Rain of Warpfire - Susperia

Planet: Susperia.
Region: Eye of Terror.

Death Guard vs Thousand Sons
2000 points.
Mission: The Relic - Fire & Fury.
Deployment: Search and Destroy.

A largest engagement ensued when Mortarion led his Death Guard into the flesh plains thus far unclaimed by any warlord. There they encountered his rival Magnus the Red, also leading his legion forth. As both armies prepared to face off for dominance, a great storm of Warpfire poured from the blazing red sky onto the battlefield.

This is a game against Marko that we had been planning for some time now but either work commitments or illness got in the way. Last week we finally managed to achieve that game.

I want to start off with a small caveat, I am not a sore loser. Even the most one sided game I can happily take something from it and come out happy. Unfortunately this game was not one of those. Much like the game I had some months ago against my friend Mike, the point of this game was supposed to be one of Primarch versus Primarch while the rest of our armies fought and died over the proper mission. A gentleman's agreement if you will. As you will read that is not how it turned out. I just wanted to put this forward now before anyone comments about "that is how the game is played" and calling me out as a sore loser, when that isn't the case.

With that done, enjoy.

---

Unlike most of the games I play at the club in the last year, my opponent and I had not decided upon a mission in advance. All we knew was that we wanted to use the Fire & Fury battle zone. We rolled off and got The Relic, which I had not played for some time and so was rather excited to play. We rolled the Search & Destroy deployment which also does not come up very often. After picking sides we set up our armies.

I was lucky and secured the first turn. Everything bar my plagueburst crawl moved forward to try and get as close to the Relic as possible. I advanced Mortarion up so that we could get on with the main event of the night. Shooting wasn't very accurate but I did managed to do away with some tzaangors and some cultists. About the only time by plagueburst crawler actually hit anything!

This is where the game took the unpleasant turn. My opponent moved his units, cast the plethora of psychic powers that Thousand Sons are known for and then decided to ignore the point of why we set this game up in the first place. He proceeded to throw smites and open fire with almost everything into Mortarion successfully knocking quite a few wounds off him. More than a little irritated I asked my opponent why? His response being something like smug like "Tzeentch changes things" which quite frankly rubbed me the wrong way. He had obviously decided not to play to the narrative game that we had agreed and instead decided to go full competitive and out for the kill.

Turn two and I pulled a few units back as I realized that Marko had some scarab terminators and a terminator sorcerer in reserve. The main infantry, two plague marine squads and a 20 man block of pox walkers moved forward to grab the Relic. Mortarion prepared for the upcoming fight whilse trying to stay out of sight of the predator trio that Marko had brought to the game.

Marko's turn 2 was explosive. Using his psychic might he stripped Mortarion of his invulnerable save before smiting and unloading almost everything into him. I lost a few plague marines to heavy bolters and a few pox walkers fell. Magnus charged into Mortarion and cut him down. The only good bit was Magnus took a mortal wound from the exploding primarch.

From here I just became somewhat self defeating. Where the first two turns neither of us managed to hit with the flaming bits of warpfire plummeting from the sky but from here I don't think either of us bothered with it. I was just hoping for a quick defeat while Marko was going for the kill.

Over the next couple turns I did manage to get my hands on the Relic twice but both times Magnus charged the lucky unit decimating it. His terminators did drop down into my deployment zone where they blasted the plagueburst crawler and eventually dropped it with smite. Turn five however and Marko had tabled my entire force. This was one game that I was glad was over.

---

After thoughts...

I find it hard to be objective about this game. When you go into something with an agreed to format and then your opponent ignores that, and proceeds to completely stomp you going to feel a bit pissed off. I must admit that my opponent has history and I am seriously considering not playing them again.

Would it have made much difference had we not made that initial Primarch vs Primarch agreement? I still think Marko would have won. He is just so much more competitive than I am. I would have probably made a very different list but against his psychic might I would still have had a hard time.

