This is the final mission of our campaign, Mirum Ostentum has fallen to the forces of chaos. Can the imperial forces manage to evacuate any of their forces from the planet? This mission will decide the fates of the imperial campaign warlords and their forces.
From the battlefleet gothic mission we have the maximum game length, turns where a bombardment can be conducted and turns where an evacuation can be attempted. From the aerial interception mission we know when the chaos air forces will arrive.
A landing pad will be placed in the defender’s deployment zone along with a castellum stronghold. They can deploy any of the units* and models that survived the previous game of apocalypse within their deployment zone.
From turn 3 onwards the defender can extract any unit on the landing pad or in reserves, 5 Maximum (per ship in orbit), cannot be pinned, gone to ground or in close combat. (Transport vehicles count as 1 inc the troops inside.)
The Aquila lander can transport 12 infantry models into orbit per turn once a ship is in orbit. It leaves the table, deposits the transported unit then returns to the landing pad. It can do this immediately upon arrival with the kill team if desired then return on turn 4 to get another unit. It will then get one unit per turn. Enter – embark – leave)
(characters count as part of the unit they are attached to if the unit does not exceed 10 models when they are attached)
The attacking force {chaos} are deployed in the red zone and cannot use models that were destroyed in the previous game.
This mission continues until the end of turn 7.
Campaign warlords must be evacuated where possible.
Orbital bombardments: the defender and the attacker can receive 1 bombardment per turn that they have at least one ship in orbit.
Orbital bombardment turns:
Chaos 1,2,3
Imperial 3,5,6,7
Orbital bombardments use the 10″ blast template and are STR D/7/4 Ap 2/4/-
*Units that have been depleted remain depleted but can be combined with other depleted units to form ad hoc squads. Damaged vehicles and characters will regain 1 W/HP. Eternal warriors will return with their full complement of wounds provided they were not killed by a D weapon rolling a 6 to wound or by a unit in close combat.
All unused stratagems from the previous mission are available for this mission. No bonus stratagems will be provided.
Orbital relay:
The castellum stronghold contains a powerful transmitter that provides the forces of the imperium with scatter free deep striking (While the command bunker is intact). Terminators can only teleport in on a turn where the dark angels battlebarge is in orbit and only Dark angel terminators have the deep strike rule for this mission. Surviving storm hawk terminators must deploy onto the table normally. Assault squads can still deep strike normally.
The forces of chaos will still need to activate a dimensional key to gain scatter free deep striking. And have the same restriction on terminator squads (where they can only be deep striked in if a ship remains in orbit. Until the end of turn 3) Lieutenant Galrauch is unavailable as a ground asset in this game. [He has taken control of the chaos fleet in orbit.]
Maximum number of extractions per turn:
Turns 3, 4, 5. 5 Extractions possible per turn.
Turns 6 and 7. 8 Extractions possible per turn.
Deathwing assault: The deathwing can be used from turn 3 onwards and will try to actively engage and capture the fallen. However all deathwing models will leave at the start of the next imperial turn if they do capture the fallen.
Turn 3
Marauder destroyer (Chaos) and Aquila lander (with kill team) arrives
Turn 7
Fire raptor (chaos) arrives.
Chaos has first turn unless the imperials can steal the initiative. (Note that the dreadnought hurricane has been deployed giving them a re-roll on this.)
Story excerpt
The forces of chaos had gotten closer than normal as the unnatural fog had been thicker than ever before. The sky flashed with a myriad of colours as the warp raged. Daemons and daemon engines stalked forwards. The Men of the gallian 7th held the line alongside the unshakable dark angels. The enemies first orbital strike slammed into the defensive line but did little damage.
“A ranging shot.” Master Rael states as Cavros Thawne looked over the map of the defences.
“We need to hold out until your vessel can start evacuation procedures.”
“Indeed.” The dark angel replied as his personal watcher in the dark hovered nearby holding a relic of the chapter. “Master Ganon will strike once he is in range and Captain Kraken has the storm hawks ready to counter attack. Blood eagle has held back his assault elements and will join the battle when the time is right. We can hold long enough to evacuate.”
“I pray you are correct Rael.”
“The emperor protects Cavros”
Deployment
Stratagems used: Replacements: Cerastus knight atrapos. (This would give the largest amount of potential D attacks from the units that had been destroyed in the previous mission.)
Bring out the biggest guns. Chaos daemons swarm as the largest chaos vehicles are placed down.
The forces of the imperium make ready to hold the line. The ordinatus ulator being the heaviest hitter (in theory)
All the surviving chaos infantry and daemon princes and daemons make ready to charge forwards. The cultist screen exists to show the deployment zone limit.
