Battle Recaps - Azure Flame

[Purifying Tempest]

Woohoo!  Got my first game in with the new Codex today!  2000 points vs Emperor's Children + Disloyal 32.  It was a fun game, but here's the lists:

 

Me: Valorous Heart

 

Sacred Rite: Aegis of the Emperor

Pre-game CP: Heroine in the Making, Open the Reliquaries x1 (13-2=11)

 

BN1:

Celestine

Canoness - Brazier of Holy Fire (upgraded to Brazier of Eternal Flame by Open the Reliquaries), Chainsword, Inferno Pistol

 

3x BSS x15 - Meltagun + Combi-Flamer, Simulacrum

 

Celestian Squad x5 - 2x Storm bolters

Hospitaller

Imagifier - Indomitable Belief (Heroine in the Making), Book of Saint Lucius, Tale of the Stoic

 

Exorcist (Exorcist Missile Launcher)

2x Retributor Squad x10 - 4 Multi-melta, 2 Armorium cherub

 

BN2:

Canoness - Boltgun, Power sword, Rod of Office, Warlord (Beacon of Faith)

Canoness - Chainsword, Inferno Pistol

 

3x BSS x10 - Meltagun, Simulacrum

 

2x Celestian Squad x5 - 2x Storm bolters

 

Fortification Network - Battle Sanctum (proxied with a bit of terrain that I could deploy that provided area cover until we find out what it does)

 

Him: Emperor's Children + Renegades and Heretics (14 - 3 pregame CP)

 

BN1:

 

Chaos Lord (special character we've agreed upon, Chaos lord with Sonic Rifle, Power Sword, and Doom Siren)

Sorcerer (Prescience, Delightful Agonies)

Daemon Prince w/ wings (Daemon malefic talons, +attacks for wounds WL trait)

 

Noise Marines with Sonic Blasters x5 - Blastmaster

Noise Marines with Sonic Blasters x10 - 2x Blastmaster

Noise Marines with Chainswords x8 - Power sword + Doom Siren Sergeant, Icon of Excess (+1 DttFE)

 

Raptors (2x Melta + Combi-melta)

 

Havocs - 4x Missile Launchers

 

Heldrake with Baleflamer

 

Rhino

 

Vanguard 1:

 

Chaos Lord - Power Sword

 

Chosen x6 - 5 Plasma gun, Combi-plasma

Sonic Dreadnought - 2x Fist + Heavy Flamer, Doom Siren

Sonic Dreadnought - 2x Blast master, Missile launcher

 

BN2: R&H

 

2x Commander with Plasma pistol

3x Militia Squad x10 - Autoguns

 

I used the new Codex, he used the Faith and Fury content, but not Chapter Approved, so he'll get a bit of a boost once FedEx figures out what they did with our local store's copies of CA19.  We played the mission Eternal War: Vital Intelligence from CA18 (objective in the middle, 4 additional halfway between the first objective and each corner for a total of 5.  Every turn you roll a d6 and the rolled objective is +1 VP, on a 6 they're all worth +1).

 

He won the roll, and picked Dawn of War.  I had to deploy and go first, and I placed my Battle Sanctum just to the right of my leftmost objective, snuggling it right between two pieces of terrain to give me a good spread of cover.  I occupy the left-middle of the board, zoning out his Raptors pretty well, forcing them away from the Exorcist in the back left corner and keeping the table in front of me.  On the far right objective I post up a 15 girl BSS with my Canoness with just a Inferno Pistol, sort of as a distraction as there was a series of walls making it REALLY hard to spot them while they could still score the objective.  Aside from those gals, my Exorcist (whoops), and 1 10 girl squad, everything was within my re-roll, -2 AP ignoring, and 4+ invulnerable auras.  I was off the line just a bit, relying on walking up on turn one to prevent a seize + Noise Marine volley that would have done substantial damage.

 

His deploy is a bit neutral.  Havocs across from my Exorcist, along with the Melee marines and melee sonic dreadnought.  The heart of the army is across from my sanctum and aura blob, but there's a fair bit of terrain cutting down LoS between us, plus the range.  Daemon Prince hits the middle with 2 renegade squads, 2 commanders, and the ranged Sonic Dreadnought.  Then the Dragon, last renegade squad, and plasma chosen hit the right corner, the infantry was out of LoS, and I honestly didn't even know the plasma guys were hiding there

 

He doesn't seize, he didn't even want to... since he was also held back a bit to weather the storm instead of deploying assertively.  I plan for the Sorcerer being annoying, as always, so switch into Aegis of the Emperor and upgrade my Brazier to the relic one just to clamp down a bit on the Psychic stuff.

 

Turn 1:  Objective in the middle of the table lights up.

 

My turn:

I get a 6 in my first 3 MD (Beacon, Sanctum, start of battle round) - my first 3 were pretty hot (6, 4, 6, but I actually was bad and totally forgot the WLT die so didn't get the third until the end of my first shooting phase).  I moved pretty conservatively, trying to delay getting into the range of the Noise Marines as long as possible since they have 0 AP, ignore cover, and get 3 shots at the 24" range.  I did get a squad Retributors up to a high spot, and mostly just huddled around the 2 objectives in my deployment zone.  My Retributors opened up with Storm of Retribution on the Sonic Dreadnought with the ranged options and ended up doing something like 27 wounds to the poor thing (should have split fired, huh?), and only spent 1 Armorium Cherub in the process.  My other Retributors were out of range entirely from the slow deployment, and the Exorcist opened up on his Rhino.  He made 3 of the 4 saves vs the Missiles, so I chucked a 6 from my MD pool to at least tier it and slow those melee marines down a bit.

 

His turn:

He's pretty far and out of LoS from a lot of the meaty parts of my army, but the Heldrake dives in on the wrong squad to try to soften them up (he had a lot of cognitive lapses here - he tried to steal the objective from them... but Boots on the Ground + Objective Secured stopped that cold).  The Missile Havocs took 5 wounds off of the Exorcist, and I lost a few of the Retributors up top in cover (he shot at them A LOT, they stone walled a TON of attacks).  He advances his chaff squad up to the middle with a second behind them, to steal the middle objective.  The rest cautiously moves around, mostly side-to-side to set up buffs and position for the next turn, and to also blunt my turn 2.  Overall, a pretty soft turn, but it is simply the calm before the storm.  He doesn't score First Strike.

