Volkus Terrain Done!

 

Blood Rain - Part 1

 "Sir, Lord Helixian is requesting your presence."

Lord Brasalion of the Black Storm turned and followed his subordinate to the comms array. The three dimensional image of Helixian glowered at him from the heavy cruiser in orbit above the planet's surface.  "My lord," he greeted the image.

"Brasalion, Lord Davok has failed to prevent the destruction of the secondary power plany in sector 5. My magos, " he gestured to a cloaked shadowy dark mechanic behind him, "calculates that the main power line to the air defence batteries is sufficiently buried everywhere except in your sector. It appears the Aquilons will be attempting to drop on that location and detonate ordanance to sever the line."

"If its so exposed, why not bombard it?"

"The air defences, obviously," sneered Helixian, "keep their atmospheric craft away, and the might of my ship keeps their void craft at bay. Do I need to explain everything to you?"

"I assumed you retreated to a safe distance as usual, Helixian." 

Helixian's image glowered for a moment then he barked a harsh laugh. "Brasalion, one of these days I'm going to leave on some forsaken planet." 

Brasalion smirked and responded, "You'd be lost without me to do the dirty work." 

The image nodded. "Keep those air defenses up, comrade. Getting the promethium off the planet with the loyalist dogs crawling over every inch of our asses will be much harder."

"Understood, Brasalion out."

The image winked out and the armoured lord turned to the marines arrayed about him. "Bardic," he said to the marine with blue warp fire embers in his eyes, "Take Hallonsak and Mertuw into the building there and give us cover. Kelpor and Welartis move up over to the North." 

He looked to the sky as the sound of a fast approaching drop ship could be heard. "And I'll cover the center. Let's move!"

* * * * * 

My friend Tinqiu and I decided to run a mini campaign from the Hive Storm book, specifically the Airborne Assault Mission Pack. This involves a tree of three mission, the second and third level depending on the results of the previous game.

We prepared for mission 1A, Disable Air Defences with me as defender with my Legionary Kill Team, and Tinqiu the Attacked with his Tempestus Aquilons.

 The board was setup and teams revealed.

I'm defending on the right side, attackers dropping in from the left.

Three Aquilons setup on the board, the other seven in the drop ship.

The Black Storm legionaries make sure to keep their head down to start, careful not to get blinded by the rising sun.

The Annointed hugged the heavy cover bu to no avail as the melta-carbine trooper landed in close range and I could not roll a single 3+ on three tries to stay alive. 

The Aquilons make a push to plant the bomb on point A.

The legionaries setup a heavy firepoint in the stronghold, taking down the Sentry Servo and its deadly double shooting missile launcher.

This little trooper survived lots of fire in turning point 1, but finally falls before activating in turning point 2. 

Lord Brasalion, Chosen of Quintara, opens the door and chops off head of the unprepared grenadier, before slamming the door and firing his plasma pistol to extact revenge on the melta-carbine trooper with searing hot plasma.

The precursor drops into combat seeking to kill the Chosen but only wounds him before the daemon blade cuts him in twain.

The Balefire Acolyte, Plasma Gunner, and Icon bearer ensure that the approach to bomb site 2 is fraught with danger.

The Aquilons pour more firepower into the Chosen before the Tempestor leader finally finds the chink in the armour and slays the enemy.

Looking to sneak out a win a trooper lands and plants the bomb on site 2 at the end of the second turning point, leaving the chaos marines only two activations to defuse it. To make matters worse, the trooper has an amazing round of shooting and the heavy gunners armour failed him, taking ten wounds to kill him.

The icon bearer runs around the trooper to get within control range of the bomb but out of control range of the trooper, and defuses!

The Tempestor tries to kill the icon bearer in a last ditch attempt to plant another bomb but Tinqiu's rolls had abandoned him (black dice) while my dice were getting hot (gold dice).

With the Tempestor dead and three healthy marines ready to kill the last trooper in turning point 4, Tinqiu concedes.

Next time, Mission 2B: Scrambled Drop!

Solo Mission 2: Sabotage Redux

 I was not happy with the last week's solo mission. I was rushed so did not do any ploys or equipment, and I realize in hindsight a couple rules I did incorrectly. For one, models on vantage are automatically in light cover to models 2 inches below them, and the NPOs should really be favouring cover over getting suicide shots. I had more time this morning so decided to redo was in order.

