Lord Commissar Yarrick surveyed the landscape with his Bale Eye scanning in multi-spectrum. The Custodes’ bright gold armour gleamed in the distance. One in an upper story of a wrecked building, another in the old fort that mirrored the one he was in. Both forces arrived about the same time in the Valour System. The Custodes had already engaged and repulsed the Orks off of Asteroid Base 74 while the more cumbersome Steel Legion deployed its massive forces in system. Due to the high threat level in the system from virtually every enemy known to man, a series of wargames were scheduled to hone everyone’s skill, build comradery, and be better trained in joint operations.
Yarrick clambered into the Fortress of Arrogance as the driver started the engine. Nestled inside his fort, it could only be heard growling across the landscape. Two Chimera’s were outside his door, one with a Veteran Squad and one with a Guardsmen Squad. A Heavy Weapons Squad was positioned in the middle building with Missile Launchers, with a protective squad of Guardsmen underneath them. On the East Flank, two more Chimeras rumbled. One had a Platoon Command Squad with Commissar, and another carried two Special Weapon Squads. The building to the farthest East held a Heavy Weapons Team with Lascannons up top, and a squad of Guardsmen to protect them below.
The Custodes opened fire, and each squad of three Sagittarum scored two “kills”. the less lethal munitions still required urgent medical care, but they lived.
In response, the Fortress of Arrogance drove through the walls North of it and spun to the right slightly. The main cannon, Demolisher Cannon, all four Lascannons, and six of the ten Heavy Bolters poured fire on the Sagittarum squad on the West Flank. The paint rounds were joined by the Hunter Killer Missile and Yarrick blasting with his Stormbolter as well. Despite all of the protection they boasted, one of the Sagittarum was injured.
The Western Chimeras raced towards the building, intent on getting Behind Enemy Lines joined their fire, blasting all weapons into the building. The Veterans popped the hatches and fired two Plasma Guns, and the other squad fired a Grenade Launcher and a Lasgun. Further supplemented by the Missile Launcher teams firing Krak Missiles, one went down with superficial injuries but was considered dead for the wargame. The Lascannon teams reached out and nearly finished off a second one as well!
For the Eastern Sagittarums in the fort, both Chimeras moved forward. The Special Weapon Squads fired two Plasma guns from the hatches, and the Platoon Command Squad did likewise. Both of the Veterans in the Command Squad got a shot back of blue paint simulating an Overheat and was forced out of the game, leaving only one Plasma Gun remaining in the Command Squad.
The Sagittarums on the East Flank tried to punch through a Chimera with over charged shots, but failed to score a qualifying hit per the referee. A squad of three Aquilons with a Shield Captain and a Vexilus Praetor teleported in behind the Fortress of Arrogance. They fired upon a squad of Guardsmen holding the fort and took half of them down with precision shots.
In the middle, a squad of three Ventari and another Vexilus Praetor dropped from the sky accidently slammed into the building, misgauging their vector. The guardsmen laughed but two Heavy Weapon Teams were riddled with paint rounds as the Ventari sprayed wildly.
On the East Flank, the Sagittarums were untouched and picked off several more Guardsmen while pulling back to claim a different objective point on the field.
Yarrick ordered the Fortress of Arrogance to wheel around and fired the afore set of weaponry into the Aquilons, but had little success getting through their shield generators. The last four Heavy Bolters pounded the Ventari in the middle, doing light damage. The embarked Guardsmen Squad bailed out of the back and fired at the Sagittarum. Meanwhile, the pinned Guard Squad in the fort decided it was prudent to keep their heads down and fired ineffectual Snap Shots at the Aquilons as well. The Chimeras raced around each side of the building to catch the Sagittarum in a pincer move. They were able to finish off the injured one and start working on the third, but could not defeat him.
The Heavy Weapons team with the Missile Launchers only had one functioning team left. They held their tube out of the window and fired straight down, injuring a Ventari, possibly for real as the antitank missile with paint slammed into the top of its head. The loader sprayed his Lasgun and injured him further. The squad downstairs faired far worse and had no effect on them.
On the East Flank, the Lascannon team fired and injured the last Sagittarum across the battlefield, but not enough to drop him. The Squad downstairs fired at the Ventari with some but little effect. The Chimeras were being ordered by the Platoon Commander, and he was hungry for some attention with Yarrick on the field. The two Special Weapons Teams jumped out and sprayed the top of the fort with Plasma and Las fire. One squad had two of their gunners go down to simulated Overheats, and did little effect. The other one saw their Lasguns register successful hits at the same ratio as the Plasma Guns with near 100% accuracy from both types of gunners! One went down and another was injured. The Chimeras and the still Embarked Platoon Command Squad joined fire and injured the second one.
