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.

Pestilence Prevails - Susperia

Planet: Susperia.
Region: Eye of Terror.
Time has no meaning in the Warp.

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons vs Emperor's Children / Slaanesh Daemons.
1500 points.
Mission: The Scouring - Night Fight battlezone.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

This was a major battle in the conflicts that were fought on Susperia for the glory of the Ruinous Powers. The Emperor's Children led by Lucius the Eternal with aid from the daemon known as the Masque had fought and won uncounted battles in the name of Slaanesh. When they pushed into what little territory the Death Guard held, they were halted by a concentrated force of plague marines and daemons of pestilence.

This was my first game of 8th against my friend Richard. Hopefully trying to impress him with the new edition and drawing him in. I think we were both on the same wavelength as we turned up with combined traitor marine and daemon ally lists. Richard had a lot more slaanesh daemons than he did emperor's children marines, while I was more plague marines and a couple nurgle daemon units.

Richard had already chosen the Scouring mission and opted for the night fight battle zone. I was very pleased with that as the battle zones don't seem all that popular at the local club. I seem to be the only one interested in playing them. I think they make for a more interesting game but that is just me.

Once we had set up terrain we had another player set up the objectives for us before we rolled for deployment. Hammer and Anvil was probably not the most helpful one for this mission especially once we rolled for the superior objective and it was in my deployment zone while Richard had the inferior one. A bit harsh but that's the randomness for you. We both also got a fire support mysterious objective so that was going to make things interesting. Although I finished setting up first, Richard had the first turn - we used the new initiative roll system from this year's Chapter Approved.

Richard had a fair bit of heavy weapons but night fight was a hindrance. He used a command point to light up my predator and brought it down to one wound via saturated firing. His forces moved forward but didn't clear too much ground but he had me worried as to how I was going to handle it all. My first turn and all I did was move up my daemons and the bloat drone down the right flank. Everything else stayed put holding objectives. The predator, despite being on the verge of falling apart managed to bring down most of a unit of seekers. Moral rolls took out the rest. My left flank was mostly safe for the time being.

The game moved quite quick. Richard finally dropped my predator but no explosion. Richard had not brought any vehicles so the loss of the predator was not a big issue for me. He did manage to strip a lot of wounds off of the bloat drone though. Turn two on wards was pretty much a mosh of close combat. The bloat drone had done some damage but on my right flank the plaguebearers and his daemonettes clashed. This was going to be the war eternal because I wouldn't drop due to disgustingly resilient and we both kept rolling 1's for moral but with the icons models stood back up again. For two or three turns we just could not kill each other's units. It was only when Masque joined the fight that the tide began to turn in his favour. I had to bring up my plaguecaster to use smite in order to bring things back to my control.

My plaguebearers were just holding up his daemonette's advance. Neither of us really did much with our chaos marines. Richard's were held up in ruins putting fire into anything that got close enough in range and mine hid out of sight just holding objectives. My concerns that I was going to get squished disappeared about now. With the daemons held I tried to get my great unclean one up the table and into |Richard's emperor's children. Unfortunately they gunned him down as he got there with powerful sonic weaponry. Disappointing but he lasted longer than he usually does.

During the game I think the fire support objectives triggered twice each. I forget what Richard targeted but I dropped both of mine onto Lucius and finally dropped him netting me Slay the Warlord. About this time Richard conceded at the end of turn 5.

Victory went to the forces of Nurgle 9 vp to Slaanesh 6vp. Still quite close but at the end it was a pyrrhic victory as I did feel that Richard did not get a particularly great game. Deployment I think as the problem. With the superior objective in my deployment zone Richard was not going to get there. He did get some daemonettes in there but they died in short order. Nothing else came close.

Hopefully the next time we play we'll have a bit more of a closer game.

----


++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [60 PL, 1073pts] ++
+ HQ +
Lord of Contagion: Manreaper
Malignant Plaguecaster: Curse of the Leper, Miasma of Pestilence, The Pandemic Staff

+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists
. 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

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

+ Fast Attack +
Foetid Bloat-drone: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe

+ Heavy Support +
Chaos Predator: Twin lascannon
. Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter

+ Dedicated Transport +
Chaos Rhino: Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher

++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Daemons) [20 PL, 418pts] ++

+ HQ +
Great Unclean One [12 PL, 248pts]: Fleshy Abundance, Stream of Corruption.

