The campaign for Averment tilts dangerously in favour of The Cabal ... only one loyal army stands before them and total defeat.
Space Wolves vs The Scourged!
All across Averment, Imperial forces were either in full retreat, or the kind of panicked dithering that shortly proceeded it. Fully half their forces had betrayed the Alliance, too. The Adeptus Mechanicus always had their own agenda, of course, that wasn't entirely surprising. But the Seekers of Truth? That was a damaging blow.
Snorri sighed. It was always bitter when loyalists turned. He didn't relish striking down brothers. He'd done it many times over the years, it was the lot of any Space Wolf. It always left the sour taste of defeat in his mouth afterwards, the knowledge another part of the Imperium had failed. There was not enough mjöd to wash it away. Not that he didn't try anyway.
And now this breach. His Wolves had camped on the outskirts of a ruined industrial estate, lying in wait along the path they knew the traitors were already on. Although it was night, the jagged hole in the sky somehow shone. How did blackness shine? Even his runes didn't know.
Ah well, there would be time enough to work all this out once the traitors were dead. Take what action you could, that was the important thing. Otherwise you got mired in possibilities and never got anywhere.
"The targets are approaching," Boden reported over the vox. "We're in position."
"Right," Snorri said, getting up. "Have Astor move his Aggressors round. You Reivers lead us in quietly, keep them busy."
"We go," Boden said.
Snorri unsheathed his rune sword, held it up to the shimmering darkness in the sky. "First this lot, then you," he told it.
-
The eighth battle of our Skypehammer campaign sees the Vlka Fenrika back in action, now taking on the Unknowables' latest recruit, b1llyb0b's The Scourged.
In a late substitution (who said ringer?), the Space Wolves' warlord Mr AP Burn was unable to take the helm. So command was assumed by his only remaining ally in the Alliance, Monkey, who wasted no time in proving his Fenrisian credentials by swapping out the assigned warlord trait and relic (apparently rerolls in shooting aren't too impressive when you only have a bolt pistol).
- Three factions (the heroic Alliance, the evil Cabal and the enigmatic Unknowables), with eight different armies divided among them.
- Factions will pair off against their opposing armies in 500pt battles.
- All matched play rules apply, and all supplemental rules are available.
- Armies can only be selected from the models in my collection.
- No restrictions on how armies are built (i.e. detachments), but every army must have a warlord that must be named and cannot be changed.
- Every army gets 5CP, no more or less. These can be spent on pre-game stratagems.
With the red claw of The Cabal spreading all over the campaign map, the Space Wolves are once again sent into the fray to score another win for The Alliance.
Snorri's Saga - Space Wolves
- Snorri Jarlsson, Primaris Rune Priest (HQ)
Psychic hood, Runic sword, Bolt Pistol
Powers: Storm Caller, Tempest's Wrath
Warlord Trait: Saga of the Bear
Relic: The Armour of Russ - 6 x Aggressor Squad (Elite)
Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets, Fragstorm Grenade Launcher - 5 x Reiver Squad (Fast)
Bolt carbine, Heavy Bolt Pistols, Shock Grenades - 5 x Reiver Squad (Fast)
Combat knife, Heavy Bolt Pistols, Shock Grenades, Grav-Chutes
And since they did so well against the Thousand Sons, their next fight is against more Tzeentch-worshipping astartes - the Seekers of Truth, who have found little truth in the Alliance and have now thrown in their lot with the Unknowables.
The Seekers of Truth - Chaos Space Marines
~ We have seen the light. And it does nothing but cast a deeper shadow. The is no truth to be found in the Imperium. There is no fidelity among traitors. If we wish to bring the visions we have seen to fruition, then we must walk the third path, the grey path. The path towards unknowing. Cast aside old allegiances. Kill these Wolves. Secure the Breach for ourselves. ~
- Dolo the Danger, Sorcerer (HQ)
Bolt pistol, Force Stave, Frag & Krak Grenades, Mark of Tzeentch
Warlord Trait: Unholy Fortitude
Relic: Eye of Tzeentch
Psychic powers: Prescience, Weaver of Fate - 10 x Chaos Cultists (Troop)
Autoguns, Mark of Tzeentch - 5 x Chaos Space Marines (Troop)
Chainsword & combi-bolter, 4 x Boltguns, Frag & Krak Grenades, Mark of Tzeentch - 5 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)Hideous mutations, Mark of Tzeentch
- 5 x Warp Talons (Fast)
2 x Lightning Claws, Mark of Tzeentch - 1 x Heldrake (Flyer)
Baleflamer, Heldrake claws, Mark of Tzeentch
Points: 500 | Level: 35 |
Mission and Deployment
Once again, we're playing No Mercy from the original rulebook: 1VP for destroying an enemy unit, with the bonus VP for First Blood, Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord.
