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Late on a wednesday evening (more like dawn on thursday), having been making slaanesh marines for 5 hours and high on superglue, 4 bleary eyed gamers hatched a fiendish plan. Exactly who suggested it first is a mystery, lost to the annals of time, but I recall it went something along the lines of "Wouldn't it be cool to do a refight of the horus heresy", followed by "Yeah, wait a minute - between us we have all the chaos armies and lots of guard and space marines".
The following ideas somehow escalated into a five-a-side 40K game of massive proportions as we decided to re-create the seige on the Emperors palace in the closing days of the Horus Heresy. Two days and a warhammer fortress later, the armies were assembled and the seige began...

The Scenario

At this point we decided to dispense with army points due to the insane number of models we all had and since it was a historical refight, decided to simply use all the models that we had. To represent the large number more guard avaliable than marines, all imperial guard troop choices received sustained attack rules.

On the Side of the foul minions of Chaos:

• Horus The Deciever: Ed - Traitor Imperial Guard
• Angron; Primarch of the World Eaters: Alex - Khornate Chaos Space Marines
• Fulgrim; Primarch of the Emperor's Children: Matt - Slaanesh Chaos Marines
• Mortarion; Primarch of the Death Guard: Chris - Nurgle Chaos Marines
• Richard - Traitor Imperial Guard

Force Lists (Approximate!)

• Death Guard
  • Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard
  • Chosen Squad
  • Posessed Dreadnought
  • Great Unclean One
  • 4 Death Guard Squads in rhinos
  • Plaguebearers 1st unit
  • Plaguebearers 2nd unit
  • Predator
  • Nurglings
  • Land Raider
• Emperor's Children
  • Chaos lord with retinue in rhino
  • Chaos Marine squads 1-3
  • Posessed Dreadnought
  • Deamonettes
• World Eaters
  • Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters
  • Angrons Retinue
  • Bloodthirster
  • Bloodletters 1st unit
  • Bloodletters 2nd unit
  • Chaos Hounds
  • Berserker sqauds 1-4
  • Posessed Marines
  • Raptors
  • Bike Squadron
• Traitor Guard
  • 3 Sentinel scouts
  • Stormtrooper unit
  • Infantry Platoon with 2 squads
  • Infantry Platoon with 2 squads
  • Ogryns
  • Ratling Snipers
  • 2 Tanith Snipers
  • Leman Russ Detachment
  • Leman Russ Demolisher

Brave defenders of the Imperium:

• The Immortal Emperor of Mankind and Sanguinus; Primarch of the Blood Angels: Graham - Blood Angel Space Marines
• Rogal Dorn; Primarch of the Imperial Fists and Leman Russ; Primarch of the Space Wolves: Lee - Imperial Fists and Space Wolves
• Lion'el Jonson; Primarch of the Dark Angels: Dan - Dark Angels
• Lord Solar; Commander of the armies of the Segmentum Solar: Dave - Imperial Guard
• Colonel Fisher: Pete - Imperial Guard

Force Lists (Approximate!)

• Blood Angels 2nd Company
  • Sanguinus, Primarch of the Blood Angels
  • Chaplain Moriarty
  • Captain Risius Kyle
  • Chapter Standard Bearer Atlatl
  • 2nd Company Command unit
  • Tactical Squads 1-4
  • Assault Squad #7
  • Devastator Squads 9-10
  • Scout Combat Squad
  • Scout Sniper Squads 1-2
  • 3rd squad Rhino
  • Dreadnought 'Old Condorius'
  • Land Speeder Squadron 'Falcon'
  • Chaplain Mortar on bike
  • Bike squadron
  • Attack bike squadron
  • Land Raider Primus
• Imperial Fists
  • Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists
  • First Company Captain Takar Maximus
  • First Company Command Squad, Bodyguard of Dorn
  • Terminator Squad #1
  • Techmarine
  • Apothecary
  • Veteran Squads 5-6
  • Devastator Squad #9
  • Dreadnought 'Fulgar'
  • Dreadnought
  • Whirlwind
  • Land Raider Primus
• Loyalist Guard
  • Steel legion Infantry Platoon with 2 squads
  • 6 Tanith snipers
  • Ratling snipers
  • 4 sentinel scouts
  • Infantry platoon with 2 sqauds
  • Infantry platoon with 4 sqauds
  • Colonel with command section
  • Imperial Missionary
  • Imperial Preacher
  • Ogryns with Chimera Transport
  • 2 Leman Russ
• Space Wolves
  • Wolf Lord
  • Rune Priest
  • Wolf Gaurd Terminators
  • Grey Hunters
  • Blood Claws in Rhino
  • Long Fangs
  • Venerable dreadnought
  • Predator
  • Whirlwind
• Dark Angels
  • First Company Captain
  • First Company Librarian
  • Terminator Assault Squad in Land Raider Crusader
  • Terminator Squad
  • Dreadnought
  • Dreadnought
  • Tactical squad in rhino
  • Tactical squad
  • Scout squad

Traditionally, the Blood Angels and Imperial Fists defended the palace, so these were deployed on the walls, along with the loyalist guard. Each wall was treated as two bunkers so it would be up to the Chaos side to create a breach and take advantage of it before The imperial reinforements turned up. Chaos had to get as many troops into the palace as possible. Chaos reinforcments (Khorne and Nurgle) arrived on their second turn along with the imperial tanks. As befiting the history, Dark Angels and Space Wolves arrived as reserves on the third Imperial turn and were allowed to come on either of the two hort board edges. The game lasted for five turns and a total of 9 hours playing time.

The Battle

Click for larger image

The Fortress is built
The Imperial Palace	The Chaos advance arrives
The chaos lines	OPEN FIRE!!!
STAND FAST FOR THE EMPEROR!!!	Sanguinus leads the gatehouse defense
	The Slaanesh line advances
Traitor tanks destroy the palace wall	The Slaanesh dreadnought lumbers towards the imperial lines
Stormtroopers hide in woods whilst Imperial Fists defend the Breach	The World Eaters scream in from the west flank
Surrounded, the situation looks bleak for the defenders	The defenders armoured company arrives
Mortarion challenges Dorn to personal combat	Tanks plug the hole
Imperial Fists flood through the breach into the chaos horde	The west wall is destroyed by a Bloodthirster
Space Wolf reinforcements arrive	Imperial Fist terminators hold the gate with unwavering loyalty
Mortarion and Dorn clash in mighty combat
The attackers draw in...	Blood Angels command destroys the Bloodthirster
Arrival of the Space Wolves on the West Flank and Dark Angels on the East Drive off the Berserkers and Emperor's Children	The Weary Warriors
Long Live the Imperium - The Victors from left -> Right Lord Solar Watkins, Leman Russ, The Emperor of Mankind, Commisar Fisher, Lion'el Jonson	The Defeated Fallen. From Left -> Right Angron, Mortarion, Horus the Deceiver, Fulgrim, Traitor Colonel Bunyan

The Result!

A bloody but hollow victory for the Imperium. Help from the Space Wolves and Dark Angels has driven back the first wave of attackers but yet more foul followers of chaos still encroach on the palace. The death toll on either side is catastrophic. The defenders withdraw to make one last stand in the Inner Sanctum. Sensing the end is near, Horus sets in motion his final deceit...

All in all, I think great fun was had by everybody, we'll have to do it again next year...