+ Troops +
Plaguebearers [4 PL, 85pts]: Daemonic Icon, 9x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden.

Plaguebearers [4 PL, 85pts]: Daemonic Icon, 9x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden.

March of the daemons!

Dangerously beautiful daemonettes.

My right flank where the bloodbath took place.

Lucius the Eternal - champion of Slaanesh.

Hold the Line - Miridian

Planet: Miridian.
Region: Cadian sector.

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons vs Drukhari
2000 points / 100 power level
Mission: Capture and Control.
Deployment: Pitched Battle.

Rather than continue to lose numbers of marines to random hit and run attacks by the alien slavers, Typhus orders his Death Guard to consolidate and hold the line against the xenos. His plan being to hold the Drukhari in place long enough for reinforcements from the Scourge Stars to arrive.

My first game against Dark Eldar with my Death Guard was against Gary D so it seemed only fair that his first or second game of 8th be against my revenge hungry plague marines. To be honest though I wasn't sure what he would bring as I know he has an Imperial Fists army as well. I went for a more all comers list with a lot more troop options than I usually play. I was pleasantly pleased to see a Drukhari army turn up as I haven't played against them under 8th until now.

This was a good old fashioned set across the table from one another. I had a hard time deciding what should be placed when and where. I knew that his forces were super fast and his razorwing was going to be a problem, and that determined where everything had to go. I may have made a couple small mistakes but not enough to make much difference to the game's outcome.

I got the first turn and made sure to direct the heldrake towards his razorwing although the baleflamer didn't do much. I threw my cultists and poxwalkers forward in an attempt to draw his fire whilst still maintaining a link to the the objectives that I started with. My shooting was largely ineffective this round but the defiler's battle cannon was quite accurate. The heldrake charged the razorwing tearing a few chunks from it.

On Gary's turn he took umbridge to my plaguecaster and dropped five scourges down behind him. My plaguecaster survived the shooting though unharmed. Nothing Gary aimed at my heldrake could hit it. I lost a few cultists and poxwalkers but everything else was making it's DR rolls.

From turn two it became a game of brutal close combat. The Heldrake continued to hound the enemy flyer, burning his troops but continuing to slam into the flyer in the assault phase. His scourges launched an assault on my plaguecaster and knocked two wounds from him but suffered some losses in return. Those scourges would then die on my next turn due to smite.

Turn three saw the death of his razorwing which had been ineffective all game. Drazhar lept out of his venom alongside a unit of wytches from theirs, and then assaulted into my poxwalkers and cultists. The cultists died far too easily although two incubi rose from the dead as new poxwalkers meaning I didn't mind the losses he inflicted on them otherwise.

Over on my left flank I gunned down his raider and talos. The plague marines failed to charge but the lord of contagion succeeded and was happy to slice through his kabelites. On the right, Gary dropped another unit of scourges. I was beginning to think that he didn't like my plaguecaster. Those scourges combined with the wytches were then able to slay my plaguecaster in combat. Meanwhile I was trying desperately to get Typhus into combat with Drazhar but wytches were his only targets, and they manged to knock two wounds from him.

The game ended at the end of turn 4 due to time but victory was mine. I think it was on the cards, literally, from the end of turn 2. We finished with the Death Guard having seven victory points to the Drukhari's one.

The tactical objective cards had been in my favour the whole game. I was winning two a turn on average plus first blood. Gary was stuck with trying to kill an enemy psyker as his most likely card to achieve. My DR rolls were good. Not as good as last week but still very above average. Gary had similar from Power from Pain but couldn't make enough of them. The only downer for me was my plaguebearers who sat there all game holding an objective that never came up and then not interacting in the game the entire evening.

A very good game and I'm sure that it won't be long until I get a rematch.

