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.

Mining Colony 557 - Caseopeia.

Planet: Caseopeia.
Region: Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Death Guard vs Eldar Corsairs
2000 points:
Mission: Spoils of War.

Desperate for supplies and fresh promethium, a small band of Death Guard head out in the badlands to assault an Imperial mining station. As they arrive they find that their xenos foes have had the same idea and battle is joined. The Eldar are few in number and underpowered to face a force as large as the Death Guard's. Emboldened the war lord led his forces into battle. His overconfidence would be his undoing.

 This was originally going to be a game against my friend Danny and his new Thousand Sons (with Magnus) army but last minute he decided he needed some practice with corsairs for an upcoming tournament in April. I threw together a basic list to help out and figured it would be a tough game but one that, should the mission be willing, I had a fair chance at winning. We followed the Spoils of War mission - one that no one at my club enjoys but I figure I have to give it a decent go.

We set the objectives up equally across the table and then rolled that awful corner deployment. Danny picked his side but I got to set up first. Everything except raptors and the heldrake terror pack started on the table already holding one objective. Danny was trying to do some sort of Alpha Strike type play so started only with two units of jetbikes and a unit of rangers on the table. Everything else, including his Lynx and Warp Hunter, in reserve.

I forget who got the first turn but it was fairly blunt. I think I got one chaos marine sniped and the battle cannon from my defiler took out a couple of his rangers, but the rest made their cover saves. One of his jetbike squads dropped a webway portal on the far side of the table. Night fighting then came to an end.

On the second turn none of Dan's reserves came in where I got my raptors and one heldrake. The raptors deviated into some rough terrain and one marine crumpled under the impact. I finally got an objective next to my deployment zone and dispatched my terminator champion with his terminator retinue to grab it hopefully on turn 3. Along comes turn 3 and Dan get's his two hornets in as well as a third squad of jetbikes. Both units outflank onto my side of the table and with just incredible luck on my opponent's side (and terrible rolls on mine) they gun down the warlord and all but one terminator! I was so not happy.

When his warp hunter entered the table it only stripped a hull point from one helbrute. Shots from two meltaguns and a multimelta destroyed it over two turns without it getting to fire again. Danny's time to not be happy. When his lynx came in, it got a mishap and I ended up placing it on the far corner of the table facing the wrong way to give me a little extra hope.

Danny was very lucky with his tactical cards but about this time I pulled a blinder. I drew three objectives, including a Death Guard specific one, all of which I could pull off at the end of my turn finally closing the gap in victory points.

The unit of jetbikes who slew my warlord soon died when the remaining terminator charged into them. He won the challenge and then proceeded to slaughter the remaining eldar. Slowly my game turned and I was whittling his forces away. Heldrakes basically burnt down his jetbikes and rangers. He had hardly anything to handle them so after the initial arrival I was able to just go into hover mode and keep pouring flame into everything.

By the time the game reached turn five I think I was winning on victory points. Unfortunately random game length took us all the way to turn seven which allowed Dan to seize a few more cards and put him in the lead. It was close with Dan winning 15 victory points to my 12.

I do think Dan has become very stuck on fitting big D tanks into the game where perhaps one would suffice and the points better spent on more jetbikes. Although the cards were in his favour for most of the game he could have held me back better and been in a better position to seize more had he had the manoeuvrability.

Death Guard verticulum detachment.

Chaos Warband.
Chaos Lord in terminator armour.
10 man CSM squad, with heavy bolter and metlagun. Champion with power weapon, plasma pistol and meltabombs.
10 man CSM squad, with two meltaguns. Champion with power weapon, plasma pistol and meltabombs.
5 man Raptor squad. Champion with pair of lightning claws.
5 man Terminator squad. Four sets of lightning claws and a reaper autocannon/power weapon.
Helbrute.

Helforged Warpack.
Warpsmith with combi-melta and power axe.
Defiler with power scourge.
Two helbrutes.

Heldrake Terror Pack.
2 Heldrakes with baleflamers.

Death Guard ready to bring death and ruin to the xenos filth!

A slow and steady advance through the mining colony ruins.

The unlucky champion and his terminators.

