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“The stars around Istvaan V were wracked with turmoil. Brother fired on brother and titanic ships blasted each other apart in a desperate fight for survival. Aboard the Word Bearer frigate Zeal of the Iconoclast the carnage carried over into the ship itself. A boarding party of Iron Hands was quickly being overwhelmed by their traitorous kin. The group of five black clad legionnaires retreated down a long corridor, their every step dogged by enemy fire. Weaving into the friendly confines of an empty room, the Iron Hands sealed the door behind them, savoring a few brief moments of respite.

“What madness has seized them?” asked the Iron Hand as he took in the runes and fetishes adorning the walls of the chamber. The commanding officer took three quick strides to a data console he rapidly set to work. “It appears brothers that there will be no salvation for us, but there will vengeance.” The commander quickly worked away at the console.
“Vox broadcast activated. Status update boarding squad Bravo.”
“Charges set. Ready to activate. Under heavy fire from enemy forces”.
A wry smile returned to his face, “Our esteemed brothers do not secure their critical systems or weapons well.” He paused. Closing his eyes he commanded, “Cleanse this ship, for the flesh is weak”

Aboard the Zeal of The Iconoclast two massive explosions gutted the ship. Gouts of virulent plague swam through the ship, consuming traitor and loyalist alike. Emergency systems were activated and blast doors prevented the virus from reaching the bridge. Rends in the hull slowly vented the plague into space. But it was too late, in an instant the ship had been rendered catatonic and over 90% of the ships population had been annihilated.

Across the chaotic battle the Red Talon Autek Mor received the vox transmission and turned his ship, eager to glean insights into the treachery of the Word Bearers. However another ship was also closing in on the Iconoclast. Aboard the Night Lord’s cruiser Specter claw leader Chiron moved to secure the stricken vessel, partly out of a desire to support his allies, and partly as an excuse to plunder.”

Scenario: Boarding Action!
So I built a custom scenario for this board at my local gaming store. The idea is two parties fighting aboard an abandoned ship. Each group is trying to grab vital supplies or data and carry it to an evacuation point. Also my apologies for the pictures, they looked much better on my phone!

Rules:
There are six objectives that are treated like relics, in this mission they were
1. The bridge and the ships log files found there
2. The ship’s computer banks
3. The chaos shrine room, the loyalists must not discover the truth about daemons yet
4. The teleportarium, a large power surge was detected before the fumes overwhelmed the whole crew, who escaped? And where did they go?
5. The medical bay, the ship’s geneseed stores are still intact, in addition the Iron Hands should try to recover the remains of their fallen brothers.
6. The engine room, the ships engines do not conform to standard astartes patterns, perhaps the logs there will shed some light?

Deployment:
To deploy each player splits their forces in half (based on the number of units in their army, including independent characters) half start in the hangar, while the other half will arrive randomly in the ship.
The players split the hangar roughly in half, with a 12” gap between their zones, and deploy half of their forces there.
They will be treated as standard reserves, to deploy roll a D6. We previously divided the ship up into 4 zones and the reserves arrive in the zone that matches their roll, on a 5-6 the owning player gets to choose where they go. If they arrive in the hangar section you can place them anywhere in what was your initial deployment zone, otherwise we had designated rooms that reserves arrived in (to keep someone from appearing on the objective).

#Winning:
To evacuate an objective the player must bring it to their deployment zone in the main hanger or a smaller zone in the engine room, the minute the model controlling an objective is in the zone the objective is removed. The first player to remove 3 objectives wins. There is no turn limit.

Special Rules:
To speed up the game a bit and to keep one player from just trying to massacre their opponent, if a unit is destroyed it instead enters reserves and can be rolled for after the end of the next controlling players turn. However independent characters do not come back and are instead permanently lost.
(keep track of units lost, this will serve as a tie breaker if you want to call the game before someone gathers 3 objectives.

We did use limited Zone mortalis rules, such as blast doors, scattering blast templates, no ordinance barrage and no deepstrike for jump troops.

Forces:
Iron Hands:
HQ:
Iron Father Autek Mor
Centurion w/EC Honors (master crafted PF, AA)

Troops:
Tac squad w/Vexilla, Sgt w/MB
Tac squad w/Vexilla, Sgt w/MB
Tac support Squad x8, volkite cavalier, Sgt w/bolter&AS

Elites:
Apothecary x2
Contemptor Mortis w/ 2x Kheres Assault Cannons
Contemptor w/ 1DCCW, 1CF, 2x graviton guns
Gorgon Terms x10, w/2x CF, 2x graviton guns

Fast attack
Jetbikes x6, w/ 2x volkite culverin

Heavy Support
Deredeo Dreadnought
Leviathan Dreadnought

Night Lords:
ROW: Pride of the legion
HQ:
Praetor, Catephractii armor, chainfist, combi-melta, digital weapons, teleportation transponder, Trophies of Judgement.
Chaplain, Trophies of Judgement, plasma pistol, refractor field, melta bombs.
Librarian, Mastery level 2

Elites:
Contemptor, Autocannon, heavy flamer, extra armor
Contemptor, Assault Cannon, graviton gun, extra armor

