Necropolis Street Fight - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Neotian Saints (Cadian).
500 points.
Mission: N/A.
Deployment: Dawn of War.

Sometimes the smallest engagements can turn the tides of battle. For three months the Imperium have been attempting to dislodge the Death Guard from their holdings in the city of Necropolis but to no avail. Space marines, grey knights and even a small force of Titans have been unsuccessful. The final deciding engagement occurred when two scouting forces met in the rubble strewn streets shortly after dawn...

My good friend Mister Landon has been looking to join our merry gang of Warhammer players for a while and this week we met up at the club for a basic training game. His army of choice is an Astra Militarum (boo! hiss!) regiment named the Neotian Saints (Cadian doctrine). At 500 points neither of us were going to have a lot so we just played 4x4 board with terrain laid out in a X pattern. My points were pretty much two plague marine units and a lord of contagion. I really hoped Landon wouldn't roll out a tank but that's what he did. But it did make for a very interesting game.

Despite setting my army up first, Landon got the first turn and I elected not to seize the initiative. Before the game started Landon activated a stratagem that triggered a pre-emptive bombardment which killed a single plague marine.

The first couple of turns were fairly simple as my opponent moved up on my left with his guardsmen and leman russ, and his taurox sped forward to my more undefended right flank. I lost a couple plague marines to the imperial tank but it would eventually have bad rolls with it's random shots which helped me out. Once I had started moving up the middle of the table, a squad of scions and his warlord dropped down behind me and another squad jumped out of the taurox.

Over a couple turns my lord of contagion hacked his way through all of these, including the taurox. At best he took one wound which was healed via his tainted regeneration war lord trait. With these down Landon was left with one guardsmen squad and his leman russ. My squad with the meltagun moved closer to it, pinning it in place, stripping a couple wounds and then smashing into assault. While by the game ended, I hadn't destroyed it but I did get it down to it's lowest setting.

The game went to 6 before it ended and I won on 4 victory points to 0. A very good game and one that I thought I was going to lose purely down to the presence of the leman russ on the table. In hindsight, my opponent needed to sit it at the back in a good field of fire rather than slowly grind it forwards. In the end I think my ability in assault compared to his guardsmen that won me the game.

I really look forward to the next match we have. If Landon has expanded his army up to 1000 points we can play a regular mission and give him a better experience. The only thing that was a problem for me was a lack of playing 40K for a couple months which meant I had to look up some silly stuff like Rapid Fire because I had completely forgotten (too much playing a different game). Time to hit the rulebook again!

---


++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) ++

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion: 3. Tainted Regeneration, Manreaper, The Suppurating Plate, Warlord

+ Troops +

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion
. . . . Codex: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion
. . . . Codex: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plague Spewer
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher

++ Total: [27 PL, 484pts] ++

---

The Taurox rumbles forward.

The foolish minions of the false emperor!!!

Plague marines holding out in the ruins.

Like manreaping grox in a barrel!

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.

---

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.

---

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.

First Battle of Castellan - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Astra Militarum: Cadian.
1500 points.
Mission: Spoils of War.
Deployment: Front-Line Assault.

The First Battle of Castellan was one of the heaviest battles of the first year of the war. It was initiated as an attempt of the combined Death Guard First and Third armies, to defeat the Astra Militarum and break through their defensive line before the Death Guard could assault the Imperial command structure. The high casualties however forced the Death Guard to call off the attack and allow their adversary to claim victory. 

A return match between my Death Guard and Ashleigh's Cadian guard. Unfortunately due to my opponent forgetting part of his army and having to go back for it, we started rather late and our game was a tad rushed. I had hoped that he would play a regiment other than Cadian so I could cross them off my list but I'm not going to complain. Maybe next time.

Once we had deployed I made the roll to go first and Ashleigh stole it from me with a luck Seize the Initiative roll. Not that going first would have done me well here as my list was a lot more infantry based and I wouldn't have been in a better position.

As we were playing a faster pace game due to time we sort of lost track of the turns and just played. We had a nice set up of terrain so I was largely protected from his tank fire to start with. The objectives started well for me as they were easily achieved by my troops. My dice however, were once again largely against me in the shooting phases. Where I did hit with lascannons from the land raider I nearly always rolled 1 or 2 for damage. It took me a good while to start bringing down Ashleigh's tanks.

It was probably the third turn when I was able to start smacking into the tanks and ogryn in melee. My lord of contagion did a great job of slicing through everything he could get to from chimera to ogryn. Ashleigh seemed desperate to get his hands on my warlord, the daemon prince, but I did everything I could to keep him back until I was able to get the deathshroud terminators deepstriking in nearby.

I'm guessing it was about turn 5 when we had to wrap up due to the venue closing. By the number of cards that Ashleigh had piled up I fully expected him to have a serious lead over me. But when we counted up our victory points he had only one by 1 VP - 9 to my 8. A lot closer than I had expected.

---

After thoughts...

It was a shame that we had to play this game at a faster pace. Although my list was not geared for such a heavy tank army, I might have done better with time to think. It was a good game though and we had a nice laugh doing so.

