Hetfield Heresy

[roon]

Hi all,

 

Last year my friend Peter and myself have started to play our own story-driven 40K campaign. Peter bought himself the IA:9 Badab War book 1 from Forge World, and it really inspired him to start our own campaign. It gave him the insight how to tell the tale of our games on a grand scale and with the addition of past battles, it all evolved into the story we play our campaign now.

 

He plays vanilla marines, while I play Space Wolves. Fluff-wise they shouldn't fight eachother, but the incredible story Peter invented makes it all really credible! It also inspires us both to start new additions and finish current projects for the games. We both created 3 named characters each, as leaders for our armies. In the meantime Peter has started a small 1000k Chaos warband, while I intend to finish my Warhound Titan this year. It really gives a new dimension to playing Warhammer 40.000, and we are having a blast! Given the frequency we play our games, about once a month, the whole campaign would take us about 1 1 -1 ½ year.

 

So I hereby would like to share the story so far, complete with pictures! All credit towards the story and pictures go to Peter. Hopefully you guys can appreciate it all! Enjoy

 

Campaign background

Early history

The conflict in the Gandum sector involving several space marine chapters, an inquisitional force and the always present imperial guard, started with militairy setbacks and ended in open rebellion against the Emperor. Events evolved as they did partially due to the isolated nature of the Gandum sector, partially due to the temper of the leaders involved and partially due to xenos cunning. Could this war have been averted? That question is for the histographs to answer, we will do with a recording of facts for now.

 

Wedged between the far out reaches of the Maelstrom and the emptyness of the Nightmare Sea the Gandum sector is the gateway to the even more outward located Chinburg and Lothak IX sector. The Gandum sector has been cut off from the glory of the Empire for several millenia as it had been engulved in the tidal waves from the Maelstrom. But recently the tide had been ebbing away, exposing what has been left of those once loyal.

 

The nearby Chinburg system was estimated to be in Eldar hands while the Lothak IX region as it is located very close to the Maelstrom was considered extremely hostile. Nature of the hostiles was at the time unknown.

 

The immense emptiness of the Nightmare Sea and hostility against live from the Maelstrom prevented the Empire from simply re-annexing this region. A recon mission was send to cross the Nightmare Sea and collect data on the once lost system. As the Warp Tide had left behind many horrors the expedition suffered severe losses and after nearly a decade only the fregate Lance of Brightness made it back to report.

As the Gandum system contained not only a wealth of raw materials but also a Forgeworld it was prioritised for re-colonisation and to be turned into a bastion sector in the struggle to contain the influence from the Maelstrom. In order to secure the operation the Knights of Atreus and Shadow Fist Space Marine Chapters were assigned to the operation.

 

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Shadowfirst terminator cleansing a hostile jungle world.

 

The re-colonisation started with building an expedition base at Thornvald, a key world in the Rim with access to the only navigatable shipping route across the Nightmare Sea. As the area around Thornvald was xeno invested this job was handed to the Atreus Knights while the Shadow Fists escorted the first ships into Gandum. Navigation bouys were placed easing the trip and colonisation fleets started to depart from Thornvald into the void once the Knights succesfully secured the region. The trip remained dangerous, with average losses at 16% of the departees, but the Empire doesnt let such details get in the way of the Grand Design. Developments in the Gandum system were positive with little to no hostility in the zone and the colonies taking off. The initial base on the moon of the gas gaint Kaisander (known as the Firstmoon) turned into a docking and trading hub, the world of Darius IV developed as an urban industrial center with plans to evolve into a full scale hive world and reactivation of the forges. The planets Gandarum and Eois made proper agricultural world and on various moons mining installations were operating within the first decade. The Shadowfists however grew bored of all the administrative colonizing duties and petitioned the Emperor several times to be reassigned to a Crusade or at least to a more hostile enviroment. At the same time they did not waste time and kept preparing for war as they knew it would arrive sooner or later.

