Prologue

Falchar was burning. Several sections of the city had been razed to ground by the warriors of Danarr and Dolnier as they swept through the city in search of the taint. Slowly but surely they were losing their humanity as they embraced the chaos that was starting to engulf the planet.

Nearly a year ago most of the 12 lords had overthrown the governor of the planet. Some time ago he managed to send a plea for help with a passing rogue trader. This had brought a Strike Cruiser of Howling Griffons in but they had been defeated by the planetary defence forces and Imperial Guard units trained on the planet [1]. For many the situation seemed hopeless as the fighting grew and threatened to engulf the entire planet.

Yet in some parts of the planet local Guard commanders were rejecting the orders from 12 lord and high command to purge the areas around their garrisons. One such place was Norgan protectorate. It was in southern hemisphere of the planet. It shared a continent with Haeltat protectorate and were separated from it by a mountain range. Within it the Guard commander had quickly contacted local Arbites and organised the defence of the place.

So far it had repulsed all the major attempts by the traitors to enter the area. However the northern area of the protectorate had been infiltrated by roving traitor war bands. For any living outside of major population centres they brought terror and destruction. It was feared that something had to give in soon unless Imperium was able to react the the growing threat chaos infiltration.

Thus when a city of Erat near northern mountain range fell silent the worst was feared. Several units were sent to investigate which also vanished. Tales of diseases and sickness started to spread from the area and town and cities around the place started clamouring for help. Eventually elements of 312th Air Cavalry Regiment was sent to a PDF garrison nearby the Erat to find out what happened.

----

General Günlich sat next to a large desk staring at the map on top of it when a vox suddenly signalled.
- Valkyrie Group D5 reporting in, sir. We've spotted a greenish mist at the expected direction. Location 65 by 12 grid 43 Alpha. We've detected movement inside the mist, but are unable to get a clear readings at the current altitude.
- You are authorised to move in.
- Closing in ... There is something huge there, turning on the vid feeds ... By the Emperor. Do you see this, it's enormous. Sensors can't detect if it's biological or not. There is also other units moving - What the ... scatter, scatter. We're under attack by enemy aircraft moving to ... [static]

- "That is a titan" commented Günlich "The PDF units protecting the city of Felldove don't stand a change against it."
- "There is nearly 700 thousand citizens in Felldove." said Lieutenant Kirkland. "We must stop them before they enter the city."
- "Sir, we have a pair of Deathstrike carriers here." said Major Asuran
- "Yes we do." said Günlich and continued to stare at the map. "If they intend to get to Felldove they most likely are going to go through 43 by 22 as it has the road system. There are PDF companies within half a days march from there."
- Major get your company ready to move within 5 hours. You are escorting those carriers to the 43 by 22. Have PDF take control of the forest and hill looking at the roads. You will be supported by Storm Trooper Platoons and Valkyries by the time you arrive there. Remember that experience and will are what separates Imperial Guard from PDF. Show that you and your men have what it takes to earn your place in the Guard.
- Yes, sir!

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome

Rules used

NetERC Mods
Death Guard 2.1


Death Guard War Band

Death Guard Retinue
+ Demon Prince with 4 DG Marines and 2 Plague Marines
+ Desecrator
Death Guard Retinue
- Warlord with 4 DG Marines and 2 Plague Marines
+ 3 Rhinos
+ Stalker
Death Guard Heavy Retinue
- Sorcerer Lord with 4 DG Havocs
+ 3 Rhinos
Death Guard Terminator Retinue
- Plaguelord with 4 DG Terminators
Plague Tower
- 1 Plague Tower
Contagion Towers
- 4 Contagion Towers
Repugnant Titan (BTS)
Hellblade


312th Air Cavalry Regiment with PDF infantry

Regimental HQ (BTS)
+ Hydra
2 x Infantry Company
+ Hydra
3 x Storm Troopers Platoon
+ Valkyries
2 x Vultures
Deathstrikes


Deployment

Deployment can be seen in picture. I put my only garrison, Prince Retinue into overwatch. IG put Vulture 2 and Infantry Company 2 into overwatch.

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome

I had little battle plan for the game. I wanted to try out many things in the list and get a feel on them. After set-up I tried to come up with a way to protect the Repugnant from Vulture + Deathstrike volley.

The little plans that had were following. I had planned to try to move with SC Retinue from east and Heavy Retinue either through there or through the buildings. Plague Tower would be going up the road and engage any good targets. Repugnant would be going through centre or town depending on what would need ignore cover weapons. Terminators I left for second turn teleportation as I assumed I would be in range for assaults then.

