Battle for the stars...30k Heresy battle

"T-minus 50 seconds to impact."

 So it has come to this, thought the 405th Captain. To fight fellow Astartes. Inconceivable that one Legion could have fallen, now another has. The Alpha Legion were always shrouded, always concealed their intent. It is none too surprising that they fell, though the lack of intel on them, their command structure and their way of war was a concern. 

They would have to fall like all others before the might of the 7th, bolter in hand and hammer them unto death and oblivion, like so many of the xenos races faced during the Great Crusade. I just wish...."Impact in 5 seconds". Alexis looked back to his assault team and uttered the oath confident that it would lend them strength of purpose as it had thousands of times before. "Primarch-Progenitor, to your glory and the glory of Him on Earth!

This a 1000pt game of Zone Mortalis using the Space Hulk tiles. For the rules adjustments we made, you can have a look at my earlier post here. If you would like to see the earlier campaign game, have a look at our game in the Rad Wastes.

This game pits the Imperial Fists vs Alpha Legion on an orbiting Space Station, above the contested world. We decided to use my Space Hulk tiles (just one set), and set out a tight series of corridors to represent the station in part. First up are the lists we used.

Imperial Fists Zone Mortalis Assault Force (attacker) 1000pts
Alexis Polux 165


10 Veteran Tacticals 255
- 2 Heavy Bolters with Suspensor Webs
Sergeant
- Power Fist
Sniper

Apothecary 45

5 Legion Terminators (Huscarls) 255
 - Terminator armour (Cataphractii)
- 5 Storm Shields
- 1 Thunder Hammer
- 2 Chainfists

Omni (Primaris Medicae) 145
- Terminator Armour
- Storm Shield
- Solarite Power Gauntlet

Legion Dreadnought  125
- 2 Dreadnought close combat weapons

Alpha Legion Zone Mortalis Defence Force (defender) 1000pts
Vigilator 125
- artificer armour
- power weapon (maul)
- melta bombs
- refractor field

15 Tactical Space Marines 225
- legion vexilla
Sergeant
- artificer armour
- melta bombs

10 Terminators 385
- Terminator armour (Cataphractii)
- 9× combi-bolters
- 9× power fists
Sergeant
- combi-bolter
- chainfist
- power dagger

Apothecary 55
- artificer armour

5 Headhunters 210
- heavy bolter
Headhunter Prime
- artificer armour
- power fist

Legiones Astartes: Alpha Legion (Infiltrate)

The Mission
As is my custom, I have forgotten what the mission title is and will endeavour next time to actually write notes down. I knew the important bits though, and that was to kil kil kil. The Alpha Legion got to pick the starting location for their forces, and due to them all infiltrating or in reserve, were done. So that left me deploying and going second (unless I seize the initiative). With that in mind, I put Polux, the apothecary and Veterans in reserve (as I had to), and deployed my Huscarls, Omni and the Dreadnought as I knew the terminators couldn't run and would be out of the game if they cam on later, and I wasn't brave enough to use Polux's ability to teleport them in on space hulk tiles without a transponder. With that set we were ready to start.

Start of the game deployment. I'm sure you notice the 10 man Terminator squad to the flank of my forces. Headhunters plus an apothecary were on the far end close to the Huscarls.

End of Turn for the Imperial Fists and Alpha Legion.

Not a whole lot to show for an entire turn. No line of sight so no shooting, just moving about ready to strike.

"We are getting some large readings on the auspex..."

Alpha Legion Turn 2

The Headhunters fall back into defense positions, eager to take down a few Huscarl's. The Terminators continue to plod forward in an effort to catch the dreadnought. Reserves failed to turn up at this stage.

Imperial Fists Turn 2

The Huscarl's open the door and plod down the corridor towards the Headhunters. The Dreadnought, knowing where the reserves will turn up, starts to head down that way, away from the mob of Terminators. Just to be sporting, I too fail to summon my reserves. Seems Polux and crew are ensuring my lead forces have a chance at some honour.

The Headhunters let rip with their overwatch fire, killing two Huscarl's! The Huscarl's simply fail their assault charge as they now need a 9 rather than the below average 6 that was required before.

Alpha Legion Turn 3

The reserves again leave it up to the initial forces, failing to turn up. The Headhunters, buoyed from their earlier success, open up on the surviving Huscarls, and claim another! It seems I was very good at rolling ones and letting the Primaris Medicae look on and doing nothing. The Terminators continued their trudge, getting closer to their target, the Dreadnought.

Imperial Fist Turn 3

The Huscarl's advance again towards the Headhunters, and it seems this time they had their shields up. They manage to get into assault this time, without any losses, and wipe the squad out, taking no further injuries. They then consolidate back down the corridor.

The dreadnought continues to move forwards in an effort to block the coming reinforcements.

Alpha Legion Turn 4

The much needed reinforcements arrive, right behind the dreadnought! With Vigilator and sergeant up front, brandishing their melta bombs, they hope to take out the behemoth. The Terminators move up to close the trap. Now there is no where for the dreadnought to go, except through bodies!

Imperial Fists Turn 4

The dreadnought decides to go for the blob of marines with the Warlord in it. The Huscarl's decide to flank the Terminators, and meet up with my reinforcements that finally arrived. Polux and his squad move as quick as they can to get into the action, running as they know time is short.

