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BACKGROUND
My friends and I like to get out for a game of 40k every once in a while, and have been trying to get a campaign and/or Apocalypse game in all summer. When we were discussing these ideas, it just so happened that we all had the same 2 days off from work. Considering what a headache it is to align our schedules, this was unprecedented and we soon came up with a 10k points-per-side team apocalypse battle to try out the newly released Apocalypse ruleset. That said, there were a few changes from the “standard” game, namely no unnatural disasters, no D-weapons, no strategic assets (too much of a hassle) and we each were allowed to take a custom special character (which, of course, had to be given the okay by all the players to avoid any OP-ness). Considering the scale of the battle I actually wasn't going to write a report originally, but it had so many epic moments that I just had to share them. Also, I apologize in advance for the fact that only around ~55% of the models in the pictures are painted.

I ended up with around 7500pts of Space Wolves, allied with 2500pts of Tau commanded by my friend Commander Mont-Tau. Our opponents were a mixed coalition, featuring Lord Graveline commanding his Necron forces, Lord Marshall controlling a contingent of Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons, and Lord Graveline's girlfriend, Mystie, commanded a force of Imperial Guard.

Scoring was as follows: during the first break (after Turn 2), objectives were worth 1pt each. During the second break (after Turn 4), objectives were worth 2pts each. During the third break (Turn 5 at the earliest, later if we had time), objectives were worth 3pts each. Slaying a Warlord was worth 1pt and Slaying a Warmaster was worth 2pts. Stopping a Finest Hour was also worth 1pt. Finally, First Blood was worth 1pt. We also decided that only non-vehicle models would be allowed to contest or control objectives to avoid 5th ed shenanigans.

CHARACTERS
The rules for the various special characters are posted here for reference. There's no need to read them, but if you're interested then here they are.

Andilus Greatsword (Space Wolves Warmaster)


Commander Lightspear


Overlord Amheosiris (Necron Warmaster)


Apophis


ARMY LISTS
Andilus Greatsword's Great Company (Space Wolves)


Lightspear's Cadre (Tau)


The Isirian Dynasty (Necrons)


Forces of Chaos (Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons)


Cult of the Iron Gods (Imperial Guard)


DEPLOYMENT
My Rune Priests all rolled their powers on Divination, with all of them getting Prescience and 2 getting Perfect Timing. The 3rd Priest (the one with the Runic Armour and Force Axe) got Scrier's Gaze. I don't recall exactly what powers the Daemon Prince got (I think it got Endurance on one roll), but they weren't particularly important in any case.

We took turns placing 6 objectives. The Space Wolves and Tau won the right to deploy first (we did it as a roll-off rather than bidding), placing their forces together along the bottom of the board. The Necrons, Guard and Chaos Marines deployed along the top portion of the board in chunks – the Necrons too the left, the Guard the center and the Chaos forces the right. All of the Daemons stayed in reserves, as did the Monoliths. The Tau then placed their infiltrators, a trio of Stealth Suits, 3 units of Pathfinders and 2 units of Kroot. Night fighting was not active on Turn 1. The Necron + Chaos forces failed to seize the initiative, and so the game began...












The commander of the Cult of the Iron Gods urges his heretical forces forward.

Turn 1 – Space Wolves + Tau
The Space Wolves and Tau began advancing their forces and spreading out a bit more – when we first set up we didn't realize just how many battle cannons and artillery the Guard were going to bring, so it's damn lucky that the enemy did not seize the initiative. All of the Space Wolves forces moved forward, with most of the Rhinos popping smoke. Among the Tau, the only units which advanced were the two Crisis Teams, who moved to get into some cover. At the end of the Movement Phase, two units of Grey Hunters held the centre objective at the Eiffel Tower and were ready to try to launch an alpha strike on the enemy forces.

In the Shooting Phase, the Space Wolves and Tau on the right side of the board all opened fire on the Havocs (they were the only unit in range at the moment which was any sort of threat). The Long Fangs hit them with 2 plasma cannon shots and 2 krak missiles, killing all but one of them who promptly failed his morale check and bolted. The Devilfish, on the other hand, fired its weapons at the Chaos Spawn, killing them all and earning our side First Blood. In the center of the board, the Land Raider Crusader fired at the lascannon Heavy Weapons Team, killing 2 of them due to Instant Death. The Stealth Suits' burst cannons also caused a surprising reaping, nearly wiping out 2 squads of Guardsmen and taking down a bunch of Warriors (although most of them stood back up due to Reanimation Protocols). Unfortunately, despite dedicating the rest of our heavy weapons to them, we were unable to cause any damage beyond a hull point or two to the Leman Russes... uh oh. This wasn't going to be good... despite getting First Blood that was a pretty underwhelming first turn in terms of damage.













