Ajax - Horus Heresy event game 5 AAR

This is part five and the last of the after action reports from the Horus Heresy, Ajax even held in Alvesta Sweden.

Game five against Olof, same opponent I met in game three (http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-3-aar.html)

This time the the lojalist Iron Hands was in for revenge...
And this time they brought along their Shadowsword...
Good thing I got back my Fire Raptor that was flying missions for the Emperors children last time we met.

Game five meant it was time to take out vehicles...
An my Alpha Legion used their tactics gearing up for anti tank duty...

Pre scout move, the Alpha Legion are getting ready to move out...

A Recon sniper teams takes up a fire position.

As the bike squad redeploys and moves out.

At the back of the picture my Preator and his Seeker squad in their Land Raider Proteus can be seen moving forward.
A Recon team in scout armour moves closer to the enemy lines.
Another Recon team, this one a shotgun team using the terrain for cover moves forward and behind them the bike squad can be seen.

The planned rush with meltaboms from both the Recon teams is an utter failure, the both Leviathans make short work of the Recon teams.
In the back the few survivors from my bike squad that had taken a massive barrage from the enemy continues to push forward...
On the plus side my Javelins and my Storm Eagle have arrived as well as my outflanking veteran squad.
The Veterans with the help of some other units manages to take out all but a lone Iron Warriors special terminator and an hq from the enemy. A good round of shooting, but not good enough...
But best of all... my sniper team actually managed to do something this turn... They took out the quad mortar with phosfex grenades in one turn. This must be about the first useful thing in the whole event that they did and they manages to do it in one turn...

The problem with having a Terminator and the hq still left is that they will retaliate...

My Veterans were taken out by the enemy in an combination of fire and the charge of the terminator and the hq later in the game.

The sniper team was forced to make a slight advance as they wanted to be in range to engage the Iron Circle robots.

Fire Raptor moves in spraying enemy units with fire... I had managed to take out the rhinos with infantry parked as close protection for the enemy Shadowsword with my Fire Raptor and other long range fire and this forced the infantry to disembark... It was the perfect target for my Damocles command Rhino and it ordered the orbital bombardment to commence and I roll a 6 on the dice resulting in maximum number of barrage templates on the unprotected infantry...
To finish it of my bikes moves in and charge the last survivors from one squad to take it out.

The enemy tank destroyer by the outflanking veterans is taken out by the Storm Eagles twin lascannons and missile laucher.
The Storm Eagle lands and the Recon squad charges and takes out the Scorpion, the plan is to take out the Shadowsword next...

The enemy combine fire on my Recon squad and then charges in. I cant remember from the top of my head how they fare. I think they actually won that combat but the picture above it doesnt look to good so I might be mistaken. No matter, this game was mostly about taking out enemy vehicles and I had made a good work on that...


My Recon team moved forward grabbing an objective.
A marine squad that had stayed back in their Rhino dodging Shadowsword shots most of the game moved out and captured another.
The last turns I had tried to focus on taking out troop units as well as smaller vehicles.
This meant my opponent didnt manage to take objectives for the lack of surviving troop units close to objectives.

Another victory for the Alpha Legion Recon company... Huzza!!!


I am really impressed by my troops, they performed far far better then I had even hoped to do.
I think the strength of the list is all the troops choices I have and the lack of important units in it.
I can loose any unit in my army and its no biggie, the army doesnt hang on one unit doing their thing.
My Preator sucked in most game, in those rare moments he had the opportunity to do anything he failed miserable, but it didnt mean anything, I didnt need him to perform.
With all the outflanking, scouting and infiltrating I could to meant that my army was surprisingly mobile and I could often choose were the combat would be and what enemy unit to not engage.
But the strength of the army has to be the number of troop choices I had in it. I could take grievous losses and still have enough troop choices to capture objectives in the last rounds.
It was a really fun army to play and I like that my idea and theme of an Recon Company worked far better then I thought it would.







Here are some pictures taken during the last game

All in all this was a really great event of Horus Heresy, and it ended in an overall draw.

And here is my other blog post from this event:

Army on parade:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-campaing-horus-heresy-army-on.html

Game 1:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-1-aar.html

Game 2:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-2-aar.html

Game 3:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-3-aar.html 

Game 4:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-4-aar.html

Ajax - Horus Heresy event game 4 AAR

Game four from the Ajax event of Horus heresy.

This was a really nice game but I took not nearly enough pictures from it I can see now.



My Alpha Legion Recon Company's good surveillance capabilities had located some grand statues raised after the Great Crusade and been tasked by the high command to escort two Remembrances to take a closer look at these for moral and propaganda purposes.