With only four units, the Space Wolves are presenting fewer kill points to be claimed. On the other hand, The Scourged have brought a Heldrake...
The Space Wolves begin by immediately playing Cunning of the Wolf and putting big pack of Aggressors into reserve.
This takes up all the points for deepstrike, so the Reivers have to ditch their grav-chutes and cluster around the Rune Priest in the craters to their left flank.
The Scourged match them, putting the Chaos Space Marines in the opposite crater, backed by the Sorcerer and flanked by the Chaos Spawn on the right and Heldrake to the left.
The Warp Talons go into deepstrike, as their deepstrike surprise, and the Cultists string out to keep away sneaking Aggressors.
Turn 1 - Space Wolves
The trap had worked like a charm, Dolo realised.
As their column passed through the canning sector, weaving between buildings blown apart by shellfire and still-intact pipelines, the Wolves emerged from a set of low craters and charged towards them, howling. He was isolated here. The bulk of his forces had been split. The majority of the Seekers were stuck ahead, battling Black Legion guerrillas in what was left of a hab-sector. They needed heavy support to break into the reinforced and sealed emergency tunnels the Legion were using to move between buildings, but the terrain here was too poor for armoured vehicles to move through safely. Dolo had taken an advance guard to clear the way and check for ambushes, ostensibly.
In truth, he just wanted to be away from his brethren.
What had they become? Servants of liars, protectors of hideous mechanisms that tore open the heavens and let nightmares in. The leader of the PDF was still claiming this war was one long victory for the Imperial Guard, even as his troops were routed and butchered across every sector. The relays they had been guarding were the very ones that had opened the rift in the sky. The Imperials were deluded. Not one of his battle brothers had died protecting anything of value on this backwater.
Well, no longer. The Seekers of Truth were no more. They were Scourged now, free of the false truths that had ensnared them. Now, when they died, it would be for a good reason.
The Space Wolves were firing as they ran in, and the first of Dolo's brothers fell. Then he felt the pressure front of a storm in the warp - lightning suddenly lit up the sky, and the rest of his bodyguard fell as brilliant white forks stabbed down from above, broiling them inside their armour. The Wolves were howling as they ran, a soul-chilling cry.
If only I had a soul left to chill, Dolo thought. My trap is sprung with my brothers' lives. The foolish hunters have taken my bait.
Showing no fear, the Space Wolves move directly upfield towards their foes.
With pistols out of range, it promises to be a quiet first turn, until the Rune Priest tried to cast Storm Caller and immediately rolled a double-six. Using a Command Point to reroll one of the dice, the power was still cast with no ill-effects.
He then attempted to Smite the Chaos Space Marines and rolls another double-six. With no option but to take this on the chin, he is rewarded by only suffering one wound in return for wiping out four of the squad.
That leaves a single heretic in range of the bolt carbines. With a 2+ save, due to the crater, it would be an unlucky space marine to get picked off, but a bolt round finds a spot in the power armour, and the squad is wiped out.
So that's a Kill Point and a very unexpected First Blood scored!
Space Wolves 2 : 0 The Scourged
Showing no fear, the Space Wolves move directly upfield towards their foes.
With pistols out of range, it promises to be a quiet first turn, until the Rune Priest tried to cast Storm Caller and immediately rolled a double-six. Using a Command Point to reroll one of the dice, the power was still cast with no ill-effects.
He then attempted to Smite the Chaos Space Marines and rolls another double-six. With no option but to take this on the chin, he is rewarded by only suffering one wound in return for wiping out four of the squad.
That leaves a single heretic in range of the bolt carbines. With a 2+ save, due to the crater, it would be an unlucky space marine to get picked off, but a bolt round finds a spot in the power armour, and the squad is wiped out.
So that's a Kill Point and a very unexpected First Blood scored!
Space Wolves 2 : 0 The Scourged
Turn 1 - The Scourged
The Wolves didn't know what they were up against.
The Breach in the sky threw the mind off. It twisted vox and bioscanner reports. It kept you distracted, worrying about what was coming for you, what was going to happen next. A distracted mind was easily fooled, Dolo knew.
He spoke a command. Around him, men that had once been chapter serfs ran, lightly armed. Once, they had served behind the lines, now, they fought. Four of them loped behind the line, bloated and foul. They'd basked in the half-light of the Breach long enough to undergo a change - rather than fit and lithe squires to the chapter, fetching and carrying weapons of war, they had become living weapons. Their howl matched and drowned out the Wolves. Did you see this coming, Rune Priest? Dolo wondered. Did you spring your trap anyway?
