Battle For Fort Angelis - Lucifuge

Points: 1000.

Mission: Secure Missing Artefacts.

Secondary Objectives: Assassination, Engage On All Fronts and Grind Them Down.

Opponent's Secondary Objectives: Fury Of The Lost, Psychic Interrogation and Relentless Assault.

Confident that his forces could capture the Blood Angel held fortification of Fort Angelis, captain Gwaine prepared his battle brothers as the evening began to fall. The Rift Wardens surrounded the fort without raising the alarm and then Gwaine gave the order. The battle brothers to the south launched the attack at the fort. Gwaine and his forces advanced while the remaining intercessors provided covering fire. Along the fortresses southern fall was a small gatehouse which lead directly into the fort grounds. The Rift Wardens had brought along a deimos pattern predator whose magna-melta cannon made short work of the gatehouse. As Gwaine and his brothers charged inside the Blood Angels opened fire.

When the attacking squads exited the gatehouse tunnel, they opened fire upon an estimated sixty marines of the Death Company. Combat lasted for around 15 minutes before the majority of the Blood Angels lay dead. Astorath and LeMartes, the commanders of the fort, fled as the last few marines were gunned down. Gwaine let them go as their deaths would only have inspired the enemy. Fort Angelis was in the hands of the Rift Wardens and although this was a minor victory, it was a victory all the same.

Battle of Bitter Lake - Lucifuge

Points: 2000.

Mission: Recover The Relics.

Secondary Objectives: Assassination, Grind Them Down and Raise The Banners High.

Opponent's Secondary Objectives: Blade of Sanguinius, Fury Of The Lost and Relentless Assault.

Following the initial confrontations, the Rift Wardens constructed a forward operation base on the shores of body of water known as Bitter Lake. The base of operations was hastily constructed and the chapter expected an imminent attack. Almost the entire chapter was present to reply the "considerable" forces arrayed against them.

The Blood Angels vanguard, approached by night and believed themselves unnoticed as the Rift Wardens had not reacted to their approach. A second force of jump pack assault marines and death company marines approached from across Bitter Lake in the early hours.

As the sun rose slight forward movements revealed the presence of the attacking Blood Angels and it looked like they were preparing to attack the central portion of the Rift Wardens base. Instinctively, the Rift Wardens moved to the most vital points and prepared to repel the enemy.

The enemy assault marines were detected first and were fired upon heavy intercessors squads in the spotter towers and eliminators closer to the lakeshore. This stopped that assault although briefly. Further attempts further north along the lakeshore crossed successfully despite incoming bolter and heavy weapons fire. As they landed however, the Rift Wardens laid down a withering fusillade of bolter fire and the incoming assault marines were killed or so significantly wounded that they were out of the fight. The Blood Angel assault across Bitter Lake was a total failure.

The main Blood Angels force then attacked from inland, supported by dreadnoughts and ATVs. The Rift Wardens marines relocated to defend the inland defences and opened fire on the approaching squads of enemy marines. Most were cut down due to the lack of intervening cover. One squad of Blood Angels tactical marines did managed to overrun and capture some forward trenches but a force of boltstorm aggressors counter-attacked during the opening hours of the battle and the trenchworks were recaptured.

At dawn on the second day, a second attack was launched, this time by infantry assault to the north. The attack was checked by the defending intercessors and the long range weaponry of the Rift Wardens own dreadnoughts. The Blood Angel attack petered out and failed, and a full withdrawal was effected. 

Seizing an opportunity, the Rift Wardens launched a counter-attack which began to push the Blood Angels back into the surrounding countryside. A number of intercessors and heavy intercessors moved out to perform this operation while aggressors and outriders moved up the flanks in a lopsided pincer action. This attack caused the Blood Angels to fall back even further although they lost a number of squads doing so, including losing a number of command personnel. 

At this time another Blood Angels force led by Astorath the Grim advanced from the south of the Rift Wardens base of operations and soon occupied their own entrenched positions while they waited for drop pods to deploy from orbit. While many drop pods were destroyed on route or landed outside the target drop zone, several dreadnoughts did make planetfall within the Rift Wardens defences. They inflicted significant casualties but where soon in turn destroyed by the defenders own dreadnoughts.

