Last week on Tuesday, I had my third an pan-ultimate game in our Warzone mini league (yes it really is that small this season). Michael came over for a game and this would be the first time I would face the Dark Legion in our league.
I decided to stick with the unit composition I had used in the game vs. Ingo two days prior. So again the Fenriswölfe were led by a custom Juggernaut close combat Warlord, with two squads of Hussars (one with six men and one LMG the other with just five men and no support weapon), two five-women squads of Etoiles Mortants with a flame thrower each, one five-men squad of Venusian Rangers with one rocket launcher and a three-men squad of Vulkan suits (all with Rapid Deployment, one of them in close combat configuration).
Michael had his troops led by custom close combat Nepharite Warlord, with another custom Nepharite Lord. There were two seven-men Squads of undead Legionaries (each led by an extra Necromuntant and sporting and LMG and flamethrower. There were also two six-men squads of Necromutants, a lone Nasca Razide and two Praetorian Stalkers (ranged combat version) to round the force off.
We had several missions to accomplish in this game. The primary mission for both sides was a “kill them all”, which I think speaks for itself. As a secondary mission we had to find and blow up an ammo dump. For the Corporate Agenda mission the Dark Legion had to capture two of my men for interrogation (or possible worse), while one of my squad leaders (the Vulkan leader) had to kill more enemy soldiers than any of the other Bauhaus squad leaders.
The table was kept fairly simple (due to the good weather I decided to set up outdoors last-minute) with a large wooded hill in the centre, two woods in the corners and a large ruin along one table edge.
Table seen from the Bauhaus side
I had lost set initiative and put my Warlord with the two hussar squads in the corner facing the ruins. Michael put his Nepharite Lord into the opposing corner surrounded by one squad of Legionaries and behind a Necromutant screen. Further towards the middle he placed his Warlord with the Necromutants and behind those, the other squad of Legionaries. Between those two formations was the Razide.
When it came to the infiltrating forces, I put my Rangers into the large woods in the centre, adjacent to one of the possible ammo dumps.
My Etoiles Mortants and Vulkans as well as Michael’s Stalkers were kept off table to Rapid Deploy when called for.
The first round literally started off with a bang. I activated my Venusian Rangers first, one of them investigated the possible ammo dump, found it to be real and set explosives to it to blow it up at the end of the round. The other four squad members fired at the Necromutants accompanying the Warlord, killing one of them. Michael started by playing a card on me, that would turn all my weapons into plasma type weapons for this round. Usually this would be good for me, expect that Necromutants are able to heal quiet well vs. plasma weapons, which eventually meant I decided to delay any possible Rapid Deployments. Now Michael returned fire with his Necromutants but their fire was not as good although more men with a higher rate of fire fired (mostly due to me being in cover) and he managed to kill one of my Rangers.
Illian Templar (stand ins for Necromutants) advancing towards their secondary objective
Otherwise it was mostly consolidating. My Warlord advanced with the Hussars. Michael’s flank Necromutants advanced while the Legionaries in the centre tried to keep up with the Warlord and Necromutants to their front. On the flank the Nepharite and Razide went into sentry, while the Legionaries huddled around them and put up a wall of fire with the flamethrower. They were pretty afraid of my Rapid Deployment troops.
The next round saw my drop my Vulkans close to the enemy Warlord. They were right on spot and the squad leader and the other suit in range combat configuration were able to kill all the Necromutants surrounding the Warlord with their flamethrowers and HMGs. Now it was time for the close combat version to charge the Warlord in the back, but unfortunately he did not roll as good and caused only two wounds. But all in all things did not look too bad.
Vulkans going for the Warlord
Three suits in mint condition and not much to do them harm… What could go wrong. Well as it would come to show, a lot. One after the other, Michael’s Praetorian Stalkers dropped close to my Vulkans. One of them botched up his drop, but was still close enough to attack. Their weapons came with a flamethrower that is pretty effective vs. vehicles. So instead of getting a good chance for an armour safe (Vulkans have a 13 and 14 target number on a D20) it got down to a 5% chance. I was still able to prevent some damage due to good dice rolling and their auto repair function, but bottom line was… They all could no longer take more than minimal damage. For the rest of the round they were fired at by the remaining squad of Necromutants and the Legionaries. Some of the closer Legionaires also charged them… Undead claws are pretty effective vs. armour, too. In the end all Vulkans perished and with them more than a third of my points… Ouch!
Dark Legion Forces looking at the site of the provious skirmish
In the corner the Dark Legion was going back to its corral tactic. So my Etoiles Mortant went in for high risk drops (only the slightest scatter would have meant disaster for them). The drops went fine and between them, they managed to kill both the Nasca Razide and Nepharite and a good portion of the Legionaries. Unfortunately, one of the living corpses was able to pick up the flamethrower from his now more than undead partner. When their turn came he manged to toast all (including the flametrower) except the squad leader from one squad. One of the undead also a manged to kill the other flamethrower. Otherwise my Warlord and Hussars advanced further.
Warlord and Hussars advancing
The next round, my Etoiles Mortants cleared off the remaining Legionaires, but at a grim cost. When one of them slew the Necromant Leader in close combat, his body fluids splashed over one of the Etoiles, turning her into an Undead Legionary as well, who had to be killed by her former mates. For protection, they also threw some flash grenades, but during the rest of the turn they were still picked of my fire from the Necromutants.
In the centre, my Rangers were falling to fire from one of the Praetorian Stalkers and remaining Legionaires until only one of them remained.
But the big blow was with to come to the troops accompanying my Warlord. By playing a card Michael was able to teleport one of his Stalkers back to their “mothership”, only to instantly rapid deploy him again right besides my Hussars and Warlord. He also played a card which turned the armour on the bigger of the two Hussar squads extremely hard, except for the weapons type the Stalker was using. In the end a total of seven Hussars perished with my Warlord taking minimal damage. The remaining Hussars did their best to take down the Stalker, but failed, so in the end my Warlord had to turn on him and kill him.
Re-rapid-deployed Praetorian Stalker
What did this leave us with? Well Michael had little under half his force left, while all I had was my Warlord, four Hussars and a Venusian Ranger. I had achieved my Secondary and Corporate Agenda Missions, but there was a snowball’s chance in hell that Micheal would not take the primary one. So right now it was a draw. At least if I could keep him from completing his secondary mission as well. (Yes, we played this wrong. If we both have the same secondary mission, only one can achieve it and since I had already blown up the ammo dump, this would have been the case.) so I shifted my aim to blow up his ammo dump as well.
My Venusian Ranger was killed while he crouched next to it, waiting to place his explosives. Two Hussars were killed in a blocking position, while the other two were cut down en route. I also managed to kill two Necromutants, but this was of little consequence. In the end it was a head to head race between my Warlord and one of his Necromutants to see who would get there first. Since we were both the same distance from the ammo dump, one initiative roll would see who of us would activate first and therefore set his explosives first. Micheal won that initiative and therefore made sure it was a win instead of a draw. But a narrow result it was none the less and a very fun game!
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