CARNAGE: Battle for the Duck Pond - Part III

So, we were planning on a 4 player Carnage but unfortunately one guy had to pull out last minute and one guy was going to be late... we decided beforehand that he could just come in anyway though, but with a handicap of 200p to make up for the fact that he wouldn't suffer any shooting for the first turns.

Carnage is a nice Free For All scenario, preferably for 4 players and basically you have one objective in the middle of the board. You might want to check out our previous games of this mode as well... Part I
Part II

So my list. Basically in the Carnage scenario you don't need Troops to score so I decided for a Sorcerer as my Warlord. I was expecting Dark Eldar (but he had to pull out so) so I thought my Noise Marines would be a nice choice. I also was expecting two Space Marines, so Veterans on everything. I wanted to get in the middle fast, and draw people in there to create some mayhem and fun and thus - Rhinos. I threw a Maulerfiend in there just because I could. Game plan? Get in the middle, see what happens. Simple. Can't possibly go wrong.


LISTS

Black Legion Chaos Space Marines
HQ
Sorcerer - Mark of Slaanesh, Veterans of the Long War, Level 3, Spell familiar, Sigil of Corruption, Melta bombs, Gift of Mutation

Troops
8 Chaos Space Marines - +7 CCW, Mark of Slaanesh, Veterans of the Long War, Plasma Gun, Melta Bombs
+ Rhino
5 Chaos Space Marines - +4CCW, Mark of Slaanesh, Veterans of the Long War, Plasma Gun, Melta Bombs
+ Rhino
Elites
10 Noise Marines - Veterans of the Long War, 8 Sonic Blasters, Blastmaster, Doom Siren, Melta bombs, Icon of Excess
+Rhino

Heavy Support
Maulerfiend - Magma Cutters


Space Wolves
HQ
Wolf Lord - Terminator Armour, Power Fist, Storm Bolter.
Wolf Priest - Power Armour, Cruzium, Bolt Pistol.

Troops
5 Grey Hunters, Mark of the Wolfen
+Pod
5 Grey Hunters, Mark of the Wolfen
+Pod

Elites
Dreadnought, Autocannon, Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon (ink Storm Bolter)
+Pod

Fast Attack
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry


Blood Angels
HQ
Librarian - Terminator armour, Force staff

Troops
7 Assault Marines - Melta bombs
10 Tactical Marines - Missile-Launcher, Melta gun
+Rhino

Elites 
5 Assault Terminators - 3 TH/SS, 2 LC
+Land Raider Redeemer 


Pre

So, we were only two players from the start, me and the Blood Angels. We rolled for Warlord traits and Psychic Powers. I got the Trait making my Warlord cause Fear (useless against Space Marines) and he got Outflanking for his Warlord and the unit he joined.
For psychic powers I got Inferno, Haemorrhage and Hysterical Frenzy (Slaanesh) and he got Foreboding and Psychic Shriek.
I also rolled for my Gift of Mutation... and got 22 - Spawn. Re-rolling that and got... Spawn again... Third time counts, right? Got Unworthy Offering. So no Boons for me!
He rolled for the Red Thirst and no squads were affected. 
We then rolled for first turn, which he won but decided to let me go first since his was a very short range army. No Night Fighting for Turn 1. So I basically deployed in a box, he didn't have any long range shooting anyway. He hid his Rhino behind one building and then the Assault Marines behind another. Letting the Land Raider with the Warlord outflank. He didn't steal initiative.

Deployed in a Star Formation! The Maulerfiend up front, giving the Rhino behind it (with the Sorcerer) a cover save - since it all ready has a 5+ save itself it's great for wall duties like this.

The Blood Angels hide behind the ruins!

Black Legion - Turn 1

I simply moved everything forwards as fast as I could since I couldn't see anything. Nothing interesting happened.




Blood Angels - Turn 1

His Rhino came out from hiding, and he shot both his Missile-Launcher and the Melta at one of my Rhinos... hit with both despite snapshot for the missile. Explodes! No Chaos Marines died though.

One exploded Rhino later.

Black Legion - Turn 2

Planning to charge the Rhino, my Maulerfiend changed direction and ran towards it. My Noise Marines got out of their Rhino as well, I placed them so that my Blastmaster would be able to shoot at the Assault Marines who were hiding behind the building. Managed to kill one Assault Marine. Then my plasma gun from the Marines who got their Rhino blown up shot at the Blood Angel Rhino and actually blew that one up in return! One Marine died in the explosion!

My Maulerfiend tried to charge the Tacticals on the inside anyway, needing a 6... but despite Fleet failed the charge...




Blood Angels - Turn 2

The Land Raider came in at the flank where the Noise Marines were, and thus opposite side from the Maulerfiend lucky for it!

The Tactical Marines previously in a Rhino were combat squaded, and the part containing the Melta gun tried to move out of the crater but only got a 1... They were still in range to shoot the Melta at the Maulerfiend however and got a Glancing hit.

The Land Raider shot it's Multi-melta at my Rhino containing my Sorcerer but failed to penetrate it's armour. It shot the Assault Cannon at the Noise Marines, got three wounding hits but they were just loving it (made two out of three armour saves and the failed one made his Feel no Pain-roll).

