Chaos Daemons/Chaos Space Marines/Inquisition vs Imperial Fists, 21.07.2015

In preparation for the coming tournament, I am back to fighting my old opponent, with each of us trying new stuff on the tabletop.

Mission: Cloak and Shadows

Map: Hammer and Anvil

Lists:

Chaos Daemons: Combined Arms Detachment

• 10-man Pink Horrors, with Instrument
• 3-base Nurglings
• Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, armor, exalted gift, greater gift, Psyker level 1 (Portalglyph, Touch of Uncreation, Summoning, Stream of Corruption)
• Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, armor, 2 greater gifts, Psyker level 1 (Greater Etherblade, Touch of Uncreation, Summoning, Stream of Corruption), warlord (Lord of Unreality) 
• Soul Grinder of Nurgle with phlegm bombardment 

Chaos Space Marines: Allied Detachment

• Be'lakor
• 5-man Chaos Space Marines

Inquisition

• Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, power armor, Psyker level 1, Conversion Beamer, Force Sword (Perfect Timing, Prescience)
• Inquisitorial Henchmen: 2 Crusaders and 3 Daemonhosts

Imperial Fists:

• Combined Arms Detachment

  • Techmarine with Servo-harness, warlord
  • Venerable Dreadnought (Storm Bolter, Assault Cannon) in Drop Pod
  • 10-man Tactical Squad (Heavy Bolter, Plasma Gun) in Rhino (Dozer Blades)
  • 10-man Tactical Squad (Heavy Bolter, Flamer)
  • Land Raider Redeemer
  • Thunderfire Cannon

• 1st Company Task Force

  • 2x  5-man Assault Terminator squad, 3 Thunder Hammers + 2 Lightning Claws
  • 5-man Vanguard Veterans, Jump Packs, 2 Power Swords, Relic Blade on the Sergeant

Deployment

I won the deployment roll-off, so I put my stuff in place. From top to bottom: the Chaos Marines are ready to sprint forward to hold the objective, with the Warlord behind to offer support. Horrors in the ruin with Be'lakor. The other Prince behind the Grinder. Inquisitor at the edge of the table in the back row, 3 Bloodletters posing as Daemonhosts, with the other two figures in the front rank being the Crusaders.

Top to bottom: Tacticals, Terminators, Rhino with Tacticals, Techmarine in Land Raider, Terminators. Thunderfire cannon in the ruins. Nurglings infiltrated in the ruined tower, out of line of sight.

Chaos Daemons, turn 1.

 

 

Be'lakor moved up in swooping mode, with the other two Princes gliding ahead. The Nurglings occupied all 3 tiers of the ruin, firmly entrenched.

Some shooting occurred as the Grinder and the Inquisitor let fly with blasts, killing 2 Tacticals and 1 Terminator. 

I scored 2 Objective points.

Imperial Fists, turn 1. 

The massed troops on the center of the table moved up. The Dreadnought dropped in behind enemy lines. It unloaded into the Daemon Prince along with the Land Raider, scoring 1 wound despite 2+ Jink. The Thunderfire cannon decimated the Inquisitor's band, leaving him alive with 1 Daemonhost and 1 Crusader.

Chaos Daemons, turn 2.

I moved in for the kill. Be'lakor landed in the ruins next to the cannon; the Warlord prepared to charge the Rhino (while still holding Objective 2) and the other Prince prepared to assault the Dreadnought...

 ... and promptly died due to S10 Instant Death. 6 attacks, hitting on 3s, S6 Armourbane vs AV12 resulted in 1 penetrating hit, inflicting a Shaken result. The Soul Grinder charged the Land Raider, inflicting 1 glancing hit. So miserable failures all across the board. At least the other Prince popped the Rhino... failing yet again in another way. I had 2 Hold Objective 2 cards, and the Marines that piled out now held Objective 2, being a troops choice in a CAD. At least I had First Blood.

Imperial Fists, turn 2.

 Vanguard Veterans, arriving from Deep Strike behind my own Marines.

The Raider and the Tacticals unloaded into the Warlord, opening up the charge for a squad of Terminators (1 is missing due to my earlier Conversion Beamer shot). Naturally, I failed to inflict any wounds due to 3++ Storm Shields (even with WS9/Fleshbane), got a few wounds myself, and promptly dissolved due to Daemonic Instability.

The other squad of Terminators charged Be'lakor (rerolling charge range due to Formation bonus), and got locked in endless combat.
The Dreadnought charged the Soul Grinder. At least I got lucky there, and the Grinder emerged victorious, with 1 HP remaining.

Chaos Daemons, turn 3.

Reeling from the previous turn's losses - both Daemon Princes in one fell swoop, I tried to hatch up a desperate counter-attack.

I retreated with the Chaos Marines, and managed to shoot off 1 Vanguard Veteran - luckily, a Power Sword.
The Grinder charged the Tacticals, made them run away, but failed to catch them.
I got 6 Daemonettes out of the Portalglyph, which ran towards some objective.

At this point, I was holding Recon and 2x Hold Objective 2. With Objective 2 out of reach, I made a move with my Nurglings towards Objective 6 in the far off corner. However, it was a long way to go, so I threw away Recon.

Imperial Fists, turn 3.

The Veterans charged my Chaos Marines. Due to exceptionally bad rolls, they only managed to kill 1, and made them run away.

The Land Raider managed to take off the last Hull Point of the Grinder.

Chaos Daemons, turn 4.

 The Chaos Marines ran off the board.

I managed to clear my side of the board - somewhat. The Inquisitor shot into the Veterans - killing none. But then I though - hey! my Daemonhost has random powers. Maybe he can do something. I got the AP3 Blast and killed 3 out of 4. The last one was killed in a most ignominious way - in close combat, by Pink Horrors. Of which I got another 2 out of the Portalglyph, somewhat offsetting the Psychic loss of the Princes.

Another exceptional roll - 12 on the Warp Storm table - got me a squad of Bloodletters. They successfully arrived near Objective 6, and stayed there for the rest of the game. Sadly, I already threw away Recon.

Imperial Fists, turn 4.

The Land Raider poured its firepower into the two small squads, killing off the Horrors. The mass of Marines retreated towards Be'lakor, giving me an opening at Objective 2!

Chaos Daemons, turn 5.

This took a fair amount of maneuvering, but here goes. The Horrors stretched out into a Konga line. The goal was to hold Objective 4 (due to Objective Secured), but also get close to Objective 2 for a tactical Summoning. And I did get it off, bringing a squad of proxied Daemonettes. With that many Objectives held, I also got Ascendency, bringing me back into the game at 7 points.

In the back, Be'lakor had finally killed the Terminators. The combination of Invisibility and 4++ really saved him.

Imperial Fists, turn 5.

Bolter fire from the tactical destroyed the Daemonettes.
Concentrated firepower shot off my Horrors from Objective 4, leaving it held by the Drop Pod. Thus scoring Ascendency (among other things), the Fists also came up to 7 points. It was now a tie. But the game continued.

Chaos Daemons, turn 6.

More Horrors out of the Portalglyph. More Summoning (Bloodletters up there). More points, getting me to 10. At points like this, scoring all 3 Tactical Objectives in my hand was a Godsend, with the Nurglings getting their points value back in Victory Points by holding Objective 1.
Be'lakor charged and destroyed the cannon, reducing the number of Objectives possibly held by the Fists.

Imperial Fists, turn 6.

 The Land Raider, and the Techmarine which got out, unloaded into the Nurglings. Despite all those Flamers, I got off with only 2 wounds scored on the bottom one.

The surviving Terminators moved in to charge Be'lakor.
After 5 rounds, the Crusader in front of the Inquisitor finally failed a save and died to Stormbolter fire from the Drop Pod.

At the end of turn, we counted up points, tallying at 10-8. The game would have continued to turn 7, but we both drew our Objectives, and concluded that it would be over at 13-11. At this point, my opponent called it with an epic handshake.

Conclusion

• This game made for the most interesting comeback. After turn 2, I was ready to concede, but decided to carry on just in case. Summoning was a lot of help; though, to be honest, my summoned troops didn't kill anything; they just held objectives. However, in an Objective-oriented game, that was enough.
• Be'lakor is awesome! Obviously, I knew that even before fielding him for this first time; however, holding off a squad of Terminators (unlike the Warlord Prince, which crumpled in a round) made me realize just how awesome he is.
• The Inquisitor with the Conversion Beamer was a failure. He barely killed anything, even with Perfect Timing (although, to be honest, he mostly targeted 3++ Stormshield Terminators). The Come the Apocalypse deployment restriction was crippling, although I realized that I could have put him in the other corner of the table.The squad wouldn't have made back its points, if it wasn't for the hero Daemonhost killing 3 Vanguard Veterans in one shot.