 

The Shadowside Massacre

It arrived sooner. Deeper in the Gandum system the chaos sorceror Bilefiend had setup his own, hidden bases and he had bided his time. Now, with Imperial shipping not prepared for raiders, he struck and seized, destroyed and cripled 24% of Imperial tonnage in the Gandum sector during the two opening weeks of what would end with the the Darkside Massacre. The Shadowfist marines quickly launched a counter raid, led by chapter master Hetfield himself, in order to tie up the chaos marine forces and relieve the pressure from the commercial fleets. Sorceror Bilefiend had however anticipated such a raid and ambushed the Fists at the shadow side of Volkov III, one of the more recently habited planets intended to be developed as a recruitement world. The amsbush inflicted massive damage in the opening minutes and forced the raiding marines to planetfall while beeing chased by vicious and bloodthristy plague marines.

 

The Shadowfist chaptermaster beeing pinned down and out of communication with the rest of the chapter hardly delayed the organisation of a relief action led by Captain Seiko of the 3th company. The appreance of three grand cruisers, four light cruisers and nearly a dozen frigates and destroyers led by the grand cruiser Sacred Fist ended the engagement as the swift chaos marines raiding pack didnt stand to fight. Hetfield and a handfull of survivors were extracted from the planet and with this humiliating loss the Shadowfists had handed the strategic initiative to the enemy for as soon as they realised Seiko had gathered the core of the Imperial warfleet raids everywhere else intensified. Only a small force from the Knights of Atreus were able to offer escorts for imperial shipping while fleets were redeployed again.

 

Representatives from the Administratium in the Gandum sector started to doubt the strategic capacities of the Shadowfists as they played in the enemy hands twice in a row as the Shadowside Massacre was a devastating failure. Together with planetairy gouvernor Leth from Darius IV they prepared a highly critical report for the Emperor with the request that militairy reinforcements should be send and that militairy command for the Gandum sector should be transferred to a Council of War consisting of the various parties involved.

 

 

 

Outraged by this insult Hetfield almost murdered Leth, the Gouvernour of Darius IV, in a fit of anger but he was stopped by his Librarian Agrippa. After things cooled down relations remained muddled as mistrust had been sown and hate waiting to be harvested. This would take a while allowing the hate to ripe further.

 

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Chapter Master Hetfield.

 

With the Empire on the defense in the Gandum Sector and considerable investments at stake the Emperor’s Offices degreed the Space Wolfs and the remaining Knights of Atreus to reinforce the sector. Led by Wolf Lord Byrnwulf and Force Commander Achillon they started to move to Thornvald in preparation of their journey across the Nightmare Sea. Command would, at the advice of the Administratium, be centralised in a Counsil of War consisting of the two Chaptermasters Hetfield and Achillon, Wolf Lord Byrnwulf, the Master-of-Garison General Bratius the IInd, Rear-Admiral Maximillius from the Imperial Navy and the Gouvernour-General Leth, who as a reward for his role in the filing of the report had been awarded with chief gouvernourship of the sector.

 

The Council of War was protested against by both Chapter Masters and the Wolf Lord who couldn’t approve the breaking up of the unification of command and feared slow, bureaucratic, decision making to hinder the execution of the coming campaign. Gouvernour-General Leth however had the Emperor’s Decree to force his way and Rear-Admiral Maximillius had to employ all his diplomatic skills to avoid a serious fall-out within Imperial Command. Bratius was severly outclassed beeing a mere Colonel before his promotion and not able to add much to the table although he worked very hard to build up the planetairy defenses in the sector.

 

The chapter masters might agree on the fact that the Counsil of War was a bad solution, this was the only thing they could agree on. Where the Shadowfists proposed a defensive focus supported with agressive raids, having learned their lesson at the Shadowside Massacre and not underestimating the enemy, the Space Wolfs favoured a strategy of decisive engagement, smelling the enemy would not be able to cope with a cripling loss. Achillon insisted on playing the enemies game themselves, go raiding and harrassing on a wide front. With Leth’s opinion matching Hetfield’s but the two still holding a grudge and Maximillian’s supportive attitude towards Byrnwulf’s view the momentum swayed towards the later. A campaign intented to force the chaos forces to a decisive battle and crush them was designed and preparations started.

