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**Transmission incoming**
Transmitter: Astro-Terminus Weydon
Reciever: Astro-Terminus Marr
Directed to: Prioress Magdale, Order of the Blessed Damsel, Cathedral of Deliverence, Nantus
Compiled: Palatine Avriel Solemnas, Tertius Preceptory, Bekrin
Transmission clearance: Alpha-1L9NM-Saffron
Thought for the day: Belief is suffering. Doubt is perdition.

Prioress,

As per your request, I am writing to you with a full report of the defence of Bekrin in the Jericho Reach, of which our Preceptory took part. While I am confident that you may have already heard official reports from the scribes of the Segmentum Command, I am also certain that you desire the unfiltered truth of our actions. Let this, then, stand as both report and confession. As the God-Emperor is my eternal lord and judge, everything transmitted in this document is the truth, no matter what doubting or slanderous voices may say to the contrary. May the Emperor, Beloved of All and Most Benevolent Ruler of Humankind, strike me down if I write any falsehood.

Our Preceptory was undergoing reformation after our defence of Rosethorn from Eldar raiders roughly five standard months ago. Although we managed to defeat the xenos, we lost many Sisters in the battle, including our Canoness, Isobel Deschain, who had succumbed to Eldar poison after hours of continuous fighting. Our Canoness had served the God-Emperor piously and dutifully for many years, and throughout her career she had distinguished herself through exemplary feats of martial prowess, valour, and unflinching devotion and faith. It is relevant to this report that, on many a battlefield, Canoness Deschain had taken a seemingly mortal blow only to recover and fight on, leading to many murmurings among my Sisters that she was perhaps uniquely blessed by the God-Emperor—a belief that our humble Canoness always flatly denied and protested against. It is for this reason that Canoness Deschain’s death came as a great shock to many of us, though we eventually tempered our sorrow with the knowledge that Canoness Deschain had martyred herself for the Emperor. When the time came, we willingly accepted the nomination of Sister Abeline Invigilata as our new Canoness-Preceptor.

After Rosethorn, our Preceptory had been forwarded, at your orders, to the Jericho Reach to reinforce the ongoing Achilus Crusade, which lately had been suffering losses and setbacks on numerous fronts. Many worlds which had been reclaimed at the Crusade’s onset were now threatened once again by heretics, witches, and xenos most foul, and after a series of crippling defeats, the entire Crusade was teetering on the verge of collapse. Upon our arrival in the Reach, the staff of Warmaster Tetrarchus and representatives of the sector Ecclesiarchy beseeched our aid in defending one planet in particular—Bekrin.

According to local lore, Bekrin was once a shining jewel in the Jericho Reach, a shrine world upon which were built many churches and devotional sites dedicated to the Emperor, which teemed with millions of the faithful. That had all changed when, at the Crusade’s height, the foul Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon arrived, pouring into the Reach in limitless numbers. Crusade forces in the Orpheus Salient had been thrown back by the onslaught of the Great Devourer, and Bekrin had been abandoned to deny sustenance to the xenos. In the end, Bekrin was narrowly saved thanks to the efforts of the Deathwatch Astartes, but the shrine world, to this very day, remained abandoned, its many sepulchres and altars silent.

Except now, according to the Warmaster’s strategos, Bekrin was under threat once again. Warp storm activity from the nearby Hadex Anomaly had increased, and warbands of Chaos Space Marines were pouring out of the anomaly towards Bekrin. There was little doubt as to their intentions--—the Archenemy of Humankind, those who had turned their back on the Emperor in ages past, clearly intended to commit the greatest of blasphemies, to defile His shrines and tear down His churches in mockery of their former master. The defiling of Bekrin would be a devastating morale blow to the Crusade, and with Guard forces stretched to their limits across several battlefronts, Warmaster Tetrarchus had been calling on the Adeptus Astartes and Adepta Sororitas for aid in this most dire of emergencies.

We did not hesitate to answer the Warmaster’s call. Ours is a solemn duty to safeguard the Imperial faith, and we would not sit idly by and watch as the most vile of heretics desecrated a world dedicated to that faith. Within days, we had landed on Bekrin, alongside Astartes of the Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Crimson Fists and Grey Snakes chapters, Guardsmen from the 2nd Vostroyan Firstborn, and strike teams of Grey Knights, Deathwatch and other Inquisitorial forces marshalled by Lord Inquisitor Coteaz. We had only a single estimated week to prepare for the invasion, and during that time, we threw everything we had into preparing our defences, as well as preparing our hearts and minds for the confrontation to come.

But nothing could have prepared my Sisters and I for what we would find on Bekrin, or for the aftermath of that brutal campaign…



Last weekend, I participated in a 1500 point 40k tournament at one of my local stores, Meeplemart, organized by Dakka's own Sharp1011. The tournament had piqued my interest because it was being run on a narrative format—instead of just a random string of scenarios fought between random armies, the games were instead organized to represent an ongoing battle between two sides—in this instance, the Imperium and the forces of Chaos. With the advent of the new Chaos Space Marine book, a lot of Chaos players arrived to participate, and both sides filled out very quickly. Unlike other tournaments, there was a strong team aspect to this event, with a lot of discussing and strategizing between players, and a lot of moderation by team captains, and overall I think it was an absolute blast.

You can find more detailed info on the tournament (including more photos) courtesy of Sharp1011 here:
http://shiftedmatrix.com/40k-narrative-team-tournament-2012/
http://shiftedmatrix.com/events/narrative-team-tournament-2012-results/

I was tempted to bring my Dark Eldar to aid the Chaos forces, but seeing as (1) I’m still figuring out how to use my Dark Eldar effectively in the current edition, and (2) the background info for the tournament—a battle for an Imperial shrine world—meant that I absolutely had to field my Sisters of Battle.


The Order of the Blessed Damsel



Isobel- Saint Celestine- 115
Squad Solemnas- 10 Battle Sisters- meltagun, heavy flamer- 155
-Rhino- searchlight- 36
Squad Arias- 10 Battle Sisters- meltagun, heavy flamer - 155
-Rhino- searchlight- 36
Squad Nariko- 10 Battle Sisters- meltagun, flamer - 140
-Rhino- searchlight- 36
Squad Fatima- 8 Seraphim- 2 hand flamers, Seraphim Superior w. melta bombsr- 175
Squad Esperanza- 5 Dominions- 2 meltaguns- 90
-Immolator- twin-linked multi-melta, searchlight- 81
Squad Charmian[/i]- 7 Retributors- 4 heavy bolters- 109
Divine Judgement- Exorcist- searchlight- 136
Everlasting Hymn - Exorcist- searchlight- 136
Aegis Defence Line- quad gun- 100

Total: 1500


My list revolved around three three units of Battle Sisters as my mandatory scoring units, which I equipped with a mixture of meltas and flamers so that they could deal with a variety of threats, and Rhinos for the added mobility. For my leader, I took She-Who-Appears-In-Every-Sisters-Army, Saint Celestine. While I don’t believe that the Canoness is necessary a bad choice, I will concede that she’s a poor choice for inclusion in a tournament list, whereas Saint Celestine most definitely gives Sisters a competitive edge with her sheer refusal to die. To accompany Celestine, I took a sizeable unit of Seraphim with dual hand flamers, who are TERRIFYING when used properly with Celestine (mass numbers of wound-rerolling templates, Fearlessness and Hit and Run are all powerful tools in their arsenal. To round things out, I took my mandatory pair of Exorcists for long-range tankbusting, some Retributors for potential rending heavy bolters, a unit of Dominions for some outflanking/Scouting tankbusters, and an aegis line and quad gun so I would have something to deal with enemy flyers. The overall plan behind this army would be for the Battle Sisters zoom up and provide fire support/grab objectives where necessary, while Celestine and the Seraphim flew up, roasted stuf and disrupted the enemy backline, the Dominions Scouted or outflanked to deal with nasty enemy armour, and the Retributors camped behind the Aegis line and, with the Exorcists, wprovided fire support.

Going into this tournament, I knew I would be facing droves of the new Chaos Space Marines, though my experience against them up until now would be limited. I knew that I could defeat Chaos Marines from the last book, but the new toys Chaos had now (ironically I was more afraid of Toughness 5 Obliterators than anything else). Whatever the result, this tournament would probably provide me with a valuable learning experience.

Anyway, enough of my droning. I’ll get the reports up soonish!

ROUND 1- PLANETFALL

Upon landing on Bekrin, we were immediately contacted by Brother-Captain Roland of the Blood Angels, who had been nominated as the overall Imperial commander on Bekrin, and given orders for deployment. Though our foremost desire had been to take up defensive positions in Sanctifer, Bekrin’s primary shrine-city, and to safeguard the relics and places of worship therein, Lorand instead ordered us to deploy among the abandoned farm villages of the Bekrin Hinterlands. Canoness Invigilata protested this decision, stating that there was nothing of value to defend in the hinterlands, and no people left in the villages to safeguard, but Lorand was adamant. Eventually, Invigilata was forced to concede, and, aided by a Munitorum task group sent by the Warmaster, we set about preparing Aegis lines and gun emplacements for when the Archenemy made landfall.

After one week of preparation and prayer, the Archenemy arrived.

A vast armada translated out of the Warp on Candlemas eave, consisting of scores of heavy cruisers, bulky transports and arrow-like attack ships of ancient design and livery. The Chaos fleet opened fire on the orbiting Astartes vessels the moment they came into realspace, and the night sky was lit up with traces of fire and starbursts of explosions as battle raged in the cold depths. Even as the two fleets exchanged salvos, hundreds of bat-winged enemy fighters came screaming down into Bekrin’s atmosphere, in the wake of which came hundreds of claw-like drop craft. The surface batteries on Bekrin blazed into life in response, and the sky was lit with tracer fire and explosions in dozens of battlezones.

Many drop craft were obliterated by accurate skyfire, but still they came, seemingly uncaring for their losses. Those that landed disgorged foul Traitor Marines, their baroque armour a twisted parody of noble Astartes plate, and their arrival heralded by blasphemies cries of death to the God-Emperor. And so it was that the war began in earnest as Traitor Marines descended on Bekrin like a plague, and reality buckled and twisted as gibbering Daemons crawled into reality. Across the vox networks, we heard the sounds of battle being raged and oaths being roared on both sides as Loyal and Traitor Astartes vented their fury on one another.

