Escalation League - 750 Point Battle Report

Interesting match this time, two drastically different guard armies with very different styles of play.

Alex (Rooster)
Imperial Guard Infantry Gunline
VS
Myself
Imperial Guard Elysian Drop Troops

Basic Lists
-Alex's List
PCS
Infantry Platoon w/ 5 Infantry Squads grouped into two large blobs
6+ Autocannons
Plasma Veterans in a Chimera

-My List
Deepstriking Infantry Platoon, (PCS, 2 Infantry Squads w/ Demo Charges/Plasma,  Plas/Demo SW Team, and two Drop Sentinels)
Tauros Venator with Twin Lascannons
Stormtroopers with Meltaguns

Mission:
In a confusing battle, both sides have managed to capture the other sides' leader, and must try to liberate their own leader from the enemy in a desperate, grim version of the game Capture the Flag.

Battle Report

After the marginal success against the Traitor Marines, the 228th Elysians garrisoned on Grassy Planet 573a were ordered to recon the meager terrain for any other signs of traitorous activity or intent, and quash it before it could snowball into a larger threat.  Another small, elite patrol was organized, including a squad of the Battalion's veteran storm troopers.  The Lord General was well aware that their expertise in forward observance and stealth would deem them best scouting ahead of the main force, as the Valkyries were circling far overhead, waiting for an opportunity to drop their human payload upon the heads of any traitors turned up in the wilderness.

The Stormtroopers' first assignment was to investigate reports that the GP573a PDF had lost contact with a Heavy Weapons detachment not far from where the Traitor Marines had first been encountered.  A Tauros Venator Fast Attack Vehicle was dispatched with the Troopers on their scouting mission, as it had the long-range vox-equipment necessary to radio back to the firebase for reinforcements. 

Thunderbolt flyovers revealed a small concentration of unidentified troops amassing in a ruined township, with a derelict Administratum building as well as an old Skyshield landing pad that had obviously seen better days.  Command voxed the storm troopers with their orders to recon the area as the Venator moved to circumvent the village in an attempt to outflank. 

Peering over a ridge from the flanks of the infantry's position, the stormtroopers were able to confirm that these were in fact the missing Heavy Troopers, and they were indeed tainted by the Traitorous forces encountered earlier.  The formerly grey armor of the infantry was marred with crimson, most likely affiliating them with the Legion of Traitor Astartes that were spearheading the attack on the colony; Word Bearers.  As if this wasn't startling enough, they had a large amount of firepower and were organized in a defensible position.  They were not aware of the Elysians' presence, so the element of surprise was on the loyalists' side for now.

The stormtroopers sprinted from cover and unleashed a torrent of fire upon the nearest battery of Autocannon gunners, who looked like they had nothing better to do than smoke lho-sticks and tear pages from their Uplifting Primers.  They fell like wheat before an eviscerator, smoking craters in chests and heads missing from their shoulders.  A few thrown krak grenades made sure that the weapons were of no use to the many enemy soldiers suddenly spurred into action.  As las-fire lanced into their positions, the troopers dug into the wreckage of a downed sub-atmospheric craft.  They knew they were going to draw the majority of the fire as the rest of their patrol was called in from low-orbit.

The Venator FAV arrived and attempted to engage another of the enemy's autocannon batteries, but the gunner noticed something peculiar... a group of PDF troopers still in the colors of the loyalists were spotted dragging a body through the thick brush, and upon closer inspection, they had in their clutches the enemy's unconscious force commander.  This momentary distraction cost the lives of the FAV's crew as a torrent of autocannon shells ripped it asunder, as the loyalist PDF scrambled for cover.

As the stormtroopers continued to find dirt to eat as they sought shelter from the massed enemy lasfire, a roar of engines sounded overhead and the 228th's patrol arrived by grav-chute, almost on top of their enemy's' heads. Commissar Bain, whose Grav-Chute malfunctioned, managed to get himself captured as he landed amidst the enemy.  His rescue was now the imperative of this mission, which seemed doomed from the beginning.

Two Drop Sentinels landed with a mixture of jet wash and a small tremor as their metal frames landed hard onto the earth in front of the infantry.  Three separate squads landed amongst them, quickly unlatching their grav-chutes and firing from the hip as they sought to assault the Traitors' position in the Administratum building.  Demo-charges flew from hands, plasma-guns' coughed their incandescent death, but the cover proved too heavy for such a small, elite force to handle without heavy weapons.  When voxed, the Elysians' Valkyrie and Thunderbolt support were unable to provide close support due to the amount of heavy firepower the enemy was unleashing.  Apparently, the men of Elysia were expendable, but the flying machines of the Navy were not.

