Doing away with victory points this mission instead focuses on infantry being killed.
If 101 or more infantry models are killed during the mission and at least 70 cultists and conscripts are part of that number, then chaos wins and the blood ritual is completed. Any other result and the imperial forces win.
The body count will include bikers and cavalry models that are killed but does not include any units that have the daemon special rule.
The warp storm table is due to the high concentration of energy in the area due to the ritual taking place that the result is always counted as being warp surge. (Thus, stopping the warp storm from killing cultists and/or conscripts)
Phase 3 mission 4 – Blood Sacrifice
Forces
Imperial
AN
Primary Army Dark angels
Warlord Master Ganon, Terminator armour, power fist, combi melta.
Campaign trait +500pts to bodyguard unit, Battle trait +3 to run and charge moves.
(Army arranged into a lion’s blade strike force detachment. Full BS overwatch. Deathwing get preferred enemy (chaos space marines))
Ravenwing black knights 3 with plasma talons.
Ravenwing squadron 6 bikers, veteran sergeant with power sword and meltabombs, 2 meltaguns, attack bike with multi melta.
Devastator squad, 2 lascannons, 2 plasma cannons, sergeant with bolt pistol.
Deathwing command squad, Apothecary, deathwing banner, deathwing champion, assault cannon, 1 standard terminator.
Deathwing terminator squad, 4 with thunder hammer and storm shield, 1 with thunder hammer, storm shield and cyclone missile launcher.
Scorpious whirlwind
Deathwing terminator squad, plasma cannon, 2 chainfists, 1 power fist, sergeant with thunder hammer and storm shield.
Tactical squad, rocket launcher, plasma gun, sergeant with power fist
Tactical squad, heavy bolter, plasma gun, sergeant with power maul.
Predator annihilator with lascannon sponsons.
Librarian, level 1 with force stave.
Assault squad, 5 models.
Deathwing terminator squad, 4 with lightning claws, 1 with lightning claws and cyclone missile launcher.
Ravenwing land speeder, heavy bolter and assault cannon.
Venerable dreadnought, twin linked lascannons, dreadnought close combat weapon with storm bolter.
(I am fully aware that normally the black knights and scorpious whirlwind cannot be included in the strike force detachment. As we were playing in a friendly setting we allowed them to be included as part of this detachment.)
Secondary force
Castellum Stronghold with Icarus quad lascannon and command platform.
3 thunder gryph cavalry (1 with thunder hammer, 1 with thunder hammer and storm shield, 1 with frost claw and melta bombs.
5 wolf guard terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields.
Rhino ‘Infamy’
Grey hunters 7 bolters 1 plasma gun all have additional ccw.
Additional units
30 conscripts (in main bunker) 20 conscripts (in smaller bunker, furthest back.)
Chaos
KE
Primary Army Tapestry of evil
Kharne and khorne chaos space marine squad dropped from list. Added a herald of tzeentch with level 3 mastery, 10 dameonettes and a herald of slaanesh with the slothful claw.
DA
Secondary Force Legion
Sicaran with lascannon sponsons
Deredeo with autocannon battery and missile launcher
3 quad mortar cannons
contemptor cotus dreadnought with keres and dreadnought ccw with meltagun
vindicator with power of the machine spirit.
Additional forces:
10 man cultist squad, 14 man cultist squad, 16 man cultist squad, 10 man cultist squad.
8 man chaos space marine squad with 1 meltagun, aspiring champion with power fist and combi bolter. One member of the fallen is added to this unit. If the dark angels capture him then they may look at one of the apocalypse stratagems chosen by the forces of chaos.
Story excerpt
Outpost 379 – 3 hours later.
The unnatural fog was begging to rise and surround the castellum stronghold that served as the last line of defence before the enemy could strike directly at Altum. This time the fog hid a further menace.
A flash of red lightning struck the ground nearby a moment before the impacts became a torrent. This had cut them off completely, both visually and through vox communications with the city.
Recruit Gerhard was selected to test the lightning wall as he approached he was struck once. This flayed his skin from his bones before sucking up all the blood from his dead corpse. He hadn’t even been able to scream.
The remaining conscripts were pulled back into the area surrounding the main outpost. Each had seen what would now happen if they tried to flee.
