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Friend (AshAxe from 40k Fighty Club) and I recently played a 1,000 pt Cities of Death game, his gorgeously painted Castellans vs my Celestial Lions. Marine vs Marine! We played 5th Ed. rules with two objectives in each deployment zone, most objectives at the end wins. Very give and take game, was great fun made even better by playing against a incredibly well painted army and easy going/fun opponent. Anyways, here is a brief overview...

My Marines:

I run Apoths/Dual Plasma Traits with full 10 man squads (Which, with 5th edition objective rules, a small 5 man squad sitting on your home base is a must). Anyways, my list:

Celestial Lions
Captain (Yes I play captains, I regret nothing!). Power sword, BP. Plain.

Two 10 man Tac squads with dual plasma gun and Apoth Sgts. Rhinos for each.
Predator with Las/Heavy Bolters
5 man Terminator Squad

Imperial Castellans (From what I remember)
Chaplain. Jump pack.

Two 10 man Tac Squads with Meltas. Rhinos for each.
Dev Squad with MLs. 6 man strong if I recall.
Assault Squad with Power Fist Sgt. (Chap leads this group).


I won deployment and chose one corner, Mike the opposite. I deployed my objective in the Church and was forced to waste a 10 man squad to squat it (lesson learned).

Due to 5ths rules, I knew I would get first turn so lined up Rhinos with Pred following. Terminators took high rise, I planned on supporting fire down into the street I was racing up. The 'plan' was to disable Mikes far Rhino, then racing up up the street with terminator and Tac Squad 2 focusing on his Tac Squad. I would receive cover under the bridge from Devs and pick his army apart piecemeal. That was the 'plan'. Pics of deployment:


Overview of Table


Celestial Lions mobilize


Guarding the Objective


Castellan Setup


Rhino off to far side (I hoped to isolate this)

Turn 1:
The Lions
As I had won the setup/deploy roll I had the first turn. Nothing real fancy, Tactical Squad 2 charged up in the rhino and launched smoke, Tactical Squad 1 sat on the objective and it's empty rhino moved up flanking the other. The Terminators started plodding up the ramp on the catwalk, attempting to take out the Devestators across the table but their shots fell short. The Predator let loose with all its guns and nabbed two of the devs.


Charge!

The Castellans
Engines roared to life and both rhinos charged out from behind cover. The assault squad was eager to find combat but the Chaplain wisely held them back behind cover, waiting for their moment to pounce. Rockets flared from the upper skywalk as the Castellan Devs launched a barrage of rockets at the closets Rhino, however the smoke and armor proved too much and the rhino was left undamaged.


Castellans Advance


Devs take aim...

Turn 2

The Lions
The Predator slammed into the broken wall, using the rubble as cover while unloading on the lone Rhino to it's right. The Rhino exploded in a flash of fire and steel as Marines came tumbling out, not a one of them hurt. The devs started turning their missles to bear on the new threat...
The Terminators again plodded up the ramp, finding themselves just out of range.


Pred opens up


Terms Advance..

The Castellans
The Devs opened fire on the Predator located below with only one finding it's mark.....and that one missle seemingly hit a critical component as the Predator was completely obliterated. Rhino 2 was ordered to head off the Lion Squad racing up the side street, the Tactical Squad quickly disembarked and again the Assault Squad advanced anticipating combat next turn. Castellan Squad 1, finding their rhino in shambles, started hoofing it towards street two...where the showdown seemed to be heading. Castellan Squad 2 advanced under the boiler preparing for battle...


Running to battle..


Whats left of my pred


Castellan Squads advancing

Turn 3

The Lions
The racing Lion Rhino slowed as the the plasma gun popped out of the top hatch and took a pop shot at the approaching Castellans. The Terminators finally found a mark and the assault cannons along with storm bolters shredded several of the crew. In the aftermath of the shooting, the Castellan Squad was left with one lone Sgt. who defiantly held his ground.


Terminators begin shredding marines..


Defiant Sgt. with the killer powerfist MVP of the game (for him)

The Castellans
The lone Sgt., last member of Tac Squad 2 bravely rushed the oncoming rhino, banking on a long shot as he pounded at the thick armor with his PF....and a long shot happened as the Rhino blew disembarking the Lions. This little madman then consolidated up into my Captains Tac squad, holding the entire damn group up. This guy was a stud. The chaplain let out war shout as the assault finally found battle, launching themselves up onto the skyramp and assaulting the terminators. Both squads traded blows, with the terminators finding three of it's brothers dead in the first assault. The chaplain seemingly was a bit rusty as all of his attacks missed. Close combat was a draw(Made so by Mike's bad, awful rolling)...and it would continue for another round.


The roar of jetpacks signal the beginning of the end for my terms..


The aftermath...

Turn 4

The Lions
The Lions found themself in hand to hand across the board (Striking the Tactical Squad sitting in the Church smoking ciggs). The Powerfist Castellan Sgt. from hell fell this turn from my Captain and my squad consolidated (poorly) for cover. The Terminators lost another one of it's members but managed to smash the howling Chaplain into a pile of broken flesh. I braced for Mikes next turn...


The Castellans line up their sights...

