Worlds of the narrative update

Due to the changes in the 40K plot/fluff with 8th edition I am considering moving my narratives forward as well as some games may not make sense with new units and characters that were not around before hand. The recent previews from Games Workshop show some major changes so I may be dropping several of the current narratives in favour of some new ones that will then be set. I know it feels a bit like a cop out, and it does me slightly as well, but like the change in rules for the game I think it will be for the best.

Vertical Envelopment - D'Then

Planet: D'Then.
Region: Perdus Rift.
990.M41

Death Guard vs Tau Empire.
2000 points.
Mission: Vertical Envelopment.

Pushed back by the superior might of the Tau military, the Death Guard have been forced into a defensive line stretched thin across the fields of D'Then's northern continent. The Tau have taken advantage if this by breaking through the lines at key points and then swinging their grav tanks around behind the chaos lines to flank them. Whittle the defenders piece by piece.

My friend Adam has been contemplating giving up 40K due to a couple reasons. I'm trying to tempt him back especially with 8th edition around the corner, so I bribed him (with a sealed XV-88 battle suit box) to give me another match against his Tau. We picked a Tau mission from Altar of War and went for it.

The mission represents exactly what the fluff blurb says. The Tau are engaging the enemy on one side while dropping or outmanoeuvring their skimmers behind the enemy lines. He deployed 9'' from the centre on his side of the table, spreading out across the board edge. Taking advice from a couple friends I decided to consolodate everything of mine behind cover in one corner. The idea being that because his skimmers and flyers must come in from my board edge they would have a harder time of it. In the end I felt he skimped out by only taking a Barracuda and no skimmers.

I decided not to steal the initiative because I felt that with night fight in play for the first turn plus everything getting a cover save he would have a wasted a turn. As it turns out his army was geared for night fighting so I lost that benefit and his markerlights removed any cover save. First shot of the game and my Land Raider went boom, forcing my Chaos Lord and his Terminators to foot slog it across the table.

My first turn and the Chaos Knight marched forward. Heavy stubber smoking one Fire Warrior while the thermal cannon took out half a squad sitting in a Tidewall gun platform. Unfortunately we couldn't find the rules in the rule book for the emplacement for a couple turns so we left it alive for a time. It did go boom eventually after we found it but the loss of that might have changed a few things. But it didn't matter as it was just a fun game anyway.

With everything else I was just too cautious. It's a kill point mission but I did not want to run the risk of giving him points by moving forward into the open. I wanted Adam to come to me which isn't going to happen with Tau.

Turn two and his Barracuda came in. Thankfully my Knight's invulnerable save kicked in and protected it from everything he threw at it. That thing was going to be a pain this game. Normally it's not such a problem but Adam had great shooting rolls all game. He then proceeded to have to follow my Knight around the table.

More shooting followed from the Tau and I lost my Predator before it could do much more than knock a wound of his Riptide. My Helbrute dropped easily to a Ghostkeel. It was only once his Crisis Battle Suits came down on my side that things changed. He wrecked by Rhino's and it allowed my Chaos Marines to assault them and lock them in combat for the rest of the game. My Raptors ended up the same way, until at the end I had one left locked in with three battle suits. None of these units were able to hurt one another which was frustrating.

By this time Adam was soaring ahead in victory points. That was about to change. He had slowly been knocking hull points of my Chaos Knight. After it had slain his Riptide with a mighty D hit from it's chainsword, it turned it's attention to the Pathfinders on a ruin. The massive overwatch fire took the last hull point and we were treated to an apocalyptic explosion. Adam had never seen this before. The blast destroyed three units plus his war lord and the Tidewall. Talk about boom!

At that point the game ended turn 5, just in time as the venue was getting ready to close for the night. Adam was well ahead on 10 victory points but that massive explosion launched me from 1 to 7 in a single roll. Well done to Adam.

Hopefully Adam will continue to play 40K after this. We also discussed replaying this mission under 8th with the same units (new points allowing) to see how it will play out now that vehicles will have toughness and wound scores.