Troops:
Tactical Squad, x20, Sargent: Artificer armor, power axe, melta bombs
Tactical Squad, x10, Sargent: Artificer armor, power axe, melta bombs
Tactical Squad, x10, Sargent: Artificer armor, power axe, melta bombs
Veteran Squad, x10, heavy bolter with suspender web Sargent: Artificer armor, power axe, melta bombs
Catephractii Terminators x4 dual lightening claws, Sgt. w/ Chainfist
Catephractii Terminators x4 powerfists, Sgt. w/ Chainfist

Fast Attack:
Night Raptors, x5 Melta gun, Sgt w/ artificer armor, melta bombs and Nostramen Chain glaive
Night Raptors, x5 Melta gun, Sgt w/ artificer armor, melta bombs and Nostramen Chain glaive

Turn one will come out shortly, place your bets!

Looks GOOD man, that table is awesome!

Nice game board. Maybe try a VBR vs WBR.

Deployment:
Iron Hands:
The Iron Hands win the roll off and deploy on the left side of the ship. He deploys the Support squad with attached consul, both Contemptors, Deredeo, and Jetbikes.

The Night Lords deploy the chaplain, Librarian, veterans, one 10x tactical squad and the 20x squad, one squad of raptors, and the contemptor.

In the Iconoclast’s main docking bay marines were leaping from their transports and assembling themselves into their prearranged boarding parties. Among them, their leaders strode trying to make order out of the chaos. Neither group had anticipated meeting a significant enemy force, but the mechanical coordination of the Iron Hands allowed them to make the first move.

Turn 1:
Iron Hands
The Iron hands move all their forces up, with the dual cc contemptor heading towards the bridge. Shooting sees three marines form the 20 man tactical squad die and 2 from the ten man squad but little else. The cc Contemptor takes down a blast door with his grav gun.

Night Lords:

The Night Lords also move up trying to grab what cover they can. The raptors jump left to blow up the blast door, and the veterans head the other way to grab an objective from the bridge. In the psychic phase the librarian shrouds his squad. In the shooting phase the raptors blow apart a blast door with their melta gun and all shooting is ineffective. In assault the veterans take down another blast door with their melta bomb.
Consul Karval despised the weakness of the Night Lords. The foul wretches skulked in the shadows like vermin, no matter those that live like vermin shall die like vermin. His forces advanced relentlessly firing away into the gloom of the ships docking bay. Though his forces were outnumbered he knew his men would easily win a firefight, their resilience and weight of firepower would crush even the most determined foe.

Chaplain Markus cursed under his breath, this is not how things were supposed to go. Pinned down in his deployment zone he had no answer for the overwhelming fire power he faced. Desperately radioing for reinforcements he returned his attention to the matter at hand. Across the bay, Librarian Anicius veiled his veterans in darkness as they skulked towards the bridge. Clutching his lodge medal tightly Markus drove his men forward.

Turn 2:
Iron Hands
Continuing their ponderous advance, the Iron hands creep forward. Autek More and his terminators arrive in the central section of the ship but no one else does. The cc contemptor moves closer to the bridge objectives. This time their shooting is far more effective. The Deredeo shakes the Night Lord and knocks off two hull points. The 8 man tactical squad is reduced to 5 men, the 17 man squad goes down to 10. Autek more and his terminators roll a very Iron-Hands-y “1” on their run move.


Night Lords:
All reserves arrive for the Night Lords. The Praetor and lightening claw terminators deepstrike onto the bridge. The powerfist Terminators deepstrike and get a lucky scatter onto the Engine room objective. The Kheres walker arrives in the same room to support them. The raptors arrive in the middle portion of the ship. The plasma support squad shows up in the hangar. And the last tactical squad enters onto the bridge portion of the ship.

The other squad of raptors races down the corridor towards the shrine. Seeking cover the Chaplain tactical squad seeks cover behind a bulkhead, as does the contemptor. The veterans head towards the bridge looking to join up with the tactical squad.

Psychic Phase:
The Librarian cast hallucination on the support squad and perils, losing the shrouding power and taking a wound. The Support squad easily passes their pinning test.

Shooting Phase:
All units in the hanger pour their fire into the jet bike squad but only kills one. All other units run towards objectives.

The Iconoclast shuddered violently as Autek More’s boarding torpedo collided with the docking port. Picking their way through the wreckage he and his gorgon terminators slowly took stock of the situation, mysterious power signatures were emanating from a room nearby. In the hanger the Iron Hands advanced relentlessly. Caught in the open their weapons were making short work of the exposed night Lord legionnaires. Even the Night Lords contemptor was withering under the relentless fire. Elsewhere the Iron Hands contemptor stalked the forward section of the ship, trying to secure the objective for his troops.

Markus’ vox chimed as a private link was unexpectedly opened. “You disappoint me little brother.” Aboard the Iconoclast’s bridge and engine room the air twisted and distorted before suddenly parting as Night Lord terminators materialized out of thin air. Nar the foreword section of the ship an assault ram docked and spilled its treacherous contents. All across the ship Night Lord reinforcements poured in and added their fire the carnage in the docking bay.

Consul Karval smiled as waves of fire washed over his men, “Fools, know you nothing of the strength of iron?”