Battle Report: Thurius in two halves.

Compiled by: Lexmechanic Omega-248791/JAC

Quarantine World Designate: Thurius

Subject: Celestial Questor's priority mission to retrieve the Antidaemonic Vaccine.

Prologue

The sky wept ash over Thurius.

What had once been an Imperial medicae colony now lay choked in pestilence. The contagion had come without warning. A viral daemonic bacteria that liquefied organs and turned bone to putrid jelly. The stronger avoided the aforementioned fate, but fared no better. They had become wretched mutants, shambling zombies or gibbering spawn. Within three terran weeks, six million souls had been reduced to either heretic or slurry. The Administratum's response was predictable: orbital bombardment, followed by Exterminatus protocols. But before the final sanction could be delivered, Vox technicians aboard the Hadal Blade detected an anomaly.

A medical bunker in the northern wastes had transmitted a compressed data-burst:

VACCINE SYNTHESIS COMPLETE. EMPEROR PROTECTS.

The signal ceased moments later.

Veteran Sergeant Hellric studied the approach vectors through the vision-slit of his Razorback transport. Ruins stretched to the horizon, structures collapsed like rotten teeth. The medicae bunker stood half-buried in corpse-ash, its reinforced gates still sealed. Chief Librarian Cogidubnus had divined its importance with grim certainty: the vaccine within might save billions on neighboring worlds already showing infection markers.

"The Emperor guides us to what must be saved," the Chief Librarian had declared before deployment. "We shall not fail Him."

But the Celestial Questors were not alone.

The Warp-storm that had seeded the plague across Thurius had torn reality in other ways. To the east, near the collapsed spire of a weathered church, a chaos rift pulsed with blood red luminescence. From that wound in the materium spilt a torrent of gore, its presence was like that of a shining beacon to the sons of Chaos. Abominations - warped things that had once been human, now twisted into shrieking masses of flesh and mutation, approached from across the continent. The Lost and the Damned came as a tide of madness: Heretic Militia with rusted firearms and bulging muscles, Zombies sprouting extra limbs and weeping sores, and worst of all, the Spawn.

Chaos Spawn lurched through the ruins, their forms defying sanity. Tentacles erupting from eye sockets, bones reshaping with every tortured step, mouths opening in flesh where no mouths should be. They had been human once, perhaps even loyal servants of the Emperor, before the Warp's touch had reduced them to mindless, ever-shifting horrors. And among them rumbled something larger still: a Gigantic Chaos Spawn, a mountain of mutating meat that towered over the rubble, its bulk rippling with unnatural transformation.

They came for the Bloody Skull of Khatoom, an artifact of the four gods favor, bubbling up out of the rift itself. Its retrieval would infuse the most worthy amongst them with unrivalled power and boost the contagion across a dozen systems, condemning untold billions to the same fate as Thurius.

Hellric's vox crackled. "Contact. Eastern approach. Mutant horde, estimated strength one hundred. Multiple Spawn signatures. They're converging on the rift."

The Brother-Sergeant's cybernetic arm twitched in anticipation. Spawn were considered pitiable creatures by some, their humanity devoured by the very gods they had foolishly worshipped. But pity was a luxury the Imperium could not afford.

He checked his Bolt Pistol's load. Around him, Tactical Marines readied their weapons with practiced efficiency. The Celestial Questors had hunted the enemies of mankind across countless worlds, today would be no different.

"Advance and purge. That vaccine is humanity's future, these abominations have none."


Battle Report

Hello and welcome to my first Battle Report! Not only is this the first of what will be many write-ups, it is also my first game playing the Celestial Questors. The ruleset we'll be using is 4th edition with 3rd edition Codexes.

The mission was a simple two objective retrieval scenario. The Celestial Questors needed to recover the vital Plague Vaccine from the medicae bunker, while the Lost and the Damned had to grab the Bloody Skull of Khatoom from the Chaos rift before other would-be chaotic aspirants arrived. If neither were carried off their owner's deployment zone board edge by the end of battle round 5, a 6th battle round would be played on a 4+ roll. If neither are retrieved by the end of the game, it would result in a draw.

For my deployment, Hellric's Razorback approaches the Medicae Bunker. Heavy Support elements position themselves on the east side to contest the Big Mutants and Spawn rushing the Chaos Rift. Sergeant Cash's squad positions themselves centrally to support either element if needed. Terminator Elite wait in the Hadal Blade's Teleportarium Chamber to strike decisively and a Culexus Assassin prepares to stifle the Chaos Spawn with his Leadership debuff. My opponent situated his Manticore Launcher at a protected position in the corner and all of his Traitor squads nearby out of sight to protect it if necessary. They are also ready to support the Big Mutants and Spawn at the Chaos Rift. All the Zombies are going to protect the Vaccine!

As you can see quite clearly, my army list has far less board presence than my opponent's Lost and the Damned (from Codex: Eye of Terror) force. I hope that the superior weaponry and armour saves of the Adeptus Astartes will make up for it!


