Welcome to the Aleph Sector Campaign blog, Sheffield University Wargames Society's narrative based campaign set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe. If you are new here, have a read of the Aleph Sector Campaign System. This will explain what the campaign is, how it works etc. If you are really keen you can download the entire ten year history of the campaign! If you are a new student in Sheffield, visit the Wargames website from the links section on the right to get involved!
Sunday, August 26, 2018
New Gregoria taken over by Crusade
The one thorn in the Crusade's side remained the watch station and Imperial base of New Gregoria, the outermost ice planet of the system. Here the loyalists and Hathek's agents had set up a base, spying on the Crusade and watching Cybixx. Although this was annoying, because the Imperial Fists retained a small garrison on the planet, Cybixx was told in no uncertain terms to avoid assaults on the astartes. The base remained.
This changed in 08.018M42 as the Fists gave over command of their base to the Hammers of the Emperor Chapter, as they prepared for their assault on Tarlius. The rest of the Imperial Fists were needed in the Hadron Expanse, so the base had to be left in the hands of others, but Hathek demanded an astartes presence to ward off an invasion by the "rogue" adeptus mechanicus.
Unfortunately the Hammers of the Emperor were the worst choice. The Crusade would never attack the Imperial Fists as they had become battle brothers with the Grey Knights, a key supported of Vorushko's aims, in their assaults against chaos. However there was no love lost between the Ordo Malleus astartes and the Hammers chapter, as the relatively new arrivals to the sector had already been attacked by the Grey Knights over their defence of "deamon harbouring" Novgorod Guard regiments.
Now, with the Imperial Fists out of the way, Cybixx was clever enough to inform the Grey Knights of the change in garrison. The Ordo Malleus soon arrived at New Gregoria, demanding at once the inspection of the base for chaos taint. The Hammers, angered by the presumption of the Grey Knights and still bitter over the attack in the Hadron Expanse, once again refused to yield. The situation quickly escalated and the Grey Knights soon began an all out assault on the base. For a while the Hammers of the Emperor gave battle before realising the deamonhunters had them outgunned and outclassed. The loyalist astartes company rapidly abandoned the base and its loyalist workers, who were subsequently rounded up and subjected to "investigation" by inquisition agents.
The outcome of the battle meant that Vandrax became a wholly Crusade controlled system, and Cybixx was now allowed to continue his research free from Hathek's - or Vorushko's - prying eyes. Meanwhile the Hammers of the Emperor protested vehemently over their treatment by the Grey Knights, whose authority they now openly questioned. Whose side were they on?
Eldar make gains at Destino
Inevitably this control would lead to the defeat of the Alliance and all other forces in the local Imperium Nihilis, with disastrous consequences for the eldar plans. Eventually the Aeldari knew that the Imperium would become corrupted by the forces of chaos, and the galaxy would once again fall to the ruinous powers.
To stop this in the long run, the eldar continued their policy of divide and conquer. With the Imperium finding success elsewhere, the eldar, this time the Rillietan or Harlequins, decided to reopen a second front in the Foramen campaign. If they could take a second planet at Destino other than Alarielle's triumph, significant loyalist forces would have to be diverted in order to counter the eldar threat. If not, the eldar would simply take the Destino system and use it as a base to blockade the Foramen Minoris from Imperial traffic, restoring the galactic balance in the Aleph Sector.
The Harlequins devised a trap. Knowing the Imperial Fists aspred to retake the one world not controlled by the Imperium at Destino, the xenos feigned weakness, duping the astartes chapter into landing a significant force. Once they had landed the Rillietan unleashed their highly mobile forces onto the space marines, surrounding them and conducting a prolonged set of hit and run raids which drew in more and more imperial forces over the course of several days. By 2808.018M42 the Imperial Fists realised the trap they had been drawn into, as the small outpost on Destino II stopped responding to signals. The eldar had secretly used their knowledge of the webway to land and massacre the imperial garrison and established listening posts all over the planet. Destino II was now under the control of the Aeldari and the Imperial Fists were fighting a pointless and protracted battle with the Rillietan on the outer world. The astartes withdrew, reporting the new incursion to Imperial high command. Titus Luthor now had to decide whether to press the war at Tarlius or deal with the emergent alien threat at Destino. Meanwhile the Crusade and Cybixx remained an unknown factor at neighbouring Vandrax.
Loyalists overrun Dnatha system
The Federacy had seen Dnatha as ripe for Federal colonisation, and made it plain to the Tau Empire that they wanted the base to themselves. This had been agreed, but with the loss of the eldar webway portal and the Tau fleet defending Echo Reach itself, the Federal fleet now had to make a difficult decision. Fight Admiral Barham's vessels and potentially lose the entire expeditionary force, or flee and hope that reinforcing the troops on the ground would be enough to prevent the invasion.
