M32 Battle Report 4: Subterranean Seek and Destroy

 "Valor is superior to number."

-Chaplain Apollonius, Blood Angels Second Company

Background:

The Third Xhorik War has been raging for nearly a year. The Planetary Governor has been frantically calling for aid, ever since the loss of the major cities of Vayya and Ironton and most of Bhroivor north of Chiros Nova. The continued delays and excuses from Unimund have raised his suspicions, but he has no proof of disloyalty yet. With Imperial forces engaged on a thousand warzones across the galaxy during the dark time known as the War of the Beast, there were no armies to spare. Finally, the Blood Angels strike force Belarius arrived: a single Vanguard-class Light Cruiser transporting the 2nd battle company plus reserves elements from the 7th, 8th and 9th companies.

The Space Marines quickly discovered that the novel species of Xenos was using the subterranean tunnels beneath Ironton to grow their strength out of the frigid winter weather and safe from the Ork and human armies. A small strike team was assembled to enter the tunnels and eliminate the aliens. Yet swarms of scuttling, clawed shapes soon started tracking the Blood Angels intruders and it quickly became unclear who was hunting whom. There would be no prisoners and no mercy in the darkness of the tunnels.

Battle:

Chaplain Apollonius led his men through the utter blackness of the catacombs. The limited level of night vision enabled by their tactical dreadnought and power armor was sufficient to see at the limited distances afforded by the labyrinthine passages. As they progressed deeper and deeper below the city, the tunnels were becoming more and more coated with Xenos biomass. Marines armed with flamers worked methodically to clear the creeping tendrils and nesting areas, filling the narrow passages with acrid smoke and the squeals of the unborn aliens. So far only sporadic resistance had been encountered from the alien beasts, alone or in small groups, easily dispatched by the veteran marines of Second Company. In the smoky darkness of the winding corridors, the marine patrols began to get separated. 

Suddenly, urgent reports started coming in across the com-links from all units. Xenos were closing in from all sides. Within seconds, all units were simultaneously engaged, facing threats from multiple directions at once, even in their rear from tunnels they had already cleared. Not expecting this level of coordination, precise timing, and surprise from such mindless bugs, Herodontus found his units had been quickly separated from each other and pressed under heavy attack. Leading his most elite unit of terminators personally, he fought his way to the aid of a few nearby tactical squads fighting alongside the demi-company's only dreadnought. Before he could bring all his forces together, more swarms of the foul xenos had emerged and were bearing down on his position. They would have to fight their way out. Only one species would survive this day...

Results:

The Blood Angels win!

Post Game:

Despite an effective infiltration surprise attack by the Broodlord his Genestealers, the Blood Angels are able to win the day. The space marine dreadnought held out for a while and inflicted serious damage but was eventually overcome by the masses of rending attacks. The marines' ability to tactically fall back and make the Tyranids come at them piecemeal around corners and through overlapping firing lanes proved the difference. The combined weight of fire from a tactical and terminator squad that holed up in the final room together was too much for any Tyranid unit. The few that made it through the fire were insufficient to win the assault. The marines were able to force the melee-focused aliens to come to them on their own terms. 

Recursive Lambent Generator Station Vardu-[5A]

 

This is the latest in my series of pieces that mix the Sector Mechanicus terrain with stuff from around the house. This one has a base that is a book cover and "granny grating". The main green piece is a flowerpot while the blue piece is the housing of a broken household electronic, with other bits stuck to the top and bottom. If I measured correctly, the catwalks will hopefully align vertically with the height of the actual sets and allow this piece to fit in with the rest. I wanted to have a fairly large platform area that could fit a good-sized squad or enable a modest melee since most of the elevated platforms are pretty narrow. I did not put any railings around the central area to leave even more room for weapons and arms to stick off the edges and enable more models to fit into a melee. 

I am looking forward to having enough of this terrain to fill an entire table soon.

 

Logs - Scatter Terrain

 After assembling a piece of furniture, I had some of those wooden dowels leftover. I decided to glue them into piles and paint them like stacked logs as some simple scatter terrain. It will work.

