Corking the bottle - Dambrus.

SCENARIO THE SECOND - Dambrus. Being a short, sharp fight in the Northern Corridor of the Gud-Drabsal Valley.

[Sasha's Crusaders lead the Campaign with an aggregate score of +9. 5 points for scenario objective and one point for a wounded or dead enemy].

Tonight, young Kits, we return the cold, bitter land of Naedio where your Great Grandquar helped battle for tungsten and fish. 
As your ancestor fought up the Gud-Drabsal valley, a daring plan was undertaken to the north. ParaMarines were dropped to seize vital crossroads, airfields and telegraph posts in order to close off the Gud-Drabsal to reinforcements and escape. We wanted to cut the Naedians off from the Coftyran landings at Andrasvyl.
We had high hopes in our Airmobile Forces - the elite of the Crusade. Bad weather, sleet and high winds on the day of the drop; however, dashed our hopes for the coup de grace.
This is the story of one gallant band, as told to your Great Grandquar by one of those brave few. 

The Crusader ParaMarines set up on the Left (East) by the woods and swamp. The Naedians and supports can come in from the North , South, and West board edges on the turn of their card. They are placed to the North for this picture - 3 sections and a HQ section with a Cryfen LMG. The Naedians benefited from a Coftyran MMG in support. The stone barn is the objective.

Looking from the West

Looking from the South

We were scattered over creation. We formed small teams and moved out to our objectives. I was attached to the Headquarters unit of Is-Caerten An'wort -he was a young quar promoted from Baenyr, I think, too soon - as we shall see. Maybe political, who knows? Anyway, we were lucky with our drop canisters. 4 HS-11 machine guns for just 2 sections. 
We split up into two teams each with a machine gun. [Sasha rolled for an LMG team as support for this scenario] A lot of the Quar, I didn't recognize. We were trained to fight whether we knew the Rhyfler next to us or not, but it was still a little disconcerting. As I was a Yawdrahl, I took the first team of the first squad. We were in the lead along with the second team under some is-Yawdrahl I didn't know. Doesn't matter, he was buried in some pine grove, Ehn'k'du knows where! His mates took his tags and asked the Naedians to mail them to his family. We wanted to cut the rail line and road. They told us it was to be Spring weather when we dropped - they have a different idea of Spring there; it was miserable. We wanted to head to a disused barn and cover the road and rail line from there, providing us some shelter at least.  We knew we were going to be surrounded, but that's nothing new for us. 

First Section in front, our narrator leads a team on the right. The Master Yawdrahl followed by the Is-Caerten's small team in the back. Just off to the North you can see a Naedian team move up towards the rail line embankment.

We moved out fairly smartly, heading straight for the barn. As we left the cover of the copse we noticed an enemy group dash for the cover of the rail embankment to our right.
We didn't know at the time, but other elements were also moving up through the woods to the North on our right, in front of the barn to the West, and, most disconcertingly, through the woods to the South-West. This was a Coftyran MMG covering the open ground towards the barn which we learned to our peril later.

The Coftyran MMG setting up in the South West.

The view towards the Crusader advance.

 Our is-Caertan's team spotted the group running towards the rail line in front of the barn. They were crouched in the small patch of woods scanning for enemy. Sustained fire from the trusty HS-11 brought down a few of the militia Quar as they threw themselves down against the rail embankment. The Master Yawdrahl breaks to his left and plunges with his team into the cover of the icy marsh. I could hear cursing from the sodden Quar as they crashed through the sloppy undergrowth. We ran for the ruins to our front. The Is-Yawdrahl's section ran forward hoping to reach the barn's stone walled paddock before more enemy showed themselves. 
Another enemy group crept through the woods to our right and tried to set up a firing line, luckily the HS-11 gunner with the is-Caerten knew what he was about and spun his weapon to his right and forced the other Naedian section back. 
It wasn't looking too bad; we were advancing and pinning the poorly trained forces flanking us. 

Naedian Section reaches the rail line; not without casualties. 

Naedian forces enter from the West and advance unseen towards the objective. The MMG has already set up in the South West. 

Naedian Section flanks from the North. Their rash advance is sent reeling backwards from a burst of Crusader LMG fire. But they do their job, keeping the Crusaders looking over their shoulder. 

