Kipper’s Melee 30k Narrative Event – After Action Report!

As the dust settles over the ruined factorums and menial hab blocks of Metallikus, the loyalist forces have claimed a Pyrrhic victory. Their prize is a blasted hellscape of death and ruin.

A long, beer filled, 30k gaming weekend has come and gone. Another great event hosted by Victoria Heresy 30k group. The Iron Warriors did not perform very well, I should say now, but it was great fun and I had a blast. I took a list that was…less than optimal. But I just wanted to run my big new toys :). I had a lot of compliments on the army so that for me is a victory in its own!

I will try and run through each game and mission but at this point its a bit hazy :). I also have a bunch of random photos of the games and will add them to the end of this! Each game was 3000 points, the final game on Sunday (game 4) was 2v2 at 6000 total.

Game 1

Iron Warriors vs White Scars – 3000 points

 

You may notice a very large Iron Warrior casualty pile in one picture there which will tell you how this game went 🙂 The mission for this game was the attackers (White Scars) had to burn down or destroy terrain on the table. They did this in the movement phase (2+ to burn, 4+ to explode) and each one was worth 1 or 2 VP each. Defenders got 1 VP for each building still standing. As you may imagine a fast moving jetbike styled White Scars army will not have much trouble rushing around the board blowing up buildings. Especially as my army is not very mobile… I think in the end I managed to kill a few speeders, 1 Sicaran and the Stormraven. I lost everything except the big primarch Perturabo himself.

Game 2

Iron Warriors vs Custodes – Zone Mortalis 2000 points

 

This may have been an even worse match up for me. I had never played Custodes before and meeting them in the halls of Zone Mortalis (where half my army had to be in reserve) was not the best place to be introduced to Valdor and his palls. My tyrants and 2x tactical squads were in reserve, and the main second punch, the tyrants, didn’t come on until turn 4….just before the game was over. Re-rollable invulnerable saves are nothing to scoff at. The mission was a simply to kill the most enemy units. I think in the end I just killed a few Custodes…  The Iron Circle took on Valdor and were wiped with instant death…woops. Oh well, lessons learned!!

Game 3

Iron Warriors vs Ultramarines -3000 points

This was the funnest game of the weekend for me. It came right down to the random objectives at the end of the game to determine an outcome.

We both had only a few troops to hold objectives, and there were 5 on the table. He had one 20 man squad holding the forest, which even though I tried hard to shell out of there I could not do. On my side I had one in the bunker with my medusa siege tanks which was hotly contested. He brought in outflanking veterans which killed the medusa’s and pushed on the objective,  but 1 of my tactical squads counter attacked, shot and then charged the veterans. This pushed them off on the final turn securing that objective for me.

Perturabo went right up the centre with his Iron Circle to take the middle objective. I made a blunder in that I thought he couldn’t drop his ordinance when moving (he can 😦 ) so I let the Iron Circle move up and left him in the open. Guilliman and his Suzerian guard came out of their land raider and charged the primarch. They managed to kill Perturabo through weight of numbers, taking a few casualties themselves. After that however the Iron Circle, Tyrant terminators and 1 tactical squad unleashed their fury into the enemy primarch and his remaining bodyguard. This killed the Suzerian and almost Gulliman too. The Iron Circle and Tyrants charged in after killing him outright.

The second tactical squad then moved into the cover of the bushes to secure a second objective and held it until the end of the game, trading fire with a plasma vet squad in the bunker.

The Iron Circle engaged themselves with Castellax that were holding the centre objective and kept that locked down in contention until the end of the game.

My Tyrants pushed up the left side of the battlefield to chase the enemy land raider, with 1 remaining it managed to catch the land raider and finish it off with a punch right to its front armour. So the game came to an end with my 2 tactical squads holding an objective each, and the Ultramarines holding 1 in the forest with his tacticals and 1 near the terminator with his assault squad.

The mission called for every objective to be rolled on at the end of the game to determine their value. Your objective could be worth up to 3 points…or down to -3 points….. I rolled on my first objective…3 points. All I would need is at least 1 point and I would have the game. Second objective…….. -3 points!!!!!!! In the end, lost it on that dice roll. BUT the game was very fun!

Game 4 – 2v2 Iron Warriors and Thousands Sons vs Alpha Legion and Iron Hands – 6000 pts total

This was a big game and took up all of our day 2. The mission was to get as many units as possible in your enemies deployment zone. In the end however barely anything made it there. This whole battle took place on the right flank where most of the enemies reinforcements outflanked onto the table. This turned into a slugfest, primarchs vs superheavy and overwhelming enemies forces. There isn’t too much to report. Both Magnus and Perturabo fell in the end unable to stop the enemy Masatadon super heavy transport.

Overall it was a great event that brought a huge resurgence in my interest in the Horus Heresy! I can’t wait for our next event and some more local games with our community.

Photo Dump

Here are a bunch of photos from other peoples game, tables and just mayhem 🙂