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The Brain was still reeling from this last defeat. He was quickly losing face amongst his minions. He thirsted for revenge against the greenskins and the Eldar, but that would need to be slaked later. Right now he needed power and in the currents of the warp that was manifested in belief. Faith and fear were the two most certain ways.

He had been courting a cabal on the Imperial world of Centinus III for some time. Perhaps it was time to trigger some more overt activities. True, it was a bit ahead of schedule and the ramifications would not be as dire were he to wait for another couple of decades but he had a thirst - a need for the kind of power that only disruption could bring. That only Chaos could bring.


Army Lists

It turned out that after we were done with the ork game that we both had time to get in a second game. Shep has been working go get Gryft into the game and the new Space Marine codex seemed to be the best time to jump in. The new edition and, more importantly, a new codex written for the new ruleset with tons of cool new models and tactics seemed like a great way to do that. To that end he wanted to try out a list that he has been working on as the basis for Gryft's army. Although I had a couple of changes I wanted to implement I hadn't brought over the models so I just ran with what I had. Besides, with 3 drop pods I might actually see the screamers destroy a vehicle...

The Brain's Master Plan

Bulemius - Great Unclean One (Breath, Flies)

12 Plaguebearers (Icon)
12 Plaguebearers (Icon)
6 Horrors(Bolt, Changeling)

7 Flamers (Bolt)
5 Bloodcrushers (1 Rending)

5 Screamers of Tzeentch

The Brain - Tzeentch Prince (Bolt, Gaze)
Skwawk - Tzeentch Prince (Bolt, Gaze)
Soul Grinder (Phelgm)

Gryft Kantor's Strike Force

Pedro Kantor

2x10 Sniper scouts with camo cloaks

2x10 Sternguard with power fist in drop pod
1x10 Sternguard with power fist and 2 combimeltas in drop pod

Land Raider

Setup and early game

We once again rolled a pitched battle capture and control. My objective was in the building near the southwest corner of the table, Shep's was in the building in the center of his deployment zone. Both units of scouts split into combat squads, one taking up 2 floors of the building with his objective, one on the ground floor, one in a crater in the northwest and the other in a crater in the northeast. The land raider took up a position near his objective. The drop pod with Pedro and the one of the sternguard dropped in front of his building with the other one right next to it. The third, the one with the combimeltas was held in reserve. With no targets most everything just held their position.

I got my preferred wave this time dropping Skwawk to the northwest near a unit of scouts and the bloodcrushers between him and the Sternguard, the Brain just southwest of the drop pod wall, a unit of plaguebearers dropped in near my objective but had a big drift into the building claiming two of them. Finally, Bulemius dropped in near the scouts and, thanks to a beneficial scatter was able to puke on them, claiming three of them in a death best not contemplated.

The other Sternguard arrived with the roar of retrothruster and the thunder of a couple of tons slamming into the ruined building near my plaguebearers. They jumped out and fired their hellfire ammunition. Okay, what does that do? Wounds on 2s. Ouch. After accounting for saves and feel no pain I still lost 4 of them (and that was with pretty good rolls.)

Pedro led his sternguard to fire upon the jugger mounted bloodletters and I failed 15 out of 16 armor saves. Sadly, I only had 10 wounds. Wounding on 2+ with bolters is hard core. The snipers, land raider, and drop pod storm bolters put 2 wounds on Skwawk and 1 on the Brain.

My reserves were a little better this game as the flamers arrived along with the soul grinder. I risked the soul grinder by deep striking him into the building off of the plaguebearers icon but he was okay. His best shot was at the filthcovered scouts and he finished the work that Bulemius had started. The flamers also came in off the icon with a pretty sweet shot at the sternguard as long as I could get one plaguebearer out of the way in the movement phase.

I rolled a pair of twos for that movement, not quite enough to get out of the way off all that template love. I decided that it would be much better to be in close combat with them than to try and weather another round of short range wound on 2 shooting so moved towards them. The flamers held their fire (no pun intended) so as to ensure that the plaguebearers would be in charge range. I rolled Bulemius's difficult terrain check and was surprised to see a 6. I had been intending to deal with the scouts with him, but that movement could not be ignored. Instead he moved towards the land raider and the scouts hiding in its shadow. The Brain moved forward to assault Pedro directly and Skwawk moved towards the scouts hoping to be in close combat on the next shooting phase.

Bulemius puked on the scouts and then charged in, finishing them off. His consolidation took him towards the scouts in the building. The Brain wounded Pedro twice but was unable to get past his armor. In return he took another wound and lost combat but survived. Skwawk whiffed on the scouts but didn't take anything in return.

The plaguebearers charged the sternguard, realizing that being in contact with them was a whole lot safer than taking more hellfire rounds to the face. They would spend the rest of the game in a war of attrition with the sternguard. It should be noted that as bad as my rolls were on the bloodcrushers they were that good here. One turn I took 6 wounds (counting power fist) and saved 5 of them and feeling no pain from the last. It was insane.

