A stricken Thunderhawk Gunship and 2 drop pods, full of crew and data from the craft, had made an emergency landing on what they thought was the middle of a ruined outpost on an imperial world. In reality, part of the space marine force on this planet had renounced their oaths for the emperor and turned against man. Although still space marine in appearance, they were no longer guided by the emperor’s will, and made attempts to unseat the ruling council soon after this. The loyalist space marines and the renegades had both detected the Thunderhawk’s arrival on this planet, and both forces were all too eager to get there.
A force was sent from both the renegades and the loyalists to retrieve the crew and the data from the ship, which is very valuable to either side. But who will prevail?
GAME TYPE: Objectives; 1 objective. (The White square)
POINTS: 2000.
ARMY LISTS:
BLUE (LOYALISTS)
2x Assault Formations
1x Terminator Formation
1x Devastator Formation + 2 Dreadnoughts
1x Tactical Formation
1x Predator Formation + 1 Vindicator
1x Whirlwind Formation
GREEN (RENEGADES)
1x Assault Formation
1x Terminator Formation
2x Tactical Formation
1x Predator Formation
1x Land Raider Formation
1x Land Speeder Formation
Turn 1: Generally most units just moved this turn, the only unit that fired with some effect were the whirlwinds from the blues, and the greens predators. The whirlwinds launched their missiles against the land raiders, but only succeeded in 1 hit against the lumbering vehicles, which was saved with ease.
A tactical, assault and predator formation moved into the cover of the buildings of the right side.
The greens started cautiously, the land raiders and tactical formation moved towards the whirlwinds, and the land speeders sped up the other side. The green predator formation powered up the back of the board, and shot at the whirlwinds, blowing up one of their number, the only casualty of the turn.
The objective was in no-one’s hands this turn.
Turn 2: I haven’t got any photos for turns 2 and 3 due to me forgetting, so sorry about that. The units moved closer to the objective in general, with the blue assault formation near the objective assaulting a green tactical squad, breaking them and killing 3, whilst sustaining no casualties. This soon changed with the land speeders 3 tornado speeders opening fire on the assault marines, killing ¾ stands and breaking the unit in revenge, forcing a withdrawal move. Greens assault formation moved into the centre of the objective, not yet close enough to even engage any unit in a firefight. Greens termies came down just outside the buildings on the right side of the city, where the blues formations had gathered, and opened fire on the tactical formation in cover, killing 1. In return, the blues poured unsuccessful fire into the termies, only inflicting 2 blast markers from a devastator and tactical squad’s shooting. The predator formation had a little more success against the land raiders, killing 2 and halving their number, the land raiders unsuccessfully shooting back. The green predators bathed the whirlwinds hidden in the trees in fire, killing them all outright. A blue assault squad then engaged the terminators, drawing them into the range of the predators and tactical formations to provide supporting fire. However much to my amusement, the terminators shrugged off all blows and killed 2 of the assault formations in return. They won the assault, breaking the assault squad and forcing a withdrawal move, as well as causing the predators and tactical formations to sustain a blast marker. In the rally phase, all broken formations rallied, and most formations of both sides removed many blast markers accumulated.
Turn 3: The blues realised that they had made one too many mistakes in this turn. The terminators that shrugged off all the fire last turn assaulted the tactical formation in a building and killed 3 outright, losing one of their number to a lucky vindicator shot, failing both saves. They won this assault as well, breaking the tactical formation, and killing the 4 survivors due to the amount they won by. The predator formation finished off the land raiders, killing the last 2 outright, whilst the predators, having dispatched the blue whirlwinds last turn, fired on the devastator formation, killing 2 devastators and 1 of the attached dreadnoughts. This left an identical amount left, with 4 blast markers. The assault marines in the city were shot to pieces by a tactical formation and the land speeder formation. The blue terminators teleported in, right in front of the green assault formation next to the objective. They fired upon them, with sustained fire, needing 4’s from 8 dice, and got 1. The only consolation was that the green assault formation failed their lone save and lost a stand. The same assault marines assaulted the terminators, with land speeder supporting fire. All 3 stands were killed outright by the terminators macro-weapon attacks, but not before the terminators losing 3 of their number and being broken, due to some disastrous die rolling for saves. In the rally phase, all broken formations rallied and all but the blue devastators removed blast markers, leaving them with 4, and easily susceptible to being broken.