On the West Flank, the Aquilons moved in to engage the Fortress of Arrogance. One Aquilon broke off from the squad and destroyed the Guardsmen holding the fort. He did his best to gently flap them down because it was just a wargame, but several suffered broken bones. The rest engaged the tank, but one was crushed beneath its tracks. A simple reverse revealed he was mostly ok but out for the count. The tank was declared destroyed, forcing the Tech Priest and Yarrick to bale out, joining the fray with guard in hand to hand with the last Sagittarum. They were unable to knock him down, and fought on against the Emperor’s finest. Most of the guardsmen were removed from the game.
The Ventari in the middle shot and engaged the last guard squad in the middle, removing them from the battle.
The East Flank saw the Sagittarum retreat into the inner sanctum of the fort for shelter, trying to hold back the mechanized tide of guardsmen rushing them.
The sergeant, Yarrick, and the Tech Priest were able to finally beat down the last one. They broke into the building for cover. The Chimeras pulled back and provided fire support with slow but building effect on the elite terminators of the Emperor’s finest.
The West Flank saw a split in their actions. The Lascannons saw the lone Aquilon on the Fort and heavily injured him. Their squad downstairs fired into the Ventari with mild effect, but not putting anyone out of the fight. The first Special Weapon Squad pushed up to the wall to assault it, while the second one pulled back to deal with the incoming Ventari. The Chimeras raced around to the entrance way and fire through the gatehouse, taking out the second Sagittarum.
The Custodes were pulling their weight and control over most of the battlefield, as one would expect of the Emperor’s bodyguards. Their Aquilons moved up in split groups to Yarrick, engaging him and the Tech Priest in melee. The Tech Priest somehow survived and knocked his assaulter off the building, scoring a kill. Yarrick went down in the heat of battle, but pulled himself back to his feet! The Praetor stayed behind to hold the objective.
In the middle, one of the Chimeras had deployed a squad of Guardsmen to hold the back line. One of the Ventari came their direction, taking two of them out of the fight with his pistol. The other two split up and headed towards the East building, killing two Lascannon teams and assaulting the lower floor, clearing it of guardsmen. The Praetor stayed behind to hold the objective. The last Sagittarum fired a piercing round at the Chimera, disabling its Dozerblade.
The battle could be called by the referee at any moment, and Yarrick was not having any of that. He and the Tech Priest kept fighting, but were both removed from the game for fear of actual death due to the intensity of the fight and apparent injuries he was ignoring.
In the middle, the Chimeras pulled back and joined fire with the middle squad on the incoming Ventari. He was nearly killed but kept on coming.
The West Flank got a bit messier once again. One Chimera pulled back from the gatehouse and joined fire on the Ventari coming up the middle. The other fired on the two Ventari downstairs on their portion of the field. The Lascannon team took another successful shot at the terminator walking along the fort across the battlefield. He had yet to learn his lesson but was still in the fight. The damaged special weapon squad moved up the wall with ropes and poured fire into the last Sagittarum. He was removed from the field due to the ferocity of the fire, but the last two Plasma Gunners were removed with Overheats. The second squad moved in on the Ventari, all three gunners suffering a Overheat. The remains of the Platoon Command Squad charged through the fort gatehouse, their added fire lending to the demise of the Sagittarum but the last Plasma Gunner had an Overheat.
The middle squad was charged by the Ventari, his pistol shots ineffective. As his jump pack arched him through the window, a bold guardsmen gripped the window frame and kicked him in the face as hard as he could. The Ventari crashed to the ground with some serious injuries and was hauled off in a stretcher. The guardsman was given a field promotion on the spot.
The Ventari broke up into two one man squads. One cleared out the doomed Special Weapons team in front of them while the other one flew over the wall and destroyed the Command Squad. He was injured but kept on fighting.
The middle squad just held tight with no objectives to accomplish. All Chimeras converged the Ventari in the open, beating him into oblivion and then shifting fire the Praetor holding their middle objective point. He was injured but still standing. The three guardsmen in the fort only had Lasguns, but they gunned down the Ventari that dared stay in their new fort! The referee called a timeout and checked that they had not switched to hotshot packs instead of training packs. They swore they had not, but the smoking holes in the golden armour said otherwise. They were all given promotions for innovation behind his back by the Commissar and the fight was concluded.
Custodes win 17 to 12! Latest changes helped them a lot! Also, Alex rolls the best Objectives every single time, but we try not to hate him for it. It was an excellent game that we enjoyed immensly!
Alternate 40k Rules 