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All set up and ready to go.

Last night I schlepped up to the big smoke to play my first game of Legions Imperialis with my good friend Rob (for whom it was also his first game). We each had 1,500 points of Legiones Astartes (me Word Bearders, him Sons of Horus) and played the “Retrieval” mission.

In this mission there are three objectives placed on the centre line of the table. The twist is that if you control an objective at the end of the round you can move it up to 5 inches.

As you might imagine, this setup meant that we ended up getting into close combat pretty quickly and the game was fast and bloody. We’re both veterans of 2nd Edition Epic: Space Marine and NetEpic so the game felt pretty familiar, with the difference from the old systems suiting the Heresy-era setting very well.

We both had loads of fun and will be playing another game soon!

More pictures below the fold.

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Force disposition after the first round of movement. You can see the engagements developing around each objective.
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The battlefield by the end of round one. The engagement around Objective #2 (on the right) got hard and heavy early on, but the other two were more tentative.
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A close-up of Objective #2. My Plasma Support detachment tenaciously held out against an attack from Assault troops supported by Contemptor dreadnoughts as reinforcements from both sides moved in.
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The battle for Objective #3. The two Kratos focused mostly on the enemy Acastus knight.
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My Thunderhawk Gunship hovering close to Objective #2, about to disembark its passengers.
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The battlefield at the end of round two. My tactical demi-company deployed near Objective #2 supported by Terminators deep striking behind enemy lines. Both detachments took heavy losses but remained combat effective.
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Another close-up of Objective #2 at the end of round two. The Plasma Support detachment refused to budge, denying the enemy the opportunity to claim the objective.
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A close-up of Objective #1. The Sons of Horus were garrisoned in the building.
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Acastus versus Acastus...
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The state of play during round three. The loss of my Xiphon and Thunderhawk ceded air superioty to Rob who used it to harry my forces from behind.
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My Acastus was destroyed, leaving his with nothing to shoot at but my Spartan and Kratos.
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The lonely Spartan...
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My Legion HQ defeated his counterpart in close combat, but remained enagaged with a Contemptor dreadnought, while the remaining Plasma Support squads held off the Sons of Horus demi-company.
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Objective #3 during round three. The enemy Thunderhawk was a big problem but could not stop me from contesting control of the objective. By the end of round three, I had taken more casualties but won the game due to controlling Objective #1 for all three rounds.