A Prison for Gods - Inside the Gospel of Fear!

Stokahn sat quietly in the dank, dark hall. It was ancient and smelled of mold and grease. The symbols on the wall were unregonisable. The techmarines has been studying it for a few hours already. This space hulk, this amalgamation of ships and asteroids and untold secrets was a vital part of Master Kaine's plan. Capturing would be of utmost importance. The Black Scorpions had landed and forced their way through to the shield generator. It was stable and functioning. The next step would be securing the Nexus of Power... the augurs were going crazy. The readings were off the chart but if they were accurate, it would be the key to stabilizing the hulk. The only problem, that preacher was on board too and brought with him thousands of troops. Stokahn rose and was joined by Centurion Rizelus, the stalwart captain of the sternguard. Together they would flush out the false prophet Hopkins and his misguided followers!

We played a preliminary game with only 200 points just to try out the table and see how it all worked. Thomas rolled the above when shooting his plasma gun.... (just like last time!) A sign of things to come? Truly it can be said... the Emperor does NOT favour father hopkins and his krieg followers!

Zone Mortalis - 500 pts - Search and Destroy


Forces:
Black Scorpions - Librarian ML2, 8 Sternguard, 1 Sanguinary priest, 5 man tactical Squad & 5 death company with bolters

The Krieg Guard - Company commander with squad, 10 veterans with heavy flamer, 20 Storm Troopers with special weapons.

Turn 1,2,3

Sternguard and Stokahn with the Sanguiary Priest

 Turns 1,2 and 3 were largely uneventful. Our forces stalked through the dark corridors and it became a game of cat and mouse. No one willing to take the chance to move out into lines of fire. Thomas maneuvered his forces to surrounde a door which I was on the other side of. Neither side willing to take the gamble down the long thin corridor.

Imperial guard spearhead!

Bulkhead!

 Thomas moved his command squad out but quickly moved them back as they were in a precarious postion for my next turn. This was tense. No shooting in 3 turns, just maneuvering, tactically... carefully.

Retreat! They are coming!

Mexican Standoff

The Arrival of the Scions!

Turn 4

This is where things got interesting. Thomas' command squad moved back into a room and closed the door. Thomas hoped to move his scions round the corner and give them a 'second rank fire' order. Stokahn had other plans. Summoning his psychic might he unleashed a 'Molten Beam' in the psychic phase turning the door to slag, revealing the command squad behind. In the shooting phase the sternguard pumped the room full of kraken bolts killing the commanders squad. In a panic the Commander fled! He ran 11 inches back towards the exit!

Turn 5

The commander, being under 25% could only rally on snake eyes. Thomas failed and the Commander fled the scene, leaving his men behind! The Scions rounded the corner and fired their hotshot lasguns at the sternguard! Poor shooting resulted in two of the sternguard going down.

White bolts of lasfire cracked around Stokahn's head. The Scions ahead of them and burst into the narrow corridor. 'Brave' Thought Stokahn... 'but foolish'. He had fought daemons, seen the darkest the galaxy had to offer. These ruined halls offered nothing that could stoke his fear. He owned the darkness. With a pulse of light fire burst from his hands casting shadows and revealing the heavily armed Scions in front of him. He spoke the incantations and invoked the power within him. With a mighty roar he spewed forth a great breath of fire from his mouth bathing the poor Scions in vicious warp flame! 

Stokahn marched forward and passed his psychic test. He used 'Flame Breath' which is essentially a heavy flamer. 7 of the 9 scions died a horrible death. The other two were mercilessly gunned down by the sternguard.

Warp Fire!

My other forces decided it was time to gamble and burst through the door right into the path of the veterans!

Turn 6

Thomas threw everyhing he had at the death company and tactical marines. A well placed grenade killed a tactical and a death company marine. The heavy flamer killed another. The lasguns on the other hand:

7 misses!

 The second squad of Scions didn't fare any better. Their massed hot shot lasguns simply failed to wound. 1 wound made it through but was 'feel no pain'ed.

In my final turn, Stokahn once again flame breathed the squad, killing 5 scions. The rest, again, were gunned down by the sternguard.

 On the right flank Preacher hopkings and his squad were demolished and ripped apart by the scorpions. Brutality! Thomas's force had been defeated!

 Final Score Black Scorpions 5 - Krieg 0


Conclusion'

Zone mortalis lives up to it's name! It's brutal and quick. It's almost like chess. You have to maneuver into place so carefully. I only managed to seize the game with a molten beam that ruined a door, revealing a hiding squad. Having an extra phase (Psychic) is a HUGE boon in games like these.

A fun game! It was tense and when I managed to make the move, it paid off. Unfortunately this was a game of lists too. Thomas had taken Scions, which are great! but you pay a lot of points for them and they never really got to use their carapace armour. Sternguard have ap4 bullets and heavy flamers are ap4 too.

Man of the match:

Stokahn Hammerhand! Aptly used his vicious skills in pyromancy to roast these heretics with righteous flame!

The stench of burning flesh filled the dark halls. The glowing power generator firmly in the hands of the Black Scorpions. Centurion Rizelus stood with unease. He could see down the long corridor. At the end stood a fiery creature, a space marine bathed in flame. Stokahn... the infamous librarian stood proudly surrounded by dead heretics. Rizelus looked away as Stokahn began to feast on the roasted flesh of a fallen soldier...