 

VPs: Me 3 (2 points + First Strike), Him 4 (2 points + critical point)

 

Turn 2: Objective near my far right squad lights up.

 

My turn:

So, I have a Heldrake to deal with, I also had a healthy pile of MD with a few 4+s from Valour + start of turn.  I had Simulacrums spread across the field, so definitely was not shy with forcing some issues.  My engaged squad falls back with Judgment of the Faithful, and with all of my movement I am just barely outside of my deployment zone, still aggressively holding those Raptors out to force them down in front of me, and I am closing on the middle objective, but more just to hammer the squads off of the point.  My wound rolls were really soft, and his invulnerables for the flying turkey were pretty darn good... but it eventually went down from a bunch of stray melta shots from my BSS + one squad of Retributors with an Armorium Cherub.  I revive one of the dead Rets from the squad on top of the terrain, I think he's had enough of that squad after seeing them start to pop back up AFTER taking a pounding.  I took 6 wounds off of his melee Sonic Dreadnought, cleaned up one of the renegade squads, but overall had a tough time getting damage through this turn.  My Miracle Dice also went back to "meh".  I did use 1 to score an auto-hit on the Dreadnought + the stratagem to wound it as well, and then tossed a 5 MD at it with the Simulacrum.

 

His turn:

His movement is to continue trying to use cheap bodies to zone out the middle objective from me.  And now the Daemon Prince and Commanders are on the way for turn 3 to try to continue to hold it.  His melee marines, melee chaos lord, and the remains of the last Sonic Dreadnought make it to my left flank and pretty much crumple it.  He did lose the Rhino in overwatch after I tossed a 6 at it with the BSS's meltagun and subsequently wounded it.  He had enough of that, too, because his Chaos Lord had the relic which denied overwatch for my other BSS next to them that was buffering my characters + Celestian pile (he wanted to get into the auras, which I don't blame him for).  The Havocs finish off my Exorcist as well.  Still looking like a sizable advantage for me, but he's definitely winning the table.  His psychic phase was so bad on turn 1 it wasn't even worth mentioning... this time he gets Prescience + Delightful Agonies off, but he fails to cast Diabolic Strength due to the Brazier's -2 aura.

 

VPs: Me: 6 (Objective + Critical), Him 7 (3 Objectives)

 

Turn 3: Same objective rolls critical (my far right)

 

My turn:

I took the hit from the melee guys pretty well, but I did lose an entire squad and enough of another to send the remnants running off to morale.  But now I have another large squad + Celestians to use.  One Celestian squad got tagged by the Chaos Lord, so they had to walk away.  The Daemon Prince is pretty exposed, as long as I can eliminate the Renegade screen... and I had Retributors with sights on him.  I finally make my play for the middle objective.  I shoot down the cultists, whittle down the melee squad on my left flank a bit more.  Celestine thinks about jumping into the fray, but I reminded her that she was doing much better work being patient for the late game + keeping the 4+ invul bubble up.  My shooting is fairly subpar again, but I get the work done, landing a big BSS on the middle objective by charging the 2 Commanders near it... they failed to kill anything...  My Rets do the damage required to the DP, but he shrugged off a lot with his Invulnerable.  So I forced a 6 with one of my MD to bring him down to 2... that will have to do, for now.  The Chaos lord got vaporized by a bit of concentrated fire from Celestians and I did a little more work on the melee squad to take down their killing power.

 

His turn:

Raptor time!  There's no good target left for them, so he drops them to pressure my BSS squads covering one squad of Rets.  They plink off 1 gal on my big blob on the right, and then making a dazzling charge that ALMOST get them deep enough to tag my Rets in addition to the BSS.  The Daemon Prince absolutely annihilated the BSS in the middle.  It was a huge amount of attacks with a lot of DttFE and a 6 on the Daemon Weapon.  It was realistically in excess of 20 wound rolls.  The 15 girl squad NEARLY survived it all, but ended up losing enough to flush them.  So now he is on the middle objective, again.  His missile havocs do nothing, since they cannot overcome by "ignores AP" + cover saves.  His psychic phase is relatively good, but the Daemon Prince again fails due to cast due to the Brazier.  He finally focuses down the Retributor squad on top with a weight of fire + ignoring cover... it did cost him like 3 CP to get rid of them.  His plan here was just to stop me from climbing onto the middle objective, which he is doing very well.

 

VPs: Me 9 (1 Objective, Critical Objective), Him 10 (3 Objectives)

 

Turn 4: ALL OBJECTIVES LIGHT UP!

 

My turn:

Okay, it is time to really time to break loose and make a play for the end of the game.  And it is a great turn since everything lights up.  The Raptors and the last couple of Melee Marines have to go, but I should have been able to take them and the commanders and the Daemon Prince all down.  Or so I thought.  Judgment of the Faithful disengages a BSS from the Raptors.  But those Raptors took a TON of punishment before they went down... all 5 of them... took so much damage to bring down.  I didn't actually manage it in my shooting phase.  Celestine and 2-3 squads of Celestians and a BSS failed to kill the 3 remaining melee marines, so Celestine has to melee the issue... and that unfortunate set of circumstances left the Retributors unable to disintegrate the Daemon Prince, so they shave off a few Noise Marines from the large blob that had vaporized my first squad of Rets.  This means I am unable to make another play for the middle objective, and this just turned a bit bleak.  I could remove the mean parts of his army, but probably cannot win the scenario.

