Skip to main content

The Defense of Charnel V

We did a fun, big city fight game this weekend I wanted to share with everyone. Skip to the end for the video battle report, if you can call it that.

Here's the video I did to prepare the players:



Here are my scratch notes for the rules of the battle:


The Imperium of Man:
  • Sgt. Masud of the Star Eagles deepstrikes in with a Bastion.
  • Blood Angels can choose to have the Red Thirst or not
  • 3 Praise the Emperor tokens (re-re-roll dice to hit)
  • 3 The Emperor Protects tokens (re-re-roll saves)
  • Skyshield Landing Pad
  • Sisters of Battle Objectives granting 2+ Invul save to unit until the end of the turn


Invaders:

  • Any time during the movement phase, Lardrot can “eat” five Plaguebearers to regain a wound as long as the unit is within 12”.
  • Lardrot has Eternal Warrior
  • Before the beginning of any turn, the Nurgle players can sacrifice the remains of a unit of Plaguebearers to deepstrike another unit of Plaguebearers of the same original formation.  ICs that detach cannot be brought back in this manner.  ICs that are removed while attached (or were lost due to casualties) may return with the new squad.

  • All models have 5+ Feel No Pain
  • All models have Slow and Purposeful
  • 3 Rot tokens - Unit gains +1 FNP for a turn
  • WAAGH! doubles all movement
  • Bastion with Quadgun
  • Two Kivuli squads will jump in and kill some Grey Knights but won’t risk being recognized by anyone
  • Ork Objectives grant extra speed and bring in deepstriking battlewagon reserves


Terrain:
  • The Microwave Transmitter generates a 4+ invulnerable save out to 12”
  • 12” power field causes deepstrike mishaps
  • Energy-based weapons re-roll to wound or penetrate when shot within 12” of the transmitter
  • Transmitter has 10 hull points
  • Coolant tower has 8 hull points and explodes 3d6 inches when it blows, dealing str 8 out to the first die, str 4 out to the 2nd die, and str 2 out to the 3rd die.
  • Transmitter and Tower may be repaired by Techmarines and the like

Imperium Victory Conditions:
  • Surviving Microwave Transmitter: 5
  • Surviving Coolant Tower: 2
  • Surviving Intact Buildings: 1
  • Each unit killed: 1
  • Held Objective/Artifact: 1

Invader Victory Conditions:
  • Each character killed: 1
  • Each unit killed: 1
  • Held Objective 1
  • Position Gained: 5


The Battle for Microwave Transmitter CV-023 began shortly after dawn. Imperial forces aggregated from the Sisters of Battle, a small contingent of Imperial Guard, and the Blood Angels were joined at the last minute by a group of silver-armored heroes bearing flamboyant heraldry and powerful weaponry. Gabriel Seth, who, as luck would have it, was on hand for the battle and he knew the tales and rumors of who these knights clad in pale silver and red were and cursed bitterly.

Though, he thought, what could possibly be so important about this world that the High Lords would involve so much for so little gain? It certainly cannot be the transmitter. This entire planet did not possess the strategic value of the strength in arms which had amassed itself here on a sad, broken hill in the middle of a devastated landscape. However, the will of the Emperor was behind every command and he did as he was bid.

Suddenly, a beautiful siren of a woman appeared in a flash of brilliance, clad in intricate armor and bearing a blazing sword. Shimmering, angelic wings spread from her face. She turned to face the amassed forces of the Imperium and looked at at the Grey Knight Librarian, her beautiful face crushing itself into an ugly sneer of contempt. The Terminator-armor-clad Librarian gave a bit of a start at that.

Seth chuckled to himself. Today would be a bloody day.

There were 6000 points of Imperial forces, a Sisters/IG list (saint celestine, sisters, dominion squad, penitent engines, a lascannon blob + feel no pain-granting inquisitor, a couple of Griffons, and Marbo), a Blood Angles list (Seth, Mephiston, 3 Ba'al Preds, Land Raider Redeemer with Death Company, and a Stormraven with Assault squad), and Grey Knights (2 squads of terminators, a librarian, 2 Dreadknights, a purifier squad, and another HQ dude).