Minor attacks were launched when bolter fire was exchanged by small detachments to the south while eliminators and dreadnoughts targeted Astorath's position. With the Blood Angels otherwise contained away from the chapter's base of operations, Arthurus ordered one of his chaplains to lead a strong attack against the enemy positions to the south. The engagement was brief with the Rift Wardens inflicting enough casualties that Astorath was forced, unwillingly, to retreat his brothers.

The Rift Wardens were surprised to find that by dawn on the third day that the Blood Angels had, apart from a few scout snipers, fully retreated back into the wastes. Occasional attempts were made by small squads of Blood Angels to regain a foothold but these positions were untenable under the weight of incoming fire. Arthurus then directed a number of stormtalon gunships to harry the flanks of the enemy and ensure that the enemy were driven away from the territory now claimed by the Rift Wardens.

Arthurus chose wisely not to counter-attack the Blood Angels as they fled. He correctly assumed that spreading his forces out too thin would play into their hands. Best to rebuild and bolster their command base and seek suitable targets rather than relying in an all-out engagement.

Battle of Lucifuge - Lucifuge

 

Points: 1000.

Mission: Ransack.

Secondary Objectives: Oaths Of Moment, Raise The Banners High and Slay The Warlord.

Opponent's Secondary Objectives: Oaths Of Moment, Ransack and Relentless Assault.

In the aftermath of the Vigilus Crusade and the Rift War, Marneus Calgar requested that the remaining Rift Wardens head into the Imperium Nihilus to bolster the Blood Angels in the Lucifuge system against the forces of Chaos. Although underpowered now, Arthurus agreed. However, upon reaching the target system, the Rift Wardens found a system corrupted by the Ruinous Powers. Arthurus made the decision that the Blood Angels on Lucifuge must have been corrupted and ordered his battle brothers to engage them. Once again, the chapter found itself at war with it's own allies.

Following the initial Rift Wardens attack, Lemartes issued instructions hold back his battle brothers because scout teams found few Rift Wardens marines operating in the area. The larger chapter force was advancing some miles to the north-west. A wait and see approach to determine what the enemy would do.

On the second day, Lemartes was ordered to occupy a series of defences in the path of the Rift Wardens but not to engage unless fired upon first. An attempt to assault the enemy would be for naught if they proved to be unresponsive to parlay. Captain Leander of the Rift Wardens was ordered to occupy a series of fortifications but not to advance too far forward. Better to wait rather than be slaughtered by the blood crazed Death Company.

Lemartes and his battle brothers attacked with elements of the third and death companies with support on the following day by the fourth and fifth. They fell upon the fortifications held by Captain Leander with seething aggression. Further south, elements of the Rift Wardens held place and watched for signs of Blood Angel assault coming their way. During this moment, the Rift Wardens made planet fall at strategic locations all around the planet.

Blood Angel reinforcements moved slower than expected and it left Lemartes undermanned for the battle ahead. Rift Warden reinforcements were reported as converging on his position. The Rift Wardens lacked any real knowledge of the area and were unaware of just how many Blood Angels marines remained in the area. They had won a series of small skirmishes but had yet to face the full force of the sons of Sanquinius. 

Eventually on the third day day, Leander attacked the dug-in Blood Angels, striking out in thick fog and heavy rain, with little support other than a handful of dreadnoughts. As the fog lifted, Blood Angel heavy weapons fire brought down all but one redemptor dreadnought. A Blood Angel counter-attack pushed back the Rift Wardens and they were not able to reclaim their position until the early evening. 

To the north, a company of Rift Wardens advanced in the fog, encountering enemy forces and was forced to withdraw and take a divisionary route to join their battle brothers. On the southern flank, the Rift Wardens fared even worse and the whole force there retreated a short distance under heavy assault. 

Although this initial engagement for Lucifuge was brief and made up of scattered skirmishes, it showed the commanders of both sides that the other was not willing to give ground and attempts at communication failed. This would be a long, slow and bitter campaign.