The Assault Marines then jumped forwards, deciding it's better to charge than to be charged and threw their grenades at the Maulerfiend. The Maulerfiend killed two of them, but in return the sergeant blew off one of it's Power Fists with his Melta bombs.

The Land Raider arrives!

Space Wolves - Turn 2

At this point the Space Wolves arrived from nowhere. We rolled for a random table edge for them to come in from, which meant the three Thunderwolves came in on the same side as the Land Raider. Then all three Drop pods came in from reserves. The one containing the Warlord hit exactly where intended. Then the second one containing the other squad of Grey Hunters scattered... off the board. And a Terrible Accident it was. I guess he didn't think the 200p handicap was enough! The Dread also landed where it was intended to.

Hey! Where did those guys come from? And yes, that is a Dreadnought. Obviously.

The Wolves came in next to each other and ran as "fast" as they could (meaning two of them ran 1"). The Grey Hunters coming out from their Drop Pod shot the Blood Angel unit with the Missile-Launcher and killed one regular Marine. The Dreadnought did better, firing at the Chaos Marines and killing two and made them fall back.



Black Legion - Turn 3

The fleeing Chaos Marines managed to rally, despite losing their Champion last turn. They were not happy with the Dreadnought and actually shot the Assault Cannon off it with their Plasma Gun. The Noise Marines Rhino moved up to block the Land Raider and at least force a terrain-test for it if the Terminators should want to assault next turn.

The other squad still in their Rhino managed to kill one Blood Angel Tactical Marine with a plasma shot. Everything else missed. In the close combat between the Maulerfiend and the Assault Marines... not a single attack hit.




Blood Angels - Turn 3

The Melta-squad kept moving forwards, now in range of the Rhino with the Sorcerer they shot it and blew it up. Two Chaos Marines died in the explosion after 8 wounding hits (!). The other half with the Missile-Launcher shot the Space Wolves and killed one guy.

The Terminators jumped out of their Land Raider and charged the Noise Marines. They actually managed to kill one Terminator on Overwatch. My Champion challenged and his Librarian accepted, wanting more Thunderhammers to kill the squad with. And a good thing too, since I made extremely good Feel no Pain rolls on all his Lightning Claw wounds, but then the Thunderhammers struck down 3 Noise Marines. Tie challenge, and Fearless Noise Marines stayed.

The Assault Marine champion then managed another Glance on the Maulerfiend, wrecking it.




Space Wolves - Turn 3

The Warlord-unit moved up and made a multi-assault on both Combat Squads of the Blood Angels. The only survivors of that ends up being the Sergeant with his Melta gun and another regular Marine to no losses for the Space Wolves.

The Dreadnought charged the offending Chaos Marines and killed off the two remaining ones easily. The Thunderbears (Thunderwolves) all charged the Assault Marines from behind, killing three but leaving the Sergeant alive - who actually manages to flee and stays just at the board edge.

Black Legion - Turn 4

The surviving Rhino was racing around and started to go for the middle. Everything else was either locked in combat or stayed put.

The Sorcerer got first Hysterical Frenzy off (I casted this every turn, but it had no effect earlier so didn't mention it) which gave the unit +1A. Then I also managed to get Haemorrhage off and even hit the Wolf Lord who failed his Toughness-test and took a wound! The rest of the squad also shot the unit and killed two Grey Hunters. 

In the combat between the Assault Terminators and Noise Marines another two Noise Marines died after more Feel no Pain-saves nullifying Lightning Claws (Thunderhammers did all the work!). Still a stalemate in the challenge.




Blood Angels - Turn 4

Both the Assault Marine Sergeant and the 3-man squad of Tacticals rallied of course, being Space Marines. The Assault Marine tried to move behind the Grey Hunters, wanting to draw them away from the objective in the middle with their pile-in moves and did just that. His Hammer of Wrath attack even wounded the Wolf Lord, putting him at only one wound left! The Sergeant died to the return blows though, and the consolidation pretty much put the Grey Hunters back where they started.

The Blood Angels find themselves surrounded on all sides so form a protective circle guarding each others backs!

The three-man squad moved as far towards the middle as they could. The melta and plasma pistol combined with the Land Raider killed 3 Chaos Marines in the middle. They then proceeded to charge the Chaos Marines. I challenged with my Champion, wanting to use my force weapon as much as possible. Killed only one Tactical Marine... and in return his Sergeant killed my Champion. Tie combat. D'oh.

The Land Raider also rammed my Rhino from behind for a S7 hit, which caused a penetrating hit forcing me to shoot Snap shots next turn.

3 Noise Marines died to Thunderhammers, yet again. This was the last remaining ones except for the Champion, so no more Feel no Pain! The Champion actually managed to put one wound on the Librarian and survived himself keeping the Terminators in place for another round!




Space Wolves - Turn 4

Everything except for one Thunderbear gathered in the middle. He even decided to not shoot anything because he wanted to end stuff up close. Everything charged the close combat between the Tacticals and the Chaos Marines. The Grey Hunters only reaching the Blood Angels while the Dreadnought and two Thunderbears reached the Chaos Marines. The Remaining Thunderbear charged my Rhino and completely failed his attacks.

The Grey Hunters with the Priest and Lord slaughtered the Blood Angels. Then my Sorcerer with his extra attack put one wound on a Thunderbear and using his Force weapon killed him off. The Dreadnought killed one Marine, making it a tie combat.


Black Legion - Turn 5

My surviving Rhino Tank shocked the Thunderbear in front of it, who simply stepped out of the way so nothing much happened there.

In the challenge between the Librarian and my Noise Champion I think they decided to simply rest and just stare at each other for another turn.

The Sorcerer once again cast Hysterical Frenzy and got +1A, and with this he repeated his feat from the Space Woves turn and used his Force Weapon to kill the remaning Thunderbear! The Dreadnought and the lone remaining Chaos Marine also stared at each other.




Blood Angels - Turn 5

The Land Raider tried to chase after my Rhino (maybe it fell in love?) trying to both Tank shock the Thunderbear and ram my Rhino again... but got stuck on a small wall instead. He could still shoot though, and actually managed to kill one of the Grey Hunters nearest to the objective in the middle.

Finally the Noise Champion died to the Librarian and the Assault Terminators consolidated towards the middle, threatening the Space Wolves there, they'd be able to assault next turn.




Space Wolves - Turn 5

The Wolf Lord split off from the Grey Hunters while the Priest and lone remaining Grey Hunter camped the objective. The Remaining Thunderbear also moved up and charged the Chaos Marines together with the Wolf Lord. Bold move since he knew I had to challenge and he only had 1W left, all set up for a epic last stand! My Sorcerer being I5 he struck first and managed to do 2 wounds to the lord, but alas he couldn't penetrate the Terminator armour. And in return the Power Fist crushed him. The Dreadnought was inspired and also crushed the remaining Chaos Marine.

So at this point the Space Wolves had 1 Grey Hunter, 1 Wolf Lord, 1 Wolf Priest, 1 Thunderbear and 1 Dreadnought (non-scoring) on the objective (and two Drop Pods close by). I had a functional Rhino close by (non-scoring). The Blood Angels had 4 Assault Terminators with a Librarian close enough the objective to get a decently reliable charge next turn and a immobilized Land Raider. Does the game end? It did. Space Wolves victory!







Conclusions

First off I'm really happy with how well my Sorcerer did. He's pretty damn good against Power Armour-models with multiple wounds! And the Hysterical Frenzy giving extra attacks to a unit that all ready had CCW was a huge boost to that units survivability! And talking about survivability... My Noise Marines stayed in combat for FIVE close combat phases with Assault Terminators! That's insane!


So my plan for this game wasn't really to win, I wanted to create chaos and forcing a big fight in the middle. I think I was fairly successful in this as we did get some nice big fights! However I did some really strange moves in the first turn. I have no idea why I both charged up as fast as possible or why I split my forces up. I could've simply held back and waited for the Blood Angels to come to me instead. And why did I run my Maulerfiend against the only Meltagun on the board? I have no idea. This really messed up my positions, as the Maulerfiend was where the Noise Marines should've been and vice versa. Oh well!


Still the scenario caused some carnage just like the name suggests! And it seems to be very hard to hold on to this little dangerous pond (all though it didn't kill anyone in this game surprisingly!) as no one has been able to win two games in a row so far! That calls for a rematch of course...

Build Day

So what do you do when there's a snowstorm outside? You build stuff of course! I took the opportunity to get further along on a couple of my projects. Here are some quick pictures!

Finally I have some riders to my bikes! Basically kit-bashing between Biker-set and the CSM-box and some simple repositioning of weapons and arms.

Ten Havocs! GW messed up on my first order and sent me a box with a missing sprue, so after contacting them I got a new box. So I had to do some improvising to fill out the missing bits! Also I decided to make another Autocannon-guy from the Heldrake Hades Autocannon combined with a Heavy Bolter. Looks pretty neat I think!

Did some finishing touches on my FW Daemon Prince that I've added wings too. Needed some extra Greenstuff to cover the pins to the wings (which are also magnetised) so I fixed that today as well.

And finally I did some work on my Maulerfiend that has been half-built for quite some time. Earlier I magnetised all options for Maulerfiend/Forgefiend - but this left me the question on how to get the Maulerfiend-options in there... because I couldn't be bothered to magnetise two of the legs that it would actually stand on... I was also missing shoulder plates for the Maulerfiend-arms. So therefor I decided to go for this conversion. Yes, it's not possible to take both Lasher Tendrils and Magma Cutters in play but I don't care. I liked the idea of it!

Quite a productive day I think! Now it's just this painting thing left...

1750p: Imperial Guard vs Iron Hands

Another guest report! Enjoy!



Imperial Guard vs Iron Hands (1750p)

Mission: Crusade (D3+2 Objectives) – 5 objectives rolled.
Deployment: Vanguard Strike

Imperial Guard Warlord Trait: - Strategic Genius (Re-roll reserves).
Iron Hands Warlord Trait – Immovable Object (Warlord Scoring).

Iron Hands Forces:

HQ
Librarian, Terminator Armour, Storm Shield.

Elites
5 Terminators, 2 LC, 3 TH/SS.
Dreadnought – TL autocannon x2.

Heavy Support
Land Raider Redeemer.
Vindicator – Siege Shield.
Devastator Squad (5) 4 ML, Signum.

Fast Attack
Storm Talon – TL Assault cannon, TL Heavvy Bolter

Troops
Tactical – Combimelta, meltagun, ML.
Tactical – Flamer, ML.
Tactical – Flamer, ML.

Dedicated Transports
Drop Pod – Stormbolter.
Razorback – TL Heavy Bolter.
Razorback – TL Heavy Bolter.




Imperial Guard Forces:

HQ
Company Command Squad
3 meltas 1x body
Chimera

Troops
Platoon Command Squad
3 plasma 1x body
Chimera
Veterans 3xplasma
Chimera
Veterans 3xplasma
Chimera 
Veterans 3xmelta
Chimera
Veterans 3xmelta
Chimera

Fast Attack
Vendetta
Vendetta

Heavy Support
Leman Russ HBsponsors
Leman Russ HBsponsors
Manticore


Two Objectives are placed just out of reach from deployment on both sides, two more central and the last one on a hill. No Nightfighting from start. Iron Hands stole Initiative!

IH Turn 1

Droppod turned up on the edge Combimelta+Melta squad jumps out and misses everything. Great start. The Objective nearby where they land turns out to be Sabotaged. Otherwise general movement forward by the Land Raider and the Vindicator to get in range with the big guns and reach closer towards objectives. Devastators nearby find the Objective to be Nothing of Note (damn, I wanted a Skyfire Nexus!). Everything else that tries to shoot misses this turn. Stealing the initiative didn't do much difference otherwise than moving forward first.


IG Turn 1

The Vindicator comes under heavy fire since the Guardsmen fears it more than anything else on the board. Two important hits, although when the to wound roll comes the dice shows snake-eyes.
The Manticore fired D3 shots.. of course turns up to be just 1 and the missile scatters off some 10''. The Leman Russ Commanders are shocked by the Iron Hands swift manouvers at the start of the battle and fails to hit anything with their big guns that scatter way off target. The poor Meltasquad remaining in the shadow of the Drop pod is erased from the board as the Imperial Guard scores their First Blood. No Unit secures the Grav wave Generator that ended up being left alone for the rest of the game. Another five Marines in different squads as well as two Missile Launchers are taken out by IG and due to miserable Armour Save rolls/well aimed shots.


IH Turn 2

No arrival of Reserves this turn. Things are looking rather dark as the Marines are slowly advancing towards objectives The one near their deployment turns out to be a Scatterfield. The Razorback in the middle let its troops out and then remains to provide them with cover. The Vindicator delivers immediately when it has come within range and blows up the Leman Russ on the flank. One Chimera is wrecked by Devastators on the Objective Hill.


IG Turn 2

This turn sees the arrival of the first Vendetta which directly takes aim at the Vindicator that  by a miracle survives THREE TL las cannon hits. A Chimera near the objective in the Guardsmen deployment zone find it to be a Scatterfield. The remaining Leman Russ takes aim on the Vindicator which by now had given up all hope, but although it is a hit the roll for penetration is a 2 (with 2 dice, taking the highest w Ordnance turning out to be a double 2). The Marines that seized the Objective close to their deployment zone is blasted away under heavy fire from an advancing Chimera. Some Plasma is fired from a Chimera towards the Storm Talon, but it gets hot and the Guardsman fail his save. The remaining tank crew now have a hot, smoking  pile of molten slag on the floor of their ride. A Multilaser salvo hits the Storm Talon but fails to do anything against its thick plating.

IH Turn 3

The Central Objective is seized by the Marines and turns out to be a Scatterfield (+1 cover). The Vindicator takes aim at the Leman Russ and causes a Weapon Destroyed. Although the Battle cannon is gone, this old tin jar still got three Heavy Bolters left. The Devastators takes out a Chimera with ease and EIGHT Guardsmen die in the following explosion. The Storm Talon reaches the Manticore and takes out two hull points with its TL Assult Cannon and Missiles. A lone Missile Marine tries to take down the Vendetta with a lucky snap shot but misses his target. The Terminators have leapt out of the Land Raider and try to charge a nearby unit but fail the charge due to Difficult terrain. The Land Raider takes aim at the Vendetta with its TL assault cannon and scores three hits! None manages to break through the hull though.


IG Turn 3

The Second Vendetta shows up soaring above the battlefield. This time there is no mercy for the Vindicator that suffer its deathblow by the vicious bird. The Manticore fire all its firepower at the Terminators that now stands in the open; the Librarian in the front manages to roll FOUR Look out Sir! and in the oncoming heavy fire from several IG units three brave Terminators perish. Some more Marines moving towards the objective near their deployment are again blasted from existence by Chimera fire. Three Devastators on the Objective Hill are taken out by the second Vendetta, while another Plasma gunner fires his gun which Gets hot! And of course he fails his save.


IH Turn 4

The Dreadnought that moved forward on the west flank to accompany some Marines towards the central objective in a ruin now turn around towards the Vendetta that just zapped some Devastators and turn the mighty TL autocannons towards the flying menace and hit with all firepower (6's w re-roll, but still!) and then roll a tripple six for penetration, causing and explosion in the sky. BOOM! The Razorback on the flank advances, lets out its Flamer-squad that makes their way towards the central objective which got their crew reduced. The last Guardsmen in between the remaining disabled Leman Russ and a Chimera is killed by the advancing Razorback with Heavy Bolters.
The Storm Talon went into Hover mode to avoid flying off the board and takes out the Manticore finally. The Librarian and the Terminators had moved forward and charge a poor Chimera which stood no chance to their wrath.

Comment: The Squad in the Chimera ended up in CC w the Terminators in the following turn, which was wrong. You live you learn. The big difference was that they would have got an round of shooting before getting charged. Statistically the result wouldn't have been much different.


IG Turn 4

The Guardsmen Command Squads issue the order for bringing down the Hovering Storm Talon, only to cause a Crash and Burn on its own Command Squad (not Warlord though). The Razorback in the middle are blasted away due to heavy fire towards its side armour. A plasma fired from inside one of the Chimeras... you guessed it. Gets hot! and the gunner fails his save.


IH Turn 5

No Nightfighting still. The twin suns of this planet shines vigilant causing the night to be a much shorter spanning period. The Two remaining Terminators go to finish the remaining Leman Russ off while the Librarian seizes the Objective near the IG deployment zone, although standing alone this might be a gamewinner with a big risk. The Dreadnought encouraged by the last lucky shots decide to take another pick on the remaining Vendetta, but this time only causing a penetration with no other effect than a hullpoint taken away.


IG Turn 5

The Librarian becomes the target for everyones attention and comes under heavy fire; 3 las guns, 7 Plasma rounds, 6 Heavy Bolters, 6 Multilaser actually hits but he manages with all his saves!! The Chimera troops are now seizing the Objective close to the Iron Hands deployment Zone.

The score is now 7(IH) towards 5 (IG) The game continues.


IH Turn 6

Still no Nightfighting. The heroic Dread takes away another hull point from the Vendetta and another Missile from a Marine close by the Hill Objective hits but the plane manages to Jinx although the missile was a pen... close call little bird! The Objective is still contested much to the anger of the Iron Hands marines who was looking for a solid victory. The Razorback fire at the remaining Command Squad but the Warlord remains as the lone survivor of the slaughter. The two Terminators regroup with the Librarian after having bashed the Leman Russ.


IG Turn 6

The Vendetta takes a chance and go down into Hover mode and fires three TL las cannons at the Librarian who deflects all three hits with his Storm Shield. The last Terminators are although killed by heavy fire and Plasma, saving their master who in the end remained by the Objective!!

Comment: The Chimeras nearby the Librarian could have tankshocked at this time, but my opponent forgot that. The game ends.


Score: 7-5.
Iron Hands: 2 Objectives (6) Linebreaker (1)
Imperial Guard: 1 Objective (3) Line breaker (1) First Blood (1)

3000p: Iron Hands vs Black Legion

In the far future of the grim darkness that is the 41:st millennium there is Only War... Meaning that we need to step it up a bit. This will be my largest game yet, and I just finished packing my army. That in itself was quite a job!

With that in mind I made a quite elite army to make it somewhat easier to pack at least. So we'll see how that goes. It turned out to be a very Nurgly army, since that is most often the most expensive mark... And one of the best for sure as well so!

This list is very light on Troops for this size of game for me to be entirely comfortable. But my model collection is my limitation! Ideally I would've liked at least two more Troops. But instead I suppose I have to try and make my stuff as killy as possible!

Knowing there's a big possibility of Land Raider, 2 Leman Russes and a couple of Dreads as well as Razorbacks I did take quite a lot of anti-tank. Chosen with Meltas. As they can no longer Outflank I took a couple of extra bodies to compensate though. They will also be helpful against Terminators, which I believe there'll be at least 10 of!

Of course my own Terminators had to come too, bringing Lightning Claws to shred troops. I'll also support them with a Sorcerer in Terminator armour. Trying out the Lore of Nurgle (but mostly Biomancy I believe).

Having four Obliterators available they too had to come of course. Splitting them up in two units, and I think I will deploy both units as I think I'll need their fire power from the start instead of the being lazy in reserve.

Then I was just filling stuff out with some armour of my own. I can't make a full mech army so it has to be half-and-half sadly. This does hurt me I think, and I could've left the tanks at home for some Berzerkers in the Elite slot instead... but then there's that transporting problem again so... I like my Preds anyway, we'll see what they'll manage to accomplish. The Decimator gets another chance as well, mainly because it's a huge points sink.

I also threw my Warpsmith in there... but at the time of writing this I haven't really figured out where he'll go... maybe I'll make a mini-Deathstar with the Plaguemarines and Chaos Lord? Oh well, I'll figure that one out eventually...

Not quite having enough of a collection to make a solid list at this level, making it very spread out. Most of the models I have are competing for the Elite slots these days after all... But it'll be a fun game I think! Let the mayhem begin!


LISTS

Black Legion Chaos Space Marines
HQ
Chaos Lord - Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War, Gift of Mutation, Sigil of Corruption, Power Weapon, Melta bombs
Chaos Sorcerer - Mark of Nurgle, Level 3, Spell Familiar, Terminator Armour, Combi-Melta, Melta bombs, Veterans of the Long War, Sigil of Corruption
Warpsmith - Mark of Nurgle, Aura of Dark Glory, Veterans of the Long War

Troops
28 Cultists - 2 Flamers
10 Chaos Space Marines - 2 Plasma guns, Icon of Vengeance
10 Chaos Space Marines - 2 Plasma guns, Icon of Vengeance
9 Plague Marines - 2 Plasma guns, Melta bombs, Veterans of the Long War

Elites
5 Chaos Terminators - 3 Pairs of Ligning Claws, 1 Power Fist+Heavy Flamer, Combi-Melta&Power Axe, Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War
8 Chosen - 5 Melta guns, Combi-melta, Veterans of the Long War
Decimator - Mark of Nurgle, Storm Laser, Siege Claw/Heavy Flamer

Fast Attack
Heldrake - Baleflamer
5 Chaos Bikers - Mark of Nurgle, 2 Meltaguns, Melta bombs, Veterans of the Long War

Heavy Support
2 Obliterators - Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War
2 Obliterators - Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War
Predator - Twin-linked Lascannon, Lascannon sponsons, Combi-Bolter
Predator - Autocannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons, Combi-Bolter, Havoc Launcher
Maulerfiend - Magma cutters


Iron Hands Space Marines

HQ

Master of the Forge - Conversion Beamer. Blessings of the Omnissiah, Bolster defences.
Librarian - Terminator Armour, Stormshield. Biomancy.

Troops
Tactical (10) - Combimelta, Meltagun, ML.
+Drop Pod
Tactical (10) - Flamer, ML, Powerfist.
+Razorback - TL Lascannon
Tactical (10) - Stormbolter, ML, Meltagun.
+Razorback - TL Lascannon 
Tactical (10) - Plasmagun, plasmacannon.
+Razorback - TL Lascannon 
Scout squad (6) - 5 Sniper, ML, Meltabombs.

Elites

Dreadnought - TL autocannon x2.
Dreadnought - TL autocannon x2.
Assault Terminators (5) 3TH/SS, 2 LC.
Assault Terminators (5) 1LC 4TH/SS.

Fast Attack

Storm Talon - TL Assault cannon, Typhoon ML.
Bike Squad (3) Meltagun x2, Combimelta.

Heavy Support

Land Raider Crusader.
Devastator Squad (5) 4ML, Signum.
Devastator Squad (5) 4ML, Signum.
Vindicator - Siege Shield.


PRE

We rolled for mission and got the Crusade with 4 objectives and Hammer and Anvil deployment. Thankfully, as with this amount of stuff it'd be hard to fit stuff in a normal deployment zone... Warlord traits, he got VP's for killing characters in challenges and I got D3 Infiltrators (after a re-roll since my opponent thought it silly to get cause fear when facing Space Marines). We rolled for psychic powers, he rolled two on Biomancy and got Warpspeed and chose Smite for second. I rolled one on Nurgle (and chose Nurgle's Rot) and two for Biomancy and got Endurance and Life Leech. My Warlord got Cosmic Fate for his Gift of Mutation (re-roll failed armour saves). As there was only one ruin in his deployment zone (the large cathedral) I had to shatter that one with my Warpsmith, and he chose to enforce the other one close to him with his Master of the Forge.

I won the roll off to go first and decided to take first turn. I then also won the roll off to decide who deployed infiltrators first since, we both had them. I chose to go first there as well, even though it'd been a nice opportunity to counter-deploy some stuff - but the board was so packed at this time meaning there was very limited space to infiltrate on so by going first I could deny him any infiltration pretty much.

I chose to infiltrate Chosen (so I've still not played them without infiltrate, heh) with the Warpsmith, two Obliterators and the Terminators with the Sorcerer. He left a unit of Terminators with the Warlord-Librarian in reserve for Deep Striking, as well as the Bikes and the Drop Pod with meltas.

Deployment. Objectives are in the two buildings to the bottom and on the balcony in the building at the top-right side and between the two buildings at the top-left side.

Deployment from the other angle, notice the infiltrating Chosen, Obliterators and Terminators. Also the Scouts who were forced to deploy inside their own deployment zone despite being Infiltrators thanks to me being everywhere.

No Night Fighting for turn 1, and he didn't steal initiative.

Turn 1 - Black Legion

So I basically moved forward with everything except for Cultists and Las-predator. Both Marine units moved through the woods, the red one was a normal forest and the white one a hungry jungle that ate one Marine. First Blood to the trees! I also revealed the objectives, and of course the one the Cultists were holding was sabotaged. The one on the balcony above was a Skyfire-nexus which was really nice! The Terminators also revealed the objective on their side as the one which lets you re-roll ones when shooting.

Everything that had something that could hurt the Land Raider and was in range shot at it, but only managed to take 3 hull points off it and shake it a bit. The Decimator then shot his Storm Lasers at the closest Marines he could see and killed one. All Marines and Plague Marines just ran closer while the Cultists shuffled away a bit from the scary objective while still holding it.


Turn 1 - Iron Hands

The objective he was holding turned out to half the charge distance. The Drop Pod arrived with five Marines with a Melta and a Combi-melta and it scattered off so it landed in front of my Auto-Pred instead of to the side of it. The Scouts were moving forwards towards the enforced building they had planned to deploy in but were denied from to try and re-capture it. The Land Raider moved 6" forward, but he forgot to get the Terminators out... at least they were protected for another turn!

The meltas from the Dropped Marines both hit the Auto-Pred and both got penetrating hits, he rolled two threes turning into fives, meaning two immobilised results and thus it took an additional HP loss and was Wrecked. The Vindicator then shoots it's scary large pieplate on my Plague Marines, but it scattered back and landed right on top of his Marines that had just got out of the Drop Pod (just like I told him it would!), but thanks to cover it only killed the three regular Marines (leaving the Sergeant and the melta alive) and one Plague Marine.

One of the Razorbacks then took a pot-shot at the Decimator and promptly exploded it. So that's 250 points that managed to kill one marine before it was gone. Thanks!

The Plasma Cannon managed to kill one Terminator from it's maximum range and the Land Raider used it's Machine Spirit and some Rapid Fire Bolters took both a Obliterator (and his buddy failed his morale and fled) as well as two more Terminators. The Chosen who had got into the enforced building were really enjoying their 3+ cover save however and only lost a Bolter-guy to the missiles and snipers coming their way.

Turn 2 - Black Legion

The Heldrake arrived and started swooping between the buildings, flying at it's maximum speed. The Obliterator actually managed to rally in front of the Land Raider. He just turned around and shot his twin-linked melta at it and wrecked it, forcing the Terminators to come out.

The Chosen moved further into the building and closer to the Vindicator, the difficult terrain made it so that only two of them got in melta-range though, with the rest having to do long range melta. It was enough though, and they blew the Vindicator up, and the explosion killed one scout and four Marines... both the Plasma Cannon, Plasma Gun and a Sergeant died... that was some of the most unlucky saving throws I've ever seen!

The unlucky saving continued when my Happy Camper Marines sitting in the forest shot at the Terminators and got two Bolter hits and one Plasma hit, and two Terminators died despite Storm Shields! Obliterators took out another Terminator with Plasma Cannons. My Predator also managed to blow the Lascannon off the far away Razorback.

Then I decided to try and get an easy Boon-roll with my Lord, so I split him off from the Plague Marines, planning to shoot and charge the two remaining Marines from the Drop Pod. I actually killed the Sergeant with my Bolt Pistol, saving me the risk of charging an overwatching melta. And for the Boon I rolled... Spawn. D'oh! The Plague Marines, angry (or happy?) at seeing their Warlord turned into a Spawn shot at the remaining Marine. Both Plasmas overheated. And both died despite armour and Feel no Pain... At least the Bolters took the Marine down (only failing one out of 7 saves).

The Maulerfiend and the Bikers had moved up on their flank and was picking their targets. The Maulerfiend is extremely fast, so it reached the Razorback in the ruins with ease and blew it up. The Bikers first shot their squad of Marines, killing one with a Melta and then charged in, killing another one - which was enough to break them and they got away as well. The remaining Terminators also flamed and charged a separate squad of Tacticals, wiping them out.

The surviving Obliterator decided to try and charge the Assault Terminators that had popped out of the Land Raider. Turned out to be a bad idea, despite causing 3 wounds (all saved by Storm Shields). The Heldrake then flamed a squad and killed all four it could reach, leaving a lone missile-launcher.


Turn 2 - Iron Hands

The Storm Talon came in, but both the Terminators and the Bikes stayed out. The Storm Talon showed up right in front of the Heldrake and unloaded everything it had at it. But turns out it's good being a Daemon. The lone missile spared by the Heldrake last turn, and the fleeing missile-launcher as well as some Devastators shot at the Maulerfiend and managed to cause one glance and one stunned (which was ignored by Daemonic Possession).

The Master of the Forge also ran towards the Razorback that lost it's gun, but couldn't quite reach it to try and repair it.

In the fight over the fortified building he managed to kill three Chosen with flamers and snipers. And more Rapid Fire Bolters killed my Terminator Champion (which I chose to let die since I wanted to keep my Heavy Flamer as Assault Terminators were incoming). By the time the Assault Terminators got all the way to my Terminators only the Sergeant was left alive, and thanks to Champion of Chaos I had to challenge and he couldn't refuse. All saves made on both sides though and my Power Fist just got front row seats.

Turn 3 - Black Legion

The Heldrake used Vector Strike at the Storm Talon and got four hits! Only one glance and one penetrating though, and the Storm Talon jinked and saved the pen. However, by this time my Marines had finally managed to climb up to the balcony and grab the Skyfire nexus, so with their plasmas the managed another glance on the Storm Talon so it crashed and burned... right on top of my Bikes! Killing my Champion which I failed to save.

My Predator, seeing the Master of the Forge trying to fix the Razorback he shot last turn decided to finish business and blew the Razorback up. The Obliterators were inspired and managed to take two hullpoints and immobilise the remaining Razorback as well.

