Vertical Envelopment - D'Then

Planet: D'Then.
Region: Perdus Rift.
990.M41

Death Guard vs Tau Empire.
2000 points.
Mission: Vertical Envelopment.

Pushed back by the superior might of the Tau military, the Death Guard have been forced into a defensive line stretched thin across the fields of D'Then's northern continent. The Tau have taken advantage if this by breaking through the lines at key points and then swinging their grav tanks around behind the chaos lines to flank them. Whittle the defenders piece by piece.

My friend Adam has been contemplating giving up 40K due to a couple reasons. I'm trying to tempt him back especially with 8th edition around the corner, so I bribed him (with a sealed XV-88 battle suit box) to give me another match against his Tau. We picked a Tau mission from Altar of War and went for it.

The mission represents exactly what the fluff blurb says. The Tau are engaging the enemy on one side while dropping or outmanoeuvring their skimmers behind the enemy lines. He deployed 9'' from the centre on his side of the table, spreading out across the board edge. Taking advice from a couple friends I decided to consolodate everything of mine behind cover in one corner. The idea being that because his skimmers and flyers must come in from my board edge they would have a harder time of it. In the end I felt he skimped out by only taking a Barracuda and no skimmers.

I decided not to steal the initiative because I felt that with night fight in play for the first turn plus everything getting a cover save he would have a wasted a turn. As it turns out his army was geared for night fighting so I lost that benefit and his markerlights removed any cover save. First shot of the game and my Land Raider went boom, forcing my Chaos Lord and his Terminators to foot slog it across the table.

My first turn and the Chaos Knight marched forward. Heavy stubber smoking one Fire Warrior while the thermal cannon took out half a squad sitting in a Tidewall gun platform. Unfortunately we couldn't find the rules in the rule book for the emplacement for a couple turns so we left it alive for a time. It did go boom eventually after we found it but the loss of that might have changed a few things. But it didn't matter as it was just a fun game anyway.

With everything else I was just too cautious. It's a kill point mission but I did not want to run the risk of giving him points by moving forward into the open. I wanted Adam to come to me which isn't going to happen with Tau.

Turn two and his Barracuda came in. Thankfully my Knight's invulnerable save kicked in and protected it from everything he threw at it. That thing was going to be a pain this game. Normally it's not such a problem but Adam had great shooting rolls all game. He then proceeded to have to follow my Knight around the table.

More shooting followed from the Tau and I lost my Predator before it could do much more than knock a wound of his Riptide. My Helbrute dropped easily to a Ghostkeel. It was only once his Crisis Battle Suits came down on my side that things changed. He wrecked by Rhino's and it allowed my Chaos Marines to assault them and lock them in combat for the rest of the game. My Raptors ended up the same way, until at the end I had one left locked in with three battle suits. None of these units were able to hurt one another which was frustrating.

By this time Adam was soaring ahead in victory points. That was about to change. He had slowly been knocking hull points of my Chaos Knight. After it had slain his Riptide with a mighty D hit from it's chainsword, it turned it's attention to the Pathfinders on a ruin. The massive overwatch fire took the last hull point and we were treated to an apocalyptic explosion. Adam had never seen this before. The blast destroyed three units plus his war lord and the Tidewall. Talk about boom!

At that point the game ended turn 5, just in time as the venue was getting ready to close for the night. Adam was well ahead on 10 victory points but that massive explosion launched me from 1 to 7 in a single roll. Well done to Adam.

Hopefully Adam will continue to play 40K after this. We also discussed replaying this mission under 8th with the same units (new points allowing) to see how it will play out now that vehicles will have toughness and wound scores.

My deployment corner after losing the Land Raider.

Sneaky Tau out on the flank.

The Barracuda swooping in from behind my lines.

Broken Comm Lines - D'Then

Planet: D'Then.
Region: Perdus Rift.
990.M41

Death Guard vs Tau Empire.
2000 points.
Mission: Contact Lost.

Returning to oversee the war against the alien Tau on D'Then, Typhus orders his troops to push forwards. Tau communication station 12 falls to the advance without time to alert command. When no word comes within 24 hours, the Tau dispatch a scouting force to determine the fate of their silent comms station. What they find is a powerful Death Guard force waiting for them.

