And now, the intercepted astropathic signal. Imperial transmission patterns and ciphers, but very old. And the contents of the messages, jibberish. He knew well what it meant: a Heretic fleet on the move. They'd had to destroy the two mortals who had been tainted in the process of decrypting the message but, scattered in among the insane ravings, was oblique mention of an Astartes relic from the time of the Scouring.
The system was located deep in the backwater of Segmentum Obscurus, well off the main path of the Perseus arm. And yet it was tantalizingly close, as these things go, to the seeping hole that was the Ocularis Terribus. Where Russ had headed around that same time in M30, ten thousand years ago.
The old wolf lord suspected a trap, but the possibility of catching scent of Russ's trail -- ten millenia cold -- gnawed at him. If he sent men, if they did find something that sparked another Great Hunt... it was the stuff of legends. The towering figure turned and strode to the viewport, covering the distance in three steps, and gazed out at the stars while he thought.
He stood there for only a few moments, as it is the burden of such men to make decisions of great enormity swiftly and decisively. He would send a task force; if nothing else, the traitor fleet would be put to the torch before it could cause any further harm. He was already engaged on several fronts, and could not spare as large a force as he would have liked. But the prospect of finding the Relic led many to volunteer for the mission, and among the volunteers were a few names worth twenty battle-brothers...
A 7th edition 2500pt battle between Space Wolves, and the allied forces of Chaos Space Marines (Nurgle) and renegade Imperial Guard.
The space wolves force was made up of: 4 squads of grey hunters mounted in rhinos, 4 squads of long fangs, 2 squads of wolf guard in TDA, 2 squads of skyclaws, 2 whirlwind artillery tanks. Lone Wolves Brynjolf Gunnarsen and Fjorlag Doomseeker joined the hunt. Thunderwolf-mounted wolf-guard-battle-leader Sloegr the Cunning joined one of the skyclaw packs. Olaf Wyrdsine, rune priest and seer, joined one of the squads of long fangs. Egil Jarnhand, biomancy rune priest, joined one of the squads of grey hunters. Legendary wolf guard Geirr the Fist (aka Arjac) joined one of the wolf guard packs. And Haldor Frodslatr, High Wolf Priest (aka Ulrik), honoured another of the packs of hunters by accompanying them.
The Archenemy force consisted of: two guard command squads, a tank commander ("Antipask") and another Russ tank, a pair of basilisks, a wyvern mortar; two squads of plague marines in rhinos; a squad of warp talons with an attached jump pack chaos lord; a forgefiend; a squad of nurgle bikers.
The wolves won the roll-off, and deployed first. I placed the TDA wolf guard and the lone wolves into reserve, scattered Long Fangs and Whirlwinds around in the ruins, placed a squad of skyclaws off on a flank, and stuck everybody else (the rhinos, the WGBL, and the other pack of skyclaws) into the center so that they could move quickly on the relic.
Chaos deployed second, reserving the Helldrake and the Warp Talons; placing the bikes, rhinos, tanks, and command squads in the center near the relic; and placing the basilisks on a flank in cover.
The advancing wolves force caught sight of the Relic, and were mystified to find that it was some kind of Macragge nonsense, rather than a worthy relic of Russ. So much for the sagas...but nevermind that, it still could not fall into the hands of these heretics!
Sloegr, having rolled the Princepts of Deceit warlord trait, had cunningly directed his artillery vehicles to lay down a suppressive barrage the moment that their sharp-eyed spotters caught sight of an enemy presence. This went off quite well: of the exactly three potential targets (i.e. the three non-vehicle enemy units on the board), two were pinned (the Guard command squads), while only one (the Nurgle bikers) remained unfazed.
However, the shelling cost the Wolves the element of surprise, and just as Sloegr was about to give the order for the armoured column to advance toward the relic, the enemy force seized the initiative!
Chaos Turn 1 (14:00)
The Nurgle bikers raced accross the field to grab the Relic on the hill. Artillery from the basilisks scattered away from the WGBL and skyclaws, but into the rhinos on my left, stunning one. The psyker in one of the command squads failed to grant invisibility to the bikers.