My deployment corner after losing the Land Raider.

Sneaky Tau out on the flank.

The Barracuda swooping in from behind my lines.

8th edition detachments

I've kept quiet on recent 8th edition posts from GW because I've been largely on the fence with their AoS style rules and because other blogs will probably do a better of reviewing them than I can. But saying that we have a new one today featuring detachments.

I've always felt that 40K needed different types of detachments. The traditional combined arms detachment (CAD) is rather boring after all these years. To my knowledge other than a few recent specific ones in books like Traitor Legions, we've only had two other generic detachments - attacker and defender, from Stronghold Assault. Now, it looks like we have them in 8th for, at a guess, different point value games more than anything.

Patrol is probably the first choice for a basic or introductory game.

Battalion is probably for your 1000 point games.

Brigade I would guess is your big ass 2000 point plus game for the whole day.

I did notice that none of the three detachments presented today have either fortifications or lords of war presented. I hope that they don't just appear in larger and larger detachments. 

Sadly though formations do not get a look in. No more. I find that a real shame as I like formations due to how nice and fluffy they make each factions armies.

The post from Games Workshop does leave me with a couple questions. One, can you take multiple detachments? Could I take a Brigade detachment and a Battalion detachment together, and if so do command points stack? Secondly, can we still take allies? Our primary being one detachment and the allies being a smaller detachment? Only time will tell.

New FAQ for 8th

So we have had the new 8th edition FAQ from Games Workshop. Not sure what to make of it but looking forward to seeing it. However, I'm a bit miffed that after waiting so long for Traitor Legions it looks like it has already been invalidated under the new rules. However, I'm expecting the new Codex: Death Guard to be the first new book of the edition which will be cool.

Ambush Attempt - Tanis IV

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

Death Guard vs Crimson Fists
2000 points.
Mission: Capture and Control.

A renowned commander has taken up the mantle of leadership on the ruined world of Tanis IV. Under his command the Crimson Fists may be able to seize control of a location of vital strategic importance. Typhus has ordered one of his lieutenants to stage an ambush and assassinate the space marine commander. The Death Guard lay in wait on the edges of a fallen city while the space marines approach. When the enemy convoy reaches optimal range the order is given and battle is joined.

This match was a club league match against my friend Muffin and his Crimson Fists space marines. Muffin and I have a good 50/50 ratio against one another but he has terrible luck with his dice a lot of the time. With that in mind I was hoping for a nice easy victory to kick start me in the league's first round. However, what happened in this match was the complete opposite.

At the start of the game he had some shocking luck. First move of the game and he immobilized his vindicator in some woods. His techmarine spent the rest of the game trying to fix it and failing ever time. He was successful in grabbing one objective though. My first turn saw me snag the same tactical objective and knock a wound from his captain.

Turn two and he focus fired on my chaos knight and I failed every single 4+ invulnerable save. Muffin burnt it to the ground before it had a chance to do anything. I was gutted but still hopeful that I had a chance. Unfortunately he also knocked out my rhinos leaving me effectively stranded in my own deployment zone. Nurgle was against me it seems as I drew two Death Guard objective cards which didn't help (get three units into his deployment zone and pass 7 FNP rolls in the same phase).

The game turned at this point as I couldn't pass a Feel No Pain roll if I tried. His dice kicked in big time however. When my heldrake flew in it took a wound off a centurion and was then knocked out of the sky by grav cannons all managing that 6 to hit roll. Tactical objectives were not helping as I drew cards which there was no way I was going to be able to manage. By this point Muffin was up to 8 victory points.

Throughout turn 3 and 4 I succeeded in taking down a dreadnought and two units of scouts but that was it. Having that awful corner to corner deployment hurt me going forward once the rhinos were gone. His list was heavy with lascannons which just popped me as I tried to go forward. At the end of turn 4 Muffin was up to 11 victory points and I still only had 1 so I conceded the match.

His dice and objectives deck were working for him perfectly and mine were against me. I'm pleased that he got a win for the league though. Good game but very frustrating for me.

