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Greetings Dakkites!

Inspired by some of the excellent battle reports we’ve read here in the past six months or so, my friend Taloncab and I decided to take our new armies for a spin and post a report of our own; my noble, heroic Chaos Space Marines (Slaanesh) versus his dastardly, evil Imperial Fists... Something like that, anyway. The game was played on a 4' x 4' table with sparse cover.

We hope you enjoy it, any feedback is always welcome.

Chaos Introduction
Captain Demetrius stepped forward and, feeling solid rock beneath his feet, removed his helmet and exhaled heavily. For weeks he and his brothers had been waiting for this moment, but now that they were here, fatigue clouded Demetrius' mind as he tried to remember how these troubles began. Demetrius and his section had charged forward to set up a perimeter, the daemon filth around them had vanished back to the warp – and then the music had started. His mind strained to recall details, but he knew days had been spent in a shuttle taking them from the fringes of the Emperor's territory to this planet; a shuttle that Demetrius had taken from the Indefatigable… Lysander’s own ship! Turning back to face his men, Demetrius noticed how bold the yellow of their armour seemed against the grey twilight of this world. Was it twilight? He couldn't trust anything his body told him any longer, the music had dulled his senses. He felt as if he was drifting through a dream.

As his men disembarked, he saw in them the same weariness he felt himself - their shoulders slumped, the only thing keeping them conscious was the insistent beat and melody that had been with them since that battle. Demetrius could see nothing special about his surroundings; the large flat rock that he stood upon looked no different to the hundreds they had passed the day before. This whole place seemed cold and unremarkable, yet the melody that had been tugging at his sanity, the melody that caused him and his men to desert the Imperial Fist front line, somehow told him that he was where he needed to be. The beat grew louder in the mind of the Space Marine Captain and the music quickened. "I am here! I answer your summons!" he bellowed, bending over double and clutching at his ears. In a trance-like state, the eighteen marines advanced and slowly formed a circle around him, each dropping to one knee. "We are here!" Demetrius screamed. Blinking through tears of agony he saw runes and incomprehensible lettering glowing purple beneath his feet. The markings flashed a burning white and Demetrius felt air rushing about face as he was hurled upwards. Still looking down, his men heard the beginnings of another scream and the air seemed to rain blood and gore, the thick red liquid painting a perfect circle over the area and tainting their yellow armour a glistening orange. The music ceased in the heads of the Space Marines. For a brief second, blissful silence was all that filled the mind of each of them, but now compelled to look up they saw a winged black daemon descending with a wicked smile across its hellish face. "I am Tantras. You belong to me now, and together we belong to my master..." here the daemon's forked tongue flicked and darted around the air and his eyes flared bright purple “...Slaanesh!”.

Incanting ancient words of power, the daemon Tantras swept his hand across six of the kneeling marines and instantly thick, grey wings shot from their backs, tearing through the back-plates of their power armour as if it was paper. Selecting one of the six with a finger, another ancient word caused horns to burst from the man's helmet and his armour visibly swelled with power. Turning to the remaining twelve stooped marines, he pointed at two more. In turn, horns erupted from their helms and again their muscles expanded within their armour. Suddenly, with a spectral lash that hadn't been in his hand seconds before, the daemon cracked the air around the men and they found themselves hurled into a new formation, three sets of six. “Yes...” the daemon Tantras hissed “Three of the master's number. Yes...” The melody resumed in the head of each man. Ecstatic and revitalised, they cheered and chorused "To Tantras! For Tantras! For Slaanesh!" firing bolter rounds into the air and revelling in their new allegiance. Beyond the glowing runes, past the muzzle flare and the celebration, a burning trail could be seen in the sky as another ship entered the planet's atmosphere.

Chaos Army List
HQ
Daemon Prince, Wings, MoS, Fzorgle.

TROOPS
6 x Noise Marines, Champion (upgrade), Power Weapon, Doomsiren, Meltabombs, Rhino.
6 x Noise Marines, Champion (upgrade), Power Weapon, Doomsiren, Meltabombs, Rhino.

