98999.M41
Command Log: 5460
Epistolary Lithreous
It had
only been one day since the Battle Barge Victus had entered real space and was now
closing on the planet Ithium. Epistolary Lithreous and his company had just
completed an investigation for possible chapter relics near the Damocles Gulf
and were preparing for a return to Baal when they received an urgent request
for aid from a planetary Governor. It appears the Tau hadn’t learned the lesson
taught to them years ago and had assaulted the planet of Ithium. The Governor’s
message was not very descriptive but it was without doubt urgent. The Plant
Ithium’s surface was covered with massive sprawling Manufactorums and the loss
of the planet’s resources would be greatly felt should it fall.
Lithreous had ordered the Vitus to Ithium. Route plotted, It would only take them a few days to reach the planet, hopefully they would arrive before the Tau could entrench themselves. He had never faced the Tau before so this would be a new experience. Though it mattered not, the enemy of the Emperor would be crushed no matter what form it took.
As they neared
Ithium Lithreous felt a grating itch in the recesses of his skull. Something
wasn’t right, from all the information he’d reviewed about the Tau they didn’t emanate
a taint such as this. Before seeing the ship hanging in orbit he knew what they
faced. This wasn’t the Tau at all, it was far worse. An ancient cruiser hung in
low orbit over the northern pole of the planet. A ship of tremendous power that
had once served the Emperor and man kind. Now it was as warped and corrupted as
those who manned it. Obscene symbols and objects of unknown origin had been
attached to its hull. It didn’t take the others long to realize it either.
Regulus came running up, Brother, this is no Xeno ship, we face traitors! No
Chapter sought vengeance more fully then the Blood Angels and here on this
distant plant they would deal this scum the justice they deserved. The traitors
would burn!
The closer
the Victus came to Ithium the more of a surprise the situation was turning out
to be. It appears the Tau had been here. Been and now either gone or destroyed
by the traitor legions. Weather destroyed or retreated they had put up a good
fight as was evident from the damage the ancient cruiser had sustained. Its engines
were leaking and the ship’s orbit appeared to be deteriorating. Klaxons sounded
as the Vitus prepared to unleash a salvo into the opposing ship. The Victus circled
the aft section of the ancient cruiser and unleashed a massive barrage into the
already wounded ship. The ancient engines flared and then cutout, the ship
appeared to go dead and was dark for many long seconds. Orange cracks of fire
appeared on the skin of the ship preceding the imminent hull ruptured. The rear
section of the ship began to twist and pull away as it began to slowly break
apart, random flaring white halos escaping from the engines reactors as they
consumed themselves.
No one on
the bridge of the Victus celebrated the ancient ships demise. They knew there
was a fight to be had plant side and this was far from over. Lithreous did
allow himself a small smile. The only way these traitorous fools will be
journeying back to the warp will be through death’s door.
Battle Report
** 1500 Pts 04 /
12 / 10 **Blood Angels vs. Chaos Space Marines
Originally a friend and I had planned to play my new Blood
Angels Army against his Tau but something happened and he ended up playing his
Chaos Marines instead. So I worked that into the background of the story for
the fight. This is the first game I’ve play using the 5th edition
rules. Just recently my friends and I have started getting back into 40k so I
figured I’d be a little rusty and take some time to get use to the new rule
system. Three of my friends started a new army so I figured I’d do the same.
I’m an Eldar player from way back but also have an IG Armour Company style army
but I wanted to go with a CC style army and picked the Blood Angels as I’m use
to the Fast style vehicles and figured that would be helpful. But this is the
first game back with new rules and new army, I made some mistakes and fudged a
few things but over all was fun playing something new. I tried to make a pretty
balanced list that worked out pretty well.
