2024 Battle Report 02 -- Raid at Rorke's Ford

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Quick note: this is being presented as a sequel to my previous Battle Report, which can be found here.

 

The Iron Hands armored drive through Ardenner Wood completely outflanked the Davidian Line, and Throne-loyal troops poured into the breach behind the advancing Astartes.  As the Iron Hands lead the drive directly on the Capitolis Hive Cluster, Cadian troops fanned out behind them and attacked into the flanks and rear of the Traitor forces holding the Davidian defenses.  One reconnaissance overflight identified a large supply cache at the edge of the Ardenner area, and the Cadians diverted to seize it, or at the very least deny it to the Archenemy.  Upon arriving at the cache near Rorke's Ford, the Guard formation were suddenly overwhelmed by feelings of dread and confusion; a Noctilith Crown, vile corrupted fortifications of Chaos, had been  erected by the cache.  Asserting their wills, the Guard moved in to destroy the cache when, much to the surprise of the Loyalists, swarms of Traitor Astartes emerged from hiding and counter-attacked fiercely.  The stalwart Guardsmen, rushing to the attack, suddenly found themselves thrown to the defensive as Traitor armor and Chaos-infused Space Marines rushed their lines.

 

 

FORCE OMICRON

 

Master of Possession (Undivided, Warlord)

Exalted Champion (Khorne, Talisman of Burning Blood)

Sorcerer (Tzeentch, Eye of Tzeentch)

 

10x Legionaries (Tzeentch)

10x Cultist Mob (Nurgle)

 

10x Chosen (Khorne)

10x Possessed (Undivided)

5x Havocs (Nurgle)

5x Raptors (Slaanesh)

 

Land Raider (Khorne)

Rhino (Tzeentch)

2x Helbrutes (both Nurgle)

Noctilith Crown (Nurgle)

 

 

ASTRA MILITARUM

 

Cadian Command Squad

Commissar

Tank Commander in Leman Russ Vanquisher

 

4x Cadian Shock Troopers

 

3x Leman Russ Battle Tanks

3x Basilisks

Baneblade

 

 

GAME SETUP

 

We drew Hammer & Anvil, Sites of Power, and Minefields; I went with Tactical Objectives, but my opponent chose to use Fixed Objectives of Assassination and Bring it Down.  My opponent won the deployment roll and chose to Defend.  He mostly back against his board edge, content once again to stand on the defensive rather than advance and seize objectives (more on this later).  He parked his artillery on my left, screen by infantry, with more infantry and the officers in the center, and his heavy armor on my right.  I placed the Crown front & center, with my Possessed on the right, Legionaries in a Rhino with Helbrute supprt on the left, and the rest in the center to benefit from the Crown's aura.  I won the roll for first turn.

 

 

TURN 1

 

I drew Area Denial and Engage on All Front for my first turn -- not a good draw.  I advanced my Possessed out of the forest and onto the right-hand objective, taking some cover behind the shipping containers.  On the left, the Rhino moved up and disembarked the Legionaries; the Cultists (having stickied my home objective) and a Helbrute followed my Land Raider as it pushed up to the limited of the Crown's aura and nudged into scoring range of the center objective.  I was able to kill one Leman Russ and one Basilisk via shooting, as well as clearing out an entire squad of Cadians on the Guard's home objective.

 

The Cadian retort would have been worse for him, but after our last game I wanted to help my opponent learn the game and his army a bit better, and help him tactically.  We had a pretty good discussion about the importance of maneuver and objectives, and I started pointing out the use of special rules and stratagems as well as aiding his decisions in terms of target priority.  The end result was that his anti-tank fire mostly bounced off the protective aura around my Land Raider, but he killed most of the Legionaries (with Basilisks and infantry) and five of the Possessed (mostly battle cannons) -- ouch!  Score was 0-0 at the end of the round.

 

 

TURN 2

 

 

Turn two opened with a Skinshift on the Legionaries, bringing back my heavy bolter, as well as my using Insane Bravery on the same unit to avoid a battle shock test.  I scored on four objectives, with extra points on the two flank objectives for having characters on them.  My shooting left the Baneblade on 6 wounds remaining (he made four of five 5+ saves against Havoc lascannons!), wounded the Tank Commander, almost killed another Basilisk, and killed about one and half squads of Cadians.  I actually charged the Rhino into the Shock Trooper squad on the hill to get far enough over the line to score Engage on All Fronts; getting the Cultists onto the center objective scored me Area Denial.

