Vitritian Interregnum: Game 4

Ankor Thrume processed the rotting, particle-laden air through the grille of his augmetic filtration units and gazed at the burning skyline of Grestian Bay, the Heretic forces had broken through the noble Skitarii's initial attempts at containing them in the Outlands. They had tracked the Chaos forces movements across the dried ocean floors of the planet and waited as they set up a base of operations in Grestian Bay, confirming the blessed Magi's hypothesis that the next clue to the Omnissiahs artifact was buried somewhere within the vast sprawl of once majestic trading concourses and coastal palaces. It was his duty to ensure that they did not escape again, the vast campaign of orbital bombardment and Precision Airstrikes had been in service to this end, crippling the lesser forces of the unaugmented human infantry that stood in his Maniples direct line of advance, and ensuring that all avenues available to other traitor armored groups or fast reaction infantry were mired in chemical fire, rubble, and debris.

His true target was finally revealing itself, clad in ceramite and gripping chainswords, backlit by the white glow of centuries dead city. Thrume would have grinned if he still had a mouth; he pulsed deployment orders to his Maniple across the noosphere. The Battle was nigh

 

Centurions of Innocence 5th Company [Chaos Space Marines]

Points: 753

Legion: World Eaters

HQ

[Warlord] "The Lamb"  Chaos Lord 

        - Trait: Violent Urgency

        - Mark of Khorne, Plasma Pistol, Ul'o'cca the Black Axe

Daemon Prince

        -Hellforged Sword, Mark of Khorne, Talisman of Burning Blood, Wings

Exalted Champion

        -Mark of Khorne, Gorefather, Plasma Pistol.

Troops

Chaos Cultists

        -9 Cultists W/ Autogun, 1 Cult Champion, Mark of Khorne

Khorne Berzerkers

        -3 Berzerkers with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, 

        -1 Berzerkers with Plasma Pistol and Chainsword

        -1 Berzerker Champion with Plasma Pistol and Power Fist

Khorne Berzerkers

        -3 Berzerkers with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, 

        -1 Berzerkers with Plasma Pistol and Chainsword

        -1 Berzerker Champion with Plasma Pistol and Power Fist

Elites

Helbrute

        -Mark of Khorne, Power Scourge, and Reaper Autocannon

Possessed 

        -5 Possessed, Mark of Khorne.

Skitarii of Forge World Metallica [Adeptus Mechanicus]

Points: 744

Forge World:  Metallica

HQ

[Warlord] "Ankor Thrume Uh-8"  Techpriest Enginseer

        - Trait: Learnings of the Genetor (PA)

        - The Omniscient Mask

Techpriest Manipulus 

        -Trait: Divinations of the Magos

        -Magnarail Lance, Mechanicus Locum 

Troops

Skitarii Vanguards

        -4 Vanguard with Radium Carbines

        -1 Vanguard Alpha with Radium Carbine

Skitarii Vanguards

        -4 Vanguard with Radium Carbines

        -1 Vanguard Alpha with Radium Carbine

Skitarii Vanguards

        -4 Vanguard with Radium Carbines

        -1 Vanguard Alpha with Radium Carbine

Elites

Secutarii Hoplites

        -9 Secutarii Hoplites with Arc Lances, and Mag-Inverter Shield

        -1 Hoplite Alpha with Arc Lance, and Mag-Inverter Shield

Secutarii Hoplites

        -9 Secutarii Hoplites with Arc Lances, and Mag-Inverter Shield

        -1 Hoplite Alpha with Arc Lance, and Mag-Inverter Shield

Sicarian Ruststalkers

        -5 Sicarian Ruststalkers with Chordclaws and Transonic Razor

        -1 Ruststalker Princeps with Transonic Blades

Fast Attack

Sydonian Dragoons

        -3 Sydonian Dragoons with Phosphor Serpenta and Taser Lance

Dedicated Transport

Skorpius Dunerider

        -2 Cognis Heavy Stubbers, Twin Cognis Heavy Stubber

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So, myself and Chris are back at it again, with our Chaos versus Adeptus Mechanicus narrative slow-grow campaign. This time, the mission was a pure and simple Kill Points game, with deployment along long table edges, as it was likely to be the last game we played in 8th Edition, it felt appropriate to use the "classic" game setup.

