Telhdrat Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 So as the second phase of our campaign started I wanted to play on my Zone Mortalis board. It's not finished yet, but the more I've painted it the more I've wanted to play on it and I could no longer wait. So the second phase would start with some intense close quarters fighting... As the traitors land more forces on Isstvan III the battles move deeper into the city with the loyalist retreating in the face of the overwhelming force. Not all are fought on the surface as many loyalist use the catacombs and tunnels running beneath the surface to move around despite the total air superiority of the traitors. However, the traitors aren't simply letting them do as they please and are hot in pursuit. And so the subterranean sectors of the city see some heavy fighting... Defending Emperor's Children Loyalist Forces: Praetor with Paragon Blade 10 Man Tactical Squad with bolters, Power Sword &Meltabombs Sergeant 10 Man Assault Squad, Power Sword & Meltabombs Sergeant 5 Man Palatine Blades with Power Swords Ancient Rylanor 5 Man Heavy Support Squad with Autocannons Attacking Son of Horus Traitor Forces: Primus Medicae with Power Sword 10 Man Tactical Squad with Bolters, Sergeant with Combi-plasma 15 Man Tactical Squad with Bolter, Bolt Pistols & CCW, Sergeant with Plasma Pistol Contemptor Dreadnouhgt with Twin-linked Heavy Bolter, Powerfist with Plasma Blaster 5 Man Terminator Squad, Combiplasma, Reaper Autocannon, Thunder Hammer, Lightning Claw, Sergeant with Grendade Harness & Combiplasma 4 Man Justaerin Terminator Squad, 2x Combi Melta, 2x Power Fists Mission and Deployment The mission we played was Sabotage, with the attacking traitors objetive to crush loyalist morale by bringing down three monuments of the Imperium. The traitors chose the Contemptor, the larger tactical squad and the Terminator Squad as their spearhead and deployed in one corner. Both side rolled World Burner as their warlord traits, giving their squads acces to some very lethal fragmentation grenades (and a powerful heavy flamer for Rylanor). The loyalists deployed in the opposite corner across the large storage room, forming their spearhead from the Heavy Suppor Squad, the Tactical Squad, and Ancient Rylanor. Deployment Traitor Turn One: The traitors move forward, with the tactical squad heading towards the Space Marine statue defended by the Emperor's Children Tactical Squad. The Contemptor opens the door before it and heads toward the storage room. The terminators move towards the same area, but take another route. Taunted by the Emperor's Children over the vox, they smash the door to the storage room with their Thunder Hammer... Traitors advance The Terminators break down the door... Loyalist Turn One: ...and are immediately fired upon … which is just what the loyalists wanted them to do. While their Tactical Squad moves forward to intercept the Sons of Horus Tactical Marines, ther rest of the loyalist open fire on the now revealed terminators. The doorway is peppered with heavy calibre fire and two of the terminators fall. Even better, the remaining three decide that there's too much firepower directed against this area and retreat. Traitor Turn Two: All of the traitor reserves arrive, but as the cowardly terminators retreat even futher the traitors realize a significant flaw in their plans. The Justaerin are well protected by their bulky Cataprachtii plate, but it also slows them down and with the terminators' retreat the Contemptor is left alone to carry the battle to loyalist on the traitor left flank. The terminators continue to fall back On their right flank the larger Tactical Squad move forward to get a visual one of the objectives. With another Tactical Squad and the Primus Medicae they vastly outnumber their foes, they decide to ignore the Emperor's Children closing on them and run up to line a shot at the objective. The Son of Horus run for the objective The Contemptor swings around the corner and opens fire, killing one of the autocannon marines. Loyalist Turn Two: Ancient Rylanor steps forward, preparing to teach the loyalist dreadnought a few lessons. Together with the Heavy Support Squad they open fire. The Son of Horus Contemptor shrugs it all of thanks to the atomantic shielding, and Rylanor proves unable to reach it up close. The Tactical Squad rejoices as their leader arrives with a bodyguard of Palatine Blades, and push forward to engage the enemy. They fling a modified frag grenade at the Sons of Horus and pepper them with bolt pistol fire as well. The pistol fire ricochets of the traitor armour but in the tight corridors the grenade proves lethat and four of the traitor marines die. The Emperor's Children throw a grenade... ... killing four as the Palatine Blades and Praetor's arrive to reinforce them Not willing to give the Sons of Horus a moment to recover they then charge in. Unfortunately the traitors react quickly and bring three Emperor's Children down with their return fire. Their sergeant shouts a challenge but the cowardly Son of Horus ignores him and simply orders his own men to kill the attackers while he leads from the rear. Both sides then manage to kill two of their opposing number and the fight goes on. The Emperor's Children charge in The combatants prove evenly matched Traitor Turn Three: Finding resolve from the sight of Justaering lumbering forwards the terminators