Campaign Battle 7 : Objective 5

Dark Angels vs. Death Mages

While I was getting a firm wake-up call from Cundo, the next table hosted another attempt by Lynell to bring down Sam's Dark Angels. They were also playing a "Seize Ground" game. Both Marine armies fought over four objectives, but in the end, the Dark Angels won. They were able to secure one objective over the Death Mage's zero objectives.

Keep trying Lynell! You'll get him eventually! In the meantime, the Imperium win another objective for their team. They now have full use of the Mammoth Teleport Platform! I'm pretty sure losing that piece of hardware is going to hurt Chaos in the upcoming Apocalypse battle. I'm already imagining all the different nasty ways they could use it.

Campaign Battle 6 : Objective 3

Elysian Drop Troops vs. Angels of Ecstasy

aka "When Tim wept tears of despair."

Ah, the dreaded Chaos Marines. Powered armored monstrosities that plague the Galaxy. Imagine taking the fearsome Space Marine and stripping him of his loyalties to the Imperium. Then you mold him into a blood thirsty deviant that has no remorse when it comes to inflicting mass carnage. It is no wonder that Imperial civilians fervently pray to the god-emperor that these fallen Marines never invade their home worlds. Yes, the mighty and dreaded Chaos Marines should strike fear into the hearts of all mortal men. Yes?

Well, yes . . . unless they're being led into battle by me. On the night of August 24, 2009, Cundo led an Elysian Drop Troop army in a glorious battle that spanked my Chaos Marines so hard, they ran back to their foul shrines, lit candles, listened to "Dashboard Confessional" songs, and cried for a week. How can my Chaos Marines ever face the others after this?

The mission was "Seize Ground". We rolled for how many objectives were on the field. and even though the max you can roll is five, some how our weird math made it six. Yeah, I know. Sometimes you're in such a hurry to set up and start, you have these little brain farts like this. After rolling for mission, we rolled for the set up and it was "Spearhead".

My Chaos Marines got to go first. I split my force in two. One half staying near three objectives and defending it, the other half going just a little ahead to the right of the grey winged arraw (see picture above). I try to keep the second group positioned in a way that, while able to claim a fourth objective, they can still draw line of sight to enemies threatening the first half of my forces and offer support fire.

In the hills north of the downed Aquila Lander, (NW corner of the board), my Havoc Squad with three missile launchers fire frags into the Elysians south of them as often as they can in hopes of deterring them from moving forward to capture the objectives in the middle. However, the Elysians don't waver under the constant fire and advanced anyways.

Above: Deep striking Storm Troopers land in my deployment zone and cause mass carnage. I will never laugh at Strength 3 weapons again...

Soon, I have a new problem. I knew there were more troops in reserve waiting to come on, most likely by Valkyrie transport. The trick was, where would they come in. The back field? Most likely, but I was confident I could repel such a move if it happened. I was so very wrong.

After just a few turns, the Elysians drop down two full squads of Storm Troopers with Hellguns. I laugh at your puny weapons! No wait....

Yes, AP3 weapons from these elite shock troops in large volumes took down my fearsome armored Marines. The thing I failed to keep in mind was the "one way terrain". That's what I call terrain that only gives cover from what direction. Which was most of the cover my Marines in the backfield were using. So now, here came withering Storm Trooper fire and ... I had no cover to use. What a seriously noob mistake to make. I should really remind myself to not take these games TOO CASUAL next time. Lol.

Anyways, that was one of the tipping points that led to Elysian victory. Congrats Cundo!

Campaign Battle 5 : Objective 4

Imperial Guard & Daemon Hunters

vs.

Death Mages

Mission: Capture & Control

Once again, Thomas take his Imperial Guard and Daemon Hunter allies to the barren north. Last time he fought for objective 4 on the "no terrain" table, it ended with a tie against the Angels of Ecstasy. In his second attempt he fought Lynell's Chaos Marines, the Death Mages.

After slugging it out with the Death Mages, the Imperial Guard could still not win the objective. The game ended with another tie.

Campaign Battle 4 : Objective 2

Dark Angels vs. Iron Warriors

Mission: Seize Ground

It seems the Iron Warriors have developed quite a grudge against the Dark Angels. After having denied them the capture of North Point, the Dark Angels have truly angered the Iron Warriors. Not long after their previous battle, Chaos picks another fight with the Emperor's first legion.

I wasn't there during the whole thing, but from sporadic visits to Sam and Scooter's table, I can tell things were very bloody between the two.

