A critical series of islands in the western hemisphere have been consumed in the firestorm of war. A combined force of Chaos and Xenos strike out at the entire archipelago, looking to pushing the Imperium troops into the sea once and for all.
My combined force of Deathwatch and Imperial Guard muster together to help hold the line at the Tactical Advantage Game Store in Kingston. Any mistakes I make in the narrative can be blamed on faulty vox chatter and the fog of war!
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| The largest island, and the lynchpin of the Imperial Defense in the region. This battlefield, where I was stationed all day, held an Imperial Bastion, a Heavy Void Shield Generator in the center and... |
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| The Aquila Heavy Macro-Cannon, capable of firing on the other islands! Terrain pieces (representing 'taking no man's land' ) make up the main objectives here as both sides try not to give up too much ground. |
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| A stark juxtaposition with the other island, this barren wind-swept hunk of rock is a vital source of local Promethium. The two pumps on either end of the table hold vital fuel, and controlling them provides points towards both victory and global HQ stratagems. |
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| Finally the last battleground is the largest city in the area. Standing tall in the center of the battlefield is a towering statue of an Imperial Martyr. While still standing it provides immunity to morale damage to Imperial Forces on the table. Chaos seeks to desecrate it. |
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| The score board and available custom HQ stratagems! |
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| My forces- Guardsman, Armor, Artillery, and a contingent of Deathwatch! |
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| The Ork Stompa with air and kustom force field support, as well as part of the Vostroyen Guard Regiment. |
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| A Space Marine Army- a custom chapter, related to the Ultramarines. I believe they're the 'Emperor's Tiger's ' though I could be getting that name wrong. |
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| Filthy Dark Eldar and Orks joining forces with Chaos to assault the Imperium's position. |
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| If you really close, you can see a Master of Ordnance sitting tucked between the Basilisk and Manticore, doing nothing for most of the game as I forget the +1 bonus she gives to long distance targets. |
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| A long few of the two deployment zones. I did not want to be the guardsman stationed around that Macrocannon. |
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| Hidden behind a bubble of 3+ void shield, Tanks and Vostroyan Infantry deploy to hold the line as best as they can manage. |
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| As the game went on, the Ork Stompa would focus in on the Macrocannon, the Flya's tearing up targets in the open while the chaos troops keep their eye on the ball and capture as many terrain bases as possible. |
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| Next door the appropriately colored marines fight a deep-strike heavy Nurgle themed army over the valuable fuel points. |
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| A close up look at some of the antiquated gear (ie- classic models) used by the space marines. |
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| The servant's of the Changer of Ways led by Magnus himself sets up to defile the great statue... |
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| ... but the Greyknights are here in force to protect it! |
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| They have their work cut out for them, as Magnus is pretty (amazingly) strong, especially backed up by the Fateweaver. |
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| Loooots and lots of smite. |
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| Because of their 'Objective Secured' the Sons of Titan will hold their ground to the last man! |
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| One thin building between the horde and the knights. |
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| Special shout out to the Nurgle Raptors and Chaso Lord I painted- with a base coated Sorcerer giving that sweet extra movement. |
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| A closer look at the Macro-cannon's garrison (and my Chimera full of Meltaguns and flamers) as the game began. |
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| The Wraithknight wasted no time making a beeline for the Void Shield Generator. Once inside the bubble, it'd be as difficult to deal with as our own forces! |
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| Stompa on the right flank trundles forwards, spitting literally an armies worth of shots every round- not that the planes are any slouches either! |
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| CRASH. The Wraithknight smashes through the Void Shield and a unit of Firstborn, with his Dark Elder cronies sailing close behind. |
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| My Corvus blows a Raider into bits, getting ready to dispense his payload of Deathwatch marines. |
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| Our Orc player, going through the entire page of weapons his vehicles have to tear at our defenses. |
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| BOOM. Even with a 3+ Void Shield swathes of guardsman on the battlements and the sentinels go down even as the tricksy Chaos pour across the objectives. |
