Battle of the Deinos Trenchworks - Mortwald

Points: 1500.

Mission: Data Scry-Salvage.

Secondary Objectives: Bring It Down, Engage On All Fronts and No Prisoners..

Opponent's Secondary Objectives: Engage On All Fronts, Grind Them Down and Raise The Banners High.

The Astra Militarum forces attempting to defend the outer defences of Mortwald request desperate aid as their lines were being overrun by forces of the Iron Warriors. Despite waging a war of attrition against the traitor forces already within the city walls, a detachment was dispatched to aid in the fight against the Rift Warden's mortal enemy. Lieutenant Aurellius was placed in charge and upon reaching the Deinos Trenchworks he immediately abandoned any idea of a major offensive feeling that such a course of action would come at too great a cost. Instead, he intended to secure the defences and maintain a strong link back to his battle brothers on the walls of the hive city.

To achieve this, the space marines would need to capture portions of the trench works currently held by the enemy. The plan was to attack the Iron Warriors with everything at his disposal while the Astra Militarum fought to keep further enemy reinforcements arriving to bolster their numbers. As with most Rift Warden attacks the initial attack was impressive but achieved little. The trenchworks were obscured by mist and smoke from the battle, while the Iron Warriors had ample opportunity to prepare for the Rift Wardens arrival.

One detachment attempted to capture the trenches with a determined assault but the attack collapsed as they were confronted by strong-point and artillery fire. As a consequence when the main force arrived they found themselves under heavy fire from obliterators higher up the trenches who were all too accurate with their attacks, The Rift Wardens retreated, still pouring bolter fire into the enemy positions.

As evening began to fall, Aurellius led his battle brothers forward, scouting out into the desert wastes in an attempt to out flank the Iron Warrior positions. By this time the air was thick with mist and smoke from the battle so they had little idea of where the enemy was located. Unfortunately, the marines ended up being easy targets for the obliterators and enemy tanks. The advance was halted and the space marines went to ground in the ash dunes. The battle to dislodge the Iron Warriors was going to be harder than first imagined.