+++Battle on the Plains of the Dead+++
Leksandr IX, M41.988+++.+++.+++.+++
In the 988th year of the 41st millennium the Forge World of Leksandr IX came under attack from within its ranks as two factions of Tech Priest split apart due to a disagreement in some of the meanings of their most holy technical manuals.  One faction believed that the Emperor, blessed may he ever be, was synonymous with the Machine God while the other faction believed the two were seperate entities.  What started in the holy laboratories and back rooms of the Forge World soon spilled out into the venerated machine shops and armories.  It was not long before this split engulfed the world.  The madness seemed to spread like wildfire, rebellion and sabotage ran rampant and it was only a matter of time before the Head Tech-Magos of the world requested Imperial intervention.
Three months later the status quo had dissolved and the factory workers had either sided with the Tech-redemptionists who believed in the Holy Binary of the Emperor/Machine God or the Cogs who believed in the Divided God.  When the 895th Valhallan Regiment made planet fall to begin bringing peace the planet was a warzone.  The fighting continued for months with both groups fighting a guerrilla war against the Valhallans and each other but they were mere saboteurs and terrorists and the might of the Imperium was beginning to grind them down, or so it had seemed.
It was a cold day on the ash wasted in the Barren Basin, known to the locals as the Plains of the Dead for the many war heroes interred in grand mausoleums in the the basin, the 895th had set up a blockade around one of the factories in the area while Storm Trooper commando squads were dropped in to take the factory back from the terrorists within.  Early in the morning the ground began to shake in what seemed like one of the planet's occasional magnetic quakes but the 895th soon found that this was no mere magnetic storm causing the rumbling.  Across the plains the distinctive lines of a Warlord Titan stood stark against the gray sky and many smaller shapes moved around its legs.  The insurgents had done the unthinkable, they had hijacked some of the Forge World's titans.  As Colonel Sylvain attempted to call for reinforcements a deafening boom was hear overhead as fire streaked through the sky, it seems they weren't the only ones who got the distress call.
+++.+++.+++.+++Set-upUnfortunately I couldn't take pictures for this one (not that the scenery was much to look at though) as I didn't have a working camera along at the game but here's hoping my stirring description can make up for it.
What we have here is what I would consider my first real game of Epic thus far (up to this point it has been marines versus a proxy guard force using stands of Mechwarrior infantry) and I have to say it was an utter blast, but we'll get to that soon enough.
So we decided to go with the Grand Tournament Scenario for this one as it seemed the simplest way to go to learn the nuances of the game.  I set up terrain in an attempt to get a Neo-gothic valley of the dead going on (had to pull 28mm terrain into it and they made nice big mausoleums).
So her is a basic look at the board set-up.  The dark grey rectangles are buildings (though the one in the lower middle bit it actually a big wall and can't be entered).  The section in the lower left corner is a walled off area (with part of the wall section having fallen to ruins).  The speckly bits are areas of rubble and rough terrain.  So with me having set up the terrain he got to choose sides and took the deployment zone along the top.
With that done we placed objective markers.  The red ones are on my side of the board while the green ones are on his side.  So here is a basic rundown of what each one represents.
Green [Enemy deployment zone] – This leads to the cordoned off factory housing the insurgents.
Green [Mid left-field] – A downed Valkyrie holding the remnants of the Storm Trooper commando team.
Green [Building, upper right] – Mausoleum of Lord Admiral Gordius who fell bravely defending the Imperium at the battle of Leksandr III during the 8th Black Crusade.  Reasons for the Dark Angel interest in this site are unknown but due to the success of their mission and their rapid departure no further investigation was made.
Red [On the hill] – This site was host to an orbital relay uplink that would ostensibly allow the insurgents to communicate across the whole world and act in a more organized fashion.
Red [Behind the hill] – An Imperial scouting party making its way back to command HQ with intelligence regarding who or rather what the insurgents actually are.
Red [Enemy deployment zone] – The direct route to local Valhallan Command HQ.
