Brother Ivus rattled in his cage. The drop pod searing through the atmosphere down towards the forces at the airfield. He was uneasy, his unbreakable faith showing cracks. What were they doing? These forces were imperial yet Azeron had demanded their destruction. 'His will be done' thought Ivus, burying his feelings of doubt. Soon they'd be planetside. The blood would spill soon enough.
Take the airfield! - 2000 pts (Kaia) Imperial Guard vs (Rottimus) Space Marines and Guard Allies.
Mission: Maelstrom with 5 objectives + capture the tower: At the end of the game, if the marines completely control the tower they gain 3 extra victory points. At the end of the game if the Guard completely control the tower they gain 3 extra victory points.
In his wisdom Cylander Azeron had sent a strike force to take the vital airfield on Nolan. Two tactical squads in drop pods, two scouts in landspeeder storms and a 10 man sniper squad would form the back bone of the strike force. 3 thunder fires and 3 stalker anti-air tanks would be supported. (taking an airfield requires anti air) The Hydrobian 8th would lend a hand with 3 griffons, a veteran squad and a command squad. A potent fireraptor gunship would be providing much needed air support.
The 501st Cadian would be holding the airfield. 80+ men and women, brave souls, would be holding the airfield customs control tower. The 4- invul power generator deployed adding a strong factor of safety. An Avenger strike fighter, a valkyrie full of storm troopers and a thunderbolt were circeling nearby ready to swoop in. A mighty knight was there in support too.
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| Drop pod death! |
Drop pods rained in. Flamers spurted hot, sticky death! Guardsmen were roasted alive by the score. At the end of my first turn the space marines had struck hard. Killing upwards of 25-30 guardsmen. The large blobs proved tough to shift. Artillery rained in too killing more but not breaking or eliminating any soldiers. At the end of the turn I'd scored 3 victoy points from a D3 ascendency.
The brave soldiers of the 501st held true. They opened fire at the tacticals in their midst killing most of them. The mighty knight killed the veterans that had also landed amongst them scoring first blood!
In their zeal they fired too much at the drop pod, causing it to go critical. a 6'' blast took out a few marines and a handful of guardsmen! The knight charged the drop pod and also made it go critical killing even more guardsmen in the ensuing blast!
Score 3-1
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| Infiltrating scouts! |
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| Firmly in control of the Imperial Guard! |
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| Stormcannons - bane of the skies! |
My reserves both failed to come in this turn but it mattered not. There was work to be done. My scouts moved forward, readying a charge into the enemy lines. Again my artillery opened up raining death from on high. Guardsmen were killed by scores yet again, although the shield generator did a fine job of intercepting the high explosives. A griffon shell sailed high, and landed firmly amongst the command squad. Commander Emilia Faust was caught in the blast, razor sharp shrapnel ripped through her and she passed out from her wounds. Unable to continue taking part in the battle. (slay the warlord). My scouts charged into a 10 man quad and chopped them to bits in cold-blood. I also scored capture obj 2 and no prisoners, killing 3 units gaining me 3 pts.
The 501st had taken serious casualties but they were still in this fight. The Airforce arrived! The Avenger strike fighter swooped in. My Icarus Storm cannons sprung into action. The engine was visible to the targetters. A spray of anti air ruptured the engine and sent the fighter crashing to the ground. (to my shock I found out it only has 2 hull points despite being massive!) The Thunderbolt took heavy fire too getting shaken. The knight peppered the sniper scouts by the fountain killing 3. Concentrated fire from guardsmen and stormtroopers killed all but one scout in their lines. The aerial assault ended with a landspeeder losing a hullpoint and jinking the rest. The Thunderbolt near by lines was unable to find it's mark.
Kaia scored obj 3, overwhelming firepower and hold the line. 3 pts!
Score: 8-4
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| Knight stalking in the distance |
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| Add caption |
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| These scouts were promptly eradicated bar the sergeant. |
This was a quick turn as the board started getting model-scarce. My drop pod arrive carrying tacticals. They promptly arrived and flamed the storm troopers killing ever last one of them. Artillery rained down killing more guardsmen. My remaining stalker that didn't fire interceptor brought down the thunderbolt with a crash. My last remaining scout sergeant made it into close combat, issuing a challenge, gaining me a victory point (I had that card) He was killed by the 3 guardsmen. For shame!
I scored D3 (3) for killing 3 units in the shooting phase and 1 for issuing a challenge.
Kaia bravely continued, the Knight began stalking round the building, trying to draw a bead on the newly arrived tacticals. With scattered guardsmen and a crumbling garrison pot shots here and there would killing a marine here and a marine there. The landspeeder was crushed by the chimera. Kaia scored 1 for killing a vehicle, and 2 for 2x obj 5.
Score: 12-7
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| Turn 3. Very few guardsmen remaining |
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| The knight destroys the landspeeder! |
These turns went quickly. My main objective now was to try and wipe the guardsmen out. Kaia's was to hold on and not get tabled. (we we're unsure if this had any bearing on the campaign)
Ratlings were finished off and the tacticals basically spent each turn running away from the knight, trying to avoid getting caught by it. They succeeded.
My artillery concetrated fire on the knight. That, along with a fire raptor gunship was enough to kill it. It's exploded but didn't kill anything. In the end, 3 guardsmen remained, dragging the unconcious Emilia Faust to safety. They'd lost the airfield, but kept their lives.
End Score: 17-8 - Victory for the Black Scorpion Space marines.
Conclusion.
The annals of imperial history will forever debate what happened here. I knew I'd be facing guardsmen and flyers but at the same time, My list consisted of sneaky scouts, strike force of drop pods and scouts in the landspeeders, supported by artillery and a flyer. Militarily this makes sense, Assault force with strong fire support. Griffons are cheap and useful, with accurate bombardment they are nice and score hits. They aren't going to be bringing down land raiders but they're effective.
I will concede that the 3x stalker tank formation is OP. Ignoring jink saves is extremely good causing the 501st's air support to suffer greatly. That being said, what kind of a commander would assault an airfield without bringing decent AA?
At the end of the day, I dodged a bullet. My drop pods and scouts caused enough chaos to distract the knight. The Knight could have simply sauntered to my lines within two turns, a rampaged through my artillery and thunderfires.
Thanks to Kaia for being a good sport and playing to the very end.
Man of the Match?
In this case woman of the match: A platoon sergeant directed her platoon in killing tacticals, scouts and then finally slaying a scout sergeant in a challenge, then went on to escape death! Surely she'll be promoted for valour?
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Ivus walked amongst the charred, smoking corpses of the guardsmen. Piles of them lay strewn about. The airfield was theirs but at what cost? Ivus had fulfilled his orders to the letter. The airfield was his and he'd vanquished the force arrayed against them but it left a bitter taste in his mouth. These guardsmen were not insane cultists or rebellious heathens. They seemed like loyal, stalwart soldiers. It always pained him. This had happened many times before. Corrupt leadership? miscommunication? vainglorious and greedy commanders? It was always the troopers who suffered for their leaderships' mistakes.
Ivus looked up into the dark skies, they mirrored the dark blood seeping into the ground. This would be war. Not some skirmish.... true all out war. Would it be worth it?
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