9th ed battle report

Those chaps over at Tabletop Gaming have put out a 9th edition battle report.

Battle of Blood River - Vigilus

The battle of Blood River was an engagement fought between the the Genestealer Cult and a force of Khorne Daemons. The Cult was marching forth to engage the forces of the Imperium when they were set upon a sudden manifestation of daemons. The daemonic incursion cut off and surrounded the Cult, leaving them fighting for their lives.

1750 points.

Genestealer Cult (Twisted Helix) vs Chaos Daemons (Khorne).

Mission: Scorched Earth.

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

Battle Zone: None.

This battle was played as game #2 of our day event a couple months ago. With that in mind my memory maybe a little rusty so please bear with me.

This game was against Jon's impressive khorne daemons army. I had been looking forward to this game as I don't get to face off against daemons all that often. We rolled off for deployment and faced each other across the table old skool style. From what I recall Jon set up about half of his army in battle lines across from me and ready to march into battle.

The game was soon down to combat regardless of the mission. Despite blasting many of the infernal horrors into dust Jon kept bringing a few back and deepstriking those he had in reserve. I didn;t do too badly to start with as even my cultists were able to take many down with massed firepower and the fortifications did me well too. But once they reached my lines things changed for the worse.

Once again my forces proved incapable of handling a dedicated assault based army. We did end up with an awkward situation where we did have a small but friendly argument as to how something worked and in the end we went with Jon's interpretation (although I still think I'm right :p ). It did't matter though as it wasn't a situation that would have changed the outcome of the game.

The game went quite quickly but with an expected outcome and I believe that Jon's daemons were very through in tabling my forces. They even tore down my fortifications in close combat.

I wish I could remember more of the details as it was a good fun game. It was probably the game out of the three that day that I had better chance at winning but it wasn't in my favour. My dice that day were fairly pants.

Victory to the khornate daemons.

Bloodbath - Vigilus

Having sustained numerous losses since the war on Vigilus began, the cult needed to secure at least a small victory to ensure their survival. A weapons depot in the wastelands was picked as a target as it was expected to be lightly defended while the major battles took place elsewhere. The cult made it's way through the badlands only to find that their expectations were very wrong. A detachment of Custodes lay in wait, having expected just such an attack from one of the Imperium's many foes on Vigilus.

1750 points.
Genestealer Cult (Twisted Helix) vs Adeptus Custodes.
Mission: The Scouring.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.
Battle Zone: None.

This was a battle that took place as part of a small day's gaming back in April and not part of the club's ongoing narrative campaign. The details will be sketchy but hopefully you'll get the idea of how the game went.

The first game of the day was against my friend Dan who had brought his Adeptus Custodes army to the table. I have only defeated Custodes once and back then I was playing Death Guard with Mortarion. I was going to do the best that I could here but without sounding too negative, I was fully expecting to get wiped out with my poor cult.

The six objectives were set up fairly evenly across the table and we rolled Hammer and Anvil deployment, which at the time I thought was going to be good for me. I figured as most of Dan's army was walking across the table I might be able to do something before he got too close to me. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way as you have probably expected.

Dan's forces started walking up the table, snatching claim on objectives as they went along. Knowing that I didn't want to get into assault too soon, I elected to stay put and pour as much small arms fire into his troops as they came forward. In theory I should have been able to whittle a few of them down but as is always the case with me, my dice didn't want to play. It wasn't his troops that were the problem though. Dan had brought a venerable contemptor dreadnought, some vertus preator jetbikes and a caladius grav tank. He was able to put a lot of firepower into me before I could do much damage back.

From what I recall, I did managed to strip a few wounds and kill a handful of his troops, but I couldn't do much more than that before he was in my lines with the jetbikes. With some of my cult tied up, the rest of his army had little to slow their advance up the lines. Nothing I had stopped him. I think the game got to turn 4 before he had annihilated me.

It was a good game but considering deployment was more in my favour than Dan's I felt I should have been more effective with my shooting. It wasn't a failing in target priority but just a mixture of bad dice rolls and a tougher army than mine.

Hold The Line - Bludhaven

Planet: Bludhaven.
Region: Seraphon Sector.

Death Guard vs Orks.

Mission: Bunker Assault.
Deployment: Mission specific.
Points: 1750 vs 2000.

