The Battle for Tantrum Prime - Battle Reports - Week 4

Week 4 – Lord Madigus Kyle’s Hunting Party vs. Crimson Fists Strikeforce
Mission: Breakout


-= ][ =-

Things were definitely NOT going according to plan.

After narrowly loosing to the Executioner Space Marines defending Hive City Angrius, Lord Madigus had retreated south and regrouped. His forces had taken a beating but for every dead guardsman under his command the Executioners had lost a battle brother in return. Although taking the city was vital for the overall campaign, Madigus’s forces had learned much about the nature of their foe, and he swore that the next time his cadre crossed paths with the loyalist dogs there would be much reaping and bloodshed.

But now was not the time for petty daydreams of unending slaughter. Such thoughts were better left to the Khornates. Madigus’s forces had set up camp in an arid valley in the canyon lands south of Hive Angrius. His personal team of gifted chirugeon’s had already restored himself and the men under his thrall into fit fighting condition once again, and it would soon be time to take the fight to the enemy once more.

Suddenly he heard the familiar chirping of is helmet’s comm bead.

“My lord! Short range scanners have just detected enemy movement to the east and west of our current position. We’re being surrounded!”

“That’s impossible,” growled Lord Madigus. “How did they get past our sentries and long-range auspices? Well never mind that now. What is the nature of the enemy?”

“Enemy Rhino transports are what set off the short-range movement sensors, my Lord. But Colonel Klaxo’s sentries are just reporting visual sighting of movement in the foliage nearer to our encampment; likely enemy scouts or similar light infantry.”

“Very well. Rouse the camp and get our Chimeras moving. NOW!” Madigus changed the channel on his personal comm set. “Sombra and Cazador, report in! I want us airborne fifteen minutes ago. Let’s move!”

Before they could respond though, there was a crackle of static and another, less common sound that Madigus recognized as psychic feedback.

“Madigus Kyle! This is Epistolary Librarian Atreyu of the Crimson Fists. Your heresies against the God Emperor have gone more than far enough. By the power invested in me by the Emperor Himself, I will take your pathetic life—“

Lord Madigus cut off his comm set with a sigh and reluctantly released the limiter built into his power armour. The psychic energy pent up inside him shot in every direction like a miniature explosion, knocking over poorly lashed down kit and creating a ring of clean bedrock at his feet as nearby sand was whipped away. Wherever they were in the camp, the members of his personal retinue sprung into action, fueled by his iron will.

TO ME, MY CHILDREN! THE TIME HAS COME TO EXERCISE THAT DEADLY MANIFEST ONCE MORE! TO ARMS AND TO ME!

“We are as One, to You, our Lord!” they replied in unison, their consciousness now one.

SOMBRA DE MUERTE, LOCK ONTO THE SOURCE OF THE ENEMY TRANSMITION. LET THE GREAT HUNT BEGIN ANEW!

“As you will, my Lord. We are yours to command.”

-= ][ =-


The Setup:

As per the Breakout scenario, I setup in a strip along the center of the table with my on-foot infantry facing west and my Devil Dogs and mounted veterans facing east. The Valkyrie holding Lord Madigus and his retinue started to the far north and the other Valkyrie with more veterans inside started to the far south. Parker split his forces evenly, putting one full tactical squad, a tactical combat squad and their Rhino, a scout squad, and a Sternguard squad with their Lascannon Razorback to the west of my position. To the east of me he put another tactical squad with Rhino, combat squad, scout squad, and his terminator librarian avatar with a retinue of “shooty” terminators.

I used my scout move to move Madigus’s Valkyrie as close as possible to Librarian Atreyu. The other Valkyrie Vendetta “Cazador” moved as close as possible to the full tactical squad in the southwest corner of the table. Parker rolled to Seize the Initiative but failed to do so, and the hunt was on!


