This is the second in a series of battles I have started a lil story around. The first can be found
here. Both are posted on my B&C Blog
Comments and criticism always appreciated, I am an engineer not a writer!
Jean did not know where she was, but she did not care either. It was dark, but darkness provided the perfect backdrop for her to bask in the emperor's light. She remembered slipping into sleep as she curled next to Jestor, hoping the cold desert air would not slow his healing. Her hand reached out to caress him as she remembered the horrendous damage inflicted on him by those mutant space marines. Signs of that damage still persisted as the Techpriests continued to pray over the now operational hulk to coax its machine spirit back to life. She knew their efforts to be in vain, it was she who would call Jestor back from the dark beyond to rain vengeance on her foes once again with a loving touch and a whispered word. She could already sense him coming alive again, ready to make war again. The last battle had become a red haze, but the image of her ally and rival in Canoness Alisha standing back directing the fight rather than burying her blessed weapon into the enemy had sickened her. Another reason to loathe her. It was at that instant a tall man followed by a small retinue equipped with heavy weapons appeared out of the darkness.
There was no mistaking an Inquisitor of the Ordos Herectus and Jean allowed a wry smile to creep across her face. "Greetings Inquisitor, did you come to see our sick friend?" A tendril of light illuminated the Inquisitor's face to reveal a large man. He may have been handsome once, but years of hunting had left his skin rugged and his blue eyes looked tired but resolute. He bore himself proudly, a cape billowing out to the sides to reveal what could only be a Power Sword and a bolt pistol bulged obviously along the side of his trench. The rugged face looked briefly confused before a barely perceptible glance noticed Jean's arm draped across the Exorcist. The Inquisitor took note of her other arm and the grotesquely ornamented Eviscerator it bore. He knew he would have to tread carefully with this one. Some of these Sisters he thought are quite...not mad, but not entirely sane either.
"My name is Inquisitor Grzegorz, I was informed this planet is infested by the taint of herey. You must be Canoness Alisha where..." Grzegorz stopped uncertainly as a murderous sneer crossed Jean's face. He had overstepped a line but he was not sure what that was. Jean stepped forward slowly, almost sensuously closing the gap between them to a few feet. She was a short woman, no more than 5" but something in her demeanor made him think she may be closer to mad than most Sisters. Her Eviscerator dragged slowly behind her, scraping across the rock with a barely perceptible whine. Her face was now inches from his as she spoke, circling him each deliberate step causing her small frame to sway hypnotically. "I think you will find Alisha and I to be quite....different...Isn't that right Jestor?" She almost purred the last part and Grzegorz could have sworn the Exorcist rumbled a bit more loudly than before. Mustering his courage Grzegorz chose his words carefully. "Canoness, I serve only the Emperor's will." Jean had finished her circle and her tone had shifted as if Jestor had calmed her.
"You seek to destroy those mutant freaks who scarred by gorgeous Jestor? We shall see how useful you are." It was at that moment Alisha arrived, her golden countenance causing Jean to appear even darker. Jean ignored her as she turned to Grzegorz. "Inquisitor, you have come just in time. I presume you are prepared?" Grzegorz had not felt this out of control of a situation since his elevation within the Ordos to his rank of Inquisitor, but realized navigating this maze would require some tact. Strangely, the soothing voice of Alisha scared him more than the husky veiled threats of Jean. "We are prepared to take the field Canoness."
"This planet appears to have once housed an Imperial forward post, if we can secure the region it will provide a suitable base of operations to continue our search." Alisha responded, though Grzegorz had no idea what this search was for and by the attention Jean paid to the remark he did not think she knew either. "Dawn approaches..." said Jean as she turned to engage her jump pack an metal hand reached through the ground and grabbed her leg. She sneered and laughed as an Inferno Pistol appeared in her hand and incinerated the grasping appendage. Alisha looked pensive at first, but as a Krak Grenade exploded overhead all he could wonder is what these women had dragged him into...
The Sister's take the field again, this time accompanied by an Inquisitor and an Assasin. They face a combined Necron/
SM force at 1500 points. I think I was a bit under on points and my opponent a bit over, but they were new players and I was not about to haggle points in a friendly game.
