Battle: Raised to Glory

Embarked upon the Imperial vessel "Raised to Glory", the Meridian Prime 7th Cavalry lounged in the various troop spaces. The ship had recently translated from the warp and was making its way systemward at a leisurely pace when suddenly klaxons sounded the crew to general quarters. Being a poorly disciplined lot, they paid little notice to “shippies” as they called them racing to and fro. The began to take notice when shudders of macro-cannon fire began to sound. The Colonel quietly went around and suggested his boys make sure their weapons were clean. “And grab those spare ammo packs I don’t know you kept under you bunks.” The boys nodded sheepishly as The Colonel picked two squads to accompany him in a tour of the shuttle bays. Just to make sure they were ship shape of course. As they made their way through the winding decks to the open bays they heard the call, “All hands! Prepare to repel boarders!”

We decided to play a Boarding Action out of the Imperial Armor Nine book and it was a blast. Because my gaming time is limited, we played 500 points on a 4x4 space. I had planned for my opponent to bring plague marines so I boned up on melta weapons for my two veteran squads and command team. I also took two armored sentinels with plasma cannons, and, on a lark, took a psyker battle squad just to try it out. My opponent took two vet squads but kitted them out with carapace armor which sucked away a lot of his points, and added a sentinel with a lascannon. The rules state you break your forces as evenly in half as you can and keep one in reserves so I brought in the command squad, one vet squad, and one sentinel and left the others in reserve. We rolled three objectives and my opponent won initiative. We set up on opposite quarters.

Turn 1
We rolled Hull Quake-everything counted as difficult terrain. Our forces moved towards one another and traded fires. I managed to kill his sentinel with my plasma cannon and one of his men. There was no other damage.


Different Angle


Turn 2
We rolled Power Surge and suddenly we were night fighting. This curtailed his fire although so his veteran squad charged my command squad where The Colonel, leading from the front for once (he had gotten disoriented by all the commotion) actually repelled their assault, wounding two, and forcing them back. They wisely took cover in a pile of crates. My sentinel opened fire on them and further reduced their numbers.





Turn 3
We rolled No effect, and in the calm, drawn by the sounds of weapons and screaming my opponent's reserves arrive to help reinforce their position. They were out of range to help with fires however. The Bloody 7th, took more of a toll on the troops hiding in the crates and better positioned themselves to hold the command note that was their objective in that quarter.





Turn 4
Again the ship's tortured body quaked, limiting movement. The boarders advanced and traded shots, not causing any significant damage. Wondering what all the racket was, the rest of the Bloody 7th The Colonel had selected as his bodyguard, er, inspection team found its way to the hangar. The second vet squad moved towards the control panel that was their objective. The psyker squad chanted, "We shall use our powers in the name of the Emperor!" and summod forth...nothing. The sentinels, however, unleashed a torrent on the first boarder squad which was now reduced to two men. Shaken by their losses and the creepy bald guys, they broke.




Turn 5
The ship stilled for a moment. Again the two sides traded fires, wiping out the boarders' command squad. The psyker squad concentrated again and summoned forth a mighty etherial blast which missed. To add insult to injury, they also summond a perils of the warp attack. Fortunately their handler was able to put one of them down, limiting the damage.

(I forgot to take pictures this round. Sorry)

Turn 6
All Hell breaks loose. Five fires break out. One kills a boarder. Another erupts next to The Colonel but fortunately his loyal but disposable bodyguard pushed him out of the way, mortally wounded in the process. Another two fires rip through the psyker battle squad removing one member and the handler. The remaining boarders are further thinned and their attempt to seize the "Raised to Glory" fails.




Overall it was a fun game for several reasons. Least of all I won, which is rare enough. The melta weapons never really got range but the Sentinels paid off. My opponent gambled by armoring everyone which just didn't pay off-either he missed his rolls or I hit him with instant killing weapons with high APs. What made the game really fun was actually using the terrain I had made-some of it years ago-for the first time. The Boarding Action rules were a blast but I can see why they never rated a book of their own-there just isn't enough to fill one. They fit in well with IA9 and helped make it worth the cover price.