30k Batrep: XX Legion Combat Evaluation

School Holiday time means some actual gaming, in amongst the Battlelore and my new obsession that I have to play Babylon 5... my 30k XX Legion took on Andy's Imperial Bananas Fists and Jason's new Imperial Militia. The match vs Andy was 2250 pts, using the denial mission (I chose to attack). Andy had made up a cool new Dorn miniature but took Sigismund instead. I took a pair of Militia Thunderbolt equivalents (representing the work of the Cruxis Majoris Ultima scientist-revolutionaries) as a sub orbital strike wing. We weren't sure how to handle the restriction on no optional reserves for the defender, so I let his flying transport (required to be in reserve) have passengers. Probably shouldn't have done that. Vs Jason, there was a change of pace, 1500pt Centurion mode vs his cool army made out of the limited edition Vostroyan minis. He was still opening and gluing blisters before the game. How did the still largely green Alpha Legion do?

 

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Dynat's Light armour has located the Imperial Fists guarding a dark age data cache located in the top floor of some pre-fab buildings. They have only been here briefly but are already entrenched and have set up a bunker to cover it with fire. Dora's first maxim: "the best offence is a good defence." Scouts report there is a sizeable squad of shielded Terminators advancing on the cache, even as our approach triggers their well laid perimeter alarms. Interdiction has been successful and the lead armoured elements will arrive before Sigismund and his honour guard are on-site. We know just where to hit.

Our Auxiliaries execute an air strike on the bunker, destroying it and pinning its occupants. The way now lies open for our armour...

 

Further training will be required however. Their arrival should have coincided with that of Sigismund's transport. It has used the distraction of the missile launches to launch a preemptive strike on our armour. A Vindicator dies quickly. Given the pressing circumstances, the second overloads it's reactor in an attempt to destroy the objective building. It fails and is quickly dispatched by further fire from the Storm Eagle. The Imperial Fist Transport somehow shakes off multiple lascannon, autocannon, and missile hits to survive and deposit its passengers. 

 

Veteran squads arrive from outflank but are insufficient in number to clear the defenders in time. Considerable in-roads are made, and many loyalists perish. However, the random locks trigger on the objective and it remains under Imperial Fist control. Defeat! Evaluation: The chosen avenue of approach placed too much constraint on our armoured spearhead. Consequently, the plan hinged on the performance of our Auxiliaries, they were within human parameters but are not Astartes. Failure is one of Command and sanction to be applied accordingly. 

 

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Elements of the Imperial Militias have been sent on a suicide mission. They simply do not realise it yet. At present, they are holed up in well laid out and defensible positions at a monitoring station on the fringes beyond Christus Ecclessia. Their orders: to exact a bloody toll in Traitor lives and hold us from the transmission controls. 

 

The enemy is well equipped. In fact, man for man, their archaeotech armour outperforms our ceramite plate due to the reduced Silhouette it presents. They are also numerous and possessed of many heavy las-weapons. However, they are static - One of our sergeants leads a probing attack to the right. Astartes take debilitating wounds from savage militia plasma fire and will require bionic reconstruction to return to combat readiness. The decision is made that the Dreadnought will wade in and pin the forces on that flank in place...

... while the true attack proceeds. Disciplined Bolter, plasma, and flamer fire clears many of the militia from the crest of the hill. Reinforcements, including their command elements, are dispatched from their centre to hold us. This is what we were waiting for. The enemy sees our ability to clear the hill at little risk and thinks to bog us down by providing us further targets. They cannot see the situation as Astartes... and Alpha Legion... do. They have just sent us human shields. 

 

Most of their forces are pitiable in close quarters and are easily beaten. However their armour proves incredibly durable. Their force-commander in particular is in possession of an impenetrable energy shield. Once subdued,  the device is recovered for further analysis. Our progress is swift and overwhelming and the only casualties are due to plasma overheats. 

 

Mission end sees us having overrun the transmission point. The enemy are broken in time to preserve our Dreadnought from an ignominious fate at the hands of an uncannily accurate militia man, an his melta bombs. Hydra Dominatus! Evaluation: successful matching of force strength to enemy weaknesses. Fortunate the enemy had not had time to prepare supporting artillery asserts. Fortunate also that when their scouts somehow gained the advantage, that they still opted to take the illusory safety of defensible positions. Defence against such numbers of enemy ranged elements would have proved difficult. 

+++Transmission Ends +++

I was gutted to miss the second narrative event due to one of my sons giving me Nurgles bugs. It was pretty cool to then finally get a couple of 30k games in. I like the Centurion format (from the eye of Horus Podcast) quite a lot but then I've always preferred GW games to be played at lower points. The underlying game engine is built off a skirmish game and it actually seems like a Wargame when infantry based and using heavy terrain. I think it could do with some tweaks as for some reason Legion troops get Leviathans, Dreadnoughts, and lascannon armed speeders and militia get.... some artillery? Give them a tank I say. I fact, I really just like the idea of playing '3rd ed style'. That is: simply removing flyers and anything heavier than a land-Raider from what is basically a gloried skirmish game. Rolling dice with mates is always fun though, whatever the format.

Thanks for reading.