M31 Heresy Campaign Phase 5: Operation Downfall Climax - The Battle for the Bridge Over the River Lodi

"A bridge has no allegiance to either side."

- Qiu Tongmi, Spirit Immortal, Stormseer of the V Legion 

Background:

Operation Downfall was the Loyalist codename for an attempt to establish a secure landing zone on Xhorik Prime using a planetary drop force from Xhorik Secundus with an attempt to rendezvous with the remnants of the White Scars garrison on the capital planet of the system. 

The operation started with a successful night strike on the Traitor planetary communications positions, disrupting the Traitor response to the planetary assault. 

Battle 5 - 1: Night Drop

An attempt to hold the critical Alteron Bridge to prevent Traitor forces from encircling the invaders ended in a draw, with neither side taking decisive control. 

Battle 5 - 2: The Battle for Alteron Bridge

At the same time, Loyalist drop troops made an unsuccessful raid on the war trains supplying the Traitor lines. 

Battle 5 - 3: War Train Raid

With the campaign at a stalemate, the Drop Troops made an assault to capture a key planetary shield generator, opening the way for much larger Loyalist landings.

Battle 5 - 4: The Last Bastion

In the chaotic fighting, some regiments of Traitor auxilia took the opportunity to break away from their masters and do their own pillaging. The chaotic fighting that ensued saw a draw between the Traitors and Loyalists with the Renegade Guard being driven off. 

Battle 5 - 5: Maelstrom of War

At this point, the Loyalists have the advantage with two wins, a loss and two draws (2-1-2). 

In the final battle, both sides would mount a powerful offensive to take the critical bridge over the south branch of the River Lodi. Even though the riverbed was seasonally dry, control of the bridge would provide the only reliable means to move armies into or out of the Loyalist drop zone and beachhead on the planet. Everything had been building up to this climactic battle that would determine the winner of this Phase. 

Scenario: 

Game Length: 5 turns with a chance for a 6th turn

Primary Objective

Place an objective in your own deployment zone. Gain 1 VP at the end of each turn for each objective you control?

Secondary Objectives
Slay the Warlord: 1 VP

Destroy an HQ in the first turn: 1 VP?

Belligerents:

2 x 1800 points armies per side. 

Traitors:

World Eaters - The Crimson Path (Primary)

Played by Pete

• Praetor: Jump pack, iron halo, thunder hammer. The Butcher's Claws.
• Rampager Squad: 10 marines with jump packs, 3 x falax blades, 3 x meteor hammers, 4 x excorciator chain axes. Sergeant with artificer armor. [Line]
• Apothecarion with jump pack and chain axe.
• Legion Tactical Squad: 17 marines with chain axes. Sergeant with artificer, power fist, plasma pistol. [Line]
• Legion Reconnaissance Squad: 5 marines with nemesis bolters and augary scanner. [Line]
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis lascannon, chainfist and melta gun.
• Legion Predator Squadron: 1 with Predator cannon and 2 x lascannon sponsons. 1 with Magna-melta and 2 x heavy bolter sponsons. 
• Land Raider Proteus:
• The Red Butchers: 5 terminators with 2 x power axes each. Sergeant with 2 x chainfists. 

Sons of Horus - Pride of the Legion (allied)

Played by Pete

• Cataphractii Praetor: combi-melta, chain fist. 
• Cataphractii Terminators: 5 terminators with combi-meltas, 3 x power fists, 2 x chain fists. [Line]
• Transport: Land Raider Proteus. 
• Cataphractii Terminators: 10 terminators with combi-bolters, 5 x power axes, 3 x power fists, 1 x chain fist, 1 x thunder hammer. [Line]
• Legion Tactical Squad: 20 marines with bayonets, vexilla. Sergeant with artificer armor and power fist. [Line]
• Master of Signals
• Heavy Support Squad: 5 marines with lascannons
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis melta, chain fist, grav gun.

