Warhammer 30,000 League - Week 9

The Heresy League reaches its climax, and the Imperial Palace's Inner Sanctum is under siege!

We had over a dozen folks show up at Battleforge Games, for the Austin 2007-8 Warhammer 30,000 League's final game. This 9th week featured the Siege of the Inner Sanctum. It was an Apocalypse game where 25,000 pts per side tore into each other to capture the few remaining key positions inside the Palace's blasted ruin. It was an absolute blast so lets do a recap so everyone can see how the Palace fared.

Setup
You can see in many of these long shots the massive 7x30 table we used and the ruined Palace walls and isolated city habs that dominated the game. The Loyalist deployed first and put all their Marine heavy assets like Fellblades in reserve. Their infantry held a long fortified center while Fast moving Blood Angels held their left flank in built up urban terrain, and a large IG Armoured Company backed up by Adeptus Custodes held their right.

The Traitors setup all their armor including 3 Fellblades in the center and left only picket troops to hold their flanks. A large wave of loaded rhinos waited behind the armored front.

In the game's first surprise, the Loyalists rolled a 2 and lost first turn, giving the Traitors an unexpected advantage.


Turns 1-2
With luck on their side, the Traitors advanced aggressively on turn 1. Everything they had moved forward at full speed to seize the initiative. With many of their elite and rear-line troops in reserve the Traitors had this one chance to make a land grab in safely and took it. Shooting was light but the Loyalists now had added maneuver pressure against their 3 objectives and the Traitor ones now seems that much farther away.

Digging in and bracing their weapons the Loyalists threw everything they had at the advancing enemy. Whether it was the foul sorcery of the Ruinous Powers, of just simple fatigue after such a long siege, most of their fire went wide. Here or there a rhino was destroyed, or an isolated squad was caught in a crossfire and mauled, but overall very little damage was done.

On turn 2, the Traitors stood firm and opened fire. On their left, heavy damage was done to the IG armored company including the destruction of their Baneblade. Over 30 Traitor Terminators teleported behind the vehicles and tossed a Vortex Grenade, threatening the Loyalist flank. On the Traitor right, 4000 pts of Death Guard arrived and reinforced the Alpha Legion who was advancing straight into the oncoming Blood Angel and Raven Guard forces.

The Loyalists dove into their hated foe. A bitter assault opened up between Blood Angel and Death Guard forces and Alpha Legion and Raven Guard tore each other apart in brutal assault. Loyalist Captain Vineum and Traitor Captain Arkos were bloody dervishes of destruction.

On the Traitor Left, their Terminators and Sons of Horus drop-podders were beset by units of Adeptus Custodes, who killed with every stroke. The Traitor flanks were on the brink.

In the center, Ultramarines Imperial Fists, and Salamanders grouped for a push against the advancing armored push with some success.







Mid-game Overview
The battle stood on a knife edge. The Traitor armored advance in the center was rolling forward methodically, but more and more Imperial Fists reserved in to reinforce it. Many Loyalist deep strikers had landed in the Traitor rear, and threatened their thinly defended center rear. On both flanks, bitter assaults were being fought.



Flyers Arrive
The skies opened and a trio of Imperial Pilots swept down across the chaos. They hit some Traitor positions in an attempt to slow their advance but were swept from the sky in a hail of pintle-mounted heavy stubber fire. It was an act of defiance... no more.




Turns 3-4
The Traitors continued their march toward the Loyalist center. Their 3 Fellblades blasted the trench lines and bunkers, but only a handful of well dug in Loyalists fell. On the flanks, the Death Guard took heavy losses from Raven Guard terminators, and the Custodes along with a reserving Loyalist Fellblade punished the Traitor terminators on the left flank. The Traitor momentum was slowing.

From the sky dozens of deep striking Loyalists fell into the Traitor center rear and began to take a toll on the vulnerable rear armor of the advancing vehicles. A huge mass of over 100 Salamander and Ultramarines advanced into the center right and threatened to roll up the advancing Traitor armored push.

