Krieg versus Dark Angels

[FashaTheDog]

I was going to play a 2,000 point game, but after my foe and I decided to try a Stronghold Assault mission, we increased it to 2,000 points plus a Baneblade for him and a roughly equal amount of fortifications for me.

 

My list was:

Assault List primary

Company HQ - Ossuary of Blessed Dead, Artillerist, Techpriest Militant

Rapier

Rapier

Platoon HQ - Plasma Pistol, Standard, 2 Plasma Guns

Infantry - Plasma Gun

Infantry - Meltagun

Platoon HQ - Power Sword, Standard, 2 Meltaguns

Infantry - Power Sword, Flamer

Infantry - Grenade Launcher

3 Heavy Mortars - Carcass Shells

Heavy Weapons Squad - Lascannons

Siege List allied

Commissar-General - Power Sword

10 Engineers - Demo charge, Mole Mortar

2 Cyclops

2 Medusi Battery

Lord of War

Wrath of Martyrs - Shadowsword w/ hull twin-linked heavy bolters

Fortifications

Defense Network - 3 Lines, 2 Bunkers, 3 Emplacements

1 Bastion - Void Shield, Ammo Dump

 

His list had at least:

Dark Angels primary

Sammael - Speeder

Librarian on bike

2 Ravenwing Squadrons - full

Landspeeder Vengeance

Landraider Ares

Landspeeder Typhoon

Predator Annihilator

Space Marine allies

Master of Forge

5 Scouts

Storm Talon

Storm Raven

Lord of War (borrowed from me)

Lord Illpalazzo - Baneblade w/ 1 set of sponsons, heavy stubber

 

We got the second mission, Breakthrough, with me as the defender so I did not, and could not even if I wanted to, declare a Forlorn Hope.  I ran my trenches (Wall of Martyrs) across the edge of my deployment zone with the bastion behind in the center.  The bunkers were evenly spaced between the bastion and table edge and into those I put the plasma gun squad and lascannon squad with the Commissar.  The three Infantry squads ran the length of the trenches with the two platoon commands spaced to proved orders to two squads each.  The Warlord went in the bastion with the heavy mortars behind it and the Medusi to the left with the Wrath of Martyrs opposite on the right.  I then put the Engineers in front of the bastion by the ammo dump and in the emplacement.  The three objectives were placed in that emplacement with the Engineers and next to each bunker.

 

My foe deployed the Lord Illpalazzo front and center with the Ares to its right and all the Ravenwing behind and scattered.  He got first turn thanks to seizing the initiative and there was no night fight.  So here is the game in a narrative format with some events out of order for story telling ease.

 

A Breached Alliance

Along the trench lines, the Death Korps began to prepare for a major offensive, gathering a force to rapidly break the enemy lines and push the front forward another few hundred yards.  As preparations were well underway a number of black Thunderhawks touched down, deploying a Ravenwing force lead by none other than Sammael.  In their support was a Baneblade, the Lord Illpalazzo, recently seconded to them for the upcoming push.  While the vox silence was frowned upon by Major 87, the Dark Angels had not deigned to inform any Krieg forces of their operations except for where they were not to saturate with artillery.  It was not until the Dark Angel force began racing towards the Krieg lines that Major 87 was forced to react.

 

As orders were issued to repulse the assault from their former allies, the bunker in which the lascannon squad detonated from the opening Dark Angels' lascannon shot burrowing through the ceramite plate and into the ammo stores within.  The Lord Illpalazzo's formidable firepower slew Guardsmen across the trench line and the soap bubble-esque pop of the command bastion's void shield.  Wasting no time in responding, the artillery of the Death Korps fell upon the Astartes, blasting the Predator, and a pair of Landspeeders, including the Vengeance, into cratered wreckage.

 

With both sides unconcerned of their losses, the Dark Angels continued to press forward with all available speed.  As the ground based assets pressed forward destroying both Rapiers, a pair of aircraft lent their support as well peppering the Krieg lines with scattered fire and causing minor damage to the venerable Wrath of Martyrs.  Further damage to the sacred tank came from the demolisher cannon of the Ares.  This shot would be the last the Astartes tank would ever fire as the volcano cannon vaporized the Land Raider variant in a blinding cone of destruction powerful enough to fell even the might god-machines of the Adeptus Titanicus. 

