Battle Report: Vadinax Campaign - Mission 10 The Fated Hour

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Thick gray-black columns of smoke billowed from blazes in every direction.  The wreckage of shattered power armor and charred dead were in piles too deep to see the mud.  Ruined gauntlets clutching emptied bolters and tattered banners propped up by bearers in deathly repose, everything stained in soot and gore.

It was the last ditch gambit to reclaim the Noctalith monuments buried on Tern's Endeavor, and the Ultramarines held on just long enough, but there would be few veterans from that campaign.

Tales from the Fated Hour of Vadinax
Battle for the Noctalith
5450023.M42

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It's the end of the Vadinax Campaign and for 9th Edition Warhammer 40k!  As the global campaign went on, and as we got more and more announcements about the new edition, the crusade seemed to slow down.  Luckily the LGS game organizer Quinn agreed to play one last mission to end the season.  What better way to go out than on a Fated Hour mission where the stakes were high - characters could be completely killed off.

I spent my final Fate Point and set up a show down in the special zone "The Underside" which had to be unlocked during the campaign.  The Eldar were in control, but Faustus' desperate gambit might just turn control over to the Imperium in the final, fated hour!

Battle Report:

Ruleset: Core Crusade 2023 Arks of Omen Grand Tournament - Strike Force, 2023 Q2 Balance Datasheet & Points, and Goonhammer Vadinax Crusade rules
Mission: Custom "Underside Ambush"
Points: 2000

My Forces:

**Chapter Selector**: Ultramarines

Battle Size [6CP]: Strike Force(101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) [6CP]
Game Type: 4. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen Grand Tournament + Crusade

+ HQ +

• Primus Leo Exevio Faustus - Captain in Terminator Armour: Rites of War, The Sanctic Halo, Power Fist, Wrist mounted grenade launcher, Storm Bolter, Warlord (Warleader) [Lost Leg Scar]
• Praelior Tarquinius Iulian Regulus - Chaplain in Terminator Armour:  Benediction of Fury  Storm bolter, Canticle of Hate, Litany of Hate, The Imperium's Sword, Master of Sanctity, Mantra of Strength
• Lt. Commander Psigoras - Lieutenant: Plasma Pistol, Power Sword

+ Troops +

• Squad Cornelius - 5 man Tactical Squad - Power Fist, Plasma pistol, Bolt pistols, Meltagun, Bolters [Walking Wounded scar]
• Squad Kaiel- 5 man Tactical Squad - Chainsword, Plasma pistol, Bolt pistols, Meltagun, Bolters
• Squad Vitus - 5 man Tactical Squad -  Chainsword, Bolt pistols, Heavy Bolter, Bolters [Shell Shocked][Battle-weary][Disgraced]

+ Elites +

• Chief Apothecary Hulm Singa - Apothecary: Astartes Chainsword, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Selfless Healer, The Armour Indomitus, Conversion Field, Custodian of the Future [Lost Leg Scar]
• Venerable Brother "Fury" - Dreadnought: Dreadnought melee weapon w/ Storm bolter, Twin Lascannon
• Squad Nox - 5man Terminator Assault Squad: Teleport Homer,  5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
• Squad Tourbillion - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Assault cannon, 3x Chainfist, Power fist
• Kill Team Rubrum - 5 man Terminator Squad: Teleport Homer, Power sword, Storm bolter, Heavy Flamer, Chainfist, 3x Power fist
• Squad Velox - 10 man Vanguard Veterans Squad: Relic Blade, 5x Storm Shields, 4x Thunder Hammers, 5x Lightning Claws (pair)

+ Heavy Support +

• Squad Nero - Devastator Squad: Power sword, plasma pistol, 4x Multi-Melta, Armorium cherub [Walking Wounded]
• Squad Quinn - Devastator Squad: Power sword, plasma pistol, 3x Lascannon, Missile Launcher

+ Fast Attack +

• "One Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta [Angered Machine Spirit]
• "Two Charlie" - Land Speeder Tornado: Heavy flamer, Multi-melta

Rhaey'Alairn, The Host of the Deathwalker:

Battle Size [6CP]: Strike Force(101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) [6CP]

Game Type: 4. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen Grand Tournament + Crusade

+ HQ +

• Caeirdf Lerais, Shrinechosen - Farseer
• Calath Illumatar - Farseer Skyrunner
• Prince Mynailos - Autarch
• Saeriola of the Final Path - Shadowseer
• The Yncarne