My list was:

Battalion detachment (6 cp).
Typhus.
Lord of Contagion.
Malignant Plaguecaster.
10 Plague marines with two meltaguns and an icon of despair. Champion with plasma pistol and plaguesword.
10 Plague marines with two meltaguns and an icon of despair. Champion with plasma pistol and plaguesword.
20 Plaguebearers with two icons.
20 Poxwalkers.
15 cultists with autopistols and brutal assault weapons. One heavy stubber.
Defiler with scourge.
Heldrake with baleflamer.
Predator with TL-lascannons and heavy bolters.

Battle in the skies.

Savage close combat on my right flank.

Foul Drukhari slavers.

Death Guard deployment.

Operation Contagion - Abraxes

Planet: Abraxes.
Region: Ceres Sector.

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons vs Tyranids.
2000pts / PL 100.
Mission: The Relic - Fire and Fury.
Deployment: Front-Line Assault.

Operation Contagion was a major engagement in the war for Abraxes. The Death Guard started a full offensive to take the war to the alien menace. In addition to the ground war, the plague fleets began a void war to bring down the bio ships overhead.



Played a match against my friend Joel tonight at the club. Other than the mission, battle zone and that we were trying out power levels I knew nothing of what he was bringing to the table. Could of been one of three armies, and he arrived with a mighty Tyranid army. A little disappointed as I was hoping he would bring Dark Angels but they can turn up next time.

I have been wanting to try power levels over standard points for a while now and Joel was happy to oblige where I think everyone else at the club is far more interested in regular points. I found the match just as balanced and fair as a regular game. Not to mention list building was so much easier than building a points based list under 8th.

My list was very infantry heavy as I was playing to the concept of capturing and holding the relic first and foremost. I included the Nurgle Daemons simply because I never got much opportunity to include them under the last edition and it was nicely thematic. Joel's list was more than capable of doing that by sheer numbers but he also had some big monstrous creatures to cause some troubles.

Rolling the Front-Line Assault deployment meant that we were both going to be slamming into the relic from the get go. I deployed first but decided to go second. My idea being that if the game went to rolling to end the game I could save a command point to re-roll it in my favour at the time. Joel's gaunts surged forward spitting death into my poxwalkers, who lost one model. His shooting was infamously good where as my turn 1 was fairly pants.

It all heated up from turn 2 as we both slammed into combat in the center of the table. I knew I was going to have trouble shifting the gaunts and I was right. Between failed armour saves and poor disgustingly resilient rolls, he was pulling my marines down. He was very much focused on taking down my great unclean one for some reason even though it was highly unlikely to get into combat with anything worthwhile. It lasted two rounds of shooting before it was slain and drawn back into the warp.

Turn 3 and I lost most of my army. The plague marines and plague bearers were slain, and the daemon prince was taken down rather brutally. My only moments of the game came here though. Typhus charging into a carnifex, and bringing it down with a manreaper to the face, and my defiler weathering everything the hive tyrant failed to do before ripping the alien war lord into a thousand tiny pieces!

At the end of turn 3 I called it and handed victory to Joel. There was no way I could win this now. A very good game and it has given me a few things to think about. Especially how to handle a horde army in the future.

Other things that grabbed me... Power Levels didn't make a lot of difference. The army lists still seemed very balanced and perhaps we both added options we might not have done or could have done easily under a points a system. Most importantly it was far easier to build a list without having to flick through the index and try to add everything up.

I was disappointed by the battle zone rules. I really expected that the blazing starship wreckage would have played a larger role in the battle. As it was it only really did anything twice during the whole game and one of those was because I paid the command points to have six dice on the table rather than three. I really wanted to see more carnage but as Joel said after the game, you only have to put the dice on the table edges away from everything to ignore them.

Lastly, on the bike ride home I tried to figure if I could have done anything different. My daemon prince of chaos was a bit of a waste and I think I could have used him better. I had intended to run him up the right flank to draw fire and assault the big things but even advancing it took too long. Infantry was definitely the way forward but I couldn't bring enough firepower or assault power to retake the relic.

