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Act of Redemption #1: Moonbase Rescue

Hey guys!

Bruce here.
Welcome to the first of (I hope) a serise of several short campaigns featuring everyones favorite semi-loyal Librarian, Black Maru!
If you've been keeping up to date with the fluff of my homebrew Blood Angel Successors "The Redeemers" you'll know that Maru has been forced to work off a debt he owes to High Preist Brother Corbulo by performing a serise of tasks and earn forgivness in the eyes of his Blood Angel brethren.

These Acts of Redemption will take the form of a serise of small short stories wrapped around some smaller narrative games. Well, thats the plan anyway, lets see how it works out. :)

 -----------------------------------------

Black Maru has taken great pains to conceal the whereabouts of his mighty fortress “The Domain” from the records of the Imperial Scribes. Officially the ‘Chapter’ of the Redeemers is located on Baal, but in reality the shady Order of Redemption operates on a small, terraformed asteroid, hidden amongst millions of others in the great “Belt of Pebbles”, an asteroid belt spanning thousands of miles across the Omelette Sector.
With the help of Brother Corbulo, Maru has established himself a base of operations to conduct his (occasionally) legitimate work on behalf of the Sanguinary priests. Since being forced to run the Order of Redemption by Brother Corbulo in penance for some undisclosed act of quasi-heresy,  Maru has spent his time trying to look busy and do as little as possible whilst keeping the Sanguinary priesthood off his back. Things have been quiet for Maru over the last few months; A Xeno planet purified here, a Blasphemous Cult purged there, but nothing too taxing. All that was about to change.
After the successful genocide of the indigenous “Fluffy-wuffies”, a pacifistic colony of rabbit-like humanoids, on the distant planet “Snuggelor XII”, Black Maru is relaxing in his beloved garden. The garden is a large glass domed arboretum attached to the southern wing of The Domain and it is where Maru spend his downtime, meditating amongst the quiet, peaceful trees. Screeching though the intercom system comes a peace-shattering announcement:
“Incoming message for you sir!”

Muttering profanities under his breath, Maru reaches into his robes and pulls out his trusty iVox.
“Open Skype” he bellows into the device.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.” Replies the device.
“Open Skype”
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
“forfeth’ssake... Open Skype”
“There are 32 restaurants or bars in this quadrant fitting that description. T.E.I.Friday’s is the highest rated.”
“No, OPEN – SKYPE”
...
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
Maru rolls his eyes and he inputs the command into the machine manually. On the screen appears the green and pixilated face of Corbulo.
“Ah, brother, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Maru, I have a task for you. We had some researchers stationed on a moonbase, doing tests on some blood samples, trying to find the origins of the flaw.  We’ve had no contact with the base for some time and we need to make sure the samples haven’t fallen into the wrong hands.”
“Ugh, can’t you ask Gabe to do it?”
“Firstly, the great and fearsome Chapter Master Gabriel Seth deserves your respect and secondly we have already checked several other options before turning to you. Gabriel was otherwise engaged.”
“Probably an anger management therapy session.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. I’m sending you the details now, I expect you to get me those samples Maru, and while you are at it, find out what’s happening on that Emperor-forsaken moonbase.”
“Your wish is my command.” Maru grumbled dryly.
“You know, you could be a little more grateful! If Inquisitor Patton had his way, you’d be –“  Maru quickly shut the iVox down and slipped it back into the recesses of his robes before Corbulo could finish. Maru hated being reminded that he owed anyone anything.

Storming into the armoury, followed in tow by Captain Red Fox, Maru starts preparing his wargear.
He turns to Red Fox and says:
“Get some bug spray”
“Bug spray, sir?”
“Come on Fox. A moon base? Missing scientists? A mysterious silence in communication? This thing has Tyranids written all over it.”
“If you say so sir”
Maru grunts as he slings his mighty battleaxe over his shoulder.
“I’d bet the Angel’s Wing that we’ll be knee deep in Genestealer excrement before the day is through.”

--------------------------------

The first game type was relic on a 3x3 board.
As the story was set on a moon base, we usedvery sparce terrain (a few craters and an occasional cluster of trees) and at the far end was an Ageis Line and a Bastion, to represent the front entrance to the moonbase.
 We agreed the Tyranids should start with the Sacred Blood Samples (the relic) and the Redeemer's should have to get in there and remove it by force.