Over in the fortified building again, the Warpsmith decided to return the BBQ-favour and flamed them back, and with the meltas the squad died. The Warpsmith melta was the one to take the Sergeant and for a Boon I rolled... a Spawn. Right. Oh, and my Warlord-Spawn ran and hid in the forest in the far back by the way, to try and deny and Slay the Warlord points.

The Maulerfiend ran out of the ruins and charged one of the Dreads... and died to Overwatch. The Bikers avenged him by killing the other Dread with their meltas.

The Sorcerer still managed to tie the combat with the Terminator Sergeant.

Turn 3 - Iron Hands

Terminators arrive surrounded and outnumbered by enemies but never... actually they were out-gunned too.

Both the Bikers and Terminators finally came in. The Terminators in a somewhat desperate move used their Deep Strike in the middle of my side of the board and scattered closer to the Cultists and then ran to spread out. The Bikes moved up and melta:ed some Chosen and with the help of lots of missiles and Rapid Fire and Snipers they killed off all but 3 Chosen. 3+ cover really saved them. Thanks Master of the Forge!

One of the remaining Obliterators also took a Wound to Bolters, and one Plague Marine died as well to Autocannon fire from the Dread. The Master of the Forge reached the remaining Razorback and actually managed to repair one hullpoint.

In the challenge between the Terminator Sergeant and the Sorcerer the Sergeant managed to cause one wound on the Sorcerer, but thanks to the Mark of Nurgle he wasn't insta-killed and stayed for another round.




Turn 4 - Black Legion

Cultists, Marines in the forest, Predator and Obliterators all shot at the Terminators. I rolled pretty average, but with some bad saving all that remained after that was the Librarian with 1 wound left. I had also moved the Cultists closer to get a charge in, planning to swarm the Terminators in lots of bodies, and then went through with my plan even as there was only the Librarian left... forgetting the Champion of Chaos rule, which forced my Cultist Champion to challenge... Crap. The Librarian went first and missed all attacks. What! I survived? Thanks to the 5 re-rolls I then also managed to cause 4 wounds. 2+ save should stop it though? No, he failed one and dies! And for a Boon I roll... Daemon Prince! I swear the Dice Gods are real and they have a twisted sense of humour...

The Chosen do their best to shoot the Scouts off the objective and kills one. The Warpsmith-spawn moved up around them and charged them from behind to force them to pile in away from the objective. Killed one scout even.

The Bikers charged the Razorback and with their Hammer of Wrath took off one hullpoint after failing to shoot it with two meltas.

The Sorcerer then actually managed to win his challenge, and with Endurance (which I by the way cast in every round but haven't mentioned) that gave him It Will Not Die I even regenerated my lost wound. And the Boon I got was also +1W, all though I realise now I did that in the wrong order, so he had no extra wound but in the end it didn't matter.

Plague Marines took some pot-shots and killed a few Marines as well and the Heldrake killed 6 Marines (the squad that used to contain the Plasma Cannon and the one next to it) after failing to Vector Strike the Dread.


Turn 4 - Iron Hands

The Bikers wiped out the remaining three Chosen with their meltas and the help of the Master of the Forge, and he scrambled his last remaining Troops forwards trying to at least contest the objective the Plague Marines were holding. My Bikers then got another chance at the Razorback with their grenades and took the last Hullpoint off.

Tie combat between the Spawn and Scouts. And then the Cultist objective actually blew up and killed three Cultists.




Turn 5 - Black Legion

The Marines on the Skyfire Nexus killed two of the Marines who had come closer last round through a building window which made them fail their morale. The Plague Marines charged the lone remaining Marine in front of them, killed him barely and the consolidated back on the Objective. The Heldrake torched the Bikers and my Bikers killed the Master of the Forge.

The Spawn then killed all but one Scout, and the Obliterators blew up the Drop Pod. The Terminator with a Power Fist charged the Dread and killed it.

At this point he conceded and there was a Chaos victory (3 Objectives, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord) 11 - 1 (First Blood).




Lessons Learnt

First turn isn't always that helpful, especially with this deployment. My first turn really didn't have much to it, as most stuff were out of range, despite infiltrate and what not! I think that if I get the choice, next time I play this deployment I will go second and let my opponent come to me instead.

Other than that I'm really pleased with how both my Terminators and Chosen were tying up their sides of the board respectively and drawing a lot of attention away from my Troops. I mean, in the end I still had all four of my Troops, and I was really worried it wouldn't be enough beforehand! Just too bad I didn't really get the chance to use my Sorcerer that much, but next time! Endurance was great however.

Other than that it was a really fun game with a lot of random stuff happening! Too bad my opponent couldn't make any armour saves though, because thanks to that it was somewhat of a massacre towards the end as I had pretty much half my army still left on the board compared to his few scattered Marines. And also some real bad luck with reserves coming in late. I think that the Librarian should have been sitting inside the Land Raider though, just to make sure he doesn't get stuck in reserve like that.

But wow, how different it is to play at this scale. I almost start to understand how it must be to play Orks or Imperial Guard... with all the stuff to do every turn!