Assault on Mondus Gamma

Imperial Fists' Assault on Forge Entry of Mondus Gamma

In the early stages of the Heresy, Rogal Dorn was urged by Malcador the Sigillite to secure the Mondus Gamma and Mondus Occulus Forges on Mars. These two mighty forges were the primary production for many of the legions arms and armour so the importance of the mission was paramount.

Rogal Dorn tasked First Captain Sigismund with the mission to land in force and secure the two forges amidst the schism forming in the mechanicums ranks. This battle report tells the short story of Praetor Andreas leading elements of the 52nd Vanguard company to secure a secondary forge entrance to Forge Mondus Gamma. Standing in opposition to him and his forces is a Magos Dominus of the Dark Mechanicum, leading a small host of Castellax Battle Automata with a Thallax cohort in support.

The battle field was dominated by a wide canal, of which the mechanicum had blown the two bridges crossing it. Fortunately for the Imperial Fists, ruined factoriums provided good cover in which to advance behind and launch the attack.. The imperial Fists objective was to take the central building the the Mechanicums deployment zone by turn 6......The mechanicum simply had to prevent this to win.

Imperial Fists Turn 1.

A Galaxy In Flames Battle Report: Inferno III Round 3 Iron Hands vs Iron Warriors

So, as promised, here is the second battle report from Inferno III, this time between the Iron Warriors, and Age of Darkness' Nate. This was the 3rd and final game, and despite having known each other for years, it was the first game we ever played against one another.

The setup was simple, Dawn of War deployment, kill points, 2VP per infantry unit, 1VP per vehicle, with the standard secondaries, as well as bonus VP's for the player with the most units left alive at the end of the game. Nate won the deployment, however, his Force Org chart forced him to take second turn, so no seize roll was required.

Due to a lack of enclosed tables, we played on a relatively open table. With the Iron Warriors on the offensive, poor Nate proceeded to be violated, repeatedly, and without lube. The Graviton Cannon Rapier battery proved throughout the tournament to be an ungodly powerful AT platform. Once combined with the Tyrants and the Deredeo, well, turn one saw the loss of 2 Sicarians and 2 hull points from a Predator before Nate even could retaliate.

Nate's turn one consisted of moving his remaining armour into positions where he could draw a good LOS to my RAPEier batteries (no political correctness here, these guns were committing a crime), as well as crying into a small cup as half of his firepower was already dead.

He fired his Cerberus Super Heavy (crewed by Castramen Orth!) into the Contemptors, and where possible, any spare shots were channeled into the Rapiers.

Turn 2 for the Iron Warriors saw a full 5-model Vorax unit led by a praevian, all with tank hunter, move on from the right flank. The Gravitons finished off almost all of the armour on the left flank before proceeding to swivel towards the right flank as the Tyrants advanced (spewing an ungodly amount of frag missiles all the while).

Turn 2 for Nate saw him trying to kill the Graviton cannon rapiers, as well as targeting the Vorax with whatever shooting he had, backed by a Gorgon Terminator charge.

Sadly, as turn 2 was ending, the Gorgons charged the Vorax, and despite having to make only 5 invuls, Nate managed to fail all 5 in an excellent display of dice rolling (Danny and I have begged him to burn those dice numerous times), meaning that the Gorgons died without causing any damage.

Turn 3 saw the Vorax take out the Spartan, and the Gravitons destroyed Orth's superheavy, which ironically blew up and killed 7 out of 10 members of one of the Iron Warriors tac squads and netting Nate more kills in that explosion than in the whole match thus far... For Nate's turn 3, he tried to shoot down the Vorax and repositioned his Sicarian Venator to shoot the Tyrants, as well as castling up with his surviving armour.

By turn 4, the Iron Warrior Siege Tyrants had reached the back lines, and it was all but over. The rest of turn 4 and 5 was spent mopping up the remaining Iron Hands and taking the last hull points off the Sicarian Venator.

Nate, I'm so sorry. So very, very sorry.

