The Doom of Ulpia - Mission #5 Game

Scenario: Crucible of War - Patrol (1500 points)

Restrictions

• No flyers.

Victory conditions

• Major Victory: All enemy units are destroyed.
• Minor Victory: Scored more points than opponent.
• Minor Defeat: Scored less points than opponent.
• Major Defeat: Entire army is destroyed.

Additional

Any unit arriving mid-game via deep strike (teleportarium, jump pack assault etc.) must roll a die for each model in the unit. On a roll of 1, a model is slain.

Modify the roll by -2: -1 for each lost Sabotage mission.

Major Victory: No additional reinforcements for opponent next game.

Minor Victory: 1 troop additional reinforcement for opponent next game.

Minor Defeat: D3 troop additional reinforcements for opponent next game.

Major Defeat:  D3 troop and 1 HQ additional reinforcements for opponent next game.

Imperial Fists

++ Vanguard Detachment +1CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [29 PL, 544pts] ++

• Lieutenants [4 PL, 71pts]. Lieutenant: Lightning Claw, Master-crafted boltgun (Mouga'ry)
• Aggressor Squad [12 PL, 222pts]: 5x Aggressor, Aggressor Sergeant, Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets/Fragstorm Grenade Launcher
• Apothecary [3 PL, 55pts] (Kristov)
• Redemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 196pts]: 2x Storm Bolters, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Onslaught Gatling Cannon

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [56 PL, 956pts] ++

• Captain on Bike [6 PL, 136pts]: Combi-plasma, Thunder hammer, Twin boltgun (Lexandro)
• Librarian in Terminator Armor [9 PL, 130pts]: 4) Fury of the Ancients, 5) Psychic Fortress, Force stave, Storm bolter (Jeraiah)
• 10-man Tactical Squad [9 PL, 148pts]. Space Marine Sergeant: Chainsword, Grav-pistol (Aaron),  Heavy bolter
• 2x 5-man Tactical Squad [5 PL, 75pts] Heavy bolter
• 8-man Hellblaster Squad [16 PL, 271pts]: Plasma incinerator
• Thunderfire Cannon [6 PL, 121pts] Techmarine Gunner (Mason)

++ Total: [85 PL, 1500pts] ++

Death Guard

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP

• Lord of Contagion, Manreaper
• Malignant Plaguecaster, Miasma of Pestilence, Putrescent Vitality
• 20-man Chaos Cultists
• 5-man Plague Marines, Blight Launcher, champion: Plague Sword, Power Fist
• 5-man Plague Marines, Plasma Gun, champion: Plague Sword, Power Fist, Plasma Gun
• 7-man Plague Marines, Plasma Gun, champion: Plague Sword
• Helbrute, multi-melta, helbrute fist
• Bloat Drone: 2x Plaguespitters
• Bloat Drone: Fleshmower
• Bloat Drone: Heavy Blight Launcher
• Chaos Predator, 4x Lascannon

Deployment

I won the roll-off and decided to be defender (which made more sense by the story). I also spent 2CPs when rolling for first turn, and won that, too.

Techmarine Mason directed his Thunderfire Cannon into a ruined building. The Tactical Squad took up defensive positions on the upper level, with the Dreadnought behind.

A Bloat Drone equipped with the Heavy Blight Launcher peaks out from a window. The horde of cultists are herded into battle by the Plaguecaster.

Turn 1

The Plaguecaster ensured that the Cultists would survive a turn by casting both spells on them. The Thunderfire Cannon opened up into them nevertheless.

The Bloat Drone bombarded the Tactical Squad to no effect; they shot back with their Heavy Bolter.

Death Guard, turn 2

Reinforcements arrive unto the battlefield. The Plaguecaster whips the Cultists into a frenzy and herds them forward, intent on absorbing any shots intended for the Plague Marines.

Imperial Fists, turn 2

Quickly reacting to Mason's vox call, almost all of the Fists show up (thanks to 4CPs). They find the Death Guard still too far away to effectively engage.

Death Guard, turn 3

With a rumble, a Chaos Predator rolls in from a nearby causeway. More Plague Marines arrive. The Cultists leave their dead behind and run forward, still oblivious to their intended purpose.

A Blasphemous Machine, the Predator opens fire into the Aggressors, searing two to ash.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Lord of Contagion materializes in a gust of fecund air and marches inexorably towards the Helblasters. Quickly, they open fire on him, and inflict wounds that would kill even a regular Space Marine. He proves to be Revoltingly Resilient - and charges in.

Imperial Fists, turn 3

Kristov manages to revitalize a fallen Aggressor. The heavy marines trundle forward, taking potshots at the Bloat Drones.

The Redemptor sees his chance...

... and guns down Plague Marines. In the ensuing confusion, he than charges in. The Bloat Drone, however, keeps hovering around him, evading the punishing strikes.

Death Guard, turn 4

The final squad of Plague Marines lurking in the neighborhood finally shows up. (Obviously the only painted squad I had waited until the end.) 

The Predator malfunctions and manages to kill a single Tactical Marine with its shots.

The Fleshmower buzzes forward, intent on reaping the Redemptor.

Assailed on all sides, bombarded by sorcery, rended by the Fleshmower and penetrated by a Plague Probe, the Redemptor collapses in on itself, and explodes in a violent eruption. The explosion wipes out a squad of Plague Marines and hurts everything around it.

The Lord of Contagion reaps a bloody harvest of Helblasters.

Imperial Fists, turn 4

The final Tactical Squad, lost in the ruined city, finally shows up.

The Fists have lost the majority of their punching power and realize they need to strike back as hard as they can.
Precision fire takes out the last remaining Cultist and the Helbrute.
The Helblasters fall back and Squad Aaron opens fire onto the Lord of Contagion, but his putrid armor holds fast.

Death Guard, turn 5

The Plague Marines advance inexorably towards the fortified ruin, preceded by the Bloat Drones buzzing menacingly.

Plaguespitters shower the Tactical Squad in rot and goo, melting through their armor. This leaves Jeraiah unprotected, as the Plague Marines warm up their ancient plasma guns. The corrupted machine spirits decide to betray them, though, and both die to supercharging their weapons.

The Bloat Drones charge, eliminating the Heavy Bolter marine and hurting Epistolary Jeraiah.

The Lord of Contagion, down to his last wound, carries on killing the Helblasters.

Imperial Fists, turn 5

The Fists take positions, intent on taking out as much as they can.

Captain Lexandro warms up his own plasma weapons... which blow up in his face, knocking him unconscious. Kristov is too far away to help.

Squad Aaron shoots and charges the Lord of Contagion, but cannot knock him out.

The Fists shoot and charge the Fleshmower Drone.

The bloated flesh absorbs all blows, and the Drone still stands.

The game continues on a 3+... rerolled... but it ends. Death Guard win by 1 points.

After game rolls

With such a slow start, I did not have the occasion to hurt any of the characters. Lexandro did knock himself out, though, but suffered no injuries.

Afterthought

A very, very slow game, as fought by two mid-range armies. Nothing happened for the first two turns. Even after that, there was not much action, as we both rolled pretty poorly. The Lord of Contagion was saved only by rerolling his saves with CPs, and failed to kill the Helblasters as fast as I expected. The same can be said of almost everything - the Helbrute and the large Plague Marine squad did not even fire a single shot. The most damage in the entire game was done by the exploding Redemptor.