I really need to get some more plague marines is what this and other recent games have driven home. I've got to put more thought into my armies and I need more massed fire power.

---

First Battle for Gothos - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Adeptus Mechanicus: Mars.
500 points.
Mission: Annihilation.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

The battle for Gothos took place several months into the war and although only a skirmish compared to the rest of the conflict, it proved to be a turning point for the Death Guard.

Despite their reinforcements some months earlier, the Death Guard had seen more defeats and loss of manpower than at any time previously in the Cerberus campaign. The change came when the forces of Mars began to ignore orders from Guilliman and focused on choosing their own targets. This lack of communication allowed the Death Guard to make specific retaliatory strikes to weaken the Mechanicus advance forces.

The second match up in Shadbolt's escalation league pitted me against Alex and his Adeptus Mechanicus force. I took one look at his army, which was very much mechanical and I despaired. This was going to be a tough match but I figured if I played it cool I might be able to snatch a victory.

Although I deployed first, Alex took the first turn and initiative was not to be mine. The Mechanicus began by opening fire almost exclusively upon my hellforged contemptor. The dice were not with me and it was reduced down to three wounds before it even had a chance to do anything. I moved the contemptor forwards utilizing cover to try and get close to his skitarii. I tried a charge on the hopes of getting in and killing a few to recover some wounds, but the charge failed and a re-roll didn't help. As for the rest of my army I decided that sitting at long range was only helping Alex so the plague marines and the lord of contagion picked up and advanced.

The next couple turns saw the skitarii burn down the contemptor although they lost two of their number when their ancient plasma guns overheated. Things did not go so well for me as the plague marines were whittled away on their advance up the table by three kataphron destroyers. Soon the only unit I had left on the table was the lord of contagion.

At was at this point that Grandfather Nurgle took pity on me. For about two turns every single shot that the Mechanicus put into my warlord either missed or I passed the armour save or disgustingly resilient rolls. Even once I had smashed through the skitarii and kataphron's in assault my warlord recovered every wound back to his fall via his warlord trait. After Alex's tech priest warlord was cut down, he conceded the game.

---

I was quite rankly shocked that my lord of contagion survived everything thrown at him. After the luck of the contemptor to survive the previous escalation game I think it was understandable. But I was pleased with the outcome and we had a very fun enjoyable battle.

Due to time, we were unable to play the third round this week so next Thursday I get to face Luke's Ork army. That's where I have to give consideration about to play as he is very much a horde force.

---

The Martian force arrayed against me.

Once again, the plague marines hide in a crater.

Battle of Chernobog - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Astra Militarum: Cadian.
2000 points.
Mission: Sealed Orders.
Deployment: Search and Destroy.

This was a major battle between the Astra Militarum and the Death Guard that took place in the sunken ruins of Chernobog. It was an important victory for the Imperium that saw the enemy forces routed so badly, they they never returned to the region for the rest of the war.

This week was the revenge match for my brutal defeat at the hands of Ashleigh a few weeks back. This time he promised to bring a infantry heavy army rather than a mechanized list. Even so I had expected at least tank of some description and so I brought a Renegade Knight and a Plagueburst Crawler. The only vehicles that my opponent brought were a pair of sentinel walkers. Was I going to be able to bring down quite so many infantry? We shall see...

Both of us were running late that evening so our planned 2000 points was probably stretching things a bit but we played as much as we could before the venue wanted to close for the night. Our mission of choice was Sealed Orders as neither of us had played it before. We rolled Search and Destroy for the deployment and although I got choice of zone none of them were actually suitable. I made a choice just on the fact that it gave me easy access to two objective markers.

First turn and I tried to advance to get the objectives closest to me. At the same time I kept back the Knight, and the helforged dreadnought as Ashleigh had kept some units in reserve. I didn't want them coming down behind me if I could help it. I also didn't want to go too far forward in case I left myself open. One of my secret objectives was casting psychic powers and I completely forgot to do so turn one. My shooting was ineffective as well. I think I killed one ratling sniper and one of the sentinels.

Ashleigh's turn one was a lot better. Not a lot moved but he did bring in a pair of assassin's in and a load of rough riders on my left flank. The assassins did a good good of dropping my plague caster down to a single wound. He managed to inflict some injuries and a couple kills.

Turn two and I made sure to protect my plague caster with a Death Guard stratagem that stopped Ashleigh from shooting him. I also turned my knight, both chaos spawn and helforged contemptor to dealing with those units that came in from my flank. I couldn't afford to just ignore them and they had to die. It was a tough decision but I used this turn to drop Typhus and his Deathshroud terminators down as close to my right flank as the enemy would allow me. It wasn't all that helpful but I knew that I needed them to try and draw fire. I also remembered to do a psychic power this turn thus ensuring I achieved something from my objective cards. Most of my shooting was reasonable but I did manage to blast a fair few out of the rough riders and guardsmen that had popped up to my left. The knight and chaos spawn charged in and were rather successful. Most of the enemy died to mighty titanic feet or to the claws of the spawn.

