“Monsters! Nightmares! The traitors can’t be stopped. Our lasguns are useless against them. Run for your lives! Run for—“unidentified Guardsmen as he fled the battle line, executed summarily by a Commissariat officer only minutes before High Command ordered the retreat 

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Continued from Part 1 . . .

Unstoppable Astartes

The Death Guard column on the Imperial right flank, led by Typhus himself at the head of scores of traitor Astartes, proved a far greater threat, the colonel said.

“There is a warp-taint to the Death Guard that make them very difficult to kill,” he explained. “We dropped mortar fire, artillery, and had hundreds of troops firing at the traitors as they walked brazenly in the open, and only a handful of the traitors fell.”

What followed, authorities say, was a desperate defense, with the Tallarn standing their ground, falling back at times, and occasionally counterattacking—but to no avail.

“There was a miasma surrounding. Typhus, who stood at the vanguard of the traitor attack,” commented one officer who asked not to be identified. “At one point, armored Sentinels tried to hold the line, and Typhus advanced under lascannon fire and ripped them to shreds. Nothing seemed to stop the traitor attack.”

Imperial forces outflanked

The traitor Astartes advance finally broke the Tallen defenses and threatened the rear of the Cadian contingent on the left flank, and the Cadians were forced to fall back to a secondary defense line, Nash said.

“Both Cadian and Tallarn troops fought well, but the tactical situation demanded a withdrawal.”

During the battle, Imperial Command hastily organized a counter-measure to stop any further advance by the enemy, Nash said.

“Once Imperial forces had withdrawn from the area, nearly 400 artillery pieces—provided with exact coordinates to the enemy position—opened fire,” he said. “Nearly 10,000 shells dropped on the enemy over the next hour.”

When the bombardment ended, there was no sign of further enemy activity, and the battle is considered officially terminated, Nash added. “Patrols now are out to determine enemy casualties—and what possible threat still exists in the area.”

Click here to return to Part 1 of this battle report.

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TheGM: I am a bit worried about Dozaria. In this wonderful little tabletop battle, the Imperial Guard slaughtered the cultists, Poxwalkers, traitor guard, and Chaos spawn on the left flank. It was an impressive display of firepower.

But Guard fire was shockingly futile against the Death Guard.

I did the math. For every 10 lasgun shots against a traitor Astartes with a Toughness of 5, a 3+ armor save, and Feel No Pain (5+ extra save), there’s only a 37-percent chance of bringing down a single traitor!

(This is based on 7th Edition rules.)

Now that fighting is taking place in an urban environment, where tanks simply are not viable, the High Command is going to have to send a lot of Sentinels, plasma and melta guns, and as many other heavy weapons to the units facing Typhus.

It may be that the only real alternative is to call in the Knights of Altair. And how will they do against Typhus?

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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.