5th November Apocalypse Event

The war on Planet Devlan began as a personal feud between two Imperium commanders but soon escalated into a four way fight between two Imperium factions, Chaos and a mysterious alliance of Xenos. The war cost the Imperium much in terms of lives and war material and more importantly leaving the planet poorly defended against the invaders who have seized much of the planet. Enraged by the poor performance and disunity among the Imperium forces, Empra YQ of the Blood Angels swore to bring General Victor of the Space Pupsies (it was never formally resolved, I can call them Puspies also but I guess Victor hates Nurgle) and Captain Chris of the Ultramarines to justice but the two commanders instead seek the protection of the most powerful faction in the planet, the forces of Chaos. Enraged yet knowing that his strength alone is insufficient, Empra YQ then seek the assistance of the next largest faction, the mysterious Xenos alliance with an obsession with walkers. Perhaps wishing to shed Imperium blood no further, the Space Wolves decided to absent themselves from the final battle and instead invite the mysterious Splitting Vipers Guard Regiment (we don’t even know if they are Imperial) to fight the final battle on their behalf. It is a battle of strange bed fellows.

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We had our apocalypse game on 5th November as the conclusion for the planetary empires event. The two sides were basically Chaos (members are Kenneth, Lawrence, Victor and Chris) vs Xenos (Soo, Vern, YQ and AHX).

The Armies












Random fun with crystals before the battle :)


Thousand sons before deploying for battle

Deployment

The Chaos were deployed in such a way that most of the Chaos units are in their right flank under the protection of the Silver Tower of Tzeetch. The reason for this is to enjoy the 4+ invulnerable save offered by the tower. However the Chaos troops were deployed such a way that they can move to the center part of the table whenever necessary. The center basically consisted of a firebase of 3 Leman Russ, 2 hellhound. The Chaos left is poorly defended, with a few small IG squads and a Thousand Sons predator. In addition, Victor’s remaining IG were dispersed across the table strengthening the Chaos lines. Chris’s land raider was at the right flank with most of the Chaos vehicles while all his terminators and sternguard are in reserve.





The Xenos had a similar deployment. The left flank facing the concentration of Chaos forces were Soo’s Orks. The center were held by Eldar while the right flank were merely held by a squad of Devastators and Dark Reapers. YQ’s BA assault marines form a line in the center, as a shield as well as a vanguard for the Xenos forces. AHX arrived late so he deployed only a few vehicles and kept most of his forces in reserve however we will see that this has a major impact on the game later on.







Summary of game

As mentioned by Victor, especially from turn 2 onwards, the Chaos were basically trying to fend off the Xenos assault and did not have much chance to counterattack. In the Xenos left or Chaos right, the ork advance spearheaded by Soo’s Stompa slowly but surely managed to penetrate into the Chaos lines. Although finally pushed back, the Chaos were too weaken (and time was running out) to counterattack the Xenos. In the end both sides retained their own objectives.


Turn 1, Orkish advance!!!


The Orks quickly run back to reclaim their objective after the stompa exploded.


After a tough fight, the CSM manage to secure their objective.

The highlights of the center was YQ’s dreadnought appearing behind Victor’s tank firebase and preventing them from firing (this is a classic example on how an IG tank gunline can be defeated). The Chaos Subjugator titan was advancing surely with 2 daemon princes. 1 daemon prince was taken out with great difficulty by the assault marines and the Eldar dire avengers but the remaining DP and titan was taken out late game in turn 3 and 4 respectively by an amazing display of accurate and heavy firepower from the orks (kans killed the prince while lootas killed the titan). With the fall of the heavies, the center is open for the Xenos and they claim 2 objectives.


Some final melee and trading of gunfire in turn 5.


The Xenos side nearly lost this objective but AHX save the day!


The 2nd objective in the center claimed by Xenos


Killing the Titan made these guys the unit of the match

The right of the Xenos (or the Chaos left) is where most of the deepstrike/outflanking takes place. Most significant of all was Chris mass teleportation of his termies and deepstriking his sternguard which consisted about 97% of his entire army. It was to his great misfortune that Chris’ prized thunderhammer storm shield assault marines landed right in front of AHX’s Creed who was holding a vortex grenade. The assault termies were wiped out with only 3 left after the vortex grenade attack and were later finished off by howling banshees. Chris 2nd squad of termies were shot into pieces by mass volume of low grade small arm fire (reaper launchers, sniper rifles, lasguns and shuriken pistols). With the termies defeated, the Xenos thus secured their objective. The Xenos also tried to outflank into the Chaos left, one Baal Pred, one sentinel, striking scorpions and swooping hawks were sent. Despite killing many guardsmen and destroying a Chimera and the predator, the Xenos assault force were slain by the Chaos who managed to secure their own objective.


The better for the right began with a daring droppod assault by Chris. The sternguard were let by Calgar himself! It is up to everyone to wonder why Calgar will side with Captain Chris and Chaos!!!


Mass infantry ensure this objective remained in "Xenos" hands



The Chaos IG manage to secure their objective.

Conclusion

In hindsight, I think the battle was won in the center, where Soo’s Kans managed to defeat the Chaos heavies and also YQ being able to cripple Victor’s firing base. In general, the Xenos thus were able to neutralize the Chaos’ strengths (The super heavies and MCs in the center, the pieplate firing base and Chris termies) without losing their really important stuff. The group generally agrees that mass Kans is deadly, especially with Soo’s amazing rolls.

Another point to note is that the Xenos has lots of infantry with a majority of them being troops. Even if the Xenos side lost all their troops in the first wave, there was still AHX’s entire army’s worth of troops! And indeed AHX’s troops help the Xenos to secure a number of objectives. The infantry also did its fair share of work by gunning down many Ultramarine Terminators.

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The battle ended with the Xenos-led forces victorious and the Ultramarines and Space Pupsies put into justice. But at what a cost! In truth, the biggest loser of all is the Imperium itself for the Planet Devlan is now transformed into a Valhalla for both Chaos and Xenos factions, races who thrive on nothing but war……(yeah the Eldar thrive on war too. Somehow)