---

+ HQ +

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

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: 3. Plague Wind, 6. Curse of the Leper

+ Troops +

Plague Marines [13 PL, 231pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 7x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines [13 PL, 259pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Flail of Corruption
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Great plague cleaver
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plague Spewer
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher

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

+ Elites +

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

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 196pts]: Havoc launcher
. Left Arm: Hellflamer, Hellforged deathclaw
. Right Arm: Kheres assault cannon

+ Fast Attack +

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

+ Heavy Support +

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

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [24 PL, 470pts] ++

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: 4. Blades of Putrefaction, Warlord

++ Total: [106 PL, 1993pts] ++

Revolt! - Susperia

Planet: Susperia.
Region: Eye of Terror.

Death Guard vs Death Guard
1500 points.
Mission: Dominate and Destroy.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

The ranks of the Death Guard have become split between those loyal to Mortarion and those who serve Typhus. Typhus has become insensed that Mortarion continues to support the situation on Susperia. The true enemy, the Imperium, is where the servants of Nurgle should be directing their attacks not playing to the whims of the Ruinious Powers. Angered by Typhus blasphemy, Mortarion marches into the enemy camp to show who is in command of the Death Guard here!

Jack is a new member of the club and last night we played our first battle against one another. It has been an entire edition ago that I think I last experienced some Death Guard on Death Guard action so I was looking forward to this. We chose 1500 points because it fits easier into the club's time limit than a 2000 point game does and since I don't believe that I have played Dominate and Destroy before it seemed like a good choice. We rolled Hammer and Anvil for deployment and Nurgle was with me for I rolled a 7 to get first turn and Typhus didn't seize the initiative.

Despite Jack holding most of the objectives on his side of the table I decided to play a more defensive game. Two plague marine squads held the objectives that I started with and everything else moved up the table. I kept the plagueburst crawler back to provide artillery fire. As usual my shooting was pretty bad and I think I knocked 1 wound off of a bloat drone.

Jack's first turn saw most of his forces moved forward, including his plagueburst crawler which I found a bit strange but it did have plaguespewers so understandable. He was able to grab the more central objective giving him the edge.

I'll be honest that from here the next few turns blurred together for me as we were having too much fun with this match. I was doing terrible even so. I was being forced to hold the two objectives I had unable to go forward. My hellforged contemptor was destroyed far too easily for my tastes by Jack's plaguespewers if I remember right. Likewise my poxwalkers did not survive the firepower pumped into them.

My saving grace had to be Mortarion. He spent up the battlefield hewing through traitor plague marines, blightshroud terminators, poxwalkers and a daemon prince with ease. The problem was that he had not charged up Lantern before the battle, and either that damn pistol either failed to hit or failed to wound. It did nothing all game which was both amusing and just utterly frustrating. Mortarion did survive the game however, having only lost two or three wounds, and was the only chance I had of scoring linebreaker.

Mortarions greatest moment came because I think Jack made a small mistake. Second or third turn he deepstriked his blightshroud terminators and his daemon prince (also his warlord) into my deployment zone in the hopes of taking out one of my plague marine squads sitting on an objective. They failed to do anything and Mortarion ended up charging into the terminators, cutting them down with ease. The daemon prince ran away and tried to deal some damage to my plagueburst crawler, but the daemon primarch caught up with him and delivered a lethal swing which sent the traitor screaming back into the Warp. It made a for a cool moment in the game but in hindsight perhaps they should have dropped more central and held up my advance even more.

The game kept going until the very last second of turn 5. Neither of us really had much left on the tabletop. I think I had just a plague marine squad, plagueburst crawler and Mortarion, while Jack had some poxwalkers and a plagueburst crawler of his own. I had not been counting points for both sides but I figured it was close but he definitely had the win. In the end I think Jack was on 25 to my 12. A much bigger gap than I had thought.