Updated Worlds of Battle

After recent changes to the "established" Black Crusade story in the Gathering Storm books I've decided to update the narrative war zones. More will be added as and when I play against specific armies. So here are those updated details. Enjoy.

Cadia.
The primary target of the 13th Black Crusade. Pacts have been made with the Despoiler and Typhus leads his forces against the Imperium. Here they face the might of the Imperium intent on defending the Cadian gate against the forces of Chaos.The war will not be easy but this will be the conflict that will see the fall of night across the Imperium.
Expected Defenders: Astra MIlitarum, Black Templars, Cult Mechanicus, Dark Angels, Grey Knights, Imperial Fists, Imperial Knights, Inquisition, Legion of the Damned, Sisters of Battle, Skitarii and Space Wolves.

Abraxes.
The world of Abraxes had already fallen to the Death Guard after a lengthy campaign. Space marines and guardsmen alike had fallen to Nurgle's gentle caress. It was then that the sorcerers felt a disruption to their connection to the Immaterium - the Shadow in the Warp! From the ruins arose a host of foul genestealers and from the void comes a terrible foe. The Death Guard have claimed this world and will not let the Great Devourer to take it from them now.
Expected Defenders: Genestealer Cult and Tyranids.

Bludhaven.
Launching an attack upon a lightly protected Imperial world the servants of Nurgle find that another foe has already taken the planet for their own. The Greenskins have decimated the planet and enslaved any survivours. The Death Guard deploy from space into the Ork lines fighting for the glory of Nurgle and their own wrath at having lost the opportunity to decimate this world themselves!
Expected Defenders: Orks.

Caseopeia.
A mining colony unlucky enough to lay in the path of Typhus' plague fleet. The traveller orders his legion to attack the Imperial mining facilities. Initially successful, the Death Guard then find themselves under alien attack from a superior raiding force of Eldar pirates. Forced into the desert badlands, Typhus must find a way to defeat the foul xenos if the Death Guard can seize the promethium supplies and return to their ships.
Expected Defenders: Eldar Corsairs.

Delphi Majoris.
Sometimes even the rival powers of the Warp have common interest. The newly risen Reborn of Ynnead have come to this once pristine world searching for some ancient and powerful artifact with which to upset the balance of power in the universe. In an unusual alliance, Nurgle has brokered a pact with Slaanesh, and the plaguefather has dispatched his favoured sons to stop the Aeldari before they can find the relic that they seek.
Expected Defenders: Craftworld Eldar, Dark Eldar and Reborn of Ynnead.

Devonia III.
A world in the Cadian subsector used by the Imperium as a munitions stockpile. The Death Guard have assaulted the planet in hopes of seizing those supplies for their own war effort. However, the planet is not as lightly defended as they had hoped. In addition to the Astra Militarum defence forces, Devonia is garrisoned by a force of Blood Angels marines who will not let this incursion go unpunished.
Expected Defenders: Astra Militarum, Blood Angels and Legion of the Damned.

Lelithar.
One of the first targets for the Death Guard in the vanguard of the 13th Black Crusade was the Imperial world of Lelithar. The Death Guard arrived and seeded the atmosphere with the virulent zombie plague. While the Planetary Defence Forces mobilized to fight the growing number of the dead, the Death Guard deployed to the surface many kilometers from the main hive city. Colonies were reduced to cities of the dead and the crops in the fields rotted to mulch. An astropathic call for help was sent. The Dark Angels chapter of space marines answered the call and began to deploy a company to the surface.
Expected Defenders: Astra Militarum, Dark Angels, Legion of the Damned and Sisters of Battle.

Miridian.
The Death Guard had successfully captured the world of Miridian from the Imperium. Typhus began to turn the planet into his own place of power from which to launch attacks upon Cadia. A few weeks after the Death Guard won the planet, they came under attack from a raiding force of Dark Eldar eager for slaves and to sow confusion.
Expected Defenders: Dark Eldar.

Susperia.
The Ruinous Powers are fickle and forever seek to prove their dominance over their brethren. Deep in the Eye of Terror, they draw their forces, pitting them against once another in a war of ideology. Forced to fight and die for the glory of their patrons the forces of Chaos battle in a war eternal.
Expected Defenders: Chaos Daemons, Chaos Space Marines and Khorne Daemonkin.

