Hive Probatious: Defend Against Pestilence

'All was darkness. Memories and dreams flew through Adelias mind as if a tempest was inside her mind. Her hard childhood learning to defend herself in the depths of Hive Probatious, improvising weapons until she joined the Eschers and was giving her first gun. Her father, who was an officer had started to lose his mind, and her mother had dragged them both away from the eyes of those who may question what he had fought and seen. The Inquisition will cleanse anyone who sees Chaos, and her father had seen much. He would often wake up shaking, murmouring of disgusting creatures that slowly stalked the battlefield, clouds of flies buzzing around their humanesque forms as smaller creatures would gather in great numbers playfully laughing and attacking the guardsmen. Sometimes he could not speak at all of what he had seen. Her thoughts began imagining large Astartes in armour that rotted, the smell of disease and filth strong and their relentless advance, firing boltguns and plasma wherever they pleased. With a jolt, Adelia shot up.'

 

Welcome all to a 2000 points battle report between the insidious Death Guard lead by none other than Typhus versus the gallant (yet slightly scummy) Hive Guard! First time using points and it worked out pretty well, managed to fit in a little more than I did in 100 power.  Deployment was a standard set up along the lengths of the board, I rolled and got first turn but Lewis seized the intiative! Darn it!

'Her vision was blurred, but she recognised her surroundings quickly. The dark ceiling and the low green lights of the command centre was now a familiar sight, a welcome one at that too. As her eyes started to focus she saw the crew of her Leman Russ battle tank to the side, all sat around a table sullenly drinking whatever was in their cups. "Awake I see. Bout fucking time" a gruff voice said. Her fellow Escher looked over to see her awake, as she looked to the side seeing Birim, his huge grey haired mohawk looking black from the battle but a smile on his face. "Wha... What happened?" Adelia asked. "One of those Death Guard bastards smashed your tank up, but its being fixed. Your girls are all fine apart from some scratches and smoke inhalation, but you got thrown out from an explosion on the main turret. Should be fine though. Massive bruise on your arse made all the lads laugh" he said joyfully. Then she felt the ache through her entire body, her arms were covered in scrapes and her backside throbbed, Birim wasn't lying. Ophelia, the driver of the Leman Russ, walked over and put her hand on Birims shoulder. "you alright sis?" she asked. Adelia let out a sigh, "I think so, medicae administered anything?" "Yeah" Birim replied. "Drink this and get up" he said handing her over his hip flask. Adelia had drank from his flask before and the liquid inside burned her throat. For once, it didn't feel unpleasent.'

Lewis commanded his forces forward quickly taking the two bastions with deep striking terminators right on the top. It took quite a while to get them out of there! My plasma executioner tank took a lot of damage early on and wasn't very effective but with how much damage it took it did its job! Autocannons vs Death Guard are pretty good though and even though it wasn't ordered it did well! Deffo keeping him around.  Those terminators though took out 2 squads of infantry, the damage to the tank and almost killed a sentinel. They got some bad ass weaponry!

"So some of us are alive, did we acheive the mission? Whats the casualties?" she wanted to know. Birim walked over to a desk where some people were discussing a hologram. He picked up a dataslate and walked back over, the red glow from the slate lighting his face up. "Pushed em back, made the fuckers pay. A lot of em are left lying face down in the dirt, though their stinking corpses probably like that. Ghronx went down, but hes not dead. Well not yet anyway. He still owes me 30 credits. We lost a few vehicles and about 40 men. Lot of repairs needed all being worked on. Some stupid bitch let a Marine slap her tank... oh yeah thats you." Birim snorted heartily under his breath. "We got em retreating and whatever they were after we don't think they got. Beat em to some of the supplies so we should be good until reinforcements." Adelia swung her legs over the side of the bed, taking a moment to stretch. "Who did we lose?" Birim looked up at her solemnly. "Most of my boys are gone, some are wounded pretty bad but that won't stop em from getting stuck back in if needed. A lot of your lasses are wounded too, not sure how many dead. Them Goliaths seem ok but the Defence Force squads lost a lot too. Reinforcements are hopefully coming in soon." Adelias experience of gang warfare was that you might lose a couple of comrades during a skirmish, but war brought loss to a whole new level."
 