Due to the venue wanting to close we managed to get a complete third turn before we had to pack up. The third turn was the decider whether we had achieved any further turns or not. Ashleigh succeeded in blasting down my Knight but sadly it just toppled over rather than exploding. Typhus lost his bodyguard squad and was knocked down as well. When the game ended, I had very little left and the Guardsmen still had the majority of their army sitting there.

When it came to it my opponent had scored five or six objectives to my four. Victory went to the Cadians this day. Good game as always. Maybe next time we try this we should play smaller points and see what a difference that makes.

Death Guard deployment.

The might of Nurgle marches to war.

Sneaky Cadians trying to get behind me.

Entrenched heavy weapon teams.

Battle for Starport Twelve - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons vs Salamanders.
1500 points.
Mission: Tactical Escalation.
Deployment: Dawn of War.

The Imperium sought to restrict access to vital resources and points of supply to the traitor forces. Guilliman, still recovering from his recent battle against his brother Mortarion, determined that a port city designated Starport Twelve would be the perfect target for attack. 
The Salamanders were chosen for this strike. A number of their battle brothers were able to breach the outer walls and enter the city. Once battle was joined in the streets, reinforcements teleported down from orbit to sow confusion and devastation among the enemy.

Tonight's match up was against Alex and his Salamanders army. He beat me rather well at our last meeting so I was looking for some friendly pay back. We picked Tactical Escalation as a mission that neither of us had played previously and I decided on 1500 points just to try some smaller point games for a change. I had a couple things to try out and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so.

We rolled the Dawn of War deployment and Alex began by deploying his terminator units in reserve forcing me to put my infantry down without knowing what was coming. It also forced me to spread out across my side of the table so that he couldn't deep strike those terminators in the middle of my lines. It wouldn't help though. Two roll offs and Alex got the first turn. I debated whether it was worth seizing as it was an objectives mission and sometimes going second helps knowing what I need at the end of the game but I failed to seize.

First turn and down came my opponent's thunderhammer and stormshield terminators, and his captain right in front of my plagueburst crawler. Immediately I knew this was not going to go well. The Salamander's shooting was spot on and I lost a whole plague marine unit in one go. The crawler lost most of it's wounds to a devastator squad as well. I could not make DR rolls to save anything it seemed. That is when it went wrong. For some reason I had forgotten that his terminators could assault the turn they came in and they went right into the crawler, smashing it to scrap with their hammers.

My first turn was difficult. Alex had drawn an objective that he could achieve easily and I drew one that wanted me to cast psychic powers. I tried to move forwards but Alex had nearly everywhere covered with multiple fields of fire. My new toy, a hellforged contemptor, had sustained some damage so I made sure it marched towards a scout squad on my right flank. My plan being to take a couple down, assault and heal from killing them. Instead my dice went into kill mode and all the scouts were cut down. I charged the terminators with my daemon prince but he didn't last long against the thunder hammers. At least I managed a victory point for casting a psychic power. It was going to be my only victory point all game however.

From here it just got worse and quick. Alex was drawing objective cards for the card type he had picked for the mission and I got nothing of the sort. The Salamander's shooting robbed me of the hellforged contemptor, a rhino, a second squad of plague marines and a fair chunk of my poxwalkers. Turn three I was considering conceding the match as there was just no way I was going to pull this game back but I decided to go on and see just what I could do. Turn four left me with just a lord of contagion and a plaguecaster. Turn five and it was just the plaguecaster. When he fell that was it. I had been tabled. I had one victory point and I just didn't want to consider how many Alex had secured. But them's the breaks.

Good game Alex. Next time I will have my revenge.

---

After thoughts...

A very frustrating game. From the get go I really did not have a chance here. It wasn't an alpha strike list but Alex was able to ensure that my envisioned battle plan wasn't going to happen. I had taken a Nurgle daemon prince from the daemons codex with the idea of using the "healing" psychic power (the name escaped me right now) to keep the plagueburst crawler alive as it is a Nurgle daemon. He could also defend it if the enemy got too close.

My dice didn't help either as for the first couple hours they didn't roll enough disgustingly resilient or armour saves for that matter. Only on the last couple game turns did that start to go in my favour. A little too late though.

I enjoyed the game but nothing went right for me at all. There's always next time.

---

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [65 PL, 1162pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Gifts of Decay (1 Relic)

+ Dedicated Transport [4 PL, 94pts] +

Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 94pts]: Combi-bolter [2pts], Combi-flamer [11pts], Havoc launcher [11pts], Smoke launchers

+ Heavy Support [8 PL, 152pts] +

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 152pts]: 2x Entropy cannon [40pts], Plagueburst Mortar, Rothail volley gun [12pts]

+ HQ [13 PL, 227pts] +

Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 117pts]: 2. Living Plague, Fugaris' Helm, Manreaper [17pts], Warlord

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Blades of Putrefaction, Blight Grenades, Bolt pistol, Corrupted staff, Curse of the Leper, Krak grenade, Smite

+ Elites +

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 181pts]: Havoc launcher [11pts]
. . Left Arm [42pts]: Combi-bolter [2pts], Hellforged deathclaw [40pts]
. . Right Arm [25pts]: Kheres assault cannon [25pts]

