197th Bataviran/222nd Catachan regimental log

Hey,
I'll be hopefully updating this thread occassionally. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from the Batavirans!
Battlereport 400 points, Chaos against Imperial Guard combat patrol.

So I played a game of combat patrol today. Not a really spectacular match, because our forces weren’t really balanced.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

My list included:
Platoon command squad: 52
Autocannon, meltagun, bolt pistol.

Infantry squad: 72
Autocannon, meltagun, bolt pistol.

Infantry squad: 72
Autocannon, meltagun, bolt pistol.

Infantry squad: 72
Autocannon, meltagun, bolt pistol.

Infantry squad: 72
Autocannon, meltagun, bolt pistol.

Heavy weapon squad: 60
Mortar x 3.

My enemy his force was something like this:
10 Chaos marines: 195(?)
2 meltaguns and a rhino with havoc launcher

20 Cultists: 100(?)
8 autoguns, a flamer, heavy stubber and a shotgun

18 Cultists: 82 (?)
Some autoguns

“’Go on patrol,’ they said. ‘Use stealth,’ they said. I believe that sending 51 soldiers on patrol, including a mortar squad, hardly represents a stealthy patrol, but that is just my opinion and my opinion is irrelevant. So after we had landed on Vault 1, we were immediately sent out to scout the surrounding area, while the rest of our regiment was being unloaded. We had heard from Intel that there might be heretics and even Red Corsairs in the area so we had to be careful.”

Pre-battle:
We didn’t use any warlord traits, this is a patrol after all.
My opponent deployed first and had the first turn. He deploys one squad of cultists near one corner, the other squad near the other. The rhino with chaos marines deploys in the middle.

I string out my Infantry squads, deploying most on the left corner, while I keep the mortars in the backfield. I failed to seize.

“Silence in the ranks,” I shouted as we went through the ruins. For a moment I felt like one of those teachers in elementary school, trying to keep control over a horde of screaming, overly enthusiastic children. I saw signs of former Imperial presence, but it seemed like these people had turned their back on the Emperor a long time ago. We were here to bring his justice. Suddenly one of my troops shouted out a warning.”



1st Turn:
“The heretics must have heard us and as we were marching, they came crawling out of their stinking holes. They even had a transport vehicle that came driving out of hiding. Screaming and tittering they came at us.”

My opponent moves his cultists forward, running with them. The Rhino turbo boosts forward. Nothing else happens.


“We were surprised for a moment, but rapidly recovered. They had a Rhino and there were some thirty heretics. The mortars were firing almost immediately. My compliments to corporal Alwin Schulze for keeping his squad well prepared. It was only a delight to see the shells raining down on those heretics. As expected, these cowards immediately went into hiding. I turned to the left and was surprised by the speed of their Rhino, but as expected, it wasn’t fast enough for an Imperial autocannon.”

I don’t move and decide to drop the mortars in the middle of his group of cultists, with devastating results. Without the champion, the group gets pinned and goes to ground. I also manage to destroy his Rhino, giving me first blood.


2nd Turn:
“From amongst the wreckage, several chaos marines appeared, some of them dead, most of them still alive. The survivors rounded up and charge forward, unleashing a torrent of fire on my squads. A couple of my soldiers got hit, but I saw commissar Toland von Heydte jumping forward to fight against the chaos champion. They started circling around each other, striking, but failing to land a hit.”

My opponent moves his other group of cultists forward and decides to multi assault two of my infantry squads with his chaos marines. With his bolt pistols, he manages to kill two and then finish another one in close combat. I retaliate and kill two of his marines in close combat. He also issues a challenge to one of my sergeants, which I accept. He gets to strike first and misses. I strike back and land a hit, but fail to wound. The marines keep on fighting.
[IMG=https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img834/3717/battlereportchaos13.jpg][/IMG]


“Alwin Schulze happily let the mortar rounds drop amongst these heretics. He had already calculated the distance and adjusted the bipod to engage the other group. These shells hit the heretics as they were running towards us. At the same time, Toland von Heydte was still fighting with the chaos marine. The champion screamed in his anger, swinging his chainsword. The commissar stepped aside, narrowly avoiding the grinding teeth. The chaos marine screamed ferociously and slashed again. Toland stepped back and immediately brought up his bolt pistol. At point-blank, he pulled the trigger, hitting the traitor in his chest. With a groan he slumped to the ground, where the commissar planted a chainsword in his neck. As soon as the heretics saw that their leader had died, their forces scattered and broke.”

