This is the second part of the battle report for the final mission in our battle for Mirum Ostentum Narrative campaign. The forces of the imperium have been defeated but just how much of their remaining forces can they rescue from the doomed world.
Lord Vulcan listened to the master of lies as he used his link to their stormbird to relay the progress of the assault. Using his staff to project a psychic image onto the ground for Vulcan to study. As per his battle plan the Alpha legion and emperor’s children were moving towards the only escape route the enemy could have on the ground. He could see his forces moving to engage the blood angels as he turned his attention back to the stronghold.
“Come we have work to do.” He states as his cadre follow him. Vincent Murgle flies overhead into the stronghold as they continue to push the attack.
Chaos turn 5
Chakan moves up onto the pad as the nurgle terminator moves towards the ordinatus. The mutilators shuffle back ready to charge again this turn. The tzeentch daemon prince drops down into glide mode as Kiaros moves onto the base. Vincent Murgle moves to attack the scorpious whirlwind.
The dark lord moves to attack the blood angels death company dreadnought, Cornelius (chaos terminator lord) moves into range so he can use his combi melta on the machine. Abaddon moves towards the landing pad while chakai takes up a position between the two leman russ tanks. The ahirman squad follows the Lord of change forwards as Lord Vulan and Morrs penna advance on the blood angels.
The deathshroud and chaos lord move towards the blood angels while every other gun toting model turns to fire. The Cultist champion moves clear.
The daemon form of Kharne moves up with Quetzalcoatl and the second keeper of secrets to attack Blood eagle. The slaanesh chosen and daemon prince move to engage Astaroth.
More Guardsmen stand before the decimator as the dreadnought hurricane (uses the rules for bjorn the fell handed) fights the greater brass scorpion. [I forgot clean about the stomps the scorpion should have been getting] The possessed and warp talons have their targets sighted and are ready to strike.
Anslem still manages to keep surviving despite being set upon by two blood angels, aldimeir the cunning (sorcerer of slaanesh on steed and a previous campaign warlord) moves to aid him.
Bale moves to attack the centurions while Konrad curse moves to attack the last blood angels sternguard.
The ordinatus is reduced to 4 hull points.
Chaos shooting annihilates one unit of death company and reduced the second down to a wounded chaplain and a single model. The assault squad has lost feel no pain due to the baneblade killing the sanguinary preist. The character squad has also lost a couple of models.
The shooting casualties from the forces of chaos this turn. (the undivided marine died to his own plasma gun. A scattering basilisk template killed the blood angel captain and tech priest. The nurgle terminator lord survived. The death company dreadnought is also wrecked this turn and the leman russ executioner is detonated.
The chaos shooting has stripped two hull points from both outlying bunkers.
The final leman russ vanquisher is destroyed as the mutilators tear another hull point from the ordinatus taking it down to 3.
The Nurgle terminator lord dies to an overwatch plasma pistol shot. Bale charged in against the centurions and thanks to getting iron arm to work managed to kill the sergeant. The chaos gods then blessed him with daemonhood. The bombard survived the raptors clumsy attempts to finish it off.
The chaos lord and squad sergeant have killed each other while the terminators lost a wound but ended up reducing the blood angels squad down in size.
Valnir and his chosen had finished off their opponents.
Astaroth is reduced to one wound while blood eagle and his squad manage to kill off kharne and Quetzalcoatl for a few wounds lost in return. Note the white Keeper of secrets has the invisibility power and I use it quite a bit which annoys the imperial player somewhat.
The possessed wreck the razorback (the decimator has killed the guardsmen but then proceeded to break free of his base.) Morrs penna and the warp talons attacked a tactical squad each. Morrs wins but the squad holds, the lord and warp talons win as well but their opponents flee.
Imperial Turn 5
Storm hawk grey hunter squads and a vindicator arrive on the scene following the aquila lander.
A vulture gunship arrives while the ordinatus charges forwards thunderblitzing Mortarion and Lord Vulcan but doing no damage. A storm hawks sternguard unit arrive in their rhino.
Two storm hawk skyclaw squads deep strike in to bring the fight to the enemy.
A spartan assault tank outflanks in a squad of terminators to attack the forces of chaos.
Storm hawks thundergryph cavalry and their lord move in to attack the possessed.
3 storm hawk blood claw squads, a dreadnought, captain kraken and his THSS terminators, a rune priest a wolf priest, a golden hammer veteran unit and three more wolf lords emerge onto the stronghold tile as Cavros thawne moves out with his entourage to try and escape the invading enemy units.