Turn 1 – Necrons + Chaos + Guard
To begin the turn, the lone Havoc failed to regroup (he needed double 1s since he was below 25% strength) and continued to run towards the table edge uselessly. The rest of his Chaotic comrades advanced however, with Kharn and his Berserkers making a beeline towards Andilus' Land Raider. The rest of the Chaos Force moved up the center of the right flank towards the approaching Rhinos. Lord Marshall noticed here that, to his annoyance, he'd placed Lord Apophis behind impassable terrain, forcing him to waste a turn moving his Lord and massive Terminator unit around it before they could even get into position to make an attack. On the left side of the board, all of the Necrons moved forward, with the Wraiths and C'tan hoping to get into combat with the Skyclaws. The Scarabs, on the other hand, moved to get into combat with one of the Space Wolf Dreadnoughts. Meanwhile, the Guard remained largely stationary, moving only a couple of the Russes and the remnants of the Infantry Squads in order to bubble wrap the Russes.

In the Shooting Phase, Lord Marshall's warp storm rolled up The Dark Prince Thirsts, which ended up destroying a Razorback and a few other models across the board. The Obliterators fired their plasma cannons at the 2 Rhinos beside the water tower on the right flank, destroying one and pinning its occupants. The Forgefiend then killed two of the disembarked Grey Hunters. The Necrons concentrated all of their firepower on the Stealth Suits, who were rocking 2+ cover saves in their forests. One particular suit took 2 squads worth of shooting before he was finally felled, but in the end the 2 units of Stealth Suits on the left side of the board were wiped out. The plasma cannon Dreadnought was also gunned down by the Heavy Destroyers. The Lascannon/Missile Launcher Dreadnought was nearly destroyed by a unit of Warriors' Gauss Flayers, but we ended up giving him a 6+ cover save against 3 shots... of which he passed 1. Good enough! To be fair to my opponents though, he was very debatably in cover, although it would come back to bite them in the ass later...

However, the Guard were the ones who caused the real damage this phase. The first Basilisk shot of the game hit Ragnar dead-on and he failed his Look Out Sir roll, getting insta-killed off the bat. I had terrible, terrible luck with Look Out Sir rolls this game, and this particular fail was a real portent of that fact. Between the Basilisks and Leman Russes, one Pathfinder team was annihilated, 2 or 3 Grey Hunter squads had about 1/3 of their number destroyed and one of Lightspear's Crisis Suits and both Shield Drones were killed.

In the Assault Phase, the C'tan and Wraiths managed to get into combat with the Skyclaws and the Scarabs reached the Space Wolf Dreadnought. The Skyclaws actually managed to kill a Wraith on overwatch miraculously, but half of them were killed in the assault. Meanwhile, the Dreadnought managed to destroy 2 bases of Scarabs, but was overwhelmed by their Entropic Strikes and wrecked.





Turn 2 – Space Wolves + Tau
Well that hurt. Clearly the priority number one was to take out the Russes and Basilisks ASAP before they crippled us for good. With a little bit of luck, we'd be able to take out at least 4 of them this turn if the Storm Eagle and both units of Scouts arrived, and if Lightspear and Longstrike did their jobs... fingers crossed. That said, Lightspear's unit had been nearly annihilated by enemy shooting last turn, so he was probably going to die if he had to suffer another volley. With that in mind, Lightspear's unit surged forward to hopefully bring down 2 tanks before he died. We also called his Finest Hour and got Temporarily Unkillable for T10 and a 2+ invulnerable save – HELL YES!!! The fact that it was down to Lightspear and a single Crisis Suit suddenly became a blessing in disguise too because now the whole unit had a majority toughness of 10.

Despite requiring a 5+ to bring in reserves (due to Amheosiris' Warlord Trait, Divide to Conquer, and a Master of the Fleet), I still managed to bring in the Storm Eagle and the unit of melta Scouts thanks to Scrier's Gaze (the plasma Scouts remained in reserves)... I was kind of bummed when I got stuck with Scrier's Gaze when rolling for psychic powers, but it looks like it was a hidden blessing as well. Both units moved into position to attack the Guard and their tanks. Also, Njal rolled Vengeful Tornado for his storm this turn, meaning that a model within 18” would take D3 automatic S9 hits on side armour at the end of the Shooting phase... nice! Njal also cast stormcaller in order to cover the nearby units from incoming tank fire.

With that, our units moved forward. The remaining Dreadnought and Iron Priest moved to attack the Scarabs while Bjorn started falling back – if he got destroyed, I wanted him to be closer to my own units... plus he might stand a chance versus the C'tan. The two nearest Rhinos moved to cut off the C'tan as well, disembarking the leading Rhino's Blood Claw occupants, who hoped to get off some shots at the approaching Necron Warriors. On the right side of the board, three Rhinos disembarked their Grey Hunter and Blood Claw occupants to focus down the Nurgle and Khorne-marked Chaos Marine units. Meanwhile, Andilus' unit disembarked from their Land Raider to destroy Kharne's Berserkers and the Thunderwolf Cavalry moved to finish off the Nurgle-marked Chaos Marines or the Defiler.