+ Fast Attack [8 PL, 158pts] +

Foetid Bloat-drone [8 PL, 158pts]: 2x Plaguespitters [34pts], Plague probe [25pts]

+ Troops [32 PL, 531pts] +

Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 48pts]
. . 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon [36pts]: 9x Autopistol, 9x Brutal assault weapon
. . Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon [8pts]: Heavy stubber [4pts]
. . Cultist Champion [4pts]: Shotgun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 180pts]: Icon of Despair [10pts]
. . Plague Champion [42pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun [13pts], Power fist [12pts]
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun [68pts]: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon [30pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun [13pts]
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon [30pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun [13pts]

Plague Marines [10 PL, 183pts]: Icon of Despair [10pts]
. . Plague Champion [42pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun [13pts], Power fist [12pts]
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun [68pts]: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon [27pts]: Blight Grenades, Blight launcher [10pts], Krak grenade, Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon [36pts]: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plague Spewer [19pts]

Poxwalkers [6 PL, 120pts]
. . 20x Poxwalker [120pts]: 20x Improvised weapon

++ Auxiliary Support Detachment -1CP (Chaos - Daemons) [8 PL, 156pts] ++

+ HQ [8 PL, 156pts] +

Daemon Prince of Chaos [8 PL, 156pts]: Hellforged sword [10pts], Malefic talon
. . Nurgle: Smite

++ Total: [83 PL, 1499pts] ++

Battle is joined!

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought.

Salamanders camped out on their objective.

The Dyatlov Pass Incident - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Adeptus Custodes.
2000 points.
Mission: Cross Fire - Empyric Storm.
Deployment: mission specific.

The battle for the Dyatlov Pass was a minor engagement in the Cerberus conflict made notable only because it was the first time that the Adeptus Custodes had taken to the battlefield.

The Adeptus Custodes had attempted to cross the Dyatlov mountains to outflank the Death Guard forces now falling back from the front lines. Instead they found themselves facing an armed fortress manned by a host of plague marines. Worse still, a cabal of plaguecasters had torn the veil into the Warp allowing their primarch Mortarion to return just minutes before the Custodes arrived.

For some time now I have been looking forward to playing against Dan's Adeptus Custodes. With the release of the codex we finally had that opportunity to get the match up underway. As per usual I asked my opponent to pick a mission from the list that I had not played yet and Dan chose Crossfire with the Empyric Storms battle zone. For an army that has no psykers this was an interesting choice but so far the Storms had always helped me out so I didn't mind.

Now, why did I pick this game to bring Mortarion back? Simply put I've been listening to the local chaps talking about how tough the Custodes are and I wanted something to help balance out against that. Mortarion seemed like a good choice although I did not expect him to survive very long.

I set up the table as the mission says and tried to spread my forces evenly among the three deployment zones. Keep the bastion manned by low point cutists and with some plague marines and the plagueburst crawler at the back. Lord of Contagion, two hulbrutes and a small group of poxwalkers on the left, with Mortarion, his deathshroud terminators and a plague marines force on the right. Hopefully I could Mortarion into a first turn charge and smash through Dan's lines before he could get anywhere.

Dan had the first turn and throw everything forward towards the two flanking forces eitherside of the table. He made an odd play to start with that I didn't quite understand as he placed his dreadnought and Valdorus in the teleport chamber but brought them in turn one into a position where they probably would have been anyway had they just walked up the table. I'm sure Dan had a reason but I can't see it myself. Anyway, the Custodes on that side threw everything they had into the plague marines and Mortarion. I lost one deathshroud terminator as they stood in harm's way to protect their master but lost the entire plague marine squad which was rather galling. On the other side I lost a fair few poxwalkers but nothing more.

On my turn one Mortarion leaped over the ruin and into combat with the Custodes. Unfortunately his bodyguard were a lot slower and unfortunately ended up just out of the protection bubble. Mortarion did a grand job of slicing through Dan's forces but I didn't kill enough to slow down the damage coming back to me.

The next few turns went by rather quickly as every one was pretty much in combat down the middle of the board. Mortarion fell on the third turn if I remember mainly because his bodyguard were taken down by shooting on the way to his side. By that point though Dan did not have much left on the table. I was luckier on the left flank as once my poxwalkers went down, the Custodes on that side were soon beaten to death by the helbrutes and my lord of contagion.

Turn 5 and Dan had six models left on the table. The contemptor dreadnought took out one of my helbrutes and was soon smashed by the second. That thing had soaked up so much damage that it was getting annoying. I was glad when it fell over.

Come turn 6 and things suddenly went very strange indeed. Up until this point the rolls on the Emypric Storm table had been fairly bland, with the notable exception of my plaguecaster almost becoming a spawn! However, turn 4 and Dan rolls 66. No, not kill all the Jedi... we roll off the winner gets a free greater daemon of their choice! I won and down comes a Great Unclean One (proxied by Mortarion) and Dan was about to concede. Thankfully he played on. Come my turn 6 and I roll... 66. Dan wins the roll off and he gets a Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage! This had suddenly become very very bizarre and fun. We were having quite a good laugh about this strange turn of events. Turn 7 and I roll another 66! In comes a second Great Unclean One on my side. Between it smiting and the last of my plague marines Dan loses everything. He just has the Bloodthirster left and turn 8 my first Great Unclean One charges and kills it outright with three solid hits that Dan fails to save!