Objective wise it was a close battle, I managed to get a few early on but Lewis kept close too. I'd edge forward by a couple then he'd catch up, and coming towards the end of the game he had just pushed ahead by a point.  I love how the objectives keep you guessing what you need to do. The best example, was me having to advance all my forces out of my deployment zone, which I manmaged to do and then on Lewis' turn he had to move 4 of his units back to defend his deployment zone. Narratively after his slow grinding advance I rushed forward and took him by surpise forcing him back. We loved that moment! My Vendetta took out the Plague Drone which was the scariest unit for me as it could surge forward with flamers and tie up valuable units. It had to go! 6 Lascannons worked haha.

'Memories of the battle started flooding back. Part of the mission had been to reclaim two old Bastions, but the enemy had managed to somehow teleport straight on top and the firepower from them took a toll on the defenders lines. Eventually they were cleared and one of the Astropaths had made it into one, the information claimed potentially being valuable. She remembered a smoking Vendetta gunship screaming around, its Lascannons blazing bright lights across the sky before it was struck and tumbled to the ground. The Death Guards flanks seemed to have been pushed back, but the middle had been the problem. Adelia suddenly remembered the masked Astarte that had strode forward over the bodies of friends and foes alike and struck at her tank with force she never knew one person could wield. After that, she could remember nothing. "Ghronx is in the medicae if you wanna go see him, along with the more badly wounded" Birim mentioned. As she set her feet on the floor, pain stung up her legs and her back. Her first couple of steps were uneasy, but the pain wasn't an alien feeling. "Best go see how the horny bastard is then" Adelia said as she walked away.'

These Death Guard Plaguebursters are brutal. Lewis has informed me hes getting more to add to the two he already has and I am worried! We had a little Callidus vs Typhus action (eventually, we kept forgetting we had them in reserves!) and I was gutted the Assassin didn't do more damage. Damn Chaos Psyker of filth!

My commander fell to a Plaguecaster, who then went into my command tank and finished it off. That was brutal! He then fell to lasgun and plasma gun fire from some infantry and the Goliath Veterans. Typhus had moved forward to try and contest an objective but I was able to slow him down enough before he could add his considerable weight to the fight. 

'She saw Aldreyus to one side, who was talking to the Astropath she had seen with the Goliaths before. A Ratskin shamen was also present, although he seemed distantly in thought elsewhere. She nodded at the Primaris Psyker who noticed her. "Ah Adelia, you're up and ok. It is a blessing to the Emperor that you are well". "Yeah I'm pretty happy about it. Although death means a good sleep" she replied. "Oh dear, thats not good... Oh I see! A joke! Ha I like that one!" he proclaimed as Adelia rolled her eyes walking past the old man. A few corridors along she came to the medicae. Some of it had been shut off, some illness had been caught by a couple of guardsmen although it seemed to be contained. She walked into the area and could see Ghronx's body lying on a bed, a couple of machines seemed to be hooked up to him. A man in civilian clothing bar an apron walked over to her, giving her a courteous nod. "Adelia I believe?" Adelia nodded, "Yeah, hows he doing?" "Not great, I'm afraid. He was found unconscious but barely breathing, we're hoping we can stablize him." the man said. "And you are?" Adelia asked. "Claus, I'm the medic here. Well sort of, not offcially but I've had some training. Not military grade training but just down in the Hive." he explained. "Good to have you here Claus. Hows my girls doing?" Claus checked his dataslate and scrolled through the hologram. " out of the 17 casualties, 4 were dead on the battlefield, and we lost another 3 since. The others should be alright to some level however." Adelia felt relieved that more were not lost, and patted the balding Claus on the back. "Appreciated Claus. Let me know if Ghronx wakes up." "Will do maam" replied the medic as he walked off to attend some of the wounded. Adelia had never been called that before, and it took her off guard. She thought back to her father and how he was an officer, and it seemed she would follow in his footsteps. 'Lets just hope I don't go crazy and see the shit he saw' she thought to herself.'

