5K Imperius Dominatus Battle Report. 50Victory Points (VPs) required for victory.
Background: The traitorous Black Abyss (BA) chapter of the Space Marines have launched an assault upon the city of Kallee IV. Only the loyalist Grey Hunters (GH) stand in the way of Black Abyss unleashing untold horror upon the peace-loving peoples of Kallee IV...
Imperius Dominatus rules can be found on this Facebook group here.
Notes: This play test uses many of Imperius Dominatus' key rules and army lists but note that the rules have been modified to allow alternating activations. The rules for this have yet to be finalised but will follow in due course.
5 Victory Points (VPs) are awarded for capturing objectives and additional VPs won when enemy formations are broken. The rules for Imperius Dominatus state that only 1/2 VPs should be awarded when the formation is broken and the remainder then received when the formation is fully eliminated; we disregarded this rule in favour of full VPs being awarded for simply breaking enemy formations.
The Grey Hunters' army list:-
And Black Abyss' army list:-
Set up overview as the sun rises over Kallee IV. Both armies deploy across the sector, with Black Abyss' army shown at the bottom of the picture.
Grey Hunters deployment:-
Black Abyss deployment:-
An entire Tactical detachment of BA Marines take up position in the Cathedral before being engaged in Close Combat by a GH Tactical detachment. The battle is bitterly contested within the great cathedral halls but GH Tacticals prevail! However, a second detachment of BA Tactical Marines follow up the assault by entering the building and opening fire on the once exhausted but now dead BA Tactical troops! The objective now belongs to BA! Outside, GH Attack Bikes swarm around BA Rhino transports and destroy a few. GH Land Raiders also fire upon their opposite number but only succeed in causing damage but no fatalities!
The BA Warhound Titan pounces forward with unnerving speed and sprays its two Inferno Guns across GH Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts but is not powerful enough only to destroy a solitary Dreadnought.
BA Land Raiders are hit by a GH Warlord Titan, but despite being struck by the combined firepower of a Marco-Cannon, Volcano Cannon and Plasma Cannon, they are only damaged!
The BA Warlord lumbers into the battle and targets a building on the periphery of the GH deployment zone. A powerful Macrocannon causes damage to the building but the troops inside survive the volley...GH Whirlwinds caught under the 12cm blast are not so lucky as they are reduced to molten slag!
Two squads of GH Vindicators target a building holding a full squad of BA Assault Marines. Some fortunate rolls for the GH player are not so fortunate for the BA Assault troops who are wiped out as the building is destroyed!
BA Heavy Support troops take up positions in nearby buildings and quickly take revenge upon the Vindicators, completely wiping them out! A squad of GH Tactical troops spring into action, launching a counter-attack upon the Heavy Support troops and engaging them in close combat. The invulnerable saves that the Heavy Support troops receive ensures that, after several rounds of close combat, the GH counter-attack is repelled!
Another squad of GH Tactical troops take up position in the rubble of the building that the Vindicators destroyed, but their presence is short-lived as another Warhound strides across the battlefield and tears the Tactical troops to shreds with its Vulcan Mega-Bolters!
GH Land Raiders take up position on an objective but find themselves pounced upon by a BA Assault Squadron. Despite their abilities, the Assault troops are no match for the Land Raiders which tear them apart! BA Attack Bikes follow up the attack (giving them an extra 1D10 in close assault as the Land Raiders have already fought one round of close combat) and this time the Land Raiders are obliterated!
The second GH Titan uses its Melta-Cannon to wipe out swathes of Assault and Attack Bike Survivors, but not enough to prevent them from stealing the objective!
Frustratingly for the GH Warlord, its fearsome firepower fails to make its mark as the building shields the troops within from the bombardment!
GH casualties - 2 Vindicator Squadrons, Whirlwind Squadron and the entire Tactical Company are broken!
BA Casualties - their Tactical Company also broke but the Assault Company held in there, only one element short of breaking!
Overview: Black Abyss have taken 7 of the 8 objectives, giving them a whopping 35VPs! Adding in the Break Points won from breaking enemy units, they have romped to victory!
End of Turn One:
GH Marines: 15VPs
BA Marines: 50VPs
Reflections:
As this was a play test, play was extremely casual and focussed on testing out a modified version of the new Imperius Dominatus rules. Too casual in the case of the Grey Hunters! It really wasn't conceivable until we realised how many objectives had fallen into Black Abyss' hands. It was also because we had chosen to award full Victory Points on breaking of companies that also ensured this bizarre result and was not the fault of the I.D. rules.
We are greatly enjoying I.D. and I personally have no intentions of returning to 2nd Edition/Net Epic. This is the greatest praise I can heap on the system, but I'll try to elaborate further...
The D10 system in itself is far better than the traditional D6 used throughout previous incarnations of Epic and what's great fun is that with I.D. you get to throw a lot of dice! The to-hit rolls have been standardised at 5+ for Marines which makes to hit rolls are far easier to calculate; there are still modifiers for cover and for orders so there is still some very straightforward arithmetic to be done. Armour saves are far tougher than they used to be so you can expect the heavy hitters like Land Raiders to stand up to far more abuse than was previously the case! Also, with Close Combat, the battles seem more ferocious than before are formations engage one another, then immediately follow up with further Close Combat against any nearby survivors. The improved armour saves improve chances of surviving in Close Combat, but, somewhat paradoxically, Close Combat is more deadly because, if the armour save is made, Close Combat is refought until one of the two elements engaging one another is destroyed! This makes Close Combat a real feature of the system and one which is exciting for both players as more dice are thrown in the melee!
We are still adapting to the system which takes time; I've been playing 2nd edition or Net Epic variants thereof since it was released so it is hard to reprogram my brain! There are a number of charts to be referred to in the system which we have been doing on tablets; things will speed up remarkably once we have those printed off. Also, the ranges have changed dramatically. If you're a regular 1st edition Epic player, Epic Armageddon player, or 40K player, these may seem familiar, but it will take time for me. At this stage I only have Marines that can be fielded in play tests with further armies on the way. This takes me back to 1st Edition where I learned to play Epic first with Titans, Marines, Eldar and Orks so I'm enjoying the nostalgia of learning to play this new system one force at a time!
Next I.D. playtest will be a Titan battle! Watch this space!