FAST ATTACK
6 x Raptors, Champion (upgrade), Power Weapon, Flamer x2, Meltabombs

Imperial Fist Introduction
Nikandras slammed a magazine into his bolter and cocked the loading mechanism to place a fresh round into the chamber. No doubt the traitors were tens, maybe hundreds of miles away by now, he thought - but the gnarled marine hadn’t gained the title of Veteran Astartes by being complacent. It had been just seven Terran days ago that Nikandras had been on the Indefatigable preparing for an assault on the planet Deh-trea, where Waaagh Graznak was running amok. Yet before they neared the planet something had gone horribly wrong and the ship had suddenly started to break apart in a series of cataclysmic explosions.

The few survivors who had made it to escape craft, including the seemingly indestructible Darnath Lysander, had soon rendezvoused and regrouped. It didn’t take the wise captain long to track down the fleeing craft that had been responsible for the scuttling of the Indefatigable – and the chase was on.

“Sergeant, initial topography reports and life-sign scans are in from our scouting party.”, yelled his fellow tactical squad member Rassius, snapping Nikandras out of his reverie. Turning, the Sergeant nodded to Rassius and took a glance around at the dead and grey planet before glancing down at the tactical readout being transmitted to his data slate. “Impossible”, whispered Nikandras, which attracted the attention of his fellow Astartes who were all preparing to move out after the initial landing, but picked up on the sound made by their squad leader with their keen hearing.
“Get me Lysander!”, barked Nikandras, “Bring him and his sternguard from orbit. Mobilise Arkor and get that scout squad squadron back and in cover. We’re going to need to be ready, and quickly. The bastards we’ve been hunting for the last week have now decided they want a fight!”

Imperial Fist Army List
HQ
Darneth Lysander.

TROOPS
Tactical squad: Nikandras. Sergeant, Flamer, Missile launcher.
Scout Squad: Taipo. Sniper Rifles, camo-cloaks, Missile launcher.

ELITE
Dreadnought: Arkor. Multi-melta, Heavy flamer.
Sternguard Veterans (5) in Drop-pod.


OVERVIEW
Taloncab and I had been smack-talking each other for MONTHS about this game. We grew up together and we’ve always had competitions. On Streetfighter he was Ryu, I was Ken. When we played Bloodbowl, he played humans, I was Orks. When we turned to Magic: The Gathering, he played white and I played black (I could go on, but I won’t), so when we returned to 40k after a ten year hiatus it was absolutely no shock that he picked loyalist marine scum and I picked the daring lads of from the dark side of the woods.

Coming into the battle we both knew roughly what we’d be up against but both quite maturely decided against tailoring our lists especially. I was acutely aware that I was going to be outranged by sniper rifles and missile launchers – my plan was more or less to rush forward and hope the smoke launchers would protect the Rhinos during turn one, then by turn two I’d be upon him. A master stroke, I know. As far as I was aware, Taloncab’s tactics were going to be to stand at the back of the board and cause me problems with his ranged weapons, then bolster his lines with Lysander and the Dreadnought when I got there. Lysander already had me worried, but I was convinced the Dreadnought wouldn’t present too much of a problem as I could probably have the Daemon Prince pull its arms and legs off.

SET UP
Having pre-agreed to play Annihilation, Taloncab set his Tac Squad (split into two combat squads, ML in one, Sarge and Flamer in the other) up on his edge of the board in amongst some ruins, with his Dreadnought guarding his left flank. This I was most upset about as my army’s intelligence (our months worth of pre-game banter) had reported that the Dreadnought would be stepping out of the Drop-pod on turn one. This meant that the only thing left to deploy from the pod was… oh…
I deployed my Raptors on the front edge of a set of ruins, just about clinging to a cover save. My Daemon Prince was a couple of inches behind them tucked neatly into a tall right-angled ruin that shielded him from LoS. My two Rhinos, as you can see from the picture, also heroically deployed out of LoS behind a convenient hill.



Imperial Fist Turn 1
Nikandras saw the smoke rising in the distance and heard the noise of the enemy rhinos trundling towards their position. Then a noise pierced the industrial tumult, with a high pitched shriek. What the tactical sergeant had feared was true. A daemon of hellish size and strength landed in a ruin not 200 meters from his position, with members of freakish, twisted battle brothers landing next to him, wings flapping like gruesome gargoyles. “Hold steady and make every shot count!” shouted Nikandras to the scouts crouched in ruins to his left. “Forget that monster and take down those damned heretics.”. Orders at this point would calm his men, but how could they hope to better such an abomination? And in answer to his thoughts, out of the sky streaked a drop-pod marked with The Fist, crashing into some ruins in front of the winged daemon, and out stepped Lysander and his sternguard, bolters spitting deadly vengeance rounds...