He drew up his own torrent of warp energy, ready to hurl power back at the Space Wolves, but something made him hold back. This was not the moment, not yet. Let them come closer. Let the Rune Priest taste his full power. First, though, he would burn away those pups at his side.
Another word, and a huge, dark shape sprang into the air above him. It had once been an Arvus Lighter. It showed its true nature now, no longer a machine to bear freight. Just like the altered squires at his side, it had become a weapon. Dolo had bound a spirit of the warp into the carrier. It croaked as it flexed its wings, then belched a torrent of fire into the oncoming Primaris, and the first wolf died.
Not knowing where the Aggressors may appear, it's a cautious first turn for The Scourged.
Keeping the backline screened out, the Chaos Spawn and Sorcerer edge forward, so does the Heldrake, whose 18" baleflamer has ample reach.
In the Psychic Phase, the Chaos Sorcerer opens the batting with a Perils of the Warp (between this battle and the last, something very strange is happening with the immaterium today), and a CP reroll corrects this.
In shooting, aside from the Cultists (who could be aiming anywhere, for all the good they'll do), the Heldrake's baleflamer licks out at the first pack of Reivers, but their armour holds steady (thanks to the Storm Caller psychic power) and only one of them falls.
Space Wolves 2 : 0 The Scourged
Turn 2 - Space Wolves
Bolter fire! There, blasting their way into sight, was a group of heavily armoured Space Wolves. They'd made their way up onto the roof of an administratum building. Six of them, pouring a torrent of bolter fire into his living weapons.
Yes, Dolo thought. They still do not see the true danger. Good.
The Reivers were nearly on them now, skull masks glinting in the non-light from the Breach. They looked beyond dangerous, terrifying killers that bounded from shadow to shadow with mortal purpose. Sprinting in their midst was the hulking figure of the Rune Priest, his blade burning with green fire. His eyes blazed as he conjured another blast of lightning that crackled against the skin of the Arvus, and the creature shackled within it bellowed for revenge.
I shall show them true fear, Dolo thought. Just keep coming.
Stepping over their charbroiled point-man, the Reivers press forward. Then, atop a building on the left flank, the Aggressors make their appearance.
Storm Caller is once again placed on the lead Reiver pack, with a Smite taking two wounds off the Heldrake, the Rune Priest clearly having the upper hand in psychic mastery.
In the Shooting Phase, a barrage of bolt rounds and frag grenades are thrown against the Chaos Spawn, but their toughness holds out and only two of them fall.
The only other casualty is a Cultist who was foolish enough to stray into bolt pistol range of the Reivers.
Space Wolves 2 : 0 The Scourged
Turn 2 - The Scourged
"Now!" Dolo cried.
The Space Wolves were in the perfect place, sprinting across the final open space between their original concealment and the Scourged's lines. There was nowhere to hide out there, no cover to suddenly slip into. And they were blocking the firing lines of their heavy support.
At Dolo's command, flickering shapes appeared atop the twin silos next to the Wolves, slipping in and out of reality. In a flash, they were among the Reivers, tainted lightning claws ripping into the blindsided marines. A week ago, they'd been assault marines, leaping to battle on turbine-driven jump packs. Now, their packs burned with less wholesome fuels, and they leaped between realities as they came to the fray.
If the Reivers were nightmarish in the half-light, then there were no words for what these taloned killers had become. It hurt the mind to look at them. One hooked a Reiver around the middle, split his face with a bladed fist and threw him aside, then three of his brothers dove in a pack on the Rune Priest. The first took the Space Wolf's legs, knocking him to the ground, then the other two trapped his arms with their clawed boots, leaned over him and started slashing. It took moments, and the Priest was down.
Dolo laughed. The remaining Reivers ran to assist their leader, but the Arvus was waiting for them. It spat a vast gout of flame into the Aggressors, sending them tumbling and burning, then swooped right into the middle of the Reiver pack. What had once been a pilot's cabin was now a snapping maw filled with fiery teeth. It roared a furnace scream as it opened to engulf the nearest Reiver.
With the Space Wolves' showing their hand (paw?), it's time for The Scourged to punch back.
The Cultists march towards their Sorcerer, aiming to bring more of their useless autoguns into play.
The Heldrake (after recovering a wound) flies around the back of the Space Wolves, lining up a charge on the rear Reivers, while the two remaining Chaos Spawn look to take them in the flank.
Then, out of the Warp itself, the flight of Warp Talons emerge directly behind the yellow containers. They're immune to overwatch in this turn anyway, but if they fail the 9" charge, it will shield them from subsequent fire from the Aggressors.