I drop a couple of mortar rounds on the other group of cultists, taking out their leader and causing them to run away. I manage to pick off two more from the other group of cultists with autocannons. I move one of my squads away in case things do go wrong. The marines and guardsmen keep fighting. His chaos champion tries to beat up my sergeant, but fails to do so. My sergeant has more luck and manages to kill his champion.
We agree to end the game here.



Victory!
To be honest, this combat patrol was a bit extremely unbalanced. It was quickly obvious that I held a huge advantage and during the game, it only went better. If I hadn’t pinned a third of my opponent his force on turn one or caused the other third to flee on the second turn or had killed off almost his entire marine squad, it would probably have gone a lot different.

Man of the match:
Well, I guess this one goes to the sergeant that managed to survive 6 attacks from a chaos champion and then managed to kill him in return. Not that extremely wonderful, but I thought that it was at least worth sharing.

“We consolidate our gains, learning many valuable things about our enemies. This is a good start of the campaign and if they all fight like this, it might be over within a couple of months. I’d like to mention that commissar Toland von Heydte has caused the heretics their forces to break. While you can say a lot about these commissars, there is no denying in their fighting skill.

May the Emperor smile upon you,
197th Bataviran/222nd Catachan ‘Iron Wolves’, third company, second platoon, platoon command squad, platoon commander, lieutenant second class Arntsz ‘Suv’ Suberiv.”

Comment and criticism is welcome and appriciated.

Well done commander, and fun to read as well (as always)! I liked how you out-CC'd the Chaos marines haha. The Emperor protects, indeed!

edit: and lol @ 51 dudes in a 400pt match :p

Quantity has a quality all its own! Congratulations commander.

Was this an official battle for the Crusade of Fire campaign? If so, against which enemy commander?

Huron and Detlev were not used and the Corsairs were pushed off of Vault 1 by the Grey Knights, so sadly it couldn't have been

And i would never play combat patrol for the campaign ^^

Staal wrote:And i would never play combat patrol for the campaign ^^

You're right, most of the commanders would be illegal to use in combat patrol because of 2+ saves and such, so it wouldn't be possible as a true campaign game. Still, I always enjoy the speed of a combat patrol game very much.

It's more of a balance thing tbh, some armies can hardly field anything whilst others can field almost anything. Do also keep in mind that it's combat PATROL :P so fielding over 50 models and heavy weapons is a bit silly fluff wise ^^

Gah, you almost make me feel bad about winning...

Chaos with their warpcraft shenanigans complaining about unfairness? :p Everything is allowed against the Great Enemy! Also, sending a platoon (51 guys is about platoon strenght) isn't all that unrealistic. Why send out soldiers if they aren't able to engage the enemy? It isn't called SCOUT patrol! :p

Edit: I do agree about the balancing, but like I said: ANY dead heretic is a good heretic in my book

New game, new list!
We played at the Lab: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/527541.page
Do you want to have your armies mentioned in the battle reports? Feel free to challenge me to a game.
 
Company Command squad: 85
Lascannon, standard.
 
Marbo: 65
 
Platoon command squad: 100
Chenkov, lascannon
 
Infantry squad: 80
Meltagun, lascannon
 
Infantry squad: 80
Meltagun, lascannon
 
Conscripts: 155
Send in the next wave
 
Veterans: 130
Autocannon, sniper x 3, Forward Sentries
 
Aegis defence line: 100
Quad gun
 
My opponent's list:
Huron Blackheart: 160
 
Chaos Marines: 95
Flamer, mark of Nurgle
 
Chaos Rhino with havoc launcher: 47
 
Chaos Marines: 98
Flamer, mark of Nurgle, combi bolter
 
Chaos Rhino with havoc launcher: 47
 
Chaos Spawn: 108
Mark of Nurgle
 
Chaos vindicator: 120
 
ALLIES: IMPERIAL GUARD
Lord commissar: 70
 
Veteran squad: 80
Flamer x 2
 
Chimera: 55
 
Hellhound: 130
 
We rolled for Warlord traits.
Because he had Huron, he could infiltrate d3 units, while I had Intimidating presence. (Fear my company commander!)
 
Our deployment was pitched battle and we had no night fighting.
We rolled off and I decided to take the first turn.
 
I deployed in a typical gunline, trying to split my forces evenly. I had the mortars in the middle of my lines and my company command squad was on top of the objective. (It was a skyfire nexus) The objectives are in the green circles opposite of one another.
 
My opponent centred in one corner.
 
Pre-battle thoughts: Well, I was quite scared about his forces. Nurgle Marines are tough to kill and I have a lot of bad experiences with them. Then there was the vindicator that could decimate my forces from range, while the Hellhound got up close and personal. Then there were his spawns which appeared hard to kill.
 