Chaos helbrutes are interspersed amidst the deployment zone.
Dark angels devastators hold the stronghold with a storm hawk long fang squad, two anti-tank vehicles and the two surviving normal artillery pieces. A blood angels honour guard squad rounds out the defenders. (Note blood eagle and the imperial guard sniper squad were redeployed after this image was taken. I did not get a picture of this)
The imperials wall of AV 14 tactic is put into action once again.
Chaos Turn 1
The forces of chaos surge forwards.
Chaos shooting strips a lot of the defenders from the front lines, taking out two leman russes and a hellhound as collateral.
The three sentinels have been annihilated as the greater brass scorpion removes all the opposition between it and its target, the typhon.
The imperial dead at the end of the chaos shooting phase. (All morale tests are passed)
The assault phase begins. The smaller greater brass scorpion charges the meltagun unit, the khorne lord charges the two surviving guardsmen, the possessed and lord charge in against the cleansing fire marines. Heartrender (Daemon of khorne) charges the dark angels, Akron (balrog DP) charges a unit of guardsmen while the Typhon is charged by the second greater brass scorpion.
All the units charged are wiped out apart from the typhon which loses three hull points.
Imperial turn 1
The imperial forces move to provide the ordinatus with a firing line.
Lacking the ability to feel fear the vultarax charges into the enemy lines.
The typhon turns round to break base contact with the Greater brass scorpion. The remaining troops move forwards to engage the enemy.
Imperial shooting kills the khorne lord on juggernaught, heartrender (khorne DP), takes 3 hull points from the small scorpion, the Atrapos creates another vortex killing some nurgle marines and khorne warriors.
The lord of change is reduced to one wound as morrs penna is also wounded. The ordinatus took 1 HP from 3 dreadnoughts, 1 from the sicaran venator and killed 12 men.
Before hitting one baneblade for 4 HP, one for 2, killing three plague bearers and knocking down a void shield on the reaver titan. The vultarax has haywired the deredeo to death.
The blizzard shield dreadnought charges in against the greater brass scorpion. And loses.
It should be noted here that the amount of invulnerable saves the chaos side managed to pass was unreal. The true damage should have been much higher.
Chaos Turn 2
The chaos forces start to clear the blast zone to prevent easy hits on multiple super heavies.
Unafraid of the ordinatus the forces of chaos pour into the now open space.
The slower portions of the chaos army continue to advance.
Dreadnoughts, khorne berserkers, two daemon princes and a chaos sorcerer on disk move to back up the wounded scorpion.
The baneblades and plague bearers move to try and avoid the ordinatus’s fire.
The knight titan fires at the vultarax and manages zero hits.
The reaver titan is not amused.
Kaboom. Chaos shooting and psychic antics have ripped a massive hole in the imperial defensive line. (The glaive, contemptor dreadnought, dark angels and baal predator have suffered the wrath of chaos.)
The sicaran and vindicator have also suffered critical existence failure.
The forces of chaos begin their charge phase.
The smaller scorpion and Sauron daemon prince charge in. (Note the daemon prince is reduced to T 3 for this turn due to the Magos’ rad grenades and rad furnance wargear. She is however only Strength 5 not quite high enough to cause ID. Likewise she is also T6 so his Str 8 black mace will not ID her.)
The blood thrister charges the vorax while the possessed take a fancy to the leman russ demolisher.
Akron smashes the leman russ conquerer apart, the greater brass scorpion takes 2HP from the typhon. The castellax kill the daemon prince of slaanesh and lose a wound to the slaanesh lord. The blood thirster kills one vorax while the possessed destroy the leman russ.
The scorpion destroys the relic predator and the daemon prince struggles losing two wounds and inflicting one on his opponent.
Imperial turn 2
The ordinatus shifts its angle to target a different portion of the chaos forces.
A drop sentinel lands near to the greater brass scorpion to try and finish it off.
A trio of drop sentinels land near to the hellhammer aiming to destroy it.
A tech priest walks out of the bunker (To give POTMS to the manticore)
The vanquishers move up as three different tech priests move to repair the storm hawks predator. A dark angels predator destructor moves onto the landing pad.
The typhon thunderblitzes Akron taking off two wounds.
The fire from the ordinatus strips a HP from the land raider redeemer and carries on into the chaos lines. It struck the lord of change on the way and killed him
The greater brass scorpion detonates taking a wound from Sauron and the possessed squad have been annihilated. Morrs penna fails his grounding test but survives the hit. The commissars bolt pistol wounds the bloodthirster.