 

Even as carcass shells fell amongst them, killing a biker and injuring the Librarian, the Ravenwing bore down upon the defenders of the trenches, killing a handful of Guardsmen in a hail of bolter fire.  As the aircraft continued their attack run, the bastions void shields came back online, diverting their target to the Medusa battery and the Wrath of Martyrs inflicting only minor damage upon the dug in defenders.  Still the mighty Baneblade advanced through the heavy rain of fire, seemingly unstoppable and terrible in its wrath upon former allies.

 

Rushing from their trenches, the Death Korps charged the Lord Illpalazzo demonstrating their fearless resolve to die in the name of the God-Emperor of Man climbing across the behemoth's hull, dropping krak grenades into vision slits and into exhaust pipes inflicting yet more damage upon near invincible tank before most of their number were crushed beneath its treads while the pair of remote demo tanks drove straight into the treads of the great tank, detonating to cause yet more damage that the powerful war machine ignored.  Even with the close proximity of their comrades, the Death Korps hail of fire upon the mighty Baneblade did not lessen, if anything it increased, but still the super heavy's relentless advance continued.  The wounded Librarian lead his squadron around the Baneblade only to find the Wrath of Martyrs' volcano cannon reduce their number to single bike and Librarian, both of whom met a gruesome end as a Medusa shell aimed at the nearby Lord Illpalazzo scattered and detonated between them.

 

With their attack run completed, the pair of aircraft continued past the Krieg lines, taking the Master of the Forge and the Scouts with him off to their main objective far behind the fighting, whatever mysterious objective that may be.  Attempting to follow, the other Ravenwing Squadron and both attack bikes tore over the trenches, but the cleaver design of the Death Korps fortified position saw two of their number, including an attack bike, slain by hidden rebar in loose soil or buried mines.  Despite this the melta weapons of the Ravenwing inflicted yet more damage upon the Shadowsword.  Trusting his men to breakthrough as well Sammael followed the aircraft out of the combat zone, knowing that this fight was meaningless and all that mattered was what lay beyond this point of the front line; a lead to the location of one of the Fallen.

 

Despite the Ravenwing elements breaching this sector, the Death Korps was determined to ensure no further enemy would penetrate their lines.  True to their intent, the remaining bikers were blasted apart by the nonstop rain of artillery and crushed beneath the massive treads of the Wrath of Martyrs.  Exposing the side armor to the Shadowsword was the mistake that finally saw the mighty Lord Illpalazzo laid low.  The anti-titan weapon obliterated the badly damaged armor of the other super heavy tank, tearing through the meters thick armor before causing the entire tank to detonate in a spectacular explosion that slew numerous Death Korps nearby.

 

With the handful of Dark Angels who broke through the line too far to catch, Major 87 voxed his post-activity report to the generals, informing them of his failure to prevent a full breach of his sector, forwarding all available intelligence of what command could expect to face operating behind their lines.  The heavy losses inflicted upon his sector would also mean that the planned offensive would need additional reinforcement, including repairs to the blessed Wrath of Martyrs, which was still operational, but heavily damaged by the Dark Angels' actions. 

 

Meanwhile, Sammael was displeased to learn that no further Ravenwing managed to breakthrough the Krieg lines.  With such a small force and his hand played, it was unlikely that this lead would be successfully followed.  That did not mean he would not try, on the contrary, he would try harder than ever to ensure the success of his mission.  No matter the cost, the hunt for the Fallen would succeed.

 

Notes

Well the Shadowsword was fun to use and it did let me field all of my Krieg units.  Without my foe taking the Baneblade at the last minute, it would not have been worth taking in a 2,000 point game, but who cares, I get to add a bone for the Landraider kill and a skull for the Baneblade kill to the model, yay!  The game was 19 VP to 16 VP, in my favor, but it was close.  The Wrath of Martyrs ended the game with a single hull point and had it lost that to any of the many inaccurate meltaguns, I would have lost as we did a what-if it died explosion scatter, which would resulted in me losing an objective and the super heavy changing the final score at the end of turn 7 to my loss by one VP.  A fun game and while I have no pictures, here is a picture of all of my finished Krieg stuff (I have a heavy stubber Grenadier and a pair of Death Rider Commissars to paint).  Only one Cyclops, Hades (I needed the Engineers as Troops), and the Grenadier were not used.  Additionally, a Tech Priest and Reaver Princeps models that were my Techpriest Militant and Artillerist, respectively, are not shown.

 

http://s2.postimg.org/w1c3rx8vd/Krieg_01.jpg