Death by Flashbang

Straight to Hell. 

Hello, and welcome to another Kill Team battle report. This one is very much different from the other Kill Team reports as it involves 5 players controlling 4 different factions. This would be my first multiplayer Kill Team game, and my second fielding the Celestial Lions. The Bob chose to use his Death Watch, Screech would field his Imperial Guard Vets, and Jim & Chyanne would each play a small Blood Angels Death Company squad.

With 4 preset boards to chose from we decided to once again give the fractured ground with the molten lava fissures another go. Oddly enough it was still set-up from the last game, (supply-drop) that The Bob and I played together, and we decided to leave it just like that. Since we are only playing on just a 4'X4' section of the board, it was decided that Screech's Imperial Guard models should be placed in one of the "off board" fire pits as casualties accrue mostly so that we could all keep up with who he had in reserve and who was dead. We were all carrying on and having a lot of fun, and since Screech's IG are notorious bastards, someone stated that when they die "They skip St. Peter and go straight to Hell!". We were all in agreement with this notion.

Alone in the Dark was the mission we selected, but with the 4-way rules in effect. Three objectives were placed in a line in the center of the table to hopefully encourage more cross-fighting between the four factions. (Yeah, we'll see how well that idea will worked out.) Anyway, this mission has the Nightfighting rule in effect for the whole game. In addition to that we had to roll off to see who in our respective Kill Teams would end up in Reserves.

Celestial Lions Deployment. 

Only six of my Lions would start on the table. I divided them into 2 groups, hoping for solid strike at my foes and still be able to make a mad dash at the objectives.

BA Death Co. Deployment. 

The entire Death Watch deployment. 

The field of battle, everyone deployed. 

This game had a lot of chaotic, hilarious, and crazy events taking place. Therefore the following will mostly be highlights with a few comments. The turn order was Imperial Guard, Celestial Lions, Blood Angel Death Company and Death Watch.

Turn 1, not a lot happened really, mostly missed opportunities, missed shots and movement strategies. Accept for Bob's Death Watch who picked off one of my Lions (the gravgun guy) and earned a Secondary VP for First Blood.

 Turn 2, Screech brought in the majority of his reserves and placed them in a line in my zone and behind my KT Leader and another marine. My guys lived through the flashlight hits however.

Flashlight ambush! 

He also took shots at the ravening Death Co. marines storming down the trenchline at him.

"They are coming right at us, and they look pissed!!!"

Celestial Lions Turn 2, again a folly of dice rolling ment either they didn't hit or brought clips full of dud bullets. It made sense to charge the nearest Guardsmen only to botch that as well, and the Sgt found himself locked in combat with the steadfast and determined trooper.

It was a better plan in his head.

The Celestial Lions reserves came in on the Death Watch side, attempting an ambush, and that plan flopped also. I think at that point I switched out dice. I was very frustrated with my dice at that point.

"I thought you said these guys were undefended?!"

The Death Company performed more maneuvers, seemly obsessed with getting closer to the Imperial Guard. The Death Watch retaliated against the Celestial Lions, sending two of them after my leader. It seemed as if my deployment zone was becoming a battle royal pit. They killed a lot of Guardsmen, which actually pleased me.

"Oh, this looks fun!"

The Deathwatch, being Inquisition agents afterall, purged my two Celestial Lions in his zone.

The Lions have been eliminated.

Turn 3, and IG kill a few Death Company marines despite their Feel No Pain attempts.

The shooting gallery.

Some of these following turns get a bit fuzzy, so I will go into Highlight Mode (TM):

For example, someone killed the DW shotgun guy (I think I shot him in the back but I don't recall if I killed him? Or if that was the guy Screech Flashbanged?)

(Not sure what happened in this pic)

The Celestial Lions Missile Launcher with Sharpshooter arrived,  and with an amzing snapshot killed one of the Death Watch guys, and it was apparently their KT Leader! This earned the Lions the first Kill The Leader Secondary Objective of the game.

Snapshot of doom. 

Eventually the Celestial Lions Leader killed his Guardsmen foe.