The storm hawks sternguard target Abaddons terminators and manage to fell one.
Two noise marines are killed by the plasma wielding blood angel character. (I have a fair few apocalypse only custom characters)
The hades autocannon forgefiend loses a hull point.
Two more alpha legion are blown apart by the bombard.
Two wounds are caused vs the slaanesh chosen as the terminators open fire. This leads to one chaos marine falling.
The decimator loses a hull point.
The warp talons are finished off leaving the lightning claw jump pack lord on two wounds.
Unfazed by the thunderblitz Lord Vulcan and his cadre watch as mortarion shrugs off another whirlwind blast.
Seeing the threat posed by Vincent murgle (previous campaign warlord) Ws10 S8 T8 W5 I8 A6+D6 Sv 2+/4+* (all-rerollable) everything that can do so charges in against him. Konrad curse is also charged by a blood claws squad.
Magos driel charges in to finish off the mutilators.
The storm hawks charge in against the undivided CSM squad.
The death companies’ chaplain dies to overwatch. The second unit of storm hawks skyclaws charge in against the ectoplasma forgefiend.
The storm hawks terminator squad charges in against the slaanesh chosen.
The thundergryph cavalry charge the possessed squad.
Dreadnought Kisen charges in and then kills the last nurgle terminator.
Vincent murgle destroys the golden hammer squad and reduces their eternal warrior wolf lord to one wound but then loses 3 reducing him to one as the thunder hammer blows rain down. Konrad Curse has been beaten to death by the storm hawk blood claws.
Two possessed have survive the charge of the thundergyph cavalry.
Astaroth and the slaanesh chosen are wiped out as the slaanesh DP consolidates to attack the storm hawk terminators. Blood eagle and his squad continue to struggle with the invisible keeper of secrets.
The undivided unit is wiped out and the forgefiend is wrecked. The death company marine is killed by the noise marines for no loss in return.
Extractions this turn:
Arch Magos Driel
Storm Hawks dreadnought Kisen
Chaos turn 6
The ordinatus detonates as the ultimate sacrifice stratagem is played. The kills two of lord Vulcans cadre, all three Ahriman models, a pile of thousand sons, abbaddon and his terminator squad, the secutarri unit, the whirlwind bunker, Anslem and the two blood angles he was fighting. (Note the greater brass scorpion has been reduced to one hull point this is due to mephiston casting null zone on it. He periled as he cast is and died but I then failed to deny the witch.)
The last raptor moves to attack the vindicator.
Oorlog (daemon prince of khorne with axe of blind fury) deep strikes onto the stronghold tile.
Another angle showing the outcome of the exploding ordinatus.
Morrs penna continues to be held in combat by two plucky blood angels.
The hades autocannon forgefiend turns to attack the storm hawks. As the defiler and knight titan advance.
The cultists form up to eat any overwatch should it be required.
The chosen and Valnir advanced towards the blood angels invading the chaos deployment area.
The dark angels librarian is killed by kiaros fateweaver psychic attacks.
The storm hawk units are pounded by the chaos shooting.
A combination of shooting sees the last blood angels characters killed where they stood.
Three storm hawks terminators remain after the baneblade fired on them.
The spartan is reduced to 2 hull points remaining.
Mortarion moves in to engage the blood angels tactical squad.
The chaos forces prepare to charge.
The furiso dreadnought is wrecked and the sternguard routed.
The noise marine unit and lord made short work of the storm hawk squad. The blood angels won against the deathshroud and move to attack the forgefiend.
The knight titan finished off the second storm hawk squad.
The defiler joins the fight against blood eagle as the cultists and daemon prince of slaanesh engage the storm hawk terminators.
The decimator charges in and kills one of the thundegryph cavalry but loses a hull point in return. Hurricane bests the greater brass scorpion of khorne. Mortarion and morrs penna finish off the blood angels tactical squads.
Vincent Murgle finished off the golden hammer squad but was then brought low by a single failed save. Oorlog starts to munch through the repressed while bale kills all but three of the unit he charged into.
Imperial turn 6
The storm hawks rhino makes a run for it.
The spartan rotates to target some chaos units while hurricane moves to aid the thundergryph cavalry.
The storm hawks techmarine moves to aid the repressed with Oorlog. Kraken leads his unit to attack Bale. The lighting claw lord watches on from having killed the missile launcher long fangs last turn.
The storm hawks units on the landing pad move forwards to target the daemons present in their area.
The shooting is effective taking out the daemon prince of tzeentch. The Spartan destroys the slaanesh lascannon dreadnought and kills the nurgle sorcerer Mourngule.
