Shock And Awe - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Blood Angels.
1500 points.
Mission: Sealed Orders - Night Fight.
Deployment: Vanguard Strike.

Despite their victories over the Death Guard, the Imperium was spread thinly in an effort to engage the enemy on all fronts. The Astra Militarum did not have the manpower to initiate an offensive against the Death Guard fortress at Salazon. Following a successful campaign in the south, the Blood Angels under Mephiston swiftly redeployed to launch an attack upon the chaos forces present.

I haven't had a game against Jon for a while so when the opportunity came up I took it. He asked what army I would like to face and since I haven't played a lot against Blood Angels under 8th edition this seemed like that opportunity.

John rocked up with a nice Death Company list. He even spent some command points to make his captain a member of the Death Company. Nice and thematic. As I have over the last few games, I have have continued to use the same list in an effort to perfect it. In hindsight, perhaps I should have perfected it beforehand.

Considering the deployment I decided not to take the first turn. By looking at it Jon would need to come towards me and I'd have a chance to try and burn his army down before he could. Again, in hindsight, I should have probably tried to go first. A lot of Jon's army stayed put assault marines and the stormraven moved forwards. I weathered a fair bit of firepower from both the aircraft and his long range predator tanks but I lost the hellforged contemptor and more than a few wounds from my transports. It wasn't long before his firepower took out my transports and cost me a few plague marines inside.

I didn't do well at all. My dice did well when I wanted to hit but they did not want to wound or pass DR rolls. This became very clear once my Death Guard were swarmed in assault by death company assault marines supported by Mephiston. I put up a good fight but the dice and the Emperor were with my opponent. He battered his way through everything I had pretty much until I was left with my lord of contagion on the third turn I think, if I remember right. That was quite a brutal fight with Mephiston and the Lord smashing the blood and snot out of each other but despite the suppurating plate and a man-reaper, Mephiston remained standing and decapitated my remaining model. I didn't even bother counting up the victory points - not that I had many anyway.

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After match thoughts....

I don't think I've ever had much luck against Blood Angels in any edition and a mixture of good choices and Jon's usual skill ensured that I was going to chalk up another loss. But it was still a good game and I may have learned something about facing this sort of army again. I probably had the wrong army list for what Jon brought to the table but I still enjoyed the match a lot.

Also, apologies for the shortness of this report. Due to work and real life it has been early a month since this match was played and a lot of the details have fled my memory.

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Normally I post my list but I've been playing the same list a lot lately so for a change here is Jon's list:

Battalion detachment:

Captain with jump pack, stormshield and The Hammer of Baal (1cp for Black Rage).
Mephiston.
5 man scout squad.
5 man scout squad.
5 man scout squad.
6 man death company (sergeant with thunder hammer).
10 man death company with jump packs (two with power fists).
Furioso Dreadnought with heavy flamers.
Predator with HK missile, and lascannons.
Stormraven with stormshrike missile launchers, assault cannons and twin multi-meltas.

The Blood Angels maintain air superiority.

Our deployment and table.

Cultists hiding from the naughty men in red.

The Balantine Massacre - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus Sector.

Death Guard vs Blood Angels.
1250 points.
Mission: Only War
Deployment: Front-Line Assault.

The Balantine Massacre was an event at the start of the Cerberus campaign named after the Balantine peninsula where the Imperium had set up a small resupply point for the larger war effort. Considered to be outside the main lines of engagement the site had been left largely undefended. It was only when the Death Guard led a surprise attack that the Imperial command realized that on this world there was no safe zone. The Death Guard massacred the small garrison and ground staff after subjecting them to massive chemical and biological attack. It was ended only by the swift arrival of a Blood Angels response team which drove the traitor's back but by then the damage had been done..

Second game of 8th edition and this time it was a rematch against Michael Y's Blood Angels. This was his first game of 8th edition so we went for a small-ish game. We were going to try power levels but decided to stick to points. I found it quite tough building a 1250 point list. Couldn't take what I wanted but in the end I was happy with my list.

We rolled and got the Front-Line Assault deployment. We could be very close to one another but we actually deployed further back closer to out table edges. Not having to worry about facings makes a big difference when placing vehicles and that was something Michael was getting used to here.

I got the first turn and grabbed two objectives straight away and decided to keep those plague marines sitting on them. If I couldn't win then I could at least hope to snatch a draw. The poxwalkers on the other hand, were advancing up the table at full speed and soon outran both Typhus and the Lord of Contagion who were supposed to be supporting them. The predator managed an awesome shot which knocked six wounds off of one of Michael's razorbacks.

Michael's first turn was not as effective as I recall. I either made armour saves or my disgustingly resilient rolls. I think he dropped two poxwalkers and that was it. Mephiston emerged from hiding but it put him square in the path of my poxwalker hoard, who on my next turn surged into him clamoring for his flesh. They would then tie him up in combat for the next three turns. They failed to wound but they did their job by keeping him busy.

