At the September 2018 day in the Sydney Mournival event series, I played a harrowing game against Tom’s fearsome VIIIth Legion murderers. I took the same list I used earlier in the day against Dom’s Death Guard:

+Lord Marshall- Anatolian executioner axe (master-crafted power fist), inferno pistol, iron halo & cyber-familiar.

+10 Veletaris- power axes, Veletarii Prime with melta bombs.

+10 Veletaris- power axes, Veletarii Prime with melta bombs.

+Enginseer Auxilia- 8 servo automata with 5 multimeltas, 1 adept with melta bombs.

+Ogryn Charonites- 6 Ogryns with charonite claws.

+Cyclops Demolition Vehicles- 2 cyclops with atomantic imploders.

Tom is a veteran hobbyist, one of the original Eye of Horus Podcast inner circle Mournival members. He is a keen strategist with a deep knowledge of Legiones Astartes units and tactics. He took the following list:

+Delegatus (with Command Squad)- nostraman chainglaive.

+Legion Centurion (with Breachers)- nostraman chainglaive.

+Legion Command Squad- 5 with jump packs, nostraman chainglaives.

+Apothecary (attached to Command Squad)

+Cataphractii Terminators- 6 with power axes & chainfists

+Terror Squad- 10 with volkite chargers, Headsman with nostraman chainglaive

+Legion Breachers- 10 with 2 melta guns

+Cultic Tech-Thralls (from Zone Mortalis stratagem)- 10 with combat blades & stub guns

As well as doing the logistical work to organise the event, Tom went to the trouble of printing out a nice set of Zone Mortalis Stratagem cards. Small touches like this really elevate the event to a special occasion, rather than just playing with your little plastic space men in your mum’s garage. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

As usual with Zone Mortalis battles, each force is divided into two, with half of each side’s units deployed at the start of the game, and the other half coming on via reserve rolls.

Tom deployed his Legion Command Squad on the left near a Point of Interest, and his Breacher team on the other side of his deployment zone.

I started with one unit of Veletaris axemen facing the central chamber. Near them behind a door, my Cyclops Demolition Vehicles lay in wait, near my Enginseer Auxilia unit with multimeltas on the right.

As the battle commences, the first unit of axemen advances cautiously towards the bulkhead door leading to the facility’s central chamber.

The servo-automata with multimeltas shuffle slightly, wary of the Night Lords Breachers being able to see them down the corridor. The Cyclops remain stationary. The first turns of a Zone Mortalis game often seem quiet and lacking in action. But the manoeuvres and decisions made here can have a drastic effect on how the conflict turns out.

The Breachers advance down the corridor. They hear a mysterious noise nearby (a Point of Interest) but they decide to ignore it to focus on hunting the Solar Auxilia units they know are nearby. It could be a trap, after all.

The Breachers catch sight of the servo-automata, and raise their bolters to fire. Nearby, the Cyclops lurk in a doorway. The axemen manage to blast through another door with a melta bomb.

The torrent of bolt rounds from the Breachers is distressingly well-aimed, and slays five of the servo-automata, severely reducing their combat effectiveness.

On the other side of the facility, the Night Lords Command unit prepares to fire up their jump packs. Equipped with savage Nostraman Chainglaives, this highly mobile unit is an intimidating prospect for baseline humans to encounter.

The midnight-clad Astartes make a calculated gamble and use their jump engines to move rapidly through the narrow corridors. None are injured in the attempt, and they continue their headlong advance straight into the hapless Veletaris.

Caught completely off guard, the axemen are dismayed and outmatched. Chainglaives rise and fall, squealing like culled livestock. Veletaris void-hardened carapace armour is no protection against their adamantine teeth. In moments, the entire unit is slain. The deck and walls are painted with gore.

On the other side of the battlefield, things are looking better. The Ogryn Charonites have come on from reserve, using the Flanking Assault Zone Mortalis Stratagem to arrive in the enemy deployment zone. Lord Marshall Mordecai Jhinter is with them, and explores a Point of Interest.

The Point of Interest turns out to be a lost Magos adept. Glad have found friendly forces, he joins Rogue Trader Jhinter and the Charonites.