 

His turn:

Company commanders lurk towards the middle objective, the Noise Marines leave their objective to start running towards the middle objective.  Havocs move towards the objective left by the Noise Marines.  The plasma marines finally make their presence known by sneaking around a building and popping some BSS models near the middle of the table at near max range (we had been using terrain near my right side objective to stop LoS, and I was happy with this since I had the objective).  The psychic phase goes decently bad, as Prescience got denied (AFTER the big Noise Marine squad had advanced!) and the smite from the DP failed to cast due to the Brazier... this is becoming a trend.  The Daemon Prince then gets a HUGE break as he charges my Rets and I fail to wound and kill the commanders on their way in to shut down the overwatch for the DP.  The first made BARELY enough saves to get into combat... and the Daemon Prince makes SHORT work of the Retributors now that he doesn't have to face their Overwatch.  DP was also in a nice spot to score the Objective AFTER slicing and dicing my squad

 

VPs: Me 13 (2 Objectives), Him 16 (3 Objectives)

 

Turn 5: Objective on his far right of the field turns critical

 

My turn:

It is time to unleash Celestine.  And there was a slightly lower than 10 man Noise Marine squad begging to hang out with her.  The BSS on the right of my table comes out from behind the wall to gun down the Chosen who had finally come out.  My Celestians, BSS, and characters took down the DP + Commanders, with the Inferno Pistol from the Brazier Canoness taking down the DP.  I get some Celestians up on the middle point to score it.  I start whittling down the Noise Marines, but he elects to drop the Blastmasters first and kills Celestine with Music of the Apocalypse.  The poor Celestians also ate some MotA and go down to 1 Celestian as well, hugging that middle point.  Celestine stands up and dives into the remaining Noise Marines, slaughtering the remaining ones fairly effortlessly before they could get to the middle objective.  I am in strong control over the battlefield, but is it too late?

 

His turn:

Victory would be pretty assured if he could just finish that last Celestian off on the point.  His Sorcerer is now staring at Celestine, and she shuts down his psychic phase (well, that and I think the Brazier was now in range of that Sorcerer, too).  So none of his Psychic powers go off without being denied.  He does aim the last remaining Havocs down at the Celestian, who does some incredible gymnastics to survive!  He had begun to fall back towards his rear left objective to continue to collecting points, to keep the pressure on.  Failing to kill that Celestian and having his Psychic Phase turned inside out definitely gave me new life... now my game hinges on just... one... more... roll.

 

VPs: Me 17 (3 Objectives, Slay the Warlord), Him 19 (Objective, Critical Objective)

 

And the roll to go on... is a 5!

 

Turn 6: His Renegades objective goes critical

 

My turn:

Simple pile onto the middle objective, keep pushing with Celestine into the last Chaos Lord and Sorcerer sitting on an objective.  Try to throw some more bullets at those renegades who've been holding his rear right objective ALL game, but fail to do enough damage to make them run.  Celestine and a few other stray shots takes the Chaos Lord down to 3 wounds.  Celestine runs in... and (big mistake) splits her attacks.  She fails all 3 wounds on the Sorcerer, and the Chaos Lord made his invulnerable saves to stay alive at 1 wound remaining.  Oh boy.

 

His turn:

He pulls his guys out of melee to shoot Celestine down with the Havocs... but his psychic phase again got shut down with Aegis of the Emperor + Miracle Dice, and lower rolls that failed to cast.  The Havocs unleash havoc... he plays big with big missile mode to try to maximize his chances to bring her down... but his dice fail to deliver more than 1 wound.  And I tossed a 4 from my MD pool to take it across the face with a grin.  He had to move the havocs around to contest the objective, but left themselves vulnerable to her Heroic Intervention.  She kills the Havocs to ensure she is capping the objective + Line Breaker... and then the game ends.

 

VPs: Me 22 (4 Objectives + Line Breaker), Him 21 (Critical Objective)

 

Post game discussion:

 

So... it was a REALLY CLOSE game, it was all throughout.  I knew his army was going to be tough, just because he plays a volume of 0 AP shots with A LOT of ignore cover.  Also Plasma.  Also melee.  He landed like 4 additional assaults with the new EC stratagem to auto-roll a 6 on a charge.  That was almost enough to overcome the weight of bodies I had, and it definitely helped his shooting take down more bodies than normal.  We both played a bit conservatively, but turns 3 and 4 really heated the game up, where you could see the haymakers being thrown by both armies.  Still, the AP ignoring + Invulnerable saves + FNP made itself felt.  The Havocs were silenced after the Exorcist went down, they weren't able to muster anything else, even with their frag missiles.  I was totally railed by melee, but he has squads set up to do that... so that was no surprise, but I had the tools to slow it down and protect the valuable assets on the table, even though it was a fairly costly endeavor.  It was definitely a tale on a single roll (do we get turn 6?), which while is trademark of a good game... is kind of worrisome that I could have just as easily been on the losing side on turn 5.  So the army was at least played a little slow.

 

He loved the Retributors.  They made A LOT of noise on turn 1, and promptly backed it up by soaking a TON of punishment.  I had gotten the squad back up to 8 before he leveled it with a ton of guns + CP, and then just barely took them down.  The Miracle Dice system was noticeable, and both of us enjoyed it.  Especially the thematic clutch save against the Missile Launcher to possibly win the game without leaving it to chance.  He mentioned that it felt like a much improved mechanic over previous editions of Acts of Faith, and I tend to agree.

 

So, there was an issue with my list that made me frown... a 3rd Celestian squad managed to sneak in, and I only planned on having 2, but mistakenly paid for 3.  They were more-or-less useless, I even missed Blessed Bolts on a turn they were set up to use it nicely (melee Noise Marines in cover...).  He had no snipers, so a bit of salt in that wound.  I also should have split the fire on my Retributors on turn 1, 5 melta shots absolutely obliterated that dreadnought, but it normally plays as a very annoying backline artillery piece than can burst up its output pretty nicely with Fire Frenzy.  So I was glad it was done.  I should have also played out a Brigade instead of 2x Battalions, I could have probably worked in 2 Seraphim + 1 Dominion squads.

 

I did play Aegis of the Emperor, specifically to disrupt his psychic phase, which I did really well, though it took 4 turns to really start seeing the returns from it.  Definitely helped button up the game at the end.  The Brazier of Eternal Flame definitely made its presence known, as well, as it flat out caused no less than 2 powers to outright fail (I think it was 3).  It is especially nice because you can elect to upgrade it after you know if you need it or not, because the Book of Saint Lucius will likely be your first relic... or the Litanies of Faith... which I forgot to bring... so another thing I need to fix

 

Overall, a good game, filled with a few mistakes on both sides, but still a well played and hard game.  He was still impressed on how much mileage those T3 sisters could get out of their power armor with the Valorous Heart anvil.

 

Thanks if you made it down here, and I hope you enjoyed it!

 

Edit: Changed thread title to something a bit less specific so I can add future reports as well.  Sorry if I cause any confusion.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Purifying Tempest

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Congratulations on your victory! May many more follow.