In the Shooting Phase, we prepared to wreck the out of the Russes and Basilisks. To give you an idea of the fire power we had to attack them with, we had the Wolf Scouts with a meltagun and 4 pistols to try to get some glances, the Storm Eagle had a twin-linked meltagun within 12” of a Russ, Lightspear and his Crisis Suit had split-firing fusion blasters in melta range of 2 tanks... and if that wasn't enough, we had Longstrike, a Broadside, a Land Raider and 3 units of Long Fangs which could focus down a tank or two. So you won't be surprised to found out that we killed... ZERO FREAKING TANKS!?!?!?!!! WHAT THE !?!!! I believe we knocked a couple hull points off of some of the tanks and maybe stunned one of them, but that was it. Pa-freaking-thetic.

While our anti-tank was pitiful, our anti-infantry was better. The Dreadnought and Iron Priest killed a couple of the Scarabs just to soften them up for the charge. A few Guardsmen and Necron Warriors were also killed by various units, but the Chaos Marines suffered the brunt of the damage this turn. A unit of Grey Hunters and a unit of Blood Claws focused their fire at the Khorne-marked Chaos Marines, killing more than half of the unit. The other unit of Grey Hunters fired at the Nurgle-marked unit, killing a couple of them. Anyway after all that, Njal's storm targeted one of the Russes and... wait, he actually killed it? After all the basically “guaranteed” shots failed, Njal pulled through? Hell yes! Njal may be bloody expensive, but damn is he ever clutch.

In the Assault Phase, Andilus' unit charged Kharn's. Arjac and Kharn had to challenge each other, while Andilus and his unit focused on the Berserkers. I believe Arjac's shield rebuffed all of Kharn's attacks before he swung back with Forehammer, annihilating Khorne's champion in one blow. Meanwhile Andilus swung his greatsword, scything down Berserkers who were finished off by the rest of the squad. In the end, 2 TH/SS Wolf Guard Terminators were killed, but the Berserkers were wiped out. Elsewhere, the Thunderwolf unit charged the Nurgle-marked Chaos Marines and cut through them with ease (T5 be damned). In the end, only 4 or 5 remained with the Thunderwolves suffering only a single wound for their troubles. On the left side of the field, the Iron Priest and Dreadnought decimated the Scarabs, leaving them with only a single base still in the combat. As for the C'tan and Skyclaws, my Wolf Priest challenged the C'tan, who accepted. The Priest actually managed to hold his own, wounding the C'tan once and suffering a wound in return. However, the C'tan's Gaze of Death wiped out the other Skyclaws, causing it to regain its lost wound.













Turn 2 – Necrons + Chaos + Guard
In this turn, the enemy forces rolled for their reserves (with a re-roll from the Astropath). The Chaos forces got in 2 Bloodthirsters, 3 Flamers, 2 units of Bloodletters, a unit of Warp Talons and 3 Bloodcrushers – however, the Crushers ended up scattering onto an enemy unit and so ended up going back into strategic reserves. The Warp Talons deep struck in an area where they could overlap their Blind rule on a unit of Kroot, Pathfinders and Long Fangs... but only the Long Fangs ended up getting affected by it (despite having the highest Initiative value too ). As for the Necrons, one of their Monoliths arrived, deep striking just behind the Long Fangs on the left side of the field. Oh and if there was any doubt, the fleeing Havoc continued to flee.

In the Movement Phase, the Necron Warriors continued to advance to dominate the left side of the field. However, the Monolith pulled one unit through its portal, moving them into a prime position to fire on Longstrike... crap! Meanwhile, the Guardsmen moved to try and take out the Scouts and the surviving Chaos Marines moved to retaliate against the attacking Grey Hunters and Blood Claws. Apophis and his unit of Terminators fortunately found themselves within a potential charge range, although they'd need to get a 9” roll to pull it off. Even if they didn't make it though, the second unit of Berserkers were primed to attack. Humorously, everyone completely ignored Lightspear because, true to his Finest Hour, he was ridiculously unkillable at the moment and not even worth worrying about.

In the Shooting Phase, Lord Marshall rolled on his Warp Storm and got Rot, Glorious Rot. I don't really remember exactly the result, but I do know that it did kill a few of our models and none of theirs. Whatever the case, the Guardsmen focused their fire and took out all 5 Wolf Scouts. The Russes and Basilisks then went to town, destroying the last Stealth Suit team, killing my Saga of the Hunter Wolf Priest and most of his unit and damaging at least 3 other units of Grey Hunters and a squad of Blood Claws. Lukas' squad ended up getting wiped out due to the fire of the Necron Warriors and the tanks. The Heavy Destroyers also fired at Bjorn and somehow managed to destroy him, turning his hulk into an additional strategic objective. Luckily the Monolith and the Warriors that came out of its portal were much less lucky, only managing to knock 2HP off of Longstrike's Hammerhead (still pretty brutal, but to be fair, he should have been destroyed, so we'll take what we can get). Luckily, the Guardsmen's autocannon team failed to gun the Storm Eagle out of the sky, but otherwise the enemy didn't bother to dedicate any fire to it. Finally, the Flamers of Tzeentch fired at the Ethereal and his Fire Warrior unit, killing all but 1 Fire Warrior. The Ethereal almost survived, but once again we failed our last Look Out Sir roll and he ended up getting killed (losing us another VP in the process).