The inappropriately named Leman Russ tanks fired into the other rhinos on the right, stunning one and destroying the other on hull points. The biomancy rune priest and his accompanying squad of Grey Hunters escaped the flaming wreck out the back hatch. This gave Chaos first blood, but we didn't realize it at the time. The Wyvern mortar bombarded the lascannon Long Fangs in the ruins, scoring a ridiculous 20 hits. The divination rune priest attached to that squad absorbed most of the damage with his runic armor, but eventually succombed, as did two of the lascannon guys.
The Chaos rhinos sped past the relic toward the wolves deployment zone with a flat-out move.
The bikers fired on the plasma cannon Long Fangs in the tall ruin, but either failed to kill anybody or might have taken out the weaponless sergeant. The Forgefiend fired on another Long Fangs squad, but likewise just took out the sergeant.
Rather importantly, the Master of Ordinance didn't fire on account of being pinned.
Wolves Turn 1 (14:45)
The Wolves' rhinos advanced at combat speed, but were fairly well bottled up by the Chaos rhinos. The biomancy RP's squad advanced. Enfeeble on the bikers was denied by the Guard psyker, but Smite managed to take out the relic-holding biker.
Fire from the Long Fangs streaked over them to kill another biker and damage the Chaos rhinos.
The whirlwinds targetted the Master of Ordinance's command squad, and managed to take him out and wound the commander.
Plasma fire from the marines inside the rhinos wrecked one of the Chaos rhinos, spilling Plague Marines everywhere. These traitor marines were then immediately incinerated by fire from the Plasma Cannon Long Fangs. We forgot about their FNP! (We thought that this gave me first blood, having forgotten about the rhino that had just been destroyed by the tanks.)
The WGBL and his skyclaw escort charged the other chaos rhino, wrecking that as well, releasing a second batch of chaos marines.
Notably, these plague marines' Champion managed to cook himself with plasma overwatch... Such are the rewards of Heresy.
Meanwhile, on the east flank, the other squad of skyclaws advanced toward the Basilisks under the cover of a field of decorative moss-rocks.
Chaos Turn 2 (15:25)
The Master of the Fleet directed his orbital assets to interfere with my reserve rolls. The Helldrake swooped in to intercept the flanking squad of skyclaws, chopping one of their heads off with his vector strike and then later wiping them out with his torrent. The Forgefiend and the tanks advanced.
The remaining Nurgle biker picked up the relic, and was granted invisibility by the Guard astropath. The Forgefiend wrecked another rhino, spilling out a squad of Grey Hunters along with the High Wolf Priest. The Plague Marines advanced and fired their bolters on the wolves, to limited effect.
The mortar targetted the High Priest's squad, taking out the power-axe marine. The Russ tanks fired on the biomancy RP's squad, but he mostly managed to shield the squad with his runic armor -- one hunter was lost after he threw himself in the way of a lascannon shot. One of the rhinos was also immobilized.
The Basilisks fired on the plasma cannon Long Fangs in the ruins, taking one out.
The Psyker's command squad ran toward the biker.
Wolves Turn 2 (16:10)
Fjorlag Doomseeker (chainfist and combi-melta lone wolf) feared no heretic fleet interference, and arrived via teleportation directly behind the Russ tanks, and then went on to amazingly took out the Take Commander (Antipask) with a single melta shot! (Slay the Warlord?)
One of the TDA squads (with Geirr) looked like it might arrive, but mishapped into ongoing reserve due to my greedy deep strike placement.
One of the intact Wolves' rhinos raced over the hill to try to run down the relic-carrying biker, but he passed his morale test and didn't drop it.
The Whirlwinds barraged the psyker's command squad, "accidentally" also hitting the invisible biker. A few guardsmen, and more importantly the biker, were slain!
One of the squads of Long Fangs managed to immobilize the Forgefiend with krak missiles. This turned out to be pretty important, as the thing was pointed toward the west flank and could no longer really participate in the fight for the relic in the center.
