40k Christmas Battle

[ErikG]

Around Christmas we have played a "Christmas battle". Four armies would move from the side to the Centre, the goal, in the middle is a small church, here the pets of the warlords are buried and in the dark days before Christmas they want to light a candle for their dear lost friends. The Church is under the supervision of Peacekeepers, Sisters of battle and Imperial space marines that do not allow anyone but the warlords to enter the holy building. The goal is to light a candle in the Church, if any warlord manages to get it lit, it has to remain lit for two turns while the other warlords try to blow it out, each unit that touches the Church and is not fighting, gives a + 1 for igniting or blowing out the candle.




General Abe arrives early in the morning at the Church, he is admitted and escorted to the great altar, while he moves around the corner, he sees that he is not the only one, a Chaos lord, and Orc Warboss and a Swarmlord are also in the Church. Abe's hand moves in the direction of his weapons, he then realizes that he has had to leave his weapons at the door. A short burst of anger is quickly followed up by a feeling of deep sorrow that his Guinea pig "Fluffy" has left after his premature death, he grabs his candle and moves towards the altar, a sense of satisfaction fills him, he has brought along support in these dark times, he has a Division of Guard that will move towards the Church soon, the only thing that he did not realize.... is that the other warlords also have not honoured the agreement……..

Through the icy cold the troops of Alex the Destroyer, a fearsome Chaos lord, moved forward, Alex himself was already in the Church lighting a candle for his lost Hellbeast "Schnuckelschen", now his troops too wanted to force an entry into the church.  A predator opened fire and the first defensive Chaos Space marine tank went up in flames, this is followed by a deadly fire of the other Chaos vehicles, several guardsmen and a sister perished but hidden behind their strong fortifications the defenders held their ground.




Now it was up to the Guard, they too moved forward, a Peacekeeper heavy weapons squad got obliterated by a well-aimed shot and several guardsmen were killed under the deadly fire that the guard unleashed upon the defenders. A Leman Russ hit a whirlwind tank, this tank was torn apart. Across the street behind the defensive Centre they saw how orcs and Tyrannids entered the battlefield, two basilisks opened fire upon these upcoming armies, a single hormagaunt was the only victim suffered from these shots. The whole left flank of the defenders was now affected and smoke clouds darkened the sky above the battlefield, the holes were limited however, and the defensive line held.




Now it was the turn of the Orcs, they had come to support their Orc Warboss Da Big Chief Sand'er who came to grieve over his dead squig "Cuddles". A feeling of joy filled the hearts of the Orcs when they saw all the violence that was unleashed in front of them. On top of a building a unit of storm boys had gathered, without thinking about the dangers they moved down, two of them were killed while they made a stopover in a crater, the others charged a unit of space marines that opened closing fire killing three orcs, the other battered troops became entangled in a fight with the Space marines that killed a great many more of them.
Completely bewildered and humiliated the surviving storm boys tried to bring themselves to safety by climbing over the wall, hoping to find a safe spot to hide, this the marines could not allow, they dragged the orcs back over the wall where they were killed to the last man. The other orcs looked around somewhat surprised but this setback could not take away the joy of the fight. A unit of Orc Bikerz moved towards a defending unit of guardsmen, they jumped over the wall back and cut into the flabbergasted guardsmen that perished in misery. The orcs were the first troops that had crossed the defensive walls. The other orcs moved further forward.

 



Finally the tyrannids's turn came, after a long journey of months and a journey by foot of three weeks the Swarmlord had finally arrived to light a candle for his diseased ripper "Floppydop". Two Gargoylebroods moved at a fast rate forward and the first unit charged a unit of space marines while a second attacked a unit guardsmen. The Space marines bravely weathered the attack and while marine and gargoyle perished both sides held their ground, the fight remained undecided. The second unit of Gargoyles could not beat the defending guardsmen that bravely held their ground. While multiple shots were discharged onto the defenders by the tyrannid ranged weapons just a few guardsmen were killed and a tank slightly damaged.

Withering all these attacks it was now the turn of the defenders to strike back, they were determined not to allow any troops to dishonour the sanctuary for which they had sworn to fight with their lives. Two Seraphim squads attacked the Orc Bikerz, a bloody fight erupted, both sides conceded losses but both sides held. The attacking Guard and Chaos came under fire but the heavily armoured vehicles could not be damaged. They then fired all that they had on a Trygon Prime that the tyrannids had sent forward along with the first wave to supply mental support, well aimed shots (and very lousy dice work from Erik) ensured that this mighty creature died ingloriously. A unit of Peacekeepers in a Chimera arrived to strengthen the line. The space marines that were in combat with the Gargoyles managed to win the fight and the Gargoyles, which were no longer within Synapse range of the killed trygon broke and fled.






Meanwhile in the Church, the Warlords worked hard to get to the candle lit, the high humidity had not done much to improve the quality of the matches and match after match was lost not lighting any of the candles. The orc Warboss Da Big Chief Sand'er focused, he closed his eyes, he saw his recently lost squig, inspiration filled him, in a controlled way he swiped the matchstick along his matchbox, a flame arose, the wick of the candle caught flame and a beautiful light filled the church. He placed the candle on the altar, a feeling of happiness and warmth filled his heart but a sense of resentment and anger filled the heart of the swarmlord, he could not allow his candle not to burn first, he ignored his own candle and blew with all the power he had towards the already burning candle of the overjoyed Sand'er, however, this was insufficient to extinguish the candle. If none of the other warlords could blow out the candle, the orcs would win the battle.
 