In our positions in the Hinterlands, we came under an intense orbital bombardment, missiles and lance bursts screaming down from the tortured skies like some unholy starfall. Explosions rippled across the countryside as the shipborne ordnance devastated farmsteads and left ruined craters in their wake. A few of our Sisters were killed by this indiscriminate bombardment, but one lucky shot in particular dealt us a heavy blow. The ruined chapel where Canoness Invigilata and her Celestians were praying was struck by a lance shot, and the building and everyone therein was obliterated in a tremendous fireball that shook the earth. The loss of our Canoness caused despair to creep into our hearts for a brief moment, but we steeled ourselves as we remembered our duty. As second in the chain of command, I bade my Sisters to hold their positions and await the enemy’s arrival.

The enemy’s arrival came in a most unexpected form. The distant hills visible from our position suddenly became lit by an eerie green glow. As we watched, a pillar of green light shot up from one of these hills, followed by another, and then another, until several columns of ghostlight cast the entire area into a sickly glow. I felt my stomach tighten as I remembered seeing such pillars of light before, at the start of the disastrous Marsala campaign all those years ago. The Necrons were here.

Even as I write this, I still do not know if the Necrons were somehow allied with the forces of Chaos, or had simply been awakened by their violent arrival. Their emergence, however, could not have come at a worse time. Already disheartened by the death of Invigilata, we knew that we now faced death incarnate. As I watched, skeletal warriors pulled themselves free from the earth and began their relentless advance, and in their waste, one of the “hills” move upwards, dirt and trees sloughing itself from its surface as it revealed itself as a Monolith, the great crystal at its heart pulsing with an eerie light.

Even as the xenos advanced, however, and even as we prepared to sell our lives dearly, a miracle occurred. As though from out of a dream, a bright light seemed to resolve itself. In truth, I cannot remember if this light was real, or if I had imagined it, but what I saw next was most definitely real: standing amongst our ranks, facing towards the enemy with sword drawn and winged jetpack aflame, was Canoness Deschain, looking exactly as she did on that fateful day on Gabrion.

“Stand with me, Sisters,” she told us, calm and commanding voice heard across the field. “The Emperor is your shield.”

At these words, any doubt vanished from our hearts, to be replaced just as swiftly by hope and resolve. The God-Emperor, in His infinite mercy, had seen fit to return our Order’s greatest heroine to us in our hour of need. With such a sure sign of His beneficence, we could not fail! Following Isobel Deschain’s lead, we surged forward to meet the Necron invaders with faith and with flame.


In the first scenario, the Chaos side got to pick and choose who on their team would be facing who, and because of this I anticipated an unfavourable matchup. Even with this in mind, though, I was surprised to find that my Round 1 opponent was a Necron player, Dave. I have limited experiences against Necrons, and the few games I have played against them in 6th Edition have been with my Dark Eldar.

Dave ran the following list:

Destroyer Lord- warscythe, sempiternal weave, mindshackle scarabs, resurrection orb
-Herald of Despair w. Veil of Darkness
-Herald of Eternity w. Chronometron
10 Necron Warriors
10 Immortals- tesla carbines
10 Deathmarks
5 Destroyers- 3 heavy gauss cannons
10 Canoptek Scarab Swarms
Annihilation Barge
Monolith

Canny observers will note that Dave’s list is illegal- he could not use Crypteks without a standard Overlord. I’m willing to cut him some slack on this, though, firstly because the Crypteks did nothing all game, and secondly because I got the impression that Dave was a returned Necron player who was still adjusting to the new Codex (and edition), and that this was an oversight rather than deliberate cheating. His list certainly wasn’t what I was expecting—Dave didn’t bring any of the Wraiths or Night Scythes that are so dreaded by Necron opponents, and the Monolith and Deathmarks were interesting choices as well.


SCENARIO AND DEPLOYMENT

For the first round scenario, there were two objectives to be fought over—one on the defender’s side of the board (ie my side), and one in the centre of the table. Standard victory conditions and scenario rules would apply, except that we would both deploy simultaneously, and the attacker (ie Dave) would go first on a roll of 3+.

Our deployment was as follows:



I placed my objective behind the farmhouse on my side of the board, and parked Squad Arias’ Rhino on top of it to score. To their left I placed Squad Nariko’s Rhino with the Exorcist Divine Judgement, Celestine, and the Seraphim further behind, with the intention of advancing up aggressively with the Battle Sisters and Seraphim on the left flank while using the Rhino/buildings as cover. In the centre I placed the Retributors and their Aegis line, and behind the other farmhouse I placed Squad Solemnas’ Rhino and the Exorcist Everlasting Hymn. I tried to keep as many of my vehicles as possible in case Dave got the first turn, and I also decided to outlank my Dominions to hopefully sneak some meltaguns in range of his Destroyers, Monolith or Annihilation Barge.



Dave, meanwhile, placed his Monolith in the centre, and put his Immortals and Annihilation Barge behind them to hide from my guns. In front of the monolith he put his Destroyer Lord and buddies, and on the right flank buzzed his Scarabs. His Deathmarks and Warriors were placed in reserve, with the aim of bringing the latter in through the Monolith.

Looking at the field, my overall plan was to deal with the Destroyers first with massed firepower, and hopefully take out that nasty Destroyer Lord, and then use flamers and Exorcists to hopefully take out the Scarabs later on. My Rhino mounted Sisters, in the meantime, would provide fire support where necessary, but would primarily hang back and try to grab objectives late in the game. My Seraphim, meanwhile, would move up hugging cover before jumping up to flame/assault Dave’s scoring units to death. Ideally, I should have tasked the Seraphim to deal with the Destroyers, but I knew that Celestine would probably die to that nasty Destroyer Lord. I figured that the Monolith was something I could worry about later in the game, as it was slow, had a relatively short range (or so I thought) and could be easily popped by meltas.


WARLORD TRAITS:

Saint Celestine: Master of Manouver
Destroyer Lord: Master of Defence

Dave, to my surprise, decided not to seize the initiative, giving me the first turn. I was quite happy with this, as I really needed that first volley against his army, though I was a little annoyed that my Dominions had been forced to outflank when, had I known Dave would go second, I would happily have Scouted with them instead.



TURN 1

On my first turn, I began with a general advance on my left flank, with Squad Nariko driving up aggressively near the cottage while Celestine and the Seraphim flew close behind. I wanted the Battle Sisters to be in a position to seize or contest the middle objective late in the game, and similarly, I wanted to get the Seraphim in position to tackle the Immortals later on. I knew that at some point, the Deathmarks would arrive and would probably target the Celestine and the Seraphim, but I was hoping that just enough of them (or even just Celestine) would survive for me to deal with the Necron scoring units. In the middle, Squad Arias stayed where they were near my home objective, while the Exorcists angled a little to bring their guns to bear on the Destroyers, who at the time were the biggest threat—I couldn’t see the Immortals or Annihilation Barge, the Monolith was too hard a target, and I was confident that I could deal with the Scarabs on turn two with some templates. Just in case, though, Squad Solemnas edged up, staying just out of the maximum charge range of the little blighters.

In the shooting phase, Nariko and Solemnas’ Rhinos popped smoke, and the Seraphim ran forwards a little more to hug cover, as I really didn’t like the prospect of being pie-plated by that Monolith (gauss pie tastes awful anyway, too much electromagnetic flux). The Retributors failed their prayer for Divine Guidance (booh), but still fired on the Destroyers along with the Exorcists. My opponent, however, was able to claim cover from the adjacent shrubbery, and being the dunce that I am, I forgot entirely about focus fire. All the same, I managed to gun down four of the Destroyers and wound the Destroyer Lord!
I felt that was cause enough for celebration, and proceeded to do the Hooray-I’m-Doing-Okay-So-Far Dance…

…until the Necrons passed their leadership test and resurrected three of their number. Despite throwing all of my long ranged fire into them, the Destroyers were still a big threat, and I think my girls had succeeded only in slightly increasing their hatred for all living things.



The Necrons responded with a steady advance in the centre, with the Destroyers hovering further forwards into the shrubbery and the Monolith and Immortals beginning their resolute advance. The Annihilation Barge flew over to the right to get some shots off next turn, and the Scarabs zoomed up aggressively, having missed their breakfast and in the mood for a hearty, iron-filled lunch.

In the shooting phase, the Monolith, thankfully, did not target my Seraphim as I had initially feared (whew), instead lobbing their big blast at Divine Judgement and scattering off harmlessly. The Monolith’s gauss arcs, similarly, lashed out in all directions but did no damage. I was beginning to think that I was going to get off lightly this shooting phase until the Destroyers unloaded on the Retributors, killing the front two girls and their Superior. This suited me fine, as those girls were supposed to be ablative wounds anyway…but the heavy bolter girls disagreed, shrieking in terror and fleeing off the board.



And just like that, my opponent got First Blood, one of my principle firepower units was gone, and my quad-gun was now useless. I think I might have muttered aloud “well, it could be worse.”

Yeah, I really need to watch what I say.


TURN 2

With the loss of the Retributors, my options for dealing with the Destroyers (and their scary Lord) were more limited now. I could have jumped the Seraphim over to flame them, but aside from the fact that the range was too far, I really didn’t want Celestine getting mindshackled. With this in mind, I hatched a devious plan: drive Squad Solemnas up to cover both the Scarabs and the Destroyers with their heavy flamer, and (hopefully) torrent the Destroyers down along with the Exorcists, while my outflanking Dominions insta-gibbed the remaining Scarabs with their meltas.

It was a chancy move, but it could have worked….if my Dominions had bothered showing up this turn. Which they didn’t.



Even though I cursed my bad luck, for some inexplicable reason I drove up and disembarked Squad Solemnas to execute the plan anyway, hoping that the sheer weight of fire would do something. My Seraphim, meanwhile, jumped further forwards near a cottage, ready to tackle the Immortals next turn, and Squad Nariko stayed put to hopefully be in a position to contest objectives later.



In the shooting phase, Squad Solemnas failed Hand of the Emperor (of course), but still managed to roast down two Scarab swarms. Unfortunately, the rest of their shooting did absolutely nil to the Destroyers. The Exorcists then opened fire on the hoverbots and killed….two…of them…of which one got up. Darn. Squad Solemnas was now sitting high and dry in front of a lot of firepower and angry Scarabs, and those Destroyers were still a serious threat.