Against this army it would be good to drop the Valkyries and Vultures before they can fire. However I assumed that it would be very hard to actually do this as there isn't that much long range weapons on the army. However I trusted that I would have endurance to take the first punch if I could soften it a bit and perhaps drop some from each formation.

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome

The Guard plan almost wasn't there. I set up hoping to be able to keep the D-strikes alive and get their shots out. Then, I'd fight off the first serious DG attack and wing it from there.

Hena, the initial OW was, of course, Vultures 2 and not Valks.

I always write that stuff wrong in the boards . Fixed now.

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome

I really like the table - it has a lot of terrain.

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"Don't use finesse, if force will solve the problem."

- Lieutenant General Michael O'Neal

That is what I noticed. half the table has ~12 pieces.

Overall, Lovin' the terrain as well. Good to see  

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Frogbear is responsible for...
World Eaters
Emperor's Children
Death Guard
Imperial Fists
Chaos Squats

Hey, thanks for the kind words about the terrain. A few notes on it are in order, then.

1) We like roads. I just like them for the aesthetics, Hena actually plans games and uses the roads in-game. It's very easy to get started -- just lay down a few strips of thin cardboard. This game featured some of my new roads (they are the ones which look light-colored), built by printing out an aerial photograph of a paved road and pasting it on top of a cardboard strip.

2) We like woods. Hey, we live in Finland -- the default terrain is woods, wooded hills or swamp. A plain board looks alien to me. You can see the woods system in the pics; single trees and 2-3-tree bases are placed on top of green cardboard. The trees are movable, for maximum playability, same as infantry bases, really.

3) I've finally finished a few buildings. You can see the FW resin buildings where the Daemon Prince is set up. To his north, there are some custom buildings created painstakingly by first creating complete wall molds with RTV silicone, then casting a pile using Artestone (a kind of plaster) and finally roofed with cardboard and polystyrene bits. The roofs are almost featureless, which sounds dull but makes for good playability. They are too bright red and look cartoony to me, now. I need to get more of these built to make a believable city center type setup.

4) The hills sure look ugly in photos. It's the same in RL.

5) The basecloth is from TerrainMat.

The link to the NetERC Mods is pointing to a locked page whose links are not working. Were you working with the 2008 amendments, or are these something different?

Really nice to see lots of terrain on the table  
For our club I used a lot of 10mm chipboard creating 'contoured' hills painted green, and 4mm hardboard, stippled with different greens for woods. Though not very pretty, they are durable.

I guess I will have to sort out a road and river/stream system next as I agree that they make the table come alive, and add meaning to the other elements.

Ok, thanks for pointing that. They were broken when the board went down. I'll add them back when I'm home.

As to my liking roads, there is two reasons.
1. Maneuvering. I think movement adds to the game and roads enhance it on certain conditions. It in that sense adds to the gameplay itself.
2. It looks odd if there are bunch of large buildings, but no roads leading to them. That's why I like to make sure the roads run from edge to edge, so it creates more reasonable view.

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome

1) Yeah, roads make for a more realistic looking tabletop, and its nice it if makes a difference in game too. Deploying along roads would make sense for mechanized formations.

2) Heh, I'm from Sweden, I can totally relate to the fact that there should be trees everywhere, cluttering up the "clean art of war". I incidentally use the same system for placing woods. Separate trees on a piece of felt. Makes for very flexible terrain.

3) The buildings looks just fine on photo, and they are nciely palced as well - see "roads".

4) Nah, I've seen worse hills, believe me...

Looking forward to the actual report!

_________________
"Don't use finesse, if force will solve the problem."

- Lieutenant General Michael O'Neal

Turn 1

Initiative: Death Guard

With some consideration the battle starts by Plague Tower rolling ahead on double and targeting the Infantry Company 2 in hopes of silencing the Hydra. However most shots seems to go wide and only one unit is killed. Seeing that it would be impossible for Hellblades to target the Deathstrikes there is no retain.

Imperial Guard start with the expected move. Valkyrie 1 advance out from behind the other Valkyries. They take up position just behind a hill and pop-up to fire their missiles at the Repugnant. 6 hits and all the shields are down. Retaining the Deathstrikes are ordered to sustain, but they have problems with coordinates and Supreme Commander is needed to make sure that the birds are fired. Two missiles streak at the Repugnant however one goes wide and other only causes 2 damage. Imperial Commander mutters about dice.