Loyalists:

White Scars (Primary)

Played by Phil

• Praetor: jetbike, master crafted Paragon blade, cyber hawk. Stoic Defender.
• Skyhunter Squadron: 6 jetbikes with 2 x volkite culverin and 4 x heavy bolters. Sergeant with artificer armor. 
• Legion Tactical Squad: 10 marines with bayonets. Sergeant with artificer armor and power fist [Line]
• Legion Scout Squad: 10 marines with nemesis bolters.
• Legion Recon Squad: 5 marines with nemeis bolters, augary scanner. [Line]
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis lascannon, gravis power fist, heavy flamer. 
• Ebon Keshig: 10 terminators with 7 x power glaives, 3 x power fists, 2 x combi-meltas, 1 x combi-bolter.
• Xiphon Interceptor
• Sicaran Omega: 2 x lascannon sponsons

Blood Angels (Allied)

Played by Bill

• Praetor: Jump pack, iron halo, master crafted Paragon blade
• Legion Tactical Squad: 17 marines with chain swords. vexilla. Sergeant with artificer armor, plasma pistol and power fist. [Line]
• Legion Breacher Squad: 10 marines 2 x melta guns. Sergeant with thunder hammer and artificer armor. [Line]
• Legion Assault Squad: 14 marines with 2 x power axes. Sergeant with artificer armor, plasma pistol and power fist. [Line]
• Legion Heavy Support Squad: 8 marines with lascannons.
• Contemptor Dreadnought: gravis lascannon, gravis powerfist, combi-bolter.
• Land Raider Spartan: flare shield

Field of Battle and Deployment:

The field of battle: The bridge over the River Lodi

Initial deployment and location of objectives.

Sky Hunters prepare to launch a strike across the ravine.

Blood Angels Heavy Support squad takes up an elevated position on the industrial building. 

Blood Angels Assault Squad on the Loyalist left prepares to advance. 

Sons of Horus Heavy Support opposes the Loyalists on the opposite side of the chasm.

White Scars Tactical Squad supports the Blood Angels on the Loyalist left flank.

The Traitors' objective is guarded by the Ebon Keshig and a Tactical Squad of the IXth.

Sons of Horus defend the Loyalists' objective. 

The Traitors' second-in-command, Ezman Vyke, is charged with commanding the right flank.

The Traitor attack force in the center is anchored by Land Raiders and Predators.

The Traitor Warlord, Ghrodd the Slaughter Lord, leads the central assault.

White Scars Scouts creep forward and take up positions along a rocky outcrop.

The Loyalists deploy both of their dreadnoughts in the center, along with the Spartan.

Muqal, newly commissioned Praetor of the Brotherhood of the Broken Blade and Loyalist Warlord, leads the Sky Hunters.

The Loyalist side of the bridge is jointly held by the IX and V Legions.

World Eater Scouts and a Dreadnought take up position to provide fire support.

Battle:

The White Scars ensure the Loyalists get the first turn. 

Muqal and the Sky Hunters advance and finish off the XVI lascannon squad.

The combined firepower of the Spartan and White Scars Contemptor destroy the Sons of Horus Land Raider.

Blood Angels and White Scars advance on the left flank.

Loyalist Turn 1: The center and left advance while the right holds position. Critically, two powerful Traitor units are destroyed: the Heavy Support Squad and a Land Raider.

Both sides advance in the center.

The Blood Angels heavy support squad and both Loyalist Contemptors combine to destroy the World Eaters Land Raider, forcing the Red Butchers to advance on foot.

The Xiphon Interceptor arrives from reserves and inflicts a few glancing hits on one of the Predators.

The Red Butchers emerge from the wreckage to engage the Loyalist Contemptor dreadnoughts.

The Loyalist left continues their advance, using the cover of the outcrop. The White Scars Scouts have been depleted by Traitor shooting. 

The Ebon Keshig advances to face the oncoming Traitor Terminator squads. 

The Sons of Horus take up defensive positions around the Loyalist objective.

Foes face off on the main bridge.

Traitor Turn 1 and Loyalist Turn 2: The Traitors advance across the entire front, inflicting some damage on the Loyalist flanks, causing the Sky Hunters to pull back. The Loyalists continue to focus their fire on the Traitor center and knock out the other Land Raider.

The Traitor center advances on foot. Crucially, the units are strung out due to the wreckage of destroyed Land Raiders.

Ezman Vyke moves his Terminators forward to intercept the Loyalist advance. 

Ghrodd takes his Rampagers through the ravine to outflank the heavy Loyalist forces on the bridge.

Traitor Turn 2: Although weakened, the center pushes across the main bridge. The Sky Hunters are mostly destroyed by the Predators. The right flank advances and inflicts damage to the Loyalist left. The left flank crosses the chasm on the industrial center foot bridge. 

The Loyalists make their move - over the top!

The Blood Angels are too far away to assault the Sons of Horus and find themselves facing a gun line.

The Xiphon finishes off the damaged Predator with a second salvo.

Red Butchers engage the White Scars Contemptor while both sides send additional forces into the central melee on the bridge. 

