Battle 13: The March of the Faithful

After the defeat against Ilse of the Krieg and Tómas of the Crimson Fists, the generals of Zebaot tries to lead their remaining troops and cultists in a “tactical retreat”. A column of chanting cultists are led by their herdsmen towards the undercity. Their mission is to get as many units as possible across the sector. The Flesh Tearers have managed to intercept the troop movement, and hurries to destroy the column.

- Location: Sector Phlegethon, the desert city of Tartarus, Cerberus XIII
- Imperial: Adeptus Astartes: Flesh Tearers
- Chaos Forces: Traitor Legion: Word Bearers
- Points value: 1050 per side

Special Rules:

- Maelstrom Deck without objectives. Replace objectives with own codex mission
- Deployment on short sides, 24’’ in between forces
- Kill points for units destroyed.
- Zebaot (Word Bearers) choses a minimum of 3 units. These gives 2 VP if they enters the opponents Deployment, in which case they leaves the game at the end of the player’s turn.
- Zebaot may sacrifice D3 cultists/guards for an additional magic die.
- Flesh Tearers gets one VP per unit put in reserves at the start of the match. When they arrive they do so randomly 1d6: 1 – long side, 2 short side, 3 other long side, 5 other short side, 5, choose side, 6 arrive next round on side of own choosing.

Excerpt from the Chronicles of Cerberus, or the Lay of Adamna; Volume IX,

Ch.23:v.1 'And as the Servants of the Corpse God came to the city of Tartarus, as Bringers of Death they came. Hungry for the flesh of the faithful, hateful of the true Gods, servants of Lies and Tyranny they were. The slain of the Faithful lay in the streets of the city, unblessed and unburied, while the Angels of Death grew fat on the corpses of the People.'

Ch.23:v.2 'In those dark times, The Speaker of the Truths called out to the Faithful. And he called them to his side, in the bosom of the City, near the Heart of the Gods. And all came, even though the journey was hard, and they were hounded at all times by the Foes of Peace.'

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Brother Hagenti, chaplain of the Host of the Flame of Truth, strode beside the commander of the 4thdivision of the Cerberus Defense Forces. He did not remember her name. He found her faith strong, but her command lackluster. The men looked more to their own friends and sergeants than to their commander. Naturally, he had built on that to foster their loyalty to himself, and to the Cause and their Great Teacher.
Times and places blurred. On a hundred planets, at a thousand times, had he done this. Walked with the faithful mortals, spurring them, inspiring them with words and shows of devotion. He hoped for a hundred, a thousand more, before he went to the Sprit Realm. Or, Gods willing, the end of the Long War.

The Long War, now a cause in itself to many of his brothers and sisters. He could hear their murmured voices in his mind and through the helmet vox. Sending their prayers to All Gods; Gods of War and of Death, gods of Passion and of Hate, gods of love and wisdom and perseverence, All the gods of the Warp, large and small.

Then a whisper roused him from his state of ambulatory meditation. There was a tremor in the warp, and disturbance in the vox chant. 'Foes are near. Hunting, chasing, hungry for flesh. Bastards of the ninth', the whisper said.

His amplified voice called out to mortals and his siblings alike. ”Wake, brothers and sisters! Our enemy is near! Hold your souls ready, for battle might be upon us!”
Sister Issachar's voice rang from the vox. 'Brother, contact ahead, foot and mounted'.
Then, from the sky, came the second arm of the attack. With a mighty thunder two drop pods crashed down behind their lines, disgorging marines in red and black, and on the other flank, a dreadnaught all in black. Melta guns blazed, shaking the tanks of the Defence Forces.

”Forward! Our hope is ahead!”

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Later, commander Zidan and her second in command was hiding behind the wall of the cemetary. They were trying to find a corner where the fire from the two drop pods could not reach them. She was ashamed to admit that her courage had broken in the first moments of the battle. The Apostle of Truth had called out the alarm, but they had hardly formed up when the sky had betrayed them and dropped Angels of the False God upon their heads! Two of her staff and bodyguard had been shot down, and they had fled.

