Falling Back - Lelithar

Planet: Lelithar.

Cadian Sector.

999.M41

Dark Angels vs Death Guard.

2000 points.

Mission: Deadlock.

The Lelithar conflict has after many weeks fallen to a stalemate with neither the larger Death Guard army nor the Dark Angel strike teams making head way against one another. Typhus has decided to pull his back forces to the territory that they have captured. While this consolidates his forces into one target location, the Dark Angels do not have the numbers to launch an effective strike and the lord of the Death Guard plans to use his numbers to eradicate the space marine threat.

This was my effective third tournament game against my nephew's Dark Angels. Typical that I would end up playing him yet again. Having played against this list recently I knew exactly what to expect and I spent the set up trying to work out how to deal with all that grav weaponry. This game was played lengthwise down the table but I knew with his drop pod force I wouldn't make much headway and that is exactly what happened. Benjo got the first turn and his grav weaponry tore dropped a handful of chaos marines first turn and stripped some hul points from my Chaos Knight.

My plague marines were in rhino's but each attempt to get close to objectives resulted with me losing hull points and slowly he whittled away my forces. Worst of all was my turn two in which he wrecked my land raider forcing Typhus and his terminators to jump out. All I could do on my turn was hope that enough of them could assault the squad and remove those grav weapons, but once again overwatching on full ballistic skill meant he killed all four terminators and Typhus before I even did anything. By the end of turn two I had basically given up and was just playing to make things more difficult for my opponent.

The only real victory I had this game came from my Chaos Knight. I was able to keep it alive and continually focus fire into his Librarian Conclave squad and Azrael. Turn after turn I stripped away Azrael's protection but I couldn't get through the invulnerable saves by the time the game ended on turn 6. But I did more damage to them in this game than I had previously.

On turn 6 the game ended and once again victory was achieved by the Dark Angels due to grav weapons.  I've said it before but they are nasty. Unfortunately this game because of the terrain layout and my nephew's well placed drop pod assault, I didn't have the cover saves to prevent it. Going to need some more practice against him I think.

Typhus plan has worked but at great cost. His men have successfully fallen back but the Dark Angels launched a series of successful strikes into the chaos forces they retreated from the front lines. Now the Death Guard have consolidated their position Typhus needs to fathom a means of breaking out and achieving a victory if the Lelithar campaign is to be successful.

Guerrilla Warfare - Lelithar

Planet: Lelithar.
Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Dark Angels vs Death Guard.
2000 points.
Mission: Cloak and Shadows.

The war for Lelithar was not going well. Every attempt to push forward was being met by stiff resistance from the Dark Angels marines. It was becoming clear that despite superior numbers the Death Guard could not strike their targets en mass without suffering serious defeat. Typhus instead divides his legion into multiple smaller war bands and dispatches them to numerous potential targets with the idea that the space marines cannot protect each and every target. The war may be fought piecemeal but slowly the Death Guard would achieve victory.


I haven't played my nephew for a while so I challenged him to a 2000 point 40k game. I knew he would accept and dust off his Dark Angels. I decided to play for fun and try out the new Black Crusade detachment from Traitor's Hate to see if it would work ok for an event I was playing in a weeks time. Knowing that I had to have a Chaos Knight for that event I took one for this game as practice but it's cost meant that I would be forced to forego any vehicles in my list. I can tell you right now that it hurt me big time.

Deployment was the old classic across from one another and the mission rolled was Cloak & Shadows, which I had played recently against Raven Guard. Objectives were well spread around and my deployment let me start with two of them. My nephew started with three in hand.

His list was something I haven't played against before. He normally takes the big land speeder with the shadow/cover effect but this time he didn't and instead played a Librarian Conclave block with Azrael which was frankly scary. Otherwise he did his usual of spamming grav weapons in both tactical squads and a devastator squad. Those things are the bane of my games sometimes.

He got first turn and I chose not to try and steal. He inserted two drop pods, one with a devestator squad with grav cannons and the other with the conclave. His grav weapons knocked down the Knight before it got chance to do anything. Impressive but I felt that I had wasted vital points. Must learn not to get attached to super heavy walkers.

From there the game just got worse for me. He scored all three of his starting objectives and on my turn I scored none but did kill a handful of his marines. My next turn saw me draw an objective that he held so I raced my bike squad up the side, smashing through the tactical squad holding it only to find that his razorback a few inches away had the Objective Secured special rule  and I had nothing now to take it out.

Ultimately he was able to outflank my forces and cut me down in a withering hail of fire from three directions. Terminators and Plague Marines alike just cut down by small arms fire and grav weapons. Even Typhus dropped due to those. He may need to be benched in future games at this rate!