The Mechanicus Set up, along the town's outskirts, with the Dunerider on their far-right and filled with Sicarian Infiltrators, the core of the battleline comprised of Vanguard and Hoplites is a vicious prospect to attack, and the Sydonian Dragoons are a punishing unit that, if you allow them to survive will absolutely tear a hole in your forces.  Chris' Mechanicus force is very interesting, as its highly aggressive and close combat-focused, with aura debuffs from vanguard and truly intimidating damage output from their specialist units.

My Chaos forces set up within the heart of the town, I was attempting to get as far forward as I could, and overlap my Character's aura abilities onto my Berzerkers, which would be pivotal if I was going to overcome the Vanguard-Hoplite wall

I lose a Berzerker squad to the entire armies worth of Mechanicus fire, and move up my troops, using the cultists to screen my left from the transport mounted Ruststalkers, and positioning the rest in preparation for a charge

Both forces move forward aggressively, I think I made a critical error in this turn, with my placement of the Daemon Prince, I chose to go after the core of the Mechanicus forces, which hampered my placement of models and likely led to their encirclement and destruction in the coming turn. I was considering going after the Dunerider and its occupants with the prince, which may have been a better choice as it would have forced some of the Mechanicus' infantry to either commit to helping the Infiltrators, or at the very least would have slowed the Ruststalkers down

I committed the majority of forces into destroying the Sydonian Dragoons, (which are an excellent "distraction carnifex" im finding), this led to me killing that target, and damaging some Vanguard, but opening up the majority of my force to be counter charged by Hoplites. My hope was that I would have enough of my forces left after the counter attack, to be able to break out and continue my attack, this proved to be wishful thinking.

In the end, the Mechanicus' Counter-attack, consisting of both HQ characters, debuffing Vanguard, and the very hard hitting Hoplites did a lot more damage to my main forces than I was really hoping they would, and the Ruststalkers tore into my rearguard and really shut down the game. It was a textbook encirclement by Chris, and I do really need to be more careful with how I commit to different targets in Melee. I think that target prioritization really cost me the game here, but regardless it was a ton of fun to play, and i'm looking forward to locking blades again with Chris soon in 9th Edition.

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you all stay safe!

Jornath: Goading the Hoard.

As the System Fleet and Battlefleet Vahland fight a holding action against the amassing Ork Invasion Fleet, Astartes forces on Ankou's surface engage renegade Ankouvian's turned feral by xenos psyco-scrapcode, and begin to lockdown Linces Hive, the Capital of Jornath's errant moon, and the crux for the Imperial's defense plans. In the out-hab zones, Knights of House Raven lure off swathes of aliens from their landing zones, destroying them in detail or guiding them into carefully prepared Imperial Guard kill zones. These baiting strikes are wildly successful, buying time for the Imperial Dragoons and other Astartes to fully secure Linces and begin working with a flood of freshly arriving Guard Regiments to fortify the Hive and prepare the moon to bulwark against the coming greenskin storm.

Sir Heximus in the Unyielding Storm, and his attendant Armigers, race through the Hildegard Residential Precinct, breaking nearly a thousand greenskins into smaller groups among the blasted ruins, before striking with massed autocannons, and the crashing might of metal feet into the alien's loose ranks 

The Cadian 32nd and Idirian 5th lend Las and Cannon shot to the cause, scything down Orks under Jagtur Bazz Wursnik in a shattered freight management yard. 

The Vitritian Interregnum: Game 3

Brother Sergeant Santius, strode over the discarded bodies of the Skitarii. The battlefield had a curiously perfumed smell, absent was the smell of blood and decay, replaced instead with the tang of hydraulic fluids and the cold stasis of long-dead flesh. It made his eye tick with the passionless nature of it, The Lamb, in particular, was despondent, as it riffled through the shattered corpses of the Mechancius footsoldiers looking for whatever its daemon addled brain judged significant enough to justify a ritual offering. He turned his attention from the possessed creature to the throng of human soldiery standing around the Cogitator Array that the Imperials had fought so hard to defend. It was an old piece of technology, a governing unit for this section of the outland promethium pipelines, it remained to be seen the significance of this seemingly innocuous terminal. 

