Chaos-tainted rebels advance through the equatorial jungle of Ixion. (Sorry, in the heat of GM’ing the skirmish game, I forgot to take photos.)

Battalion Notice: At morning parade tomorrow, all personnel will be prepared to march to the south maintenance field for the execution of surviving members of 3rd Platoon, Delta Company, who have been found guilty of fleeing from the enemy. Attendance is mandatory.

* * *

What follows is a report of 3rd Platoon, Delta Company, 17th Battalion, 12th Belliose Depot Regiment, and its skirmish with xeno troops in the Malorian Jungle of Ixion (COORD: 18 838 Q319 843).

MISSION REPORT: Operation Dropbox
RECORDED: 12th Belliose Depot Regiment: EST 06/231
CITY OF PALADON – PDF SUPREME HQ 9y6/849.46
INPUT DATE: 6 232 744.M41
INPUT CLEARANCE: Lieutenant grade or higher
ANALYST: Major Hashim  Utba
TRANSMITTED: Paladon HQ, Regimental Intelligence Service, Q-3
TRANSMITTER: Astropath Mehmed Ziyad

Background

In 743.M41, rioting broke out in the Cellebra Manufactorum on the planet of Ixion. Efforts to subdue the violence by the Adeptus Arbites failed, and local Planetary Defense Forces (PDF) were called upon to take extreme measures to bring order.

The PDF encountered heavily armored forces, and planetary leaders realized they were facing the beginning of a planned insurrection. As the violence spread to other parts of the planet, it became clear that a cult, worshiping one of the Ruinous Powers, was responsible.

Over the next few months, the heretical insurrection gained ground, and the Administratum requested reinforcement from sector headquarters on Belliose III. With little military reserves available, all that could be sent to Ixion was the 12th Belliose Depot Regiment, a holding unit of military recruits still to be assigned to active military regiments.

The subsequent deployment of the 12th Depot Regiment has not proven as useful to Ixion authorities as hoped. Although receiving the most basic round of training, guardsmen in the unit are considered raw—and of questionable combat effectiveness.

A typical example of the regiment’s challenges is an incident that occurred on 6 222 744.M41 in the jungle of Ixion.

An adhoc squad of guardsmen, recruits destined for the 11th Hochland Regiment, filled the complement of 1st Squad of 3rd Platoon. Here, the squad takes cover at the forest’s edge.

Aerial Deployment

On the aforementioned date, the 3rd Platoon was assigned to secure a crossroads in the Malorian Jungle and hold that position until relieved by advancing Imperial troops. The platoon was deployed by a squadron of Valkyrie gunships that dropped the troops in a nearby meadow—then departed to support advancing troops.

The platoon was under strength, consisting of a junior lieutenant, a platoon sergeant, and two squads—and accompanied by a commissar and Bullgryn. A total  of 23 men, plus adhuman.

Fighting began at 13:23 when two squads of rebels, reinforced with two ramshackle walkers, advanced from the northeast.

First Squad was deployed along a forest edge that opened onto a grassy meadow that rose to a nearby ridge, where the left flank of the rebels took position. There was intermittent fire between the two sides until, after the roar of heretical blasphemy over a loudspeaker, a mob of rebels charged down the hill toward the Imperial line.

Imperial volleys thinned the rebel line, but the rebels threw several frag grenades into the defenders, and one of the rebel walkers advanced and bathed part of the Imperial line with a flamer.

This allowed the surviving rebels to charge into 1st Squad, which was forced to give ground as casualties mounted.

Rebel troops have proven more effective than the adhoc rebel formations in other planetary uprisings. The rebels have been particularly effective in difficult terrain, such as urban centers and forest regions.

Imperial Line Falters

The abhuman auxiliary trooper that served with 3rd Platoon held up part of the advancing rebel line single-handedly, allowing some of the platoon to escape certain doom. Alas, regimental records cannot identify his name or ID number, and no meritorious award can be placed in his record.

On the Imperial left flank, 2nd Squad also deployed in the woods that lined the meadow and, it too, was brought under attack. A second mob of rebels, supported by a missile-equipped walker, advanced quickly, survived a rather ineffective Imperial volley, and engaged in point-blank range fire with guardsmen.

The 2nd Squad actually was well-positioned to win this battle, but a stray shot penetrated the fuel tank on a flamer-equipped guardsman, and the resultant explosion was not only fatal to the flamer operator, but it killed two other guardsmen and burned two more.

In the confusion, the rebels charged and killed several more members of the squad. The platoon’s Bullgryn proved his worth at this point in the fighting, charging into the rebels’ potential breakthrough and stalling the rebel attack long enough for the rest of the squad to withdraw.

At this point, both squads withdrew up a nearby hill, seeking to form a new defensive line. But the rebels pursued aggressively and, when the accompanying commissar and both squad’s sergeants fell to enemy fire, the remainder of the platoon fled the field in disorder.

Aftermath

A terrible photo, but this is what our rebel walkers look like. This one is a mix of Killa Kan legs, an Imperial Sentinel hull, and whatever we could find in our bitz box. It may be hard to tell, but that’s a corpse on the roof of the walker, suitable tied to the antennae with tanglewire.

The failure to hold the crossroads at coordinates 18 838 Q319 843 allowed a larger rebel force to march to the nearby town of Cytora, using the small urban area as a defensive position, and stymieing the Imperial advance into enemy territory.

It took an entire day to clear Cytora of the rebel filth—sufficient for the enemy to deploy an entire regiment of troops on ridge to the west of the town. The position was deemed too powerful for the advancing Imperial force to overcome, and the attack on the enemy was cancelled.

Although the 3rd Platoon’s defeat at the crossroads is not entirely responsible for the failure of the Imperial advance, the small engagement’s outcome played a disproportionate role.

The Commissariat believes the execution of the platoon’s surviving members will prove a valuable incentive for friendly troops to remember their duty. Charges were filed, a quick trial ensued, and the survivors were executed before their battalion—with video-picts of the execution widely disseminated to surrounding Imperial units.

Thought of the Day: When the people forget their duty they are no longer human and become something less than beasts. They have no place in the bosom of humanity nor in the heart of the Emperor. Let them die and be forgotten.—Prime Edicts of the Holy Synod of the Adeptus Ministorum

+ REPORT ENDS +

TheGM: This is last of six battle reports related to the skirmish games sponsored at the 2023 Shorehammer Convention. I regret that it took so long to finally wrap up all these reports.

As with all Shorehammer games, the results of convention games impact our nearly decade-long narrative campaign. This battle was a minor affair, but it still was a defeat. So, the first consequence is narrative: the Imperial attack through the equatorial jungle of Ixion fails, and it will take time for the Imperials to rebuild their forces before launching a second attack. I hope to flesh this out in future articles.

Second, a more practical result is that, in the next tabletop battle on Ixion, if the armies are set at 1,800 points, the Imperials will be penalized 100 points (ie. their army can only add up to 1,700 points).

I liken 3rd Platoon’s defeat as follows: A skirimish action can have a disproportionate impact on a major battle. Image the consequences if Major John Horward and his British glider-borne troops had failed to seize and hold the bridge on the Caen Canal on D-Day?  (Better known as the famed Pegasus Bridge.)

—

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