Khornates, Sir. Thousands Of Them!

[Brother Sefiel]

Greetings.

 

This is the game I played a couple of weeks ago - still writing up last weeks' (it's been a busy few days). It's a continuation of the story that started here:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/340565-experiencing-technical-difficulties/

 

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Iskander, operational commander of Theta Sigma, felt a chill of disquiet shiver its way through his systems. It was the feeling he always had prior to an attack. But who could be foolish enough to attack him here and now, surrounded by allies? Surely not the witch whose emissary stood before him…

 

The inquisitor, Leopold, had prattled his praise like a starstruck schoolchild. “She is a true daughter of the Emperor. Her zeal is unconquerable!” Iskander, however, remembered the clammy clutch of death from when he last saw the woman. For a moment even he had been caught up in her aura of, well, belief, for want of a better word. But he'd looked down the barrels of a traitor knight's cannon after following her on a fool's quest, seen the ignitions as fire rained down upon him, and wouldn't fall for her mind tricks again. Powerful warrior she was; rational and reliable? No. He would have no more truck with the foolish wench, and dismissed Leopold, a man who could order worlds burned, with a contemptuous wave.

 

​It was rather more important to rescue the techpriests who had been captured by warriors of the Blood God. He'd seen high-level communiques stating baldly that the traitors were planning something, and were using the expertise of the Mechanicus. The priesthood could not let their magi remain in the hands of the enemy. Iskander's orders were simple: rescue the priests - or if they had been turned, kill them. Luckily, very long strings had been pulled, and an individual whose loyalty was... negotiable... had been deployed. The Theta Sigma task force was awaiting him.

 

Then a call from the vox - “Our informant returns”. He strode over to where bizarre ape-like creatures stood chattering and pointed at the inquisitor. “Remain”. The leader of the jokaero saluted and grinned. Moving into the ruins, Iskander spotted a figure sprinting towards him. He was tall, hooded, with long grey hair, wearing armour of a space marine, albeit with old sigils, and he carried an ornate plasma pistol in one hand, ready to shoot. The other held a small object that he threw at Iskander, who thought for a moment that it was an attack; however, his auto-senses recognised the object as a small data-casket, which he caught clumsily with his left hand as the newcomer yelled “They're after me.” He drew a bolt pistol with his other hand and dived into cover.

 

Moments later a general alarm sounded over the vox. The taranatulas came to full activation, and forces all around the area called in contacts. Iskander nodded at the stranger, who spat “Your techpriests are being forced to work on something special; you'll realise just how much the Khornates value it when see their numbers.”

 

Iskander processed the incoming data streams – it looked dire. A wall of warriors stampeded towards his position; many of his men had been simply swept aside or even ignored by the concentration of traitors, who all seemed to be heading for one position – his. Turning to Leopold he snarled “Where is your saint now?” and took a ready stance as the Khornate tsunami stormed into view...

 

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Game 3 v 30k Khornates. I wanted to experiment, and since I hadn't played Hammerman for a while, he was definitely going to feature. However, as it turned out he would be quite inefficient, as I didn't want to put in the points for a full bells and whistles command squad. In fact his only marine escorts would be mere ranged scouts, to fulfil the Allied Detachment requirements…

 

The force I took ended up being a sort of headquarters mish-mash, as if the leaders had been caught unawares by a massive attack, which suited my narrative plans very well.

 

Hammerman led his scouts and a Land Raider Phobos (but with Legacy of Keylek in order to have Ignores Cover). Leopold (Coteaz) found himself to be in the same detachment as Cypher(!) who I took to give my six Jokaero and associated characters a decent cover save (plus he's probably the only guy who could infiltrate a Khornate warband and steal data to return to the Imperium) and the rest of the force was Champions of Fenris nonsense, a two-wound iron priest (my Warlord!) two lone wolves and two units of tarantulas – one with lascannon, the other multi-meltas. After the last game I wanted to have plenty of anti-vehicle/terminator guns, and this seemed like a slightly silly way of running that. It turned out that they'd be facing a legion praetor with red butchers, two rhinos with legion tactical squads, two rapiers, rampagers, a single scorpius and a legion heavy support squad.

 

The mission was the one with random-scoring objectives. Like a fool I took the side which had reasonable cover but ignored the fact that my somewhat static force would be better holding the side that actually had objectives. This was doubly the case when, after deployment, it was revealed that the enemy had the highest-scoring one. He had deployed in a fairly predictable way – rhinos on flanks, scorpius behind a building at the back, rapiers and support squad in cover at the back and rampagers and butchers to the fore. I had a tarantula squad in cover on my right, another in the open in the centre, and the jokaero behind more cover to the right with most of the characters (the xenos upgrades I took were +12” range and Rending). The warlord, who it turned out was fearless, was with the Phobos to the left. One lone wolf on each flank, and finally the scouts in a building to the left. Well, I had the guns, but it was a shame I wasn't going first – until I Seized. Yes!