Blood Angels
Librarian - Lithreous
Epistolary w/ Blood Lance / Unleashed Rage
Rhino
Honor Guard x 5
Blood Champion w/ Power Weapon
Chapter Banner
Furioso Dreadnaught – Honored Brother Pryor
w/ Blood Talons / Extra Armor
Sanguinary Priest - Regulus
w/ Jump Pack / Lightning Claws
Assault Marines x 10
Sarge w/ Plasma Pistol / Lighting Claw
Tactical Marines x 10
Baal Predator x 2
w/ HB Sponsons
Land Speeder
W / Multi Melta / HB
Vindicator
Chaos Marines
Chaos Space Marines ( I don’t have his list so this is
pretty basic )Chaos Champion
Chaos Space Marines x 10
Chaos Space Marines x 5
Devastator Squad x 5
Thousand Sun Squad x 10
w/ Sorcerer
Terminator Squad x 5
Land Raider
Predator
w/ TL Las
Defiler
Mission: Capture
and Control
Deployment: Dawn
of War
Chaos won the roll and chose his side of the table.
Terrain: We are
playing on a battle board with hills on the corners. Down the long center of
the board were three ruins with space between each. The center building was quite large (Actually I think it was two
buildings we joined to make a tunnel dead center). Each deployment zone also
had a ruin and these would server as our bases/objectives. They were pretty
much equidistant, a little left of center from my perspective. There were also
barriers here and there.
Deployment:
Chaos:
He deployed his Defiler and Demo Squad on my left. Chaos
Champion (leader guy) CSM Squad x5 in his ruin. Land Raider full of Termies in
front of his ruin. CSM x 10 Center behind a barrier. Predator in the center
aimed for the tunnel between the center buildings. 1K Suns behind a barrier to
my right
Blood Angels:
I deployed Pryor behind the center left ruin. Split the Tac
Squad and placed 5 in my Ruin to guard. The Vindicator and a Baal parked behind
my ruin. Rhino with Lib Lithreous and the honor guard inside behind the center
building as well as the Assault Squad with Brother Regulas (not in the Rhino
just behind center building). Tac x 5 to my far right with a Baal behind the
farthest building. The Speeder would be deep striking.
Red Thirst - Pryor
The
Traitors knew someone was coming for them. The silence they received from the cruiser
above spoke volumes. However they still appeared to be searching for something.
The initial scans showed the traitors were in a large Manufactorum district to
the North of the planet equator. The Angels
made planetfall on the outskirts of the Manufactorum district and began their
search. Lithreous
detected the presence of a Chaos psyker in their midst. “They’ll know we’re here
and we’re close” he radioed to Regulus “stay out of sight, ghost them.”
Turn One:
Chaos: Movement:
He moves his Defiler up on my left flank and the Land Raider moves forward toward my base of Ops. His Predator shoots the center tunnel and his 1K Sons slowly move forward. I had hidden pretty well.
Shooting:
He only had one shot from his LR at my Dred. He fired his
TLLC and rolled a 2, then a 1.
Blood Angels:
Movement:
Pryor moves around the left ruin to intercept the Defiler. The Baal hiding behind my base ruin goes Flat out left to park behind the building. I move my Vindicator out of hiding to face off with the LR. The Assault Marines move forward toward the Squad of 10 CSM. The Rhino races right and into the gap between the center and right middle ruin to avoid his Predator. The Baal on the right swings around the building to get a bead on the approaching 1K sons.
Shooting:
Unfortunately I kept forgetting the Dread had a Melta Gun (
kept thinking it was a flamer) so he just psyked himself up for CC. The
Vindicator fired at the LR but didn’t Pen. The Assault Squad fired into the CSM
softening them up with two kills. The right Baal opened up on the 1K Sons
smoking three.
Assault:
Pryor charged into the Defiler scoring three hits but all he
needed was one. First one Pen’d him and then rolled a five, cya! With Pryor’s
consolidation move he ran back to hide behind the building again. Regulus and
his Assault Squad tore into the traitors and killed them to a man (Wow the Sang
Priest really boosts the Assault Marines!). They consolidated behind a barrier.