Turn 1:

The game began with Lord Madigus and his retinue disembarking from their Valkyrie “Sombra de Muerte” and moving towards Librarian Atreyu and his retinue. Sombra de Muerte itself flew over their heads to set up a line of fire on the various tactical squads on the east side of the board. The Devil Dogs moved forward towards the east as well to get a shot at the Rhino parked there. The nearby Chimera Bendición with its cargo of meltagun-toting veterans moved up behind them. On the other side of the table the veterans disembarked from Cazador and moved behind a nearby ruin where they had a protected firing lane to the large western tactical squad. Cazador itself moved back towards the center of the table to set up a clean shot at the western Rhino.

Colonel Klaxo, realizing the threat it posed to Lord Madigus’s vehicles, ordered his command squad to bring the lascannon-toting Razorback down. The lascannon shot from his own squad hit the vehicle dead on, but the real show-stopper was the artillery shot directed in via Klaxo’s ordnance officer. The long range artillery shot landed perfectly on target, despite the extreme range, annihilating the razorback and several tactical marines that were standing nearby. Cazador performed to its usual level of efficiency by destroying the other Rhino on the west side of the table. The sniper veterans tried their best to take out the scout squad on their side of the table but the scouts kept their heads down and made all of their cover saves.

On the other side of the table Madigus and his retinue lit up Atreyu and his own retinue with plasma fire. Three terminators were vaporized despite their magnificent armour, but they kept their leader protected from the deadly bolts of energy. The Devil Dogs took pot shots at the eastern Rhino, but after moving at such high speed their shots weren’t on target and they only managed to knock a stormbolter off (it had two!). Sombra de Muerte and Bendición opened up on the various marines and scouts on the east side of the table, but casualties were light.

On Parker’s first turn he moved up all of his tactical and Sternguard marines on the west side to close with my veterans. There were some light casualties to bolter fire but not enough to cause my men to shift from their positions. The western scout squad contained a Scout Master Sergeant (an un-named Telion counts-as) who managed to blow the head off of Klaxo’s ordnance officer after he saw what that long range artillery fire could do. Klaxo and his staff refused to be pinned, though. Back on the eastern side of the table, Atreyu used his psychic ability to cast Null Zone, hoping to break through Madigus’s invulnerable save. Lord Madigus wasn’t about to let some Emperor-loving weakling have his way with him though, and unleashed the power of his psychic hood to nullify the power. Angered by Madigus’s audacity, Atreyu ordered every unit within range to open up on Madigus and his henchmen. Despite a number of bolters, storm bolters, heavy bolters, and an assault cannon shooting at them, only Madigus’s familiar and a couple of his acolytes actually died. Still, it was enough casualties for the retinue to be eligible for a leadership test, and as Atreyu and his terminators were closing in for a nasty assault, Madigus ordered his men to fall back behind a nearby ruin, causing Atreyu’s assault to fail.


Turn 2:

In a stunning act of punctuality, both Gin’quen the Assassin and Kurt Fénix showed up on the table this turn. Gin’quen materialized next to a tactical squad on the eastern side of the table, apparently having disguised herself as a small palm tree. She immediately hit them with her mind-burning pistol, killing two marines. Kurt repelled off the top of a large water tower on the western side of the board, landing next a flamer-wielding tactical squad and tossing his demolition charge into their midst. It scattered wildly though, only clipping a couple of marines.

Nearby, a veteran sniper squad and Cazador fired at the Sternguard, vaporizing several with las-beams and killing one with a head shot from one of the snipers. The veterans marines shrugged off the attacks and pushed forwards nonetheless. Further south, the other veteran squad returned fire on the scouts hiding in a nearby copse of palm trees. The majority of the scouts managed to keep low and avoid the stream of lasgun shots, but their master sergeant arrogantly raised his head to keep an eye on things and ended up taking a sniper’s bullet right in the forehead. The remaining scouts proceeded to panic and ran down the far side of the small hill they were sniping from.

