Battle for Starport Twelve - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons vs Salamanders.
1500 points.
Mission: Tactical Escalation.
Deployment: Dawn of War.

The Imperium sought to restrict access to vital resources and points of supply to the traitor forces. Guilliman, still recovering from his recent battle against his brother Mortarion, determined that a port city designated Starport Twelve would be the perfect target for attack. 
The Salamanders were chosen for this strike. A number of their battle brothers were able to breach the outer walls and enter the city. Once battle was joined in the streets, reinforcements teleported down from orbit to sow confusion and devastation among the enemy.

Tonight's match up was against Alex and his Salamanders army. He beat me rather well at our last meeting so I was looking for some friendly pay back. We picked Tactical Escalation as a mission that neither of us had played previously and I decided on 1500 points just to try some smaller point games for a change. I had a couple things to try out and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so.

We rolled the Dawn of War deployment and Alex began by deploying his terminator units in reserve forcing me to put my infantry down without knowing what was coming. It also forced me to spread out across my side of the table so that he couldn't deep strike those terminators in the middle of my lines. It wouldn't help though. Two roll offs and Alex got the first turn. I debated whether it was worth seizing as it was an objectives mission and sometimes going second helps knowing what I need at the end of the game but I failed to seize.

First turn and down came my opponent's thunderhammer and stormshield terminators, and his captain right in front of my plagueburst crawler. Immediately I knew this was not going to go well. The Salamander's shooting was spot on and I lost a whole plague marine unit in one go. The crawler lost most of it's wounds to a devastator squad as well. I could not make DR rolls to save anything it seemed. That is when it went wrong. For some reason I had forgotten that his terminators could assault the turn they came in and they went right into the crawler, smashing it to scrap with their hammers.

My first turn was difficult. Alex had drawn an objective that he could achieve easily and I drew one that wanted me to cast psychic powers. I tried to move forwards but Alex had nearly everywhere covered with multiple fields of fire. My new toy, a hellforged contemptor, had sustained some damage so I made sure it marched towards a scout squad on my right flank. My plan being to take a couple down, assault and heal from killing them. Instead my dice went into kill mode and all the scouts were cut down. I charged the terminators with my daemon prince but he didn't last long against the thunder hammers. At least I managed a victory point for casting a psychic power. It was going to be my only victory point all game however.

From here it just got worse and quick. Alex was drawing objective cards for the card type he had picked for the mission and I got nothing of the sort. The Salamander's shooting robbed me of the hellforged contemptor, a rhino, a second squad of plague marines and a fair chunk of my poxwalkers. Turn three I was considering conceding the match as there was just no way I was going to pull this game back but I decided to go on and see just what I could do. Turn four left me with just a lord of contagion and a plaguecaster. Turn five and it was just the plaguecaster. When he fell that was it. I had been tabled. I had one victory point and I just didn't want to consider how many Alex had secured. But them's the breaks.

Good game Alex. Next time I will have my revenge.

---

After thoughts...

A very frustrating game. From the get go I really did not have a chance here. It wasn't an alpha strike list but Alex was able to ensure that my envisioned battle plan wasn't going to happen. I had taken a Nurgle daemon prince from the daemons codex with the idea of using the "healing" psychic power (the name escaped me right now) to keep the plagueburst crawler alive as it is a Nurgle daemon. He could also defend it if the enemy got too close.

My dice didn't help either as for the first couple hours they didn't roll enough disgustingly resilient or armour saves for that matter. Only on the last couple game turns did that start to go in my favour. A little too late though.

I enjoyed the game but nothing went right for me at all. There's always next time.

