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22nd Catachan + BA Vs. Dark Angels+Ork/Tau Game 2 (12/28) - 3000 points

Started by Saulus, January 08, 2014, 07:08:37 PM

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Saulus

Battle Report 2 Catachan and Blood Angels Vs. Dark Angels and Tau+Ork allies. This is a continuation of the campaign I took place in at 'home'. Fluff for the background can be found at: http://secondsphere.org/index.php?topic=1514.msg28117#msg28117

Upon hearing of the incoming Blood Angel strike force Baird had hurried off to the 'command bunker' to mobilize. Nearly smashing down the door Baird charged into the freshly dug bunker, "Someone get me Comms".

The Lord Commissar straightened his hat and extended a receiver, "Sir I will assign myself to the command of your platoon, my frequency is programmed in" as he headed back out the door. Baird grabbed the receiver, and with urgency upon him he did not have a chance to argue about a single man's deployment.

Tapping the receiver a few times Baird began, "22nd, within minutes The Order of Blood will be arriving, you are to follow all orders given to you by the venerable Astartes."  On a hunch Baird predicted that the strike force must not be here bully them. Marine deployments were far too important for such acts. "Mobile assets stay on standby, foot sloggers we're heading out, co-ordinates incoming."

Punctuating this order was a series of tremors shaking snow and dirt onto the command interface. The Fleet Officer looked up gravely, "Sir the Order of Blood has landed"

Baird grabbed his gearbag and weapons off the floor, "I've got to get moving, I'll keep you on vox", he said checking his clips twice as always. The Fleet Officer and support staff give quick salutes as Baird huffed up the small dirt staircase. At the top was a towering figure with a smoky and whining jump pack. In one hand was held a thunderhammer that popped with every snowflake that landed on it's glowing end. At the pinnacle of this hulk a shining Iron Halo

"Company Commander", the towering Marine calmly and began, "I am Captain Maximilian. Chaplain Gregory has given you co-ordinates for our Gellar field replacement." Behind the Captain stood a ten-strong retinue of red and yellow Order of Blood Marines surveying the base. The same marines he saw from The Expansion Wars. Baird stood in awe, he recalled his Urbanites that fought in combat against the Dark Angels, what fear they must have felt. The Captain tilted his head slightly while taking a knee to look Baird square in the eye, speaking softly as if to a scared child, "Company Commander, time, as it happens so often, is not our ally today so I must be brief. We ask that your company escort us to our destination and fight by our side as we should have during our fight against the Tau. I see in your eyes the pure will of The Emperor, have no fear. Our chapter is lead by our great, but perhaps overzealous Chaplain whose rage sometimes clouds his deep reasoning. Therefore I am ordering you to take an arm's reach from this fight to avoid any diplomatic complications."

Maximilian placed his gauntlet on Baird's should as he rose, "I will tell you now that today we must fight our brothers and first born of The Emperor. But I tell you this Company Commander," The Marine's tone changing quickly to a threatening roar while throwing his hammer to the sky, "when you fight with Devils, you shall DIE like sinners." The assault marines revved their chainswords and primed their jump packs swirling the snow and air about. The squad then bounded towards the landing strip where Baird saw a Land Raider dreadnoughts and bikes.

Baird stumbled shaking back into the bunker as his advisors looked up inquisitively, "OK boys, have the wings in the air to escort The Order. Get me a direct line to Derek, he's no doubt in for a hell of a fight"...


The battle report features a wide array of GW armies to say the least! The list's are perhaps quite lengthy. I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies. Although both teams were even, each army was not (The Ork/tau alliance borrowed some amount from the Dark Angels I believe).


The Order of Blood

Captain Maximilian with Jump pack and Thunderhammer

Assault Terminators, Terminus Est: 5, one with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield.
Sanguinary Priest: jump pack

Assault Marines (Codename Angry Bees): 10 strong, 2 plasmaguns, Sarge with powerfist and storm shield (a very nasty sarge indeed!)
Death Company Dreadnought: Blood Talons (The horror)
Death Company: 10 strong with 2x powerfists in a drop pod

Land Raider: with terminators within
Dreadnought with multimelta

Assault Bike: Multimelta

The 22nd Catachan

Lord Commissar Derek Fahey– Powerfist and carapace armour

Stormtroopers (Mayhem Squadrons):
one with 2x flamer with Johnny B. and his power sword (10 strong)
one with 2x grenade with VonBarone with his power sword,
one with 1x melta 1x plasma


Veterans (Urbanites): 3x plasma with plasma pistol.
Veterans (Urbanites): 3x melta
2 Vendettas (ace of spades and clubs carrying the melta and plasma vets).

