Background
Water pooled in the ruins of a destroyed Imperial facility; collapsed columns, scattered ‘dragons teeth’ tank traps and blast craters littered the landscape like toys strewn from an oversized child’s toy box.
As the rain slowed and stopped, the objective the Angels were fighting to secure came into view. A PDF missile silo, it’s deadly payload preparing to launch and remove the orbital advantage the Angels had left high above them. Their only hope lay in permanently stopping the silo’s payload from launching whilst ensuring the jamming signal they were transmitting from the comms relay remained in their hands.
Setup
The Angels had so far only managed to land a token force. Mephiston led the task force, backed up by the ten-man tactical squad, Cassiel; the five man terminator squad, Maion; ten-man Death Company Jump pack assault squad, Ezekiel, led by Lemartes; the Death Company Dreadnaught, Hamied; and the Sanguinary Guard squad, Charoum.
The guard had dispatched a mechanised force to intercept and prevent the Angels from their goal. A Lord Commissar led the interception force in three Chimeras, loaded with veterans with meltaguns, plasma guns, lasguns and lascannons, two Leman Russ, one Leman Russ Punisher, a Hellhound and a Sentinel.
The Angels deployed first in the ruins on the far side from the silo. Cassiel split into two five man squads, with the missile launcher deployed on the far left in a crater and the sergeant with the plasma gunner taking cover behind a collapsed column in centre field. Mephiston and Maion secured the comms relay whilst Hamied took centre right and Charoum and Ezekiel formed up a hammer on the right flank.
The enemy tank formation arrayed itself with a Leman Russ on each flank, two of the Chimeras deployed opposite Cassiel’s Missile Launcher combat squad. The Sentinel and Punisher took up centre stage, covering the silo whilst the Hellhound and the final Chimera deployed on the inside of the final flanking Leman Russ, opposite Charoum and Ezekiel.
Guard turn 1
Before the Angels could react, the tanks surged forward, stealing the initiative. The Chimeras and Hellhounds all fell into column positions on each flank with a Chimera and the Hellhound taking the lead. The guns from the Leman Russ’s boomed and when the smoke cleared, three of Cassiel’s marines hiding in the crater lay dead, including the missile launcher bearer.
Angels turn 1
The Angels, surprised by the ferocity and accuracy of the Guards opening volley quickly reworked their opening moves. Mephiston took to the skies on ephemeral wings, diving into cover behind the ruins of the Imperial facility, whilst Charoum, Ezekiel and Hamied quickly advanced into positions of perilously light cover.
Guard turn 2
Taking advantage of the light cover squads Charoum and Ezekiel were forced into, the guard opened fire with another blistering volley. Bullets from the Punisher rained harmlessly off the Charoums armour but failed to prevent a lucky shot from poorly aimed Battlecannon tearing one of the men apart. Bolter fire bounced off of the front armour of Hamied and two members of Ezekiel burned to ash in the fury of the Hellhound. Another member of Cassiel’s men in the charnal crater died from a blow from a lascannon shot.
Angels turn 2
Leapfrogging over ruins on glistening wings, Mephiston closed distance to the Punisher. Charoum and Ezekiel broke cover and leapt into the fray, Charoum dropping into land between a Chimera and the Hellhound whilst Ezekiel landed next to the Chimera. Hamied shrugging off blows like insect bites continued his advance up the centre. Then, in a flurry of blows, his forcesword glowing with channeled will, Mephiston rendered the Punisher into scrap. Ezekiel succeeded in attaching krak grenades onto the hull of the Chimera, tearing holes into the infrastructure, stunning the crew, damaging the multilaser and tracks. Meanwhile, Charoum failed to land blows on the Hellhound with their weapons.
Guard turn 3
Seeing the Angels falling amongst them, the drivers of the guard’s vehicles decided to maneouver out of harms way. The Russ closest to the Hellhound pulled back, opening the distance between the squads, whilst the Hellhound pulled away from Charoum, squashing a member of Ezekiel who tried to prevent it’s escape. Then, the monstrous Hound, turned it’s nozels and burned down another 3 members of Ezekiel, shots rained down with even Lemartes getting hit but the blow failing to penetrate his shield. Seeing their transport wrecked, but not destroyed, the veteran squad inside the crippled Chimera opened fire on their assailants, killing another one of them, whilst some stunningly accurate fire from the Russ took out two more of Ezekiel and caught one of Charoum in the blast of it’s guns. A stray shot from the Plasma cannon on the Sentinel clipped Mephiston but failed to injure the enraged Angel.