Points: 1500
Mission: Seize Ground
Deployment: Dawn of War
Sisters of Battle
HQ
Canoness Jean - Eviscerator, Cloak of
St. Aspira, Mantle of Ophilia, Inferno Pistol, Jump Pack Book of
St. Lucius (
BoSL)
Canoness Alisha - Blessed Weapon, Cloak of
St. Aspira, Inferno Pistol, Jump Pack, Book of
St. Lucius (
BoSL)
Elite Inquisitor - Power Weapon, Rosarius, Bolt Pistol Retinue - 2x Heavy Bolter Servitor, 1x Plasma Cannon, 2x Sage
Callidus Assassin
Troops
10x Sisters of Battle, Vet. Sup., Brazier,
BoSL, Flamer, H. Flamer - Rhino, Smoke, Extra Armor
10x Sisters of Battle, Vet. Sup., Brazier,
BoSL, H. Flamer - Rhino, Smoke, Extra Armor
10x Sisters of Battle, Vet. Sup., Brazier,
BoSL, H. Flamer - Rhino, Smoke, Extra Armor
Fast Attack
7x Seraphim Vet. Sup., Eviscerator,
BoSL, 2x Inferno Pistols
Heavy
Exorcist - Jestor
SM/Necron Forces
HQ
Captain - Power Weapon, Rosarius -Orbital Bombarment?
Necron Lord - Res Orb, Staff of Light, Veil of Shadows
Elite
-
Troops
10x Tactical Squad - H. Botler, Flamer, Vet. w/ Fist
10x Tactical Squad - Missile Launcher, Vet w/ Fist in a Rhino Smoke/Armor
10x Necron Warriors
20x Necron Warriors
Fast Attack
3x Destroyers
6x Scarab Swarms
1x Land Speeder - Heavy Bolter/Flamer
Heavy
Monolith
Predator -
TLLC,
LC Sponsoons
I won the dice roll and elected to allow the
SM/Necron to deploy first. The reason for this is I was significantly more mobile than their force and could easily isolate pieces of it with my speed. Also, most armies run straight ahead and I prefer to let them do so since most my anti armor is short ranged. To be honest, I think I just like dictating the game with deployment because I do not think I have ever elected to take the first turn since 5th edition.
Terrain
The board is fairly open. Starting from my left hand side there is a small hill that is difficult terrain to step onto, but not to move across. This takes up ~1/2 the board width and 1/8 its width. There are two rock formations near my deployment zone to block
LoS and a small hut near the enemy deployment zone about 2 Rhinos wide. On the far right there is another rock formation in my enemies deployment zone and one closer to me at about the board center. This is one of the more open boards I have played on. There are 5 objective in this game. I place three of them, two in the rock formations near my deployment and another to the far left just above the plateau to tempt the enemy into splitting up. My opponents place one in the hut and one in the rock by their deployment on the right.
Deployment
The
SM deploy their Captain behind the hut in the center flanked by a Rhino. I deploy one Rhino behind the central rock formation (hoping I can drop flame templates on the Scarabs if they Turbo boost up) and Jean behind the other rock formation. I then redeploy his rhino into difficult terrain using my Callidus and immobilize it. It is amazing how often this seems to happen! The Monolith is left in reserve to deepstrike later.
Turn 1 - Necron-SM
Move: The enemy forces walk onto the board. From left to right a 20 man warrior squad with attached Lord moves in even with the plateau. The destroyers come in to the left of the hut while the scarabs turbo boost near the center of the board. The marines combat squad with one 5 man squad and fist going to the left near the destroyers to take the far objective. The other marches up to the objective on the right hand side. His Predator moves in to the right of the hut with the land speeder moving along the right board edge.
Shoot: Shooting is ineffective. He either fails to see anything or misses when he does. He almost litup my Rhino with a Storm Bolter on his Rhino/Searchlight buthe fell about 2 inches short on his vision check.