Adam and I came together again to wage war for the world of D'Then. This was just a random pick up game and we decided to roll for it and we got the Contact Lost mission. We split the six objectives quite evenly down the table for fairness and I got to chose went first. Adam had chosen to field an Infiltration Cadre (I think it's called) which meant that if I wiped anything out he got all his reserves come in straight away on his next turn. So with that in mind I decided to let him have the first turn, which I don't think he was too happy about. Hehehe.

Annoyingly he started on of the objectives that he drew the card for so he was going to be on the leading foot anyway. He simply moved up his small ground troops forwards baiting me to kill them. On my first turn I got one of the objectives that I started with and one right in his deployment zone. Typical Typhus ordering his men to do the impossible. With that in mind I charged Typhus' land raider down the table to try and get there as quickly as possible. The chaos knight moved down the middle of the board firing away but unfortunately for Adam leaving one man alive in the target squad. However, he pretty much got all his reserves come in turn 2 anyway which took the gloves off for me.

His scatter dice was on fire though. He deep striked two battle suit squads and a riptide into my deployment zone and each unit rolled spot on target with the scatter dice. Resolving shooting he popped a rhino and started gunning down the plague marines within. Three were soon left. At the end of his second turn he scored that same objective he started with a second time. Already he was three VP up and I had but one!

My turn two saw my raptors arrive from deep strike and they landed spot on in his lines behind a unit of pathfinders. Flamers and bolt pistol fire killed all but three of them as I recall. The Knight assault another unit and stomped them into bloody spots on the floor.

Third turn saw a massive combat in my deployment zone. Two battle suit squads and the riptide killed two plague marines and assaulted the remaining one. That one plague marine survived three whole game rounds of close combat before finally succumbing to his wounds. Man of the match! But he did his job and kept his guarded objective out of the hands of the alien enemy.

Unfortunately because we were playing lengthwise down the table, Typhus' land raider was not making much head way although it shrugged off every fire that was thrown at it. Normally I find Tau pop it straight away but this game it survived intact which was a wonder. It's only claim to fame this game was glancing the hammerhead to death over three turns. The knight then  then charged into the ruins and began cutting down the main body of troops. The raptors assaulted the remaining pathfinders and tore them into chunks of bloody flesh. I was doing a good job of killing his troops but throughout the game he had the luck with the objective cards and it was obvious he was going to win from it.

Turns four and five went really quickly as we didn't have much left. Game ended turn 5 with Adam stealing victory 7vp to my 4. Good game but luck of the draw was definitely in Adam's hands. Man of the match was my lone plague marine and the wooden spoon goes to Adam's barracuda which failed to cause any wounds or damage all game.

My list:

*Typhus.
* Four termiantors with mark of Nurgle, lightning claws and land raider.
* Two units of 10 plague marines. Champion with plasma pistol and power weapon. Two meltaguns. Each unit with rhino with extra combi-bolter.
* One unit of 10 raptors. Mark of Nurgle. Champion with twin lightning claws. Two flamers.
* Chaos Knight with daemon of Nurgle, thermal cannon, chainsword and heavy stubber.

Cloak and Shadows - Perdus Rift

Planet: Tyros.
Region: Perdus Rift.
990.M41

Death Guard vs Raven Guard.
2000 points.

Cloak and Shadows.

Confident by their success against the Death Guard, the Raven Guard continue to hound the chaos marines into the countryside of Tyros. Typhus calls upon his psychic connection to the Warp seeking a way to secure a victory over the space marines. What he learns leads him and his forces to stage an ambush. Shryke sees through the false scouting and locates Typhus and his main force. Using the element of surprise they drop from the skies and reverse the ambush.

Played a revenge match against against Richard's Raven Guard last night. Know what he took last time I made a less competitive change to my list to help handle the lightning claw assault marine. I ditched most of what I had before in order to take a 15 man and a 20 man plague marines squad hoping it would be harder for him to cut through them. His list was different again. No lightning claws, just regular bolt pistol and chainsword assault marines. He also took two stormtalon fighters which proved once again that flyers are my bane. CSM really do need a better flyer than the Heldrake.

Six objectives were placed and we rolled for deployment which gave us the short ends of the table. He set up first with a scout squad on the table in a ruin and little else. Everything I had was deployed and just to be on the safe side I kept my Chaos Knight on the back edge to prevent him drop podding down behind it.

