Nido de Plaga IV: Capture a Base of Operations

From Marauder Central Command
To Commander, Marauder Assault Cruiser Mandrake

Captain,

Following your successful mission to secure the landing zone Marauder Intelligence has identified a nearby building complex which will make an excellent base of operations for your force. We have authorised the landing of a Mule transport to help with the movement of the supplies necessary to support your mission on the surface. Planetary scans show no current evidence of organised military forces in your area but further encounters with the 'Zombies' you identified is to be expected. We would recommend including at least one person with engineering experience in your escort team in case of issues with the Mule. Once you have the base of operations secured you can start our mission on the planet.

Gen. Radgrad.

Acting on his further orders Marauder Captain T. deployed a ground assault team lead by the Goblin Bolts. The strike team make-up was :

1* Bolts
2 * Gruntbot, 1 with flamer
1 * Boomer, engineer and grenade specialist
3 * Commando
2 * Mawbeast
1 * Ripper Rainmaker

They also had a Marauder Mule stacked full of supplies to escort up the table to the enclosed compound, we assigned this as having 2 armour and 4 health with a defence of 5+.

The Plague side started with the following on the table:

1 * Aberration
1 * Stage 3A General
6 * Stage 3Z Zombies
2 *  Plague Victims (from the Mazon Labs list)

The advantage of playing an umpire led narrative game is that I could mix up the forces as I liked and also feel free to bring on extra troops as I wished. I also put out two spawn points for the Plague, the Marauders had discovered in the last game that these points could be liable to being destroyed by fire if attacked. I gave them 1 wound with a save of 7+.

Things didn't get off to a great start for the Marauders as the Rainmaker leapt up onto a building to grab the closest supplies cache for it to be the only booby-trap on the table, this did no damage to him but did blow him off the building into the path of the Mule, meaning it wouldn't be able to advance.

Elsewhere the Marauders pushed up and killed a couple of Zombies and the Plague also advanced to try and block the Marauders from accessing the truck which was blocking the advance of the Mule. The Flamer Gruntbot also managed to remove the closest Zombie spawn point.

In the next round the Marauders continued to push forwards and the Rainmaker recovered enough to get a solid shot off on the Aberration causing two wounds, this forced it to take cover behind a handy building. Bolts and the Gruntbots assisted by the Mawbeasts continued to slaughter Zombies and the Plague side was running low of mobs to through into the meat grinder. At the end of Turn 2 I brought on some additional Zombies and Plague Victims to help turn the tide.

Turn 3 saw Boomer jump start the blocking truck and move it out of the way, this allowed the Mule to advance. The Aberration killed a Mawbeast and further Zombies and a Plague Victim fell as the Marauders continued to advance and the Plague reinforcements pushed forwards.

The game then devolved into a series of viscous melee combats as the all melee Plague clashed with the by now mostly melee Marauders, two of the Commando's fell to the Plague as did the second Mawbeast and one of the Gruntbots. But Bolts and flamer Gruntbot as well as the Rainmaker still pressed on. 

At this point the Marauders had the mule one move away from the secure area (they just needed to move it up to win) and the Plague had the route blocked so a grenade from Boomer was thrown but only managed to knock the Plague Victim onto the bonnet of the Mule.

When Boomer fell to the Plague that left only Bolts, the flamer Gruntbot, and the Rainmaker left to see out the mission. Fortunately the Gruntbot was up to the task as it managed a flame and melee combo that set the Aberration on fire and when it activated it tool the one wound it needed for it to be killed.

The three remaining Marauders then managed to clear out enough of the Plague to see the Mule to the objective. It had looked like the Marauders would easily win the game early on but adding in the reinforcements made it a much tougher proposition for them and it turned out to be a very close game in the end.

Next time the Marauders will be having a look around on the planet to try and extract some data on what has been happening.