[Purifying Tempest]

Game 2: Valorous Heart vs Deathskulls (1500)

 

Scenario:

 

The Order of the Azure Flame, an off-shoot order of the Valorous Heart (apparently, now), has taken up position defending a shrine attached to a small outpost.  The shrine is built alongside a lake, which is considered consecrated ground.  Outside of the outpost the terrain is overgrown, providing many ambush paths.  The table is split into essentially two halves, the defenders are the Azure Flame, huddled in a small grouping of buildings and walls that creates two natural choke points along either side of a large cathedral.  Immediately behind the cathedral is a large lake feature that further serves to carve out two accessible paths into the outpost.  The rest of the battlefield is scattered with overgrown brush and foliage that provides cover across the entire area.  We are playing longways (short sides are deployment zones).  Both forces get to deploy in a wedge from the corners of their deployment zones out to a tip about 27" from the rear edge of their deployment zone.  The defender has 3 objectives placed a few inches from the rear of their deployment zone, the winner is the player who holds the most of the objectives (no secondaries).

 

Lists:

 

Azure Flame (Brigade):

Canoness with Rod of Office (Warlord with Beacon of Faith trait, and the Litanies of Faith)

Celestine (I wish she was a generic saint... such a miss here, I hate being forced to take named characters that have so much lore tied up in them)

Canoness with Brazier of Holy Flame and an Inferno Pistol (Brazier got upgraded to the Eternal Flame, Weird Boyz sighted!)

 

6x Battle Sister Squads, 5 Battle sisters w/o upgrades, the orks landed without notice!

2x Seraphim Squads, 5 Seraphim w/2 pairs of inferno pistols and a plasma pistol each, but they were out on maneuvers and will arrive later (deep strike)

Dominion Squad with 5 Dominions w/4x Storm bolters

Imagifier w/Tale of the Stoic (Heroine in Training with Indomitable belief, also has the Book of Saint Lucius)

Hospitaller

Celestian Squad with 2x Storm bolters

Retributor Squad with Armorium Cherubs, Combi-melta, and 4x Heavy Flamers

Retributor Squad with Armorium Cherubs, Simulacrum, and 4x Multi-meltas

Exorcist

Immolator with Immolation Flamer

 

Deathskullz (BN+Vanguard):

Warboss

Warboss on trike

Weird Boy (Da Jump + Warpath)

Weird Boy ('Eadbanger)

2x Boyz with 30 Boyz

Gretchen squad with 10 Gretchen

2x Painboy

Tank busta squad, think there was 4 in it?

Burna boyz, 5 in this I believe

2x Nob Squads with Big Choppas... I'm bad with ork toyz!

Nob with Waaagh! Banner

Battle Wagon

 

Deployment:

 

The sisters are mustering to the alarm, exiting their fortifications to take up defensive positions as the orks streak towards their positions with reckless abandon.  They begin forming layers of lines, protecting not only the precious relics they guard, but also the cathedral itself.  The exoricist takes up position on the left flank, the immolator stocked with the heavy flamer retributors on the right.  Most of the sisters cluster along the left side to support that entry, since the literal firepower on the right should be able to hold at first, especially with a supporting line of sisters protecting the gate.  The retributors with their multi-meltas entrench on the top of the command building, offering them overwatch over the outpost, and a bit of additional sight down the ingress paths to their walls.

 

The Deathskulls fan out a bit, positioning to attack right up the middle to choose either flank they choose.  Many of their elite foot troops are embarked on the battle wagon, but the Weird Boy with Da Jump is a clever one, and not one for riding around in dinky wagons, he's 'anging out at the rear of the field with his 30 closest friends!  The deployment doesn't matter much because... 

 

Turn 1:

The defender goes first in the scenario.  The battle erupts as the Exorcist rains its devastating refrain (get it?! lol) upon the Battle Wagon, destroying it quite easily.  The elite cadre of Orks spill out, with a couple of burnas getting trampled by the Nobs as they existed the wreckage.  The remaining sisters continue to set up positions, brave sisters setting up to receive the green tide to keep the disgusting green skins from setting foot within their walls.  There was little in range and even less in line of sight, the Exorcist had to move to even get what visual contact it was able to muster (Blind Faith paired with Devastating Refrain helped here to make sure that Wagon wasn't able to get that hit squad closer, killed it by 1 wound).

 

Deathskulls go next, and their strategy is obvious.  Sustained Assault rules are in play, and Boyz are troops, so they're coming back on 2+ at the end of the movement phase.  The Weird Boy would greet them with Warpath + Da Jump.  The rest of the army positions to bring the fight to my right flank while the rear 30 boyz get jumped up to the left gate, landing their charge and obliterating all but one of the battle sisters setting up watch there before they could do anything.  They begin to spill into the kill box that leads into the left side of the outpost.  The battle wagon comes back, of course it does!  Me and this battle wagon go way back... and we've had a rocky history.  He sets up to pick up his elites and get them back in on turn 2.  The Warboss on trike accidentally gets blocked in by the other 30 boyz and has to take an inconvenient path around them, which puts him back just a little (which was a good thing because he would have gotten scorched by the Rets if he strayed too close).

 

Turn 2:

The initial assault was blunted by a strong use of the terrain and a single, brave sister who survived the initial onslaught.  She does fall back as Dominions, Celestians, Battle Sisters, and HQs all rally to put down the green skins that entered the kill box, killing 29 of them (the last fled in morale).  The single survivor, who managed to pull her grievously injured sisters from the maws of the choppas, seeks the attendance of the hospitaller who sets at getting the injured sisters back on their feet.  The sisters have repelled the initial assault, but the orks have never stopped after simply one push.  Again, a lot of shooting was lost to line of sight and distance, but all things considered... it was a good start.  A point was made that the sisters in the cathedral wound be staying put... there would be no funny business involving orks magically appearing within the walls of one of their sacred sites (it also would have been a strong teleportation point that could have caused quite a bit of havoc).

 

The Weird Boy at the back of the field laughs as he weaves his second set volley of powers upon the other boyz, sending them down the left flank again.  The elite cadre embarks on the second battle wagon as another load of boyz crawls back into the battle from the rear.  This turn was predicated on the second volley of boyz hitting the other flank, but they missed the 9" charge, even with 'Ere We Go!  Which helped a ton.  The Boss on the Trike streaks for the left side of my position, followed by the Burnas and Tank Bustas. presumably to engage the larger battle sister presence and the Exorcist.  No successful assaults happen this turn, but it is merely the calm before the storm.