The hellhammer has been destroyed (through a combination of drop sentinels and the vultarax.)
5 alpha legionnaires and a few basic troops are killed when they are caught in the ordinatus’s beam.
As are a handful of thousand sons and cultists.
The daemon prince version of ‘kharne’ is reduced to one wound. (He ascended during the last game)
The drop sentinels lose two HP and the predator loses 1 when the hellhammer detonates.
The commissar charges the blood thirster.
Sauron wounds the magos once leaving both on 1 wound.
The blood thirster kills the commissar and heads towards the scion command squad.
A castellax takes a wound from Anslem’s attacks. The other possessed kill the dark angels they were in combat with.
Chaos turn 3
The forces of chaos reform their lines to deal with the drop sentinels.
While the dreadnoughts lead the charge as the warp tethered lord of change comes back to life, the marauder destroyer flies on and is dropped to 1 HP by the interceptor fire array against it.
Terminator deep strikes start to occur as Vincent murgle approaches the stronghold.
Kiaros fateweaver joins the terminator deep strike (the paper is absorbing the moisture that leaks from his base.)
Some terminators including typhus land on the stronghold.
The last squad drop in next to Akron to go land raider hunting.
The mass cluster of jammed models continues. The slaanesh sorcerer casts telekine dome protecting those nearby from harm.
The units here spread out to try and deny space for deep striking
Psychic powers heal the lord of change up to two wounds.
The helbrute also regains a hull point.
The drop sentinel is destroyed as the terminators get to work on the scions.
The typhon and chimera have been destroyed. 6 Hp have been stripped from the fellblade, 2 from the leman russ annihilator and one from the blood angels razorback. The land raider redeemer has also been wrecked.
The blood angels razorback is wrecked and the squad within jump out.
The scions have all but been wiped out as the chaos forces continue to push forwards.
The conversion beamer predator has been wrecked as the terminator sorcerer fails to harm the leman russ vanquishers.
The terminators and mutilators charge the leman russ exterminators. The blood thirster charges the last scion and Magos Anubis.
The nurgle terminator aspiring champion and the sorcerer charge at their respective targets.
The tzeentch terminator charges the bombard while typhus charges the basilisk crew and the nurgle lord charges the blood angels honour guard and captain.
The greater brass scorpion charges the predator destructor, akron charges the leman russ and the terminators charge the land raider.
The second terminator sorcerer charges the storm hawk techmarine.
Agra gets stuck in as Aldimeer the cunning moves to aid Anslem with the castellax.
Akron destroys his target as the brass scorpion and terminators do likewise.
Typhus wipes out the basilisk crew while the nurgle lord and blood angel squad fail to harm each other. The bombard is reduced to 1 HP.
Sauron kills one magos while Magos Anubis uses his paragon blade to instantly kill the blood thirster. The mutilators destroy their tank while the terminators reduce the second one to a single hull point remaining.
Zero damage is caused on the vehicles sitting on the landing pad.
Imperial Turn 3
The deathwing command squad deep strikes in to apprehend the fallen.
The remaining deathwing forces also deep strike in. (The player who owned the baneblades needed to leave so we substituted the models for others we have handy.)
Master ganon leads his unit ready to strike at the chaos forces.
The final squad and dreadnought deep strike in to attack the forces of chaos.
The vultarax moves to attack the forgefiend.
The leman russ executioner moves back from the chaos terminators.
The leman russ vanquisher move away from the terminator attacking them.
The blood angel sternguard squad moves down to attack typhus. The storm hawks techmarine moves to repair the bombard.
The Praetor moves away from the terminator attacking them.
Hurricane and the imperial guardsman squad move to engage akron.
The tzeentch dreadnought is blown apart by the deathwing dread as the other units start to pick their targets.
The marauder destroyer loses its final hull point and explodes showering the area below in an explosion. (we removed any of the dead vehicles that ended up underneath the template but nothing was kill by the blast.)
A cadian meltagun unit destroys a ferrum infernus dreadnought turning it into a spawn. One of the chaos terminators is killed.
A hull point is stripped from the skull cannon.
A unit of nurgle troops is wiped out by the deathwing.
The second ferrum infernus dreadnought is destroyed turning into a spawn as the deathwing attack.
Magos Anubis gets to work on claiming yet another kill. This time abbaddon. (He had killed Horus and a blood thirster so far, he is beastly.)
The deathwing interrogator chaplain leads his men into combat banishing the skull cannon.