Image



Please note that the Vindicators are counts-as Griffon artillery tanks. Two Sisters of Battle objectives were placed in the backfield. These objectives were worth 1 point if held at the end of the game, but were also good for granting a 2+ invulnerable save to a unit for a turn if the objective was sacrificed.

Image

Image

Here you can see some of the battlefield debris I had the players pick ahead-of-time and place for themselves. These Sisters are holding an Icarus Lascannon emplacement.

Image

There was nothing for it, of course, for the enemy was at hand. The Orks and their Daemonic puppet-masters roared into battle.

There were 4000 points of attackers between Chaos Space Marines (Lardrot (Scabathrax (Sp) from Apocalypse at 777 points), Great Unclean One, Daemon Prince of Nurgle, Soulgrinder, 2 squads of Plague Bearers with heralds, and 2 squads of Nurglings) and Orks (15 buggies, 2 battlewagons, 3 squads of gretchin, Snikrot with burna-toting Kommandos, aegis with quadgun, 9 killa kans, 3 Deff Dreads, a KFF Big Mek, a Weirdboy, and a Megaboss. His megaboss rolled the personal trait he rolled allowed him to outflank the Megaboss. Since everything he had really wasn't useful for that, I told him he could just attach the megaboss to a buggy squad and outflank that if he wanted just for fun).

As a balancing factor, I included some reinforcements for the attackers and also granted all of the infantry and walkers 5+ Feel no Pain. Any models that already had Feel no Pain gained a +1 bonus to their FnP rolls.

I also allowed the Apocalypse Daemon monster to sacrifice 5 Plaguebearers in order to regain 1 wound. I also allowed them to bring any unit of plaguebearers back the next turn with deepstrike whenever it was destroyed.


Image

I'd placed some special objectives for the Orks. There was a bag of teef which they could cash in to bribe a nearby Kroozer to drop in reinforcements and some others that would improve their movement speed.

Image

Image

Image

The Imperial forces blasted at their enemy as they approached, but the Orks and Daemons were implacable. A Blood Angels Stormraven screamed into the combat zone as the two forces were about to clash.

Oddly enough, the Librarian opened his mind to the Warp in order to bless his troops. The very essence of Nurgle filled the Librarian and he was Doomed from the start. Somehow, his own psychic defenses were shattered and the rot began to consume him. The horror of it was that his demise was a lengthly one. His men heard his screams for what felt like an eternity before the burning diseases of Nurgle consumed him whole. 

To this day, the men of his unit tell of a Witch who came from the Warp on a pillar of light who cursed the Librarian and allowed him to be susceptible to the powers of Nurgle which had infested the planet. Of course, there can be no proof that it was the Living Saint who was to blame for the Librarian's weakness.

Seriously. This model suffered three Perils of the Warp in a row. I had granted the team "The Emperor Protects" tokens which they could use to re-roll any dice in a rolling session. He used it to save the Librarian in turn 1 only to have him die again in turn 2.

Image

Image

Image

Snikrot arrived on the tails of a fast-moving strike force of buggies led by the (exhausted) mega-armored warboss, taking the Sisters and artillery holding a key position quite by surprise. The flank was further bolstered by a festering Daemon Prince of Nurgle. The diseased Orks cackled with glee even as the sisters turned their guns on their attackers.

Image

As the sounds of a Burna-Bommer screamed overhead, the battlewagons slammed into the Blood Angels' lines. Also, the Orks called in for reinforcements from a nearby Kroozer and the orks in orbit gleefully dropped Deffrolla-armed Battlewagons onto the enemy forces from orbit.

Image

The purifying power of Promethium lived up to its reputation as the Dominion Squads took key positions away from the Gretchin. The screaming deaths of the little creatures fell upon deaf ears and the sisters clambered up to man the guns.

