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To view the previous report in this series, click here. To view the next report in this series, click here. To view more battle reports in The Hand of the King series, click here.

To view the tactical overview for this report, click here.

***

O, who are these, that flock from the hills like the dove to its nest?
    It is the shepherd, and with him his kine. With what joy they come down from the mountain,
       And peacefully come to cool waters in the heat of the day.

Melchoir ran the ancient psalm through his mind as he bit down into his roast beef sandwich. Hot juice dribbled down his chin. He breathed out slowly through his nose as he chewed. It was bliss.

He was eating solid foods again, and just in time. They were but days away from running out of red-flavored gelatin.

"Sir?" the guardsman asked him from the other side of the small cafeteria table. He had a shaved head and one of his arms in a sling. Melchoir had watched as he had come in to pick something up for someone, and then had decided to stay and get something to eat for himself. He had carefully balanced a tray with his dinner on one arm, along with his delivery carefully wrapped in napkins to keep it warm while he ate.

"Yes?" the officer replied after swallowing his first bite. He looked around for some napis sauce, but there was none at the table. There was just a few packets of non-dairy creamer and a small stack of sugar substitutes that he was pretty sure were there only for decoration, as he'd never actually seen anybody use any of them. Everything else had been walked off with at some point.

"Oh, right," he continued, returning his attention to his dinner guest. He had asked Sanario to join him for his first real dinner, but the priest had some paperwork to finish up. "Hill 3-520 you say? Yes, that was one of my objectives during the big fight."

"Well I was there, sir," the guardsman replied, "I was part of a reconnaissance mission to sweep the area. That was when it was still in our control, you see, the first time."

"Ah, that must have been weeks ago, then," the officer replied.

"It was."

"Well?" the officer asked, anxious to have a nice long period where he didn't have to say anything so that he could feel free to devour his sandwich without feeling impolite.

"Yes, there I was..."



"We had come to the top of Hill 3-520, and the enemy had set up a strong point on the top of the hill amidst the ruins. It looked to be a scouting party, or perhaps a garrison of some variety. They completely dominated the lines of sight, and had heavy weapons in position to attack anyone foolish enough to assault their position before they even got a chance to do such a thing."

"I see," Melchoir replied, chewing. He wasn't completely sure he saw. The man spoke with the heavy accent and curious turn of phrase of someone from Keleria. The officer pondered the merits of proper civilization on language patterns as he bit into his roast beef again.

"And so, thus unable to make such an assault, we called in for air support. It was not long before we heard the screeching of the flier engines coming up from over the hill. The enemy, they turned to look at the incoming aircraft as it was to deliver its payload. My sergeant saw his chance and, our enemy's gaze so diverted, we began to sprint out from the cover of the ruins and dash around in a flanking maneuver.

It was not long until the valkyrie presented herself, and from her came the Kingsguard."



"The enemy, they began to scatter about in the confusion. Some of them ran for cover towards where my squadmates and myself were moving.

Some of the Kingsguard landed in front of them, sir. They charged in against them out in the open while their comrades fired on the valkyrie.

One of them prepared his flamethrower to fire."



"And he doused them all in burning fuel as the others shot into them with their small arms.

One of them in a panic ran away from his firey death, escaping as the cloud of flame lifted.



"But he ran straight towards us! He jumped into the window. The four of us stared at him, and he stared at us. I lifted my lasgun and pulled the trigger. To my shame, I had forgotten to flip the safety off on my weapon. Nothing happened.

The enemy quickly pointed his grenade launcher at us, and blew one of my squadmates apart in a great fountain of bloody chunking, the krak round splattering him to pieces from mere feet away.

I recoiled from the shock of the grenade and from the horrible spraying. One of the two now with me had a cooler head, and took down the enemy warrior with his lasgun, causing him to slump backwards in the windowsill.

All of this was greatly exciting, and we spent the next moments searching for anyone else who had run towards us. I could see across the street at the other Kingsguardsmen who had landed. They were engaged in a great and epic fight for their very survival."



"The enemy fired into them as they also threw rockets at us across the street. The armor of the Kingsguard was sound, though, and beyond reproach. I could see one of them charge in, in great desperation to prevent the Foleran from piercing his armor with his small arm."



"In fact, I could see them everywhere. As the first close combat erupted, the rest joined into the fray. The Kingsguard shot their pistols with devestating effect, and charged in to attack their enemy with their combat blades.

Everywhere, a grand melee was being fought at the top of the hill."



"One by one, I could see the enemy fall casualty. First an enemy, then a Kingsguard, then an enemy again. Soon all were in the fighting.