 

I did realize partially through my shooting phase that I forgot to drop my Seraphim... which nearly turned out to be a fatal oversight.  I had 2 Seraphim squads for turn 2 and 3 Deadly Descents, and that Weird Boy was WIDE OPEN to gib.  Ugh, well, let's see how bad this turns out.  My opponent also realized the near-miss, after I told him, and covers the Weird Boy a lot better with the returning Boyz squad.

 

Turn 3:

The flamer rets pop out of the Immolator, and together with the Immolator (and Holy Trinity + Storm of Retribution, and their Armorium Cherubs), they put down the squad of Boyz (through morale again, but he was happy to let them run because of Sustained Assault).  The Seraphim FINALLY arrive, one squad landing to the side of the Boss on Trike, another squad dropping near some gretchen muddling around in the rear... hopefully he diverts some attention their way to slow this down a little.  The Tank bustas and Burnas are all wiped out, leaving only the Pain Boy staring at Seraphim.  By now the battle sisters have set up defensive lines at the designated choke points, blocking off access to the interior of my base and forcing the orks into them, and HOPEFULLY only them.  The Hospitaller continues tending to the nearly-fallen squadron of battle sisters.

 

The Weird Boy was obviously frustrated this turn, as he kaboomed his own head, but not before sending another 30 Boy squad up the table at me, again on the left.  He brings the Battle Wagon up to the right flank, charging it into the awaiting line of battle sisters... who weather the death rollas, only the Superior making it away, but she stood her ground and prevented it from piling right into the heavy flamer rets.  The Seraphim, Battle Sisters, and even Celestine had strayed too close to the line on the left flank, and were all swarmed by a line of ork boyz who jumped out from nowhere.  This was the first time he was able to step past the choke point by piling into Celestine, and nearly fell her with a volley of axes.  He had nearly crumpled the left flank in this attack alone.

 

Turn 4:

The Celestians protecting the critical objectives move up to lend their aide to the pushing back the boyz, while trying to maintain control over the back line to prevent more Boyz from spilling into their ranks from the rear.  The Boyz had the support of a Pain Boy, this time, making it a lot harder to push them back, and the loss of firepower also made things a lot more difficult on the left side.  The sisters have finally shown the first signs of getting pushed back, but if the game ends soon... it would have been enough.  The Retributors on the roof finally hit a worthy target as they peel back the hull of the second Battle Wagon, spilling out the Nobs, Warboss, Painboy, and second Weird Boy.  The Immolator and Heavy Flamer Rets go to work, killing off a squad of the Nobs. Celestine ends the Pain Boy, staring down the Boyz standing around the corpse.  The lone surviving Superior disengages the battle, hustling towards the rear of the battlefield to relieve a stronger squad of battle sisters from objective duty.

 

Another Weird Boy... conveniently armed with Da Jump and Warpath emerges, along a good portion of the reserves he had due to Sustained Assault.  The Warboss on Trike and Burnas use the Seraphim harassing the Gretchen to pull themselves up the field a bit, taking out all but 1 of the Seraphim in the process.  More Boyz jump forward, this time probing the right flank, and nearly getting in.  About 10 teleported on the inside of the wall, while the rest piled up on the outside of the wall.  The Warboss and Nobs attempt to crawl OVER the fortified wall instead of facing the Retributors and Immolator.  The Warboss and Nobs succeeds in destroying the squad of battle sisters that was attempting to join the fight from the rear, the Boyz took a large bit of punishment as they ran into the flames of the immolator and rets, but the Nobs managed to take a chunk out of the Retributors.  The Boyz on the left bypass Celestine in order to clear away the battle sisters still sealing off the left flank.  The losses are finally starting to show, as any defense left at the gates are token at best.  The Weird Boy with 'Eadbanger did have his spell straight fizzle off of the Canoness with the Brazier (strictly due to the -2 to the test from said Canoness), who would have been his target had it cast.

 

Turn 5:

The Rets got knocked out of melee, thankfully, and fall back towards the Hospitaller for support.  The Immolator got tagged by the Nobs, and had to fall back as a result, but used Judgment of the Faithful to remain in the fight.  The Canoness with the Brazier moved towards the right flank to support them with her Inferno pistol.  The entirety of the right flank except for the pain boy, weird boy, and the remainders of the boyz split by the wall fall to volley after volley from both Retributors, the Canoness, and the Immolator... the Warboss nearly survived it all with 1 wound, but small arms finished him off.  The Exorcist has now had to fall back a bit, exposing the left flank enough for a small incursion, but not a enough for an large mob of boyz.  Celestine jumps into the melee to help finish cleaning up the left flank, the Sisters have thrown everything they had at holding off the tide of Orks... Emperor willing, relief will come and assist them in finishing off this Waaagh!  The Dominions fall into a defensive line ahead of their Imagifier and Canoness, the battle sisters finally exhausted from weathering wave after wave of orkish assault.  The lone Seraphim fighting the Warboss on Trike and Burnas fired her inferno pistols harmlessly into the boss before she is clubbed down from behind.

 

The Weird Boy readies the killing blow, sending another block of Boyz up to the left side, and the Warboss on Trike arriving right alongside them.  A squad of Boyz was still caught on either side of the wall, forcing them into the waiting flames of the Retributors and the Immolator.  The Weird boy up ahead also tries to 'Eadbanger the Canoness with the Brazier, again, only to have his spell fizzle AGAIN due to the presence of the Eternal Flame.  Things start to look grim, though, as the last couple of battle sisters and Dominions are engulfed by a tide of Boyz.  Celestine is finally dropped by the Warboss on Trike, but miraculously stands up to continue the fight.  By now, there are Orks within the confines of the outpost on both sides... but if help arrives from the Imperium the Sisters of the Azure Flame would have won the day.

 

Turn 6:

No help arrives. The Azure Flame must fight on.  The Weird Boy and Boyz meet their end to the cleansing flames of the Azure Flame, with the Weird Boy taking the last round from the Canoness', with the Brazier, inferno pistol.  The Warboss is being blocked off by the wall of Boyz that have engulfed the Dominions who stood to halt their advance.  Celestine makes it her mission to deliver her battle sisters from the clutches of the green skins while the battle sisters protecting the Sanctuary finally sprint from their holy ground to form a wall to stop the advance of the Warboss on his Trike.  The Exorcist has no target, so it smashes itself into the horde of Boyz, using itself to shield the Imagifier and the heart of the outpost from the Deathskulls.  The Celestians faithfully guard two of the objectives in the rear, watching the carnage unfolding before them, but under strict orders to make sure to keep those objectives safe with their lives.

