The Gordium Campaign: Assault on Ix

This tale follows the armies of the Dark Angels as they endure the evil of the galaxy while trying to right the wrongs of ancient treason. Follow the whole tale of the Cogitators of Gordium:, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Somewhere in the polar regions of the planet Ix, a meeting of nefarious leaders, Koros the Ironclaw, Bolivox a Nurgle Lord, and a shadowy figure plot the down fall of our heroes...

"Lord it is I Bolivox, we offer you this progress. The gene-seed has been obtained by the chirurgeons and we are administering its modifications as we speak. The vessel is hardy and will make a good host. The sorcerer Enkynius works the warp on it as we speak."

"Bolivox I trust this task to you but be warned my gift is that of life, should i choose to withdraw yours it would be all too easy. Warpsmith, I turn now to you, have the preparations been made to welcome our guests?"

"Yes Lord we have prepared the defenses. The iron warriors will offer a test and exact the proper toll on our quarry. Are you certain that they will come Lord?"

"Yes Koros, like flies to dead, the Dark Angels are easy to predict, their obsession with the fallen will be their gift to the Dark Ones. Do not underestimate them however, they will attempt to bring there full force on you first Bolivox, be ready! My conversation with the vessel has informed me that often they attempt to capture their brothers with their first company, make your plans accordingly. Go now..."

...Meanwhile aboard the Raven's Claw Sammael and the council of the inner circle convenes as the Huntsmaster makes his report...

"Gentlemen the information regarding the recovered cogitators has been difficult to obtain but, after these past long months the techpreists have finally decoded the second cogitator found on Gordium. There is no name that has been decoded, only a set of intergalactic coordinates. The coordinates have been cross-referenced and have been found to match the planet Ix, which we now orbit. A backwater world near the eye of terror, Ix is mainly known for its harsh if efficient theocratic rulers. 

Administratum sources seem to indicate that this world has not relinquished its Imperial tithes to the black ships on the last two bequests, and the administratum has filed a claim against it. We have dispatched two squads of ravenwing to investigate this planet. Initially sensor scans have been difficult to interpret since our Gladius class starships and strike cruiser have been fired on from anti-starship batteries on the surface, and have been unable to approach. There appears to be a landing zone near the plateaus of the high desert on the southern hemisphere of the planet that will be relatively free from planetary defense guns. Sgt Telphys and his squad have made planetfall and are currently scouting the area."

"Very good Hunstmaster, your work on this effort has been exemplary. We together shall work to bring these fiends to justice. Belial can we count on the first company when the time comes?"

"Indeed Samael. The deathwing are prepared to take on any foe, and the fallen are no exception. We are ready to do our part for the Chapter.I have consulted with Brother Captain Indomiel, who is preparing his squads aboard the 'Glaive of Reckoning.'"

"Good in that case these are your orders Huntsmaster, you shall be charged with all surveilence and battle preparation. We will reconvene when all plans have been laid for review. Now make ready, for the Lion!"

*see below for references

*see below for references

Four objectives encircled in red.

While expecting a more heavy infantry based force, Bolivox is unpreturbed by the change in tactics of the Great Enemy.

So this mission was actually Big Guns never Tire, having played so many games with my deathwing recently, my opponent was expecting that force, and not a Sammael/Ravenwing list. If he had been expecting sammael, he probably would have brought a second helldrake. Such are the benefits of keeping your force disposition vague. I deployed knowing that i would have the second turn and did not attempt to steal the initiative.

The forces of chaos advance, the bikes are too far back to do any real damage. The rhinos flat out to cover the flanks and threaten the objectives

The rhino gets penned but is only stunned.

Summary (N)urgle 1 - Nurgle is shaping his attack in a classic pincer move and hoping the drake comes in turn 2.

The whirlwind fires on the cultists causing them to flee, while the left sided speeder, takes out he leading Spawnherder.

Opening salvo, thanks to the banner of devastation. Sammael misses with the plascannon.

Biker marines are pretty tough to kill. half the squad goes down, and its likely that this was mostly due to the black knights. The speeders help by putting a few extra wounds on the bikers.

Summary DA 1 - Banner of Devastation is pretty pitiful vs toughness 6. Sammael missing didn't help.

Heldrake arrives and flames along the back line. Banner carrier makes a FNP save, bunch of ther bikers are taosted. The predator moves to get a clear shot at the rhino and wrecks it.

