2008/06/22: PAGE Sunday Night Fights

While on Tour of dark Segmentum Ethica in deep space, from which many perplexing and troublesome accounts had recently been had...

While surveying the recently ruined Imperial city of Harmonus, the Kingbreakers learned of sacred Imperial Relics still remaining in a monument in the center of town. Fearing the loss of those relics to whatever force destroyed the city, several squads were dispatched to reclaim them. En route they were beset by Imperial Guard forces! After short deliberations it was determined that the local IG garrison had likely turned traitor and destroyed the city themselves. Tactical 2 attempted to creep through the ruins toward the objective.

Tac 2: Obliterated by Russ and hvy wep lascannons while sneaking toward objective
Tactical 3: Successfully laid down covering missile fire, obliterating many guard; rushed objective near end, did not quite make it in time
Terminator 1: Deep Striked down on top of cowardly Guardsmen, and laid waste to a large squad with storm bolter and heavy flamer fire. They then rushed into close combat and ripped the survivors to pieces. Standing tall in the face of withering lascannon fire, they immediately turned and charged the heavy weapons squad, demolishing the unit with ease, and immediately engaged the Leman Russ, which had to backpedal furiously to avoid their wrath.

While establishing a defensive base on the polar world of Lechten 9, around one of the key anti-ship weapons in the system, Kingbreakers were attacked by invading Tau!

Scout 1, on patrol among the ice caves and spires on the far reaches of the installation, bravely sacrificed their lives to hold back the enemy onslaught for precious time. Sergeant Talun in particular danced among the glittering ice, holding back stealth suited heathens in a solo battle with chainsword and pistol. Devastator 1 engaged in brief firefight with Tau sniper drones before focusing their attention on their commander. Raining down a wall of plasma, laser, and missile fire, he quickly succumbed to their attacks. As devastator 1 was finall picked off by Tau snipers, the Tau advance force made it into the installation proper. Fearing the loss of the monstrous planetary weapon, Captain Angholan himself leapt into battle and easily annihilated the entire squad, cleaving through them with his power sword. Ever vigilant, he then challenged the remaining Tau to hand to hand combat, but they denied the privilege.

Moving on, all of the remaining Kingbreakers forces in the system were called to halt a massive Tyranid onslaught against one of many sprawling militia bases on the planet Gilles. Vastly outnumbered by two to one odds, the marines dug in behind any cover they could find and braced for impact.

Tactical 1 watched the left flanks, raining bolter fire down on advancing Genestealers.
Scout 1 engaged from the middle, stoically eliminating Infiltrating Genestealers
Terminator 1 suffered from a malfunctioning teleporter and could not Deep Strike down in time.
Tactical 3-B also arrived late, forced to travel overland from many clicks away after their transport crashed en route.
Tactical 3 bunkered down in a ruined barracks with Captain Angholan.
Tac 3 made many successful missile attacks against the onrushing Genestealers and Hormagaunts, but were eventually eliminated by heavy weapons units launching some sort of vile, living attacks against them and Captain Angholan moved to reinforce Tac 3-b which had finally arrived on scene.
Scout 1 was assaulted by small units but bravely held their ground as the enemy crashed through their barbed wire barricades.
Meanwhile, Tactical 1 watched in horror as massive Tyranid warriors Deep Striked down directly in front of their lines while a horde of Genestealers made a critical simultaneous attack. The troops took many xenos bodies with them, but were quickly cut to pieces and boarded their waiting Oliphant transport to scramble for open room.
Their original prey now out of range, the Warriors quickly rushed through the rubble to flank and assault Scout 1, obliterating the precious new recruits.
Meanwhile, Oliphant 1 could not drive swiftly enough to stay ahead of the horde onslaught and was quickly overcome and destroyed by penetrating Genestealers. The remaining members of Tac 1 barely managed to escape with their lives.

Campaign success

Stats & Results

Three games in about 4.5 hours plus 45 minutes total setup/takedown, resulting in:

• 500 pts Imperial Guard (Matt G) vs 493 pts Kingbreakers (Joe K), Cities of Death Take at All Cost mission: Moderate IG victory by pts killed---objective unclaimed
• 474 pts Tau (Akil H) vs 477 pts Kingbreakers (Joe K), Hold at All Costs mission: Moderate Kingbreakers victory---objective safely defended, roughly equal points loss
• 1600 pts Tyranid (Dave W) vs 851 pts Kingbreakers (Joe K), Cleanse mission: Moderate Tyranid victory by pts killed---many Tyranids killed, just enough to not be a crushing loss, and significant bonuses to Kingbreakers for fighting against overwhelming odds

Overall tournament result: Kingbreakers victory!

Lessons

Many lessons were learned tonight:

• Don't wait too long to Deep Strike your Terminators. Holding until they'll be most effective is important, but so is getting them into the game. Be aware of time constraints ending the game prematurely, before you can get them in.
• Always get your captain into a unit and up front if it's going to be assaulted. Get him out of the unit if it's going to be wiped out in shooting...
• Use vehicles to advance units forward under cover---not necessarily in the unit, perhaps just moving along behind it.
• Get units onto the objective, ASAP!
• Some stratagems are more useful than others. Holy Ground probably bests Boobytraps.
• Don't forget to use your Auspex attacks if available!!!