Blood in the Sands - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Astra Militarum: Cadian.
2000 points.
Mission: Bunker Assault - Night Fight.
Deployment: Pitched Battle.

This was a major battle in the Cerberus conflict which occurred in the deep equatorial deserts. The lieutenants of Typhus - his Lords of Contagion, has fallen back to a series of fortifications in the desert regions to regroup and resupply. The Imperial leadership ordered a strike on the fleeing enemy forces. It was a savage battle which saw thousands slain on both sides.

Welcome to my latest battle report. As you read it will come across as a little one-sided but it was still a really fun game. There were rules forgotten and some unintentional cheating by yours truly but it's not a big deal. I'll just need to remember for next time.

Ashleigh was my opponent this week and he had asked to do a Bunker Assault mission with his Astra Militarum as the attacker. I'm always up for that and when he added Night Fighting I was even more pleased. I need more opponents willing to play the battle zones. I had fully expected to face a sizable tank division probably including a super heavy and I was not disappointed.

As per the mission rules I set the table up. I tried to be fair on terrain but I did could have perhaps done a bit more. I wanted a fun game so it's all good. I deployed first. Only stratagem I used was a mission specific one which gave my Chaos Bastion a +1 armour save. I tried to spread my armoured vehicles along my line so that I could try either draw fire or try to whittle down the various tanks. Ashleigh made a nice line with various Lemun Russ tanks and centerpiece was a mighty Shadowsword. Pretty much I had expected. Also nice to see a named character being played although I'm sure how Creed managed to escape from Trazyn's museum. I knew I wasn't going to win this game but facing something as cool as Creed, Pask and a Shadowsword that made it worthwhile.

My opponent got the first turn and I failed to seize the initiative. Ashleigh's turn was basically vast amount of incoming fire which stripped my bastion down to four wounds and my land raider to just two. Once again the Spotlight stratagem is worth it's weight in gold for this mission. The funniest moment of this turn was the enemy psyker trying to shroud one of the tanks with the power of us mind and almost blowing himself up with a perils. Oh how I laughed. My first turn was quite short. The only movement was two helbrutes which jumped down from the landing platform (just terrain) and tried to get into melta range of a Hellhound. I managed to strip some wounds from it failed to take it out. Everything else fired into the Shadowsword and I was making some headway. One Helbrute went for a charge and was burnt down to the ground by the Hellhound.

As the game went along I pretty much lost one or two tanks a turn. I lost the land raider and my predator first. The vengeance weapon platform was crushed by the Shadowsword in melee. The damage I had managed to inflict was slowly being repaired by an Engineseer following the super heavy around.

Turn three and the Bastion crumbled to the floor. One cultist survived to clamber from the rubble and he ran away in terror. The Shadowsword used another stratagem and it allowed him to roll over my new Plagueburst Crawler (a unit which had done sod all this game!). Firepower from the Lemun Russ tanks killed by plague marines and the defiler. Eventually I all I had Lord of Contagion and a plague champion. Both attempted to assault the Shadowsword and were overwatched by the awesomely powerful volcano cannon! Turn four and I had nothing left on the table.

---

That was a great game but a frustrating one. So what actually went wrong? Firstly I had forgotten that I had been playing a different detachment than I normally do so I gave myself more command points than I should have had. But since nothing came of them it didn't hurt. I also forgot that the mission gives my bastion an artillery strike! That could have helped so much. I felt like a complete muppet once I got home and realized. I do not think either of these issues would have affected the game though. That Cadian tank list and attendant Astra Militarum rules are just brutal. I was not expecting anything quite so nasty so it was a good job I had expected a loss at the hands of a tank army before we even set up.

Good game. Hopefully next time Ashleigh will play an infantry heavy list so I can see how well they do that as well.

My list was:

+++ New Roster (Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition) +++

++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Death Guard) ++

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion: Manreaper

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists: 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. . Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

+ Elites +

Helbrute: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

Helbrute: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

+ Heavy Support +

Chaos Land Raider: Combi-melta, Havoc launcher, Twin heavy bolter, 2x Twin lascannon

Chaos Predator: Combi-melta, Havoc launcher, Twin lascannon
. . Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter

Defiler: Combi-melta, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon

Plagueburst Crawler: 2x Entropy cannon, Rothail volley gun

++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Gametype: Matched

+ Fortification +

Imperial Bastion: 4x Heavy bolter, Icarus Lascannon

Vengeance Weapon Batteries
. . Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon

++ Total: [107 PL, 2000pts] ++