Siege of Vraks Campaign

Campaign rules

Master rosters.

Three master rosters per side. These represent the army groups present at the 3 starting nodes(per side) at the begining of the siege of vraks.
10000 pts total(Per roster). Any amount may be superheavies. However superheavies may only be deployed on designated apoc battle campaign nodes or special scenarios nodes where superheavies are permitted.
Allies will be allowed. 0-1 hq,0-1 elites,0-2 troops,0-1 fast attack.
Parent list must meet minimum requirements before allies can be selected.
Allies are included in the parent army groups army roster point total.
Allies may not be selected from multiple codexes.
In cases where identical units are available to multiple codexes, the entries in the most up to date codex can be substituted. This is to prevent ig chimeras being 55 points and inquisition ones being 70+ and the fact that inquisition hellguns have the volume turned down.
Unique characters are unique. 'There can be only one'(To quote Christopher Lambert)per side.
Master roster wargear selections are redeemable. Weapons purchased can be redeemed for their cost and alternative wargear selections can be made(But not additional models or units.) Transport options are not wargear. This does not apply to armoured vehicles. Their wargear selections remain constant.
Master roster units can be combined or broken up as necessary. Provided the number of models in the master roster does not change. Ie 2 squads of 8 bezerkers with a champ each could be used as 1x15 man squad with a champ. The extra champ stays at home. If the unit used in the battle is lost, then the loose champ or model can pay for reinforcements to rebuild the unit.

Casualties.

At the end of each battle units that are wiped out are removed from the army roster along with any armoured vehicles destroyed. Damaged vehicles and units that are below full strength are automatically reinforced to full strength and repaired. The only exceptions are vehicles imobilised in the field on the loosing side. These are considered destroyed as the enemy will capture and destroy them. Dedicated transports thet survive the destruction of their unit can be re-allocated to new units.
If a unique character is slain roll d6. On a 4+ the character is available to be purchased as a reinforcement at their original points cost. On a 1,2 or 3 the character is dead. No comebacks.


Victory points and reinforcements.

At the end of each battle 60% of the victory points won by each side may be converted into new units and added to the master roster. Points may be accumulated for use at a later stage. These reinforcement points can be used on any of the three master rosters. This is something we may need to adjust. We may find we are consuming men and material much faster than it is replaced. We could set specific turn numbers where both sides recieve an injection of points to spend on reinforcements.
(Edit) We decided to increase the master roster total to 10000 pts per army group. 5000 is not enough and the group is almost unrecoverable after 2 losses.

There will be more detail to be added but we have started the campaign. First engagement has been fought which was an attack on node 3. The Saritama Hills. This was a victory for the forces of overlord caleb.(ME)

This scenario ran the following rules. Defender deploys first and has first turn. Deployment zones are the long table edge and the defender can place as much terrain, barbed wire, walls etc as he likes. Attacker deploys half his forces and has preliminary bombardment and sustained attack.(respawn of destroyed troop units excluding transport vehicles.) The balance of the attackers forces arrive on turn 3 from the attackers long table edge or the short table edges outside the defenders deployment zone.
Here is the list I ran for this battle

Traitor Guard
HQ
Command squad
creed
Kell
astropath
LC team(ogryn servitor)
Master of the ordinance
305
Troops
Platoon command
lc team
BP
squad +ml x3
hw squad
LasCannon x3
352
Troops
Platoon command
lc team
BP
squad +ac x3
232
Troops
Vets
3 plasmaguns
chimera
170
Troops
Vets
3 meltaguns
chimera
155
Elites
marbo
65
Heavy Support
leman russ squadron
2 LR
300
Heavy Support
medusa
enclosed crew compt
150
Heavy Support
medusa
enclosed crew compt
150
Fast Attack
devil dog
heavy flamer
scout
120
1999 pts

I am not certain of Qotsa4life's list but he had the following.
DP+wings,warptime,mon
Nurgle lord+ wings,lightning claws
squad of chosen with flamers and rhino
2x pm squads in rhinos.
7 lesser demons
havoc squad lascannons
havoc squad heavy bolters + rhino
Dread with multimelta
2x oblits
If there was anything else I am sure he will correct me.

