Campaign Battle 2 : Objective 4

Imperial Guard & Grey Knights VS. Angels of Ecstasy

Mission: Capture and Control - Set Up: Pitched Battle

So soon after fighting the Dark Angels, the Angels of Ecstasy were once again called into battle against the Imperials. This time, my opponent was to be Thomas and his Imperial Guard (with some Grey Knight allies). I think I've only faced the new Guard once or twice since their new Codex. Plus, I've never really played against Thomas that often. So, on top of facing a new foe with new rules, there is the added extra challenge of the scenario. Fighting for Objective 4 means there is NO TERRAIN!

Actually, I wasn't too worried going in. After all, my heretics are all protected by power armor. Right? Well...

A little apology here, my army still isn't completely finished being painted and to top it off, I had to borrow some of Jay's models in order to make 1850 points.

Luckily, I get first turn. As my armored vehicles go forth, my Havoc Marines open fire with their mighty arsenal of four lascannons! Does it do anything? Nah, I think I just shook a Leman Russ a little. On the Guard's first turn after mine, the two Basilisks in the northwest corner drop their ordnance accurately on the Havoc Marines. The result, 260 points of my army gone in a flash. Yeah...uhm...having no cover is gonna hurt me a lot too.

Well, I knew the Basilisks were gonna be a problem, that's why the Vindicator started to head off in their direction supported by Marines with two melta guns, power fist, and a Rhino. Their mission, destroy those Basilisks!

In the meantime, most of my troops went straight up the middle while a separate force inside a Land Raider peeled off to the right to deal with the twin Leman Russ tanks. Having to deal with Ordnance firing weaponry placed on opposite corners really makes you split up your force. What could I do? Ignore them? Not likely. This is when having deep striking Raptors would've been handy. Or Obliterators.

Well, things are starting to get blown up and my advanced is stalled in the middle of the battlefield. Some Guard veterans hope out of their Chimera transport and pop the Land Raider. Although, the Land Raider was able to destroy one Leman Russ before it's own demise. My troops disembark from their transports and start laying down fire and assaulting the forward moving elements of the Guard. I gotta keep them from getting to my own objective as I head toward theirs!
Despite losing my pricey Havoc Marines in the beginning, everything else seemed to be going okay. Well, that was until the Grey Knights started to show up. One squad of Grey Knights helps out the Storm Troopers on the right flank. I was gonna mop up those suckers until the Grey Knights got involved to lend a hand. When attacking a tough foe, I like to overwhelm them and stack the odds against the other player. My plan was to throw in both of my Chaos Terminator squads against his Grey Knight Terminators when they showed up.

Unfortunately, the Grey Knights Termies hadn't shown up yet and I had no idea of where to put my own to counter act them. So, one squad of Chaos Termies had to go and help out the regular Chaos Marines fight off the regular Grey Knight Marines over by the Storm Troopers. The other Chaos Terminators deployed as close as they could toward the enemy objective. They were to get rid of the HQ squad sitting on the objective and contest it. In a weird twist of fate, the Grey Knight Termies do show up later but, accidently deep strike close to their own objective. Which is bad for me because now they can babysit the objective. Grey Knight Termies protecting an objective isn't good news for me.

Well, in the end, the team sent off to destroy the Basilisks in the northeast didn't do so well. They only got one Basilisk. The Vindicator didn't end up doing anything at all. It was destroyed before it could make any meaningful contribution.

In the center, my Chaos Terminators did destroy the rest of the Guard's scoring units on that side of the battlefield, but my own were also killed by his Grey Knight Termies. No one was able to claim the Imperial objective. The remaining veterans in the black Chimera had gotten to park themselves on top of my own Chaos objective threatening to win the game for Thomas. Luckily my own troops jumped back in their Rhino transport, drove back over, and also parked on the objective. As last turn ended neither player owned any objectives. The game was a tie. If the Imperial team wants the orbital defense satellite, they would have to play this scenario again.

Stay tuned for when Thomas goes for this objective again!