Although Captain Galba had drawn many Death Guard into his choke point, another large formation of traitors pushed against the loyalists east flank.

“Victory is not won solely by might of arms. Nor by superior tactics. The essence of victory—what must always be found on the battlefield—is the certainty of your cause and the absolute conviction that you will prove victorious. Victory comes to those who believe.“—Captain Alaric Galba, commander of the 1st Company of the Knights of Altair Space Marine Chapter.

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Continued from Part 2 . . .

Enemy rebuffed

Time eventually ran out for the traitors, Barbu said. All during the day, the high marshal had watched the fighting, at the same time drawing troops from less-threatened fronts to create a sizable reserve to meet the rising threat.

Yet, once this reserve was in place, Barbu continued to wait until the right time to order the counterattack.

“With our defenses stretched, it was necessary to wait until it was clear that the Death Guard had committed their main strength—that the  attack against Galba was the main assault by the enemy,” he explained. “Only then could we risk committing our limited reserves to the fight.”

It was just enough, military observers said. The Death Guard had managed to break the Knights’ defenses to the east of Galba’s defense, and there was a danger the enemy would outflank his position and seize the maintenance hatch—at that time defended only by a single tactical squad and a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought.

But, with only minutes to spare, a full battalion of the 8th Xandarian Regiment attacked the Death Guard’s flank, and a battalion of the 83rd Dozarian PDF Regiment advanced behind Galba and his remaining Knights.

In the face of so many fresh troops, with more reserves marching to the scene, the enemy attack began to falter. Some traitors began to withdraw. And soon more and more warriors began to retreat.

It was observed that Ghaz Tak attempted to rally the traitors and renew the attack, but the traitors had had enough.

The Death Guard withdrew with heavy casualties.

As reinforcements arrived, only a few dozen Space Marines held the enemy from the maintenance hatch. The battle proved decisive, but an Imperial victory was achieved by the narrowest of margins.

Scenario: A variant of a 5th Edition scenario: Urban Assault

Imperial Victory Points: Value of enemy casualties (6 v.p.) + First Blood  (1 v.p.) + Linebreaker (1 v.p.) = 8 v.p.

Death Guard Victory Points: Value of enemy casualties (5 v.p.) + Linebreaker (1 v.p.) = 6 v.p.

Marginal Imperial Victory !

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TheGM: A great battle! Very few mistakes were made the opposing generals (me and me). The “deep strike” of the Imperial Landspeeders proved crucial to weakening the armored advance on the west flank. Its success prevented Captain Galba from being outflanked.

In the center, it certainly helped that the Death Guard failed two charges of less than 6″ by rolling 1’s and 2’s. That minimized the loyalist’s casualties and bought precious time for Galba’s hard-pressed defensive line.T

rying to draw the traitors to the choke point was a brilliant tactical plan. Too bad, in those turns I commanded the traitors, I was too overconfident that the Death Guard could walk into the Imperial trap and prevail. 

One other thing really stood out to me: In 7th Edition, you can give the Death Guard the Feel No Pain rule. Man, oh, man, did that work well for the traitors this game. I rolled so many 6’s that, for a time, it seemed as if the Death Guard would take no losses at all.

The dice finally balanced out, and Death Guard began to die, but it was a scary as the Imperial commander to see traitor Astartes fall . . . and then get right back up. I tried to imagine how I’d feel if I saw that in real life, and I definitely would need psycho-conditioning not to turn and run. Very spooky part of the game.

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