The marines deployed first with the LC havocs and the dread on the left. The oblits and the rhino mounted hb havocs on the right and the 2 rhinos of pm's in the middle. The lord was in one ot the centre rhinos and the dp and the chosen were in reserve.
I castled up my footsloggers and command squads just to the left of the middle. Missile launchers on the left, autocannons on the right and lascannons and command squads to the centre. I deployed my 2 Leman russ on the right. Marbo, the two vet squads, the devildog and the two medusa were kept in reserve.

Preliminary bombardment achieved nothing. Couldn't roll a 6 to save myself. I think in total blew up 2 tank traps out of about 20 and hit no enemy units.

Defender turn 1. Remained in his defensive positions. Sporadic shooting. Oblits plasma cannons were out of range of the lascannon hw teams, heavy bolters and lascannons killed a few guardsmen. Dread rolled shooting frenzy. Well positioned so no friendly casualties but no enemies in range.
Attacker turn 1. Everything stays put. Guardsmen with Missile launchers destroy the dread. Lascannons and autocannons damage the PM rhinos but no destroyed results.
There will be more......

Picking up from where Shaaantitus left off.

Defender turn 2. It became evident that Shaantitus had no intention of charging my lines as I expected him to, so I had to take the fight to him. I'm pretty sure it was this turn that my Chosen arrived. They came on to the right side of the table and started toasting guardsmen. As I recall the rest of my army achieved very little other than shooting a few more guards
Attacker turn 2. Shaantitus killed heaps of my dudes and the chosen rhino, they were forced to disembark but Shaanititus couldn't kill them HAHAHAHAHA!!! >:-] One of those tanks with a melta cannon showed up too, I was most displeased.

Defender Turn 3. Pretty sure Kevin turned up at this point and the lesser demons (Who ended up being out of charge range). I moved one of my PM rhinos closer to the enemy line. The chosen set their phasers to toast. The lesser demons got to charge stuff with the Chosen and I recall Kevin smashing something.
Attacker Turn 3. The rhino with the PMs in it got blowed up and some plague marines died. I think Marbo turned up at this point. He killed some members of my LC havoc squad.

More later...

First to fill in the blanks from the first battle. Kevin the demon prince took some fire and then headed toward the right table edge where my reserves had arrived from. 2 medusa and 2 loads of vets in chimeras. The medusas shelled the pmarines but failed to kill them all.
During my opponents turn he wiped out the 30man blob on the left and the lord charged and eliminated the 30man blob on the right. Kevin assaulted a chimera full of plasmavets and destroyed their transport and 4 of the troopers in the explosion. HAvocs imobilised the devildog and destroyed its meltacannon. Right. My turn. From this point things started to go downhill for my opponent. Left blob squad respawns and wipes out the lesser demons with lasgun fire. Command squad wastes the 2 remaining chosen. Hw team puts 2 wounds on kevin who is finished off by the plasma vets. Right side blob squad respawwns and shoots plague marines killig 1. A medusa wastes the lord. Meltavets kill an oblit.
From this point on there was very little left of my opponent and it was basically mopping up. By the time the game ended he had a single imobilised rhino left. However a highlight was the slaughter of a 30 man blob in cc by the last remaining plague marine. He certainly made his points back. It was a fun game but I think this particular scenario(particularly the terrain) favors the guard in a big way. Very little los blocking terrain gives a massive ranged fire advantage.

For the defenders move on turn 1 Qotsa4life counter attacked node 3 from node 5. This battle used the same rules as our first engagement but with the roles reversed.

My list.
Traitor guard with allied inquisition. Using the VP's from my previous battle I bought myself some additional goodies.

