The Gordium Campaign: Balance of Power vs. Space Marines with GK Allies

 "Report Brother Polybius"

"Master of the Watch, after our defeat in the feudal plains, Kaldor Draigo claimed the two cogitators.

 It appears that Draigo suspects the cogitators may contain some kind of

information but he is wary of moving them since he wants the glory of bringing ruin on

our Chapter by himself, and believes us incapacitated after our defeat. He has moved the cogitators to what he believes is a

secure facility here on Gordium. Unfortunately for him Lord Inquisitor Torequemada

Coteaz has called him away to quell an incident elsewhere, while the inquisitor makes his way to this system to see to this matter personally."

"Do we know what they suspect at this point?"

"I am unsure sir, but it appears that Draigo has left the cogitators in the hands of

the 5th Co. of Dragoon Marines led by Cpt Horatio Pericles. The cogitators have not left

the planet and have been kept at a secure facilty under his command. It appears that Coateaz has personally seen to the protection these items

as they are also under the guard of inquisitorial henchmen."

"Do we know the location of this facility?"

"Yes sir we do."

"Well done Polybius. I will transfer this information to my superiors and your contribution will be noted. For the Lion."

***

"Sargent Zarbustabal, today you have been elected for a task of the highest honor. Success in this matter will be a great victory for the Lion. The ravenwing have located a secret facility just below the arctic circle on the planet Gordium where we have reason to believe two cogitation engines, containing information on true identities of the Fallen. The inquisition and a group of Dragoon Co. space marines are in possession of these cogitators. As far as we know the Inquistion does not yet know the meaning of these cogitators and their information. IT IS VITAL THAT THEY REMAIN SO.

Your mission is to enter the facility and locate the cogitators. You will encounter resistence. Your group will be armed with mercurium detonation packs which will be armed after your death or when you choose to arm them. The facility may not be left intact, as you know we can leave no trace...For the Emperor."

Background for this photo provided courtesy of http://recalcitrantdaze.blogspot.com/

After escaping the exploding facility in his Arvus Lighter cargo vessel Aeneas arrived at the Citadel. He had been hit by an automated defense gun that was still active as he left the storage facilty and it would make escaping the gravity of the planet impossible. The second option was still in play. Chosen as the rendezvous point with Belial, Aeneas landed the shuttle on the roof of the Citadel and unloaded its cargo, bringing it into deep into the bowels of the structure where the logic engines could be employed to decode the cogitators. The cogitators were too fragile too be teleported to the Claw of Retribution, so they would be decoded here and destroyed once their information was gleaned. Saying a silent prayer for his dead brothers in the strike team, he returned outside to set the controls of the Arvus to scuttle itself. He saw the landraiders of the Deathwing approach  and come to a stop at the base of the Citadel, a tremendous dust cloud being raised as they did so.

Suddenly a burst of light as the lascannon flash narrowly missed his shoulder and exploded in the ceramite wall behind him. Brushing off the rubble he looked around and spotted the devastator squad to one side, the barrels of their weaponry bright in midmorning sun. On a hunch he glanced to his left and saw the blue glint of terminator armor . Surrounded. The dragoon marines had sprung a trap and now it was up to the deathwing to fight their way out of it...

 deployment and mission

s1- the devs fire on the crusader. doing one HP of damage on a glance.

d1- The crusader trundles forward, and targets the Devs. The Godhammer takes out a tactical terminator.

s2 unfortunately Cpt. Pericles and his assault terminators outflank to the low point value side of the battlefield, and have a long footslog to get anywhere. the stormraven kills the librarian ending the use of the field generator. The melta gun miraculously only glances the Crusader, only 1 HP left!

d2 - the teleporting termies on the roof of the citadel pen the assault cannon and the lascanons glance the ship. the crusader fires on a few more devastators killing the rest and the terminators kill the tactical squad.

s3 - having evaded last turn the storm raven can only snap fire and misses all its shots. the combat squad decides to run fail morale and run from the DWK.

d3 the storm shields just keep rolling ones and my opponent is on the ropes.

s4 - my opponent charged before shooting his stormraven. though im not sure it would have helped much. Coteaz gets locked in combat and I challenge him with the Knight master. Due to some poor rolling I activate my maces but get very few hits, or he uses some 2++ save, not really sure what happened.

d4 - we stay locked and the master falls to coteaz. Offscreen the Storm raven is blown out of the sky.

s5 - Coteaz's help the strike squad finish off the DWK, and Capt. Pericles continues his slow advance. Behind the Citadel 2 terminators try to assault and climb the edge of the citadel where the access ramp is but cant make the climb.

d5 mop up time. everything not shooting coteaz shoots the two other targets. coteaz and pericles die.

s6 the assault hammernator kills one termie but 6 power fist attacks see him dead. the final terminator still cant make it up the difficult terrain of the citadel.

d6 - I never even took my turn. I could have shot at the marines in the brown structure but thought that might be poor form. the termies at screen left conga line to claim line breaker.

Final score
Dark Angels VP 3+3+2+1FB+1WL+1LB = 11
Space Marines 2+1 = 3

Conclusion -
The after rounding up the remaining tactical marines the Dark Angels set to work with their memory modification protocols. The techpriests were put to work modifying those of the Cpt. Pericles and Coateaz. Days later when they awoke at the space marine medical facility they would always wonder why they had battled orcs from the Deffskulls clan at the site of the burned out citadel.
The logic engines and cogitators were destroyed with a massive mercurium explosive, which ignited the entire citadel. Meanwhile Belial, having set the charges himself prepared to make his reports to the inner circle on the new information gleaned from the cogitators. Of particular interest was the name Terrigrax who had once been known as Brother Pannus Lovitus. Let the search begin...

The story continues in, Part 3!

Analysis -
everything kinda went my way that game. the thing that worked the most in this matchup was that I correctly guessed where he would put the devastators. this allowed me to overload that side and avoid taking fire from his other squads. I think my opponent would have been better off teleporting those termies in or walking them on from my opponents board edge. having the concentrated force in the middle with my opponent so low on mobility really made a huge difference. especially when I could claim the citadel and rain fire with out being assaulted. After losing belial last game I never even risked him this game even though the tournament allowed bonus VPs to be in play. The game was never in doubt after I survived the melta shot from the tactical squad.
All things being equal this mission may have made things a little too easy for the army in the center in this game, but elsewhere things didn't go so well. Their was a match with eldar vs. guard with guard being in the center and they got absolutely crushed. I think in the end this type of deployment leant itself to being an assault army which mine is. My opponent for this game, did recover nicely pulling in a victory in his final match.