Mephiston checked his auspex, sweeping the device through the air. The air crackled with violent energy, as if the very fabric of reality was thin and frayed in this part of the city. Behind him, his Blood Angels were mustering, on the roof of a deserted warehouse and all along its shadow. Overhead, a massive Thunderhawk loomed, ready to deploy drop pods at the Librarian's command.
Suddenly, the auspex glowed a bright red, and a small warning alarm rang out of it. There could be no mistake. The Daemons were coming.
++++++++++++++++++++
My list for this battle was as follows:
W'at'shem the Putrid (165)
Great Unclean One
Cloud of Flies
Wes'mol, Lord of the Flies (165)
Great Unclean One
Cloud of Flies
Pus-Cannons(105)
3 Flamers
Pus-Cannons (105)
3 Flamers
Pus-Cannons(105)
3 Flamers
10 Plaguebearers (175)
Daemonic Icon
10 Plaguebearers (175)
Daemonic Icon
9 Plaguebearers (135)
8 Plaguebearers (120)
M'har'cei, Prince of Pestilence (220)
Daemon Prince
Mark of Nurgle
Wings
Iron Hide
Instrument of Chaos
Cloud of Flies
Noxious Touch
L'heasa'wem, Prince of Decay (220)
Daemon Prince
Mark of Nurgle
Wings
Iron Hide
Instrument of Chaos
Cloud of Flies
Noxious Touch
Gil'bermel, The Grinder of Souls (160)
Soul Grinder
Tongue
I made some changes for this battle: dropped a Prince to try out a Soul Grinder, dropped my Nurglings for some more Plaguebearers. Still trying to work out a final list. I had 10 extra points, so I put instruments on both Princes. They did exactly jack rabbit squat for them. Not sure what else to buy, though. I may put Noxious Touch on a Plaguebearer next time.
The Blood Angels looked like this:
Mephiston
Lemartes
Furisio Dread w/ Venerable, Drop Pod, Flamers, and Death Company
Furisio Dread w/ Venerable, Drop Pod, Flamers, and Death Company
5 Death Company w/ Jump Packs
10 Assault Marines w/ Combat Shield, Power Fist
10 Assault Marines w/ Combat Shield, Power Fist
Land Speeder w/ Melta and Flamer
Land Speeder w/ Melta and Flamer
Baal Predator w/ Bolters
5 Devastators w/ 4 Plasma Cannons
Whirlwind w/ Storm Bolter, Dozer Blades
Interesting composition. Some uncommon choices in there. Then again, Mephiston and Lemartes in combination. As usual.
The mission was Annihilation, and the deployment was Spearhead. I won the roll-off and chose to go second. He picked the lower left corner of the field and deployed thusly:
4 Plasma Cannons on the roof was going to be annoying. Packed that corner pretty tightly, so I would have nowhere to deep strike. Smart.
Mephiston activated his wings of something-or-other so he could fly, and leaped up to the roof. One speeder shot out near the middle of the table, Lemartes and company swooped down from the roof, and everything else sort of stayed put, waiting for the Daemons to appear.
I decided I would try to suicide drop one unit of Flamers onto the roof and try to kill Mephiston early, while dropping all of my plaguebearers just out of range. I knew the plaguebearers would probably all die by the end of the game, but that's what they were there for. If something was killing a Plaguebearer, it wasn't killing one of my big Daemons, which are what will actually kill you. The Flamers scattered onto the Devastators, though, and were delayed back into the Warp. Everything else landed pretty much where I wanted them to. The Soul Grinder had good position to open up on the Landspeeder and immobilized it. It floated to the ground. (This was a misplay. He had moved it more than 12" the turn before, but I forgot and thought it only moved 12".) Plaguebearers ran to spread out, hoping to avoid taking too many casualties from the Devastators.