“After Suv managed to push the heretics out of the village, the third company was tasked with holding the newly gained positions. The heretics were preparing an assault on our positions. I kept some of our new recruits in reserve so that we'd appear weaker than that we were. It's a trick that I learned from Vladimir Russki, our regimental standard bearer and I must say that it worked well. So as we were digging in, we suddenly heard the rumbling of engines. The heretics launched an attack, going straight towards our lines!”

 
Turn 1:
I move my conscripts forward and have them advance towards the enemy. I can recycle them later and it forces my enemy to engage them. Across the other side of the table, I move one of my infantry squads forward. While I’d rather keep it static, my opponent has no forces there and it might be useful for Linebreaker.
Then I start shooting. I need to get First Blood so that I can change a draw into a victory. However my army doesn’t work exactly as I had hoped. I manage to strip two hull points and a bolter of a Rhino and another hullpoint from a vindicator.
 
“They caught us off-guard and most of our shots failed to hit them. Immediately I started barking out orders, ordering the new recruits to spread out and minimize any damage. While I tasked one of my squads to try to slip behind their lines.”

 
 
My opponent moves his vindicator, Rhino’s, Chimera and Hellhounds. The spawns also run forward. My conscripts as well as one of my heavy weapon squads suffer several casualties from the vehicles. The last gun keeps standing, only one wound left.
Then my conscripts manage to pass their morale check and my opponent his turn ends. Neither of us have first blood.
 
“Although they suffered casualties, we managed to keep our new recruits in line. The autocannon teams near my position got hit, but a lone gunner remained behind his weapon, returning fire at the heretics! He was mortally wounded, but kept going.”

 
 
Turn 2:
Marbo arrives and I deploy him behind my opponent his vehicles. All of them are bunched up so that I can hit four of them at once. This would be good! For the rest I move my conscripts to keep screening my company command and to force my opponent to attack them. At the opposite end, an infantry squad is moving forward.
Then I open fire with my army and one of the rhino’s is wrecked, the Nurgle marines popping out.
The Chimera gets blown up and several veterans are killed. Two of the spawns go down.
Then Marbo throws his democharge, he can hit three vehicles. The Hellhound,  the Rhino with Huron and the Vindicator. However I scatter and hit only the Rhino, which blows up. This is not exactly what I had hoped for.
At least I have first blood. And my opponent his forces standing right in front of my army.
 
“One of our scouts had managed to get behind their lines and bravely decided to use his democharge on the enemy's vehicles. Unfortunately he miscalculated the windspeed and the democharge landed on top of a Rhino... He would pay dearly for this mistake. At the same time, the attack was still going towards us. We manage to whittle away some elements, but they are still coming.”

 
 
So my opponent his forces arrive. My conscripts are set on fire by the Hellhound and the two survivors are killed by the five nurgle marines. My company command squad loses the extra veteran and the lascannon team.
Marbo gets shot by Huron and his nurgle marines.
The spawn then charges forward and gets hit by overwatch from my remaining autocannon team. I expect him to die horribly, but he keeps standing and he even manages to poke the spawnm causing another wound. It was quite amusing, because both now keep locked in close combat.
 
“Unfortunately the new recruits didn’t entirely grasp the concept of 'GET OUT OF THE WAY OF THAT FLAMETHROWER!' and 'GET OUT OF THERE!' and they unfortunately never will. Luckily the brave Valhallan gunner managed to wound the grotesque monster that was running towards him. Not even then, he tried to save himself, but he kept firing."


 
Turn 3:
My conscripts come back! They arrive and open fire, and with a little bit of help from the rest of my army, killing three of the chaos marines.
My company commander relocates to a safer position. I want to deny my opponent slay the warlord. I tried to destroy the hellhound, but I only ended up putting some dents into it. My autocannon team is eventually killed by the spawn.
Across the field, a lone squad is still sneaking forward.
 
“I called up our new recruits to come forward, while I decided to move to another location upon recommendation from Russki. It's not that I'm afraid of a hero death for the Imperium, I just believe that I can be of more value to him when I am still alive.”

 
My opponent his hellhound advance forward, his vindicator move and his nurgle marines come closer to my lines. Another heavy weapon squad gets annihilated and half of an infantry squad gets killed. Huron moves towards his objective and the veterans come closer to my lines. Then the single spawn runs around my conscripts and charges my warlord. I hoped that I had luck with overwatch, but I didn’t kill him. However I had different luck, because my company commander manages to kill the spawn. My warlord is still alive, for now. So far, we both have one objective and it can swing both ways.
 
