Round one of the Campaign draws to a close as the Chaos Fleet descends upon the Imperial world of Alebus. Can I defend it? Hold my beerbus!
It's another Orbital Invasion (see the last report for a breakdown of the rules). Stylus has instigated this one and I, Kraken, am going to unstigate it and/or die trying.
And I, Stylus, will be taking on the twin challenge of trying to remember how to play 40k and hosting an online game for the first time in over two years (it took me forever to find my webcam and I still don't know where my craters have gone).
This particular planet is full of especially weak-minded idiots, and I don't just mean us. The locals will join anyone who'll have them, represented by our Twist, which gives each of us a free squad of Battleline troops as long as they're worth 100 points or less.
Blistered Sisters
Representing the Imperial defence are some kindly nuns. It's a Penitent Host, which means the ones that are into self-battery get some tasty bonuses.
This is my second try with the mission, so I have a reasonable idea of what I need to try and do. If I can get a couple of the boosted units to land their hits, I'm confident I can punch a nasty hole in the enemy. That ought to help me secure the drop site this time!
A core of infantry along with transports and one of their nice flamer tanks, led by a few liturgical sounding types. Not sure if I can tell them all apart, but they all seem to buff and boost infantry.
A pair of Penitent Engines and a big squad of Repentia are my punch, then some Seraphim to bounce about being shooty, and that's nearly my lot. I just need my free squad of... wait a minute, there aren't any Battleline Sororitas worth 100 points or less! Which is entirely as I planned it, of course, we don't need weak-minded idiots in our very faithful army. What a well-fluffed rule.
Stylus is quite insistent that I take something, however, so at one point I think about taking ten Subductors.
My sporting gesture is a somewhat undercut when I completely forget I agreed to this and had no Subjucators to provide.
I don't need their kind of scum to help me anyway!
- HQ - Canoness, Warlord, with Psalm of Righteous Judgement, Blessed Blade and Condemnor Boltgun
- HQ - Dogmata
- HQ - Palatine with Catechism of Divine Penitence (so she can lead the Repentia)
- Battleline - 10 Battle Sisters, heavy and standard flamers
- Battleline - 10 Battle Sisters, multi and standard meltas
- Infantry - 10 Repentia
- Infantry - 5 Seraphim, two inferno pistols
- Vehicles - two individual Penitent Engines
- Dedicated Transport - Rhino + HK
- Dedicated Transport - Immolator, immolation flamers and HK
Alebus Expeditionary Force
As you'll see, I'm so out of practice, I forgot to to take the mandatory pictures of the two armies before kick-off. Apologies, and enjoy the free use of your imagination.
I'm leaning into the narrative for this one: Haarken Worldclaimer is the named character in charge of spearheading invasions, so I'm putting all the jump troops into this one. I also have a Chaos Lord with a Jump Pack (which I think was illegal last time I played, and legal now - you just have to wait long enough).
Rounding out the flying theme is a Heldrake, which I understand is functionally useless, but I'm very fond of them. I've run out of airborne material, so I have to make do with some fast-moving ground troops (to be the 'garden' part of my 'market garden' operation) - a couple of Biker units, plus my free mob of snivelling civilian militia.
I take the Dread Talon detachment, as it suits the composition of my army (although doesn't seem to do much and puts an awful lot of emphasis on battleshock).
- HQ - Haarken Worldclaimer, Helspear, Herald's Talon
- HQ - Chaos Lord with Jump Pack, Warlord: Eater of Dread, Accursed Weapon and bolt pistol
- 5 Raptors, Accursed weapon and plasma pistol, Metagun, Plasma Gun, Chainsword and bolt pistol
- 5 Raptors, Heavy melee weapon and bolt pistol, Metagun, Plasma Gun, Chainsword and bolt pistol
- 5 Warp Talons, Warp Claws
- 5 Warp Talons, Warp Claws
- 3 Chaos Bikers, Accursed weapon, Chainsword, Metagun, bolt pistols
- 3 Chaos Bikers, Accursed weapon, Chainsword, Metagun, bolt pistols
- Heldrake, Baleflamer
- 20 Cultists with firearms
Mission and Deployment
It's Orbital Assault again, so the attacker picks some advance troops, deploys objectives in the middle, then the defender has to deploy their entire army. I go into two wings, one going for each of the nearest objectives.