This engagement was a major battle at the start of the war. The Orks amassed a vast horde in very little time and threw almost everything they had at the Death Guard fortress line over a 35 mile front. The goal of the greenskins was to destroy the Death Guard command fortress and it was here that the future of the campaign would be decided.

Gary had challenged me to a game against his Orks. Specifically the Blitz mission with his new greenskin army as the obvious choice for attacker. That game is coming but this week we played a practice game using the Bunker Assault mission.

After playing this mission a few months ago against Adam's Tau and how totally one sided it was - the Fortress does not balance out a loss of army points - we agreed that he should have 2000 points of Orks and I would field 1750 of Death Guard plus the fortress. I feel that this way was a much better way of playing the mission.

Gary had the the first turn as per the mission rules. Everything came forwards except for some lootas sitting in a ruined tower on the edge of his deployment zone. They had a good field of fire towards my troops and the fortress. To start with Gary seemed very keen on destroying my predator throwing what fire he could at it. Over the next few turns he would throw everything at it including a unit of rokkit boyz who spent most the game in assault with it but only stripping one or two wounds at a time. If I remember correctly they took four turns to destroy it. But his turn was mostly taken up moving large numbers of boyz forwards into my line of fire.

I barely needed to move anything all game as the Orks were coming to me. I did manage to do some small damage with the fortress and the barrage strike that the mission gave me. The fortress is rather useless though with just BS 5+ and most shots I fired this game simply went off into the distance. My own shooting was a lot more effective and the the start of the game saw my vengeance weapon platforms doing their job reasonably well. But these are Orks and I could not do enough damage.

Once the Orks were close enough my psychic powers came to the fore. Mortal wounds were thrown about which did well. His painboy however was giving them an FNP benefit and he didn't lose anywhere near enough models because of it.

Turn three and we were in brutal combat. Once this became the case my vengeance platforms were useless as they couldn't shoot anything due to the nearest unit being in combat. I need to read certain rules a little bit better in future.

The unit of the match was one of my helbrute trio. It charged into the damaged gorkanaut taking a wound from overwatch. The assault was brutal and left the ork machine hanging together with good thoughts. The helbrute survived the return attack and then entered it's berserk mode for being wounded. The second set of attacks tore the gorkanaut into so much twisted scrap. The helbrutes soon died to a force of killa kans and a deff dread.

Once the orks were in my deployment zone they massacred their way through my plague marines and began to smash away at the base of the fortress. Typhus and the plagucaster both fell in combat. Typhus, at least, I assume gets teleported bask to the Terminus Est before the final blow came down. My cultists were the only unit to come out of that game unscathed for a change.

End of turn five and we had to wrap up the game as we had gone over the time that the venue was open. At this point I won 9 vp to 8vp only because the fortress remained standing. Had the game gone to the final turn 6 it would have fallen and victory would have gone to my opponent.

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Bunker Assault is one of those narrative missions that is hard to play for the defender. The bastion or fortress that you effectively get for "free" isn't worth the points for a fair game. It has plenty of weapons but the weak Ballastic Skill means that it isn't going to do anything worthwhile other than be the ultimate target for the enemy.

I certainly enjoyed the mission more this time around than when I played Adam's Tau. It is far too easy a mission for Tau to achieve with their superior weapons.

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++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [85 PL, 1549pts] ++
Rules: Plague Weapon

+ HQ +

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Curse of the Leper, Plague Wind, The Pandemic Staff

Typhus [9 PL, 175pts]: Miasma of Pestilence, Putrescent Vitality

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 64pts]
. 13x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 181pts]: 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 [10 PL, 181pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

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

+ Elites +

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

+ Heavy Support +

Chaos Predator [9 PL, 171pts]: Havoc launcher, Twin lascannon
. Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter

Defiler [11 PL, 190pts]: Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon
. Rules: Combi Weapon

++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) [12 PL, 200pts] ++

+ Fortification +

Vengeance Weapon Batteries [12 PL, 200pts]
. Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon
. Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon

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Deployment at the start of the battle.

A monstrous gorkanaut.

A band of killa kans and a deff dread slaughter my helbrutes.

The man of the match moment!

Supply Raid - Tanis IV

Planet: Tanis IV.
Region: Loki Sector.
990.M41

Death Guard vs Crimson Fists
1750 points:
Mission: The Relic.

