The imperial Fists had face ignominious defeat at the hands of the Adepta Sororitas and were hell bent on vengeance.  With a revamped Battalion, with changes and new plans to deploy them, Ian had no intentions of allowing his previous defeat to go unanswered.

The Adepta Sororitas were more than ready for the challenge, and the Imagifier rallied her forces around the ancient reliquary she bore. She was honored with the title of field commander and warlord for this battle, as a reward for her many years of devout service.

ITC Mission 5, with Priority Objective as the Bonus.  Dawn of War Deployment this time and the Imperial Fists AGAIN got their choice of sides.

The Adepta Sororitas deployed Purple Squad to the right wing on an Objective behind a pile of piping, and the Missionary and his Arco-Flagellents further right still in a ruin.  In the center were Pink, Yellow, Green and Teal Squad clustered around the Imagifier plus her coterie of Celestine and the Dalogus twins. To the left, Red Squad set upon yet another objective.  Uncharacteristically, the Seraphim began on the board clustered in and around a building to center-left of their deployment zone.  The Exorcists were Centered and within easy reach of Celestine and the Imagifier.

The Imperial Fists inverted their previous deployment somewhat.  This time the Tactical Squads With Missile Launchers were to the left with line of sight to the Exorcists, camping his own objective along with some Imperial Guard.  His new additions to the force, a Terminator Librarian and Smashy McSmasherson were in Deep Strike.  At the center were his Plasma wielding Hellblasters with their customary character to augment them. Behind that stood the Predatory-that-shall-not-die from our previous battle.   To the right of that were his Devastators partially obscured in ruins.  The Imperial Guard Company Commander with power fist was with them.  Two full squads of Primaris Marines stood in front of them, one a veteran Squad.  The other Veteran Squad stood on the objective in his zone to my right.  Scouts snuck forward close to my zone on the right and Imperial Guardsman mingled with the Imperial Fists.  Of note were the mortars to the far right rear who would rain death on me turn after turn.

The stage was set.

I had finished deploying first and got the +1 to go first and did indeed go first.

…And then he seized.  For the second time in a row.  Le sigh.

1

His Snipers fired on what they could see and did a couple of mortal wounds to yellow Squad.  The Primaris groups moved forward as well to allow their hellblasters to move and they collectively all shot into yellow squad, the same squad that had eluded death last game.  He shot them down to just 4 models with his potent unerring shooting.  The Mortars contributed really heavy fire to the cause.  The lascannon Prdator, his Devastator Squad and his Tactical Marines mostly fired on the Exorcists with their heavy weapons and the Emperor Protects!  Being as they were quite tough and very near Celestine and the Imagifier, the incoming fire presented little challenge to their primacy. 

Imperial Guard scurried forward into a building for cover on the left.

Yellow Squads faith buoyed it from Failing after such horrendous losses, and Teal Squad was only slightly hurt by the Snipers, so did not need to check.

The doughty Sisters of Battle began their march.  Realizing that the firepower was extreme to the right of the LOS blocking central Power Generators, Pink and Green squad swung left, taking aim at the much more reasonable threat of the Tactical Marines while Red Squad stretched forward to stay on their objective but offer up some additional fire support.  As this was largely an advance, there wasn’t a lot of shooting on that left side of things.   Teal Squad retreated straight back, as they could not reach the safety of the Power Generators and fired on the oncoming Primaris wave.  Purple Squad did nothing but hide and Yellow Squads remnants joined them behind the Piping on the right.  A unit of Seraphim swept at maximum speed to the left to spread out and cut off any deep strike while the other two flattened themselves up against the Power Generators.  The Exorcists actually adjusted their positions to keep within the protective Aura of St. Celestine and the IMagifier after surviving such a fierce strike from the Predator and Devastators etc… and then the Imagifier activated the Vessel of the Emperor!  The Exorcists rolled terribly, killing 2 Devastators but one was a Cherub, Hunter Killer missiles and all.  Disappointing, and pretty much what happened against them last game.

The Missionary and the Arco-Flagellents rushed forward and consumed the Scouts and then consolidated into the Primaris Marines to halt their shooting.  A risky gambit.  ThePrimaris Marines struck back and then used THREE Command Points to attack again, killing the Arco-Flagellents and consolidating towards the missionary.  Expensive move but it worked.

2

The Primaris were forced to move forward again as their targets were few, but Teal Squad was sitting right in front of most of them.  So up came the Primaris Marines up the middle while the unit on the right swept downward towards where their scouts had died, to try and get an angle on the sisters behind the piles of piping and shot the Missionary absently in every orifice he had.  The Mortars attempted to bombard Purple Squad, killing one.

The Bolter fire and Hellblasters were oppressive and killed all but one of Teal Squad even after the Primaris Warriors had to move.  He spent Command Points to strengthen their bolter volume and it was impressive.  The Predator and Devastators continued to fire down on the Exorcists but it was the Tactical Marines who did the damage, rocking one for 5 damage and using their bolters on the oncoming Green Squad to the left, killing 4.