The Federacy chose the later, withdrawing their fleet to New Titania in the Mimir system, where it was badly needed to protect their main base from the forces of chaos. On the ground, expecting a mainly imperial guard landing, the Librian defenders were reinforced with Baneblade support and a handful of Tallaxian air corps fighters and observation aircraft. This was expected to be sufficient to see off even a Lycaon Guard assault on the planet.
The Imperium however did not intend to merely land Guard units and face the Federacy in an equal battle. The Knights of House Eagleclaw alredy had a debt to settle with the Federal forces over the loss of one of their pilots, and now the Imperial battlegroup prepared to send in their most powerful war engines to smash the Librian defenders, allowing the Lycaon guard to mop up and pacify the rest of the planet. The alliance forces were clustered around their main base awaiting the invasion, making the task of meeting and destroying the enemy all the more simple.
House Eagleclaw landed and immediately pushed into the Librian lines led by their Knight Gallant. This was a semi-suicidal tactic, but the close combat knight once again weathered the storm of enemy fire long enough to distract much of the Librian firepower, which took an awfully long time to finally bring down the marauding knight. Meanwhile, the remaining knights used their awesome mid range weaponry to simply pick off the Librian armour, making short work of even the baneblade support sent to reinforce the federal positions. The Lycaon guard mostly watched and waited, although some of their elite armoured units supported the assault by Eagleclaw from range.
By 2708.018M42 it was clear to the federal commander that the planet could not be held. House Eagleclaw had broken through their lines and were swarming all over the populated settlements and the planet's only base capable of supporting bulk landers was coming under threat. Realising their defensive strategy had been wrong the Librians withdrew, abandoning the planet and rescuing what troops and equipment they could.
The fall of Dnatha Prime had been a salutary lesson for the Federacy. Although the Librian Guard had been improved and were now a credible fighting force, the appearance of knight houses in the Hadron Expanse required their military planners to think more strategically about their military plans. Simply pushing icons round a map would not suffice, and each battlegroup needed to be reorganised in order to ensure that every one had the capability of dealing with multiple threats. The Librians defending Dnatha Prime had virtually no chance once the Imperium decided to employ House Eagleclaw in the vanguard strike, a mistake the federal strategists had paid for with the loss an important strategic system.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Hadron Deeps
Unfortunately for the small squad sent onto the hulk as a boarding party, the hulk had become infested with genestealers, and despite a brief firefight every one of the astartes send to board the vessel was mercilessly ripped to shreds by the aliens on board. Stunned and somewhat shamed by these events, the Ultramarines simply marked the area as "perdita" and did not immediately report the Xenos infestation to any other imperial authority. Only time would tell whether this would be an action the Imperium would later have cause to regret.
Dnatha: Astartes carry out raids
Hussaria: Assault on Hussaria III
Dark Eldar raid Ceti
Tarlius: Tarlius IV taken by Imperial Fists
Sunday, August 05, 2018
Eldar harlequins ransack Barham's Vespae base
Tarlius: Grey Knights destroy defence laser
In 08.018M42 the Grey Knights returned once again to Tarlius, this time at the head of an astartes force which over time was planning operations in order to retake Tarlius from the forces of Chaos. Before this could begin, the astartes recognised that the system had been heavily fortified by the Iron Warriors, with gun emplacements, forts and space ports established on most world. The outermost of these was a small but powerful defence laser on Tarlius 5.
Dropping a small squad of Grey Knights onto the laser emplacement itself caused a great deal of havoc as the chaos defenders struggled to respond to the sudden appearance of super humans in their midst. At first, the Grey Knights found the going easy, slaughtering the local slave workers and Dark Mechanicus. However, the planet was not undefended, and a small force of Death Guard supported by expendable pox walkers attempted to break through the Grey Knight's small perimeter as the loyalist adeptus mechanicus began putting the laser silo out of action.
Despite a lone pox walker breaking through the Grey Knights' cordon and infecting the mechanicum adepts, their sacrifice was not in vain. As the Grey Knights teleported back to their orbiting escort vessel they looked back in satisfaction as the entire installation detonated, destroying it as a defensive position and leaving only a crater. Once again a small astartes strike team had got past formidable defences and dealt a powerful blow to the forces of chaos. Now the astartes would follow up with a full scale invasion, while the Iron Warriors - dealing with "situations" on Mordecai - were unable to defend their gains.