Mission: Cloak and Shadows
Lists: 2000 points
Chaos (9 CP and about 60 points for summoning):
- Chaos Daemons: Battalion Detachment
- 2x Herald of Nurgle
- 2x 10-man Brimstone Horrors
- 30-man Plaguebearers, icon, instrument
- Chaos Space Marines, Word Bearers Legion: Supreme Command Detachment
- Sorcerer, force staff, jump pack
- Sorcerer, force axe, jump pack
- Chaos Lord, jump pack, the Murder Sword, warlord
- 8-man Chaos Terminators, 8x combi plasma, power axes, power fist on champion, mark of Slaanesh
- Death Guard: Supreme Command Detachment
- 3x Malignant Plaguecaster
- Death Guard: Supreme Command Detachment
- 3x Malignant Plaguecaster
- Noxious Blightbringer
A revised list from last time. The Daemon Princes didn't cut it against the shooting of the Fists. Although I think they would have worked better against the close combat-oriented Blood Angels, I decided to throw them out (along with much of the summoning points) to bring in the trusty Chaos Terminators.
Blood Angels (7 CP)
- Battalion Detachment
- 2x 5-man Scouts, combat blades, bolters
- 5-man Intercessors
- Lemartes
- Sanguinor, warlord
- Mephiston
- Stormraven, twin heavy bolter, twin lascannon, twin hurricane bolters
- Vanguard Detachment
- 10-man Death Company, jump packs, chainswords
- 5-man Assault Terminators, thunder hammers/shields
- 5-man Sanguinary Guard, swords
- Sanguinary Priest, jump pack
- Stormraven, twin heavy bolter, twin lascannon, twin hurricane bolters
A solid list, with some objective holders, two Ravens for firepower, and an excellent close combat punch.
On the right: Scouts (proxied by regular marines) take the field front and center; Intercessors guard the back. Death Company snuggled in between the two Ravens, one containing Mephiston. Terminators, Sanguinary Guard, Lemartes in reserve.
On the right: my customary Plaguebearer line deployed as far as possible. Brimstones hold the right flank. All the Death Guard and daemon characters bubble wrapped in the middle. Word Bearers in reserve.
Blood Angels, turn 1
The Angels used the stratagem to move the Death Company forward before the game began, and then moved everything forward. Mephiston got out of his transport, and all characters came down from reserves. Not the Terminators and Sanguinary Guard, though. The Angels decided to play Deep Strike Chicken (who dares keep his reserves back the latest?).
Then everything unleashed its firepower into the Plaguebearers. With most stuff up and close, the -1 to hit from the scenario only helped against the Intercessors. The Plaguebearers' own -1 did wonders though, and only 7 died.
But then the Death Company charged in, along with the Sanguinor and the Sanguinary Priest - only Lemartes did not make it in. The Scouts also rolled double 1's. This was enough to take down 9 more Plaguebearers - 16 in total. I had to autopass morale for 2 CPs, not wanting to loose more bodies who needed to block the Angels as much as possible.
Worse, a Herald died.
I have to adapt my positioning. In the tournament, I had the characters placed too close to the Plaguebearers line, enabling the Knight to reach them through the Plaguebearers. This time, I left them a bit more behind, enabling jump troops to land beside them.
At least having all characters helped with Heroic Interventions, and I got a lot of damage in on the Death Company squad.
First Blood scored due to the Herald, also giving out Blood and Guts, and secure objective 4 (right in the middle).
Chaos, turn 1
A sorry state of affairs. My lines were already pierced, and I didn't dare bring down the Terminators.
For a start, I retreated my characters out of combat and moved the Horrors to surround them. I positioned the other Horror squad to grab two objectives. The scenario really helped me this time, as I had Supremacy (control 3 objectives) and Defend 6. The Horrors moved to grab the two objectives on my long table edge to help Supremacy - and the Angels had no way of knowing that I needed to stay on 6, so they ignored the Horrors - netting me two points at the end of their turn.
I decided to sacrifice a Sorcerer by dropping him on objective 2 in the Angels' back lines. This ensured Supremacy, and my third objective: secure 2, scoring d3+1=4 points. A worthy sacrifice.
Unleashing a barrage of psychic powers, I eliminated the Death Company, and scored wounds on the Sanguinor and Stormraven. Being this close, the Plaguecasters' ability kicked in, dealing a fair share of mortal wounds. Still, I found them not very efficient at this.
Blood Angels, turn 2
Scouts move in, ready to charge. Stormravens cross paths to keep withing optimal shooting range. Assault Terminators drop in. Yes, they are yellow. Deal with it.
Everything charges in! Both Scouts join the fray (keeping objective 4 in their grasp). Terminators reach the Plaguecasters after thorough shooting eliminated the blue/green horror squad. Mephiston also charges in, but leaves a Plaguecaster in 1 wound thanks to Disgustingly Resilient. Again, I do Heroic Interventions all over, dealing some damage.
Meanwhile, in the other table quarter, the lone Sorcerer fights the Intercessors. He survived a round of shooting and combat, and managed to do some damage back. However, there's no way to stop the Intercessors from scoring objective 2.
The Angels also score some Defend objective cards, taking the lead in points.
Chaos, turn 2
Again, the Plaguecasters fall back from combat. They are in terrible shape (two at 1 wound each). The heralds and the Blightbringer have already died during previous turns.
Note that at this point, the Plaguebearers have held their own against terrible odds for 4 fight phases. Only 5 of them left at this point.
And then the heavy cavalry arrives. I dropped down my Terminators in the middle of the board, with the Chaos Lord right behind. I managed to string them out such that the second Sorcerer (the more useful one, having Warp Time and Prescience) still reached them with his buffs, but was out of deny range from Mephiston. Tactics!
I managed to get both buffs off, and the Terminators slowly walked forward, toward the middle.
Then it was time to Smite. I took down 4 Terminators, Lemartes and most of the Scouts.
Then the Terminators shot, and shot again with Endless Cacophony and Veterans of the Long War. Definitely two awesome stratagems for the Chaos Marines. I destroyed a Raven and the Scouts with the first volley. I then wasted shots by overkilling Mephiston and firing the rest into the Terminator who made all his invulnerable saves. In hindsight, that should have went into the other Raven. However, the Terminator was a bigger threat to my character bunker, so I went with that. Overall, a very successful shooting phase, even if I wasted a lot of potential.
Even better than killing everything, however, was the scoring of objectives. With so many spells, I got d3 for Master the Warp, and Witch Hunter and Assassinate for Mephiston.
Blood Angels, turn 3
With all my potential surprises exhausted (no more reserves, or command points), the Sanguinary Guard landed to deal with the Terminators. Everything else also gathered to aim at them, including the Sanguinor and the Priest. The lone Terminator marched up to deal with more characters.
I made a good amount of saves, so the shooting from the Raven and the Guard only took down 2 Terminators. Then the Guard declared their charge, and I overwatched... brutally, killing 2.
Even worse, they failed their 3d6 9" charge! Sanguinius was not watching over his sons that day.
The Sanguinor charged in, but got smacked in the face by the Terminator Champion (go power fist!).
The Terminator charged in, and immediately got surrounded by heroic Plaguecasters. He did manage to kill one, before dying himself. Death to the False Emperor!
Chaos, turn 3
I consolidated towards the center of the table. Summoned a unit of Brimstones back to keep the Intercessors away. The surviving Terminators gunned down the Sanguinary guard. I then revealed the number of objectives to be scored, and the Angels conceded. The store was closing in either case, but the game seemed a foregone conclusion. A Raven that cannot control objectives and a squad of 3 Intercessors, vs Terminators, Plaguecasters, and Brimstones.
Aftermath
Even though the victory was overwhelming, the game was very close, both points-wise and kills-wise, right up to turn 3. The Sanguinary Guard dying to overwatch AND failing their charge really put the nails in the coffin for the Blood Angels.
I liked the new Blood Angels codex, with lots of their units back in the game, and flavorful stratagems helping them out.
As for my own list, the Plaguecasters did well against a melee list that closed in quickly, and they did not have to waste turns trucking up the board. Their +1 mortal wound ability triggered quite often, so I was happy about them doing something for a change. However, they are still overpriced for this role. I think they are better intended as support characters for an actual Death Guard list.
Slaaneshi Terminators did their job as always, even with most of their potential wasted due to bad target priority. Had the Sanguinary Guard not failed horribly, I think I would have lost, or at least got a draw due to the store closing.
The scenario came into play a lot. The -1 to hit over 18" really didn't affect us due to having close range armies, but the hidden objectives allowed a lot of extra scoring, as we had no idea who had to defend what.
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