Bloodly Trench Warfare: The Death Korps of Krieg v. Traitors

[FashaTheDog]

I am posting this here to inspire us in our vows!  Here is pure unadulterated Death Korps of Krieg and Traitor Guard.  No power armor, no Matt Ward, just Guard.  This is warfare as it should be in the grim darkness of the far future; brutal, bloody, and without mercy, respite, or end. 

 

Tonight I played a 2,000 point Dawn of War, Emperor's Will game.  My foe brought his WWI style Traitor Guard while my Death Korps of Krieg fought and died for the Emperor.  We tweaked the mission slightly to forge a narrative.  We each had an armor 14, three hull point bunker (I missed the bit about no hull points, but no harm) as a mysterious primary objective on the same place of trench table since the board was roughly symmetric.  My mysterious bunker allowed me to re-roll failed to hits of 1 while his was Skyfire; in other words, we each got what the other wanted.  As an addition we each had four 8" long trench steps and three 8" razor wire sections we could place anywhere in our deployment zone or no man's land on deployment.  Our traits were unimportant and never came into play.  I forget what he had, although it was a strategic one, but I randomly rolled for my table as well as I never care and made my warlord scoring, useless for me as I needed him elsewhere.  We rolled off for first turn and first deployment and he won.

 

His Company Command went in his bunker with both his Basilisks on either side.  Al'Rahem's platoon went into reserve with his pair of Vendettas, a platoon was deployed in front of his bunker behind the Aegis Defense Line that had no gun and he tossed his Leman Russ in the center with a Chimera full of Veterans on either side.  I deployed a combined Infantry and Heavy Weapons squad with a plasma gun and three lascannons inside my bunker and placed a matched combined squad on the battlements.  The third identical combined squad went on the other side of my deployment zone with a Medusa Siege Gun in each corner.  I spread the Platoon Command Squads evenly across the line and put the three Infantry Squads I combined in the center so both flamers and a grenade launcher were with the Commissar.  The Heavy Mortars went behind them flanked by Rapiers and the Company Command was near the center, but to the right closer to the bunker.  A mortar armed Heavy Weapons squad went on the flank opposite my bunker and a meltagun armed Infantry Squad went on each flank.  I threw the Cyclops evenly across the line and failed to seize the initiative.

 

http://s15.postimg.org/ot6ckxwnv/IG_Deployment.jpg

http://s21.postimg.org/ga6pmm2qv/Deployment_a.jpg

http://s21.postimg.org/mfxgb6pk7/Krieg_Deployment.jpg

http://s11.postimg.org/uw2qkh3kz/Krieg_Battlements.jpg

 

Turn 1 saw night fight hamper the opening salvo to little more than a few dead Death Korps while his armor advanced.  I got First Blood by glancing a Chimera to death, with the kudos going to the Cyclops for getting that last glance.  For all my shooting, I also immobilized the other while most of my advance was right up the center. Overall, a quiet night.

http://s23.postimg.org/4gqiz52ez/Turn_1_mid.jpg

http://s23.postimg.org/3uwd1cni3/End_Turn_1.jpg

 

The break of dawn, however, saw a great many Death Korps fall to enemy fire, especially from the large central combined squad.  All but one of the mortars were killed and my left flank Medusa lost three crew and was forced to go to ground to avoid the Vendetta that arrived from finishing it.  Al'Reham and his platoon sat on my right flank with the razor wire helping to keep a little distance from my side.  I lost a Rapier and a Cyclops as well.  The Drill came on and missed scattering off the table by the absolute narrowest of margins, destroying the gun off one Basilisk and then pushed it to a better spot for a 12/10/10 heavy bolter (we were using the rules from the pdf since I lack the new IA books).  My shooting destroyed his bunker with the penetration roll of 6 on the bunker table, killing the Astropath, but then seeing the ten other wounds all saved on his carapace armor.  My Platoon Command Squad with the two plasma guns and plasma pistol saw a pair of overheats kill two of their number and had it not been for my Regimental Standard, or "BSB" as I affectionately call it, they would have ran.  A meltagun took a hull point from the Chimera and then the grenade launcher from the large squad missed so to motivate the squad I fired the Commissar's bolt pistol at him, hit and wounded, and I removed the grenade launcher as a casualty.  My foe found it a fitting punishment and allowed it.  I threw the right most meltagun Infantry Squad at a Special Weapons Squad and won combat, sending them fleeing, while the other metlagun squad and my Commissar led squad at the Chimera.  Having seen up close what an example out of what failure looked like, the combined squad glanced the one hull point Chimera nine or ten times with grenades, forcing the crew out the back as the Death Korps was clearly busy destroying the wreckage until nothing but dust remained. 