Tanis IV.
A protectorate world of the Crimson Fists chapter. Using the recent decimation of the chapter's homeworld of Rynn's World as a distraction, the Death Guard attack to sow chaos and to raid the chapter's stockpiles of munitions. As well as mopping up any remaining Ork resistance the traitor legion must also fight to defeat the Crimson Fist battle brothers present.
Expected Defenders: Crimson Fists, Legion of the Damned and Orks.

The Perdus Rift.
In the years before the launch of Abaddon's final Black Crusade, Typhus led his fleet into the Eastern Fringe on a crusade of conquest. The Warp drops them into the middle of the expanding Tau Empire and their war with the Imperium. Drawn to the fighting, the Death Guard seek to sow Chaos and destruction among the combatants.
Expected Defenders: Astra Militarum, Farsight Enclave, Legion of the Damned, Raven Guard, Tau Empire and White Scars.

Tethys Ultima.
A barren dead world long forgotten by the powers of the galaxy. The Death Guard have claimed this lost world as a base of operations for their raids into the surrounding sectors. Little do they know that below them lies a vast Necron tomb. The construction efforts on the surface have triggered ancient defence mechanisms and the machines have begun to awaken, arming to destroy the interlopers on their ancient home world.
Expected Defenders: Necrons.

Thule Ultima.
In the last days of the 41st millennium, the forces of Chaos descend upon all who may pose a threat to Abaddon's schemes for the Imperium. Typhus leads his forces into the Empire of Ultramarr, specifically a fortress world known as Thule Ultima. The Ultramarines mobilise to the defence of that world to halt the advance of Nurgle's favoured sons.
Expected Defenders: Astra Militarum, Grey Knights, Legion of the Damned, and Ultramarines.

Loot & Pillage - Devonia

Planet: Devonia III.
Region: Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Death Guard vs Blood Angels
2000 points:
Mission: Loot & Pillage.

Daylight was filtered by the hazy glow from the vast gas giant rising up across the sandy horizon of Dovonia III, casting the landscape in a brownish hue. Bubonicus snarled in anger. This was supposed to have been a simple supply raid on the Imperial stockpile here, but instead the Death Guard found it garrisoned by a detachment from the Blood Angels chapter. It mattered not as these supplies were vital to the next stage of the war and Bubonicus did not feel like answering to Typhus should he fail here. With no choice, he bellowed the order to attack and lead the attack.

My list of missions to play has finally cleared the rulebook ones and I'm onto the Battle Missions/Altar of War ones. Loot & Pillage being next up. Jon accepted my offer and blew the dust off of his Blood Angels. Both of us agreed to not play anything silly and to play nice fluffy lists. This mission should have been nice and simple. Rather than just holding objectives you get points each round (in your opponent's turn) for each one that you hold. Unfortunately after placing the random four objectives down, Jon managed to choose the table quarter closest and he stole the initiative to put the boot in. Immediately the poor Death Guard were on the back foot. To make matters worse both of us could only deploy a HQ and two troops to the table per the mission rules.

First turn and Jon threw down a drop pod which deviated and landed mid table not quite where he wanted it. A few shots rang out but the first turn for both of us was fairly quick and uneventful. Turn two and most of my opponent's reserves came in. Jon had a nice number of assault marine squads which he had combat squaded and they dropped down into my deployment zone which was going to be my undoing. A misunderstanding on the rules for coming on in reserve along his table edge meant that one of his vindicators came on too close than it should have done, but when my terminators came on the table we agreed that I should do likewise and then any further would come on as they should have done.

My second turn and I received very little help from my reserves. Most likely hiding from the Death Company marines ahead of them. My terminators and two helbrute's walked on and that was it, and it didn't help that wherever I put them they were not really in a position to help. A multi-melta into the wayward vindicator did nothing and a few shots brought down some Jon's marines but not enough to make a difference.