Although I have somehow managed to table him, we check the victory points just in case. I win 10 VP to his 9! I scrape a victory by just one point. That was a close game that until the strange case of the 66's I thought was very much in Dan's hands. At the end we had a really good laugh about the game and Dan is going to suggest using the Empyric Storms battle zone more often by sounds of it.

---

After thoughts...

As usual the Empyric Storms did very little really. A couple rolls were just minor annoyances, but a couple of  chances that a psyker on my side would become a chaos spawn got the adrenaline going. It was only those crazy 66 rolls that tipped the balance of the game. Empyric Storms are not for standard games but for a good bit of casual fun I recommend them.

Custodes are rather tough and nasty. I am glad that I took Mortarion as without him I really do think that Dan would have just obliterated by army without breaking a sweat. With the new download from Games Workshop that lets Custodes have some of the Horus Heresy units I had hoped Dan would play something cool like the grav tank but maybe next time.

Another really enjoyable game.

---

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [75 PL, 1310pts] ++
Rules: Daemonic Ritual, Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Heavy Support +

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 152pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Plagueburst Mortar, Rothail volley gun

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 117pts]: Manreaper, The Suppurating Plate

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Blight Grenades, Bolt pistol, Corrupted staff, Curse of the Leper, Krak grenade, Putrescent Vitality, Smite

+ Elites +

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

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

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

+ Troops +

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

Plague Marines [10 PL, 181pts]: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 184pts]: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenade, Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plague Spewer

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

++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) [10 PL, 217pts] ++
Rules: Daemonic Ritual, Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Fortification +

Imperial Bastion [10 PL, 217pts]: 4x Heavy bolter, Icarus Lascannon

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [24 PL, 470pts] ++
Rules: Daemonic Ritual, Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: Attendant's claws and teeth, Blades of Putrefaction, Phospex bombs, Plague Wind, Silence, Smite, The Lantern, Warlord

++ Total: [109 PL, 1997pts] ++

The forces guarding the Dyatlov Pass fortress.

My opposing commander orders his Custards into battle!

Mortarion laying down the smacketh!

Dreadnought on Helbrute action.

A squad of Custodes marches forward.

The Brothers War - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.

Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Ultramarines.
2000 points.
Mission: Last Stand - Empyric Storm.
Deployment: mission specific.

With the Death Guard on the run the forces of the Imperium are in a position to decimate what remains of the chaos forces. Primarch Robute Guilliman decides at last that now is the time to demoralise the enemy and takes to the field, joining his chapter in an all out attack upon the Death Guard headquarters. His fallen brother, Mortarion, bursts forth from the Warp to clash blades with Guilliman once again.



8th edition has been out nearly nine months now and I have never had the opportunity to face down the reawakened Ultramarines primarch Robute Guilliman until now. My friend Mike challenged me to a Guilliman vs Mortarion showdown and there was no way I was going to say no. We agreed on 2000 points and I let him pick the mission. He blindly chose Last Stand from Chapter Approved 2017 and the Empyric Storms battlezone. Neither of us had properly read the mission rules and on the night a couple things surprised us and made just a bit more interesting.

The night before the game I noticed that I needed a fortification, so I had to quickly try and change things around to include a chaos bastion. We don't play the narrative style games with differing points per player. We prefer to play it with the standard match play format before anyone queries that.

I had to deploy the bastion and three troop choices. Everything else goes into reinforcements. Cultists held the bastion and the plague marines sat behind ruins for cover. We had a brief discussion whether or not a unit of terminators could be deployed off table ready to teleport in rather than have to walk onto my table edge and we agreed that they could. The mission didn't say as far as we could tell. Anyway, everything else of mine has a 3+ chance of coming on at the end of each of my movement phases. However, it doesn't say that they automatically come on turn X or whatever. But surely my dice couldn't screw me over that badly... could they? Mike deployed his entire army across the table from me but I get the first turn.

First turn and I just tried to move my plague marines so that the Ultramarines didn't have a great field of fire on them. Mortarion, Typhus, the plaguecaster and a bloat drone came on table end of the movement phase. I wasn't worried about Mortarion too much as we both wanted a proper primarch on primarch fight later in the game. A wounded Mortarion would not have been fair. Mike's first turn was move everything forward and just blast my poor cultists into oblivion with grav weapons. He also managed to knock wound after wound from my bloat drone.

I shall point out at this stage that we noticed that the victory conditions were all in Mike's favour. He just had to kill all three of the starting troop choices to win. Two to draw and just one to lose. Ah... hell!