As the Ogryns approach the Breachers, one of the Cyclops moves up to support them, while the other goes in the opposite direction, hoping to ambush the Legion Command squad if it gets too close. The already depleted Enginseer unit suffers from the hazardous environment as the old facility crumbles around them. Two servo-automata are crushed by collapsing rubble, leaving only one left to accompany the Adept.

Understandably concerned by the sudden appearance of the Ogryns, the Breachers call in support with their nuncio-vox. With a crackle of electrical discharge and a brief pop of overpressure, the Catapractii Terminators arrive by Deep Strike! Before the condensing mist around them dissipates, they raise their combi-weapons and open fire on the Ogryns.

Together with disciplined bolter and meltagun shots from the Breachers, the Terminators manage to slay two of the big abhuman fighters, evening the odds for the inevitable combat to follow.

As well as the Terminators, the Night Lords also receive reinforcements from an Outflanking Terror Squad. The veteran VIIIth Legion murderers prowl the deck for human targets, but can only see a Cyclops Demolition Vehicle.

Snarling with pure contempt, the Astartes fry it with a flurry of beams from their volkite chargers before it can roll into detonation range.

Back over at what is turning out to be the key focal point of the battle, the four surviving Ogryns charge past the Breachers at the Terminators, stomping across the deck, their Charonite Claws hissing with built-up pressure. Mordecai Jhinter fires his inferno pistol on the way, turning one of his armoured foes into molten slag.

When the Ogryns and Terminators meet, the sheer kinetic impact is momentous. Though they strike only at Initiative 2, the Charonites attack first, as all the Terminators are armed with unwieldy axes and power fists. The Charonites deal horrific damage, lopping limbs clean off with their claws, or clamping helmeted heads into red paste. One of the brutish abhumans plunges his tri-bladed gauntlet into an armoured chest, only for it spring open in a sudden shower of crimson mist and metal shards.

A single VIIIth Legion veteran survives the Ogryns’ onslaught, his armour streaked with the blood of his dismembered brothers. He swings his fist and wounds a Charonite. But as he does so, Mordecai Jhinter steps up and splits him open with his ancient power blade.

Victorious, the Ogryns, Jhinter, and the wandering Magos consolidate towards the Breachers. If the shield-bearing siege troops felt any emotion watching the Terminators get butchered, they don’t show it.

On the side side of the facility, the second unit of Veletaris axemen march on from reserve. The Terror Squad turns to face them, and the brave human soldiers draw their laspistols from under their cloaks.

They pepper the Night Lords with flashing las-beams, scorching superficial damage into ceramite battle plate. One of the Terror Squad Marines falls- a lucky pistol shot punched through his helmet visor and cooked the front half of his brain.

Observed by the lurking Command Squad, the Night Lords Headsman orders his Legionaries to advance to point-blank range and fire their volkite chargers. Beneath their ceremonial skull-masks, the axemen’s eyes widen in fear as they realise their fate.

With a blinding sizzle of discharging energy, the volkite-armed Astartes execute all ten Auxilia. The air is filled with the scent of carbonised meat.

The Ogryns are also flanked by a small pack of semi-lobotomised cultists, who have primitive tech-enhancements and simple firearms bonded to their limbs. Their unskilled shooting deals little damage, so Rogue Trader Jhinter orders the Ogryns to ignore them.

Instead they march on the Breachers, an inexorable tide of chemically-augmented muscle and piston-driven blades. As the Solar Auxilia approach, the Astartes shoot their boltguns. The clumsy tech-adept takes several mass-reactive shells in the sternum and is blasted apart. Jhinter shrugs. Such is the fate of minor NPC characters…

The Breachers continue firing on the Ogryns as they charge, trying to do as much damage as possible before the combat monsters reach them. With their attention thus occupied, none of them notice the Cyclops rolling out of cover towards them.

Seeing the Breachers are caught between two threats, Mordecai Jhinter urges the Ogryns on. The Night Lords Centurion barks orders and revs his chainglaive. The Breachers lock shields.

The Lord Marshall crashes into combat, surrounded by three surviving Ogryns. The big Charonites try to knock Astartes to the deck with the sheer mass of their charge, but the Breachers stand firm behind their heavy shields. Behind them, however, they hear an urgent series of increasingly rapid beeps. A few of the Legionaries turn.