White Scars Legion Destroyer Assault Squad

With the planet of Xhorik Prime now lost to the vile traitors, the Brotherhood of the Broken Blade continued their transformation from a heroic force focused on the liberation of mankind to a warband fixated only on vengeance and the death of their enemies. No longer did they think of saving the planet or its populace from the desecrations of the Warmaster's forces. Their only goal now was to kill as many traitors as possible, especially their leaders. It was at this final desperate point when they opened up the sealed containers storing the weapons of last resort, such as the dreaded rad grenades, toxiferran flamers, and phosphex bombs. If the planet had to die to save it from the traitors, so be it. There could be no consideration for mercy, honor, or innocence.

The few remaining White Scars would don the ancient, battle-scarred armor of their Legion Destroyer Squads, not used since the earliest days of the Great Crusade. They would take the oaths of the Sagyar Mazan and seek to atone for their failure with their lives... and the destruction of as many enemies as possible until the release of death should be given them.

I spent a long time modeling each of these guys, trying to generate unique and dynamic poses to make it feel like they were really swooping down to attack, using their jump packs to leap into combat. Given how chunky and generally static the marine models are, I was pushing for all I could do to open them up and give them some sense of motion. I raided the bits box quite hard for the variety of pieces and used a lot of non-GW bits to ensure they really stand out from the rest of the army on the battlefield. I also wanted to show all their equipment: dual pistols, chain swords, grenades (frag, krak, rad, and phosphex), as well as the obvious weapon upgrades.

In game terms, I fear they will be underwhelming for their exorbitant cost. They have lots of neat weapons and rules, but at the end of the day, they are WS4, 1W, 3+ save so will die as easily as a ten-man tactical squad, but cost a cool 275 points kitted out. I just hope they get one awesome attack in before they wiped out!

Horus Heresy 2.0 House Rules

These rules are agreed for all standard games of Horus Heresy 2nd Edition. These come mostly from Horus Heresy events run by hobby organizations. 

Army Selection:

Legion Heavy Support Squads armed with lascannons can be a maximum of five models (unless the unit is already painted).

A maximum of one dreadnought of any type per 1500 points of game size.

A maximum of one dreadnought per Talon (Force Organization Chart slot).

Rules:

Flyers can arrive from reserves on Turn 1 on a 4+.

A sergeant in Artificer Armor may only be allocated Wounds to save up to his initiative value. After that, remaining Wounds in the Wound Pool must be allocated to other members of the squad.

Units mounted on Scimitar Jetbikes, Shamshir Jetbikes, and Spatha Combat Bikes are T5. But this does not affect the Instant Death threshold.

An army can make a maximum of three reactions in a single phase, including bonus reactions from Warlord traits, wargear, special rules, and special circumstances such as Interceptor.

Terrain:

Area terrain uses the old WH40k rules. Units cannot see through a piece of area terrain that is equal to their size class or greater unless they are elevated. Units in area terrain can only fire out or be targeted if they are within 6" of the edge. Any unit standing in the area terrain counts as being in cover and in difficult terrain unless they are two sizes larger than the terrain (size 3 monstrous creature in size 1 tall grass, for instance).

Cults and Militia:

A Force Commander may select up to three Provenances of War.

To Be Discussed:

Gravis Power Fist is Brutal (2) instead of Brutal (3).

Gravis Lascannon re-rolls failed armor penetration rolls of 1 instead of all failed penetration rolls.

Sniper Rifles are only Precision Shots on a to-hit roll of 5+?

M32 Battle Report 1: The Cleansing of Outpost Zeta-47

 Special Orders to A-Platoon, C-Company, 63rd Division PDF:

(1) This position will be held, and the platoon will remain here until relieved.

(2) The enemy cannot be allowed to interfere with this programme.

(3) If the section cannot remain here alive, it will remain here dead, but in any case, it will remain here.

(4) Should any man, through shell shock or other cause, attempt to surrender or retreat, he will remain here dead.