Image

The Star Eagles' third company were on patrol nearby and were ordered by central Administratum to come to the aid of Imperial forces on Charnel V. Reluctant to engage quality men in the assault, the newest squad of recently-attached 6th Co. troops, led by Sgt. Masud, were unceremoniously loaded into an Imperial Bastion and dropped into the battle from orbit. Lt.Okomo even vomited in his helmet during planetfall. 

Tactical Squad Masud doesn't talk about it to this day. 

On their arrival, the squad clambered up to the battlements and poured bolter fire into a nearby squadron of buggies which crashed and wrecked so violently that their drivers were wrapped horribly like grisly metal-wrapped Ork burritos. 

Image

At the same time, flares exploded in the ranks of the Grey knights on the southern flank. Sounds of Melta fire erupted from the confusing Melee inside. 

Several Terminators and a Dreadknight never made it out alive. No hint was ever whispered of the details regarding the misfortune which befell them.

The point of contact on the battlefield was littered with the dead and wreckage of destroyed vehicles. Fires burned everywhere.

Image

The Blood Angels and Grey Knights began pushing through the Ork lines. One rickety Dread fell after the other. Their slow and cumbersome swings were no match for the alacrity of the Space Marines.

Image

The Living Saint saw to it that there was nothing left of the Ork's lines. There was no escape now for the surviving attacking forces. None at all

Image

Although the flanking cavalry actions of the Daemon Prince and Ork commander had torn the Imperial artillery and the Sisters guarding it to pieces, the weakened force was no match for the fury of the Penitent engines, rampaging through battle with dreams of absolution.

Image

The Great Unclean One faced an entire squad of Grey Knight Terminators and a Dreadknight by himself.

He tripped on a rock when he went to assault them.

The Great Unclean One was reminded of the time in his mortal life hundreds of years ago when he fell and broke his glasses in gym class and all the jocks laughed at him. He was fairly certain he was about to get an even worse wedgie than the one he'd gotten that day.

Image

After pantsing the Daemon Prince to death, the Dreadknight pulled into position over their important rear position in order to challenge any Daemons appearing nearby.

Image

A small number of Kans bravely advanced behind Lardrot who was pressing for the Grey Knights. The Grey Knights bravely advanced in the opposite direction, towards the Sisters of Battle.

Image

Annoyed, Lardrot ordered the Soulgrinder to appear near the Living Saint in order to tie her up for the remainder of the battle.

Image

In the end, Lardrot alone remained facing down a large unit of Grey Knight Terminators, a Dreadknight, and the Sisters of Battle. As the Terminators and Sisters poured hundreds if not thousands of bolter rounds into the monster, the Dreadknight charged. Lardrot brought his rusty sword up into a parry as the blessed ammo burned his flesh. He snarled into the face of the Knight strapped into the power armor's pappoose. "Very well. Next time." he growled, and disappeared. Well, he didn't disappear exactly. The body of the Daemon collapsed into a festering puddle of filth crawling with Nurglings. 

The Imperial guard watching on the nearby landing pad cheered at their victory. The Dreadknight turned towards them slightly, pointed its flamer at them, and began cleansing them to ash. The Terminator squad jumped onto the building behind them and began to slaughter the Sisters. The four Terminators standing below the Star Eagles' Bastion conferred with command and barked orders at the marines on the parapets.

They were to surrender themselves to the Grey Knights immediately for memory altering. 

Sgt.Masud looked around at his men. They could see the burning carnage occurring on the other side of the battlefield and were clearly rattled. Each one began shaking their heads. Masud then took off his helmet and regarded the Knights below. "Kutomba kwamba! Katika moto!" He grinned and raise his lance high with his right hand while giving the Knights a salute with the other. "Kuja na kupata sisi!" He and his men laughed and threw themselves towards the opposite side of the battlements. Bolter fire and grenades blasted into the side of the building. 

