2008/06/04: Lunchbreak 250

While patrolling on the far reaches of the galactic perimeter, Kingbreakers naval forces detected a small escape pod exiting the Warp at high velocity and tracked its crash landing on an uncharted planet. A small detachment of Marines led by Captain Bolingen, of the Imperial Fists detachment on longterm loan to the Kingbreakers, was quickly dispatched to investigate, hoping to retrieve useful archeotech or even a long-lost hero of legend.

Upon finding the pod on the ground, however, they encountered Space Marines of a previously unknown chapter! With no signals returned, the Kingbreakers assumed the worst and opened fire, with Tactical Squad 1 sprinting to secure the pod. Unexpectedly, once there they were quickly surprised by enemy Scouts that had slipped undetected through the battlefield. Unwilling to sacrifice their momentum, the squad dived into Close Combat with the Scouts. The fighting was fierce and close however, and Tactical 1 started taking losses immediately from nimble Scout daggers and pistols.

Enraged by this sight, Captain Bolingen rushed into the fray as well. Sadly though, he was too late to aid his newfound brothers-in-arms and arrived just as the enemy's own captain joined the fight and slew the remnants of Tactical 1. The fearsome captains then pounded at each other in hand to hand combat as Bolingen did his best to also fend off the encircling Scouts. Minute after minute went on as the two beat on each other in a swirl of sparks and thunderous melee. In the end though the numbers were simply too much for even such a great champion. A slight mis-step from a lucky Scout Wound gave the enemy captain just enough of an opening to shatter Bolingen's Terminator Armor with his power sword and the hero slumped to the ground.

While the melee was raging, Tactical 2 had craftily moved through the battlefield toward the pod, avoiding incoming missiles while laying down Heavy Bolter fire to suppress the remainder of the enemy troops. Blinded by bloodlust though as they watched Bolingen fall, and afraid of losing the objective for which their comrades had sacrificed so much, the squad quickly plunged into their own Assault on the enemy forces. By that point though, the momentum had been lost to the enemy and the rampaging captain and his bloodthirtsy Scouts eviscerated the remaining Kingbreakers. A sad day for the chapter that will be lamented for years to come...

Stats

Dave W & Joe K, 250 points, about an hour with some BSing at the start.

Results

A staggering defeat for the Kingbreakers! The taint of this failure may never be completely wiped clean. All 249 points of Kingbreakers wiped off the map, all in assaults against vicious scouts and a raging, psychotic captain. Maybe 50 points of damage to the opponents, mostly from Heavy Bolter fire.

Lessons

Normal tactical troops cannot assault worth a crap. The unit came forward early to try and secure the objective, which would have also provided cover against incoming missile fire. That seemed reasonable, but the way the cover worked out they got no shots at the scouts before I felt I had to assault in order to not give them the +1 Charge bonus on their turn. Having a sergeant with a chainsword in the squad would have helped slightly, but in the end the scouts were just rolling so many more attacks. Combined with their captain being in there with a power sword as well, and they went down like cornstalks.

At that point the second tac group should have held back and taken shots at the scouts, but terrain would have made that difficult. The squad also had a good opportunity to move without being exposed to missile fire, and I was concerned about not being near the objective if we ran out of time. In the end though, even with our captain joining the fray, they did little against the scouts.

The Heavy Bolter functioned well in a movement suppression role. Not as scary as a missile launcher, but cheaper and effective.

Terminator Captains are probably wasted without a power sword.