My first round went very well. I was surprised I wiped out his whole squad
though and now they would be pretty exposed.
Pryor
marched up behind a building and took a quick glance at the lumbering demon monstrosity
moving toward him, lamb to the slaughter. That moment of distraction almost
cost him as a sharp crack from the right was followed by an eruption of flying
rubble. No time to think about that now, Pryor rounded the far left corner and
bore into the spider like contraption. He led with a left followed by a
pivoting right, his talons easily penetrating the warped metal skin of the
beast and tore out its arcane bound heart silencing its unholy roar.
Regulus
and his Assault Squad broke from cover firing as they went. He hit the thruster
toggle as he leaped off the smoking remains of a fallen traitor and bore into
the remaining pack of scum. The enemy had no answer for the Angel’s furious
assault that was unleashed on them. Within seconds all but one laid broken and
bleeding out, seeing his brothers slaughtered so easy he turned to run. But
that would not be allowed, Regulus called out to Sgt. Braken “End him”. The Sergeant
spun and fired his Plasma pistol, engulfing the sole survivor’s head in plasma
fire. The headless body continued on a few more feet before veering off to the
left and collapsing in a heap.
Turn Two:
Chaos:
Movement:
My friend had taken a pretty bad beating in that first round
so he had some ground to make up. He moved his LR up for a better shot at the
Vindi after deploying his Termies. He pulled his Pred back to face off against
the Baal on the right. The 1K Sons moved back toward the barriers. Shooting:
The Dev Squad on the hill fire at Pryor scoring two hits, one was saved by cover and the other didn’t Pen. The LR opens up on the Vindi and hits once but fails to Pen as well. He opens up with his 1K sons, CSM x 5 and his Termies x 5 on Regulus and his Assault Squad. But thanks to cover and FNP they pull through un-hurt.
Assault:
He charges Regulus with his Termies and it’s on. He kills
two brothers but I kill one of his. He wins combat but the Emperor’s finest
hold true.
Blood Angels:
Movement:
Pryor moved around the building and started toward the Demo Squad on the hill. The left Baal followed him to lend support as he wasn’t going to make it there that turn. The Command Rhino backed up and headed for the tunnel between the center buildings. The right flank Tac Squad also started to head left as the action seemed to be centered around his ruin / my objective. The right Baal backed up a little to keep it’s side to the ruin.
Shooting:
Pryor knows he’s not in range so jogs up instead. The left
Baal opens up on his Demo squad scoring numerous hits and kills three. The
Vindi fires at the LR again but this time it scatters, good for the LR but bad
for the Termie that is lands on. It pulps him. The right Tac squad attempts to
run but they appear to be in heavy mud so they decide to just hang out. The
right Baal opens up on the 1K Sons again. This time the shooting is brutal, he
loses four more. Lithreous summons a bolt of psykic energy and fires a Blood
Lance at the Pred but fails to Pen.
Assault:
The mega battle continues, I lose 1 ASM and he loses 1
Termie. Tie .. it will continue. I’m
amazed at how resilient these guys are. The BA’s are out for vengeance today
and they will not be stopped. But he was rolling pretty poorly. haha
Morale:
The 2 remaining Demo Squad members Break and run right off
the board.
Brother
Pryor broke around the corner of the building and started advancing toward the
five traitors on the hill. As soon as he broke from cover numerous blasts of
energy ripped at him scorching the ground around him. A missile was fired true
but it merely annoyed him “I will not be stopped by the likes of you!”. The
Alpha Predator was matching his pace and unleashed a hail of lead into the
filth on the hill falling three with ease. That was enough for the survivorers,
they dropped their weapons and ran off into the wastes like the gutless cowards
they were.
Close by
they heard the sound of the Vindicator at work, they knew it had its work cut
out for it. A Land Raider was never to be taken likely, especially one
corrupted with the taint of chaos. The Beta Predator was having success on the
East Flank and its rain of lead was taking its toll on the enemies troops.