In the Necron turn, the Deathmarks arrived and deep struck near the Seraphim, which is what I had more or less been expecting. The Destroyers flew forward aggressively to tackle my army’s centre, and the Scarabs buzzed angrily around Squad Solemnas. The Monolith hovered forward as ponderously as ever, and used its teleportation trick to bring the Immortals in front of it. Finally, the Annihilation Barge moved forward to target my poor Sisters as well, because, you know, getting eaten by a horde of metallic bugs clearly would not be enough for them.

In the shooting phase, the Destroyers only managed to knock one hull point off of Evelasting Hymn. Squad Solemnas wasn’t so lucky, however, as the combined fire of the Annihilation Barge and Immortals zapped down six of them and left the survivors cursing Nikola Tesla and his electric genius. The Monolith then unleashed a few flux arcs here and there, stripping a hull point off of Squad Solemnas’ Rhino and electrocuting a passing flock of geese, before unleashing a full blast at the Seraphim. I had been hoping that the cover of the building would protect them, but once again the dice betrayed me, and six of my poor jetpack girls were blasted to atoms. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Deathmarks then fired—the last two Seraphim were sniped down in short order, but then Celestine quickly joined them by rolling nothing but 1’s for her armour saves! Aaaargh!



In close combat, the Scarabs charged Squad Solemnas, and although the last four Sisters managed to kill one Swarm with overwatch fire and clobber a few wounds off of another in close combat, they were still flensed alive by the bugs.



The Destroyers, meanwhile, managed to make the charge into the rightmost Exorcist, and their Lord wasted no time in applying his hi-tech can opener to it and making it explode. Remember kids, the warscythe can slice open any stubborn container or can, and in the right setting can make a great back-scratcher! Order yours today!





TURN 3

At this point, things had taken a turn for the worse. The Destroyer Lord and his posse were in my backfield, three whole units were dead, and Celestine was busy taking a dirt nap. Still, it wasn’t all bad, as Celestine was in a prime position to go after the Immortals if she got back up this turn.

One roll of 3 later, and Celestine selfishly remained dead. The Dominions did arrive, but by this point there were no enemies close enough to either board edge except for the Scarabs, and I wasn’t confident about the Dominions’ ability to deal with them alone. Yeah, great timing, Dominions. Instead, the Dominions came in on my bottom left corner, where at the very least the Immolator would be able to help shoot at the Destroyers.



I didn’t have much other movement this turn, other than my last Exorcist moving up to block Squad Arias’s Rhino, and Squad Nariko’s Rhino edging up between two cottages into meltagun range of the Monolith. If I could deal with that monolith, then the Battle Sisters might be able to make a grab for the objective later.

In the shooting phase, Squad Nariko failed Hand of the Emperor (of course), and then missed the Monolith at point-blank range with a roll of 1. Sigh. The last Exorcist and the Immolator fired into the Destroyers and managed to drop two of them…and this time, they stayed down! Huzzah! Unfortunately, It was too little too late, as the Destroyer Lord was still undamaged and still wielding a big mean beatstick. On a lighter note, Squad Solemnas’ former Rhino took a pot shot at the Immortals and managed to permanently kill one. Well, that was something, at least.

In the Necron turn, the Warriors still didn’t arrive, though at this stage it hardly mattered, as the Immortals were still in a great position to hold the centre. The Scarabs buzzed around Squad Solemnas’ Rhino, and the Monolith stayed where it was, directly on top of the central objective. The Destroyer Lord and his last buddy then flew around to threaten both the last Exorcist and Squad Arias’s Rhino.

In the shooting phase, the Monolith lobbed a pie plate at both the Rhino and Exorcist, but by some miracle only managed to strip a hull point off of each vehicle. The last Destroyer also fired at the Exorcist, stunning it and removing another hull point. Finally, the Immortals, Annihilation Barge and Monolith’s flux arc all fired on Squad Nariko’s Rhino…and by some miracle, only managed to remove one hull point, not even managing to Shake it or the crew.

As usual, though, my brief moment of luck didn’t hold out in the assault phase, as the Destroyer Lord charged the Exorcist and, once again, exploded it quite handily. The Scarabs also charged Squad Solemnas’ Rhino, and for the sake of brevity I simply removed it. It was turn 3, and my army was already down to two units.






TURN 4

At this point, I was in desperate need of a miracle to turn things around—and fittingly enough, Celestine chose this moment to spontaneously resurrect (albeit with one wound)! I flew the Saint over the building into potential charge range of the Immortals, figuring that if Celestine could survive the incoming hail of Tesla overwatch death, then she could chop up enough Immortals to clear out that objective and maybe force a draw (or a win if I could get Squad Nariko over there). I would have moved Squad Nariko up to hopefully grab the objective as well, but because there was a Monolith in the way, they were forced to stay put and hopefully not miss it this turn. Elsewhere, Squad Arias’s Rhino edged around a bit to shoot the Destroyers (I’m not sure why I didn’t disembark them to add bolters to the mix), and the Immolator, bereft of targets, drove at full speed towards the centre. In retrospect, maybe I would have been better off sending them against the Scarabs.

In the shooting phase, the Immolator moved flat out, and Squad Arias fired their meltagun and heavy flamer out the hatch at the Destroyers…doing absolutely no damage, as usual. I miss Divine Guidance. Squad Nariko finally managed to cast Hand of the Emperor, though, and managed to hit and penetrate the Monolith. We both made a mistake in forgetting the Monolith could jink, but regardless, the hit penetrated, and the Monolith obligingly went kaboom! The explosion hit both the Immortals and Celestine, failing to wound the Necrons, but wounding the Saint…



…who proceeded to roll a 1 for her armour save and die a second time. At that point, I think a small part of my brain decided that I really needed to lie down. Or have a strong drink. Or both.

In the Necron turn, the Warriors finally arrived, but without the Monolith to portal out of, they had to content themselves with walking in from the board edge. The Scarabs, unsurprisingly, rushed towards the Immolator, and the Destroyers, equally unsurprisingly, rushed Squad Arias’s Rhino. And to put the final nail in the coffin, the Immortals walked onto the middle objective and, along with the Annihilation Barge and Deathmarks, moved to encircle Squad Nariko’s Rhino.





In the following shooting phase, the last Destroyer managed to a-splode Squad Arias’ Rhino, killing a Sister in the explosion, though none of the girls were pinned. The Immortals and Annihilation Barge then both fired at Squad Nariko’s Rhino…and by some miracle, the tank managed to survive on one hull point!

Unfortunately, Lady Luck’s brief soiree with me ended in the assault phase, where she once again ran back into the arms of my metallic rival. The Scarabs charged and, unsurprisingly, wrecked the Immolator, spilling out the Dominions.



The Destroyers, meanwhile, charged Squad Arias, whose overwatch actually did more damage than their actual shooting, killing off the last Destroyer! It wasn’t enough, though, to stop the charge of the Lord, who made it in.



Sister Arias selflessly challenged the metal monstrosity, resisting its mindshackles in the process, but was subsequently cleaved in half. The rest of the Sisters held their ground, but it didn’t matter—their objective was contested.

At this point, the announcement came that we only had 10 minutes left. Dave and I agreed that we would try to play another turn, but if we couldn’t complete it, then it wouldn’t count. Starting my next turn, I tried to roll for Celestine’s resurrection…

…and got a 1. And with that, I shook my Dave’s hand and called it.




FINAL SCORE:
Sisters- 0
Necrons- 5 (One objective, First Blood, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord

RESULT: LOSS


Thoughts: Well, that could have gone a lot better. Looking back at the battle, I really couldn’t fault my planning. I think the one idiotic move on my part was disembarking Squad Solemnas on Turn 2 to shoot at the Destroyers, as not only did the gamble fail to pay off, but it also left a valuable scoring unit exposed to pretty much half of Dave’s army. In retrospect, I would have been better off either keeping the Sisters in their Rhino, or focusing all of their firepower on those nasty Scarabs. Perhaps I also should have sent Celestine and the Seraphim after the Destroyers—the sheer number of wounds they could have done would have been enough to kill them off, and even if the Destroyer Lord survived, I could have charged in, tied him up in challenge with the Seraphim Superior for a turn (or two) to avoid getting shot up, and then hit and run to deal with the Immortals. Oh well, that’s hindsight for you.

Ultimately, Dave played a solid game, and his rolls (particularly Reanimation Protocols and cover saves) were stellar. My rolls, on the other hand, were abysmal. I honestly can’t tell what hurt more—losing my Retributors to a failed leadership check, my Seraphim and Celestine to god-awful saves, or Celestine again to an explosion. In regards to the latter….THIS is why Celestine is only worth 115 points, I think.

Oh well, no point crying over getting steamrolled, eaten by metal bugs and turned into free-floating molecules. On to game 2!





For the briefest of moments, the appearance of Isobel on the battlefield lifted our hearts and melted away our fears and doubts. We felt like the Emperor Himself had turned His attention to us, and had shown us His favour by sending one of His favoured servants back from death in our hour of need. With Canoness Deschain leading us once again, and with the Emperor’s Will guiding us, surely we could not fail.

It shames me to say that our faith was not enough.

Although we prayed again and again to for the Emperor to guide our aim and to strike the Necrons down, the xenos proved very difficult to destroy. Those that fell simply staggered back upright in an unholy approximation of life, and even those blasted apart by our Exorcists’ missiles had their shorn pieces pulled back together and reformed. The return fire of the Necrons was devastating, their ghostly arcs of green, pulsating energy disintegrating metal on impact. Many of our Sisters were reduced to nothing by gauss fire, and a few of our tanks similarly disintegrated. Swarms of metallic insects hovered forward, buzzing malevolently as they flensed flesh and metal alike with horrific ease. At the head of the xenos, a centaur-like entity, half-humanoid construct and half hovering platform, charged headlong into our lines, shrugging off our fire like rainfall as its glowing glaive sliced through tank armour like paper.

At the height of the battle, as I lay nursing a debilitating bite from one of the metallic insects, I saw Isobel flying towards the advancing Necrons, seeming to glow as she descended toward them blade in hand. At that moment, there was a tremendous, earth-shaking blast as the Monolith disappeared in a tremendous burst of green light. When it disappeared, the Monolith was nowhere to be seen…and neither was Isobel.