----

This was a great game and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I always have fun but sometimes it is really nice to play someone who also has that same level of fun and not take things too seriously. I am really looking forward to future games against Jack.

If I had a grumble... well two, considering Mortarion's pistol not working... it would be that damn plaguecrawler. I know that a 4+ BS is 50/50 but that damn unit never seems to be accurate for me. If it wasn't such a good choice I'd probably shelve it due to it hitting for toffee.

---

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [57 PL, 1027pts] ++

Use Beta Rules

+ HQ +

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

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 6. Curse of the Leper

+ Troops +

Plague Marines [13 PL, 218pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Great plague cleaver
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plague Spewer
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 174pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Flail of Corruption
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher

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

+ Elites +

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 196pts]: Havoc launcher
. Left Arm: Hellflamer, Hellforged deathclaw
. Right Arm: Kheres assault cannon

+ Heavy Support +

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

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [24 PL, 470pts] ++

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: 4. Blades of Putrefaction, Warlord

++ Total: [81 PL, 1497pts] ++

Typhus and his traitors advance.

The instigator of the Death Guard rebellion.

The battlefield bathed in the glow of an unnatural sun.

The Blood-Dimmed Tide - Susperia

Planet: Susperia.
Region: Eye of Terror.

Death Guard vs Daemons of Chaos : Khorne.
2000 points.
Mission: Scorched Earth.
Deployment: Spearhead Assault.

The Death Guard have suffered some severe casualties in the battles on Susperia. Mortarion reluctantly orders his forces back into their claimed territory. Khorne seethes with anger at this cowardice and summons forth a mighty host of his daemons to assault the main Death Guard base of operations. With no hope of escape Mortarion leads his sons to battle for their own survival.

This is my first battle against the new Chaos Daemons codex. In general I have never done well when fighting against pure daemon armies so I was unsure how this would go under 8th edition. I didn't hold out much hope though. Jon and I decided on the Scorched Earth mission from my list and on the night we rolled Spearhead Assault for our deployment.

It's been a couple weeks so my memory may be a little foggy but from what I recall most of Jon's army started in the Warp via heavy cost of command points giving me very little idea of where I needed to place my forces. In the end I tried to set some units as being as forward as I could get them and everything else held back to try and prevent the deepstrike behind my lines.

The game went a good way but the turns were fairly quick. I tried to advance down the table to grab objectives but most where not close to my troops. The daemons however were able to start with a couple in close proximity. My psychic powers were fairly pointless too as Jon had a couple nice units of flesh hounds whose collars did a good job of denying my powers.

The daemons started dropping down almost straight away and began locking my plague marines in combat, whittling them away far too easily. I was forced to draw out units, such as the hellforged contemptor, into the fray just to start readdressing the tide of combat. It was to make little difference however as the bloodletters on a couple occasions rolled double 1 on their battleshock and regenerated nearly the entire unit.

As the game progressed I tried to thrown Mortarion and his deathshroud bodyguard into the fray towards the middle of the table. Jon surrounded them and even dropped a hefty unit of bloodcrushers nearby which charged into the assault. The terminators didn't last very long but Mortarion refused to fall despite the damage dealt to him. He proved himself a monster and slaughtered nearly everything thrown at him.

Jon used the mission's special rule once to destroy one of the objectives in my deployment zone but by that point I had already suffered heavy casualties and I knew that the game was never going to be mine. I forget what turn the game ended but Jon had amassed a fair few victory points and I think I had 1 maybe 2.

----

After thoughts...

I was surprised and torn by this game. Daemons are still has tough as I remember from previous editions but I had expected to do a lot more damage to Jon's army that I did. Not counting Mortarion, I think I did more damage with area effect mortal wounds than I did with shooting or close combat. A good game though as always though.