So how did things pan out? Well my opponent took the first turn and proceeded to immediately nail my Razorback with a Manticore Missile, immobilising it and stunning the crew. This was downright damning, as not only did I need the speed of the Razorback to dump my Marines onto the objective before the Zombies could arrive, I also needed that Twin-Lascannon to snipe the Manticore down one of the few open corridors of line-of-sight. To make things worse, the Plague Zombies rolled very high for their Slow and Purposeful rolls (achieving 5 inch movement in both of the first two turns) so they arrived at the bunker doorway first!



The Tactical Squads proved to be exceptionally resilient. Brother Cash's unit took a perfectly lined up Inferno Cannon template and Heavy Bolter with no casualties, and Veteran Sergeant Hellric's squad took a huge amount of slashing and biting from the Gibbering Horde with no casualties either; proof that the Emperor's Will and a suit of Power Armour is all a man needs. Sadly both units were eventually overwhelmed by sheer weight of Plague Zombies, which are exceptionally dangerous in close combat. With both squads unable to defeat the zombies, my chances of victory became impossible, but there was still hope that I could deny the forces of Chaos the win.


On the other side of the battlefield, my Robots cautiously approached the Chaos Rift to contest the Big Mutants, Traitors and Spawn. They are using an experimental datasheet, so I was not sure what to expect from their performance. The Heavy Bolter plinked two wounds off of the Chaos Spawn before an avalanche of Big Mutants crushed both Robots and the Techmarine in one charge! The Robots were backed up by the Rapier Laser Destroyer, but the terrain was awkward and I couldn't effectively get a shot on them. It did however manage to get a hit on the Hellhound which immobilised and stunned it for a round. The Culexus Assassin's Soulless rule locked up the Chaos Spawn for a turn, but it only happened once and he too was obliterated by the abominations. While the Laser Destroyer vented its frustrations on Traitor rabble, thankfully back up arrived.


Chief Librarian Cogidubnus and his Honor Guard of Terminators Teleported in centrally and behind enemy lines. Deep Striking is always risky as teleport accidents are frequent but thankfully the Emperor Protects. Instead of their designated target, they scattered straight behind the Gigantic Chaos Spawn. A very scary place to be but exactly where I wanted them. Perhaps they were guided by the Emperor himself? The giant beast charged the Terminators immediately, but Cogidubnus slew the foul creature with his Master-Crafted Force Axe before it had a chance to swallow a single man! The group followed up by obliterating the immobilised Hellhound with many Power Fist punches. The renegade Arch Heretic proceeded to teleport in with his dual Lightning Claws - attempting to enact revenge, but the Terminators shot him to pieces with a hail of Storm Bolter fire before he had the chance.


Now I had to choose, should the Terminators run over to support the Marines in their struggling battle against the Zombies? Or should they go and deny the heretics their prize? I ended up choosing to go for denial. I did not believe that I could clear the Plague Zombies in time even with Terminator support, but I knew my elite unit would be very effective against Chaos Spawn and Big Mutants. The Culexus Assassin had slowed them down for a very brief moment but the Big Mutant Boss was ready to carry the Bloody Skull of Khatoom home.


The Terminators clambered over the wreckage and charged the Chaos Spawn. Pounding Storm Bolters, sweltering Heavy Flamer fire, Force Axe swings and hammering Power Fist blows weren't quite enough to completely kill off all the Spawn. One survived and took down two Terminators with it! In the next battle round the Terminators finished it off and consolidated towards the retreating Big Mutants. With one final charge they smashed into the brutes and annihilated them in an overwhelming display of power. Being only toughness 4, the Big Mutant's huge amount of wounds was meaningless against the strength 8 Power Fists applying Instant Death. To prevent further corruption, Cogidubnus crushed the screaming skull underfoot and the remains were purified with Heavy Flamer fire.



So here we are at the end! We called it at the end of round 5 as it was clear that neither of us could fulfill our objectives. Unfortunately the Vaccine was far beyond the grasp of the Celestial Questors, but thankfully they stopped the rise of a potentially powerful champion of Chaos. Who knows how far the Big Mutant Boss could have risen had he escaped with the Bloody Skull of Khatoom?

As my first experience playing Space Marines, I had a lot of fun! There were many heroic and cinematic moments in this game. I was impressed with just how tough Space Marines are, and my Terminators really were a wrecking-ball sweeping across the battlefield. My Rapier Laser Destroyer struggled with line-of-sight that game, I couldn't find a good position for it during deployment. I was acutely aware of the risk that is piling too many of my units in one place when a Manticore is in the game so I ended up placing it with the Robots. It can't move and shoot so it's fairly limited if there's a lot of terrain. My Battle Robot Maniple used a custom datasheet (Robots disappeared from the game in 2nd edition, not returning until more modern times) and it may have been a little undertuned. I will need to try them out more though, I think they just were overwhelmed by a lot more points worth of guys!


I hope this report was an interesting read for everyone, it'll be great to add more writeups to my webpage. Hopefully a full campaign! There should be some new models painted for you to see too. Until next time! - Jack