 

The Iphius and Helios Campaigns

As Hetfield maintained his negative attitude towards the Space Wolf plans and Leth obstructed participation of the planetairy defense units under Bratius’s command by raising practical issues Byrnwulf, Achillon and Maximillius shifted the plans towards units under their direct control in order to maintain a good pace during the preparations. Thus the strike fleet consisted mainly of Imperial Navy, Atreusian Knights and Space Wolf units with Shadowfists in flank protection and general reserve duty and the planetairy forces mostly left out of the planning. The plan itself called for a wide strike strike against as many targets as possible by taskforces that could defend themselves against superior forces for Byrnwulf realised the chaos marine shift strikes would be impossible to avoid. Once the enemy committed themselves to a battle the taskforces would be hard pressed but Space Wolf and Shadowfist reinforcements would also be on their way. The side that could build up force the quickest would win and Byrnwulf was confident he could beat Bilefiend. The chaos Lord was, however, a master at this juggling game and when the offensive struck he reinforced key locations, tied up Space Wolf reserves rushing in and shifted focus to different locations inflicting harsh damage along the way. After three days of fighting the tally was clearly against the Empire although the chaos marines did suffer severe losses, the Imperial losses were worse. Pushing onwards to extract the maximum out of the current situation now the Shadowfists launched themselves at the enemy and had some initial succes destroying the enemy Mother of Pain battlecruiser after a lenghty pursuit. But again the lightning fast corsair raids took their toll and attrition sapped strength away. After four weeks the Iphius Campaign lost it’s momentum and having regained stretches of space and several vital locations, the forces of chaos still hold their presence in the Gandum system and Imperial forces were too depleted to do much about it. The campaign had contained but not solved the problem.

 

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Space Wolf Linebreaker squad in action, lost during the battle at Iphius.

 

In reports for the Emperor and in propaganda for the people in the system the campaign was presented as a glorious victory, borne in interchapter and interservice cooperation and promising more for the future but in truth the conclusion of the campaign divided the Counsil of War further. The main objective, to force a decisive engagement had failed and everyone blamed someone else. Byrnwulf accused Hetfield of commiting his forces too late, Hetfield maintained the whole plan had been a disaster-in-waiting from the start, Achillon blamed Byrnwulf beeing too rash, Leth blamed the pride of all chaptermasters but only when at least one was not present and Maximillius found it harder and harder to maintain at least some level of cooperation and a display of unity to the outside world.

 

As reserves were brought in and the Imperial Guard shipped the Helkonian IVth Army Group (300,000 troops) into the Gandum system under command of Marshall of the Imperium Vaskilov renewed offensive operations were expected. With Vaskilov added to the Counsil of War the dynamics changed significantly as he had dealt with large scale operations involving multiple space marine chapters before and was far better skilled at dealing with the proud and agressive super humans. He also had the benefit of his high rank and his connections to the Inquisition and he craftly played all the council members against each other in order to secure support for his policies and strategy. Vaskilov was a rising star within the Imperial Guard and one of the youngest ever to be nominated and awarded the Marshall Baton, but critics state his political skills outmatched his militairy strategies by far and his framework for the Helios Campaign is often used as an example.

 

In the aftermath of yet another failed campaign Voskilov pointed at Rear-Admiral Maximillius, Hetfield and Byrnwulf pointed at each other and Leth pointed at everybody but himself. Several reports laying blames and requesting authority to sort the matters out were dispatched and the Council of War effectively stopped assembling. Rule shifted to whomever was there and the concept of coherent strategy was lost with every force looking after themselves first. It did not take long for the chaos marines to capatilise on this and raiding increased again, harrassing commercial shipping but at a lower level than before as the chaos forces had suffered extensively during both Iphius and Helios, who where now starting to bring heretic troops into the campaign to support their marines.

 

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Bloodclaws engaged in bloody street to street fighting during the Helios Campaign.

Campaign Phase One – First Blood

 

The Betrayal at Krondor

In a frigate orbiting the dead moon Krondor shadowy dealings took place and no-one knew exactly want went on and who where involved, except for the Slaanish embassador. Later Inquisitional investigations remain non-conclusive and do not discard the option the dark eldar played a gambit on the Imperium by taking advantage of the mistrust within the ranks. What is known is the meeting did take place and some sort of imperial representatives where involved and that after the meeting chaos attacks on Shadowfist positions ceased. It did not take long before Leth starterd accusing Hetfield of having struck a foul deal with the enemy and while Maximillius urged for an investigative commitee Byrnwulf and Vaskilov grew more and more suspicious of the intentions of the Shadowfist chapter. It was Achillon who called out for an assembly to solve the issues.