His Librarian and Smashy McSmasherson alighted to the ground and attempted charges on the Exorcist tank.  Smashy was literally shot in the face and died in the attempt, as he was asked politely to swallow an entire missile.  The Librarian was unable to complete the charge but did not, in fairness, swallow any.

The Adepta Sororitas response was predictably negative to all this.  The Canoness, Pink Squad and Celestine wiped the Imperial Guard out on the left who had scurried into the Power Generator building.  The wounded Green Squad and full  Pink Squad (Using the Holy Trinity of Bolter, Melta and Flamer) combined fire to kill all but one of the Tactical Squads on the left before that happened.  The Exorcists fell back again and fired down on the Primaris Marines who had killed the Missionary, killing 3.  Again, not exactly a great performance from the trio.

The survivor from Yellow Squad and now the 4 survivors of Teal Squad had joined Purple Squad and were making themselves as small as possible on the right to protect the Purple Squad engineers.

The Seraphim that had gone far left came back to join their compatriots in the center and essentially the three Seraphim Squads waited for the inevitable to come around that corner of the Power Generators, for they could hear the heavy footfalls of the Primaris forging ever forward on the other side like a metronome…

The left of the field was largely secure.  Red Squad was firmly holding the left objective and had taken only one stray casualty.  Bold action was needed now, because the right side was death.

3

The Primaris sensed the ease with which they were killing the Sisters and pressed their advantage.  Up moved the HellBlasters.  The Primaris Veterans up the middle turned the corner of the Power Generator to see the Dialogus sitting there, conveniently close to the nearest Exorcist and opened fire on the behemoth hoping to hurt it.  The Librarian saw his chance for glory and took it, rushing towards the brave Engineers, their Yellow Squad survivor friend and the lone survivor of Teal squad, while the Primaris who slew the missionary on the far right shot and killed all but one of Teal Squad.  The Warlord Moved so that he was perfectly within 6” of both the trailing Hellblasters and the forward Primaris.  The Imperial Guard had moved forward to hold their objective on the right and were content with that role.

The lone Tactical Squad on the left took a shot at the Green Squad again, along with the Exorcist, but to no avail. 

The Primaris Marines charged into the Dialogus, slew him, consolidated into the Exorcist and the Seraphim, and then fought twice for yet another THREE Command Points, killing a couple of the Seraphim and putting a wound on the Exorcist.

The Librarian charged the Purple Squad of Engineers and killed one with his staff.  The brave Sisters fought valiantly, striking harder than one would expect but the ancient war plate of the Librarian easily turned aside their ferocity.  This left just the One member of yellow squad, teal squad and two of Purple squad left behind the pile of piping but next round would probably be bad for them.

Purple Squad disengaged from the Librarian while Teal “Squad” and Yellow “Squad moved away and shot at the Primaris Marines approaching them, desperately holding my right side objective against all odds.

The Imagifier tried to use become a Vessel of the Emperor once more, but FAILED on a re-rollable 2+.  Le sigh. 

The Engaged Exorcist backed away to my left side objective.  The Seraphim jumped back and healed one of their members using the power of Faith!  The other two units leaper over the Power Generators and straight into the face of the enemy Warlord on the other side, firing glorious fusion Pistol death into his face at point blank times.  8 times their pistols spake truth and justice unto him and yet, he was unhurt.  Wow.  That was unfortunate.  The Seraphim in a fit of bravery shot past the Warlord and into the IG Company Commander, killing him in an unlikely but welcome flurry of blows; while the other Seraphim lost one of their number charging into the Hellblasters, to shut down their shooting and wrapped the Predator into them.  They took ever more wounds for their bravery.  Still they held and hugged.

Red Squad left the left objective and shot the Primaris Marines on the Exorcists doorsteps, and Green Squad fell back to join them in the fusillade with the surviving Seraphim.  The weight of meltas and bolters alone was not enough and so Ct. Celestine descended upon them and her Faith invigorated her enough to fight twice!  He interrupted her after her first swings to fight with the Hellblasters but it was for nought, as her blade single-handedly killed 6 Primaris Marines when the dust had settled.

The Exorcists finally came alive and even though there were only two of them able to fire, they slew the Primaris Marines that were far to the right, THE CULPRITS OF OUR MISSIONARIES DEMISE.  Finally, the real firepower of the behemoths was made manifest.

4

The Imperial Fist leader would kill the Seraphim who attacked the company Commander, and the Hellblasters surely would kill the Seraphim engaging them if they didn’t fall back.

The Imperial Fists were devastated.  Their leader had shown his mettle but the only units left to command were his Devastators, and Hellblasters+Predator who would have to fall back or finish the Seraphim; and a ten or so IG plus their mortar team.  The Sisters of Battle had turned the corner of the Power Generators and were in firm control of three of the four objectives.  It was simply a matter of time before the walls closed in completely and so the Warlord ordered the retreat before their doom could be completely sealed.

The score was approximately 34-12, Sisters of Battle victory.