http://s12.postimg.org/nj2k65gp9/Turn_2_end.jpg

http://s16.postimg.org/53pe1f4ud/End_Turn_2.jpg

http://s21.postimg.org/turdhb0tj/End_Turn_2_Drill.jpg

http://s23.postimg.org/l9vfm606z/Outflanked.jpg

 

With the third turn we saw the other Vendetta zoom in and blasted the last two hull points off my bunker, forcing the two squads to move off.  One was then torched off the table and the other reduced to two lascannon teams, the Watchmaster, and a lasgun armed guy; again the nearby HQ unit saved them from retreating.  My far right meltagun squad was reduced to a single man who had gone to ground.  A stray shot killed the platoon standard, and the plasma gunner also passed his leadership on the BSB re-roll.  The last Cyclops was threatening enough that it took a whole bunch of shooting that would have been better focused elsewhere.  Because my artillery had been so devastating, he took a shot at the Heavy Mortars and scattered clipping one of the guns to inflict a wound and killing the other Rapier.  By this point I was running out of models.  Fortunately, my foe was in the same boat and my artillery did not let me down and I started clearing off my right flank with perfectly placed Heavy Mortar fire removing one traitorous Infantry squad and half of another.  The Engineers took care of a fair number of traitors with a demo charge and shotgun fire while the heavy artillery wore down other units.  I charged with a number of units in the center, losing a lone Krieger to overwatch, but sparing the larger unit while the Commissar was gunned down by overwatch from the two survivors he had charged.  I lost the one combat I had, but in typical Krieg fashion they held fast. 

http://s3.postimg.org/73r2wq783/Turn_3_mid.jpg

http://s7.postimg.org/vx763abjf/End.jpg

http://s16.postimg.org/dn8rz6d6t/End_Turn_3.jpg

http://s13.postimg.org/snzcwfibb/End_Turn_3_Engineers.jpg

http://s24.postimg.org/wm61twf1h/End_Turn_3a.jpg

http://s18.postimg.org/ahsyelrxl/Traitors_Contesting.jpg

http://s9.postimg.org/v8kpvgfsv/Krieg_Contesting.jpg

http://s14.postimg.org/z7xmzyyhd/Traitor_HQ.jpg

 

At this point we were forced to call the game on account of time since the store was closing.  We looked over the table and found Al'Reham contested my bunker while the Engineers contested his.  I had scored First Blood, while he had Linebreaker, making the game a draw, one VP to one.  We then went down the list of quick what-ifs.  On turn four, he would kill the Engineers, but I would kill Al'Reham, negating the contested primary objectives.  With both Vendettas, he would almost certainly kill my warlord since he had no invulnerable save and not enough ablative wounds.  The net result would again be a draw.  On turn five or later we would likely see the combat near his deployment zone finish with the survivors mopped up by the other side.  Anything he had on the right flank would also be dealt with by my Heavy Mortars, leaving no change there.  It would require at least another three turns for one of us to table the other, with a slight advantage to me considering just how effective my artillery has been.  It would really come down to me focusing all my fire on downing the Vendettas or forcing them into zipping off the table before he finished the non-artillery units first (and thereby ensuring I could not table him).  The only way in which I could have won without tabling him would be killing his warlord who would hug the table edge as he ran to the nearby corner.  Possible, but tough to do. 

 

To conclude, it was quite appropriate that the game ended in a stalemate with no foreseeable way for either side to seize victory without considerable luck.  Therefore, we can only conclude that the Death Korps of Krieg won a resounding moral victory!

[RADU LYKAN]

i really like the table and love the idea of pure guard v guard battles, thanks for posting :)

[WarriorFish]

The perfect table for an epic brawl, though it was a bit odd to see tanks advancing up the trenches! I'd love to fight on such a nice table, as Radu said great for Guard vs Guard.

 

Hopefully next time you can grind the enemies of the Emperor down sooner to achieve glorious victory :)

[Beachymike123]

this is the true stuff 40k is made of - nice terrain, nice models and by the sound of things enjoyment all round by both players. thank you for sharing fasha. as previously said, great to see guard vs guard. its the sort of thing i'd love to read in a BL book, almost reminds me of the sabbat crusade.