Command squad +bolt pistol+reg standard+LC team+Master of the ordinance
chimera
Command squad +bolt pistol+LC team+Master of the ordinance
Platoon command +lascannon team+bolt pistol
squad +autocannon x3
Platoon command +lascannon team+bolt pistol
squad +missile launcher x5
5 gk terminators with hammers and psybolt
10 grey knights with a hammer and psybolt
vindicare
marbo
medusa + enlosed crew compartment+bastion breachers
medusa + enlosed crew compartment x2

Qotsa4life's list

I don't remember it exactly but i have photos to go with.
Demon prince
Greater demon
5 csms rhino flamers icon
5 csm's rhino (weapon?) icon
7 lesser demons x 3
defiler
havocs
2 oblits
5 bikes with flamers and icon

I will give a brief description of each turn and throw in some of the photos.(I remembered this time although i missed turn 1)

Deployment. Same as last time. Defender sets up all terrain. So i castled up in the centre on top of two hills with plenty of sandbag and concrete walls. Autocannon blob squad on the left and 30man missile launcher blob center and 20 man missile blob to the right. Medusae centre and right and the bastion breacher one on the left. The platoon and command squads paired up and positioned on top of the two hills. Reserves are marbo the gk terminators and the gk's.

I should admit my failings now, it was not until turn five that I realised that I had mistakenly deployed an additional hw squad with lascannons. These are usually a fixture in my lists and I still feel bad about it. They have been removed from my army roster and will not return.
Turn 1.
Preliminary bombardment innefective. Destroyed a sandbag wall or 2.
Qotsa deployed 2 rhinos on the left and the bikes on the right.
Ist turn shooting. Both rhinos destroyed, bikes reduced to 2 from 5.
Bikes boost up and to the left for their cover save next turn. One squad of marines moves up. The other goes to ground in the wreckage of the rhino.
Turn 2 Grey knight strike squad arrives directly in front of the two squads of marines. More heavy shooting. Bikes survive and some of the marines are killed. I seem to recall that all my guys had their eyes closed.
Bikes boost again Marines and bikes icons allow the arrival of many dudes. 2 squads of lesser demons, 2 oblits and the demon prince. The mass arrival takes a bit of pressure off the marines. The oblits shoot the gk's and the demons assault. At the end of the combat 5 gk's are dead. They elect to fall back to friendly lines. Some of the demons are slain but not enough to make a real difference.
turn 3 begins with the expected heavy shooting phase. DP is slain as are the oblits. Remaining bike is destroyed. Against the odds the marine icon bearers are still alive and head for my lines with the demons. Defiler arrives fom the left table edge and moves into my deployment zone. Lascannons fail to damage the medusa on that side. Havocs with guns? arrive next to the defiler and shoot stuff.(Sorry cannot remember)
turn 4. Medusa destroys the defiler. Marbo and heavy fire kill the havocs shelling kills most of the demons and marines. Because of sustained attack all the marines now appear on the right edge and meltagun my medusa on that side. It is unable to move or fire.
Turn 5. Everything is dead except the marines next to my medusa. Unfortunately it blocks LOS. I have a shot with the MOO and kill acouple of marines. GK terminators arrive and scatter off the table. My helpfull opponent deploys them for me. In the spikey cactus in his deployment zone. Greater demon arrives along with shitloads of lesser demons on that side. GD eats the medusa and the marines tuck into my tasty guardsman several are killed but they don't panic.
turn 6. Intense but innefectual fire is directed at the gd. I had very limited los to this sucker because of my own people getting in the way. More demons arrive. Gd snacks on a hw squad(The ones that shouldn't have been there) Marines eat more guardsmen.
We roll for turn 7 but no.

If this had gone for another turn things would have been really ugly. With icons in my lines all the demons from sustained attack would keep respawning and eating things.
Again though this scenario is designed for the guard to pulverise anything in range. Thanks to qotsa4life for the game.

Now. The cityfight game on node 10b. Marines vs marines in the city. 2000pts per side, Buildings are the objectives, killing the opponents hq is also an objective and all units are scoring. Opponent has sewer rats, booby traps strategems. I had ammo dump and engineers(which i forgot to apply) Doh!

