Deathwatch and Celestine versus Death Guard Formation

[Brother Sefiel]

This battle continues the narrative started in the following thread:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/330479-celestine-and-friends/

 

and continued here:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/333112-eldar-and-ultramarines-v-deathwatch-and-white-scars/

 

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Homecoming

 

She sensed it as soon as they were thrown roughly from the warp. This was a world she knew, she had left years ago. The memories – they had led to her salvation, made her what she now was – but they still hurt. Flashbacks of terror, evil and sacrifice. And now she was here again. She prayed that fate had not brought her back to cruelly betray her, but deep down she knew that she must be here for a reason, and that was the filth of chaos, resurgent where it had once been defeated. She choked back a sob, and sped towards the sensorium. Of course she was right, bitterly so. Several senior officers turned to her as she stormed into the chamber, briefly distracted from the lecture about the world. Her world. Taarakia.

The holos showed an arid planet, with industrial production facilities isolated in desert regions, and a once-great city reduced to rubble by the previous assault. There were still small settlements, but they were far apart, mainly serving mines, refineries and similar installations. The old starport had been crippled by the tide of evil that had overtaken so many of the people, turned them against the Emperor’s light. She dared not enquire about the shrine she had once guarded, back before she had taken the saintly name Faith. She attempted to compose herself, but simply could not. She spat out her words and then turned on her heel to head to the launch bays, shaking visibly.

“I will lead the main attack. Wherever it is, whatever must be done.”
 

+++++

 

Tonight was my chance to play Deathwatch with Celestine properly. We’d agreed on 1250, no restrictions, and I had previously completed my Blackstar, so that had to be part of the equation. Bearing in mind some of the advice given I planned on deploying one squad with her so she could defend my all-too expensive men of the line while they laid down the firepower necessary to scourge the foe.

I was shocked to see that the Blackstar was so expensive, though – with the upgrades a whopping 220 points. If I hadn’t been so determined to complete and use it I probably would have chosen something else, especially in 1250, but these things must be done sometimes. In order to make use of Objective Secured I decided to have it as a Dedicated Transport.

Initially I had also planned on using tricked-out veteran squads, with additional HQ in the form of a librarian, but I realised that three 5-man units (the cheapest of which would be 195 points) was asking for a quick and painful end. Instead I took a Land Raider Crusader, so that I could keep the second squad relatively safe while driving across the board (in the end each unit was a similar cost to the tank!) and a single terminator with an assault cannon to Deep Strike.

 

We were to play Eternal War, mission 1, five objectives. My opponent was to be Nurgle marines. How I despise Nurgle marines. Would the good lady be enough to save me from their astonishing resilience?

I lost the choice of side, but won the first turn. I left one squad in the Blackstar in reserve, so I wouldn’t get them stupidly killed for no good reason. The other was in cover, with Celestine and friends attached, guarding an objective on the right. The Crusader sat behind the leftmost building on my back line, defending a second. There were two in my opponent’s deployment zone, and the fifth was central.

Of course the Nurgle player Seized…

 

+++++

 

She grimaced. The repulsive stench and ugly, glowing green were the same as before. She wept as she saw sites of slaughter in years past, once cleansed, now tainted again. Could she ensure that the insidious presence be removed? She had to try.

Isobel and Sophia were ashen. They had found her broken body after she’d fought off the invaders before, in what she had thought would be her last act of defiance against the monstrous touch of the evil. By some miracle she’d been preserved. They’d carried her away to the shrine, nurtured her and restored her to health. Like her, they had hoped never to return here in anger. Now, sickeningly, they were fighting for their world against a foe once defeated.

Before them was the corpse of a city. Their force was tasked with securing a drop zone for the big landers. Without a doubt the enemy was strong here once more, and only blood and toil would retake this world. She could see two squads of plague marines, skulking in shattered shells of what were once marvels of architecture. In the centre there was a rhino APC. But the real threats, in ruins on the flanks, were hulking machine-men – more so even than her allies in the Adeptus Mechanicus, barrels of arcane weapons protruding from gaping windows and smashed walls – and their masters. The leaders wore smaller – but still huge – suits of armour. One was wreathed by mechadendrites, the other, in an ancient terminator suit, bore a huge scythe. The latter gestured, and she felt a vicious heat rising in the grip of her blade. She fought through the pain.

 

Even before she could call her allies to attack, the enemy had spotted and opened fire. Sophia fell to weaponry more suited for destroying armoured behemoths, shooting with astonishing rapidity. Luckily their own tank was undamaged by lascannon fire.

 

In moments her escort was standing again, and her heart was filled with a wave of emotion – pride, hope, anger and at least a little guilt. With a fury even she hadn’t felt in years she hurled herself towards the foe, leaving the space marines waiting in the building, ready to command the centre of the battlefield and slay any who dared approach…

 

+++++

 

Luckily no major casualties through the Seize. Land Raiders are notorious for being a 250 point loss in my first turn – instead it advanced and destroyed the Rhino. First Blood to me. Another unit of plague marines climbed out of the wreckage. The second turn began with pretty much the entire enemy force advancing and shooting Celestine; she refused to die. One of her escorts fell, however. Then she was charged by the surviving plague marines from the rhino – she failed to make much of an impression, and took a couple of wounds for her trouble. However, at the end of the combat she made her escape.
 

