Chapter 351 Attack and Defense 1 The Increasingly Difficult Battle Situation

The war has never stopped, and the war is still going on.

To paraphrase this most famous quote in the Warhammer world, in the next week, the Empire and Chaos fought a series of desperate battles between offense and defense, with the 100 square kilometers of battlefield in the capital of Ophelia as the core.

The attacking side of the war came from the Alpha Legion.

This traitor from the Chaos war gang unexpectedly destroyed the Empire's fleet in the galaxy at the beginning of the war, firmly occupying the dominant position in the war and absolute firepower advantage;

But they failed to make full use of this advantage.

Whether it is fearless or fearful.

After gaining control of the universe, the Alpha Legion did not completely destroy the anti-aircraft firepower of the Holy City in a short period of time.

They just relied on the advantage of troop dispatch in orbit, constantly pulling the ground defense, trying to find loopholes.

This is very consistent with the characteristics of the Alpha Legion. The advantage of over-emphasizing intelligence theft and infiltration operations is that they are invincible in small-scale battles;

The disadvantage is just like what is happening now. When encountering a fortress heavily defended by the enemy, no commander dares to bear the loss of forced advancement.

On the other hand, the imperial army on the defensive side is completely different. As a recognized master of defense, the Imperial Fist has not lost its concept and inheritance of defensive operations in the war group era.

Hornthorne bet that the other party would not dare to burn the Holy City and let the holy relics be completely lost.

So he relied on the fire barrier above the Holy City, while maintaining the defensive deployment of the shrinking troops, using two Astartes companies as mobile forces, and struggling to resist the ground infiltration of the Alphas in the process of maneuvering.

This is undoubtedly a good deal for the Empire, because what the Ophelia defenders lack most now is time.

Every extra second of delay in the context of losing air superiority is a hope for victory in the war.

But this delay is a completely unacceptable result for the Alphas.

With such an advantageous battlefield situation, after a week of fighting, they could only harvest some mortal lives.

What a shame!

A fierce debate broke out in the fleet in space, and with the execution of the Alpha frontline commander for incompetence, the Chaos offensive completely changed in the following days.

Hornthorn didn't know the power change in the enemy's camp, let alone the series of consequences;

But from the increasingly fierce and damage-free offensive from the Alpha Legion, Hornthorn knew that the most difficult moment was coming.

After the change of commander, the Alpha Legion changed its past style, no longer trying to find loopholes in mobile warfare, and no longer trying to use infiltration warfare as an unchanging criterion.

Relying on twice the number of Astartes on the Empire, they began to advance directly against the Holy City's defense positions under tactical strikes above the orbit and continuous bombing by fighters in the atmosphere.

The bloody battle started in the hilly area 30 kilometers north of the City of Grace:

The fighter planes from above the orbit used a saturation bombing on the position of the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the Defense Army and a surprise attack by a whole Astartes company carrying 30 Death Claws as the first shot to announce the start of this battle.

This was undoubtedly a powerful blow, especially from the firepower preparation and troop strength of the enemy commander;

Not to mention that the target he chose was just an ordinary Defense Army motorized infantry regiment.

But the fog of war is so charming, and information isolation always inadvertently brings surprises to both sides of the war:

The enemy's choice was not a problem, but on the eve of the war, the city defense command happened to transfer the 22nd Infantry Regiment originally stationed here due to logistical problems;

The 31st Motorized Infantry Regiment of the Defense Army replaced them to occupy this defense zone.

Infantry Regiment, Motorized Infantry Regiment. The regimental units in the two defense armies are supposed to be different in type, but they cannot be compared with the regular Astra Militarum in terms of strength;

For the company-level Astartes, there is no difference.

But this motorized infantry regiment is an exception. Because its predecessor happened to be the Astra Militarum.

The reason why the city defense command transferred it here is because it, together with the 32nd and 33rd motorized infantry regiments stationed behind, and the 91st and 92nd mobile armored corps supporting the position in this direction, is exactly the complete organization before they retreated from the Astra Militarum to the second line - the Imperial Armored Regiment.

Regardless of how this active heavy armored regiment was assigned to the second line of the Imperial State Church world, and how many magical operations the military command bribed by the State Church had;

Just talking about this battle, they did give the Alphas a great surprise...

At 0 o'clock, the first batch of aircraft in orbit left the fleet and broke through the atmosphere 15 minutes later and appeared on the head of the 31st motorized infantry regiment on time.

The fleet in orbit began to descend, using the angle of the planet to circumvent the concentrated fire of anti-ship weapons and clear the air defense arrays here one by one.

Groups of space fighters with hundreds of bombs were released at the ground forces at an altitude of thousands of meters.

The ground detection array discovered the abnormality here at the first time and deployed reinforcements here in time.

The only remaining air force in the Holy City was also dispatched, but despite the desperate interception regardless of casualties, it still could not stop the space fighters with an absolute numerical advantage from diving and strafing the ground.

The smoke and flames filled the 3 km depth of the 31st Motorized Infantry Regiment. After the after-effect observation, the enemy above the orbit believed that the ground forces had lost their resistance and started the first wave of airborne strikes.

However, they miscalculated. When this group of defected Astartes company appeared in the airborne capsule above the 31st Motorized Infantry Regiment, the regiment's armored air defense forces on the ground suddenly launched a counterattack.

The Alphas, who were facing the ground air defense firepower, had no choice but to adjust the landing point of the airdrop capsule to the periphery of the Motorized Infantry Regiment's position.

Even though the bombing on the orbit came soon, the regiment's air defense company was instantly wiped out in the subsequent artillery fire. But it is undeniable that these Astartes who fell from the sky have lost the best opportunity for tactical entry.

The enemy, who failed to achieve their tactical goals, immediately changed their tactics. They no longer tried to directly break through the position of the 31st Motorized Infantry Regiment, but with the help of the troops who had lurked before, they began to build defenses on the spot to create opportunities for ground-to-air transportation.

This was undoubtedly a test for the 31st Motorized Infantry Regiment:

The Chimera Troop Carrier could be used as a fixed firepower point with the cover of fortifications;

But if they took the initiative to attack, the weak armor of the Troop Carrier could not withstand the heavy weapons of the Astartes.

But they had no choice, because if they waited any longer, the enemy's firepower would only become stronger and stronger.

In the next 20 minutes, the 31st Motorized Infantry Regiment, under the personal organization of the regiment commander, launched at least three waves of attacks on the enemy's positions.

However, these offensives all failed under the precise strikes of the Astartes.

The war continued to drag on, and the weak Empire could only watch the enemy's transport boats descend from orbit.

Even if the Imperial Fists and the Ultramarines finally arrived at the front battlefield, they could only watch the enemy's landing site completed under the resistance of the Alpha Legion supported by heavy armor.

A large number of mortal rebels began to airdrop under the cover of orbital artillery fire. Although the soldiers of the Empire continued to advance, they could not stop the enemy's footsteps.

The frontal battle began to develop towards a white-hot stage, and behind the enemy's position, armored forces could be seen gathering.

At this point in the battle, the battle between the enemy and us had entered a situation that Hornthorn did not want to see the most.

He could not sit back and watch the precious troops being consumed here. He could only use the support of the armored regiment that arrived from the rear and take advantage of the enemy's armored forces not being able to arrive to win a chance for the main force to retreat with a tactical counter-charge, which also brought this battle to an end...