In the Assault Phase the Berserkers charged Andilus and his unit, and then Apophis and his Terminators tried... and made it! Not good! Arjac and the Berserker sergeant challenged each other, with both splattering each other. While all of the Berserkers were killed and a couple of the enemy Terminators, the sheer number of attacks coming at them meant that Ulrik the Slayer and the last Wolf Guard Terminator ended up getting killed and Andilus suffered two wounds in the process from lightning claws and chain axes... and on top of that he had to make 8 3++ saves from power fists and axes... not good at all!!! However, the dice gods had not completely abandoned me because I managed to make every single one of those 3++ saves!

Elsewhere, the Thunderwolves finished off the last of the Nurgle-marked Marines while the Khorne-marked Marines charged the Blood Claws. The Blood Claws failed to do any damage, but were left with only 2 survivors to carry on the fight. Meanwhile, the Dreadnought and Iron Priest finished off the last Scarab base and the C'tan and Wolf Priest completely whiffed their attacks, failing to do any damage to each other whatsoever. Damn, I was hoping I'd get a chance to shoot the C'tan and Wraiths this turn...

With that, Turn 2 ended and that meant that we had reached break 1. At this point, the score was...













Turn 3 – Space Wolves + Tau
This turn our second unit of Wolf Scouts managed to arrive, meaning that all of our reserves were now on the table. The plasma Scouts moved to take out one of the Basilisk units and manoeuvred so as not to get shot at in the process. Despite losing his Finest Hour, Lightspear basically said “screw it” and charged towards the Russes once again – if he was going to die, he was going to cause some serious damage first! Meanwhile the Rhinos on the right side of the field moved to make it impossible for the nearby Bloodthirster to attack the Fire Warriors without destroying them first. The Thunderwolves also moved to assault the nearby Plague Marines while Logan Grimnar's unit prepared to bash in the nearby Bloodthirster's skull. Finally, I decided that my only chance to keep Andilus from giving up Slay the Warmaster was to send a nearby unit of Grey Hunters in and try to kill most of the Terminators. As a bit of extra assurance, Andilus called in his Finest Hour and rolled up None Can Stand Before Me for +2 Attacks, AP1 and Instant Death... damn, I was hoping for Temporarily Unkillable or Hero's Might...

In the Shooting Phase, we finally started to do a bit of damage. A unit of Grey Hunters fired their 2 meltaguns, destroying the Defiler. The Fire Warriors and Devilfish on the right side of the field also fired at the Bloodletters, killing 8 of them and leaving only 2 survivors. The tanks finally started to die this turn as well, with Lightspear and the Storm Eagle taking out a LRBT each and the Scouts stunning one of the Basilisks. Then, in one of the most unexpected performances of the game, the Lascannon/Missile Launcher Dreadnought fired at the Monolith and actually managed to explode it in one shot!!! Holy crap, I was not expecting that... but I'm not going to argue with it! Longstrike then fired his submunition rounds at the nearby Necron Warriors, nearly wiping out the unit (unfortunately a lot of them stood up again, but he still ended up taking a massive chunk out of that unit regardless). One of the Fire Warrior units guarding an objective tried to kill the Flamers of Tzeentch, but whiffed severely.

In the Assault Phase, Andilus challenged the Terminator Sergeant and soundly annihilated him (to be fair he had 8 attacks to do so ), earning a VP for Legendary Fighter. Unfortunately the Grey Hunters did very little damage and were nearly wiped out, with only one of the squad's Wulfen surviving (he broke and fled combat). Elsewhere, the Khorne-marked Chaos Marines finished off the Blood Claws. Similarly, the C'tan finished off the Wolf Priest and the Thunderwolves killed all but the Plague Marines' Sergeant (the Plague Marines managed to kill a Fenrisian Wolf and the CCW-armed Thunderwolf). Finally, Logan's unit charged one of the Bloodthirsters. The Bloodthirster killed 3 Terminators, but Logan and a TH/SS Termie managed to knock it down to a single wound, and forced it to strike at I1 due to Concussive.




That pie plate? That was a Monolith.