I confess, I felt my faith flicker and shrink with Isobel’s disappearance, as the miracle that the Emperor had granted us vanished. With Isobel gone, all hope was seemingly lost—our Preceptory was suffering heavy losses, and if we fought on, we should surely be annihilated. Although I would gladly die in the Emperor’s name, I also knew that our martyrdom here would achieve nothing. With a heavy heart, I ordered our retreat, and we were forced to cede the farmlands to the enemy.

The Necrons, thankfully, did not pursue us, and under the cover of an embattled night sky, we retreated across the hinterlands. Our morale was low after that loss, and we were both dispirited and confused by Isobel’s sudden appearance and disappearance. But though we knew it not, our trials on Bekrin had only begun…

Nicely written fluff! I must ask though; what is that Necronesque neon green marker that keeps popping up in the pictures?

 MoonlightSonata wrote:
Nicely written fluff! I must ask though; what is that Necronesque neon green marker that keeps popping up in the pictures?

I have no idea, but my opponent brought them to use as objective markers, and they worked pretty well in that regard.

Game 2- Land Grab


In the aftermath of our disastrous battle in the Hinterlands, we were forced to withdraw east behind the the Siegmund Line, hoping that the fortifications would give us time to restock and refuel should the Necrons pursue us. In a discussion with my fellow Sisters Superior, I learned that they, too, had seen Isobel, though some among the lower ranks of our Sisters saw different things—one recently-initiated Sister of Squad Nariko claimed to have seen a manifestation of Saint Germaine, while one of the Dominions claimed to have seen an Angel of the Emperor’s Throne. All, however, agreed that the apparition had existed, and while it had been on the field, it had inspired them all.

During this time of recuperation, news came to us of the other battles that had raged during the enemy’s planetfall. Few of those battles, we were disheartened to learn, had been victories. In the initial stages of the Chaos invasion, Traitor Marines of the Death Guard, allegedly led by the arch-traitor known as Typhus, had descended upon the vital Redgate space port in the wake of a virus-laden bombardment. Despite a valiant defence by the Crimson Fists and the Vostroyans, the Death Guard swept into the space port and slaughtered its defenders, leaving their bodies littered across the landing pad to rot and fester. The loss of the crucial space port was a keenly felt blow, as it would allow the Chaos Space Marines to bring reinforcements down from orbit with greater ease. Even more shocking, however, was the news that the Grey Snakes, one of the Chapters who had come to Bekrin’s defence, had turned traitor and joined the invaders. The news of the Grey Snakes’ betrayal had forced the Blood Angels to abandon their positions at Sanctifer to deal with this new threat, and in a brutal counter-attack, the Sons of Sanguinius fell upon the Traitors near the Khallistan Refinery and put them to flight.

The treachery of the Grey Snakes proved doubly advantageous to the Archenemy, however. With the Blood Angels diverted, the Iron Warriors laid siege to Sanctifer. The city’s ancient walls and magnificent cathedrals were obliterated as the Iron Warriors unleashed heavy artillery on the city. With the walls breached, the Iron Warriors swept into the city streets, and despite the intervention of the Grey Knights, Sanctifer was overrun in days, its holy places desecrated and its statues and icons torn down. My Sisters and I wept at this news, knowing that we were powerless to have prevented this desecration. Further news came from the southwest, of how the crazed Berzerkers of the World Eaters had descended upon the southerly desert region of Abareal, intent on massacring any Imperial forces they came across. Their blood-crazed advance, however, was stalemated by the Space Wolves, who matched them in ferocity after days of brutal street fighting in Abareal’s outpost-towns. On that front, at least, the line had held.

Despite the best efforts of the Imperium’s fighting forces, the Archenemy had gained a solid foothold on Bekrin. On several fronts, Imperial forces were in retreat, and the heretics were advancing, brazenly chanting blasphemies against the God-Emperor as they did so. At this point, our forces desperately needed time to regroup and re-arm, and to do that we needed to halt, or at least stall, the advance of the Traitor Marines.

It was for this reason that Brother-Captain Roland had us redeploy to Abareal. In the wake of the World Eaters’ onslaught, the foul Chaos Space Marines known as the Foetid Host were steadily gaining and corrupting ground, and putting more and more pressure on the embattled Space Wolves. Our Order knows of the Foetid Host well—we have battled these rancid heretics many a time on many battlegrounds, on Marsala, Kaleb’s Reach and Aker. Each time we had arrived on a world to thwart a raid or invasion by these traitors, but each time they had managed to escape the Emperor’s justice. Though we were still disheartened by the loss of Isobel, our resolve was renewed by the prospect of a reckoning with our arch-enemies.

After refuelling at the Siegmund Line, we made full speed for Abareal, hoping to arrive in time to catch the Foetid Host off guard. This time, we swore, there would be no escape for the Traitor Marines…


After the disaster of the first game, I was resolved to score a win for my team in the second round (and bought some new dice…just in case). As luck would have it, I was pitted in the second round against a good friend of mine, MaxisLithium from Warseer. I’ve played against Maxis’ Chaos Space Marines numerous times, though I had yet to see how they worked with the new Codex. Even so, I felt reasonably confident going into this battle. Maxis brought the following:

The Foetid Host

Chaos Lord- Mark of Nurgle, plasma pistol, power sword, Sigil of Corruption, Gift of Mutation
7 Plague Marines- 2 meltaguns, Plague Champion w. power fist, Veterans of the Long War
-Rhino
7 Plague Marines- 2 plasma guns, Plague Champion w. power axe, Veterans of the Long War
-Rhino
12 Cultists- heavy stubber
6 Havocs- 3 missile launchers w. flakk missiles, 1 lascannon
2 Obliterators- Mark of Nurgle
Vindicator- warpflame gargoyles
DAEMONIC ALLIES:
Great Unclean One- Cloud of Flies
7 Plaguebearers


The only two things in this list which really worried me were the Obliterators (which, at Toughness 5, wouldn’t simply be insta-popped by Exorcists and meltaguns like they were last edition) and the Great Unclean One, which experience has taught me is extremely difficult to kill. would be very difficult to kill.


SCENARIO AND DEPLOYMENT:

The scenario this time involved a diagonal deployment, with five objectives spread across the board. After rolling for sides, I would up with the bottom half of the board. This proved to be pretty disadvantageous for me, as there was only one objective on my side in the upper left hand corner. On Maxis’ side, there was objective on the middle right of the board and one on the upper right. There were also two objectives positioned on either side of the big building dominating the centre of the board, which meant that if I wanted to win this game I had to play aggressively.

Our deployment like this:



I had positioned the Retributors and aegis line far back in my corner, though their positioning, sadly, meant that they didn’t have many targets unless the Chaos Marines decided to come to them. Squads Solemnas and Nariko were positioned around the cargo trailers in the centre, and my Dominions, who I had decided to Scout with in this battle as an experiment, huddled around that area as well. On either side of them, I positioned my Exorcists, and behind my rightmost Exorcist, Everlasting Hymn, I placed Celestine and the Seraphim. (Note that this picture was taken before I realized some of my stuff was placed too far forward, which forced me to deploy the Seraphs differently than the way they’re shown.) Finally, Squad Arias was placed behind the building in my upper left corner, ready to go grab the nearby objective later.





MaxisLithium, by contrast, didn’t have much to deploy. He put his Havocs on top of a building for maximized lines of fire, put his melta-toting Plague Marines with their Lord and Rhino in his upper corner and the plasma-toting Plagues further down. Not seen in this photo is the Vindicator, which was positioned behind the minaret in front of the melta Plagues’ Rhino. The Obliterators would be Deep Striking into battle, the Cultists would be walking in from reserves, and the Daemons, obviously, would be using Daemonic Assault.



Going into the battle, my overall plan was to have the Battle Sisters advance onto objectives and hold them throughout the game, while all of my heavy hitters focused on killing Maxis’ scoring units. I figured that if I could kill all of Maxis’ Troops and/or deny him the ability to hold objectives, then I’d have this game in in the bag. Of course, I’d have to watch out for his reserves, especially Big Pappy.

WARLORD TRAITS:
Celestine: Master of Offence
Chaos Lord: Hatred Incarnate

For Scout moves, the Immolator zoomed up behind the central building, ready to (hopefully) move up and disembark Dominions in front of the Chaos vehicles on Turn 1.


TURN 1



I won the roll off for first turn, and wasted no time in advancing. Celestine and the Seraphim flew up behind the big central building, staying out of line of sight of the Havocs and preparing to jump over and flame some heretics next turn. After some pre-measuring, I found that my scouting Dominions were still way out move-disembark-and-melt range of Chaos vehicles, so the Immolator hung around behind the building to claim cover. Behind them, Squad Solemnas advanced towards the objective in the middle of the board behind the building, Squad Arias drove up behind the trailers, and Squad Nariko stuck around behind the rearmost building to hide from enemy. Finally, the two Exorcists angled to gain line of sight to Maxis’ Vindicator, though my uppermost tank also gained line of sight to the Havocs.

In the shooting phase, Solemnas’ Rhino popped smoke, and the Seraphim ran to hug the wall of the building. Everlasting Hymn barely managed to see the Chaos Vindicator between the Rhino and the Immolator, and after firing a decent amount of missiles, managed to strip off a hull point and Stun the tank. Satisfied that it wouldn’t be pie-plating anything for a turn, I focused the rest of my shooting onto the Havocs, with Dive Judgement and the quad gun plinking off a bolter dude each. The Havocs passed their leadership, though, so I finished off the shooting phase by moving Arias’ Rhino flat out in front of Divine Judgement to give it some cover.



In the Foetid Host’s turn, Maxis rolled for his Daemonic reserves, hoping for Big Pappy to show up. Nurgle must have been annoyed at him today, though, as instead the Plaguebearers arrived. Unperturbed, Maxis landed them in the pool near Squad Nariko’s Rhino, passing all his terrain checks and quickly rendering the pool unsafe for children. The plasma Plague Marines then drove forwards…and immobilized their Rhino on a nearby palm tree.



Cursing tropical vegetation everywhere, Maxis disembarked his squad to shoot at Celestine—who, as I quickly discovered, was barely visible through some windows of the building! Uh oh. Elsewhere, the melta Plagues and their Lord drove forwards aggressively, and that was that. Everything else in Maxis’ army was unable to move, was carrying heavy weapons, or was in reserve.