As the game progressed my predator blow it's target razorback away and moved up to the table to start hounding a second tank. That was a new experience for me as previously unless it was a land raider, i would have held the predator back under cover to keep it alive. Now I have no fear of zooming it up the table.

My helbrute managed to knock some wounds off of my opponent's vindicator before that same tank blew it away. The vindicator then starting picking off one plague marine squad sitting on an objective. This was quite worrying as the loss of that objective would scupper my plans. I had then bend the rules the little and stretch one unit of plague marines so that they claimed two objectives.

On his third turn Michael brought his reinforcements in. A unit of assault marines and a unit of death company assault marines. They helped Mephiston bring down the remaining poxwalkers. The assault marines then leapt away to steal the objective from that one remaining plague marine. The death company and Mephiston charged into Typhus and the Lord of Contagion. My Lord had taken a few wounds and was swiftly cut down but Typhus gained revenge by cutting down the death company in one mighty swing. His foul miasma and psychic powers then aiding in dropping Mephiston.

The game ended turn five and we counted up the victory points. Michael held two objectives and I held two but also got the warlord kill. Victory to the Death Guard 7 points to his 4. Another really good game against Michael. I'm really enjoying our games. We still made a couple mistakes but nothing that we won't soon fix as we play.


Typhus.
Lord of Contagion.
10 man Plague Marine squad. Champion with plasma pistol and power weapon. Unit had two meltaguns and an icon of despair.
10 man Plague Marine squad. Champion with plasma pistol and power weapon. Unit had a meltagun, a plasmagun, and an icon of despair.
20 Poxwalkers.
Helbrute with multi-melta and power fist.
Predator with twin-linked lascannon and heavy bolter sponsons.

Plague Marines advance down the battlefield.

Typhus and a Lord of Contagion heard the flesh-eating dead.

Blood Angel scouts hiding in the ruins.

Mephiston surrounded by the dead.

The Ritual - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus Sector.

Death Guard vs Blood Angels.
2000 points.
Mission: Purge the Alien.

The sudden attack upon the Death Guard held world has come as a surprise. Territory has been lost but the sons of Mortarion have enacted a strong counter attack but for now the war has bogged down into a stale mate.
In an attempt to bolster their forces with daemonic allies, the Death Guard blightcasters attempt an powerful ritual to bring forth a host of plaguebearers and great unclean ones. 
Alerted to this by the divinations of his chapter's librarians, Guilliman dispatches an assault force of Blood Angels to thwart the plans of the Death Guard.

Tonight's game was against one of our club's newer players Michael Y. Always good to play against someone new so I was really looking forward to this game. I had forgotten that he played Blood Angels so I built a basic combined-arms detachment list. I had considered playing my Chaos Knight but decided against it as I didn't know whether he had ever played against such before and I wanted to be nice. We decided on the night to go with a basic kill mission and we played the usual across table deployment.

His list was a librarian dreadnought and sternguard in a stormraven, some scouts, two units of bikes, a land raider redeemer, two flamer predators and an assault cannon predator. He also took a fortification to hold a devastator squad. Haven't played against a Blood Angels army like this for ages so I had forgotten that they were fast. His tanks were across the table and in my face straight away from turn one. Had not expected that and it put me on the back foot.

Quite quickly I lost my rhino's and Michael was three victory points up. I was convinced that he was going to win this straight away. I tried to focus all my lascannon and heavy weapons fire upon his land raider but if I did cause a hull point of damage Michael has a tech marine inside fixing things. Quite frustrating. I did manage to knock some hull points of his predators and my helbrute charged and knocked one into twisted scrap.

As the game progressed my marines were getting burnt to death and blasted away by sniper fire with rending hits. Not getting an army save first and failing quite a few FNP rolls was hurting my ability to mount a counter attack. The helbrute soon exploded removing my easy means of taking his tanks down. My Heldrake soon came in and was able to eradicate one bike squad and slay most of a scout squad that had been causing me trouble. It didn't do me much more use though .

The last few turns of the game were spent with my marines trying to tank hunt on foot with an autocannon and meltagun, or desperately trying to avoid the flamestorm cannons on my opponent's land raider.

When Michael's stormraven came in it dropped off the sternguard and librarian dreadnought, and blasted my land raider to bits. This actually helped me as it freed up my terminators and terminator lord. Combat quickly ensued and my chaos lord did very well. The dreadnought failed to wound him and with a fantastic roll my lord dropped a meltabomb on it and blew the dreadnought away. The sternguard did nothing and then died to lots of lightning claw hits. I grabbed myself a good few victory points on that last turn.

Turn 5 the game ended and I thought it was going to be close. I had clawed my way back and had achieved a draw. That was until it was pointed out that Michael's surviving bike squad was within my deployment zone and gave him one more victory point. My opponent had won 8vp to my 7vp.