---

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [66 PL, 1276pts] ++

+ HQ +

Chaos Lord with Jump Pack: Plasma pistol, Power fist
Typhus: Miasma of Pestilence, Plague Wind

+ Troops +

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma pistol, Power sword
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun
. 7x Plague Marines

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma pistol, Power sword
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun
. 7x Plague Marines

10x Poxwalker

+ Elites +

Helbrute: Multi-melta

+ Heavy Support +

Defiler: Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon

++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Daemons) [33 PL, 646pts] ++

+ HQ +

Daemon Prince of Chaos: Hellforged sword, Mark of Nurgle: Stream of Corruption
Great Unclean One: Fleshy Abundance, Stream of Corruption

+ Troops +

Plaguebearers: Daemonic Icon, 9x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden
Plaguebearers: Daemonic Icon, 9x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden

++ Total: [99 PL, 1922pts] ++

The savage aliens advance.

Battle is joined as we fought over the relic.

Deployment.

Alien horrors.

Battle for Fort Ranick - Bludhaven

Planet: Bludhaven.
Region: Seraphon Sector.
845.M41

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons / Renegade Knight vs Orks.

Mission: Tactical Escalation (with Night Fight).
Deployment: Vanguard Strike.
Points: 2000.





The battle for Fort Ranick was a minor engagement in the early days of the Bludhaven invasion. The Death Guard had moved to seize an old Imperial supply depot known as Fort Ranick before the approaching ork forces to do likewise. Unfortunately as night began to fall the greenskin hordes reached the walls and lay siege to the plague marines trapped within.

A couple of nights ago I played a game against my friend Jon. I didn't want to know what he was fielding but expected it to either be blood angels or orks, and he turned up with a very interesting ork list. We randomly determined the tactical cards mission and then added the Battlefield: Nightfight rules to make it more interesting.

Most of Jon's army sat in reserve waiting to come in under cover of night. He did have a good number of boyz and a couple units of loota's sitting there waiting for me. I, however,  found the deployment zone very restrictive for what I had but it helped because he couldn't then drop anything in behind me from reserve.

I set up first and decided to let Jon have the first turn. The boyz started up the table and if I remember right one unit of kommando's popped up around the corner from my deployment. Night fight ranges got in the way here so he used a command point to light up one of my plague marine squads. It came down to DR rolls and I lost nine models, leaving just the champion to stand his ground. He also managed to knock a few wounds off my knight as making saves was not something I seem capable for doing for that thing.

My first turn was spent just moving forward to grab a couple potential objectives. The defiler and knight put fire into his fighta aircraft but not enough to bring it down. I then charged the defiler into the kommando's but I couldn't finish the whole unit off.

Jon then just some freaky ork psychic power to jump his weirdboy and a large unit of boyz across the table, followed by two other units of boyz running to keep up. They assaulted the defiler in a huge rabble, tearing it apart. Sadly it did not explode otherwise that would have been very nice.

The game started heating up here as the remaining kommando's started popping up around my deployment area. Some were gunned down but soon combat was joined. One poor band of orks were surrounded by plague marines, cultists and poxwalkers! They didn't last long and I got a couple extra poxwalkers out of the deal.

Unfortunately one of the random objectives Jon claimed gave him the ability to call in an airstrike and he kept dropping mortal wounds on my daemon prince of chaos. Concentrated fire also brought down my knight. Once again it has died far too easily. In retaliation I poured what fire and psychic power I had at his flyer but I could not destroy the damn thing. I believe it was left on 1 wound when the game ended. Bad luck. The game devolved into lots of combat and my daemon prince was slain as that poor surviving plague marine champion.

We called the game end of turn 3. Partly because we were running out of time and also because I had just 1 vp and Jon had about 4. The cards were far more in his favour than mine. Two of the games I drew involved defending two objectives for two turns which wasn't going to happen with the number of boyz against me.

Another good game. One that has made me have to consider what I need to take against orks in future. Night fight didn't impact me too much but to start with it made Jon focus on other targets than what he would have liked. Jon also lost a couple units because the Night Fight rules meant that they had not arrived at the end of turn 3 and so were considered lost. So we both had some bad luck this game.

My list:
Daemon Prince of Chaos (warlord)
Lord of Contagion.
10 Plague marines - meltaguns and icon of despair.
10 Plague marines - meltaguns and icon of despair.
20 Poxwalkers
18 Cultists
Renegade Knight - thermal cannon, heavy stubber and chainsword.
Chaos Predator - twin lascannons, heavy bolters and combi-flamer.
Defiler - battle cannon, autocannon, scourge and combi-flamer.