I gave the NPO guardsmen two heavy barricades, a minefield, and some krak grenades for more firepower.

The Black Storm kill team raised their voices in praise to Quintara and they were fortified in their minds and bodies (aka Mark of Nurgle to represent the obliterator virus affecting them).

For equipment, heavy barricade, ladders, frag grenades, and Warded Armour.

Balefire Acolyte is trying to keep from getting sniped this time.

The NPOs avoided clustering together to avoid the reaper chaincannon torrent 2", but the light cover still is not enough to keep from suffering wounds.

Everyone is being dodgy.

The gunner takes aim and even with cover saves the guardsmen falls to the searing plasma.

After one turning point, the NPOs have suffering three incapications, but the marines are all still standing.

Winning initiative, the NPO went for the krak grenade and wounded the annointed and hopefully pull him out of position.

The annointed in turn unleashed the deamon, charged and killed one NPO, and when the second NPO with close combat weapons charged, he dispatched that fool as well. But even despite the Mark of Quintara and the daemonic energies, he only has 2 wounds left.

The Chosen of Quintara moves in, sabotages the objective, and plasma pistols the nearby operative to death (even with a cover save).

The butcher charged out a door, clambered up to the vantage and chopped an NPO in halve. Later, he would make another 2 inch charge to engage the nearly dead NPO stuck there with him.

The gunner climbed up and rained overcharged plasma on another NPO who basically disolved and at this point I called it. Even with incoming reinforcements the NPOs were down to a fraction of their power and the marines were still 6 models strong with only two wounds (which they ignored the effects of due to the Nurgle strat ploy).

Conclusion:

Taking a large number of marksmen (aka shooty) NPOs is still insufficient to deal with the Legionaries and their powerful weapons, saves, and ploys. I'm going to do some research and see if anyone has some tips, and maybe next time I'll try the squishier Corsairs.

Solo Mission 2: Sabotage

In my first foray into solo missions, the Black Storm legionaries walked over the Ork NPOs with nary a scratch. I decided to try the second mission, Sabotage, as something to fool around with on a Sunday evening for an hour.

The board setup with three objectives to sabotage, the Death Korps filling in as the NPOs.

To keep bookkeeping easy I selected 13 basic trooper marksmen, with 4 of them with a special weapon.

Right from the start the firepower of the guardsmen made themselves be known, wounding the Balefyre Acolyte.

As the guardsmen advanced to firing positions, the Heavy Gunner and his Reaper Chaincannon made them pay the price. Hooray for Torrent 2".

The high ground let the guardsmen kill off the sorcerer. Egads! Am I am trouble?

 

The Annointed trading shots with the aggressive Guardsmen.

After turning point 1, the marines are feeling the weight of that massed lasgun firepower...

.. But the chainaxe has yet to be unleashed! Also see how I tried to get some small LED lights to give the interiors some illumination? Did not last long enough :(

Turning point two, the Heavy Gunner get some high ground...

... and makes good use of Torrent 2" again. Brutal!

In the main stronghold the Chosen slices and dices a guardsman but rolled 4 ones on the plasma pistol in an effort for the double kill.

The Annointed unlesashed the daemon so was able to absolutely wreck this guy but could no longer sabotage the objective.

The objective on the other flank was easily sabotaged (or chopped up).

After the second turning point, the right flank has collapsed (bottom of pic) and the marines are starting to roll up the middle.

Since they lost half their number, they get two reinforcements.

The plasma gunner who has been unremarkable this battle except overheating his weapon and hurting himself, dies to accurate lasgun fire.

In the centre the Chosen kills one guardsman...

... and the Butcher cleaves the other, and chops another objective up. 

At the end of turning point three the guardsmen are running out of blood to donate as the marines roll up the last flank.

More reinforcements arrive....

... but the Chosen walks out the door and sabotages the last objective to win the game.

I didn't use Marks or equipment or strategy/firefight ploys this game, as I was looking for just some fun rolling some dice and I didn't think I needed it against the NPOs.

I realize afterwards that I messed up the logic for the NPOs, they should have preferred cover over going for the shots, so I will need to keep that in mind next time.

Overall a fun little distraction.