The blood angels charge in and reduce the forgefiend to a single hull point remaining.
Despite the invisibility psychic power the keeper of secrets loses two wounds. The defiler munches through a couple of blood angels negating their feel no pain.
The storm hawk terminators are dispatched.
Two more repressed are killed (leaving one survivor) while the storm hawks banish the daemon prince Bale with their hammers.
Extractions this turn:
Vulture gunship
Storm Hawks 5th company tactical squad and infamy rhino
Storm Hawks 4th company wolf guard squad and land raider crusader
Storm Hawks 4th company 4th blood claw squad
Chaos turn 7
Cornelius and the dark lord move to attack the storm hawk rhino.
Chakia moves to attack the storm hawks while the Lord of change moves to attack the aquila lander.
The knight titan moves to aid the forgefiend.
The spartan is lined up as a target.
The decimator having been felled does not rise this turn but the possessed have killed a thundergryph model. Aldimeir moves in to try and pick off Sterk.
Lord Vulcan, his cadre and Morrs penna move to engage the storm hawks on the stronghold. The lightning claw lord moves to attack a vulnerable unit.
Shooting from the chaos fire raptor slams into the imperial guard command squad felling some members.
One grey hunter is killed off the landing pad.
The surviving blood angel rhino is wrecked.
Things are tough for blood eagle and his squad.
Lord Vulcan, the cadre and morrs penna make short work of the storm hawk TH SS terminators.
Just blood eagle and the sanguinary priest still stand as the defiler and keeper of secrets continue to attack. The KOS is reduced to one wound from a lucky return strike.
The Spartan is wrecked by the daemon prince of slaanesh
Sterk still stands having dispatched Aldimeir the cunning in a challenge. The possessed are now reduced to one survivor and the last thundergryph cavalry model has been brought down.
Chakai slices through the storm hawk squad leaving one survivor who passes his morale check.
Imperial turn 7
Hurricane moves to aid Sterk with the last possessed chaos space marine.
The dreadnought Kos moves down to engage the chaos jump pack lord while the storm hawk survivors move towards Lord Vulcan.
Cavros thawne and his unit make a break for the aquila lander.
The imperial warhound titan Left 4 Dead arrives to try and exact some vengeance on the chaos forces. It only managed to take a single hull point from the chaos knight titan.
Automated fire from the stronghold destroys the alpha legion fire raptor and reduces the lord of change and Kairos to one wound remaining.
The dreadnought Kos easily destroys the lighting claw jump pack chaos lord. Before consolidating behind the storm hawk character squad.
Chakia finishes off the storm hawk squad in close combat.
Blood eagle has fallen, Sterk died to the possessed having failed the one 2+ save he needed to make. Hurricane then killed the possessed marine.
Extractions and notes
Kraken, wolf priest, rune priest, captain winter bane, wolf lord jordas:
This unit had lined up to attack lord Vulcan and his cadre the imperial player decided against this after realising that the cadre and lord Vulcan would be dishing out between 16 and 34 Str 6 Ap 2 attacks re-rolling to hit due to veterans of the long war giving hatred (space marines) and preferred enemy space marines allowing them to re-roll to wound rolls of 1 (they wound on a 2+ due to the str 6 attacks. We rolled the dice to see what would have happened. Kraken would be down to one wound, Vulcan 2, with only one other character surviving on one wound. Noting this he decided to keep the characters alive to fight again another day and extracted them.
Extracted this turn:
Storm Hawks venerable dreadnought Hurricane
Storm Hawks 4th company Squad 3 (wolf guard only)
Storm Hawks wolf Lord Jordas
Storm Hawks dreadnought Kos
Storm Hawks wolf priest
Storm Hawks Captain Kraken
Storm Hawks captain Winterbane
Storm Hawks Rune priest
Storm Hawks 10th company squad 3 (6 men)
Storm Haws 4th company Squad 2 (7 Men)
Cadian 131st command squad (Yarack, straken, creed, cavros thawne, 2 psychers, medic, master of the fleet, master of ordinance.
Aquila lander
Blood Angels Firestorm Land raider
Warhound titan (Dubbed ‘Left 4 Dead’ by my mate)
End game flyover
Two of the four baneblades survived whilst the minor daemons and heralds lurked near the titan ready to pounce if the imperials tried to attack it.
The alpha legion heavy support squad also helped in this regard as the augury scanner held by the sergeant that would allow me to fire on anything that entered play within 12” of them.
The defiler and Keeper of secrets combined their power to down the last few blood angels and bring low the blood angels campaign warlord.