Turn two. I advanced Mortarion up my left flank hoping that Michael would stay true to his word and not burn my primarch to ground with his repulsor tank. I don't think i got anything in on turn two from my reinforcements. I did manage to inflict some casualties this turn on the Ultramarines including a fair few wounds on the repulsor and the redemptor dreadnought. Smite was working very well as was The Lantern. It was the one and only time that Mortarion's pistol would wound anything all game. Mike continued to pour fire into my plague marines and I lost a fair few. He also dropped some reivers in a short way from my plaguecaster but their shooting was terrible. I think I lost one wound.

Turn three and I got my defiler in at last. I still have a plagueburst crawler and the deathshroud terminators waiting to come in. I so needed that crawler at this point. Between shooting and smite was able to drop the reivers down to two men, and take some more wounds from the repulsor and the dreadnought. Mortarion attempted to charge a unit of marines and failed the charge! Mike charged the reivers into my plaguecaster and rolled a double one. They just stood there looking scared! The plagueburst crawler died under the grav plates of the repulsor. The burst from it knocked a single mortal wound from the Ultramarines around it.

Turn four.  Nothing really moved for me and nothing came in. Why dice gods? Why??? The only thing I did this turn as I recall was smash the reivers with a corrupted stick and cut down some primaris marines with Typhus. Combat ensued at this point. The redemptor destroyed my defiler and the explosion took it to it's last wound. Guilliman charged into Mortarion and took three wounds from Mortarion. I tried the six attack mode for Silence and that damn Guilliman passed all his invulnerable saves.

Turn five. I got the deathshroud terminators in but they came down too far away from their primarch to do anything. Still no plagueburst crawler. Sigh. Combat went on buy Mike had been a gentleman and decided that a draw was acceptable and didn't go after my remaining plague marines. We wanted this game for the primarch fight and that's what we got. Mortarion did manage to knock some mortal wounds onto Guilliman via smite but his plague aura did nothing. I tried the eighteen swings against him this time but and I did a few wounds.

Mike's fifth and the Empyric Storm actually did something.... we lost invulnerable saves! Mortarion and Guilliman both looking somewhat concerned now. Guilliman struck Mortatrion a solid series of blows which without an invulnerable save and my terrible DR rolls, meant that he was struck down. The primarch of the Death Guard exploded in a cloud of flesh-eating bacteria and the resulting mortal wounds killed Guilliman! Did the funky new suit of armour save Guilliman and stand him back up? No it did not! The two primarchs killed each other on the last turn of the game! How awesome was that?!!!

The game ended a draw. Hard fought by both us but that final last moment of the game was more than worth it! Fantastic game and a perfect showcase of casual gaming. One of the best that I have had.

---

After thoughts... the Empyric Storm rolls did nothing all game. At best they knocked a single mortal wound off my plaguecaster. Rest of the game they did nothing of note until that last turn of the game.

I still never got the plagueburst crawler in. It sat on the side table all night with no action. Three games for that unit now and each time it has not had a chance to do anything.

The final battle was just awesome and well worth the wait. Next time though Guilliman will fall to the Angel of Nurgle! I so swear it!

---

+++ New Roster (Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition) +++

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [24 PL, 470pts] ++
Rules: Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: Attendant's claws and teeth, Blades of Putrefaction, Curse of the Leper, Phospex bombs, Putrescent Vitality, Silence, Smite, The Lantern, Warlord

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [79 PL, 1334pts] ++
Rules: Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ HQ +

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Blight Grenades, Bolt pistol, Corrupted staff, Curse of the Leper, Krak grenade, Miasma of Pestilence, Smite, The Pandemic Staff

Typhus [9 PL, 175pts]: Blight Grenades, Curse of the Leper, Master-crafted manreaper, Putrescent Vitality, Smite, The Destroyer Hive

+ Elites +

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

+ Fast Attack +

Foetid Bloat-drone [8 PL, 158pts]: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe

+ Troops +

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

Plague Marines [10 PL, 180pts]: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight Grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak Grenades, 4x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 164pts]: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Blight Grenades, Krak grenade, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 5x Blight Grenades, 5x Boltgun, 5x Krak Grenades, 5x Plague knife
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight Grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenade, Plague knife

+ Heavy Support +

Defiler [11 PL, 167pts]: Battle cannon, Defiler claws, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon, Smoke launchers

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 152pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Plagueburst Mortar, Rothail volley gun

++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) [10 PL, 192pts] ++
Rules: Inexorable Advance, Plague Host, Plague Weapon

+ Fortification +

Chaos Bastion [10 PL, 192pts]: 4x Heavy bolter

++ Total: [113 PL, 1996pts] ++

---

The fortress defenders.

A mighty redemptor dreadnought.

A defiler marches onto the table.

Mortarion, primarch of the Death Guard.

Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines, hiding like a coward behind a wall.

Blood in the Sands - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Astra Militarum: Cadian.
2000 points.
Mission: Bunker Assault - Night Fight.
Deployment: Pitched Battle.

This was a major battle in the Cerberus conflict which occurred in the deep equatorial deserts. The lieutenants of Typhus - his Lords of Contagion, has fallen back to a series of fortifications in the desert regions to regroup and resupply. The Imperial leadership ordered a strike on the fleeing enemy forces. It was a savage battle which saw thousands slain on both sides.