Now on to the fun part...  the game.
Leksandrian Insurgent Titan Legion1x Warlord Titan with:
1 Legate
2 Turbolaser Destructors
1 Volcano Cannon
1 Gatling Blaster
1x Warhound Scout Titan with:
1 Veteran Princeps
1 Turbolaser Destructor
1 Vulcan Megabolter
1x Warhound Titan Pack with:
1 Veteran Princeps
1 Plasma Blasgun each
1 Vulcan Megabolter each
Dark Angel Strike Force2x Thunderhawk Gunships
1x Terminator Detachment with a Master
1x Tactical Detachment with Rhinos and a Master
1x Assault Detachment with an Interrogator-Chaplain
1x Devastator Detachment with a Librarian
Turn 1I won initiative in the Strategy Phase and decided to have him go first to get a look at what he would do.  The Warhound on my left flank bounded forward with a double but was out of range of my mounted Tactical Squad. ÂÂ
On my activation I rushed my Rhinos behind a low lying ridge on my right flank that was just tall enough to block LOS to them.
His Warlord strode forward but with the Rhinos out of sight he had no targets so he made a triple and took up position near center-board just a little ways away from the center objective at the hill.
My next activation see me performing an aerial attack against his Warhound Pack with my first Thunderhawk who promptly misses the shot.
I decide to push the advantage and retain initiative to bring my other Thunderhawk in, it hits but as the void shield will be up at the end next turn it is mostly wasted opportunity but them's the breaks, as his forces are still too close for comfort I held off on attempting an aerial assaults just yet.
He pops his Warhounds on Overwatch just in case I get any ideas with those Rhinos of mine (or so I guess at least).
Turn 2I managed to lose initiative this turn and he ends up going first knowing that I'll just stall him of he tries to get a handle on what I'm attempting that turn (I love empty Thunderhawks that can take potshots from 75mm away and stall for time
).  He moves his Warlord up to the objective on the hill and lets of a shot from his Volcano Cannon, vaporizing one of the Rhinos and the riders within, ouch.
With his Warlord activated I make my move.  A Thunderhawk containing the Devastator and Assault Squads rushes his isolated Warhound and make their strike.  They get right in there and the Assault Marines manage to get a point of DC off of him (losing a stand in return) while the Devastators and Thunderhawk hit him hard and strip his void shields and do another point of DC.  With the help of the Chaplain we handily win combat but he isn't quite dead yet. ÂÂ
In what I can consider my big mistake that game I retain initiative with the other Thunderhawk but instead of picking up the victorious assaulters I have it perform an attack run on the broken and reeling Warhound.  Luck was with me as the last point of DC was actually taken off but it was a bad risk to take.  Another note is that I stupidly forgot to consolidate my winning forces at the end of combat and they were left in the open (doh!).  Two mistakes I wont soon forget.
In retaliation his Warhound Pack advance and fire into the Devastators wiping them out (noooo!).  Many brave marines were lost by my overly blood-thirsty decision.  It would have been better to get the two squads safely off the board and risk losing a single Thunderhawk than it would to have wasted the potential of a full Devastator Squad for nothing.
However in the bad I also saw the good, the Warhound Pack had given up their defense of the Mauoleums to seek vengeance and my Tactical Squad was quick to take this lesson to heart.  I tripled them over to the building holding the objective and set them up inside it, it was going to take a lot of firepower to shift them from their post now.
Turn 3I decided now was the time to strike.  His two remaining Warhounds were in prime position to be assaulted and as fate would have it they looked to be within consolidation distance of the other Mausoleum.  So my Deathwing made landfall right behind them and with my force taking the initiative this turn they set about doing their dark work. *malicious laughter*
In assault the unprepared Warhounds failed to wound any Terminators and in return one Warhound was brought under by the terminators while the other was horribly mauled in the process.  Broken it ran toward the safety of the rubble while my terminators made for cover in the other mausoleum.