Third turn and I had successfully gunned down the assault marines and scouts that came up from behind to steal my only objective. Everywhere else I was being locked in combat with the remaining assault marines. When my heldrakes finally came in, on turns three ad four, they did their job by baleflaming a squad holding an objective reducing his points scoring. Unfortunately that was their own real ploy of the match as both soon had their baleflamers destroyed. One became vector locked and flew off the table and the other was shot down and ditching into the hard dirt.

As the game progressed the rest of my army came on but just a little too late to salvage the game. The raptors did good taking out an assault marine unit and the champion was rewarded with daemonhood only to be torn apart by a furioso dreadnought the following turn. My chaos lord found himself surrounded by a the enemy and just could not seem to kill enough of them and eventually was cut down. An ignominious end but I'm sure Bubonicus will be back soon enough. Nurgle's champions have a way of returning from the dead. Once again my defiler died far too easily, even with a 4+ invulnerable save.

When the game ended turn 6 Jon had won 12 victory points to my 6. The Death Guard had been driven off but they had walked away with some salvage just not everything they wanted. This was a good game but really frustrating. Jon's very fluffy list locked me down very easily and my terrible reserve rolls meant that I never had enough forces coming in to help combat what he had. Even my FNP could not keep me alive in combat this game.

Death Guard verticulum detachment.

Chaos Warband.
Chaos Lord in terminator armour.
10 man CSM squad, with heavy bolter and metlagun. Champion with power weapon, plasma pistol and meltabombs.
10 man CSM squad, with two meltaguns. Champion with power weapon, plasma pistol and meltabombs.
5 man Raptor squad. Champion with pair of lightning claws.
5 man Terminator squad. Four sets of lightning claws and a reaper autocannon/power weapon.
Helbrute.

Helforged Warpack.
Warpsmith with combi-melta and power axe.
Defiler with power scourge.
Two helbrutes.

Heldrake Terror Pack.
2 Heldrakes with baleflamers.

Start of the game and the slow advance up the table. 

The rise and soon fall of a new daemon prince. 

Death to the servants of the false emperor! 

Turn 5. Death in the skies.

Update

With the recent Fall of Cadia sourcebook tweaking the story of the 13th Black Crusade a little bit I shall be having to alter some of the future battle reports a little and adding extra war zones to compensate. But what we have in the new book series should make for some interesting additions.

I plan to try and go a bit more in depth for the reports in future where I can. Most are written a few days after the game so some details are lost or rather hazy. Plus, as much as I would like to write a turn by turn report, I doubt I'd have the time when playing nor would I want to slow down the game for my opponents but I shall see what I can do. I'll try to include army lists from both sides where I can.

Hope you are still enjoying reading the blog though, and here's to the fall of Cadia and an end to the weakling minions of the false Emperor!

Tactical Escalation - Cadia

Planet: Cadia.
Region: Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Death Guard vs Skitarii
2000 points:
Mission: Tactical Escalation.


The mission was simple. The despoiler had dispatched Virulex to capture and occupy a cluster of pylons close to the front lines. Had not the master of the Death Guard pledged his services to the Black Legion, the mighty daemon prince would have smote Abaddon's head from his shoulders for such an insulting task.

Things changed however, when the task force arrived to find a detachment of Mechanicus operatives led by Belasarius Caul himself studying the pylons. What a gift it would be to gift his master with the still screeching head of the false god's servant. Raising his mighty blade to the skies, Virulex ordered a charge into the rapidly deploying Skitarii lines.


We’ve now got a Skitarii player at the club and as the Ad mech armies are one of a couple I have yet to play against I challenged him to a game. 2000 points and we rolled Tactical Escalation.

I had seen that he played Belisarius Caul and two Knights (one an Atropos class) so I was unsure what to take against him. Had a week to prepare and I just could not decide on a suitable list. I knew I wanted my Chaos Knight so that forced me into a Combined Arms detachment. Decided to play a daemon prince for the first time as well to hopefully help mow down his troops.

We rolled that annoying corner formation and my opponent managed to seize the initiative. It didn’t do him much good and neither of us had a great first half of the game. In the first three turns neither of us had objective cards we could easily score and the only casualties were two of my rhinos and a wound on one of his robots. No reserves came in on either side. It was three turns of moving forward.