Turn 3 – Necrons + Chaos + Guard
The enemy rolled for their reserves once again. The second Monolith arrived and the Bloodcrushers came in automatically, but despite the re-roll the Daemon Prince failed to arrive again. Speaking of again, the lone Havoc failed his morale check and continued to run towards the table edge (very slowly ). The new Monolith landed near where the other had, and pulled a unit of Warriors through its portal as well. The other Necron forces moved towards the objectives on the left side of the table – at this point the defenders in this section were dead, or soon would be, so it was time for them to fill the void. The C'tan moved to attack a unit of Grey Hunters, but in order to do so someone was going to have to destroy the obstructing Rhino. In addition, the Warp Talons prepared to charge the Long Fangs they had previously blinded, the nearby Bloodletters prepared to charge a unit of Fire Warriors, and the 2 surviving Bloodletters from the other squad prepared to charge the Fire Warriors which had shot at the previously. Finally, the last Bloodthirster and the surviving Khorne-marked Marines moved into charge range of a couple units of Grey Hunters.

In the Shooting Phase, Lord Marshall rolled on the Warp Storm and I believe he got Khorne's Wrath. As usual this killed a few models, but I don't remember exactly what. One of the units of Destroyers fired at the missile Crisis Suits, wiping them out. The two units of Warriors in our deployment zone also took out Longstrike and the Lascannon/Missile Launcher Dreadnought with ease, and the other Warriors killed the Iron Priest and took out one of the Rhinos. The Flamers of Tzeentch continued to be a pain, finishing off all of the Fire Warriors on top of one of the objectives. Meanwhile the Guardsmen fired at the plasma Scouts, but after all of them shot a single Scout was left standing... unfortunately he was armed with a bolt pistol, but at least he still had krak grenades! The autocannon heavy weapons teams fired at the Storm Eagle again, this time managing to knock off a single hull point. Finally, the Russes continued to wreak havoc on my Grey Hunters, nearly wiping out the remnants of Ragnar's unit (only 2 survivors remained inside of the Eiffel Tower). Finally, the Obliterators and Forgefiend shot at one of my Grey Hunter units, killing all of them.

In the Assault Phase, the unengaged Bloodthirster charged my Grey Hunter unit and absolutely annihilated them. Likewise, the full-strength Bloodletter unit charged a squad of Fire Warriors and wiped them out as well. However, the unit of 2 Bloodletters tried to charge the unit of Fire Warriors near them, but ended up both getting killed by overwatch! Meanwhile, Logan used his Axe of Morkai as a frost blade to strike before the Bloodthirster (remember, it was concussed from before), managing to slay the daemon himself. Nearby, the Warp Talons charged the Long Fangs and killed all of them except for the Terminator Rune Priest, who challenged (and killed) the squad's champion with ease... thank the Emperor for Runic Weapons' 2+ to wound against Daemons! The Thunderwolves also easily finished off the Plague Marine champion. Elsewhere, the C'tan charged the Grey Hunters hiding behind the nearby Rhino, killing all of them between its regular attacks and Gaze of Death. The Wraiths also charged the Long Fangs on the left side of the field, killing all of the Long Fangs but leaving the squad's Rune Priest locked with them in combat. Lastly, Andilus and Apophis challenged each other. Lord Marshall decided to call in Apophis' Finest Hour to try and help him get something to kill me with (since he was only AP3, Andilus had the distinct advantage). I don't remember what he got, but it was something unhelpful (probably Violent Display of Power). I decided to risk using Andilus' greatsword as a thunder hammer this turn to maximize my chances of wounding, but surprisingly Apophis managed to get a wound off on Andilus with his lightning claws (in spite of a 2+ and FNP), earning the forces of Chaos 3VP for Slay the Warmaster and Stopping Finest Hour. Damn!







Turn 4 – Space Wolves + Tau
Clearly we were in a pretty bad position at this point. The left side of the board was screwed, so our only real chance was to try to secure the right side and hopefully knock the enemy off of an objective or two. Rather than disengaging the Storm Eagle, I decided that our best chance was to put it into hover mode and hopefully destroy a tank and get Slay the Warlord on the Guard Commander. My Lone Wolf, who had been forced to footslog across the board all damn game, finally reached assault range of a unit of Necron Warriors... hardly an ideal situation, but better than nothing. Meanwhile, Logan and the surviving Wolf Guard Terminator moved to assault the Bloodletter unit which had annihilated the Fire Warriors last turn. The two Rhinos on the right side of the field moved to block off the right-most objective at the water tower, while the Thunderwolves prepared to assault the Bloodthirster. My lone wulfen Grey Hunter tried to catch up to Apophis' squad while a Rhino tried to cut them off. Lastly, the Land Raider parked right in front of the 2 survivors of Ragnar's squad, hoping to shield them from any incoming fire and secure the objective for good.