Utilising the devastation of the Crimson Fists' home world, a Death Guard raiding force exit the warp above the war torn world of Tanis IV. Deploying to the surface the Death Guard eradicate any surviving Ork presence and then make for the loyalists' stockpiles seeking to restock their own munitions. After breaching the fortress walls, the chosen of Nurgle advance hungrily searching for any supplies. An hour after the fortress walls fell, a small force of Crimson Fists marines arrive to investigate and a battle is joined.

One of our original players, a young chap known the length of club simply as “Muffin” (don’t ask…) challenged my Death Guard to a 1750 point match last night. I could not turn down such a challenge so I accepted. Last time I played against him he was using a solid Dark Angels list but he has changed his choice of army, and now plays Crimson Fists. With that in mind I expected to face Cantor, tactical squads in rhinos, maybe some terminators and a devastator squad. The usual space marine list. What I actually found was a mechanised list made from two formations. So straight away I thought this was going to be an interesting challenge. In return he was not expecting an army of T5 and a Heldrake terror pack, Mission was rolled and we were fighting The Relic.

Muffin was lucky and seized the initiative. Thankfully, a mixture of night fight and everything in cover his shooting was largely ineffective. I think one rhino lost a hull point but that was it. I simply moved up to get a better shot at the Relic. Turn 2 saw his shooting wreck one rhino forcing my chaos marines to march forward under cover of a surviving section of woodland. My turn 2 was better with a Heldrake swooping in and taking out half of his devastator squad. So much for bolstering that cover with the chapter tactics. My land raider tried to bring down his vindicators but the lascannons failed to breach the armour.

Turn 3 started to swing the game in my favour. On Muffin’s turn he leapt his captain and command squad out of their rhino ready to assault my chaos marine unit just within reach of the relic. He fired a vindicator at my land raider and the shot deviated so that it covered his command squad and wiped out all bar the standard bearer! That one space marine wasn’t there much longer and I grabbed the Relic.

My raptors proved useless as they deviated their deep strike into terrain and one marine died. All but two then died due to demolisher cannon blasts. They did get into combat eventually, felling a single marine, and causing them to fall back into the path of a heldrake’s baleflamer!

My second heldrake came on and blasted a pair of land speeders that wound up in my deployment zone, looking to halt my retreat with the Relic. Not overly effective but one multi-melta was torn free.

The terminators were out of place and when the land raider was immobilised they were forced to try and get away from the big guns but concentrated fire dropped them quickly.

The turns sped up quickly after that and on turn 6 I was left with just my sorcerer holding the relic and holding his own against the loyalist marines in combat. Luckily the game ended on turn 6 otherwise Muffin may have been able to seize the Relic and get away with it. I won 3 points to 2.

A very good game, but tough. I didn’t have a lot to deal with his tanks so I concentrated on just getting to the Relic and holding on to it. Hopefully Muffin enjoyed the game and we’ll see him at the club again some time soon.

Wave Assault - Abraxes

Planet: Abraxes.
Region: Ceres Sector.
919.M41

Death Guard vs Tyranids.

Mission: Wave Assault.
Deployment: Special.
Points: 1750.

Weeks of fighting have led to a brief stalemate. Even the supernatural toughness of the Death Guard has failed to prevent them slowly being pushed back and the Hive Mind has been working overtime to combat the multitude of diseases released by Nurgle's chosen. Now the Tyranids have begun to close in around the Death Guard.

Typhus ordered his men to hold the line no matter the cost. Bludhaven would rot under Nurgle's gaze rather than be devoured by the Hive Mind. Surrounded by a swarm of alien horrors, the Death Guard prepared to give their lives dearly.

This was a continuation of Joel and I's game from a couple weeks ago. We chose the next Tyranid mission from the Battle Missions book and prepared for that. I decided to be a little non-thematic this time and build a list around the Black Crusade detachment for no reason other than I wanted to give it a second go. It is much better against Imperial opponents but this was just going to be a fun game.

Joel's list was a little tougher than before. He had to split his into three waves which would randomly come from a random table edge that had been used before. Wave 1 was his thematic remnant from the last game (carnifex and two small units of genestealers). Wave 2 was two flying hive tyrants and a large unit of gargoyles. The third wave was hordes and hordes of gaunts, supported by two zoanthropes, a tervigon, and a toxicrene.

