Battle at the Blazing Tower - 2nd 40K (scenario)

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

Foreword:
Battle at Blazing Tower will be one scenario of a mini campaign comprising three games in total: Two 2nd 40K battle and a single Space Hulk scenario. In the first game The Fallen have to access the buried ship. In the second game the Fallen need to recover the MacGuffin and place explosives across the wreck. In the third game the Fallen have to reach the space port and retreat from Pandora. The overarching story has been inspired by a Gav Thorpe novel in which Dark Angels hunt for the Fallen though my story is focussed on the actual actions of the Fallen.


Title: Battle at Blazing Tower

System: 2nd 40K (Custom)
Uses Legions Imperialis order tokens and Alternate Activations.

Game Mode: Solo

Game Length: 5 Turns +?

Mission Special Rules: Random Game Length
Check after five turns if the game continues: On a roll of 3+ another turn is played.
Check after six turns if the game continues: On a roll of 4+ another turn is played.
The seventh turn is the final turn of the game.

Forces: Dark Angels (Fallen) vs. Genestealer Cult (GSC)
Mission Objective (Victory/Dark Angels): The Dark Angels need to have their Terminator squad within 3´´ of the Blazing Tower entrance door at the end of the game to score a victory. Otherwise they can only achieve a Draw.
Mission Objective (Victory/GSC): The GSC must prevent any Dark Angels unit to be within 3´´ of the Blazing Tower entrance door at the end of the game to score a victory. Otherwise they can only achieve a Draw.

Background:
Somewhere at the fringes of Imperial space lies the nearly forgotten system with the name of Borderlands. This story takes place on one of it´s habitable planets: Pandora. Cypher is leading a small group of Fallen to a remote region on Pandora which is the Dust Bowl, a valley which has never been explored by any Vault Hunter. Here in the Sandhills sector north of the central space port lies an ancient space ship buried under the sands. It harbours an important MacGuffin which use and power is only known to Cypher. The only access to said space ship is the entrance to the Blazing Tower which has been built on top of it.
Furthermore Cypher is being hunted by the Dark Angels and our villain made sure to provide evidence of his whereabouts to lure the Loyalists into a trap by planning to place explosives across the buried ship which will detonate as soon as his pursuers interact with it´s dormant machine spirit. Unknown to Cypher a GSC cell has found refuge in the buried space ship a few months ago. Their forces are way to small to take over a planet but should still prove to be a challenge for a small band of renegades.

Battle Report in Pics:
The battle report has been uploaded to imgbb. Due to the nature of imgbb the first pics shown are the last recorded so a viewer needs to scroll down to reach the beginning. The first turn is comprised of panorama shots of the battlefield and then highlights in close-ups the units taking part in the battle. The beginning of a turn is visualized by a dice tray holding a single dice which depicts the game turn. The end of the turn features again shots from bird view. Pics have been uploaded in batches of ten pics each and sometimes later pics got uploaded first due to having a smaller data size.

Pics link:

https://ibb.co/album/jyqgMv

Campaign Map:

https://ibb.co/album/C1z8sh

Forces (Dark Angels/Fallen) (Strategy Card: Divine Inspiration):
Cypher (Tyranid Ambush Rule: Hatred towards Tyranids)
Codicier (Psychic Powers : Iron Arm & Salamander) (Tyranid Ambush Rule: Hatred towards Tyranids)
#10 Tacticals (Tyranid Ambush Rule: Suffer from Fear of all Tyranid creatures. Tyranid creatures which cause Fear now cause Terror to them).
#5 Deathwing Terminators (Tyranid Ambush Rule: Jones is acting strangely...).
#3 Ravenwing Bikers (Tyranid Ambush Rule: No effect).

Note:
The Chaos codex of 2nd 40K describes DA Fallen of being CSM veterans though I changed it for my story as I wanted to use the models I have painted for a challenge this year. So this force used the Dark Angels codex and for Cypher his entry in the Chaos codex. That´s the beauty of solo games as you can modify stuff on the fly without having tedious arguments with someone else.


Forces (GSC):
Patriarch (with all fours psychic powers)
3x Genestealer Brood (12 Genestealers each)
#10 Brood brothers

Note:
Zombie models from the ZOMBIES! boardgame were used to represent the Brood Brothers. They are armed with knives and clad in rags (no armour save).


