Battle Report: The Traitors Reveal Themselves!
Hey everybody, today is a special battle report because it's probably the only occasion for a long (long) while that all three of us would be in the same place.
I worked my ass off to have a fully assembled army ready to go for this one and I'll be showing off some pics of those models in a progress post soon.
So without any further ado, and apologies in advance for the over-saturated and fairly poor iPhone photography, let's get into it!
The Scenario: Hammerblow Assault
It's an attack/defense scenario so for the attacker this mission is all about smashing into the enemy line, breaching their defenses and securing that vital beachhead. The defender has an extra large deployment zone and has to hold that boundary against the attacker, denying him entry.
The game is primarily won in a kind of advanced linebreaker objective; with the attacker earning two victory points for every Objective Secured or Heavy Support unit that is in the defender's deployment zone at the end of the game, whereas the defender gets one victory point for each of those unit types that he keeps alive in his area.
For us this was the chance for the traitor forces to reveal themselves to the entrenched loyalist Blood Angels.
The Alpha Legion recon force scouts forward unseen under cover of darkness to gather knowledge on the enemy position. They relay this vital information to the waiting forces of the Warmaster in orbit and move their long range artillery into position, awaiting the moment to strike.
The staunch and noble Blood Angels stand firm as their brother astartes arrive from orbit, unsuspecting of the depth of betrayal at hand.
The sons of Horus respond in force, deep striking elite Justaerin squads lead by none other than Abaddon the merciless himself. They seek to teach the Angels the price of standing against the Warmaster and to send a message to all loyalists!
The Armies
Loyalist:
Buteo - Blood Angels 2250 Points
HQ - Chaplain (power axe, jump pack, refractor field)
Troops - Tactical squad
- Tactical support squad (plasma) + Rhino
- Assault squad
Elites - Mortis (Kheres assault cannons) Contemptor
- Cataphractii terminator squad
Heavy Support - Sicaran battle tank (with lascannons)
- Deredeo (autocannons + missile pod)
- Vindicator Laser Destroyer
Fortification - Aegis line
Traitors:
Sam - Sons of Horus 1125 Points
HQ - Ezekyle Abaddon
- Master of Signals (Void Shield Harness)
Troops - Cataphractii terminator squad
- Cataphractii terminator squad
Elites - Contemptor (chain fist, plasma blaster + plasma cannon)
Heavy Support - Whirlwind Scorpius
Syra - Alpha Legion 1125 Points
HQ - Vigilator (Nanyte Blaster)
- Master of Signals
Troops - Tactical squad
- Tactical squad
Elites - Contemptor (Claw, plasma blaster + Kheres)
Heavy Support - Whirlwind Scorpius
- Sicaran Venator
Turn 1 - Opening salvos
Loyalist Defender sets up first, Traitorous Attackers go first:
Buteo sets up with an Aegis making the clear divide between the defender's zone and the attackers'. It's a tough nut to crack and for a fleeting second even the Sons of Horus feel fear, but then the bombardment begins.
The Alpha Legion wasn't kidding about gathering info to aim artillery. Nuncio Voxes were up on a building drawing line of sight for the Scorpius Whirlwinds and Orbital Bombardments from both Masters of Signals!
The first Scorpius barrage took a hefty toll on the Blood Angels' assault marines at the back of their army but their sergeant in artificier armour tanked a remarkable 8 wounds for his squad members, dancing to and fro with all the nimble agility his jump pack could afford him when the Orbital Bombardment struck.
Then the second Scorpius and Orbital pounded in, gutting the Blood Angels' tactical squad at the Aegis line; starting with a barrage snipe on the apothecary, and ending with a scatter which took a glancing hullpoint from the Mortis Contemptor. The Sons of Horus continued to go for the throat with the Contemptor blasting off a volley of super heated death to vaporise the Assault Marine Sergeant who had nimbly avoided so much artillery. With two characters dead in one round of shooting from the Sons, even Abaddon might have smiled a little.
The Sicaran Venator, in the process of warming up it's neutron laser, whiffed a practice volley into nothing in particular. A warning shot.
Almost 20 marines died in the opening moments of the engagement!
Almost 20 marines died in the opening moments of the engagement!
The surprise wears off and the Defenders mount their response:
Most of the defending forces could do nothing but hold the line, with infantry out of range and reeling from the shock of the initial attack, they gathered themselves and took cover while the big guns were brought to bear. Leaping for cover, an assault marine's jump pack malfunctioned from the air intakes being clogged with debris and he crashed into the ground, limp as a rag-doll.
The Sicaran blazed away in response to the treachery but failed to dial in its aim fully. The Deredeo caught sight of the merest sliver of the Sons of Horus Scorpius and put a single shell through it's hull, a glancing blow. The Mortis raged wildly into the oncoming traitor Contemptors but their atomantic shielding dispersed the worst his Kheres could throw at them.
Then the Vindicator Laser Destroyer array thrummed into life. It fired the maximum number of shots into the Alpha Legion Contemptor rushing down the flank towards its friendly Deredeo. One heavy guage las shot pumped into the terrain at the Contemptor's feet, turning sand to glass. The second shot was narrowly avoided as the Contemptor took cover behind a wall. The third and final shot was true; striking with incredibly violent energies which punched clean through the ruined wall, shorted out the Contemptor's atomantic shielding and instantly pierced the sarcophagus of the warrior within - causing the immense being of adamantium and ceramite to topple into the dust, irrevocably dead.
Turn 2 - Staying the course
Abaddon takes to the field:
With a sizzling teleport flare, Abaddon entered the battle at the Blood Angels' rear but could do little until the shock of teleportation wore off. Across the battlefield the rest of the Sons of Horus terminators continued their inexorable march towards the defensive line, acting as the hammer to the anvil of Abaddon.
Galvanised by the appearance of their First Captain, the Sons of Horus continued the onslaught, bolters and reaper autocannon blazing away and causing casualties among the enemy tactical legionaries. Their artillery crashed down upon the Vindicator Laser Destroyer which had been so successful in it's opening salvo, with multiple direct hits; leaving in their wake a crater-ruin of splintered plasteel and shattered ceramite.
The Alpha legion, enraged by the loss of their venerable contemptor, hurled renewed artillery towards the Deredeo dreadnought, but in their uncharacteristic anger overshot their mark and instead found the tactical support squad hunkered down in their rhino behind the remnants of an abandoned fortress. Two immense blasts struck the rhino, shaking it so violently the hull creaked and groaned; stunning the crew who took the brunt of the force. The Venator tank destroyer was warmed up by now and rolled forward from it's cover to fire its brutal main gun. The blinding beam of light it emitted ricocheted off the hull of the Sicaran battle tank across the field, shearing clean through a lascannon sponson and causing the weapon to burst into a sheet of sparks.
Bloodied but unbroken:
The Blood Angels turned to face Abaddon, with rank upon rank of bolter, but the mighty cataphractii plate dismissed the hail of bolter shells as easily as the rock and grit falling from the sky in a steady rain - the result of the multiple bombardments. The Sicaran battle tank pummeled the Venator but could not penetrate its hull, and the Mortis and Deredeo both unleashed an unthinkable amount of firepower towards the oncoming terminators and contemptor, causing only a single hull point of damage due to the Master of Signals' impenetrable Void Shield.
The bulk of the strength of the Blood Angels still standing tall and proud, they steeled themselves for the next wave of the combat. Not one Legionnaire faltered... they were blood-sworn to the battle, refusing to fail their Primarch and their Emperor!
Part 2 is coming soon guys, so stay tuned for the dramatic end-game result (up now, click here!)
No comments:
Post a Comment