With his Warhound unable to act this turn it fell to his Warlord to get things done.  He moved toward the Terminators to bring his weapons to bare but the swift movement jostled him and threw off his aim, added to the cover the terminators were in only one fell to the Volcano Cannon.
My Assault Squad made its move and assaulted the reeling Warhound taking no additional casualties and stripping it of its last point of DC.
My Thunderhawks made their approach and loaded the Assault Squad and Deathwing into their holds.
Turn 4I won initiative once more and took a bit of a risk and let him have first crack.  He leveled all the fire he could with his Warlord at the Tactical squad inside the Mausoleum but he only removed two bases of them.  With that I had managed to hold the Mausoleum, getting the information I needed.
I activated my Deathwing's Thunderhawk and they landed at his board edge's objective giving me Blitzkrieg.
Finally I brought my Assault Squad in to pick up the survivors from the downed Valkyrie.
The end phase comes and I am left the victor with two goals met against none.  A big thanks to Chaos and Evil for the tactical tips for this one.
Post-carnage ReportWell as this was my first time using the Dark Angel list from BlackLegion it made for a bit of a different game to be sure.  The main thing I noticed (in this case at least) was that many of my forces being Fearless never came up much (but looking at my opponent I certainly see the charm in it as Fearless made him a wee bit difficult to take down).  So in this particular game my terminators performed just as well as standard terminators but I can see how they would help out if I screwed up badly that game.  I'll likely see a bigger difference when I start playing 3000+ games so I can't really make a solid judgement on it just yet.
Next, I found Fearlessness in the case of Characters to be a bit overkill.  I'll admit it is a very fluffy ability but with the four commanders in my force it added up quickly.  Part of me is thinking that leaving the characters as standard may be the best way to handle them and stop the DA from getting too many high priced units.  Again, this may change in larger games but my gut instinct is to just leave Fearless off of leaders.  The name changes are enough for me personally.  With expensive Ravenwing and Deathwing squads already I don't think we need to add to the cost of our leaders as well.
I unfortunately didn't get a chance to use any Ravenwing in this game but I could see a definite niche for them in this case.  I'm thinking using them in the classic Devastator/Assault air deployment method would be very in character for them but also quite effective given certain loadouts (though it would lose out on the upshot of getting two characters and a 3+ FF
and 3+ CC).  If I get the chance I'm going to try out a RW Attack Squad with 6 normal bikes and 2 attack bikes.  Like the Dev/Assault combo it gives MW in CC and FF but in this case you gain two MW attacks (though at a reduced FF of 4+).  Against scout titans with their void shields stripped I could see this being pretty effective as a main damage unit or a coup de grace unit to make sure they stay dead.
Also a note while reading the list, the Tornado upgrade doesn't specify what it replaces in the bike squad (though I'd assume it is one stand of bikers for one Tornado).  So you may want to add a little something in there to outline it for both eventualities.
As for the battle itself, it was a blast.  The whole time it felt like I was riding on a razor's edge.  If I managed to keep the pressure on and didn't make too many boneheaded mistakes then victory would be mine, but if I screwed up even a little his Warlord was going to tear me a new one.  The most important thing I learned about facing off against a titan army was that cover is good m'kay.  Sure it is important against all foes but when a single unit's activation rains down 12+ shots onto a unit then you want something solid between you and that unit.
The Tactical Squad proved indispensable despite never firing a shot.  They managed to hold his Warhounds still for a turn as they prepared for the eventuality of them coming up the flank (only to be distracted from by my poor Devastators), they held against fire from the Warlord and ended up taking an objective in the end.  Without them around I don't know what I would have done.
But the real stars this game were the Terminators.  Their assault came off without a hitch and they took less casualties than I was expecting from the whole ordeal.  They added many honours to their unit today.
I'm also going to give kudos to my opponent because as much as it felt like I was hanging on by a thread it certainly must have been a new experience for him to see marines play like this.  As some one who is used to them in 40k (charging forward screaming “for the Emperorâ€Â
