Chaos vs Chaos Space Marines, 01.11.2017 - unleash the ForgeWorld models!

Mission: Spoils of War

The mission actually did not come up this game, as there we did not draw any objectives to be stolen.

Lists: 2000 points

Chaos:

• Chaos Daemons: Battalion Detachment
• 2x Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, dual malefic talons
• 30-man Plaguebearers, icon, instrument
• 2x 10-man Brimstone Horrors
• Chaos Daemons: Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment
• Scabeiathrax the Bloated
• 2x Renegades & Heretics: Supreme Command Detachment
• 3x Malefic Lords
• Chaos Space Marines, Word Bearers: Supreme Command Detachment
• 3x Sorcerers
• 239 points for reinforcements

Smite spam at its finest.

Chaos Space Marines: Skultakers

• Vanguard Detachment 
• Zhufor the Impaler
• Chaos Decimator equipped with 2 x Decimator siege claw with hellflamer
• Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought equipped with Twin autocannon and Hellforged deathclaw with Combi-bolter
• Hellforged Predator equipped with Plasma destroyer and 2 x Lascannon
• Blood Slaughterer of Khorne equipped with 2 x Slaughter blade
• Blood Slaughterer of Khorne equipped with Slaughter blade and Impaler harpoon
• 3 x Hellforged Rapier Battery equipped with 2 x Quad heavy bolter and Laser destroyer
• Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment: Legion: Skulltakers
• Greater Brass Scorpion of Khorne

Every single model in this list is a Forge World model.

Deployment

We got table corners.

The Skulltakers set up a defensive firing position with the batteries, Predator and Contemptor, and Zhufor providing rerolls in the middle. Blood Slaughterers up front, and the Scorpion a bit further back.

Scabeiathrax in reserves waiting to be summoned. Plaguebearers front and center with the two unpainted Horror squads on the flanks, with all the characters behind.

Staring contest!

Skulltakers, turn 1

Shuffling around in the firebase. Scorpion and Blood Slaughterers advance. All the firepower goes into the Plaguebearers, and 9 of them die. The -1 to hit is preserved for the fight phase.

The heavy melee units charge in.

They do destroy their fair share of Plaguebearers and Horrors, which is exactly why they were there for. I auto-passed morale for the Plaguebearers. Opponent scores 1 point for an objective.

Chaos, turn 1

All the Smites ever destroy one Blood Slaughterer which explodes, wrecking havoc among my single-model units. I also manage to take down the Scorpion to 11 wounds. 

I then tried to summon Scabeiathrax. The first Sorcerer failed, but a command point re-roll at least saved him from triples. The second Sorcerer succeeded, but died to a triple, giving my opponent First Blood and 1 objective point for destroying a unit. At least then Scabby made a 10-inch charge into the Scorpion.

Even without Death Hex, Scabeiathrax murdered the Scorpion. It actually failed all its saves, and would have died with full wounds! But then it exploded, killing the remaining two Sorcerers and 4 Malefic Lords, a couple of infantry models, and took off wounds from the Princes and Scabby. It also took off 5 wounds from the green Blood Slaughterer. We laughed a lot at this point.

The final state of the board after consolidations.

I scored three points, 2 for Master the Warp and 1 for Blood and Guts.

Skulltakers, turn 2

Heavy fire goes into Scabeiathrax, taking off 1 wound. Toughness 9 is a big deal, with even Lascannons having a hard time to wound. Also a 4+ invulnerable with a command point reroll thrown in.

I did loose some Plaguebearers to the heavy bolters, and 1 Horror to the Blood Slaughterer in CC. Opponent scores Hold the Line, bringing the score to 3-3.

Chaos, turn 2

Slowly trekking up the board toward the enemy firebase. The warlord Daemon Prince (for which I totally forgot the warlord trait) did Smite and then punch to death the remaining Blood Slaughterer, cleaning up my side of the board. The Horrors and remaining Malefic Lord spread out for board control.

At this point I took the lead by scoring Big Game Hunter for 1 (I couldn't draw that first turn, now could I?) and Area Denial for D3 (also 1, but I didn't care that much).

Skulltakers, turn 3

Decimator moves up to engage, shoving both Flamers down Scabby's throat, who takes it like a champ.

Heavy stuff fire into Scabby. Bolters and Heavy Bolters fire into the Plaguebearers, killing 1, and the Horrors down by the objective, killing all 3.

Decimator charges Scabby, fails to do anything, and gets wrecked. Scabby is still at 16 wounds at this point.

Chaos, turn 3

The slow trek across the board continues. The Daemon Princes could have outpaced the Plaguebearers and Scabby, but I did not want them to draw fire and die.

In the back corner, the Malefic Lord captured an objective.

Skulltakers, turn 4

They poured everything into Scabby, but barely scratched him. My opponent conceded before I reached his lines.

Aftermath

This was the first time I did a serious Smite spam list, as Forge World models are frowned upon, and with good cause. Malefic Lords are extremely efficient. If I did not have Scabby (who needs a character with Mark of Nurgle to be summoned), I could have went with 10 Malefic Lords instead of 3 Sorcerers, greatly increasing my mortal wound output.

The only weakness is that all the important units are single-model, so two exploding enemy vehicles can and will wreck face.

Scabeiathrax is a beast in melee. But I already knew that.

Plaguebearers are awesome, and Daemons suck at the shooting game. Had I placed Scabby on the field turn 1, he would have eaten an extra turn of shooting. Now he isn't very efficient to shoot at, with T9, 4++, and 5+ ignoring wounds. My opponent did roll somewhat poorly at shooting, and I took saves like a champ. But it is a dice game, and it could have went either way.

Now on to the rest of Forge World goodness.

The Brass Scorpion is an awesome model, both visually and rules-wise. Unfortunately, it is better suited at taking down large stuff, and got completely bogged down with the Plaguebearers.

Blood Slaughterers are fine and dish out lots of attacks. The batteries and the Predator are also good at shooting. 12 heavy bolter shots per battery is nothing to laugh at! 

But this brings us to the crux of my strategy in 8th edition: do not put anything at the table that can be shot at and is worth being shot at. Any Greater Daemon will get eaten by lascannons turn 1. Daemon Princes and other characters behind a line of maxed out Plaguebearers have a chance of reaching the enemy.