Game 5, final Big battle: Horus Heresy - Escalation Campaing, Lacum Itineribus

Game 5, Final Big battle: Horus Heresy - Escalation Campaing, Lacum Itineribus

This is the 5th and final for our 500pts Escalation campaign day game.

Some of the players had to drop out because of worldly reasons but we were still some players left for another game.

My Alpha Legion would again be playing on the Loyalist side and the Night Lords player added another 500pts to his army, this meant that he would be able to include a Land Raider...
Not all of this was painted as our goal for this day was to have 500pts painted army and he would suffer from the "preferred enemy: unpainted" that all the painted miniatures got.
A rule that I had forgotten to use earlier in the day.

We knew that a traitor Preator with terminator bodyguards was hosted inside the big Landraider.
No volunteers to face them were initially found.
We could really not leave objective "5" free for the taking so a really risky plan with my tactical squad would face them and trying to hold them as the Raven Guards flanking me tried to disable the Landraider.

Iron Hand Breachers and Dorodeo Dreadnought was set up defensively and a Space Wolves Dreadnought was set up as a counter charge unit, to strike were the opportunities opened.

My terminator squad had infiltrated close to objective "3"

The Landraider stormed forward and the front door opened and the Night Lords Preator charged my tacticals with his terminator bodyguards. As was expected for troops of the Alpha Legion I managed to take down two terminators with reaction fire... Ok, granted... that might have been a little better then I could even wish for...

With no time to spill, the Raven Guards now tries to catch the Landraider as their sergeant had an meltabomb.

A large unit of Word Bearers and their commander tried to deepstrike just besides my tacticals but the scatter dice meant they would be deployed on top of my tacticals and after a roll on a 1 they were all counted as casualties...
Neat... My elite troopers had defeated all of the Word Bearers infantry by just being deployed at the right place at the right time.
As we all know, I had sabotaged his deepstrike before the battle with infiltrators and the moment they tried to deploy the Word Bearers were all dead... That must have been the only reason... That or some rather bad dice rolls but I choose to believe in the sabotage option...

After something like 3 or 4 miraculous rounds of combat and still not defeated by those monsters my gallant troops were helped by a Dreadnought.

Space Wolves charges the Emperors Children. My initial push with my terminators had resulted in much casualties, that darn Word Bearer Dreadnought with plasma cannon had found a liking to shoot at them by now...

With the help of the Space Wolves Dreadnought my Tacticals had defeated the Night Lord commander.
The Landraider was starting to back up as the Raven Guards tried to damage it and Night Lords got reinforcements in the form of deepstriking jump pack infantry.

The Night Lord Landraider managed to shoot of the gun arm of the Dreadnought but it was still alive.

As the Dreadnought chased after the Landraider for payback my tacticals extracted the objective "5"

My Terminators carrying objective "3" back to our lines were chased by Night Lord jump infantry and the Emperors Children commander and his bodyguards.

I told the Space Wolves to form a line in front of my stalling the enemy long enough for my troops to extract the objective. They were unfortunately to slow to react and the Night Lords and the Emperors Children.

The Emperors Children commander challenged my sergeant but this was a opponent my sergeant could not match and my Terminators were all destroyed.

By now the unit that I had extracted the objective were ready for another round and managed to outflank the enemy coming in from the side of the table or the rear from this combat.
The Night Lords were not locked in combat any more and I was able to rapid fire them from the rear. Joining my firefight the Iron Hand Breachers opened up with their bolters on the Night Lords. They took some casualties but were still standing.

In the traitor turn the Night Lords charged the Iron Hands and the Emperors Children commander charged my outflanking tacticals to hinder me from snatching the objective when the traitors were locked in combat. That was a fatal decision for the Emperors children as I managed to wound the commander with reaction fire and somehow eventually win the close combat against him also.
This meant that as the Night Lords and the Iron Hands were slaughtering their troops against each other, my tacticals could advance and secure the objective and start extracting it.


As you might have noticed, my commander managed to evade the camera this game and you might wonder what he did... Acting really really sneaky is the answer...

