It is time for yet another Battle report. This time my opponent was Jan-Øivind, fielding Uriel Ventris' 4th company of Ultramarines.
It's been several weeks since the Imperial Guard marched on the ruined manufactorum city on Zarona. 2 Platoons, several tank squadrons, support units, scouts and auxila units were deployed. Not a force for a full scale war, but enough to defend itself. The task force never reported back to HQ, and the lord general refused to send more troopers as they were engaged in an open rebellion in one of the larges hive cities on Zarona.
The Librarian of the 4th comapny was a strong telepath and had heard voices in the warp and the death screams of hundreds of men from the ruined manufactorum city. He approached his Captain, Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines 4th company, who decided to act at once. Deploying more than half his company in drop pods, and had land raiders and rhinos dropped from thunderhawk transports, he found the Imperial guardsmen.
Turned from the light of the Emperor, walking corpses of Nurgle.
And their murderers not far behind - The Death Guard.
We decided to play Cloak and Shadows (on Øivinds request) and proceeded with setting up our forces. I choose side and set up objectives first, but he got the first turn.
The Ultramarines charges forward!
Turn 1
The Ultramarines charged forward, guns ablazing, but not doing any real damage. The walking corpses of the Imperial Guard was the first to feel the Marines wrath. The Death Guard answered in the same manner. A large cloaked figure made himself known as he flew towards the Imperial lines. Chanting in a forbidden language, he tried to open a portal to the warp, summoning children of nurgle. The walls of reality flickered and the figure was promised a reward for his loyalty - when the time was right.
The Lord and his Champion stands back to back as the Death Guard rushes to reinforce them.
Turn 2
As the armoured might of the Ultramarines charged forward, a drop pod crashed right behind enemy lines. The squad deployed lightning fast and brought their guns to bear on an exposed Rhino APC. The vehicle exploded so violently that it killed more Ultramarines than it did Death Guard. As the squad of Death Guard stumbled out of the Rhino, Uriel Ventris and his assault squads charged the exposed traitors. The Champion of the Death Guard shouted insults and issued a challenge. A brave sergeant answered and intended to bring down the traitor with his power fist. He punched the traitor in the abdomen, crushing his organs. To the sergeants horror, the champion stumbled, got back up and laughed as he brought his axe down in the sergeant. Captain Ventris and his marines cut down the traitors, but were unable to kill their Lord. As the Lord and his Champion stood back to back, prepared for their doom, Necrosius and a kill squad of Plague Marines joined the fray. Hordes of zombies were also moving forwards. The reinforcement was to much for the Ultramarines. In sheer terror, the assault marines fled from combat, leaving their captain alone and wounded.
Typhus and his bodyguards teleports onto the planet.
Turn 3
The gunline of Marines added their firepower to the assault and killed several daemonic machines. They even managed to take down the mysterious cloaked figure. As he crashed onto the sands, a hole inreality opened up and spewed forth a group of Plaguebearers. The death of the cloaked figure was what Nurgle was waiting for.
Ventris was blessed by the Emperor as he seemed impossible to kill! He still had some of his trusted battle brothers with him, and admist the melee he also saw the grim figure of the Company Chaplain killing the Death Guard Lord. The moment Ventris locked eyes with the Chaplain, a plague knife struck the chaplain in the gut. the wound began instantly to rot and fester, and the Chaplain died in horrible agony.
Ventris was now alone.
Meanwhile, behind the Ultramarines lines, reality flickered as Typhus himself teleported onto the sand of Zarona. Flanked by his Deathshroud, they moved in for the kill. His Liutenant, "The Grave Warden" used his ancient toxic weapon and killed a great score of marines, even the unfortunate librarian.
The Land Raider is destroyed, and its prescious cargo with it.
Turn 4
Uriel Ventris felt shame as he ran from battle to lick his wounds inside his Land Raider. The death guard ran after but failed to damage the huge tank. All around them, the Ultramarines were killing off the Death Guard. Infantry was being crushed, tanks destroyed, daemons banished!
The Grave Warden snuck up on the Ultramarines defensive positions and killed a support squad, a Obliterator sniped captain Ventris' Land Raider with a high energy weapon, setting the tank on fire. He had no choise but to leave the safety of his carrier. As he charged out the hatch, he was met by a kill squad of Death Guard, cutting him dow with his bolters.
The Marines hunt down the remaining Zombies.
Turn 5
The sight of their fallen captain filled the Ultramarines with rage! They rallied and sent in the Dreadnoughts, managing to kill the last of the obliterators. The zombies were unstoppable and destroyed everything the came in contact with. It seemed the Death Guard had lost the fight though, as zombies don't follow orders very well.
Typhus kills the last squad and activates his teleport homer.
Turn 6
As the Ultramarines started to secure the area, killing off the zombies, they found that their Captain was still alive and ordered his extraction. Necrosius made his prescence known and charged a squad and wiped them out. Supported by the remainder of the kill squad, they secured a building and prepared to be teleported to Terminus Est.
Behind the Ultramarines lines, Typhus did the same. Having just killed the last of the support squads, he activated his teleport homer...
End Game
A real nail biter!! I really love the way 7th edition plays! Maelstrom of War is really fun as you get new orders each turn, and can claim victory points as you complete the objectives. We both were really lucky with our cards as well, drawing "Hold objective X" twice, scoring 2 points for the same objective. I got "Manifest a psychic power", and since I had already killed his Librarian, I actually managed to manifest 3 powers, earning D3 victory points!
I had spent a lot of points on my Lord, giving him the Murder Sword, and Uriel Ventris kept refusing the challenge! And seeing him running from combat was a blow to MY morale as well... I got him at last though. After we had calculated all the victory points, Øivind had 16, and I, not far behind, 13.
Winner: Ultramarines!
We decided to make this a campaign. Next time we will roll for a mission from the Altar of War book. We will roll for Space Marine missions, and if Øivind wins again he gets to choose the next mission. If he looses however, we will roll on the Chaos Space Marine missions.
Until next time!
Cheers!