In the shooting phase, the melta Rhino popped smoke, and the Havocs targeted Arias’s Rhino blocking the Exorcist. I quickly discovered that the Rhino was claiming a cover save anyway due to the intervening terrain, but even after passing a bunch of saves, the it still lost two hull points and its storm bolter. The Plague Marines, meanwhile, rapid-fired plasma and bolter rounds into Celestine, who chose to fob off the plasma hits with Look Out Lady and tank the bolter wounds on her armour. After all was said and done, I’d lost a Seraphim and a wound off of Celestine, but otherwise no real damage had been done.




TURN 2





Having gotten off lightly in the previous turn, I decided to press the attack. The Immolator drove forward and dropped the Dominions right in front of the melta Rhino, while Celestine and her Seraphim flew over to confront the plasma Plagues. Further at the back of my lines, Squad Nariko’s Rhino angled so that the girls inside could pop the hatch and flame the Plaguebearers, and Squad Arias drove up to go grab objectives in future turns. Last but not least, Squad Solemnas drove on top of the middle objective, while the Exorcists angled for better lines of fire.

Having gotten a generous amount of Faith points this turn, I commenced with the shooting. Celestine and the Seraphim prayed for Emperor’s Deliverence and, after unloading on the Plague Marines with flamers, pistols, a frag grenade and Celestine’s heavy flamer, killed a healthy four of them. Woot! Further back, the Dominions managed to get Holy Fusillade off, but thanks to the enemy Rhino’s smoke launchers, only managed to strip off a single hull point and Shake the damned thing. Their Immolator, however, came to the rescue, getting another penetrating hit through that exploded the Rhino spectacularly, actually killing one of the Plague Marines inside! Everlasting Hymn then added to the Nurgley Marines’ misery, blasting apart three more of Plague Marines with a cluster of missiles.



Divine Judgement had less luck though, firing once again at the Vindicator but this time failing to even chip its already-rusty hull.

Finally, near the back of my lines, Squad Nariko managed to get Hand of the Emperor off, and after firing their heavy flamer and meltagun at the densely-packed Plaguebearers, managed to kill two or three of them. The Retributors and their quad gun then added their fire to the Plaguebearers fire on them, and after all was said and done, the Daemons had been reduced to a fine, malodorous mist. See, Retributors? That’s what you SHOULD have done to the Destroyers last game.



In the Assault phase, the Seraphim charged the plasma Plague Marines, and after a fairly tepid round of Overwatching on their part, the rocket girls made it in unscathed. Accepting a challenge from the Plague Champion, Celestine swung out with her Ardent Blade…and scored only one wound, which bounced off the Plague Marine’s Feel No Pain. Laughing at how much the flaming sword tickled, the Traitor scored one wound back with his axe, though Celestine managed to save it in turn, drawing the duel. The rest of the combat saw the Seraphim swinging at strength 4 thanks to Celestine’s Warlord trait, and actually killing a Plague Marine, though one Seraphim met the wrong end of a plague knife in return, drawing the combat.

Maxis’ response came in the form of a lot of reserves arriving—because Chaos had won on the table with the landing pad last round, the entire Chaos team added +1 to all of their reserves!



At the southwest corner of the board, Big Pappy emerged chuckling out of a well, while further behind a mob of Cultists walked onto the table, ready to go capturing objectives for their great smelly masters.
 


On my side of the board, the Obliterators came teleporting in, facing the side of Squad Arias’ Rhino and Divine Judgement.



Elsewhere, the melta-toting Plague Marines and their Lord edged up to confront my Dominions, and the Vindicator, now able to move again, turned and moved to face my clustered tanks.

In the shooting phase, the Vindicator belched out a shot at the Immolator, destroying its multi-melta and leaving the entire tank covered in an unpleasant slime. The Obliterators morphed multi-meltas (say that five times fast) and used them to freem Everlasting Hymn, though a passed invulnerable save on my part meant that the tank was only Shaken. The Havocs tried to kill off Divine Judgement, but after a series of horrible rolls, only managed to glance it and strop off a hull point. Finally, the Nurgle Lord and his Plague Marines fired at point blank range into the Dominions, killing three, though crucially, the meltagun girls stayed alive and passed their leadership test. My decision to buy new dice was obviously scaring the old ones into behaving!

In the ongoing combat, Celestine finally remembered to use the pointy end of her sword, and used it to neatly decapitate the Plague Champion. Another Seraphim was stabbed down, but under Celestine’s aura of Fearlessness, they couldn’t care less, and they hit and ran out of combat towards the Chaos Lord, leaving the last Plague Marine sad and alone. Seraphim can actually be quite heartless sometimes.




TURN 3

With the Chaos Lord and his posse dead in their sights, Celestine and her Seraphim flew up to give them a warm greeting (heh heh….warm greeting…because they’re using flamers, right? Right?) Further back in my lines, I had both Exorcists swivel around to target the Obliterators, even though my rightmost one could only Snap Fire at this stage. While Squad Solemnas continued to camp on their objective, Squad Nariko’s Rhino moved forward to take the one in the northwest, and Squad Arias continued to drive at full speed towards the one in the middle of the map, which was currently held by the last plasma Plague. The last two Dominions, eager to put their meltaguns to good use, moved into freeming range of the nearby Vindicator.

In shooting, Arias and Nariko’s Rhinos both moved flat out, which saw Arias making it onto my northernmost objective. I didn’t dare disembark them, as if I did the squad would be in trouble if the Obliterators survived. Speaking of whom, both Exorcists and the Retributors (who failed Divine Guidance) fired at will on the Obliterators, but after some crappy rolls on my part, only one mechanical aberration was destroyed. As I had feared, the Mark of Nurgle made all the difference for them.



The Dominions, eager to do something useful this game, fired on the Vindicator and made it go kaboom.



Annoyingly enough, though, the kaboom was a rather big one, and while the Dominions were unhurt, one of the Seraphim went down to shrapnel. If that wasn’t enough, Celestine and the Seraphim flubbed their rolls, even when rerolling wounds thanks to Emperor’s Deliverence, and only managed to flame down one Plague Marine.



Deciding to settle things in close combat, the Seraphim charged the Chaos Lord and his Plague Marines…and ran right into a wall of absurdly accurate overwatch fire. After I was forced to fob a melta and plasma hit off of Celestine, I had lost two Seraphim, leaving only two other girls to accompany Her Saintliness.



They still made it in, and the Plague Champion called out a challenge, and Celestine rewarded his boldness with a swift decapitation. At the same time, though, the Chaos Lord butchered both Seraphim before they even got to strike. Celestine had lost combat, and even though she wasn’t going anywhere thanks to Fearless, the loss of the Seraphim meant she couldn’t Hit and Run away, either.

In the Chaos turn, the last Plague Marine from the first squad, still toting his plasma gun, ran over to claim the middle objective and hide from my long ranged firepower. Pappy lumbered out of the building towards Squad Solemnas and their objective, and the Cultists followed up in his (undoubtedly unpleasant) wake to claim the rearmost objective with an exuberant cry of “HWEE CAPTURED EET FOR CHAOOOS!” an objective. The last Obliterator lumbered towards my leftmost Exorcist, and that was that.



In the shooting phase, the Obliterator morphed a twin-linked meltagun and tried to pop the Exorcist…but the Emperor clearly had other ideas, as the tank rolled its 6+ invulnerable save! The Havocs, though, had no such divine interventions to worry about, as they handily wrecked Squad Konstanze’s Rhino and sent the girls tumbling out. As an encore, the Cultists snap fired with their stubber and actually managed to bring down a Sister! Thankfully, the squad passed their pinning test, so they were still in the fight.



In close combat, Pappy tried a long charge on Squad Solemnas, but fell short, and the ensuing Wall of Death actually burned off one of his wounds.



At the back of my lines, the Obliterator managed to charge the Exorcist…and proceeded to whiff his attacks, hitting only once and rolling a 1 to damage! Finally, in the big central fight, the Chaos Lord challenged Celestine, who was forced to accept. Disappointingly, though, she failed to get past her opponent’s invulnerable save, though her own armour held up against the Lord’s return attacks.

At this point, though, the tournament organizer called that we had only five minutes left. I was surprised that so much time had passed when Maxis and I had only done three turns. It was then that a horrible realization struck me:

“So, in this edition, Troops who are still in their transports cannot score, right?” I asked Maxis.

“Correct,” Maxis replied.

“And the two Battle Sister squads I have on objectives are still in their Rhinos?”

“Also correct.”

“Whereas yours are not.”

“Correct.”

“So….this…means….I….lose?”

“It would appear so.”

And with that, I shook Maxis’ hand, quite unable to believe what had just happened.




FINAL SCORE:

Chaos- 4 (2 objectives)
Sisters- 2 (First Blood, Linebreaker)

RESULT: LOSS


Thoughts: Wow, that was…embarrassing. Up until the end of the last turn, I felt that I was doing really well: I’d decimated most of Maxis’ scoring while keeping mine intact, I’d eliminated a chunk of his firepower while keeping my own Exorcists alive, and above all, I still had Saint Celestine running amok behind Maxis’ lines. If I’d done more to keep track of how much time we had left, I probably would have remembered to disembark my scoring units. Otherwise, I can simply shake my head in bafflement that Maxis and I somehow managed to run out of time on Turn 3.

Looking back, I really can’t fault any of my tactical decisions in this game (aside from not disembarking my Sisters, that is). All of my units did what they were supposed to, and did it very well. If the game had gone one more turn, I’m certain I would have been able to finish off the last Obliterator to free up Squad Nariko, have the Dominions melta down the last Plague Marine sitting on an objective, and disembark Squad Solemnas on top of their own objective while keeping their Rhino between them and the Great Unclean One. With good rolls, I might even have been able to kill off the Chaos Lord as well for a Slay the Warlord point. Then again, I guess there’s no point in moaning over what could have been. Maxis played a solid game, and even though his army took some early losses, he stayed focused on the objectives.

So, with two losses down, I was hardly making a positive contribution to the Imperial war effort. If only to save some face, I really needed a win in Round 3….


