Region: Cadian Sector.
Death Guard vs Eldar Corsairs
1500 points:
Mission: Retrieval Mission - Night Fighting battle zone.
This was a major engagement in the war that saw the Death Guard begin to turn the situation around and begin a slow climb to victory over the alien menace.
Mining colony 45-87 fell to the Death Guard without a shot being fired. The colonists simply opened the gates and knelt down hoping for a hint of mercy.
As night fell the pursuing Corsairs roared into the colony firing into the plague marines. The plaguecasters took actions that would see them executed by Typhus when the dawn came. They pooled their sorcery and sacrificed the colonies, rotting them alive in glory to Nurgle... and summoned forth their lord and master, Mortarion to lead them in battle!
My first game against the Eldar Corsairs under 8th. Previously Dan had crushed me every time we played so hopefully under 8th I'd have a better chance. I expected Dan to bring one of his big tanks and loads of jet bikes. As we were playing with the night fight rules I figured I could get into combat and maybe deal enough damage to blunt his usual advance. I also decided that since I had recently bought and build Mortarion for my birthday that I should give him some limelight on the table. I felt a bit of a dick for doing so but in fairness I was egged on to do so by Dan's cousin! What can I say.
We rolled the awful corner deployment and as I was able to fit a three units in reserve I got a better view of where Dan was placing his models. I was lucky enough to get a large ruin to cover Mortarion at the start of the game. Dan attempted to seize the initiative but failed. This gave me the opportunity that I wanted. The plague marine squad deployed in the rhino sped off towards the objective on my left flank. The plague marine squad advanced forth to get close to a second. My cultists already held one so stayed put. Mortarion advanced flying across the ruins and was soon surrounded by his deathshroud bodyguards. The psychic phase was rather wasted as nothing was in range for Smite. The objective that my cultists held turned out to be a support weapon and it killed one of his jetbike characters. Sadly not his warlord though.
Dan made an odd play. He threw everything he had towards the right hand side where Mortarion was. He seemed to forget that the mission was about holding objectives. If that was what he wanted to do then who was I to argue? He threw so much firepower into Mortarion and the deathshroud's jumped in the way. Unfortunately I lost two of the three where I had hoped that they would survive a lot better. In future take six! His warriors grabbed the objective that my footslogging plague marines were after and he also had a support weapon. I thought he would throw it at Mortarion but instead he dropped it on my plague marines and killed two!
Turn two and my plague marines had grabbed the objective on the left flank. Mortarion moved into a better position, ready to assault the corsair warriors. Smite was handy here but didn't do as much as I had wanted. My shooting was ineffective this turn and the dice were against me as I tried to assault the enemy. Mortarion failed to get into combat even with a re-roll.
Come Dan's turn and his continued firing took my last deathshroud and a couple wounds from Mortarion but my dice started to kick back into gear. Once more I was making far too many disgustingly resilient rolls! Dan's face was a picture of shock and horror every time! Once Mortatrion hit combat on turn three he was a monster! One set of attacks took out seventeen corsair warriors! Then I did start to feel bad for Dan. My lords of contaigon had come down this turn via teleport. One dropped down to assist the combat and the other I had originally planned to drop down behind of Dan's big tanks. Instead having noticed that the fourth objective was unguarded I decided to forgo that and grab that last prize.
From there on Mortarion sweep through everything Dan had left. To his credit Dan did deal enough damage to drop Mortarion down to six wounds despite how great my DR rolls were throughout the last half of the game. End of turn five and I had succeeded in wiping out every single model Dan had brought to the table. I had 14 victory points to my opponent's 1 (first blood).
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Afterwards...
An enjoyable game though maybe not so much for Dan, although I think he had fun as well. I have since offered to play again, same mission and battle zone, but without Mortarion.
Nightfight played very little into this game. I did think that it would impact his shooting at me for the first turn or two but we ended up so close to one another right away that it made little difference.
I do think that Dan was going to lose that game regardless. He wasn't prepared to face a Primarch although his Corsair army needs to be updated rather than just be an Index entry. However saying that, I did think that hen focused too much on bringing down Mortarion. Had he thrown enough at the big bad to keep him occupied he could very well have come close to a draw if not winning just on objective points. Lords of War are nasty but if you largely ignore them and get on with the mission they aren't such a problem. At least not in my experience/
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++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [55 PL, 1009pts] ++
+ HQ +
Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 137pts]: Manreaper
Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 137pts]: Manreaper
+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 72pts]
. 15x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun
Plague Marines [10 PL, 182pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
Plague Marines [10 PL, 182pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
+ Elites +
Deathshroud Terminators [11 PL, 225pts]
. Deathshroud Champion: Manreaper, Plaguespurt gauntlets
. 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlets
+ Dedicated Transport +
Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 74pts]: Combi-bolter, Combi-bolter
++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [24 PL, 470pts] ++
Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: Curse of the Leper, Plague Wind, Putrescent Vitality
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The Corsairs throw themselves into the reach of death!
Corsair deployment.
Mortarion, daemon primarch of Nurgle.
A gaggle of corsair warriors.
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