(5) Should all guns be destroyed, the platoon will use frag grenades and bayonets.

(6) Finally, the position, as stated, will be held.

-Lt. Gorman, A-Platoon, C-Company, 63rd Division PDF

Background:

After furious initial fighting with the ork invaders, the battered Planetary Defense Forces (PDF) were then set upon by a new threat: a novel type of Xenos. As the orks swept down into Chirosov Valley, the humans still held the mines and hills east of Vayya while the city itself was under siege. In the snowy hills, there were erratic and unreliable reports coming in about monsters appearing out of the snow and attacking. Then the garrison at Outpost Zeta-47 went silent. An expeditionary force was sent out to clear the threat and recover the outpost. The Tyranids were looking to sweep all resistance from the area so it could be harvested by ripper swarms. The PDF soldiers peered into the billowing snow, wondering what they would face at Outpost Zeta-47...

Major Dlonra led two heavy platoons reinforced with armor to secure the outpost.

M31 Campaign: 7-3 Zone Mortalis: Sector Control

 "He who stays on the defensive does not make war; he endures it"

- Praetor Wolfgang, XIV Legion 

Background:

While the White Scars and Blood Angels were assisting in Operation Downfall, the Traitors were not sitting idle. They had discovered the location of one of the White Scars' remaining hidden strongholds in the Uhrtar Mountains and had sent a force of Death Guard to eliminate it. Led by Praetor Wolfgang, the White Scars' longtime nemesis in the war for Xhorik Prime, the Death Guard breached the secret entrance and commenced the deadly business of fighting to clear the underground fortress, tunnel by tunnel. Both sides were desperate to hold key Sectors within the stronghold where their forces could re-arm and defend key choke points. 

Scenario: 

Sector Control (Zone Mortalis mission from The Siege of Cthonia campaign book)

Game Length: 4 turns with 2+ for turn 5 and 4+ for turn 6.

Primary Objective

Six objectives. At the end of each game turn, each players gains 1 VP for each objective they control. 

Secondary Objectives

Counter Strike: The player without strategic advantage gains 1 VP if the first unit destroyed belongs to the player with strategic advantage.

Champions of Renown: 1 VP for destroying any Character

Blood Toll: 1 VP for destroying an Elite or HQ

6 Reinforcement Points. +2 Reinforcement Points at the end of each game turn. 

Critical Objective: Random objective critical each turn. +2 Reinforcement Points for controlling it.

System Override: Active player can expend a Reinforcement Point to try to gain control of all doors.

Counter Assault: Units can enter from other table edges for extra Reinforcement Points.

Belligerents:

Death Guard: Pete

Cataphractii Terminator Praetor

Cataphractii Terminator Squad

Deathshroud Terminator Squad

Contemptor Dreadnought

Tactical Squad

Tactical Squad

Tactical Support Squad with flamers

Tactical Support Squad with volkite

White Scars: Phil

Praetor

Ebon Keshig Terminator Squad

Contemptor Dreadnought

Tactical Squad

Tactical Squad

Tactical Support Squad with plasma

Outrider Squadron with plasma

Da Skulltakaz

Like most Deathskulls, Da Skulltakaz are more superstitious than the average ork. They use blue warpaint and blue hair squigs as they believe this brings good luck. They also go into battle with a cleaned and dried skull of a vanquished foe, usually choosing the most recent or the most powerful enemy. They believe these skulls give them a portion of the deceased's power in battle and this belief gives them immense courage and belief in their inevitable victory. They are equipped with a motley variety of weapons that they have scavenged from past battlefields or built themselves from looted parts.

Da Skulltakaz were one of the many Deathskull mobs at the vanguard of the ork invasion into the north of Bhorivor. To the Imperial defenders, they were perceived as extremely brave, or stupid, for running directly through incoming fire to get to their enemies, believing in their lucky paint and totems to see them through. Although they suffered heavy casualties, their headlong charges were enough to dislodge many Imperial defense lines. The sight of an enemy adorned with so many skulls of their fallen comrades, running heedless through oncoming fire, was unnerving even to veterans.