The Castellans
Tactical Squad 1, after crawling out of a burning rhino across the board and running the entire game, finally found battle...and found it well. Their rapid fire was devestating taking 4 Lions surrounding their Captain. The Devestators found line of sight to two of the Lions as well, leaving a few huddling around their Captain. The last two terminators finally fell to the assault squad on the skywalk...things were looking grim for the Lions..


Last Term dying...


The remaings of my spearhead Tac squad...

Turn 5

The Lions
My captain realized at this point that the only chance for victory, was for sacrifice. He encouraged the last marines of his squad to open fire and charged directly into the last Castellan tactical squad guarding their objective. If only he could wipe them out...
Five fell to his rage (and my lucky, lucky rolling). None were left to fight back, their nerve held however and they consolidated up. The Captain heard the approaching sound of unfriendly jetpacks...

The Castellans
The assault squad came screeching from the skywalk, diving into the fray involving the Captain of the Lions. The Captain fought bravely but was laid low by several well aimed powerfists.


My Captains last stand...

Turn 6
The last of the Castellan squad advanced onto their objective, the Lions still held theirs in the Church and after much bloodletting...the battle was a draw. A fitting end after the give/take!

Summary:

Was a blast to play Mike, great opponent, great looking army. Three things I learned form playing 5th; Take a small squad to babysit objectives, if you think you have enough 'Troop' Selections...take more and most importantly...DON'T ignore lone power fist Sgts that look pissed. Even if you're in a tank that moved last turn





PS Then they said the hell with it, dropped a Warhound in and wiped the board.

Those are both some very nice looking armies, and it was an interesting battle report. I like it when people use a little storytelling flair.

Very very nice. This is how battle reports should be: lots of pictures, beautifully modeled table and armies, a little bit of flair beyond the bare reporting of facts. The only improvement would be detailed army lists.

I agree, this is a beaut of a battle report. I love to see nicely modelled/painted armies on equally stunning terrain. It's what it's all about.

This battle report convinced me to start collecting marines. Factoid.

That was gorgeous. If only every board and battle looked that amazing. Huge applause for the both of you!

What an amazing table! And both of your armies were extremely well painted. I particularly liked the mud caked around the bottom of the Lions' Rhinos.

It's obvious that you two had a lot of fun with this game and with the game of 40K in general. I look forward to reading future reports.

A fantastic report, with two solid armies, sweet terrain and great pics of the above

- Salvage

I'm going to going to cut to the chase (especially since I have a) already complimented you , and b) read this about 10 times)...

Can we have another one please !

Best battle report on the internet, and by a comfortable margin, too. How did the apothecaries do? I like them for background purposes.

I'm in love with that table and both those armies. Expect rings soon.

That table is gorgeous. Those photos were done well, I particularly like the one with the Devs lining up their guns at the advancing tanks. This puts other batreps to shame, Well Done!

In addition to EVERYTHING looking absolutely breathtaking with the table and the way both of the armies were painted this sounds like one of those few games where both people were fairly pleased with the way the whole game went. The pics and the story telling of the whole battle was a nice touch too. If only everyone had a table like that to play on!! Always enjoy your work too and cant wait to see more.

Later
Gareth

Greets,

Thanks for all the kind words regarding the table/armies. Mike's Castellans are really a beaut of an army, terrific color scheme. The pictures don't start to do his army justice. The table has been a work in progress for a bit with slight modifications here and there to 'dirty' it up more and more. I'm slowly starting to add LED pieces...the tower is one of the first but it didn't show up in the pics (Wasn't part of the battle).

I plan on taking a large piece of foamcore and airbrushing buildings on it...so we can hold it up for background in the pictures (Rather than my half-finished rec room

Silverthorne: Apoths do well with dual plasma, as they save a marine on their turn, save a marine on your turn...my buddies hate this (Probably because I always say 'Saving lives cheating death' everytime they do). However, with the new marine dex tidbits floating around...appears they'll be count as pretty soon = |

I'll talk Mike into playing a bigger game with me and take better pics next time. Eventually we plan on putting up a site with our campaign/maps/battle reports. Cheers and thanks again.

Nurglitch wrote:Very very nice. This is how battle reports should be: lots of pictures, beautifully modeled table and armies, a little bit of flair beyond the bare reporting of facts. The only improvement would be detailed army lists.

Absolutely right, I regret I didn't write down (Or keep our AB printouts) after the game. I think it would be neat to take pictures of each army (similar to WD articles) with unit names, etc. Without doubt I'll add this to the next report. Thanks again.

AgeOfEgos wrote:

I'll talk Mike into playing a bigger game with me and take better pics next time. Eventually we plan on putting up a site with our campaign/maps/battle reports. Cheers and thanks again.

YAS!

Very nice report. I find myself planning out how to make a bridge like that in my head... just too damn cool!

Godly report and Awwwwwsome paint jobs.

Thanks for the compliments! It really was a good game. Age's table is really exceptional as are his Marines, both of which add to the enjoyment of my games against him.

We've played a larger game since this battle and I believe he is in the process of writing it up.

Super nice battle report! wow this could convince me to fight against them with my Tyranids army:

Hive Fleet Mokas