As the numbers became few, I could see a Kingsguardsman crawl up into the ruins and attack an enemy rocket team. He caught one of them unawares, and ended him with a knife stroke. Then the gunner turned towards him."



"He dropped his weapon, and got into a fight, hand to hand. The Kingsguard slashed with his knife, but the enemy grabbed it and delivered a kick to the Kingsguardsman. Our ally composed himself, but found footing uneven on the ruin. The enemy twisted his grasp and the knife fell from his hand. The enemy kicked again, knocking the Kingsguardsmen off of the ruin and cascading into the street below. It was dreadful.

They had accomplished their mission, though, sir. They had gained for us the time that we needed. We charged across the street, from both sides at once while there were too few of them left to resist us. Scarcely had the fight been over before we were there upon them.

They were dispatched appropriately, and we went to tend to the wounded that had given their bodies to save our mission."

"Interesting," Melchoir replied, coming to the end of his dinner.

"It is, sir. And that is how we took Hill 3-520."

"Wait, Hill 3-520?" a voice came from behind them, "Well, I was there too."

A stormtrooper loomed over the two of them. He was recovering from having his eye shot out. With practiced grace, he took a chair, and brought it up to the tiny table. The other two already seated only barely got themselves out of the way as a tray full of food accompanied by a Kingsguardsman plopped down next to them.

"Yes," the stormtrooper reminisced, "It was at the height of the action. Ground forces had broken through, and troops were pouring through the breakout. My boys and I were plopped down right in front of it all to stamp out pockets of resistance ahead of the onrushing throng.

The other two squads had been let off to hold some high ground somewhere, while my sarge and our unit stayed in our ride. It wasn't long before we came across some hotspot. Turned out the hotspot was this very hill we're talking about now.

Seems that this Marshal Theleos had broken through and sent his conscripts on ahead as he secured the shoulders."

Melchoir almost choked on the remnants of his sandwich. "Marshal Melchoir Theleos?"

"Well... Yes, I believe the very same."

"A pleasure to meet you," Melchoir said, extending his good right arm.

"Well, small galaxy," the stormtrooper replied, shaking the officer's hand, "So there we were," the stormtrooper continued, eager to get into his story, "So, we get the call to drop in some hot spot. We fly in, drop out, and bang, mission accomplished. We took some casualties, though, and the meltas were totally shot, but that didn't matter. We clear off the objective, and then a bunch of your conscripts come charging up the field, and they meet up with us on the other side.

And they don't know WHAT they're doing, they just know to keep going forward. No officer around, I take command of them and some other survivors, and I start forcing a breakthrough. The big mob of us don't get a half mile before we're up at the hill."



"And as we're getting to the top, I see out of the corner of my eye a few of the enemy. They must have been holding the place as a reserve position, but it's not well garrisoned, so I get the men ready and prepare the attack.

They start moving up the field when the enemy comes in. They must have seen the breakout and had a bird in the air. The thing flies over us and makes a banking turn. I call for someone to shoot that thing the hell down, but nobody's got anything better than a small arm, so good luck with that.

It keeps on its turn until it's nearly back over us, and then a bunch of guys repel (in an altogether inferior way to us Kingsguard) down and get ready to block our attack."



And then the thing switches over into hover mode, nearly stopping on a pin head. The thing sways back and forth, the engine exhaust blasting onto the grass below. It takes a moment to acquire a target, and then the thing just starts lighting up one of my infantry squads.

Now, I'm getting desperate, because I've got nothing I can take this thing down with, and there's no way we're going to take this freaking hill.

And then, from out of nowhere, some of my friends from the 'sabres show up. Right there on top of the bad guys!"



"They must have just come in from a different mission same as us. You know we Kingsguard can't help lookin' for trouble once we've achieved our primary. They must have killed something and wandered over towards us to get a piece, you know?

Well, let me tell you, THEIR special weapons were in just fine operating order. The guys sneak up behind them and then BAM! knock 'em out with a couple of flame throwers. Didn't know what hit 'em. Another job handled perfectly by the Kingsguard.

But then, get this, the bad guys start shooting back, and I'm glad because they're not paying attention to me anymore, but the poor bastards on the other side sure got the short end there. They showed up just to make a flashy entrance before being cut down, which is a shame as I think one of them owed me a fifty.

Anyways, they're pushing up on my right, and I've still got this damned bird in the sky shooting the hell out of everything. I'm really in a tight spot here. So I tell the guys to keep advancing, and to go for cover.

And then, for the second time in, what two minutes? The cavalry comes in again!"



"It's a couple of jocks from the double-deuce recon. Who knows WHERE the hell they were, but they see what's going on and decide to get some target practice, am I right?