Initially he was deployed in the vicinity of the Iron Hands Breachers and their commander to add that extra punch with his thunder hammer as we were weary of where the Night Lords would deploy their deepstriking troops. When my terminators started to turn backwards with one of the objectives, the Iron Hands started to move up to greet the enemy following me.
My commander initially followed this tactics but later diverted and climbed and captured the centre objective. As the enemy were occupied with the larger units he was left alone as he moved backwards with the objective.

 

 

 

When the dust settled my Alpha Legion had secured and extracted all three of the objectives. A great victory for the loyalist.
The question to be asked is if the loyalist got the benefit of the objectives in the aftermath in this campaign...

And in the last battle (http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.se/2017/04/game-4-big-battle-horus-heresy.html) loyalist Alpha Legion were seen destroying all units of the traitor Alpha Legions, their Headhunters, the special weapon team and their commander. Were they really killed or were it all a scheme to make it look like it? Where they in reality just covering up their tracks or any witnesses?

And the disastrous deepstriking of the Word Bearers in this game, were they sabotaged or were it just the standard dangers of deepstriking that befell them?

So many questions that are open for consideration and so much that is uncertain, as is to be expected by the Alpha Legion...


All in all the Alpha Legion had made an almost perfect performance in this campaign day as is expected... ("martial hubris" an all that...) In the big battles they had extracted 3 out of 3 objective in this game and 2 out of 3 in the previous, they have the cultist preacher in their custody as well as the other suspects, they have killed most of the informers and collected all their data and finally almost all secret informations about the governing lords of the Hive city is in the Alpha Legion hands.

It will be really interesting to see what this performance will have on the campaign as a whole.
And as I played as loyalist the last two games, will this strengthen the overall factor for the loyalist, will this cancel out the overall better performance of Traitor forces in the campaign day for a more status qou which might make future Alpha Legion operations far easier to keep hidden?

As seems to be the case with Alpha Legion, the more you dig the more you find... Questions seems to lead to nothing but more questions.


A big thanks for all involved in this campaign and a special thanks to Daniel Stennert for his work and pushing of this as its gaming master.

Game 4, Big battle: Horus Heresy - Escalation Campaing, Lacum Itineribus

Game 4, Big battle: Horus Heresy - Escalation Campaing, Lacum Itineribus

This is the battle 4 for me in our 500pts Escalation campaign.

Some of the players could not stay the whole day and dropped out.
At the same time as Tobias and I played our small battle (game 3 in this series http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.se/2017/04/game-3-horus-heresy-escalation-campaing.html) some of the other players played a big battle with multiple players on each side.

Fredrik, the commander of the Word Bearers had also finished his smaller battle and was freed up for more gaming and thus it was decided that our forces would be allowed to be deployed as reserves and as deepstrike if we so choose.
The Word Bearers looked more "traitory" and my Alpha Legion would therefore be playing for the Loyalist this game.

And thus our forces was thrown right into the action...

Iron Hands has a nice looking defensive formation, their commander is closing in on the big black dice on top of the building to the right as this was an objective to secure and be carried out of the table.

Word bearers troops deepstrike in the open area as their dreadnought moves in from the rear.

Night Lords Doredeo dreadnought are looked in combat with Raven Guards infiltratiors.

A Space Wolf dreadnought are seen amongst the Iron Hands.

The Word Bearers dreadnought again... I just love this conversion, it looks so mean.

Empires children's commander with his elite bodyguards are at the centre of the board and closes in on the Iron Hands positions. Behind him but hard to spot are Traitor Alpha Legion forces in the form of a specialist weapons teams all with flamers and the Alpha Legion commander.

As the Space Wolves dreadnought moves closes to the Word Bearers the Emperors Children strike...

Iron Hands breachers shoots reaction fire as the imperial purple clad traitor marines charges...

Loyalist turn and my forces are allowed to deepstrike, my terminators scatters and have to take the fight from here. Traitor Alpha Legion headhunters to the left and Night Lords to the right... We are right in the middle of the fray...

As the Emperors Children is in combat, their commander in a duel with the Iron Hands sergeant my Alpha Legion Centurion charges in with his mighty Thunder hammer...

