In the early days of the Horus Heresy, there was much confusion about how widespread Horus's betrayal was. Sergeant Stheno of the Iron Hands had heard enough confirmation that the Warmaster had betrayed the Emperor to force himself to believe it that it was true, but the extent and impact of the betrayal was yet unclear. Had Horus merely gone against orders, or was he launching a full scale campaign against the Empire of Man? No one seemed to know for sure, and in the far reaches of Kaine's Lumynatia it didn't seem to matter. Sergeant Stheno got orders from his praetor, and he followed them to the letter.
His most recent orders were to board the space station Tiano 4. The station had sent out a distress call, saying it was under xenos attack. By now, it was too late to intervene, so Stheno was tasked with uncovering data about the identity and the probable next moves of the attacking force.
When Stheno and his troop, the Petrificators, arrived at Tiano 4, he found another voidship there. The voidship was a Navis Imperialis vessel, and it confirmed by vox that it was transporting a contingency of Imperial space marines, of the Sons of Horus legion, to the station. The space marines had already taken a shuttle toward the station, so Stheno quickly mustered a squad of his marines and hurried over to board.
Special rules
This is a skirmish Boarding Actions scenario played using the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness rules. I deployed one unit of 5 Tactical Marines for each side.
The circles on the map are objective markers. When a unit reaches an objective, roll a D6 and award that unit that number of Victory Points.
A unit also scores 1 Victory Point for each Wound caused to the enemy.
Round 1
Sergeant Stheno's Petrificators are the Attackers, and they roll high for initiative, so they take the first move. Their movement speed is 7, and they move to the door of room 3 and open it.
The Sons of Horus are Defenders. They have the same movement speed, so they move 7 inches through the halls of the station to get around room 2. They choose the east route, bringing them awfully close to the Iron Hands but not yet within line of sight.
Round 2
The Petrificators move through the hallway and open the door to room 4.
The Sons of Horus round the corner and catch sight of the Iron Hands, and open fire.
In Horus Heresy, the Ballistic Score is offset by 7. With a Ballistic Skill of 4, a space marine with a bolter needs to roll a 3 or better to hit. The sergeant rolls two 6s, and a tactical marine rolls a 3. Their Wound roll does less well, scoring just 1 Wound, which the Iron Hands standards bearer shrugs off with a saving throw of 5. The Iron Hands use their phase's Reaction to return fire, with similar results.
You might think the natural thing for the Sons of Horus to do next is to charge into close quarter combat, but their leader Vercingetorix holds his unit back: "This mission has one objective, brothers, and they're not it."
"The traitor's right," Stheno says to his own unit. "Stick to the objective."
Round 3
The Petrificators move into room 4 and claim the objective. They roll 6 on a D6, so they gain 6 whole data about the xenos. It's a bunch of discarded sprues, but there are enough spare bits still on that any experienced modeler can tell what kit it's from.
"Greenskins," Stheno says.
One of his battle brothers looks at the data. "Not just any ork, by the looks of those assembly instructions. Marauders from Mantic Games's Warpath universe."
Jokes aside, the xenos are orks with guns, and the Iron Hands earn 6 Victory Points for the discovery.
The Sons of Horus move into room 2, roll a D6 and earn 3 Victory Points. Prudently, only 2 battle brothers step into the room, leaving the other 3 to cover the hallway, should the Iron Hands emerge from room 4.
Round 4
Predictably, the Iron Hands exit room 4 to head for room 5, adjacent. They pile into the hall knowing full well what awaits them. They're pleased to discover that there are only 3 traitor marines in the hallway, so they're able to concentrate their fire. Stheno takes out 1 traitor with his plasma pistol (Strength 7), and 2 more marines are hit by bolter fire.
In Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness, you get to use a Reaction before miniatures are removed from the board, so in the lore of the game everything's happening all at once. The Sons of Horus use this phase's Reaction to return fire, but in the mayhem them fail to hit.
One traitor marine saves, but the other 2 are dead on the floor.
The Sons of Horus have basically no choice but to charge, so charge they do. It's a mistake, though, because the Iron Hands use the phase's Reaction for Overwatch. Their aim is true, and they kill 2 more Sons of Horus before the charge is complete.
During melee, Vercingetorix manages to finally strike down one of the Iron Hands.
Vercingetorix succeeds at his Morale Check, so he stands his ground.
So far, the score is:
- Iron Hands: 8
- Sons of Horus: 4
Round 5
The marines struggle to battle it out in the close quarters of the space station hallway. Sergeant Vercingetorix is tough and deflects all incoming blows, which in turn prevents him from dealing damage to his foes. He quickly sees that a direct struggle is futile, so he chooses to fail his Morale Check and rolls a full 9 inches for his Fall Back move. Sergeant Vercingetorix backs away quickly, ducking around a corner in hopes of grabbing one more objective.
Only 1 more round to go, and the score remains:
- Iron Hands: 8
- Sons of Horus: 4
Round 6
I usually roll for initiative at the start of each round in my Warhammer games, but for whatever reason I didn't bother for this game. As a result, the Iron Hands go before Sergeant Vercingetorix does, so they rush down the hallway and form a firing squad. There's little hope for Vercingetorix now. He's staring down the barrels of a plasma pistol and 3 bolters, each one wielded by a highly trained and experienced space marine, the most elite fighting force in all the galaxy.
So obviously they all miss. Sure, there are some hits, but not a single wound.
Sergeant Vercingetorix weaves down the hallway, firing his bolter behind him as a distraction. He's done his job, he got the data he needs. Before him, the bulkhead of the station lights up and falls away to revealing an escape pod waiting for him. He jumps in, the pod door seals behind him, and the shuttle blasts off.
"We'll see Sergeant Vercingetorix again, I suspect," Stheno tells his battle brothers. "I don't know why he's chasing the same xenos scum we're after but, whatever the reason, it can't be good."
- Iron Hands: 8
- Sons of Horus: 4
End game
I'm casually using using the (unofficial) Liber Panoptica Crusade expansion for this game. I'm not marking any unit for greatness in this particular scenario, because I was only playing with 1 unit on each side!
Iron Hands
Sergeant Stheno got 1 objective for 6 points, which means he knows that the invading xenos are orks, and he knows where they plan on striking next. Mechanically, that's going to be reflected by a free requisition.
The Petrificators killed 4 enemies, qualifying them for the Dealers of Death bonus.
- Battle Experience: +1 XP
- Dealers of Death: +1 XP
- Marked for Greatness: None
The Petrificators are currently ranked as Battle-Ready.
Sons of Horus
Sergeant Vercingetorix got 1 objective for 4 points, and the Sons of Horus killed just 1 enemy.
- Battle Experience: +1 XP
- Dealers of Death: 0 XP
- Marked for Greatness: None
The Sons of Horus are currently ranked as Battle-Ready.
For the next mission, the Petrificators go up against a marauding orc force in an attempt to save a planet, but don't be surprised if Sergeant Vercingetorix shows up and complicates matters.
Photo by Seth Kenlon, Creative Commons Zero (cc0).