Ekynius a lvl 2 psyker and the obliterators deep strike on target and unleash a salvo that is prevented from wiping the squad by the darkshroud. Note that my opponent had declared Ekynius his warlord. Plague marines emerge from the rhino and blast into sammaels squad which are aided by the Darkshroud providing stealth. Finally in assault Bolivox and his bikers assault sammaels squad killing the sergent and two more, subsequently sammael hit and runs out of combat. (yeah, just look at the picture wouldya! Sheesh...) 

The cultists regroup.

Summary N2 - Nurgle host pushes into my half of the table. Ekynius and Co. do some shooting not pictured. Helldrake does what it does best, only the lucky FNP saves my banner. Bolivox wins the first challenge, and gains +1 strength by killing off the sergent.

Sammael misses... again. Speeder combine fire to blast apart the spawn. Bikers try to target the plague marines. Brother Tibbs needs to get some lessons shooting with the lascannon. The Champion gets called out by Bolivox...

nuff said

Prior to charging the black knights rake bolivox with plasma, and the librarian suffers a perils and fails to cast psychic shriek. Huntsmaster is killed, but so is one Nurgle biker. And nurgle rewards his champion... 2+ save for Bolivox, Lord of Chaos!

Summary DA2  - good work to take out the spawn. but a major let down with the the snake eyes charge by sammael. (eternal warrior exchanged for fleet and a price drop, waddaya say?)

Ekynius chanels the warp, the first spell is cancelled out by the psychic hood, but gift of contagion gets through causing -1 S and -1 T. The evil cronies take out the nearest squad.

Plague marines silence the whirlwind and hungrily eye the tact squad.

Meanwhile, the predator blows up the Dark shroud, and the Plague marine plasma Sammael in the face... or would have if he didn't make all all but one of his saves. He likes a challenge what can i say... In the bolivox combat the apothecary steps up to the plate to accept the challenge.

Hellbug/drake, seeing the damage output from the speeders, decides to flame them but can't even glance! 

Summary N3 - interesting turn. I think that the helldrake maybe should have flown off the board but those speeders im sure looked tempting. bolivox fails to kill the apothecary in his challenge, and somehow sammael survived his epic charging flub.

Still no reserves for the Dark Angels. the tacticals turn and blast the plaugue marine's and with the help of the speeders wipe the squad. The command squad with the librarian hit and run from bolivox and bring weapons to bear on ekynius. This time psychic shriek goes off and isnt blocked, 6wounds to the squad, dropping to obliterators. Also note the raven wing bikers creeping around the ruins.

Sammael hits with the plascannon and makes the charge... oh its on now!

Slugfest/catfight. No wounds.

Summary DA3 - The pot is boiling nicely now. the objective near my deployment zone is no longer threatened by troops and the most dangerous unit (the oblits and sorcerer) have been chopped down to size. Good turn for the boys in black and green.

Helldrake drops out of hover to flame the speeders, but only gets a single glance. The predator continues its personal killing spree, downing a speeder. the apothecary commits to a divine intervention versus Ekynius. Bolivox embolded by 2+ save and his slew of dead challengers charges into assault with Sammael. 

Gideon the Brother Apothecary falls to the force weapon of Ekynius.

Making good on his claim, Sammael sheaths the Raven sword in Bolivox's flesh, but in his giddyness forgets to Hit and Run out of combat... however before he goes unconcious Bolivox was able to wound Sammael and mentions a name, what can it mean... 

Summary N4 - Ouch tough turn for nurgle. With his captain MIA and the Helldrake ineffectual for a second turn the Host of Bolivox is losing their grip on this game.

Nephillim and attack bike arrive. With the hell drake on the ground the nephillim pilot feels the speeders are up to the task and tries to thin out the remaining cutlists on the objective. Brother tibbs misses with the las cannon again, the speeders for all there power can only take two hull points off the hell drake after it makes just enough invul saves. Haephestion unleashes with a psychic shriek and the plasma bikers bring down Ekynius.

Forgetting to H&R proves to be Sammael's undoing as the plague knives bring him down.

Summary DA4 - Cant believe i forgot to hit and run. this also would have given be a chance to shoot the plasma cannon so i likely would have been able to win the combat (so long as I didn't overheat). Not bringing down the drake was also unexpected, with the cultists in cover i knew shooting at them wouldn't be too effective but you gotta try... its getting down to the wire.

