Brutal fighting on Mordecai continues

During the match the dark angels terminators proved their tenacity by being resurrected from the dead a dozen times

During 011.022M42 the war on Mordecai Secundus had returned to its attritional state. General Kutuzov had hoped for a breakthrough following the decisive victory the navy had had earlier in the year, but in the ensuing months repeated setbacks had eroded the imperial strategic advantages so that by the middle of 011.022M42 the forces of chaos were able to hold the Imperium along the length of the front lines.

The chaos forces were helped in part by the arrival of a small but elite force of Night Lords traitor marines, who engaged in terror tactics along the front lines, particularly targeting areas where loyalist astartes were operating. First they attacked in the north, drawing a response from the Imperial Fists, who they then decisively beat in the resulting engagement. No territory was taken, but it appeared the Night Lords were more interested in inflicting pain on their millennia old enemies. Later the Night Lords singled out a Dark Angels force and in a brutal engagement managed to overcome their loyalist enemies in a bitter attritional struggle.

These setbacks eroded the Imperial ability to conduct breakthroughs whenever the Imperial Guard achieved victory, but the Imperium still had the advantage on the ground overall. This advantage allowed General Kutuzov to switch his focus to the south with the intention of surrounding the southern city of Ur'Ghar. The Novgorod Guard conducted a frontal assault on the Death Guard positions defending the city, but were initially blocked from moving forward by a strong counter attack. the Nurgle forces posed a difficult opponent as they proved resilient to imperial firepower, although the Guard forces importantly dealt with the chaos artillery early in the engagement. This loss of anti-tank capability hampered the chaos counter attack, and although the Novgorod army suffered horrendous infantry casualties, their tanks proved more difficult for the House of Eschar to deal with.

As the battle raged on a decisive local engagement on the imperial left flank saw a unit of infantry overcome their plague marine enemies, taking a critical objective. The forces of nurgle sent in their elite terminator forces who seemed almost immune to imperial firepower, but the chaos lines had been unhinged and the Death Guard were obliged to withdraw towards the Kuneus Traps, a giant lava lake near the city of Ur'Ghar itself. There was no decisive breakthrough and the imperial victory had failed to completely surround the city, but this was progress at least.