My CSM's
lord mot death screamer combi melta
8 chosen 5 plasmaguns rhino extra armor
dread lascannon
10 CSM's 2xplasmagun asp champ power fist plasma pistol mon rhino extra armor
10 CSM's 2x meltagun asp champ power fist mocg plasma pistol rhino extra armor
7 PM's plasmagun champ power weapon rhino extra armor
Havocs 5 2x autocannon 2x missile launchers
2x oblits
2x oblits
5 raptors meltagun


qotsa4life CSM's
Kharn
cc dread
terminators x4 with heavy flamer and combimeltas
chosen with meltaguns with a rhino
3 x 8 zerks in rhinos
2x cc defiler
vindicator

Deployment is table quarters. Defender deploys first. Attacker gets first turn. Qotsa deploys his hq with the terminators, a defiler and the dread to the rear corner of his deployment zone. Chosen start in reserve without their rhino so as to deploy through the sewers. An armored phalanx of 4 rhinos with 3 squads of zerks, the vindicator and the second defiler deploy behind a building close to the middle of the table so as to be able to shoot forward toward the enemy on the first turn.
Seeing this i deploy my three rhinos with troops in close to the centre of the table but out of sight of the enemy. Havocs with the ammo dump deploy in the building closest to the centre of the table in my deployment zone and the dread is alongside them. Positioned so he cannot see any of my stuff with a clear shot down one of the longer streets toward the enemy. The lord in the rhino with the chosen, the oblits and the raptors are held in reserve.
More to follow next post.

Thanks gally. It has been fun.
Here are the battle photos and the first half of the report.
Turn 1(No pics) Heavy fire from the havocs disables one enemy rhino. Plague marine rhino sneaks along the long table edge on my side. Melta rhino shoots forward and hides behind the building the enemy is concentrated behind. Plasma csm rhino moves up behind the next building along and parks up out of sight.dread goes shooty. No targets.
The enemy moves their armor column around the building they were cowering behind. Shooting in ineffective although the defiler all the way over the back kills a havoc.
Turn 2.(First 5 pics)Plague marine rhino moves to the next building and the stinky boys disembark. The plasma marines also disembark behind the building and their rhino speeds around the corner to block the approaching defiler and armored column. Melta rhino scoots behind the next building, positioned so the melta gunners can see the defiler. Dread stomps forward. Reserves. Lord and plasma chosen arrive in they rhino. Pulling up next to the defiler. Shooting. Melta boys toast the defiler. The vindicator is shot by the dread and is undamaged. Havocs take a weapon off one of the rear rhinos. Lord in the rhino takes a ccw arm off the defiler.
Enemy. The vindicator imobilizes itself in the defiler crater. Still manages to shoot at the melta rhino but misses. The two remaining enemy rhinos back up and head toward the lord and the chosen. Remaining defiler shoots at the havocs unsucessfully. The disabled rhino spits out a squad of zerks that headtoward my PM's.
Turn 3.
My raptors and 2 oblit squads arrive. Raptors drop in and take out the defiler Lord and friends move away from the defiler, terminators and kharn. Oblits take out the dread. Second squad of oblits , plague marines(who have re-embarked in their rhino) , melta rhino and the havocs shoot at the approaching zerks. 4 survive. Dread stomps forward and shoots at the vindicator, missing. The empty rhino tries to ram the vindicator and achieves little.
Terminators and kharn chase after the lord as does one squads of zerks. The other zerk squad butchers the raptors and the remaing 4 of the last squad charge the oblits. Killing one. The vindicator wrecks the rhino in front of it. Enemy chosen with meltas arrive from the sewers and join the terminators chasing my lord.

