Colonel, we have reports that a Chaos force has gotten hold of a large amount of fuel. With this fuel, they could mount enough vehicles, to become a very mobile and dangerous force,” the young communications officer says to the slim, dark man. “Mobilize my company immediately, anything we have available,” Colonel Bjornson says, very optimistically, then in a very low voice states, “this victory shall be mine and mine alone.” The young man on the radio looks at him strangely, then says, “To leave now, we would have to leave our anti-tank squads and half our infantry squads behind, sir.” “That’s enough for this simple task, after all its probably, very lightly defended!” The arrogant colonel states. He then looks and points at two of his tanks and says, “Leave those two tanks behind to, we won’t need them for such a simple task. “But, sir!” “Orders are orders, are they not?” he says loudly. “And I was told to guard this bridge head. So, I will guard the bridgehead well. But, I will also stop the chances of mobile chaos forces.” “Yes, sir! I will issue the men explosives immediately.” the young man says reluctantly to his superior, thinking he must be mad, from what he has heard about chaos. The troops depart the river and head to the battlefield. Bjornson’s offensive The imperial guard force arrived at the battlefield, looking for an easy victory. Their loud vehicles gave away that they were coming, and so the chaos space marines were ready. Unfortunately, Talisnar did not have the time to bring up all of his support, but he decided they would be his ace in the hole. To him, it was obvious there would probably be no ace in the hole on the imperiums side, since they arrived here so quickly and loudly. Bjornson deployed his men, preparing for the assault. He decided to deploy most of his troops in some cover. As he scouted the area with his binoculars, he noticed two hills which could greatly help his attack. The troopers were commanded to use one of the points to view the area and provide cover fire. Lt. Gorsky volunteered his command section to use the other hill. The infantry, mounted and unmounted, began their approach to the objective. The advancing units fired in vain, at the head group of enemies, and could not kill any of them. Talisnar kept his troops in hard cover, and moved more troops to guard his flanks. These troops reported little to the sides, so one of them decided to shoot, from long range, at Lt. Gorsky and his men, who were at this time, climbing a hill. The heavy fire of the terminators, shortened Gorsky’s life greatly, and his men. They were all, easily slaughtered. Bjornson’s troops continue to close with the enemy, blazing away at the front marine unit. Talisnar himself, is hit with a shot, but it simply bounces off his armor. The imperial guard begin to wonder if they have any chance at all. The hail of fire includes a grenade launcher with the storm troopers, and finally one of the marine’s armor wasn’t good enough to protect him. Talisnar and his marines hold their ground, even against the incredible amount of firepower put against them. The marines continue to shoot back, but their shots ricochet off the armor of the Chimeras. Finally, Talisnar has contacted his dreadnought, and it arrives only to miss its first few shots. Bjornson finally decides to make his move. His chimera drives at full speed and deploys it’s smoke grenades. The Imperial Guard squad hiding behind it now pops out, and it opens fire on the front group of marines. While on the other flank, the Chimera continues to move and pour on fire to the front marine group. The Leman russ gets a direct hit, and the storm troopers pound away. After his command unit has just taken a few losses, he decides to retreat into the objective for cover, his men’s morale is still high. More marines arrive from the nearby Chaos outpost. All other troops pour bullets into the open squad and kills all 10 members of the squad in a single volley. Bjornson and his men, feeling low with the loss of a whole squad,decided to depart their Chimera. They exited the tank and charged furiously at the marines, while being covered by their Chimera and the Storm troopers on the hill. The Leman Russ managed to shoot and stun the mighty dreadnought. Now, the other squad deployed from behind the cover of the Chimera, and opened fire, doing little to the terminators. Lt. Johann and his men left the Chimera and charged the terminators. Their charge did little, except anger them, all that firepower in total killed 2 terminators. Talisnar continued to move up reinforcements, when suddenlly a group of daemons appeared out of nowhere and slaughtered the whole other Imperial guard squad. He concentrated a lot of firepower on one of the chimeras disabling it, and stunning the crew. Bjornson had very little forces left to work with. His battle tank imobilized the dreadnought with its battle cannon. Talisnar charged with his retinue, right at Bjornson! Unfortunately for him, he was slain, along with one other, Bjornson also lost two men. The daemons killed a couple more. The terminators could not penetrate the Chimeras armor with their power fists! Both sides limped off the battlefield, and chaos stopped Bjornson and his men from destroying the fuel depot. A very important military objective.

 

Final score:

Minor Defeat- Imperial Guard: 289 v.p.

Minor Victory- Chaos: 266 v.p.

Chaos Army- 718 points

Chaos overview- The main mistake the commander made was he didn’t deploy his reserve chaos space marine squad soon enough. It didn’t get a single shot during the whole battle. The dreadnought came on with perfect timing, but decided to stay in the open, relying to much on its armor. Without these mistakes, Talisnar’s plan worked like a charm. He took casualties, but with the lateness that he deployed a portion of his force, its surprising he wasn’t overrun. His flanks were guarded well , and he took very good advantage of the cover given to him. The daemons he brought out, took out an entire squad of troops in a single turn, and his Terminators made quick work of several units, but had trouble destroying a Chimera at close range.

Imperial Guard overview- The strategy of Colonel Bjornson’s deployment was good, but his plan was not well executed. It was easy to see that even his officers were green in assaulting enemy fortifications. The storm troopers were deployed very well, taking advantage of cover, and a place to see much. Unfortunately, Bjornson over estimated their firepower. It didn’t amount to enough to make the unit worth what he paid. The Leman Russ could have been replaced by a cheaper, and better, Basilisk. It just sat back and shot the battle cannon. It never even got shot at. Lt. Gorsky group was very arrogant at thinking they could survive the climb of the hill, while in the open to the terminators and another squad. With only a little more time, the Imperial guard could have destroyed the fuel dump.