The Traitors played their last trick. In the midst of the Loyalist center lines a massive Warp Rift opened and over 50 daemons poured directly into the Imperial Fists. Under cover if this foul trickery, the trio of Traitor fellblades moved forward and pounded the massing Salamanders killing over 90 of them in the space of minute! On the flanks, traitors held their right with Death Guard and Alpha Legion forces finally stopping a Loyalist Blood Angel and Raven Guard assault push.

The Loyalist were faltering. In the center, Jubal Khan and all White Scar reserves were drawn into the Warp Rift and killed as many daemons as possible along with Imperial Fist and Dark Angel infantry. On the Traitor left flank, the heretics were finally smashed with the combined forces of Custodes, 2 Baneblades, and the crushing arrival of an Imperial Fist Shield Wall bearing Sigismund.





Turns 5
With the Warp Rift occupying the Loyal center, the Traitors pushed onto the Imperial center objective and held it with a Death Guard Fellblade, a hand full of traitor-guard tanks and Daemons. Their push on the deep Loyalist right flank was lost, and they concentrated on holding their own three rear objectives. Kharn and his berserker body guard roared off a Palace wall section into the few surviving Salamander and Ultramarine assault forces moving forward and hacked them to bits, while the Death Guard and Alpha Legion ground up the last Loyalists on the their right rear flank. Stripped of his men, Blood Angel Captain Vineum lept into a squad of Plaguemarines to meet his fate. In the Traitor center rear, all the remaining picket forces opened up with a single Fellblade for support on the Loyalist deep-strikers and destroyed them.

The Loyalists fortified their positions and standouts such as Sigismund and Jubal Khan rallied men in their areas. Their position was crumbling and the only chance was to retake the center. They threw all remaining fire into the knot of Traitors holding it but it was not enough.






Turn 6
At the end, the Traitor push had held. They held all three of their objectives, beating back the Loyalist deepstrikers in their rear, and had taken the Loyalist center objective. The Loyalists made one last counter assault but it was easily pushed away. They hunkered down and fortified their two flank objectives and finished off nearby Traitors. It was over.




Epilogue
As the game came to a close, the Inner Sanctum was lost. Traitors held most critical locations and the handful of Loyalists seemed somewhat stunned to realize they had lost. Captain Vineum of the Blood Angels was dragged down by a knot of Death Guard. The finest hands that would ever hold a bolt pistol were gone forever. The Imperium was lost and they knew it. Here and there lone Heroes such as Sigismund, Jubal Khan, and Custodes officers rounded up survivors and fought on, falling back in good order to the underground vaults of the Palace. Then the message came through...

Kharn stood atop a mountain of dead Loyalists on the Traitor right and slowly lowered Gorechild. Black Cardinal Erebus on the Traitor left pulled Anathema from a Loyalist belly and looked towards the stars above, tears streaming down his face... The Warmaster was dead...

Already the Traitors were retreating. Landers were moving forward and loading heavy equipment and men, before lumbering up into the heavens. The Sons of Horus were already gone when several World Eaters forced Kharn into his transport and the hatch slammed shut behind him.

Brother Huskar was one of the last to go. He commanded the Death Guard Fellblade Dominator for over a century. He looked down at his ruined hand as his beloved charge was loaded on a Death Guard lifter and gritted his teeth. A stray bolter round had torn away several fingers but he felt nothing. Looking down at his ruined form and the blasted Palace, he wondered what his century of lost service stood for. In the end, the Warmaster was weak and flawed he thought. He would have his vengeance on the Imperium and his former brothers. If it took 10,000 years he would have it.

Result: Traitors: 4 Objectives, Loyalists: 2 Objectives; Emperor Crippled; Warmaster Dead: Loyalist victory?

~I would like to thank every member of the Austin Heresy League for an awesome and inspiring 4 month campaign. You guys are some of the most dedicated players and hobbyists around. Thank you all and please leave comments on your memories and thoughts of the campaign.

For our readers, I hope you all liked the League coverage, so don't by shy about leaving comments and ideas as well.

-bigred