In the Shooting Phase, the Storm Eagle managed to destroy a Leman Russ with its multi-melta and killed about half of the Company Commander's unit, but failed to kill the commander himself. Lightspear fired his fusion blasters and managed to take out a Demolisher this turn. Meanwhile, the Broadside, and last Kroot and Pathfinder squads fired at the Bloodcrushers, destroying the whole unit before they even got to do anything (much to Lord Marshall's chagrin). On the right side of the field, the Long Fangs finally managed to destroy the Forgefiend (they had knocked a few hull points off of it during the game, but it kept managing to regain these lost hull points every turn) and took a couple wounds off of the Bloodthirster. Between the wulfen, the Rhino and a Hurricane Bolter sponson on the Land Raider, somehow we managed to kill 3 Terminators in Apophis' squad.

In the Assault Phase, the last Wolf Scout charged a Basilisk, wrecking it with its krak grenade. The vast majority of the enemy tank firepower was down, but it was about 2 turns too late at this point... Anyway, the Lone Wolf charged the Warriors, but neither side really did anything. However, the Wraiths did succeed in killing the Rune Priest they were engaged with. In the center of the board, the Terminator Rune Priest started tearing up the Warp Talons, killing 2 of them with his runic axe without suffering a wound. Similarly, Logan smashed his way through the Bloodletters, killing 4 of them while suffering a single wound in return. Finally, the Thunderwolves charged the Bloodthirster and killed it, losing only 2 Fenrisian Wolves in the process... man, the Thunderwolves were freaking unstoppable this game!!!



Turn 4 – Necrons + Chaos + Guard
By virtue of not having to roll for reserves anymore, the Daemon Prince FINALLY arrived, landing on the right side of the field beside the Long Fangs. Oh and the fleeing Havoc finally managed to exit the board... took him damn long enough! Anyway, the left side of the board was basically wipe open now so the Necron forces began to move to secure objectives and push into the right side of the table. Leading this charge was the thus-far indestructible C'tan, who was in position to charge the Broadside battlesuit. Apophis and his squad also moved to charge Lightspear and hopefully finally kill that pesky Tau Commander once and for all! Aside from that, the surviving Khorne-marked Chaos Marines and Obliterators moved forward, hoping to reach the objective on the water tower.

In the Shooting Phase, the Warp Storm finally turned on the forces of Chaos, rolling up Warp Ebb: until their next turn, all Daemons suffered a -1 penalty to their invulnerable saves. Finally a good result (for us)! Unfortunately most of the daemons were dead at this point, but still anything's better than suffering another turn of free hits against unengaged models... Anyway, most of the potential targets for the enemy forces were now dead, but the surviving tanks and Necron Warriors managed to wipe out the remnants of 2 Grey Hunter squads, including Njal's own unit (Njal himself escaped unscathed). Lightspear also suffered the brunt of the Guards' shooting, but came through with nary a scratch. The autocannon teams also fired at the Storm Eagle once more, but yet again they only managed to knock off a single hull point. The Obliterators, Khorne Marines and a Russ all tried to kill the Thunderwolves, but they soaked up all the fire with their storm shields without flinching.

In the Assault Phase, the Lone Wolf ended up getting destroyed by overwhelming numbers of attacks. The Broadside was also easily killed by the C'tan (that's okay though – we figured it was going to happen, but it killed the Bloodcrushers in the process so it did its job). Meanwhile, Logan and his Wolf Guard ended up killing 5 Bloodletters, leaving a single survivor still in combat... dammit, I was hoping to consolidate onto the objective, but now that looked like an impossibility... Likewise, the Terminator Rune Priest killed 2 Warp Talons, but was still locked in combat with 2 more and therefore couldn't capture the objective. Lastly, Apophis and his unit charged Lightspear, killing the last Crisis Suit without suffering any return damage. However, Lightspear then used his vectored retro-thrusters to Hit & Run out of combat, securing an objective in the process.

With that, Turn 4 ended and that meant that we had reached break 2. At this point, the score was...







Turn 5 – Space Wolves + Tau
It was getting really late at this point and I had to work early the next morning so we decided that this would be the final turn. Our units moved to try to secure as many objectives as possible. A Rhino on the left side of the board moved to block the last 2 Grey Hunters in the Eiffel Tower from the Necrons' line of sight, much like the Land Raider was doing. Meanwhile the Thunderwolf unit split up – the Wolf Guard Battle Leader remained guarding the water tower behind the two Rhinos, but Canis and the thunder hammer TWC both moved to charge the Daemon Prince.

In the Shooting Phase, the Storm Eagle and (I believe) Njal wrecked the last 2 Basilisks, leaving only a single operational Imperial Guard tank on the table. Unfortunately, the Storm Eagle's vengeance launcher failed to kill the Guard Commander yet again. On the right side of the field, the Devilfish and Long Fangs focused their fire on the Khorne Marines, killing all but the squad's champion. The Fire Warriors instead focused on the Daemon Prince, softening it up for Canis' unit. Finally, Lightspear fired at the nearby Platoon Command Squad, causing it to flee the table.

