First Battle of Castellan - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Astra Militarum: Cadian.
1500 points.
Mission: Spoils of War.
Deployment: Front-Line Assault.

The First Battle of Castellan was one of the heaviest battles of the first year of the war. It was initiated as an attempt of the combined Death Guard First and Third armies, to defeat the Astra Militarum and break through their defensive line before the Death Guard could assault the Imperial command structure. The high casualties however forced the Death Guard to call off the attack and allow their adversary to claim victory. 

A return match between my Death Guard and Ashleigh's Cadian guard. Unfortunately due to my opponent forgetting part of his army and having to go back for it, we started rather late and our game was a tad rushed. I had hoped that he would play a regiment other than Cadian so I could cross them off my list but I'm not going to complain. Maybe next time.

Once we had deployed I made the roll to go first and Ashleigh stole it from me with a luck Seize the Initiative roll. Not that going first would have done me well here as my list was a lot more infantry based and I wouldn't have been in a better position.

As we were playing a faster pace game due to time we sort of lost track of the turns and just played. We had a nice set up of terrain so I was largely protected from his tank fire to start with. The objectives started well for me as they were easily achieved by my troops. My dice however, were once again largely against me in the shooting phases. Where I did hit with lascannons from the land raider I nearly always rolled 1 or 2 for damage. It took me a good while to start bringing down Ashleigh's tanks.

It was probably the third turn when I was able to start smacking into the tanks and ogryn in melee. My lord of contagion did a great job of slicing through everything he could get to from chimera to ogryn. Ashleigh seemed desperate to get his hands on my warlord, the daemon prince, but I did everything I could to keep him back until I was able to get the deathshroud terminators deepstriking in nearby.

I'm guessing it was about turn 5 when we had to wrap up due to the venue closing. By the number of cards that Ashleigh had piled up I fully expected him to have a serious lead over me. But when we counted up our victory points he had only one by 1 VP - 9 to my 8. A lot closer than I had expected.

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After thoughts...

It was a shame that we had to play this game at a faster pace. Although my list was not geared for such a heavy tank army, I might have done better with time to think. It was a good game though and we had a nice laugh doing so.

I really need to get some more plague marines is what this and other recent games have driven home. I've got to put more thought into my armies and I need more massed fire power.

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