Turn 4.Dread rolls blood rage and charges the zerks in combat with the oblits. The zerks survive due to some dreadnought competency issues. Plasma csm's sneak around the blind side of the vindicator ready to give it a good fisting. Lord disembarks and shoots at the incomming bezerkers as do the other oblits but 4 survive.
Zerks assault the lord. Most of the chosen are killed. The dread and the oblit finish off the other zerks. The remaining zerks, terminators and chosen head for the lord. Terrain slows them but the chosen meltagun my rhino into slag.
Turn 5. Plasma marines fist the vindicator. Havocs wreak another empty rhino.
Oblits move up and assault the remaining bezerkers with the lord. Lord successfuly ends the bezerkers. The oblits consolidate toward the enemy and the lord hides behind them. Havocs destroy another empty rhino. Dread moves into another building. Oblit moves up and gets a zerk through an open door. Melta rhino also moves up and bakes 2 more zerks.
enemy.Zerks charge the oblits and one survives. Everyone else continues to chase the lord.
Turn 6. He then assaults the remaining zerks with the death screamer and the remaining plasma gunner and they kill them. They then consolidate away leaving the oblits to be assaulted by kharn and the terminators. The oblits die but kharn kills two terminators. They consolodate around the corner. The melta rhino pulls up and kills the terminators and kharn with some full of shit bolter and meltagun fire with the assistance of the plague marines who have just disembarked again. At this point i think i have it in the bag and my lord is going to make it. The chosen round the corner and kill the remains of his squad and him with the meltaguns.
Game ended at this point.
Fantastic fun and my lord played the entire game as a big coward. Shoot and run. But it worked. Some very lucky rolls though. My shooting was rather full of shit. In the end I made significant material gains. I held 4 buildings and my oponnent held one. HQ units for both sides were dead. I still had all my troop units , my havocs, dread and one oblit in play along with 2 rhinos. My opponent was down to his chosen. My vp's were enough to easily recover my losses and retain some additional reserve. Node 10b is mine.

My second move of turn 2. My marines make a move in the direction of Vraks starport north. From node 10b to node 10a. This is an interesting one. It consists of a preliminary killteam game followed by a 2000 pts a side cityfight with the starport as the objective.

Simply put the result was as follows.

I GOT REAMED.

I will add more detail to the report but here is the basics.
Killteam using the 4the ed rules. I ran a squad of 6 marines. 2 plasmaguns and a champ with a power weapon. They started well. Moving up toward the starport and vaporising a csm brute squad on the way. The next round however resulted in one of my plasmagunners melting himself. Oh dear. Basically my boys were killed by the next two brute squads without even getting close to the objective. Maybe i need to be more sneaky.

The main battle continued in much the same way. I used the same list as last time although i used it badly. Qotsa4life's firebase on the starport was impenetrable. My force was wiped out with the exception of 2 units. My CSM's with the MON and plasmaguns and my raptors who stayed home to watch the Cricket(I completly forgot to get them out of the case. Remember this kids. Printed army lists help the owning player not forget stuff). Events of note. Deep struck some oblits into a great position to shoot, completly overlooking the squad of zerks in a rhino not far away. Needless to say they got carved up.
MVP for my side. Tzeentch lord with deathscreamer with his retinue of plasma chosen. They killed 2 demon princes and almost 2 squads of bezerkers before dying.
LVP for my side. Havocs. Couldn't hit anything, lost 2 men and ran away. They will have an icon next time.
Most unexpected event. One of Qotsa4life's rhinos rammed one of mine. 12" charge managed to pen the front of my rhino and it exploded. Rather spectacular that.

My Nurgle army redeemed themselves today. After two embarrassing defeats in the hills of Saritama, Abaddon the Despoiler himself decided to lead the minions of Nurgle to victory. I won't attempt to do a blow by blow replay, Shaantitus seems to be much better at that than me, plus he has photos. But I will put up a list of what I took to the field.

