The field before Rhane was a ruin, the battle field scattered with the hollow progeny of their prior skirmishes. The remains of vehicles strewn between the massive craters, what little civilization had clung to his world was now just a shattered ruins. As he watched the shining steel of the Doom Eagles appeared on the horizon. They were coming again, the marines didn't let up and continued to harry Rhans rear guard.
The relentless nature of these Marines was wearing the imperial line. In their last conflict Rhane had lost his last chimera and most of his men and they were reduced to pulling the reserve, reserve fighters now. The laborers and conscripts who were supposed to be building the trench works would have to be brought in to fight again. Rhane issued the order and hoped they would arrive in time.
Strung through out the ruins was the ruins of his command, the big scar riddled tanks were lumbering to the front, offering his beleaguered lines what cover and protection they could. Rhane began to shout orders into the vox as the first rocket thundered over head. The battle was joined again, Rhane was running out of troops, and could only hope that the reserves would arrive, and smash the marines with an advancing hammer of convicts against the anvil of imperial tanks.
I apologize to dakka readers as the accounts of this battle were written down but the lists were not. I will give an approximation of what I know, and I will lead Death add his voice in to clarify anything which need be clarified.
Imperial Guard:
HQ:
CCS w/2 plasma, 1
LC - body guard astropath and officer of the fleet
HQ:
CCS w/2 plasma, 1
LC - master of ordinance
Elite: 5 Stormtroopers, 2 w/Melta
Troop: Veterans, 3w/Plasma
Troop: Veterans, 2w/melta 1w/flamer, demolisions
Troop: Penal Legion
Troop: Penal Legion
FA: Vendetta
FA: 6 Rough Riders
Heavy: Exicutioner w/
Plas sponsons, Hull
HF
Heavy:
LRBT w/Heavy Bolter sponsons. Hull
HB
Heavy: Griffon
Doom Eagles:
HQ: Librarian in Termie Armor (Powers Unknown)
Elite: 10 man Termie Squad, 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers, 1 Assault Cannon, Sargent w/
PW
Elite: Stern guard 6 man squad, 1 with heavy bolter, sarge with a power fist.
Elite: Dreadnaught with multimelta
Troop: 6 scouts one with missile launcher
Troop: 10 man
tac squad w/melta and multi melta and rino transport
Troop: 10 man
tac squad w/plasma gun and
LC
Heavy: 5 Devastators with 4 Missile Launchers
I think that was it.
Match and Deployment: Pitched Battle and Annihilation. Doom Eagles win the roll and choose to deploy first.
The Field: (Side note, we played at the Chicago battle bunker, which was AWESOME)
Doom Eagle Deployment
Death fields his Doom Eagles along the long board edge, which happened to be around 8 feet rather than 6. Choosing the side with the greatest cover he deploys into cover with all squads. Combating both
tac squads and holding his terminators in reserve. His final unit the Devastators he places centrally in an good cover location. Death is spread out and prone to maximize his first turn fire power on multiple targets.
Marine Line
String of tac marines
Guard Deployment
I deploy my guard on my side, placing all three tanks in the same corner to take advantage of keeping distance from his rockets, insuring some cover and presenting front armor to his entrenched devastators. Along remainder of the board I deploy the plasma vet squad and both company command quads in cover with clear lines of sight on his rhino and dreadnaught. The rest of my forces I hold back in reserve.
I attempt to seize the initiative and fail.
Doom Eagles Turn One
Death advances his marines on the thin Imperial Line. The rhino and Dreadnaught move forward as fast as they can to bring their meltas into range, the rhino pops smoke.
Death opens fire, his devastators explode the imperial Griffon gaining his first
KP. The scouts and
tac mariens open fire, thining the ranks of a company command squad, and executing the Officer of the Fleet.
Guardsmen hunker down to with stand the fire power thrown their way
Imperial Guard Turn One
I choose to hold everyone in place and open up the with all guns to thin out the oncoming marines. Issue orders and lay down some hurt.
Imperial guns open and bring destruction... to absolutely nothing.
A series of unfortunate rolls,
The first of many
the force is weak with this one
Plasma follows up the weak barrage with similar results. The turn ends with the rhino shaken and a single marine dead.
TURN TWO! DE 1,
IG 0
Doom Eagles Turn Two
Death observes his uninjured line and rolls for reserves. Having ended the threat of the officer of the fleet His terminators arrive. They deep strike in the corner with my artillery and combat squad in the hopes to bring both remaining tanks down in one turn of destructive side armor fire.
That would be a lot of points all in a cluster
I see side armor....
The rest of deaths line advances and the shooting begins. And as fat would have it lady luck likes neither of us. All 6 of the Terminators shots on tanks miss. The devastators firing on front armor finds a similar effect. The greatest damage is brought by the stern guard firing on a command squad, wounding and killing three members.
Imperial Guard Turn Two
It is now my turn to call in reserves and my surviving astropath assists, bringing in all but a penal legion (my knife fighters)
I choose to deploy my rough riders behind the newly arrive terminators, and back them up with a vendetta filled with demolition veterans. My roll forces the Penal legion to join the cluster in the corner with the terminators.
I do so enjoy rough riders (they are a work in progress, there is a P&M form for them)
Nothing like a penal legionnaire shoving a shank up the tail pipe of a terminator, too bad these guys were just gunslingers
I unload the vendetta as it arrives to maximize the almost point blank firing range. All guns focus on the Terminators.
I like to call this... a lesson in over kill.