---

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [65 PL, 1162pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Gifts of Decay (1 Relic)

+ Dedicated Transport [4 PL, 94pts] +

Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 94pts]: Combi-bolter [2pts], Combi-flamer [11pts], Havoc launcher [11pts], Smoke launchers

+ Heavy Support [8 PL, 152pts] +

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 152pts]: 2x Entropy cannon [40pts], Plagueburst Mortar, Rothail volley gun [12pts]

+ HQ [13 PL, 227pts] +

Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 117pts]: 2. Living Plague, Fugaris' Helm, Manreaper [17pts], Warlord

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Blades of Putrefaction, Blight Grenades, Bolt pistol, Corrupted staff, Curse of the Leper, Krak grenade, Smite

+ Elites +

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 181pts]: Havoc launcher [11pts]
. . Left Arm [42pts]: Combi-bolter [2pts], Hellforged deathclaw [40pts]
. . Right Arm [25pts]: Kheres assault cannon [25pts]

+ Fast Attack [8 PL, 158pts] +

Foetid Bloat-drone [8 PL, 158pts]: 2x Plaguespitters [34pts], Plague probe [25pts]

+ Troops [32 PL, 531pts] +

Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 48pts]
. . 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon [36pts]: 9x Autopistol, 9x Brutal assault weapon
. . Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon [8pts]: Heavy stubber [4pts]
. . Cultist Champion [4pts]: Shotgun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 180pts]: Icon of Despair [10pts]
. . Plague Champion [42pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun [13pts], Power fist [12pts]
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun [68pts]: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon [30pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun [13pts]
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon [30pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun [13pts]

Plague Marines [10 PL, 183pts]: Icon of Despair [10pts]
. . Plague Champion [42pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun [13pts], Power fist [12pts]
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun [68pts]: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon [27pts]: Blight Grenades, Blight launcher [10pts], Krak grenade, Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon [36pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plague Spewer [19pts]

Poxwalkers [6 PL, 120pts]
. . 20x Poxwalker [120pts]: 20x Improvised weapon

++ Auxiliary Support Detachment -1CP (Chaos - Daemons) [8 PL, 156pts] ++

+ HQ [8 PL, 156pts] +

Daemon Prince of Chaos [8 PL, 156pts]: Hellforged sword [10pts], Malefic talon
. . Nurgle: Smite

++ Total: [83 PL, 1499pts] ++

Battle is joined!

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought.

Salamanders camped out on their objective.

Why I play Death Guard

Over on the Dakka forums someone today has asked why we play the army we do. This was my reply.


From day 1 back in 1987 I played space marines because I loved the lore surrounding them but as the years went on and on I became really fed up with them. Mainly because I felt that the army didn't live up to the fluff and partly because everyone would load up on AP3 or better weapons, and I never felt that I had a good game because of it. Then about five years ago I decided to ditch space marines and go for something that grabbed my attention otherwise and thus began my association with Nurgle. 

I love the necrotic, cancerous look to the Death Guard so I decided to play them. Immediately I found that win or lose I had an army now that i enjoyed painting and playing with. The other element that grabbed me was how I envisage they wage war. It's not bombing the cities from orbit with huge great cannons but deploying huge amounts of biological and bacterial weapons into the atmosphere. Sit back and let it do it's job for a few days before you deploy your troops. The surviving military will put up a fight but they are nothing before the assault. Where I see other traitor legions and warbands just slaughtering their way through I see the Death Guard differently. I see the dying, pestilence-ridden survivours begging for release. I see a plague marine snatch up such an Imperial citizen, corruption spreading from his very touch - flesh turning necrotic as veins of ashen putrification spreads through veins and muscles - and in that few seconds you have the choice to die in wracking pain or give yourself to the plague god, knowing that it's a path you can never come back from. 

That's why I play Death Guard.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Adeptus Custodes.
2000 points.
Mission: Cross Fire - Empyric Storm.
Deployment: mission specific.

The battle for the Dyatlov Pass was a minor engagement in the Cerberus conflict made notable only because it was the first time that the Adeptus Custodes had taken to the battlefield.

The Adeptus Custodes had attempted to cross the Dyatlov mountains to outflank the Death Guard forces now falling back from the front lines. Instead they found themselves facing an armed fortress manned by a host of plague marines. Worse still, a cabal of plaguecasters had torn the veil into the Warp allowing their primarch Mortarion to return just minutes before the Custodes arrived.

For some time now I have been looking forward to playing against Dan's Adeptus Custodes. With the release of the codex we finally had that opportunity to get the match up underway. As per usual I asked my opponent to pick a mission from the list that I had not played yet and Dan chose Crossfire with the Empyric Storms battle zone. For an army that has no psykers this was an interesting choice but so far the Storms had always helped me out so I didn't mind.

Now, why did I pick this game to bring Mortarion back? Simply put I've been listening to the local chaps talking about how tough the Custodes are and I wanted something to help balance out against that. Mortarion seemed like a good choice although I did not expect him to survive very long.

I set up the table as the mission says and tried to spread my forces evenly among the three deployment zones. Keep the bastion manned by low point cutists and with some plague marines and the plagueburst crawler at the back. Lord of Contagion, two hulbrutes and a small group of poxwalkers on the left, with Mortarion, his deathshroud terminators and a plague marines force on the right. Hopefully I could Mortarion into a first turn charge and smash through Dan's lines before he could get anywhere.

Dan had the first turn and throw everything forward towards the two flanking forces eitherside of the table. He made an odd play to start with that I didn't quite understand as he placed his dreadnought and Valdorus in the teleport chamber but brought them in turn one into a position where they probably would have been anyway had they just walked up the table. I'm sure Dan had a reason but I can't see it myself. Anyway, the Custodes on that side threw everything they had into the plague marines and Mortarion. I lost one deathshroud terminator as they stood in harm's way to protect their master but lost the entire plague marine squad which was rather galling. On the other side I lost a fair few poxwalkers but nothing more.

On my turn one Mortarion leaped over the ruin and into combat with the Custodes. Unfortunately his bodyguard were a lot slower and unfortunately ended up just out of the protection bubble. Mortarion did a grand job of slicing through Dan's forces but I didn't kill enough to slow down the damage coming back to me.

The next few turns went by rather quickly as every one was pretty much in combat down the middle of the board. Mortarion fell on the third turn if I remember mainly because his bodyguard were taken down by shooting on the way to his side. By that point though Dan did not have much left on the table. I was luckier on the left flank as once my poxwalkers went down, the Custodes on that side were soon beaten to death by the helbrutes and my lord of contagion.

Turn 5 and Dan had six models left on the table. The contemptor dreadnought took out one of my helbrutes and was soon smashed by the second. That thing had soaked up so much damage that it was getting annoying. I was glad when it fell over.

Come turn 6 and things suddenly went very strange indeed. Up until this point the rolls on the Emypric Storm table had been fairly bland, with the notable exception of my plaguecaster almost becoming a spawn! However, turn 4 and Dan rolls 66. No, not kill all the Jedi... we roll off the winner gets a free greater daemon of their choice! I won and down comes a Great Unclean One (proxied by Mortarion) and Dan was about to concede. Thankfully he played on. Come my turn 6 and I roll... 66. Dan wins the roll off and he gets a Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage! This had suddenly become very very bizarre and fun. We were having quite a good laugh about this strange turn of events. Turn 7 and I roll another 66! In comes a second Great Unclean One on my side. Between it smiting and the last of my plague marines Dan loses everything. He just has the Bloodthirster left and turn 8 my first Great Unclean One charges and kills it outright with three solid hits that Dan fails to save!

Although I have somehow managed to table him, we check the victory points just in case. I win 10 VP to his 9! I scrape a victory by just one point. That was a close game that until the strange case of the 66's I thought was very much in Dan's hands. At the end we had a really good laugh about the game and Dan is going to suggest using the Empyric Storms battle zone more often by sounds of it.

---

After thoughts...

As usual the Empyric Storms did very little really. A couple rolls were just minor annoyances, but a couple of  chances that a psyker on my side would become a chaos spawn got the adrenaline going. It was only those crazy 66 rolls that tipped the balance of the game. Empyric Storms are not for standard games but for a good bit of casual fun I recommend them.

Custodes are rather tough and nasty. I am glad that I took Mortarion as without him I really do think that Dan would have just obliterated by army without breaking a sweat. With the new download from Games Workshop that lets Custodes have some of the Horus Heresy units I had hoped Dan would play something cool like the grav tank but maybe next time.

Another really enjoyable game.

---

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [75 PL, 1310pts] ++
Rules: Daemonic Ritual, Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Heavy Support +

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 152pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Plagueburst Mortar, Rothail volley gun

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 117pts]: Manreaper, The Suppurating Plate

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Blight Grenades, Bolt pistol, Corrupted staff, Curse of the Leper, Krak grenade, Putrescent Vitality, Smite

+ Elites +

Deathshroud Terminators [11 PL, 180pts]
. . Deathshroud Champion: Manreaper, Plaguespurt gauntlets
. . 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlets

Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 48pts]
. . 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon: 9x Autopistol, 9x Brutal assault weapon
. . Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. . Cultist Champion: Autogun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 181pts]: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 184pts]: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenade, Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plague Spewer

Poxwalkers [3 PL, 60pts]
. . 10x Poxwalker: 10x Improvised weapon

++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) [10 PL, 217pts] ++
Rules: Daemonic Ritual, Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Fortification +

Imperial Bastion [10 PL, 217pts]: 4x Heavy bolter, Icarus Lascannon

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [24 PL, 470pts] ++
Rules: Daemonic Ritual, Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: Attendant's claws and teeth, Blades of Putrefaction, Phospex bombs, Plague Wind, Silence, Smite, The Lantern, Warlord

++ Total: [109 PL, 1997pts] ++

The forces guarding the Dyatlov Pass fortress.

My opposing commander orders his Custards into battle!

Mortarion laying down the smacketh!

Dreadnought on Helbrute action.

A squad of Custodes marches forward.

Update

Unfortunately no battle report from last Thursday as Nurgle claimed me as one of his own for a couple days. Even had a day off work because of it. But have no fear my match up with Mortarion vs Magnus has been rearranged for a month's time. Wish me luck.

In the meantime I am prepping for a game this Thursday against the new Adeptus Custodes codex. As I have never played against them before this should be an interesting experience, and based upon what I've read of the codex I'm going to need all the luck I can get.

Lastly I am planning on creating my own war games table at home so that I can try and get some more games in each week rather than just one on a Thursday. It'll be a slow process and for a while it'll be homemade terrain but I'll get there.

"No you fool. The rules clearly say you do over watch before rolling charge range!"

No More Templates - Good or Bad?

For quite some time Warhammer 40K used templates for a lot of it's weapons. You had two blast markers - one small, one large - and a flamer template. With the release of 8th edition Games Workshop decided to do away with them in favour of a multi hit system for those sort of weapons. This met with mixed views from the player base.

Many players liked the idea of templates. For them it gave another tactical concept to bare in mind during play, that of stringing their units out were possible to avoid losing too many from a blast weapon or flamer. Many more players, myself included, disliked for that same reason, stringing units our, but also because of the scatter dice that went with blast templates.


The scatter dice was used to add a random element to the weapons that could hit a wider area. You rolled the scatter dice along with 2D6 (minus your Ballistic Skill) and the arrow pointed which way the blast actually went. Nice idea in theory but I've never known two players to agree on the correct facing of the arrow. Good riddance in my book.

The scatter dice / blast template concept worked well for a lot of things, such as artillery and tank cannons which would naturally inaccurate. It never really worked for everything else. Just why does that ball of glowing energy from your plasma cannon suddenly deviate? Or are you a worse shot that the marine next to you with a lascannon? I've even had games where the template from the plasma cannon went backwards and hit the unit firing the shot!

However, despite the flaws of templates there is still a vocal group of players who miss these elements in 8th edition. So the question comes up whether removing templates was a good idea? I personally say yes. 8th edition has scaled down the complexity to help the game flow easier and faster. Templates frequently slowed games down when they were used in my experience.

Perhaps part of the issue is that templates were part of the game twenty plus years and it is hard to change too much of what you are used to. Hopefully as 8th edition grows the old crowd of 40K players will come to accept this major change in the game (just one of many) and see that see that a simpler system still has a lot to offer and that complexity isn't always the way to go with war gaming.

Chapter Approved 2017

The first release of Chapter Approved came out at the start of December 2017. The purpose of the book is provide 8th edition 40K with an annual rules and points update plus some new missions.

The response to the book has been mixed. Lots of players feel that they are being forced to pay for points updates and potential erratas which should have been free plus additions that they may not want nor need. Many others, myself included, see nothing wrong with this. It's a once a year release that expands upon 8th edition nicely even though some of it may not be of use to us. The cost could perhaps be lower but by now we should all be used to Games Workshops pricing policies.

The book opens up with the Open Play section. This is to me perhaps the weakest part of the whole book. It starts off with the new 8th edition rules for Apocalypse style games which certainly fit the open play format more than matched play. I've never been a fan of the Apocalypse format mainly because I'd rather play three or four games in a day than one giant one but it is a nice inclusion if you like the bigger free for all games.

The next section is a rather interesting one if underwhelming. Games Workshop have teased now and again about bringing make a mechanic for creating your own variations of vehicles in 40K. Chapter Approved 2017 gives us the first step in this by presenting rules for space marine and chaos marine armies to custom build their own land raiders. There are even several pre-constructed variants that you can use, although the chaos one is rather lackluster. Great for Open Play but I do have a grumble. Games Workshop could have provided a points cost for the variants that they give us, including the Terminus, for use in Matched Play. That was a disappointment to me.

The next chapter focuses on Narrative Play. It presents us with full rules and missions for Planetstrike (which was a popular format in my local club when the original planetstrike book first came out) and Stronghold Assault. As a player who likes lots of different missions to play over the usual capture objectives or kill point ones, this is for me a great addition to my collection. They then add the fortifications from the Imperial Index (I forget which book 1 or 2) but they fail to give points costs. The costs haven't changed from the Index book but their inclusion would have been nice for those players who didn't need to buy the Index book. I would guess that because normally you just get fortifications in a Stronghold Assault mission they didn't feel the need to include points.

Matched Play is where it is for me in this book. We have an update with some new rules for this format. Chapter Approved then gives us twelve new missions - six for Eternal War and six for Maelstrom of War. These are rather different to the ones we get in the rule book with some interesting new mechanics. These twelve missions and the ones for planetstrike and stronghold assault are more than worth the price of the book. Some may argue that but these expand your game and prevents them being the same old same old all the time.

The next section is about making your own objective markers. Feels like padding to add to the page count. Did we need this? No. Not really.

The next section was a much needed addition. For those codex armies that had not had a official release by the time of this books release, it gave them a warlord trait, a relic, special rule and a couple new stratagems. This was very much needed and I think has made those armies become just a little bit more competitive against the codex armies. My only grumble... Imperial Knights got a section but Renegade Knights didn't.

We then get the Appendix. Here we receive new rules for the death world terrain and the mechanicus terrain. Nothing special really but nice as an inclusion. We get two new battlezone's - Industrial and Empyric Storms. I'll review battlezone's at a later date as I want to go into them with a bit more detail. The Industrial one however, is a bit lame as it is based upon you actually having and using the Mechanicus terrain. The Empyric Storms are very similar to what came in the Rise of a Primarch book in early 2017 but Games Workshop have not released a deck of cards for them as yet though meaning you have to roll for it each time.

The last small section gives suggestions for a Ladder campaign and then updated points costs for Games Workshop and Forge World units. Some went up. Some dropped. Queue much debate which I try and avoid.

So... do I think this book is worth it? A resounding yes. There is a lot of stuff that you probably won't use but the addition of so many great new missions, updated points and updated army rules (for those not released at the time) I do think this book is worth the price and worth your time.

I will be very interested to see what they add in the 2018 book when it comes out in December. I'm hoping for more missions and perhaps escalation style rules such as Age of Sigmar got for war bands. I'm sure that Games Workshop will learn a lot from the response to this book and make the next one even better.

The Brothers War - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.

Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Ultramarines.
2000 points.
Mission: Last Stand - Empyric Storm.
Deployment: mission specific.

With the Death Guard on the run the forces of the Imperium are in a position to decimate what remains of the chaos forces. Primarch Robute Guilliman decides at last that now is the time to demoralise the enemy and takes to the field, joining his chapter in an all out attack upon the Death Guard headquarters. His fallen brother, Mortarion, bursts forth from the Warp to clash blades with Guilliman once again.



8th edition has been out nearly nine months now and I have never had the opportunity to face down the reawakened Ultramarines primarch Robute Guilliman until now. My friend Mike challenged me to a Guilliman vs Mortarion showdown and there was no way I was going to say no. We agreed on 2000 points and I let him pick the mission. He blindly chose Last Stand from Chapter Approved 2017 and the Empyric Storms battlezone. Neither of us had properly read the mission rules and on the night a couple things surprised us and made just a bit more interesting.

The night before the game I noticed that I needed a fortification, so I had to quickly try and change things around to include a chaos bastion. We don't play the narrative style games with differing points per player. We prefer to play it with the standard match play format before anyone queries that.

I had to deploy the bastion and three troop choices. Everything else goes into reinforcements. Cultists held the bastion and the plague marines sat behind ruins for cover. We had a brief discussion whether or not a unit of terminators could be deployed off table ready to teleport in rather than have to walk onto my table edge and we agreed that they could. The mission didn't say as far as we could tell. Anyway, everything else of mine has a 3+ chance of coming on at the end of each of my movement phases. However, it doesn't say that they automatically come on turn X or whatever. But surely my dice couldn't screw me over that badly... could they? Mike deployed his entire army across the table from me but I get the first turn.

First turn and I just tried to move my plague marines so that the Ultramarines didn't have a great field of fire on them. Mortarion, Typhus, the plaguecaster and a bloat drone came on table end of the movement phase. I wasn't worried about Mortarion too much as we both wanted a proper primarch on primarch fight later in the game. A wounded Mortarion would not have been fair. Mike's first turn was move everything forward and just blast my poor cultists into oblivion with grav weapons. He also managed to knock wound after wound from my bloat drone.

I shall point out at this stage that we noticed that the victory conditions were all in Mike's favour. He just had to kill all three of the starting troop choices to win. Two to draw and just one to lose. Ah... hell!

Turn two. I advanced Mortarion up my left flank hoping that Michael would stay true to his word and not burn my primarch to ground with his repulsor tank. I don't think i got anything in on turn two from my reinforcements. I did manage to inflict some casualties this turn on the Ultramarines including a fair few wounds on the repulsor and the redemptor dreadnought. Smite was working very well as was The Lantern. It was the one and only time that Mortarion's pistol would wound anything all game. Mike continued to pour fire into my plague marines and I lost a fair few. He also dropped some reivers in a short way from my plaguecaster but their shooting was terrible. I think I lost one wound.

Turn three and I got my defiler in at last. I still have a plagueburst crawler and the deathshroud terminators waiting to come in. I so needed that crawler at this point. Between shooting and smite was able to drop the reivers down to two men, and take some more wounds from the repulsor and the dreadnought. Mortarion attempted to charge a unit of marines and failed the charge! Mike charged the reivers into my plaguecaster and rolled a double one. They just stood there looking scared! The plagueburst crawler died under the grav plates of the repulsor. The burst from it knocked a single mortal wound from the Ultramarines around it.

Turn four.  Nothing really moved for me and nothing came in. Why dice gods? Why??? The only thing I did this turn as I recall was smash the reivers with a corrupted stick and cut down some primaris marines with Typhus. Combat ensued at this point. The redemptor destroyed my defiler and the explosion took it to it's last wound. Guilliman charged into Mortarion and took three wounds from Mortarion. I tried the six attack mode for Silence and that damn Guilliman passed all his invulnerable saves.

Turn five. I got the deathshroud terminators in but they came down too far away from their primarch to do anything. Still no plagueburst crawler. Sigh. Combat went on buy Mike had been a gentleman and decided that a draw was acceptable and didn't go after my remaining plague marines. We wanted this game for the primarch fight and that's what we got. Mortarion did manage to knock some mortal wounds onto Guilliman via smite but his plague aura did nothing. I tried the eighteen swings against him this time but and I did a few wounds.

Mike's fifth and the Empyric Storm actually did something.... we lost invulnerable saves! Mortarion and Guilliman both looking somewhat concerned now. Guilliman struck Mortatrion a solid series of blows which without an invulnerable save and my terrible DR rolls, meant that he was struck down. The primarch of the Death Guard exploded in a cloud of flesh-eating bacteria and the resulting mortal wounds killed Guilliman! Did the funky new suit of armour save Guilliman and stand him back up? No it did not! The two primarchs killed each other on the last turn of the game! How awesome was that?!!!

The game ended a draw. Hard fought by both us but that final last moment of the game was more than worth it! Fantastic game and a perfect showcase of casual gaming. One of the best that I have had.

---

After thoughts... the Empyric Storm rolls did nothing all game. At best they knocked a single mortal wound off my plaguecaster. Rest of the game they did nothing of note until that last turn of the game.

I still never got the plagueburst crawler in. It sat on the side table all night with no action. Three games for that unit now and each time it has not had a chance to do anything.

The final battle was just awesome and well worth the wait. Next time though Guilliman will fall to the Angel of Nurgle! I so swear it!

---

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

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [24 PL, 470pts] ++
Rules: Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: Attendant's claws and teeth, Blades of Putrefaction, Curse of the Leper, Phospex bombs, Putrescent Vitality, Silence, Smite, The Lantern, Warlord

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [79 PL, 1334pts] ++
Rules: Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ HQ +

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Blight Grenades, Bolt pistol, Corrupted staff, Curse of the Leper, Krak grenade, Miasma of Pestilence, Smite, The Pandemic Staff

Typhus [9 PL, 175pts]: Blight Grenades, Curse of the Leper, Master-crafted manreaper, Putrescent Vitality, Smite, The Destroyer Hive

+ Elites +

Deathshroud Terminators [11 PL, 180pts]
. . Deathshroud Champion: Manreaper, Plaguespurt gauntlets
. . 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlets

+ Fast Attack +

Foetid Bloat-drone [8 PL, 158pts]: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 48pts]
. . 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon: 9x Autopistol, 9x Brutal assault weapon
. . Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. . Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 180pts]: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 164pts]: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 5x Blight Grenades, 5x Boltgun, 5x Krak Grenades, 5x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenade, Plague knife

+ Heavy Support +

Defiler [11 PL, 167pts]: Battle cannon, Defiler claws, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon, Smoke launchers

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 152pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Plagueburst Mortar, Rothail volley gun

++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) [10 PL, 192pts] ++
Rules: Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Fortification +

Chaos Bastion [10 PL, 192pts]: 4x Heavy bolter

++ Total: [113 PL, 1996pts] ++

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The fortress defenders.

A mighty redemptor dreadnought.

A defiler marches onto the table.

Mortarion, primarch of the Death Guard.

Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines, hiding like a coward behind a wall.

Topic requests

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