regroup. Considering his options for a moment the Primus Medicae then orders his accompanying Tactical Squad to head for the storage room while he himself moves to reinforce the engaged Tactical Squad. Traitor Reinforcement moves on Unfortunately, there is no room for him to join the fight, the press of bodies too tight in the corridors and he is simply forced to watch from the side. Again, the Son of Horus refuses to duel, choosing tactical advantage over the change of personal glory. This proves the right choice as the Sons of Horus cut three of the Emperor's Children down whilst losing only one of their own. Inspired by the knowledge of Rylanor fighting with them the Emperor's Children don't even think about retreat and instead prepare to receive some deadly reinforcement. The Sons of Horus gain an upper hand While the Justaerin fail to reach the door, the Contemptor charges Rylanor, heedless of his reputation. The Dreanought face each other And he is proven right, as Rylanor swings it fist at him and hardly manages to even scrath the paintwork. He then smashes his own fist trough Rylanor's plating and tears the generator apart blowing the ancient up in a shower of ceramite. Even the ancients may fall Loyalist Turn Three: Hearing of the loss of Ancient Rylanor the Assault Squad arrives to aid the autocannon squad. Their thoughts filled with vengeance the Heavy Suppor Squad opens fire but again the Sons of Horus dreadnought simply shrugs it all of. Loyalist Reinforcements arrive On the other flank, the Praetor leads the Palatine Blades to assist the beleaguered Tactical Squad. They crash in to the Sons of Horus with the Prefector shouting a challenge, and this time, trying to protect his men, the Son of Horus sergeant accepts. It is all for nothing and he simply becomes the first to die, while the Praetor and the rest of the Palatine Blades slay all the traitors without a single loss in return. Having cut all their foes down, the Palatine Blades move towards the lone traitor Primus Medicae, while the remaining members of the Tactical Squad withdraw to rest from the vicious fighting. The Sons of Horus are no mathc for the Palatine Blades Suddenly alone, the traitor leader calls for help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telhdrat Posted September 29, 2014 Author Share Posted September 29, 2014 Traitor Turn Four: The Justaerin finally reach the door and open it but they are still far from the fighting and begin to wonder if they'll make it in time at all. The lumbering Justaerin try to press on The Contemptor, knowing it cannot reach the objective before the enemy Assault Squad intercepts it chooses instead to push forward and attack the Heavy Suppor Squad, having grown annoyed of their constant but ineffective fire. The Primus Medicae, suddenly alone, calls for help and the second Tactical Squad is forced to divert back to help him. The regrouped terminators also heed the call, but are still far away in their ponderous Cataprachtii suits. With the Tactical Squad joining him, they open fire at the Palatine Blades and the Primus Medicae brings down the Prefector with a well placed Needle Pistol shot, while the Tactical Squad kill two other members of the enemy squad. Three fall to the traitor fire but is it enough? The Contemptor kills the sergeant on the way in and then reaches the rest of Heavy Support squad, taking minor hull damage from their hasty covering fire. He then tears two of them apart but is unable to reach the last due to intervening enemy Assault Squad. Instead, it reloads its weapons and prepares to face the inevitable counterattack. The Contemptor mauls the Heavy Support Squad The overall situation Loyalist Turn Four: Due to the casualties to the Palatine Blades the Emperor's Children Tactical Squad is forced back into the fight. Together they throw grenades and fire pistols, killing three Sons of Horus. The Loyalists return fire... Then with the Tactical Squad leading they charge in. The traitor defensive fire is well cordinated, however and both members of the Tactical Squad are killed. The Praetor then issues a challenge, and unwilling to stay out of the fight the Primus Medicae accepts, despite knowing he is outmatched. ... and charge in The Praetor quickly slashes at the enemy, but the reftractor field saves the Medicae's life and he is only wounded. The Medicae strikes back but in unable to pierce the Emperor's Children's thick armour. The Palatine Blades again prove their mastery of swordsmanship as they avoid all enemy blows and slay four of the traitors. The Palatine Blades take a heavy toll on the traitors again... ... and the rest are cut down as they attempt to run This proves too much for the traitor's resolve and they attempt to withdraw back to the terminators. The move proves ill adviced as the disciplined Emperor's Children cut them all down the moment their back is turned. Meanwhile on the other flank, the remainign autocannoneer fires at the Contemptor in preparation of the Assault Squad's attack and manages to damage its hull again. The Assault Squad then sally forth, grinning under their helmets as the Contemptor raises its arms to gun them down. Under heavy stress from the damage the dreadnought has suffered, the plasma blaster suffers a critical malfunction. The overload from the gun fries the warrior entombed inside and the dreadnought comes crashing down. Traitor Turn Five: With