HOLD THE LINE Part 1
Attacker – Aliens
Your orders are to launch an assault on a key section of the enemy line as a part of wider attack to punch through and cut off the enemy.
Defender – Allied Humans
As the enemy presses home the advantage you are ordered to hold the position in an effort to keep possession of vital supply lines.
Lt Senioris McSwaff is called off the front line – he is to report to the High Command and make explanations to his failing to break the Alien Rearguard. He leaves Lt Primus Phills the Terminator leader in charge with Sergeant Murt in support.
As the Allied force dig and wait. They have their bunkers and trench systems ready and in place. Sergeant Murt is in a bunker on the right, Lt Primus Phills is in the Head Quarters bunker on the left. They had laid out two mine fields in order to try and disrupt the Alien attack. The inevitable Alien attack came a little after dawn – and to the human’s surprise they smashed through the terrain using transport vehicles with dozer blades – these also nullified the minefields! The Eldar appeared on the human right flank, a large Chaos force appeared on the left. The Eldar seemed to initially get caught up in a native flora attack. But both forces attacked co-ordinated to attack simultaneously with devastating force.
The initial attack was flagged with a section of scrub being burned down in front of Phills bunker and exposing a Chaos Rhino. But instead of the humans tactic of taking heavy tanks the Aliens attacked with the Eldar and four heavy mobile twin lascannons (similar to the Marines Tarantulas), and the two Chaos forces where one was using a transport to get as close to the HQ bunker carrying androids and a marine, while another attacked hand to hand using lightening claws and good use of blind grenades! The Eldar initially shot at the bunker protecting Murt and his squad with two of the twin lascannons, but this had little affect so they changed tactic and started killing the marines as they took up position to fire out of the bunker.
Initially the attack was going the Aliens way, Sgt Murt managed to kill a few Eldar manning the twin lascannons only to see more take their place. But his squad was quickly depleted, and holding his nerve he fought on until he too was killed in action. Lt Primus Phills was only just holding on - the initial attack killed his marines in the trench and a couple of the terminators in his squad. The counter attack he led killed enough of the smaller chaos force, which had used the transport and androids, to cause them to break. He was standing with only a terminator librarian against the other Chaos force who had now attacked the rear of the bunker and broken the door down. In the final battle he alone breaks the remaining Chaos force leaving him facing the Eldar who had taken up position in front of the now empty Allied bunker – the Eldar Exarch moved across to the bunker itself – claiming the prize. Phills tries shooting at the Eldar warriors but with a few wounds from the twin lascannons he is quickly pinned down and pulls back behind the protection of the bunker wall - waiting for darkness to descend. The Eldar fire salvo after salvo at the bunker but to no avail. Phills stays and holds on to the HQ. The reprieve of darkness keeps just out of reach – Phills takes stock to appreciate the engineering design of his bunker as round after round thumps into the wall beside him. The wall begins to glow red hot but still holds. The resulting standoff leaves half an Eldar force and only one very lucky terminator commander still alive.
HOLD THE LINE Part 2 The human counter attack
With the Aliens just failing to break the human line, the humans counter attack the Alien line. Lt Senioris McSwaff is still being debriefed by High Command as Lt Primus Phills and a new Sergeant Tagg get ready to attack the Aliens front line. Lt Primus Phills considers the Alien tactics and decides they were far more effective than the Demolisher tanks. The plans are made and the equipment / vehicles requisitioned. The attack goes ahead but the native terrain causes problems in delaying the humans. Sgt Tagg manages within two initial salvos to demolish the bunker housing the Eldar killing four of them and causing the rest to retreat. But by delaying their attack the assault fails to break through the Alien line in time. Lt Primus Phills returns and reviews all of the attacks so far.
HOLD THE LINE Part 3 The human counter attack AGAIN
Word gets to Lt Primus Phills that the battle is resulting in a draw across the whole of the Allied marine line. Another draw would cause the Allies to pull back and consider that this part of space is lost to Chaos control. This last battle would be decisive. They would not see Lt Senioris McSwaff either again this time.