This was game 4 and this meant we would be playing the Escort mission. I REALLY like the idea with different missions on the same table on an event, so even if you are placed at the same table chances are its a different game.




The problem was that Loyalist Iron Warriors had started to entrench the position, I needed to get in quick...
Using my infiltrating and scouting abilities I managed to push up.
My plan was to push hard with all my troops, the troops guiding the Remembrances to the designated objectives and the rest of the army pushes through them and tie down the enemy. 

Veterans with combi-meltas disembarks from their black Rhino as a squad of regular Alpha Legion marines shows the Remembrance the important landmark. A small squad of Recon Marines in scout armour can be seen slightly ahead of them to the right.

A unit of seekers disembark from their Land Raiders and open up on a unit of Iron Circles with their combi-plasmas as my unit of bikes moves up.

A lone unit of Recon marines with shotguns shows a Remembrance one objective and plans to pull out fast as enemy terminators and a Contemptor moves in...

Still one Iron Circle robot left after a lousy alpha strike and I had taken a lot of damage in return fire. Only my Preator and the Seeker sergeant left there.

Enemy forces charges...

They hit home...

And smacks the Alpha Legion Preator and Sergeant to the ground...

On the other flank my Recon marines with shotguns disengage from the enemy with Terminators and a Cortus dreadnought in hot pursuit. They had managed to claim the objective and moved up to the centre of the table in search of more objectives.

My Veterans had managed to take out the Leviathan. And I still had a lone Marine left guiding the Remembrance to the next objective. As it was only troops that could do it, it was crucial that the lone marine was still alive.

My Recon marines in scout armour used the protection of the large building seen in the picture above to sneak up and try to hit the enemy deep in their line.
My Bikes speeded forward.
Reinforcements in the form of Javelins and my Fire Raptor gunships and my Recon marines in their Storm Eagle shows up.
The Javelins stayed far behind and started to shoot at maximum range to minimise returning fire. My Land Raider Proteus having lost all its cargo to a Iron Circle robot moves back also using its ranged weaponry.
As the Gunships moves in with all their guns spraying the ground, I takes out an Rhino and forcing the occupants to disembark and this will be the prime target for my bike unit to attack with their close combat weapons.
Castelaxes starting to drop from my fire.
In the close combat phase, the bikes charges the disembarked enemy marines and my Recon marines in scout armour manages to charge an Contemtor Mortis in the flank.

My Storm Eagle releases its cargo, a unit of Recon Marines with close combat weapons behind my front instead of their usual task of blowing things up in enemy lines. They manages to make contact with a lone Remembrancer that had lost its escorting unit. The Recon marines with shotguns was blasted to bits by the enemy Terminators with shouldermounted missile launchers...
Upon making contact with a Remembrancer they guided him unto another site as my Veterans pushes forward to be a greater threat and thus protecting the Recon marines from some harm. 

In the following turns my bikes feels the the retaliations from the enemies wrath and my recon scouts in close combat with the Contemtor Mortis are charged by a unit of Iron Warriors.
It is a bloody fight but my Scout sergeant manages to be the lone survivor and this gives him time to plant a last meltabomb on the Contemptor Mortis, blowing it up... His work is done here...

Recon Sergeant 126.545 codename "Alpharius" had led his squad through some ruined building previously occupied by the opponents but that had moved out because of the pressures put on them all over the front. The Recon squad used the ruined wall as protection as they crept forward. They could see their target...
An Conptemptor Mortis with twin Assault cannons was shooting down the lines of the Alpha Legion, it would be silenced...
As an Fire Raptor gunship passed by overhead and took out an Rhino amongst its targets, its occupiers stumbled out of the burning wreck. Now was the moment in all this chaos, now, before the Iron Hands had time to reorganize.
The Recon squad readied their meltabombs and moved out...

  

As my Gunships sprays on enemy units in the city my centre and right flank pushes forward, into enemy lines. This leaves centre part of the table clear of enemies and my Recon marines from the Storm Eagle and the lone Marine each guiding the Remembrances are left alone to study the objectives.

Huzza... a massive victory for the Alpha Legion Recon Company and the traitor forces in the event.



And here is my other blog post  from this event:

Army on parade:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-campaing-horus-heresy-army-on.html

Game 1:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-1-aar.html

Game 2:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-2-aar.html

Game 3:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-3-aar.html 

Game 4:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-4-aar.html

Game 5:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-5-aar.html

Ajax - Horus Heresy event game 3 AAR

This is the AAR from game 3 from the Ajax event of Horus Heresy.