So they show up practically right underneath the enemy flier, but first they get distracted by clearing off that ruin I was telling you about before. And I'm like 'come on, shoot the bird down already', because they were practically staring it in the pooper, excuse the language.

But just then, the freaking flying thing decides its going to hover over somewhere's else for awhile. And there the enemy is. Caught out in the open, right between my boys charging up in front of them, and the walker jocks coming right up from behind them."





"And they fall right, I mean RIGHT into the trap. The guys in front take up in the ruins and start opening fire, killing off their flame thrower guy and putting a bunch of holes in their sergeant. The guys behind open up from behind and tear them a new one.

It was a class act. True story.

But that's not all," the stormtrooper exclaimed, launching even more excitedly into the second part of his story.

"So, I was telling you about the guys on my right, right? But what about your conscripts? So, they go over on the left, see?

And they're over there, and they're just doing their thing, and around the time my stormie buddies show up and do their thing, they've almost made it across a stretch of grass over towards another ruin."



"Now, you remember that part where the bird flew off? Well, it didn't pack it up and go home. Instead it got distracted by this huge freaking pile of guys that are just running around out in the open. So the bird swoops over, and it starts just lighting it up. The lascannons go off and one goes down and the heavy bolters start in and there another one and another one, just like that."



"Let me tell you, it was no shortage of brutal. They were getting guys from the ruins shooting at them too. It was basically what was going on on my right, except down on the left, it was us guys who were losing it.

Anyways, you know conscripts. These guys freak out and just like that, like THAT, they start to run the hell away. Seen it a dozen times if I've seen it once.

Well, they're just about gone, and I'm just about to start panicking yet again because it's not like I got more guys in the fight anymore, and there's still that damn bird in the sky. Things start looking knives and shovels, when what happens, but another pile of conscripts come charging right back up the hill!"



"I look behind them, and I can see them coming. This breakout is complete. We won everywhere, and now it was just a torrent of guys breaking through the enemy lines. They were finished. They had it.

The conscripts lead the way, but behind them there were regular guardsmen who had real freaking weapons for a change, and behind that there were a couple of hydras, and I think to myself, yeah, this is it right now.

And the bird pilot must have figured that too. No way he by his little lonesome was going to stop a breakout, now that it had grown to this size. Just us, maybe, but the whole freaking army behind us? Not a chance. So he switches engines and gets the hell out of there as fast as he can. Like the chump he was.

And THAT, gentleman, is how Hill 3-520 got taken, and STAYED taken."

"That is amazing," said the other guardsman at the table with a twinge of envy. Melchoir nodded with approval. He liked the Kingsguard. They shot stuff for him, and were always great for conversation after.

"Is that where you lost your eye?" Melchoir asked.

"This? Aw, no, it wasn't like that. I got this sweetheart trying to open a ration box with my combat knife. Thing slipped right up and hit me in the eye. What a freaking klutz, right? I'm so embarrassed. Don't tell anyone, though. I reported it as a combat wound so that I can skip penance. You can keep a secret, right sir?"

As best Melchoir could establish, the stormtrooper was attempting to wink at him. The officer smiled gracefully.

"Yeah, that's right. It's why we're the cool guys, you and me," the stormtrooper announced, resisting the urge to give the officer a punch on the arm.

"Well, see ya'," he said moseying over towards the buffet table full of steamer trays.

"Yes, I should probably be going too," the other guardsman stated, picking up his bundle and sticking it into the fold of his sling, "I only hope it is still warm enough when I get back, or I'll have to face... double mortification."

The officer was intrigued.

He was also still hungry. He wondered if the cafeteria had any of those four-eggroll things left.


***

Fanks Ailaros! Looks like you've got a tough decision about the conscripts for the next game. But Sentinels are just great at 500pts, if only they could ding a land raider reliably.

Looking forward to the next report.

Yours,
as ever,
Cap'n R.

Thanks.

So, I went back into the rulebook, and realised that I was wrong about the morale thing. It's only when you're using the suicide squad rules (which I wasn't in my 500 point game) that you ignore morale tests. I should have let my opponent run off the board after my stormies mangled them (which probably would have kept them alive, at least for awhile, either to pick off vets or claim linebreaker), and my conscript yo-yo and his running off the board actually did count after all. I've now corrected this in the tactical report.

Anyways, it's another example of what I'm starting to see with fliers. In this game, I ONLY focused on the ground game. When my opponent realised that I didn't have any heavy weapons, his vendetta spend the entire game after the first turn in hover mode.