The deathwing command squad loses a member but manages to down all the fallen. The dark angels that teleported in will teleport out at the start of the next imperial turn with their prize. (There is a deathwing formation in play where they leave once their objective is complete.)
The blood angels and hurricane charge into akron.
The tzeentch terminator has been wiped out. The combat involving the nurgle lord remains locked.
This turn the imperium successfully extracted:
A dark angels command squad in a Razorback
A dark angels Land raider
A dark angels predator annihilator
The surviving members of the Kill team that was sent to rescue Virgil from the Alpha legions clutches.
Chaos Turn 4
Chakai deep strikes in. (chaos exhalted sorcerer with seers bane daemon weapon.)
Chaos raptors and the sorcerer chakan deep strike onto the landing pad.
The aspect of the night haunter emerges on the stronghold tile.
A chaos lord with lighting claws accompanies a unit of warp talons into the fray.
The lord of change and Morrs penna move to aid Lord Vulcan in his assault. More of the chaos forces continue to advance into the imperial lines as the mutilators are sent to attack the ordinatus.
Kiaros moves into the small gap between tanks on the landing pad read to throw his psychic might around.
The remainder of the chaos forces that need to advance do so. (I am ignoring the deathwing as I know that they will leave the table due to having completed their objectives.)
Valnir and the remaining undivided troops spread out to try and deter a deep strike attack on the knight. The rhino full of thousand sons waits for its chance to attack.
The last few cultists watch on as a slaanesh daemon prince follows the khorne chosen and the slaanesh lord towards combat.
The greater brass scorpion makes itself at home. As Mortarion and the squad containing our three different ahirman models joins them. (we treated each duplicate as a level 3 exhalted sorcerer.) Lord Vulcan and his elite cadre arrive via deep strike (The elite cadre are lord equivalent characters that form a unit with Vulcan. They are standing next to Morrs Penna)
Exhalted sorcerer bale and chaos eagle deep strike to menace the imperial guard.
Vincent murgle moves onto the stronghold tile as another unit of raptors deep strikes to try and destroy some of the imperial artillery.
Chaos psychic attacks remove some hull points from the imperial vehicles on the landing pad.
A wildly scattering blast takes out the blood angels honour guard leaving the nurgle lord and the blood angel captain standing.
The vultarax is dealt with. (the imperial player played the blind barrage stratagem card and blocked line of sight to everything else for the forces of chaos.)
Quetzalcoatl is reduced to one wound by the deathwing terminators.
Having survived the heavy flamers of the decimator, the imperial guard are charged by the possessed.
Exhalter sorcerer Bale and Chaos Eagle charge into the imperial guard veterans. Lord Vulcan has used the daemon shell stratagem to destroy the fellblade. (rolled a six on the D table.)
Abaddon continues to duke it out with Magos Anubis.
The mutilators strip seven hull points from the ordinatus with their chainfists. Thanks to the efforts of a unit of chaos raptors and the nurgle terminator aspiring champion one of the preator armour missile launchers is destroyed.
The chaos raptors destroy a leman russ vanquisher.
Captain Agra has been defeated by the blood angels, Bale and chaos eagle have killed the imperial guardsmen. Hurricane has finished off Akron while the warp talons and chaos lord have dealt with the blood angel character squad.
Typhus rips through the blood angels sternguard squad, reducing them to one survivor. The nurgle lord and blood angel captain continue to ineffectively hurl insults at each other.
The possessed move forwards having easily dealt with the imperial guardsmen.
Imperial turn 4
Having completed their objective of capturing the fallen the dark angels Deathwing forces have teleported from the table.
The dark angels predator destructor turns to fire at the chaos raptors. The blue preator turns to target Vincent Murgle. Magos auxhilla Niils moves to engage the second raptor squad.
Blood angel dreadnoughts move on to engage the forces of chaos while the leman russ exterminator runs from the terminator that had been attacking it.
A blood angel character unit, two squads of death company and an assault squad drop in to attack the forces of chaos.
A second blood angel assault squad also drops in to attack the chaos chosen.
The blood angels campaign warlord Blood eagle and his squad deep strike in to attack the greater daemons present in the area. Another death company squad (which includes astaroth) targets the khorne chosen and their lord.
Blood angel tactical squads jump out from their transports to open fire on the forces of chaos.
The centurions move to target typhus. As the secutarri emerge from the bunker. Typhus would be annihilated by the centurions graviton cannons during the shooting phase.
Astaroth leads the charge into the khorne chosen.
The blood angels assault squad charges into the undivided chosen and their Lord.