The remnants of the plasma-wielding veteran squad to the far south tried to finish off the last half-dozen marines closing on their position. The close proximity of the marines allowed almost all of their shots to hit, but once the dust settled the squad’s sergeant stood unharmed with a defiant look in his eye. The large psychic backwash caused from the mental dueling between Madigus and Atreyu threw Madigus’s psyker coven into a fit, making them unable to use their powers. Despite that, their overseer opened the hatch of their Chimera and spied the lone sergeant standing not but a few meters away. With a determined sneer he took aim and shot the gloating sergeant in the head with his laspistol, killing him.

Back on the east side of the battlefield Sombra de Muerte and Bendición continued to rake up a tally of dead marines and scouts, and the two Devil Dogs finally managed to blow up the remaining Rhino. More importantly, however, Madigus and his retinue regrouped and stepped out from behind a nearby ruin. With Atreyu only a handful of meters away it was all to easy to hose down him and his remaining pair of terminators with plasma gun fire, putting several wounds on each. The Emperor-blessed shielding on their terminator armour simply couldn’t stand up to the withering hail of plasma bolts and the three of them fell in the crossfire. Before he collapsed Madigus reached into Atreyu’s weakened mind and stamped a forever-burning image of his leering face onto the forefront of Atreyu’s vision.

And with that, Parker surrendered, and the game came to an abrupt halt.


-= ][ =-

His apothecaries found him after the battle was concluded and Lord Madigus’s forces had left the area.

He was screaming. It was very undignifying.

“Sir!? What do you require of us? Our scanners are showing only superficial injuries to your person.”

“HE. IS. WATCHING. ME. HIS GAZE! IT IS ETERNAL! NO. ESCAPE!”

One apothecary turned to the other.

“This is most perturbitory.”

“Indeed. The thrice-damned witch has burned his mind. We must get him back to his sanctum.”

“Agreed. His mind is wary. He will need much rest.”

As the apothecaries went to retrieve the prostrate form of their commander he sent them both flying backwards with a burst of psychic force.

“NO! NO REST! NO REST FOR THE WICKED! NO REST FOR ATREYU!”

“But, sir! You are in no state to continue fighting this war!”

“NOOOO! MADIGUS. WILL. DIEEEEE! ATREYU DEMANDS IT. ATREYU DEMANDS RETRIBUTION! DO YOU HEAR ME, MADIGUS?!? ATREYU. IS. COMING!!!”

Many kilometers away within the hull of the Sombra de Muerte Lord Madigus did indeed hear him. And yet even still, he couldn’t help but smile. Like his master had once said…

Insanity was like gravity; once someone was at the edge all you had to do… was give them a little push.

And now as far as Madigus was concerned, his war here was won. Whatever tomorrow might bring, no victory could as ever be as sweet as turning one of the Emperor’s sons away from their Father…

-= ][ =-


Final Battle Results:
Victor: Lord Madigus; Enemy Avatar Surrendered
Total Experience Gained: 6379
MVP: Lord Madigus’s Retinue

Lord Madigus Kyle has LEVELED UP!
Lord Madigus Kyle has gained a new Skill: Marksman

His Lord’s Retinue have LEVELED UP!
His Lord’s Retinue have gained a new Battle Honour: Seasoned Campaigners.

Colonel Klaxo & Staff have LEVELED UP!
Colonel Klaxo & Staff have gained a new Battle Honour: Tank Hunters.

Gin’quen has LEVELED UP!
Gin’quen has gained a new Battle Honour: Tank Hunters

The Coven has LEVELED UP!
The Coven has gained a new Battle Honour: Natural Survivors.

Sgt. Angio’s Veterans have LEVELED UP!
Sgt. Angio’s Veterans have gained a new Battle Honour: Tank Hunters.

Sgt. Ramirez’ Veterans have LEVELED UP!
Sgt. Ramirez’ Veterans have gained a new Battle Honour: Tank Hunters.

Sombra de Muerte has LEVELED UP!
Sombra de Muerte has gained a new Battle Honour: Tank Hunters

By the way, I totally forgot to mention it officially, but the reason for the little drama there at the end is because Parker's "death roll" earned him a permanent injury. He got Bitter Enmity towards my avatar, so the next time we're in a campaign game together it should be pretty interesting.