 

At this first face to face meeting since the Helios campaign Imperial unity finally collapsed with Chapter Master Hetfield murdering Gouvernour-General Leth, injuring Wolf Lord Byrnwulf during the fighting retreat and escaping to his flagship, the Grand Cruiser ‘Melencolia’ while beeing wounded himself in the scrap with the Space Wolf leader. Hetfield has always maintained he never was near Krondor and had never spoken with the chaos embassador but his rash actions had damaged his creditability and now events moved with a will of their own. A shift vengeance strike was launched by the PDF and countered by the far superior Shadowfists skirmish screen while the Fists seized the strategic world of Darius IV with a company scale planetfall and consolidating their grip on Firstmoon, the entry point into the system. Rear-Admiral Maximillius brought the fleet into the war while the Space Wolfs launched their first strikes against the Shadowfists. Quickly battle brother was fighting battle brother and as none would back down the casualties mounted.

 

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During the brutal initial engagements losses were severe on all sides.

 

On Volkov-II, the moon of Fuldarium fighting was particulair brutal, as the navigation bouy located on the surface was essential for fleet activity in the region and both sides refused to back down. A highly mobile demonstration of land warfare decided the fate of the moon as mechanised taskforces from both sides tried to force a decision.

 

 

Battle I – The struggle for Volkov-II

[roon]

The Volkov III Skirmish

The first days of the war were confusing and chaotic with both sides strifing to seize opportunities while the engaged forces were still off balance. Reinforcements crowded the shipping lanes and unexpected naval encounters common. One of the key points was the naval bouy on Volkov III, a small moon orbiting Fuldarium and both shadowfists and space wolfs had a small garison present.

 

The engagement was dominated by a terrible duststorm, reducing visibility to several yards for most of the battle and fading to clear skies at other moments.

 

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During one of these clear moments a space wolf vindicator destroyed the tactical marine squad protecting the left flank with their multimelta. From that point on the momentum shifted to the wolfs as the hard pressed shadowfist anti tank groups were overwelmed and the line started to waver.

 

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e19/pingwin2/black%20white%2040k/BW-volkovIIIb.jpg

 

Space wolf supporting fire reduced shadow fists manouvre ability although hindered severely by the duststorms the newly arrived long fangs hammered out some mighty blows.

 

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e19/pingwin2/black%20white%2040k/BW-longfangs.jpg

 

A couragous assault at the shadowfist strongpoint pushed defenses into a counter charge and right into wolf claws.

 

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The final confrontation was between Wolfpriest Ulfrson and Captain Seiko, both supported by their loyal troops. The duel ended without a victor as the duststorms reduced visibility to zero before either warrior could deliver the killing blow. As it were the shadowfists who snuck away in the dust the space wolfs won the day!

 

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With the duststorms intensiving even worse the day was a win for Fenr Ulfrson and his grey hunters.

 

 

 

At two other locations in the Faldarium region combat broke out between the mighty marines and just as at Volkov III the victories went to the space wolfs. It was after this triple shadowfist loss that Wolf Lord Byrnwulf spoke the historical words 'This war is over just before it started'. How wrong could a man be and how much suffering and misery would still be on the road to the Fall of Darius IV. If only they had know...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witherfrath VII

Just as Lord Byrnwulf had proclaimed victory over the rebelion the Dark Gods made him regret his words. With the Shadowfists on the run the Space Wolfs were keen on the pursuit, aiming to deny the enemy the opportunity to regroup and get back into the fight. Unfortunatly the Gundam sector held many secrets and surprises.

 

One of them was revealed on the planet Witherfrath VII were a small formation of chaos marines was setting up a bastion of some sort. As the acting commander, rune priest Skoll Uvaer decided to lead a small force against the enemy while the remainder of the Wolfs would maintain pressure on the Shadowfists. With the initial strike spotted by CSM observators the surprise advantage was never gained and the supporting bombardment and hellfire strikes set the battleground ablaze. The CSM forces were not from the Nurgle Traitorguard as expected but turned out to be from a different Warlord. Huron Blackheart had made his entry in the Hetfield Heresy Campaign.