 

The Orks have thrown everything they could at the Azure Flame, and victory could be sensed.  The Weird Boy jumps his newly emerged Warboss into the rear of the humies' lines, exploiting a small opening in their defenses.  Pressure continues to push up on the right side, but the Immolator was now using itself to wall of entry while the Retributors guarded for any incursion behind the wall.  The crux of the battle would be on the left side, however, as the Warboss on his Trike smashed into the last line of battle sisters, but miraculously killed none of the valiant ladies... taking the full fury of his WAAAAGH! without a scratch.  His Boyz were also routed by the heroics of the Exorcist and Celestine, only a few remaining, but the living saint freeing herself from the horde (swung herself out of combat).  The Warboss in the rear charged the Celestians, attempting to knock them aside with his battering assault, but only managing to drop 3 of them under his assault.  Now... if only the God Emperor would deliver the sisters from this fate before the tide swallowed them.

 

Turn 7:

Alas, salvation was not to be had.  The Azure Flame would have to suffer much like their patron Saint: Lucia.  Celestine spots the crack in the defense and leaps to the aide of the Celestians and engaging the Warboss in one-on-one combat.  The unbloodied sisters withdrew from the Trike, allowing the Retributors tasked with overwatch to destroy it.  The right flank was buttoned up tight, but the left was in danger.  Valiant Celestians fell back to the middle objective, faithfully standing over it vigilantly as Celestine wiped out the Warboss, but the saint was too far from the objective to hold it, leaving a slim glimmer of hopes for the Weird Boy to capture...

 

The Weird Boy captured the opportunity, vaulting his returned Nobs to the forefront of the action to secure victory for the Waaagh!

 

Measurements came out, and Celestine was blocking BARELY enough territory to push the Nobs out enough to prevent them from stringing into the Celestians and wiping them out (less than a quarter of an inch!) to force the assured tied and possible win.  With the lone Sister Superior and the Celestians holding two of the three points, he conceded.  What a tight game, it was a narrative dream, to.  The "Valorous Heart" weathering such withering assaults, and the Ork hordes getting the Sustained Assault rule with Da Jump to simulate a REAL green tide.

 

I liked the Brigade setup a lot more.  Seraphim, however, let me down.  I chose Aegis of the Emperor again as my Sacred Rite, but the Brazier shut down the Weird Boy that came into their range, so effectively got 0 use out of it.  The Retributors, both squads, were simply punishing.  Both missed turns due to the scenario and setup, but both shined bright when called upon.  I had too many Miracle Dice, ended up scrapping about 6 at the end of the game, but the scenario made it difficult to sneak them in.  About half of the ones I did use were for timely saves (to save Celestine from dying in a shooting phase and forcing an assault on her).  Mostly everything was made to just be a giant tar pit to stymie his ability to advance into the outpost.

 

It was a very thematic battle that went back and forth and was very hard fought by both sides.  The only ending that wasn't in doubt was on turn 5, had the game ended then... as he had just begun to beat my forces back away from their defensive positions.  Still really loving Valorous Heart with the super Imagifier, though both games now had me wishing I had spent the CP on Tale of the Warrior in addition to Stoic to get that +1 STR aura.

 

On to the next game! :)  2-0 so far for the Azure Flame.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Congratulations on another victory!

[Purifying Tempest]

Alright!  A week off for the holidays, but this weekend we were back at it again!  My friend just got the base of his Space Marine army together and wanted to play it.  After obliterating my wife's drukhari so hard he removed the Executioner after 2 turns and played out the rest of the game without it... and comfortably won, he wanted a piece of my Valorous Heart!  Mostly he wanted it to get brought back down to earth and figure out if Space Marines were really the boogeymen that everyone said they were (we, oddly, do not have many Astartes roaming around our playgroup).  His collection was still fairly small, so we played about 1150 points, and he was playing a generic successor chapter with extra range and re-roll 1s on bolt weapons.

 

His forces (single BN):

Captain

Lieutenant

2 squads of 5 Infiltrators

2 squads of 5 Intercessors

1 squad of 3 Eliminators with sniper rifles (sad faces :( )

1 squad of 3 Suppressors

1 Repulsor Executioner

 

He also calls in an Inquisitor in Terminator armor (to keep an eye on these shifty primaris, keep them doing to good work of the Emperor!)

 

My forces (single BN):

Celestine

Canoness with Rod of Office (Beacon of Faith, Litanies of Faith)

3 squads of 5 Battle Sisters with a meltagun in each

Max squad of Seraphim with a plasma pistol and 2 pairs of Inferno Pistols

Max squad of Retributors with 4 multi-meltas, Simulacrum, 2 Armorium Cherubs

A squad of 6 Retributors with 4 heavy-flamers, Simulacrum, combi-melta, and 2 Armorium Cherubs

Immolator with the Immolation Flamer

5 Celestians with 2 Storm bolters

Imagifier with Tale of the Stoic (Indomitable Belief and Book of St. Lucius)

Hospitaller

 

Pre-battle:

 

We're playing Maelstrom of War, one of the new CA missions where the loser can conceal all of his in-play objectives.  I win the roll to go first and decide to be the attacker, I needed to get initiative on that Repulsor and the Eliminators.  He puts us long ways on the table to give himself as much space as possible between our armies.  I deploy the Retributors with multi-meltas close to the center and the front of my deployment zone, so they can threaten as much space as possible with Storm of Retribution.  Everything else falls in place around them, a majority of it in area terrain, with the exception of the Immolator packing the other Retributors on a flank and a battle sister squad on each flank as well, holding objectives.  The Seraphim are deployed high in the skies, awaiting a moment to strike.

 

He deploys his Eliminators a bit forward to threaten my characters and force me to cower behind a terrain feature instead of freely moving out.  The Repulsor takes the back line, effectively shielding it from any sort of alpha strike from my Retributors.  Intercessors flank out for objectives, and the Infiltrators deploy up a bit to hold some terrain and make it really difficult for my Seraphim to get a decent landing spot.  The Inquisitor is off tending to other matters and will be along shortly.  We're both hunkered down for a long game.  I did choose Aegis of the Emperor for my Sacred Rite... I didn't want to fiddle with another one since Aegis is the only one I knew off the top of my head and he was playing with a psyker who had a sniper-version of Smite power.