 

The Cadian turn saw their lines actually advance a little; the remaining tanks on my right pulled into line-abreast, and the Command Squad moved up to keep its vox in range.  The Land Raider once again tanked all the enemy fire with no damage thanks mostly to Smokescreen, but the Rhino was peeled off the hilltop Cadians by the Basilisks' hunter-killer missiles.  I lost my central Helbrute, and more Possessed.  My opponent scored on his home objective and Bring It Down, ending the round on 23-8.

 

 

TURN 3

 

 

I failed my battle shocks on both the Legionaries and the Possessed, so the only objectives I held were my home and the center thanks to the Cultists -- and no extra points for Empowered.  That was disappointing to say the least.   I drew A Tempting Target (the left objective with the Legionaries) and Behind Enemy Lines.  The Helbrute moved up to hold the objective for Tempting Target, and I did lots of measuring to figure out the best place to send the Chosen. . . but in the end left them in the Land Raider.  Until I could kill the Leman Russes, they'd be exposed and I didn't want them butchered before getting into charge range of something.  I finished killing off some more infantry, while my Havocs finally put paid to the Baneblade.  The Land Raider whiffed on the Tank Commander, though that second Helbrute finished off the wounded Basilisk with its lascannons.

 

At this point, we called the game.  I had a family issue crop up, but my opponent wasn't too thrilled at his prospects -- he'd lost almost all his infantry, two thirds of his artillery, his super-heavy, and was down by 20 points.  While we packed up, I went ahead and mentally calculated out the most probably results of the next two and a half turns.  I figured I'd lose the Legionaries and Sorcerer, maybe the Cultists and/or Havocs, but I had enough forward momentum -- not to mention two squads that hadn't even hit the table yet! -- that I figured on the following results:

 

 

 

GAME SUMMARY

 

Like I mentioned earlier, there was a bunch of back and forth about tactics, fire priority, and the need to maneuver, so hopefully my opponent takes some of those lessons to heart.  He understood the points I was making, he was just very down on his dice luck and determined to play into a "Guard defend things" theme.  I, on the other hand, learned that Leman Russ battle cannons are very good against Possessed, and Prescience doesn't do much to defend against a full artillery battery.  I really wanted to sprint my Possessed into the tank line and let Devastating Wounds do its thing, but without cover and slowed by the Earthshaker rounds the best route was really to crouch behind those containers and just score points.  As I'm typing this, I realized that I completely forgot about the Icons on the infantry squads giving me rerolls for my Dark Pact Leadership checks. . . so maybe I'd have scored higher on Round 3.  Lesson learned there, too.

 

 

The repulse of the Loyalist raid on Rorke's Ford was damaging to their strategy, though not fatal.  Now that Crusade command knew of the Alpha Legion presence, they could adjust to suit -- or at least attempt to do so, as that Legion was notorious for its ability to surprise opponents.  More importantly, the destruction of the Cadian armor column had torn away a large portion of the flank shield the Loyalists had thrown up to protect the Iron Hands' own thrust towards the Capitolis.  If the Traitors could capitalize on this, they could restore the breach in the Davidian Line and pin the Iron Hands against the hive fortifications.

[Tallarn Commander]

This was a well written batrep with plenty of exclent images! And both your armies are wonderfully painted.

 

As someone who plays both Chaos Marines and Imperial Guard, I agree that your opponent should have moved more aggressively.

 

With sentinels, Infantry squads, Cadians, etc, the IG have plenty of cheap screening units that can rush forward to grab/contest midfield objectives while the rest of his army pounds you to dust.

 

Thanks for the batrep!

[Prot]

Great batrep! I loved all the pics.  Your army looks fantastic.

 

It's funny when I play against Guard that is the kind of trap they seem to fall into.... shoot everything as long as possible and stay back. I think it's very counter intuitive for guard to start rushing Chaos. :) Thanks for posting this up. I plan to re read it later when I have more time.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Thanks guys!  Here's a couple closer-ups from the gallery.

 

What the Baneblade sees:

 

 

 

Sorcerer Ozzymandias and his much-reduced bodyguard from Rifle Squad Venator: