Fresh off the disastrous Week 2 where the Imperium forces were forced into a massive rout by the Hivefleet Leviathan, remnants of the 43rd Vallorians have pulled back into the city of Asphodex to consolidate our defences and try to stem this tide called Hivefleet Leviathan.
Excerpt from logged communications, Sector 13, Asphodex, Day 18 :
0650 - 43rd Vallorians have reached Sector 13. Assuming defense of sector. Regiment at 43% combat efficiency. Request immediate resupply.
0845 - Request acknowledged. Enginseers enroute for mechanical repairs. Knight Paladin of House Thenn seconded to 43rd Vallorians.
1315 - Multiple xenos signatures registered at outskirts of Sector 13 and approaching. Request immediate air support and back-up.
1338 - Xenos sightings acknowledged. 43rd Vallorians are to hold Sector 13 for the Emperor.
1345 - Sector 13 is under attack. I repeat, Sector 13 is under heavy Xenos attack.
1437 - Zone 3 is lost. I repeat Zone 3 is lost. All other zones under heavy attack.
1542 - Multiple zones lost. I repeat, multiple zones lost. We need immediate back-up. We cannot hold out for long. May the Emperor protect us all...
++++++++++++
With a new army list that now has Flyers in my list, I played a 1850 game against Marshall's Hivefleet Leviathan.
I brought :
Tank Commander in LR Eradicator w/ Lascannon and Multi-melta sponsons.
in squadron with 1x LR Eradicator w/ Lascannon and Multi-melta sponsons.
Enginseer w/ 2x Servitors w/ Multi-Melta
Enginseer w/ 2x Servitors w/ Multi-Melta
Veteran Squad w/ 3 Meltaguns in Chimera
Platoon Command Squad
2x Infantry Squad w/ Meltagun
2x Heavy Weapon Team w/ 2x Autocannon and 1 Lascannon
3x Vendetta Squadrons
1x Knight Paladin
Marshall brought :
2x Flyrants
2x Malanthrope
3x Hive Guards
20x Termagants
3x Moculid Mines
2x Ripper Swarms
Unit of 3 Biovares
Unit of 3 Warriors
Exocrine
3x Carniflexes dakka-style
With random deployment, I deployed with the 2 Enginseers holding objectives 1 and 4, the 2 HWTs holding objectives 5 and 6, and 1 Infantry Squad holding objective 2. Surprisingly, no units rolled a 3 and most of my units were concentrated in zones 1,2,4,5.
Marshall rolled quite badly with his deployment with his Flyrants in zones 5 and 6 with the warriors, 1 Malanthrope, 1 Carniflex and Exocrine. His 2 Carniflexes. Hive Guards and Termagants were in zone 3 and not in synapse. This proved very difficult for him.
With the mission special rules, I managed to chip 2 wounds off the Warlord Flyrant and 1 wound off the other Flyrant. These would be the only wounds that I managed to take off them.
In Turn 1, Marshall killed my Platoon Squad with his Biovares while his Flyrants took 2 Hull points off the Chimera. 3 HWTs were also removed. But his units in Zone 3 went into Instinctive Behaviours and did nothing much.
I replied by taking wounds off his Malantrope with my meltas and multi-meltas and taking wounds off the zone 6 Carniflex with my Leman Russes. My Knight Paladin charged the closest Carniflex in zone 2 and smashed it into the ground.
No one managed to score any objectives although I completed phase 1 of card 22. I need to hold objective 2 for a 2nd turn in order to score.
Current Score :
DF : 0
MS : 1 (First Blood!)
In Turn 2, Marshall realised my Vendettas were preparing to come in so he zoomed his Warlord off table and turned the other towards another table edge. Seeing the Multi-meltas waiting, his zone 6 Carniflex moved towards zone 5 instead of approaching. The Chimera was wrecked and the Veterans came out and the Exocrine charged but failed to deal a wound and the Warriors approached the disembarked Veterans too. The zone 6 Malanthrope charged the HWT there but failed all his attacks. The Flyrant and Malantrope at zone 4 decided to deal with the Infantry Squad there to control the area and the Malantrope charged the infantry squad which had fled and became locked in combat.
During my turn, all my Flyers came in. Knowing that his remaining Flyrant has a 2+ Jink, I decided to go for his Tank-killers....his Carniflexes. A 2nd Carniflex was removed off table while the last Carniflex took 1 wound and passed his cover saves for the other 3. Shots were poured into the Exocrine bringing it down to 1 wound but it held on.
Vendettas tried to delete the Carniflex but failed.
In the end, I managed to score the VPs for holding Objective 2 for 2 turns as well as 32 after i discarded a card for 3 VPs.
Current Score :
DF : 3
MS : 1
Here we stopped taking photos.
Turn 3, Marshall's Flyrants decided to come in again and to turn around to fight for the skies above. Deciding to play safe, I decided to Jink the 2 Vendettas he targetted. Elsewhere, the Warriors charged the Veteran Squad and with the Exocrine killed the rest of the unit. The Malanthrope in zone 6 killed 1 base but my HWT held. The Infantry squad in Zone 4 was taken care of though.
In my turn, since I was jinking, my Vendettas could not do much and I decided to zoom 1 away from the battle. I decided to move my Knight Paladin up to snipe his Carniflex but only took a few wounds off. I tried to charge my Knight Paladin into the Carniflex needing a 12 but failed. Here, my Servitor in zone 4 decided to go blind and missed all his subsequent rolls to hit, much to my consternation. I was deleting the moculid mines as they come in and they were not much of a threat.
Here, I scored the High Ground (I controlled objectives 4 and 2 which are all on level 3) and rolled 4 on D3. I also scored Objective 12 since objective 2 was secure.
Current Score :
DF : 6
MS : 1
Turn 4, the fortunes became reversed remarkedly. The Flyrants were winning the dogfight with the Vendettas as they had 360 shooting and were constantly getting out of my arc of vision. 2 Vendettas were glanced to death after I failed Jink saves and decided not to Jink a 2nd. The Carniflex charged the Knight Paladin and Hammer of Wrathed it to death. The Knight Paladin exploded but dealt no further damage. The Warriors charged up objective 5 and secured it. The Malanthrope in zone 6 finally dealt with the HWT and secured objective 6. Biovares killed enough men on my objective 2 that my infantry squad fled but they remained on table.
In my turn, my last Vendetta returned but failed to kill the Flyrant Warlord, leaving it on 1 wound. My Leman Russ turned on the Warriors and deleted 2 of them. My last infantry squad rallied and went back into the building to secure the objective 2 again. Most of my heavy hitters are gone with my Leman Russ my only bulwark left.
Marshall scored Cripple the Vanguard but missed on the critical 3rd Vendetta which had zoomed out previously. He also managed to score a few more objectives while I scored objective 4 which remained under my control.
Current Score :
DF : 7
MS : 7
Turn 5, Marshall's Flyrants vectored striked my last Vendetta down while killing my Enginseer in objective 4 and bringing the ripper swarms in to capture objective 4. His warrior charged my Leman Russ but failed to glance. He now controls 2/3 of the board while I held on stubbornly to zones 1 and 2.
In my turn, my Leman Russ tried for a last glory moving up to kill the last Carrniflex for Big Game Hunter (66). With my multi-melta sponsons, the last Carniflex was melted and I scored the last VP.
Current Score :
DF : 8
MS : 7
As it was turn 5, I rolled to see if game continued and rolled a 1, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the Imperium.
Imperial reinforcements had managed to arrive just in time before 43rd Vallorians crumbled to prevent a massive Tyranid breakthrough in Sector 13! For the Emperor!
Current score for Week 3:
Tyranids: 3
Imperial : 17
Finally the Imperium has stemmed the tide!