MY STorm Troopers land smack in the center of the board with in inches of their target the dread naught.
As it turns out Over kill wasn't quite descriptive. The vendetta fires on the rhino after both command squads fail to do slow it, and the vendetta only manages to immobilize it. The rhino has been Stunned, shaken immobilized and had its only weapon the pintel mount destroyed.... resilient little f'er. The veterans drop a satchel charge and open fire. The executioner and penal legionnaires join in shooting the terminators in a barrel and dust settles, one combat squad is destroyed and the other reduced to the librarian, sergeant and two more. The battle tank first on the devastators killing two. And the Storm troopers bring down the dreadnaught and suffer a wound in the explosion.
I order the rough riders to assault the surviving terminators, and roll badly only scoring two wounds. The terminators lose the combat but hold.
rough rider assault!!
aftermath
TURN THREE DE 1;
IG 2
Doom Eagles Turn Three
Things have begun to look bleak over by the tanks and Death focuses his attention on the other side of the board.
Death advances on the surviving dug in troops and begins to open fire. By the tanks his advancing melta tacs finally bring their guns to range abandoning the cover of the rhino.
Death devastators continue to be the bane of the vendettas existence and explode it on the first attempt, killing veterans and
PL who are caught in the blast.
Fire from the meltas fail to do more than shake one Leman russ, while his other forces pick off members from my weakening flank. Somehow after going to grown one storm trooper survives the onslaught.
Combat continues, and while the terminators win by two, the unfortunately don't break the riders and remain in combat another turn.
Death adds two more kill points to his tally this turn.
Imperial Guard Turn Three
My final reserves refuse to join the fight.
I advance with my forces around the surviving terminators, hoping the rough riders hold them another turn, i need to start moving troops across the board or i'll never reach his
tac marines.
I dedicate more fire power to the rhino as kill points are no longer in my favor, finally destroying it. I manage to drop most of the
tac squads advancing with meltas but fail to bring down the marine carrying the multimelta
My rough riders lose combat by 1 this time and fail to hold. They flee, gaining death an extra kill point on my turn.
TURN FOUR DE 4
IG 3 If there is one thing to be said about our games its that nothing ever seems to be set in stone, every turn things swing back and forth in favor. It keeps us on the edge of our seat. (the best kind of games!)
Doom Eagles Turn Four
With his terminators free and meltas in range death begins to pen fire again. Penal legionnaires are brought down by missiles but manage to hold, as the remaining termie Sargent and wounded librarian assault the remaining demo vets.
The assault goes poorly for both of us, He loses his last terminator Sargent and my squad breaks and flees from the table. Death manages to finish off my stormies and a Command squad. 3 more
kp for him one for me.
Imperial Guard Turn Four
Things are looking even more bleak. I am now down by 4 kill points, with almost 3 feet between my forces and the bulk of his units. I roll for my reserve, hope for the best and the
PL enter the wrong side... right on top of the librarian.
I open fire with all my guns, managing to finish off only the melta
tac marines (2
kps!) my freshly arrived penal legion assault an shank the librarian.
Shaw Shank style. He wont be walking again.
TURN FIVE DE 7;
IG 6
Our forces separates so thoroughly the fight becomes a desperate one, as I struggle to collect kills and he struggles to hide from the big guns while mopping up my reaming plasma veterans
Doom Eagles Turn Five
Death fires on the veterans with everything on that side, assaulting the survivors with his
tac marines. The combat goes poorly for him and he loses combat. (
KP for me!)
Imperial Guard Turn Five
Everything that can run does, a mad dash to cross some of the board. My tanks lumber forward, firing everything at the surviving devastators, every cover save is made. The plasma vets break from cover to get with in double tap range of deaths scouts and open up. I roll poorly and a veteran burns out. No scouts are wounded.
TURN SIX? DE 7;
IG 7 Death is in the lead by a single kill. We roll to see if the fight continues, and it does!
Doom Eagles Turn Six Death takes advantage of my exposed veterans but fails to kill them off as they go to ground, despite brutal round of shooting. His fire on the executioner with his remaining devastators is successful in shaking it, silencing the majority of my remaining guns.
Imperial Guard Turn Six
My penal Legion closes the distance and opens fire on his entrenched devastators and finishing them off. Gaining the needed Kill Point.
We roll for a turn 7, and it does not happen. The game ends 7 to 8. The Imperial Guard Win!
The aftermath:
When we calculated
KP at the table we had not included the Librarian as a
KP and I apologize, i do believe I pulled a win from what we had assumed was a tie. The Death toll stands as this:
IG dead:
CCS,
CCS, Stomies, Vetrans, Vendetta, Rough Riders, Griffin
DE dead: Librarian, Termie combat squad, termie combat squad, dreadnaught,
tac combat squad,
tac combat squad, rhino, devastators.
Deaths Choice to Combat Squads saved my butt.Typically the ability to split his fire power would have been of great advantage, but they were brought down too quickly to be effective.
Over all it was a VERY fun fight with a lot of back and forth edge of the seat and "oh crap" action. Bad luck was evident on both sides, we both sucked at hitting our targets, but deaths ability to roll cover saves and his almost never failing to roll anything but a direct hit pushed the fire power in his favor through out most of the fight.
I look forward to our next meeting. Death and I now have a record of
DE wins 1,
IG wins 1, Ties 2. I am hoping we will both have expanded our lists a little by the next game. It may be a while however as my school schedule as gotten a bit rough. I hope everyone enjoyed the post!
