**
Our first game is going to be a 1685 point battle, because that's the amount of models my opponent has. To face them, I'm bringing my Word Bearers, and an allied Auxilia tank company, because I like tanks.
I've got four formations. From left to right, the 1st (Air Assault) Demi-Company of the 4th Company; 2nd Tank Company, 3rd (Armored) Company; 2nd (Signals) Demi-Company, 5th (Combat Support) Company, all from II Battalion, Morbid Fane Chapter, and at the back, the Lords of the Old World from the 337th Yat-Kha Shock Cohort. And here's the official army list:
1st (Air Assault) Demi-Company
HQ: Legion Command Squad (25 pts)
Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)
Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)
Support: Legion Terminator Detachment (50 pts)
Support: Legion Assault Detachment (30 pts)
Vanguard: Legion Scimitar Jetbike Detachment (35 pts)
Air Support: Legion Storm Eagle Squadron (100 pts)
4th (Signals) Demi-Company
HQ: Legion Command Squad (25 pts)
Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)
Core: Legion Tactical Squad (30 pts)
Support: Legion Rapier Battery Detachment (quad-launchers) (40 pts)
Support: Legion Missile Launcher Support Detachment (40 pts)
Transport: Legion Land Raider Detachment (2) (80 pts)
3rd Tank Company
Battle Tank: Legion Predator Squadron (all lascannons) (115 pts)
Battle Tank: Legion Sicaran Squadron (accelerator autocannon, lascannon) (105 pts)
Heavy Armor: Legion Kratos Squadron (Kratos battlecannon, lascannons) (150 pts)
Heavy Armor: Legion Kratos Commander (Kratos battlecannon, lascannons) (100 pts)
Air Support: Legion Xiphon Interceptor Squadron (2) (180 pts)
Lords of the Old World
HQ: Tank Commander (10 pts)
Battle Tank: Leman Russ Strike Squadron (Vanquisher battlecannon, lascannon) (175 pts)
Battle Tank: Malcador Tank Squadron (twin lascannon, demolisher cannon, heavy bolters) (165 pts)
Heavy Armor: Auxilia Stormblade Squadron (120 pts)
**
My gracious host had an excellent gaming table and mat for us, as well as some buildings to fight over. It looked pretty darn good!
We marked out a 4'×4' surface, and rolled for a mission and got Conquest. This meant we would deploy in opposite corners and fight over six objective markers.
Here's our deployment from my point of view.
I deployed the signals company on my left, one detachment on foot to storm the central building, and one in the Land Raiders to grab objective 3. The Auxilia tanks would also go on the left flank, while the Sicarans and Kratoses (?) would advance on the right. One detachment of the air assault company would grab objective 5, with the HQ and other detachment in reserve in the Storm Eagle. The Predators and assault marines would go where they were needed, the Rapiers would sit on objective 4, and the jetbikes were my reserve.
It got a bit crowded in my deployment zone!
The battle started with our Forward Deployment moves: my Land Raiders sped toward objective 3, and the loyalist Aethon Heavy Sentinels secured objective 6. In the movement phase, both our armies surged out of their deployment zones.
A side note. When Legions Imperialis finally came out after a long, unexplained delay, it was roundly criticized for how rubbish the order counters were. I can attest that the criticism was well-deserved: they're printed on thin cardboard and are difficult to even punch out easily. What I didn't realize until my first orders phase was that there are also comically few of them, even for a 2000 point army. I'd brought along my own set, minus some damaged in trying to detach them, but was reduced to writing orders on scraps of paper.
Dashing out at a quick march, a detachment of my signals company occupied the central building in the face of the advancing loyalists.
Two Xiphon interceptors swooped down directly amid the enemy formations, sanguine that the loyalists' lack of anti-aircraft weapons meant they were invulnerable.
As the opposing forces came into range of each other, the firing started. First blood was drawn by one of the loyalist Warhounds: it fired at a Xiphon and missed, but its shudder missiles exploded around the traitor jetbikes, destroying a stand and leaving the detachment shaken.
One of the Land Raiders by objective 3 took an enemy round and exploded, and the Aethon Sentinels unleashed a barrage of missiles at the central building, completely wiping out the tactical detachment garrisoning it!
The other Warhound damaged a traitor Kratos and slowed the squadron down with its shudder missiles, and a Malcador took a hit and damage. Traitor return fire was ineffective, with only the Xiphons managing to damage a loyalist Malcador tank.
As the first turn came to a close, both sides controlled three objectives, but all the casualties were on the traitor side.
Victory points:
Loyalists: 17 VP
Traitors: 17 VP
**
Putting their faith in the Ruinous Powers, the Word Bearers continued their advance. Turn 2 opened with the traitor Malcadors gunning their engines and speeding at the advancing loyalist infantry, their heavy bolters spitting death and nearly wiping out the Veletari. The few survivors were blown apart by the traitor missile launcher detachment.
The second turn is the earliest when units with deep strike rules can show up. A bright flash and loud bang announced the arrival of the Cataphractii Terminators of the House of Justice, threatening to wrest objective 1 from the loyalists. A squad fell to overwatch fire from the Imperial Fists.
Meanwhile, the Word Bearers flyers swooped down on the battlefield. Covered by the Xiphon Interceptors, the lone Word Bearer Storm Eagle deposited a detachment of the 1st/4th (Air Assault) demi-company in the ruins overlooking Objective 6.
Undaunted, the loyalist advance continued. The Ogryns stubbornly marched for objective 3, only to be cut down by the concentrated bolter fire of the surviving signals company detachment.
Bloodied but unbowed, with shells from the traitor Rapier quad-launchers falling among them, the Imperial Fists advanced, while a Solar Auxilia tercio rushed to secure the central building. Denied a charge against the hated Aethon Heavy Sentinels, the Word Bearers assault marines fired their jump packs and descended on the Auxilia instead. In the ensuing mêlée, the traitors took heavy casualties and nearly wiped out the tercio.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the firefight continued. The Xiphons unleashed their lascannons and missiles on the Sentinels, destroying three of them. Loyalist return fire blew up a Sicaran and a Kratos on the traitor right flank, and a salvo from one of the Warhounds destroyed two Predator tanks.
Having deployed its cargo of tactical marines, the hovering Storm Eagle turned on the Imperial Fists Dreadnoughts and scythed them down.
On the traitor left, the Yat-Kha Malcadors paid for their impetuous advance as the Imperial Fists destroyed one and damaged another.
The Yat-Kha Stormblade and Leman Russes accounted for a loyalist Malcador and Sicaran.
Finally, the Word Bearers air assault detachment avenged their signals brethren by bringing down the last Aethon.
The carnage was terrible, with dead bodies and burning tanks littering the battlefield. The traitor tank company and the loyalist Auxilia both broke, with the loyalist Leman Russes and the surviving Sicarans on both sides running away!
Although the tide of the battle was turning, with the loyalist side taking heavy losses, no objectives changed hands this turn.
Victory points:
Loyalists: 34 VP
Traitors: 34 VP
**
The battle was bloody, but with both sides fully engaged, the loyalists mounted a counter-attack. The last surviving Ogryns charged objective 3, but fell to the fire of the Word Bearer signal detachment.
The Imperial Fists secured the central building, mopping up the last of the traitor assault marines.
Behind them, the Warhound Titans strode forth to challenge the traitor armor, while the Word Bearer aircraft screamed down on them. The traitor Terminators charged the Imperial Fists defending objective 1, but were unceremoniously wiped out in close combat.
The Word Bearer jetbikes swooped in on the surviving loyalist Malcador and destroyed it, and the traitor tanks concentrated their fire on the Warhound contesting objective 2. As its void shields collapsed in a shower of sparks, the Storm Eagle and Xiphon Interceptors opened fire on the Titan's rear armor. With a terrible metallic groan, the Titan collapsed.
At the end of Turn 3, five of the objectives were in traitor hands, and the battle was effectively over.
Victory points:
Loyalists: 38 VP
Traitors: 59 VP
**
We decided to play turn 4, mostly so that the remaining Warhound would get a proper chance to shoot at my tanks.
It did so, and the tanks and Storm Eagle knocked down its void shields, and the Xiphons scored their second Titan kill of the game.
Game ends: traitor victory.
**
Tanks blew up, Titans fell over and infantry died in droves. It was also excellent fun and I want to do more of it.
I've read a number of complaints about Legions online, and I have to say that I don't understand some of them. Keeping track of formation break points, for example, is a simple matter of some tally marks on a piece of paper, or just putting the casualties in one pile and keeping count of them. Overall I found the system quite fluid and easy to understand, although I will admit we forgot about some special rules.
Since we were both new to the game, neither of us really knew what we were doing. I'm happy I had a plan of sorts and more or less stuck to it. I could have manoeuvered my Auxilia tanks a lot better, though. Having air superiority certainly helped, but it's a luxury I'm pretty sure I won't be able to enjoy too often in the future.
Legions appears to be very lethal, as our piles of casualties attest. I was especially shocked by the Aethon Sentinels just casually wiping out my Tactical Marines, and also quite disappointed at how badly the assault marines and especially the Terminators did.
**
As a final note, in recognition of my Xiphons' titan-killing prowess, I added little Warhound kill markings to them in memory of this first game.
So to sum up, Legions Imperialis is a great game, and I hope I get to play it again soon.
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