Turn 4: The green predators opened fire on the blue predators, killing the attached vindicator and an annihilator as they moved further towards the objective, but crucially, not on it.The lone blue terminator that withdrew last turn is the only thing on the objective at the moment, so an incredibly lucky blue victory might be achieved? Or maybe not. The tactical squad chose a sustained fire action, and reduced the devastators to a mere dreadnought, breaking the formation and forcing a withdrawal.
The blue predators, were fired upon by the fully intact land speeder formation, however all shots missed. They retaliated with scoring 8 hits, and shooting down 4 out of 5 of the land speeders with some very good dice rolling, forcing them to withdraw away from the objective.
It came down to the last unit who hadn’t taken an action. The green tactical squad, all 5 stands and 1 rhino of it. They double moved towards the objective and one stand managed to get on to the objective due to the terminator’s
ZoC. This meant the objective was contested. However the green player wanted a full victory, sop after praying to the dice gods, he rolled for the 1 missile launcher that the tactical formation had left, needing a 6 to hit. The dice was rolled, and a 6 came up. It all came down to the terminators 2 4+ saves due to reinforced armour. The blue player rolled, and got a 3, then a 4. He had saved it! However the realisation sank in then. We had forgotten to place the blast marker for coming under fire on the terminator. This proceeded to break the formation, and forced the terminator to withdraw off of the objective, leaving the objective to the green player for the win.
It was a very close battle in the final turn; however for the majority of the battle, green had the upper hand, and many more units than blue. A very enjoyable battle nonetheless.
THE SEQUEL.
As the renegade marine forced modified the Thunderhawk , and captured its crew and data, they knew they had to act fast as the loyalists on the planet were now aware of their existence. Speak of the devil; the renegade’s scouts reported a reasonably large loyalist force complete with gunships and flyers swiftly closing in on the renegade’s position. The land raiders and predators were readied, and defensive positions were being taken up to defend the now active thunderhawk whilst its flight systems were being repaired.
GAME TYPE: Annihilate. (Blues have to annihilate greens before the thunderhawk is fixed (end of turn 4), they do not have to destroy the thunderhawk however.)
POINTS: 2000 Greens, 2500 Blues.
ARMY LISTS: The same as before with some blue additions of;
1x Thunderhawk Gunship
2x Thunderbolt Fighter Formation
Green additions of;
1x Thunderhawk Gunship (only weapons are functioning.)
Turn 1: Blues won the strategy roll, and decided to call in both of their thunderbolt formations, successfully retaining the initiative. The fighters swarmed in and bombed 2 land speeders to death, making their disengagement move freely.
The land raiders and assault formation worked their way up the left side of the city for the greens. The blue then moved the whirlwinds to behind some tree’s and let hell loose upon the assault formation that was lurking behind some ruins. Due to some very good die rolling, 3 of the 4 stands were slaughtered and the formation broke, as seen by the dice in the photo.
The blue thunderhawk also roared in and killed another land speeder, breaking the formation.
The greens then moved the predator formation up behind a ruin, and marshalled the land speeder formation, successfully regrouped and shot forward into cover. Back to the loyalists, and the predator formation with a double move, and killed the last assault stand. The greens then moved one of their tactical formations forwards, and let blue move the rest of his units, the majority of which moved behind the little cover there was avaliable.
In the rally phase, the land speeders successfully removed 1 of their blast markers.
Turn 2: After a 5,5, then a 2,2, the Greens finally won the strategy roll. Annoyed by the last turns ineffectiveness, they forced the land raider formation out into the open to train their weapons on the predators. With rather successful 4+ die rolling (see photo) they killed 3 of the predators, leaving the formation rather helpless to retaliate.
Yet retaliate they did, with a feeble autocannon shot, well wide of the mark. The whirlwinds chose the sustained fire action, and launched their missiles on the tactical and predator formations in the buildings, with both templates. However their fire was a lot less effective this turn, only killing one stand of tactical marines.
The greens then made their land speeders retreat, seeing sense rather than meeting a full tactical formation. The predators then failed to retain the initiative, and having nothing to shoot at, they retreated too.
The tactical and assault formations, seeing the available space, advanced entering the city, with the tactical formation firing their missile launchers at the predators, scoring no hits.
The blue devastator formation advanced, and unleashed 8 missile launcher shots at the land raiders. Where all other didn’t, they succeeded, blowing up 1 land raider.
Last acts of the turn came to the thunderhawk gunship and the two formations of thunderbolts. One failed its action roll, so stood down, whilst the other soared into play towards the land speeders. Shots were shot, and another land speeder killed, breaking the formation, and sending the last land speeder away.