Mid-game to end game
The only unit of unengaged sternguard moved over towards the combat between skwawk and the scouts. Pedro called in an airstrike on the soulgrinder and got a hit. Fortunately for me he rolled a 1 and failed to penetrate the armor. Unfortunately, we realized it is ordnance and the second dice did much better. Along with the lascannons from the landraider they destroyed it. The sternguard charged in to rescue the neophytes. Shep wisely resolved the Pedro combat first, sending The Brain back to the warp. His unit consolidated into range of the ongoing combat with Skwawk giving the sternguard a bit more impetus. The daemon prince was banished. The scouts from the building shifted away from while firing their bolt pistols at him. Great chunks of necrotic flesh blew off as he suffered a wound. From their vantage point they determined that the safest place for them would be in the land raider so they loaded up and the land raider took up position on top of the objective.

Bulemius crashed through the wall with a hearty "hey hey hey!" and charged into Pedro's guard. Having learned my lesson he set about slaying the sternguard and over the next couple of turns whittled them down to where he was facing Pedro in single combat. The greater daemon would not be denied and the Chapter Master fell as toxins began to overwhelm his enhanced constitution.

The screamers moved over to set up a charge on the land raider and were all gunned down before doing anything. The horrors arrived in the building and lost 3 of their number to dangerous terrain checks! The final plaguebearers arrived also off the icon and made sure that they claimed my own objective.

The flamers jumped over towards the land raider and received the same attention that the screamers had suffered. Two of them survived and they landed near the landraider. The bolt and the breath failed to do anything to its adamantium hull and they charged it even though they knew that they had no chance of getting to the scouts sheltering inside.

They did, however, end up with 3" of the objective as the game came to an end. It had been a punishing game for the daemons - I think I managed to kill Pedro, 1 unit of sternguard and 2 scout combat squads. In return all I had left were 3 horrors, 1 plaguebearer unit that arrived late to the show, and 2 flamers. I had taken a beating, but held the field.

After action review
Wow. I was extremely overconfident going into this game. He had a fairly small, elite power-armored army - the kind of list that daemons usually absolutely destroy. New Marines are crazy shooty. I got that opinion the first time I played against them (Ultramarines) and this game just reinforced it. Shep played a really solid game and even though I won in the end, I felt like the game was lost from turn 2 and every turn after that just felt like a beating. Only a series of good rolling and the resilience of the Nurgle section kept me in the game. That and being unwilling to admit that I was getting thrashed. If there is anything that I learned about myself and my playstyle in these two games is to never give up on daemons. Stick to the game plan and trust that, as long as you picked the right tools and then you use them well, they can always pull out a win. Maneuverability is key to winning many of the 5th edition missions and our deployment allows us a great amount of it.

Eternal Praise
Bulemius and the plaguebearers. Those two units won me this game. There is something to be said for taking a punch and grinning through gapped teeth and bleeding gums.

Eternal Damnation
The screamers are dead to me.


The Brain was weary. His minions were shattered and scattered across the warp. It was just as well. They were the cause of all his troubles lately. He had counted upon them and they failed him each and every time. He replayed the battles in his mind - his strategies were flawless, this much evident to him even now. His minions were weak and that caused his punishment.

He decided that perhaps it was time to court some new allies - perhaps strike up a pact with some of the other greater powers. Perhaps even a trip to the soul forge was in order. He eyed the pile of spiritstones claimed from the fallen eldar. His intention to integrate them into his private infinity circuit - to spare his ancient kin from an eternity of torment warred with his desire for power. Just a few, he decided. Not all, just a few. This small sacrifice would allow him to save multiples of their number. He convinced himself that it wasn't the power he sought, but salvation.

He almost even believed it.

Wow... how did Pedro's powerfist not whittle down the Daemon? Crappy rolling on his side, or excellent saves on yours?

I have to say the storyline at the begging and end really pull it all together. That said nice game its always nice to hear nurgle are doing what they where meant to do and of course congratulations on your victory. I hope Skwawk and the brain do some real damage next time.

lord_sutekh wrote:Wow... how did Pedro's powerfist not whittle down the Daemon? Crappy rolling on his side, or excellent saves on yours?

Well, Pedro has 3 attacks that wound on 2s and 3 wounds that hit on initiative 1, the daemon has 4 attacks that wound on 2s with rerolls that hit on initiative 2 and 5 wounds so pedro should lose that fight 9 times out of 10.

Good report I would have guessed you would have swapped out the screamers on the fly for.. ummm... anything else. Where you giving them one more try to do something since you own them? Did you not bring anything to swap? It's not important really so I could see for the sake of time and being simple that you just ran the same list maybe. Just curious.

I just brought the models for the list I played so I didn't really have anything else. I usually ride a motorcycle so try and keep things as streamlined as possible.

Though in retrospect I probably would have been better off just spending those points on upgrades - maybe gift of chaos for the princes or something. It would have been nice to turn kantor into a spawn.

Failing 15 out of 16 saves must have been terrifying. I am not looking forward to fighting sterngaurd. Nice report.

Nice report. Always a pleasure reading these.

Blood