We had arrived at Abareal just in time to prevent the Foetid Host from encircling the Space Wolves, the sight of our Rhinos enough to make the Traitors momentarily pull back to avoid being hit in the flank. We knew from experience that the Traitor Marines wouldn’t back away so easily from a fight, however, and surely enough, their vehicle appeared in the distant streets again before long, noxious fumes and clouds of flies surrounding them like tattered shrouds. We advanced forth to meet them at close range, prayers on our lips and fire in our hearts, whatever doubts we still felt after our defeat in the Hinterlands gone.

The Emperor, in His Divine Beneficence, took notice of our zeal, for one moment we were deployed for battle, and in the next, Isobel stood amongst our ranks once again, appearing as calm and serene as she had in the Hinterlands and fully arrayed for war.

“Suffer not the heretic to live, Sisters,” she had called to us in a voice as clear as day. “Ave Imperator!” As is right and proper, this last sentence we echoed in response to her command.

I must confess, Prioress, many details of that battle escape me. I know that many close-ranged firefights raged between us and the Foetid Host, with bolters, flamers, meltas and plasmas all being brought into deadly effect in the narrow confines of the streets. Warriors on both sides fell, and vehicles were obliterated and turned into burning wrecks. As the battle wore on, the Foetid Host summoned many malefic allies to the fray-- twisted, mutated cultists who surged from buildings and gleefully gibbered blasphemies; scabrous, cyclopean things that pulled themselves dripping from sewer grates and oasis, and lunged at us with pustulent knives; half-mechanical, half-organic abominations which stepped forth from the Immaterium itself; and a massive, bloated, rotting monstrosity which hauled itself from a well at the centre of the down, emitting a gurgling laugh as it stomped towards us. Despite all of this, we fought on and endured, prayers on our lips all the while.

Throughout the battle, Isobel swooped down on the Foetid Host at the head of the Seraphim, fighting like the Emperor’s Wrath incarnate as she laid into the Traitors with flame and sword. Several champions of the Traitor Marines fell to her wrath, and at the battle’s height, I beheld her clashing with the leader of the Foetid Host, her flaming sword striking again and again against the scythe-like blade of the Chaos Space Marine.

And then, a split second later, Isobel was gone.

I did not see her fly away, nor did I see any apparition or effect to denote her departure. She had simply vanished, as quick as the blink of an eye. The second disappearance of our returned Canoness, however, caused doubt, sorrow, and even fear to cloud our hearts just as it had in the Hinterlands. Confusion suddenly broke out, and this confusion was coupled by news of enemy reinforcements massing on the horizon, and scattered reports of a sudden withdrawal by the Space Wolves. Realizing that we stood on the precipice of destruction, I gave the order to fall back, reluctantly granting the field to the Foetid Host.

As we fell back once again to the Siegmund Line, we all found ourselves asking the same question. Why did our dead Canoness keep appearing, and more importantly, disappearing? Was this all part of some test or trial the Emperor had bestowed upon us?

And above all else, could the manifestation of Isobel grant the Emperor’s forces the victory that they needed in this war?

Round 3- Counter-Attack

In the aftermath of our battle with the Foetid Host, the war for Bekrin dragged on unremittingly. Battles, orbital bombardments and scorched earth campaigns pockmarked the planet’s surface, leaving barren wastelands in place of fertile fields and ruins in place of settlements. The seemingly endless amount of smoke and dust appeared to turn the sky a permanent grey. No matter who won or lost this war, Bekrin would bear the scar of the conflict for ages to come.

Even though we had been forced to withdraw—and worse, forced to let the Foetid Host escape to wreak more havoc elsewhere—we had nonetheless succeeded in slowing down the Chaos advance in the Abareal region. On many other fronts a similar story could be told, for while the Archenemy gained ground, they weren’t doing so with the blinding momentum that they had enjoyed previously in the campaign. The Iron Warriors managed to capture several key hab-zones on the outskirts of Sanctifer from the Crimson Fists, but only after several gruelling days of battle that cost them much in manpower and resources. The Blood Angels, meanwhile, in conjunction with the Grey Knights and Deathwatch, launched a decisive counter-attack on Chaos forces in the Ardus woodlands that drove them back utterly, and news even reached us that Inquisition forces had checked the relentless advance of the Necrons. The Death Guard, on the other hand, had managed to link up with the treasonous Grey Snakes, and inflicted horrendous losses on the Space Wolves on the Siegmund Line.

For all of our losses, however, the Emperor’s armies were holding the line, buying time with blood and hardship and slowing the Chaos advance down. The time was now ripe for a counter-attack. All across Bekrin, Imperial forces were regrouping for a massed counter-offensive against Archenemy positions on all fronts. Although many among the Astartes had begun to look upon us with suspicion—for we knew that many of them had questioned our reports and cast doubt on the sightings of Isobel, Emperor curse their faithless tongues—our Preceptory was nonetheless given the important task of purging and reclaiming the Redgate Spaceport. The forces of the Archenemy had been in control of the spaceport for most of the war, and had been able to use it to ferry reinforcements down from orbit. By recapturing the space port, we could effectively cut the throat of the Chaos forces by leaving them cut off from orbital support. Recapturing the space port would hardly be an easy task, however, as it was presently guarded by the bloodthirsty traitors of the World Eaters Legion.

All throughout the war, the World Eaters had been on the rampage, seeking out warzones where the fighting was fiercest and descending on loyal Astartes with yelled oaths and swinging axes. For all of their ferocity, however, the Blood Angel counter-offensive in the Ardus had recently halted their advance, forcing them, uncharacteristically, to regroup as far back as Redgate. Troubling reports, however, indicated that two infamous arch-heretics led the Berzerker host—Kharn the Betrayer, whose crimes against the Imperium are without number, and Lord Zhufor the Impaler, whose atrocities committed during the Siege of Vraks are horrific to think upon. Both of these Traitors appeared to be cooperating with one another, a rare occurance for their bloodthirsty kind, and their combined leadership gave the World Eaters a dangerous degree of coordination and focus in their actions.

Our mandate, therefore, was clear. Even though the coming conflict was sure to see the martyrdom of many of our Sisters, we were to cleanse the space port of its Chaotic taint, and to execute Kharn and Zhufor.


For the next round, the Imperial forces were launching a big counter-attack on the forces of Chaos. Because of this, everyone on the Imperial team got to pick and choose who they wanted, and I picked Joey, a World Eater player. Joey had the following list:


World Eaters

Lord Zhufor
Kharn the Betrayer
7 Khorne Berzerkers- Icon of Wrath, Skull Champion w. power fist, Veterans of the Long War
-Rhino
8 Khorne Berzerkers- Icon of Wrath, Skull Champion w. power sword & power axe, Veterans of the Long War
-Rhino
8 Khorne Berzerkers- Icon of Wrath, Skull Champion w. power sword & power axe, Veterans of the Long War
8 Khorne Berzerkers- Icon of Wrath, Skull Champion w. power sword & power axe, Veterans of the Long War
5 Chaos Terminators- Mark of Khorne, 1 combi-bolter & power axe, 1 combi-bolter & power fist, 2 pairs of lightning claws, 1 heavy flamer and chainfist
2 Obliterators

While Joey had a lot of bodies, his long-ranged firepower was minimal, as was his mobility. I was confident that I could engage him effectively at range while using my mobility to concentrate fire on his forces, then redeploy where necessary. Plus, I was confident that Saint Celestine could deal with anything in his army that wasn’t Kharn or a Terminator.



SCENARIO AND DEPLOYMENT

(I apologize, by the way, for not having any proper deployment pictures, and for having so many blurry pics).

For the third round scenario, we each had an objective worth three points in our own deployment zone. Interestingly, my side of the board had a defensive line (placed there by the Order team captain in Round 1) in the middle of my side. I placed my objective to the right of my centre, and put my own Aegis line around it. Figuring that I’d go for a refused flank, I placed the Retributors on the middle defence line with Divine Judgement behind them, and Squad Nariko was behind the aegis to man (woman?) the quad gun and hold the objective. On the right flank, I placed Squad Nariko’s empty Rhino, the Seraphim, Squad Solemnas, the Immolator, and Everlasting Hymn, and on the left flank, behind the landing pad, I placed Squad Arias.

Joey, meanwhile, put his behind the woods near his centre, with two Berzerker Squads and the Obliterators all clustered around it. One Rhino-mounted Berzerker squad went on the right flank, while the other Rhino-mounted squad, along with Kharn, went on his left.

After Joey deployed, I scouted my Dominions forward, aiming to pop the rightmost Rhino on turn one. My overall plan was to advance up the right flank and burninate stuff (especially with the Seraphim), hopefully doing some damage to Joey’s forces, and, even more importantly, keeping his Berzerkers away from my objective while threatening his. Squad Nariko would act as a mobile reserve and try to eliminate or delay any threat that might go after my objective from another objective. In retrospect, Rhino-rushing a Berzerker army was probably a very bad idea, but I figured that as long as I kept Kharn at arm’s length, I would be fine.

WARLORD TRAITS:
Saint Celestine- Legendary Fighter
Lord Zhufor- Legendary FIghter



TURN 1

As the attacker in this scenario, I was able to win the first turn on 3+, which I promptly rolled, though Night Fighting also came into effect, limiting the amount of damage I could do on Turn 1. Even so, I advanced with my refused flank, sending Squad Nariko’s empty Rhino down the right flank to huddle by a cluster of woods, with the Seraphim flying behind it in case the Obliterators decided to maul them with plasma cannons. Squad Solemnas’ Rhino, similarly, drove down the right, while the Immolator drove up and dumped the Dominions into the woods in melta range of the enemy Rhino. All the rest of my forces stayed put, however, with Squad Arias’ Rhino trying to stay hidden behind the landing pad until they were needed.



In the shooting phase, the Dominions got Holy Fusillade, but because they were shooting through the woods, both hits against the Rhino were saved by cover. For the second time in the tournament, the Immolator came to their rescue, immobilizing the Chaos vehicle.



In the centre, the Divine Judgement was able to see the Obliterators, and unleashed a whopping six missiles at them, all of which hit and wounded. Even with 3+ cover, the Obliterators failed some saves and when squoosh, giving me First Blood (for the Blood Go…er…the Emperor)! Finally, Everlasting Hymn Exorcist (which I forgot to move…for some reason) moved flat out (for some reason) and that was that.

In the Chaos turn, the occupants of the rightmost Chaos Rhino were angry at having their ride immobilized (as well as at the state of the economy, the government, the shape of their armour, and half a million other things) and disembarked to yell at the Dominions, while the Berzerker squad to their left moved forwards to join in and maybe chop them to pieces as well.