 

Turn 1:

 

The Primaris do not seek to capitalize on their positions and instead let the Sororitas come to them.  The Sororitas have suspicion that this successor chapter may be of heretical gene-seed, and are seeking to remove the traitorous genes from the ranks of the Imperium.  He does not attempt to seize the initiative.  The Azure Flame is first to act.

 

My turn:

 

There's not much available to get into on turn one.  The Azure Flame has to be very careful with expert snipers lurking around on the battlefield.  Their forces spot the enemy snipers in waiting, taking a bit of a step back and allowing the Retributors to handle the problem.  The Living Saint accompanying them refuses to yield ground, though, and darts off towards a squad of Infiltrators hiding atop a ridge.

 

There wasn't much going on during this turn, overall.  A little incidental fire towards the Infiltrators.  Celestine approached one of the squads, and got within flamer + assault range.  The Eliminators were the prize for the turn, however.  I ceded some ground to prevent the Repulsor from drifting up and leveling the Retributors with all of its weaponry, and used Storm of Retribution to drop the Eliminators.  Celestine didn't do much to the Infiltrators with her flamer, but managed to kill off 4 of them with her assault, leaving a single one alive.  The Immolator moved up towards the other squad of Infiltrators and put some fire on them, but the cover + some hot rolls kept them relatively safe... I think a single wound got through to the Infiltrators, if anything.

 

I scored Trust in the Emperor and First Strike for 2 points, was sitting on a Defend Objective X card which was hidden from my opponent: 2-0

 

His turn:

 

The Sororitas refused to expose their position.  Even though they were clearly holding back, the Sisters of Battle still put a tactical hole in the primaris forces: their snipers were routed by a gout of long-range melta fire.  The Saint was vulnerable, however, having charged up recklessly to engage some entrenched Infiltrators.  Their superior range and tactics should still be sufficient to survive the onslaught.  The Repulsor moved up to bring all of its weaponry to bear against the Saint, easily dropping her in a storm of plasma fire.  Once the dust cleared, however, the Saint remained, unbloodied by the volley.

 

We're still feeling each other out at this phase.  I had planned on distracting as much firepower from his lines with Celestine as possible, knowing that the Primaris army couldn't finish her second life off in melee, especially with a single Infiltrator who had just fallen back.  She attracted most of the fire from the Executioner, mostly due to range, which was just perfect for me, better than those plasma shots going into my Retributors.  There was a lot of incidental fire around the battlefield, I think I lost a wound or two from the Immolator, a battle sister from one of the squads camping objectives in the back... but overall, it wasn't a bad turn.  Aside from the Repulsor, there wasn't much movement on his part.

 

He did score 2 Victory Points, though.  I finished scoring my hidden Defend objective.  4-2 Azure Flame

 

Turn 2:

 

The Primaris had countered the initial strike, or so they thought.  The Saint remained, their lines were relatively unscathed, now it was time to finish the job.  The Retributors rushed out of their Immolator, both Sisters and Immolator bathing a squad of Infiltrators with their heavy flamers.  The Primaris proved to be resilient foes, however, and refused to go down.  The Saint saw her sisters approaching the edge of the treeline and knew they would soon be vulnerable to the deadly weaponry of the heretics, so she rejoined her sisters to lend what aid she could to protect the Sororitas.

 

A bit of measuring showed that even with movement and Storm of Retribution, the Multi-meltas would still be short of the Repulsor.  I could keep most of my line in cover for this turn and still move up a bit, but I would have to eventually come out of my safety and brave the open.  Most of my units moved forward, with a lone battle sister squad near the character pile diverting towards an abandoned objective by one of the advancing battle sister squads.  The Seraphim remained in deep strike, and the Heavy Flamer rets did little to dislodge the other squad of Infiltrators.  A large portion of my army was still out of range, and I only had 2 CP left and had to make a tough decision between Storm of Retribution and Deadly Descent.  I held onto it all.  Celestine advanced back behind my wall of Sisters.  The meltagun and Retributors did put a dent in the 5-man Infiltrator squad, and some throw-away miracle dice (forced some 3s and 4s this turn to simply perform them A Leap of Faith).  I ended up using them on Celestines Advance, the meltagun wound roll, and a multi-melta damage roll.  The Retributors with heavy flamers ended up assaulting the Infiltrators, at least tying the remaining ones up.

 

I scored A Leap of Faith for 3 VP and Secure Objective X for 1.  He finished scoring a Defend objective card.  8-4 Azure Flame

 

His turn:

 

The Marines decide it is the right time to take the fight to the Sisters, to weaken their lines before they can push their advantage and overwhelm the Primaris forces.  An Immolator has presented itself as a threat.  The Suppressors failed to put a significant dent in the Immolator, again, so the Executioner gets word to spread its fire between the Immolator and the Retributors with the multi-meltas.  The Immolator goes down in a heap, and a few Retributors fall as well, but the threat remains.  Little else seems to be able to dent the Sororitas, though, no matter how much punishment is pushed onto them.

 

He switches into tactical doctrine this turn.  The Immolator manages to live through the Suppressors, but the Executioner sees it to its end.  After the Infiltrators retreated, the Retributors with heavy flamers are cut down by half from his superior ranged guns and being outside of the ignore -2 AP bubble, but they manage to stand their ground well enough.  The Executioner had to continue its slow grind forward to bring its weaponry to bear, it has just now made it up towards the front of his deployment zone.  A few guys move around, as well, to make sure bubbles and auras are properly applied, but overall... he's still fairly stationary.

 

He scored 3 points, I believe, mostly due to Area Denial and a gaping void in the middle of the table of ANY models.  It was 8-7, still in favor of Azure Flame

 

Turn 3:

 

Now was the time.  They had spent the whole battle carefully placing their forces and taking the ground the Space Marines allowed them to, but now the Retributors had the green light from the Canoness to slag the floating behemoth.  One concentrated blast later, the Repulsor explodes, sending shrapnel spinning into the Captain and his Intercessors.  A choir of hymnals blares out after as the Seraphim descended, signalling the advance of the Sororitas as they boldly stepped out into the open to challenge the marines.

