Codicier Amon Yara
Librarian w/ force staff, bolt pistol, Null Zone, Gate of Infinity
Sgt. Kull
10 Tactical Marines w/ plasma gun, multi-melta
Sgt. Taurus
5 Scouts w/ Sgt Telion, 3 sniper rifles, missile launcher, camo cloaks
Bane of Hyperborea
Predator w/ turret autocannon, lascannon sponsons
Proclamation of Crom
Predator w/ turret autocannon, lascannon sponsons
Thunderfire Cannon
Total: 997 points
My teammate was a Tyranid player, running the following:
Tyranids
Tervigon w/ stinger salvo, adrenal glands, toxin sacs
3 Zoanthropes w/ warp blast, warp lance
3 Hive Guard
20 Termagants w/ fleshborers
20 Termagants w/ fleshborers
Trygon Prime
The first mission was the Emperor's Will with Vanguard Strike deployment. Our opponents used the following lists:
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| Here's the table. The Nids aren't deployed yet. |
Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Lord w/ power sword, mark of nurgle, sigil of corruption, bike
Sorceror w/ force sword, bike, mastery level 1, Weapon Virus
10 Cultists w/ autopistols, close combat weapons
10 Cultists w/ autopistols, close combat weapons
10 Chaos Bikers w/ mark of nurgle, power fist, 2 meltaguns
Heldrake w/ baleflamer
5 Havocs w/ 3 autocannons, 1 heavy bolter
Chaos Demons
Epidemius
7 Plaguebearers of Nurgle
7 Plaguebearers of Nurgle
7 Plaguebearers of Nurgle
7 Plaguebearers of Nurgle
7 Nurglings
Blight Drone of Nurgle
Blight Drone of Nurgle
Aegis Defense Line w/ quad gun
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| The enemy army. Very green. |
Our opponents deployed their Cultists and Havocs in the Aegis Defence Line, while the bikes (led by the Sorcerer and Lord) stayed out of sight to our left flank. We deployed with the Nids to the front, Hive Guard and Trygon to the left and Termagants, Zoanthropes, and Tervigon in the center. I deployed the Tacticals to the left to provide fire support while the Sternguard and Librarian stayed in the rear, ready to react to deep striking demons. The Predators took up firing positions on the right with the best sight lines I could get, and the Scouts and Thunderfire took up positions in the ice cave with our objective.
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| Deployment from our perspective |
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| A close-up of the enemy deployment |
Turn 1
We had first turn, so we spread out to limit deep strikes into our area and took some pot shots at the Havocs. We only killed one due to the range and Aegis Defense Line.
Chaos started out by dropping a squad of Plaguebearers in front of our lines, while another tried to deep strike into our lines but mishapped and went into ongoing reserve. Epidemius and his Nurgling escort dropped safely near the Aegis defense line. A Blight Drone dropped on our left flank, and was quickly surrounded by the Chaos Bikers as they advanced. The Drones battle cannon blasted apart some Termagants, as did the Havocs. Epidemius' tally was off to a strong start.
Turn 2
The Termagants and Tervigon advanced in the center, where the Sternguard teleported to support them. The Hive Guard, Tactical squad, Scouts and Thunderfire concentrated on the Bikes and killed 5. The Termigants, Zoanthropes, and Sternguard killed 5 of the Plaguebearers, and a squad of Termagants killed off the remainder in assault. The Predators blasted one of the Blight Drones out of the sky.
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| Lining up shots on the Bikers. |
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| The remaining Bikers advance. |
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| The Sternguard and Termagants advance on the Plaguebearers. |
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| The Termagants launch their assault. |
Chaos dropped in 2 more squads of Plaguebearers in the center, as well as another Plague Drone. The Bikers advanced, firing at and then charging the Hive Guard. Amazingly, they killed of the Hive Guard with 5 wounds inflicted by Hammer of Wrath attacks so they didn't even have to swing. Meanwhile, the Blight Drones continued to up the tally by blasting Termagants with their battle cannons, though one scattered and only killed a Tactical Marine. By the end of the turn, Epidemius had counted enough kills to give every model the ability to wound on a 2+. However, in a mistake my opponent freely admitted, he separated Epidemius from the Nurglings, sending the swarm toward the Termagants.
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| More Nurgle daemons drop in. |
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| The Chaos Bikers wipe out the Hive Guard and consolidate toward our lines. |
In our turn, we put most of our firepower into the Chaos Bikers thundering into our lines. All but the Lord and Sorcerer were gunned down, and they were assaulted by Termagants and the Trygon Prime. The Trygon slaughtered the Sorcerer, who was also able to kill the Trygon with his force weapon. The Lord cut down quite a few Termagants but there were more where they came from. The Sternguard, seeing Epidemius on his own, teleported toward him and unleased their hellfire rounds. Wounding on 2+ with that many shots, I was pretty confident I could take out his 3 wounds, However, I rolled way more 1's than reasonable and my opponent rolled some smoking invulnerable saves and Epidemius was unharmed. My Predators and Thunderfire were also unable to harm the herald. Truly he was favored by Nurgle!
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| A classic pincher attack |
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| The Trygon and Sorcerer kill each other off while the Lord struggles with all the Termagants. |
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| My Sternguard make their ultimately doomed assassination attempt on Epidemius. |
The Chaos turn started with the final unit of Plaguebearers landing next to our objective, contesting it. The other Plaguebearers assaulted into the Termagants, while the Nurglings assaulted the Sternguard, killing everyone but the Librarian, who fell back (at this point, all Nurgle units wounded on 2+ and ignored armor). The Heldrake also came on and torched 2 Scouts.
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| The Chaos advance continues |
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| The Sternguard are counter-assaulted by the Nurglings. |
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| Amon Yara makes a hasty retreat from the super-powered Nurglings. |
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| Surrounded, the Chaos Lord fights on. |
At this point, we realized that we wouldn't have time to play another complete turn, meaning we lost this battle. We did score some bonus points for having more scoring units at the end of the battle than our opponents and for having both our Warlords survive the battle.
Lessons Learned:
1) While this was a very fluffy Nurgle army (most of the units were the sacred number and there only unmarked unit was the Heldrake), Epidemius is terrifying. We had to make an all-or-nothing assault on Epidemius. When we failed, we really didn't have a chance. I think the Sternguard should have managed to kill Epidemius, but sometimes the dice think otherwise.
2) Our firepower did a good job, quickly taking out the Bikers and even dropping a flier. In retrospect, we shouldn't have assaulted the bikes with the Trygon but rather used to take out the softer (relatively) Nurgle units.
3) Despite the bad rap Forgeworld models often have, the Blight Drones were fun to play against and seemed fair for the points. They were far less worrying than the Heldrake.