My chaos knight finally got into combat and began to slowly smash his way through things. He lasted two turns before exploding most impressively, and when the dust cleared there was a tech-priest type figure (I forget the name), three walkers and Caul with one wound remaining left standing in the crater! I’d have liked for it to hang around but it’s death made the points up.

On my left flank the daemon prince was dropped by two rounds of sniper fire from his rangers. I really remember daemon princes being tougher than that but I guess that is small arms fire for you. His reserves came in turn 4 outflanking into my chaos marines. Battle was joined and although He smashed his troops the remaining marines died to being trodden on by his walkers.

Both Heldrakes came in turn 4. One did nothing before being blown out of the sky. The other took out half of his troop unit before the following turn once more dropping to anti-air fire. This was the first game in a long time where a player I have faced has brought anti-air. I have been playing the heldrakes a lot lately so I should have expected it.

Come turn 6 and Chris was 12 victory points to my none. The cards all came up in his favour and I just could not achieve any of mine as he whittled my forces away before they could manage anything. Even the mark of Nurgle could not save me this time!

But I did go into this game deciding that it was a learning experience. I have a better idea how to handle the Skitarii in future but I’ll need to get some more models to achieve that victory. Good game.


My list:

Daemon Prince.
Mark of Nurgle. Power armour. Pusbringer (relic).

1 unit of 10 Chaos Cultists.
Mark of Nurgle.

2 units of 10 Chaos Space marines.
Mark of Nurgle. Two meltaguns.
Champion: Plasma pistol and power weapon. Melta bombs.
Rhino transport with extra combi-bolter.

Helbrute.
Multi-melta and power fist.

Heldrake Terror Pack (2 drakes).

Chaos Knight.
Daemon knight of Nurgle. Thermal blaster. Foe-ripper chainsword.

Warlord Virulex leads ahead of an insane helbrute to the western flank in a vain attempt to engage the Skitarii ground troops. Neither made it into combat due to incoming fire.

The Dominus Pestilens engages in deadly hand to hand combat with the Skitarii war machines.

A scene of carnage as the Skitarii successfully hold off against the forces of Nurgle.

Supply Raid - Tanis IV

Planet: Tanis IV.
Region: Loki Sector.
990.M41

Death Guard vs Crimson Fists
1750 points:
Mission: The Relic.

Utilising the devastation of the Crimson Fists' home world, a Death Guard raiding force exit the warp above the war torn world of Tanis IV. Deploying to the surface the Death Guard eradicate any surviving Ork presence and then make for the loyalists' stockpiles seeking to restock their own munitions. After breaching the fortress walls, the chosen of Nurgle advance hungrily searching for any supplies. An hour after the fortress walls fell, a small force of Crimson Fists marines arrive to investigate and a battle is joined.

One of our original players, a young chap known the length of club simply as “Muffin” (don’t ask…) challenged my Death Guard to a 1750 point match last night. I could not turn down such a challenge so I accepted. Last time I played against him he was using a solid Dark Angels list but he has changed his choice of army, and now plays Crimson Fists. With that in mind I expected to face Cantor, tactical squads in rhinos, maybe some terminators and a devastator squad. The usual space marine list. What I actually found was a mechanised list made from two formations. So straight away I thought this was going to be an interesting challenge. In return he was not expecting an army of T5 and a Heldrake terror pack, Mission was rolled and we were fighting The Relic.

Muffin was lucky and seized the initiative. Thankfully, a mixture of night fight and everything in cover his shooting was largely ineffective. I think one rhino lost a hull point but that was it. I simply moved up to get a better shot at the Relic. Turn 2 saw his shooting wreck one rhino forcing my chaos marines to march forward under cover of a surviving section of woodland. My turn 2 was better with a Heldrake swooping in and taking out half of his devastator squad. So much for bolstering that cover with the chapter tactics. My land raider tried to bring down his vindicators but the lascannons failed to breach the armour.

Turn 3 started to swing the game in my favour. On Muffin’s turn he leapt his captain and command squad out of their rhino ready to assault my chaos marine unit just within reach of the relic. He fired a vindicator at my land raider and the shot deviated so that it covered his command squad and wiped out all bar the standard bearer! That one space marine wasn’t there much longer and I grabbed the Relic.

