I started out very well indeed, making enough corruption draws to hold all the spaceports after a bit of co-exisitence combat, and managing to blow several holes in the Titans Dave had brought to bear. However I also used a Port Landing order to drop several reinforcements onto Eternity Wall held by Mortarion. This was to set the tone for the game...
In his infinite wisdom Dave decided to use Jaghatai Kahn wrestle the Primus Spaceport from Angron. This might seem to be an impressive tactical move since if he succeeded that would mean I would no longer have any claim on the Spaceport, however I'm pretty sure it was only because he wanted to kill the Primarch. Whatever the reason, there was no way Angron could stand up to being outnumbered for so long and he eventually fell, with Kahn taking the spaceport.
I had shored up my forces at Eternity Wall and was attacking the Palace where Rogal Dorn was mounting a solid defence, despite Mortarion's ability essentaially cancelling Dorn's ability out. The battle ended the only way it can when it's two leaders absolutely refuse to die: A bloody stalemate. Realising I was getting nowhere, I drop-podded a force of Tzeentch warriors on to Lion's Gate to attempt to take the Palace from both sides. However, Dave had other ideas...
Sanguinius boarded the Vengeful Spirit in an attempt to take the ship and Horus. After a furious battle in the Catacombs, he then made a move on Horus himself. The ensuing fight caused wounds to both sides but Sanguinius lacked the manpower to take out many of Horus' guards and lost the fight. Help arrived in the form of Rogal Dorn...
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| Horus falls under the full fury of two Primarchs... |
I was all too aware that there was no way Horus could survive a sustained attack from two primarchs for long, and I also knew there wasn't a blind thing I could do about it. My only chance was to use the Frenzied Assault combined with the Relentless assault with Mortarion in the hope of striking at the Emperor himself - I had enough initiative to get as far as the inner palace and would need Horus to hold out for one more change of initiative while I initiated the final assault. Mortarion's part of the plan worked absolutely fine. Unfortunately the combined assault of Sanguinius and Rogal Dorn was too much for Horus, and he fell, giving the game once again to Dave.
My mistake here was obvious: I should have reinforced Angron at Spaceport Primus. By the time Horus fell under attack, we'd just gone past the point where a spaceport victory is possible, and had Angron still got the port that is what would have happened. In hindsight, there's very little point in reinforcing Mortarion; as Rogal Dorn can only use his special abitity in defence and would be cancelled out by Mortarion anyway, he is as unlikely to attack as he is likely to give any ground. So I'll know next time to pile as much as I can onto Primus, take what spaceports I can with Corruption Draws and hope for the best. I think while the game does require you to react to what happens at the start, beyond that you have to make a battle plan and stick to it, otherwise the opposition will wipe their bottoms with your written admission of incompetence...
Seriously though, good game Dave! Looking forward to the next one...
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