After a garbled, cut-off report from their scout bikers about being under attack the Minotaurs sent forward their armoured task force led by Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi. As they neared the area at full speed spotters sighted an ominously large attack craft in the colours of the Red Corsairs coming towards their lines and the orders were given to swiftly form defensive formations...

Nb. alternative models in my army are long OOP please do not ask.

Also I know, I know, I still haven't got round to painting my army, shame on me. Just imagine them a well painted bronze and red Minotaurs scheme and I'll get there in the end. It's a very appropriate match up for the two, after the Minotaurs were instrumental in the siege of Badab and their near destruction of the Astral Claws (later Red Corsairs).

Space Marines list with the trial changes:
Tacticals + Chaplain + Las Razorback + Land Raider - 425 (BTS)
Tacticals + Las Razorback + Land Raider - 375
Assault - 175
Devestators + Land Raider - 325
Land Speeders - 200
Land Speeders - 200
Predator Annihilators + Hyperios (Hunter) - 325
Land Raiders + Hyperios (Hunter) - 400
Vindicators – 225
Terminators – 325

Al's Red Corsairs
Strike Cruiser - 200
Thunderhawk - 250
Retinue + Khorne Berzerkers upgrade - 325
Thunderhawk - 250
Retinue + Khorne Berzerkers upgrade - 325
Thunderhawk - 250
Retinue + Khorne Berzerkers upgrade - 325
6 Chaos Terminators + Supreme - 445
3 Hellblade Fighters
1 Harbringer Super-heavy Bomber – 450 (BTS)
I make that 2970, perhaps I missed an upgrade. I'm also guessing where the supreme was, I'm not actually sure which formation he was with.

This was how things were at the start. The industrial terrain on the left provided good cover and I chose to put my Blitz there, but it was a ruse - I hoped Al would target his orbital bombardment there and I might avoid it. Therefore I deployed in the middle, with two screening formations of Land Speeders on overwatch. I find it unusual playing an opponent with literally nothing on the board at the start.



Minotaurs won the iniative, the Tactical formation on the left went onto overwatch and the Devestator formation retained to also go on overwatch.

The Harbringer screamed forwards inferno bombs raging to destroy the Tactical formation on the left.

It moved through the attack range of both the Hyperioses and their AA launched skywards, one hitting, a failed save and unluckily for Al the critical dice rolls a 6 and the Harbringer explodes.

One of the Red Corsairs Thunderhawks takes a long range battlecannon pot-shot at the Vindicators towards the middle. They then go onto overwatch.

A second RC Thunderhawk flies on

It fires at the Land Raider and Hyperios formation in the middle.

Luckily for me he chose to attack from a similar direction (due to poor placement by me if he'd attacked from the left he could actually have hit the Hunter) and the battlecannon shot did no damage to a Land Raider.

The Land Speeders on the right that were on overwatch went on overwatch again, to delay and see what else he would do.

The final RC Thunderhawk flew on near the objective on the right...

...and put a blast marker on the Predator and Hyperios formation.

The Predators formation drove forward to a position where the Hyperios was in a position to atttack all three Thunderhawks in the end phase.

Their new position was unfortunate however as then an ominous shadow passed over the battlefield and bombardment rained down from the heavens.

I guessed wrong about where he would attack, Al considered the buildings but thought it might be too obvious so chose a location on the right that ended up landing on the BTS Tactical formation and some of the Predators. Quite a bit died, including, crucially the Hyperios.
Luckily for me he chose to attack from a similar direction (due to poor placement by me if he'd attacked from the left he could actually have hit the Hunter) and the battlecannon shot did no damage to a Land Raider.

The Land Speeders on the right that were on overwatch went on overwatch again, to delay and see what else he would do.

The final RC Thunderhawk flew on near the objective on the right...

...and put a blast marker on the Predator and Hyperios formation.

The Predators formation drove forward to a position where the Hyperios was in a position to atttack all three Thunderhawks in the end phase.

Their new position was unfortunate however as then an ominous shadow passed over the battlefield and bombardment rained down from the heavens.

I guessed wrong about where he would attack, Al considered the buildings but thought it might be too obvious so chose a location on the right that ended up landing on the BTS Tactical formation and some of the Predators. Quite a bit died, including, crucially the Hyperios.

The Land Raiders then moved forward instead, so that their Hyperios could attack the Thunderhawks.

In the end phase the Hyperios crew worked overtime and shot all three Thunderhawks, but only one was on target and it did no damage, just putting blast markers. Various Marines rallied automatically with no enemy around to reduce their chances.

Turn 2
The Red Corsairs chose not to teleport down, which slightly surprised me. The Minotaurs Terminators teleported on the left to protect the blitz with something tough, taking a blast marker in the process.

Red Corsairs won the initiative on a tied roll, forcing the Minotaurs to go first. The Minotaurs put the Land Speeder formation on the right on overwatch again.