[FashaTheDog]

Just added the photos he took to the report.  The six Tallarns were actually my models painted for the vow I made, but he was short six Guardsmen so they got to join in the fun.

[Mosedeke]

As his opponent, it was a great game.  Though I forgot how blasted long two foot guard armies took to do anything.

 

And I'll take satisfaction in knowing that the whole planet was virus bombed for Chaos taint shortly after, since this did work beautifully into my regiment's historical fluff.

[FashaTheDog]

A quickie Krieg battle report to provide further encouragement for the Painting War Effort!

My Krieg, using the new Assault list in IA 12 faced off against a friend's Necrons, who had incidentally lent me that book and made me crave just such a fight. We played a 2,000 point Dawn of War Relic game. Using the density and random terrain we placed everything and I thought an Archaetech next to my deployment zone would be neat since it was small and if it spat random death, perhaps I could suicide small recyclable units off it. Instead it was a 2 VP objective. With a declared Forlorn Hope placing my special objective in the middle of his deployment zone, it meant the Relic was not as special as it should be. He went first and I tried to seize the initiative just to be contrary, not because I really wanted it.

Turn 1 saw a few Krieg die here and there; no one cared. Some Necrons were turned to paste and the Heavy Mortars once more proved to me their limitless awesomeness by awarding me with First Blood. Yes they're 10 points more, lost accurate, and now have a point less of strength and Gets Hot, but shred and ignores cover on them make up for it. Ask a Necron Warrior. Oh wait; they're dead and not getting up .

Turn two saw Necrons deep strike in all over my deployment zone and most of my three Infantry Platoons vanished. To the casual observer it looked liked a turn three tabling was in my future. Making full use of the No Mercy and Dispersed Advance orders I opened fire with now assault 2 lasguns and laspistols across my lines before charging in and finding that my Warlord trait of Co-ordinated Assault gave me that extra bit I needed to reach the Necron lines with everything I threw at them. My Warlord and his unit hit the Wraiths and Destroyer Lord waving their Banner of Martyrdom. The assault phase saw drawn combats or no one caring about losing. Close enough for now.

Turn three saw two of my Infantry Platoons wiped out in his turn and I was happy as they came right back on from Ongoing Reserves to plasma and melta him some more before he turned around and killed the melta one and finished off the third platoon that had actually deployed. He also slew my Warlord when his Destroyer Lord acted all cool with his Warscythe to end combat, but I reminded my foe that my banner meant I too got a VP from having my Warlord slain in the assault. His Lord then took a wound from dangerous terrain as he moved out of it, obviously turning right into some rebar after killing everything that failed to hurt him, and made a mental note to format the memories of the witnesses. I had the new platoons come gleefully, relatively speaking, strolling on to their death and tied up some Destroyers with the remnants of the plasma platoon so they couldn't assault my Heavy Mortars who were too busy on Warrior removal duty. The Destroyers had clearly reached their preset kill limit as that combat dragged on through the end of the game with no real change from the onset. My Rapier also shot down the Heavy Support Cylon Raider as punishment for blowing up a pair of Leman Russ tanks.

His Immortals had tried to grab the Relic, but my Heavy Mortars blasted five of them to unrepairable ruin, pinned and routed the survivors. The following turn, they tried again and were bombed again, but this time passed both Ld tests by rolling their leadership exactly. My Grenadiers had barreled forward through some wreckage in their Storm Chimera to near the Relic that I had dragged a few inches closer to me earlier in the game. and my foe had blasted the 75 point transport before he assaulted the guys who climbed out and tried to block my path with the Wraiths. I walked around them through dangerous terrain thanks to Dispersed Advance and a cheerful disregard for the well being of my own men. Since a single Immortal had been close enough to claim the objective, I ran to contest the Relic, thus shifting the outcome to the Archeaotech objective as I was too far from my 2 VP Forlorn Hope objective and thus granted him a VP for having failed to claim it. Thus my First Blood VP was matched. He had slain my Warlord in the assault, so my Regimental Standard's upgrade had essentially negated that.

Therefore it meant that I had to inflict two unsaved wounds on his Sypder contesting the 2 VP objective that had changed my entire plan upon learning what it was. A power sword from an officer chopped off one and the rest of the attacks wounded it four times. The odds were in my favor, but passing a quartet of 3+ saves is really common place so the entire outcome rested on his roll; his success would make the game a draw, failure would grant me the win. He failed two saves and I won as the game then ended.