My raptors proved useless as they deviated their deep strike into terrain and one marine died. All but two then died due to demolisher cannon blasts. They did get into combat eventually, felling a single marine, and causing them to fall back into the path of a heldrake’s baleflamer!

My second heldrake came on and blasted a pair of land speeders that wound up in my deployment zone, looking to halt my retreat with the Relic. Not overly effective but one multi-melta was torn free.

The terminators were out of place and when the land raider was immobilised they were forced to try and get away from the big guns but concentrated fire dropped them quickly.

The turns sped up quickly after that and on turn 6 I was left with just my sorcerer holding the relic and holding his own against the loyalist marines in combat. Luckily the game ended on turn 6 otherwise Muffin may have been able to seize the Relic and get away with it. I won 3 points to 2.

A very good game, but tough. I didn’t have a lot to deal with his tanks so I concentrated on just getting to the Relic and holding on to it. Hopefully Muffin enjoyed the game and we’ll see him at the club again some time soon.

Pre-Emptive Strike - Caseopeia

Planet: Caseopeia.
Region: Cadian Sector.
999.M41

Death Guard vs Eldar Corsairs.
1500pts.
Mission: Pre-Emptive Strike.

The Void Dreamers of the corsairs have foreseen a time when, if not stopped, Typhus could devestate this world with his foul plagues. To this end they orchestrate an attack upon his headquarters out in the badlands. A dawn strike to catch him unawares and disrupt his plans of destruction and chaos.


My friend Danny has recently started buying into an Eldar Corsair army so I challenged him to a game to try out my Traitor Legion rules again. Danny choose to play the Pre-Emptive Strike mission and 2000 points.

My forces had to sit quite bunched up to start with as the mission assumes I’m being surprised by the Eldar attack while his were spread out nicely along his deployment line. He was confident but had some concerns about the Heldrake terror pack as he had nothing to bring down fliers.

Danny had the first turn and moved everything up. His shooting was mostly ineffective but a well placed D shot from his Warp Hunter took out a Rhino and left one squad of chaos marines to slog across the battle field. My first turn saw me split up my forces so his D weapon couldn’t hit too many at once. I had limited shooting and what I did fire failed to do anything.

The game soon sped up Danny’s corsairs swooped in to cut down many chaos marines with shuriken fire. Even so having everything in my army T5 made things difficult for him. My turn two and one Heldrake and the Raptor squad came in from reserve. The Heldrake was out of range but the Raptors dropped two flamers and took out some jetbikes and their bolt pistols struck wounds off his Void Dreamer.

Over the third turn, I lost most of one squad of chaos marines (those who had lost their rhino turn 1) and the second squad lost their rhino to concentrated fire from the Hornet’s and War Walkers. He assaulted my Raptors with both his prince and Void Dreamer. The Void Dreamer lost all but one wound in the over watch. A challenge was called and the Raptor champion dropped dead before getting to swing. The rest of the Raptors tore down the Void Dreamer and the rest turned their attention to the Prince.

The second Heldrake came in and both let rip with their baleflamers, which decimated the two jetbike squads. The Raptors continued to pummel the Prince but neither side could really hurt one another. The chaos marines on my right side assaulted the last jetbike in one squad and they would be held up till the end of the game.

Turn four; Typhus and his sorcerer meet their end at the centre of a D cannon strike. Typhus pulled away into the Warp at the last moment. With no other legitimate targets, Danny pulls his forces back and the assaults continue. My Heldrakes enter hover mode and flamer two units of snipers. One unit falls back in terror.

The last turn saw Danny do nothing. I finally got to use the meteroric descent rule for a Heldrake and it swooped into one unit of snipers, snapping them up in it’s talons.

The game ended turn 5. The mission had been in my opponent;s court and it ended close on 16 to my 12. Good game and I certainly enjoyed it more and learned the new legion rules better in this match.

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.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year fellow enthusiasts. Here's too 2017 being good for gaming.

I've now got myself a copy of the new Traitor Legions book and it looks like my Death Guard are going to get a much needed boost. Looking forward as well to the new war for Cadia story line.

Now I just want 2017 to bring me a Mortarion daemon primarch and I'll be happy.