Assault:
–
Turn 1 - Sisters
Move:
From left to right the Inquisitor comes in near the edge of the left hand side rock formation. The Seraphim are ~ 3 inches to his right with two rhinos driving forward behind the lead Rhino that was originally deployed. Alisha lands near the left hand side rock formation as well and Jean follows on the rear of the Rhino advancing on the scarabs (this one has a
HF and Flamer). Finally, Jestor comes in on the right hand side corner with a clear
LoS across most the board.
Shooting:
Flame templates wash over the Scarab Bases inflicting 10 wounds (5 normal with double for vulnerable to blasts). This wipes out half the bases and puts a wound on another one. Those things are tough! The Exorcist rolls to see the landspeeder and is able. It unleashes 6 missiles with 5 hits and the
LS goes
dow in a blaze of glory. Jestor laughs to himself and Jean tells him how proud she is.
Assault:
-
Turn 2 - Necron/SM
We roll for reserves and the Monolith comes in. Darn! I was hoping for a turn without it around. It deepstrikes on my left flank with a slight scatter backwards.
Move:
The Monolith teleports Lord and 20x Warriors right onto my flank (not sure if this is legal, but I let him do it). The scarabs move through cover to assault my Inquisitor and the other warrior squad walks up. The fist combat squad on the left moves forward towards that objective. The other marines largely stay put with the Predator moving up to get a clear shot at my Rhino.
Shooting:
The Monolith Gauss Arc's my Inquisitor and I lose a Sage. The Warriors then are close enough to single shot fire at my Seraphim and I lose 3 to the Gauss Weapons. I was lucky here and made a ton of saves. The Predator fails to hurt my Rhino and neither do, by a miracle (Praise the Emperor) the destroyers. Finally he drops his Orbital Bombardment on the Rhino hoping to wreck it but scatters wildly away from anything.
Assault:
He assaults my Inquisitor with his Scarabs. The Inquisitor manage to take out a scarab base and I lose another sage from the assault. He takes his Fearless wounds and now has 1.7 bases left.
Turn 2 - Sisters The Callidus comes in a bit early but I am not complaining. I wanted to throw her at the full tactical squad once it left its Rhino, but this works fine for me. She deploys right next to his Power Fist squad on the left flank, her back to the Destroyers.
Move:
I have a giant Xenos killing machine to my left but I am in pretty good shape to deal with the Necrons. I choose to ignore the Monolith completely and try to wipe out his Necron models instead. I move the Seraphim forward along with Alisha and one Rhino slides next to the Xenos and vomits forth a squad of sisters. The other Rhino moves forward at full speed and dumps out a pile of Sisters in front of his 10x man Necron squad. The other pops smoke . I move Jester 6" just out of habit and Jean hides behind the smoked Rhino ready to take on the Destroyers next turn.
Shooting:
I call upon the 'Divine Guidance' of the Emperor for my two flame wielding squads. The squad near the monolith has good luck with its H. Flamer/Brazier and roasts 6 Necron models. Rapid Firing manages to take down 2 more. Inferno Pistols eat 3 more and the Inquisitor cheers while scarabs pick at his feet. The second Sister squad is less successful and with a Flamer, H Flamer, Brazier and full rapid fire manage to knock down only 1 Necron. I cringe to think of next turn. The Callidus Neural Shreds 3 members of the Combat squad. This may be the most flame template I have ever used in a turn dropping 6 at 1500 points! Jestor gets in on the fun and blows the
TLLC off the Predator while Jean purrs.
Assault:
The Callidus predictably finishes off the Marine squad and consolidates towards the Destroyers. Alisha and the Seraphim attack the Lord and Squad. Collectively they take down all but two Necron models who fail to do any damage. Facing combat resolution, the squad is swept and I consolidate back. The Inquisitor eats another Scarab base and the remaining base has 2 wounds left on it.
Turn 3 - Necron/SM
The Necrons try to stand back up. The Swept squad recovers 10 models but the Lord fails his
WBB roll. The other Necron stands back up to return the squad to full strength.
Move:
The Necrons march slightly to get better firing lanes and the Marines disembark their Rhino to stand on the roof hut. The Predator moves to get both Sponsoons in sight of the Exorcist. The destroyers stay put.