Cowardice, perhaps, but they were alive, which some of her troops were not.
They could hear the battle move away from them. Explosions and gunfire. Then, the heavy tread of giants in powered armor, close. Giants in black and red strode into the cemetery, straight for them! A vox-distorted growl could be heard, like an angered beast denied its prey.
They tried to run, but did not come far.

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Hagenti was pleased as he tallied the survivors in his head. His brothers and sisters had taken almost no losses, injuries, yes, but nothing lethal. Of the mortals, only the mechanized squad had come through. But mortals died, it was their nature. All in all, he was pleased.
The Flesh Tearers had landed behind them, and while they were busy hunting the defense force tanks and troops, Hagenti, Volac and the Host of the Flame of Truth had charged ahead, taking out the predator tanks that had tried to stop them, and a battle group of loyalist marines. And then the way ahead had been clear.
After all, their test was to rejoin their Lord, not to do battle. With as many of their allies as they could bring.

Their time was near.


Win for the Word Bearers with 19-12 VP.

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Additional images courtesy of the ECBE (Esteemed Conclave for Battle Evaluation), Astra Militarum.

 

Battle 2a. Chaos-Fallen Tartarus: Southern Wall

This battle represents the southern defense of the chaos-infested city of Tartarus, where renegade Krieg and Wordbearers face an assault of Space Wolves, Fleshtearers and Crimson Fists. The Crimson Fists have acess to a captive Kommissar-General Ilse, who can plead with Krieg troops to lay down their arms, if she gets close enough.

Battle intro here
Northern assault here

[Author: Mattias]

- Location: the desert city of Tartarus, Cerberus XIII
- Imperial Forces: Crimson Fists, Space Wolves, Fleshtearers
- Chaos Forces: Renegade Death Korps of Krieg, Wordbearers, Daemons of Nurgle
- Points value: total of 1200 points on each side
- Combat objectives Imperium: Slay Warlord. Destroy Chaos Altar. Annihilate the enemy.
- Combat objectives Chaos: Slay Warlord. Slay Kommissar-General Ilse. Defend the city.

 Special Rules:
- Night Combat all turns.
- Daemons roll for each unit prior to battle. On a 6: -1 Toughness.
- Kommissar-General Ilse travels with the Imperials. If she is within 12" of a Krieg force, she can force a Ld-test. If they fail, they will not fight the next round.
- All demons held in reserve.
- Victory points are combined for two parallel battles (2a - Southern Wall and 2b - Northern Wall)

 The vehicles advanced rapidly towards the dark wall. On cue rifle fire and artillery broke loose along the entire front. Unter-Kommissar-General Hilda von Stroheim pressed the trigger button to the Vengeance Cannon and a rhino was chewed apart under the merciless storm of bullets. Astartes of the Crimson Fists evacuated in panic and was almost crushed under the tracks of a predator. Two different chapters at once?

The vox crackled. There were more atmospheric disturbances than ever. "Predator is equipped with flamethrowers, Kommissar-General."
Hilda cursed. "Take it down now - if it reaches the fortification line all the men will be fried to a crisp in their bunkers".

She tried to get a clear shot of the predator, but was thrown to the ground when the turret was hit by a missile. The tanks advanced rapidly. "Crack grenade - take it down now -" The vox was filled with screams when gouts of blazing promethium hit the northern bunker.

As the predator swung around with flamethrowers directed against the ramparts at the city gate, the desert was filled with explosions from Krieg artillery, which rained shrapnel over the astartes that advanced across the sand to get within shooting range. But the enemy did not die quickly enough.

The ground shook as a landing capsule hit the town square. Panic from militia who crowded into a bunker, when a huge metal monster loomed out of the capsule, shimmering force field on its huge axe and shield. On its plate was etched runes, and the monster was decorated with trophies, furs and grinning wolves skulls. Three chapters? Hilda almost started laughing hysterically.

An automatic turret in the capsule started spraying bullets all over the place while the dreadnought trudged toward the artillery. Hell. "Good Emperor of Mankind, see us in our struggle, send us help in this hour of need ..." Hilda mumbled prayers almost without thinking.