The Sentinels' light, mobile patterns were no match for the heavy autocannon shells which rendered them into flaming, perforated, and twisted wrecks of unrecognizable metal. Unforunately, the Elysians were unprepared for the amount of firepower and the amount heavy cover that the enemy had brought to bear.  Seeing this, the infantry retreated, only to be chased down and marauded by a hidden Chimera which roared to life as soon as the Elysians broke.  This APC eventually rounded upon the remaining loyalist PDF members who were attempting to escape with their prisoner, slaughtering them to a man.

There were no survivors.  The fate of Commissar Bain is unknown.  Tactica Command stoically ordered a promethium and high explosive bombing run by a wing of Navy Maurader Bombers to decimate the enemy PDFs' fixed positions. This had an additional motive, erase all memory and evidence of this tactical blunder from the regiment's history.

Personal Game Board Project - Prelude

I've wanted to build and maintain a wargaming table for some time now, and with my new condo having plenty of extra room, the dream of having said table is becoming a reality.

At the current moment, it's started as a 4'x6' sheet of plywood with a grassy mat spread upon it, but I aim to reinforce the plywood with a frame and slats, texture the wood with fine sand, and ultimately paint it. I hope to start building a good bit of terrain, too, as my selection is very limited at the given moment.

The Red Tide advances with a 'Pod full of Death Company arriving in synchrony.

As soon as we moved the table and wood into the new place, it had to be immediately christened with something special.  A game of two versus one, with a total point value of 10,000.  Two Eldar armies of 2,500 versus me with two force organization charts of Blood Angels matching them in points.

Unfortunately, we started this game at 8:00 PM on a weeknight, so we had only reached the end of turn 3 by the time the clock struck midnight.  Eldar won by a single kill point, but the main majority of my hard-hitting units had just arrived to inflict pain on a large scale.

The Drop Pod w/ Homing Beacon allows for a full squad of Assault troops and a Land Raider to deep strike amongst the enemy lines.  The Death Company ensured that the Pod would be left alive to allow for this maneuver.  Sneaky.

Highlights:

• David W's Avatar went down in the first round of shooting thanks to a mass of assault cannons targeting him specifically. Thus reinforcing the rule of well-painted, beautiful models often dying first.
• My mass of tanks and transports died quickly as I threw them at the enemy lines with reckless abandon, resulting in many of my troops being unable to disembark in the mayhem and becoming casualties.
• I've since decided I love Homing Beacons on Drop Pods... since the Pods are oft ignored in favor of what is inside them.  I can see myself using this quite a bit if I field a larger Descent of Angels - based army in the future, since Deep Striking units do not scatter when in range of said Beacon.

Dante leads a full squad of Assault Marines (far left) to their unfortunate deaths... the resulting fire poured down upon them was enough to leave Dante standing alone, to be assaulted by Eldrad and his Seer Council the next phase.  Ouch.

Am looking forward to updating the board and making it more presentable; modular terrain, scenics, etc!  A wonderful opening to a developing hobby. 

Elysian Escalation League - 500 Points

Unfortunately, due to being out of town for the majority of the week, I was unable to schedule a match in time with my assigned opponent, who was fielding Tyranids.

I was able to contact the league organizer, Chip, and he agreed to play my force over my lunch break today, him fielding Chaos Space Marines.

Battle report is as follows:
Rules: 500 Points, Combat Patrol, Nominate a model (Sgt, etc.) to serve as your leader, Pitched Battle, 4x4 foot table.
Objectives:
1) Kill the opposing leader.
2) Have more units in your enemy's deployment zone than he does.

Deployment: Chip's army consisted of two fully manned Chaos Marine squads, both with Power Fists and Melta/Flamers, and both mounted in Rhinos. His leader was chosen as a Champion of one of the squads. My army was a single guard platoon, made up of the command squad, two infantry sections, a special weapons team, and two Drop Sentinels. Chip deployed first and I decided not to deep strike and set up my platoon in my zone and waited for his transports to rumble into my kill zones.

