My 2000 point Centurion force was my usual blend of Rogue Trader themed Solar Auxilia troops and esoteric Mechanicum war engines. The models represent a Rogue Trader’s explorator fleet with close ties to the Cobalt Razor Myrmidon Sect.

+Lord Marshall- 2 plasma pistols, displacer matrix

+Legate Commander- charnabal sabre, inferno pistol

+Knight Errant- power fist

+Veletaris- power axes

+Veletaris- power axes

+Veletaris- volkite chargers

+Magos Dominus

+6 Thallax- 2 with multimeltas

+3 Domitars

+4 Myrmidon Destructors- 4 with photon thrusters

Arrayed against me were Astartes from the subtle and insidious Alpha Legion, commanded by New Zealander and powerful Mournival member James K. I didn’t get a clear shot of his whole army, but as far as I recall, it was composed of the following units:

+Praetor- paragon blade

+Moritat- 2 plasma pistols

+Saboteur (always to be said with a French accent)

+10 Tactical Marines

+10 Tactical Marines

+10 Tactical Support Marines- flamers

+Legion Destroyers

+Legion Seekers

It was a beautiful and thematically appropriate force of infiltrating assassins and clandestine operatives, which you’ll be able to see in the images below.

My army featured a few colourful characters. Most importantly is Rogue Trader and Auxilia Lord Marshall Ibrahim Jarrow, a gunslinger armed with two plasma pistols. He is a close associate of Mordecai Jhinter, the more combat-focused Lord Marshall featured in many of my previous battle reports. The displacer matrix he wears gives him a 3++ invulnerable save, but has a small chance of teleport-blinking him across the battlefield in dangerous and unpredictable ways.

He is protected by a Legate Commander, an Anatolian swordsman who has commanded small forces of his own on previous occasions.

Allied to them is a floaty Magos Dominus and tech-adept called Omicron 88, a technical advisor and senior figure in the Cobalt Razor Myrmidon Sect.

Last but not least is a mysterious Blackshield Astartes known only as the Red Jackal, a shadowy figure with unclear motives. I represent him using rules for Knight Errants in The Horus Heresy Book 6: Retribution.

In this scenario, my explorator fleet force has located a tunnel entrance to an uncharted Mechanicum facility, potentially containing secret resources beyond value to both Loyalists and Traitors in the Heresy. The gorgeous “steam woods” table, created by Tim, one of the hosts of the Eye of Horus Podcast, represents the surface-level exhaust stacks and vents from a vast underground network. A tangle of swampland has sprung up around the condensation and fumes from the hidden mechanisms below.

My army deploys in a circle around the exact centre of the battlefield, trying to keep a watch on the perimeter. With the trackless depths of a misty swamp on all sides, the Solar Auxilia troops feel isolated and edgy.

In the distance, half-glimpsed shadows are seen moving closer, hugging cover. The Alpha Legion has arrived to claim the tunnel entrance for themselves!

Stalking forwards with calculated precision, the XXth Legion Seekers and Destroyers decide to focus on the Domitars, hoping to take the threatening automata out of action early.

The lumbering robots are slow to respond to the approaching threat.

Before the Domitars can react, the Seekers close in and unleash a hail of plasma bolts and special issue bolter ammunition. Each shot is aimed with surgical precision, placed to inflict maximum damage. Pneumatic pistons burst and hiss, cables snap. Logic circuits are melted, Cybernetica cortices burn out, smoking.

Two whole Domitars are destroyed, a grievous blow to the Mechanicum's combat strength.

The Magos Dominus commands the remaining Domitar to turn and address the threat. They are supported by the nearby Myrmidon Destructors. Hopefully, the S6 AP2 shots from their photon thrusters will have a devastating effect on power-armoured Astartes.

Suddenly, the steam woods seem filled with ambushing Alpha Legion troops. The Solar Auxilia hastily redeploy to defend their Mechanicum allies. The noose is tightening!

The Myrmidon Destructors look on as the lone Domitar strides into combat. The Seekers snap off a last few shots at the approaching robot, and prepare to sell their lives dearly.