 Making short work of anyone he hits... But it is not over yet...

The Space Wolf dreadnought charges in...

On our left flank these Raven Guards seems to be in trouble from the Emperors Children...

The Raven Guards that was in combat with Night Lords Dorodeo are now free after taking the big dreadnought out of action. The Word Bearers dreadnought charges the Space Wolf one as the Iron Hands Dorodea dreadnoughts opens up with all its weapons on some poor Night Lords troops trying to grab an objective...

The combined might of the Iron Hands breachers and my Centurion was able to destroy the Emperors Childrens onslaught...  A tactical redeployment was in order as the Word Bearers dreadnought had made short work of the Space Wolves one and was closing in... fast...

The Raven Guards infantry was trying to use its elevated position to move past the Word Bearers commander.

Dreadnought closing in...

And charges... And unfortunately wins the combat without even breaking a sweat.
After the swift combat it changes position and are facing the Iron Hands dorodeo as it was planing to have its thicker front armour in its facing...
 

Little did he know that to turn an unguarded back to an Alpha Legion was a bad mistake...

My Commander closes in and was able to take the last hull point by throwing an krack grenade...



On the table outside the camera, my last terminator had managed to climb the hight building in the centre of the table and grab that objective and was moving down with it into safety. My tactical squad that I didnt manage to capture on camera (must bee their shiny armour that plays tricks on any form of sensors...), they had managed to take out the traitor Alpha Legion commander and his specialist weapon team. They were even able to charge in on the last traitor Alpha Legion headhunters and grab the objective they were carrying...
So two out of three moveable objectives secured by the Alpha Legion troops and my commander was standing besides the burning hull of a dreadnought on objective "3" as seen on the last picture.
My Alpha Legion had done good, damn good.

All in all a really great intense game with a great success for my troops.

Game 3: Horus Heresy - Escalation Campaing, Lacum Itineribus

Game 3: Horus Heresy - Escalation Campaing, Lacum Itineribus

This was the third game I played in the campaign day. Unfortunately I didnt get so many pictures from this game as the others.

My Alpha Legion had information that the Space Wolves was after cultist priest that was behind much of the insurrection on the planet. Their plan was to take him out when he was stuck in morning traffic to his daytime job. The Space Wolves had three potential suspects.
My Alpha Legion team was meant to escort the cultist leader to a safer place the day before, but that would have been to easy... Not the Alpha Legion way...
If we could snatch the cultist leader away right under their noses so much better. Cursed be their martial hubris...

The game it self would be played as the others for the day, 500pts and unit could be broken up into minor units with a minimum of three men per unit.

In this game we would have three objectives, each one containing a person that could be Cultist leader. Each player would escort the objectives out of their table edge and after the game a dice would be rolled to see which one of the objective escorted really was the right one... This to spice up the game and add a layer of uncertainty.

I went with the infiltrate special rule for this scenario as quickly taking the objectives would be of the essence. I had good luck and was able to get the first turn.

Early in the game I was reach the objectives before the Space Wolves.
My left flank was my heaviest flank, as the tacticals got the wip out of the car the terminators opened up some suppressive fire.

The Space Wolves had some trouble getting through the thick terrain that was in front of them. Giving me time to collect all of the wip and even start pulling back.

As I was pulling back the Space wolves was chasing after....
Some bad dice rolling from me meant that they were even closing in.

Their HQ and his nasty elite unit of power axes and artificer armour caught up with the centre wip and together with their special charge bonuses made short work on my tacticals escorting him.
This did however meant that they were relatively close to my terminators...
In my movement I rolled a 5 for moving in difficult terrain and the terminators was really close by now...
And I managed my charge, this meant that all the Space Wolves special charge rules would have no effect and instead would my troops have an extra attack for charging...
The lightning claws did surprisingly much casualties and the power fists from my terminators made short work of the artificer armour.
An challenge had been issued and my Sergeant would came on top of his commander. The power fists and the ability to kill a character with a single wound because of the strength of the power fist was effective... And Tobias failed his invulnerable save and I did not.
The central wip was secured by the terminators.
 