We joked at the time that I would have to censor every photo of the game as the images were 'too graphic' to be shown. This was the unfortunate result of matching up a defensive anti-tank force (Iron Warriors) against a mechanised armoured company. I for one blame the Loyalist General for the match up, Tim from the Eye of Horus!

All of this aside, Nate and I had a good laugh, and it was a really relaxed game, we basically knew after turn one that it was over so we weren't playing for sheep stations. It was one of those games where we just let the other player tally up the wounds on their own units from blast templates, and overall we mostly just sat around all game talking smack. It's a shame that we couldn't play on a table which had a far more dense terrain setup, however being assigned our game late in the round meant all the tables were taken which we wanted. On the bright side, this has lead to four days of the traitors making jokes about loyalist tears, with Danny managing to make loyalist after loyalist cry for 3 tournaments (ask him about his "Toughness zero list", go on, I dare you). Also, I got a lift to the event with Nate, so needless to say, I wasn't offered a lift home :P

Thanks for the game Nate, next time out, we'll make it a balanced one.

~Macca

A Galaxy In Flames Battle Report: Inferno III Round 2 Imperial Fists vs Iron Warriors

G'day folks, boy what a weekend! I have been 1500KM North, spent some time with some great mates, and made my way back home all to bring you some photos and talk Heresy. So where to begin?

I played my mate Michael from over at the Eye of Horus Podcast in round 2, so I thought I would make a battle report out of it. Needless to say, with two powerful armies, and two good generals, we were set to have a great game.

A little history leading into this, Michael and I had last played more than two years ago, where my Death Guard in 40k beat his 40K Salamanders, so Michael had some pride to restore today.

The mission we rolled up, depressingly, was the Relic. This is one of those missions I groan at, especially made worse because I didn't take note of the revised 7th edition rules for it (having hidden under a rock when it comes to 40k missions for over a year lol) which only came back to bite me repeatedly! Deployment was diagonally.

Michael being the cheesey yellow bastard that he is, set up a nice little gun line, with a bunker on the left (manned by a BS5 twin-linked, tank hunter lascannon dev squad... argue that cheese Michael!) and a sweet Vindicator on the right flank.

The Iron Warriors were definitely on the worse side of the table, so I had to do what I could to limit the carnage. His lascannons could see everywhere due to Michaels excellent placement, so I had to use cover in the few places I had it, or, in the case of my Tyrants, deploy a single inch outside of his lascannons range, lest they die on turn 1.

The Relic itself was some Imperial Fists geneseed. Our armies were just dudes looking for dudes 'seed'. Sadly, I had incredibly limited Line of Sight to the relic, whilst Michael had the only open side. Again, the bastard sure picked the right side of the table!

Turn 1 saw a general advance from the Imperial Fists, our Contemptors (being almost identically armed and used) sticking to opposite sides of the relic terrain. The Vindicator was out of range, however the Lascannon devs in the bunker all but shredded the IW Deredeo.

The IW turn one was a pathetic whimper, with my entire army queefing, merely taking 3 of the 4 hull points off the bunker (despite 3 graviton cannons and 20 krak missiles) and a single hull point off the Spartan, and leaving haywire blasts in a lot of places.

Turn 2 for the Imperial Fists saw the Spartan dump a ton of dudes onto the relic. The unit was buffed by a pimped Praetor and a Primus Medicae, both in Cataphractii armour, making them as tough as nails. The IF promptly killed one dreadnought, and left the last Contemptor on a single hullpoint, but able to move and charge next round. The only solace was the Vindicator imobilising itself in the haywire patch safely away from the rest of my army.

The 2nd turn for the IW saw some interesting moments. The Bunker was knocked out, and the tyrants elected to use frag missiles on the devestator unit, causing 24 wounds on the Devs and 33 wounds on a squad of breachers. Michael frustratingly failed very few saves on his breachers, however the dev squad was almost crippled (corpses may be seen on the far left top corner). My contemptor was a lazy 5" from Michaels Spartan, but I rolled a 1 for dangerous terrain and sent it to the graveyard, ending my turn. (I should point out, hilariously, that I had failed every single invul save on both the Contemptors and Deredeo as well as 1 of 2 saves on the Tyrants. I was shedding manly tears.)

