[Battle Report] The Eign's Gate Deception | Tenth Edition | Incursion | Only War | Chaos Space Marines vs. Space Marines)

Captain Kaine and the Sworn are presently operating without the brotherhood of their Chapter, on a penitent Crusade deep into the contested Sector Maledicta. Nonetheless, they are not alone. Imperial sympathisers regularly supply the Astartes with what munitions and materiel they can. One such supply drop was set for Eign's Gate, but as ill luck would have it, the Harvester of Sorrows arrived there first...

 

This was very much a teaching and learning together game, rather than a serious tactical engagement. We were taking the mickey a little bit, apparently, with GW in house policy now focused on direct demonstrations, but since Garbutt hadn't played in a literal decade this counted as "tutorial." As such, we racked up on what terrain they had and got on with it.

We both know there's going to be a walker fight.
We both relish the upcoming walker fight.

Their company advances on the hidden cache, when the silence of the night is shattered by gunfire. Shouts on the vox: "Ambush!" "Taking fire!" "Who's out there? Who's the enemy?"

Something large looms out of the darkness toward their lines, striding forward: a mass of meat and metal with its scorched barrel hissing in the cool air. The Invictor pilot - knowing he's the only one who can fight this monstrosity on its own terms - moves to intercept it. Maybe - if he can bring that thing down - he can become a lynchpin around which his brothers can anchor.

He opens fire with everything he has. The Helbrute staggers under the constant barrage of autocannon fire, battered backwards, every impact cratering armour plate or blowing wet holes in flesh. Cultists scurrying around the monster's feet are being shredded to pink mist from the non-stop deluge, as the Intercessors lend their fire to the barrage. An autocannon round clips the Helbrutes knee, shattering the joint and it crashes to the ground.

"Keep firing, confirm the kill."

The infernal machine manages to push itself up onto its elbows and level its gun-arm. A roaring, hazy wave strikes the right autocannon, slicing clean through it.
The pilot slaps his harness quick-release and dives clear as the ammo cooks off, and his warsuit dies in flames.

Tar Zahaan survives the first round Oath of Moment - barely -
and retaliates with the flukiest round of multi melta shots, showing
exactly what he needs to one-round the Invictor.

A cheer goes up: a shriek and a hue and a cry from the shadows. "Tar Zahaan! Tar Zahaan!" Then the voice comes for them, basso profundo, tearing through vox chatter and drowning the company's comms:

"I AM TAR ZAHAAN! PRAETOR OF THE EIGHTH LEGION! KILL ME IF YOU DARE, THIN-THING LOYALISTS! KILL ME IF YOU CAN!"

The pilot looks up: just in time to see a krak grenade arc through the night air.

 The voice is silent.

A brutal strat-off between Captain Kaine and his Intercessors
(Honour the Chapter) and the Pinion Poised to Strike (Eternal Hatred).
Four Raptors die, but their flurry of fight-on-death takes all the
Intercessors down with them.

 

More Honour the Chapter, but the Legionaries are made of sterner stuff,
or maybe the Reivers really needed an angry man with a power sword around?

Skallagrim and Love Your Hate clean up the right flank, shooting
the last Aggressor off the board and demolishing these Inceptors
in melee.

The Talons Sharply Curved arrive and begin pressing the Sworn's back line.

Cathartes Aura regains some dignity by taking out this unnamed Sorcerer
in an Epic Challenge. It didn't help that I kept forgetting to Dark Pact with these Legionaries, which is why they're not picking up any heads either.

Raptors descend to meet Kaine in a shriek and a flurry of chainblades, and his brother Intercessors fall; most of the attackers are felled or driven back by his own blade, but their champion hangs on, battering at Kaine's shield: "Stand! Stand and fight! The Blood God watches!"

Kaine takes another blow, wincing, then barges forward. "Your god watches, does he? Then let him watch this, traitor."
 
The power fist is batted aside with the flat of his blade, allowing Kaine to punch the edge of his shield forward into his opponent's face. Ceramite splinters, bone crunches, and as the traitor staggers, Kaine spears him through the primary heart with his sword.

He wrenches the blade free and looks around the Gate, now lit by the wreckage of the two burning walkers. He sees Cathartes and the survivors of the Reivers, still heavily engaged with twice their own number of traitors. The Intercessor squads giving ground against more skyborne Traitors, keeping up a constant barrage of fire as they fell back. The remainders of of the Aggressor and Inceptor squads skulk through the shadows, harrying and harassing the enemy leader and his bodyguards, but lacking the strength to be a more than a nuisance. The Invictor pilot disappears into the undergrowth, dragging a savagely wounded brother with him.

There is no victory here. Kaine tells himself. Remember the lesson the Necrons taught you. Obsession leads to destruction.

Comms were still jammed. Kaine tears his helmet off and bellows. Let them jam this.

"Brothers! Fall back - rally point four and regroup."

Other voices took up the call and the order was passed from brother to brother. Even in these dire circumstances, even with the mayhem that surrounded them, his men react swiftly and with discipline, and Kaine's heart rises.

He waits just long enough to see them disengage and scatter. The Sworn will fan out in all direction, losing their pursuers in the night. Point Four is not a place on a map: it's a pattern of tactical doctrine overlaid onto this sorry world.

Punching aside a screaming cultist dressed in bone-white rags, Kaine turns, abandoning the battlefield to the enemy.

There will be another battle, he swears. There will be another time.

Debrief

Well, that was enjoyable - and not just because I won!

After a handful of headscratching games in ninth edition I have to say tenth feels a lot more fluid. I'm very happy with the Chaos Space Marine index: Dark Pacts are a delightful mechanic, and I can hear the Dawn of War barks going off in my head every time I use one. The Helbrute surviving was lucky, and taking out the Invictor in one shot absurdly so, but I'm glad he lived so I could experience how good Dark Pacts are when you're picking up both options. I'm wondering how impactful they'd be with a stricter approach to Marks, i.e. rather than taking what seems to fit most with the weapon profiles and enhanced stratagems, I went with Chaos Undivided across the board.

Garbutt, of course, was coming into this game much rustier than me (I've at least played half a dozen games of ninth edition, he hasn't put a Marine on the board since sixth was fresh off the presses), but the rust was palpably coming away as we went into the second and third turns. It was delightful to reignite our old rivalry over something other than Dawn of War played long distance - we've been scheming narrative schemes for about a year now and it's taken us this long to actually start... enacting them.

With Eign's Gate secured, the Lifestealing Crusade is able to resume: a minor warp route out of their hiding place in the Firestorm Nebula will allow my Chaos lads access to numerous softer targets across the neighbouring Glevum and Wulfruna sub-sectors. There's also the small matter of the supply cache itself, and the use to which their dark industries will put it...