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 Siege of Lychke. Fight for Gran Lagoon.

"In those first weeks, we didn't really know what to expect...  We'd never fought troops from the Interior systems before.  Rumors spread all over the place, that they had nightmarish machines of death that defied rational explanation by a rough man.  When they finally hit our line,  we learned that they were tough as nails, tenacious, and well equipped. But they' ain't no damn nightmare. That'd happen a bit later..."  - Excerpt from RSgt. Louis Ominov's  "Marshes of Lead"


Sector:   Western Lychke. [ 20km Outside of the City. ]

Strategic Situation: SecMass, elements of unknown disposition are advancing en masse, into small prepared positions along the "Gran Lagoon Highway", being held by the 5th CMI Mechanized Brigade. This road offers the best avenue for quick ground force movements, and is a critical supply artery into the city.


Tactical Situation: On a smaller Company and Platoon level,  groups of inexperienced recruit squads, and CT-8 Armored Support Vehicles hold the road from mobile defense positions,  in places backed up by Tank destroyers, and larger MBT's. These forces will be going up against forward assault elements of the Corporate Army, such as MRAP's, Basic Infantry, and superior officers, which would be attempting to effect a breakthrough.

A section of the Gran Lagoon Highway.

CMI (Left)    SecMass (Right)

Conclave Platoon Command. Directing his units fire.

Effectively, just Trained militia, the plucky men and women of the recruit squads were found far from wanting during the fighting across the highway. 

SecMass Infantry cross the Highway and shelter in the edge of the woods from sporadic CMI fire.

A CMI CT-5 Tank Destroyer firers into a SecMass MRAP across the marshes 

Secmass Troops advance on the western edge of the map, trying to get an advantage.

They advance just as recruits get to the top of the hill. A fierce but brief firefight erupted as the two units tore into one another. The recruits, coming out worse for wear. But not without hampering the SecMass advance significantly. 

On the Eastern edge, The command team and other recruit squad, charge the forest, to dislodge the enemy infantry there. 

Ultimately failing to get to the forest,  the Infantry go to ground and initiate a prolonged firefight with the corporate units. 

Conclusion:  SecMass Victory. 

Despite having initial success in disabling SecMass vehicle support, CMI units had a much tougher time dealing with the well equipped and disciplined Corporate Squads, as they advanced through ditches and tangled patches of foliage.   The Conclave suffered casualties in the form of its Recruit Squads, while these units acted with valor and, in many cases fought to the man, their inexperience and lack of high tech equipment would prove the ultimate deciding factor. The 5th CMI Mech. Brigade, has initiated its fighting withdraw to its fallback positions in the cities military district.