Editing LeonidasAndCollin (section)

===The Eastern Gate===

This scenario was simply called The Eastern Gate.

It was kind of a big thing for the players, as their characters were all being reunited.
Half the board was a cityscape, whilst the other half was the beginning of the east-bound branch of the Imperial Highway and the surrounding desert.
The gate itself was bang-on center of the board, and being defended by twenty Guardsmen along with an entrenched Basalisk.
Wulfgang and Angelion started the game at a sewer hatch just inside the gate.
Fenrir and Karel's Arbiter started at the far end of the cityscape, and would have to run to join the defence.
Leonidas and the Black Shield were outside the gate, on approach from the south.

The Imperial Guard were faced with a little over twice their number in Tau Fire Warriors.
Add to this four Stealth Suits already inside the walls and three Devilfish with two Gun Drones each, and you could tell that the odds of surviving weren't great.
You might be thinking "But they have a Basalisk...", well, here's the catch...

The Basalisk's targeting cogitators have been taken out via a Tau disruptor signal, effectively rendering it useless.
This is what leads me to the objectives.
Each team of survivors had different objectives, which were essential if the Eastern Gate were to hold.

Wulfgang and Angelion:
As the first two to make it to the Eastern Gate, Wulfgang and Angelion were tasked by Imperial command with helping to bolster the Imperial defence, and to keep as many Tau as possible from breaking the line.
As both were armed with melee weapons, I placed two twin-linked heavy bolter turrets on the gate's battlements, to allow them a little extra "pow".

Fenrir and the Arbiter (Karel):
After a dash through the city, the destination was in sight for the lone Space Wolf and his exhausted accomplice.
But after establishing contact with Imperial command, the two were made aware of the Stealth Suits already in the city, which were headed for the power generators keeping the gate shut.
Thus their objective was to track down and kill the Stealth Suits before they destroyed all the generators.

Leonidas and the Black Shield:
I decided that the only way to truly make Leonidas happy was to let him do what he did best: Hating Xenos and blowing shit up.
So, I made his objective a simple one.
Destroy the Devilfish.
This would strand the Tau, take out their support, and prevent them from making an organised withdrawl, meaning that their only way out would be through the desert, or along the Highway, where they would easily be tracked by the Imperials.
As Leonidas' Missile Launcher alone wouldn't be enough, I stated that he had established contact with the Imperial defenders, and could manually call in an artillery strike from the otherwise useless Basalisk.

The setup was ready, so were the players.
It was truly the beginning of the end.

Fenrir and Karel's Arbiter took their go first.
Moving north through a foundry, the first Stealth Suit came into view, just on the other side of a wall from a Generator.
Fenrir strafed and launched a hail of distracting bolter fire, while the Arbiter closed in with his power mace and storm shield.
The Battlesuit took a few wounds, but nothing major, and responded with a burst of fire that Fenrir shrugged off.

Wulfgang and Angelion moved up the battlements, but could do little else this turn, save for lobbing a few grenades that failed to cause any more than a few wounds and one death.
The Guardsmen holding the gate fired off a couple of volleys of las shots that did little damage to the Tau overall.
In retaliation, the Tau opened up fire on those Guardsmen (roughly half) stationed on the battlements of the gate, killing three of them outright and wounding another couple.

Leonidas and the BS moved north, keeping close to the wall until they came within range of the nearest Devilfish.
There was no cause for subtlety here: The BS opened fire with his combi-bolter, downing three Fire Warriors, while Leonidas shouldered his missile launcher and fired, damaging the Devilfish, which was shortly finished off by the Basalisk destroying one of its engines and sending the vehicle ploughing sideways into the ground.
The Tau's return fire wounded the BS, but not enough to worry anyone at this time.

Over in the city, Fenrir continued to distract the Stealth Suit until Karel's Arbiter got within melee range and finished it off with a well-placed blow from his power maul.
Seeing as the generator (One of two) hadn't been touched, they decided it was safe to actively seek out the other battlesuits, instead of waiting on that one.

Wulfgang and Angelion reached the heavy bolter emplacements, and began to lay down some punishing firepower, killing roughly four Fire Warriors and wounding a fifth.