Lt. Lawrence, Sub-Lt. Singer and the PCS: 4x flamers
Combined first platoon, 2x Lascannon, 2x sniper rifle. Lead by Derek.
Heavy weapons Teams:
3x autocannons
3x heavy bolters

Angels of Redemption:

Chapter Captain El'Captain: Artificer armour, power weapon
with veteran honour guard in land raider

Deathwing Terminators with AC

Land Speeder Typhoon and Tornado.
Two 3 strong Ravenwing:
one with plamsagun,
one with meltagun and powersword sarge.

Attack Bike, multimelta

Tactical Squad Alpha: Vet. Sgt. with plasma pistol, plasma rifle, 10 strong).
Tactical Squad Delta: flamer ten strong

Deathwing LRC with stormbolter
Devastator Squad with 4x Missile Launchers

Vior'La Tau
Tau Commander with a variety of upgrades that I was unfamiliar with. I am certain of stims and Iridium armour, plasma and missile pods.
Battlesuit bodyguards with missile pods and plasma. Marker drones were included, but I am unsure of it's controller.

2x 10 fire warriors, held in reserve.

8 pathfinders

Railhead with Dpods and submuitions
Railhead with Dpods and submuitions
Ionhead with Dpods

Aegis defense line

Da Mad Orks

Warboss with megarmour complete with nob retinue in Wagon
3 Ork shoota boy mobs, 20 strong with big shoota, Nob with Boss Pole and Powerklaw.
Ork Dakkajet

Still with me?

On with the report. The deployment was standard by vote (I wanted the diagonal deployment, think it's neat). The game type was rolled, annihilation again, BUT with an added objective in the middle worth 3 (the Gellar parts). Below are some pregame shots!

Deployment. The forces begin to assemble on the board, pregame chatter with allies held


The Reserves. Death Company wait for deployment from The Gladiator of Baal. Terminators sit in silent contemplation within the Land Raider


The Reserves. The Aces in the hole carry the Veteran Urbanites armed with plasma and melta weaponry.



Turn 1: They Come


First turn goes to the Xeno lovers. Warlord traits for me were 'that one that let's you re roll reserves', BA had 'Feel no pain so long as you are within range of an objective', DA had something to do with nearby squads using the Warlord leadership instead of their own, the Tau I believe had intercept, or twinlinked under certain situations? Can they get that as a warlord trait, that's pretty great if so! Anyways that Tau HQ was a regular shooting ace.

"Hello, Baird?", Derek began announcing far too calmly considering that Orks were VISIBLE from his position, "We are in range of the target co-ordinates and have spotted the enemy. The Order of Blood is set to no doubt plunge gloriously into the enemy. A troubling looking crew calling themselves the Men of Mayhem were here before we arrived, I thought it best to leave them be. I will direct our supporting contribution. Uhhh, where are the Leman Russes?" The Commissar seemingly had not noticed that 22nd doctrine was not that of heavy armour backbone, but that of infantry main line with precision air support.

"Derek, we don't have any Russes, We've got vendettas coming right now, you just wait and see. Catachan muscle trumps the worst of the worst, especially with the Flying Aces", Baird had made it his personal goal to ensure reserves were in tandem on this one. "Lawrence, how is your new blood holding up?" Baird asked concerned that such a haphazard deployment was combined with a potentially fatal supporting platoon command. Lawrence nor Singer had ever been battle tested as officers as of yet.

Lawrence replied back without so much as a quiver "A1 Baird, Derek has got the platoon holding steady. These crazy-marines look itchin' to fight, we'll sit tight and keep the platoon firin' to keep the pressure on. Me an' Singer are getting along fine, bit of a pyro this one, I like it".

The battle line can be seen pictured below. A dreadnought and bike take the flank to counter the battle wagon. The death company dread waits behind the land raider in case the meganobs make a scene. Chimera with Flamer-Mayhem are supporting for crowd control. VonBarone with his grenadiers sit in cover with the assault marines and captain. The remaining platoon deploys in cover in a line and prepares for the onslaught of Tau firepower. Also note a drop pod hits in the back near the red cover with he death company, cutting off alpha squad.


Turn 2: The hammer strikes


A torrent of fire swept along the guard line, pockmarking the ground and tear at the cover. "Hold men!", Derek shouted from a crouched position, "This clumsy Ork fire will not harm the Emperor's servants!" While true the Tau were not so clumsy. Ghostly targeting lasers scanned the guard position, locked on to the target zone and a barrage of energy from the submunition round claimed half of First Recon, their camo cloaks doing nothing against the champion shot of the tank gunner. The Railhead's twin swung to the side and let loose a crippling blow to the Death Company without so much as a care to the fate of the few stalwart Alpha Squad marines.

