Storm of Endurance

The Host of Kethla the Enduring vs Pre-Heresy Deathguard – Capture and Control Mission

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Format: 1000pts
Mission: Capture and Control (table quarters, 2 objectives in total, one in each player's deployment zone.
Rules: As per Tempus Fugitives Age of the Emperor Campaign weekend. Disruption fields = rending, Gauss = rending, WWB replaced with FNP.

Forces:
The Host of Kethla the Enduring controled by Lucifer216:
Necron Lord with Destroyer Body
3 Wraiths
3 Wraiths
9 Scarabs with disruption fields
3 Tomb Spyders

The Deathguard, controlled by Omicron

Captain Grulgor (replaces combat tactics with bolter drill)
10 Man Tactical Squad with Rhino (1 with PF),
10 Man Tactical Squad with Rhino
5 Man Devastator Squad with plasma cannons

++++Combat Log parsing initiated++++

Captain Grulgor of the Deathguard snorted in disbelief at the battlefield before him. The battered, rust encrusted shells of cargo crates that were perhaps all that were left of a once-proud human civilisation, seemed to silently mock him as he and his men prepared themselves for the coming onslaught. Why his superiors had deemed it necessary to dispatch a small Astrates strike force to this desolate red moon, a smaller, wanner twin of Mars, was beyond him. No life, no mineral wealth other than choking deserts of iron oxide. To be honest, he didn't care. Already, battle had become its own reward. A chance to prove his worth and increase his legend at the expense of that weakling Terran, Garro.

His bitter musings vanished as they had never been, as his autosenses picked out flicking movement in the distance. Even in the wane light, the glimmering carapaces of the oncoming scarabs caught the sun. Behind them came ranks of metal robots. Grulgor tried to remember what the name assigned to such abominations. He swiftly gave up. What was the point of remembering the name of a foe when it would soon be less than nothing?

He made for his Rhino, while issuing a harsh barking stream of instructions. As he entered its armoured shell, he addressed his men. "These Xenos would stand in the way of the Crusade. Will you let that stand?"

The answering roar over the comlink would have deafened a normal man. Grulgor's ugly scared face split into a grin.

"Then do your duty. Leave none standing."

Initial deployment

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii216/Lucifer216/NecronVSDGdeploy.jpg

One of the tactical squds was combat squaded, with the sergeant with the powerfist in the same Rhino as Captain Grulgor.

Turn 1
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii216/Lucifer216/NecronVSDGturn1.jpg

As would be expected, given the nature of the terrain, no shooting of consequence occured in the first turn. The Scarabs turbo boosted into cover, while Kethla the Enduring and his ghostly bodyguard took a more measured pace towards the upstart primitives. The Rhinos gunned their engines and headed for the enemy's objective, eager to get to grips with the real vulnerability of the Necron forces: The warriors and the possibility of causing a phase out.

Turn 2
]http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii216/Lucifer216/NecronVSDGturn2.jpg

Again the Scarabs turbo boosted, moving closer to their target, while making use of their small size and their terrain to shield their approach from the firepower of the Astrates. Meanwhile the Rhinos, Necron Lord and Wraiths continued to rush pass each other. The two generals were clearly confident that the defenders of each objective would be up to the task of blunting the enemy's onslaught. First blood was one by the Deathguard as their fearsome bolter discipline took its toll, felling one wraith.

Turn 3
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii216/Lucifer216/NecronVSDGturn3.jpg

Battle was finally joined in earnest and the Deathguard began to fall, giving the lie to their name, as the Necrons reaped a bloody toll on the invaders. Kethla the Enduring felt the faintest echo of pride. He had directed his minions to fully envelop the Astrates Battleline, and despite their lack of numbers, the Wraiths proved resilent in the face of the Space Marine's savage fury with combat blades rendered impotent against the darkling wonders of phase technology. On the other side of the battlefield, Captain Grulgor grimmaced as he saw the life signs of his men flicker and blink out. Their loss served only to stroke his fury to new hights and he urged his driver to close the distance to the enemy lines faster. Soon there would be a bloody reckoning indeed.

