Zone Mortalis

To be honest, I didn't get a Zone Mortalis game today, but I watched two of my friends play it, and it was fun! I even have a few pictures here.

A World Eaters detachment was assaulting a fortress manned by the Iron Warriors, probably because Horus ordered the World Eaters to drag part of a retreating company of Iron Warriors back to Terra to continue the siege when Perturabo decided to up and leave during the events of Mortis. At least that's the narrative. The World Eaters had 3 Contemptor Dreadnoughts in a single talon, a Praetor in Cataphractii armor, Red Butchers and 2 15-men Despoiler squads. The Iron Warriors had a Warsmith, 2 15-man Despoiler squads, an Apocethary, Siege Tyrant Terminators and Cataphractii Terminators (can't remember if they are supposed to be Dominators or something), as well as 3 Contemptor Dreadnoughts in a single talon.

This being our first Zone Mortalis game in the new edition, we made quite a few mistakes - I think we had way more than four doors, for example, and the Defender (Iron Warriors) controlled all the doors while the Attacker (World Eaters) were forced to break them down because they were locked even though the mission (Force the Breach) said nothing about that. Oh, well.

Notable moments - the World Eater Contemptor Dreadnoughts piled in and tried to smash the Siege Tyrant Terminators, who tanked the hits, but in the end, all the Contemptor Dreadnoughts either destroyed each other in combat, or were smashed apart by krak grenades. That was brutal.

The Dreadnoughts failed to kill the Iron Warrior Despoilers, though one of the Iron Warrior Dreadnoughts blew up and killed the World Eaters Praetor, Instant Death-ing him because it was Strength 8. Ouch. The World Eaters did get one objective, but the Iron Warriors had two in the end, and with Slay the Warlord (and Attrition), they won the game 5-2. Oh, well.

The Reactions for Zone Mortalis also made things more interesting. So we have Suppress for the movement phase where the reacting unit makes snap-shots. We have Displace for the shooting phase where they move up a number of inches up to their Initiative, if I remember correctly, and Brace for the assault phase where you do a morale check. If you fail it, you move 1D6" away, but if you pass it, you automatically pass all morale checks for sweeping advances or losing a combat. That allowed the Iron Warriors to use Displace to retreat his Terminators or Contemptor Dreadnoughts out of line of sight to avoid getting shot by the World Eaters Dreadnoughts.

There was also an instant where the World Eaters attacked the Warsmith and his Despoiler squad, as well as the Apocethary, but the Praetor managed to tank a load of chainaxe hits and even caused the poor Despoiler squad to run away (though they did avoid getting sweeping advanced). But they were locked in combat for quite a while, and the World Eaters managed to kill all but one guy in the Despoiler squad!

That said, the Iron Warriors still had the Warsmith, Apocethary, that single Despoiler, another 10 Despoilers and the Cataphractii Terminators (Dominators?) by the end of the game. On the other hand, the World Eaters only had 2 Despoiler squads, one of which was falling back. Yikes.

Well, that was brutal. Glad to see a Zone Mortalis game being played!