Turn five and it was almost half past midnight so I called it there. He had a very nice army and there was nothing I could do to pull it back. The objectives I drew were just dire and now where near me. The Chaos Warband formation is nice but too restrictive for how I play but the whole Black Crusade detachment was sort of nice. Because of the special rules I ended up with a biker aspiring champion with T7, 2+ armour save, fleet and feel no pain. He was a bit of a monster but he took a lascannon to the chest and died turn 4.

My real problem other than his grav weapons was the lack of speed. I needed rhinos and a land raider to get my units safely around the table. Just means that for the weekend event I'll not be playing the new formations or detachment like I wanted.

Good game but I hope not to play against that many grav weapons again for a while.

The Relic - Lelithar

Planet: Lelithar.
Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Adeptas Sororitas / Dark Angels vs Death Guard.
2000 points.
Mission: The Relic.

During the war for Lelithar, Typhus ordered a raid upon the shrine of Saint Lelithar. He directed the troops under his command to storm the cathedral and take the dead saint's treasured remains. The theft and destruction of the body would cause a severe fall in moral for the defenders. Leading the attack himself, Typhus charged into the ranks of gathered Adepta Sororitas. Only once battle was joined was the trap sprung. Dark Angels marines dropped from the sky and crashed through the ruins on bikes. Determined not to lose, Typhus ordered his men to seize the relics and fall back.

For some time now I have wanted to challenge my nephew's Sisters of Battle army. He doesn't like playing them as they are in desperate need of an update, something we both agree on. However, after some friendly persuasion he agreed to field them in the Relic mission. When he turned up with Dark Angels allies I was a little surprised as I had expected him to field his own Imperial Knight.

Instead he had turned up with a whole shedload of grav weapons which were quite frankly, the bane of my existence this game. Grav cannons and even the basic guns ripped my Chaos Knight to pieces over three rounds! I didn't even get to do anything with it other than incinerate a handful of bikes. My defiler (which I played purely because I had just bought it off a friend and wanted to play it) died turn 1 to a lascannon and a couple missile launchers. There was nothing I could do it seems.

Even my Plague Marines were screwed. They made plenty of FNP saves but every time I got to base contact with the relic, my nephew would gun down enough of them that I could never move away from the relic. By turn 3 I had resolved myself that this was going to be a loss for me. So I had Typhus charge and challenge Saint Celestine. Let's go out in a blaze of glory! Except for two rounds neither of them managed to hit each other and when I did get her down to her last wound she slew Typhus (Who was quickly snatched off into the Warp by the Dark Powers) and I conceded.

A good game but frustrating. I have not been on the receiving end of grav weapons before and definitely not that many!

The Purging - Lelithar

Planet: Lelithar.
Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Dark Angels vs Death Guard.
1500 points.
Mission: Purge the Alien.

The Death Guard have found the Dark Angel threat on Lelithar hard to defeat. Unable to defeat a fast moving and mobile force the plague marines are forced to lure the space marines into tight battlefields where their mobility will not be as useful. If the Dark Angels can suffer just one defeat on Lelithar it may give the Death Guard the push they need.



This game was played about three months back and was planned against my friend Joel. I had asked to play against his Tyranid army as my Death Guard had not been tested against them (and still haven't). Unfortunately on that day I had had some bad news and turned up not in such a good mood, and I found Joel had not brought his Tyranid army but a new Dark Angels army his girlfriend had bought him for his birthday. Unfortunately I was a bit of a dick and not very nice for which I am sorry.

His list was a nice one with some fast moving bikes, land speeders and heavy support tanks. With the limited force available to me it was difficult to actually do anything to counteract it. I did have some bikes but they didn't last long. My plague marines were not able to get across the table either. Joel's force was heavily armed with plasma weaponry and I force once I didn't get a lot of FNP rolls.

Joel was by far the better opponent in this game but I also feel that I was not in the right frame of mind to play a game of 40K. I still think he would have won but I might have done better.

Hunt for the Voice - Lelithar

Planet: Lelithar.
Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Dark Angels vs Death Guard.
1000 points.
Mission: Purge the Alien.

The Dark Angels sought the shadowy Heretic calling himself the "Voice of the Emperor," who was operating on the world of Lelithar. The so-called "Voice of the Emperor," Cypher, the infamous Fallen Angel.
The Dark Angels launched a number of strikes against this figure, but on each occasion found that the pressures of constant attacks upon their hallowed ground in the Caliban System forced them to redeploy their forces. Each time the Dark Angels manage to close on the suspected location of the Voice, he somehow proved able to slip through their clutches, leaving behind taunting, heretical graffiti.

A couple weeks ago I challenged my nephew to a game of 40K as an opportunity try out my Death Guard once again. I went in expecting to lose because I still need to learn how to play them but I was pleased at ho well they did handle themselves despite the high points cost.