 

The entire line moved forward, out of my deployment zone with all but 3 units, and most importantly out of cover.  The game was close, but with Storm of Retribution finally able to tag the Executioner, I could blow it wide open... with a little luck, and a lot of faith.  The Seraphim really had no good position to take when they came down, so I lined them up with my battle sisters and Celestians to make a strong wall between his guns and my characters.  The Retributors fire at the Executioner, with both Armorium Cherubs, and 3 shots pierce the hull!  I used a Miracle Dice for the phase to do 6+1 damage, I trigger the Simulacrum for another 6+1, and the last damage roll was a 1+1, but all together it did JUST enough to shatter the Repulsor, which blew up for 1 damage to the Captain and Intercessor squad.  The remaining 3 Heavy Flamers stepped back down from the ridge and opened up on the Infiltrators still up there, taking the squad down to a single model at most.

 

I scored Hold the Line for 1 and Area Denial for 3.  The score is now Azure Flame 12, Primaris 7.

 

His turn:

 

The Inquisitor had seen enough.  He teleported into the middle of the fray and demanded an immediate cease fire between the forces.  These Primaris had proven themselves trustworthy, at least to the Inquisitor.  The sisters were not convinced, but as the Primaris stood down under order from the Inquisitor, so did the Sororitas.

 

His Inquisitor had a few options to drop down, but he honestly wanted to try to sneak in a victory by points with the Inquisitor sniping away a big chunk in one swing.  We decided to call the game from a narrative perspective, especially with the Inquisitor dropping down practically in the middle of the battlefield.  It felt like he would be coming down in order to call a cease fire and set the record straight on who was, or, more importantly was not, attempting to defect to the traitor legions.  My opponent also knew he couldn't do enough damage to my remaining forces to win anything meaningfully.  We played out the rest of the game for funsies, though, and his Inquisitor tried to Castigate my Imagifier, which ended up getting denied due to Shield of Faith + Aegis of the Emperor, scoring me the Armor of Contempt objective.  Most of his army was sitting on -2 AP from tactical doctrine, and my sisters were now in the open, so I finally started suffering casualties... but it wasn't very many due to still having a 3+ armor against all of the shooting.  The Hospitaller had been busy standing casualties back up from the shooting, and this was really just icing on the cake, since he couldn't do meaningful damage to any of my units and ablative bodies were being revived by the combat medic.

 

He didn't do much scoring this turn, mostly due to the failure of the Inquisitor to score a bunch of his objectives (like secure an objective + steal an objective + do a wound to a character by another character).  I did score Armor of Contempt, though, and the score moved to 13-7.

 

Turn 4:

 

No narrative.

 

The Inquisitor was standing right in front of my forces, so I continued the march forward.  I wanted to get to the objective in the middle of the table, closer to his deployment line.  The Seraphim moved a bit ahead, just on the front of my line, but still in range of all of the buffs, and Celestine jumped over the line to join them.  I cleaned up the last remaining Infiltrators that had refused to die, and of course the Inquisitor.  Mostly everything else was still skirting my range or was simply too tough to go down to boltgun rounds.  The game started going a bit sideways in scoring, too, because I scored Supremacy for another 3 points (I had rolled a 3 for all 3 of my d3 victory point cards :( ).

 

His turn:

 

He decided to start meeting me near the final objective, moving up to prepare for an assault onto it on the next turn.  He's still working on the Heavy Flamer rets, bringing them down to a single model, and still trying to crack the multi-melta retributors, but the ignoring -2 AP is just incredibly tough to crack.  He takes away all of the ablative bodies, but it was pretty much too late at this point, especially with the Hospitaller popping up one on each of my turns.  He does score a Secure Objective card, and I think he began scoring a Defend one.

 

16 - 8 Azure Flame.

 

Turn 5:

 

I dropped down Defend Objective X (the one right between our forces) and have Kingslayer as well.  My final card played was to secure an objective in my deployment zone.  I shuffled around, got Celestine and the Seraphim up to the Objective in the middle, so they can start the Defending process with numbers.  The turn goes by quickly as I was unable to do much of anything against his guys, who were still in cover, and fairly far from my Retributors who were just now getting into position to shoot down his deeper targets.  Hospitaller does Hospitaller things, but I am content to just score objectives and pass, he scores his Defend Objective card.

 

I scored Secure Objective X, 17-10 Azure Flame.

 

He pummels the Seraphim down, they're in the open, even though they're still in aura range.  He uses some stratagems to auto-hit and double his rapid fire guns.  The Captain and Intercessors charge into the remains of the Seraphim, forcing Celestine to go for the Captain and lose the Objective or go for the Intercessors and leave the Captain.  I opt to go for the Captain since I had Kingslayer played.  The remaining Seraphim go down, and Celestine takes the Captain down to 1.  He scored the card to Secure the objective, and something else, I do know his final score was 12.

 

17-12 Azure Flame.

 

Turn 6:

 

We technically go to turn 6, but it was just clean up.  Celestine jumps out and flamers the Captain's last wound, scoring me Kingslayer... for... 3 points plus Slay the Warlord and No Prisoners.  Retributors finally off the Suppressors that had been plinking on them ALL game.  He's only got a few Intercessors left coming from the other side of the fight... as his Lieutenant also met a gruesome end to the firing line of boltguns and meltas.

 

22-12 Azure Flame (final).

 

He tried to shoot and assault the rets who were now wrapped around the Objective with Celestine ready to intervene.  A last ditch to score some points.  He doesn't manage to get close enough to the point to deny my defending it this turn with his Objective Secured, again.  We both take a moment to laugh because overall, the game went exactly as we had envisioned it.  And it made my wife feel a lot better about the thrashing she had just gotten, and a lot more excited to welcome them onto the table as a faction in our next campaign (she built a really weak army for dealing with a Repulsor, and at the low points they played... the weakness was just glaring)!

 

The score looked lopsided, but the game was still really close throughout, and even closer if we had normalized those d3 rolls for victory points.  That and a botched turn by his Inquisitor shorting him something like 5 points was really all of the difference, even though my table presence was staggering.  It was a hard and tactical game, and overly enjoyable!  And it was against the boogeymen, too, so that's something, I guess!

 

Take it easy everyone :)