"For Horus to succeed, Terra must fall. For Terra to fall, Xhorik must fall. For Xhorik to fall, the Brotherhood of the Wind must fall. This is our task."
- Praetor Wolfgang,
Death Guard Legion
Campaign To Date:
It is the middle of the Age of Darkness, as the Warmaster Horus makes his long march toward Terra, leaving shattered star systems in his wake. Lying in the path of the traitors' advance, the planet of Xhorik Prime is torn apart in civil war after only recently being united by the Great Crusade. The largest nation, The Federation of Unimund declare for the Warmaster and Mortarian as their living gods and liberators, while their ancient rivals to the north, the stratocracy of Kozar and her allies, side with their kindred spirits and sworn blood brothers, the White Scars.
In the first phase of the campaign, the Death Guard captured the border city of Bielyer and the only space port of any consequence in the region.
The second phase of the campaign has centered around the conflict for the Vaalbara Plateau. The White Scars struck first with a false retreat leading to an ambush of the Death Guard vanguard. The Traitors were able to rescue Praetor Wolfgang in time to lead them to victory in the pitched battle that followed. Then, after using the space port in Bielyr to bring in a super heavy battle tank, the Death Guard attacked and destroyed the Loyalist base, Bunker Tauruk. Praetor Zherdan and a small band of survivors were forced to fall back and rendezvous with reinforcements that had been on their way to the battle at the bunker. The White Scars reinforcements outflanked the pursuing Death Guard and drove them off.
With both sides running low on manpower and supplies, the remnants of the two armies converge on an abandoned pumping facility in the middle of the badlands. Both Praetors elect to engage the enemy with everything at their disposal, attempting to drive the other from the Valbaara Plateau once and for all in this decisive battle.
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The bitter north wind scoured the Valbaara Plateau. Praetor Wolfgang felt the tiny shards of ice and grains of sand stinging his face as he surveyed the abandoned outpost. With the help of the rugged terrain, he had managed to conceal a good portion of his forces from the White Scars Outriders that had been sweeping the area ahead of the main loyalist advance.
Wolfgang knew the White Scars forces in the area were critically low on supplies after the destruction of their stronghold, Bunker Tauruk, and that he had the opportunity to deliver a decisive strike here today. But time was not on his side. His own supply lines were stretched to cover the long distance of his northern advance from Bielyr and vulnerable to raids by the mobile White Scars and their Kozar allies. He had suffered significant causalities of his own, and ammunition and fuel were running low this far from his supply base. He was not worried about his men; they had marched and fought without food, water or rest for several days already and showed no sign of fatigue. But his vehicles could not drive on fumes or go into battle without shells. He needed these supplies as badly as the Loyalists, but he could afford to be patient and let the enemy come to him and his defensive positions.
Sergeant Albrecht's voice came over the comm link, indicating the sensors in his Rhino had picked up the enemy advancing into the center of the outpost.
"Let them come. Don't attack until I give the word." Praetor Wolfgang ordered.
He knew he had one chance to break the Loyalists here and he intended to do so.
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PRE-GAME AND MISSION:
To represent how the battlefield priorities were constantly shifting between the scramble for supplies and the need and desire to destroy the enemy, we played a Maelstrom of War mission from the WH40K 7th Edition Rulebook called Contact Lost. In this mission, you received tactical objective cards for each objective marker you controlled at the start of your turn. We liked that it rewarded being aggressive and controlling the table because a player would get more chances to earn victory points by holding objective markers during the game.
Pete and Bill won the roll to select their deployment zone and then they won the roll to decide on deployment order and elected to deploy second. That strategy has been hugely successful in the campaign so far as it allows them to put their units in position against their optimal foes.
After deploying Infiltrators and making Scout moves, Pete rolled a six and stole the initiative!
ARMY SELECTION: 1780 Points
Traitors - Pete and Bill
Death Guard
- Praetor Wolfgang: Terminator armor, Paragon Blade, volkite charger, digilasers
- Tactical Squad Stärke: 14 marines with close combat weapons, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary Wilhelm
- Tactical Squad Ritter: 10 marines with close combat weapons, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor, rhino with heavy flamer
- Tactical Support Squad März: 7 marines with volkite calivers
- Heavy Support Squad Tragen: 7 marines with missile launchers and Apothecary
- Contemptor Dreadnought Friedrich: multi-melta, melta gun, dreadnought close combat weapon
- Legion Fellblade with space marine crew
Loyalists - Phil
White Scars Brotherhood of the Wind
- Praetor Zalitai Zherdan: Master-crafted power glaive,iron halo, digilasers, cyber hawk
- Tactical Squad Kheeg: 10 marines with close combat weapons, sergeant with power glaive and artificer armor
- Tactical Support Squad Khoer: 8 marines with plasma guns
- Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer Kharvaak: Omega Plasma Array, heavy bolter and lascannon sponsons
- Outrider Squad Anchin: 5 Outriders with twin-linked plasma guns, including sergeant
- Anvillus Pattern Dreadclaw Dop Pod
Kozar 87th Drop Troops, 3rd Company
- Captain Xhaer with plasma pistol and Command Squad with medic and vox caster
- 1st Drop Platoon:
- Veteran Squad with carapace armor, infiltrate, homing beacon, melta bombs and breacher charge
- Infantry Squad with melta gun and vox caster
- Infantry Squad with grenade launcher
- 2 Drop Sentinels with multimeltas
- Tauros with grenade launcher
BATTLE:
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| Praetor Wolfgang gives his orders from a good vantage point on top of a rocky hill, surrounded by a block of his toughest soldiers. |