So tose Death Guards are brutal. Armour saves then extra saves on top of those on a 5+, they are hard to put down! I'm glad they're not cheap to bring too because facing a horde of them would make me cry. Well cry because of the challenge brought by the emperor of course... Ahem. 

A great game, I hope you enjoy the story I wrote too. Fancied doing it from a different perspective and theres probably a lot of mistakes but its all good. 

Whats next for the defenders of Probatious Hive? One thing is certain, there is always war!

AS vs SW/BA 400 Power BatRep!

Welcome to the first Batrep in a while, a battle between Imperial factions no less. One consisting of 200 power of Astra Militarum commanded by myself and Mark, the other army a 100 power Blood Angels force commanded by Lewis with a 100 power Space Wolves detachment led by Adam aka Fuzz. It had been a little while since we played so we kept it reasonably simple with 6 objectives and drawing upto three cards a turn per side. Secondary objectives as usual, line breaker, slay the warlord and first blood. 

"Howls cried in the distance as the mist began to clear from the nights embrace. Morale was low, although the Cadian 193rd had tried their best to get the hive gangs spirit lifted in what would probably be the moment they meet death. Their home, Hive Probatious, had been obliterated by a crashed starship and the onsuing battles that came afterwards. Sightings of everything had been seen, from multilimbed aliens to power armoured giants and even green skins. War had come to the world of Corbel and what was left had to fight back to survive. Many of the gangs had fallen but each house still had some strength. Adelia's father had once been an officer in the Corbel Tank Regiment and his stories were better than any school for Adelia. The hum of the engines of this Leman Russ she now commanded made her feel comfortable, as if her father was at her side. She took a glance at the dataslate and could see the defences were all in place. The Escher had found an old factory and apprehended some Leman Russ tanks, a couple Chimera APCS and given the Goliath gang that still stood, aptly, a Goliath truck. The Cadians who stood with them also had several of their own tanks, more Leman Russ, Taurox and even a couple of the Basilish with their huge Earthshaker cannons. Hope filled Adelia that survival could be a possibility, until she heard the howls again. "

 

"The sun never shone that brightly on Corbel but with Give Probatious in ruins its rays crashed through the dome ceilings, bringing more light into what was left of the hive than it had ever seen. 'Defenders of Corbel, death is imminent, but what we take with us is not an option. You may face the most elite and fearsome enemies today but you shall stand and you shall fight". Adelia listened as Commander Creed took to the vox. She looked around as his voice filtered through, the infantry standing on edge taking some level of courage from Creeds inspiring words. "Your homeworld burns around you, but your spirits must burn like an inferno if we are to walk away with victory. Stand for your homeworld and your Emperor shall stand with you!" Cheers went up all around the lines as Creeds message hit home. 'So we're gonna die' said Ophelia, the driver of Adelias Leman Russ. 'Probably, but we have plenty of guns to try and kill them with, lets pound at least some of them into death before we get fucked up' Adelia replied. The vox flared again, and the ruff voice of Ghrox came into life. 'You heard this Creed, we aint got much chance of seeing this day through but we get to kill some of them Astartes bastards. Why they attack we dunno, but we make em pay.' The abhuman was a strange one Adeila was sure, but as different as he looked there was no doubt he was one fo them. A horned beast like head whose mouth always had a cigar smoking from it, Ghronx was a bounty hunter in the Underhive before the war came and had now become a leader of sorts in the defence force. Birim, one of the few Demiurgs had also become a figure of command and both were capable fighters she'd seen. "

I was using my hive gang guard for the first time, and had managed to get together a brigade to give our side 9 command points giving us 18 in total. Obviously we had to take the trait and relic that let us regain or steal command points. The armies were faced were much smaller but very elite. Adams Wulfen and Thunderwolf cavalry were scary, whereas Lewis' Terminators could hit us from anywhere via deepstrike and Land Raiders are always hard to damage. 

