The campaign was played at SLG gaming in "gamla stan in stockholm", but seeing as we had three guaranteed players and fifteen "maybe" (the most meaningless button on facebook!), We chose to start with a bigger match with the two of us there.
We had decided from the outset that we would run a campaign series that mainly took place in urban environments (so we could run the city fighting rules from HH 4 conquest) and also steal some scenarios from there.
The first game was between me (alpha legion) who had orcestrated a riot on the strategically significant hive world of Cadox IV, which was being garrisoned by a contingent of loyalist Iron Warriors, "The Last Loyal Sons" and being supported by an assortment of Allies (so as to allow more to participate) And so our campaign started with the Alpha Legion launching massive landing in the residential zone.
The campaign itself is quite straightforward.
Three hab-block district
Five mechanicum (industrial districts)
Five military (fortified districtss)
Which allows us to play several smaller games, as well as a few bigger ones if we feel inclined. as mentioned before we use the Conquest upgrade system, ie if you win a match, you can either roll for a small boost to your stats, or among the abilites offered. But the requirement is that you have a named character, to enable an ongoing narrative.
The first game became very interesting, we started playing 3000 pts IW against 3000 PTs AL where the Alpha Legion landed in strength and tried to break straight into a seat of ruling for the IW. We got the assignment where my opponent had to choose a kind of headquarters. And fluff appropriately enough, he chose a "governmental headquarters", we only had an ork model to use as a governor (later a mutated nobleman ) so the scenario was clear.
After the first riots that had burned down most of the noble family palazzo,the Iron Warriors had chosen to reinforce their presence with a considerable detachment of soldiers and artillery, and proceeded to personally locked down the Governor to assert his loyalty. The assignment was easy, If i got into his HQ, I got five points, (and had a puppet to facilitate the takeover of the planet and make possible further riots) and if he held it he got five points.
Deployment was .... new to us both. It was based on splitting up all the ruins into two, and the assigned defender may choose half (six in this case) and then the attacker(who may start) deploy his troops in the others. Not between, WITHIN THE HOUSES.
After choosing houses, it looked like this for deployment.
 |
| the Alpha legion dice are my ruins, the black ones his |
Governor's palace down in the righhand corner, the ruins that are behind the fortifications.
As well as a picture of the other corner of the zone
The armies were very different form each other.
the Alpha Legion had a predominantly armored lis,consisting of Three predators, a land raider phobos with my praetor and command squad in, two contemptors, a rhino with a plasma team, a sicarian, a damocles and two rapierlaser destroyers.
In outflanking I had ten recon marines with shotguns, a veteran squad with two HBs and some miscellaneous, a saboteur with combimelta and ten manna meltaveterans with meltabombs and various equipment.
the Iron warriors had a very infantry heavy list.
Ten siege terminators, two groups of twenty vanilla marines with an apothecary each, a group of eight heavy support with missiles, a warsmith with a terminator bodyguard, and a siege breaker with two domitar iron circle bots (fukken awesome) three meltabike outriders and three thudmortars with phosphex . As well as a five-member plasma cannon HS team.
We move on to deployment. I do not know if you have ever tried to deploy a sicarian, land raider or predator squadron inside of a house. But it's tricky, but it became fluffy as all hell, they started otu masked before the assault, and for the first move they had to drive straight through the houses (and hope the ones on the dices are far away). My Damcles ishanging at the rear and my praetor deploys at the far end of a straight line to the objective. We agreed that we both can deploy up to 3 "around the house as well
 |
| Forced to quickly adapt, the 108'th expeditionary force overcharges their fuel cells and prepare to forge a path |
 |
| Alpha legion reveals their presence after having miscalculated the erratic sunrises of Cadox prime |
 |
| Mezoa the elder and his subordinate plasma group come from their hidden position only to be welcomed by the fence legion's front guard |
I remain positive in any case. I have a bad location, but I have the first turn and what's the worst that can ...
aaahhhhh FFfffffffuuuuuuuuu.........and this is why i no longer loan out my dice
We play with the mysterious wreckage rule from the conquest book , so as the Iron Warriors are advancing, their siegebreaker Barban Falk finds a familiar signal, while his iron circle takes on my contemptor he finds his prize. A Castellax in hibernation, activating it the uncompromising warrior attacks everything in its vicinity (we rolled for on our own turns and we got it unerringly every other turn, fluffy and fun)
 |
| Barban Falcon finds an unexpected ally |
After the first turn, phosphex rains over my rapiers, my plasma team is dead and my opponent starts shooting at my predator squadron.