most of their forces slain, the situations begins to look grim for the traitors. Regardless, they push on. The Justaerin take a few long ranged bolter shots at the Assault Squad but it has no effect. The terminators press forward to avenge all their fallen and as their sergeant get a visual of the Palatine Blades he rises his gun. The corridor is filled with a bright flash as he pulls the trigger on the combi-plasma. However, as the light fades away the only casualty turns out to be the sergeant himself, his arm missing and armour scorched black from another critical plasma containment failure. The Adepts of Mechanicum will surely hear about this... A second critical plasma malfunction As casualties mount the end of the battle starts to come closer Loyalist Turn Five: Confident in their current situation the Assaul Squad hold it position as the autocannon fires at the Justaerin, the shells bouncing harmlessly off their black armour. The Praetor seizes the moment, and leads the remaining Palatine Blades against the Sons of Horus. Their ponderous Cataprachtii suits again proves more of a hindrance, as the Praetor quickly cuts the down, the extra protection their armour offers not enough against his skill. The Emperor's Children have no fear of the terminators... ... for a good reason Cursing at the incompetence of their brothers, the Justaerin report their deaths and request for extraction by teleport. As they vanish from the tunnels, the loaylist cheer. Despite the fall of Ancient Rylanor, they have bought time for their brothers elsewhere to establish better defensive positions. And since the foe was driven away, there is a change to see if something of the venerable warrior still remains... The battle at its end End Results A clear loyalist victory with four victory points for keeping all the objectives intact and slaying the enemy warlord, against the traitor's one victory point for first blood. Aside from bad luck with plasma weapons, I made several tactical errors with the traitors, the most notable of them being leaving the Justaerin in reserve. Cataprachtii plate might be tough, but without transport or deep strike it takes forever to move anywhere in it, and even coming in on turn two they were effectively out of the battle. On the other hand my brother swears he'll never take Contemptors again, as he always loses them without them doing any damage. The same for sergeants with power sword (the tactical sergean killed no one despite three turns of fighting against power armoured opponents). We'll see whether he stays true to his word or not... Overall, while this wasn't the fist time I played in Zone Mortalis, it was the first “normal” game in it and I must say it is just terrific. The tight corridors, limited routes, and extra rules really make a difference in how the game plays, and I heartily recommend trying it out. Also as a sidenote, while Forge World recommend 1000 point forces for 4'x4' board, we used 1250 and both felt that the board could easily been used with larger forces without becoming too cramped, though of course the forces used might change that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger9gamer Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Great report! =D Glad the loyalists brought low the dread traitors! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kor'Vesh Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Excellent report Telhdrat. Zone mortalis looks like stupid amounts of fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librisrouge Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Thanks for the report. I'm really enjoying these HH reports and suddenly wish I had the income to start a HH army. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Son of Carnelian Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Gripping report with good pictures and fantastic models. More, I say! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telhdrat Posted October 4, 2014 Author Share Posted October 4, 2014 Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the comments. And yes, Zone Mortalis is great fun, I really suggest trying it. More reports will come as we play more games, or at least that's the plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight of the Raven Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Lovely report. It's always nice to see battle reports with actual pictures of the actual battle, especially when all models are painted. P.S. you might want to remove the semi-colon from your Horus Heresy tag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telhdrat Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 Thanks. I rarely if ever play with unpainted models these days (though I might occasionally use unfinished models or terrain- like the ZM board here) as the visual side of the hobby has become more important to me over the years. I used to do it younger but I think my days with armies of grey are over. And thanks for the head up about the tags. It's fixed now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polythemus Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 really nice job on this report. way too many reports around here are just alot of text. This looked like a really fun game and you made it into a fun narrative. Great work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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