Another exchange happened between the Imperial Guard and the Tau, with the Guardsmen coming off the worse for it.
Two more dead, and another two wounded; It seemed the Guardsmen were dropping like flies, with a quarter of their forces already dead.

Leonidas and the BS advanced once again towards the Tau line, and opened up once more.
The BS managed to wound a few more Tau, but Leonidas' missile went wide of its target, killing three Fire Warriors instead of the intended Devilfish.
The Tau returned fire, battering the Marines a little but causing no drastic damage.

Fenrir and Karel move closer to the wall and intercept another two stealth suits.
Faced with two enemies, Fenrir hunkers down and spreads a wide arc of fire from cover while Karel's Arbiter takes a longer route around to take them with surprise.
Fenrir manages to damage one of the stealth suits, but also takes a few wounds himself as they hammer away at his cover.

Wulfgang and Angelion continue to spread fire amongst the Tau, but Angelion's bolter placement is destroyed, relieving him of a few wounds and denying him an effective means to continue fighting.

Leonidas makes up for his earlier fault by calling in an artillery strike, which hits home at the front of the Devilfish's hull, making the vehicle plough nose-first into the dirt.
Then, for the sake of killing, him and the BS lay waste to another five Tau.
Things seem to be going okay for the team, despite a few minor fuck-ups.

Karel's Arbiter reaches the stealth suits, and manages to fuck one over with his power mace.
However, the other quickly takes note and turns its attention on the Arbiter, who is both lightly armoured and out in the open.
The Arbiter is quickly reduced to just a few wounds before Fenrir manages to gun the stealth suit down.

Angelion, now deprived of his twin-linked heavy bolter, decides to jump the battlements with his chain sword and start laying waste to more Tau while Wulfgang offers support from the battlements above.

The game pretty much lies with Leonidas' group and Fenrir's group at this point.
At this point, Leonidas and the BS are slaughtering their way into the range of the third Devilfish, which is currently chewing up the Guardsmen lined along the wall.
Unfortunately, both are taking as much damage as they're dealing now, and only just get within distance of the third Devilfish.
Leonidas calls in the artillery, but the blast goes completely wide and doesn't hit anything.

Fenrir and Karel's Arbiter manage to track down the final stealth suit, but not before it does a good deal of damage to the second generator.
Fenrir opens up, dealing damage to the suit, but before the Arbiter can get close, he is gunned down by the stealth suit, leaving Fenrir to fight on alone.

As Angelion slaughters his way through the Tau lines, more of their firepower is directed at him, and the fearless Blood Angel's health begins to deteriorate rapidly.
At this point, Wulfgang also says "Fuck you" to his twin-linked bolters and leaps the wall to join his battle brother, taking a wound from the fall along the way.
Unfortunately, the Devilfish switches targets to Wulfgang and opens fire, taking a good chunk of his HP in one go, due to the unforgiving nature of the dice gods.

As they continue to advance, the BS is shot down by the superior Tau tech, leaving Leonidas alone to destroy the Devilfish.
By now, Leonidas was well within firing distance of the Devilfish, and we were all waiting for him to loose off another rocket.
Instead, he did something completely unexpected.
Leonidas charged the Devilfish, leapt onto it and dumped a missile directly into its top hatch, detonating the entire vehicle.
Leonidas the Dark Angel miraculously survived this ordeal, being blown up with the tank, but dropped so many wounds in the process that he would effectively be out for the rest of the game.

This was effectively end-game, but we decided to carry on, just to see how the other two groups fared.

In the city, Fenrir continued to pound the stealth suit with bolter fire, before finishing it off with a krak grenade, ensuring that the generators were safe and the gate held.

At the gate itself, Angelion and Wulfgang were chasing down the retreating Tau.
OOCly we were beginning to congratulate each other on what had been an entertaining game, but fate wasn't done with the Deathwatch yet.
Wulfgang had been taking serious damage from the Fire Warriors and the Devilfish, and had lost almost as much health in the previous turn as a lot of characters had all game.
As the Tau retreated, some remained to cover their comrades.
It just so happened that they focussed their fire on Wulfgang, killing him in the final moments of the engagement.
It was an Imperial victory, but at the cost of two good Space Marines and one Adeptus Arbiter.