Chaos began the second turn, shot after shot hit the defending peacekeepers that, with an extreme number of successful armour saves, managed to save tank after tank to great frustration or the Chaos player (Alex). Other vehicles opened fire on the defending guardsmen and sisters, inflicting several victims. One last salvo hit a defensive basilisk that went up in flames. Chaos tanks and terminators moved further forward bringing further death and destruction to the defenders but they did not yet reach the defensive lines.

[ErikG]

The orcs decided to put additional pressure on the defenders, a battlewagon rammed the defensive line, the defending peacekeepers managed to jump away just in time. A Mega Dread opened fire on defensive lines and several sisters were killed. Meanwhile, the fight between the bikes and seraphim sisters went unabated, both sides took casualties but both refused to give up. The orcs saw a swarm of Tyrannids moving towards the Church, they could not accept that these would reach the church before they did and an Orc dreadnaught unleashed deadly flames in the direction of a unit of Hormagaunts that left several of them scorched behind. The orcs were the first to reach the defensive lines in force.






The Imperial Guard was also moving forward, four sentinels were previously completely ignored and they too moved into the defensive lines, here they targeted the back of a defensive Leman Russ, this mighty behemoths armour was penetrated and it went up in flames. After that a second tank was targeted and that tank was also destroyed. Meanwhile the advance went on unhindered by the defenders, shot after shot ripped into the defensive line weakening the defenders by the minute. A demolisher shell hit a complete unit of terminators, all of them managed to save themselves with their invulnerable save (by means of a ridiculously good roll of the dice by Joost). The basilisk once again targeted the Tyrannids, this time finishing off several gargoyles. The advance of the Guard went on, devastating all they saw before them.







The Tyrannids continued their attack and the swarm again moved forward and towards its side, the Gargoyles that were previously driven back, again attacked the Space marines that they had fought before, these had first suffered multiple victims by six Tyrannid Warriors that had shot a deadly fire upon them. This time the marines could not hold and they went down fighting, the Heavy Weapon teams that stood beside the marines were spared no better fate, and a swarm of termagants took out these troops. A unit of defending guardsmen that was already in combat with a unit of Gargoyles was now also attacked by multiple ripper swarms, the pressure became too big and they too were wiped out. A third guard unit was halved by a good shot from a Biovore. To multiple sides the defending Centre was now penetrated and the defenders were driven back still further towards the Church. A previous Orc attack upon a unit of hormaguants had not gone unnoticed to a hive tyrant, supported by his Tyrant Guard and a carnifex (there is no such thing as overkill!) they pulled the Orc dreadnought that had attacked to pieces, a second Carnifex stormed towards an Orc battle wagon, shots from this vehicle managed to inflict a wound but that could not stop the Carnifex, the Battle wagon was torn open and a loud explosion followed, none of the occupants survived the blast but apart from the orcs an additional eight hormagaunts that surrounded the battle wagon were killed in the explosion that followed.







The defenders had to recover from the blows that they had received, they were slowly driven back towards the Church but the remnants refused to give up and fought on. Finally they managed to contact the off table artillery and fired several "bassilisk shots" onto each oncoming army, Chaos was hit the hardest, five grenades landed nearby, however only two managed to hit the chaos forces that marched behind the tanks and caused a true massacre. The orcs managed to endure the bombing without any losses, the Imperial Guard also suffered no casualty's. The Tyrannids were also hit hard, eventually three warriors were lost.
After this bombardment the defenders again opened fire on the attackers, Chaos again was hit hard, a Vindicator tank was destroyed, other than that the defenders could do little. The Seraphim's continued the fight against the Orc bikes but the losses of the previous round (and Basilisk grenade that had hit the fight earlier on) had too much weakened them, the seraphim's fled, and this strengthened the presence of the orcs within the defensive lines. The Centre was littered with body parts, craters and melted metal. The defenders could not hold out much longer.




In the Church, however, they had no idea of what was going on outside, the candle of Orc Warboss Da Big Chief Sand'er still burned brightly and the others could not accept this "misfortune", all warlords now dropped their own candles and blew all the air they had in their lungs towards the candle of Sand'er, Sand'er himself defended his candle with his body, all the blowing turned out to be in vain, the candle kept burning. Bewildered and disappointed the remaining warlords moved away from the altar, the old wooden doors opened while the sad leaders walked out, into the cold winter air. The attacks ceased, hope turned into disgust, they had failed.  Filled with internal pride and with a sense of "closure", Warlord Sand'er finally moved towards his troops, his Christmas was saved. Three armies moved out and began the long march back home, they had failed to honour their fallen comrade... but ... next year there will be another a chance!

[The_Beast]

Right up until one of the scouts found the minus one pack of "Magic Relighting Birthday Candles" San'der had dropped after a stop at the emporium humorous just outside the reliquary booth... 

Doug

[Miantanomo]

Nice pics and nice painted miniatures!