Welcome to my latest battle report. As you read it will come across as a little one-sided but it was still a really fun game. There were rules forgotten and some unintentional cheating by yours truly but it's not a big deal. I'll just need to remember for next time.

Ashleigh was my opponent this week and he had asked to do a Bunker Assault mission with his Astra Militarum as the attacker. I'm always up for that and when he added Night Fighting I was even more pleased. I need more opponents willing to play the battle zones. I had fully expected to face a sizable tank division probably including a super heavy and I was not disappointed.

As per the mission rules I set the table up. I tried to be fair on terrain but I did could have perhaps done a bit more. I wanted a fun game so it's all good. I deployed first. Only stratagem I used was a mission specific one which gave my Chaos Bastion a +1 armour save. I tried to spread my armoured vehicles along my line so that I could try either draw fire or try to whittle down the various tanks. Ashleigh made a nice line with various Lemun Russ tanks and centerpiece was a mighty Shadowsword. Pretty much I had expected. Also nice to see a named character being played although I'm sure how Creed managed to escape from Trazyn's museum. I knew I wasn't going to win this game but facing something as cool as Creed, Pask and a Shadowsword that made it worthwhile.

My opponent got the first turn and I failed to seize the initiative. Ashleigh's turn was basically vast amount of incoming fire which stripped my bastion down to four wounds and my land raider to just two. Once again the Spotlight stratagem is worth it's weight in gold for this mission. The funniest moment of this turn was the enemy psyker trying to shroud one of the tanks with the power of us mind and almost blowing himself up with a perils. Oh how I laughed. My first turn was quite short. The only movement was two helbrutes which jumped down from the landing platform (just terrain) and tried to get into melta range of a Hellhound. I managed to strip some wounds from it failed to take it out. Everything else fired into the Shadowsword and I was making some headway. One Helbrute went for a charge and was burnt down to the ground by the Hellhound.

As the game went along I pretty much lost one or two tanks a turn. I lost the land raider and my predator first. The vengeance weapon platform was crushed by the Shadowsword in melee. The damage I had managed to inflict was slowly being repaired by an Engineseer following the super heavy around.

Turn three and the Bastion crumbled to the floor. One cultist survived to clamber from the rubble and he ran away in terror. The Shadowsword used another stratagem and it allowed him to roll over my new Plagueburst Crawler (a unit which had done sod all this game!). Firepower from the Lemun Russ tanks killed by plague marines and the defiler. Eventually I all I had Lord of Contagion and a plague champion. Both attempted to assault the Shadowsword and were overwatched by the awesomely powerful volcano cannon! Turn four and I had nothing left on the table.

---

That was a great game but a frustrating one. So what actually went wrong? Firstly I had forgotten that I had been playing a different detachment than I normally do so I gave myself more command points than I should have had. But since nothing came of them it didn't hurt. I also forgot that the mission gives my bastion an artillery strike! That could have helped so much. I felt like a complete muppet once I got home and realized. I do not think either of these issues would have affected the game though. That Cadian tank list and attendant Astra Militarum rules are just brutal. I was not expecting anything quite so nasty so it was a good job I had expected a loss at the hands of a tank army before we even set up.

Good game. Hopefully next time Ashleigh will play an infantry heavy list so I can see how well they do that as well.

My list was:

+++ New Roster (Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition) +++

++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Death Guard) ++

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion: Manreaper

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists: 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. . Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines: 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: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

+ Elites +

Helbrute: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

Helbrute: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

+ Heavy Support +

Chaos Land Raider: Combi-melta, Havoc launcher, Twin heavy bolter, 2x Twin lascannon

Chaos Predator: Combi-melta, Havoc launcher, Twin lascannon
. . Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter

Defiler: Combi-melta, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon

Plagueburst Crawler: 2x Entropy cannon, Rothail volley gun

++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Gametype: Matched

+ Fortification +

Imperial Bastion: 4x Heavy bolter, Icarus Lascannon

Vengeance Weapon Batteries
. . Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon

++ Total: [107 PL, 2000pts] ++

Ordered Retreat - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Dark Ultima space marines.
1500 points.
Mission: Deadlock - Psychic Maelstrom.
Deployment: Pitched Battle.

The Death Guard attempt to blockade and cut off certain strategic targets held by the Imperium had failed. Forced to retreat so as not to stretch their forces too thin, many elements found themselves hounded by space marine forces. To allow the plague marines to fall back safely, Typhus held his ground and fought to slow the Imperial pursuit.

A revenge match against mister Multch and his space marines. No longer are they just an Ultramarine army but a successor chapter named the "Dark Ultima." This time it was my choice of mission so I picked Deadlock using the psychic maelstrom battle zone rules. I don't get enough games using the battle zones so when I get the choice I'll snatch it up.

Multch likes his repulsor tank I knew first off that I would need some means of dealing with it so the first thing I put in my list was a trio of helbrutes to hammer it into scrap. There is no point playing psychic maelstrom without psykers, although Multch did well enough without them, so Typhus was joined by a plaguecaster. Would this help me? Well...