Then at last the real attack came in with a roar of Thunderhawk engines. Out poured a sea of red marines, many frothing and screaming about blood and skulls. The Minotaurs Terminators were so unnerved by this they only hit with two regular attacks, killing one. The corsairs killed two Terminators though support fire from a Land Speeder killed one more. The Terminators lost the combat roll off, though just by one so not enough to take any damage. They made a tactical retreat towards their own lines and Moloc would be having stern words with them after the battle.

The Red Corsairs consolidate into the industrial complex nearby.

Still, the Minotaurs are characteristically unbothered by taking casualties and a tide of fresh tide of Tactical marines surged forward and assaulted the remaining Red Corsairs infantry.

Only the Land Raider was in range and it gouted flamer death at them to no effect. The supporting Land Speeder was again effective however killing one and the corsairs lost the combat by a lot. The four fearless Berzerkers fled back into the cover of a further area of industrial machinary.

I was bracing for another air assault but the next Thunderhawk just took a potshot at the Land Raiders and Hyperios in the middle, placing a blast marker.

The Vindicators doubled forward, their dozerblades protecting them from the difficult terrain and they fired at the Thunderhawk. They did no damage to it, but they panicked the pilot into trying a desperate blast off, which went wrong, fatally crashing into the chemical silo and destroying the Thunderhawk (the blast marker from their fire broke the Thunderhawk and since it was within 15cm of them it died).

After this the other Thunderhawk stood down and decided not to come on.

The Assault Marines tripled forward into the industrial complex on the left, within 15cm of the objective.

No damage was done from the Hyperios in the end phase.

Turn 3
With a crackle of eldritch energy 30 Chaos Space Marine Terminators coalesce into being in the industrial complex on the far right, within 15cm of the crashed Caestus and dead scout bikers objectives. One blast marker was taken.

I wanted to try to wipe out the pesky Khorne Berzerkers, as there was a chance I might be able to go for They Shall Not Pass, so the Vindicators crashed through the industrial complex terrain and the demolisher cannons spoke death at the Berzerkers, with crossfire to the Land Speeder. This killed two stands of the traitorous scum. The Vindicators were also in a position where they captured the blitz.

The inevitable second air assault roared in on the right hand side, taking a blast marker from a Hyperios missile. The Land Speeders had long waited for their time to kill and their overwatch killed two stands of the hated arch-enemy. I also overwatched the BTS at them for no effect (they mostly couldn't see). I quickly regretted wasting them on this as they would have been a lot better assaulting afterwards instead, but my mistake (I don't overwatch that often normally and didn't think it through).

Hovering up in mid-air, the Land Speeders were fairly safe and only one died from the hail of fire. They did no damage in return, lost by one and fled broken.

We were both starting to eye objectives more carefully and the Hellblades flew in to ground attack the Predator formation which were in a position to possibly triple over to the blitz (though they'd have to brave Terminators overwatch fire).

One was blasted out of the sky by the Hyperios and they did no damage to the Predators.

The other Land Speeders doubled forward, capturing the righter-most objective in my half and contesting the crashed Caestus objective while staying safe from the overwatch behind the building.

The Thunderhawk packed full of Chaos Marines and Khorne Berzerkers had a choice – smash down and crush, kill maim their hated old enemies. Or land far away from the battle and capture their blitz. Though out of character they decided on the latter.

The Predators doubled forward, taking a hail of fire from the Terminator's overwatch at this point, killing one of them.

They bravely continued on and crossfired the Thunderhawk to death, breaking and killing it from coming under fire.

On the left the Tactical formation assaulted the remaining two Khorne Berzerker stands, with support fire from the Vindicators. The Blood God's favoured ones were brought death at last and wiped out.

The Land Raiders doubled over and unleashed their twin heavy bolters, surprisingly hitting with all of them, but only killing one.

This was enough to break the formation though and the traitors fled away, only just making it far enough around the impassable cliffs to outside of 15cm.

The game ended with the Minotaurs claiming Break their Spirit and Defend the Flag with no victory conditions claimed by the Red Corsairs.

Post-game thoughts. Hmm, that went better than I expected. All those Thunderhawks packed with Berzerkers seemed scary but with the initial lucky critical on the Harbringer, no ground enemy at all and the piecemeal attacks they weren't too scary in the end.

Comments and feedback welcome! If you liked the battle report please mention so as it'll encourage me to do more.

Awesome report! Thanks alot for posting it!

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https://epic40ksweden.wordpress.com/

"You have a right to be offended" - Steve Hughes
"Your feelings are hurting my thoughts" - Aron Flam

Good report. The Red Corsairs, and the industrial terrain are cool. The report was clear and easy to understood who did what, and how effective was it, the pics were well placed, however I still don't get the strange strategic decisions from both sides. Perhaps I look upon it too IG-ish... idk.

