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Lieutenant Colonel Khazak shaded his eyes and looked up at the furious sky. There was a ship all right. It looked Imperial in outline, but why would an Imperial ship be attacking this backwater world? And why here? Suddenly great black shapes fired from the belly of the beast, too quickly for his eye to follow, and rammed into the shaking ground.
“The Angels of Death.” He muttered grimly.
“There must be some mistake sir?” A young Arkhamite officer asked him, eyes wide. He looked to the veteran Cadian commander for guidance. Khazak assessed the incredible situation with his keen military eye and came to a quick decision.
“They’re not here for a cup of tea, lieutenant. Get your sharpshooters onto that perch and prepare to hold the landing pad. That’s what they want, and they’ll kill us either way.” He slung his ivory-chased bolt gun from his shoulder and cocked it.
The young officer nodded and turned, bellowing to the shaken troops: “Right lads! As you know, the Emperor loves St. Arkham. But Him on Terra particularly loves that bloody landing pad! Don’t let the heathens get their hands on it, or we’re lost!”
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THE ATTACKERS
- Brother-Captain Gaius – Space Marine Captain, digital weapons, artificer armour, jump pack, power weapon, bolt pistol, iron halo, melta bombs
- Squad Titus – Terminators (5), cyclone missile launcher, power weapon
- Squad Octavian – Assault squad (5), flamer, power fist
- Squad Vorenus – Tactical Squad (10), multi-melta, meltagun, power fist
- Squad Gabriel – Tactical Squad (10), missile launcher, flamer, power weapon, melta bombs
- Hellrain – Deathstorm drop pod
Stratagems: Forward Observer
THE DEFENDERS
- Lt. Col. Khazak, 129th Cadian – Power weapon, bolter, 3 plasma guns, carapace armour, chimera with heavy flamer and multi-laser
- Lt. Harlock, 44th St. Arkham – heavy bolter
- Squad Boxer – Infantry squad, autocannon, grenade launcher, power weapon, commissar, power weapon
- Squad Coleridge – Infantry squad, autocannon, grenade launcher, power weapon
- Platoon fire support – 3 autocannon teams
- 44th St. Arkham sharpshooters – Veteran squad, lascannon, sniper rifle, Forward Sentries
- 129th Cadian “mech-wreckers” – Veteran squad, power fist, 2 meltaguns, heavy bolter team, chimera with heavy flamer and multi-laser
- Anathema, St. Arkham 1st Armoured – Leman Russ Demolisher, multi-melta sponsons, heavy flamer
Stratagems: Command Centre, Power Supply
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So Planetstrike was really fun. It was pretty brutal! If you want to see the rules of the mission we played, they are here at Sign of the Aquila. Basically it was Planetfall, and as the defender I was not allowed any bastions, only a landing pad I had to defend. I chose the Command Centre stratagem, keyed to the landing pad itself, and the Power Supply stratagem keyed to some ruins where I deployed my veteran St. Arkham sharpshooters for re-rolls to wound. We decided to allow two stratagem points each instead of the one the rules suggested because, well . . . carnage! Jay couldn’t take any of his beloved tanks due to mission restrictions, which was good news for me.
The bad news was that his initial bombardment immobilized my demolisher and one of my chimeras, as well as killing a few infantry, and his Imperial Armour drop pod wreaked quite a bit of carnage on my troopers – all that before his marines even dropped in. The Forward Observer was a really good stratagem for him to pick, as it made his initial blast templates horribly accurate.
The game was pretty straight forward so instead of giving a blow-by-blow account I’ll just comment on some decisive moments and mention units that performed interestingly, one way or the other. Read on . . .
Warp Signal 