Battle of the Blogs

Hey guys! Long time no read. But today I have something very special for you. Goatmoerser from Aleatorblog paid me a visit ~2 weeks ago and we had a fun 500 pts. match with our armies: his IV Argos and my Traitor Guard.

The following battle report was written by Goatmoerser, so all credits go to him. Enjoy reading it and looking at the cool pics!

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The deployment said “Dawn of War” and we rolled a dice for the mission and got “Purge The Alien”. The loyal IV Argos got the first turn against Stempe’s traitor guard.

The Aleator sector is a place of constant warfare. Especially the Charybdis System is in furore as the forces of Chaos have shown their ugly face. Hidden among the planetary defenses of the World Navis Longa cults have spread and corrupted the higher ranks of the millitary. After hell broke lose not even the small amount of Adeptus Astartes of the Imperial Fists residing on the planet were able to stop the revolution. The population was rotten to the core and those who were still loyal to the emperor were hunted down and hung to the cities’ walls.

Of course this putsch went not by unnoticed. Even if a lot of other worlds among the System revolted, there came an answer eventually. Several regiments of the Imperial Guard, troops of the fearsome Inquisition and even the mighty Adeptus Astartes showed up to fight for the System’s future. This is nothing but a small operation which took place on the planet Navis Longa at the outskirts of a smaller city. Yet it does mirror the fierce war of the whole System pretty good as the battle raged with the same bewildering determination as if it would have been a huge strife. Parts of the IV Argos under the command of Officer Domitius were sent out to reclaim an important part of the city to establish a bridge head. Unfortunately the place was held by the archenemy’s corrupted planetary defenses commanded by Van Druken.

 Van Druken’s defending forces

The traitor guard had spent their time to dig themselves into cover.

Holding high the banner of their evil masters.

Officer Domitius’ strike force

The troops of Argos focused on fast units to allow a rapid push against the dug in enemy forces.

Even the mysterious one man army – Cerastus – followed the call for battle.

The Ambush started during the very early morning when darkness was still cloaking the opponents.

With roaring engines the loyal Imperial Guard called the traitor’s attention as they drove forward.

With righteous fury towards the front line.

The corrupted chaos troops opened fire on the loyalists even if the night was still hindering their sight.

The Dark Gods blessed the traitors as they managed to destroy the chains of the leading HQ Chimera thus immobilizing it.

The troop HQ was forced to get off the Chimera if it still wanted to reach the battle.

The heavy artillery started to open fire on the Imperial Guard.

Shell after shell was loaded and fired.

The other two Chimeras still mobile reached the front line and fired their smoke launchers.

While the loyal Guardsmen went on, the vile traitors were still blessed by their dark gods. One Chimera was destroyed by melta fire.

The unit had to get out of the Chimera, immediately facing an ambush by their corrupted counterparts.

Both Champions killed each other at the climax of the battle. Yet the Emperor’s men could not hold out against the frenzied attack and were annihilated. Things were looking grim for the loyalists.

The forces of Chaos were on the move now that the battle has finally reached them.

On the left flank the Imperial Guard was doing better. Van Druken and his unit had to stop firing on Officer Domitius’ decimated HQ unit and had to face the loyalists last driving Chimera instead.

With the help of their flamers the men of Argos were able to slowly push back the traitors.

But the battle was still raging.

Finally Cerastus showed up and threw his bomb on a unit of cultists.

The battle was nearly at an end but the God Emperor decided to let it last even longer. A lucky opportunity for the loyalists as the chaos forces were still about to prevail.

Not able to fire anymore the corrupted forces managed to drive Cerastus off the battlefield.

But eventually the Imperial Guard concentrated their fire for the last time and got rid of the last elements of the evil traitors.

The Chaos positions were finally overrun.

In the Emperor’s name the bridge head was taken and save for now – but the price was high.

"Bridge head secured" - the message went right off Officer Domitius’ operator’s transmission unit. The wounded and dead were taken care of. The casualties suffered during this operation were horrible yet the archieved victory was everything that counts. Domitius was well aware that the battle for Navis Longa just had started. The arch-traitor Van Druken’s body was nowhere to be found. The men assured that they had seen him going down under their fire but Domitius was sure that he would have to face this particular Chaos scum again during the coming fights. The Emperor protects.

Personal review:

Woooow! What a great game! When the fifth turn was over my men of Argos had suffered too many casualties during their brave assault. Stempe’s Chaos Boys were ahead with achieved victory points but I was fortunate enough to get another sixth turn. Things went much better then as the fast assault was finally paying off and defeat changed to victory. I can’t really complain as most of my miniatures did their duty even though I was expecting a massacre when Stempe started to tear my troops apart. The only pity was the performance of my enemy’s Basilisk. It’s such a neat and well done miniature and it couldn’t get one single shot straight. Of course that would have been devastating for my men but I still wish its performance would have been better.
After all I can just say thank you very much Stempe. Thank you for the great game and being a great host. Bavarian beer and Brezn rule supreme! Looking forward to the rematch!

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I'd also like to thank you very much for this relaxed yet demanding match! I can't wait for our rematch the next time we see each other. It was lots of fun and the "apres battle" party was really neat.