After both armies had deployed the BA/SW combo won the right to go first. I rolled to seize and rolled a 3. To command point or not? Ah go on, we had 18 command points to use so why not. What did I roll? Lets just say some Leman Russ tanks lumbered forward to get the first shots in! I rolled a six!

We managed to get first blood after the Hellhound burnt up some wolves but to be fair out first turn wasn't the most effective. Now we had some scary Astartes coming at us!

"Her thoughts started to shift to all the people standing with her. Aldreyus the Psyker, whom many still took wide berth of, his powers had saved many of her fellow Eschers and despite his dangerous skills they happily stood with him. Commissar Graven was a very old man as war had come to Corbel but had taken up his bolt pistol and uniform again after being saved by some of the local troops. Birim had got the last of the Demiurg on Corbel together and they hunched together in their Chimera ready to take the fight to the enemies wherever they need to be. The Goliaths had taken an astropath called Nelsium amongst them, their attempts to persuade some local Ogryns to the cause had failed however. The howls started to sound louder as the mist had almost cleared. Adelia realised that battle was upon them as the Cadian tanks engines roared into life, drowning out the wolves. The defences turned to offence, as the Cadian forces lurched forward cannons erupting towards the grey and red lines that opposed the defenders. The enemy opposite Adelias lines began advancing, and the battlefield lit up. Lasers streaked across the battlefield, cannon shells tore holes in both lines. A massively large giant lumbered towards the lines surrouded by huge wolves, warriors in both grey and red armour accompanying it. The Goliaths and one of Adeilas Escher gangs rode forwards in their APC's, autocannons blazing away at the lines but only killing the wolves. It would silence some of the fucking howling she thought as she commanded another tank to concentrate fire where Cadians were firing"

Fuzz'es Wulfen were slicing through a lot of Marks units on the right, but our tanks were making them pay. Logan Grimnar found his wounds cut down quickly but as he made it to combat it was hard to finish him off. The thunderwolf cavalry scared us a lot too, but we were slowly able to push them back.

"Reports on the right flank were that the grey armoured Astartes were advancing with great speed, some like bestial demons leapin forward with great speed, raking the Cadians tanks with claws and axes butchering the troops inside the Taurox. Others rode the backs of massive wolves, pistols firing wildly into the allies lines as they too tried to close the lines and wreak havoc with their own axes and thunder hammers. As Adelias Leman Russ fired she glanced out of the cupola to see the air shimmer and buzz, before 5 huge armoured marines appeared. 'Fucking terminators!' she cursed as they storm forward into the local defence troops, lightning claws tearing their bodes apart and hammers collpasing skulls. Just as Adelia was beginning to lose hope Birim and his fellow Squats disembarked and unleashed a fusilade intot he terminators alongside more of Adeilas fellow eschers. 3 fell as hundreds of lasgun shots bounced of their armoud. Aldreyus concentraded and from his hand another Terminator fell as energy surrounded it and made its armour collapse. One remained however and with a pack of wolves that had sprinted towards the defenders lines smashed its hammer into the Leman Russ Exterminator whos autocannons and heavy bolters had taken its toll on the enemy. The explosion took out most of the wolves, a few of the Demiurg were caught and even a sentinel looked to take some damage from the blow."
 

Marks lone Cadian sergeant surviving against all odds! Those odds don't include those terminators though that sluaghtered him

After a few of my infantry units and the Veteran Goliaths were able to take down Lewis' Terminator Captain I got duly charged by Bjorn. The battle ended before he did more damage thankfully but I did lose a few transports and a sentinel to him and a couple of meltaguns held by accompanying troops. 

