Daemons/Death Guard vs Iron Hands/Assassinorum

Mission: Cloak and Shadows, Hammer and Anvil Deployment

Points limit: 1500 points

Lists:

Chaos Daemons: Daemonic Incursion 

• Command: Daemon Prince of Nurgle, Warlord; wings, armor, level 3 Psyker (Warp Speed, Enfeeble, Haemorrhage), 2 greater rewards (hellfire gaze, armorbane, fleshbane), 1 lesser reward (Plague Flail)
• Core: Tallyband of Nurgle
• Herald of Nurgle, Locus of Feel no Pain, level 2 Psyker (Incursion, Infernal Gaze)
• 4x 10-man Plaguebearers
• 3x 3-man Nurglings
• Auxiliary: 5-man Chaos Furies

Chaos Space Marines: Deathguard Allied Detachment

• Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, armor, level 3 Psyker, Plaguebringer
• 6-man Plague Marines, Plasmagun

Iron Hands: Fist of Medusa Strike Force

• Core: Battle Demi-Company
• Chaplain, Jump Pack
• 5-man Assault Marines, Jump Packs, 2 Flamers
• 3-man Centurion Devastators, Grav Cannons
• Dreadnought in Drop Pod
• 6-man Command Squad, Apothecary, 5 Flamers
• 5-man Tactical Squad, Grav Cannon, Drop Pod
• 5-man Tactical Squad, Grav Cannon, Rhino
• 5-man Tactical Squad, Rhino, Plasma Gun, Imperial Space Marine
• Honored Ancients
• 2x Dreadnought with Assault Cannon

Officio Assassinorum: Assassinorum Operative

• Culexus Assassin

Deployment

I won the roll-off, but had the Iron Hands player deploy first. I wanted nothing to do with unexpected Dreadnoughts in my back field. He set up fairly close to the deployment line, with the drop pods in reserve, and infiltrated some units thanks to his Warlord trait. Luckily, I spread out my Plaguebearers in my own deployment zone to deny him infiltration spots. Both our infiltrators went down close to the deployment line.

Notes.
The Terminators on the far left proxy the Centurions.
The Librarian model in front of them proxies the Assassin.
The white Daemon Prince on the right is the Death Guard one; the Warlord is hiding in the ruins to the left.

Iron Hands, turn 1

The Command Squad heroically (and foolishly) lands by drop pod next to these ruins. I had the warlord, a squad of Nurglings and a squad of Plaguebearers in there.

Another, empty drop pod landed on an objective in the middle of the table.

5 Flamers cleaned out the place pretty well, but thanks to the Feel no Pain offered by the Herald (the black figure amid the other squad), they failed to score First Blood. I had two Plaguebearers remaining!

Other shooting took place at long range, and I lost a couple of Plaguebearers, because I did not want to go to ground.

Nurgle, turn 1

The troops in the middle shifted towards the Assassin, as I wanted to intercept him before he gets involved with my Daemon Princes. Alas, I forgot to assault, which I think was a major mistake and contributed to the final result.

My Warlord suffered a wound from a Flamer hit, so I flew the other Daemon Prince around to heal him up. Naturally, I rolled Perils on 2 dice, and the Death Guard Daemon Prince took a wound and was grounded.

On the bright side, my Warlord assaulted the Command Squad (with the Nurglings taking the overwatch) and killed them to a man, scoring first blood.

At the end of the first turn, I was leading 4-1.

Iron hands, turn 2

The Plaguebearers had advanced too far without assaulting the Assassin, and now they paid the price. The Assault Marines flamed, then charged them, leaving the squad thinned out, even with the Herald giving out Feel no Pain. At least the Assassin failed to charge in.

Nurgle, turn 2

I had the Warlord destroy the Drop Pod near my ruins (I needed that objective, and the Drop Pod had Objective Secured). I had the other Daemon Prince advance on the combat in the center, and save the day - but he failed his charge, leaving him exposed. I had the Nurglings go in, to tie up the Assault Marines at least. Without princely support, the Assault Marines finally killed my Herald.

Iron Hands, turn 3

The Centurions unloaded into my Warlord, who graciously failed 3 2+ Jink saves and died.

The Dreadnought in his Drop Pod landed behind the Plague Marines, but did no damage. 

Nurgle, turn 3

A lucky plasma shot from the Plague Marines stunned the Dreadnought. I took advantage to rearrange the Plaguebearers, wanting to assault in with both next turn. For now, I had one group descend on the Drop Pod and glance it to death.

The Daemon Prince finally joined the battle, but the Chaplain, who stepped up to the challenge, saved all but 1 wound thanks to his Rosarius and Feel no Pain.

Iron Hands, turn 4

The Dreadnought failed his charge, but the Assassin got stuck in. He failed his Glorious Intervention, and the Chaplain got slaughtered, along with the rest of the Assault Marines.

On the other side, 5 Tactical Marines (with a Plasma Gun and the Imperial Space Marine) disembarked from the Rhino, killing 2 Plague Marines.

Nurgle, turn 4

I had the relentless Plague Marines and the remains of one Plaguebearer squad descend on the disembarked tacticals. They failed spectacularly, and the Plaguebearers died to instability.

I had the other Plaguebearers charge the Dreadnought with 1 HP remaining. They also failed spectacularly, loosing half their number of instability.

The final nail in the coffin was the Daemon Prince rolling 1 for his daemon weapon, thus unable to kill the Assassin. The Culexus, on the other hand, rolled 3 Instant Death wounds, dispatching the Daemon with ease.

At this point I conceded, with only some Plaguebearers and Nurglings remaining against sizeable enemy forces. I was also at a point disadvantage, with no way to recover, all my heavy hitters gone.

Aftermath

I could talk about army composition, but I deliberately did not bring my Tzeentch summoning madness. We had agreed beforehand on a rather relaxed game. And at least we had fun! Some points, though:

• The Culexus Assassin is the bane of my existence. I had mistakenly brought the Herald too soon into its reach, and thus made it impossible to summon reinforcements in the hour of need. In hindsight, I should have pulled back, evading the Assassin for as long as possible, maybe feeding Nurglings/Furies to tie him up for a round or two.
• Centurion Devastators with Grav Cannons are extremely effective, as they have shown time and again against my 3+ armored Daemon Princes. With their Grav Amps, they even did work against unarmored Plaguebearers.
• Dreadnoughts are another weakness that Daemons generally can't deal with in close combat. Some Tzeentchian psychic shooting would have worked wonders, though.
• Plague Marines are awesome, but very expensive.
• The new CSM Nurgle Discipline is awesome. It would have shined greatly by healing up my Princes and giving the Plaguebearers poisoned 2+, if not for the Assassin.
• As always, Nurgle daemons are ridiculously resistant to shooting, but fail against dedicated close combat troops.