At this point, the Imperial Fists got into their Spartan and proceeded to drive away. I promptly realised that 7th ed had changed the relic mission. From this point, the game really slowed down, with weapon range and a lot of LOS blocking limiting the casualties on both sides to a mere handful for the next few turns.

The stalemate broke when on turn 4 the Praevian and his Vorax entered play. The Vorax unleased lightning guns and rotor cannons into the visible breacher unit, but due to their Primus medicae and their toughness of 5, they laughed and lost only 3 men out of 13, not even enough to force morale.

As the game ran out of time, Michael wisely assaulted my Vorax from the Spartan, and with a 'killing blow' armed commander managed to cut down 3 of my valiant praying mantis automata. The game ended with said squad in assault, holding the relic on his turn 5. I got a single VP for linebreaker, and he got 3 for the relic and 1 for first blood. A win to the Imperial Fists!

Aftermath

Wow, what a game. If a few things had gone differently, it would have been a very different game. The LOS blocking terrain between my units and the relic hurt me to no end, and the Contemptor dying to dangerous terrain was a game changer (his 5 chainfist attacks on the charge against his already down to 4 HP Spartan would have changed things dramatically). Michael has his vengeance, we are now at one game each and I'm happy about it. Yes I lost, but material wise, I came off better. My defensive gunline was poorly equipped for a mission of this nature, whilst his multi-tasking army got the job done spectacularly.

By the way Michael, you're still a jerk for going all GTA in your Spartan.

~Macca

Raven Guard vs Alpha Legion 30k battle report

G'day, Macca here with a quick battle report between the Alpha Legion and Raven Guard. This is an over 2000 point game, and was incredibly fun and funny. Be warned, it's a long one because it's full of pics. So, lets get on with is shall we?

The Forces:

 The Alpha Legion force is a veteran one, with a Praetor, Exodus, 3 squads of veterans in rhinos with havok launchers, a Legion Recon Squad in carapace, a Land Speeder squadron with havoks and multi-meltas, a Sicarian and a Sicarian Venator. To cap off the force, an Imperial Knight Paladin took to the field.

The Raven Guard force is a high-speed army. The force contained Strike Captain Alvarex Maun, a Praetor with jump pack and lighting claws backed by a command squad, Apothecary, a Tactical Squad, a Tactical Support Squad with Volkites in a drop pod, a Breacher squad with two graviton guns, a full Legion Destroyer squad with Rad missile launchers, a jetbike squad, lascannon devestator squad and a pair of Storm Eagles. Of course, an Errant Knight backs the powerful force.

The deployment was simple, the mission played was Legendary Mission: Deliverance from Book III. The mission revolves around the Raven Guard extraction from Istvaan V. The special rules involved victory points for killing named characters, bonus points for killing units in close combat, and killing primarchs. This rule was modified for Imperial Knights. For the traitors, any unit wiped out immediately goes into ongoing reserves! Yes, that's right, infinite traitors, or in this case, closet loyalists. From turn two, the Raven Guard roll a D6. on a roll equal to the turn number or less, the random length begins, and the opponent makes a secret D3 dice roll. This determines the remaining game turns, and keeps the loyalist on edge.

Cat deployed conservatively, with the Alpha Legion grouped together in case of my infiltrating shenanigans (Raven Guard lolz). For the Raven Guard, I chose to infiltrate very little, namely the breachers with Alvarex Maun. Keeping in mind my stealth rule on all my foot troops, I tried to use the large areas of cover to block line of sight where possible.

Turn 1:

The closet loyalist force moved forward, the sicarians providing a wall of mobile cover with their tough av13 hulls. Cat quickly used Exodus (the Alpha Legion special sniper) to wipe most of my lascannons (3 failed saves on 7 sniper shots ><) followed by firing the Rapid Fire Battle Cannon from his knight into my jetbikes. To add to the pain, the Sicarian Venator pummled the Errant Knight, half killing it with the first shot!

