Welcome to game 7 in our ongoing campaign. This time up we have an intense urban battle, with waves of renegades hitting the thin Imperial lines.
As always, the previous games can be found here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Gordy2000%27s_Battle_Reports
The situation - reinforced by the victorious Chaos convoy run, hordes of Chaos renegades swarm Imperial defences near the centre of the Hive.
The Loyalists have set up a defence line stiffened by a DKK regiment, present on-world to re-fit after action around the Cadian Gate.
Phineas stands in the centre with the new additions to his retinue: Gromm the Ogryn, Ministorium Priest Edmund, and Arbites Enforcer Dredd.
The Renegade forces have been bolstered by newly arrived reinforcements - raving madmen, fanatics, beastmen and worse walk the streets of the hive.
Can the Imperial force stand against a tide of the Lost and the Damned?....
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Phineas looked across the ruined hab blocks at the rabble massing just beyond lasgun range. The uprising had been bad enough, but the Chaos fleet incursion in-system
had just dropped a world of hurt on his doorstep. He glanced back at the forces mustered on the defences. A few surviving PDF troopers held the left, whilst the centre and right
was held by the sinister Death Korps of Krieg company. Phineas suppressed a shudder as one of them turned to regard him with its gas mask goggles. Why didn't they ever take off those
damned masks? It wasn't right, what kind of Emperor fearing force never took off their gas masks? Still, he was grateful of their presence - they would provide some back bone to his own
meagre forces.
He'd met their commander, Marshall Voss. Seemed capable, if a little aloof. Must be hard making friends with your head shoved in a mask all the time.
'My Lord' Phineas was jolted from his thoughts by the appearance at his side of Enforcer Dredd 'Lead enemy elements are advancing on our position'
'Very good' replied Phineas, straitening to his full height. 'Tell Marshall Voss he can see how much these degenerate scum like the taste of those quad launchers he's bought with him....'
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The field of battle
DKK heavy weapons teams mark out their fields of fire
DKK Platoon Command Squad moves into position
Marshall Voss and his Commend Team observe the coming tide
The DKK artillery adjusts for range...
PDF hold the flank
DKK the centre
Mobs of civilians surge forwards towards the Imperial lines
Phineas and his retinue add their weight to the defences
The enemy comes forward in a wave of firing autoguns and waving weapons - Khorne fanatics...
Renegade Militia...
Waves of cultists....
...and herds of braying Beastmen
Renegade heavy weapons lay down supporting fire as the first wave goes in
The distance closes fast between the opposing forces
The traitorous Catachan 101st has also arrived, fresh from the battles on Triskelion III
Renegade Commanders look on as their forces advance into the teeth of the Imperial guns
The quad guns begin to lob multiple rounds into the oncoming horde
Now you see the cultist squad...
Now you don't...
Again please...
Heavy bolters mow down screaming cultists
But the horde is undaunted
Plenty more where they came from
So many more....
Krieg Grenadiers move up to engage the lead enemy units
More holes are blasted in the chaos lines by the quad guns
Civilian mobs near charge range with the defenders
The second wave follows on
The lead civilians engage the PDF squad on the centre left
DKK infantry drives off an assault on the far left flank
In the upper levels, the duel between the heavy weapons teams continues
A mole mortar round form DKK Engineers blasts the Khorne cultists
Slaaneshi hellraisers advance
Carapace armor or not, the Grenadiers are driven back by the sheer weight of autogun fire
Target rich environment...
Heavy stubbers attached to the commend team keep up the pressure on the chaos advance. The civilian mobs take the brunt of the firepower
Civilian mobs crash into the PDF squad
And wipe the defenders out!!!
The fallen PDF are quickly avenged by the nearby Platoon Command squad. But what would cause the civilian mobs to throw their lives away so cheaply?
What new devilry is this!? Papa Nurgle has blessed the chaos forces, and the fallen civilian mobs rise again as plague zombies!!
All across the field, the fallen civilians rise up and shamble forward
Emboldened, and now reinforced, the Chaos attack surges forward once more
The quad mortars narrowly avoid being over-run, fighting off the cultist attack by the skin of their teeth
The forward defenders find themselves flat-footed against the newly risen dead
And across the lines, they are pulled down by the plague zombies...
With the tactical situation becoming untenable, the forward officer requests permission to withdraw in good order
Marshall Voss can see the chaos assault is faltering as the defenders guns and quad launchers take a fearsome toll on the enemy
However, Phineas can see that preserving the Imperiums fighting strength is more important than a line a burned-out habs. The order to pull back is given...
Chaos victory!!
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That was some game - we didn't count the number of troops on the field, but it would have been in the hundreds. After years of power armor and vehicles, an honest knock-em down drag em-out infantry battle is a lot of fun. A saving throw? You must be joking....
The imperial side were looking good as the chaos forces were thrown into the meat grinder. The Quad guns were particularly effective against lightly armored troops (so much so that Derek the
GM ruled they had been left behind and couldn't be used for the next few battles - boo!). Then came the big surprise - plague zombies animating right on the defenders toes. After that is was game over man, game over...
One of the advantages of having a
GM run a campaign as that surprises like this can be part of the games (and there is always something!). It really adds to the battle and I recommend it
if you can convince someone to take the role.
Next up - Fighting Withdrawal - can the Imperial side retreat in good order to the next line of defence? Or will the howling mass of the Lost and the Damned sweep them away?
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Phineas trudged through the burning hab zone as his forces began to withdraw from the battle. His retinue and the command teams would fall back first and set up a fire base to cover the bulk
of the Imperial forces as they made their way to a more defensible position.
Had he really just seen the dead rise and tear apart those men? What in the name of the Emperor was going on? It was becoming abundantly clear that whatever this was, a small insurrection it was not. Phineas had the sinking feeling that this war had only just begun....
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