In the end, though, fliers can't score, and they can't contest. Yet again I've had a game end where my opponent basically has only a single flier forlornly swooping over a table devoid of friendly scoring units.

I'm really starting to come to the impression that you either try and dominate the air game, or you try and dominate the ground game. Going half and half, or really any blend, is just going to see you beaten up by somebody going only one way or the other.

In this case, I'm just going to literally ignore my opponent's fliers, and make the sole purpose of my army removing his scoring units from the board in the first half of the game. My opponent's fliers can do whatever they want so long as I'm still the one with the guys on the ground winning the points.

An enjoyable pair of reports Ailaros, as always. This time we get to see the return of the four-eggroll things.

I might have to try writing my own reports, seeing as I am collecting quite the characters in my Guard army.

I do agree with your assessment on fliers, but only in lower points games. At a higher points level, you will need to start worrying about fliers because there can be so many of them.

And I am curious on what your sentinels had on them. You don't seemed to have them on your list in your tactical reports.

Great, characterful report as usual.

One question though;

As far as playing armies with unbuilt/partially-built models, or full model-proxy armies (The Starwars Themed one in example), do you feel it at all affects your experience?

I, personally, find it kinda cuts into the narrative a bit, detracts from the overall 40k-ish vibe that I enjoy so much. I'd like to hear your feelings on the matter.

Happygrunt wrote:This time we get to see the return of the four-eggroll things.

Not the first time, nor the last.

Happygrunt wrote:I do agree with your assessment on fliers, but only in lower points games. At a higher points level, you will need to start worrying about fliers because there can be so many of them.

Well that's what I'm going to test, I think. In theory, an opponent spamming fliers is going to multiply the drawbacks at the same time that they multiply the strengths. Yes, spamming is generally better, but spamming against a hard counter is actually worse. In this case, I'm looking for a strategic counter, rather than a codex one, but the same principle should still apply...

... I think.

Happygrunt wrote:And I am curious on what your sentinels had on them. You don't seemed to have them on your list in your tactical reports.

Oh, thanks for the catch.

They had multilasers.

TheCaptain wrote:As far as playing armies with unbuilt/partially-built models, or full model-proxy armies (The Starwars Themed one in example), do you feel it at all affects your experience?

That's really hard to say, actually.

I'd start out by saying no. The reason for this being that I've basically never played against a nicely painted army with great terrain. As such, it's sort of like asking a colorblind person if they miss the color green. Also, the nearly completely contained part of my psyche that wants to see 40k as a tactical exercise, rather than a glorified dice game doesn't mind what my opponent's pieces are, so long as I can still play the game.

On the other hand, it would be a lie to say no outright. If I really didn't care, then I wouldn't take offense to MLP-themed 40k stuff, but in reality, I instinctively want to punch them in the face exactly for the reason of ruining the fantasy.

You know, perhaps that's why I'm bothering writing battle reports anymore. I mean, if I no longer see 40k as all that much of a tactical exercise, then the fact that I'm no longer doing the old tactical-style battle reports makes sense. It was something I seriously considered before getting into 6th ed after my break in 5th. I guess perhaps you could say that the whole point of battle reports in a post-tactical world is precisely for the narrative, the "cinamatic", or the overall experience.

I guess when I'm in a game the autistic part of my brain gets completely absorbed into playing the game, and so I actually don't HAVE much of an experience during the game, and perhaps the point of battle reports is to fabricate them where before they didn't exist. I mean, thinking back to my old battle reports, I can remember which games I won and lost, and sometimes some sparse details, but what I really remember is all of the goofy fluff lines. I don't remember Daxos, the do-nothing CCS commander, I remember the foppish genteel sending his troops to their horrible, horrible death so that he could order more reinforcements, and, why, could you not send in a few of my personal brandies while you're already making the effort of sending me more men?

So, does having pictures made crummy by a sea of grey, mediocre terrain, and the occasional star wars miniature work to destroy the post-facto effect that I'm trying to generate after the game? That's kind of a tough one to answer. I'm sure having lots of nice minis would help that (which is one of the reasons I show up with a painted army myself), but, in a way, I think of it more as a hurdle than a spoiler. With worse pictures, I just need to write better dialogue. If I do that right, then I can achieve the overall effect even without nice pictures.

And so long as I can do that, I guess I can't really complain about opponents showing up with greys or star wars. In a way, it's more of a challenge to excel at the other stuff - like trying to achieve with a handicap - rather than the opposite of relying on nice pictures to prop up improper prose.

Not to say I wouldn't mind having great pictures AND great writing, of course, but I don't know if I'd be able to honestly say that it wrecks things.

How'd you get the star wars figures???