Points: 550

Redeemers:
1x Librarian - Terminator armour.
5x Assault Terminators - 5x pairs of Lightning Claws.
5x Tactical squad - Heavy flamer, Rhino.
5x Tactical squad - Heavy flamer, Rhino, Teleport homer.


Tyranids:
Tyranid Prime - Devourer, Talons
3x Warriors - 2x Devourer, 1x stranglethorne cannon. Talons
15x Termagants - 15x Devourer
8x Genestealers, Broodlord.






Batrep:
Redeemer's warlord trait: Master Crafted c/c weapon.
Redeemer's Psychic Powers: Force, Quickening, Blood Lance
 
Tyranids warlord trait: Synapse for HQ is 18"
Tyranid Powers: Catalist, The Horror

Night fighting on for turn one..

I win the roll off set up first, and he rolls a 5, failing to steal the initative.
Charles decides to infiltrate his Genestealers behind the forest to the left. 
The relic is placed behind the Ageis line next to the warriors.





Redeemers Turn 1.

As my Terms are in reserves and all my Tacs are in rhinos, there isnt a whole lot for me to do other than move forwards.
My Librarian is in reserves with the other Terminators so no psychic Powers to cast.
The Rhino on the left flank shoots its storm bolter through the forest and gets a lucky shot, dropping one of those sneaky genestealers. The Rhino on the right flank turbo-boosts up towards that big mob 'o Gants. 


'Nids Turn 1.

The Genestealers move forwards toward the left-hand Rhino, but the Warriors and the Gants stay sittin' pretty near the relic.
As I've only got Av 11 vehicles on the board, Charles has no powers to cast and nothing to shoot at.

The Sneaky 'Stealers creep up towards the Rhino.


Redeemers Turn 2.

I roll for my reserves and get a 4. It's time to Deepstrike Maru and his Terminator retinue!
I plan to drop them in the middle of the board, so I can weather a round of shooting and then charge in to make some Warrior Kebabs. What could possibly go wrong? :)

 Here is where Maru was supposed to land.

                                          And here's where they ended up after the scatter. -_-


On one hand, that's a pretty terribl place to end up.
On the otherhand, at least they didn't mishap. >_<

Rhinos move forward and the Tactical squad on the left disembark to try and kill off the Genestealer Brood.


Psychic phase, I get six dice and throw 5 of them into Blood lance.
I get the power off, but unfortunatly get double sixes and peril. Maru takes a wound and promptly forgets how to cast The quickening. Doh!
Oh well, at least Blood lance will insta-kill all three of these Warriors as long as I dont roll any ones! :D
All ones. >_< Dammit Maru! Get your head in the game!

It's finally time to get some guns out!
The Tacticals do what they do best and open fire on the Genestealer Brood. The Heavy Flamer kills 2 'Stealer and the bolter Marines kill 3 more and takes a wound of the Brood Lord.
The left-hand Rhinos unloads it's stormbolter at the Broodlord, but one of it's faithful minons throws its self in the way to save it's masters life.
The right hand Rhino shoots at the Gants but the Agies Defence line protects them.
With no assaults to declare, my terminators ready themselves for a whole world of pain. .

 I love the smell of Genestealer BBQ!

Tyranids Turn 2.

Charles moves his 'Stealers up towards the Tacticals.
The Warriors and the Gants surround the terminators.:o
In the psychic phase Charles gets 8 warp charges and throws 5 into the horror, pinning the Tactical Squad.Without getting to overwatch with my Heavy Flamer, things are looking grim for my Tactical squad!

Next up the 15 Gants shoots all their devourers, (thats 60 str 4 shots) killing 3 Terminators!
Finally, the Warriors and the Prime shoot at the Terminators, but my 2+ save keeps them in that game (for now.)
The Genestealers and the Broodlord charge Tacticals, but due to some very unlucky rolls they only manage to kill one marine. The Tacticals hit back killing one 'Stealer, drawing combat.