————-
Morrs Penna and his forces made their way forwards through the blanket of the blood storm that had been summoned to this location and as they entered the eye of the storm the cultists they had brought with them were herded forwards. The storm would need to be sated so they could earn the gods blessing and gain a straight route of attack towards the city in the near distance.
————-
Librarian Regal of the Dark angel’s chapter had ushered all the conscripts into the castellum stronghold. The storm hawks that had been in the area where now under his command. The blood storm was churning up the warp in the surrounding area but they still had contact with Ganon. The Storm hawks had also arranged for an additional terminator squad to be teleported into the site from one of their ground based sites.
The enemy force that greeted his sight as the fog lifted did not sit right with him. As the ravening lunatics at the front of the army were herded forwards he knew what the storm wanted. A sacrifice.
The Game
Deployment
The forces of the imperium are making use of the castellum stronghold and defence lines to try to hold long enough to keep the conscripts alive (30 are in the main bunker and 20 in the smaller bunker back left.)
Chaos turn 1
End of turn body count: 5 models Cultists/conscripts: 0
Imperial Turn 1
End of turn body count: 24 Cultists/conscripts: 17
Chaos turn 2
End of turn body count: 44 Cultists/conscripts: 23
Imperial turn 2
The deathwing deep strike in to aid the imperial defenders. (one squad suffers a delayed result from a deep strike mishap.)
End of turn body count: 51 Cultists/Conscripts: 23
Chaos Turn 3
The pink horror’s kill two terminators and lose one in return. While the attack bike continues to survive being attacked by cultists. Morrs regains a wound from eating the thundergyph cavalry due to souleater. The daemonettes and herald charge in but cannot harm the deathwing squad. The khornate raptors have charged in and killed the dark angels assault squad. And the contemptor dreadnought wrecks the last small bunker in close combat.
End of turn body count: 77 Cultists/Conscripts: 41
Imperial turn 3
The dreadnought advances on the sicaran, the attack bike lines up the quad mortar, a deathwing squad goes fallen hunting and the storm hawk terminators also move to engage the quad mortar squads. (The deredeo immobilized itself during the last turn)
End of turn body count: 90 Cultists/conscripts: 41
Chaos Turn 4
End of Turn body count: 103 Cultists/conscripts: 48
Imperial Turn 4
End of Turn body count: 111 Cultists/conscripts: 52
Chaos turn 5
Given our time constraint and the outcome of chaos turn 5 we called the game here as even if we did play another turn the result had been determined.
End of turn body count: 131 Cultists/conscripts: 71
Story excerpt
One of the bunkers of the stronghold crumbled under enemy fire and the collapsing structure crushed the devastators that had been shooting from the battlements. Further weapon impacts continued to strike at the remaining bunkers but the defences held for now.
Regal had joined with the terminator squad currently engaged with the daemonettes, aiming to use his abilities to aid them in banishing the daemons. But before he could do anything to aid his brethren a claw slammed through his primary heart moments before a second impaled his secondary one.
Librarian Regal crashed to the ground. The blood leaking from his wounds being drawn into the blood storm as his life left him. Furious at this the terminator squad fought harder to avenge him, while being forced to rely on their storm shields for defence against the lightning fast daemons who managed to down a terminator before they were banished.
———-
The blood storm intensified and threw most of the forces in the area into a stupor as it slowed their actions to a crawl. All eyes that could do so focused on the stronghold as the final bunkers failed and the conscripts within piled out. Fire and blasts rained down as the chaos forces focused their attentions on the conscripts attacking them with fire and psychic blasts feeding the blood storm as they killed.
The last few cultists were herded into the dark angels to aid the ritual throwing themselves at the space marines. The dark angels knowing of the storms effects did not fire at the charging mob but were forced to defend themselves in close combat, downing a handful of cultists. Suddenly the storm lifted and the sky turned blood-red.
———–
Rain began to fall coating the very ground with red droplets of blood. The dark angels knew that the ritual had been completed and that chaos reinforcements would not be far behind not the obstruction of the storm had been removed. Teleport flashes could be seen as the deathwing terminators departed with their catch.
The remaining imperial forces along with the storm hawks’ rhino Infamy, pulled back as the chaos forces paused to bask in the falling rain of blood.
Conclusion.