----


++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) ++

+ HQ +

Daemon Prince of Nurgle: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, Hellforged sword, The Suppurating Plate

Lord of Contagion: Manreaper

+ Troops +

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

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma pistol, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. . Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Great plague cleaver
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Poxwalkers: 20x Poxwalker

+ Elites +

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought
. . Left Arm: Combi-bolter, Hellforged deathclaw
. . Right Arm: Kheres assault cannon

Deathshroud Terminators
. . Deathshroud Champion: Manreaper, Plaguespurt gauntlets
. . 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlets

+ Fast Attack +

Chaos Spawn: Chaos Spawn, Chaos Spawn

Foetid Bloat-drone: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe

+ Heavy Support +

Plagueburst Crawler: 2x Entropy cannon, Rothail volley gun

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) ++

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion: 4. Blades of Putrefaction, 5. Putrescent Vitality, 6. Curse of the Leper, Warlord

++ Total: [109 PL, 1974pts] ++

Worlds of the Narrative - Susperia

Planet: Susperia.
Segmentum: None.
Sector: Eye of Terror.
System: None.
Surveyed: Never.
Planets:
Susperia - Daemon World.

Summery:
It is not known whether the planet Susperia ever dwelt within the material universe. All it has ever known is a life deep in the Warp lit by the glow of an ethereal light. The world may well have been created by the Ruinous Powers for reasons of their own. The truth may not truly ever be known.

Susperia has an intelligence unknowable to the mortal beings that now walk it's fleshy surface and the planet has the power to reshape itself and it's environments at will. It exists to further the will of the chaos gods.

Size: Equatorial distance - 2,200 miles.
Gravity: 1.0G.
Satellites: None.
Population: None.
Orbit: None.
Climate: Varies depending on the planet's will.

Time has no meaning in the Warp. These events could have happened in the past, the present or have yet to happen. At least in comparison to the material universe. The Ruinous Powers often seek to test their servants and contest to see whose are the more worthy. The Chaos Gods have drawn their mighty champions together on the surface of this living world to fight and die in the name of their patron divinity. Which god will prevail? Only time will tell.

Notes: This is the world for narrative games featuring the main forces of Chaos, the daemons, Death Guard, World Eaters, Thousand Sons and Emperor's Children. These forces are all here because much like the Imperium narrative you can't just keep making worlds for specific semi-factions.

Tide of Battle:
World Eaters victories: 1.
Emperor's Children victories: 0.
Thousand Sons victories: 2.
Death Guard victories: 2.
Chaos Daemons victories: 2.

The contest of champions is still ongoing but thus far only the Emperor's Children are losing to the depredations of their rivals. Hopefully the Death Guard will come out ahead.

1. Eternal Night (7th edition).
2. The Red Giant (7th edition).
3. Wager of the Gods (7th edition).
4. Pestilence Prevails.
5. Blood-Dimmed Tide.
6. Revolt!
7. Rain of Warpfire.

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.

Wager of the Gods - Susperia

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

Death Guard vs World Eaters.
2000 points.
Mission: Purge the Alien.

There are no stars in the skies above Susperia. Instead the sky is a swirling storm of psychedelic colours in which leering daemonic faces and reaching talons frequently appear. Below those skies two armies have come together at the will of their patrons to fight for the honour of their god.

When my expected opponent had to drop out of last night's game Mark offered to take over and challenge my Death Guard. Normally he plays Thousand Sons but I know he has other chaos marine armies so I asked him to play his World Eaters as I don't think I've played against them since 6th edition. We decided to be thematic and play the basic kill point mission with the across table deployment. Kill! Maim! Burn!

Mark had the first turn, which coupled with the World Eater legion rules meant that he was half way across the table and bearing down on me straight away. My first turn saw just a single wound being taken off of a chaos spawn but I don't think I caused any other injuries due to Mark making his night fight stealth saves. Turn two and one unit reached one of my chaos marine squads and combat was joined. He also destroyed a rhino with a lucky shot from a plasma pistol.