Next up the Warriors charge Maru's unit, killing the two remaining Terminarors. However, the Lightning Claw Terminators manage to take one of the warrors down with them.
The Gants charge the lonesome Librarian, but dont manage to penetrate his Tactical Dreadnaught Armour.
Struggeling against the swarm, Maru lands one blow and take a wound off one of the warriors.


Redeemers Turn 3

Both Rhinos move up towards the relic. I figued if Maru could take out the Synapse before he dies then I might be able to Tank shock the Gants away from the Relic.

I roll for my warp charges and throw 3 dice into Force which successfully goes off.
I've got nothing to shoot at as everything but the Tyranid prime is in combat.
The Broodlord and the last 'Stealer take out two Marines without taking any casualties in return.
Luckly for Maru, theWarriors and Gants cause no wounds and in return one of the Warriors is Force-Axed into oblivion.


Tyranids Turn 3

Charles moves the Tyranid Prime down from its perch aton the bastion, but being very warey of Maru's Force Axe, he decides to stay just out of combat range.
Once again, almost everything is in combat so there is no shooting to be done. 
The Broodlord and his Genestealer companion get more unlucky rolls and dont land a single blow against the stalwart marines.
The last Warrior attacks Maru, who makes all of his saves.The Gants cause no wounds on him either.
Maru lands a Mighty blow and kills last warrior.



Redeemers Turn 4.

Now that the Tyranid Prime has come down from the bastion, the Tacticals bail out of second rhino and get within flamer range.
Both Rhinos shoot their stormbolters at the Prime but do nothing, but the plucky Heavy Flamer causes a wound.
The Genestealer wipes out the last of the first Tactical sqaud and consolidates towards Maru, who is still stuck in combat with all the Gants.
The Gants attack Maru but do nothing. Maru kills two little bugs, but they are fearless from the Prime's Synapse.

Tyranids Turn 4.

The tyranid Prime grabs relic and heads back towards the safty of the Bastion.
The Broodlord and his Genesteal companion charge Maru but just cant seem to get through his mighty terminator armour. Gants do no damage either. My Librarain has made an insane amount of 2+ saves by this point.




Redeemers Turn 5

Both Rhinos move up behind the defence line, fortunatly neither of them get imobilised..
The Tacticals move past the Broodlord to try and wrestle the relic from the clawed grasp of the Prime.
Both rhinos and  do nothing to the prime!
The Prime manages to take no damage at all from the combined shooting of both Rhinos and the Tactical Marines.
The Tacticals pull off a successful charge and despite doing no no damage to the Prime, they are at least stopping him from scoring the relic.
Maru takes no damage from teh Broodlord or the Gants, but his amazing luck cant last forever.
Maru does one wound to the Broodlord, but as I didnt get force off, the Broody lives to fight another day.


Tyranids Turn 5

The comabt between the Tacticals and the Prime is a stalemate, no wounds either way.
Maru makes a pair of invunerable saves agisnt the Broodlords rending claws, but is finally brought down by a single Gant attack.


Game continues to turn 6

Redeemers Turn 6

The Rhinos empty their storm bolters and kill the last stealer and reduce the Broodlord to his final wound.
The Tacticals take no casualties and strip a wound off the Prime.

Tyranids Turn 6

Charles charges the Tactical squad with the Gants and the Broodlord who fluffs all his hits.
The Prime kills one Tactical Marine.
The Tacticals go fro broke and pour all their hits into the Prime hoping to score a Warlord point, but just cant land a hit.


Game goes to turn 7

Redeemers turn 7

Broodlord lands all his hits, but fluffs all his wound rolls.
The Prime kills a marine.
Marines do nothing.

Tyranids Turn 7.

The Prime fluffs his rolls and one lucky Tactical Marine punches the Prime square in the jaw.
Charles gets a 1 and he dies! The Marines earn a hard faught Warlord point!



Broody and the gants attack the Marines in revenge but cause no wounds.




POINTS:
Redeemers: line breaker, warlord. - 2 Points
Tyranids: first blood, warlord. - 2 Points

The game ends at 2 points each, so thats a draw.

Stay tuned for round two. Will Maru get his hands on the Sacred Blood Veils? Will the Tyranids get there first and devour it? Battle no 2, coming soon.


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