Please note that for this battle, Blood Angels were substituted in for testing purposes. If they look like Necrons or Custodes your eyes are deceiving you because of warp trickery. If they do appear to be Custode and Xenos, in a totally unrelated reason please see your local Commissar. They will be able to help you see more clearly. My Catachans are mostly painted for this battle and just need a few more done, than a bunch of scenic jungle base stuff added.
Smoke roiled thickly across the battlefield from the burning forest. Even though it was broad daylight you could scarcely see in front of you. Unbeknownst to the warriors of the Imperium, Blood Angels were about to drop on top of Catachan Jungle Fighters moving in to secure an outpost on Valour VIII. Contact had been lost. Blood Angels were doing so for the same reason. Neither force was aware of each other’s presence.
I thought for this Battle Report I would try something a bit less narrative and bit more matter of fact. The dice were absolutely atrocious for both of us, and the battle breaks the ongoing narrative I am working towards. With the opening round of the battle using Night Fighting Rules and the Blood Angels using assault type troops, range and cover was not much of an early game element.
Alex deployed his Blood Angels on the table with none in reserve. Two units of Assault Marines, three units of Incursors, Mephiston, Astorath, and Brother Corbulo made up his force. He deployed in a wide line, covering the Attrition setup so I could not make a run behind his lines with my fast units.
I brought Catachan Jungle Fighters to test new rules. Those will be uploaded today 6/12/23. I had Colonel Iron Hand Straken and his Command Squad deployed in a Taurox. Next to him I had a unit of Veterans from back in my days in New Zealand in another Taurox. They were equipped with the Demolition Doctrine, Missile Launcher, Heavy Flamer, 2 Flamers, and a very big Boltgun (was a Sergeant Harker Proxy back in the day), and Shotguns. A unit of Guardsmen held the lower floor of the building next to the transports. A Special Weapon Squad with three Sniper Rifles supported them on the top floor.
I held Marbo in reserve to strike fast and hard as needed. I also held a second Company Command Squad with the Steeds upgrade and seven Rough Riders to strike from the flanks.
In the middle, I had a unit of Guardsmen pushing up the middle, followed by the Platoon Command Squad with Sergeant Stone Tooth Harker. Fire support was provided by my Praetor Assault Launcher. I brought it for this battle to test its mighty Apocalypse Barrage Template and make sure it was not broken, though technically it is painted and geared for my Cadian Shock. Behind them I had two Heavy Weapon Squads, one with Lascannons and one with Missile Launchers in a 2nd story building to provide further antitank support.
On the other side of the field I deployed another Special Weapons Squad with three Sniper Rifles on the second floor. I also deployed my other Veteran Squad from my New Zealand days. This is my squad that provides fire support for the assault squad (I was on a very tight budget). They are armed with a Missile Launcher, 2 Grenade Launchers, a Flamer, a Bolt Pistol, and Lasguns with the Forward Sentries Doctrine. I painfully pieced together ghillie cloaks from aquarium plants a piece at a time to represent this. In front of them another Guardsman Squad was placed to move forwards and draw enemy fire.
Blood Angels moved up, and the three Incursor Squads annihilated all of my Special Weapon Squads except for one Sniper as well as most of the Guardsmen Squads on each flank. Mephiston got excited and moved in close to my heavy hitting assault force with my Taurox.
The camo Veterans fired and did nothing. The Sniper hit a marine, but failed to get through his Armour Save.
I got excited and forgot to take pictures for a bit. My Praetor Assault Launcher missed the massive blob of Incursors in the middle of the field by a significant amount. It still got quite a few hits, but Alex made miracle saving throws and no one died. Well not entirely true. Seven Guardsman were annihilated. They fired for no effect. The Platoon Command Squad moved up and did some damage, but failed to do anything. All of my Heavy Weapon teams missed or failed to Wound.
Eager to give Mephiston a taste of Catachan muscle, I drove both Taurox up and deployed my squads. The remains of the Guard squad moved up as well and caught him in a devastating crossfire of flamethrowers and everything in between. His saves were solid, but the squad took significant casualties. Unfortunately, I rolled really bad and did not do near the damage I was hoping for. My Grandma recently passed and was the toughest person I knew, so I painted up an old metal Catachan female Grenade Launcher model with the white hair she had forever. I scored five hits but failed to wound them all. The Taurox with the twin Gatling Cannons began its rampage of destruction with some fantastic rolls.
Mephiston did not appreciate the Guardsmen laughing at his brain melting experiences while casting spells the turn before. The assault Veterans were shot to death and the Company Command Squad with Straken was annihilated in melee. Further more, some Assault Marines had split off of the rear unit using Tactical Squads. They smashed the Taurox with the Light Battle Cannon to one Wound with a Thunderhammer. It was forced to retreat, nearly destroying itself with both hedges in a unprecedented turn of events with the ramming rolls.
The Platoon Command Squad and Guardsman remains were obliterated by Brother Corbulo and company. Harker was reduced to one wound, and fell back but was caught and the fight resumed. With only one Wound left, he was not going to last long. Up to this point I think I made one 5+ Feel No Pain roll out of twenty including the Iron Hand Straken fiasco.
On the other flank the Sniper survived a dozen bolt pistols but then died to a random bolter shot. The Veterans were charged and naturally slain by Astorath taking the main squad in their direction.
The Taurox falling back failed to rally, but could not continue its retreat in any direction so it was locked in. It engaged its Turret weapons. Combined with the brave remaining Guardsmen it did not damage somehow. The other Taurox removed another two or three marines by itself despite rolling bad. Alex just rolled worse on saves.
Marbo popped up in the middle tree grove. His special Ripper Pistol took out two marines and he claimed Blue Objective, somehow keeping me in the game.