A quick calculation showed that my foe killed about 4,000 points of Death Korps thanks to my Unstoppable Advance rule. All I had to do was what I did; keep him off the Relic and make sure my Infantry Platoons showed up, did some damage at full strength, and then promptly died/fled off table before my next turn so I could do it again. The extra firepower I got from that revolving door policy meant that I could wear him down on my left where the objective I focused upon sat since it was close enough a new Platoon could reach it fairly easily while he was tempted by the main Relic I had fortuitously dragged a crucial three inches closer to my side as I had just reached contesting range. It was a close game that from turn two onward saw me end my foe's turn with the two hard as nails artillery units protected from assault (often at the cost of some Infantry Platoon or parts thereof) and maybe a handful of other models on the table. A few passing people commented how I had no chance to win with most of my army slain, but as my foe aptly stated, Krieg has better Resurrection Protocols than the Necrons. Indeed, the Death Korps of Krieg make for better Necrons than the Necrons do; they are less emotional, more willing to sacrifice themselves when ordered, are less apt to flee (unless doing so is part of the plan), come back more reliably and in greater numbers, and are clearly the more relentless and soulless robots, plus you can top it off with the fact that they are devoted servants of the divine God-Emperor and not some ancient heathen xenos in need of a righteous purging .

[spafe]

I'm really hoping you got some pics of that game, it sounds awesome!

 

why do you have to be on the wrong side of the pond with such cool armies!!!

[hendrik]

would you care to enlighten how you got ongoing reserves? is it a special rule with the krief assault list?

[spafe]

Thats a part of the rules in IA 12 for the kreig assult brigade. Allows full platoons to return the following turn once all squads in the platoon have been destroyed :)

[Warhead01]

Both Battle reports were amazing! Loved all the pictures in the first one! Good looking korps! 

Any chance of a review on that Krieg assault list? 

[greendestiny]

Love all your pics of this battle.  Thanks for sharing.

[Chaeron]

Superb report - thank you!

[Warhead01]

I have a question .

 How do the madusa cannons work for you? How do you employ them? I have seen that they are no longer able to indirect fire.

So I am not sure how  best to use them when not on a vehicle.

[Injek]

That battleground.

[FashaTheDog]

I am using a probably outdated rules since I have not been able to place a Forgeworld order in a while, so I have been using the rules in Imperial Armour Apocalypse II where the Medusa Siege Gun is 24"-120" which is a different weapon from the Medusa Siege Cannon that the self propelled unit is armed with, per the Codex.  With the minimum range and the fact that most enemies like to rush me that two foot "safety zone" has always made them glad the two weapons have different profiles.  If they changed the Siege Gun to be the same weapon as the Siege Cannon in Imperial Armour I 2nd edition, then the loss of range will actually work to my benefit in the future, even if it means I lose some range, although losing barrage will bother me. 

 

As to how I use them, I often end up placing them next to one another with the lighter artillery in front, wrapped in infantry.  With the enemy rushing towards me, I find that often times my Medusi start the game doing well then end up with the crew using lasguns at the end as the enemy gets too close.  That is exactly what happened last time I fought Orks, although the crew gunned down bikers with their lasguns like it was nobody's business.  I often have to split them up and put them in opposite corners in Dawn of War to ensure they remain useful so I can fire one on top of the other, risking the scatter and friendly fire.  This often causes me to suffer as need to spread my line thinner than I'd like to.  Many of my targets, regardless of how I deploy, end up within 36" of them and the T7 and cover saves usually more than make up for any lack of mobility.  Mostly, those two provide additional template fun and a little scare in my foe, but their use is typically overshadowed by the Heavy Mortars.  If the change is as you say, then I will not need to split them and I'll probably get more use from them.  Accuracy will be unaffected I as I usually roll 'hit' on the scatter die anyway (rolling to wound is another matter, though - that 2+ is hard to roll). 

 

On a personal note, I dislike the change as I could see the SPG version being scaled back to accommodate mobility, but no big deal. 

[Warhead01]

I got a pile of DKoK a few years ago but am only now painting it. I have been looking at the cannons for a long time, years in fact. I was  wanting to add madusa and earthshakers at some point in the near future but the range nerf..I may still add them. I like your idea for deploying them they may cover a few dead spots better this way.  I will just have to plan my expansion to get the most out of the changes.

 

I have had a look at the assault brigade now. Still digesting it. It would be cool to use both formations of Korps in the same game. 

 

Thanks.