Solbond Gardhird versus Salamanders
Mission - Warp-Nexus Destruction
Battle Tied, 50-50 (Votann were Defender, went 1st). Complete Central Positions Agenda x 5, completed Prospecting Agenda x3. Gain 4 Blackstone from Central Positions.
Gain the following Resources - 70 Raw Minerals from battle (40 from battle, 10 from Mining Outpost, 20 from Prospecting), 270 Biomatter (from Pioneer Fleet asset, 27 Yield Points x10). Gain 2RP from mission.

Spend 1RP for Increase Supply Limit (up to 2000), add 1 Hekaton Land Fortress (Sol-Baund Citadel)

No Battle Scars suffered

Units upgraded

Echo-Delvr Karvyr gains Viel of Ancients arificer relic (Bearer gains a 4+ Invuln save)
Skeldr Jarnvardr gains Stealthy Arrival trait (if this unit Deepstrikes it gains Stealth until the next turn and cannot be Overwatched)
Oath-Runner One gains Advanced Suspensors (This unit's ranged weapons gain Assault)
Oath-Runner Two gains Advanced Suspensors (This unit's ranged weapons gain Assault)
The Sturm-bon gain Warrior Pride (Each time this unit is selected to shoot or fight, may re-roll one to Hit roll and one to Wound roll.

Overall-
Victory - Tie
Resources - 280 Biomatter, 90 Raw Minerals, 20 Galactic Intel, 20 Energy Sources
RP - gain 2, spend 1. Total is 1
Supply limit - 2000 (using 1990)
Crusade points - Goes from 7 to 12

Battle Report

Mission - Warp-Nexus Destruction (9th ed modified) 1500pts. Mission was fairly simple scoring-wise: 5VP for 1 objective, 5VP for 2 objectives, 5VP for 3 objectives. Then at the end of the game there was a 20VP bonus for whomever held more objectives at the end of the battle. 

** Some notes - We were doing some Crusade custom mission rules, which included the following: Infiltrating Attackers (see Deployment), Counter-Offensive and Heroic Intervention Strats cost 1 less CP (which means Heroic is free), -1 Movement and -2 Charge rolls for all units, and all ranged weapons have their range halved. There was also some shenanigans with a warp interference table, but they didn't really effect anything in this game.

Enemy Force - Forgefather's Seekers Detachment. 10man Infernus squad w/Vulkan, 10man Intercessor squad w/LT, 6man Bladeguard w/Agrax and LT, 3man Aggressor squad w/flamers, 2x 5man Infernus squads, 5man Heavy Intercessor squad, 5man Terminator squad, Gladiator Lancer

Reserves - Votann had Hearthguard and Melee Steeljacks/Elder in Deepstrike. Sallies had Termies and Bladeguard in Deepstrike.

Deployment - Kinda weird. Look at the first pic to get an idea. Four objectives, three in the top portion of the map and one in the middle of the board. Defender deployment is a 12" stripe starting at the middle of the board and going up. Attacker deployment starts 12" away from the center of the board going down. Two stripes of No Man's Land, one on the upper edge of the board and one in-between the two army's deployments. Attacker gets 2 infantry units to Infiltrate (plus Sallies had another get Infiltrate from Crusade upgrade), so there was a squad on each of the top three objectives. Bad pics but the 2 5man Infernus squads, the Heavy Intercessors, and the Lancer are all in the lower deployment zone.

Round 1

Votann turn 1 - Votann push up, with the Kapricus and Sagitaurs moving to put pressure on the infiltration infantry. Right Sagitaur drops off Trokk and his Warriors onto the right objective. Shooting from the Kapricus/right Sagitaur/Trokk's crew kill off the Aggressor squad and do a little damage to Vulkan's Infernus squad on the top-center objective. Really, really good shooting from the Pioneers on the left pick up six of the Intercessors on the left objective and the Sagitaur over there pops another two. A charge from the two-man squad of Kapricus smashes another of Vulkan's Infernus marines. The return attacks wipe out one Kapricus but the other holds on.

Salamanders turn 1 - Sallies are deathly afraid of the Volkanite Steeljacks' overwatch so move cautiously around them and the Heavy Intercessors only do 2 Wounds to the Steeljacks in shooting. Mass flamers kill off the second Kapricus that had been in melee. Pioneers go into Reserves at the end of the turn.

Round 2

Votann turn 2 - Left Sagitaur drops off its basic ion blaster Warriors onto the left objective, lone Kapricus gets close to Vulkan and the top-center objective. Sagitaur/Warrior/Arkanyst fire kill off the Intercessor squad and LT on the left objective, while more fire from the Kapricus and right Sagitaur hurt Vulkan's boys. Shooty Steeljacks/Thunderkyn in the middle of the board wipe out the Heavy Intercessors. A sacrificial melee charge from the Kapricus tank shocks a few mortal wounds off of Vulkan's squad but it dies in melee.