"These grunts are tough!"

The Blood Angel Death Company tangled more with the guard. More of the Death Watch Reserves arrived, killing a guardsmen in their zone.

"Get off my bunker!" *WHOOSH!*

On Turn 4 the Death Watch returned the favor and snuffed out my KT Leader.

"Eye for and eye!"

The Death Company continued their assault on the bastion controlled by the Death Company. They used their jump packs to assault the troops on the roof. Tbey killed one of the guardsmen up there but one guy refused to be killed and hold out for a few Close Combat phases.

Attacking the roof.

The Celestial Lions continued the assault on the IG held trenchline. One of the Lions was overhelmed by them and eliminated. The heavy flamer guy at the end of the trenchline was proving to be very resilient, and survived a lot of bolter rounds that were sprayed his way. Same goes for the three marines in the pic below who were also dodging las blasts. I wanted to kill the Sgt that was in this trenchline as I really wanted my revenge against his from the last time I encountered him. He, and his small cluster of men, are holding and objective in the trenchline and I was focused on getting it. The Celestial Lion on the crater is holding an objective also.

Trench warfare.

Meanwhile the Death Company continued their assault on the rooftop guardsman, only to continue to be held back by the bayonet weilding fiend.

"How is he surviving this?!"

Also out of no where, a Death Company marine in the control of Chyanne, charged the Celestial Lion holding the objective and a fierce hand melee would begin with neither warrior defeating his foe.

"The objective is mine!" "No, mine!"

Typical of the treachery that Screech is renowned for, and not having any of his troops in the fight, his Guardsman weilding the Heavy Flamer immolated the Death Company and Lion marine who were locked in combat with each other. But they cared not, and continued to clash amongst the flames!

A literal fire fight.

It was looking like it would be the last round of the game so I decided to have the Missile Launcher Marine make a dash for the objective on that side of the table. He reached it and held it while dodging bullets from the Death Watch and Death Company marines.

Taking the objective! 

In the trenchline I was happy to kill that Sgt only to discover that he was not the IG KT Leader afterall. That guy was snuffed by the Death Watch in a previous round and somehow I had not realized it! Still killing traiter guard is always fun no matter their individual relevance. Sadly one of my Celestial Lions would fall. Bring my Kill Team to it's break point and earning the IG a Secondary Objective. But at least I now had a marine on all three objectives!

Trench warfare continues.

Ultimately the guardsmen on the bastion top would be overwhelmed and slaughtered by the blood lusting Khorne worshippers in denial.  One of Chyanne's Death Company would start an assault on one of the guardman at the bastion's base that had been attacking her for most of the game. I do not recall the outcome of this clash however...

Seizing the bastion.

That was the last in-game pic I took. I am sure there was stuff I missed (or got wrong) but without a pic it's difficult to recall exactly what those events were. With a cast of the die, the game was ended at that point. The Celestial Lions held one Objective and contested the other two.

Victory Points tallied out as follows:
Blood Angel Death Company =0.
Celestial Lions- 1 Objective, Slay the Leader (DW), Break The Enemy (IG).
Death Watch- First Blood, Slay the Leader (CL), Breaking IG = 3 VPs.
Imperial Guard- Break The Enemy (DW & CL) = 2 VPs.


One of the highlights, at least for Screech, was that he got to kill a marine with a defensive grenade!

Screech: "I mean, that guy is the real MVP for the IG.  "What's worse for a Death Watch Marine than being killed by a Guardsman?  Being killed by a Guardsman with a Flashbang."

The highlight for Jim and Chyanne was the slaughtering of Screech's Imperial Guard, which they had declared early on was the only objective they cared about (it's a vendetta thing).

Jim: "Such a small and weak heretic (that looked like a guardsman) should have his name immortalized as a deceptively fearsome opponent -before ripping his head off and diembowling him!" (In regards to the guardsman that locked two Death Company marines in close combat for a few turns).

As you can see, having Screech place his dead directly in Hell was rewarding for all of us:

So many souls to stoke the fires of Hell.