First turn his drop pods came down and all they did was kill four plague marines and nothing else. Even the melta weapons failed to touch the Knight. It looked well for me and I was hopeful that his poor dice rolls would help me in the long run. Come my turn the objectives I drew were rather terrible with only one that I could take. On his turn he had secured two with random victory points netting him 5 VP. My turn I achieved none. Thankfully though the squads he dropped in my deployment zone died to mass bolter fire and the actions of the Chaos Knight.

The second turn saw my dice go as bad his my opponent's/ We had a helbrute vs deadnought battle. My helbrute fired point blank with a multi-melta and missed. In combat it knocked one hull point off and his dreadnought hit me for five hull points and boom! When his planes came on they wrecked all kinds of trouble. Immediately my Knight lost 4 hull points and my predator turned into a burning wreck.

The objective cards then gave me objective 5 and two objective 4. Number 5 I had but 4 was contested until my Knight took out the drop pod stopping me. The following turn I got objective 4 again. Richard however kept pulling all the high point cards though and it was clear that without divine intervention I was losing this just on VP.

Typhus once again fell to his dreadnought. That seems to be a recurring element in our games. I got my revenge though when my Chaos Knight charged the Dreadnought crushed beneath the teeth of it's chainsword. Unfortunately my Knight exploded not long afterwards.

My plan to hold him back with large numbers of plague marines failed. Even just equipped with basic close combat weapons and just two thunder hammers, he smashed through both squads with ease although I did manage to drop a good number of them before my last plague marine fell.

Turn six and he tabled me. We didn't even bother looking at the victory points for comparison, he had easily doubled if not tripled whatever I had. It was a good game though and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am going to have to really consider what I can do about his hard hitting list for future games.

Surprise Attack - Perdus Rift

Planet: Tyros.
Region: Perdus Rift.
990.M41

The war against the Tau is going well. The planet D'Then is slowly falling to the forces of Nurgle. Typhus has returned to his base of operations on the planet of Tyros in the neighbouring system to oversee the war effort throughout the Perdus Rift.
Unknown to him the Death Guard presence has been detected by a Raven Guard battle barge headed towards their own war against the alien empire. Shrike decides that this may be the chance to strike against Typhus. For several days Raven Guard scouts monitor Typhus' base reporting back to the battle barge hiding behind Tyros' moon. When the time was right, Shrike lead an attack against the Death Guard.

Last night played a game against my friend Richard and his new Raven Guard army. We played a mission from the Battle Missions book called Surprise Attack. It represents a Space Marine surprise attack on an enemy headquarters so somewhat thematic.

My list was pretty much what I had played lately but as Richard wanted a 2000 point game I added in a Hel Cult (plague bearers proxying for some missing cultists), a few extra plague marines and two vengeance weapon platforms.

I was quite worried by what he could bring and I was not disappointed as nearly everything came with lightning claws. This was an army built to bring down my poor plague marines. He played 5 man squads though to break up his deployment and give me more problems to deal with.

Deployment for this mission is awkward as I can set up anywhere more than 12′’ from the table edge but the units must be 6′’ from each other. How a horde army might do this I have no idea as I struggled and we had to agree to shrink that where necessary. Richard’s forces can deploy in the 12′’ table edge and come in from any side.

To start with I was doing awesome. I was racking up victory points but turn three was the beginning of the end. Although his dice rolls were fairly pants all game he had slowly whittled hull points off of my Chaos Knight and when his Storm Raven came in it took the walker down with an impressive explosion. I had nothing that could touch the flyer and that was a huge problem. My only multimelta, on the helbrute, never got close enough to do anything.

His lighting claws were just horrible. No armour saves and FNP did me no good. I’m now dreading that my local space marine players will start outfitting with lightning claws when facing me. Typhus himself fell to a dreadnought after it ripped through his terminator bodyguards. Although thought dead, his body isn't recovered after the battle. Typhus will survive to fight again.

Come turn 5 and the game ended. Counting up the VP’s Richard’s space marines beat me by one point. 10vp to 9vp. Good close game.

Contact Lost - D'Then

Planet: D'Then.
Region: Perdus Rift.
990.M41

Death Guard vs Tau Empire.
1500 points.
Contact Lost.

Slowly, step by step, the Death Guard have advanced across D'Then. Outposts have fallen and thousands of Tau citizens now lie dead from numerous plagues. When contact is lost with mining station XII  on the Tau side of the front lines a scout force was dispatched to investigate.

What they found was Typhus the Traveller and his personal retinue of plague marines. While cultists and other marines looted the mining station's reserves, Typhus engaged the Tau expeditionary force.