 

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Leopold drew attention to the foremost enemy units scouting their way forward. Lone wolves loped forwards towards the traitors, while the gunline stood and shot. The rhinos took several heavy hits from lascannon, and were stopped in their tracks, one smashed beyond repair. However, the jokaero gunnery systems were seemingly incapable of hitting the approaching enemy, and the lance strike Iskander called in on the support squad missed its target.

 

In retaliation most of the traitors barrelled forward, yelling curses crazedly. Shockingly, both of the lone wolves fell to gunfire. The only damage done by the rest of the enemy shooting was slight damage to a tarantula, and throwing the track on the Land Raider, however.

 

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Well, I suppose it could have been worse, but without my close combat specialists on each side, the Khornates had the potential to roll up my flanks if they reached me. The wolves were pretty unlucky – one was dropped by rhino bolters...

 

In turn 2 Leopold zapped several of the rampagers with his psychic powers, and I took out one rapier and one red butcher, as well as two hull points from the scorpius. My iron priest fixed the Phobos. However, the retaliation destroyed two multimelta tarantulas. This was the turn of a key charge; the butchers managing to get in on the Phobos. It was lost to a chainfist-wielding loony. Not so good…

 

In the third turn the space monkeys actually managed to kill a single red butcher. Wow. The iron priest joined the scouts, who were feebly attempting to shoot down the tactical squad approaching them.

 

In retaliation the tactical squad charged my scouts. but, thanks to some sterling armour/FNP rolls several survived, and my warlord cut down the sergeant! On the right, however, things didn't go so well, and I lost a couple of monkeys to the scorpius. Then the rampagers charged, and managed to further batter the jokaero, but fared less well against Iskander and Cypher, who halved their remaining numbers (the traitors did pretty well on their FNPs too). But there was still fight in them, and they were blocking the loyalists into a corner.

 

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Heavy weapons pounded at the scorpius, but it had been well-placed in heavy cover, and it survived the fusillade. At least the rampagers were cleared out, but the cost had been high, both to the jokaero, and to the robed marine who had suffered several injuries. They pulled back into cover as the second tactical squad approached.

 

There was desperation on the left flank as Iron Father Alderson was surrounded by a sea of frothing madmen. However, he laid about him with his hammer, smashing two of the traitors even as he watched a scout fall. It seemed that the opposition morale wasn't as great as it had first appeared, and the confused Khornates began to retreat. They weren't fast enough. Howling vengeance for his fallen brothers, Alderson laid about him furiously, breaking bones with every blow. Eventually he stood panting, surrounded by prone bodies – but he looked up into the eyes of the approaching terminators. The butchers charged, cutting down Alderson even as he staved in the skull of their officer...

 

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It was just about worth losing my Warlord in return for smashing his!

 

Turn five saw Leopold manage to zap some tacticals with his psychic powers, but he suffered a wound from Perils; a lucky shot went through to the scorpius and finally destroyed it. Hammerman found his mojo and crushed the tacticals in close combat. The last jokaero could do nothing useful, however. The butchers smashed the remaining melta tarantula.

 

This pattern continued into turn six, in which Leopold Perilsed and the monkey did nothing. Hammerman stomped forwards for an objective, losing a couple of wounds in the process. Incoming fire also destroyed two lascannon tarantulas. At least the red butchers were just hanging around on an objective – but, to be fair, they had done their job already.

 

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One last throw of the dice; one last charge. If he could dig out the weapon team in the central ruins he might be able to stabilise things, holding the centre while his reserves rolled in. He glanced across at the others and yelled “Stay here”; then he was gone, sprinting towards the fire point and the support team.

 

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Hammerman ran towards the legion support unit, took two hits from lascannon when he charged, and promptly fell over. An ignominious end to a game in which my vaunted space monkeys managed something like four hits out of twenty shots. They need re-rolls...

 

Well, we went to turn 7, but it was realistically over by turn 5, I think. After a little post-battle calculation I found that I couldn't have won the game even if iskander had taken the support squad's objective. Sigh. All I had remaining were Cypher, Coteaz (both on one wound) one jokaero and a damaged Tarantula. His force was not significantly greater in numbers, but was more powerful – the untouched support squad, three butchers, a rapier and an immobilised rhino.

 

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The hooded man, his robes scorched by lasfire, turned to Leopold.“Good luck, you'll need it”. He loped into the darkness; there was no way the old inquisitor could keep up with him, especially with the injuries he'd suffered. Looking sadly at the solitary remaining jokaero, he was about to speak when light blazed behind them; man and alien turned as one, and Leopold dropped his knees...

 

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The story continues here:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/342660-no-luck-required/

Edited December 25, 2017 by Brother Sefiel