previously the Underdog (whoever has the lowest Crusade score) gets to pick one of these (or more depending on the difference in Crusade scores with your opponent), and you have a very healthy selection of options. You have 6 generic ones, 1 unique one per faction and then 3 Attacker and Defender ones, which of course depends on if you are the Attacker or the Defender in the mission you are about to play. Nothing super broken in here to be honest. They vary between getting the Benefit of Cover in your deployment zone during the first turn, to gaining additional Stratgeic Assest points, and even giving Battleline units Deep Strike.

Agendas are a fundimental part of gaining XP for your units, and Nachmund Gauntlet offers a variety of unique agendas for you to choose from. There are 5 generic ones, as well as 3 Attacker and 3 Defender agendas which you can alternatively use. I’ve picked out three as a taster:

• Strategic Dominance: Select one unit from your army at the end of your turn, of which is within 3″ of the centre of the battlefield. That unit gains 1XP. Any units which managed to gain 4 or more XP doing this agenda gives you 1 SAP.
• Activate Shield Node (Defender): An action which allows you to put down Shield Nodes that grant you XP and potentially SAP if you manage to activate 4 or more.
• Symbolic Objectives (Attacker): At the start fo the battle your opponent must pick two objectives. At the end of the battle your units within range of these objective markers gain 2XP.

Missions

With the book coming to the end, it’s the missions turn to shine.

There is 15 here in the book (3 unique to Onslaught sized games) and they are all unique and fun to play, with various victory conditions and cool mission rules. Some of the later missions have really bonkers deployment zones to help with the narrative which only adds to the fun.

Strategic Strike, for example, has the Mission Rule Drop Site Secure. You can add 2 to the Deep Strike test should you wish to perform a Surgical Deep Strike within your Deployment Zone, almost guarnteing you a safe deployment. One unit in your army which ends the battle within enemy territory can use the Victor Bonus rule to bag themselves 5XP. Victory Points are also up for grabs if you manage to have units in your enemy’s deployment zone thanks to the Breakthrough Push Mission Objective, whilst Seize Ground is more of a traditional grab objectives and score VP mission objective.

Crusade Cards and Map of the City

To help play your Crusade games the book ends with some very handy paperwork which can be scanned and printed. Firstly Crusade cards, presented in a manner which suits the art of the Nachmund conflict and more importantly a full page map of the city you are battling over, with box outs to keep score on how each alliance is doing securing each of the four key strategic sites.

Summary

As I was reading and writing the review I was making no secret to my fellow Sprues and Brewers that I love this Crusade book. It is, IMO, the strongest Crusade book of 10th, nay, EVER.

Yes, it does involve more book keeping than other Crusade campaigns, but to me this only adds to the narrative. Games Workshop have done City wide conflicts below, where you are trying to capture certain areas, but never has it been done this well.

The additional mechanics are all fun, in particular the Surgical Deep Strike which is a melee-armies dream (which could quickly turn in to a nightmare). Crusade Blessings are a nice way to even out the playing field, without feeling over powered.

I would say this campaign favours the larger gaming groups. It is of course possible to play between two people, but I feel it’s strength is the ability to host a larger group of players evenly split between the three alliances. Manage to get a group together to achieve this and you’ll 100% unlock the most fun out of this narrative supplement.

If you like Crusade, or want in on Crusade, then I’d highly recommend getting your hands on this book. I’m 100% going to be pesturing the guys to start a campaign with me!

Crusade: Nachmund Gauntlet is up for preorder right now, and can be purchased through our affliates at Element Games with a discount VS RRP. You’ll also massively help us out too. Our thanks again to Games Workshop for sending this over to us to review.