The skyclaws failed to charge the plague marines, but the WGBL detached and had done so. The bio priest and wolf priest's grey hunter squads also managed the charge, and so we had a grand old pile-up in the center there.
Chaos Turn 3 (16:55)
The Master of the Fleet gave Chaos's reserve rolls a bonus, but the warp talons failed to show up. The helldrake took out a lascannon LF via vector strike and then torrented the missile LFs, killing three. The forgefiend fired on a long fangs squad, taking out a plasma cannon guy. It recovered a hull point from IWND, but I guess that doesn't fix the Immobilize. (is that right?)
Some guardsmen fired on the Lone Wolf, but didn't bring him down.
The comamnd squad picked up the relic, and the remaining tank moved to shield them from the Long Fangs. The tank then wrecked the forward rhino, whose Grey Hunters emerged into an unfortunate basilisk-template-shaped pile, where they were wiped out by barrage fire from the basilisks and the wyvern.
The assault with the plague marines continued, but a single PM survived, so my three units who were tied up there would get to spend another turn there...
Wolves Turn 3 (17:25)
Geirr's squad again was about to arrive, but then again mishapped, again into ongoing reserve! (I think it's pretty lucky that's where he mishapped to!)
The other squad of TDA, and the other Lone Wolf (Byrnjolf), however, arrived. This squad of TDA Wolf Guard had three combi-meltas, a shield, and a chainfist. Only one guy was in melta range, so I fired him...and got another Explodes! on the other tank! The explosion wounded the other lone wolf (Fjorlag) and the Guard commander.
Fjorlag then charged the guard carrying the relic and rook him out with his chainfist. He was right next to the relic, but he's not scoring and you can only pick it up in the movement phase, so he didn't do much good there.
The big melee over on my side of the board finished, and the wolves consolidated toward the relic -- most of them wound up on the hill.
Chaos Turn 4 (17:50)
The warp talons and attached jump-chaos-lord arrived from the warp. (That rhino is wrecked and is just difficult terrain, which is why everybody is deepstriking onto it.) Both Lone Wolfs were blinded by the arrival! The other Guard commander picked up the relic.
The Helldrake tore into the wolf presence on the hill, melting several grey hunters and wounding the WGBL with his torrent of fire.
The Forgefiend destroyed the missile launcher on one of the Whirlwind tanks through cover.
A couple guardsmen fired on the Chainfist Lone Wolf, and took him out!
The Guard artillery also fired into the Wolves forces on the hill, taking out several marines and terminators.
Wolves Turn 4 (18:12)
The remaining TDA squad (with Geirr) arrived.
The remaining rhino attempted to tank-shock the relic bearer, but instead wrecked itself on terrain, forcing the Grey Hunters inside to disembark!
The Biomancy priest successfully Enfeebled the Warp Talons (I guess negating the Mark of Nurgle), and granted himself Warp Speed.
Concentrated fire from the remaining Long Fangs destroyed 4 warp talons, and then the WGBL and the tattered remains of the Wolves forces assaulted them, wiping them out and then consolidating onto the Relic. (I think this Chaos unit failed an unreasonable number of saves in this exchange.)
Chaos Turn 5 (18:40)
The Wyvern backed off away from the wolves and fired into their ranks. The Helldrake also came after them, killing the remaining Grey Hunters and wounding the warlord. The Forgefiend killed the gunless Whirlwind, since it was the only thing in its firing arc.
At this point:
- Chaos had no more non-vehicle models capable of picking up the Relic
- Wolves had several characters and TDA
- Wolves had warlord, and linebreaker, and we thought I also had first blood, but that turned out to not be true.
So, we called the game.
With first blood to chaos, and warlord a possibility, probably we should have kept playing.
I think that with the TDA I had left I would have been able to hold the relic while slowly chasing down the artillery (I think I was in move-plus-charge range of the mortar, then could go after the basilisks). I had a couple of heavy weapons guys left as well, who maybe could have hit something through the cover. The helldrake would have been shooting me the whole time, but basically everything I had left had 2+ saves.
So, I guess I think it would have come out the same. But, maybe we should play them out?
Edited by: Volkov on 6/4/15