The blood angels character squad having destroyed the Archos tank watch on as two squads of death company charge the plague marines. The other blood angels assault squad having meltagunned the sicaran venator to death must also hold position.
The death company dreadnought destroys the plasma cannon helbrute as the other dread fails to kill a chaos spawn. Magos Anubis would cause one more wound to Abaddon before he is dispatched.
Magos auxhilla Niils and his servo automata as killed by the raptors but Niils still takes the raptor champion down with him.
The death company strike down the plague marines but the assault squad struggles with the chosen as Lord Valnir’s murder sword and the power weapons of the chosen dispatch them with ease.
Astaroth has lost all his death company while blood eagle and his unit have killed one of the keeper of secrets.
Despite their losses (12 men) the blood angels assault squad passes their morale check.
Wary of the reaver titan the death company move closer to chaos models to try and mitigate the damage coming their way.
Units extracted this turn
The forces of the imperium successfully extract:
Storm hawks techmarine dreadnought Helic
Storm Hawks long fang squad (heavy bolters, 4 men)
The blue praetor armoured assault missile launcher
Dark angels predator destructor.
Story excerpt
“It won’t be enough” Cavros states as he reviews the tactical map. More friendly icons were disappearing as the forces of chaos continued their attack.
“Where are the other enemy forces?” he shouts
“Our gunships have spotted both the alpha legion and emperors children moving in from the secondary approach to this facility. We have thirty minutes until we are trapped.”
“Rael!”
“The gunships are focused on evacuation operations. We cannot risk them on an attack against a foe we know nothing about.” Rael states.
“Fear not” The Vox chimes. “We will counter attack to give you the time you need.”
“Captain Kraken?”
“We are three minutes out.”
Intermission
So far this game has been suitably brutal. This has led us to using the saying ‘dice happened’ as the amount of invulnerable saves I have been able to make has blunted the effectiveness of the ordinatus. Can the imperium hold for long enough to keep the forces of chaos from overrunning them? Find out in part 2.
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Thanks Rory.
By finishing off our campaign the way we did we got all of the last vestiges of 7th ed. (re-rollable 2+ invulnerable saves, invisibility, double digit attack values for single models and the rather disappointing Ordinatus ulator out for the final time. Until something equally broken is discovered in 8th ed.)
My Deathguard army has already raised warning flags despite me not even having used it yet.
Yep, we played extraction over the course of three days (Tuesday-Thursday) when we all had time off.
Since then we have played two games of 8th edition one 500pts and one 1000pts game (using forces who were not involved with the final mission so Black Templars vs khorne csm vs tyranids vs emperors children). The first game was the four player mission from the 8th ed rulebook. I won it by keeping a humble ripper swarm base on the objective at all times. (He survived three turns against a vanguard veteran.) The second we allied up (two teams of two, rolled for randomly. Where the unholdy union of black Templars and tyranids defeated the forces of khorne and the emperors children.)
We are now on our annual winter break from 40k. We have AVP, KDM, DSBG, Xwing, Space hulk and DW overkill to choose from before we go back to our weekly games of 40k in march. (And during to the time in between we are working away on outline plans for our next campaign.)
“Tune in next time for the epic conclusion!”
It has been great following this campaign for so long. Cannot wait for the big finish.
Thanks Rory.
By finishing off our campaign the way we did we got all of the last vestiges of 7th ed. (re-rollable 2+ invulnerable saves, invisibility, double digit attack values for single models and the rather disappointing Ordinatus ulator out for the final time. Until something equally broken is discovered in 8th ed.)
My Deathguard army has already raised warning flags despite me not even having used it yet.
I agree with Rory. Going to be great to see the ending.
Have you all held off on playing 8th through the whole campaign?
Yep, we played extraction over the course of three days (Tuesday-Thursday) when we all had time off.
Since then we have played two games of 8th edition one 500pts and one 1000pts game (using forces who were not involved with the final mission so Black Templars vs khorne csm vs tyranids vs emperors children). The first game was the four player mission from the 8th ed rulebook. I won it by keeping a humble ripper swarm base on the objective at all times. (He survived three turns against a vanguard veteran.) The second we allied up (two teams of two, rolled for randomly. Where the unholdy union of black Templars and tyranids defeated the forces of khorne and the emperors children.)
We are now on our annual winter break from 40k. We have AVP, KDM, DSBG, Xwing, Space hulk and DW overkill to choose from before we go back to our weekly games of 40k in march. (And during to the time in between we are working away on outline plans for our next campaign.)
That’s cool. Always nice to have a steady and reliable gaming group.