Seeing that the Vultures 1 were nice enough to park them selves within range the Contagion Towers sustain at them catching the Vultures 2 in blasts as well. One of the skimmers of group 1 is destroyed breaking the formation while second group only gains a BM. Group one falls back. In retaliation group 2 advances but stays farther back and fires 6 missiles into Repugnant as well. One of them penetrates and causes a critical doing another point of damage. This is enough to break the mighty war machine which shambles forwards to take cover from a forest.

This causes the Chaos commander to ponder on what should be done. Eventually choice is made to double with Heavy Retinue to the buildings and fire on the Storm Troopers 2 which are inside their Valkyries. Retinue spreads out to two buildings and fire hitting once, which was saved.

In east the Storm Troopers 3 also decide to close in and doubles ahead taking positions in forest and two Valkyries fire their missiles with couple of Storm Trooper units in range. This results into destruction of two Rhinos. Death Guards reply is Hellblades which require intervention of Supreme Commander. Planes make a ground attack coming from east and firing on Valkyries of Storm Troopers 3. One hit is scored, which is saved again.

In centre the Regimental HQ is next. They try to double, but they hesitate as well and move forwards cautiously instead (hold). Chaos Warlords Retinue tries to engage the upstart Storm Troopers, but they don't feel it to be good idea either (hold also) and move a bit towards the enemy.

Back in centre the Storm Troopers 2 advance moving past the Regimental HQ and takes up positions in front of Heavy Retinue. The buildings explode with explosions as all Valkyries fire one missile and Storm Troopers open up. End result is one wrecked Rhino and a dead Havoc unit with some extra BMs. Seeing that their time has come, the Demon Princes Retinue engage the Storm Troopers 2 into assault.

Moving behind the Havocs they open fire. It's a utter devastation as Death Guard save all the hits and with help of Havocs wipe out the Storm Troopers leaving fearless Commissars unit alive which escapes towards west [IG lost by 5].

Imperial Commander was rather annoyed that his elites were wiped out as that wasn't the move that he was expecting. This meant that the Havocs of Heavy Retinue had to go. That was tasked to Storm Troopers platoon 1. They advance to take up positions in building and fire on Heavy Retinue. Havocs manage to fail both saves that are hit and are broken. They fall back to the buildings in centre. Infantry Company 1 feels emboldened by the Storm Troopers fire-power and engage the Demon Princes Retinue. This however blows up on their face as the Death Guard save all hits again and kill several units in return. The Infantry Company is forced back with 6 units lost and they move back into forest [lost by 1].

In east the Infantry Company 2 marshal. They fire on Plague Tower giving it 1 BM and removing all of theirs to allow Hydra to fire on the Hellblades.

End Phase

Hellblades manage to avoid the Hydras fire and get 1 BM.

Repugnant, Infantry Company 1, Vultures 1 and Storm Troopers 2 fail to rally.

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome

Turn 2


Terminators teleport behind the Regimental HQ with no BMs.

Initiative: Death Guard

Turn starts with Terminators engaging the Regimental HQ while making sure they are out of Storm Troopers support range. Chimeras counter-charge into base-to-base in hopes of preventing their commander being hit.

This doesn't work but it's saved. However most others aren't and Terminators tear apart their opponents. They are not without losses however as two units of Terminators are lost, but Imperials are pushed back with losses of 7 Chimera and 4 infantry units [lost by 4]. They fall back east while Terminator break and move after them as well though there is a hill between them.

Retaining the Contagion Towers sustain targeting the Storm Troopers 1 in building. However the effect is less awesome as only one Valkyrie and a unit of Storm Troopers is killed with few extra BMs due disrupting weapons. Storm Troopers decide to act next and they advance firing more on the Princes Retinue. However the Death Guard are protected by their armour and none fall though they amass 4BMs.

Then the Guard retains and Storm Troopers 3 mount up to their Valkyries and double next to Contagion Towers. They target the Heavy Retinue and last of their Rhinos is wrecked and the formation broken. They move to a building on an other side of the road.

In centre the Plague Tower decide to go after the shot Regimental HQ in hopes of getting BTS. It doubles moving one move on road and then swinging to on top of a hill. It's weapons fire and barrage does it's cruel effect leaving only the Supreme Commanders unit left due to fearless commissar.

In centre the Vultures then move swiftly past the Plague Tower and double behind the Demon Princes retinue (at this point the Chaos Commander realises why the Retinue should have retained). Firing into crossfire one of the Plague Marines unit is cut down and the formation breaks.

Hellblades are next but they stand down.

Then Imperials decide that all unit are needed to fight this incursion and Deathstrikes double from their position. They move next to Infantry Company 1 and fire on the Plague Tower causing BM. Warlords Retinue reacts to this by doubling to the hill and bringing the Stalker within range of Deathstrikes, no damage is done however.