They laughed and laughed even as the Knights broke over the battlements and began pouring shells into the Marines.

Masud's men did not fight back. They simply weathered the incoming weapons fire, some older Astartes protecting the younger men with their bodies. Before the Grey Knights could make hamburger out of the squad, however, the Star Eagles disappeared. It was not a precision teleport, however. The operator took a large portion of the Bastion's battlements with them. 

When they arrived aboard the Kivulimawindo, the squad was greeted in the Transport room by an Apothecary and Captain Taigana who wore a fixed, stern, gaze. Two squads of Kivuli were in a corner changing from their advanced power armor into jumpsuits.

Masud clambered out of the slagged wreckage of the Bastion's battlements, stood, and saluted the Captain. The rest of the squad slowly followed suit, even though a few of them were missing chunks of themselves from the Grey Knights' bolter fire. "Reporting from the combat zone, sir. Enemy's destroyed. Couldn't stop some heretics from killing innocent guardsmen, however."

Captain Taigana cracked a proud smile, "There's nothing for it, Masud. Get your men fixed up. You did well today."

"Asante, Captain."

Some questions still remain. Will Nurgle try again? Why did the Imperium commit so many resources to this planet? What is the strategic importance of Charnel V? Only time will tell.

--------------------------

Here's a video play-by-play (battle report?) of the battle! 

Beware of swearings!



--------------------------------








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How Did it Come to This? 10,000 Points of Painted Orks

One can only make so many milestone posts before people eventually get soul-crushingly bored of them.  However, I'm going to make an exception here because with my Vengeance Batteries, I've reached a total of 10,000 points painted with my Orks.  These points include reasonable upgrades, but not ridiculous add-ons like Kill Kannons for the Battlewagons.  Let's not be silly . Here's a video of the army.  Unlike the one I did for 7,000, this does not include a running commentary of each unit.  I simply cannot find the time to do that.  However, at the end of the post, please find a complete army list. Please try to view in YouTube instead of this embed because I uploaded it at full resolution and it took me forever.  You won't be disappointed! I started playing this game in 2010 when some friends and I suddenly realized that we finally had grown-up jobs and could actually afford it.  I'd always danced around the idea of collecting Or...

Joke Armies - an Editorial

Ponies and Smurfs and Gundams! Oh my! Sometimes someone posts a joke army they've built and painted on the internet and the internet lashes out against it, sometimes quite vociferously. I have a problem with the strong objections to these armies, with caveats. Please note that, throughout this article, I will refer to armies which break the 4th wall and are incongruous to the 40k fluff as "joke armies".  Of course, I do realize many hobbyists who choose to build their armies in this way do not mean them as a joke and take it very seriously, but I need some kind of general term for the article. Shannon's Smurf Drop Pod Army Hobbyist Reasoning The hobbyists who choose this kind of path for their army express four-ish common reasons for doing so, sometimes citing two or three of them simultaneously. Cost:  Cost can be a big driver towards building this kind of army. A lot of the time, it's quite a bit cheaper to use toys to stand in for 40k models.  An ...

Loopy Paints Unto Others - Space Marines (Brown)

I've completed another commission for Frontline Gaming.  For this one, the customer chose a brown scheme using the Ravenwing iconography for a generic chapter or chapter of his own devising.  This was a LEVEL 1 commission which means just one highlight. This was the first time I'd ever done Edge Highlighting which is the preferred method for doing this level of commission.  I know it may seem strange that someone doing commission work hasn't done edge highlighting, but it's just not my preferred method.  I prefer to wet blend everything or just do blocked highlights over darker colors and washes. The first go-around they looked terrible.  I tried really hard to keep the edge highlights thin and vague, but instead they came out kind of sloppy.  Because of that, I had to spend an additional 4 hours on making the highlight heavier and more pronounced.  The good thing is, I know what I'm doing now and won't make the same mistake again; therefore a...