Across the battleline Ork's hollered warcries firing their guns towards their enemies and into the skies. The Blood Angel assault bike dipped to the side to try and cut across the line but volume of fire picked off the driver, sending the bike crashing in one large flip, and killing the gunner.

The small Ravenwing detachment split up to intercept the assault squad and VonBarone leaving the Speeders to take care of the armoured threats. The high power special weapons and sustained bolter fire from the bikers felled half the incoming assault marines, even with the Sanguinary Priest's aid. The Typhoon fired off  two missiles along with it's melta weapon from range at the Land Raider but the seasoned mechnanicus predicted the shots, angled the hull to face the impact and both missiles ricocheted into the ground,  with the melta beam unable to penetrate such thickness of the angled flank.

"OK 22nd, now is the time! Those Orks have overextended cut them down!", Baird shouted over the all-call. "Got it Commander", grunted Jonny B emerging from the flank. "Bangs out Baird. Ooooook boys get set", copied the Flying Aces with sounds of Lascannons coming in over the vox. A deep unfamiliar voice came over the vox, "Terminator Squad, Terminus Est, engaging the Ork Leader. They do not have a prayer!"

The anti-tank weaponry from the Blood Angels and Guard explode the advancing battle wagon, immobilize the oncoming Land Raider Crusader, and damage the land speeders. Jonny B pops his flamers squad on the left flank and roasts a ton of Orks. The exposed meganobs and warboss who survive the wreckage get torn asunder by the Death Company Dreadnought while the assault terminators damn near take out a squad of boyz.

The other flank makes up for the success. The Death company charges into Bravo Squad, losing two on the way in, and failing to wound with their 2 powerfists! Leonidas, Ravenwing Sgt. bravely challenges Cpt. Maximillian scoring 3 wounds with his power weapon before the Thunderhammer could strike, with no saves on the Iron halo OR feel no pain. The Order loses their warlord, but the assault squad and Sgt. decimate the squad, with the Ravenwing Sgt. getting a hasty retreat.

The combined firepower of the infantry platoon and heavy weapon teams do heavy damage to the advancing Orks to lessen the eventual blow they will deal to the beleaguered assault marines and VonBarone's squad.

Damn, could it be that the humble Guardsmen are the real heroes in this engagement?! The Order of Blood was hemorrhaging losses. The Ork threat seemed to be lessened, but that Tau detachment was dug in and untouched. "Commander?", the Flight Officer swung around from his console, "New intel, Ork Dakkajets present in the theater. Historical averages dictate that 1 in 3 will make it to your zone, prepare for strafing fire".

"Derek?!" Baird began, "you see flyers?"

"Oh my, how does that thing stay aloft?! Sorry commander thought it was a cloud, I can hear it now though, flyer confirmed", Derek quipped back as calm as if viewing this remotely.

Turn 3: Trouble in the skies


I have not faced a Dakkajet before, was I ever in for a surprise. The first order of business it did was to try and disable the Chimera. Losing a weapon or two was fine by me though, as long as it kept moving. The land raider crusader fired off it's weapons but to little effect as it was snapfiring. The Dark Angel Ravenwing attempted to take outt he land raider firing from the assault bike and Typhoon, but still failing to destroy the tank. The Tau decided that Recon had enough, and refocused their efforts on the platoon with both Railheads. They took out around 10 of the guardsmen including a marksman. As well, the deathwing Terminators made landfall on the right, but opted to stay behind cover rather than be offensive.

Combat was raging across the field. The charred mob of Orks layed into the dreadnought hoping to get some powerklaw hits in. The terminators continued their pummeling of the Orks from last turn, The Angry Bees were weakened but holding, and VonBarone joined the melee against the Ork threat.

"Oi, Space Mahreen! You lot 'av nothing ta fight? Scared are ya?", the Ork Nob shouted smacking one of his underlings out of the way as he lumbered toward the Marine Squad leader. "Dat's some nice loot Mahreen, nicer on my pole though HARHAAHAAHAA" the battle drunk Ork cackled winding his power klaw back to smash the marine.
The sergeant made a crucial error and did not anticipate the ferocity of the incoming attacks. The first blow smashed into his storm shield jamming it into the ground leaving that arm pinned. He batted his powerfist outwards smashing through the Ork's leg, but the giant klaw was already in motion on the next attack. The Marine's helmet was sheared off at the sides between the klaws and his head nearly severed pinned on the ground next to his sparking shield, the dying Or knob sprawled atop him choking with a grimaced smile.

The ensuing combat saw the Blood Angel Sgt. accept a challenge, but his 3++ was not enough and both were struck down. The remaining bludgeoning blows beat down the remaining marines on our opponents Turn.

