Horus Heresy Campaign Phase 3 - Battle 4: The Road to Berat

Campaign To Date:

It has been about 40 years since a combined force of Sons of Horus, Death Guard, and White Scars brought the Xhorik System into compliance during the Great Crusade. The major population centers of the largest continent were quickly brought under Imperial control in the typical fashion: a series of pinpoint attacks of overwhelming force by the Legions against the enemy's strong points, followed by rapid surrender. Due to the richness of the primary planet and the strategic location of the system on a sort of crossroads of warp currents, small garrisons of the Death Guard and White Scars legions were left on the planet to oversee the tithes of men and material to the Great Crusade and to help eradicate the threat of large ork populations in the eastern wastes.

With the advent of the Horus Heresy, the Warmaster ordered that the Xhorik System be taken to act as a way station for resupply on his long march to Terra. The Death Guard and their human allies on Xhorik Prime launched an attack on the White Scars and their allies, the Stratocracy of Kozar.

In Phase 1 of the campaign, the Traitors pushed the Loyalists from the war-torn border city of Bielyr in a series of bloody street fighting.

In Phase 2, the war escalated across the badlands of the Valbaara Plateau in several pitched battles. In the end, the Brotherhood of the Wind was defeated and their leader Praetor Zherdan was killed by the Death Guard.

Phase 3 of the Campaign for Xhorik Prime finds the battered Loyalists unable to stand against the Death Guard heavy armor and so they are resorting to guerrilla tactics as the Traitor army advances north toward the major cities of Kozar. This phase will culminate with a large Traitor assault on a fortified Loyalist city. There will be four missions that will impact the deciding battle of the phase.

PRE-GAME AND MISSION:

The fourth battle of the phase sees the Traitors pushing down the main road to Berat and attempting to smash through the outer defenses, while the Loyalists are trying to break through the attackers' spearhead and into the main body of their force, stalling the advance. We played Shatter Strike from Horus Heresy Book One. The goal was to get infantry units into your opponent's deployment zone. The mission also allowed one unit from each side to redeploy after both forces were setup. We chose Hammer and Anvil as the deployment map to give the effect of a concentrated push along a narrow front.

ARMY SELECTION:  2000 Points

Traitors - Pete

Death Guard

• Preator Wolfgang: terminator armor, volkite charger, paragon blade, digital lasers, fearless, It will not Die
• Tactical Squad Folterer: 10 marines with close combat weapons, sergeant with power first and artificer armor. In a Rhino APC with a pintle mounted heavy flamer.
• Tactical Squad Toddestraffe: 14 marines with close combat weapons, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary Gerhard
• Legion Fellblade Super Heavy Battle Tank Welt Zerstörer

World Eaters

• Tactical Squad Hell Hounds: 17 marines – 16 with bolters, bolt pistols and chain axes. 1 sergeant with artificer armor, power fist and plasma pistol
•  Chaplin Zungarz: Artificer Armor, plasma pistol, refractor field, crozius arcanum
•  Reconnaissance Squad Black Vultures: 5 marines with power armor, sniper rifles, cameleoline 
• The Red Butchers: 1 Devoured with dual chain fists, 4 Butchers with dual power axes
• Land Raider Phobos Fleisch Schleifer: side sponson twin-linked lascannons, twin heavy bolter, armored ceramite, machine spirit 

Loyalists - Phil

White Scars Brotherhood of the Wind 

• Khan Turan Jorma: jetbike, glaive, cyber hawk
• Skyhunters: 6 jetbikes,  2 x volkite culverin
• Outrider Squad Tsujen: 5 Outriders with plasma, sergeant (in reserve)
• Tactical Squad Temgar: 10 marines, sergeant has power glaive, artificer armor
• Tactical Support Squad Shatak: 8 marines with plasma guns, with drop pod (in reserve)
• Sicaran Omega Tank Destroyer Firespear: lascannon sponsons

Kozar Army, Berat Garrison

• Force Commander Xhosa (deployed with Grenadiers)
• Grenadiers Squad: 11 infantry, 1 missile launcher (deployed inside bunker)
• Infantry squad: 20 infantry
• Special weapons squad: 12 infantry with 6 melta guns (deployed inside bunker)
• 2 x Sentinels with multi-meltas
• 3 x Tarantulas with twin-linked lascannon
• 2 x Bunkers - no weapons

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BATTLE:

Turan Jorma and his men deploy along the Loyalist right flank, ready to counter attack.