Kampfgruppe Engel: Avarii XI, part 2 Horus Heresy 30k

This is the second part of my Avarii XI AAR. An Horus Heresy 30k event held in Malmö, Sweden.

The military arms under The East Fringe Trading Company, led by none other then the Lord Marshal Aleksandr of House Naryshkin would be facing Alpha Legion forces.

I won the roll for table edge and I just had to pick the one with a large trench...

Intel had told that the Legion would be led by Alpharius him self. And knowing he is the master of special operation and having the ability to seize the initiative, Lord Marshal Aleksandr played a hard gamble and let the Alpha Legion forces have the initiative and taking the time to instead bunker down in optimal fire lanes and take the initiative from the Alpha Legion when they last expect it...

And the tactical brilliance of Lord Marshal Aleksandr was not expected by Alpharius, they were totally outfoxed by the stronger mind... (that or I rolled a 6 on the seize the initiative roll...)

The visual benefit of a trench line can clearly bee seen here... Just hope it is as effective as it is good looking.

The Thallax battle robots starts to advance as the first shells are fired...

The special forces from the Alpha Legion strikes, a drop pod and space marines in an Rhino.

Armoured centre of the Unbroken Chain...

The Volkite squad with Apothacary medic and an Siege Master had taken a real beating, their numbers starting to dwindle. The long ranges of the specially equipped lasrifles had taken its toll but most of it, it was my Medusas that did their work...

This guy again...
Well then, back to my game.

The Heavy Siege Tank had taken some damage but nothing to worry about yet.

Outflanking enemy troops engages.
Luckily for me they seems to have failed to calibrated their targeting sights and I survived most of their fire.

Massed enemy quad gun artillery had starting to shell my lines and my troops took cover.
Meanwhile enemy Drop pod veterans had taken out a Dracosan of mine and the troops seen at the bottom of the picture above are soon to be charged and taken out.
The presence of Alpharius on the table gave all his troops Preferred Enemy and the number of attacks a Veteran unit can dish out in combination with that special rule were far more then a damaged unit of mere mortals can handle.
Meanwhile my artillery had tried to pound his back line and take out the enemy artillery but the ranges of my Medusas was not long enough and they escaped not being splattered to the last man...
His Leviathan took all the damage I could muster with ease and continued to advance on my lines and the brave troops still in the trench were made to feel the wrath of phosfex and whatever that other guns were called.. It was not a pretty sight...
I had have an Malcador Infernus in the reserve that had advanced on my utmost flank trying to damage those nasty quadguns but it was not enough to silence them. Atleast I had given Alpharius first degree burn wound and it had engaged the enemy Sicarin and taken it out with its autocannons. Feeling that it was not even worth the time my Malcador then switched targets, engaging an squad of marines that had used their Rhino for advance. Mutch better... massed infantry is what it was made for...

Time started to run out and now it was time to take out all the troop choices able to claim objective. Lord Marshal Aleksandr ordered Troopmaster Natalia Kolochev and her squad to clear out the traitorous marines from my lines. The troops had left the trenches and charged.
The lord marshal beat the enemy sergeant in an duel with his mastercrafted paragon blades. (Yes,yes I know... a 45pts model kitted up to almost 180pts have a lot of fancy gear... but that is the life of an nobleman from the House of Naryshkin.)
The Legionaries must have been surprised by this lightning charge and failed to take many mortals down. The bayonets of our mortal heroes had hard time finding any weak points in the enemies armour joints when Troopmaster Natalia Kolochev strode forth with her massive powerfist and took out two Alpha Legion marines solidifying the victorious charge...
The traitorous marines fled to their back field...

My army had taken a real beating and the trench was empty of my troops by now. The enemy had also taken a beating and because of this none of our armies had managed to secured enough objectives to secure a victory.

Resulting in a draw, in the encounter of Alpha Legion forces and the military arms of the Eastern Fringe Trading Company.

Here under is some pictures from game two and what must have been game three at the event. Click on the pictures to get a larger one.