1st wave
Reaver titan + vulcan mega bolter, gatling blaster, volcano cannon (First turn it lost the mega bolter and volcano cannon, all void shields and two structure points, but went on to kill dozens of guards including Creed and Kell and a medusa)
Obliterator (Destroyed)
Obliterator (Obliterated)
Obliterator (Killed turn five after wasting a couple of tanks)
Obliterator (Survived, killed a leman russ and blew up the battle cannon on another)
Defiler + 2DCCW (Became scrap metal, turn one)
CSM x 7 + IoCG, 2 x flamer, champ + PF (Mostly killed by the end of turn 2, however this unit was crucial for my battle plan because I had four units of lesser demons arriving in turn 3 who ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE an icon on the table or they would never have arrived)
IG CCS + MoO, Astropath, 2 x body guards, standard, vox caster, carapace armour. (Blown up after acheiving very little, I feel this squad was a bit of a point sink)
IG infantry platoon PCS + bolt pistol, vox, missile launcher Infantry squad x 2, bolt pistol, vox, missile launcher HWS 3 x ML HWS 3 x HB (These guys lasted almost the whole battle, I thought they would get wiped out by the end of turn two but my opponents firepower was concentrated on the titan. They killed many many guardsmen and provided me with a lesson in guard as this was my second battle using them)

2nd wave.
Abaddon (Survived unscathed and killed a stormlord or shadowsword, I forget which but Shaantitus will fill us in)
Nice guy eddie DP + MoN, Wings, Warptime (Killed a dreadnought and some guardsmen and looked like a total badass)
Clancy DP + MoS, lash (Killed a twenty man blob squad in one round of combat and a PCS in the next, took one wound from a gorgeous young guardswomen with excellent boobs)
Salamanders x 2. (Toasted a medusa and got owned because they chose to outflank into the midst of several lemen russ', two baneblade variants and a macharius)
Plague marines x 7 + rhino with EA, 2 x pg, champ, PF, icon (Achieved little other than being in the enemies deployment zone at the end of the game, which was my objective and gave me VPs equal their points cost)
Lesser demons x 5 (See above)
Lesser demons x 5 (As above)
Lesser demons x 7 (Killed Marbo the turn they arrived for a loss of one demon)
Lesser demons x 7 (See above. It might seem like overkill to send 14 demons after a T3 guy with 2 wounds, but that dude causes ridiculous amounts of carnage every time I face him. Shaantitus uses him very well. The last time I encountered this critter he killed a squad of havocs with three lascannons which is a bloody expensive unit. Marbo is without a doubt one of the best units in the game at his points cost)
CSM x 7 + Rhino, EA, 2 x meltagun, champ, PF, IoCG (Achieved very little, but survived unscathed)
Malcador + Autocannon sponsons (Lost his battle cannon, drew an incredible amount of fire)
Malcador + Lascannon sponsons (Suffered a drive damaged result which reduced movment to two inches and anihhilated a squad of vets)
Defiler + TLLC (Massacred two lascannon sentinels in CC and was promptly reduced to cinders for its insolence)

This was one of the most fun games I've ever had. I'm very thankful to Shaantitus for letting me use his superheavies and salamanders.

For those of you who are interested, my strategy in this game was to concentrate my firepower on Shaantitus' armour for the first two turns and attack his infantry with my CC troops from turn 3 on. He usually puts the squishy guardsmen in the middle and protects the flanks with armour. But today he had all his armour on his right and the guardsmen grouped on his left. I deployed the titan with two oblits in front of his amour, IG in the middle with two oblits hiding behind them (To get a 4+ cover save) and the defiler on my right with the CSM rhino hiding behind. My plan worked. The titan drew the firepower from the armour while my troops concentrated on making their way forward (Very slowly). When my reinforcements arrived I sent the malcadors, salamanders and Abaddon into the armour to assist the titan, while everything else attacked the guards on the other side so I could concentrate on claiming the objective.

In this scenario the defender always gets first turn. The first thing Shaantitus did was fire all his big guns at the titan. In that first round of shooting (As I mentioned above) he was successful in taking out all the void shields, two structure points, the volcano cannon and the gatling blaster. At this point I thought he was sure to win. My strategy largely depended on using the strength D weapon to elliminate the shitload of armour I was sure he would bring. I thought the titan would be largely useless from that point, but I foolishly underestimated the power of a strength 8, AP 3 weapon that fires 6 shots a turn.

I can't decide whether the man of the match should be Abaddon for destroying a superhevy tank that cost around 500 points with his sword, or the titan for taking all the bullets and missiles in the world, like a boss.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. I think the moral of this story is, always bring a titan.