Death Company raced north to engage the plaguebearers while the rest of the Blood Angels moved east to pick up the Daemons manifesting there. Mephiston blasted one Plaguebearer (red) back into the warp, while the Devastators opened up on the brown Plaguebearers, killing two from one unit (white) and two from the other (brown). Of course, one of them exploded spectacularly when his cannon overheated. Ah, the joys of plasma. The Baal Predator added a third Plaguebearer (brown). The Landspeeder totally missed the Soul Grinder with its multimelta, and the Whirlwind's shot drifted harmlessly away from anything it could damage.
In combat, the Death Company easily dispatched four Plaguebearers, and were locked into the fight.
Lord Wes'Mol and Prince M'har'cei were the only Daemons that seemed eager to get into the fight, and they appeared off of the green Plaguebearers' icon in good position to attack the Blood Angel troops - particularly Mephiston. All of the Plaguebearers surged forward, eager to engage soft targets, while the red Plaguebearers gathered steam to join in the fight against the Death Company.
The Soul Grinder's shot on the Baal Predator went wide.
In assault, the Death Company quickly killed most of the Green Plaguebearers, while the incoming
PBs could only kill one Death Company. It was looking grim for the Green
PBs, as they were left with just the icon bearer.
The white
PBs assaulted the downed Landspeeder, but only managed to stop it from shooting next turn. That was better than the brown
PBs did, though, as they completely failed to hurt their Landspeeder at all.
Down came the drop pods, and the Furioso Dreadnoughts within. They immediately opened up heavy flamers on the Plaguebearers, and between the two of them, killed exactly zero Daemons. The pistols of the Assault Marines didn't help either.
Meanwhile, Mephiston was swooping over the field, trying to get at the white Plaguebearers, and the second unit of Assault Marines came out to take on the incoming monstrous Daemons.
Once again, the Landspeeder missed the Soul Grinder. Meanwhile, the Baal Predator took down two Plaguebearers (white).
Assault was quick and brutal for the brown
PBs, as Lemartes and his men just obliterated them. When the smoke cleared, only the icon bearer and one other plaguebearer were left. A moment later, the green
PB icon bearer became the game's first Kill Point by getting whacked by the Death Company.
Mephiston charged into the white
PBs, and quickly left them with only two models left. Fortunately, he failed his Perils of the Warp, and took a wound in the process.
Finally, I got some Pus-Cannons, and I struck them aggressively, only scattering 3" and basically giving me a prime shot at the Assault Marines. I brought Lord W'at'shem and Prince L'heasa'wem down on the diminishing brown
PB's icon, ready to engage some Dreadnoughts.
With one well-placed salvo, I was able to get 17 hits with the Pus-Cannons, and all but the veteran sergeant of the Assault Marines died a horrible death. Both W'at'shem and L'heasa'wem ran for better positioning, while the Soul Grinder Fleeted.
In combat, the Death Company reduced the Plaguebearers to just two models. Dang, Death Company is still brutal - even with only 5 guys in the unit. Mephiston only killed one Plaguebearer, leaving the last one there to tie him up exactly where I want him. Lord Wes'Mol finished off the last of the Assault Marines while Prince M'har'cei swooped down from the sky, utterly annihilating the Devastators. Lemartes and Company finished off the Plaguebearers (brown), evening the score up at two Kill Points each. The Soul Grinder, for its trouble in charging the Furioso, lost its mawcannon. I began to learn a valuable lesson in my first game using a Grinder: do not charge it into a Furioso Dreadnought. Furioso Dreadnought > Soul Grinder. Just saying. For future reference.
The Baal turned to face the incoming Daemons while the Landspeeder spun around to take aim at my general. The downed Landspeeder fired off a blast at Lord Wes'Mol, wounding him. Once again, the whirlwind's shot drifted off into nowhere (this is a recurring theme), while all the firepower the Baal could muster pinged harmlessly off of Prince M'har'cei's armor. The last Landspeeder's shot bounced off of the fat and hide of Lord W'at'shem.