The air over the battlefield shimmered; swarms of flies seemed to multiply. A few soldiers threw up inside their gas masks, when rotting mountains of meat and slippery tentacles ripped reality and dumped out in puddles of fluids, like grotesque newborns. Help had arrived, her prayers had been heard, But not from the Emperor. Hilda laughed out loud with relief!

During a break in the artillery fire, the demons charged on the Marines. A huge abomination fell the rear squads in the back while wolves in Terminator armor slowly hacked their way through a flock of chattering creatures that just refused to die. An enemy razorback got a cannon shot into the next bunker which went up in flames, but despite that the battle had turned. Krieg sappers got a melta shot in the back of the dreadnought, while the chaos marines attacked it in the flank. Hurray! The fortress was secured! With a smile, she ran across the square toward the drop pod - the noise and the chaos had been so loud that she almost had forgotten the bolter turret that still rained bullets over the defenders.

She got some hits, but nothing she could not handle.
"In you go!," she laughed and lobbed a melta bomb into the capsule. The bullets continued to hammer the ground around her. "One more!"
She stretched and peered at the horizon while the capsule collapsed as its foundation turned to molten slag. "The demon seems to have taken care of the reinforcments." She saw the massive creature cleave another dreadnought, before going down being peppered to a pulp by the intelligent bullets of the sternguard. The tanks backed away, and they retreated quickly, to escape the ongoing artillery fire.

Renegade Kommissar Hilda

Remaining was only broken battlements and burning bunkers, where demons and their human allies feasted on charred corpses.

Hilda limped up the steps to the altar and stood at the top. She looked triumphantly out over the square and the many faces turned toward her.
 "We have won - you hear it all! We won! We made the Emperor flee!" Weeping, she collapsed on the top step.

At the corpse-puddle left from the great demon, on a hill far from the battlefield, was Kommissar-General Ilse and those of the Crimson Fists who had managed to get out of the bullet-riddled troop transport. Ilse handed back the borrowed image magnifier. "I arrived too late to save them, and now they are lost. Although they feel that victory is sweet, ultimately they will only taste the bitterness of debt. How could they all fall like that? "
She was injured, but just felt tired. "Take me back to the base. Nothing more can be done for them.”

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Extra images courtesy of the ECBE (Esteemed Conclave for Battle Evaluation), Astra Militarum:

Deliver us from Evil

Taking pot shots with their heavy bolters

Look - Kewt!

Legionnaires from the Word Bearers legion.

Battle at the gates

Battle 2a. Intro: Hell's Courtyard

Death Korps of Krieg Intro
[Author: Mattias] 

- Location: the desert city of Tarterus, Cerberus XIII. Southern defenses.
 
Silence had descended with the chill desert night. Unter-Kommissar-General Hilda von Stroheim peered into the darkness through the bunker’s slits. The soldiers were nervous, almost terrified. She put her hand on one soldier's shoulder, nodded grimly to another, where she went her round to ensure that the troops kept their morale. Kommissar-General Ilse had persuaded the regimental command that they must hold the defence facing the Emperor's chosen. There was information that could save the Empire from destruction, if not treason within the Adeptus Astartes managed to eliminate the leak first.


Hilda put her head down to get out of the bunker, and stepped out into something taken from a nightmare hallucination. Bonfires burned on top of newly erected monuments and columns everywhere in the city. Huge legionnaires in grotesque armor prepared for battle without even acknowledging the human defenders with a glance. Untrained locals had been massed together in flocks of cackling militia, giggling as they fingered their new laser guns, while others indulged in self-mortification at altars set up everywhere. Only inside the perimeter she and her men had erected, was something like sobriety and order. And her soldiers hardly dared to leave their bunkers.

The buzzing of flies was almost deafening.

Lieutenant Hozenhollern saluted: "Unter-Kommissar-General, we have new heat signatures in the south. They are approaching fast. Reports of a second force approaching at the northern route, from the oasis. " Hilda sat down behind the fortified defence turrets. She put her eye to the image intensifier. Several vehicles - troop transports and light tanks.
"Keep the wall at any cost, Lieutenant. That's all."