The Seekers fight bravely, stabbing with combat knives and lobbing krak grenades. But the ironclad Domitar smashes men aside, effortlessly flinging eight-foot tall warriors through the air. Next to his robotic ward, the Mago Dominus gets to work with his power axe, hacking at the Seekers’ leader.

The Seekers find themselves unable to endure the onslaught. They break to fall back, but are all killed, stomped into the ground by the rampaging battle-automata.

Having disposed of the Seekers, the Magos and Domitar consolidate towards a nearby Tactical Squad, while Myrmidon Destructors fire searing energy beams to cover their advance.

Rogue Trader Ibrahim Jarrow moves up through the misty steam woods with his main force of Veletaris, hoping to aid the Mechanicum with a robust infantry counter-attack.

The Alpha Legion Praetor, attached to a unit of flamer-wielding support Marines, moves up cautiously, harried by the photon thrusters of the Myrmidon Destructors. As the only long-range shooting unit in the Solar Auxilia task force, the Myrmidons are overwhelmed by the sheer number of targets on the field.

Nearby, the Domitar charges into combat once more, this time against the Tactical Squad. Again he punches men off their feet, mashing bodies, ripping ceramite armour apart like tissue paper. In response, the Astartes can barely scratch its heavy chassis plating. The Magos manages to decapitate a Marine with a well-placed swing of his power axe.

The Legionary troops make a tactical withdrawal to preserve their forces, managing to evade the pursuing battle-automata.

As the Domitar stumbles after the retreating Astartes, a unit of Destroyer marines surround and cut it off, taking advantage of its isolation away from friendly forces.

They open fire with their paired bolt pistols, charging into combat. Their rad grenades lower the Domitar’s toughness, and they manage to drag the automata down with weight of attacks. The Magos is caught and killed without mercy.

Over neat the centre of the battlefield, the Alpha Legion Praetor and his squad of flame troopers decide the time is right for an all-out attack on the Myrmidon Destructors. They run up between two masses of mossy growth, and set their flamers to MAXIMUM BARBECUE.

The searing wash of pressurised flame scorches the Mechanicum warriors. Only the Myrmidon Lord survives, patting down spot fires on his blue robes. The Praetor adjusts his grip on his paragon spear, and gives a curt order.

Silent and ruthless, the Astartes rush into combat, avoiding defensive swings of the Myrmidon’s power fist. With barely a trace of expression on his heavily reconstructed face, the XXth Legion Praetor delivers a series of rapid sweeping cuts with his long blade. The Myrmidon Lord falls into smoking pieces.

The Praetor and his flamer team move onward past the corpse of the Myrmidon, and come face to face with the rest of the Solar Auxilia army. The Red Jackal, the mysterious Blackshield operative, also makes an appearance, seemingly stepping out of thin air.

A unit of Veletaris axemen springs into action, rushing the Astartes.

Having taken a few casualties early in the battle, the axemen are operating at reduced strength. But with some luck, they can at least do some damage before they are overwhelmed by their posthuman enemies. But the Praetor has other ideas. He once again takes up his spear…

…And slays all six axemen, in a savage display of apex martial prowess.

The rest of the Solar Auxilia look on in shock, but have no choice but to hold the line. There is no where to retreat to, so they must fight or die.

The Auxilia’s dire situation is reinforced by the arrival of the jump pack equipped Destroyers. Now the remaining axemen are trapped between two dangerous Alpha Legion strike teams.

Lord Marshall Ibrahim Jarrow orders his men to stand firm, but confusion and death reigns as the Alpha Legion continue their attack.

The Destroyers deliver a rain of devastating shots from their bolt pistols from one side, and the tactical support marines fire gouts of flame from the other.

In a few heartbeats, all of the axemen are slain, leaving only the Legate Commander alive. Most of the volkite-wielding Veletaris are killed too. Rarely has the fragility of baseline human troops felt more consequential.

If he and his men are to die, the Lord Marshall reckons, it would be better to die on their feet, with their guns blazing. He orders his men to advance, despite the casualties, and ready their weapons.