+ Troops +

• Foresight of Lerais - Rangers
• The Knights of Lusyrhael - Troupe
• The Naevran Ascended - Troupe

+ Elites +

• Caeredhos the Exile - Death Jester
• Naevra's Shadow - Solitaire
• Shrine of the Five Blades - Howling Banshees
• Shrine of the Promised End - Striking Scorpions
• The Attendants of Lerais - Warlocks

+ Fast Attack +

• Shrine of the Final Glory - Shining Spears
• Shrine of the Immortal Whisper - Warp Spiders
• Wings of the Deathwalker - Shroud Runners

+ Dedicated Transports +

• The Void's Grace - Starweaver

Takeaways & Analysis:

Quinn's list was a bit strong for our match up, and since The Yncarne is fun but also a pseudo named character - I wanted to see how it worked but we agreed on a special mission that would balance things out a bit and be thematic for the Ultramarines assaulting the Eldar position.  In the end we came up with a mission where the Eldar had to hold their deployment objective in order to score, but it didn't count for them.  For the Ultramarines, we got an extra objective that we could place anywhere in our deployment zone, and no units could deep strike into our deployment area.  Also, he had the constraint that many units had to start in reserves to simulate a surprise attack.

It is easy to get rusty pretty fast with this game, and I was already forgetting a lot of the crusade bonuses that I had accumulated on various units.  While I remembered most of them for characters, the single battle traits for troop and elite units were sometimes forgotten (specifically my +1s to hit on terminators and on my speeder melta guns).  I also forgot my medal of sacrifice buff on the devastators.  I think it might have helped a bit but I still did ok.  The only other glairing mistake was to not screen Kill Team Rubrum from a key Banshee charge with my tactical squad.  The Banshees are quite scary in melee, but I guess is something you have to witness first-hand to truly appreciate.

The Eldar also made a mistake though in leaving the biker character too far away from his body guards.  My devastator squad was able to snipe him from across the battlefield with a single shot!  Should have used that strand of fate dice!

Meanwhile - the fated hour arrived - Lt Commander Psigoras and Venerable Brother 'Fury' were cut down by the Striking Scorpion Exarch and Autarch Prince Mynailos.  Fury's internal ammo explosion got revenge, however, but the blast (or rather the out of action test with fated hour rules) meant that Psigoras was killed.

Lt. Commander Psigoras falls this day...

*sneaking noises*

Chaplain Regulus made use of the Dark Age Teleportarium once more and with Squad Tourbillion was able to shut down their key warp gate and deny the Eldar any objective points for one turn.

 

In all it was a great game, it was very close and aside from a couple of mistakes on both sides and a few early bad rolls I think it went well.  Truly the Yncarne is very hard to pin down as it can bounce everywhere across the board.  I think with the mission rules we were able to balance out the power level differences fairly well.  Quinn was able to table me by turn 4 (which apparently will be an auto-victory in 10th edition) but I was able to collect enough points to barely hold on for the win!

Brother Cornelius holds the point to the bitter end!

Though the crusade is now over, I have spent my last RP on the "Even in Death I still Serve" Space Marine Requisition to inter Brother Psigoras into a dreadnought.  Really an awesome, thematic finish to the campaign and it will be interesting to see what might carry over into Season 2!

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Initializing...

Intoning Start-up rites

Resolving Auto-senses

Connection Vox-link establish... done

Downloading litanies...

Recitations in progress

Please wait...

Please wait...

Twin-link check - pass

Check-sum ab09dab90ef013

Lascannon Status - OK

Storm Bolter magazines - OK

Power Weapon - Safe

Audio feed: "...Venerable Brother Psigoras, it is I, Samus Dexter, Master of the Forge.  Are your memories intact?"

> Command? _

Next Project: Retro Rhinos and Razorback (WIP)

This next project will take a bit: I had 3 sealed original vehicles - 2 retro Rhinos and a retro Razorback that I obtained from a friend's collection.

Everything is original and was still on the sprues and of course the original transfers and instructions.

I even found a bonus sprue in the Razorback box that I'm having troubles identifying.

I've heard that the grip bar that runs along the top of the rhino is very fragile, and I can tell looking at how thin they are.  My plan is to get some brass rods and shape/solder them into the same form.  I also want to magnetize the turret and add some internal filler (thinking wood blocks) to the main hull to add some weight and structure. Since the turret addon for the Razorback is metal, I think the internal structure will be important for supporting and balancing it as well.