The missile launchers on the hill spoke once more, with Krak missiles shooting off every which way. The newly arrived Leman Russ skillfully intercepted one of the missiles, and the tank crew spent the following turn congratulating each other.
To the Traitors’ chagrin, two more battle tanks arrived to bolster the already strong Imperial line, with an Exterminator moving up at the base of the hill, and another Leman Russ zooming into the centre at full speed.
The Command tank moves forward again, firing its heavy bolter at the Predator. The explosive shells hit home on the opposing tank’s turret, rendering the Lascannons useless. The other Vanquisher meanwhile lobs a shot across the city at the Chaos Dreadnought. The shot takes the crazed machine in the hip, freezing up the joint and halting the Dreadnought’s advance. The Chaos forces in the centre are further whittled down by the massed tank-fire, with 2 Plague Marines and another 2 Night Lords turned into ex-Marine.
Finally, the Basilisk sent a shot screaming into the air, which plummeted down square on the unit of Daemonettes. Only one of the chicken-legged lasses is left standing, screaming ‘The sky is falling!’ before she promptly vanishes back into the Warp.
We decided to start rolling for Random Game length from turn 5 rather than turn 4, just to keep the game going a little longer. Looking back on it, I’m not overly sure why I thought this was a good idea…
Realizing that the centre had almost totally fallen, the squads up on the hill began moving inwards. The Chaos Lord, bereft of his lady friends, charged madly onwards, swinging his axe around in the air, while the surviving members of the Heavy Bolter squad moved to screen the Noise Marines.
Powering up his lovingly crafted Blastmaster, Brother Amorus of the Emperor’s Children Legion took aim on the Leman Russ guarding the objective. The energy built up in the mighty weapon with a piercing whine, the vibration causing his arms to jitter and shake… Judging the energy build up to be at its maximum potential, he pulled the trigger, glorying in the over-powering blast of focused sound. Finally opening his eyes, he stared in disbelief at the unscathed Russ. A blow to the side of his helmet caused him to turn to see his battle brother, Sifflus, who yelled, ‘Idiot! You’ve still got the earphones plugged in!’
Meanwhile, the Dreadnought fired its autocannons across at the Leman Russ near the sludge pit, large-caliber shells punching through the tank and sparking off the fuel in a massive explosion. On the right flank a second explosion echoed as a Lascannon shot from the Marine squad slammed into the Vanquisher Command tank.
The daemonic entity infesting the Predator had been hard at work again, and the tank’s crew hastened back into action as the turret Lascannons came back on-line.
Up on the hill the Vanquisher advances, swinging its turret around to bear on the distant Predator. An anti-tank round rocketed across the battlefield, exploding against the hull and stunning the crew.