The central Berzerker squad stayed on their objective, angry at having to sit and babysit some stupid battlefield point instead of getting their axes bloody, and the Rhino carrying Kharn and his Zerks drove aggressively down the centre, laughing at the objective-holders (but still angry about 6th ed’s disembarkation rules).



In the shooting phase, the World Eaters…had very little to shoot with, a fact that made them very angry! The squad whose ride had been immobilized ran, and the squad next to them fired their bolt pistols into the Dominions, killing an impressive three, though to my annoyance, the remainder held their ground. The Berzerkers then charged, ignoring the Dominions’ paltry overwatch as they multi-charged both them and the Immolator. Unsurprisingly, the last two Dominions were butchered, but the Immolator, by some fluke of luck, only lost one hull point. And yes, having the Immolator survive made the Berzerkers angry.





TURN 2



Although I was cursing myself for wasting the Dominions so needlessly, at least I had managed to kill of the Obliterators. As night turned to day, I prepared to pour some long-range firepower into the Berzerkers. Celestine and the Seraphim flew up to engage the Berzerkers on the objective, while the Immolator sensibly retreated. Behind it, Everlasting Hymn angled to get a better line of fire, and Squad Solemnas disembarked from their Rhino to pour bolter rounds into the Zerks from afar. In the centre, my firebase stayed put, and Squad Nariko…did nothing. In fact, for whatever reason, I think I forgot about Squad Nariko all game.

In the shooting phase, the Seraphim managed to get Emperor’s Deliverence, and unleashed bolt pistols, a frag grenade, and 5 flamer templates on the Berzerkers on the objective. 22 wounds later, and the Berzerkers were annihilated—something that left me a little disappointed, as I had been hoping that a Champion would survive for Celestine to challenge. Elsewhere, Squad Solemnas, the Immolator and Everlasting Hymn all poured fire onto the closer of the two Berzerker squads on the left, but between them, they only managed to kill three of the bunny-eared maniacs. In the centre, Squad Arias tried to pop Kharn’s ride with their quad-gun, but failed to even scratch the dried blood on the hull. Divine Judgement, however, had no such difficulties, making the Rhino explode, though neither Kharn nor his buddies took any damage in the explosion. The Retributors, however, were quick to correct that little problem, praying for Divine Guidance and mowing down three Zerks in a hail of fire.



In the Chaos turn, Zhufor made his grand entrance, and teleported onto the field of battle with his Terminator elite…and scattered all the way towards the back of his side, landing in a cluster of trees, though neither he nor his bodyguard were hurt by dangerous terrain.



Clambering from the wreckage of their Rhino, Kharn and his erstwhile followers rushed towards the Seraphim, seeing a worthy challenge in the Saint, while the other two Berzerker squads continued to move downwards towards the Sisters lines.

Shooting, as one might have expected, was a fairly limited affair, notable only for Kharn and his Zerks gunning down one Seraphim with their bolt pistols, the immobilized Rhino failing to repair itself, and Zhufor and his Terminators running forwards. Close combat, on the other hand, was much more eventful, with the Berzerkers who had gotten shot up last turn charging the Immolator and made it go kaboom



The unhurt Berzerkers also charge Squad Arias’ empty Rhino, and, like their brothers, managed to explode it as well without taking any damage themselves. In both cases, though, the World Eaters were left very angry at the lack of blood.



There was plenty of blood to be spilled near the top of the map, though, as Kharn’s Zerks charged into the Seraphim after shrugging off several Wall of Death hits. Kharn roared out a challenge, and Celestine, being the brave avatar of the Emperor’s will that she is…shoved the Seraphim Superior into his path. Unsurprisingly, the Superior was introduced to the pointy end of Gorechild (who is a rather nice daemonic axe when you get to know him), and Kharn was blessed by becoming Mechanoid, gaining a 2+ armour save and a lot of augmetic parts (though he was later heard to sombrely growl “I never asked for this”). In the rest of the combat, Celestine sliced down two Berzerkers, and the Berzerkers reciprocated by ripping five Seraphim to shreds. Thankfully, one Seraphim (carrying a hand flamer) survived, which was all I needed for them to hit and run out of combat and leave the Berzerkers shouting angrily in their wake.





TURN 3

Although the Seraphim had been mauled pretty badly, I still flew Celestine and her last girl over to the larger of the two Berzerker squads on the right, hoping to put some flamer wounds on them. Squad Solemnas advanced into flamer range of that squad as well, while in the centre, Divine Judgement trundled over terrain to get a better line of sight on the smaller squad of Zerks.

In the shooting phase, Celestine and the Seraphim prayed for Emperor’s Deliverence…and despite having a rerollable 3+ to get it, failed! I can’t remember if my old dice or new ones were to blame, however.



The rest of my army was no more inspiring, with Squad Solemnas failing to get Hand of the Emperor and the Retributors failing Divine Guidance. My bad luck continued with my actual shooting, as, despite me firing both Exorcists, the Retributors and Squad Arias at them, I only managed to kill two of the depleted Zerks! This was very bad, as those Zerks were now looking to threaten my objective. The other Zerk squad came under fire from Celestine, the Seraphim and Squad Arias, but again, my poor rolls meant that only two of the Traitor Marines went down. Overall, a suck-tastic shooting phase for me.



In close combat, Celestine and her Seraphim came charging in. At this point, my memory is fuzzy, but Celestine MIGHT have taken a wound from overwatch. Whether or not she did will become a very important point later on in the report. Making it into combat, Celestine received a challenge from the Skull Champion and cleaved him down, getting a nice, juicy victory point thanks to her Warlord trait. The lone Seraphim didn’t have much time to appreciate this victory point, however, as she was chainaxed down by the other Berzerkers in close order. In retrospect, I might have been better off separating her from Celestine and keeping her out of combat, but that’s hindsight for you.

In the Chaos turn, Kharn’s squad ran back to hold their home objective, while Kharn himself joined up with Zhufor and his Terminators to advance down the middle, all the while trading stories with Zhufor about their favourite skulls for the Skull Throne. The last three Berzerkers from the depleted squad moved towards Squad Arias and the objective they were guarding, aaaaand that was it.

In the shooting phase, the Terminators ran closer, with Kharn itching to claim Celestine’s skull next turn, and that was that. In close combat, the Berzerkers tried to charge Squad Arias, but crucially, the Aegis defence line in their way meant that they had a pretty difficult charge roll to make. Despite having the Icon of Wrath, the Zerks failed their charge, and for their troubles, one of them was wall-of-deathed to death. In Celestine’s combat, the Saint struck out…and whiffed horrendously, failing to wound a single Berzerker. The Traitor Marines were quick to capitalize on this, unleashing a boatload of return attacks and scoring two unsaved wounds, hacking Celestine down and consolidating closer to my lines.

At this stage, I should point out that, at the time, I had it in my head that Celestine must have already taken a prior wound, though neither my opponent nor I could recall when or how. Joey suggested that she must have taken a wound earlier from bolt pistols, so we ran with that, but in retrospect, I am now very unsure that she had taken a prior wound at all. This is a very big deal, as Celestine’s death on this turn had a definitive impact on the game, and it bothers me that I might have made such a significant error.



TURN 4



At this point, I really needed Celestine to come back…and she did, hopping back to her feet with all three wounds and a mocking “Ta-daaa!” She proceeded to fly closer to the Zerks who had killed her last turn, and Squad Solemnas, similarly, edged a little more into flamer range, and that was that. Everything else in my army stayed exactly where it was, content to shoot the crap out of the World Eaters even more.



In the shooting phase, my dice chose the right moment to start catching fire. The leftmost Exorcist unloaded a volley of five missiles into the last two Berzerkers near Squad Arias, annihilating them in short order. Celestine and Squad Solemnas fired once again into the other Berzerker squad, and this time killed three of them. The Retributors managed to get Divine Guidance off and fired onto the Berzerkers on the Chaos objective, handily wiping out all three of them despite their cover and ensuring that Joey wouldn’t be getting any objective points. The rest of my shooting—the rightmost Exorcist, Squad Arias’ quad gun and even the storm bolter from Solemnas’ Rhino—all fired into Kharn’s Terminator Deathstar. After some horrendous rolls on Joey’s part, three Terminators were gunned down and Kharn himself took a wound, though since everyone was Fearless, none of them cared.

In close combat, Celestine charged into the last two Berzerkers and chopped them down without breaking a sweat. And with that, seeing his army reduced to just four models and a damaged Rhino, my opponent threw in the towel.



BONUS MATCH



Just for the fun of it, we decided to see who would win in a fight between Celestine and Kharn (assuming, of course, that Kharn’ didn’t have the 2+ save from his Boon). Joey won the roll off for Kharn to go first, and he charged in, ignoring the Wall of Death that Celestine threw up in front of her. Even though she was hitting on 4s for once, Celestine still struck first, rolled impressively and dealt Kharn three wounds, which he failed to save.


RESULT:

Sisters- 5 (1 objective, First Blood, Challenge)
Chaos- 0

Sisters of Battle Victory!

Thoughts: That battle worked more or less as I had hoped it would. Once I had eliminated Joey’s Obliterators, he had no choice but to close the distance with me and get shot at. All the while, I was able to concentrate my fire where it was needed and use my mobility to retreat or strike where I wanted. Although there were two turns where my “to hit” rolls were awful and Joey’s saves were great, in the end averages weighed in on my favour. This really was a mismatch in my favour, both in terms of lists and board setup, and Joey really does deserve props for handling it all patiently and good-naturedly.

I won’t say I didn’t make some mistakes this game—the Dominions were wasted, and while the Seraphim did their job amazingly well, the risk I put them in meant they got wiped out fairly quickly. Still, I’m mostly happy with the result, though the question of whether or not Celestine should have died when she did still bugs me. If worst comes to worst, I will apologize to Joey the next time I see him.



TOURNAMENT RESULT

After the TO compiled the final results, it was announced that the Chaos team had won by a significant margin (something like a lead of 10 battle points). Apparently, while things had been fairly close throughout the tournament, the last round saw a big swing in the Chaos team's favour. Although I was a little annoyed that my side had lost, I had a fun time regardless. All of my opponents were great sports, and I would gladly face them again...and hopefully, would remember to disembark my troops in future.