The first section reaches the edge of the ruins. The Master Yawdrahl's group enters the cover of the swamp. The is-Caertan leads from the rear covering the advance; the HS-11 gunner doing stellar work in pinning the opposition. The is-Yawdrahl leads a team  in a rush for the barn.

This was a textbook bounding overwatch maneuver, and we thought we had it in the bag; brushing aside poorly trained militia. Our team ran up against the walls of the ruin as the is-Yawdrahl team rushed past us. They had only gone a few steps when tragedy struck. Out in the open they were sitting cadiers. The distinctive rattle of a Coftyran M-3B foretold their doom. Two Quar went down immediately with another two wounded. The is-Caertan at the front took the brunt of the fire. The maelstorm did not let up, rounds raking the ground around the survivors added injury and insult to the dead. [Two MMG team cards in a row -devastating] The three badly wounded quar dragged their comrades out of the fire zone and hobbled to cover in the rear. We learned they were rounded up fairly quickly after flagging down a Coftyran Motor Truck a kilometer back down the road. Despite their wounds, they had managed to bury their dead with honors. 

This sight emboldened the enemy who re-emerged from the woods and also poked their heads above the embankment to take pot-shots at us. The Master Yawdrahl's group was still floundering in the quagmire so was of no help. We jumped over the walls to the ruins and dashed to the the opposite side to set up a base of fire and see if we could see the three-bee that halted our advance. Instead we were taken under fire from the rail line. One of my rhyflers was hit in the shoulder. They were peppering us from the North in the woods and from the rail line. Where was the is-Caerten? He had gone to ground, unsure whether to advance and support us or suppress the enemy -he ended up doing neither. [Failed to go into Defensive Mode so went Confused and failed Sighting rolls - did this numerous times this game]

First Section makes it to the ruins taking a wound in the process.

They return fire and gut the Naedian's along the embankment, wounding three. They break, and run to the West. 

The Naedians in the woods are a constant menace to the advance. 

What's missing? One whole team, that's what. 

Fleeing Naedians. 

I grabbed the HS-11 gunner by the collar and pulled him over to the North side of the ruins - he couldn't locate the position of the M-3B so I thought he was better use killing the Quar we could see. He lay the gun over the wall and let an entire belt rip. Luckily we carried spare barrels! We could see what was left of the Naedians at the rail line flee to the west. We waiting for orders. We needed support to cross the open area to the barn. Nothing. The is-Caertan had frozen! 
They were taking fire from the woods to the North. Luckily, him, not us. Our HQ team did manage to push the enemy back, but they seemed to keep reappearing. We were stuck. I contemplated rushing to the barnyard wall and entering the barn - there were doors on the South side, but a sharp-eyed Quar noticed a snout poke out of a top floor window. We also knew a M3-B covered the barnyard. It would be foolhardy. We looked to the is-Caertan for direction, but still no orders. 

Naedian forces advance unopposed to objective. 

We were being harassed from the woods, and the open ground was a kill zone. 

Naedians secure the objective.

Retreat through the marsh.

Retrograde Advance.

Just then we heard three whistle blasts - our order to pull back. Under cover of the is-Caertan's MG team we leapfrogged back. He had finally made a decision. The wet Master Yawdrahl's team cussing up a storm as they had to move through the swamp a second time. 
The enemy let us go. They had been bloodied, but had secured the field of battle and any further action on our part in the face of a trained M3-B team would be foolish. 

We hoped to make it down the valley road to our advancing forces some many kilometers South, we were heartened by the many flights of our kites heading North to bomb the enemy staging areas but it was not to be. Two full Bataliwn had been sent to mop our Paramarine forces up. The next morning we stumbled into a Coftyran roadblock. It was careless, but we were exhausted and running low on supplies. We figured we'd only be in captivity a few days anyway so let's tie up a bunch of those snot-snouts in guarding us. That's what we thought, anyway...

Next time we return down the Valley. This time the Coftyrans lead a counter-attack to blunt the 196th, 12th Catrawd's advance. 

With the loss of the scenario and of a few quar killed and wounded, the Crusader's victory point total drops to +6. Luckily they wounded and killed quite a few Naedians keeping a positive count on the points total. These points can be used to adjust the reinforcement table dice roll but use too many and you risk losing the campaign. Quar lives are costly.