+ Battle of Miticas (M31) +
+ Miticas is a planet with roiling clouds that spill from horizon to horizon. The light of the nearby star, Gorgidas [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+], occasionally breaks through for glorious moments of golden sunlight. The planet contains the Ecclesiarchical Palace of the Antona Australis Sectorial Representative, and is considered an important pilgrimage site. +
+ A wild, loyal and, at times, beautiful planet. What remains to be said of the shrine world? Merely that its name may have been uttered with very different words, were it not for the swift assault of the Imperial Fists' 211th Company during the galaxy-burning events of the first great Heresy. +
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+ A 2,000pt battle using the Age of Darkness rules, we fought the Tide of Carnage battle, which tasks the belligerents to capture the three areas of the board – their own deployment zone, No-man's Land, and the opposing force's deployment zone. These give escalating victory points (i.e. capturing the opponent's zone is the most rewarding, holding your own the least). +
+ In addition, vehicles with the Tank type are scoring – useful for both Bob Hunk (the Fists' commander) and myself, as we'd both invested heavily in armoured vehicles. +
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+ Cloaked in ice and snow beneath the chilling clouds, the hinterlands of Tremain Municipal were the site of the first battle. +
+ As the Imperial Fists armoured column advanced in good order, the biting winds revealed the stark armoured forms of the Iron Warriors 242nd. +
+ Attempting to reactivate the defence grid, Lieutenant Macross, the Fists' Master of Signals, leaps out of the Iron Duke before the battle is joined. +
+ Iron Warrior Tactical Squads advance to occupy the empty front-line bunker defences, abandoned by the retreating Planetary Defence Force. +
+ An Iron Warrior Legionary spots the telltale prey-spoor of Imperial Fists in the distance. +
+ Battle is joined, the armour on both sides advancing, closely supported by infantry. +
+ A flanking force of Imperial Fists sweeps around behind the habs to exploit the Iron Warriors frontal march. +
+ Long-range fire proves largely ineffective in the snow and darkness. +
+ ...but as the clouds part to allow more light through, the Imperial Fists' heavier weaponry starts to tell, with two of the Iron Warriors' Predators being reduced to smouldering wrecks. +
+ Tactical and Heavy Support legionaries continue to advance, using the wrecks as cover. +
+ The flanking Rhino emerges into the biting wind from the cover of the hab-block; ready to strike for the Iron Warriors' lines. +
+ A VIIth Legion Breacher squad emerges from the Warspite and are joined by their officers – Cordemaine the Primus Medicae and grim-faced Captain Helsych – who leap down from the Iron Duke. +
+ Lieutenant Macross, having successfully broken the Iron Warrior scrapcode, allows himself a smile of satisfaction as he calls down a flawless barrage on the Iron Warriors in No-Man's Land, smashing the advancing squad to pieces. +
+ The IVth Legion's casualties were mounting, but they were closing the distance. A brutal ramming charge from the Iron Warriors' Land Raider sends the flanking Predator reeling, before the IVth Legion's Centurion Vorh leaps down and reduces the tank to slag with a precise blast from his combi-melta. +
+ The Iron Warriors unexpectedly fall back from the Breacher squad, back into No-man's land. Captain Helsych, suspecting a trap, orders the squad to raise their shields... and not a moment too late, as the Leviathan dreadnought launches a barrage of forbidden phosphex rockets. The crawling fire kills many of the close-knit Fists, but their resolve remains intact. +
+ The barrage-reduced Iron Warriors Tactical Legionaries redeploy to counter their opposite numbers from the Fists' flanking force. +
+ The Heavy Support Legionaries' weapons strike out at the Fists' Land Raiders, with limited success in the freezing air. +
+ With the battle at its height, the Leviathan smashes into the Iron Duke, tearing it to pieces; while the reduced Iron Warriors return to trade close-range fire with the Breachers. +
+ Tank wrecks litter the battlfield, but the impetus remains with the Fists. The Warspite dutifully retreats from the marauding Leviathan at Helsmyth's order. The shield wall will stand with or without support. +
+ Bitter battle erupts as the Iron Warriors depleted Tactical squad is joined by Vorh in the assault. +
+ The Astartes gradually wear each other down on both sides, before Helsyth and Cordemaine strikes the final blows, felling the hapless Centurion Cjarn. +
+ With Cjarn broken and bloodied, and the Iron Warriors' troops wiped out, the Fists claim a victory, bought in blood. +
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+ A very close and enjoyable game! +
2 comments:
Nice battle report, helped by the models and terrain. Straight down the guns they travelled eh?
Awesome, my Land Raiders look great from a distance! ;) Thanks for the cool game Apologist, I enjoyed how close it was. I was genuinely surprised when we looked at the objectives at the top of the last turn and realised I was ahead!
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