This was the Rubicon.

Battle 1. Power Station.

- Location: Abandoned power station, Cerberus XIII
- Imperial Forces: Flesh Tearers, Crimson Fists, Dark Angels
- Renegade Forces: Wordbearers and Renegade Deth Korps of Krieg.
- Wildcard: Harlequins (allied with renegades)
- Point value: 300 points per faction, for a total of 900 points per side.
- Combat objectives include a radio transmitter and a landing pad.

Death Korps of Krieg: Battle One
[Author: Mattias]

"Visual contact"
Ilse watched combat cameras flash in the gas mask HUD.
Adeptus Astartes Crimson Fists and Adeptus Astartes Fleshtearers, two light recon forces.

The plan was to hold the bunker until she managed to retrieve a data cube lost on the landing pad - it couldn’t fall into enemy hands, but must be secured. Or destroyed.

"Wolf pack alpha, stand down and take the tower and the landing pad, Beta, hold the bunker and protects the retreat next to HQ. Centurion 2 prepares to retrieve the package.


She saw a blue Rhino advance through the worn industrial landscape. As soon as it came within range, the earth exploded with mole torpedoes and the dry desert wind became ionized with silent laser shots. Unharmed the rhino spewed out an entire squadron of armored giants and her protective bunker was torn up by a storm of explosive bullets. Her soldiers fell around her while more torpedoes detonated in the sand without hitting their target.

The vox channel was filled with confused messages from the wolf pack alpha and the Centurion transport. Deformed Astartes, who slaughtered a flanking squad of Dark Angels on motorcycles. A report of an unknown sniper which rained death and fear on the Astartes from the Flesh Tearers chapter. She looked up at the tower as she ran towards shelter. The image magnifier showed a glimpse of a skull mask in silver. Ilse cursed. "Extra aces in the deck" Though not the kind of aces she normally wanted to play with.

She gave orders to the last soldier to dash for the radiotransmitter in the bunker, sending her collected information to home base. It has to be done. Rather the possibility that the data was intercepted, than completely lost. In the vox she heard someone scream incoherently of a demon in a mirror mask. Fuck that. She rushed toward a shrubbery of thorny desert bushes as she watched her field generator light up when bullets hit home. A couple went through. And a couple more. She lay on the ground. On the side. The inside of the gas mask was hot and sticky.
"Whipping up a storm” she mumbled to herself.

Dark Angels: Battle One
[Author: Anders W]
There was already an intense firefight at the bunker helipad. Units from the planetary defense forces had entrenched themselves behind armoured wall segments and bravely returned a murderous fire from several squadrons of Astartes from the Flesh Tearers and the Crimson Fists. From its high altitude Brother Asherai identified a secondary target and swooped down to the center of the helipad. The surprised defenders were shot to pieces by explosive bullets.

Only two were left when the smoke lifted. Uzariel led a troika of combat bikes into the enemy's flanks, where they attacked a living blasphemy: a pack of legionnaires from the Word Bearers. Space around them twisted back and forth, and not even Uzariel could manifest his mighty will through their defenses. Plasma, melta and bolter fire brought down three of the red enemies, but howling they turned their fearsome guises and rained back death and destruction in return. Uzariel suddenly found himself alone, his brothers lay fallen around him, but his sword gleamed in the weak red rays of the sun, as he prepared to plunge into the enemy
crowd.
He glimpsed something in the corner of his
 eye - a slender figure fell upon him. It was almost invisible, but its movements induced a horror he had not previously experienced. Harlequin! ...
Its sword slashed dozens of holes in his armor, and he saw its mask hover above him as his second heart also gave up. His mind ranged, unfettered for a moment, to give a warning to whoever could hear. "Harlequin ..."

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Extra images courtesy of the ECBE (Esteemed Conclave for Battle Evaluation), Astra Militarum:

A squad of Flesh Tearers and a squad of Crimson Fists, hanging in the back.

Harlequin

Crimson Fists rhino.

Death Korps of Krieg Centaur

Local militia holding the helipad