In the Assault Phase, Logan killed the last Bloodletter with ease. The Terminator Rune Priest also easily killed the last 2 Warp Talons, although neither was able to reach the nearest objective with consolidation. The last Wolf Scout struck again as well, blowing the battlecannon off of the last operational Leman Russ. If nothing else, it was a great moral victory to finally neutralize the last of the damn Guard's tanks. As for the assault with the Daemon Prince, I realized that the Prince could kill both Canis and the thunder hammer and threaten the objective next turn. As a result, I sacrificed Canis by challenging the Prince, who was forced to accept. Canis was killed, but his sacrifice meant that the objective would not be able to be contested or captured by the Daemon Prince anymore.





Turn 5 – Necrons + Chaos + Guard
With the final turn confirmed, the enemy forces moved to secure as many objectives as possible. Since it was the last turn, Amheosiris called his Finest Hour and rolled up Set Piece Kill – as a result, all units were able to re-roll failed Wounds against Lightspear. Apophis and his unit moved to assault Lightspear a well. The C'tan moved to hopefully assault Logan and the Khorne Marine champion tried to reach the water tower to contest the objective.

In the Shooting Phase, the Warp Storm rolled up Punished By the Gods which affected the Daemon Prince. Sadly it did not kill him, but he did lose a wound or two in the process. I believe that Amheosiris' unit finally killed Njal while the autocannon team wrecked the Storm Eagle. Interestingly, the center of the table was now so filled with wrecks that half of the table was now blocked off. Apophis' squad, the Guardsmen and all available guns fired at Lightspear, but failed to do any damage whatsoever! It was more than official at this point – Lightspear was a freaking beast this game! However, the biggest MVP this turn was the Khorne Marine champion – he rolled a 4 on his run move, putting him in contesting range of the water tower.

In the Assault Phase, the C'tan failed to make it into combat with Logan sadly. However, Apophis' unit did catch Lightspear, and the pair fought to a standstill. Meanwhile, the last Scout destroyed the last Leman Russ tank for kicks while the Daemon Prince and thunder hammer TWC failed to damage each other.

With that, the game came to a close. We tallied things up and the final score was...







AFTERTHOUGHTS
Despite getting hammered all game, that was surprisingly still fairly close. If we had killed the Guard Commander, taken the one objective with Logan and/or the Terminator Rune Priest and the Khorne Marine champion had not contested then it would have been a tie. Even then, the game was a total blood bath – nearly all of the Space Wolves and Tau had been wiped out, largely thanks to the Imperial Guard's armoured division. Heck, the Necrons barely had anything to do that game because the left side of the field got cleaned out quite quickly. As for the forces of Chaos, they suffered almost as badly as my units did, being whittled down to a mere 7 models at the end of the game.

That said, there were some major MVPs this game. For me, probably #1 was the Thunderwolf unit, they were a freaking wrecking crew, tearing through Chaos Marines, Plague Marines and a Bloodthirster like butter. My #2 MVP would easily be Logan – he's always a badass for me in-game, and slaying a Bloodthirster with little help just cements that legacy further. My #3 MVP would be Njal, his buffs, staying power and offence helped us hold the center far longer than we had any right to. The Lascannon/Missile Launcher Dreadnought and Andilus also deserve shout-outs for their own major feats.

Among the other armies, Lightspear was unstoppable. He survived the entire battle unscathed while sitting on the front lines, which is nothing short of incredible. It C'tan was also surprisingly insane – it just kept tearing through units with ease, which really caught me off guard. Like most people I thought they had been nerfed really badly by the 5th ed Necron codex, but they're actually very brutal if you physically can't get a shot off on them. Likewise, Flamers of Tzeentch definitely got the nerf bat into oblivion, but versus the right army (eg, Tau) they can be nasty pieces of work.

In the future I might restrict myself on HQs a bit. I was mostly just trying to field my entire army, but if I'd held off on largely crappy, expensive units then I might have been able to afford some Guard allies of my own. That said, during deployment we didn't know the enemies' lists yet so I didn't realize that there were 9 Marine-shredding tanks that we were going to have to face off against. Maybe next time I won't be so hesitant to put a unit inside of the Storm Eagle. Oh and I find that Andilus tends to die too quickly when he has a dedicated Terminator bodyguard unit. For whatever reason, he tends to do better in a squad of Grey Hunters, usually with Arjac as the squad's Wolf Guard. If I were to replay the battle I'd consider fielding that squad instead.

Also, we should probably restrict Warp Storm rolls in future Apocalypse battles. For one thing, you can technically roll it if you have even a single Daemon on the table, which is actually a massive advantage for them since it's more likely to automatically damage the opponent. For another thing, it's scaled to regular 40k where it might hurt a small fraction of the enemy army per turn. In Apocalypse, there are so many units that it was consistently killing quite a few models every turn and even blowing up vehicles from time to time. In a regular battle it'll generally be an equal number of daemons vs an equal number of enemy models, making it a potential risk. However, in this game Daemons made up only 15% of the army, making the risks much lower and the potential to cause free damage to the enemy a much greater reward. As a result, I'd say that the Warp Storm should be a Daemons-as-primary-army sort of thing for future battles at the very least...