Shooting:
The Gauss Arc from the Monolith eats two basic sisters, 1 more Seraphim and puts a wound on the Canoness. It also manages to put a wound on the Inquisitor and kills another Heavy Bolter. The Predator blows the Exorcist Launcher off of Jestor and Jean sniffles a little bit. The destroyers eat the central rhino and the disembarked squad get rapid fired by the marines on the roof. They lose 4 of their number. The two warrior squads are less effective than they should be. One squad rapid fires the Seraphim killing 1 while the other eats up one Sister.
Assault:
The Captain decides to charge the 9 man strong sister squad. They gain Hand of the Emperor and lose three of their number. In response 8 strength 5 attacks come back at him and the Captain is turned into mush. The Inquisitor then frees himself from the Scarab combat, ready to shoot next turn.
Turn 3 - Sisters
Move:
Jestor moves into cover and pops smoke so Jean does not go crazy again. Jean hops next to the destroyers along with the Callidus. There is little other movement at this point other than some repositioning by the Monolith for Flame Templates
Shooting:
The Callidus drops a Neural Shredder on the Destroyers and manages to kill two. The combined fire on the squad by the Monolith wipes it out again without assault this time. The highlight is a Plasma cannon hitting dead on and slaying 5 models to start. The Sister's near the 10 man Warrior Squad gain better Diving Guidance and drop 5 warriors. They make morale, which is a shame because I had a Rhino set to run them off the board. The 7 man squad who had their Rhino blown gain Divine Guidance as well and turn the 10 man Tactical Squad into BBQ. It was delicious, or so I hear. Jean misses with her Inferno Pistol, but I think she just wants to get into combat.
Assault:
Jean and the Callidus eat up the final Destroyer. There are no other Assaults. At this point it is getting late. My Necron Opponent makes his
WBB rolls and promptly Phases out. This leaves an Immobilized Rhino, a Predator with 2
LC sponsoons and a 5 man tactical squad with Heavy bolter hiding on the objective. He concedes the game as it seems inconceivable that he will not be tabled in two more turns.
Summary:
Overall kudos to my two opponents. They were great fun to play with and I had a blast. We also had the chance to refresh me, and them, on some of the rules as the game went which was good. They are not beginners, but they are definitely learning the game still (who isn't thought!?). I think one issue they may have had is never facing Sisters before. They identified the major threat as the Inquisitor with Plasma Cannon and the Exorcist. While both are decent units, they really are not the backbone of this army. The strength is in those Power Armored Sisters and the pair of Jumping Canonesses. Had they focused on blowing my mobility up by taking out Rhinos instead of the
Inq/Exorcist it would have prevented a lot of the
DG templates they ate.
I realize as well that Necrons from a phase out perspective are at a huge disadvantage when only fielding around 850 points with a Monolith, but even if he had not Phased, the Monolith would have been completely ignored and he was down to approximately 6 models at the end. I think he may have been better served pressing more in concert with his ally forward rather than letting me single out the majority of his Necrons with the Seraphim,
SoB and Canoness.
Grzegorz had always thought slaying Necrons was one of the cleanest ways to do battle. Nothing like those Tyranids that tended to make a mess out of everything. In spite of the victory, he was left unsettled. He had lost most of his Retinue and he was not sure where he would be able to replace them. It would remain to see if the Techpriests could repair his servitors and at least one of his Sages wounds was not mortal. Further, Canoness Alisha clearly had a plan for this planet and he was not sure he liked his place in it. The Inquisition did not normally mettle with desolate worlds, especially when there were heretics in abundance upon the Hive Planets. He could not, however, leave having seen a Space Marine chapter fighting alongside the Necrons. That was heresy of the worst order and he wondered if he needed escalate the case.
Not yet he thought, but he would need to watch these Space Marines. He looked across the field to see Jean land near her pet Exorcist, caressing the Lascannon holes that riddled its launcher. Simultaneously Alisha strode serenely across the field and with an almost casual motion cleaved an unconscious marine into halves. She did not even seem to notice the gore spattered across her face as she licked her lips and graced Grzegorz with a smile. What was she looking for he thought? Maybe he should watch those two Canonesses as well. Such is the responsibility of the Inquisition.