Hurricane did very well (albeit due to me forgetting to stomp on him with the greater brass scorpion of khorne.) and is the only surviving imperial model that was on the table for all seven turns.
Story excerpt
Kraken stood with his fellow storm hawk commanders and stared down the enemy. Lord Vulcan Bloodfang returned his stare. A crunch indicating the death of Lord Scison was followed by the dreadnought Kos moving up behind the line of storm hawk warriors. Morrs penna and Mortarion lurked nearby as Cavros Thawne made it to the aquila lander.
“We are at a stalemate then.” Lord Vulcan states.
“It would appear so” Kraken replies tightening the grip on his hammer. His rune priest touched his arm and shook his head.
“If you choose this path we will all die.” He states.
Vulcan smiles as a thunderous roar can be heard from overhead. A vast aircraft painted jet black moved through the cloud cover and gathered Hurricane and the heavily wounded Sterk before moving towards the landing pad.
Vulcan nods and his troops lower their weapons and step back. “Consider this a gift. You fought well and as your reward you may leave.”
The wolf priest scuttled forwards and grabbed the unconscious form of Wolf Lord Sauron before the dark angel Stormbird flew in low and landed on the pad. The storm hawks ran onboard.
Lord Vulcan watched as the vast aircraft accelerated skywards some anti air fire clipping its void shields but failing to do any further damage.
“Was that wise?” Morrs Penna asks.
“They have a role to play in our futures. If he had attacked they would all now be dead.” Vulcan states. “By allowing them to live. They can play their part in the long game.”
The daemon nods. “Very well.”
—
The undaunted warrior and Regrinus accelerated away from the lost world, easily outpacing the caladaris claw that would have been upon them moments later. As it turned out the ground forces had struggled to survive long enough to be extracted and so the ships fled into the warp.
—
Pallar anders mountain range – evacuation site – 1 hour since chaos victory
Primus medicae Vetus strolled through the aftermath of the carnage collecting the glands from the fallen warriors. He was not picky about where the glands came from. His fellow apothecaries were doing likewise picking through the dead for what they could still offer.
Warriors and quartermasters picked weapons from corpses as the apothecaries worked. Vetus turned over a dead blood angel. The wings of the warriors’ backpack had been shattered and his armour cracked but the warrior according to his sensors still lived. Vetus removed the warriors’ weapons and disabled his power armour before chuckling.
“We have a live one.” He states, “Flense is going to have a field day with you.”
A unit of terminators walks over to Vetus and on his command, take the prisoner away.
—
Report on the loss of Mirum Ostentum to the enemies of the imperium.
The attack on the world of Mirum Ostentum was brutal and cleverly designed to take advantage of the weakened state of the imperium during the time of the thirteenth black crusade. From the first emergence of the chaos fleet into the space around the planet they expelled us from the planet within 39 hours and ten minutes of conflict.
We lost 1638 units during our failed defence, but killed 1208 enemy units*
I was not present for most of this time as I had been captured by the enemy as their first action almost three days before the arrival of their fleet. A Doppelganger took my place and weakened the defences considerably in my absence.
Due to the diligence of the Dark angels and the fearlessness of the other forces present on the world I was eventually rescued but this came at great cost as only one hundred and ten imperial warriors were rescued from death. Three additional storm hawks were also rescued but remain in critical condition.
The enemies next target will most likely be the Kresh cluster as it is the site of this sectors inquisitorial fortress.
As for Mirum Ostentum I would suggest Exterminatus but due to the enemies’ fleet strength** I would advise against this action. We should reinforce the Kresh Cluster and make ready for the next assault.
Inquisitor Virgil Ditya
* These figures are based on battlefield scans conducted by Arch Magos Driel, and reports from those who fought in the battles they were part of. This number does not include PDF elements.
**attached document provided by Dark Angels Master Ganon, Stills and measurements taken whilst the undaunted warrior was undergoing excavation efforts.
—
Kresh – Inquisitorial fortress – Ten days since the fall of Mirum Ostentum.
Inquisitor Silens puts the dataslate down and stands up. She beckoned her acolyte over.
“Yes mistress?” The Acolyte states
“How are our guests doing?” She asks. Looking out of the viewing portal as she does so. The undaunted warrior and Regrinus were still docked alongside the Fist of titan.
“The Storm hawks have taken over one of the launch bays and turned it into a recreation area for their training. Captain Kraken has been driving both his survivors, and their reinforcements those Primaris troops we had here to the extreme.” The Acolyte states. “The few blood angels that survived have been lighting candles in the chapel. They have refused to stop until they have lit a candle for each warrior they have lost. Tradition I suppose.”
