The Ultramar Secession: April 2016

The Battle of Solis Planum was a colossal battle on Mars that saw both the Secessionists and Mechanicum simultaneously attacking the last major holdings of the Imperialists on Mars.

Defending the center the Imperialists were composed of Thousand Sons, Salamanders and Iron Hands with supporting elements of Solar Auxilia, Imperial Fists and some renegade Emperor's Children.

Attacking from the north were the forces of the Mechanicum. Comprising of a Reaver Titan of the Legio Astraman and attending Knight House, Skitarii Legions, a considerable Legio Cybernetica cohort and a small force of Raven Guard.

From the south cam the Secessionists composed primarily of Iron Warriors and Imperial Militia, lead by a contingent of Ultramarines and supporting elements of the Alpha Legion.

The Salamanders and a small contingent of Iron Hands Held off the Mechanicum in the north. Vulkan and one Iron Hands Veteran Tactical squad destroying almost all of the Knight Titans, all the while the Reaver Titan bombarded Vulkan whilst all watching saw him walk unscathed from the God machines hellish firepower.
The bulk of the Iron Warriors, Thousand Sons and the supporting Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children tried to sally forth in the south smashing into the Secessionists whilst the Reaver randomly bombarded both sides from afar.
The defence in the center was disrupted somewhat with the Raven Guard dropping virtually their entire force in the middle of the defenders throwing their defence into disary.

Ultimately the defence held, with Imperialist forces taking massive damage but seriously bloodying the noses of the Mechanicum and Secessionist forces.

Due to this game having taken place some time ago, and me only having 4 pics and my terrible memory to work off of I will give a few highlights I remember. If people have any fond anecdotes they want to add in then please do so in the comments below.

Here are a few of my highlights:
-The Raven Guard Moritat being killed by the Scattering Raven Guard Deathstorm Drop Pod, before he had fired.
-Vulkan surviving every shot the Reaver fired his way and merrily beating down Knight Titans.
-The Defenders leaving their entire center open with a Raven Guard Drop Army waiting on the wings.
-1 Iron Hands Veteran Tactical squad killing 2 (or 3 I forget) knight Titans in close combat and only losing less than half the squad total.
-The crazy amount of armoured firepower that the Secessionists had.
-The Secessionist hill well away from the front line ,with the Ultramarines command squad and Lascannon toting Iron Havoks on it getting bombarded into oblivion by orbital bombardment (2-3 orbital bombardments I think).
-The crazy number of Dreadnoughts on the table (from the pictures I can see 29 but I think there may have been a few more)

Luna Wolf Deployment

Imperial Fists Deployment

The Knights and Luna Wolves advance, Artox performs true to form buy targeting the Spartan Victory with his Thermal Cannon, only to realise that between its Armoured Ceramite, Flare Shield and the range he was completely unable to harm the mighty tank. The rest of the army's fire was just as lackluster and resulted in nothing more than some scorched paint!

Thin Imperial Fists mighty tanks backed up in an attempt to buy more time for their fiercesome firepower to do its work. Brilliant beams of focussed light burst from their many Lascannons severyly damaging Artox' Errant and the Styrix! The Knights on the other hand powered up the left flank. The Hawkshroud Errant thought to finish off the Styrix with its own Thermal Cannon but once again a Flare Shield was the undoing of a Thermal Cannon, not the best day to be a Knight Errant!

Having failed to cleanly cross the cratered ground the Hawkshroud Knights are blasted with Thermal Cannon, Volkite Chieorovile and Graviton shots, before being smashed into with the combined fury of 3 Knights! This was about to get messy!

The Hawkshroud Seneschal faced off both Artox' Errant and the Styrix Arbalester, and completely missed his attacks! Artox swung back in an amazing display utterly unlike any he had ever performed and smote the Seneschal! Surely he would be promoted to Scion Marshal for this mighty deed. As Artox celebrated his mighty strike he watched the Styrix Arbalester engulfed in the catastrophic fireball unleashed by the demise of the Hawkshroud Knight. Only for the Styrix to also Explode! smashing aside the nearby shipping containers and crushing a few Luna Wolves too. Letting out a defeated sigh Artox awaited the Seneschal Lancer's next furious lecture.

The Acheron Preceptor meanwhile demonstrated the correct way to dispatch a honourable foe, who seemed just as adept in the Hawkshroud art of close quarter fighting as the Hawkshroud Seneschal, without getting a team kill in the process.

The Imperial fists having seen their Hawkshroud allies cut to ribbons were none to impressed. Virctory rumbled forward quadlascannons blazing whilst Praetor Adalwulf, Primus Medicae Omni and the Huscarls ran headlong into Artox. Once again in a display quite unlike his normal actions Artox slew 3 of the Huscarls. The remaining Huscarls tore the Knight's legs off and 2 were promptly crushed as the top half of the Knight came tumbling down. The Land Raiders Indomitable and Dauntless poured fire into the Lancer Seneschal doing only minor damage as the Knight and Luna Wolves closed in.

The end is nigh, the Knights rush in destroying the Dauntless and felling Adalwulf, Omni and the last Huscarl.

Meanwhile the Luna Wolves rushed in the Destroyers making short work of the Spartan Victory with their meltabombs. The Reavers on the other hand politely knocked on the Indomitable's hull with a powerrfist as they had forgotten to bring any meltabombs.

The Imperial Fists Tactical squads hop out and open fire in a desperate attempt to turn the tide.

The dreaded el Fisto and his squad open fire on the Reaver Attack squad, a ferocious fusillade of firepower that kills a single marine, apparently Luna Wolves power armour is crazy good. Tactical Squad 1 opens fire on the Destroyers and is similarly ineffective!

Laughing off the bolter shells detonating harmlessly off their power armour the Tactical squad, Destroyers and Acheron blast Tactical Squad 1 before the Destroyers launch in to the attack, and are promptly beaten back! The one surviving Destroyer clearly thought his job in this battle was done as he legged it never to rally.

At the other end of the battle the Reavers and Lancer charged el Fisto's squad, wanting to guarantee the meddlesome Sergeant would cause no havoc. El Fisto promptly challenged the Chaplain and was beaten down by the Luna Wolf, who clearly hadn't heard of, or didn't care about the legendary sergeant. The Reavers then proceeded to butcher the remaining marines whilst the Lancer watched.

The last 3 Tactical marines can't help but feel something terrible is about to happen as they fire at the fleeing Destroyer.

Being the stubborn and resolute warriors they are, it was at this point the Imperial Fists conceded that this might not be going to plan. The day was over, except for a bit more bloodshed and screaming.

Victory for the Knights and Luna Wolves!

The Mission was Dominion, from Betrayal with Hammer and Anvil deployment.

We had 3 objectives (all mid-field) worth 3pts each, Slay the warlord, First Blood, Attrition (extra victory point if you destroy more enemy units than your opponent).
In addition everything except Independent Characters, Flyers and Dedicated Transports were scoring.

The armies were Liam's Imperial fists with Quistoris Knight allies vs my Questoris Knights with Luna Wolf Allies.

Imperial Fists, and Knight allies
Praetor Adalwulf and Primus Medicae Omni