Carnage at Craterside - A Legions Imperialis Scenario

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

Carnage at Craterside - A Legions Imperialis Scenario

 

1. Intro

This is the continuation of my previous battle reports for Legions Imperialis (Monument Preservation) and Horus Heresy 2.0 (The Weakest Link). So if you are interested how the Iron Hands fare in this campaign grab yourself a tea or coffee and sit down.

 

 

2. Synopsis of past scenarios

The 37th expeditionary fleet led by Jacques Picarr is stranded in the Andromeda galaxy circling a planet with the designation New Mars. Due to the fact that returning to the Milky Way galaxy is currently not possible Picarr ordered in the meantime several reconnaissance groups to explore the apparent lifeless planet. While doing so one group discovered ancient monuments in the Badlands sector (NW of the Ruined Spaceport) indicating the arrival of human explorers many, many thousand years ago. Upon analyzing the structures a hostile army attacked the Iron Hands (Monument Preservation). How these strangers ended up here as well has not been discovered yet.

 

After the battle at the monuments had come to an end an alien intelligence who called herself "ß" whisked away Picarr and a couple of his soldiers from their mother ship and brought them onto the surface of the planet to play a wargame (The Weakest Link) against ghastly humans which would determine the ultimate fate of mankind.

 

 

3. Issues with Ibb

The pics were uploaded from my folder onto the ibb hosting site. Ibb sorts it´s pics in reverse upload order. This means the first pics which will be shown are the last of the battle report. Furthermore sometimes pics (which were uploaded in groups of 16) are not finally shown in sequence because individual pics differ in data size so that later pics in upload order with smaller size are still uploaded more swiftly than the previous selected ones. Despite this fact the pics have numbers attached to them so that in doubt one can look, if something seems out of place.

 

 

4. New Mars Campaign Map (Start and Turn 1-2)

Description of pics: At the top of the sector is it´s name designation. This is followed by the scenario name, game system and finally the victor.

Link: https://ibb.co/album/qBcJ1W

 

 

5. How to read the battle report (173 pics)

Before the battle takes place panorama shots are taken to show the entire battlefield. Then the troop deployment is shown for each force by using close-ups highlighting each unit. At the start of later turns panorama shots are taken to show how the battlefield has changed due to actions in the previous turn. After that the dice tray is shown with a blue D20 illustrating the begin of the respective turn. For all those who

can´t stomach scrolling through the pics a brief summary of the battle is given at the end of this post.

 

In addition in some cases a comment was written onto the pic to make clear what was going on (e.g. Overwatch). Activations are explained in the following order:

1. A close-up of the selected unit is shown with it´s token.

2. The new position of said unit after movement (e.g. March, Advance, Charge and Fall Back orders) is shown in a wider shot taking into account it´s environment.

3. In case of ranged attacks the target is shown in a single pic after the active unit was shown with it´s activation token. Then the outcome of the ranged attack is shown (e.g. destroyed model base shown by placing it upside down or a comment which states the shots had no effect).

 

In case of units with multiple hit points (Malcadors) a blood drop token illustrates a single point of damage.

 

Link: https://ibb.co/album/jJL3pr

 

 

6. Gaming Aids

The report uses colour coding for it´s order tokens like it was done in 2nd Space Marine:

Red: First Fire

Blue: Charge

Purple: March (yes, this order wasn´t available in the 90s)

Green: Advance (units which haven´t moved have the tokens placed adjacent to them; units which have already moved have the tokens placed onto their bases or their models)

Yellow: Fall Back (not an order per se but a status effect)

 

Blue objective: controlled by IH

Red objective: controlled by AS

 

 

7. Gaming Details

Campaign: New Mars

Iron Hands (IH; Loyalist) vs. Ash Scorpions (AS; Traitor)

Game Mode: Single Player

Game Length: 3+? (Random Game Length)

Points: around ?

Custom Rules: Infantry only double their movement when performing March orders.

Special Rules: Craters and Random Game Length

Board: 180 cm x 120 cm. The battlefield was littered with a large amount of massive rocks, rock formations, flat hills and five important craters.

Deployment: Forces deployed along the short table edges in an oblique manner. No man´s land was 80 cm wide.