And now for a quick post-tournament report card:

Saint Celestine- A. Even though she died like a chump (repeatedly) in game 1, she did her job very well in Games 2 and 3, chopping up Chaos Space Marines and bolstering the damage output and faith ability of the Seraphim. The fact that she got Legendary Fighter in Game 3 made her extra valuable. She really is the most competitive model available to the Sisters, and she proved it in this tournament.

Battle Sisters- B. They weren’t bad, and gave me some solid scoring units, but they simply couldn’t deliver damage when I really needed them to. Maybe a different loadout is in order for them in future games, or maybe I just need to use them in concert with other units more effectively.

Dominions + Immolator- B+. I found that Dominions work great when they aren’t outflanking…and, more importantly, if there’s a tank-rich environment for them to play in. Otherwise, I need to learn how to use them more carefully, as Game 3 proved.

Seraphim- B+. Their reroll wounds ability is nothing short of amazing when used alongside Saint Celestine. They were the star players of games 2 and 3, and were able to put some serious hurt with their shooting. Unfortunately, they tend to suffer quite a bit in close combat, so I should take care to make sure they avoid getting charged in future.

Retributors- B. They were…alright. Just, alright. They didn’t do anything truly amazing all game, but the fire support they did provide was solid.

Exorcists- B+. They can be hampered quite easily by rolling a low number of shots, but they’re still one of my favourite units in the list. Strength 8, AP1 missiles give them some really excellent long-range tankbusting ability.

Aegis Defence Line- B+. The quad gun proved to be very handy in games 2 and 3, and the actual wall itself saved my home objective from a Berzerker charge. Definitely a worthwhile investment.

Thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoyed it.

We descended upon Redgate Spaceport by cover of night, hoping to catch the World Eaters by surprise. As we approached, our long-range scanners detected the Chaos Space Marines under the shadow of the main landing pad, apparently engaged in some sort of blood-ritual. Chanting Berzerkers formed circles around pairs of opponents who cut, slashed and hacked at one another in bloody axe-duels. The violence of the event, and the enthusiasm with which it held the World Eaters in thrall, worked to our advantage, for the hollers and roars of the assembled Berzerkers drowned out even the sounds of our engines as we approached the Spaceport’s outer perimeter. Even in the dark, we could see the main landing pad had been daubed and stained with gore during the World Eater’s stay, and the bodies of the first Imperial defenders still lay rotting on spikes and gibbets.

Even as we moved into position, one of the World Eaters spotted us, and the entire gore-drenched host turned in our direction, chain-axes in hand. Even as our Exorcist launchers shrieked into life, sending multiple warheads slamming into the twisted gun-beasts the World Eaters had enslaved, the Traitors remained undaunted. At their heada hulking figure strode forth, long strands of grey hair emerging from under an archaic helmet, and a bare, chain-wrapped arm lifting a snarling chain axe in our direction. All of our intelligence confirmed that this was Kharn the Betrayer, who, with an invocation of blood for his blasphemous deity, led his warriors forward in a charge.

As the World Eaters charged, however, we were blessed with a miracle. For the third time in the entirety of the campaign, Isobel appeared before us, standing at the forefront of our Preceptory in the resplendent white and blue of our order, her broadsword in hand. She seemed to shine with an inner light, and, almost as confirmation of the Emperor’s divine will, her sword was wreathed in holy flame.

“Onwards, Sisters,” she called to us, pointing her sword towards the oncoming Berzerkers, “with fire and faith, to victory!”

That same fire filled our hearts as we met the incoming Berzerker horde with volleys of disciplined bolter fire and burning promethium. For all their ferocity, the Berzerkers soon found themselves advancing across a killing field, and with faith in our hearts, our accuracy was unfailing. All throughout the battle, Isobel flew into the heart of the Chaos horde, slaying Berzerkers left and right with every swing of her fiery blade. For a moment, we felt utterly fearless, feeling that we could not possibly fail with Isobel leading us.

Then, for one terrible moment, that faith was lost. A Berzerker lunged in at Isobel from behind and swung his snarling chain-axe into her exposed back. There was an audible sound of armour, flesh and bone being torn asunder, and a lot of blood, and then Isobel fell in a seemingly lifeless heap. I confess, a cry of disbelief issued forth from my throat at that moment. Our Canoness, returned from the dead and imbued with the Emperor’s divine will, had been slain. Doubts clouded my mind, and it shames me to say that I wondered if the Emperor had abandoned us. I have since scourged myself ten times for thinking such a blasphemy.

Even as the Berzerkers howled in triumph, Isobel was suddenly standing again, not even a single scratch visible upon her form. With beatific calmness, she turned and cut the Traitors down in a heartbeat. Before long, the field was littered with red-armoured bodies, and even the arrival of Zhufor and his Skulltaker elite, teleporting onto the field from orbit, could not turn the tide. The few remaining Berzerkers were forced to withdraw into the long night. We had won.

In the aftermath of the battle, Isobel turned to us once more, addressing us as she once had on hundreds of different battlefields. “Be always vigilant, Sisters,” she said. “Even as the Emperor is your Shield, so are you His.” And with that, she disappeared once again.

We have since purged the spaceport of its taint, and have been holding position here to await reinforcements. It grieves me to report, however, while we were successful here at Redgate, the same could not be said for the rest of the counter-offensive. Although the Blood Angels managed to deal a telling blow to Typhus and his Death Guard on the outskirts of Sanctifer, Imperial forces faltered elsewhere. The Space Wolves, eager to avenge their earlier defeats, launched a grand offensive against enemy positions in the Hinterlands, but were forced back by the combined efforts of the Iron Warriors and the Foetid Host. In Abareal, there were reports of the region being almost completely overrun by the resurgent Necrons, and there are scattered reports that the Grey Snakes manage to escape a trap sprung for them by an Inquisition task force.

Although we had made gains, they were few and far between, and in many sectors Imperial forces had been forced into outright retreat. The counter-offensive had been a disaster, and Chaos forces have regained the momentum. It grieves and shames me to report that, unless reinforcements can be brought in, the Archenemy has gained control of Bekrin.

As I write, the situation on Bekrin threatens to devolve into anarchy. Despite their apparent victory, the Archenemy forces seem to have recently descended into infighting—there are reports that Kharn and Zhufor have turned upon each other, each blaming the other for their defeat at Redgate, while other Chaos Legions have begun to war over conquered territory. Unfortunately, the same animosity that has infected the Chaos force seems to blight the Imperial forces as well. Many feuds between the Astartes chapters have been reignited by petty arguments, and I must confess that many bitter words were exchanged between us and the Astartes leaders as well. Recently, the Inquisition all but accused us of being tools of the Archenemy, suggesting that Isobel is a Chaos entity rather than the Living Saint that she clearly is, and it was all we could do to avoid responding with wrathful flame.

If the situation deteriorates, I fear Imperial forces may fragment and factionalize further, and we may be forced to choose sides in this conflict. I will continue to send you regular reports, Prioress, and in the meantime, I beseech that you appeal to the Ecclesiarchy on the matter of canonization. The apparition of Isobel can only be the Emperor’s divine work, and this can only prove what I have suspected all along—that Isobel Deschain, Canoness of the Tertius Preceptory, has been gifted with Sainthood. Surely, even the learned theologians of the Ecclesiarchy must see that?

Ave Imperator,
Avriel Solemnas, Acting Palatine, Tertius Preceptory.

*****
Forwarded To: Ordos Jericho, Spite
Compiled By: Inquisitor Nathanael Skorne.

My Lords,

As per your request, I have forwarded you intercepted communications from the Adepta Sororitas currently deployed on Bekrin (crossRef 126Pi OrderoftheBlessedDamsel). In light of the recent turbulence and infighting among Imperial forces on Bekrin, I thought that it would be prudent to analyse all forces involved to better decide who is at fault.

The Sororitas in particular stand out. Not only has their rigid doctrine and lack of tolerance for divergent beliefs led them to many confrontations with the Adeptus Astartes, but there is the ongoing question of the apparition they sight as appearing in all three of their major engagements. The author of this message repeatedly cites the apparition as being that of Canoness Isobel Deschain (listed as KIA 072.999M41), though mention is made of other Sororitas seeing the apparition as that of St. Germaine of Nantus, or of an angelic figure.

Curiosly, surveillance has been conducted of the Sororitas during these engagements. In all three cases, pict-records show no indication whatsoever of any figure matching the author’s descriptions being present. There are records of enemy combatants seemingly being felled by invisible blows from some sort of slashing blade, however. This leaves open the unpleasant question: have the Sororitas indeed received some sort of blessing from the Emperor, or are they unwitting hosts to some sort of malefic influence?

I will continue to monitor the situation on Bekrin and provide you with reports. Your ob’t servant,
-Nathanael Skorne.

P.S. I've forwarded you some other picts from the campaign, for your perusal.




The Crimson Fists, deployed alongside the Vostroyan 2nd at the onset of the campaign.




The Blood Angels, as well as allied contingents from the Grey Knights and Deathwatch.




Grey Knights and Inquisition soldiery deploy near the Siegmund Line.




The Blood Angels and the traitorous Grey Snakes clash in the wastelands.




During the initial battles for Abareal, the Space Wolves are confronted by a foul Greater Daemon of Nurgle.




The fighting for the Abareal front saw the deployment of many archaic fighting vehicles, including the Hipster-pattern assault ram.




The Crimson Fists fight to rescue their wounded Captain during the defence of Redgate Spaceport.




Spearheaded by Thunderwolf riders, the Space Wolves attempt to break through the Iron Warrior siege lines.

Lord of Nonsensical Crap wrote:


The fighting for the Abareal front saw the deployment of many archaic fighting vehicles, including the Hipster-pattern assault ram.

You win one (1) internets, good sir.

Thanks for the fluffy battle reports! Your gaming location has some really sweet terrain as well!

 Briancj wrote:

You win one (1) internets, good sir.

Thanks for the fluffy battle reports! Your gaming location has some really sweet terrain as well!

Thats one of the reasons why I love that particular gaming store so much.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Wow great reports! Awesome humor through out as well lol.

Love reading sisters battle reports. Especially when written really well. Kudos

Excelelntly written.. its reports like these that make me want to try out the sisters.

Its also good to see some reports where the writer doesnt always win