>> Drop pod arrives and Lysander and vets disembark into ruins. Fire five Hellfire rounds at Raptors, killing one.<<

>> Tactical Marines fire missile launcher at Raptors and hits, but the cover protects the raptors from any damage. Bolters well out of range.<<

>> Sergeant/flamer combat squad move towards centre of board, Dreadnought advances forward slightly to protect left flank.<<

>> The Scouts have held until the perfect shot presents itself. Four shots and a missile streak across the field and when the smoke clears two more raptors lie dead or dying. The raptors turn and flee to the edge of their board and a roar of defiance goes up amongst the defenders. A good start, but the traitors are far from defeated.<<




Chaos Marines Turn 1
“Forwards! Forwards or I’ll flay your souls!” hissed the Daemon Tantras, and with a crack of his spectral lash the Raptors regained their senses and soared back over the ruins and towards the Sternguard. “Destroy them! I shall rip Lysander’s heart out and throw it into the warp myself!

>> The two Rhinos trundle towards the enemy lines, one straight up the middle of the field and one directly up the left flank towards the Dreadnought. Eyeing up the two missile launchers nestled in the ruins and the Multi-melta mounted on the Dreadnought, both pop smoke.<<

>> The Daemon Prince launches himself into the air and touches down in front of Lysander’s Veteran squad within the ruins and with a crack of the lash, they are hurled into a circle to the Daemon’s right.<<

>> Against all logic, the Noise Marines from the center Rhino disembark, engulfing the hapless veterans in a screech from the Doomsiren and spitting bolter shells their way. None survive, although Lysander stands strong and unharmed.<<

>> The Daemon Tantras howls and charges into melee with Darneth Lysander driving his blade through the Captain’s side and somehow avoiding retribution from the Fist of Dorn. The Prince wins the combat by one, but Lysander holds fast.<<





Imperial Fist Turn 2
The sounds and screams coming from the battle in front of them had the scouts visibly shaken and Nikandras would need to get over to the ruins to reinforce his men. He would just have to hope that when the smoke clears around Lysander, he and his fellow Astartes would still be standing.

>>Both the snipers and missile launcher combat squad concentrate their fire on the exposed noise marines, but only manage to take one of them down.<<

>>Dreadnought Arkor brings his Multi-melta to bear on the advancing rhino, but can’t get a lock through the smoke surrounding the transport.<<

>>Lysander fights on valiantly, wounding the Daemon Prince and deflecting all of his foe’s attacks.<<

Chaos Marines Turn 2
“Raptors, to my side! This filth stands for the Emperor, he must be silenced!” cried the Daemon Prince as his blows were absorbed by Lysander's shield.

>>Embarking back into their Rhino, the Noise Marine squad that had seen off the veterans last turn sped towards the enemy lines to teach the tactical squad and scouts concealed within the ruins about template weapons.<<

>>With the Daemon Prince locked into combat with Lysander and no easy answer to the Dreadnought, the Champion in command of the second Noise Marine squad panicked and decided to inflict as much damage as possible whilst he could. Once more spewing high frequency sonic waves and rapid bolter fire, four marines of the enemy combat squad fell to the dirt.<<

>>The Raptors obediently dive into combat with Lysander and the Daemon Tantras, hoping just to damage the Captain with weight of numbers. Lysander's armour held and the Fist of Dorn landed another wound on the Prince.<<




Imperial Fist Turn 3
Rassius fell dead, his bones powdered and his internal organs turned to mush by the infernal noise emitted by the former Astartes champion turned traitor. Nikandras screamed and raised his bolter in defiance.

