Ambush - Delphi Majoris

Planet: Delphi Majoris.
Region: Ghoul Stars

Death Guard vs Harlequins
1500 points.
Mission: Ambush.
Deployment: Special.

The battle for Misty Vale was a major engagement at the start of the campaign. Typhus had learned of a possible clue to the location of the crone sword that the Ynnari sought. Eager to get there first he matched with a force to claim it before and deny them their prize. Two days into the march, as the Death Guard entered the valleys where it lay, they came under attack. Fire prisms bombarded the convey's head before retreating into the mist. Webway portals then opened all around and a troupe of harlequins descended upon the convoy.

I have been seeking a game against Jamie for a while now and Thursday night we clashed! Another Harlequin troupe against my Death Guard. Jamie chose Ambush as our mission as something a bit different. Pleased he did so as my other opponents have been picking the more standard missions lately. We decided in advance that it made more sense for my force to be the defender.

After deployment Jamie set off a preliminary bombardment which succeeded in damaging one of my rhino's but the other shots failed to do anything. I decided not to waste command points on seizing the initiative so the Harlequins went first. During his first turn he blasted away most of my cultists and a fair few poxwalkers. A few wounds stripped from the already damaged rhino but he just could not destroy it. Everything that ran into assault. I killed a couple but the bloodbath was just beginning.

My first turn saw a few mortal wounds inflicted because of Typhus' gift of Nurgle ability. Nothing could move really due to how Jamie had placed his models. The bloat drone was the one thing and it moved into a position to vomit up lots of foulness upon an the enemy. Smite and curse of the leper were my main ways of killing off the harlequins. Nurgle's sorcery was a blessing here. In combat I finished off one unit of harlequins, and spawned their replacements within the ranks of my poxwalkers. The cultists however died without even swinging a club.

The game pretty much became a blood bath at this point. We were slaughtering each other's units with gleeful abandon. My rhino's died and a few bodies were left behind when the plague marines crawled out. My disgustingly resilient dice were not with me in the ensuing combat and models were just being pulled off the table. Once again my psychic phase was very dominant and I think that took away more of his army than anything else.

By turn four, we had swift turns of nothing but melee and I had decided that the only way to win was to table Jamie and I tried to work toward that goal. By the end of that turn all I had left was Typhus, a bloat drone and the defiler. Jamie had a starweaver and his death jester. Like any cowardly xenos they kept running away while my forces tried to advance up the table, the defiler blasting away as best it could.

Turn five went to turn 6 and then the game ended with his survivours stuck in a corner basically but I just could not get what I had left up there or cause enough damage. Victory to my opponent and well earned. Probably the most fun game of 40K I think I've ever had thus far.

---


++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [81 PL, 1492pts] ++

+ HQ +

Malignant Plaguecaster: Curse of the Leper, Miasma of Pestilence, The Pandemic Staff
Typhus: Plague Wind, Putrescent Vitality

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists
. 10x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun

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

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

20x Poxwalker

+ Elites +

Helbrute: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

+ Fast Attack +

Foetid Bloat-drone: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe

+ Heavy Support +

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

+ Dedicated Transport +

Chaos Rhino: Combi-bolter, Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher
Chaos Rhino: Combi-bolter, Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher

---

A bloat drone advances down the table in search of prey.

A cowardly death jester hiding in the ruins.

The state of play for most of this game.

Brutal bloodbath!

Dance of the Damned - Delphi Majoris

Planet: Delphi Majoris.
Region: Ghoul Stars

Death Guard vs Harlequins
1500 points.
Mission: No Mercy.
Deployment: Spearhead Assault.

This engagement was the true start of the war on Delphi Majoris. It began with a surprise night attack on the Death Guard by a troupe of harlequins, emerging from the webway at the heart of the traitor astartes force, and continued with a major engagement that lasted well into the following day. Meanwhile starships from several Craftworlds arrived in system to support the Ynnari efforts.

This was a game against Brian whom I haven't played against for a probably a couple years. He's also the only player I can think of locally who has a harlequin army and I fancied a game against them so I naturally challenged him.

So in the week before I game I did a little research on harlequins as I sort of remember them being quite nasty once they hit close combat. I fully expected Brian to bring a fast moving army but I expected a lot more troupes than he brought. My list had been built with that idea in mind but instead I think I made it quite hard for him.

The mission was No Mercy and we rolled the Spearhead Assault deployment. This was were I realised that something was amiss as Brian started deploying units of skyweavers and a handful of starweavers. There was just two troupes on the table and I believe a third in a voidweaver. Not at all what I expected.

The first turn was mine and I started by moving everything forward with Typhus behind to boost them. One plague marine squad and the plaguecaster advancing forward eagerly but moving out of Typhus bubble of pestilence. My left flank which was a chaos predator and a defiler opened up everything they had at the skyweavers knocking out a couple of them. The heldrake surged forth and managed to vomit over a handful of harlequins but failed to get the charge roll.. double ones!

Brian's turn had him pouring everything into my predator. Shuriken cannons and prismatic cannons all struck it but either failed to wound or just knocked minimum wounds from it. Brian's legendary bad luck was still very much in effect. He was able to knock some wound off the heldrake with a grenade but his troupe also failed to achieve the charge and lost a couple harlequins from the overwatch of the baleflamer.