In the Psychic Phase, a Smite takes out one of the front Reivers, and the Sorcerer puts Weaver of Fates upon himself (not optimistic about holding the line then)
The Scourged's own shooting phase is limited to the Heldrake's breath, which lands a good hit on the Aggressors. But with their three wounds, they're less vulnerable to 2-damage weapons, and only one of the Gravis marines are slain (with another down to his last wound).
What follows in the charge phase takes some careful thinking, since all Space Wolves characters have a 6" heroic intervention range, and the Rune Priest's Armour of Russ means that he can pick a unit to fight last (if it lives that long). So the key is to tie the Rune Priest up in combat before he can intervene into a more vulnerable unit (like the Warp Talons) and wipe them out first.
It falls thusly: the Heldrake charges the back Reivers and Rune Priest, but only charges far enough to engage the back Reivers. The Warp Talons charge the front Reivers and Rune Priest, but only choose to go far enough to engage the Reivers. Finally the Spawn make the charge into the Rune Priest, meaning he now cannot intervene anywhere else, and has to choose the Spawn to fight last.
With all that sorted out, the Heldrake whiffs against the back Reivers. The Rune Priest then interrupts combat, using Call of the Wild to maximise his attacks, and hacks down another Spawn, leaving one left on half wounds.
The Warp Talons tear down another Reiver and piling forward, put most of their attacks against the Rune Priest. They inflict four wounds on the Space Wolf, but his Saga of the Bear allows him to shrug off a couple of them, and he's left alive!
Glory then falls the to the final Spawn, to pull off those last two wounds, but the task is beyond him, and the swirling melee continues.
Space Wolves 2 : 0 The Scourged
Turn 3 - Space Wolves
Caught between the threat of the warped assault marines and the screaming bulk of the Arvus, the Reivers were in disarray. One of them managed to knock aside the Talons who were tearing their precious Priest to shreds, but only long enough to get tackled from behind by the largest of Dolo's mutated serfs. Pseudopods grabbed the Reiver's arms and splayed him aloft before a spiked tongue thrust through his armour again and again. The rest of the altered pack thundered towards the bloody bulk of the Rune Priest, where he lay prostrate on the ground in a welter of blood.
No. Not prostrate, Dolo suddenly realised in horror.
The old wolf was faking it.
Just as the lead pack beast opened an eel-like mouth, ready to snap off the Priest's head, the marine twisted and rolled on the floor before firing his pistol point-black. The beast toppled, spraying gore, then the Rune Priest was back up, roaring like a bear as his blade left a complex knotwork of afterimages on Dolo's vision. He span it through the other creatures, and not a one survived, then the Priest was up and fleeing the trap with a pack of his brothers.
As the fire and smoke on the administratum building's roof cleared, Dolo saw that most of the Aggressors were still standing. Their bolt weapons rattled a deafening tattoo as they drummed on the steel hide of the Arvus. It flicked first one wing, then the other around itself, dropping its prey and trying to shelter itself from the stinging spray. Forced back, it took to the air again, spouting fire and smoking, oily blood. And then the Space Wolves were gone, a great blizzard of mist and ice billowing out of nowhere to enshroud them as they turned tail.
With a lack of enthusiasm for the fight uncharacteristic among Space Wolves (it must be the Primaris gene-seed messing with them), both the Rune Priest and uninjured pack of Reivers fall out of combat.
What's more, Monkey elects not to go to the Assault Doctrine (although that does mean the Aggressors now have -1AP to their many, many guns).
The Rune Priest kills the final Spawn with a Smite (grabbing another Kill Point) and shrouds his new protectors with Storm Caller once again.
Having stood still, the Aggressors unleash a storm of fire against the Heldrake, blasting it down to just one wound.
In the only combat, the Warp Talons and Reivers beat each other to a stalemate.
The heretics have thrown everything at the advance, but it looks like nothing will stop the Space Wolves.
Space Wolves 3 : 0 The Scourged
Turn 3 - The Scourged
More trickery, Dolo saw. The Rune Priest had thrown up some kind of screen, thinking to hide his forces. Dolo screamed the true location of the foe to his troops, then underlined the message with a bolt of cabled fire that tore through a Reiver. Streams of tracer fire from his advancing serfs followed it, ricocheting from unseen armour inside the cloud.
Above him, the Arvus flexed its steel wings and shrilled a hacking, hawk-like call, then spewed another long ball of fire on the Wolves. Another Reiver staggered out of the smoke, burning like a torch. He was screaming. Dolo wondered how much pain it took to make a Space Wolf scream, and the idea pleased him.