“The flamethrower tank opened up again, while the heretics kept pressing forward. A Chaos Spawn suddenly appeared by our side, trying to gnaw off my arm. So I did what any faithful Imperial would do and I punched him in his ugly face with my chainsword.  It solved the problem easily.”


 
Turn 4:
I move my conscripts so that they screen my lines, preventing the vindicator or the hellhound from getting through and to hug the objective as well. My other infantry squad moves up and my company commander takes up position behind them.
Luck’s on my side and I manage to blow up his vindicator and wreck his hellhound.
A lone squad is still casually strolling across the field.
 
“Our remaining guns managed to zero in on the enemy, the remaining vehicles are destroyed. The crew from the flamethrower tank tried to make a run for it, but were shot down. One of them got hit by a jet of burning oil and suffered the same fate he had given so many of my troops."

 
My opponent advances with his veterans, determined to take my objective. His veterans try to set my conscripts on fire and burn down several, before he charges them and manages to kill two. In return my conscripts kill two of his veterans.
They keep locked in close combat.
 
"However the fighting wasn't over yet. A group had managed to infiltrate our lines! It was vital that we had to hold this village. The new recruits suffered casualties, the concept of cover unknown to them, but they managed get two lucky hits on the heretics."
 
Turn 5:
I move almost everything towards the combat. I need to get stuck in, because I’m really afraid that my conscripts can’t finish off the lone Lord Commissar and will either run away or get wiped out. That means that my opponent has one objective and contests another and I would have lost the game.
We roll the dice and I fail to hurt the commissar, but he does harm my conscripts. I roll the dice for the two armour saves and manage to pass them!
 
“Immediately I ordered several other squads to join me as we rushed over. We couldn't let the heretics hold this position. We had to drive them out of here!”

 
Now we can either make it or break it. I win or I lose this game. There is no middle ground. We roll the dice...  and the lord commissar gets finished off by my conscripts! 
 
“However before we arrived, the new recruits had already managed to finish off the heretical leader. Someone had managed to plunge a bayonet into his side, before another jammed his bayonet in his throat. I got even better news, our squad had managed to get amongst the heretics their lines and found it was largely deserted. The remaining enemies started to retreat. We had won this battle!"

The victorious conscripts!

 
Since I can never reach his objective and he can never take mine, we agree to end the game here. It means I’ve won, because we both have one objective, but I have first blood. The linebreaker squad was just out of the deployment range, which leaves it at 4-3 for me.
 
Ah, I must say that it was a pretty tense game. I mean, there were a lot of moments where I expected to be lost or to be sure of my victory. I hadn’t gotten first blood in the first turn, while I (sort of) easily could have gotten it. Marbo could have gotten an awesome moment, but his democharge scattered.
Then again, my autocannon team managed to put two wounds on a Chaos spawn, which I honestly hadn’t expected. I also found it quite amusing to have my company commander finish off the chaos spawn in close combat.
As for my opponent, he had mostly bad luck. His veterans failed to annihilate my conscripts, his spawn had a target painted on his head and the vindicator hasn’t done much in the game. (Or good luck, if you consider Marbo scattering good luck.)
 
Sadly enough my Veterans did like almost nothing this game and those 130 points could have been invested in a lot of different, better things. The rest of my units performed rather well in my opinion.
 
Still I must say that it’s one of the best games I have played. It was because it was quite a tense game, it could really swing both ways. It wasn’t clear who would win until the last turn. While there still were plenty of funny and amusing moments.
 
Man of the match.
I’d guess this one goes to the recyclable conscripts. That they came back was a huge advantage to me. Not only could I put more pressure on my much threatened flank, I also had new troops who could take an objective. If I hadn’t been able to recover them, I would have certainly lost this game.
 
“I would like to recommend our deceased Valhallan gunner Nowak Radken, for the Medallion Crimson and I hope you can send it to his family. He certainly deserves it for his actions and they should be proud to be family of such a good soldier.
As for the battle, I'd say that the heretics in this area are quite weak and we should stage a new offensive here.
Now if you'd excuse me, I'd like to get back to my men. We need to be ready for the fight and some recruits need to be learned how to get cover properly.
 
May the Emperor smile upon you,
197th Bataviran/222nd Catachan ‘Iron Wolves’, third company, company command squad, company commander, captain second class, Detlev Joachim Vordon.”


I really enjoyed this game and I want to thank Staal for playing this game with me.  I hope you enjoyed it as well.

Nice batrep as always, I really should be writing some of my own someday. And good job kicking their heretical asses

What about the pictures? Are they better this time? Maybe I should have changed the position slighty, but then again, the action only took place on one corner.