 

Amidst the smoke and madness, fire and artillery strikes the Space Wolfs had anticipated the slow pace of Nurgle and were forced to deal with a swift striking pirate band. The speed and agression and the superior fortunes of the Obliterator Cult caught the Wolves off guard. Led by a mysterious socreror in redclad armor the forces of Huron rampaged through the Wolf ranks and at the end of the day only a lone wolf remained.

 

With the lone wolf’s skull impaled on a throphy rack the raiders vanished off the planet, abandoning their building site for the time beeing.

 

As pestering Huronists would continue raiding Imperial shipping and outposts the situation was a clear set back for the Imperial high command. Chapter Master Achillon stated he considered the splitting of forces a poor decision, taken as a grave insult by Skoll Uvaer who had led the engagement. Lord Byrnwulf didnt allow Skoll to issue a challenge and the priest obeyed his master but not without some resentment. Rear-Admiral Maximilian was more concerned with the fact the enemy was building a hidden outpost, the defeat he considered a minor skirmish for intelligence and therefor a strategic victory. After some debate Marshall of the Imperium Vaskilov refocused the effords of the High Command by directing the strategic aims for the next phase.

 

The breathing space the Shadowfists had gained as the Space Wolfs had distracted themselves in the battle against Huron had been enough to regroup and strike. Before Imperial command could implement the new strategic plans distress calls were received from Shartius and Melkovia deep in the Svetchov system. The shadowfists had struck again! And the wolfs would set out again, to enter the pit with their mortal enemy.

 

 

 

The Shartius Sacrifice

With the Chaos forces buying the Shadow Fists some breathing time and the Imperials beeing spread thin the campaign went into it’s next phase. Both sides sensed the planetairy gouvernors feared picking the loosing side and ending up paying a hefty price once the dust had settled. Hetfield continued to raid civilian targets that stuck with the loyalist side while the loyalist were hard pressed to protect their citizen.

 

The Shadowfists are no Chaos warriors and didnt commmence into murdering the population. The attacks focused on destroying the planet-space infrastructure disabling their capacity to supply and support the loyalists. As the means to collect taxes and dues were taken out in effect the planets couldnt ‘pay up’ and this policy made the raiders very populair with the more greedy amongst the planetairy populations. It also posed a problem for the Imperial fleets as they found it increasingly harder to keep themselves supplied.

 

The hunt for the raiding forces was decided by what historians call the ‘Shartius Sacrifice’. It was here that the Space Wolf advance guard finally caught up with the Shadow Fists and forced a show down. As initial contact catched the Fists by surprise they were forced to retreat a part of their army into the ruined city of Khalshav. Space Wolf reinforcements encircled the site and Wolflord Byrnwulf started preparations to finish the job when a second Shadow Fist force was located on the surface. They were going flat out towards Hadrian X, the last bulk cargo space port still operating. Facing two options Byrnwulf made a fatefull decision:

Battle option for Wolflord Byrnwulf:

With the siege of Khalshav turning into a stand-off Byrnwulf had to make a choice, either split his forces and launching a strike to protect Hadrian X spaceport or driving home a powerfull attack to break the siege with a hammerstrike.

 

[option #1: play a random space marine special mission from the battlebook with SW as attackers. 2.000 points]

1 CP and and the winner gets favorite enemy against the loser for the Siege of Fuldarium Apo battle.

 

[option #2: play a game of a random city fight mission, 2.000 points.]

Cityfight: 1 CP and the winner gets the [sacred banner] stratagem for the Siege of Fuldarium Apo battle.

 

 

date of operation: 20-2-2011: ALL LEAVES ARE CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

[Quillen]

Very cool. I enjoyed reading your fluff. Thanks for posting it.

[Sven Dragonfire]

That was superb. Thanks for sharing it. Loved the "forgeworldesque" black and white photos. I too have the Badab war books and the campaign system is really good. Had some preliminary chats with the guys I game with about a campaign, and now feeling suitable inspired by your post I am definitely going to write one up with a narrative based around the armies we will be using. Many thanks, great stuff.