During my turn, my damocles releases it's bombardment, and takes out exactly two missile launcher men. All tanks succeed with their difficult terrain tests and drive through the houses n, my predator squadron is shooting everything they have on the two domitars approaching me, while i use Potms on his terminators heading right at me. My land raider drives out 6" unleashing my praetor that shoots, and then charges 10" straight into his now weakened terminator bodyguard,
 |
| duel of fates |
My praetor Votan charges into his warsmith Dantioc and utters a challenge.
We have about as many attacks, although I have more (thanks power daggers) after a lot of rolling, I get three hits, a killing blow goes straight to the neck, but the Warsmith's powerfield negates the deadly blow. He remains on 1 wound after a round with naked paragon blades clashing. Then the remains of my bodyguard stab him in the back with the power daggers with a distinct "Julius Caesar on the senate staircase" vibe
which was interesting as just before this, we discussed dueling as a concept. For honorable legions, those hungry for glory, like the Emperor's children, Blood angels, Dark Angels or Sons of Horus, dueling is a true cause in itself. But for the Iron Warriors and Alpha Legion, we thought that my praetor dueling against him, and after we measured our skills, Votan subtly nodded towards his bannermen , who activated his chainfist and put it in the back of the distracted warsmith.
A peculiar smile came over the warsmiths ruined features as his lips moved wordlessly in his olympian dialect, and was then followed by a hoarse statement of "i win anyway" Votan smiled mirthlessly as he raised his power dagger for the final blow, this was knife work, hardly worthy of his artificer wrought blade. "You have a peculiar concept of victory olympian, but having met your primarch i have seen what you deign to call success. So i hardly blame you. A faint whistle caught his attention and he raised his attention to his bannermen "incoming mortar shells my praetor responded andrisj, "hardly a concern, our armor is hardly touched by such things, stand fast" Dursaj the keeper of honors remained staring upwards and replied curtly "blue streaks, incoming phosphex!" Swearing Votan moved away from his downed opponent, "to the landraider!, the day will be ours yet!"
So on turn two, the phosphex rains down over my praetor, I went to the men's room while my opponent rolled quad mortars. When I got back I had 36 hits, and about 12 wounds
the result was that my praetor and my herald survived. The rest of his remaining domitars and the rest of his loyal sons held all the terrain they could.
So on my turn two arrived what I hoped would save me
Recon marines
a saboteur and two veteran squads
I wanted to see what recon armor, chameleoline, shotguns and melta bombs could do for me. Therefore the recon marines
They ran into terrain, shot shotguns as if this was a john woo movie and took a house on the opponent's side, replacing the shot with his twenty-man squad. My veterans shot everything that they had straight into the twenty-one man IW squad in terrain. And the few precision shots I rolled was able to shoot down his sergeant, apothecary and vexilia. But nothing more. IW did not give a shit. Morale is for those who care about their fellows.
My saboteour was a real hero, he flippedup two floors, knifed two plasma marines, and his"SABOTAGE!" Blew away two siege terminators.
Immobilized checks also started to arrive, so my predator squadron, and my sicarian got stuck in ruins, so my army got bogged down
turn three was marked by my veterans starting to die, my saboteur was stuck on a roof, and I had few options left. I realized I had ONE chance to try and take this match
Wide spread vox returns were being routed to the land raider, the Alpha legions nigh compulsive need for battlefield control were painting Praetor votan a clear summary of the field of battle. And it was not one that aligned with his view of reality. He looked over to Dursaj, theone member of his bannermen, bannerman at this juncture he noted bitterly, still able to carry the day. His recon company had been clear, advance was not merely impossible, which the XX'th relished, it would be suicidal. And Votan prided himself on never wasting resources. The praetor tensed his jaw and gave the one command he found would let him take the day. "ALL remaining vehicles and walkers, follow my lead, into the Pallazzo, overcharge all powerplants, clear the way and let us show these íron warriors what endurance truly entails. Hydra dominatus
 |
| So my land raider went through a house, drove straight to the governor's palace and drove into his terminators who failed to stand up and flee. |
The last remaining rhino went flatout through his movement, passed a difficult terrain test and drove the last inches into his artillery, who failed with LD and died, two out of three and the last fled
In the last turn we played, his terminators fled from the board. About 500 pts.
We finished the match there, meaning that the Alpha legion took the first part of Hab blocks. And now has a puppet commander.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar