Death Guard forces stranded on Kennet Majoris have beaten back the initial assault of the Imperial ground attack, but must push deep into the hive city in order to escape the possibility of orbital annihilation should the Imperial forces get desperate. In the dark of the night, the XIV form an armoured column and begin their push into the suburbs. Unbeknownst to them, another column is heading towards their general direction as well...
Epic: Armageddon, 4000 points per side, Ill Met by Moonlight -scenario. Airpower and long range shooting is very limited in the early turns before daybreak, after which the fight turns into an attritional land grab.
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Lord Styrix rested, the gentle rocking of his command Spartan soothing his slumber. Something gurgled among his men as metal screeched and ground into a halt, lurching them forwards in their harnesses. Snapping back into consciousness, his twisted vision came to a flashing warning hailing from the point tank: contact with vanguard elements of the defenders, undoubtedly. Cracking their unnaturally bloated knuckles, men of the XIV started slamming bolter magazines in place and gathering their grenades as they stood up near the assault ramps. Styrix elbowed his way to the command hatch and took a whiff of the cool night air while marking a rapid deployment spread for his subordinates should resistance prove to be more than a couple of residents with explosives. As the comms flared with contact markers in the column's front, that didn't take too long to ascertain.
"Disperse and deploy the tubes. Pound the field behind so hard nothing comes out of it for years. Infantry advances. Glory to the Grandfather, brothers."
His orders given, Styrix had made his intent clear for all. His focus was now on taking the crossroads and tallying the dead for the rows in Nurgle's Garden. The hatch on the Spartan slammed shut as the column revved up and tore the road under it.
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The sleepy outskirts of Luedon, still mostly untouched by the ravages of war.
A singular Fellblade leads the arriving Death Guard Column.
On the other side of the crossroads, hive defenders' patrol sentinels hide behind the woods clearing the area for incoming forces.
Similarly taken aback by the enemy contact, an Imperial column starts spreading as they arrive on the site. Special forces in their Valkyries escort the first Warhound titan on the flank while the battallion HQ drives straight into the urban zone in the middle to make sure everything is as it should be.
In the darkness, Death Guard Basilisk batteries trundle in position while their tanks and APCs sneak forwards in preparation for deadly ambushes.
Battle is joined by the speeding Sicarians, aided by the mighty Fellblade, which turn the midfield into a slaughterhouse. The Imperial commander is killed in the opening salvo and his men driven back.
As the Sicarians chase the fleeing guardsmen, they are confronted and eventually destroyed in turn by a sturdy company of Leman Russes while the lonely Shadowsword tries to duel with the Fellblade in vain, getting damaged in return and spending the fight hull down putting out fires and leaks. Behind them the rather congested deployment area of the planetary forces is chewed up and thrown skyhigh by the Basilisks as they let rip. Chimeras, Sentinels and dying men are thrown about like children's toys.
While the Russes deal with the marine armour, the mauled HQ company finds its heart again and takes the fight to the Fellblade, which has moments before been all but cracked open by a Warhound titan's plasma barrage. The warmachine is blown up, but so is the assault quickly driven back by the withering fire from lord Styrix' formation as they advance in countermanoeuvre.
On the left flank, brave Sentinel pilots rush in to tie down the marines but in the foggy twilight find themselves completely overmatched and killed without much ado, yet in their wake marches the second Warhound whose guns take their toll on the traitors' ranks.
Heedless of the Hydras and Thundebolts closing the sky, Thunderhawks once more streak in with their deadly Terminator cargoes. Both Warhounds are torn down, halted and ground down by death from above as their crew are pasted by murderous veterans of the long war in their cramped cockpits.
Stunned by the instantaneous demise of the God-Engines, the leaderless Guard line charges with bloody vengeance and guns down one of the Terminator detachments with their ride. Taking advantage of their counterpunch once more concentrating their forces on the open, burning fields, lord Styrix laughs wryly as his Basilisks keep reaping a murderous harvest in the heaving mass of broken men and twisted steel.
While their AA works overtime to keep the Thunderbolts away from the artillerists, the Death Guard command surges forth to take the field. Before reaching the Russes, they are stopped by what remains of the shaken and shelled storm troopers and their Valkyries. Valiant as their effort is, the airborne pay with their lives as the Spartans roll over them in short order.
While the fight for the main urban area in the center is more even, that too falls to the marines as their heavy support and Demolishers mercilessly pound the guardsmen back onto the artillery-torn roads.
By the time that a blood-red dawn has broken, the crossroads are littered with burning wreckage and dead men. Realising their inability to force the fight under constant artillery fire and lack of command, the remaining guard forces flee the field in what order they can maintain while the taunting form of lord Styrix rises against the bright sky in triumph.
"Fly, you fools! Know there will be no escape for you! Death to the lapdogs of the false Emperor!" he bellows as the Death Guard consolidate their gains.
********
Death Guard victory!
The scenario setup was really fun, requiring formations to set up from the road march with movement penalties depending on their place in the queue as well as all shooting over 15 cm being a pain in the arse for the first two rounds. This was a bit of a problem for the Guard player, as they had an absolute bucketload of units to deploy but opted to go for a bit conservative strategy which resulted in devastating artillery barrages later on by the Basilisks. In men of the match, the Fellblade overdid itself and drove the IG HQ from the front in the very beginning, killing their foolishly brash supreme commander as he was inspecting the situation at the front. This is why you let your NCO's do the first line recon :D