From what I've heard, The Iron Warriors were inflicting a lot of damage to the Imperials. There were Dark Angel casualties strewn all over the field.

However, despite the huge amount of loss to his army, Sam was able to secure 1 more objective more than Scooter. The game ended with the Angels just barely hanging onto one objective high in the ruins of a building. If it had gone one more turn, Sam admits he probably would've been tabled.

Stay tuned for Sam's actual account of the battle to be posted later.

Campaign Battle 3 : Objective 1

Dark Angels vs. Iron Warriors

Planet Strike

The Dark Angels moved into the defensive perimeter around North Point to secure the communications array. Soon after, the Iron Warriors started their bombardment on the fortified structures. Before the dust cleared, the war machines of Chaos marched toward the Dark Angels and unleashed their awesome firepower.

In the end, the Dark Angels held firm and defended North Point. Although they were many battle brothers that died that day. The cost of victory was high.

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!

Campaign Battle 1 : Objective 6

ANGELS VS. ANGELS

Mission: Annihilation - Set Up: Spearhead

So here we go. The Dark Angels have chosen to take Objective #6. It's up to my Angels of Ecstasy to stop them. Well, I gotta admit, I felt a sense of dread going into this battle. Sam's has been doing a pretty good job of turning his Dark Angels army into something pretty scary to face on the tabletop. I think there's the overall consensus in the 40k community that the Dark Angels Codex is rather gimped. Yet, some hardcore fans of the Lion have been able to brainstorm and come up with some nasty lists. Having faced a few of these newer and nastier lists Sam has been using, I knew that things were gonna get bloody.

There was also another factor that was making me have doubts. The scenario set up for this particular battle involved the table being covered with one third ruined buildings. My whole trick to dealing with Terminators is to hit them with a lot of AP2 weaponry. How is this plan going to work if there is so much 4+ cover everywhere?

So, the game started and right off from the start the Dark Angels have me on the defensive. The Land Raider full of Terminators boldly guns it down the main street of town. My rather expensive unit of four lascannon Havoc Marines were unable to stop it. Yeah....uhm....I think the key to reliably bring down high armored vehicles is no longer with lascannons. I truly think meltas are the way to go from no on.

After disembarking, Belial in Terminator armor, Chaplain in Terminator armor, and a bunch of Deathwing Termies rush into the ruined building on the left flank and slay my Havoc Marines. I guess I should've but them further in the back field. Well, I did want them to be the focus of the Dark Angels, but sometimes having things go your way doesn't always mean....uhm....things are going your way. Sure, now I know where to focus my counter attack, but actually launching it successfully is a whole other matter.

I try though. I rush in two squads of Chaos Marines in armored Rhinos backed up by lots of support fire. Does this inflict the kind of casualties I want? Not at all. Belial and his squad are hard as nails and they shrug off our counter attack and nearly decimate an entire squad of mine as well. That squad ends up retreating despite my orders. The highlight of this has to be when, before charging in, Belial's squad was shot up by my second Havoc squad armed with four plasma rifles and I forced him to make 6 (5+) invulnerable saves! What does Sam do? He makes ALL SIX SAVES!

face/palm

So things were looking pretty grim. Sam was winning the war of attrition. I knew there had to be some major sacrifices in order to get rid of Belial, but I didn't expect the cost to be so high. Plus, he and his Chaplain are still on the field. At this point, should I ignore them and concentrate on easier targets or keep spending troops and resources to killing them? Well, I decide to keep concentrating on them. A little foolhardy, but I've already come this far and I really can't afford to have them run around on my side of the battlefield unchecked.

Fortunately, as the last half of the battle starts, things start to go my way. The Daemon Prince, finally sees the right opportunity and joins in on the battle versus Belial and his friends while they are occupied with regular Marines. The Daemon Prince starts to do massive damage. I gotta say, everyone talks about how awesome Lash of Submission is (which it is), but my new favorite psychic power has gotta be Warp Time. With everything in slow motion, The Daemon Prince has an easy time hitting his opponents and causing lethal damage in battle. He defeats Belial and then goes onto take out the Chaplain too. I can't believe how the battle is turning! Things are actually swinging in my favor. Ah, the Chaos gods must be smiling on me now.

In the end, (if my memory is correct) I win with the score of 4 to 2. The Angels of Ecstasy defeated Belial, the Chaplain, their retinue of Deathwing Terminators, and a bike squad. The Dark Angels, while inflicting a lot of casualties, still had not finished off a few squads that had one or two guys left in them. Their score comes from destroying one Rhino and a Havoc Squad.