Stylus has his cultists and all the bikers doing their gardening on the three objectives, the rest of his army will be along later to do the marketing.
From orbit, it looks like this:
I'm getting an extra CP at the start as the Imperium has Dominance on Alebus (for now). I also manage to roll first turn after a brief deadlock, so off I go!
Adepta Sororitas - Turn 1
I know what I need to do for this - go and get all the objectives as quickly as possible, and make sure I can't get jumped on by enemy appearing right on top of me in turn two.
Luckily, the Penitent Host has some help for me here. I can give my Penitent units (the Engines) an extra 3" movement and then advance them right at all those cultists. A nice soft target for the Engines, I reckon!
Sure enough, the pair of Penitents make a grisly mess of most of the cultists, leaving two standing after fire and buzz-saw descend. That's one objective taken.
Along the other side, all my troops advance up in the cover of the ruins.
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| Famous ruins, these, they've been on Youtube! |
The Immolator gives the nearest bikers a light toasting, then rams them. This doesn't go especially well - I knock a couple of wounds off one and take a few in return, but I'm not going anywhere soon. The bikers will have to decide whether to stick around and get crowded when the rest of the girls arrive, or waste a turn backing off.
It's a pretty strong aggro start, all in all, and scores me an early 5 points for the lone objective I swiped. Can the Black Legion respond?
Chaos Space Marines - Turn 1
Farwell, good citizens of Alebus! You really backed the wrong horse there.
With just six bikers against the whole Adepta Sororitas army, I might have considered finding a neutral corner to await reinforcements. But that kind of thinking doesn't burn down any galaxies.
The Bikers engaged with the Immolator zoom away to the south, while the unengaged Bikers open fire (ineffectively), then charge into the Seraphim. I managed to take out four of the five flying nuns, and now await the counterattack.
Adepta Sororitas - Turn 2
May as well keep pushing, I reckon - I can reach all three objectives easily enough this turn and still have some spare firepower. The only one to run backwards is the last Seraphim, who's also battleshocked (and no wonder).
The Immolator keeps chasing the bikers, flaming one and then killing the rest off with a Tank Shock charge. So far so good!
The Engines advance on to the next objective, leaving the Rhino (which is full of Repentia) to look after the one they were holding. They casually murder the last of the Cultists as they go. This lets me convert one of my miracle dice to a six, which is good, as all I've got so far is ones.
The Canoness and her Sisters go straight for the mean old bikers who bullied their Seraphim. It's a pretty one-sided exchange - after softening them up a bit with fire and bolt, the two characters can finish off the rest in combat.
This leaves me on all three objectives for the full score of 20 (one, two, three and more), and also leaves no Black Legion on the board. I'd like to say I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself at this stage, but we all know what pride comes before.
Chaos Space Marines - Turn 2
At last, reinforcements. Unfortunately, I don't hold any objectives (where did those Bikers go?), so I'll be relying on 9" deepstrikes all around. The exception is the Heldrake, who can appear in the deployment zone within baleflamer range.
Both units of Warp Talons appear behind the Sisters' army, although both fail their charges, so they can only flap menacingly.
The Heldrake hoses down the Canoness' unit of Sisters, then charges in and gobbles up a few more. Half the unit remains unscathed, which is a bit disappointing. And they even manage to scratch off a wound, which is rubbing salt into the matter.
At least the two squads of Raptors are carrying guns, and they unload into the Penitent Engines with melta and plasma. However, due to splitting fire (and some pretty handy invulnerable saves), both machines are still left functional.