The Ebon Keshig rushes to the aid of their dreadnought. 

The Red Butchers are highly outnumbered. The Sons of Horus are too far back to engage.

The Loyalists attack on the left flank while heavyweights battle on the bridge.

Loyalist Turn 3: The left flank tries to advance to the objective, but is slowed by terrain and Traitor overwatch. A melee breaks out on the main bridge. Airpower destroys one of the Predators. 

Opposing Contemptor dreadnoughts face off, supported by Terminators.

Ghrodd the Slaughter Lord continues his advance and prepares to strike.

The Traitors launch a fearsome counterattack on their right flank. Terminators charge forward under covering fire from the large Tactical Squad. 

The Sons of Horus Contemptor finally gets into melee.

Traitor Turn 3: The right flank launches a counterattack and pushes the Loyalists back. The center continues to assault superior forces where the Sons of Horus dreadnought is brought down. The left flank reaches the Loyalist side of the ravine.

The White Scars Tactical Squad is driven back. 

Praetor Garo Arteo heroically leads the Loyalists on the left flank in a desperate attack against a superior force.

Sons of Horus Cataphractii are next to face the White Scars Contemptor.

The bridge shakes as both sides charge forward into the melee.

This XVIth Legion Land Raider burns far from the action. The loss of their transports led to the Traitors attacking piecemeal across the bridge into the Loyalist lines. 

Loyalist Turn 4: The left flank continues to fall back under covering fire from the Sicaran Omega. The center launches their counterattack to regain the bridge. 

Ghrodd and his Rampages finally make their move and assault the Blood Angels Contemptor.

The heroic dreadnought is surrounded and eventually brought down under an unrelenting flurry of blows.

The Traitors simultaneously launch on assault on their right flank, led by Praetor Ezman Vyke.

The fighting is fierce along the rocky outcrop as hated foes clash.

On the Traitor left flank, the World Eaters had been steadily advancing throughout the battle. They launch a simultaneous assault of their own and engage the Blood Angels Heavy Support Squad that had been raining fire on the Traitor lines throughout the day.

The last of the Vth Legion Recon Squad bravely holds their ground, despite the large World Eaters contingent crossing the industrial center toward them.

The IXth Legion continues to hold the Traitor objective.

On their left flank, the Loyalists are beaten back by the heavily armed and armored terminators.

The Rampagers consolidate their position after bringing down the Blood Angels Contemptor in melee. 

Garo Arteo is forced to fall back. He tries to rally the remaining Loyalists, but is pursued by thundering Cataphractii.

Traitor Turn 4: Three simultaneous assaults are made in the left, right and center in a sledgehammer blow intended to break the Loyalist lines. The center destroys a Contemptor, the right destroys the Assault Squad and the left engages the Heavy Support Squad, but cannot wipe them out due to the tight constraints of fighting in the industrial facility.

The Ebon Keshig chase down the last of the Sons of Horus terminators in the center.

The dishonored warriors prove their valor by holding the bridge alone at the end of the central melee. 

All hopes of claiming the Loyalist objective shattered, the White Scars form up a firing line on the ridge, planning to sell their lives dearly to hold the Traitors from advancing toward their own objective.

The World Eaters chop their way through the Blood Angels with their chain axes. 

Loyalist Turn 5: The left flank falls back to a defensive position atop the ridges. The Ebon Keshig take control of the bridge. Loyalist reserves fire everything at the Rampagers pushing into the rear of their lines. The last Blood Angels hold out in the melee in the industrial site, stalling the Traitor left.

Although outnumbered at least six to one, Ghrodd leads his surviving Rampagers in an assault on both Blood Angels units around the objective, hoping to overwhelm his foes with pure aggression.

Ghrodd is a wrecking machine and completely scatters the Breachers after felling multiple marines with his thunder hammer.

The World Eaters control the industrial complex on their left flank after destroying the last of the Blood Angel garrison. 

Although surrounded by the corpses of his victims, with his Rampager squad completely cut down, Ghrodd the Slaughter Lord is forced to acknowledge his defeat.

Traitor Turn 5: Vyke defeats Garo on the right. The World Eaters finally clear the Blood Angels on the left. Ghrodd makes a final desperate assault in the center and scatters the Breachers single-handedly. The Traitors command both flanks, but the Loyalists hold on in the center.

Results:

Surviving Forces:

Traitors: Two Tactical Squads, Terminator Squad, Recon Squad, Contemptor, Predator, Praetor.