A chain of questions: What does the Hyperios do? I mean statistic wise, since that was the only unit, which wasn't the same as in the Codex Astartes. So are there any speciality in the Minotaurs list? I ask it, beacuse you mentioned this battle used a trial list.

EDIT: Oh I get it, it was a codex astartes list, but with trial change, the hyperios.

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Epic Commander of the Prassium Invasion Troops 214th Regiment
***Action is our prayer. Victory is our offering.***

Blind me, that bomber is a beast!

Great battle report!

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Oops, sorry for the confusion. The trial changes were the 275 point Tacticals and Tacticals having access to Land Raiders. The Hyperios justs counts as a Hunter and I wrote them as Hyperios (Hunter) in the army list at the start. I've always hated the Hunter model and since I have Hyperios proxies that's what I referred to them as during the text of the battle.

I also describe a Land Raider gouting flames at the enemy at one point, but that was just descriptive licence because the assaulting Land Raider model happened to be a Redeemer, in game terms all the Land Raiders were standard.

I've written a Minotaurs list, that I hope to revise and playtest in the next few months (if I find willing opponents) but this was just the regular codex astartes SM list, which I've played a lot recently.

What did you think were strange strategic decisions Commissar Holt? It's good to get feedback and Al is a new Red Corsairs player, having I think he said only 4 games with them.

I'm a fairly new Red Corsair player, in fact a new Chaos Marine player in general, having come from a IG SL list.
This was my forth game
The previous three being in the tournament Onyx hosted about a month and a bit ago.

I didn't quite know how to handle GlynG's force composition and set up.
The Hunters were placed in a very commanding position and with a 60cm range it was almost impossible to avoid AA fire at any time in the game.
My army list does struggle with RA and with a lot of RA in the army (comparatively) and coupled with a 'hedgehog' style set up - it's a tough nut to crack.
I had to rely on the 2nd and 3rd turns where GlynG had no option to spread out to meet the victory conditions and that's where i was able to take back the initiative a bit.

Also, I'm still getting used to the idea of how to use the long range pot shots of the TH and target/damage assignement rules, i.e coming at the LR formation at the wrong angle meant that the Hunter had no chance of being taken as a casualty.

The loss of the Harbinger stung. First activation, first turn, first failed critical roll... The Harbinger is there to encourage the opponent to not rely on cover/'turtle' formation. It dying placed real pressure on how me trying to dictate play.

I still grumble that their are 2 Harbinger stats, one with 4+AV and 5+RA... Give me 5+RA anyday...

I will need to change my army list. The combo of 3x TH with CSM Warband is too expensive.

Good game GlynG and the 2:1 VP total was in reality a wipe for me

Tee

Ah ok, now I understand the trial changes.

I may be wrong with the stuff below, I just write an opinion upon the tactics;

If I'm correct, the spacecraft arrival is public, and opponent must tell it. And so if he tells it to happen in the first turn, it is more likely to telegraph the bombardment planned around the deployment zone, rather than anything else.
I think the SM player was too confident avoiding is own side Blitz, will avoid the possible bombardment. I would have moved up and leave the deployment zone as much as I could. I know the overwatch orders were issued to prevent a first turn air asault, but that was already blocked by the hunters or hyperioses if you like. Putting formations in support fire range, and also, putting a BM via AA I think is enough to win the counter assault or at least make it very risky for the assailant!

From the Chaos player perspective, he knew where really planned the bombardment, he could just start with it, as units were deployed right under it! Though later it became more effective as the SM player even moved more units there, since he didn't know what will come. Since the Initiative went to the SM player, it was quite lucky for the Chaos player to catch anybody with bombardment.

Later on, the Chaos player brought in the air assaults and teleport termies in different turns, allowing the SM player to react one by one, while losing the first strike, but in return driving away the victors. What I experienced against air assault SM (in this case almost indentical air assault CSM) I found more devastating if everything arrives in the same turn, no matter which one.

Again I state this may be wrong, I only play IG, and though face with air assault SM, it's not the same, as being on the other side.

Oh and have mentioned that the Red Corsairs and the industrial terrain look cool? Yup, those looks very nice!

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Epic Commander of the Prassium Invasion Troops 214th Regiment
***Action is our prayer. Victory is our offering.***

Looks like fun !! Nice terrain Too !

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Yeah, I was lucky with the bombardment. I had really two places that weren't obvious (ie next to Blitz or behind the hill) so it was 50/50.
I didn't activate the bombardment until later on as I noticed that GlynG was 'turtling up'. I was also a little thrown by the loss of the Harbinger on turn 1.


I bought the Termies in later as I was waiting for GlynG to break the fortress he created when he had to move towards claiming objectives.
It's a tough nut to crack with my army and I didn't want to throw my units in when he could respond with every unit close by.


Great, thanks for the compliment.
I'm not a great painter and my aim was to achieve a consistent 'army' look for them, i.e. they look great together but when viewed separately you can really see where I cut corners and evidence of my shading/drybrushing painting style!

Tee