In a mesmerising blink of un-light, the atomantic imploder on the Cyclops triggers, disintegrating part of the deck and the Astartes around it. Despite the catastrophic power of the blast, most of the Night Lords are protected by their shields, and only two of them are slain.

Blinking to clear their eyes, the remaining Breachers swarm forwards at the Ogryns, bashing with their shields, stabbing with combat knives, and firing bolters point-blank. The Centurion swings his whirling chainglaive in devastating arcs, sawing a wounded Charonite into two messy halves. His men also give a good account of themselves, leaving only Jhinter and one Ogryn left to fight back.

The lone abhuman berserker crushes one Breacher and knocks another’s shield aside. Mordecai Jhinter takes advantage of the opening, severing both the Astartes’ legs with his axe. Driven by cold fury and an expensive cocktail of combat drugs, Mordecai Jhinter presses on. One of the Breachers tries to barge him over, but Jhinter pulls his shield down, and levers his axe into the Astartes’ face, killing him instantly.

Momentarily overwhelmed, the Centurion calls for his remaining men to fall back and regroup further down the corridor. But as they try to disengage, Jhinter and his Charonite catch them and cut them down.

With the Breachers disposed of, the Enginseer Adept and his single servo-automata are free to explore a nearby Point of Interest. They discover another wandering Magos, the twin or perhaps a clone of the one Jhinter and the Ogryns found earlier.

The Lord Marshall and the last Charonite finish euthanising the few wounded Breachers, and turn to face the lobotomised cultists. Jhinter cooks one apart with his trusty shoulder-mounted inferno pistol.

Disregarding the scattered shots the cultists fire at them, which glance off their armour, the Rogue Trader and the Ogryn stride into combat. The Charonite thrashes wildly, each swing of his industrial talons sending a broken corpse to the deck. Jhinter heaves his executioner axe around in a horizontal slice, and sheers through two cultists at once, sending jets of arterial blood and machine oil into the air.

The cultists flee from their attackers, but are caught and slain to a man.

The Enginseer Adept and his followers run to catch up with the Lord Marshall and the Ogryn, wary of being isolated and killed by a marauding Terror Squad or the Legion Command Squad.

Together, these two units are the only survivors of the initial Solar Auxilia task force.

Tired from their long series of brutal melees, Jhinter and the Ogryn pass yet another Point of Interest, seeing a shadowy figure flit down the corridor towards them. An assassin!

The man is a junior operative, not a fully blooded initiate of a major temple. But he is still a threat that must be dealt with. Though no one can see beneath his silver mask, Mordecai Jhinter sighs to himself, and adjusts his grip on his axe.

The two mismatched figures charge into combat with the nimble assassin, who takes a chunk out of the Charonite with a razor-sharp long knife. The Ogryn grunts, and swipes at the assassin. The black-clad figure executes a sideways handspring to get clear of the attack, but as he rises, he comes face to face with Jhinter’s expressionless steel face. The heavy axe cleaves the assassin open from shoulder to groin.

On the far side of the facility, the Night Lords Terror Squad and Command Squad have firm control of the Solar Auxilia deployment zone. With a huge distance between them and the Solar Auxilia survivors, the Astartes decide to let them escape in order to hunt them another day.

When tallying up the result, the Night Lords’ control of territory and the number of enemy units they have destroyed leaves them as the clear victors!

The few Solar Auxilia forces retire from the field.

What a game! I’ve played Tom before, and he’s always a great opponent. Even when you feel like you have the upper hand, you can be sure he’s playing things smart and focusing on the mission. Despite my loss, I had a great time witnessing Jhinter and the Ogryns struggle through combat after combat, slaying all opposition. I don’t think he would have had a chance against the Command Squad or Terror Squad though…

As always, be sure to check out the Eye of Horus Podcast- Tom is a semi-regular guest. If you’d like to hear a bit about the concept behind gaming events like this, you can hear him on Episode 135. He’s also one of the masterminds behind the Mournival Events, a great place to check out news and ideas surrounding narrative Heresy events.

Thanks for reading.