Oh and by the way, after viewing the pictures in this report I felt a bit underwhelmed. As a result, I recently bought a new camera for use in future battle reports. Therefore, future battle report pictures should be much crisper and dramatic!

If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out my other battle reports!

Lol, that vassal map thing is an amazing addition. Really highlights how bloody these battles are. Really compliments the actual game photos

Wow what a brilliant battle report and I love the look of your armies mate. Very good work hope to see more!

This is a very well done report. Love it!

Dakkamite wrote:Lol, that vassal map thing is an amazing addition. Really highlights how bloody these battles are. Really compliments the actual game photos

Thanks, the report would probably be incoherent without it.

SpaceMonk wrote:Wow what a brilliant battle report and I love the look of your armies mate. Very good work hope to see more!

That-Black-Templar-Guy wrote:This is a very well done report. Love it!

Thanks, I pride myself on my battle reports!

So much win packed into one thread.
Thanks for sharing!

I'll be honest, I skipped to the last couple of turns, but looked like a great battle and a lot of work went into this so thanks! Any plans to buy superheavies?

Awesome battle. A few things though: Logan's frost axe is Inititiave 1 now, he couldn't swing before the thirster. Also, Daemon Princes aren't forced to accept challenges.

Ratius wrote:So much win packed into one thread.
Thanks for sharing!

Well maybe not as much win for my side, but none the less...

tyrannosaurus wrote:I'll be honest, I skipped to the last couple of turns, but looked like a great battle and a lot of work went into this so thanks! Any plans to buy superheavies?

Umm I'm planning on getting a Land Raider Achilles... not exactly a super heavy, but I've had my eye on a Shadowsword and/or a Harridan/Hierophant for quite some time. Oh and obviously I'll have to get a CRASSUS ARMOURED ASSAULT TRANSPORT for my Guard.

herpguy wrote:Awesome battle. A few things though: Logan's frost axe is Inititiave 1 now, he couldn't swing before the thirster. Also, Daemon Princes aren't forced to accept challenges.

That's incorrect about Logan's axe, the FAQ specifies that it strikes as either a Frost Sword or a Power Fist. And yes, Daemons do not have to accept challenges, but when they're the only enemy model in the assault and they get challenged then they do.

Great report! thanks!

Thanks for your report! I like how you integrated both the pictures of the game and vassal. Felt informed.. but still got to enjoy seeing the models.

Awesome! Thanks for uploading, it was a good read. Looks like it was a total bloodbath!

That was a great bat rep with tons of models, it was a real blood fest.

Thanks for taking the time to write up the report.

Thanks for this excellent report

Krug001 wrote:Thanks for your report! I like how you integrated both the pictures of the game and vassal. Felt informed.. but still got to enjoy seeing the models.

Thanks, I wish they had all/mostly been painted, but still it was fun!

SweaterKittens wrote:Awesome! Thanks for uploading, it was a good read. Looks like it was a total bloodbath!

Indeed it was! Very few survivors at the end of that...

I was disappointed that I didn't get a number of my Necron units built. While it provided a more balanced army between our 4 armies, it was unfortunate that I needed to throw all of the points into the Guard using tanks. I felt cheap for doing it.
I was planning on using far fewer tanks than I did, but time ran out. Next time, there shouldn't be such an issue ... not to mention I'll be deploying everything differently to make the entire army less vulnerable. Having all of the tanks together proved to be a mistake that I realized while we were deploying. I'm just glad the deployment worked out in the end

Awesome game and great write up. Good to see such a big game be completed and produce a result.

Thanks for writing it up and taking all those photos.

Lord Graveline wrote:I was disappointed that I didn't get a number of my Necron units built. While it provided a more balanced army between our 4 armies, it was unfortunate that I needed to throw all of the points into the Guard using tanks. I felt cheap for doing it.
I was planning on using far fewer tanks than I did, but time ran out. Next time, there shouldn't be such an issue ... not to mention I'll be deploying everything differently to make the entire army less vulnerable. Having all of the tanks together proved to be a mistake that I realized while we were deploying. I'm just glad the deployment worked out in the end

Yeah, I think it would have been a more interesting contest if my Grey Hunters hadn't been getting blown to smithereens by battle cannons every turn. Even then, it was fun! Also, did you change Alexandre Graveline's name?

Gordy2000 wrote:Awesome game and great write up. Good to see such a big game be completed and produce a result.

Thanks for writing it up and taking all those photos.

Thanks, to be fair we rarely finish these epic-scale battles so it's a nice change!