The thunderhawk gunship powered towards its nemesis, ignoring the heavy bolter shot from the green thunderhawk, unleashing all its weapons into it, and needing 5+ to hit. The dice were good (see photo), none critical hits however, all were saved, and the blue thunderhawk slunk off the board, dejectedly.
With the rally phase coming, all units but the green predators removed some blast markers with some successful rallying.
Turn 3: Green won the strategy roll again, and immediately moved the land raiders towards the predators. They fired at them with the sustained fire action, and wiped them out. Retaining the initiative, with the tactical formation in the buildings, they launched missiles at the blue tactical formation, however scored no kills.
The sound of aircraft engines filled the air shortly after this as the blue thunderbolts powered up and both targeted the tactical formation in the middle of the city. Two rhinos and one tactical stand fell in the assault, however the greens thunderhawk gunship powered up its front heavy bolters, gunning down one of the thunderbolt fighters.
The blue assault formation then engaged the same tactical formation as the thunderbolts shot at, however, they horribly lost the assault and were wiped out, inflicting no casualties on the tactical formation whatsoever. The blue tactical formation on the far right engaged the predator formation, wiping them out through the die rolls to win the assault, losing 1 of their number in return.
Since all of the green units had moved, it was down to the blue units to move now. The thunderhawk gunship powered up, and shot forward aiming its guns against the tactical formation every other unit seems to be targeting, dodging through the heavy bolter fire from the green thunderhawk. 3 hits were made and one successfully killed one of the marine stands.
The devastators chose a sustained fire action and launched their rockets at the land raiders yet again, killing one. The assault marines then engaged the land raiders in a firefight, and amazingly killed both of them outright, not sustaining even a hit.
The whirlwinds fired upon the tactical formation guarding the thunderhawk and the first template killed 2 stands and 1 rhino, the second killing a stand, severely crippling the tactical formation.
With this, the rally phase ensued and all 3 of greens surviving units rallied and removed blast markers.
Turn 4: Both terminator formations came down this turn, close to each other, and then Blue won the strategy roll.
Immediately, the blue terminator formation engaged the tactical formation in the middle of the city, and killed a rhino and 2 of the marine stands, with one terminator being lost in return. The last tactical stand was killed in the tally after the assault results were calculated. They then moved 5cm closer to the green terminators.
The initiative was retained and the tactical formation launched 4 rockets at the terminators, killing one stand.
The green terminators then engaged the tactical formation in front of it, the blue terminators and the green land speeder providing supporting fire. 3 stands of tactical marines died as well as 2 terminators. After the results of the assault were calculated, the blues won 12-8 and therefore the last terminator died, which was a big blow to the greens. The blue tactical formation received 3 blast markers.
Now came the turn of the 3 remaining thunderbolt fighters to swoop in and see what they could kill. They swiftly dispatched the last land speeder, meaning the only green unit left to guard the thunderhawk was the tactical squad round it.
With a devastator formation, a whirlwind formation and the assault formation, and a thunderhawk gunship for the Loyalists/Blues, left to try and kill the 3 stand and 2 rhino green tactical formation, things aren’t looking very good for the renegades. The devastators fired first and scored 3 hits, however all were saved. The thunderhawk gunship came in next, and suffered 3/3 hits from the green Thunderhawk’s heavy bolters surprisingly. The tension was rising as if two of the saves were failed, the thunderhawk would be destroyed, however there were sighs of relief and some of annoyance when all saves were passed! The thunderhawk fired all its weapons, killing 1 stand and destroying one rhino.
This left the tactical formation down to 3 units and 4 blast markers (not yet added in the photo above). The whirlwinds fired next, killing one stand of marines, which broke the unit.
The assault formation took an engage action, however the withdrawal move made by the tactical marines after the whirlwind strike left them tantalisingly just out of reach. All of the loyalists units had fired now and the green tactical unit wasn’t destroyed, which meant it was a victory to the renegades, however small it was.
We have enjoyed both games, and there were very tense moments in both of them. It came down to the very last unit in the very last turn in both games! All the players involved have gained a lot of experience. It has taught me quite a lot about playing Epic, and I hope you readers have actually managed to read all of this, and enjoyed it!
The Myrddraal signing off.
P.S: None of the pics seem to be working so i guess its only text....
(2000 pts), Tau 
(2000 pts), Necrons 
(1750 pts), Chaos Space Marines 
(2000pts).
