Mission: Contact Lost
Lists: 2000 points
Chaos (11 CP and 171 points for summoning):
- Chaos Daemons: Battalion Detachment
- 2x Herald of Nurgle
- 3x 10-man Horrors, 5 Blue Horrors, 5 Brimstone Horrors
- Chaos: Battalion Detachment
- Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, dual malefic talons
- Death Guard Daemon Prince, wings, dual malefic talons, warlord, Relic: the Suppurating Plate
- 10-man Horrors, 5 Blue Horrors, 5 Brimstone Horrors
- 3-man Nurglings
- 30-man Plaguebearers, icon, instrument
- Chaos Space Marines, Word Bearers Legion: Patrol Detachment
- Sorcerer, force staff
- 10-man Cultists, autoguns
- Death Guard: Supreme Command Detachment
- 3x Malignant Plaguecaster
- Death Guard: Supreme Command Detachment
- 3x Malignant Plaguecaster
- Noxious Blightbringer
My gameplan here is to Smite-spam. A lot. Instead of Heralds which are a bit cheaper, I opted to try out the Plaguecasters, who can deal out additional mortal wounds within 7" through their special ability.
Imperial Fists: Battalion Detachment (6 CP)
- Captain on Bike: combi-plasma, thunder hammer, warlord, Relic: the Armor Indomitus
- Librarian on Bike: combi-plasma, force sword
- 5-man Intercessors: auxiliary grenade launcher
- 5-man Intercessors
- 10-man Scouts: sniper rifles
- 6-man Aggressors: Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets/Fragstorm Grenade Launcher
- Apothecary
- Redemptor Dreadnought: 2x Storm Bolters, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Icarus Rocket Pod, Onslaught Gatling Cannon
- 4-man Bikes, power sword
- 10-man Hellblasters, plasma incinerators
- 2x Predator, 2x Lascannons, Predator autocannon
Deployment: Spearhead assault
I forgot to take a picture of my own deployment, but we'll get there in a moment.
The Fists entrenched themselves, with a double line of Intercessors up front and heavy hitters in the back. Hellblasters on one flank, Bikes on the other. Obviously finished deploying first, and also went first.
Imperial Fists, turn 1
This is my deployment. I centered all the characters in the spearhead. I got an orbital bombardment right in the middle of it. Fortunately it didn't do much - a couple of mortal wounds on a Herald and two Plaguecasters, killed 2 Cultists and 3 Horrors.
All the shooting went into the Plaguebearers (killing 5, then +1 for morale) and the Nurglings (doing 2 wounds).
The Fists start defending one of their objectives.
Chaos, turn 1
Advance!
Advance every which way!
Killed 1 Intercessor with Smites. That was it.
Pulled secure objective whatever the Fists were holding. So at the end of the turn, 2-0 for the Marines.
Imperial Fists, turn 2
Barely any movement. Just shots. Lots and lots of shots. I made the mistake of taking my Plaguebearers into Aggressor range (although not sure if I could stay out), and they were promptly taken out. The way was then free for the rest of the shots to go through, hurting both my Daemon Princes and killing 1 Plaguecaster.
Chaos, turn 2
I summoned back 20 Plaguebearers with the Sorcerer, then walked up everything behind them.
The Fists played it right, with most of my Smites targeting the Intercessors up front, who were buffed with Psychic Fortress (ignoring mortal wounds on 4+). I did what I could do, decimating the unit.
The Plaguebearers then tried an 8" charge (thanks to the instrument), but failed even with a reroll.
On the right flank, the Daemon Prince swooped down from the tower and eliminated the Bikes.
Imperial Fists, turn 3
The gunline reshuffles, hiding an Intercessors surviving with 1 wound behind the rock.
I made sure to put Horrors in front also, just in case the Plaguebearers die again.
Nurglings help screen the other side.
The turn's casualties: almost all the Plaguebearers and a squad of Horrors. I auto-passed morale, denying Psychological Warfare.
Chaos, turn 3
Unfortunately, the Plaguebearers had to advance into coherency.
Everything else moved up in anticipation of close combat. Unfortunately I couldn't Smite much in order not to kill my charge ranges.
On the right flank, the Prince barrelled into the Scouts who managed to shave off a wound in overwatch and another in close combat, killing it. There goes my hope of consolidating into a Predator.
My Warlord accepted the horrendous overwatch from the Aggressors, taking 1 wound. Combat was disappointing though, with barely 1 Aggressor dying.
At the end of this turn, we were about equal in points. The Fists had good pulls to compensate for me having board control and occupying 4 objectives.
Imperial Fists, turn 4
The Aggressors fell back, and the gunline errupted. My Warlord took quite a lot to bring down, but down he went. For the coup-de-grace, the biker Captain then charged into a wounded Plaguecaster, killing it for Priority Orders Received, scoring 4 points with a single kill.
Chaos, turn 4
Smites brought the Captain down. On the right flank, 3 Plaguecasters charged in, killing the Scouts and locking the Predators in combat.
However, on the center and right, a couple of characters, 8 Cultists and some Horrors faced down the bulk of the opposing army. I was behind by a couple of points.
Turn 5
The Fists continued their rampage, killing units left and right. They even managed to kill a conga-lined Horror squad, denying me 2 points for defending an objective. They were only hampered by me having mostly characters, and thus limiting targets.
Before my turn, we agreed to call it soon due to the shop closing in 10 minutes. I advanced into Linebreaker with my 1 surviving Plaguecaster, then tallied up points.
11-11! After 4 grueling hours, we managed a tie.
To be honest, we did some rolling and pulled cards out of curiosity. Had the game continued, I would have lost by a large margin due to upcoming objectives.
Aftermath
Smite is good, but Aggressors are better. Any unit that can put down 20+ Plaguebearers in one turn is worth its cost.
I may have played better here and there, approaching the gunline faster or with better placement. But credit goes where its due, the Fists (almost) beat me fair and square.
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