The hellbug vector strikes the Nephillim but does no damage. The rhino gets immobilized on the mesa. The remaining plague marines take out the ravenwing biker nearby.

Hellbug, bane of bikers everywhere.

bringing weapons to bear the predator fire a full salvo but the Sgt. Vincense jinks the shot.

Summary N5

Bit of an overlap here. For the Dark Angels the Nephilim fires on the cultists, but does no damage, the speeders explode the rhino near the ruins, then target the plague marines, cutting them down. Sgt Nissus and the tacticals scramble over the wrecked rhino. The libby, Haephestion, charges down, the last nurgle biker. Meanwhile the attack bike takes up position and unloads a multimelta right into the predator blowing it sky high. The other ravenwing biker, charges and kills the cultist in the corner objective.  the helldrake strafes the nephillim bringing it down to 1 hull point, then kills the raven wing in the corner. nurgle cultists rejoice.

Summary DA5 - was worried about taking out all the things near the corner objective but lady luck came through. Blowing up that pred was sweet though. Really should have flown the nephilim off the table on this turn. by ending the game on the corner objective i make victory posible but, we continue.

Summary N6 - Helldrake doing work, and keeping nurgle in the game.

Haephestion rejoins some old friends, and the attack bike turboboosts for the objective, but isn't in range.

Cue the Fall Out Boy music. Nurgle cultists, to their credit, dont run.

Summary DA6 - If the game ends here its a draw. Was hoping the cultists would break.

we continue...

Summary N7 -no pic, helldrake flames the biker but cant vector strike due to the angle. Attack bikes have two wounds so, no luck there...

Oh vengence is sweet. Attack bike secures the objective. Neph shoots Down the helldarke. 

Reprise: Fall Out Boy "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark",  cultists are wiped out.

Summary DA7 - I needed it to go to turn 7 and it did. Funny, if the game goes to turn 7 and your playing Deathwing it means you probably lost.

Summary/Analysis -
Final tally, Dark angels win 6 +2 to 0 +3. We both get warlord and killing a heavy support, Nurgle gets First blood.

Awesome game. Awesome opponent. So many twists and turns. I think the critical desision came when the helldrake chose to go for the speeder instead of the tacticals who had emerged from the rhino. Of course I also made some mistakes, not H/R with sammy, not targeting the helldrake with the Nephillim. Might have been more cautious at the ouset but it seemed like a good plan to rush forward with guns blazin. It was my first victory with Sammael and the ravenwing, they are a fun army to play. Incredible conversions on that Hellbug.

Epilougue - "Grandmaster Azreal, we have secured the garrison at Orlansk and are landing the 4th company. We taken the traitors into custody and chaplains are interrogating them for inteligence. I regret to inform you that the sorcerer is not among them. Before the death of his fellows, Ekynius teleported out of the battle, his current whereabouts are unknown. It appears that after being defeated by Sammael, Bolivox was sufficiently resuscitated by the plague marines to flee, the new Huntsmaster is tracking him now. Thus far his trail has led into a mountianous region south of Orlansk. Orbital surveillance has identified a mountain stronghold in the region. We have identified building and fortification techniques consistent with those of the Iron Warriors. Whether they remain in this area is difficult to say we shall require additional intelligence."

"How is Sammael?" 

"He has recovered well. It should be no time at all 'til we have fully functional Master of the Ravenwing."

"And our true quarry, Haephestion?"

"One of the sergents of the plague cult states that he and his men were to guard a babbling man in power armor, but never saw his face. Its not much to go on. But there is something else..."

"What?"

"Sammael swears that as Bolivox lost conciousness he mentioned a phrase, 'Dont tell them about cypra', do you think he could have meant Cypher?"

"Until we can track down that villian, the answer to that question is just speculation. For now investigate this mountain stronghold. We must capture Bolivox if we are to learn the truth..."

"And the civilians?"

"Death is better than demonic possesion. Do what must be done, if there are few you can attempt to mind wipe them, if they are many then their fate is already decided. We shall be in contact soon."

Follow the story in Part 5, Hammerfall on Ix!


*Background of planet taken from http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/kepler-186f-the-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone/#.U3OkF_ldUl8 (5/14/14)
*Images of Battlefleet gothic ships taken without permission from http://www.bishco-post.com/Dark_Angels/BFG_Fleet.html (note please contact me if this website belongs to you)