A tactical squad of Death Guard launch an assault on loyalist Astartes that defend the objective in the Knights’ deployment zone. The Death Guard dominated the close-combat fighting as their warp-tainted bodies were almost impervious to loyalist fire.

“Sickness, disease, plague and pox, suffering and the slow, living rot. Such wondrous gifts does Nurgle seek to bestow upon the unworthy human cattle of the Imperium. We are merely the vectors by which his virulent beneficence may be spread to the undeserving masse.”—Urgloth Rotheart, Plague Champion of the Death Guard

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Continued from Part 2 . . .

A Desperate Bid

Although unsupported and outnumbered, the traitor marines on the east flank never considered retreating. Instead, putting faith in their false gods, they left the cover of the wrecked transport and advanced on a copse of trees defended by a Crusader Squad. The Death Guard wanted the Knights’ objective.

The loyalists opened fire. Most bolter shells exploded ineffectively against the Death Guard’s armor, but some shells penetrated. Still, even wounded, the traitor Astartes appeared undeterred.

When close enough, the Death Guard returned fire with their bolt pistols as they charged. The fighting that followed was brutal. Two loyalist scouts were killed, but even their power-armored battle-brothers were hard-pressed in the fighting. They found their blows had little affect on the worshipers of Nurgle, and the loyalists found themselves pushed back into the woods.

In the center, Ghaz Tak finally rallied his Plague Marines and ordered the advance again. Yet, despite his curses and threats to hurry,  he recognized the reality of the situation: The tme taken to rally his warriors meant he would not reach the Knights’ position in time to support the flank attack. The battle would be over before his men had any impact on the battle at all.

In the west, traitor fire and  witchcraft slaughter loyalist marines in the woods, but the traitor  Rhino and last Obliterator is destroyed.

In the center, the loyalists successfully defend their objective.

In the east, Ghaz Tak seeks to stop the Razorback on his flank, but the Stormtalon wipes out his force.

Fighting continued to the west, as well. Again, Necrosius cast Plague Wind, and three loyalist battle-brothers and three scouts succumbed to warp witchcraft. Two marines still stood, however, and they refused to retreat even one step.

The last surviving Obliterator advanced on Galba and his Command Squad and engulfed them with the flames of a heavy flamer. Fortunately, the God-Emperor smiled down upon his children, and none of the Knights fell.

Instead, they counterattacked. Galba struck the first blows, but although his Lightning Claws carved deep gashes into the warp-mutated traitor Astartes, the captain’s weapons never quite penetrated sufficiently to drop their opponent. The blows of the Command Squad also failed to achieve anything.

The battle was in its fourth turn, and Galba—even as he fought—was assessing the tactical situation. He knew he must trust that the troops already defending the Imperial objective could defeat the Death Guard flank attack. But if both sides held their objectives, the battle would be decided by secondary objectives. How can he offset the Death Guard’s 1 v.p. for First Blood?

As he saw it, there was only one path to victory–or even a draw. The Knights must earn a victory point for the Linebreaker objective, while destroying the Death Guard on the flank so the enemy is denied the same secondary objective.

For this reason, the Razorback–which until now has had almost no role in the battle–rushed across the battlefield Full Out! If It could reach the enemy deployment zone before the battle ended, there remained some  hope for the loyalists.

Of course, the Death Guard approaching the Knights’ objective had be stopped. To that end, the hard-pressed Crusader Squad again opened fire on the traitor Astartes. But, again, the traitors’ warp-tainted bodies absorbed most of the boltgun rounds without apparent notice. Despite 10 hits, only four wounds were inflicted, and all but one traitor was successful in making his armor save.

Something more had to be be done, and Galba took the unorthodox step of ordering his Predator tank to turn and enter the woods. The vehicle was damaged as it pushed aside several trees, but it was able to open up with its lascannons and heavy bolters and kill two more traitors.

Alas, the Death Guard stood their ground. They were determined to keep on fighting.

It took Captain Galba and his Command Squad nearly an hour to defeat a single Obliterator in close-quarters combat.

Desperate Minutes

The sun was getting low in the sky, and both combatants put everything they had left into seizing victory.

In the west, Galba and his Command Squad continued to battle the Obliterator, yet the monstrosity withstood all their blows, although the loyalists also managed to evade the monster’s powerful counterattacks.

In the center, near the Knights’ objective, the Death Guard  continued their advance. Fire and counter-fire lit up the shadowed woods, and when the two sides met again in hand-to-hand combat, two more loyalist marines fell.  In the end, a single Space Marine stood against five traitor Marines.

Yet, in the finest tradition of the Knights of Altair, the sole surviving Marine refused to take one step back. For a few minutes more, he held back the traitor onslaught and denied them any headway toward the Knights’ objective.

Also in the center, Ghaz Tak spotted the Razorback advancing past his position. He understood that it sought to outflank his force, and he judged that an affront. He knew that if he remained in the safety of the woods and avoided being targeted, he might survive the battle—and guarantee at least a tie in the fight.

But one doesn’t become a daemon prince by hiding. The warriors around him wanted blood, so he took a risk. He and his remaining Plague Marines left the safety of the woods and tried to intercept the vehicle.

To his disappointment, he again rolled low on his Run roll—a 1—and found himself falling just short of the moving vehicle. Alas, he also found himself again exposed in the open.

And that proved the critical moment of the game. The loyalist Stormtalon returned to the battlefield and strafed Ghaz Tak’s position. Shells from the aircraft’s twin-linked assault cannons tore apart the Plague Marines and penetrated the Chaos warlord’s armor. Ghaz Tak slumped to the ground, and the Knights earned an essential victory point for Slay the Warlord, negating the Death Guard’s victory point for First Blood, and bringing the victory point tally to 4-to-4.

In the east, Galba and his command squad continued battling the Obliterator. Blows were struck, warriors roared, and yet there was no resolution.

Back in the east woods, the Predator tank again fired itslascannon at point-blank range at the Death Guard, and two more traitors fell. Then, in an act that resolved the threat, the Sicaran tank entered the woods, and its autocannons chewed up tree trunks, gouged furrows in the dirt, and tore the remaining traitor Marines to shreds.

The Knights’ objective was now safe—and the Death Guard no longer had a path to victory.

Click here to read the conclusion of this battle.

Return to Part 2

Click here to return to Part 1.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.