 

 

8. Mission Briefing:

Iron Hands reconnaissance discovered an odd formation of five, large craters in the Craterside sector to the West of the Ruined Spaceport. Further investigation of those five landmarks revealed that each of them harboured a fortified entrance way into the bowels of the planet. However the scouts were prevented from exploring the underground location by the arrival of yet another Traitor army headed their way. After requesting reinforcements from their mother ship the Iron Hands clashed again with the wayward Ash Scorpions in order to secure strategic entry points into the unknown regions of New Mars.

 

 

9. Winning Conditions:

The force who controls more objectives (entry points into the underground) at the end of the game wins this scenario. Any other outcome is a draw.

 

 

10. Scenario Special Rules

Craters: Difficult Terrain. Each crater consists of two regions: Inside & On the Edge. Units with sizes of 1 & 2 are obscured from enemy models on the same or lower height level while inside the crater and can´t draw LOS to any models on the same or lower height level outside of the crater. Units of size 1 which are on the edge of the crater benefit from cover (-1 to hit) and can draw LOS as normal to their environment. Units of size 2 gain no cover on the edge. Units with a size of 3 or higher just treat a crater as difficult terrain and are neither obscured inside of it nor can they claim cover on the edge.

 

Random Game Length (3+?): Roll a D6 at the end of Turn 3 to see, if there will be a further turn: On a roll of 3+ another turn will be played. After that one roll again at the end of the turn a D6: On a roll of 4+ there will be another turn. And at the end of that turn roll for a final time to see, if the game continues: A roll of 5+ indicates another turn which will determine the outcome of the game.

 

 

11. Army Lists:

Detachments from left flank to right flank:

IH

1. Contemptor Dreadnoughts (4U; 2 assault cannons & 2 lascannons)

2. Commander, Tacticals (4U), Assault marines (2U) & Terminators (2U)

3. Tacticals (4U), Plasma gunners (2U) & Missile launchers (2U) in Rhinos (5U; one havoc missile launcher & one multi-melta)

4. Predators (3U; full lascannons)

5. Sicarans (2U; omega plasma arrays & lascannons)

 

AS

1. Aethon Sentinels (4U)

2. Tercios (4U) with Flamers (4U) & Legate Commander

3. Tercios (4U) with Veletaris (4U)

4. Leman Russes (4U; Vanquisher turrets & lascannons)

5. Malcadors (2U; full lascannons)

 

 

12. Battle Report:

I will keep it short and simple as in my previous battle reports. The game lasted for five turns in total and the Iron Hands won by controlling three objectives while the Ash Scorpions were only able to secure two objectives.

 

Left Flank:

The four dreadnoughts secured an objective and never left it nor intervened in the entire game in an offensive manner because across them were two Malcadors who would have obliterated them in one turn of shooting. Those Malcadors were responsible for blowing up a couple of Rhinos and securing an objective for the Ash Scorpions.

 

 

Central:

The space marine infantry rushed towards the central objective in Rhinos and on foot. Because of their transports they were able to dig in and repel angry SA attacks on First Fire orders. Twice the SA Veletaris attacked the central crater in close combat but without much success. Accurate ranged fire from the Rhinos mauled the advancing infantry contingent of the Ash Scorpions before the reliable space marine tanks were blasted into oblivion by Leman Russes and Malcadors. The other half of the IH infantry chose to slow down the opposing infantry head-on as the assault marines launched themselves into the air while their brethren on foot were busy upholding proper formation and supporting them with much needed bolter fire.

 

Chainswords whirred and human body parts began littering the ground as the angels of death performed their grim duty. Astonishingly five assault marines survived the onslaught of massed reprisal attacks for two turns until the Legate Commander himself had to step in and remove them from the battlefield. He was the sole survivor of this brutal close combat and hastened at the end of the game to an objective held by the  Aethon Sentinels. The Predators found themselves in a tank battle with the Leman Russes. They could destroy two opposing tanks before they were wiped out by the Russes´ superior firepower.

 

 

Right flank:

The Sicarans moved cautiously forward while using rock formations as cover from dangerous vanquisher turret fire of the Leman Russes. Due to the swift destruction of the Predators the initial idea of flanking the SA battle tanks was not an option anymore and so they parked onto a nearby objective to exchange shots with the opposing Aethon Sentinels. However the Aethon Sentinels won the initiative and blasted the two IH tanks away in their first missile volley. After the Legate Commander secured the objective which the Sentinels were guarding, the walkers made a mad dash to snatch away the objective which was now clear due to the destruction of the Sicarans. Sadly the terminators and a couple of tacticals had the same idea and thus outnumbered them when it came down to secure an objective.

 

That will be all.