The Raven Guard response was simple, strike hard, rinse and repeat. I dropped my drop pod using it to block the armour from clear shots at my tac support squad, who opened up with thousands of volkite shots. When the smoke had cleared, Exodus was down two wounds and pissed off. My knight moved into the center, and working with the graviton guns of the breachers managed to kill a rhino and strip some hull points as well as shake the sicarians.

Turn 2:
Carnage. The Alpha Legion moved up, with the marines piling out of their rhinos and devestating the volkite squad. The knight then charged into Alvarex's squad, killing most of them, whilst the rest of the army moved for vantage points.

Conversely, the Raven Guard reinforcements arrived. Two storm eagles, the destroyers and the praetor and command squad came in. Thanks to Alvarex's special rules, I do not scatter deep strikers within 18" AND get to reroll failed reserves. The destroyers and Command squad landed bang on, and combined with the storm eagles managed to devastate armour and infantry alike. To finish my turn, the Errant Knight charged, and thanks to some very lucky rolls, saved Alvarex and co. from eing squashed as well as getting me a well needed VP.

As the turn ended, the Raven Guard were strong, however, with infinite reserves of manpower, the Alpha Legion would be no push over.

Turn 3:

The Alpha Legion turned the fight again, with charges from the veterans crippling the already depleted volkites. The destroyers also felt the combined wrath of the remaining speeder and the Alpha Legion Praetor (Alpha Legionaire No.7. Alpharius). Whilst the Raven Guard were dominant, the next turn would see a flood of reserves.

Keeping the momentum, the Raven Guard pushed further forward. At this point my strategy was simple: dominate the Alpha Legion deployment zone. By doing this, I was hopeful that I could easily deal with the reserves coming in. The Command squad cleaned up the veterans, saving the Apothecary who high tailed it out, and the storm eagles pushed forward.

Turn 4:

The Alpha Legion reinforcements hit hard. The Destroyers were exposed and riddled with fire, whilst the incoming Sicarian pumped a storm eagle, narrowly not killing it with the first salvo. The main reinforcements were just a wave away.

For the Raven Guard, the crippled storm eagle flew into ongoing reserves, and the other vectored for the sole surviving marine  from the veterans who had assaulted the volkites (easy kill point). The destroyers fired at and charged the veterans on the hill, however, the overwatch slew two of the 5 before the assault even commenced. The command squad targeted a rhino that drove on behind the church, easily smashing it. Importantly, I rolled a 2, so the game would soon end, based on Cat's super secret D3 roll.

Turn 5:

With a roar of engines, the Alpha Legion renewed the fight. Firstly, a rhino outflanked, firing and taking down a breacher. The Land Speeders flew in, throwing their firepower into the knight, who managed to make invulnerables  against both melta shots. The Venator added its fury into the unshielded side, but luckily for the knight, managed to only strip a hull point, leaving it on 1. The veterans on the hill wound up finishing off the destroyers for another VP.

This turn for the Raven Guard was all about threat elimination. The Command squad leaped over the church and assaulted into the Venator (killing it and losing one of their own in the explosion, the knight queefed against the marines on the hill, whilst the incoming half-dead storm eagle managed to pop the Alpha Legion Rhino. The unfortunate occupants were then riddled with fury of the Legion, killing all but two.


Then, it was all over. Cat informed me that he had rolled a 2 for his D3, meaning that the Raven Guard had been successfully saved. The final score was a mighty 21 VP's to the Raven Guard, and 6 to the closet loyalists. The outcome I can attribute to two things: my Knight killing his and surviving, and the always dominating performance of the storm eagles.

The game overall was fantastic, the mission is actually quite well designed, with just a few key rolls swinging it heavily toward the Raven Guard. The stratagem of dealing with Alpha Legion units on arrival aggressively rather then hanging back and allowing Cat to mass his forces probably helped me along. At the rate of attrition, I would have lasted to maybe turn 7 or 8, but in a potentially 9 turn game, if I lost all my models on the table, it would be game over.

 Power knife: stab stab hack hack stab stab

 Die closet loyalists!

So that's it, hope you enjoyed it, because we sure did!