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| On the fuel island the Chaos prove how fast they can be, using their deep strikes and jump packs to snatch the objectives before the slower Space Marine player can contest them. |
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| In the city, Magnus tears the Greyknight Venerable Dreadnought apart with raw psychic energy (and a very large staff). |
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| Just as it seems that Chaos has the upper hand, reinforcements arrive! |
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| You can see here, standing with his back to the statue and facing down a daemon, a lone Greyknight with objective secured keeps Magnus from defiling the objective long enough for the rest of the force to get stuck in. |
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| Magnus, of course, is up to the challenge. |
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| Most of the fighting is centralized around the center of the board with the Greyknight penchant for deep striking and the speed of the Daemon units. |
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| The Stompa decides the Chimera annoys him. He deletes it, with prejudice. |
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| Losing a pair of guardsman to the explosion, the rest file out- four melta guns, three flamers, and a platoon commander! Surely they'll deal some damage to the giant death robot! (They don't.). |
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| The first macro-cannon round hits another table, turning several Chaos Terminators into fine red paste (including their HQ), and damaging the Fuel pump badly enough that it ceases providing points for this half of the day. |
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| The Wraithknight clears the Void Shield generator of defenders... just as a coterie of Imperial Knights enter the fray- including one near enough to potentially intercept the thing. |
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| The Firstborn's Officer of the Fleet, surveying the field from his tower in the far left bastion. Don't worry, he kills a few chaos with a strafing run at some point. |
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| Concentrated fire from the Leman Russes and the Imperial Knight drops the first Wraith Knight... only for another to arrive, with a Brass and Red engine not far behind. |
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| My Deathwatch, released from the Corvus (and after wiping out a squad of Dark Eldar) shoot out of cover at the Wraithknight and Lord of Skulls- not quite willing to charge either just yet. |
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| The space marine gun line slowly moves forwards, using a global HQ stratagem to force the Chaos players entire force to return to his own deployment zone! |
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| In the city the Dreadknight and Paladins fight tooth and nail with Magnus, just trying to keep him busy while the rest of the Grey Knights busy themselves with keeping the statue clear. |
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| With mixed results. Though, luckily, Space Wolves hear the call for aid and drop in to add much needed bodies to the Imperial side. |
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| Speaking of drop pods, mine has arrived! Releasing more (mostly bolter wielding) Deathwatch accompanied by a Watch Master, they arrived and killed several Chaos marines and an Ork Mek giving the Stompa a 5+ invulnerable save- and are now slowly surrounded by heretic scum. |
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| One Imperial Knight's rush forwards to defend the Macrocannon but is easily defeated by the larger Ork vehicle. |
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| With no other option, the macro-cannon turns its super powered gun and fires- killing everything in that corner of the board. Stompa, guardsman, chaos marines- everything except for the gun, which was saved by its own void shield. |
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| Elsewhere my Corvus does its best to dogfight with the pair of Ork flyers- finding itself very damaged in the ensuing aerial melee. |
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| Both meltaguns and frag cannons fire into the rear of the monstrosity but bad rolling see's only a handful of wounds taken away- once again, the marines decide to 'hold the objective' rather than charge into near certain death. |
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| One Imperial Knight gets ready to face down against the Lord of Skulls, gunning down Dark Eldar as he waits... |
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| ... While the other fights a losing battle against the full health Wraith Knight! |
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| And just as the next Stompa arrives, the store owner calls out a cessation of hostilities! The first half of the event is over! |
Pizza and relief- that's what we felt. That Stompa faced little to no resistance on this edge of the board, even less than his previous target, and if given the chance to assault the bastion he would have certainly broken through... but it was not to be.
The second half of the day involved shaking up tables (except for myself, who stayed fighting on the large green table) and redeploying our forces as if it was a different day in the fighting. Due to an imbalance in players, one of the Xenos players switched sides at this point. The Orks decided they wanted some pointy ear teef apparently...
The score at the end of round one showed the Chaos forces ahead by five points! Dark times for the Imperium...