From this point on the game started to bog down into close combat. I was lucky enough to keep one rhino intact for a while allowing me to fire my meltaguns and plasma pistol out the top. It forced Mark to drop my rhino giving me the chance to assault him. Combat was quite nasty from this point. I didn't manage to get anywhere in challenges as Marks chaos lords on juggernauts each had a powerful relic preventing me from making armour saves for the most part, and my FNP rolls were shockingly bad again. My helbrute, which I wanted to support my marines was crushed by a mighty daemon prince of Khorne.

When my heldrake came in it was able to melt half a squad of berzerkers. Next turn I had to risk it and put it into hover mode and while it did take out the rest of the khorne warriors, it was assaulted by Kharn the Betrayer and the daemon prince. They ripped it to the ground but I was happy with what it did.

When my land raider went boom, the terminators and my terminator lord moved out of the burning wreckage to attack a chaos lord on juggernaut. Again though I just couldn't score wounds on him and he just hacked through them. The World Eaters were living up to their reputation.

Come turn four and I realsied that I had completely forgotten about my raptors waiting to come in from reserve. With pretty much everything else I had reduced to a pile of headless corpses, I dropped them down into Mark's deployment zone. If nothing else I could snatch a point at the end of the game. Unfortunately they ended up in charge range of a chaos lord on juggernaut and promptly slaughtered to a man.

Game ended turn five with a complete table wipe for my poor Nurgle marines. Mark had won 15 victory points to my one. He had claimed every available victory point that he could have scored. Impressive.

I had hoped to do better but a mix of his relic wielding juggernaut lords and my inability to roll feel no pain meant that this was never going to go my way.

However, on a good note, this was potentially my last game of 7th edition. Next week I have my first 8th edition game. Looking forward to it big time.

Nurgle's champions had failed and Khorne gathered their skulls for his throne. The Death Guard were not living up to their name. Nurgle would have to look elsewhere for a champion if he was to dominate the battlefields of Susperia.

Blood for the Blood God!

A horde of mutated spawn surge through the ruins.

Death Guard deployment.

A mighty daemon prince of Khorne.

Berzerkers charge across the battlefield.

My heldrake vomits over a unit of berzerkers.

The Red Giant - Susperia

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

Death Guard vs Thousand Sons.
2000 points.
Mission: Cloak and Shadows.

Poxus the Pestulent had roared in rage at being brought to this vile world against his will. Determined to prove his worth to Nurgle in order to return to his wars of conquest in the real universe, he marched his small war band through the ever changing wastes until his scouts reported movement. 
In what appeared to be the crumbled ruins of an ancient fortress he spied the fearsome Magnus the Red and his sorcerers plotting their own escape from Susperia. Eager to please the Plague Father, Poxus let rip a battle cry and charged forth with his marines in tow.

This match was a challenge from Marko who had pointed out that I haven't played against him for about three years, so I figured why not. That he is one of just two local players with Magnus just clinched it. I knew going in that I was not going to win this game but I wanted to play against a Primarch.

So we played the traditional long side to long side deployment. I was lucky to get the side with three objectives within close proximity and made sure to deploy close enough to grab them for Nurgle straight off the bad. It meant that the Thousand Sons would have to march forward and hopefully buy me some time. Marko had expected tanks and maybe my Knight but I wasn't going to risk him turning fire on my own guys - not realising that that particular power doesn't work on vehicles.

I had turn 1 and not much happened. I managed to inflict a couple wounds but not much else. Secured one objective. His first turn was far more effective. I lost one helbrute, a couple terminators and one terminator was transformed into a spawn.

Turn 2 and I had two secure objective 6 cards. Number 6 was in his deployment zone guarded by Rhubric Marines. I sent one Helbrute forward and my bike squad intercepted his sorcerer bike squad but combat was not with me. Raptors came in but deviated into a position that would lead to them being struck by superior firepower. My terminators slew the spawn that was their fallen brethren. Marko then proceeded to tear through almost everything I had. Bikes slain, and through copies psychic shenanigans I lost all but two terminators, both rhinos and my raptors lost half their number. I had lost half my army just down to psychic powers.