Lt Primus Phills sets up his battle line, he has 5 terminators on the right flank, Sgt Tagg in the centre with two Tarantulas, and he and two assault Terminators in a Rhino with bulldozer blade on the left. He plans to use updated bio-scanner devices to check out the native obstacles.
The terminators find a mine immediately to their front right, weakened ground under the crater and just to the left. He also detects a large dangerous native predator on the other side of the crater. But instead of shooting out the mine and walking over it, they decide instead to move towards the centre where Sgt Tagg was taking up position. Lt Primus Phills remains in his Rhino and waits until the sacrificial Jenkins the 4th form Sgt Tagg’s unit clears the way from the centre and across the road.
Jenkin’s bravely steps forward from his position and is pleased to see several clumps of a restorative plant just in front of their position. A warning from the terminators bio-scan warns him of an area of weakened ground – he marks this to allow the rest of the unit to move safely forward. As a scout he moves up to the edge of the scrubland to take a peek at the enemy defences. In return he is shot and hit by several Eldar weapons. Fortunately the healing plants he found quickly repair the damage done. As he is doing this another of the squad is attacked by a native plant but soon extracts himself from it. He is told to investigate the road in front of the Rhino. Unfortunately for Jenkins he oversteps his luck and although the Terminators had found they had weakened ground just in front of the Rhino he falls right into it and never returns.
Rather desperate to prove his units shooting success Sgt Tagg urges his men forward with the Tarantulas and starts shooting at the enemy bunkers. He hopes for a repeat of the previous battle in quickly destroying the bunkers. His men take withering fire from both sides and fail to destroy the bunkers. With only a small squad of men and Jenkins already dead the unit are soon breaking under the casualties. Sgt Tagg has to retreat with what remains of his unit.
Lt Primus Phills is beginning to see his plans fall apart. By positioning the terminators on the far right they have wasted too much time repositioning themselves avoiding terrain they could have walked over. He is still sitting in his Rhino with his surprise on the enemy lines still to be sprung. He orders the Terminators to take over the Tarantulas and fire on the enemy positions. The terminators make their way to take these positions. Phills had used his time to scan the land either side of the Rhino to find it contained a mine to the left and more weakened ground on the right. Phills decides enough is enough and orders the Rhino forward. It moves off and over the weakened ground. This time luck is on Phills side as the Rhino roars over the ground and over the hole holding the remains of private Jenkins with no issues.
The Rhino comes under heavy fire, and takes damage, but manages to stay intact and drops smoke. The Rhino moves forward again just delivering its cargo before being taken out. Phills and the other two Terminators shake off the debris of the Rhino as they move forward and attack the Eldar with two heavy flamers! This devastates the Eldar who take five casualties. Leaving just the Exarch and two Eldar warriors. Phills then moves around to try and stop the Eldar running out the back, which is a tactic he has seen them do time and time again. The Eldar have dropped Blind grenades and are preparing for the worst.
Phills positions himself at the back of the heavy flamers and orders them to set two walls of flame to trap the Eldar. The Chaos force shoot towards the Terminator Commander and cause a couple of wounds. The Eldar shoot at the Terminators on the road killing one of them before they retreat. One Eldar warriors is engulfed in the flames but the Exarch and the other warrior manage to pass through unscathed. Phills swears as he realises the slippery Eldar Exarch has evaded him again, but he has taken the enemy HQ. Now to take out the Chaos unit.
Time is running short for Phills and he turns his remaining force on the Chaos unit hold up the other bunker. More of the Terminators are killed but the Chaos remain untouched. Staying to secure the bunker Phills sends his men forward he is aware that this battle is rapidly running out of time to assure a victory, and his terminators are just too slow. But all too quickly darkness descends and his time runs out. The Terminators personal grudge against the Eldar had cost them too much time as the terminators tried to walk from one side of the battlefield to another. The Allied Marine force lacked timing in their attacks and Lt Primus Phills procrastinated for far too long in the Rhino. So the campaign ends as an overall draw!! | 