>>Arkor and Nikandras’ combat squad turn and unleash their weapons into the traitorous marines, downing all but the champion and his deputy.<<

>>Arkor charges into combat, obliterating the remaining Noise Marines.<<

>>Lysander and the Daemon Prince battle onwards, the Daemon howling in agony as Lysander's hammer hits home again, whilst his own attacks are again repelled by a sturdy Storm Shield.<<

Chaos Marines Turn 3
>>The Daemon Tantras finally succumbs to the Fist of Dorn and with a screech is banished back to the warp.<<

>>Confident the battle is lost, Noise Marines pour out of the central Rhino again utilising their deadly Doomsiren and rapid firing bolters. Two scouts and two Tactical Marines perish, but both units grit their teeth and stay put.<<



Imperial Fist Turn 4
>>Lysander easily dispatches the remaining Raptors.<<

>>Dreadnought Arkor moves towards the remaining traitors unleashing all weapons at the enemy. The three Scouts and last three Marines of the tactical squad turn their fire upon the Noise Marines directly in front of them.<<

>>When the smoke clears, the heretics are dead and the Imperial Fists are victorious.<<



RESULT
IMPERIAL FISTS: 4 Kill Points.
CHAOS: 1 Kill Point.

Thanks for reading! I may post comments on some of my decisions later (I feel I should!) and no doubt Taloncab will arrive to have his say, too.

good batrep,

The fluff was a nice touch addition that added to the photos.

This was indeed an epic battle. I hope everyone likes the fluff that goes along with it.

Incidently, we recently had a re-match where chaos pulled a win back - so we're tied 1-1 at the moment!

In this battle, the breaking raptors saved my bacon and Lysander proved himself to be one tough cookie. I ensured I kept the dread away from the DP too - or he would have been toast.

I've recently added a razorback to this army to carry one of the combat squads and provide a little more anti-armour. Along with a squad of Termies it looks great for 1000 points.

Any comments on the battle would be appreciated!

Taloncab

Taloncab wrote:
Incidently, we recently had a re-match where chaos pulled a win back - so we're tied 1-1 at the moment!

Cool where's the Batrep?!?!?

Great story, battle, and pics here. Look forward to seeing more.

madmen wrote:

Taloncab wrote:
Incidently, we recently had a re-match where chaos pulled a win back - so we're tied 1-1 at the moment!

Cool where's the Batrep?!?!?

Great story, battle, and pics here. Look forward to seeing more.

Hahah, thank you. We could write that one up, I remember every detail (because I won! ) but sadly we won't have any pictures of that one.

Great report. The fluff was a great touch, added more character to the battle.

I think the space marines own. Adding the fluff was nice and I knew what was going down and where.

Why did the Imperial Fists have Greek themed names?

Lysander was originally a Spartan general - so I just carried on with the Greek themed names.

I like giving the squads and stuff names - makes my force seem more personal to me. Hope it added to the fluff too.

That was one awesome battle report guys, small strike forces rock! can't say I have one to be fair, a ravaging horde of everything-eating freaks..

The fluff was top quality, you should have done more! good pictures easy layout of the report.

AWESOMESAUCE!

Pretty sweet i think i will start using fluff in my reports just seems to make it more rememberable.

sweet , i think we should start doing some more of these ben , boro reports instead of battle reports (see what i did there) fluff is good. I need to name my commander, mmmmmmm captain waste of space, captain im not leaving my chimera, or some famous person who ran away loads.

Let's do it Phil. Chris and I are already planning the next one!

Captain... Squatter?
Captain... Luigi Italiano?

Great report! Yeah, you all should do more of these!

Liked the story line!

Definitely keep more coming. I'm a huge fan of armies that are fluff-heavy. Creating an unstoppable tide of death is all well and good, but it's gotta have some soul! Great report. The fluff kept it interesting and the summary was smooth and easy to follow.

Thanks everyone - we'll be doing another soon I'm sure. I won't spoil things, but Tantras has an outstanding 750 strike force planned that will come with some butey fluff

Cracking report fella's, always nice to see the weaker armies punching it out, so you can get a little experience for 'DA BIG BAD ORKS'S!'

Awesome stuff lads, really enjoyed sitting in on the game and watching Tantras getting toasted, always good.

Top notch report, I'll expect to read more.

Also Philbert, I'd suggest Commissar Amigo, the cheap and cheerful crispy leader.

cool game guys
lysander is hard as nails!

Hey guys!