The assault talons were still about their bloody work, dismantling the few Reivers who'd stayed to protect their brothers' retreat. It was butchery, but still done with cruel elegance. The Reivers on the receiving end would never fight again, but they wouldn't die either.
It was done. The Wolves were fleeing, their ambush foiled. Through his vox, Dolo gave the order. The Scourged would bring their heavy artillery this way shortly, and the Black Legion would crumble before them.
Reforming what remains of their lines, the Heldrake swings around and joins its master in the ruins. The Cultists do their best to screen out trouble, and the Warp Talons remain in their happy place of bloody melee.
The Psychic phase picks up, as a Smite takes out one of the carbine Reivers, and the Heldrake burns away another one.
In melee, the Warp Talons deal with the last of the combat Reivers, so that's a Kill Point for b1llyb0b at last.
Space Wolves 3 : 1 The Scourged
Turn 4 - Space Wolves
Dolo laughed, and above him, his ghastly mock eagle gave a scream of triumph.
As its heavy, beaked mouth gaped, a tiny black mote flew through the air. Backlit for a split second against the crimson forge inside the creature's metal shell, Dolo had just enough time to see it for what it was before it vanished into the inferno.
A Krak grenade.
Final push for the Space Wolves, and everything moves forward.
The Rune Priest's psychic attack on the Heldrake is denied this time, so he resorts to lobbing a krak grenade down its throat - the daemonic dragon falls in a shower of burning ichor and that's one for the sagas!
The Aggressors level their guns at the Warp Talons, who do their best to duck and weave, only losing three of their number to the massed bolt fire.
And then the Rune Priest charges in for some warlord-on-warlord action. Battering his opposite number with his runic sword, he slays the Scourged Sorcerer before he can even get in a counter-stroke.
With two more Kill Points and Slay the Warlord scored, and only two Warp Talons and a pack of very fortunate Cultists to level the score, the game is conceded there.
Space Wolves 6 : 1 The Scourged
Victory to the Space Wolves!
Instinct took over, and Dolo dived for cover. Moments later, a deluge of burning metal descended out of the sky. Molten iron, shards of plasteel landing gear, bleeding pieces of now-empty carapace smashed into the ruins around him, everything became a mindless hell of smoke and blood and ash, and it was all he could do to regain his feet and look around.
Through the fire, the Rune Priest strode directly towards him, helmet off and blood on his smiling face.
-
"They got away," Astor said. He'd been hunting the last few traitors, the ones with the talons. His gravis armour was scorched and stained, he'd taken the brunt of a blast that would have felled half his squad. He was wounded, but wasn't complaining. The heavy fire his squad had provided had saved the day against the unexpected horrors the traitors deployed. "They escaped the same way they came, into the warp."
"For now," Snorri said. "A traitor's reckoning always comes in time."
"Aye," Astor said, standing at the Rune Priest's side. Together, they stared up at the hole in the sky for a while. "So," Astor said, "what's next? Hit the heavy vehicles when they come through?" They'd heard the traitor's last command, it would be easy enough to ambush the artillery train.
"No," Snorri said, "we let the rest of these traitors fight it out amongst themselves. We need to close that hole up there. Get a message to the leader of the Defence Force. We'll let them know where to muster. The true enemy will be on us quick enough."
Astor's helm tilted doubtfully. "We throw our lot in with the Guard? Lose our mobility bolstering a defence line? Are things truly that bad?"
Snorri looked around at the baleful darkness all around with a dire grin. "It looks dark now, brother. But we are the Vlka Fenryka. We wait in darkness for them all. Fenrys hjölda!"
Locker Room
That was epic! For what seemed like a mad rush down the field by the Space Wolves, there was a good deal of finesse (and a little luck) in how and when actions were taken, and also how the relics and warlord traits were employed (Monkey wasn't wrong to switch them out).I was very impressed with the Rune Priest in general, and the Reivers didn't let themselves down either (maybe they've been in the cabinet so long, they were desperate to put in a good showing). I was expecting the Aggressors to be more deadly - but they're more suited to horde clearing than power armour, and they did prove very difficult to shift.
As for the poor Scourged, they had some hard questions to answer against the Space Wolves. The Heldrake was middling, and it needed to be awesome. The Warp Talons almost made a grab for glory though, and they did well. It's a shame that renegades can't have Veterans of the Long War because that would give them that extra punch in combat.
A good fight - and now we're racing towards the concluding battles of this campaign. Stay tuned for the next twist in the story!
It was a great fight and a lot of fun, always a pleasure to face Billybob.
ReplyDeleteThat was brilliant!
ReplyDelete