The Crimson Fists convoy deploys quickly once ambushed. 

The heldrake swoops in and then promptly implodes.

Crimson Fists deadnought shortly before taking two melta hits to the face.

Death Guard in morbid silence yet jubilant at the dreadnought's destruction.

The Death Guard deployment.

Codex Death Guard?

A while ago we got this teaser for the Death Guard with some nice new models and what looks like a hint at Mortarion himself. There hasn't been anything since then but I'm hoping that we'll see them at the start of May. Fingers crossed.

The Artefact - Delphi Majoris

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harlequin jetbikes race to their doom! 

The Yncarne battles the forces of the Death Guard. 

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

Yvraine and her escort.

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.

Scorched Earth - Tethys Ultima

Planet: Tethys Ultima.
Region: Ghoul Stars.
Date: 905.M41

Death Guard vs Necrons.
2000 points.
Mission: Scorched Earth.

On a cold dead barren world lost in deep space, the Death Guard have established a secret base from which to launch an attack upon the Imperial worlds of the nearby Dromid sector. Unknown to the sons of Nurgle, Tethys Ultima contains a dark secret. Far below it's windswept surface lies an expansive tomb complex. When construction of the Death Guard fortress disturbs the sleeping Necron forces, the Death Guard find themselves under heavy attack. The initial engagements cause massive damage to the Death Guard defences and their lord commands that if Nurgle cannot have this world then neither shall the Necron horde!

This is mostly likely the first time I have played against Necron under 7th edition and possibly not since the end of 5th edition. As I work through my missions list and Scorched Earth came up I decided to extend the offer of battle to Jon and his almost undefeated Necrons. I certainly have never beaten the machines in my 40K career so this should be a nice challenge.

I went for a fairly basic Death Guard Vectorium list with Heldrake Terror Pack for the aerial support. Jon's list was a Decorion with Judicator Battalion and Destroyer Cult. Maybe something else, my knowledge of Necron formations is a bit limited. Either way, as we deployed I felt somewhat outnumbered. With his reanimation and my feel no pain, this could be a long match.

Mission rules are random objectives (we rolled 3) which are worth 3vp at the end of the match to whomever controls them. Plus you have to roll for any area terrain. On a 1-3 that terrain is on fire causing it to be dangerous terrain. On a 4-6 it is thick with smoke increasing cover saves by 1. Lie of sight cannot be drawn across either of them. This gave the opportunity to hid for the first turn and coupled with my cloud of flies give me decent cover saves.

I set up first with my chaos marines and one terminator squad in transports. Everything else in reserve waiting for a good opportunity to drop in, cause havoc and hopefully seize an objective. Almost all of Jon's army started on the table with a couple flyers in reserve.

First couple turns went quite quickly although my opponent was able to pop one rhino, a helbrute and the land raider. A lost a couple models as did he. On my right flank the game became one of constant close combat as the five lightning claw terminators tore through necron machines and did a good job of making sure they stayed down. On my left flank I worried as there was a large flight of tomb blades bearing down on me.

My terminator lord and his lightning claw terminators teleported in slightly back of where I wanted but they quickly moved up to grab the nearest objective. Even with the amount of firepower his tomb blades were pouring onto them I made nearly every armour save I could, something that never happens with my terminators. Because of that Jon was unable to push them from the objective and soon combat was joined.

The raptors were delayed my a mishap and had to come in the next turn. Their flamers did a little but soon enough they were torn apart by gauss fire and then Jon's lord crushing them. Disappointing as I hoped they would do better. The Heldrakes came in together and managed to do some damage to the tomb blades before their charge into the terminators but then had no choice but to fly off the table. They did very little the rest of the game and eventually both were shot from the sky.

As it hit turn 6 I was locked in combat around two objectives and Jon held the other completely uncontested. I pretty much figured that Necrons had won yet again until it was pointed out that his army did not have objective secured where as my Chaos Warband formation does, so when the game ended I was holding them. I believe that the score was very tight, 6vp to Jon's 5vp (he had linebreaker and first blood).