Totally didnt recognise you at all until BooBoo told me to look closer at the scenary and i realised it was Lukes.

Great report, good to see you were both using painted armies... not like back back in the day

Keep the reports coming, this one was cracking.

Trust Chris to use special characters though

Hey guys!

Totally didnt recognise you at all until BooBoo told me to look closer at the scenary and i realised it was Lukes.

Great report, good to see you were both using painted armies... not like back back in the day

Keep the reports coming, this one was cracking.

Trust Chris to use special characters though

Great Battle Report lads! I reckon would've gone the way of the Dark powers if Tantras had deployed defensively, and waited for the opportune moment to strike with a bit of help from Lash.

TalonCrab- I reckon you should've deployed nearer the centre, with the hard units on either side, as Tantras could've taken on a single side of you and wrecked it, due to lack of manoeuvrability.

Considering you had a 10 year absence from it you were both really good Would love to play against one of you. Fluff added a cool edge

FOR CHAOS! (glad chaos won at the second crack ).

I love you...

On a less serious note, nice battle report with some nice pictures.

Good luck to the fellow Imperial Fists player.

Battlecannon it phil wrote:or some famous group who ran away loads.

You mean the French?

karimabuseer wrote:Great Battle Report lads! I reckon would've gone the way of the Dark powers if Tantras had deployed defensively, and waited for the opportune moment to strike with a bit of help from Lash.

TalonCrab- I reckon you should've deployed nearer the centre, with the hard units on either side, as Tantras could've taken on a single side of you and wrecked it, due to lack of manoeuvrability.

It was my first ever game playing with this CSM force (not that I'm making excuses at all of course, I think Taloncab had only played his Fists perhaps twice) and as I mentioned in the report I had a plan of sorts, then totally abandoned in it when I saw an opportunity to murder his Vets with a DoomSiren and got excited, hahah!

karimabuseer wrote:FOR CHAOS! (glad chaos won at the second crack ).

I did win the second game, but it wasn't as decisive a victory as this one was for the Imperial Fists... as much as I hate to say it. I think the biggest difference in the second game though was probably the effectiveness of the Daemon Prince. In the first game he used Lash once, then got bogged down and eventually killed by Lysander. In the second game he was an absolute menace! He lashed a Tac Squad to their doom, he pushed Lysander into a position to be assaulted by himself, a unit of Noise Marines and the Raptors (which finished off the stubborn Captain)... and then he leapt across the battlefield into some ruins and killed a unit of Scouts and the other half of the Tac Squad! Amazing! There was also a moment when Lady Luck smiled upon me. Talon's Dreadnought charged into the other unit of my disembarked Noise Marines, but striking first at initiative 5, the unit's Champion rolled a 6 to hit and blew the Dread to pieces with some Meltabombs!

FOR CHAOS!

Inquisitor_Syphonious wrote:I love you...

On a less serious note, nice battle report with some nice pictures.

Good luck to the fellow Imperial Fists player.

Thanks, glad you liked it. We're organising a deciding match for next month, but upping the stakes to 1000pts. My army will be identical, except for the addition of two Vindicators. Tal's extra 250pts are composed of a unit of Devastators and... something else I can't remember

Watch this space!

Great report, love the smaller actions......

Nice paint jobs on those models especially the fists......not the easiest of armies to paint!!!

Best Battle Report I have ever read Tantras. The fluff is just as important to battle reports I would say as butter is to French cooking.Infinite thumbs up!!!

Eldar Savior wrote:Best Battle Report I have ever read Tantras. The fluff is just as important to battle reports I would say as butter is to French cooking.Infinite thumbs up!!!

Thanks very much, mate. It's appreciated! I'm sure Tal would enjoy your comments too, but he's swanning around in Italy on holiday right now and I suspect his mrs has banned him from the net

We're working on another report in the very near future with these two forces boosted to 1000pts, then a little after that, a clash between my Ravenguard Scout Force (still in conception) and his intolerably tough Orks. Not sure whether that'll be 750pts or 1000 yet, though... but both should be loaded with fluff

Great report

Lesson learned charging DP into THSS termies, in this case 1 with wounds, a fist or meltagun would have been better for the instakill (acknowledging the SS save).

That was a great battle, I loved the fluff aspect it really worked out well.