Sertoria Comitus, Chapter 1 Game 2

Here follows the second battle of the conflict known as the "The Reconquest campaign of the Sertoria Comitius" by Imperial records.





The previous battle can be found here: http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.se/2017/11/sertoria-comitus-game-1-death-korps-of.html

For the complete campaign click the label of: http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/search/label/Campaign%20-%20The%20Reconquest%20of%20the%20Sertoria%20Comitius



Here under follows the after action report from the Imperial point of view:

The Armoured Spearhead under Tank Commander .198 - Janusch Blitzen had been ambushed by alien armoured forces during his reconnaissance in force of parts of the Jormungand Depression that resulted in heavy losses on each side.Autarch Amrion Yrashin had stalked the survivors from the ambush, gathering in forces to make another attack on the Death Korps of Krieg.
 
Sensing that they were followed by enemy forces, Tank Commander .198 Janusch Blitzen ordered his forces to make a makeshift defensive position in a place were the terrain seemed beneficial.  
The Eldar scums would have to really fight to take out Janusch or his men.
Not known to the Eldar, Janush had made preparations in case his armoured push would not be as successful as he hoped. He had kept anything about this complete silence on the radio as he didnt know the status of enemy intel or radio decryption capabilities and didnt want to have his backup plan reviled.
He would put his trust in old trusty chemicals to do his work. Purple smoke markers were lit and hopefully Imperial spotters would see it.
What was certain was that the Eldar forces searching for them would see it eventually and their position..

It was full moon that night and clearing in the clouds meant that the light from the full moon was able to shine through.
But was what that?
A shimmer, a reflection on a smooth surface. It could have been a hundred different things but Janusch Blitzen had the feeling that it must be the Eldar forces...
They know they were pursued and Janusch now knew the enemy were close by. All the men were woken up and the guns were loaded, they were not going to be surprised this time.
Unknown for the Eldar the mon-keigh had spotted them... They were prepared


For gaming we decided on a special scenario were the Krieg survivors from the last game would have a smaller defensive position and awaiting an Eldar attack. To fill up on points I had three airplanes that would come in from the reserves. This resulted in a force just over 1500 points.

 

We were using the character advancement rules from the Horus Heresy book 4: https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-IE/The-Horus-Heresy-Book-Four-Conquest

The Eldar forces won the last game and their leader had gotten a special rule from that involving night attack, and it would take longer time for daylight to break.
So we found it only fitting to have this game starting at night.

The Death Korps forces were deployed on the board and the Eldar forces would be moving on from their table edge.
The Eldar forces would have the first turn as they were the attacker and surprising their enemy. 
But... I was allowed a seize roll... and... I rolled a 6..

The Death Korps of Krieg had spotted the Eldar forces moving in on their position.. Granted I had nothing to shoot at in my turn but it meant that I hopefully could have air support earlier. 

Eldar forces moves in at full speed, there are no time to loose. They need to strike fast if they whant to be able to take out the defenders.

The familiar sound of Imperial air to ground aircrafts are heard and the Imperial Navy.
The aircrafts moves in on extremely low height and thus evading enemy identifying there movement.

The purple chemical smoke had been noticed by Imperial spotting units and aircrafts were scrambled from an from the Eldar unknown forward built airbase.
Imperial Seabees, combat engineers and mechanicum robots had built a airfield far ahead of what the Eldar were expecting the Imperial were able to do. All the hard work from the building of the airfield had paid of and the Imperial forces were able to call in airsupport in no time.

I managed to get all the aircrafts in from the reserves on the second turn.
The keen eyes of Tank Commander Janusch Blitzen meant that the Eldar were instead surprised by their enemy...

Shots are fired but the speed of the Xenos combined by the darkness of the night meant that it was hard to make an impressive round of shooting that the defenders really needed.

The Eldar starts to move in to the enemy defensive positions, with the intent to soon unload their infantry.

The aircrafts and the guns from the defenders tries to take out the enemy before they are able to deploy their infantry.

The Lightning were able to take out the enemy commander, the Autarch Amrion Yrashin.

The loss of the protection offered by the darkness of the night meant that the Imperial forces more easily could inflict damage and a Vyper and a Waveserpent are taken out.

The heavy machine guns on top of the Atlas recovery vehicle manages to finish of another Vyper.

Enemy infantry rushes in a gap between my vehicles.

My Hydra AA vehicle finishes off another Waveserpent.

Enemy constructs and infantry storms forth...

The guns of the Imperium are waiting for them...

An Basilisk is taken out by the Wraithguards.

The Eldar guardians storms my tanks... The battered tanks of the tank commander are taken out but the Atlas managed to survive.
But had Janusch Blitzen survived, we will have to wait until the battle is over to see I guess...

The combined fire of the remaining tanks and the impressive airsupport cleans up the enemy troops...
The Master of Ordinance,  Wigher Schiller not seen in this picture (he is located between the two remaining Basilisks inside an spot in the large rockformation) had called in long range artillery, danger hot on the enemy...

Pride of the Imperial Navy... a sight to be hold...

As the smokes clears and the calm after the battle instils, the battlefield is searched for any survivor of this onslaught...

The wounded tank commander and his crew had survived, they must had exited their tank at last second.
As the wounded are gathered up, mounted on the remaining vehicles the enemy commander were found. He was still alive but grievous wounded...

This assault had costed the Eldar lots of casualties and their commander had been captured. Had not the impressive Imperial Navy been this quick to respond things should have looked a lot differently...
But now Tank Commander Janusch Blitzen had managed to save his men. He and what is left of his force after engagment with enemy forces are heading backwards to safety.
A much needed and deserved rest and recuperating is in order.
I am really interested in what we can learn from the captured enemy commander. Im guessing that if we poke him with pointy things he will eventually talk, revealing important information that will give me the option to mount a special raid on an vulnerable installation or mount an all out assault...


Big thanks to my friend Johan for yet again a really fun game in our campaign... We will take the result from this game and move the campaign forward...