This was a 2100 point game between my Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines, and Brennan's Death Guard Chaos Space Marines. The mission was the Scouring with a Spearhead deployment
The Armies
Iron Warriors
HQ:
- Warpsmith with an Aura of Dark Glory - 125
Heavy Support:
- Defiler - 195
- Defiler - 195
- Defiler - 195
- Defiler - 195
- Maulerfiend - 125
Formations:
- Helcult - 236
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Multi-Melta - 100
- 19 Cultists - 86
- 10 Cultists - 50
- Helfist Murderpack - 535
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Reaper Autocannon (Champion) - 105
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Plasma Cannon - 110
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Plasma Cannon - 110
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Plasma Cannon - 110
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Multi-Melta - 100
- Mayhem Pack - 300
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Multi-Melta - 100
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Multi-Melta - 100
- Helbrute with Powerfist and Multi-Melta - 100
Total: 2101
This list was kind of an experiment. I realized that between Brennan and I we had 9 Helbrutes and 4 Defilers, and just really wanted to see them all on the tabletop at once. I also thought that it would be interesting to play, as if he was able to bring enough anti-tank he would more than likely be able to completely crump all my walkers right away before they ever made it anywhere near his lines. Because I didn't want it to just end up a slaughter, I also gave Brennan a heads up about the nature of this list so that he wouldn't be completely unprepared.
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| Walkers! |
Death Guard
HQ:
- Daemon Prince of Nurgle with Wings, Power Armour, Gift of Mutation, 3x Mastery Levels, Spell Familiar,
and the Black Mace - 365
Elites:
- 3 Chaos Terminators with Mark of Nurgle and 3x Combi-Melta - 130
- 10 Plague Marines with 2x Plasma Gun, with Melta Bombs and Power Axe (Champion) in a Rhino with
Dozer Blades - 330
- 10 Plague Marines with 2x Plasma Gun, with Melta Bombs and Power Axe (Champion) in a Rhino with
Dozer Blades - 330
Troops:
- 10 Cultists with Mark of Nurgle and Autoguns - 80
- 10 Cultists with Mark of Nurgle and Autoguns - 80
Fast Attack:
- 3 Bikers with Mark of Nurgle, and 2x Meltaguns - 108
Heavy Support:
- 3 Obliterators with Mark of Nurgle - 228
- 3 Obliterators with Mark of Nurgle - 228
- 3 Obliterators with Mark of Nurgle - 228
Total: 2107
This list is cool because it includes a really scary element in the 9 Obliterators, and the Flying Daemon Prince, while still having some extremely sub-optimal choices in the Mark of Nurgle Cultists. What I was going to have to really worry about was absolutely going to be the Oblits, and if he got Iron Arm, the Prince as well. The Bikes could be a problem if I can't take them out before they get into melta range, and the Terminators could also be bad news if they don't scatter. I think it will be very interesting.
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| Nurgle! |
The Game
We rolled Warlord traits, and I think both of us got dumb stuff. Brennan then rolled his powers and got pretty much the worst things possible. Enfeeble, Life Leech, and Smite. Suddenly, his Daemon Prince got a whole lot less scary. Brennan won the roll for Corners and picked the corner with the forest in it, to deny me more cover. He also won the roll for first turn and opted to go first and deploy first.
Brennan deployed with his Cultists on his back objective in the back of his deployment zone, and with the Prince in the forest next to them. His other Cultists went far forward, ready to grab a more central objective. Beside the Cultists, he put one Rhino, and the other Rhino went on his left flank. A Squad of Obliterators accompanied the Bikes on his right flank, and finally, the other two Obliterator squads went in the middle and a bit to the left.
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| Death Guard Deployed |
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| Iron Warriors Battle Line |
Turn 1
I start by moving my whole force forwards. The Maulerfiend runs behind the hill to its right the Defilers begin to move forwards, as does the Murderpack. the Defiler goes left to shoot at the Bikes. The Helcult moves forwards.
The Defilers unleash their Battlecannons and Reaper Autocannons into the central Cultists, and kill a couple. The leftmost Defiler shoots into the Bikes and kills the Champion, and, feeling less than confident against the massive Defiler, the remaining Bikes flee off the table, gaining me First Blood and a point for killing a Fast Attack choice. Everything else just runs.
With the Bikes gone and the walkers closing in, the Death Guard begin to try and do some damage before its too late. The Rhinos both move forward, the one on the flank moving up behind the hill, and the other moving into the forest. The Obliterators shuffle around some to try and get some decent lines of fire and the Nurgle Prince flies forward.
In the psychic phase, Brennan gets a 4 for his psychic dice and begins casting powers. He starts by casting Life Leech on the Cultists and kills one. He then tries to cast smite, but I deny.
Shooting begins with a squad of Obliterators firing Lascannons at the Maulerfiend, as well as the Plasma Guns from the Plague Marines, but the darkness and the hill prevent any damage. The next squad of Oblits shoot at one of the Defilers and manage to take a hull point off of it. Realizing that the Maulerfiend will be able to do some serious damage if it survives, and so he fires his last unit of Obliterators into it and it explodes.
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| End of turn 1 |
Turn 2
Crashing down from the sky comes the Mayhem Pack, one lands directly behind the Rhino, one scatters a bit behind the Cultists, and one mishaps and gets placed in my back corner facing the wrong way. With the Maulerfiend dead, the Defilers move forwards to try and get to grips with the enemy themselves. the third Defiler on the flank moves around the hill to get a better line of sight. The Helfist Murderpack moves toward the Rhino, ready to hopefully blow it up and then assault the guys inside. The Cultists shuffle forward a bit to try and shoot the Daemon Prince with their pistols
Shooting starts with the Murderpack shooting everything at the Rhino, and only getting one glancing hit through, with one of the Plasma Cannons getting hot and giving a Helbrute a hull point. Next the Helbrute behind the Rhino fires its Multi-Melta but only manages to stun the Rhino. Finally, a Defiler shoots the Rhino and wrecks it. The Defiler closest to the Obliterators shoots everything into them, but their armour protects them from harm. The last two defilers both fire everything into the now exposed Plague Marines and manage to kill half the squad. Finally, the Cultists shoot their pistols into the Daemon Prince, hoping to knock it out of the sky, but they fail to harm it. The Helbrute in my corner runs towards the Helcult to try and get back into the fight.
With a daemonic bellow, the Defiler charges the Obliterators and manages to completely pulp one, but takes a hull point in return for its trouble. Luckily, I immediately make my It Will Not Die roll and it regenerates the damage.
With one squad of Obliterators tied up, and a pair of Helbrutes directly in their midst, the Death Guard move to deal with the wall of walkers coming their way. The two units of Obliterators each move to target a Helbrute, while the Rhino moves towards a Defiler to try and hurt it with plasma fire. The unit of Plague Marines begins to try and move away from the Murderpack, and the Daemon Prince flies right over the Helcult, but fails to harm the Helbrute with its Vector Strike.
In the psychic phase, the Prince casts both Smite and Life Leech on the Cultists, and kills a couple, but other than that, there's not much to be done.
Shooting starts with both units of Obliterators destroying the Helbrutes, thanks to the twin-linked Meltaguns they can sprout. The Plague Marines manage to take a hull point off the Helbrute Champion, and the ones in the Rhino take a point off a Defiler, though one of the Plague Marines is killed by his gun.
In the assault, the Defiler does a couple wounds, but they're saved away by the Obliterators' Daemon save. They swing back and do a hull point to the Defiler.
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| End of turn 2 |
Turn 3
With the Obliterators running amok, the Defiler on my left flank moves up the hill, while the one in the middle goes straight forward. The last Defiler moves towards the Rhino, hoping to charge it this turn. The Murderpack moves up towards the Plague Marines, hoping to kill them this turn, and the remaining Mayhem Pack brute gets mad and has a firing frenzy. The Helcult moves to target the Daemon Prince again.
Shooting from the Murderpack is largely unneffective this turn with 2 Plasma Cannons overheating, and the Multi-Melta missing, and only one Plague Marine goes down. The Defiler on the hill fares little better and misses completely with its Battle Cannon, but takes one down with the Reaper Autocannon. The center Defiler blasts into the Cultists again and kills a couple, but they hold. The last Defiler shoots at the Rhino but doesn't hurt it. All the shooting from the Cultists and Helbrutes proves innefective and the Daemon Prince remains unharmed.
In the assault phase things go poorly. The Defiler fails its charge against the Rhino, even with fleet, and the Murderpack fails its charge on the Plague Marines. Lame. In the combat between the Oblits and the Defiler, the Defiler smashes down another Obliterator and takes another hull point leaving it on its last one.
Seeing their time to strike, the Terminators teleport right next to the Murderpack, hoping to cook some Helbrutes with their Combi-Meltas. The Daemon Prince switches to gliding mode to try and assault the Helcult, and the Cultists by the forest move forward to claim the objective. The two squads of Obliterators move around to get some shots on things. Finally, the Rhino rams the Defiler, but neither engine takes any damage.
In the psychic phase, the Daemon Prince enfeebles the large squad of Cultists with the Warpsmith in it, and then casts Leech Life, getting a precision hit on the Warpsmith, which then fails to wound.
The center Obliterators fire Assault Cannons into the Murderpack, and with an incredible roll manage to kill the Champion and the Helbrute standing behind it!. The other Obliterators do much worse and fail to do any damage to the Defiler, as do the Plague Marines in the Rhino. The Terminators fire their Combi-Meltas, but only get one glance on a Helbrute.
Finally, the Defiler manages to crush the last Obliterator, and runs off towards the other squad on that flank, ready to beat some more of them up.
Turn 4
Seeing a new threat, the Murderpack turns towards the terminators, ready to punch them into a pulp. The Defiler on the hill moves right up onto the objective on the top of the hill. The Center Defiler moves right up to the edge of the forest, hoping ot assault the Cultists within, whilst the wounded Defiler moves even closer to the Obliterators. All the Cultists turn to fight the Daemon Prince, and the lone Helbrute moves forward as well.
Shooting starts with 2 squads of Cultists firing everything into the Daemon Prince and taking off 3 wounds from it! the Defiler shoots at the Rhino and gets a couple glancing hits but doesn't wreck it. The other Defilers fail to hurt the Obliterators with their shooting and the center defiler kills a couple Cultists with its weapons.
In the assault the Murderpack charges into the Terminators killing 2, and the third runs and gets away. The small Cultist squad and the Helbrute charge the Daemon Prince, with the Champion challenging. The Prince murders the Champion and a bunch of Cultists, but takes a wound from the Cultist's massed attacks. The Defiler in the middle assaults and kills all the Cultists in the forest, and the Defiler on the flank assaults the Rhino and blows it up, killing 3 Plague Marines in the explosion. The last Defiler assaults the Obliterators and kills one and regenerates a hull point.
With most stuff locked in combat, there's not much left to do. The remaining Obliterators fire into the Defiler in the forest, but fail to do anything, while the lone Terminator moves to contest the objective of the Defiler on the hill.
In combat, the Obliterators knock off another point from the Defiler, and the Daemon Prince gets a glance on the Helbrute.
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| End of Turn 4 |
With the Death Guard on the ropes, the Iron Warriors make their final push. The Murderpack moves towards the remaining Plague Marines, and the Defilers and Helbrute prepare their final assaults.
In the assault, the flank Defiler charges the Plague Marines and take a hull point from overwatch, before smashing down 4 Plague Marines. the Defiler fighting the Obliterators kills an Obliterator and then gets punched down finally. The Defiler on the hill smashes into the terminator and murders him before consolidating back to the objective. The Murderpack kills the other 2 Plague Marines, and the Lone Helbrute and Helcult Brute take down the Daemon Prince. At this point, Brennan concedes.
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| End of Turn 5 |
Iron Warriors: 11 (8 for Objectives, 1 Fast Attack Kill, First Blood, Warlord)
Death Guard: 2 (Objective)
Post-Game Thoughts
Wow, I had no idea that this list would have been so tough to beat. Even with quite a bit of anti-tank in his army, Brennan had a really hard time dropping the walkers in my army, though he did manage to kill 6 of them. I think this really goes to show how much better vehicles got in this edition, as they're much harder to just blow up then they were before.
There were some really unlucky moments on both sides this game. Brennan had terrible luck with his melta (as, of course, is tradition) and really only managed to kill the two deep striking brutes thanks to twin-linking. He also got really unlucky with his psychic powers, as if he had gotten Iron Arm I would have been in deep trouble. For me, I had a hell of a time making charges. In total I failed 4 charges, 3 of which were in the same turn, and when I got into combat, Brennan's invulns were very tough to get through.
Tactically, I think my game probably could have been a little better, but honestly, it was more about just rushing up all those walkers and trying to smash face, and I guess that plan ended up working out pretty well. In the end, it was a really fun game, with lots of back and forth moments with the dice, and for awhile there it was looking like I was going to get crushed, though the points don't really reflect that.
As always, thanks for reading, and remember to leabe a comment with your feed back below.
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