So yesterday had some brutal small scale firefights in the depths of the Hub.
Some modifications and clarifications were made to the lists. Yes players could use special characters and the cultist or Imperial Guard unit could be used as their compulsory troop.
We all played the Battlefield recon mission from the back of the hardback 40k rulebook. It entails sides only having 1 objective each worth 2 points and the bonus points from warlord, first blood and linebreaker.
Round 1 - Ashen Angels vs Daemons
I took charge of the Ashen Angels as they made preperations to enter the sub levels. As they coordinated with PDF units holding an Imperial garrison, daemonic forces in league with cultists tore their way free of the warp.
The Tzeentchian fiends took the Marines by suprise and after a volley of warp spawned flame the tactical squad was seriously depleted. As the marines and guardsmen desperately attempted to hold the strongpoint Terminator reinforcements arrived from the left flank, pouring bolt rounds into the Flamers.
The Sorcerous leader of this coven raced down the barricaded streets flinging bolts of eldritch energy into the Terminators while gibbering horrors materialised to take hold of the now defenderless Imperial base.
After a heated firefight between the towering Imperial bastions the Terminators were reduced to a single man, though with Assualt cannon churning he failed to withstand the Sorcerers onslaught of magic. Having cleared the defenders from this key location the cultists who had observed the skirmish from the safety of a bastion headed off under the guidance of their daemonic lord.
Win to the Chaos side.
While we played that out Joel and Conan had a streetfight between Orks and Blood Angels in the sub industrial zones. Joel can report in more detail but I believe after the Orks failed to dislodge 2 guardsmen from their objective the control of the territory was a draw.
Round 2 - Ashen Angels vs Orks
The Orks seeking out their newly spawned kin happened upon a patrol of marines in a former habitation block which had fallen into disrepair. The marines entrenched themselves at the end of a clear thoroughfare sighting the mass of greenskins marching into the area.
With a whir of rotor blades the Orks copter swung through the tenemants spying the black armoured marines and hailing his fellows let fly with his rockets! A marine was torn apart as the missile hit its target and the Ork warboss encouraged by the prospect of a fight belted down the street with his warbike, swerving into the shelter of a ruined plaza as the Imperial guns attempted to fix on him.
Marines moved into the ruined apartments and let fly with bolter and plasma rounds at the Orks while the guardsmen failed to strike the warboss who now bore down on them. As the Ork boyz bustled down the street towards the Imperials, filling the air with rounds from their shootas, the warboss broke cover and crashed into the guardsmen. With dismay the humans flailed at the green warlord but with a bloody crunch of his powerclaw he easily broke the unit and ran down the survivors.
The marines retaliated and with concentrated fire brought the Warboss down. However the Shoota boyz were not be to discouraged and with a roar continued to advance adding more ammunition to the hail of fire from their crude firearms. After the early salvo the ork copta had harrased the power armoured marines but with little success had fallen back to a safer distance to add to the marines suppression.
With the green tide thinning and marines still falling the firefight ended in a stalemate. A handful of Tactical marines and the terminator sergeant hunkered down and the avenues end while Ork 'yoof's retrieved thier immature spores growing in the rubble.
While that was played out Aaron and Conan had a dispute over territory with the bedraggles Blood Angels coming under attack from Alien monstrosities. It seems a Xenos cult had been dormant within the labour forces and with the growing violence made their move against the Imperial establishment.
A massive Hive beast successfully spawned numerous 'gants' throughout the conflict, threatening to overwhelm the Imperial defenders numerous times. However as the local defence force held their stongpoint and the marines met the alien horrors out on the street, the imperial defenders eventually taken over by the Brood forces.
Round 3 - Ashen Angels vs Tyranids
With things not going well for the Imperial forces, the marine patrol moved to the industrial area where the greenskins and Blood Angels had come to blows. Picking their way through the metal works and catwalks the astartes came into contact with the reported xenos hive beasts. Taking position in a tall steel structure the Imperial Guard layed down long range fire as the marines moved out on the ground level to halt the xenos progress.
Cutting down Genestealers early on did little to halt the swarm and with some success the identified Tervigon added more to the infestation. As the small xeno forms swarmed through the girders and bracings a unique bioform floated into view. The marines held their distance as this 'Doom' pulsed out waves of psychic attacks but the marines managed to weaken it before it ruptured itself with a burst of psychic energy.
Eventually the Imperial forces were reduced to a solitary marine as the remaining guardsmen fled from the alien creatures. With any resisitance cleared from the area, the brood followers found an abandoned drinking establishment and sated themselves on the spoils while the hunter-slayers spawned by the brood mother stalked off in search of new prey.
Again a loss and Conan fared a similar defeat at the hands of the daemons. However a glimmer of hope appeared as Cody having arrived from work brought the cheese into play. With an Imperial Guard squad as minimum he used a Heavy incinerator Dreadknight and none other than Draigo himself. Needless to say things did not go well for Joel's Orks and a single victory point was gathered for the oppressed Imperial forces.
So it had been a very one sided day with the agents of disorder running rampant over the Imperial defenders, this would make it very difficult for the authorities to maintain their fragile hold on the deepest parts of the hab blocks.
With a grind of stressed servos the power armoured figure hauled himself atop the towering steel framework. Striding across the groaning steelwork he halted at the platforms edge and gazed out through crimson lenses at the foundation of his new domain. Gunfire barked out in the stygian gloom and this leader of traitors and murderers smiled within his horned helmet.
It mattered not that his blade had yet to be drawn here. It mattered not that his own chosen were veritably seething at their restraints to engage in the disorder. His agents had whispered their words into the ears of those dissident and they had acted against the Imperium with their own means, however alien or eldritch they may be. Screams of rage and terror alike joined the gunfires melody and the Lord of damned warriors was pleased, knowing that the corpse god's ignorant followers were being put to death.
Let them dispatch their pitiful guardsmen and feebly loyal Astartes to quell this chaos, the more they sent down here into the depths meant an easier climb upon the heap of their remains to the next fields of conquest.