I tried to be strategic in how I placed my units and by random luck it helped when the tactical objectives were drawn as I was already sitting on two of them. First turn was simply moving the helbrutes, poxwalkers and Typhus forwards towards the objective that I needed at the center of the table. My predator did good dealing some serious damage to Multch's redemptor dreadnought that succeeded in keeping it mostly of the game from here on. In return the repulsor and the dreadnought blasted my predator into lots of little bits.

Multch then dropped some centurions down near the center of the table to contest my control of that objective but even as I lost poxwalkers to excessive shooting I was in control and gained the objective. The middle of the table became a mighty melee. As one helbrute went down I used a stratagem to make it explode, which wounded the centurions and my own helbrute. It was not long though before my sorcery cleared the center but by then I had lost all three helbrutes.

One rhino holding a plague marine unit and my plaguecaster with little to capture on my left flank sped forward towards the ruins across the table where Multch had some helblasters snipping away at my poxwalkers. Between overpowered smite, plenty of ammunition and some plague knives, they were soon cut down. Meanwhile the other plague marines on my right flank withstood a full round of shooting from the repulsor before then dying the following turn to continued massed shooting. By then though I had figured that Multch was going to win with a lot more tactical objective cards.

Ultimately the game came down to a nasty battle in the middle of the table. A primaris captain, apothecary and I think it was a lieutenant took on Typhus. The plaguecaster swept forward trying to snatch mortal wounds through smite but he was soon gunned down by the repulsor. Meanwhile Typhus was not doing great on the hits but making saves like crazy until the end of turn 6 when he dropped giving Multch a point for Slay the Warlord. The game ended and we counted up the points. We would have been drawn on 9 points each, but Slay the Warlord took my opponent than one step ahead giving him total victory.

Great fast flowing game and I not nearly as overwhelmed as I thought I was going to be. The cards came out much more equal than most games involving them so although I thought Multch had gained more than he had. Very good game but next time victory will be mine. :)

---


++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [82 PL, 1490pts] ++

+ 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 [3 PL, 48pts]
. 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Autogun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 156pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 156pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Poxwalkers [6 PL, 120pts]: 20x 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, 160pts]: Twin lascannon
. Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter

+ Dedicated Transport +

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

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

---

Death Guard deployment - center and right flank.

Primaris marines hold a ruin and snipe down at my poor helbrutes.

Dark Ultima chapter brings the big guns.

Plague Marines holding the right flank.

Dark Ultima repulsor tank.

Blockade Mission - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Adeptus Mechanicus.
1500 points.
Mission: No Mercy.
Deployment: Pitched Battle.

With the Death Guard deploying their reinforcements to Cerberus, they seek to blockade elements of the Imperial forces before moving in for the kill. One such primary target was a Adeptus Mechanicus force holding an energy production facility taken in the opening hours of the war. The Death Guard launched a successful offensive to surround and contain the site before moving their big guns into the main attack.

This game was against Christopher and his Adeptus Mechanicus army. It's been a good while since we faced each other down and this time he had the new codex. His list was practice for an upcoming tournament we are attending and in hindsight I should have done the same but I went for a hastily put together list instead. I had expected that he would field a Knight so I took mine just in case, and good job that I did.

I was running late and at the same time trying to chat to a potential new club member so the game a little disjointed which was a shame. Once we got started we rolled and got the standard across table deployment. Christopher's force was able to deploy mostly in cover but I didn't have that luxury so I made good with what I had. I needed to get the first turn but it went to my opponent.

The Mechanicus didn't need to move although he did outflank some electropriests on my left flank who would soon prove to be a pain. Christopher's first turn was largely shooting. He tried to focus fire on my Knight and did drop a few wounds. If I remember correctly he managed to snag a victory point or two on his first turn as well. My first turn was not great. I moved forward as best I could. |My terminator lord moving to back up one plague marine squad against the electropriests. That failed abysmally as once they got in there, they tore my terminator lord down with ease and proceeded to massacre the plague marines in the ruin above him. These guys are nasty.

Christopher proceeded to outflank some rangers on my right flank. Their goal being to decimate my cultists sitting on an important objective. Correctly selecting the casualties meant that I prevented his charge from being successful. I used my bloat drone to thin their ranks before destroying them with superior firepower.

We then sort of bogged down and the game became a duel of epic proportions in the centre of the table between our two knights. Mine had suffered a lot of damage but was still standing. However, here it proved to be the unit of the match as once it hit it's last would it refused to die. Christopher's knight struck it again and again, and yet I made every single 6+ armour save it could make. Nurgle certainly wanted it to survive.

As time was creeping up on us at this point we called it at the end of turn four. Christopher was well in the lead with 10 victory points to my mere 2. This was a very good but tough game. My opponent's list was perfect and will do him well in the upcoming tournament where as my list was really rather poor. I should have tried with my tournament list but it just didn't cross my mind. Oh well. Better luck next time.

-

Unfortunately due to some computer problems I don't have a copy of the list I fielded against Christopher.

Dunecrawler's waiting in the ruins.

The start of the war.

The might of the Death Guard.

Sneaky Mechanicus forces prowl the edges of the battlefield.

Some soon to be dead cyborg scum!