The Leman Russes in the centre all picked out targets once again, killing 3 Plague Marines and 2 Night Lords, while the Demolisher vaporized the hapless Chaos Lord with a concentrated barrage from its lascannon and plasma cannons. A Basilisk shell screamed overhead, falling wide of the Noise Marines, who barely noticed.
A rather lacklustre shooting phase followed, with the Chaos forces obviously losing heart. An all round barrage of fire from the remaining heavy weapons managed to immobilize the Russ on the hill, and shake the crew of the Russ on the right flank, with all other shots going wide or failing to penetrate. As the Imperial forces seize the initiative, the Exterminator winds its way through the wreckage, heading for the ramp up to the hill. It opens fire with its array of heavy weapons, dropping two of the green-armoured Marines.
The immobilized Russ up on the hill dropped a battle cannon round on the left-most squad, wiping out all bar two of the Marines. The survivors, unperturbed at the death of their comrades, try to line up the missile launcher for another shot.
Down in the centre the Demolisher edges up to the corner of the reservoir, bringing its weapons to bear on the immobilized Dreadnought. A lascannon shot flicks out, glancing off the veteran machine’s battered armour. The Russ guarding the objective ripped apart the two surviving members of the heavy bolter squad, while the tank down on the right dropped the last Plague Marine. Another round from the Basilisk, aimed at the Noise Marines, landed somewhere in Europe.
The Predator roared into action, bursting into the ruined building directly in front of it, dozer blade pushing aside the weathered concrete. Its turret swung around, drawing a bead on the nearest Russ and pulsed out a blast of focused energy, which splattered prettily against the Imperial tank’s hull. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the turn, with every single weapon in the army either missing or failing to penetrate. This included the Dreadnought which, infuriated by its immobilization and from being shot at, went completely nuts and emptied its ammo hoppers into the front armour of the Demolisher with (of course) absolutely no effect.
The Demolisher in return rounds the corner, facing down the raging machine. A blast from the lascannon silences the Dreadnought’s screaming tirade, but incredibly the ancient veteran remains standing.
Up on the hill, a shot from the Vanquisher goes wide of the Chaos Predator down in the city, but the Exterminator and immobilized Russ have better luck, all but two of the green Marines falling to shots from both tanks.
Down in the centre, the Russ guarding the objective fires its heavy bolter into the Noise Marines, dropping two of the twisted Marines to the pavement. The Russ behind the reservoir finishes off the last of the Night Lords, with all but one of the Traitors killed by a battle cannon shot, and the survivor yelling ‘Sod this for a lark!’ and legging it. To cap off the final turn, the Basilisk lobbed off a 100″ shot at the green Marine squad at the other end of the board. The shell landed square on target, ripping the two Marines apart.
And so, at the end of a hard-fought, and rather bloody battle, the Chaos forces are forced to withdraw, leaving the Imperial war machines in firm control of the objective.