Angels turn 3
Assessing the situation, Mephiston shifted himself skyward once more, touching down next to the Sentinel that had just tried to kill him. The Dreadnaught, Hamied turned to face the crippled transport and lined itself up with his magna grapples, whilst Charoum relocated themselves net to the Leman Russ damaging their red comrades. Hamied’s grapples landed on their mark and hauled the crippled transport towards itself, away from Ezekiel, stunning the inhabitants of the vehicle in his haste. Freed from dealing with the crippled tank, Ezekiel turned their wrath towards the death-dealing Hound. The blows began to land, Hamied’s Blood talons punching into the wreckage but doing little to it’s twisted remains. Ezekiel managed to secure some explosives to the hull of the Hound, stunning but not paralysing it’s occupents with their concussive blasts, whilst Charoum managed a similar result with the enagaged Russ. Mephiston, sword glowing, lopped legs and armour off the Sentinel, destroying the vehicle as quickly as he looked at it.
Guard turn 4
Sensing the situation faltering in the Angel’s favour, the vehicles took evasive action, driving throuch craters but ultimately unable to escape from the Angel’s superior mobility, the two mobile Chimera’s and their occupents concentrated fire, landing two non-fatal wounds on Mephiston but at the cost of an occupant plasma gunner and pulling the Hound and Russ away from their pursuers and closer to their objective. On the Left flank, the Russ rained fire down on Marion, slaying three of them with solid blows from battle and lascannon.
Angel turn 4
Enraged, Mephiston dived towards the closest Chimera, whilst Ezekiel and Charoum chased their targets. Plasma fire bloomed from the remaining members of the Cassiel combat squad, the deadly Hound erupted as it’s Promethium was freed of it’s metalic tomb and the vehicle cartwheeled midair. Of the plasma gunner, no sign other than a partially metled form could be found. Robbed of their kill, Ezekiel turned their fury back towards the damaged hull of the trashed Chimera being intimately examined by Charoum but failed to reach it in time… With glacial slowness, Hamied peeled the hull of the Chimera apart, exposing the veterans and the Lord Commissar inside. Meanwhile Mephiston proved the prowess of his blade oncemore and with a mighty blow caused the Chimera before him to explode. Debris from the explosion rained down, killing the Lascannon team inside and pinning the rest of the squad under debris. Meanwhile the Russ, was dealt telling and ultimately final blows with a lucky Krak grenade planted by one of the remaining three members of Charoum.
Guard turn 5
Seeing the Silo they were charged to protect wide open, with no friendly units close enough, the Lord Commisar’s unit fell back from their wrecked vehicle. Simultaneously, the remaining Chimera surged forward, desperate to ensure the Comms tower was at the very least contested. Further Russ sponsored hammer blows rained down on Marion, slaying another member of the squad but the Guard could do no more and forced the remaining member of the squad to fall back.
Angels turn 5
Seeing a chance to sieze victory, the Angels renewed their assualt. Mephiston advanced on the veteran squad as they pulled themselves out of the wreckage, whilst further a field, Ezekiel and Charoum descended on plumes of flames, boxing in the Lord Commisar and his squad. Cassiel’s four man combat squad pulled back and advanced towards the Comms tower, pulling just inside capture range, supported by the assault cannon remaining from Marion. Hamied lined himself up with the magnagrapple on the last operational Chimera.
Bolters blazed, Charoum claimed four of veteran squad whilst Ezekiel claimed one more. Marion’s assault cannon stunned the Chimera and then destroyed it’s multilaser in a hail of bullets. Then the Magnagrapple landed and hauled the stricken vehicle a short distance towards Hameid, and caused it to become an immobilised wreck.
Mephiston, sensing the doom of the Veteran squad that had just escaped the wreckage of the Chimera dived in, slaying two in lightening quick blows. The squad, demoralised and unable to injure the avenging Angel, turned to flee but were cut down to a man. Seeing their comrades slaughtered, the veterans accomapnying the Lord Commissar faced down the pincer movement of Angels, but could not withstand the joint blows from both sides simultaneously…
In a blur of action, Charoum took the heads of four more men with their two handed blades and landed an injuring blow on the Lord Commissar. Whilst the remainder of Ezekiel landed the killing blow to the last member of the veterans. Lemartes and the Lord Commissar faced off, a flurry of blows was exchanged between the grizzled chaplain and the Lord Commissar but neither could land a blow through the other’s shield.
With the majority of his men dead, most of his vehicles rendered non-operational and with a very angry Mephiston rapidly approaching, the Lord Commissar saw that he had failed in his duty.
Mission round up
Ultimately an Angels victory, but only narrowly. My opponent’s accuracy with his ordinance weaponry was horrific and whilst he ddin’t manage to wipe out an entire unit of Angels, he did do massive amounts of casualties accross the board. We agreed that vehicle of the match went to his undamaged Russ just for it’s sheer destructive and accurate fire. Man of the battle went to Mephiston, who proved himself once again to be worth his 250 points cost as he just tore vehicles and squads apart in his rampage. Most lucky unit (we didn’t agree on this one but I’m nominating him) was the remaining marine from Cassiel’s combat squad who was in the crater. Everytime the Guard tried to kill him, the man just hit the dirt and survived, unlike his squad mates. Funniest vehicle went to Hamied, whose magnagrappling was supplemented with the scream of ‘GETTOVA HERE!’ and causing much laughter with the results.
