Word Bearers vs Yellow Scars, 22.10.2022

I had the honor of facing the Yellow Scars (White Scars... but yellow) during their first outing in Warzone Nephilim. This meant that the game took even longer than usual, as the mission, the secondaries, the CP stuff etc. was new to the Space Marines. Not to mention my entire army. But alas, we confronted each other in this scenario of Abandoned Sanctuaries.

The Scars deployed heavy on their left with a Redemptor and the Outriders, so I countered with my daemon engines, Rubrics, Helbrute and Bikers.

Elite infantry faced each other across the middle.

Colorful Possessed Furries...

Right against the Bladeguard Veterans.

The scenario was rough for the Marines as the phobos armored stuff had to remain in their deployment zone. At least they got first turn.

Yellow Scars, turn 1

My right flank saw a lot of activity, as the Outrider rode forth, gunned down the Cultists and charged into the Helbrute. Concentrated firepower from the ATVs and the Redemptor took out my Rhino, with only one Rubric Marine dying on the way out. However, the Rhino did explode, hurting everything around it.

However, the worst part was the redeploy of the Eliminators, who sniped down my souped up Master of Possession. His Dark Pact failed, and he stayed dead. 

The Marines also advanced up the fields, taking objectives.

Word Bearers, turn 1

The Helbrutes moved up, firing as they went to little effect.

Foregoing the secondary to Exalt the Dark Gods, the Dark Apostle stuck in along with the Possessed. Their combined attacks destroyed the unit of Bladeguards and left only one Intercessor alive.

The Rubrics, always the heroes, Warptime'd up to flame the Redemptor. Bravest Cultist in the galaxy took the objective.

The Disco Lord moved in to help clear the Outriders.

Yellow Scars, turn 2

...aaaaaaaaaaand there's a Redemptor in my back lines. At least he failed his charge.

The Rubrics took most of the shooting on the right flank, but they held out.

Even in close combat.

Word Bearers, turn 2

Completely ignoring the Redemptor, the two Helbrutes charged the marines on the objective, but failing to clear them.

I had my troops do the switcheroo, with the bikes taking my home objective and missing the Redemptor with their meltas. The Cultists went to Exalt the Dark Gods instead.

The Dark Apostle failed his rerolled charge into the Dreadnought, so I had the Possessed go in. Let me tell you, AP2 D2 reduced to AP1 D1 is not great. At least the Disco Lord took out the Apothecary.

Yellow Scars, turn 3

The marines retreated and charged back in, hoping to clear the Helbrutes. Instead, they died to a man.

The Redemptor in my back lines charged the bikes but only killed one, failing to take the objective. However, the ATV charged the Cultists, interrupting their action.

Word Bearers, turn 3

A huge turn for me. The Helbrutes on the left finally had the objective, moved out to do Engage on All Fronts, and sniped the Phobos Librarian with a multimelta.

The Dark Apostle finally got stuck in, taking out both the Redemptor and the Techmarine. 

The Disco Lord and the Helbrute took out the Terminators who had jumped in previously but did nothing on their turn. Let me tell you, the Disco Lord looks great on paper but against Armor of Contempt, with 3-wound Terminators saving his D2 attacks on 3+, he's not great.

The Rubrics failed to kill the ATV, meaning he survived to once again interrupt my action.

Wrap-up

Turn 4 was short, with the marines trying their best to kill stuff. However, my Dark Apostle resisted and killed them instead. Then on turn 5, he ran across the battle field to clobber the remaining Redemptor, tabling the Yellow Scars.

Scoring

The Scars scored poorly on primary objectives, unaccustomed to staying in their zone. My all-out-assault army quickly pushed up the field, taking the objectives and maxing primaries.

However, I scored poorly on secondaries. I only managed to do points for Engage on all Fronts from turn 3, after I broke through the marines' right flank. Rise to Glory, which I took for the lulz, netted 14 points, surprising me greatly. The Dark Apostle scored 12 out of those, with 2 for the Disco Lord taking out the Apothecary. I think the Long War would have been OK as well. As for Exalted the Dark Gods... the plan was for the Apostle to move up, do it first turn, then turn it over to the Master of Possession as he went about killing stuff. This went out the window as the psyker died to snipers first turn. With the Possessed and the Apostle busy killing, I couldn't spare any good units to do it, meaning the action never completed. 0 points for that. 

Of course, tabling the marines helped a lot with the score, however, I still feel that I have a lot of room to improve on secondaries.

For the Scars, Oath of Moment scored well, even though they lost the middle early on. Shock Tactics (which was buffed in the last dataslate) was also fine. They missed out on Raise the Banners, as I quickly destroyed the troops on the flanks.

Lastly, as a friend put it: it's a hard thing, working the railroad.