Regulus
and Sgt. Braken started to move for cover looking for some place vengenance
could be exacted next. But as they started to form back up they came under a
hail of withering fire, they were caught in a cross fire. The Land Raider had
dropped its ramps and was disgorging Terminator armed units right on top of
them. Regulus held the Chalice even higher “For Sanguinius!” The squad
responded, brother stood by brother turning aside the fire as though it
mattered not. “Come traitor filth, your end is here.” Regulus screamed as the
Terminators came in.
Turn Three:
Chaos:
Movement:
He really didn’t have much movement this turn. He moved his
1K squad closer to CC.
Shooting:
He shoots at the Vindi with his LR, hits, Pens, but only
shakes it. The Vindi is holding it’s own! His Predator fires it’s TLLC at the
right Baal, hits but doesn’t Pen front armor.
Assault:
He charges his three remaining 1K into Regulus and his boys.
The fighting gets even more brutal. Two of my ASM go down but not before they
take 2 of the 1K Sons and Regulus jams a Lightning claw through a Terminators
visor. I won but 1 squad passed and the other is fearless.
Blood Angels:
Movement:
Pryor now with no targets makes for the objective and the traitors within. The Baal moves up to support him. The Vindicator can’t shoot so he backs up behind the left ruin and pops smoke. The rhino shoots down the center tunnel and pops smoke as well. The right Tac squad moves left again and without viable targets for the right Baal I turn him around and move flat out behind the center ruin.
Shooting:
Again Pryor has nothing to shoot at so he keeps up the
workout and jogs a little bit farther. The left Baal isn’t going to be able to
scratch the LR so he just chills hoping for the best. The TAC squad runs for it
but are still tired from running through mud it appears. They don’t go much
farther.
Assault:
Regulus has lost some of his boys but he’s been putting up a
stiff resistance given what he’s taken and even dishing out a bit more. They
lose one more but fail to kill any. They dig deep and pass morale, they won’t
be broken. Thankfully with the Termie squad weakened from the first bad round
of combat my boys were holding strong.
CRACK, ”
back up! back up!” The Vindicator took an incredible hit, the pilot mashed it
into reverse and tried to put some cover between them and the Las Fire.
“Johnson, pop some smoke! Then get me a damage report.” Lithreous’s voice
crackled to life over the Mech Squads Comms “We are shooting the gap, hitting
smoke. Converge on the objective. Give Reg some support!”
Regulus leapt
up and over his opponents swing, grabbing the Terminator’s shoulder plate with
his left hand and plunged his lightning claw knuckle deep into the traitor’s
visor. Braken and squad turned to meet the new comers and as quick as they had
entered the fray two of their numbers had fallen. It had not been without losses
though. Three brothers had fallen to the powerful strikes of the Terminator
clad filth. “Show them the courage of the Emperor’s finest!”
Turn Four:
Chaos:Movement:
He moves his LR to the left toward my Baal. His Pred also started to move left and toward the Command Rhino.
Shooting:
The LR fires it’s TLLCs at the Baal on the left and hits but
fails to Pen. His Pred fires on the Rhino but the smoke saves the day!
Assault:
Regulus gets the squad fired up, they kill the last 1K Son
and take no wounds! Just 1 Terminator left.
Blood Angels:
Movement:
Pryor knows the traitors are close and he’s ready to hand
out heavy Dreadnaught justice. He moves around the building setting up for his
assault. The left Baal moves around the building as well. Lithreous and his
guard disembark move toward the endless melee. The sleeping Land Speeder
finally shows up, I deep strike it behind his Pred. It scatters a bit but
thankfully is not on top of anything. The slow TAC squad continues it’s move
toward the objective. The right Baal Pred isn’t going to get into any action so
it goes flat out and parks next to my base ruin. The Vindi moves back out into
the open for another shot at the LR.