"I'm getting' REAL tired of this", VonBarone said over the squad vox. The original plan was to support the Marines in, fine. But damn seemed like he had the fight the whole damn horde. "Time for more Mayhem boys",  Flicking on his overcharged laspack with his squad there was a resonating high pitched whine that escalated to a final high tone as the squad waited for the order. "Kill 'em all", he said stepping over the cover and fallen marines. The high-energy pulsing fire riddled the uncovered an ill-armoured beasts. The bigshoota ork took several shots across his torso but remained standing. The wounded Ork struggled to level his gun, "HA, dat all you got?! Why I'll take those flashy guns an' GAGRHH...". A final grenade landed square in the gut scattering the brute amongst his former mob. VonBarone consciously slowed his breathing, "Alright squad, they are down, prepare for return fire from the Tau.", and his squad reformed on his position.

The vendettas during this time fired back on the railhead to take it out while moving atop the land raider to destroy it and it's occupants later with the Urbanites contained within.

Turn 4: Death From Above


Things start to snowball from here. From left to right Jonny B watches an assault bike slugfest trying to get in range to get that sorted out in CC. The Dakkajet curved along it's path, shooting up the heavy bolter HWS, taking one down, they went to ground as no real targets existed. Somewhat GLAD to be shot at. The metla Urbanites drop out and finish off the Deathwing land Raider, the straggling Orks charge headlong into VonB's Mayhem, and the final reserves of Mayhem Stormtroopers arrive on the top right, targeting the Tau commander and his suits.

The shooting phase sees little action from the Tau other than firing at the vendettas with the interceptor autocannons and more platoon shots (with marker drone support). Getting only two glances though, and killing a handful more guardsmen.

Baird had been surveying the report vicariously through integrated recorders on the vehicles and Mayhem's headset. Things were going well, in a manner fo speaking. The left flank had nearly been totaled, with all forces converging on the right.  "Derek, how's it look down there?", Baird shouted over the Fleet Officer's frantic relay he was having trying to chase down a final dakkajet. "Ha, could be better. These violet xenos have some sort of predictive firing patterns! The Vendetta's are closing in though and" ** THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD**, "My...Lascannon gunner take out that jet hrm? I am trying to speak with the commander" Derek said his voice trailing off. Does this man have any sense of preservation!?

Switching the channel to Lawrence he heard laboured breathing, "Lt., everything alright?"

Lawrence gasped as he inhaled, "Yeaaa, yea sir, just that the jet is swinging around, shooting up all the good cover. Have a better view now, just a bunch of Tau I think?", the remainder of the statement now drowned out by the rumbling of the dakkajet mid bank.

Turn 5: Last flight and last light


Just as the sun set on the horizon the last of the urbanites rappelled out the vendetta to join with mayhem to attack the Tau commander. The Dark angels had been completely routed and The Order of Blood had only the terminators really. The Tau commander fired off chaff and guns as his retinue blasted off past the the vendettas to evacuate leaving the Tank commanders to surrender at gunpoint. The Deathwing terminators, unwilling to surrender were gunned down by ranked fire of the platoon, combined with stormtroopers and the land raider. And as the dakkajet spiraled off into the distance the battlefield was left quiet and glowing with the wreckage of tanks.

Baird issued an all-call and ordered salvage operations in the area.

Game: Major victory for the Reds.


Postgame thoughts:
Many unique choices by my opponents and allies. They seemed to like challenges and were eager to try them out. I was of the opinion to sue those Deathwing WAY more aggressively, and he could have done much more damage had they arrived sooner. And blitzing that battlewagon in without getting an assault in was VERY unfortunate for the Ork/Tau guy. After that blow, there was little left to contest that flank.

Game after game, I love my Stormtroopers. So often people wonder do I go flamers, melta, grenades, CAN'T CHOOSE. Well, neither can I, so I choose all of the above. Flamer's devastated the Orks, grenades fit with the variable roles needed, and 'combi-squad' did good damage on the battlesuits.

Parts of the battle may have been excluded due to lapses in memory or irrelevance to the total outcome. The Dark Angel's Captain and squad with him were utterly destroyed in a puff of RNG basically for example.

In any case, stay tuned for the next fluff entry with ensuing events following this bizarre fight back at http://secondsphere.org/index.php?topic=1514.msg28117#msg28117
No fear. No mercy. No matter what.

BigToof

Hi Saulus,
I really like this set of games that you have going.
Stormtroopers I think are one of the really underestimated units in the IG codex.
They're a bit marginalized what with Tau intercepting everything nowadays, but they're still one of my favorites  :)

Anyway, hope to see more!

Best,
-BT
BigToof Points:

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Waaaghpower: 1
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