I set up a unit plague marines holding the central objective, two CSM units in rhinos holding two others, a unit of raptors held back to engage where needed, a helbrute to the left defending the final objective, and finally Typhus and lightning claw terminators in a land raider to speed to where they were needed.

The first three rounds went really quickly as Joel's tyranids came in in wave order. I managed to take out a few but he had hidden most of his wisely in cover. Once everything was in it surged forth. The helbrute was dropped quickly by the hive tyrants and so I gave up on that objective to focus on the other three. The raptors did nothing really. Despite being close to a huge units of gaunts they failed to get into combat and when they did on the following turn, they were shredded by sheer number of dice. Disappointing as I had taken the time to build those models just for this mission. Typhus and his terminators likewise did nothing. The land raider was dropped by the zoanthropes and the only possible target for them was the toxicrene which proceeded to kill all of them rather too quickly for my tastes.

The chaos marines were also soon cut down by either gaunts or the two hive tyrants. Only the plague marines actually put up much of a fight. But come turn 5 even they dropped and Joel won by wiping me out across the table.

It was a good game and I know that I had chosen the wrong detachment but sometimes you need to try things out. Joel was extremely certain that i would win simply because of the mark of Nurgle on everything but I was certain he would win simply by numbers of dice. My army is just too expensive to compensate but next time I'll give some more thought to what I need to bring them down.

Black Crusade detachment.
*Typhus.
* One unit of four terminators with pairs of lightning claws. Land raider as dedicated transport.
* Two units of chaos space marines. Mark of Nurgle. Champion with plasma pistol and power weapon. Flamer and heavy bolter. Both with Rhinos with extra combi-bolters.
* One unit of raptors. Mark of Nurgle. Champion with twin lightning claws. Two flamers.
* Helbrute with multi-melta.
* One plague marine unit. Champion with plasma pistol and power weapon. Two melta guns.

First Contact - Abraxes III

Planet: Abraxes.
Region: Ceres Sector.
919.M41

Death Guard vs Tyranids.

Mission: First Contact.
Deployment: Special.
Points: 1750.





After weeks of engaging in hit and run skirmishes with the genestealer cults across Abraxes the Death Guard have pulled back to their command bastion to prepare for the coming storm. As the first tendril appeared in the night sky the chaos marines spread out to better engage what was coming. At that point the genestealers burst from the sewers and ruins drawing the plague marines fire away from the descending vanguard of the Tyranid invasion.


Ever since I started my Death Guard army I had wanted to try them out against a Tyranid army. In all my years I have never managed to beat a Nids’ list and it would be nice to see how the Death Guard would fare. When my friend Joel challenged me to a 1750 point match I jumped on it. We decided to play the First Contact mission from Battle Missions as it was rather thematic.

I made a small mistake in not fully reading the rules properly and I misunderstood how the deployment worked, and gave my opponent an advantage. Basically the table is split into six equal size blocks numbered one through six, and as the defender I had to roll a D6 to see where each unit deployed, meaning that my army was spread about the table. I had read that the Tyranids rolled as well but could appear anywhere in that square when in fact they come in from the table edge or deep strike to that square if they are capable of it. So I en ended up deploying with the expectation that the vanguard of the hive fleet would pop up all round me. Big mistake.

My opponent had tried to build a fluffy list with lots of genestealers to start with (they are already on the planet after all) followed up by deepstriking winged hive tyrants, spore pods with carnifex’s and lictors.

To start with my opponent was very lucky being able to destroy my predator and take down one rhino with ease. My dice were not with me once again, especially the Helpack who spend the first the turn firing their multimelta’s into the air at nothing. They eventually started getting their backsides in gear but by then they were too far away from the enemy to play much more in the game.

I managed to retrieve some luck when one plague marine squad brought down a winged hive tyrant and blew it into red goo. That was probably my one victory all game. Otherwise both plague marine squads did little other than hold up enemy units for a few turns.

Typhus once again proved that he was not worth playing (why do I keep playing him?) as although he mowed down many genestealers, my opponent managed to get a big gribbly in combat with him and squash him. Pretty much every game my opponent managed to get him in combat with something he can’t handle and takes him down. Time to play someone else as my HQ for a while.

The last couple turns saw my helpack take down a spore pod and I managed to gun down a carnifex but it was too little too late. The genestealer units outnumbered me and managed to hold more objectives when the game ended turn 5.