This was my second game against my friend Adam and his Tau army. He had recently bought some new models, including a Barracuda, from one of our occasional fellow players who is selling his army and wanted to give it a go. We had planned on playing one of the Tau scenarios from the Battle Missions book but due to work getting in the way we decided to rearrange that and just play a friendly game from the rule book.

The six objectives were set up three to a side so we started mirrored. Unfortunately for Adam my first two objectives cards were two that I started with. Turn four saw me claim the third. His objective cards were not helpful to him at all.

Adam's list was led by Darkstrider and contained two units of fire warriors, one of pathfinders, one of stealth suits, two ghostkeel's, a hammerhead and a barracuda. Not bad for a nice friendly game but I felt he lacked some hard hitting units. I never managed to destroy either ghostkeel. One was kept locked in combat with plague marines, the other lost combat and ran away after facing Typhus with terminators. Even the barracuda, which I was concerned about, didn't really cause any problems ultimately. It didn't help his cause that my armour saves and FNP rolls were perfect throughout the game.

I had started the game with the intent of, or rather the hope of, getting the objectives that I started with. Lucky for me that was the case. I think Adam had the same hope but it was not to be. He was forced to come forward from his side which gave me a better chance of gunning him down. His hammerhead did nothing and my predator which I was using to to bring it down failed to hit all game. Eventually my Knight took out Darkstrider and his squad with a well placed thermal cannon blast but otherwise was almost useless. Likewise his barracuda which managed to take a HP from the Knight but did nothin else all game.

We eventually collided mid table between Typhus and his terminators, and some stealth suits and a ghostkeel. Typhus didn't do too well as Manreaper snatched a wound of him in the first round. The terminators slowly fell but they did bring down the stealth suits and knocked a wound from the ghostkeel which fell back. On my left flank Adam's second ghostkeel assaulted one squad of plague marines hoping to take them down and steal an objective. My plague marines slowly fell but held it back denying him some VP.

Towards the end of the game Adam had a chance to draw but his bad luck continued and when the game ended turn five by mutual agreement I was 5 victory points to 2.

My list was:

Typhus.
5 Chaos Terminators (reaper autocannon and lightning claws).
10 Plague Marines (plasma pistol/power weapon champion, 2x meltaguns, icon of despair)
10 Plague Marines (plasma pistol/power weapon champion, 2x meltaguns, icon of despair)
2x Rhinos.
Chaos Predator with lascannon and heavy bolters.
Chaos Knight Errant (daemonic possession).

War in the East - D'Then

Planet: D'Then.

Region: Perdus Rift.

990.M41

Death Guard vs Tau Empire.

1500 points.

Mission: Crusade.

In the years before Typhus sided with Abaddon in his 13th Black Crusade, the Traveller engaged in a war with the Tau forces on the edge of known space. The colony world of D'Then was the primary target. From here the chaos space marines could launch raids into surrounding systems carving out a small empire away from the Eye of Terror.

The war began with biological warfare followed by heavy ground combat as the Death Guard slowly pushed into the Tau colonies. This engagement came about as the Death Guard scoured the dead for salvageable equipment and munitions. The Tau launched an attack to catch Typhus unawares and end the war before it really started.

This is the first game of an attempt to play all the missions currently in 40K. The first game was against my friend Adam who normally plays Farsight Enclave but this evening chose to play a regular Tau army but other than two fire warrior squads decided to go all battle suits and crisis suits. I think he expected to easily blast me apart with mass firepower but I pretty much made all my feel no pain rolls which kept me alive through the game. 

It was a objective mission, three in play, and I was sat on two of them almost from the start of the game meaning that I didn't have to move and he had to come forward. The high point of the game was Typhus charging into a Ghostkeel, dodging all the attacks (it missed with all of them) and then hitting back with 8 successful attacks! Typhus made his contribution that day! 

I won I think more because Adam forgot that it was an objective mission and he was going for the kill. Perhaps things would have gone different had be focusing on removing me from the objectives rather than just killing units.

I only made one small mistake in that game and that was not noticing that Typhus cannot summon daemons (must be Lore of Nurgle only!)

My list was something like:

Typhus.

10 man chaos space marine squad with mark of nurgle.

10 man plague marine squad with two meltaguns.

10 man plague marine squad with two meltaguns.

5 man chaos terminator squad.

Chaos Predator with twin-linked lacannon and two heavy bolter sponsons.

Helbrute with multimelta.