Death Guard deployment.

Ork deployment.

Orks control the skies.

A defiler stomping the greenskins!

The Children of Sickness, a cult of Nurgle.

Stronghold Assault - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus Sector.

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons vs Crimson Fists.
1500 points.
Mission: Retrieval Mission
Deployment: Spearhead Assault.

The Imperial assault has proven too strong for the Death Guard to resist. Typhus orders his forces to fall back from the front lines to a series of heavily fortified bastions across the surface in order to buy time to rearm and devise a strategy to deal with such a powerful force. In the meantime, it falls to the Adeptus Astartes to launch attacks upon these bastions in order to breach the defences and allow the Imperial war effort to eradicate the traitors once and for all.

Last night I was back to facing the Crimson Fists under the command of Richard Curr. This was a game that I was unusually apprehensive about playing purely because I didn't know what to take against him. The last two times I played against him, both games under 7th edition, he took a tank heavy army loaded with razorbacks and vindicators. His first game of 8th, not against me, he took a infantry army with the new primaris marines. Despite attempts I couldn't design a list that would accommodate both play styles so I had to guess what he would bring. In the end Richard bought a bit of both which made me feel better about my list build.

As this mission just uses the classic my base - your base two objective markers, we both set ours up dead center of our deployment zones opposite one another. I finished setting my army up first but Richard's first roll of the game seized him the initiative and he rumbled his two predator tanks forward and ripped about twelve wounds off of my knight before it had a chance to do anything. It shrugged off the krak missiles though. Everything else was out of range.

My first turn I held back my plague marines from advancing to see how the game went. I didn't have transports so getting them up the table safely was not likely. The knight marched forward though followed by my daemon prince of chaos. The thermal blaster taking a chunk of wounds from one enemy predator and the heavy stubber got one scout who put his head up when he should have ducked. The havoc squad knocked a couple more wounds off that predator as well. The knight then charged the scout squad losing one wound to a lucky bolter shot. It proceeded to crush the scouts beneath it's titanic feet.

Turn two and Richard continued to pour his heavy weapon fire into my knight. It took both his predators and two krak missiles to drop it to four wounds remaining. His bikes got into combat with it as well but they soon died to being stomped and the daemon prince being drawn into the combat. On my turn the daemon prince smited the remaining scout squad killing them all.

Turn three was where it all changed. Lascannon fire from the predators dropped the knight which did not explode. My plague marine squads supported by Typhus' miasma psychic power moved out of cover and put meltagun fire into both predators, successfully taking both out. One exploded killing one of my poor plague marines.

Come turn four and Richard had nothing my side of the table. All he had left were three squads in the ruins around his objective, a librarian and Cantor. He turned his attention to my plague marines dropping frag missiles into their ranks but it proved ineffective. I simply moved my plague marines back into cover and advanced the daemon prince into Richard's deployment zone.

Turn five and all Richard managed to do was knock two wounds off the daemon prince. I just moved him closer to ensure that I had linebreaker and that point Richard conceded. There was no way he could achieve victory as I had first blood and now would have linebreaker. I won 5 vp to his 3.

Despite being very apprehensive about what to take I think I had taken the right options.  I'm still annoyed that a unit like a knight can be taken down as easily as it can be. But despite a great start I think that Richard was unlucky. Perhaps he should have moved a couple squads forward to draw my fire from the predators but the deployment type was going to make it difficult for a footslogging army to get across the table easily.

Unfortunately my phone died on me so no photos to add for this report.

My list:

Typhus (warlord - legendary champion. Powers were smite, miasma of pestilence and plague wind)
Daemon Prince of Chaos (mark of nurgle. Powers were smite and stream of corruption).

10 Plague marines
Plasma Pistol and power weapon.
Icon of Despair and two meltaguns

10 Plague marines
Plasma Pistol and power weapon.
Icon of Despair and two meltaguns

10 Poxwalkers

5 Havocs
boltgun and bolt pistol
Autocannon – missile launcher – lascannon
chainswords

Renegade Knight
Thermal blaster, chainsword and hvy stubber

Despite having the advantage the space marines were only able to breach a handful of enemy bastions. The rest resisted all their efforts, allowing Typhus to seek reinforcements and come up with strategies to defeat the invading forces. 