We both agreed afterwards that this was one of the best games either of us had had for a long time. Looking forward now to our rematch.

The Blood Angels strike against the ritual site came as a shock for the defending Death Guard. The traitor marines put up a strong defence but were cut down with righteous fury/ The Blood Angels then disrupted the warp magics and massacred the blightcasters. For now the Death Guard would fight their own fight against the invaders.

The Death Guard east flank falls to the Imperial advance.

The Blood Angels dominate the air war.

Death Guard marines seek to avoid the flames of death (crusader proxying as a redeemer).

A mighty heldrake brings fiery doom to the Blood Angels.

The Blood Angels bring fire and flame to slay the sons of Mortarion.

Loot & Pillage - Devonia

Planet: Devonia III.
Region: Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Death Guard vs Blood Angels
2000 points:
Mission: Loot & Pillage.

Daylight was filtered by the hazy glow from the vast gas giant rising up across the sandy horizon of Dovonia III, casting the landscape in a brownish hue. Bubonicus snarled in anger. This was supposed to have been a simple supply raid on the Imperial stockpile here, but instead the Death Guard found it garrisoned by a detachment from the Blood Angels chapter. It mattered not as these supplies were vital to the next stage of the war and Bubonicus did not feel like answering to Typhus should he fail here. With no choice, he bellowed the order to attack and lead the attack.

My list of missions to play has finally cleared the rulebook ones and I'm onto the Battle Missions/Altar of War ones. Loot & Pillage being next up. Jon accepted my offer and blew the dust off of his Blood Angels. Both of us agreed to not play anything silly and to play nice fluffy lists. This mission should have been nice and simple. Rather than just holding objectives you get points each round (in your opponent's turn) for each one that you hold. Unfortunately after placing the random four objectives down, Jon managed to choose the table quarter closest and he stole the initiative to put the boot in. Immediately the poor Death Guard were on the back foot. To make matters worse both of us could only deploy a HQ and two troops to the table per the mission rules.

First turn and Jon threw down a drop pod which deviated and landed mid table not quite where he wanted it. A few shots rang out but the first turn for both of us was fairly quick and uneventful. Turn two and most of my opponent's reserves came in. Jon had a nice number of assault marine squads which he had combat squaded and they dropped down into my deployment zone which was going to be my undoing. A misunderstanding on the rules for coming on in reserve along his table edge meant that one of his vindicators came on too close than it should have done, but when my terminators came on the table we agreed that I should do likewise and then any further would come on as they should have done.

My second turn and I received very little help from my reserves. Most likely hiding from the Death Company marines ahead of them. My terminators and two helbrute's walked on and that was it, and it didn't help that wherever I put them they were not really in a position to help. A multi-melta into the wayward vindicator did nothing and a few shots brought down some Jon's marines but not enough to make a difference.

Third turn and I had successfully gunned down the assault marines and scouts that came up from behind to steal my only objective. Everywhere else I was being locked in combat with the remaining assault marines. When my heldrakes finally came in, on turns three ad four, they did their job by baleflaming a squad holding an objective reducing his points scoring. Unfortunately that was their own real ploy of the match as both soon had their baleflamers destroyed. One became vector locked and flew off the table and the other was shot down and ditching into the hard dirt.

As the game progressed the rest of my army came on but just a little too late to salvage the game. The raptors did good taking out an assault marine unit and the champion was rewarded with daemonhood only to be torn apart by a furioso dreadnought the following turn. My chaos lord found himself surrounded by a the enemy and just could not seem to kill enough of them and eventually was cut down. An ignominious end but I'm sure Bubonicus will be back soon enough. Nurgle's champions have a way of returning from the dead. Once again my defiler died far too easily, even with a 4+ invulnerable save.

When the game ended turn 6 Jon had won 12 victory points to my 6. The Death Guard had been driven off but they had walked away with some salvage just not everything they wanted. This was a good game but really frustrating. Jon's very fluffy list locked me down very easily and my terrible reserve rolls meant that I never had enough forces coming in to help combat what he had. Even my FNP could not keep me alive in combat this game.

Death Guard verticulum detachment.

Chaos Warband.
Chaos Lord in terminator armour.
10 man CSM squad, with heavy bolter and metlagun. Champion with power weapon, plasma pistol and meltabombs.
10 man CSM squad, with two meltaguns. Champion with power weapon, plasma pistol and meltabombs.
5 man Raptor squad. Champion with pair of lightning claws.
5 man Terminator squad. Four sets of lightning claws and a reaper autocannon/power weapon.
Helbrute.

Helforged Warpack.
Warpsmith with combi-melta and power axe.
Defiler with power scourge.
Two helbrutes.

Heldrake Terror Pack.
2 Heldrakes with baleflamers.

Start of the game and the slow advance up the table. 

The rise and soon fall of a new daemon prince. 

Death to the servants of the false emperor! 

Turn 5. Death in the skies.