"Report Lieutenant" Santius growled down at the leader of the Human throng. 

"My Lord, we have performed a cursory analysis of this Cogitator and noticed an abnormality. It appears this terminal is being used to mirror the signal output of a primary mainframe structure within the planet's former defense force headquarters. We are still trying to ascertain precisely why this terminal is running such a protocol, and have requested the honored Tech-Priests aboard the ship to send us specialists for this matter."  

"Very good, continue to fortify the area with reserve assets while we await the Mechanicus." Santius said to the human, mulling over the information he turned and began to walk towards the dilapidated bunker complex, when the Inter-squad vox erupted with the tectonic voice of Sergeant Ocan. 

"Santius, the 14th Rallen's pickets have reported massed Mechanicus armor moving a few kilometers away, with a speartip of specialist infantry advancing to the heights at marker 023045. I am already moving my squad to the location." 

"Affirmative Brother, we will join you shortly" retorted Santius, closing the link and grabbing the hilt of his chainsword

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This is the third game of myself and Chris' slow-grow narrative campaign, we've bumped the points up a little for this game moving up to 750pts.  The mission this time is Search and Destroy with 4 Objectives, and a classic 12" up off the long table edge deployment zone. 

The Centurions of Innocence 750pts 

Daemon Prince of Khorne, with Wings, Warp Bolter and Talisman of Burning Blood

[Warlord] Chaos Lord with the Black Axe of Ul'occa and plasma pistol - Violent Urgency Trait

Exalted Champion with Berzerkers Glaive and Plasma Pistol

3x Khorne Berzerker Squads of 5 Men, Champion has a Plasma Pistol and Power Fist, Three Berzerkers with Chainsword and Bolt Pistol and one Berzerker with Plasma Pistol and Chainsword.

3x Mutilators 

Skitarii of Metallica Forge World 750pts

Techpriest Enginseer

Techpriest Manipulus 

3x 6 man Skitarii Vanguard units, Leader has a Taser-Goad, one man has a Plasma Culverin 

2x 10 man Skitarii Titan Guard Hoplites

5 Man Sicarian Infiltrators 

3 Sydonian Dragoons

I chose to deploy as far forward as possible for obvious reasons with the Daemon Prince nestled safely inside a bunker to avoid all the nasty Plasma fire and trying to be as wily as I could to not fall into the same baiting trap with my Prince as I could. Chris' Mechanicus are vicious in close combat, Hoplites have power close combat weapons and a 4+ Invuln in close combat, that paired with Vanguard's aura of -1 Toughness can be potent, and I couldn't risk having to deal with Dragoons on top of that. 

I consolidated my right most squad to hold my Homefield objective and act as a reserve if the Hoplites proved too much for the Berzerkers and Characters. All the other units moved boldly through the tight center alley of the table. The Daemon Prince smashed into the Dragoons, killing the brutal Mechanicus cavalry before they could tear a neat hole into the middle of my forces. 

Plasma fire and the Ranged attack from the Hoplites takes a gruesome toll on the advancing Chaos Marines. The Hoplites make a charge and attempt to assault as many of the Heretics as they possibly can finishing off several and dealing many wounds to the Chaos Lord, but unfortunately for the Mechanicus, I made a truly ridiculous amount of saves and the damage was not enough. In return, the elite Skitarii were put to the sword. 

The other squad of Skitarii moved to engage the daemon prince and would attempt to kill the rampaging Chaos monster, only to be answered with a handful of casualties for their trouble

The Mutilators Deep Strike at the start of Turn three to threaten the secondary Mechanicus home Objective

The Daemon Prince, Champion, and Lord alongside the two remaining Berzerker Squad Leaders sweep into the Vanguard, Hoplites and Techpriest Manipulus, freeing the Daemon Prince from his being pinned in combat, killing the Techpriest and tearing a vanguard unit to pieces. 

With my Command Cadre and Mutilators in his deployment zone, and a fresh unit of Berzerkers in my backfield to counter the arrival of the Infiltrators the Mechanicus Concede the game.

