Dark Angels vs. Rebels: Even More Combat Cards

This would be a simple engagement. Hit dirtside, locate the remaining rebel forces hiding in the ruins of the previous day's orbital bombardment. Eliminate said rebels for the glory of the Emperor. Collect the sacred bolter round casings for the chapter's armory, pack up, and head for home. These are just rebels, they can't put up too much of a fight, right?

Captain Tracto of the fourth company Dark Angels made planetfall personally to oversee the last of the enemy had been put to the sword. His handpicked assault force consisted of several teams of tactical marine fire-teams, an armored Rhino, assault marines, and more. Even the dreadnought Brother James was present.

This battle features the two forces I posted about a few days ago. Still hot on the heels of the recent Combat Cards wave that has been the only minis rules played at the house this year Miller and I went all out and played with the recommended 36 point lists. I love playing 40k "a different way", and like the last battle using the SuperSystem rules, this one also turned out to be a fun, narrative battle in the 40k universe without having to crack open a 40k rulebook.

Using xenos cloaking technology, two rebel infiltrators appear by the Dark Angels Rhino and plant makeshift seismic charges on its hull, destroying it in a ball of flame.

Part of the simplicity of Combat Cards is that it is more of an abstraction of the battle instead of a verbatim blow-by-blow report. As the rules state, the detailed reports are better left to the logistics team back at headquarters.

In the above action with the destroyed Rhino, the Infiltrators were 'down one' because their attack wasn't greater than the target's armor. They were however shooting in the rear arc, so they were up one meaning it was a wash, whatever was drawn off the deck would be the result. 'Eliminated' of course was the first damage card of the game and the Rhino was destroyed before it even had a turn!

You never know what you're going to get when you flip a card for damage. This also means even a lowly grunt armed with a pistol has a shot in the dark taking out an armored walker. Did he really shoot the walker? No, maybe he shot a fuel tank nearby or something, thus the combat abstraction the cards supply.

The dreadnought covers a Tactical marine advance


The middle of the field became a choke point full of overlapping fields of fire. Miller's elite Behemoth unit, the trio of Ogryns took root and began shooting everything they could see. My Techmarine was pinned down, then taken out of action, and I had a single Infantry unit working their way over there. More fighting ensued and if not for the redeeming grace of covering terrain the marines would've been wiped out.


As it turned out the marines weathered the storm and emerged unscathed. Dreadnought Brother James on the other hand did not make it, having lost a close fought melee with the Ogryns. The Ogryn unit, however, was also slain, as was a nearby unit of enemy infantry.

The rebel leader held his action atop a balcony, waiting for the first unfortunate target to open the door. He found his mark as three Dark Angels came scrambling up the ruins, trying to ferret out the enemy. Their armor proved too thick and their prize was the head of the rebel forces, both literally and figuratively.

A refurbished aerial assault drone was the one ace up the rebels' sleeve that the Dark Angels didn't see coming. As tactical marines took their revenge for the destroyed Rhino, a lone enemy power armored trooper (Mechanized unit) closed with them. Again the marines' prowess held...until he drone showed up tearing the Dark Angels to shreds.

The Dark Angels weren't without their own aerial units, as the robed angels of death, Dark Angel assault marines, flew strafing runs over and over again across the battlefield. Here a lone assault marines bears down on an advancing infantry unit, unfortunately the rebels had an aerial defensive asset in the form of a towering mecha equipped with AA-guns.

A cat-and-mouse game ensued for a good portion of the battle between a single Mechanized power armor trooper on the rebels' side and a Dark Angel devastator (Anti-Armor unit). Having so many units per side it became a game of trying to decide which units would act each turn since you didn't have enough activations each turn to get them all in the game. Sometimes a lone unit without a wide variety of targets didn't get a lot of game action, just because another unit elsewhere was more vital.

It was a tough battle, going back and forth for most of the game, but the tide turned in the Dark Angel's favor strongly in the last few turns of the game giving them the victory, but at a price higher than they envisioned they would be paying.

We felt more comfortable with the rules, they came off rather easily actually. Although we doubled the sizes of our forces, the speed of the game had picked up so much thanks to better familiarity it took roughly the same amount of time, if just a bit longer. We still messed up some of the rules, but those have since been cleared up thanks to one of the game's play testers, Mike Z. All in all, another good game and anything that helps get figs on the table to duke it out is always a good thing. Until next time!