Gaming Aids:
- Blood Drop: This means a wound has been lost by said model.
- Red Arrow: Each red arrow means the model suffers the effects of a Jam.
- Red Square token: First Fire order.
- Green Square token: Advance order.
-Yellow Square token: Unit failed a Break Test.


Action Report:
Here comes a summary for those who have zero interest of clicking through numerous pics. It also includes useful info of what is going on as I haven´t provided descriptions in the pics themselves.

Turn 1:
All units use double move orders to get into favourable positions for the following turn. The Tactical squad has split up (Combat squad rules) and are named from now on as #1 Tac (with Cypher and Vet. Sgt. on left flank) and #2 Tac (with Codicier, Plasma Gun and Heavy Plasma cannon in the centre next to the Terminators). The Codicier casts successfully Iron Arm on himself turning himself into a very tough character. The Patriarch casts Psychic Scream but it is reflected towards him alas the range is insufficient to reach his position.

Turn 2:
Oh boy, Terminators are scary. They are on Overwatch due to First Fire order and profit thus from Rapid Fire (double Storm Bolter shots) as they haven´t moved. They mow down with frightening ease the Genestealer Brood in the centre which has been occupying the flat hill and wound the Patriarch. The assault cannon of the squad suffered two jams and would not fire again in this battle. The combined fire of the two Combat squads cause seven casualties to the Genestealers opposite of #1 Tac squad. The Bikes have moved in front of small hill and prepare themselves to pick off remaining stragglers with their twin-linked bolters. The Patriarch tries to nullify Iron Arm (needs a roll of 3+) but fails with a 1. Ouch! The Codicier casts Salamander but the psychic power travels too short a distance and fizzles out a few meters in front of the Patriarch. Said monster casts Psychic Scream and the Librarian only survives this psychic attack due to Iron Arm as it doubled his Toughness to 10 and the Codicier rolled a 10 against the Psychic Scream. Lucky Son of a Gun!

Turn 3:
The Bikes cruise onto the flat hills to act as bait for any charges so that the remaining marine squads can do their bolter p*rn on First Fire orders. the Patriarch charges the Bikes and #2 Tac kills him on Overwatch. The remaining Genestealers also charge the Bikes but are wiped out by #1 Tac on Overwatch. Meanwhile the Brood Brothers have reached the Blazing Tower and hug it´s walls close to the entrance. The Terminators only cause a disappointed two casualties on the last remaining Genestealers Brood which was prior to this action still at full strength.

Turn 4:
The Barbed Strangler growing inside of one member of the Deathwing Terminator squad finally bursts free and thus kills it´s host and incapacitates all other members with the exception of the Sgt. The Genestealers charge the lone veteran clad in tactical dreadnought armour and tear him to shreds with ease. #2 Tac suffers from Terror because of the nearby Genestealers and promptly fail their morale check with a double six! Though to the nature of being marines they are only Shaken (can´t move towards enemies but may move away from them). #2 Tac hurls frag grenades at the Genestealers with zero effect as the Shaken status prevents them into moving into a favourable firing position. #1 Tac does a double move. At the end of the turn #2 Tac recovers from being Shaken.

Turn 5:
The Bikes make a bold move and cruise in front of the entrance to the tower in order to act as bait and oppose the Brood Brothers. The mind-warped humans charge them and a few are torn to shred by overwatching twin-linked bolter fire but they make into melee anyway. The Genestealers also charge the Bikes but both combat squads are ready for that and excel in their shooting causing just enough wounds to kill all of the rampaging xenos. Nobody gets hurt in the resulting melee fight.

Turn 6:
#1 Tac & #2 Tac haul @ss to reach the entrance but are not close enough. The Bikers cut down five Brood Brothers in melee but the hatred of the misguided humans keep them in the game (rolled a five for their morale check).

Turn 7:
#2 Tac helps out the Bikes in melee and the Tacticals kill all the remaining Brood Brothers with close-ranged bolt pistol shots. Transhuman warriors are just too vicious. The game ends after this turn and no one has achieved any of the victory conditions so it is a Draw.


Aftermath:
In regards to the story the fallen have lost their momentum of quickly entering the buried ship with their Terminator squad as three of their members lie constricted by barbed alien vines on the ground and are also in need of two new aspirants because of two casualties. When they will enter eventually the underground complex the GSC cell will be prepared which means the Dark Angels won´t receive any advantages in the forthcoming Space Hulk scenario. And that´s all, folks!