Tuesday 15 September 2015

Space Marines go Forth : Episode 2 Part 2 "Equal and opposite reactions?"

While sitting on my Chaos laurels I had completely forgotten about the distinct advantage the Space Marine players have over the Spawn of Chaos. Chaos is unintelligent  malevolence, whereas the Imperium bestows leadership (Command Cards) and hi-tech weaponry (Equipment Cards). Commander "Kool Blue" orders his Space Marines to 'double time' and gets in a perfect enfilade on my Chaos Space Marine Commander (which happens to be the Primary Mission objective). Amidst a half-formed Chaos expletive he dissolves under the impact of an accurate salvo of Space Marine heavy weaponry (see below):


Worse was still to follow. A beautifully aimed Plasma Beam incinerated a line of Orc Grunts, waiting it seemed in parade ground fashion. Four fell. The higher beings of Chaos groaned at the incompetence of their underling, which turned into a double groan is the Blood Angels (going room-to-room in house clearing fashion) took out the Chaos Space Marine wielding a distinctively "chaotic looking" heavy weapon (who happened to be the target of the secondary mission objective). 

Game Over: Mission Objectives complete a Space Marine whitewash. 

Or was it? There was a dirty looking android staring at "Commander Kool", he decided to 'Honour the Corp' and take it out! Be it a simple case of weapons malfunction or higher level order Chaos trap we will never truly know, but Commander Kool fell bravely in battle a hero on the eyes of the Ultra Marines (see below, Koolsn uncool 0 hits, the Android 5 in close combat!):


Blue Team were stunned, "bullet proof" Kool was down, thankfully their training immediately kicked in. "Lock and load, target acquired, confirmed hostile Mech 25 meters, launch" ... kaboom ... "Hostile down." Chaos was again reeling as bits of Android 675-744BSC-1X bounced off the walls. Now pinned into a mere quarter of the Space Hulk level 78 with over nearly three quarters of its forces already "down" to the Space Marines. Although the Ultra Marines were down to just "three troopers" (see below):


While the Ultra Marines were showing their tactical prowess and the Blood Angels were going "room to room", what on earth (or Terra) were the Imperial Fists doing? They seemed to be chasing shadows or in particular one Chaos Space Marine sniper who was annoying their Sergeant. Eventually the 'Tom and Jerry' game of tag came to an end as one ex-Chaos Space Marine contemplated "eternity plus one". The White Commander had however opened up a rather large gap between himself and his troopers (see below):


Meanwhile the Blood Angels "Red Commander, "Red Star Wolfie" was caught between the horns of a internal dilemma. Although both the primary and secondary mission objectives had been achieved, unlike the White Commander he felt like he had not done enough. His reputation back at the Corp HQ depended upon a good kill count, but Chaos seemed to prefer to run away from the Blood Angels rather than stand and fight. Sensing there was not much left to mop up "Red Star Wolfie" got the shock of his life when behind cargo door 78-A33 a dirty great big Dreadnought Killer Robot waited. The first round of combat was inconclusive and "Wolfie" withdrew with a minor wound. Gasping for breath, Wolfie" weighed up the odds, at best 'evens', more than likely 'against'. Always a gambler as well as a ladies man to heart "Wolfie" went for it, screaming 'Angels Lead the Way!' his power sword ionising the air as per the recruitment ads. The space-time continuum seemed to be adversely affected by some form of  warp spasm. "Wolfie's" arm was fractionally slower than the robots and his power sword skittered harmlessly across the floor. The Dreadnought had pre-calculated the Blood Angel's exact move and punctured his power armour at a known weak spot. Another unsung "Hero of Imperium" droped lifeless to the floor (see below, urk):      


Stunned by this sudden turnaround the Space Marines were lost for words and actions. Two leaders down in the same turn, unheard of. A beaten foe was suddenly on its feet thrashing the hell out of the Space Marine assault. What once seemed to be a 'walk in the park' was now a 'nightmare of cataclysmic proportions'. The Dreadnought slipped effortlessly into a long corridor and lined up a plasma cannon attack catching three Space Marine grunts (sorry troopers [the last two surviving Imperial Fists and a hapless Blood Angel]) lined up in a line like rookies and down they went. The White Commander caught a nice dose of auto-cannon to wound him and spoil his nice paint job (see below):


Standard Space Marine training stipulates a specific tactical response (see below) to "gloating minions of Chaos" (aka 'me') who cannot believe their own undeserved, blind, pure, unplanned  luck when the dice fall so unkindly but honour the fiends of "The Warp". The Space Marine Commanders were well drilled in this respect, I believe it meant "give us a chance and we will cut all your tentacles off you despicable green thing" (see below):  


With The Imperial Fists running at 80% casualties, The Blood Angels 60% and the Ultra Marines 40%, most of the Space Marine equipment and order cards used, an unstoppable Dreadnought Killer Robot on the rampage and the last mech, Android 566-988HND-S1 (a zip-zip, kill-o-zap special) finally released on kill mode, enough was enough. The Space Marines turned and ran for it, sorry I mean beat a tactical retreat to "live to fight another day".

Will they make it away? 

1 comment:

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

And got "lucky" to boot, but what goes around comes around in stats as in life in general ;)