At this point, the Heavy Weapon Teams fired three missiles, scoring three Hits and Wound rolls, with no saves made, on the last marine in the open after Marbo had his fun. The Lascannons and all of their Lasguns shot across to the adjacent building and did no damage to Astorath and his not space vampire men. The Praetor Launcher decided it would help, and missed the entire building.
At this point, if my Rough Riders or mounted Company Command Squad would have rolled either table flank I could have got another Victory Point and been in position to hit some vulnerable marines. But no, they rolled the center deployment edge, which was super far away from everything because it was Attrition deployment. There were two marines back there on an objective. They brought all of their firepower to bear, but only killed one.
In return, the Assault Marine in the back launched himself into the air! His pistol failed To Wound. He charged the Command Squad! All Overwatch failed! His Chainsword failed to harm them! They failed to kill him with their Catachan Knives! And then the Company Commander finally ended the nonsense with a smashing success (your welcome) from his Powerfist.
Astorath took his men and moved to kill the Heavy Weapon Squads. He wiped out one, and an Assault Squad wiped out the other in a very unsurprising turn of events.
Mephiston joined the partial unit of Assault Marines to protect himself much to my annoyance. He did assist me with another two Perils of the Warp at least.
My Rough Riders and Company Command Squad came flying up from his deployment zone! The Velociraptor conversions looking cool as hell even if they were only primed. (Tamiya 1/35 Velociraptor Pack if you are wondering, they are not very expensive but the models had to mount on the necks or take massive amounts of Dremel work and probably not look the best). The Command Squad did one wound to the marines and issued orders for the Rough Riders to Move! Move! Move! They did so with a glamourous 3″.
Marbo let er rip (your welcome) with his Envenomed Ripper Pistol, but rolled three 1s To Hit and failed to wound on a 2+. For further insult to injury, my Praetor Launcher fired at Mephiston and MISSED THE TABLE! This whole game its heavy bolters continued to be on point, and it wounded Mephiston twice more. Somehow they had also killed three marines in previous turns as well.
Mephiston blew up the damaged Taurox with a Plasma Pistol shot that blew clean through it. Heavily wounded and with his second squad dead, he moved towards the Praetor and charged it! But only did one glance after rolling five 1s. His super sword spell did nothing more. Additionally, Astorath and company charged the Praetor as well. All in all it ended up taking a total of ten Wounds, but had no secondary damage effects. Horrible rolls for Alex. I then missed all return attacks, thereby making sure I would never be able to monopolize on his ill luck. The game is still neck to neck at this point.
I desperately needed my Rough Riders and Command Squad to stick together. Rough Riders had them melee to deal with heavy infantry, and the Command Squad had the character support as well as the Medicae Pack and Standard. However, the game was not giving me any room to make comfortable and structured decisions at this point. I pulled my Praetor Assault Launcher back (it is Titanic so it can simply leave combat as long as it can drive somewhere without pushing models or titanic terrain) and got a mostly accurate shot on Astorath’s unit! It was nowhere near as lethal as it could have been, but it killed like six Marines and damaged both Astorath and Corbulo.
My Rough Riders hit the squad remains to the Praetor’s rear and did no damage at all. In return, they did not do anything either.
My Command Squad hit Mephiston with all firepower and did no damage. They charged him, and beat him to death with the ultimate Powerfist of Fisting. This is the most I have ever seen any guardsmen character do with a fist and not die trying to do so. Even better, Mephiston SOMEHOW once again failed to harm anyone. And the Taurox with the Gatling guns killed another two marines. Like it has every single turn.
The partial unit of Incursors by Marbo shot at him and failed to harm him, then failed to charge 5″. His Overwatch had three 1s and failed to hit anything with all four dice.
Astorath took his unit and Jump Packed over the Command Squad. They easily destroyed the Praetor Assault Launcher with lots of overkill. For better or for worse, it did not explode.
Out of further acts of desperation to break out of the Draw in Victory Points, My Command Squad and Rough Riders charged Astorath. Most of my remaining Hunting Lances failed to hit or Wound. Weapons did marginal damage before the charge. Combat went horrible for the Catachans. Nearly everyone was slain, with no Feel No Pains made. The Company Commander was the only survivor with three Wounds left and was sent packing.
The marine hungry Taurox mowed down two more Incursors.
The Marines drudged through the remaining fire, killing Marbo who got three 1s on his Overwatch. He was able to stab another marine to death but was killed by the follow up Thunderhammer. Two Assault Marines killed my poor Guardsmen that had been going Rambo with a Boltgun and Flamer the entire game after their squad was annihilated Turn 0.
In Vengeance, the Taurox killed those two Assault Marines with its Turret weapons and killed another one with Astorath.
This caused Brother Corbulo to be kicked out of the squad. He only had one Wound remaining! The rallied Company Commander raced towards him, blowing him into oblivion with a Meltabomb!
He then leaped (safely, because Steed rules) over the low ruin wall and went head to head with the Sergeant from the Assault Marines that annihilated the Rough Riders!
They both swung at each other. The Marine forgot he needed to tie his shoe or something and had his head bashed in by the Powerfist. He failed to do any Wounds in return.
The game ended at Turn 5, with only my Wounded Company Commander (awarded the honorary title of Commander “Balls of Steel Raptor Lord”) and my fully intact Taurox vs a Wounded Astorath and three marines. Victory Points were 11 to 10, a Draw by the Victory Points chart!
Take aways from the game. Catachan Lasguns losing 6″ of Range hurt a lot, but gaining a S+1 Melee weapon was immensely useful and felt like an even trade. The Praetor Assault Launcher is immensely terrifying if your dice do not suck and worth its points in a normal game. Blood Angels were solid. We were concerned that army wide Counterattack would be too strong, but it was not and felt very Not Space Vampires.
Alternate 40k Rules 