Turn 3 and my chaos lord challenged Magnus. I had hoped that I might be able to absorb a few hits and then strike back with the relic weapon pusbringer. Instead, Magnus instant death'ed my lord and cut the remaining terminators in half. Marko then preceded to immobilise my helbrute heading for the objective 6. My chaos marines and remaining raptors brutally cut down.

Turn 4 and I conceded. I had 9 models left. I had 3 victory points and Marko had 8.

Interesting game but very one sided. Perhaps in the hands of a less competitive player it would have been more fun. As far as I could see Marko was getting his rules right but the high psychic dice is the best way to play them and it hurt lots. At some point I'll challenge Danny and his Thousand Sons, and see how different that game will be.

"That spawn looks an awful lot like Barry!!!" 

Thousand Sons encircle and slaughter the Death Guard. 

 Magnus tramples across my sorcerer.

Deployment 

Chaos Lord and his retinue.

Eternal Night - Susperia

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

Death Guard vs Chaos Daemons.
2000 points.
Mission: Eternal Night.

The Ruinous Powers are fickle and always struggling to outdo one another in their rivalry. They have snatched up their greatest champions from throughout the galaxy and brought them to the daemon world of Susperia - a world trapped in the heart of the Eye of Terror, where reality meets unreality. There to do battle in glory of their dark masters!

A couple nights ago my friend Richard and I went up to Nottingham for the night to have a game at Warhammer World (and meet one of the chaps from the Tabletop Tactics youtube channel). He brought his slaaneshi daemons to face the might of Nurgle's finest.

Our choice of mission was Eternal Night from Altar of War/Battle missions. It has a strange deployment basically to represent a defending force being surprised by a daemonic foe materialising out of thin air. The table is split into four triangles with their points meeting at the middle of the table and each unit is randomised as to where it starts. The daemon player then does likewise. I soon found myself surrounded by a horde of pink.

First turn of the game was horrendous and bloody. I lost a Great Unclean One, a unit of plaguebearers, my warlord and a rhino not to mention a fair few marines. I was lucky and managed to bring his Chaos Knight down with two meltaguns and a multi-melta. Those slaaneshi things are nasty!

After that the turns went rather quickly and with much brutal combat. I had severely underestimated how good a pure Slaanesh daemon army would be. I had always looked at them as the weakest of the four armies and I had my eyes opened. The mission is fairly much geared towards the daemons which helped them. Had they needed to race across the table at me things would have been very different.

As I say we spend the rest of the game in bloody assault. Daemonettes tore both my helbrutes and the defiler down with ease which amazed me. I thought they would be untouchable by such puny things. The mounts of Slaanesh proved very hard to deal with and Richard just kept summoning them turn after turn. I just was not able to deal with them. I think I only managed to bring down one unit of them and that was it.

The last turn of the game, turn 5, ended with his army largely intact due to summoning and sitting on a pile of victory points while I had gave up counting. All I had left from my army was the Chaos Knight of Nurgle which certainly was the model of the match for me. Next time I face those little pink terrors, I'll have a bit more respect for them.

My list was a standard Combined Arms Detachment with a daemons allied detachment:

Chaos Sorcerer, level 3 wielding the Pusbringer relic.
Two units of chaos marines with two melta guns, in rhinos.
Two Helbrutes with multi-melta and power fist.
A defiler with autocannon and scourges.
A heldrake with baleflamer.
Chaos Knight of Nurgle.
A great unclean one.
A unit of plaguebearers.

Warhammer World!

Daemonettes about to be crispy critters.

Final stand of the Death Guard at table centre.

Deployment.

Slaanesh daemon prince.

Slaanesh and Nurgle daemons battle for dominance.

Daemon Knight of Slaanesh.