+++++

 

Theta Sigma air support arrived with a scream of engines. The pilot strafed the pair of obliterators on the right. One of the creatures fell to concentrated fire. Faith ran forwards, fury fuelling her. She hit the plague marines like a thunderbolt, hacking down several of the traitors she had just disengaged from in the central ruin. The Crusader fired on the rightmost squad. The bloody ruin the saint had wrought on the traitors was raising spirits among those who could see her. The enemy, resilient as it was, had shown that it had vulnerabilities…

 

+++++

 

In addition to the above-mentioned, my terminator arrived by Deep Strike in the second turn. Of course, because I hadn’t packed the right model, it turned out that he was armed with a power sword and storm bolter instead of power fist and assault cannon. Maybe that’s why he decided to mishap, and was duly placed in the naughty corner by my opponent. He started the long slog to relevance and, to be fair, he ran a sterling 6 inches in.
 

In turn 3 yet more obliterators turned up – a squad of two, just behind the Crusader. Two hits, but no major damage, very luckily. The Blackstar attracted Typhus’ psychic power, and some big guns, but it took only a single glancing hit. More plague marines headed into my half, followed by Typhus, but my terminator survived the ranged attacks thrown his way. Celestine struck down one more enemy – but lost her escort in return. She leapt away, this time towards those guarding the objective on the left of the chaos deployment zone.

 

+++++

 

The Blackstar landed and disgorged its passengers, who set to flaming the hulking mutants and their smaller brethren – to no effect. They spread out in order to engage the things in close combat – perhaps their nerve failed them, though; they didn’t make it into melee.

Meanwhile the Land Raider fired ineffectually against the advancing squad and the terminator on the right flank, doing nothing. Faith called desperately to Sophia, who was already recovering from the mortal wound dealt her by the poisonous traitor marines. They charged into combat, cutting down several more followers of the ruinous powers. After this she tried to dive swiftly away, but the traitors had grabbed Sophia. The saint could not abandon her friend – and fought ever harder to secure her release.

 

The mutants behind the Land Raider contemptuously ignored the Theta Sigma warriors before them, concentrating instead on the vehicle. A melta-blast threw one of the tracks, and they rushed towards it, hammering at it with freakish limbs. However, it endured. Two of the loyal marines were not so lucky, however, brought down by enemy guns. The remainder leapt in at the monsters. They did nothing to the creatures, the damage they inflicted almost instantly healed by obscene regenerative powers. However, thanks to their storm shield-bearing brother, none fell to the retaliatory strikes.

The foe on the right advanced further still. Again they fired on the lone terminator – again he resisted, even against the plasma that seared his armour. Now the trap was set. The team waiting in the nearby ruin took this opportunity to advance, spraying flame – again to no effect – but they coordinated their assault with their heavier-armoured brother, and succeeded in smashing down several of the mutated warriors before them. But they didn’t slay them all, and the traitor terminator was bearing down on them...

 

+++++

 

Eventually Celestine smote the last of the plague marines, and made it out of the cover, although her Gemini had fallen yet again! Injury was added to this insult by an obliterator that took her to one wound remaining – another shot at her luckily missed.

 

Typhus charged the marines on the right – every one fell to his daemon weapon. Luckily the rest of the plague marines had also been battered. The terminator failed his morale check and ran back. On the left the veterans were eventually smashed down by the obliterators, although they had managed to inflict three wounds on their foes. The single surviving mutant didn’t manage to get to an objective, however.

 

In my last turn the terminator retreated to hold the objective on the right, the Blackstar landed to hold the left objective (and also managed to get within 12” of the opposition table edge). Celestine tried to take the central objective, but was stopped by a duo of traitors (although it soon became a solo effort).

The end result was 8-3, but it was a lot closer than the numbers suggest. If it had gone another turn I’d have cleared the centre, but probably lost at least one of the other objectives, and given away Linebreaker too. I still hate the Death Guard, but I'm really happy to have succeeded against them with otherwise fragile DW, thanks to a certain trio of ladies...

Losing the first turn turned out to be quite beneficial in terms of getting objectives, and the Blackstar gained enough victory points to win on its own!

 

+++++

 

She was incinerating the corpses of the traitor marines. None of her allies had turned, although she was vigilant – the insidious infections could take some time to effect the change, especially against the superhuman defences of space marines.

A thunderous roar heralded one of the main shuttles, bearing colossal war machines of the Mechanicus. Her feelings were mixed – that these men would die for her world reminded her of the common bonds of humanity, but having to war over the same ground was wearying in the extreme.

Isobel limped over, her head bowed. “It hurts.” She seemed as uninjured as ever. A fear gripped her that the damage was spiritual. Faith took her hand in her own. “Endure. We cannot let down our guard or give in to weakness. Taarakia depends on our strength.” Her sister sighed and nodded.

If only she could believe her own words...

Edited July 27, 2017 by Brother Sefiel

[Brother Sefiel]

I'd sort of left this out of the main continuum. This narrative continues here:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/334010-assault-on-vaporator-station-xi-theta/