A continued cat and mouse game ensued on each flank and I tried to use the terrain to block his shortest routs to my units to keep me out of combat. That was a plan that on more then one occasion proven to be effective in this game as charging through difficult terrain adds a minus two on the charge range.

All three wips where escorted out of my table edge in the end and the Space Wolves could see their target disappearing right under their noses...

A highly successfully mission for the Alpha Legion.



Had the Space Wolves deployed besides the thick terrain instead of trying to run through it this could have been a totally different outcome. And the standard dice roll problems.
I was able to charge the Space Wolf elite unit with power axes and artificer armours with my terminators instead of the other way around and that are one of those moments that could have totally altered the game result.

Big thanks to Tobias for an really intense nerve wrecking game of cat and mouse...

Game 2: Horus Heresy - Escalation Campaing, Lacum Itineribus

Game 2: Horus Heresy - Escalation Campaing, Lacum Itineribus

Game 2 for the day. My Alpha legion had located some enemy informers. These people had to be silenced and their collected data secured.
To counter my move was sent an Raven Guard detachment under the command of Petter Tillström.

As with the previus game we both had 500pts armies and units could be split up into smaller unit with a minimum of three man per squad.

The table was set up to have three buildings with the informers inside and tree objectives symbolising their data. The informers could be killed by a round of close combat from the opening of the building. Two of the buildings was less sturdy and could be destroyed by shooting (Armour 10, 2 hull points)but after the game we would roll a dice and the informers would only be killed on a 5+, making a Close Combat a mutch more reliable way to take them out but still an option. I was also able to engage a tent a tent in close combat after I had shoot it to symbolise troops making sure the target was taken out.

The data could be secured by moving into base contact but loosing that rounds shooting.

I went with the infiltrate rule for my Alphas to be able to deploy deeper in on the table.

This time the Raven Guard player won the infiltrate roll and could deploy first.

 

Alphas moving in...

Raven guard rhino lurking behind a tall building.

My troops sees one of the objective relatively unprotected.

The Rhino pop smoke for protection and a unit of Raven Guards and their commander is guarding one of the tents.

My terminators advance and manages to destroy the tent. It's only a 5+ result after the game to see if the inhabitants are killed but it's better then nothing, the plan is to move up an be sure before the game is to an end.

Then... Then I got a really nasty surprise. The unit inside the rhino had some effective special rules... Apparently these were one use only but a one use rending, flamer attack with shred was all it took and my terminator squad was no more...

With that nasty blow my Centurion took the company with some tacticals and charged the Ravens guarding one of the tents.

And my Thunderhammer swinging Centurion with the support of the squad made short work of them in one fell swoop.

One of my small tactical units moved up and secured one of the data objectives instead of engaging the enemy.

The enemy special squad took no notice and closed in on my Centurion with boltgun blazing... He somehow miraculously survived unharmed, all be praised the artificer armour and ye ol mighty dice Gods... 

After I moved up an emptied my pistols into them I made an combined charge, my tacticals taking the reaction fire from the charge.
As my Centurion was equipped with a Thunderhammer he would be swinging last, he took a wound but survived. My tacticals and the Centurion won the fight.

In an attempt to stop me from entering the tent and kill any surviving informers the Rhino with an stormbolter and an multimelta (they can get those in 30k... nasty..) charged through the wall and shoot at my squad of tacticals containing the sergeant but it could not do any damage.

I ignored the Rhino and cleaned out the tent instead, securing the objective. The last tacticals with the Centurion had charged the last squad of Raven Guards and the Centurion was the last man standing as the enemy fled the scene and his marines were dead.
The Rhino now tried to back up and take my Centurion out with his Multimelta. But it got bogged down onto the walls it tried to cross and could not get a clear shot. My powerfist sergeants and his squad of krack grenade wielding tacticals now silenced the enemy machine.

With two out out of three informers killed and all objectives containing their data secured it was a great victory for the Alpha Legion.

A bit thanks to Petter for an intense game that could have gone in a totally different direction had the dices decided differently in some important instances.