Legions Imperialis: the Alpha Legion strikes!

 Wes now has 1,000 points of Alpha Legion marines painted, so we met up for a game. I brought the same combined Blood Angels and Dusk Raiders force as in the first two games with Albert's Solar Auxilia.

We played the Stronghold Assault scenario.  It has four objectives in a diamond pattern: one close to the center of each player's table edge, and two spaced across the center line of the table. Your opponent's side objective is worth 9 VPs per turn, the center two are worth 4 VPs each per turn, and your own objective is worth 7 VPs to you in the last turn only.  

Here is an overlook of the table. My guys are on the right, the Alpha Legion on the left.

The Alpha Legion used their "Mutable Tactics" (ed.: Really ought to be called "Mutable Loyalties...") to advance several units before the game began, including this unit of Marines with missile launchters. A Predator is peeking in on the right.

I concentrated my tank company and a mobile detachment of Dusk Raiders infantry in Rhinos on the right, and they swung in to contest the center-right objective. The marines in Rhinos deployed into a brownstone building deep in the Alpha Legion's half of the board, just visible in the distance, top left here:

Wes advanced broadly, and skillfully zeroed in all of his tanks to focus on the central intersection (seen below) from different directions.  You can see his Predators at the end of the road here.  He also had a Secondary Objective - Secret Intel objective token he was trying to exfiltrate from the board for extra VPs.   He initially sent four Rhinos to pick it up, but I took them out with fire from my Sicaran tanks and missile launchers.

A Dusk Raiders detachment, including the company commander, can be seen occupying the large blue-grey building on the left of the above picture.

Wes brought up three Kratos tanks with Melta cannons - which blasted the building down, wiping those guys out:  they left behind the company standard (I had the Plant the Standard secondary objective).

My right hook continued to develop, wiping out the Alpha Legion's Sicaran tanks and some infantry.  I sent four Rhinos deep to try to capture the Alpha Legion's home objective, but Wes took them out with missile launchers and Predators.  I never actually captured that objective, but managed to keep pressure on it in the last two turns, which diverted Wes's Predators, Terminators, and Dreadnoughts away from the central objectives.

Having destroyed the central building, Wes sent his Kratos tanks to pick up his Secret Intel token, but massed fire from my own Kratos and Dreadnoughts knocked them out.  (I think their armor was defective because Wes has not painted them yet!)

A Dusk Raiders Sicaran moved into the ruins to pick up the fallen company standard (represented here with an old school Objective counter).  I also advanced a Blood Angels marine detachment to seize the Secret Intel.  A larger Alpha Legion detachment charged them, and I counter-charged with my second detachment of marines, resulting in this:  

My Blood Angels struggled in melee in their first two games with the Solar Auxilia. Not this time! All but one of the Alpha Legion bases was eliminated:

Not long after this, my Dusk Raiders Kratos melta'd down a building with Wes's large detachment of marines with missile launchers. And my Predators took out the last of his Predators.  

A single surviving Alpha Legion tactical squad managed to sneak almost down to my home objective, only to get picked off by a long-range shot from a Blood Angels dreadnought.

We called the game at the end of turn 4, as the Alpha Legion had just about been wiped out!  Glory to the Emperor and Sanguinius!