Turn two and I continued to knock out skyweavers. The heldrake achieved first blood for me as it finished off those remaining harlequins. I was losing a few models from Brian's shooting and I believe it was his troupe master who left into the air and cleaved the head from my heldrake. It may not have lasted long but it did it's job.

From here the game picked up pace. Brian finally destroyed by predator. Only took him three turns when I had expected it to die much earlier. Combat was soon joined when his harlequins ran into one plague marine squad and the plaguecaster. Although Brian should have done great here I was just making armour and DR rolls like crazy. When combat was joined on the other side with Typhus, the solitaire knocked two wound from him and then died from mortal wounds. Brian was never again able to get into combat with my Typhus due to a screen of poxwalkers who otherwise did nothing all game.

Nurgle was definitely with me towards the end of the game as much to Brian's annoyance I made seven (the number of Nurgle) 5+ DR rolls in a row. He just could not take down the forces I had left. I was pleased with how my list worked although my actual plan didn't survive contact with the tabletop and I felt bad that Brian had such a hard time taking anything down.

Victory was mine 5 victory points to 2.

Not a bad game at all. We both had a great game despite my awesome rolls and Brian's usual bad luck. A good example of how you don't need a competitive list to have a fun game.

My list:

Typhus.
Malignant plaguecaster.
10 Plague marines with melta gun, plasma gun and an icon of despair. Champion with plasma pistol and plaguesword.
10 Plague marines with melta gun, plasma gun and an icon of despair. Champion with plasma pistol and plaguesword.
20 poxwalkers.
Heldrake with baleflamer.
Chaos predator with TL-lascannons and heavy bolters.
Vengeance weapon platform with punisher cannon.

Death Guard deployment.

Harlequin deployment.

A mighty heldrake soars through the ashen-grey skies.

Typhus and his followers marching forth.

Harlequins dancing through the ruins.

The Artefact - Delphi Majoris

Planet: Delphi Majoris.
Region: Ghoul Stars
Date: 999.M41

Death Guard vs Reborn Warhost.
2000 points.
Mission: The Artefact.

Scans of the planet's surface along with subtle hints from the warp picked out something of value among the ruins of an ancient alien civilisation. Typhus eager to recover this artefact deployed with a small war band to capture it. Once the ancient relic was picked out among the ruins, he hoped to escape with it. As they marched across the ruins, the sound of jetbike engines brought them to a halt. A combined Eldar force under Yvraine had already arrived and were headed for the artefact themselves.

This game was set up with my friend Mike so that I could get a game against the new Reborn of Ynnead. We didn't pick a mission until the day so I put forward another from my list from the Altar of War book. It's basically a variation of the Relic mission but requires getting it off the table not just holding it and it could be a random one of three potential objectives set along the centre line of the table. As it happens it was the centre objective.

I set my transports and main force up centrally on my side of the table hoping to be able to head towards whichever objective turned out to be the real artefact. A unit of raptors on either side gave me some fast moving units to tie up the enemy if necessary and a helbrute to deal with any vehicles or enemy infantry. My opponent set his three jetbike (eldar and harlequins) squads up in a line at the rear of his table edge. At the forefront he had a large unit of farseers, Yvraine, the Visarch and an archon at the front.

My Death Guard had the first turn and I simply moved everything up towards the objective. The raptor units went forward on their jump packs to get closer to the enemy. The land raider managed to take out one harlequin jetbike but that was all I could manage. On Mike's first turn his jetbikes sped closer and took out a rhino and a handful of chaos marines. Mike's shooting and psychic screams were good enough that he was able to bring in the Yncarne first turn.

I was then able to lock the Yncarne in combat for a couple rounds with the survivours of a chaos marine sqaud and the helbrute. While Typhus led his terminators into the central ruins I had my second chaos marine squad run in and grab the relic from the dust. The raptors lept into the bike squads on both flanks. I lost a few to overwatching fire but enough survived to lock them in combat for the rest of the game. Neither side seemed able to lay that final killing blow.

Once into the middle of the ruins my chaos marines didn't stand a chance. Mike's psychic phase was just incredible. He was able to raise his invulnerable saves and grant Yvraine's unit invisibility. Once in combat neither my chaos marines nor terminators were able to hit let alone wound any of the unit. The archon took Typhus' challenge but twice Typhus suffered a wound from his rebellious daemon weapon. Eventually he fell and Nurgle snatched him from the battlefield.

Come turn four and my whole centre line was gone and the artefact was in the hands of Yvraine. All I had left was the surviving raptors but they remained locked in combat so I conceded.

So I was quite surprised by the reborn. From watching youtube battle reports I was expecting the soul burst mechanic to be a lot more irritating but in this game it didn't seem to do much at all. In the end it was the psychic phase that gave Mike the game. I just couldn't cope with what he was able to put out, mainly psychic scream and invisibility.

Yvraine held up the ancient device. Turning it over in her hands she studied the ancient alien language. How this object would lead her to the lost crone sword was unknown but it was a start. What she sought was here on this world hidden among the bones of a long dead civilisation. Casting an eye to the horizon she saw signs of approaching vehicles and the sound of marching feet. The foul warriors of Nurgle were coming and in greater numbers. They would have to fight if they were to recover the weapon before the enemy found it.

Harlequin jetbikes race to their doom! 

The Yncarne battles the forces of the Death Guard. 

Death Guard and the Reborn of Ynnead fight in the ruins of a dead world. 

Yvraine and her escort.