Zone Mortalis Battle Report 1

Sorry I haven't posted anything since last week. I've had a cold that won't quit and haven't really been too motivated.

I did play several games last weekend with two of my good friends who came to town. The first two games were last Friday night. We played two Zone Mortalis games. The first game which is featured in this post is a 1,000 point game on a 4' by 4' table. I played my Minotaurs and he had his Marines Errant.

My army consisted of a librarian with Smite and The Quickening. I wanted to do something different with this guy hence the two psychic powers I usually never take.

I also had 2 tactical squads each with a missile launcher and flamer and a sargent with a power fist.

I then also took a 10 man Vanguard Vet squad on foot with 2 power weapons and a sarg with a power fist.

My final squad was a 7-man Sternguard Squad with 2 plasmaguns and 3 combi-plasmas.

He took a librarian and a chaplain.

A 10 man vanguard vet squad which he combat squaded. They had a variety of nasty hth weapons like dual lightning claws and stuff (look at the pics and you'll see all of the nastiness that they had.)

He also had a 10 man tac squad with a heavy bolter which he combat squaded and a 8 man tac squad with a powerfist.

We played the Assault mission (the first of the two Zone Mortalis Missions) with 2 optional rules. The Reactionary Fire and Power surge rules. For the power surge we decided to roll a d6 at the beginning of each game turn and on a 4+ a power surge would happen. We forgot half the time that it was night fight however, so I would recommend not using this rule unless you have some sort of marker to remember night fight. Also the close confines of a Zone Mortalis game means you will be able to see the enemy almost always anyways so night fight has a very minimal effect.

I wanted to try the power surge mainly because I had built two doors and wanted to see them randomly open and close. Unfortunately at one point I got shot to hell because a door opened and exposed my squad to two squads shooting it. Ooops, lol.

I have to say Reactionary Fire is a fantastic rule, because it allows units to have some sort of defense against hand to hand units that can come running around corners where you would normally not be able to deal with. I would like to propose a change to the rule to make units with a lower initiative be better able to use reactionary fire.

Instead of rolling an initiative check to use it, have them roll Leadership. Also you could extend the number of units that can fire to any unit within 6" of the unit getting charged. Those units can do reactionary fire as well if they pass a leadership test. I think that change would allow guard to survive better.

Anyways onto the battle report!

As per the mission rules we split our forces into two. I started on the board with my Libby joined to a squad of Sternguard and a tac sqaud. He started with two tac squads on the table. He got first turn and got to pic his deployment zone. I had to deploy opposite of him after my dice roll. And I placed the objectives.

Here are my Sternguard with Librarian:

Here is my Tac Squad ready to bust down a door.

There is a Vanguard squad of the Marines Errant eyeing up an objective.

Brother Andreus examines his auspex trying to get a bead on where the Marines Errant are located.

A combat squad of Marines Errant take the high ground and set up a heavybolter ready to lay down a hail of fire.

As the Minotaur's Tactical squad rounds a corner, the heavy bolter marine readys his weapon.

The Sternguard tries to out-maneuver a Marines Errant tactical squad.

As Tactical squad 1 rounds the corner the Heavy Bolter opens up and takes down one marine.

The Vanguard Vets of the Marines Errant close on one of the objectives.

A combat squad arrives from reserve.

The other half of the Vanguard Vets with a chaplain arrives as well.

The Minotaurs Tactical Squad fires on the heavy bolter combat squad forcing them to fall back.

Across the corridor the Minotaurs notice the Marines Errant's reserves arrive.

The under-strength Marines Errant Tactical Squad takes up a firing position.

The Marines Errant continue to move onto the board, taking control of nearly half of it.

All of a sudden a power surge happens and all of the light go out. A previously closed door also opens revealing a squad of Minotaurs.

The heavy bolter squad had regrouped and moved back into position on their ledge. The door opened without warning and the tactical squad opened up along with the heavy bolter squad onto the unsuspecting Minotaurs. It wasn't pretty. Only 3 were left after the hail of fire.

On the Minotaurs next turn the weakened tactical squad moves up and the Librarian and Sternguard move into range.

I will be back shortly with the epic conclusion of this Zone Mortalis game in a few minutes. I will also give some more thoughts on this interesting 40k variant.