I am quite frankly amazed that I managed to survive as well as I did. We both made FNP and reanimation as expected but I think that the dice were more in my favour than his. Great game and I look forward to our next match up.

 Death from the skies!

 The Necron control the skies in the end.

The oncoming wall of death. 

Chaos Lord and his bodyguard hold this objective. 

The battlefield of Tethys Ultima.

My list was as follows:

Prepared Assault - Cadia

Planet: Cadia.
Region: Cadian Subsector.
Date: 999.M41

Death Guard vs Astra Militarum.
2000 points.
Mission: Prepared Assault.

Having learnt that the Cadian defenders were about to receive reinforcements through the valleys of the Draken Mountains, Typhus directed one of his lieutenants to halt their advance. The plan was to ambush them in the ruins of an old garrison outpost. What the mighty champions of Nurgle had not expected was a full armoured company of tanks rolling towards them. Both sides had prepared for a potential engagement however. Being the oncoming tanks was a detachment of basilisk artillery pieces and behind the Death Guard sat a company of Iron Warriors tanks. Battle was soon joined!

Ashleigh challenged me to a game a few weeks back, seeking another scenario from the Battle Missions book. His choice was Prepared Assault. I don't get to fight the Astra Militarum very often so I agreed happily. At 2000 points I knew that I needed to field the big Chaos Knight just in case I could stomp through the tanks and transports. I half expected a Baneblade or other super heavy tank but instead he fielded a massive force of tanks with only a couple chimera bearing troops. This was going to be tough.

The mission has three objectives in my deployment zone. Two centrally located and the third placed by my opponent who stuck it almost on the dividing line between us and on my weakest flank (we deploy before he places his objective). Basically I have to hold him off and win by controlling more objectives than him. With nothing being allowed in reserve, no Heldrakes these game - not that they would have done much - and no Valkyries thankfully.

Ashleigh had the first turn and barely moved his tanks forward. I suffered a hell of a lot of shoots but barely lost anything, a couple chaos marines and my Predator tank only. My Knight moved forward and took out a tank with a nice shot. Most of his army was out of range so I had to just sit there or move units into a better position. As the game progressed my Knight was able to get into his tank line and proved useless. Rolled a 1 on my impact hit, rolled two 1's on my rolling to damage with the D strength chainsword and then rolled 1's on my stomp. My luck had gone out the window and the Knight now sat in the middle of a lot of enemy firepower.

My opponent charged out with his Culexus Assassins but the shoot slew but a single chaos marine. I charged it with my Raptors and over two turns it wiped the Raptors out and only took one wound. He would fall eventually but it took a reaper autocannon to do it.

I started to rapidly loose marines holding the two main objectives. Eventually I was forced to hold one with my terminators but most of that squad died to ratling snipers. I did make a lot of feel no pain rolls but not enough to prevent the squad being whittled away.

The Knight soon stomped over a couple tanks but then died to the massed firepower into his back. I just could not make the 5+ invulnerable save. Unfortunately when it toppled it didn't land on anything of my opponent's which was a shame. Even the explosion failed to do anything.

I soon had to make a decision and I had to split my forces to try and push for a draw. Unfortunately I could not bring down the two tanks that had moved into my objectives. On the last turn one became a wreck but his troops jumped out and contested them. The game ended with Ashleigh's forces holding two of the three and contesting the third.

An interesting thing about this mission is the rules for the bombardment. The AM player gets two small bits of paper and the opponent gets one. During the shooting phase they can be dropped from 36'' and where they land it triggers a Str 8 AP 3 ordance barrage last blast. Rather random but fair enough. The first of Ashleigh's bombardment fluttered off the table and missed. Our remaining ones simply deviated into open ground and did nothing.

I should have expected a full on tank assault but even if I had, I don't have anything that could have taken them out at range. My meltaguns are more up close and personal. Although I needed the Knight, it could have done without rolling all those 1's.

Stomp the tank!

 The forces arrayed against me.

 Imperial tanks move into position.

 My chaos lord attempts to melta bomb the chimera but fails twice!

Starting deployment.