My nephew made a small screw up as he was unsure how the Forge Organisation Chart worked with formations but it didn't matter for this as I was happy to play. He has three armies - Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Adeptas Sororitas. He is such a big Blood Angel fan that I expected to be facing off against a plethora of assault marines and furiouso dreadnoughts. Instead he turned up with a Dark Angel force mounted on bikes or part of a Ravenwing detachment full of land speeders. I was going to have a hell of a time.

I don't quite remember everything he had but it includes Sammael on his jetbike, a bike command squad, a squad of bikes, and the formation that gave him three land speeders and a darkshroud land speeder.

My list was:

Sorcerer - level 3.
Mark of Nurgle. Veteran of the long war.
Powers: Force, Nurgle's rot, summoning, plague wind and the one that makes weapons "get hot".

10 man CSM squad.
Mark of Nurgle. Veterans of the long war. Champion had power fist.

10 man plague marine squad.
Veterans of the long war.
Champion had power weapon and plasma pistol. Icon of despair and two meltaguns.
Rhino with two combi-bolters.

5 man terminator squad.
Mark of Nurgle. Veterans of the long war.
Combi-bolters and one reaper autocannon. Champion had lighting claw. The rest had one power fist and the others power weapons.

Aegis defence line with quad autocannons.

I deployed mine with the sorcerer and his CSM buddies holding the autocannon. The plague marines sat off to the side in a rhino looking to get around to objectives as needed. I also talked myself into holding the terminators in reserve which proved to be a poor choice as you'll see.

Battle was then commenced. He threw everything at my CSM squad on turn one. Bolters and plasma weapons both, and I either made every armour save or passed the cover save for the defence line. One dice in particular rolled nothing lower than a 4 for half the game! It has since been promoted.

Second turn he decided to move across the table and sweep in behind me rather than risk driving over the terrain. When he realised that he had wrecked my Rhino in the gap he needed he was not a happy bunny. On my second turn no terminators arrived. Poured everything into the land speeders and did nothing. The quad cannon did smash through one bike squad though which really helped my bacon.

Turn three and still no terminators! I ended up having to summon plaguebearers to stall his advance with the bikes. They did not last long which I found very disappointing. I really wanted them to last a bit longer but a free unit (although it cost my sorcerer a wound thanks to a issue with the warp). As the game went along my nephew did manage to kill my CSM squad but not before my sorcerer conjoured a second squad of plaguebearers to halt the bike advance and blowing his own head off with another mishap.

Eventually my terminators arrived turn four way past the point where I really needed them. They came down and took out a couple of bikes but the rest blasted them down to two terminators who then proved ineffectual other than to hold an objective.

My plague marines did fantastic though. They never did put a dent on the land speeders but they survived so much fire power and took down Sammael that I didn't care. At end of turn 5 it was getting late and my nephew was on 12 vp to my 5 so we called it there.

At the end of the day my army is going to be expensive as I want the mark of Nurgle on everything and I'd rather field plague marines than the regular chaos marines. I'd have liked some more models on the table but even so I was very pleased as to how the game played out.

Skirmish on Lelithar

Planet: Lelithar.
Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Dark Angels vs Death Guard.
1000 points.
Mission: Purge the Alien.





Early in the crusade the planet Lelithar came under Chaos attack. The Death Guard arrived and seeded the atmosphere with the virulent zombie plague. While the Planetary Defence Forces mobilized to fight the growing number of the dead, the Death Guard deployed to the surface many kilometers from the main hive city. Colonies were reduced to cities of the dead and the crops in the fields rotted to mulch. An astropathic call for help was sent. The Dark Angels chapter of space marines answered the call and began to deploy a company to the surface.

Out in the midst of the rotting fields of grain, a scout force of Dark Angels ran into their equivalent and battle was joined. The Death Guard were few in number and soon outmaneuvered by the space marines in their Rhino transports.  The chaos marines suffered heavy casualties from plasma weapons but the Dark Angels suffered as badly from their own weapons. Even so, the chaos marine scouting force was swiftly eradicated. From here the space marines prepared to take the battle to the enemy.

Chaos Sorcerer.
Mark of Nurgle. Veteran of the long war.

10 man plague marine squad.
Veterans of the long war.
Champion: power weapon and plasma pistol.
2x Meltaguns. Icon of despair.

5 man chaos terminator squad.
Mark of Nurgle. Veterans of the long war.
Champion: Lightning claw.
1x Reaper autocannon. 1x powerfist. 3x power weapon.

Helbrute.
Multimelta and power claw.

Game Notes:
This was my first game playing Death Guard. I didn't expect to win and went in with a positive mentality to just try out what I had build and painted at the time. I hadn't expected my opponent to bring a force deployed inside Rhino transports. I had trouble taking them down just because of range and crap dice rolls. He immobilized my Helbrute just outside of melta efficiency range and I failed to do anything with it all game. His plasma weapons hurt him and one plasma cannon deviated back onto his Rhino which went bang. If I remember right I called it at the end of turn 4 because there was no way I was pulling the game back.