That just gives me more to charge at! Worldclaimer's unit falls short, but the Chaos Lord flies directly into both engines. They avoid a firery bath from the Immolator's overwatch and set about dividing their attacks. The wounded one is brought down easily, but the uninjured penitent clings on to his last wound.
Having no sense of humour about this, the Penitent Engine rips apart the whole squad of Raptors, leaving just the warlord (who is no longer in control of the objective).
Adepta Sororitas - Turn 3
Time for the Repentia to get out and do some repenting. Against the lone and wounded Jump Pack Lord, it's overkill, and he vanishes under a heap of furious Catholics.
What I don't have is a good answer for the impending Warp Talons. A half squad of bolter Sisters moves to intercept and achieves nothing at all.
The Canoness leads the remains of her unit back towards the rear, running away from the Heldrake. That lets both vehicles slap it with Hunter-Killers, and using miracle dice for the damage, down it goes.
I keep on headbutting Chaos Marines with the Immolator, but it takes a bit of a thrashing from its foes and is now on its last legs.
My line is holding pretty well - I've still got all the objectives, so that's another 20 points.
Chaos Space Marines - Turn 3
Despair not! I may have lost most of my army, but this is the turn I get to start scoring! Lots of injured Sororitas units fail their battleshock tests, due to my Dread Talons detachment rule, but it doesn't seem to amount to much.
I decide to fly as far away from those mad Repentia as possible and heave everything into the Battle Sisters around the large ruin (there's even an objective in there somewhere, so I'm still playing for the points!)
The Warp Talons have no trouble making their charges, and convincingly shred everything they encounter. Scratch two squads and a Dogmata, but the Canoness proves to be made of sterner stuff.
Activating her once-per-battle invulnerable save, she is able to survive most of the attacks coming her way, and remain alive on a single wound (albeit very surrounded).
And I'm holding an objective - so I score some points. Yay!
Adepta Sororitas - Turn 4
Operation Garden Weeding goes into its last stages. The Repentia come dashing in to help the Canoness and go through the remaining Chaos troops in a matter of seconds.
On the objective I've lost, it's not quite as thorough a rinsing, but there's only two Warp Talons left by the time I've ganged up on them with an Engine, some Sisters and the last Seraphim, so it's another twenty points in the bag. Not looking ideal for the enemy, in all honesty.
Chaos Space Marines - Turn 4
Right. Clearly our mission wasn't to conquer the planet, but to decapitate the leadership of the Adepta Sororitas. The last two Warp Talons use a stratagem to disengage and charge into the Canoness, finally managing to claw away her final wound.
We decide to draw a veil over what the rest of the Sisters then do to them.
Result: Victory to the Adepta Sororitas!
Locker room
Ouch. No matter how much I enjoy using my jump troops, I never seem to remember how flimsy they can be. Or that a Heldrake almost costs as much as a Land Raider (which would have been a far more effective objective-squatter).
Looking back on the scenario, it might have been a better idea to do that: camp out on the objectives with some tough units, then unleash some short-range melee charges (those Warp Talons were impressive when they got going). As it was, I had a highly mobile army that got caught in a meat-grinder.
Still, it was nice to see the Sisters at work, and now that Worldclaimer has, narratively-speaking, bought the farm, I can try out some other chaos units in my roster.
Comparing this to the other Planetary Invasion I've fought so far, this went a lot better! Not having to clear massive hive beasts and their swarms with lasguns was an easier lift. My early pressure snowballed pretty well, the Chaos troops got unlucky with their charges on the drop turn, and I felt like was on top of the board throughout.
My dice were pretty supportive too. All the bad rolls turned up in the Miracle Dice (I couldn't have cured a wart with them), but the Canoness' relic let me convert a few into sixes as the Penitents did their murdering. It all seemed to go according to plan, really, so much so that I fully expect something dreadful to happen to me next round.
Alebus stands firm in the Imperial fold for now! I get to drive off the Chaos Fleet, so it's been sent packing to Drawbridge, where the Imperial Fleet is waiting for it.
And that's all the battles for round one of the Campaign done! Expect a fluffy report in a day or two.
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