Centurions of Innocence Victory

The Vitritian Interregnum: Game 2

The air was still aboard the precisely climate-controlled bridge of the Ark Mechanicus' Belator Aux Om, the thrumming modulation of hundreds of cogitators reverberating with the slow and steady heartbeat rhythm of the ships' warp reactor. It was a type of hymn to the crew, a sort of sarkic subliminal mantra which, by rights of its source produced the most pristine serenity of thought, which the host of cybernetic transhumans that lived, worked and died in service aboard this ship felt was a loadstone for the successful completion of their duties. Though for one member of this congregation of metal men, the calming aspect of the ship's mechanisms was proving insufficient to quell an all too human feeling of trepidation and anger.  The error-abort code screeched out into the stillness of the chamber, and Drahlikar Thrume Prime Hermeticon of Metallica Exploration Mandate MT045-371 turned from his ministrations at the data lathe and moved on multiple sets of metal limbs over to the communications cradle, and bending forwards to draw his sculpted inhuman face closer to the cogitator screens collating streams of incoming Skitarii Communications from the planet's surface. Submerging his consciousness into the data, Thrume quickly found the source of the Error-Abort,  Techpriest Jeremiah Azule, working in the shattered Prime Fabrication complex to dredge the ruined mainframe stacks there for any hint of their prizes location. Going into the backup archives of Azule's Digital Hippocampus, Thrume discovered the tiny hint of useful location data his forces discovered, and carefully picked apart biometric information about his Skitarii, analyzing registered trauma, adrenal response and damage telemetry, all collated by Azule in the lead up to the Error-Abort. 

"Locals?" mused Thrume, the feudalistic societies of degenerate mutants, descended of the planets few thousand survivors were rather hostile, but hardly a threat to the faithful of the machine-god. He dug further, finally accessing the squad level communications, and a shot of fear struck him as he saw that hateful word suspended in noosphereic information.

"ASTARTES"

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Its game 2 of our slow growth Mechanicus versus Chaos Marines campaign. We have kept the forces the same from game 1, and we opted to use a newly purchased neoprene gaming mat to explore the Dead Lands outside the primary fabrication complex. Riddled with pipelines, storage containers and hardened bunkers, its sure to be a delightful environment to fight in. 

 

This time around we rolled "The Relic" mission from the main rulebook, with diagonally opposed deployment zones.  A fairly straight forward mission, the relic features a single objective placed in the center of the table, that can be picked up and moved by whichever side is in control of it. The winner is the side in control of this relic by the end of the game. 

Centurions of Innocence. [500pts]

Daemon Prince [Dark Mechanicum Bio Assault Drone]  with Wings, Warp Bolter, and Talisman of Burning Blood.

Chaos Lord with Black Axe of Ul'Occa,

2x Khorne Berzerker Squads,  Champion with Power Fist and Plasma Pistol,  Marine with Plasma Pistol, and an Icon of Wrath for each squad.

10x Cultists.

Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii of Metallica Forge World [500pts]

Techpriest Engineseer

Techpriest Manipulus (represented by an Infiltrator Alpha figure)

Sicarian Infiltrators 

3x Skitarii Vanguard Squads

Sydonian Dragoons Squadron.

The Centurions deploy amidst the pipeworks, with the characters in cover and the formation led by Khorne Berzerkers.

The Mechanicus, deployed with the vanguard staggered to spread their de-buffing capabilities liberally across the lines, with the Infiltrators bringing up the center, and the Dragoons placed far enough away to dissuade the Daemon Prince from delivering a blow against them before they've gotten a chance to get stuck-in.

Of course, I only realized the bait after I was on the hook, with the Prince smashing into the Infiltrators and killing the squad, only to be himself crippled by the fearsome counter-assault of the Dragoons.

The rest of the Centurions move up the center.

The proud Skitarii of Metallica, consolidate ready to receive the Khornate charge 

With the air rippling with rad-waves, and tormented by the roar of chainswords the battle lines crashed together

But sadly for the scions of the Machine God, the fight twice rules for Berzerkers are ruthless in close combat.

The Cultists secure the Relic as the rest of the Centurions force charges into the Dragoons

As the dust settles, the last Dragoons falls to the blades of the Chaos Lord and the Berzerkers, leaving the game a victory for the forces of Chaos. 

-Your Favorite Madman-