Shooting:
Pryor fires into the squad smoking one with his Multi Melta and
hits another with his SB but the wound is saved. The Baal opens up on the squad
wiping it out except for the Commander. The Vindi fires on the LR and hits but
doesn’t Pen. The Land Speeder turns the Pred into a smoking hulk. It took it’s
good old time getting there but it did it’s job. The Tac squad again runs.
Assault:
Although pleased that the traitors were destroyed Honored
Brother Pryor was quickly displeased he could not tear them asunder. With the
CSMs dead he could not reach the Commander. Lithreous cast Unleashed Rage as he
charged into the melee with the loan remaining Terminator. With his power, the
chalice and Chapter Banner he mowed right through him. The rolled but didn’t get much distance from
the consolidate. I can’t believe the Assault squad lasted that long. They are
tough and adding the Sang Priest really helps, my friend did have some bad
rolls. But it was nice to see an epic fight.
Brother
Pryor and Alpha Predator swung around the ruined wall and wasted no time
bringing righteous justice to those cowering within. Pryor’s Multi Melta
turning the nearest Chaos fool into a pile of ash “You guys need to put up a
better fight. Dying so fast I can’t even tear you to pieces. That’s just rude!”
“By the
Emperor!” screamed the Rhino driver as the twin Las bolts shot by the view
port. “The Emperor protects” and with that Lithreous and his guard poured out
of the Rhino rushing forward to get into the melee with the Chaos scum. “Hold
the banner high! Let them know who has sowed their destruction.” Lithreous
delved deep unleashing a Rage so primal nothing could hope to stay their wrath.
The Terminator was barely aware that a new combatant had entered the fray so busy
he was parrying strike after strike of Brother Regulus. As he slowly turned he
had no defense for there brutal downward strike unleashed by Lithreous. The
Librarian’s Force Sword severed armor and man from shoulder to spine. “Better
late then never?” Regulus said as he walked over to Lith. “Yeah and he stole my
kill.” Braken chimed in with a laugh.
Turn Five:
Chaos:
Movement:
He doesn’t have much left. Just his commander and LR. He
moves his commander up to assault the Librarian and his guard.
Shooting:
His LR opens up on the Vindi, he hits and Pens destroying
the demolisher cannon. The commander fires into the squad doing nothing.
Assault:
He charged his commander into Lithreous and gets cut down by
the fury of the Librarian and his honor guard.
At this point he conceded. It was a fun game and I enjoyed
the BAs.
My strategy went off without a hitch. I wanted to spilt his
force up and get my Baal Predators into his troops to really see what they were
made of. I have to say I’m quite impressed, they unleash a wall of lead. They
brought the pain to Space Marines, so they should be down right brutal to an
army with a weaker armor save. I wanted to go right up the middle and punch him
in the gut with the Assault marines which I did. I had no idea they would do as
well as they did. When you are rolling well it’s a lot of wounds to save, even
with Termie Armor.
The Chaos
Champion seeing his last man fall to the servants of the Emperor went into a frenzied
rage. He charged at the Librarian with his axe held high and calls to his demon
gods on his lips. Lithreous blocked his mighty assault by throwing his sword
out high and wide deflecting the swing harmlessly to the side as Regulus taking
the momentary opening severing the beast’s arm. His momentum carried him
forward into a roll, as he rolled by he snapped a claw out cutting through the traitor’s
knee. The Champions torn knee could not hold his weight and he collapsed at the
feet of Lithreous. “This could have turned out no other way fool” Lith
responded coolly “As it was then as it is now.” Brother Pryor moved up to the
Librarian “Brother I have found what they were searching for, you will probably
want to see this.” The Librarian started to walk over to the captured building
but after a few steps stopped and turned “Pryor please send our guest back to
his beloved warp”. The Champion looked from Librarian to Dreadnaught. “It
appears my talons will taste blood today” followed by a short burst of Vox cackle.
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