The dreadnought in lose combat manages to kill the Vigilator and another marine. He does suffer a hull point for his troubles though, however, the close confines of the tiles means that limited numbers can be brought to bear against the Imperial Dreadnought.

Alpha Legion Turn 5

The Terminators move up to relieve the Tactical Marines. With nothing else to do they assault in. The Dreadnought takes a few marines down , but ultimately the Terminators with power fists succeed in destroying the ancient warrior. Their units then consolidate towards Polux and his fresh new squad.

Imperial Fists Turn 5

Polux grieves for the fallen warrior, and pushes his warriors to move faster towards the enemy. The Huscarl's move to link up with Polux and his veteran squad. However at the end they need not bother, as the Alpha Legion signaled the retreat. That is, the game ended here!


So after a very interesting and enjoyable game here are the results.

Imperial Fists:

- 1 VP for killing more units (Attrition),

- 1 VP for having more units alive (Last Man Standing),

- 1 VP for the Vigilator (Slay the Warlord),

- 3 VPs for Apothecary, Headhunters and Vigilator (Search and Destroy).
Total: 6

Alpha Legion:

- 1 VP for the Dreadnought (Search and Destroy).

Total: 1 

So a win to the Imperial Fists! With this win, I successfully take the point, so we now both control a strategic point each in the campaign. We now will move onto the next campaign turn, which will hopefully see some action in the last uncontested strategic point, The Treacherous Ruins. 

I really enjoyed playing the game on a different board, and the Space Hulk tiles were very brutal for movement, but I feel accurately depicted the close confines of the warzone. It remains to be seen if the Imperial Fists can hold this point!

Thanks for looking.

Cheers!

Duty and Shadow - Horus Heresy Campaign

As mentioned previously, my friend and I are starting a campaign, My Imperial Fists vs Alpha Legion. We are going to use the campaign system from the Conquest book.

We decided on 3 warzones, Ancient Ruins, Rad Wastes and a Space Station. Last night we managed to play the first game, in the Rad Wastes. He was attacking, and if he won, he would claim an campaign point. I was just there to stop him. We did a scenario, no idea what, but basically the three buildings in these Rad Wastes were valuable (very good cover from the radiation storms I recon). They accrued VP's each turn, so they were quite valuable.

We decided for the first few games to make it only 1000pts, as he was just beginning his force. Here are my 1000pts.

Praetor Lachdannan
Iron Halo
Digi Lasers
Solarite Power gauntlet

Tactical Squad 1
Power Fist
Rhino

Tactical Squad 2
Power sword
Rhino

Land Speeder Squadron
Heavy Flamer, Multimelta

Land Raider Proteus

Alpha Legion (from memory)
Armillus Dynat

5 Alpha Legion Headhunters
Drop Pod

5 Cataphractii Terminators
Chainfist

Tactical Squad Gamma
Meltabombs
Drop Pod

Tactical Squad Sigma
Meltabombs
Drop Pod

Deployment. All my forces embarked or in reserve. This zone was rather brutal, as if you are in the open and don't have an invulnerable save, then if you fail a toughness test at the beginning (or end, forget which), of your turn, you take D3 wounds on the unit, no Armour Saves. Oh there is also Rad storms blowing about as well, which can hit you with a pie place of AP3. Transports seemed like the order of the day for this zone!

Sneaky Alpha legion. Nowhere  in sight.

Turn 1 they crash down on two objectives.

My turn, I move my flanking Rhino's forward, and the land Raider takes some pot shots at the traitors.

Alpha Legion 2nd Turn, the rest of their forces drop down in middle, and the tactical Squad makes a long range charge to my Land Raider, and destroys the right Lascannon.

Imperial Fists Turn 2.

Praetor Lachdannan gets out, ready to do some damage, where the Rhino's double back and disembark Squad 2, to fire at the Headhunters. The Land speeders scatter 11, and miss with their shots. All said though, the weight of fire took out the Headhunters, leaving the character Armillus Dynat, on his own.

Alpha Legion 3rd turn, the Terminators come in to back Dynat up. The Tacticals on the right, unleash Fury of the Legion, and score 2 wounds against Praetor Lachdannan.

Imperial Fists 3rd Turn, everyone disembarks and lines up their shots on Dynatt and the Terminators. At the end of it they all fall. Dynat himself gets vaped with 2 Multimelta shots.

Praetor Lachdannan charges in...

...and wipes them out.

Alpha Legion Turn 4 sees them take some pot shots to no effect. They still have an impressive lead in victory points, due to the consistent camping on objectives. Imperial Fists turn 4 sees some Drop pods dead, and Tactical Squad 2, running for the other objective.

Last turn of the game sees little to no action, with tactical squad 2 still running for the objective.

Alpha Legion: 6
Imperial Fists: 4

End game sees that despite the horrific casualties they suffered, the Alpha legion won the day with their objectives. Although I did get slay the warlord and another bonus for killing more units (which did give me a bonus of 2D3) I rolled a 1 on each of them. However we did roll for things post game, and it seems Dynat died due to his injuries. A harsh roll for the first game! Still, at least I did achieve something.

It was a fun game though. My next objective is to get some stuff painted for the next campaign game (Zone Mortalis with Space Hulk tiles), and actually start painting some terrain as it is starting to annoy me.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers!