At the same time on the army’s far right flank, the Basilisk rattled its way into town, taking up position behind some ancient wreckage ready to defend the Imperium’s all-important Bourbon supply.
The Infantry squads continued to advance through the ruins, the squad on the right picking their way gingerly past pointy bits of ex-Sentinel. The squad on the left took up firing positions along the front of their building, and opened fire on the advancing Nurglings. Several of the poor, malnourished critters went down under the lasrifle fire, but the brood shrugged off the loss and kept waddling forwards.
Phestus at this point decided to grace the field with his presence. With a flap of leathery wings sending a wave of rather noxious BO wafting across the battleground, he settled in behind a building to the right of the Nurglings.
The Chosen and Plague Marines advances from behind him, supported by the Autocannon Predator. Autocannon fire from the Predator and the Chosen’s Reaper dropped two Guardsmen in the left-hand building.
Meanwhile, the other Predator went Basilisk hunting, kicking its ancient engines into high gear and roaring off across the back line.
More reinforcements rumbled in for the Guard, with a Hellhound grinding in on the left flank, and a Leman Russ moving in to support the Basilisk on the right. An opening salvo from the Russ fell just short of the Lascannon Predator.
The Basilisk crew had been frantically winding down the barrel of their Earthshaker cannon when the Autocannon Predator moved into view in the center of the town.
Finally drawing a line of fire on the traitor vehicle, the Earthshaker coughed out its vicious payload. The mighty shell, blessed with sacred unguents and prayers, ritually rotated three times before loading, blessed again, and finally fired with a final prayer to the Omnissiah and the ritual incantation of trigger depression roared down the cracked and broken street… and fell just short. The resultant blast rocked the Predator on its springs, and sent the crew into such a fit of giggles that they forgot to shoot on the following turn.
The Infantry platoon all opened fire on the poor, defenseless little Nurglings, with lasrifle charges inflicting another wound on the brood.
Up on the Death Guard’s left flank, the Lascannon Predator edged around the corner of a ruin, bringing it’s turret to bear on the distant Russ. An eye-tearing stream of light burst forth from the rusty muzzles, streaking across the town to wash harmlessly over the Russ’s blessed frontal armour.
As the Plague Marines advanced behind Phestus, running through the center of the town staring rather apprehensively at the Leman Russ, and the Autocannon Predator moved forwards to place a ruined building between itself and the Basilisk, the Chosen squad’s Reaper Cannon ripped through another guardsman in the left-hand building, rounding out an otherwise uneventful Chaos turn.
The last of the Guard forces finally arrived, with an Armoured Fist Chimera retracing the steps of the Lascannon Sentinel down the ruined alley. Meanwhile, the Hellhound moved up in an attempt to bring its nasty, burny gun into range of the Plague Marines, and the Command HQ and the Infantry in the right-hand building all advanced.
The Basilisk lobbed off another round at the Autocannon Predator, this time arcing the shot up over the buildings towards the now concealed tank. The shot once again fell rather short, landing inside the building and successfully annihilating several square meters of rubble.
At the same time, the Leman Russ returned the Predator’s greeting, with a Battlecannon round bouncing off the Traitor’s coat of goo. More infantry fire into the Nurglings felled another base, but the Hellhound’s searing flame fell thankfully rather short of the Plague Marines.
With the end of turn 4, it was time to roll to see if we would have another turn. The roll was good, and so the Chaos forces moved to keep up their momentum.
The Lascannon Predator kicked into reverse, swinging back around the building to draw line of sight on the Armoured Fist Chimera. A blast from the Lascannons tore straight through the lightweight vehicle, with the resultant explosion killing two of the onboard squad members. The rest of the squad stumbled coughing down the exit ramp, wondering what had just happened…
The other Predator rattled off a burst of fire at the Command Squad, but the Guardsmen managed to duck down behind a wall. The Chosen’s Reaper had more luck against the nearby infantry squad though, as was the Sorcerer, who cut loose with a mighty belch, the stench causing a trooper from the other Infantry squad to tumble senseless to the asphalt. Seeing their resolve weakened, the Sorcerer charged at the squad, shrugging off a bayonet thrust to slay 4 troopers in quick succession with his Plague Sword. The remainder of the squad held firm, with the sergeant yelling “Hey, he only killed 4… the 4 of us… can… um…”