Being pressed for time we concentrated our efforts on the stronghold during turn 5 and ignored all of the other combats and actions being conducted elsewhere during the chaos turn, due to having hit the 101 or more infantry killed quota. The focus was then on the conscripts and cultists which directed us to fight it out on the stronghold itself as this was the key to victory/loss in this mission.
The Imperial player refused to fire overwatch at cultists (He fired it once and killed half a squad due to full BS overwatch in a previous turn then stopped doing it to try to eke out the victory) throughout this game as he needed to keep them and his conscripts alive to win. He had to fight in close combat though and because of the final charge of turn 5 the kill counter for the two required units ticked over onto 71 giving chaos a narrow victory. We did not play the imperial turn 5 due to time constraints (that and the objective of the chaos forces had been achieved.)
Back to the game in question the dark angels did really well, being able to weather the storm of shooting and counter attack successfully. The Stronghold did its job very well protecting the conscripts until T3. As for the Dark angels, they were made available when we never had a visit from the fallen throughout the games we have played so far but their intervention was not enough to save the day this time.
Looking back on the game the scattered landings of the Deathwing ultimately left the stronghold undermanned but in true Dark angels fashion they ignored the objectives of their allies and acquired a member of the fallen. This will allow the imperial side to identify one of the chaos apocalypse stratagems.
Overall so far throughout the campaign 1,376 models have been killed during our games (783 Imperial and 593 Chaos.) On average across the fifteen games we have played so far [Including the initial smaller missions] is 92 dead models per game. With the imperium on average losing 4 models for every 3 chaos models they have managed to kill. Showing just how close the games have been so far.
We now move onto the attack on Altum itself. The Apocalypse beckons and we shall answer the call.
- #MonsterMarch 3 (2019) – Part 5 Finale - March 29, 2019
- Creating a Rogue’s Gallery Diorama for Dark Heresy – Part #2 - January 26, 2019
- Creating a Rogue’s Gallery Diorama for Dark Heresy – Part #1 - November 18, 2018
You’ve kept a running body count for the campaign? That’s impressive!
I was interested in creating a memorial piece of terrain after we completed the campaign which would have the numbers written onto it so I counted up all of the casualties. (Vehicles and BFG ships count as 1 model to make the process easier. Apocalypse is set to skew the numbers but I’ll keep track anyway.)
Its just a shame that our black Templar player has been unable to join us for any of the missions. {He is currently rebuilding and rearranging his collection to work with 8th. Something the rest of us will have to do once we finish playing the campaign.}
That’s an awesome idea, a memorial.
Yeah, I can’t believe we’re this far into 8th and you guys are still blasting out 7th edition games. I was so fed up with 7th that I was playing 8th before it was officially release ;)
At least we can play from our day 1 with codex’s in 8th. (for chaos and space marines) Plus we couldn’t resist playing a huge game of apocalypse [where nothing matters but creating moments of mayhem and just having some fun. and we have more than twenty five Lords of War and the easiest way to find any broken models and have a Sort out (reducing the number of boxes they are stored in) while also trying to see how many dice you can get to use in single attack, We are trying to top 112 the previous record.]
You guys throw down some big stuff. Be interesting to see the report.
We are starting our game of apocalypse this week with the intent to run it over the next few weeks. (where we will sneak in a game turn where we can) I’ll write it up once we have made some progress. {Due to the size of the battle it may need to be split into smaller parts when it is posted.}
Breaking it into parts would probably be a good idea.
How big of a game?
97,192 pts (51,332 chaos, 45,860 imperial.) Played over a larger than normal number of turns (We may go to 12 or more) on an 8 by 4 board. [Everything not used in the initial deployment can be brought on from turn 2 onwards. Where they can come on from is determined by how far forwards the forces of chaos manage to push. I’ll explain how this works when I cover the mission.]
It also allows us to play with some of the more expensive models that are available for our forces. (Ordinatus ulator, chaos reaver titan, Chaos has four baneblades, 2 greater brass scorpions and we can trot out our VDR tanks for some added mayhem.)
Jesus. That’s insane.
If it wasn’t it wouldn’t be Apocalypse. (I’ve had great fun playing this game type in the past. I’d have loved to play on a larger board but space is at a premium I really would have loved to have been able to go all models on the table and re-enact the assault on helms deep but with 40k miniatures. But for that I’d need a whole room to use as the ‘board’.)