After racing out to a 9 point lead in the first two turns our objectives became dry with some difficult ones to attempt. Make the Astartes fail morale and defend 2 objectives for two turns. Both were too far away! The Blood Angels and Space Wolves clawed their way back and on Turn five it was 10-9 to the Astartes. 

As turn 5 finished the Astra Miliatrum had managed to collect 11 points to the Astartes 13. It was a close game and if we'd have remembered a couple of things then who knows. Either way we had a cracking game! The amount of tanks that blew up was astounding despite sixes being needed and did a lot of damage. 

"The left flank however did seem to be keeping together, although the huge grey Dreadnought still advanced, with 5 of its smaller brethren and five of the blood red troops too. Another Terminator teleported nearby, this time one that looked to be a commander, its armour more ornate than the others that had come into play just moments earlier. Once more Commander Creed took to the vox. 'The Emperor will protect, the Emperor inspires, whatever is sent to destroy us will ultimately fail as our faith shall never fall!' Seconds later Commander Creed was dead, wolf like warriors tearing him and his command squad apart in an attack down the right flank. Scions had been killed, and the Basilisks were now being stalked. One of Adelias Leman Russ tanks had been charged by the wolf cavalry, but survived and reversed as the Executioner Leman Russ behind it levelled its weapons dropping some of them dead. A couple more died from the Cadian firepower, as a wolf pulled chariot that hovered above the ground flew foward into the Cadian lines butchering more of the guardsmen. More vox chatter came in, the Goliath gangers had levelled the Terminator Captain with some of the other troops on the left, but the Eschers nearby were torn apart by the Dreadnought. The red armoured troops had taken down more of the infantry but had also almost been wiped out by chimeras. The centre seemed to be holding but both flanks were collapsing. One of the Basilisks blew up, taking some of the enemy with it but it gave little solace. Wolf cavalry was wiped out by a combination of Leman Russ fire and infantry squads, and the wolf chariot was also blown out of the sky which seemed to anger and confuse the wolfen forces even more. Adelias tank fired again taking more of the red astartes down, but the battle was over. Both forces had taken a pummelling, the Cadian lines were almost wiped out, the Goliaths barely surviving. One of the Escher gangs had been wiped out and only half the Demiurg were left. The Astartes had suffered too, but whatever their mission it seemed to have been fulfilled. The rocky outcrop in the middle of the battlefield seemed to be a point of interest to the Astartes and Adelia could only hope it wouldn't be the end of their world. For now, the defence would rage on."
 

So my first outing with the Imperial Guard was a very enjoyable one! Compared to Space Marines they are a lot more varied in how well dice rolls do, as you're 50/50 compared to most Space Marine rolls where its 70/30. When you get those good rolls by Emperor you appreciate them! I can't wait to get more games in with them. I'm planning on a box or two of Orlocks to upgrade soe of my infantry, I love the Squat infantry but the models just don't fit in. I'll keep them around if needed but they will probably become retired in time, especially as new gangs are released for Necromunda. 

What else to add? I think a couple of heavy weapon units would be useful, and I'd like to try out my Vendetta and Stormlord at some point too just to see how they are in a game. I just love Leman Russ tanks though! I have another two to get painted up which will give me 5 plus the Tank Commander. The sentinels disappointed me although they were my most recent purchase so wasn't surprised. Psykers are fantastic, the power giving you +1 save was especially useful in cover to make my goliath veterans much more survivable. 

Hopefully my next game is soon to try out more combinations and remember those bloody stratagems! More soon on all the Necromunda info coming out of the HH Necromunda weekender with thoughts, hopes and holy Emperor fantasies for the game!

The fiction bit was written by myself and is probably terrible. Its been a while so I hope you weren't expecting much!