Salamanders turn 2 - Both 5man Infernus squads keep moving up, staying out of Steeljack Overwatch range. Lancer moves up and torches the right Sagitaur. Terminators and Bladeguard drop down, Termies near the middle of the board right in-between three objectives, Bladeguard drop near the right objective to pressure Trokk. Melee Steeljacks Rapid Ingress to back up Trokk. Aside from the Lancer, Sallie shooting isn't effective. Bladeguard fail their charge, as do the termies.

Round 3

Votann turn 3 - Hearthguard drop down (off pic) near the Infernus squad on the left of the board. Melee Steeljacks move up to engage the Bladeguard, Thunderkyn move out to shoot at termies. Shooting goes bad for Votann, as the Sagitaur + Thunderkyn take out only one termie and the Hearthguard only kill one Infernus Marine. Melee goes better, as the Steeljacks blender the Bladeguard and bring them down to just two regular Bladeguard plus the characters while only losing one in return. 

Salamanders turn 3 - Lancer and right Infernus squad move up to put more pressure on the right objective, termies move on to the left objective. Shooting pretty much wipes out Trokk's squad and take three of the regular Warriors on the left objective out. Melee helps out the Votann, as the Steeljacks kill the remaining Bladeguard and the LT, losing another two Steeljacks to Adrax.

Round 4

Votann turn 4 - Hearthguard move up to kill the Infernus squad, while the Arkanyst gets dropped off to attempt to try the Prospecting Agenda. Thunderkyn move to get closer to termies, as does the Sagitaur. Shooting from Sagitaur/Thunderkyn/Warriors drops two of the termies. Melee takes out Adrax, but can't quite tie up the Lancer.

Salamanders turn 4 - Big turn for Sallies. Vulkan and his remaining two Infernus torch the Thunderkyn, the Lancer blasts through the regular Steeljacks, and the right Infernus squad takes Trokk down to 1 Wound. Charge from the Termies does not manage to kill off the two remaining Warriors on the left objective (hooray for Fortify and 6+ saves!)

Round 5 (sorry pic is sideways, can't fix it now...)

Votann turn 5 - Sagitaur moves to the top-center objective to try to kill off Vulkan, Trokk dies to Overwatch from flamers. Warriors manage to kill off one of the final two termies, but can't finish off the last, lose another member. Sagitaur fails to kill any Infernus in the top-center, Steeljack Elder fails a charge into the Infernus on the right.

Salamanders turn 5 - Termies kill off the last Warrior on the left, taking all three top objectives and the tie.

Thoughts

Whew, what a swing! Throughout the game I was consistently getting 10/15VP per turn for holding 2/3 objectives while the Sallies only were getting one. However, the last turn was massive in that my opponent managed to get 15VP from holding 3 and the 20VP from holding more. If only my final Warrior had passed his save.... Still, a very good game and one that was surprisingly even in score but not in feeling.

A couple of the mission rules really, really changed how the game played. The halving range of all weapons hurt my opponent way more than it hurt me, as his super-themed list leaned into flamers so much that he only got a couple of shots off with any of his Infernus squads. It did effect my Thunderkyn though, making their conversion beamers lose out on the Conversion rule and thus missing some utility. The -1 to move everything really hurt me- 4" move on all my infantry was rough and made me pretty static. As the defender it wasn't nearly as bad, but still a bit of a hard thing to deal with. 

On the good side, my opponent's previous playing against/having Votann helped out, as he was so worried about the Volkanite Steeljack's Overwatch that he pretty much left the middle objective alone the entire game, allowing my Memnyr Strategist to just sit on the objective and get Central Position Agenda points. The bad side was that he also knew how fragile the Kapricus were and blasted them off the board quickly. Overall this match played out fairly well for me, as I got a lot of upgrades that will help (Sagitaurs both getting Assault means running and gunning/dropping), while not really losing out on anything that hurt too bad. Plus, no Battle Scars, which means I can finally save a single RP!

So, as I said in my last game report, the next update will take a while. Currently there is one FLGS that is replacing their flooring (much needed!) and the second is expanding and doing some construction/painting/redoing stuff to get ready. So this next week will be a pause while we wait for our stores to open back up. That means I'll probably be painting, as I have my Pioneers and all four Kapricus vowed for the 12MoH as well as a mini-diorama and hopefully some Killteam Sanctifiers coming in to build (plus maybe another Grimnyr and my Nightbringer conversion...). I am also going to try to work up some sort of story/fluff for the last few reports/time period, as I've fallen down on that end. Anyway, thanks for looking and see you soon!