The Game:

The 228th Elysians, while returning from a routine patrol away from Unnamed Fortress on Grassy Planet #573a, stumbled upon a small vanguard force of Traitor Chaos Marines which seemed to be attempting to infiltrate the fortress by way of a small, elite mechanized force. Startled and dismayed due to not only there being no previous Chaos forces encountered on said Grassy Planet before, but because the two Rhinos were parked directly in between the Elysians and their destination. Their air cover was nowhere to be seen, and nobody could be hailed via long-range vox, so the Elysians hunkered down behind whatever cover they could find as it was obvious the Marines were there waiting for them.

With a roar of poorly maintained engines, the Rhinos surged forward and popped their smoke launchers, obscuring the platoons' view of the spiky, angular metal boxes that carried payloads of fear and death incarnate. The special weapons team let loose with a few long range shots with their plasma guns, but one of the guns' machine spirits was as startled as its gunner and was not correctly coaxed into a firing mood, and as a result it immolated the poor plasma gunner Larry.

Unhindered by the lackluster shooting, the enemy Rhinos continued to trundle forward and came to a halt near the Guard lines, and deposited the Word Bearers within range of the doomed squads. Their bolters opened up with a dirge that ended the world for many of them, slaying four of the five remaining special weapons team from the face of Grassy Planet #573. Covered with small chunks of his squad and with a curse on his lips, the last remaining squad member, nicknamed 'Boomer', primed his demolition charge as his fear gave way to his lust for explosive revenge.

On the other side of the battlefield, the characteristic hiss of a flamer was heard, and as the fire's intended targets lowered their arms away from their dismayed faces, they saw that they were all alive, the flames falling just short of their position. The laughter of the Chaos Marines was almost as deeply resonant and just as disturbing as the eight bolters that opened up immediately afterwards. Several members were blown to chunks, including plasma gunner Jones and demo specialist Ludwig, limiting their combat effectiveness versus such a horrifying foe. Sergeant Billy Bob rallied the men to hold their positions and pour more fire into the enemy, hoping for a lucky lasgun shot, no doubt.

The two Sentinels assigned to support the nearly pulped squad stepped over the remains of their charge and opened fire, and it seemed like justice had been served as flames boiled over the front of the traitors' Rhino and washed over the front half of the hulking squad. The vox network was filled with shouts of terror and curses as the Word Bearers appeared blackened, but unscathed from the burning wall of promethium. The other Sentinel sent a focused microwave multimelta shot at the traitors, sending one of them ducking for cover. The Chaos worshipers seem to be nigh unstoppable, at this point.

Meanwhile, Boomer, while running forward like a man possessed, tripped on a rock while throwing his explosive, having it all but annihilate a nearby tree and leaving an impressive smoking crater in its stead.

Inspired by his insane heroism, a nearby infantry section charged to support Boomer, firing from the hip. Plasma gunner Ray-Ray forgot to name his plasma gun and sleep with it at night, thus the jealous machine spirit detonated the weapon when he pulled the trigger, resulting in his arms and most of his upper body melting like a wax candle. Specialist Yokozuna threw his demo charge with a grunt and it landed amidst the traitors and detonated with such force, that only two of the ten marines were left staggering, but still fighting. A shortlived cheer resounded from the squad as they opened up with their pitiful lasguns, but ultimately doing no damage. Boomer, with nothing else on his mind but fury, took this chance to unsheathe his combat blade and charged, only to be battered aside with a single brutal, backhanded swipe by what appeared to be the contingent's leader. The two remaining marines, stoically drew their pistols at their attackers, drew their wicked chainblades, and charged. A few soldiers went down, but were able to use the marines' disorientation and were able to bring down the two behemoths with a mixture of grenades, knives, and point blank lasgun shots.

On the eastern front, the full squad of marines charged the guardsmen and their protective Sentinels and a swirling melee saw the two walkers take the brunt of the charge which gave the infantry, who had suffered heavy losses from the assault, a small window for a tactical retreat. Frantic maneuvering allowed the Sentinels to keep the Marines tied up for some time, allowing the Elysians' Commissar Volkov to lead skirt the melee and tear open the traitors' waiting transport with an industrial lascutter that fortunately specialist Jax had begged the commander to bring along to the battle. As the Rhino sputtered and died, the command section heard the Sentinels finally crash to the ground and the thundering steps of the Marines drawing closer, and they decided to make a run for it. On the Western front, with the Marine leader dead, the remaining six of the squad booked it to try and make it back to their base to raise the alarm and seek reinforcements.

With the enemy leader dead, and the Elysian patrol making it past the enemy lines, it seems the Guardsmen procured themselves a bitter victory.