I'm Back...2nd Ed Battle Report

Well I must start this post by apologising for my long term hiatus from this blog! I haven't posted for over a month as I have been deployed on a large overseas exercise with the army.  This has severely impacted on my hobby time and by default my blogging activities which is annoying as I have a number of projects on the go at the moment which I really want to finish.

Anyway I have arrived back in country now and am steadily trying to regain my hobby motivation which has ebbed a bit since my departure!! Luckily my wonderful girlfriend has been on hand to help with this and so today she was happy to engage me in a game of Second Edition 40k.

We didn't have much time available to play and so I set up a small table and a couple of light skirmish forces which is the scale of battle that both RT and 2nd Ed are best at. The two forces were drawn from my Crimson Fists and their eternal enemies, the Iron Warriors of the deamon-primarch Perturabo.

 

The objective was for each player to try and take control of the geneseed stockpile represented by the assortment of barrels located in the centre of the ruined Imperial trench network.

Each force consisted of three squads of five marines led by a sergeant and equipped with a special weapon, they were augmented by a five strong Terminator squad, a standard bearer and led by a Space Marine Captain.
 

Additionally there were numerous auto-turrets littered around the battlefield that could be utilised by enterprising Astartes in order to substantially bolster their faction's firepower.

The pewter clad marines of the Iron Warriors hunkered down behind cover in order to weather the initial storm of the Crimson Fist's bolters...

...However they quickly jogged forwards in order seize the objective before Rogal Dorn's tawdry progeny were able to. Meanwhile one Chaos squad detached itself so as to crew the auto-turret.



Despite the legendary robustness of Tactical Dreadnought Armour it offered little protection against the sheer power of the enemy heavy weapons. The ghost of Rogal Dorn smiled to himself as the traitors were scythed like chaff.

However Perturabo's traitors were quick to retaliate and so the plasma gunner charged his esoteric weapon and depressed the firing stud....

...A moment later an incandescent ball of white energy traversed the length of the battlefield...gouging a vast hole in the chest of an azure terminator whose eyes widened in agony as centuries of faithful service was rewarded with ignominious death.

Pretty soon each of the forces were drawn to the centre of the table and a brutal short range fire-fight quickly ensued that started to generate mass casualties from both sides. The ground was soon awash with the blood of martyrs.

In the final turn both forces charged forwards in order to take control of the objectives that had already cost so many men their lives. Each side was able to get troops within 1" of the barrels...

As both sides had managed to reach the objective the final outcome was in the balance and so we relied upon VPs from the casualties inflicted to determine the winner. A quick tally revealed that my girlfriend had secured victory as her noble Astartes had butchered significantly more enemy troops than my own renegades had been able to.

 

Overall this was a really enjoyable game that was just what I need to reignite my hobby passion...during and after the battle I found myself thinking of ways to bolster my modest Iron Warriors force. A good game always acts as something of a hobby muse for me, and this was further accentuated by the news from GW today that they will be releasing a plastic Horus Heresy miniatures game on 7th November.....Amazing!

 

Many thanks to Mrs Legiocustodes for taking part in the game with me!!