My Alpha Legion Company would be facing my friend Olof, we have met before and pre-Ajax it was the Iron hands that was victorious.
The game we would be playing was ....
It meant that most of the army was left out of the board and would arrive as reserves. With all my reserve manipulation this should be to my force liking.

We had to roll a 4+ for each unit to see if they could be deployed on the table.
As it turned out Olof managed to deploy a rather sizeable force. And I did not...
The only of my units that showed up was the Preator with the Seeker squad in their Land Raider Proteus, a small unit of sniper Recon marines and a small unit of Recon marines in scout armour.
I would be massively outnumbered and out gunned at the start. But as much of my reserves had outflank I hope to hit my opponent in the side as he advances.

For this game both of us had one of our units exchanged with other players at the event due to a special event card.
I borrowed one of my Fire Raptor gunships to an comrade in arms and instead was given an unit of Emperor's children cacophonies in an Rhino.
My opponent was short an Shadowsword, titan hunter super heavy tank... and was given an Arvus Lighter...

The points different of the Shadowsword againts an Militia Arvus lighter is considerable but as Olof had met my Recon Company before he knew there was lacking suitable targets in my army and as most of my army was packing multiple meltabombs I had the means to take out one of those beast. This way he didnt have to pay any price of failure for losing a Shadowsword

As the reserves will arrive on 3+ I felt confident in this game and used my reserve manipulation to hinder my opponent thinking I could surly succeed in a number of 3+ reserves rolls... 

In an attempt to move at the flank of my opponent I had a thought about trying to get to his quad mortar or lack of that bonding up and drawing his unit of Iron Circles away from my lines.
The fell back and tried to move out of the way from those big robots but in the end they were all destroyed. At least they occupied the Iron Circle a round or two. 


This game turned out to be really really special... Even with my reserve manipulation my opponent managed to roll really good on his reserve rolls and his troops arrived one by one. Me on the other side somehow fail over and over again to roll a 3+ roll for my reserves...

My Sniper squad tried to take out and Iron Circle robot with their sniper rifles, they slowly started to chip away some wounds but it was far from enough.
My Land Raider tried to use some cover or at least position it self in such way that terrain blocked the enemy.
I was started to get really afraid of getting wiped from the table as my reserves round after round failed to arrive.
Im guessing my force was still cleaning up Loyalist Taghmata Mechanicum pockets of resisting from the last game in the city.
Not expecting enemy movement in the forest area I stumbled into this force of Loyalist Iron Warriors with my forward scouting troops. The word have been sent back to the way to stretched out force to gather at this location at the Iron warriors encounter.







Finally does my fore arrive. An Fire Raptor Gunship and a Storm Eagle are some of the first to arrive to my rescue.
Luckily for me the Iron Hands forces had been slow to reach my line, maybe fearing my outflanking forces closing in.


My unit of Emperors children Cocophonies exchange students had to bail out of their destroyed Rhino the same turn they arrived and was all taken out with ether the Scorpius or the Quad mortars rather quickly so they failed to contribute.

An "Valkyrie" using the Arvus stats can be seen behind an Leviathan Dreadnought moving forward between an shallow ravine between two small hills. Behind this you can see my air cover finally had arrived. That Fire Raptor gunship really had to work..

The reaper autocannons on the Fire raptor takes out enemy Rhinos and missiles from the Storm Eagle manages to immobilize on of the massive Leviathans, pinning it to the ground...

Finally my last ground troops arrive via outflank. And they all wanted to arrive at the same table edge, the edge were enemy Rhino bore infantry advances...
it all starts to look as a ambush...
Veterans and Recon marines engage the enemy forces stumbling out of their destroyed Rhinos as the Fire Raptor and the Storm Eagle harass them from the air inflicting massive casualties.

Wow what an strange game, and an excellent finish of the first day.
My forces refused to arrive time and time again and it was not until the very end I finally got all my forces on the table and they started working. I managed to hit the enemy infantry hard at the flank in the end and my mobility meant I had units in my opponents deployment zone earning me victory points. My opponents force had trouble reaching my lines and fail to get any victory points here.

A victory for the Traitor forces, huzza !!


And two extra pictures from other peoples games during my game:

And here is my other blog post  from this event:

Army on parade:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-campaing-horus-heresy-army-on.html

Game 1:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-1-aar.html

Game 2:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/07/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-2-aar.html

Game 3:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-3-aar.html 

Game 4:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-4-aar.html

Game 5:
http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.com/2018/08/ajax-horus-heresy-event-game-5-aar.html