In an unexpected display of suicidal courage, the lone Legate Commander executes one of the nearby Destroyers with a single inferno pistol shot, draws his charnabal sabre, and leaps into combat with the five remaining Astartes. He is immediately surrounded, but spins and parries attacks on all sides, holding the Astartes off.

The recently revealed Blackshield Astartes moves to assist the outmatched Legate Commander. While Ibrahim Jarrow and his Veletaris occupy the attention of the Praetor and flamer team, much-needed reinforcements arrive in the form of six Thallax, jetting their way through the steamy undergrowth.

Lord Marshall Jarrow punches white-hot plasma beams from his twin pistols into the Praetor’s unit, turning two Astartes to ash. The Veletaris join in with their volkite chargers, killing another two.

Before the Alpha Legion Praetor can charge in to take revenge on Jarrow and his men, half a dozen bulky Thallax slam into him from behind. He turns and slashes with his spear, but is unable to inflict much damage. In return, the Mechanicum shock troops punch and tear at him with their metal hands, pulling him apart as he shouts in rage, his icy composure finally breaking.

One of the Thallax stomps down with their piston-driven ceramite hooves, and with a final crack, the Praetor falls silent. He and his last flame-trooper are left dead on the damp earth!

The desperate central struggle between exhausted survivors continues. Smiling to himself at the fate of the Praetor, the Lord Marshall turns to the Destroyers. His smile fades when he sees his valiant Legate Commander fall, finally succumbing to the effects of the Destroyers’ rad grenades. The Blackshield charges into the combat and punches two of them off their feet with his master-crafted power fist.

The Destroyers turn to defend themselves from their mysterious Astartes cousin. The Thallax move to join in.

The unit of Alpha Legion tactical marines that ran from the Domitars earlier in the battle have spent time regrouping and creeping back to the fringe of the battle. From the distance, they fire their bolters at the Lord Marshall’s unit. He is the closest to them, and takes hits on his displacer matrix, which crackles and blurs their air around him as it deflects impacts. Without warning, one of the bolt shells shorts out the arcane defence field. He flickers then disappears in a flare of teleport energy!

Before the Thallax can move to assist the Blackshield operative, the other Alpha Legion tactical squad emerges from cover. This is one of many times in this battle that ambushers have been ambushed in turn. The humble but determined tactical Astartes fight with incredible fury, knowing that as the last remaining full-strength unit, the battle may hinge on their actions. With combat blade and bolter they tear down two of the resilient Thallax. When the others decide to fall back, the marines catch them in a sweeping advance, ripping their metal bodies apart.

Victorious, the tactical marines burst forth from the undergrowth in time to see the Blackshield finish off the Destroyers. He lets the last of them fall lifeless from his gore-encrusted power fist, and glares at the tacticals. The stage is set for an epic one-against-ten combat.

From nowhere, the Alpha Legion Saboteur appears, like a shadow detaching itself from a surface to take solid form. Without a sound, he raises his combi-melta, and slaughters the Blackshield with a single catastrophic heat-beam. The two surviving Veletaris have a few moments to look on, stunned, before they themselves are cut down by bolter fire from one of the tactical squads.

Just like that, the battlefield is in full control of the Alpha Legion, whose basic tactical squads have carried the day. The Saboteur pauses a moment to survey his work. With the swamp cleared of hostiles, they can claim the vital tunnel entrance, and the secrets within.

But over by the tunnel entrance, there is a flash and crackle of light as Rogue Trader Ibrahim Jarrow reappears, disoriented after his accidental displacer matrix teleport. Out of line of sight of the remaining Alpha Legion, he sneaks back to the tunnel entrance where he started the battle.

This means that the battle is technically a draw. Outrageous!

Later in the day, it is revealed that the tunnel leads to a vast underground facility filled with dark secrets beyond the ken of mortal men. There is a desperate struggle, with Ibrahim Jarrow and characters from multiple factions and armies fighting through spooky corridors to gather information and resources. But that is a tale for another time…

Thanks for reading, and thanks again to the Eye of Horus Podcast guys for running such an enjoyable event back in 2017. I hope to make it up to Brisbane for more in the future.