Loyalists: Two Tactical Squads, Ebon Keshig, Recon Squad, Spartan, Praetor.

Victory Points:

Traitors: 5 VP from holding an objective.

Loyalists: 5 VP from holding an objective. 1 VP for destroying an HQ in Turn 1?

Loyalists win a narrow victory!

Post Game:

Phil - White Scars: 

As I worked on this battle report nine months after the game, I was struck by how cinematic it was. The giant bridge over the ravine made a suitably epic centerpiece for this climax battle. The large and unusual shape of the battlefield also made it feel different than a standard battle. These big battles always feel like the culmination of years of hobby time. I love the spectacle of four armies on the field together in their bold colors. Getting to enjoy it with both of my brothers was definitely special. 

From a game perspective, it seems like we finally got a good balance of forces, with both sides pretty well matched. Both sides could inflict and sustain good amounts of damage and they both had their moments to shine. The Blood Angels Heavy Support and Spartan added some solid backbone to the often-flimsy White Scars. The Loyalists squeaked out a narrow win thanks to a secondary objective to kill an HQ or destroy a unit in the first turn (I cannot remember which) and then held on. 

In hindsight, both sides committed too much force to defending the objective in their deployment zone and not enough to attacking the other objective. Looking at it now, the Loyalist attack force on their left flank was pitifully under-powered and never had a chance to succeed. My only explanation is that I thought the Sicaran Omega would decimate the exposed Traitor infantry, but it never seems to dish out the damage I think it will. Bill and I probably should have committed one of the Contemptors to that flank. My plan was to send the Sky Hunters that way once they achieved their initial objective of destroying the Sons of Horus Heavy Support Squad and Master of Signals on the other flank, but they took too much damage from the Predators and were wiped out except for the Praetor after Turn 2. Looking back at the photos and notes, I cannot figure out why the Blood Angels Assault Squad did not charge the Sons of Horus on Turn 4 and instead got charged by the Traitors instead; I can only assume they were pinned. 

Pete played a good game. The only mistake I saw was that he held back his World Eaters Contemtpor dreadnought for too long. The Sons of Horus seemed to have his right flank under control so he could have committed the second Contemptor to his attack on the bridge. In the end, it was just a lascannon platform and although it did destroy the Sicaran Omega eventually, it was not as impactful on the overall flow of the battle as the Loyalist Contemptor dreadnoughts. 

The terrain also played an important role by dramatically limiting the mobility of tanks.  With limited cover in the center and limited paths to advance without being slowed by terrain, this scenario seemed to benefit shooting over melee, yet it was still a series of assaults that destroyed most units and determined the game. I would not want to play on this battlefield on a regular basis, but it definitely provided a new and interesting challenge that required different tactics than fighting on a flat field, which was very fitting for a special game. 

The key to success for the Loyalists was destroying the Land Raiders early, leaving the heavy Traitor Cataphractii squads to slog forward slowly, resulting in Pete needing to throw his units into the center piecemeal instead of in an overwhelming single assault. Although each Traitor unit was very powerful, Bill and I were able to dispatch them one by one by concentrating all of our strength against each in turn, the oldest and most reliable strategy in Warhammer. But even with everything going perfectly on the bridge for the Loyalists, the Traitors still had a small chance to steal the win at the end with the Rampagers. Pete's daring assault inflicted heavy losses on the Loyalists but without any supporting units, it was not enough to break through the numerous Loyalist defenders on its own. 

In summary, having the first turn was crucial for the Loyalists, to gain an extra VP and to eliminate the Traitor transports, leaving the slow Cataphractii stranded far from their objective. In that sense, the White Scars' Legion trait to improve the odds of going first was extremely helpful in this scenario.

Other general observations about Heresy 2.0 were borne out: lascannons are very powerful, thunder hammers are a no-brainer, Contemptors are extremely good, and jet bikes are fragile. I will also add a new observation: elevated firing positions are challenging to overwhelm with an assault due to movement constraints. 

Finally, it was nice to see the Loyalists win their first climax battle and their first phase of the campaign after SEVEN YEARS of losing every campaign phase! This sets up the final phase of the Second Xhorik War for a little more interest than if it had been yet another Traitor victory. The Loyalists have broken out of their beach head (planet head?) and are now able to strike into the heart of the Traitor territory. They have one desperate chance to destroy the Traitor command and retake the planet before they are surrounded and destroyed by the superior enemy forces. I am looking forward to mapping out the exciting conclusion to this multi-year escalating campaign!

Death to Traitors! For the Great Khan!