"Remember Sergeant" he said, his voice a deep, earthy growl emitting from his skull helm with the authority of a natural born leader "this drop is into the heart of the enemy base of operations. Expect them to be present in force. Establish a beach head with squad Alfredo - they are already on the ground infiltrating the area. Once you and Sergeant Platon are on the ground, Squad Rico and I will follow with Sergeant Edmundo and his men to secure the area. Do not become isolated."

"Aye Sir" Reyes replied, his eyes steel-hard and determined.

"Launch drop pods" he growled into the vox pickup in his throat.

"Pods away" came the inhuman response, the tech crew monitoring the launch bay were hard-wired into their systems and had their voices replaced by ship augmetics.



Dusk Knights







Chaplain Ezequiel Auspex and melta bombs





Squad Primus Grav gun, grav cannon, imperial space marine, drop pod with locator beacon





Squad Alfredo 5 Scouts with Sergeant, camo cloaks, sniper rifles and teleport homer





Squad Platon 5 Sternguard with 2 grav guns and 3 combi grav, drop pod





Squad Camilo Command squad with apothecary, 4 plasma guns, drop pod





Squad Rico 6 cataphractii terminators with heavy flamer, chain fist, grenade harness





Squad Edmundo 5 vanguard veterans with jump packs, 2 power swords, 2 power axes, relic blade and melta bombs









Alpha Legion







Alpharius Bike, Gift of Mutation, Sigil of Corruption, Drakescale plate, Power Fist, Lightning Claw





The Shadows 10 chosen





The Dust 10 chosen, 4 plasma guns, rhino with combi bolter and dozer blade





The Honoured Few 4 terminators, 3 power fists, 2 chain fists and 5 combi meltas





Brethren of Hades 10 Havocs with 4 autocannons





The punished 2 Spawn





The ruination of Golovin Chaos Bastion







"Chaplain", he voxed into his helmet pickup. "We've made planetfall, and engaged the enemy. Multiple unit strength indicated at present, visibility challenging."

"Sergeant Alfredo, what do you have?" he requested of the sniper scout team who had inserted onto the battlefield some time before and had been observing the Alpha Legion camp ever since.

"Nothing on my side of the field sir, but this smoke has only just settled, they started generating it just after your drop pods became visible. There are few dedicated structures withing the camp - there's a bastion to the north of your position with a squad of Havocs occupying it, I'd say bearing autocannons, their warlord was over at the east side with a squad of terminators when we lost sight of them.

"Report sergeant" ordered Chaplain Ezequiel.

"Chaplain" replied Reyes "we have neutralised their central forces and Sergeant Camilo is securing the southern sector. I can see him fighting on. They have a senior officer heading towards Sergeant Alfredo's squad, and Havocs are providing covering fire from the bastion to the north. I can see Sergeant Platon's men in the east, the terminators there have been accounted held up and are no longer a threat. I'm afraid Chaplain that I cannot move, and my squad have been rendered combat ineffective sir."

"Acknolwedged Reyes, we will discuss penance for your failing upon our return to the Saint's Retribution."

"Dusk Knights, regroup." the Chaplain ordered.

"We have struck at the heart of the enemy, and sent them running, we shall return to the Saint's Retribution and plan our next move."

Ryan

Nick

So, that's your intro to the game, now the question is what did we do and how did we play it?Well, the mission is one from the Altar of War collections (I still have them on my iPad).At it's heart, it's a kill points mission, but each HQ choice is worth 3pts, each Elite, Fast Attack or Heavy Support 2pts, and each Troops or Dedicated Transport 1pt.The Chaos force would set up first, anywhere on the board more than 12" from the edge of the table, and units could be no closer than 6" to each other. My army would arrive on turn 1, either walking on via any of the table edges or deep striking in - two special rules were in effect, my turn 1 deep strikes would not scatter, and the Chaos forces had move through cover.This pretty neatly reflects the idea that my force was dropping into the Chaos base - I had the advantage of turn 1 and the Chaos forces couldn't provide a united front due to the separation requirement, but the downside as ever would be that my army would arrive piecemeal.The two forces were as follows- - - - -So the alpha legion took an alpha strike! I said to Nick turn 3, I can tell this mission is supposed to favour the marines, but I feel like I have no chance of winning. I was low on bodies and low on kill points. But then a Chaos miracle happened, my Lord on bike went on a rampage and with a handful of tasty boons managed to claw me back the victory, so my mvp is definitely my Chaos Lord.- - - - -Well there you go - another cracking game and one where you'd struggle to find a victor from the tabletop scene at the end!Ryan pulled the win out of the bag quite comfortably actually on points, his warlord and spawn keeping five of his available points alive at the end of the game, whilst I had lost all but my terminators.Regardless of the result though, it's safe to say that the Alpha Legion base was no more, and so both forces would need to regroup before returning to the fray again.This game was a classic example of not having the right tools in the box to deal with everything. I though I'd got combat covered with the Vanguard Veterans, but then I realised that when the Chaos Lord challenged me, if I accepted with my sergeant I'd be facing 5 attacks with hatred striking at a higher initiative than me and re-rolling to wound. So I denied the challenge and then watched as the Chaos Lord killed everything that had a chance of hurting him anyway (I'd placed my power axes next to him, foolishly!). This game has definitely changed my attitude towards combat - with an army like marines you can't afford to pay it lip service, if you're getting into combat, you need to kit out properly!For what it's worth, my MVP has to be the chaplain, even though he didn't do a huge amount and lost combat against the chaos warlord, my command squad had been wrestling with a couple of chosen for several turns when Chappie walks up and just squashed them into the ground with his crozius.What would you guys like to see next - we're planning some kill team games, or we could escalate things again? Let us know in the comments below!