Kampfgruppe Engel: Ajax II, game 4

Friday 2 August 2019

Ajax II, game 4 - Horus Heresy event

This is the fourth After Action Report from the Ajax II, Horus Heresy event.

My Solar Auxilia- Questoris Knight army would face the Alpha Legion...

After the success of defeating the Death Guards in the previous battle the army had been rested, refitted and resupplied.

Lord Marshal Alexandr had spotted an area said to have forests haunted by evil spirits. This area could be interesting for the House of Naryshkin. Is there anything special about this place? Is there a special mineral or gas leakage that create these kind of phenomena that are reported in the area?

The men under him were not equally enthusiastic about the "chance" or "opportunity" to investigate this haunted area in person... (One of the special rules for this game was to roll moral on three dices and pick the two highest)

As the loyalist troops enters the northern forest and Alpha Legion ambush is sprung...

The Medusas of my Solar Auxilia are just in range to starts pummelling the poor squad in Rhino just between the two large rock formations..

From nowhere a strange sign starts to glow on the ground... And the reality is cut and daemonic entities spews forth...

My large knight that are seen with his back to the enemies are tied in combat with other daemonic entities that had materialised in my deployment zone. (in my phase, just after my shooting phase because of an event from a different gaming table..)

On my right flank the signal is given to jump the defence line a knight and a lasrifle squad advances..

One knight that charged the daemon unit is still locked in combat with this aether creature...

Between my Knight Armigers and the Aurox apc you can see some kind of larger deamonic shrike flying out of the portal. As it was flying it was nothing I could really do to it this turn... That would have to be a problem that I would have to deal with in the future..

These winged deamonic entities are fast... my army will not have enough time to take their numbers down before they will charge in...

An drop pod scatters backwards and lands some distance away from my troops...

Multiple winged or flying creatures are swarming my left flank..

Veterans with meltaguns and meltabombs disembarks from the wreckage of the drop pod as it explodes...

My Scion Uhlan Knight Lancer outflanking, engaging the enemy tank destroyer with the shooting ability of the lance.
I wanted to give the tank destroyer some payback for what he had done earlier to his knight brother...

My Knight Scion Uhlan Lancer, the hero from the previous game is literately engaging atleast half of the enemy army him self and it seems that he has the upper side... Huzza!!!

With the flying deamonic shrike in the air Thunderboltpilot Bogatyr Bezrukov had found an fitting target for his anti air equipped heavy fighter.. And he managed to wound the massive beast.
The beast crashed onto the ground and the sky was again clear of enemy activity...
- Enemy grounded, you can thank me later, was all that Thunderboltpilot Bogatyr Bezrukov sent over the vox as he started to look for a ground target amongst the enemy tank formations of the opposite side of the combat area.

Rulewise this meant that with the failed grounding check of the deamonic monster he would be counted as non flyer in my opponents round and would be free to charge my forces next... The troops on the ground uttered more then one curse word as the massive creatures starting to rise and brushing of the dust after the crash...
Had I not touched it he could not charge the next turn...

Now a frenetic chase to hammer the monster with all that I had ensued, I really really did not wanted to let this monster charge in my opponents next turn...

The Armigers engaged, the Veletaris, and finally my command squad...
I had two grenade launchers here and one of them found its target, the krak grenade managed to wound him and he failed his armour save and he felt the pain...
The deamonic monster was now down to one wound...
And my whole army had shot... This was not as I had planned...

But then I remembered that I still had a lone xenos sepoy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepoy) in my command squad that still hadnt shoot, that the Strategos Fyodor of the House of Naryshkin had employed mostly for the exotic curio in his command squad. (count as lasrifleman)

The xenos sepoy hit with his rifle, wounded, the monster failed the armour save and he felt the pain... Oh... he felt the pain...
And the massive beast was slain in the end with what is more or less a glorified strength 3 lasgun...

Picture of the unsung hero that will never be mentioned in the press can bee seen here.. http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/10/kroglogg-hunters.htmlStrategos Fyodor of the House of Naryshkin took all the fame for slaying the monster him self... I would say that it is of course perfectly fair as it is he that had employed the xenos trooper to start with.

The event with the slaying of the deaminic shrike and the Scion Uhlan Lancer that engage most part of the enemy army him self was some of the best highlights for me in the battle but it was not enough.
I did not manage to capture enough objectives the turn the game ended... The massive daemonic incursion on my left flank was devastating for my infantry and all but the knight were swept away.
Even the basic deamonic creatures are surprisingly survivable and tough, there are really not much my infantry can do against it.

Had the game continued for a couple of turns maybe I could have secured more objectives and killed more of my opponents troops to swing the game in my favour but that was not to be.

The massive deamonic incursion in the haunted northern forest area was to much for my men and I was forced to redraw.
It was a victory for the Alpha Legion and the Traitor forces...

A really interesting and nerve wrecking game that I much enjoyed even through my troops got hammered in the end.

And here are some pictures I managed to snap on other peoples games: