First Strike - Bastion

Planet: Bastion.
Region: Solarum Sector.

Death Guard vs Imperial Fists.
1500 points
Mission: Roving Patrol.
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil.

Streaking out of the Warp the great plague fleet comes on it's route towards Holy Terra. Only the fortress world of Bastion stands it's way. The Death Guard ships blast aside the orbiting defence platforms before deploying huge ground forces to the surface.
The initial battle took the defenders by surprise and by the time the Imperial Fists could take to the battlefield, the Death Guard had already seized a number of vital strategic locations.

This game was long in coming. I have for a while wanted a match against my friend Gary and his Imperial Fists. I am not sure but I think this may be my first game against them since the drop of Codex: Space Marines.

We rolled randomly on the night for the mission and we got Roving Patrol with us deploying length ways down the table. We each had an objective in our deployment zones to hold and would need to march forward to clash over the third one sitting in a ruin at the center of the table. My starting force was a rhino with plague marines inside and the hellforged contemptor. I kept the rhino behind cover close enough to my objective that when the time was right I could leap out and claim it. The contemptor I wanted to move forward, clear some of gary's marines from their objective and basically draw fire. We could both tell though that the turns would be short and it was going to take a while to get to the middle.

Over the first two turns I got all my reinforcements in and proceeded to move up the table. A second rhino with plague marines went up my left flank while a land raider with my lord of contagion and his deathshroud bodyguards tried to make for the middle. While a few wounds game off things, it was my contemptor that drew the fire over the first two turns and was ultimately gunned down by a mix of plasma and grav weaponry. A little disappointed it died but it's job was to soak fire so I can't complain.

Gary's army was very static to start with, as one should expect from Imperial Fists and I think that if he had been more forward in the early part of the game he may have done better. It meant though that I was able to get to the middle with little resistance and capable of putting a lot of firepower out that was slowly taking his marines down. Eventually as his primaris marines started up the table I began to take casualties. Both rhinos and the land raider went bang, although thankfully after their occupants had jumped out. Rather than use the plague marines to hold my objective I decided to push them forward and let the cultists from reserve clamber up to keep it.

The biggest threat on the table to me was the stormraven and I did have to assign a lot of firepower to finally bring it down. Once it was a burning wreck my life became a lot easier. Likewise I think Gary really wanted rid of my land raider.

Once Gary's marines got around the objective they gunned down all my plague marines and my deathshrouds, leaving my warlord to stand over it, plaguereaper in hand. The game turned into one of brutal combat where somehow my warlord smashed through marines and their captain with ease. His warlord trait keeping him alive to do so. The game went to turn 6 and victory was mine with just my lord of contagion, plaguecaster and cultists left standing. The Imperial Fists were down to a few men and not in a fit position to fight me further!

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After thoughts...

This time I decided to change my list and go back to basics. I keep trying odd combinations lately and they haven't been working. I can't say with 100% certainty that it was my list that helped win that match but I do think a combination of that and the distance the space marines had to walk up the table. The deployment of Hammer & Anvil really meant that the first couple turns of the game were going to be rather quick. Thankfully taking rhinos for a change helped with that.

A very good fun game. The mission/deployment was interesting too although under a different deployment type it would have been a very different game.

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++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [87 PL, 1466pts] ++

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 117pts]: 3. Tainted Regeneration, Manreaper, The Suppurating Plate, Warlord

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 6. Curse of the Leper

+ Troops +

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

Plague Marines [10 PL, 155pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion
. . Codex: Plasmagun, Plague knife
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 156pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion
. . Codex: Plasmagun, Plague knife
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher

+ Elites +

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

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 196pts]: Havoc launcher
. Left Arm: Hellflamer, Hellforged deathclaw
. Right Arm: Kheres assault cannon

+ Heavy Support +

Chaos Land Raider [19 PL, 356pts]: Twin heavy bolter, 2x Twin lascannon

+ Dedicated Transport +

Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 74pts]: Combi-bolter, Combi-bolter

Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 74pts]: Combi-bolter, Combi-bolter

++ Total: [87 PL, 1466pts] ++

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Contemptor versus Stormtalon

Battle for Bastion.

Space Marines pretending to be Imperial Fists