The Imperial Fists won the first turn after I failed to steal the initiative and began by landing a drop pod right on the objective in my deployment zone, the doors opened and the plasma cannon wielding dreadnought lumbered out. The speeder went all out and took shelter behind the ruin in the top right hand corner of the map. The last movement came from the Vindicator which advanced up to the first crater in an attempt to get into range, as it was entering difficult terrain it had to take the difficult terrain test and managed to imobilize itself! The only shooting came from the snipers who killed a 2 Highland Veterans, and the dreadnought which targeted the now exposed Command HQ. The plasma cannon hit and managed to catch every single member within the blast radius, facing certain death and instant kill from the weapon, the Colonel ordered his men to ground. The first killed was the zulu bodyguard who bravely pushed the Colonel out of the way, two more died and the standard bearer, Officer of the Fleet and one more squad member managed to survive.
My deployment zone had been well and truely compromised but I was confident we had enough fire power to see the mechanical behemoth off. There was very little movement, just a slit shuffling of the Leman Russ and Squad 2 Chimera edging away from the dreadnought. The shooting phase began with orders, and as the Colonel was taking cover it fell to the Command squad in the Chimera. They issued and order to the Command HQ telling them to take further cover and increase their cover save by 2. Veteran Sergeant Bastone finally issued his Veterans the order to bring the dreadnought down and commenced the shooting. The missile team within the squad fired a krak missile at the exposed rear of the dreadnought but succeeded in only preventing it from shooting in the following turn. Next up the grenade launcher fired a krak grenade which fared better and destroyed the power fist. What happened next was rather less than spectacular, autocannon, lascannon, meltagun, multi laser and heavy bolter opened fire in an almighty salvo but managed to do nothing more than scratch the bright yellow paintwork, oh dear... The only shoiting was from a chimera which managed to stop the landspeeder from shooting or moving next turn.
Turn 2
Once again the turn started with the arrival of reserves, luckily the terminators and Lysander failed to arrive but the shotgun scouts in the landspeeder storm outflanked and arrived in the bottom right hand corner with the scouts disembarking and heading straight for the beleaguered command squad. With little else to move the shooting face began with the scout snipers eliminating another 2 members of the Veteran squad. The newly arrived scouts opened up on the command HQ, everyone took a hit with one squad member taking two hits. When the dust had settled the Colonel had taken a wound and the standard bearer had been elminated, all other saves had been made! The assault phase began with dreadnought slamming into the command squad chimera but luckily caused no damage while the scouts engaged the Command HQ. The Officer of the fleet was the first to fall but from 4 other wounds caused, only one save was failed on the Colonel who took another wound. In reply and with a few swished of his ceremonial sabre the Colonel dispatched to of the upstart scouts in quick measure, drawing the combat.
Feeling a real need to finally kill some Imperial Fists I was heartened by the arrival of the Lancers near the stranded Vindicator. The command squad chimera which had been engaged by the dreadnought edged away so he wouldnt have another free hit, the other two chimera edged further around the table edges creating some distance between my units before the inevitable arrival of the Terminators. All orders attempted failed in quick measure, which led to hopefully a more effective shooting phase. The dreadnought once again attracted a great deal of fire but once again survived. It seemed I was perfectly capable of getting through the armour but the number of 1s and 2s rolled after really was incredible. Thankfully the dreadnought was at least unable to move in the following turn and had the menacing plasma cannon removed. The Leman Russ turned its attention to snipers and managed to eliminate 2 of them despite the outrageous cover save. The only other targets were the landspeeders, which would both be unable to move or shoot in the next turn. The Colonel was killed in the assault while the last remaining squad member once again proved very adept at passing his saves, unfortunately he didn't stick around after as he failed his leadership test, he was caught by the scouts who consolidated towards the Veterans. The Rough Riders charged into the imobilized Vindicator, hitting automatically they would then have 13 attempts at penetrating the armour and destroying the tank, strength 5 with 2D6 I was pretty confident. What resulted was 8 penetrating hits and 8 1s, 2s and 3s... how it remained I have no idea, but remain it did.
That is all I have time for at the moment so I am going to have leave the rest for part 3!
