Pestilence Prevails - Susperia

Planet: Susperia.
Region: Eye of Terror.
Time has no meaning in the Warp.

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons vs Emperor's Children / Slaanesh Daemons.
1500 points.
Mission: The Scouring - Night Fight battlezone.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

This was a major battle in the conflicts that were fought on Susperia for the glory of the Ruinous Powers. The Emperor's Children led by Lucius the Eternal with aid from the daemon known as the Masque had fought and won uncounted battles in the name of Slaanesh. When they pushed into what little territory the Death Guard held, they were halted by a concentrated force of plague marines and daemons of pestilence.

This was my first game of 8th against my friend Richard. Hopefully trying to impress him with the new edition and drawing him in. I think we were both on the same wavelength as we turned up with combined traitor marine and daemon ally lists. Richard had a lot more slaanesh daemons than he did emperor's children marines, while I was more plague marines and a couple nurgle daemon units.

Richard had already chosen the Scouring mission and opted for the night fight battle zone. I was very pleased with that as the battle zones don't seem all that popular at the local club. I seem to be the only one interested in playing them. I think they make for a more interesting game but that is just me.

Once we had set up terrain we had another player set up the objectives for us before we rolled for deployment. Hammer and Anvil was probably not the most helpful one for this mission especially once we rolled for the superior objective and it was in my deployment zone while Richard had the inferior one. A bit harsh but that's the randomness for you. We both also got a fire support mysterious objective so that was going to make things interesting. Although I finished setting up first, Richard had the first turn - we used the new initiative roll system from this year's Chapter Approved.

Richard had a fair bit of heavy weapons but night fight was a hindrance. He used a command point to light up my predator and brought it down to one wound via saturated firing. His forces moved forward but didn't clear too much ground but he had me worried as to how I was going to handle it all. My first turn and all I did was move up my daemons and the bloat drone down the right flank. Everything else stayed put holding objectives. The predator, despite being on the verge of falling apart managed to bring down most of a unit of seekers. Moral rolls took out the rest. My left flank was mostly safe for the time being.

The game moved quite quick. Richard finally dropped my predator but no explosion. Richard had not brought any vehicles so the loss of the predator was not a big issue for me. He did manage to strip a lot of wounds off of the bloat drone though. Turn two on wards was pretty much a mosh of close combat. The bloat drone had done some damage but on my right flank the plaguebearers and his daemonettes clashed. This was going to be the war eternal because I wouldn't drop due to disgustingly resilient and we both kept rolling 1's for moral but with the icons models stood back up again. For two or three turns we just could not kill each other's units. It was only when Masque joined the fight that the tide began to turn in his favour. I had to bring up my plaguecaster to use smite in order to bring things back to my control.

My plaguebearers were just holding up his daemonette's advance. Neither of us really did much with our chaos marines. Richard's were held up in ruins putting fire into anything that got close enough in range and mine hid out of sight just holding objectives. My concerns that I was going to get squished disappeared about now. With the daemons held I tried to get my great unclean one up the table and into |Richard's emperor's children. Unfortunately they gunned him down as he got there with powerful sonic weaponry. Disappointing but he lasted longer than he usually does.

During the game I think the fire support objectives triggered twice each. I forget what Richard targeted but I dropped both of mine onto Lucius and finally dropped him netting me Slay the Warlord. About this time Richard conceded at the end of turn 5.

Victory went to the forces of Nurgle 9 vp to Slaanesh 6vp. Still quite close but at the end it was a pyrrhic victory as I did feel that Richard did not get a particularly great game. Deployment I think as the problem. With the superior objective in my deployment zone Richard was not going to get there. He did get some daemonettes in there but they died in short order. Nothing else came close.

Hopefully the next time we play we'll have a bit more of a closer game.

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++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [60 PL, 1073pts] ++
+ HQ +
Lord of Contagion: Manreaper
Malignant Plaguecaster: Curse of the Leper, Miasma of Pestilence, The Pandemic Staff

+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists
. 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher

+ Fast Attack +
Foetid Bloat-drone: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe

+ Heavy Support +
Chaos Predator: Twin lascannon
. Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter

+ Dedicated Transport +
Chaos Rhino: Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher

++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Daemons) [20 PL, 418pts] ++

+ HQ +
Great Unclean One [12 PL, 248pts]: Fleshy Abundance, Stream of Corruption.

+ Troops +
Plaguebearers [4 PL, 85pts]: Daemonic Icon, 9x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden.

Plaguebearers [4 PL, 85pts]: Daemonic Icon, 9x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden.

March of the daemons!

Dangerously beautiful daemonettes.

My right flank where the bloodbath took place.

Lucius the Eternal - champion of Slaanesh.