“Proceed.”
“Cavros Thawne and the last few survivors of the Cadian 131st and the Gallian 7th have been quarantined to check for corruption. Should they be cleared we shall find a use for them.” The acolyte stats. “Beyond Master Ganon the Dark angels have not left their ship and are conducting the required repairs before they leave.”
“And the others?”
“Virgil Ditya and his Daemonhost have been quarantined until we can scan them for corruption. From the reports, the Alpha legion had captured him but all tests so far have confirmed it to be him.”
“Driel?”
“Had already returned to the mechanicum. We did not have the capability to house the Warhound titan here so both it and himself have left on a mechanicum bulk conveyor. They have been gone for 3 hours.”
“Tarn?”
“He has requested reinforcements from titan and will remain here under your command until they arrive, you are ordo malleus after all.”
“That will be all, keep me informed if anything changes.”
Conclusion
Chaos T1 and T7
Imperial T1 and T7
Neither side came away unscathed from this encounter but the imperial forces were decimated and the chaos forces did not even deploy the emperors children or the bulk of the alpha legion forces. Only the firestorm land raider survived from the Blood angels, the mechanicum had two models left Magos driel and the warhound titan, the dark angels acquired their objective (the fallen) and then left taking two predators, a land raider, a command squad and a razorback with them.
Cavros thawne and his little squad were the sole survivors of the cadian 131st and as for the gallian 7th just the praetor missile launcher tank and vulture gunship survived.
Total number of casualties (the battle for mirum ostentum)
Imperial 1638
Chaos 1208
Thus 2845 models were killed over the twenty missions we played as part of the campaign. This averages out to 142 models being killed in each game (which includes BFG and kill team missions)
(The imperial forces lost on average 82 models per game while chaos lost 60 models per game on average.)
Kill ratios were as follows 1:1.36 for chaos and 1:0.74 for the imperials.
With this battle our campaign comes to an end. I have attached the full story to this post so anyone who is interested can read it themselves. (Be aware the story of these events is 84 pages long with almost 40,000 words.)
(This is still being worked on so there may be errors, the characters referenced in the story are those from our gaming group. Reputations and character building has come from years of playing and as this was written for us there is no set up for some of these characters.)
Well done. That’s a long campaign, with a lot of death, but you all stuck to it and saw it through, which is awesome. As I said before, the story is great and narrative elements like that really make a campaign worth doing. I mean, it’s the point afterall, isn’t it?
Do you all string these together in any way, like make this a long ongoing epic story? Or, is each campaign a standalone thing?
Our previous campaigns are all a part of the ongoing stories of the characters we have created for 40k. (Which is why some characters had some really stupid levels of power. Lord Vulcan for instance was Ws 7, Bs5, S5 T 6 W4 I 6 A4+1+D6 2+/3+* had feel no pain, it will not die & eternal warrior, but then he has survived four of our older campaigns (He survived 12 games in one of them gaining boons and rewards as he went). He was moved to a 300pts lord of war before becoming apocalypse only)
Our next campaign will continue from where this one left off, hopefully our Black Templar and Tau players will be able to join in. (We are working through an outline story idea, designing missions and brainstorming campaign ideas to make ready for our next campaign. We just need to play some more 8th edition before we can finalise anything.)
Glorious end to the campaign. Well done all.
Thanks Rory, glad you enjoyed it.
Now I’m back home and can comment properly.
Well done. That’s a long campaign, with a lot of death, but you all stuck to it and saw it through, which is awesome. As I said before, the story is great and narrative elements like that really make a campaign worth doing. I mean, it’s the point afterall, isn’t it?
Do you all string these together in any way, like make this a long ongoing epic story? Or, is each campaign a standalone thing?
Our previous campaigns are all a part of the ongoing stories of the characters we have created for 40k. (Which is why some characters had some really stupid levels of power. Lord Vulcan for instance was Ws 7, Bs5, S5 T 6 W4 I 6 A4+1+D6 2+/3+* had feel no pain, it will not die & eternal warrior, but then he has survived four of our older campaigns (He survived 12 games in one of them gaining boons and rewards as he went). He was moved to a 300pts lord of war before becoming apocalypse only)
Our next campaign will continue from where this one left off, hopefully our Black Templar and Tau players will be able to join in. (We are working through an outline story idea, designing missions and brainstorming campaign ideas to make ready for our next campaign. We just need to play some more 8th edition before we can finalise anything.)