Chaos Reloaded
Greetings readers, welcome to an ultra-mini batrep featuring
the very first battle against the new Chaos Codex! Our resident Chaos CSM
player Doug rubbed his hands in glee when he arrived with a 1K list worth of
new Chaos toys, I offered to challenge him with my recently-victorious and
tweaked ‘Thawnwing’ list.
GREY KNIGHTS: THAWNWING STRIKEFORCE – 1k
HQ:
Inquisitor Lord – Terminator armour, Psycannon, Daemonhammer
TROOPS:
1no. 10men Terminator Squad – Halberds, 2no. Hammers, 2no.
Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, Thawn-upgrade, master-crafted bolter & halberd
1no. 5men Terminator Squad – Halberds, Hammer, Psycannon
HEAVY:
1no. Dreadknight – Doomfists (replacing the Vindicare. I
fancied an all-Terminator army list. Classic Grey Knights flava!)
CHAOS SPACE MARINES: CULT OF DOUG – 1k
HQ:
Daemon Prince – Power Armour, Wings, Mark of Nurgle, Psychic
Shriek
TROOPS:
1no. 6men Chaos Space Marine Squad – Bolters, pistols, c.c.
weapon, melta gun, Veterans of the Long War upgrade, Rhino dedicated transport,
daemonic upgrade.
1no. 10men Cultist squad
1no. 10men Cultist squad
1no. 10men Cultist squad
FAST ATTACK:
1no. 10men Raptor Squad – pistols, c.c weapons, melta gun
HEAVY:
1no. Maulerfiend – 2no. Ectoplasma cannons
An interesting list where Doug planned to used his Cultist
troops to grab and hold Objectives, with his Maulerfiend intending to pin me
down with Ap2 weaponry, basic MEQ’s for flexibility and a Daemon Prince to
dominate with air support.
So what happened?
The Grey Knights won, by a margin of 12 Victory Points to
zero.
How did this happen?
Huh?
We roll off and the mission chosen was Purge the Alien
(Killpoints!), with the setup being Hammer & Anvil (long table edges). Not
an ideal start for Doug as I then proceed to block the 10men squad with the
Inq. Lord, forming a super squad. and for kill/victory point denial.
Doug’s Daemon Prince rolls off on his own Warlord & Boon
table and manages to increase +1 to his Attack characteristic. I roll and my
Inquisitor gets ‘Legendary Fighter’, giving me an extra Victory Point per
character slain in a challenge.
Grey Knights deployed and ready!
The game started off well with Doug as on his first turn he
gets the Daemon Prince in swooping mode, and tries to Psychic Shriek some
termies off, failing to do so with a poor 3D6 roll to his power (all this
despite my 4+ Deny the Witch roll failing. Thanks Mastery-Level 2 Thawn).
As his army surges forward and the Grey Knights dig in, Doug
fancies his chances by pitting the Daemon Prince against the dreadknight. ‘Why
not?’ we thought.
The Prince does well, wounding the Dreadknight down to it’s
last wound. Dreadknight smacks back with his Doomfist and succeeds with the
Nemesis Force weapon activate roll, instant-gibbing the Daemon Prince.
What, NO Eternal Warrior? Not even a Deny the Witch save
against ‘Force’? (Answer: Nope)
Cue: Accusations of Grey Knight cheesy douchebaggery,
despite over a year of the GK’s having been in existence. Still, Grey Knight
dominance over anything with Daemons in it's statline is one that I do indeed appreciate!
The game then quickly proceeds downhill from there for Doug,
with my Grey Knights steamrolling over everything else he’s got. Psybolt ammo
and weight of fire minnow down his MEQs. The Dreadknight takes out the
Maulerfiend (it didn’t help it was down to it’s last Hull Point as Doug on
account of a failed Gets Hot! Roll and Daemon Siege rule going south for him),
and the Cultists get walked over, made worse by their new ‘Must Always
Challenge’ rule interacting with my Inquisitor Lord’s Legendary Fighter rule,
along with his Daemon Hammer. Splat!
Proxy wars: A carnifex for the Maulerfiend, an Eldar Avatar for the Daemonprince, and my Imperial Guardsmen for Cultists.
On a positive note, the Maulerfiends Ectoplasma did take out
at least 3 Termies, and the cultists fire manage to kill 2, one of which was
Thawn (who did come back on the 5th turn to try to Krak grenade a
Rhino).
By my 5th turn Doug was completely tabled, with his
last unit on the board (Rhino) pulped by the Dreadknight.
Scores as follows: For me, 1 VP for First Blood, 1 VP Slay
the Warlord, 2 VPs from Legendary Fighter and 8 VPs from each unit killed, for a total of 12 VPs. Doug
*may* have gotten a VP if he managed to slay Thawn the second time when he came
back, or another if he managed to finish off my Dreadknight’s last wound.
A depressing first outing for the new Chaos Space Marine
codex, the first 6th edition codex against an extremely powerful
codex (some will say OP’ed) from a previous edition.
CHAOS WILL RISE AGAIN
However, do not fear Fans of Chaos! Doug has requested a
total rematch where I bring my identical list against one more tailored against
Terminators, Chaos-designed to stand up against the onslaught of GK Terminators. Bring it on I say!
To be continued...
Disclaimer: Pictures used without permission
Disclaimer: Pictures used without permission