Last to go is Infantry Company 2 which tries to advance but fails and holds instead firing on the Plague Tower causing 1 BM.

End Phase

Fail: Regimental HQ and Heavy Retinue. Terminators rallied with help of Warlord.


Repugnant and Commissar eye each other out as they prepare to enter into fray of battle once more.


Storm Troopers with Valkyries and Vultures create a deadly crossfire which sent the enemy packing.


Plague Tower rumbles to a hill uncaring of the enemies arrayed against it.

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome

Turn 3

Initiative: Death Guard

Now it's finally chance for Repugnant to do it's thing. It's ordered to advance which require direct orders of Warlord to send it shambling into forest and get the Storm Troopers 3 into view. The weapons are fired and they are powerful. 4 Storm Trooper units and a Valkyrie is wrecked causing the formation to break. Storm Troopers and Valkyries move 20cm to left while the lone Commissar stays put and keeps the Contagion Towers in his ZoC.

Retaining the Terminators engage the intermingled Infantry Company 1 and Deathstrikes.

They get into firefight range and gun down 2 units while saving all hits caused to them. With Plague Tower supporting more units die and end result is lone survivor of commissars unit which moves towards the blitz [lost by 4].

Then it's Imperials and Vulture 2. They advance veering off to east and fire on Warlords Retinue with crossfire. One hit is done, but Death Guards save it. Plague Tower then trundles onwards towards blitz and turn east to fire after the running Supreme Commander. The barrages clip the Vultures 1, but no hits. All the other weapons fire on Supreme but miss.

Infantry Company 2 is ordered to move and this time they advance. They move units into view and target the Warlords retinue killing a Death Guard Marine with a crossfire. Warlords retinue tries to revenge this firing by engage but are too well pinned down by the fire and fail (hold). They choose to remove BMs but some still remains.

In Imperial end the Vultures 1 are ordered to double, but they hesitate and remove BMs instead (hold again). Death Guards reply with a double using Demon Prince Retinue, but they fail as well and remove BMs (yet another hold).

The Storm Trooper 2 commissar in west is next and he doubles ahead and fire a BM on Repugnant.

Hellblades are then ordered to ground attack. They brave one Hydra as they move to go after the enemy Supreme Commander. Hydra misses it's shots though while Hellblades score one hit. However that is saved by the forest the enemy is.

Storm Troopers 1 then tries to double, but the paralysis still continues and they hold removing BMs.

Last to go is Contagion Towers. They advance moving units out of commissars ZoC and fire on the Storm Troopers 3 as well as commissar. None of the Imperials survive.

End Phase

Fail: Heavy Retinue, Regimental HQ and Infantry Company 1

As the game is 1 - 0 with Blitzkrieg we are on for turn 4.


Vultures group 1 continue to create crossfires and havoc to the Death Guard Retinues.

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome

Turn 4

Initiative: Death Guard

The Repugnant starts the turn once more. It doubles out of the forest to road and moves to the intersection and turns to target the Storm Troopers 1 taking cover in the buildings. Once more the weapons fire with no help from the cover and 5 units are killed breaking the formation, which moves west. Retaining the Demon Prince retinue engages the Vultures 2 into firefight which results in no losses for the Retinue and all Vultures crashed.

First to go for Imperial Guard is Infantry Company 2. It sustains targeting Terminators giving them one BM. Retaining the Vultures 1 advances to hill and fire on Terminators killing lords unit and breaking them.

Hellblades are once more called to make a ground attack, but they fail to get into air even with Warlord shouting. Commissar of Storm Troopers 2 in Death Guard side double near Contagion Towers and fire at them, giving BM and getting into his ZoC.

Then it's just Death Guard left. First Plague Tower tries to advance but fail and hold, moving out of Vulture ZoC. Then Contagion Towers try to advance but decide to hold and move also *puuh*. Finally Warlord Retinue tries to engage and finally manages to do so.

Clashing with Infantry company 2 in open the whole thing just blows up to their face. IG loses 4 units, but Death Guard lose the Warlords unit, a Death Guard Marine unit and a Rhino (losing by 1) and are forced to withdraw.

End Phase

fail: Warlord Retinue (some from IG, forgot to write down)

The situation is 0 - 0 so we count points. They go 2225 vs 725 which translates to victory for Death Guard.


Repugnant flushes Storm Troopers from their building and prepares to find new targets.

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Rare Earth: Conflict - Comments and testing welcome