Lunar Engagement - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Space Wolves.
1000 points.
Mission: Only War.
Deployment: Pitched Battle.

Following the arrival of the Death Guard reinforcements from the Scourge Stars, Guilliman's assault upon the Chaos strong point of Cerberus had begun to bog down into a drawn out stalemate. Other space marine commanders requested that they consolidate control on other targets in the system, regroup and then strike harder at the final prize, Cerberus itself.

Harald Deathwolf volunteered to lead a small strike against the small Death Guard held outpost upon Cerberus III's moon. Upon that almost airless moon the two war bands clashed for dominance.

This match up was a friendly game to teach my friend Jason how to play 8th. He had played a lot of the previous editions but this was first go at the new one. With that in mind we went with the basic Only War mission and played across table for ease. The mission objective rolled was 1 victory point for each objective held plus 3 for the war lord.

My Death Guard achieved the first turn and Jason failed to seize the initiative. During our deployment Jason had set up a long fangs squad facing my right flank and that was a concern for me so I set my defiler that side in hopes of taking out a few with the battle cannon. What actually happened was the defiler decimated the entire squad leaving me without much in the way of targets on that flank and I had to swiftly adapt. I felt bad because Jason's dice just did not want to know. So many rolls and re-rolls were 1's and 2's.

Jason's first turn was more about moving his forces forward. Specifically his large pack of fenrisian wolves who swiftly got into combat with one of my rhinos. They would spend the rest of the game tearing it apart but it meant they were not a concern. His blood claws shooting was quite accurate I started losing a few models. Disgustingly resilience was not my friend this game.

Turn two and I flew my bloat drone closer shrouded by flies summoned by my plagucaster. I also made sure that the defiler moved towards my left flank to intercept his thunderwolf cavalry and Harald Deathwolf. I used one of the new Death Guard strategems to allow the defiler to fire it's weapons as though they hadn't moved. The battle cannon blowing one cavalry model away. On Jason's turn his razorback was able to score two lascannon hits on the bloatdrone leaving it on one wound! He chose not to assault the defiler with his cavalry due to the distance.

Turn three and combat was joined. I made sure that my defiler could get into assault easily. It tore through most of his remaining cavalry, leaving just one rider and Harald. At which point I kicked myself because if I had focused on Harald I might have killed him and gained 3 victory points! Jason did score a few wounds on the defiler but nothing to effect it's combat expertise.

Turn four was the last for us as we were getting close to the venue close up. Once the bloat drone got within range of his marines it was next to useless. Too damaged to do anything which was a little disappointing. This time the defiler focused everything on Haraldm, dropping him to one wound! On Jason's turn he took out the bloat drone which did explode taking out one space wolf and scratched the paintwork on his razorback. On my left flank the fenrisian wolves finally destroyed the rhino. Im played another Death Guard strategem to cause it to automatically explode. Three wolves were killed and by sheer luck one mortal wound went on to Harald taking him out of the fight! Yay!

At the end of that round I was holding two objectives and I had warlord kill. Jason was only holding one objective so victory went to the Death Guard 5 to 1. A good game as always with Jason. I felt a little bit bad because I had a fully fledged codex versus his index but I don't think I used anything too nasty and I hope he enjoyed the game.

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Due to the flow of the game I was not really able to utilize my plaguecaster as I wanted. The cultists did very little but I had them purely for the job of holding an objective in my deployment zone and they did that job. The defiler was my model of the match this time around and made me proud.

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++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [56 PL, 999pts] ++

+ HQ +
Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Curse of the Leper, Miasma of Pestilence, The Pandemic Staff

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

Plague Marines [10 PL, 185pts]
. 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 [10 PL, 173pts]
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher

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

+ Heavy Support +
Defiler [11 PL, 181pts]: Combi-bolter, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon

+ Dedicated Transport +
Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 72pts]: Combi-bolter
Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 72pts]: Combi-bolter

Bloat Drone drifts towards the enemy.

Thunderwolf Cavalry charges into battle.

Brutal battle with my Defiler.

Rise of the Wulfen - Cadia

Mission: Black Crusade.
Deployment: Special.
Points: 2000 points.
Death Guard vs Space Wolves.

Cadia will fall! After some severe set backs the traitor advance across the battlefields of Cadia has begun anew. On the fields outside of Cadia's second city the Death Guard had successfully secured a number of vital objectives. As they looked to the skies, a torrent of drop pods ploughed into their lines. Ragnar Blackmane entered the war with a contingent of Wulfen at his command. Typhus barked orders to his battle brothers to pull back and prepare to engage!

Yesterday I got my first 40K game of the new year against my nephew. I was trying out a 2000 point list with the new Death Guard rules from Traitor Legions and he was proxying a random mix of models to see if he wanted to get into playing Space Wolves (using the new Wulfen rules) - hence the random mix of models on the table.

My list was the Verculium (or however it is is spelt), with a Chaos Warband, Lord of the Legion (a sorcerer) and a two flyer Heldrake Terror Pack. 1996 points in total. I lost track of what strange formations and detachment he was using. Only that it was based around Ragnar and had a turn one all drop pod assault and some Wulfen formations. Mission rolled was Black Crusade from the Altar of War book.

Straight away I may have made a small mistake. Knowing that he was playing the drop pod assault I decided to bunch everything together with the idea that I would everything to hand to repel borders. Benjo thought it a bad idea but I tried it out. Initially luck was with me as half of his drop pods deviated away giving me a chance. First turn was over very quickly with no casualties except for my chaos land raider which decided to immobilise itself on a wall but it proved a suitable wall to block line of sight.

Turn two and all my reserves came in at once. The raptors dropped down behind him where his two deviated drop pods had fallen. Flamers and bolt pistols cut down several and gace him pause. The heldrake terror pack swooped in together and spat baleflame into some small units but storm shields ensured that he suffered no casualties. I did managed to cut down some small squads and by the end of turn 3 I had chalked up 3 victory points but from here on everything started to go down hill.

Turn 4 his units hit my lines and hard. Even with toughness 5 and feel no pain on everything my chaos marines dropped liked flies. He close combat he was a monster. Even my helbrute was not immune. As it charged in to assault Lukas the Trickster’s squad, a lucky plasma shot ripped the power claw from it and condemning to a slow and drawn out assault for the rest of the game.

The Black Crusade rules mean that any infantry unit destroyed walks on from reserve on the next turn. This just meant that he pummelled squad after squad down when they walked back on. I could have had them arrive away from the mosh but they wouldn’t have done anything in the game. It was a case of damned if I did and damned if I didn’t.

The Heldrakes were a bit of a waste. They took down three squads but one lost it’s baleflamer to a flakk missile and their turning arcs meant they were rarely in a position to do much more. They were probably the only units that didn’t really earn their keep this game.

By the time the game ended Benjo was on 11 victory points to my 4. It was a disappointing game but I put the blame more on the mission special rules which just kept giving him victory points. Maybe if I had spread my units during deployment things may have been different. But for the first game with the new Legion rules I can’t grumble.