A journey back into 40k, and back in tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!

At last, between me and my partner in Epic crime @anderssen we have enough forces for an actual game and so we thought what better way to kick off than with a battle report!

As this was the first time we will have played Epic in over 25 years we thought we’d get started with a small skirmish using what we had painted so far. We both had around 1500 points

I will be using the heroic Space Marines of the Warp Sharks whilst @anderssen will be using the probably heretical Imperial Guard of his very own 144th Kriezkurg.

These guys have tussled before albeit in 28mm and whilst trying to find names, colour schemes etc. i stumbled across an old file on my laptop with the details of a campaign i ran back in 2010.

It was set on the planet of Godwyns Hope and seeing it really made me want to to do something a little more narrative than just a straight up battle report. As we are treating this a little like a slow grow expanding our forces every month i thought a little background may help me to be a little more creative in the upcoming battles rather than just standard list building.

Governors Palace

Imperator City

Godwyns Hope

“Trust me dear boy when I tell you that this is the only way.”
“But Uncle, the whole regiment, it feels a little on the extreme”
“Nonsense! Extreme is when the regiment you spared turns traitor during battle and cowardly shoots a loyal regiment in the back. No boy, as soon as you have evidence of chaos in the ranks you must be ruthless. If a weed takes root in the garden, you don’t just pull it out, you salt the whole damn thing, burn a few mutants, and build a monastery on it. it’s your duty.”

“Oh, come now Uncle, it was but a minor infraction on a single soldier, we can’t even be sure if the trinket in question was a harmless souvenir let alone a blasphemous relic!”

“Listen to me, you are young, and this is all new to you. I have served the Imperium, untarnished may I add, for nearly 150 years and I know how these things work. Let me explain this to you. Say you do show leniency for this infraction. The priests and the Commissars do their diligence, burn a few ner do wells, restore order and off to another war they go. Grand! Bless be the agents of the Emperor, but, say by some chance they miss one soldier, just
one plain soldier amongst thousands who may have unwittingly come into possession of said beguiling amulet.

It could be that in the next warzone he visits he simply gets mowed down and the trinket in question gets trampled into the mud. It’s entirely possible, he is a guardsman after all, but say he survives that warzone, and the next, and the next and suddenly you have a grizzled veteran, burned by the fires of war with an ungodly voice in his head. He may even command warriors of his own and his dark influence spreads even further. This takes us back to that future battle I mentioned earlier, the one where this soldier’s humanity is finally stripped away and he and his acolytes finally answer the dark call and turn upon their loyal
allies, tearing them apart in an orgy of heretical destruction. Well, then my boy that’s when the questions will start.

How did this happen? how was a heretic missed? and most importantly who is at fault here? The Imperium may be all powerful but on the inside it’s a vicious nest of vipers constantly looking for scapegoats to blame and aid their own rise
to power. Slowly but surely, they will trace the lineage of heresy back to this very moment and before you know it, you’ll have been lobotomized and fitted out as a servitor before the hearing is over.

No boy, this is how it must be, to my knowledge the Imperium has never judged anyone for being too zealous.”

“Thank you, Uncle, for showing me the way, I must ask though how does one liquidate an entire regiment? we don’t have anywhere near the manpower for such an undertaking.”

“Your right boy we don’t, but remember we live in the most bountiful Empire the Galaxy has ever seen. Those same Inquisitors that could tear us down in the future could be our saviours now. Just get the word out and the Inquisition will come running with their torches and righteous sermons.”

‘But Uncle, what would I tell them that would bring them in such force?’
“Gods be damned nephew you need to start showing some initiative if you are going to rule this household one day. To get the Inquisition here, tell them what they want to HEAR! Damnit tell themthere’s a damn Leshen in the ranks if that’s what it takes!”

“But Uncle, what the hell is a Leshen?”

“I don’t know boy, nobody does. Just get the call out and get this problem off our hands as soon as
possible!”

“Yes Uncle, it will be done.”

MISSION 1 – FIRST CONTACT

After being notified by the Inquisition of a possible taint to the 144^th Kriezkurg regiment currently garrisoning the Planet of Godwyns Hope a small detachment of the Warp Sharks was sent in to investigate. Upon arrival there was no obvious strongpoint that the Imperial Guard were holding out in giving creedence to the theory that the regiment had indeed gone rogue and scattered its forces across the planet.

After a few days Warp Shark scouts detected a small column of guardsmen and racing towards one of the smaller cities circling the capitol. The column was moving fast, obviously hoping that speed would be the key to survival. Hoping to find out what was so important that the Guard would risk themselves coming in to the open a rapid response force was hurriedly despatched to intercept…