Battle of Lucerne Abbey - Abraxes

Planet: Abraxes.
Region: Ceres Sector.

Death Guard vs Tyranids.
1500pts.
Mission: Only War.
Deployment: Front-Line Assault.

One of the original targets of the Death Guard when they attacked Abraxes was the legendary Lucerne Abbey shrine which housed several relics of the old Imperium from the early days of the Great Crusade. Even with the Tyranid menace Typhus sought to corrupt these relics of the false Emperor. During the search of the ruins, the Death Guard failed to notice the arrival of the xenos vanguard until it was too late.

First 8th edition against Tyranids and for my friend Shadbolt. As Only War is a good training mission it seemed an excellent choice for the game. We rolled for the objectives and each one was worth a victory point at the end of each turn to whoever held them. First turn was mine. I've not enjoyed a game against Tyranids for a while due to how good they were previously so I was not sure how to handle them this time around. My list was fairly basic but I hoped it would do the job.

Due to deployment I was holding two objectives straight away. One with a plague marine squad and one with havocs. I didn't have much shooting but my big weapons did open fire upon Shadbolt's monstrous tyrannofex which seemed to be the biggest threat. Knocked a couple wounds off but it didn't hurt it's abilities too much.

In return Shadbolt surged everything forwards. Again, not a lot of shooting, but we did have the first perils of the warp that I have seen under 8th. One of his zoanthropes exploded which was impressive. But his turn pretty much consisted of getting everything as far forward as he could.

Turn two and combat was joined along the middle of the table. Plaguebringers and poxwalkers fought hard against gaunts, and my daemon prince of chaos started slugging it out with his hive tyrant. This turn of the game was rather poor for me as my dice were not playing ball most of the time. The one time Nurgle was in my favour saw six sixes rolled on a wounding roll. My forces were holding their own but the horde was slowly overrunning them. The plaguebearers didn't have much luck. They lost half their number to the gaunts.

Turn three and Shadbolt's genestealers were in the midst of my poxwalkers, ripping them apart. Typhus strode in and hacked the broodlord down with one mighty sweep of manreaper. Had the game gone much further he would have taken down those remaining genestealers I had no doubt. The second squad of poxwalkers was slowly whittling away but I was pleased to get one new poxwalker added to the unit. That made my evening. Elsewhere, despite being beaten down to 1 remaining wound, my daemon prince of chaos sliced the head from the hive tyrant and held it up for the gods to see!

At this time I had dealt enough damage to the tyrannofex that it was no longer a threat. With everything else in combat my havocs were forced to blast away at gaunts and the defiler strode into another unit of gaunts but was surprisingly unable to wound any of them.

By this time Shadbolt's tyranids were taking control of the objectives I had just by sheer weight of models. I couldn't remove enough of them to retain control of the objectives. Unfortunately by this point we had tio wrap up the game as we were nearing kick out time. Shadbolt had seized a victory 7pts to my 6.

A good game and hopefully a good training exercise for mister Shadbolt. Tyranids are still a good horde army but they seem much more balanced now than they used to be. I think I can enjoy facing them again now.

Back aboard the Terminus Est Typhus raged. The desecration of the ancient relics would not be by his hand. Instead they would trodden into the mud by alien feet. Time to turn his attention back to the war and maybe one day he could return to finish the job.

Battalion Detachment.
6 command points

Typhus
Daemon Prince of Chaos

10 Plague marines
Plasma Pistol and power weapon.
Icon of Despair and two meltaguns

10 Plague marines
Plasma Pistol and power weapon.
Icon of Despair and two meltaguns

10 Poxwalkers
10 Poxwalkers

Defiler
Battle cannon, reaper autocannon, scourge, defiler claws and combi flamer

5 Havocs
powerfist and bolt pistol
Autocannon, missile launcher, lascannon and hvy bolter
chainswords

10 plaguebearers

Plague marines supported by a defiler march into battle.

A monstrous tyrannofex.

The initial battle lines.

Savage hand to hand fighting in the blast craters.

Here come the genestealers!