Turn 4
]http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii216/Lucifer216/NecronVSDGturn4.jpg

On the left hand side of the battlefield, the Necrons continued their work, rendering ceramite armour and gene-enchanced flesh down into useless torn fragments. On the other side, the Rhinos screeched to a halt. Even before one of the tactical squads could disembark, their transport was ripped asunder by a mighty Tomb Spyder. Stoic in the face of such a metal beast, the Deathguard pressed on. In the bloody combat that followed, armany battle brothers were cut down, their rich blood giving the iron desert its first drink in millenia. The other squad fared, better as the fury of Captain Grulgor and Sergeant Karneus's crackling power fist got the better of the steel abomination. Crucially the way was clear to the Necron warriors and the Host's objective and given that the squad was still scoring, victory seemed in sight despite the fact that the Deathguard had come off far worse in the majority of the fighting so far.

Turn 5
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii216/Lucifer216/NecronVSDGturn5.jpg
After their slaughter was complete, the Wraiths, Scarabs and Lord Kethla turbo-boosted, eager to finish the job they had started. The Necron Warriors fell back in the hope of avoiding the wrath of the remaining deathguard and killed several, ripping their bulky forms down to their component molecules with volleys of gauss fire. However, it was no use. A single laggard doomed the unit and Grulgor and his men were finally able to unleash their pent up aggression on a worthy target. At this point, the random game length reared its ugly head and Kethla the Enduring was denied his victory. With no one left to defend the Astrates objective and that belonging to the Necrons being contested, the game was a draw. Nonetheless, the generals agreed to see what would have occured if fate had been otherwise and unsurprisingly Grulgor and his men were butchered to the last man by the returning Wraiths, for in the face of the glory of a true immortal, how could any primitive endure?

+++Mission Debriefing++++

All things considered, there's little I would have changed despite drawing. My only real mistake in the game was not move my Necron warriors back further in Turn 4/5, I guessed wrongly and paid the price. As always the dice proved my real enemy, by denying me a sixth turn. Omicron volunteered to play the Space Marines for a change (he normally plays Guard) as we were keen to see how both armies would fare under the Tempus Fugitives ruleset. We both agreed that his main mistake was to place his marines in poor firing positions, somewhat understandable given the fact that he's used to commanding Guard, which tend to either be dead or in cover.

Although the battle felt a bit one sided, I think this was partly due to the Space marine list. I had suggested a more mobile force, using landspeeders, bikes and a jump-pack assault squad led by a Chaplain. This would have given me a harder time and could well have pulled the same trick as I did (wiping out the objective defenders and then returning to aid the defence of my own objective).

The Tempus Fugitives changes to the Necron list are strong, but feel natural. Replacing We'll be Back with Feel No Pain, was extremely natural and made the game flow a lot easier. My apologies for the lack of detail in the battle report, but the maps and this report were compiled several weeks after the game took place, without the aid of notes to jog the memory.

Lord Khethla spun his Warscythe around, deflecting several heavy blows from the leader of the Primitives in quick succession. As he did so, ancient circuits processed rich streams of information, each nano-second an eternity of iterative analysis. Then came the clinch. For long moments, their blades locked and as they did so, wet orbs met his burning gaze. Despite the primitive's lumpen features, a spark of almost-recognition rose up in the Enduring One's consciousness. The last time he had seen a counterance so redolent with hate, entire worlds had burned. Such anger had given rise to the Gods that he now served and led to his glorious encasement in undying metal. For brief instances, the Lord pondered the devastation the creature before him could wreck if left to plot its own course. The projections were pleasing in his sight. Thus resolved, the Lord twisted his weapon strangely, disarming the man before him. He pulled back his warscythe for the killing blow and brought it round in a glittering arc.

Grulgor stared as his doom reared up before him. Then the incomprehensible happened. The blade stopped dead, scant millimetres from his neck. He looked up in disbelief and the Necron Lord seemed to laugh. Grulgor roared and snatched up his weapon, enraged at the thought that a Xenos could be so proud as to view an Astrates as being beneath its notice. Even as he pounced, the Lord and the remaining warriors, pulsed with an eldrich green light and then vanished, leaving only the bloodied corpses of his men as evidence that they had ever existed. But despite the heavy butcher's bill, the site had been secured for the Mechanicum.