Betrayal on the Ice - Artica

Planet: Artica.
Sector: Obscurus.

1500 points.
Mission: Sabotage - Psychic Maelstrom.
Deployment: Special.

With the Imperial forces beginning to push back against the darkness, Abaddon has consulted his seers seeking something to aid in the war effort. His sorcerers cast their gaze into the Warp and soon intone that an ancient relic lies beneath the ice of Artica - a frozen world which once held an Adeptus Mechanicus stronghold now entombed in the ice. 
The Despoiler seeks the aid of the Death Guard in recovering this powerful device. However as they close in on it's location Abaddon decides that he will not share power and orders his marines to attack the plague marines.




This game was the result of a challenge from Mark who wanted to try and field a pure bike list. I had not played against Black Legion under 8th so I accepted provided he played that faction. He chose Sabotage from my list of unplayed missions and included the psychic maelstrom battle zone. Had to play a sorcerer of some sort then to try and make use of that battle zone.

We didn't play the set up properly as we rolled off at the start of the game to see who would be the attacker and defender. Mark won the roll and off we went. I set up my cultists as the sentries and used the Sensors stratagem to give me a better range of spotting the enemy. It was rather pointless though as his bikes roared forward and opened fire thus triggering the alarm straight off the bat. I think he forgot that he had a stratagem that could have let a second unit fire before triggering the alarm. Once that unit got to fire it then swapped to me.

I brought most of my forces on from the left flank and tried to blast through one bike squad. My lord of contagion, plaguecaster and poxwalkers wandered on from the opposing flank. Things went rather well and I was able to send a few bikes to their fiery graves but it was when I tried to charge with my helbrutes, mark's meltaguns burnt one down and severally damaged a second. The combat did go well and the remaining couple bikers failed morale, crushed by the might of the helbrute.

Mark got his forces into contact with my base of operations and place four objectives almost straight away. I knew then that I needed to keep one command point spare for the Cut The Wires stratagem at the end of the game. Due to a misunderstanding of the rules though on my part, Mark did not get his obliterators in as he wanted. I got myself mixed up with rules from the Night Fighting battle zone. it didn't make much difference though as you'll see.

As the turns moved on I did quite well with my psychic phase. Between smite and curse of the leper I was able to slowly remove Mark's models but I couldn't do enough to cause them to run. Likewise he had some trouble with my disgustingly resilient rolls. Once he had his obliterators down on the table, I was able to drop one pair but not before he had secured enough sabotage actions to ensure that I could not stop him winning the game. I conceded and we shook hands. Good game but there went my current winning streak.

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This was an interesting game although next time I play this mission I think we'll need to determine attacker/defender and some proper lists before hand. Will probably make the game a little more even. Also, I was a little disappointed that the battle zone didn't make much of an impact. We both only rolled a double for our sorcerers once each and neither effect was too game changing.

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++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [80 PL, 1498pts] ++

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion: Manreaper
Malignant Plaguecaster: Curse of the Leper, Miasma of Pestilence, The Pandemic Staff

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists.
. 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 7x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 7x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun

14x Poxwalker

+ Elites +

3 Helbrutes: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

+ Heavy Support +

Defiler: Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon.

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Black Legion sorcerer atop his bike.

 

A swarm of Black Legion biker marines surge forth.

Obliterators!