The other Furioso charged my general, while Lemartes and his marines charged Prince L'heasa'wem. In what can only be termed as a word which rhymes with "full bit," Lemartes completely failed to wound Prince L'heasa'wem, who then cut down two Assault Marines. The Marines managed four wounds back, and I rolled not one, not two, but three ones and a two for saves. Prince L'heasa'wem disappeared into the warp in a puff of smoke and dice nonsense.
Meanwhile, the Soul Grinder immobilized the Furioso and was shaken in return. Lord W'at'shem also immobilized his Furioso, taking no wounds in return and winning the combat. Mephiston polished off the last Plaguebearer, as did the Death Company, taking the total score for the Blood Angels to 5 Kill Points to my 2 Kill Points. Things were looking kind of bad for the Daemons. But I had a couple of tricks up my sleeve still...
Only one unit of Pus-Cannons wanted to play today, and although I placed them in prime position to do maximum damage to Lemartes and Company, a 10" scatter ended those plans pretty quickly.
Lord Wes'Mol lumbered off toward the downed Landspeeder for some easy Kill Points while Prince M'har'cei swooped over them both and landed, ready to face Mephiston face to face. A quick look at the Blood Angels .PDF told me that Mephiston has no invulnerable save - and that probably spelled doom for him. The orange Pus-Cannons took to the air, landing in range of the Death Company.
A few seconds later, there was no Death Company of which to speak.
"They were only 25 points," my opponent said.
"They still give up the same amount of Kill Points, at 25 points or 250," I replied.
The other Pus-Cannons ran to try to get closer to the fight.
In combat, Lord Wes'mol made very swift work of the Landspeeder, and Prince M'har'cei grinned with glee when Mephiston only put one wound on him, which he promptly saved. A bunch of poisoned monstrous creature hits later, Mephiston was dead on the ground, and Prince M'har'cei was wandering away to pick a fight with Lemartes.
Meanwhile, Lord W'at'shem took a wound before ripping one of the arms right off of the Furioso. The other Furioso fared better, wrecking my Soul Grinder. Overall, I was not impressed with its performance. Partly due to my own lack of quality tactics with it. Maybe I should take Phlegm and sit back lobbing shots after all?
That put the Kill Point count at 6 for the Blood Angels to 5 for the Nurgle Daemons. Lemartes and Company were in good position to help take out my general, but also had a very bloody Prince making his way in their direction - with his belly already full of Devastators and Chief Librarian.
The Landspeeder moved to get maximum firepower on the Pus-Cannons while the Baal turned all of its firepower on Lord Wes'Mol. Lemartes and Company got into position to assault Lord W'at'shem.
For all of the Baal's firepower, it all pattered harmlessly off of Lord Wes'Mol's tough hide. The Whirlwind's shot scattered wide (again). The Landspeeder, despite a heavy flamer and a multimelta, only killed one Pus-Cannon.
In combat, Lemartes and the boys put two wounds on Lord Wes'Mol before he killed three of them and won the combat. Everyone stayed in, however.
Still 6KP to 5KP, with the bottom of the 5th turn coming up.
The last Pus-Cannons came in, only to kill two of their own unit on dangerous terrain tests for striking onto the roof. Stupid. The last one did manage to shake the Whirlwind, though.
The red Pus-Cannons also shook the Land Speeder and made ready to charge it. Which they did, and failed to do anything at all. As I expected they wouldn't. But it was worth a try.
Meanwhile, Lord Wes'Mol utterly shredded the Baal Predator, exploding it spectacularly.
Prince M'har'cei charged in to help Lord W'at'shem with the remaining Blood Angels, and between the two of them, they left the Assault Marines with only the Veteran Sergeant and Lemartes left. No wounds were handed out in return, and Lemartes and the Assault Marine hung in there.
It was all tied up at 6KP, and we rolled. A 6th turn would be played.
Unable to shoot this turn, the Landspeeder just ran 24" away.
In combat, the Furioso took Lord W'at'shem down to his last wound. Lemartes failed to wound him, and Prince M'har'cei ate the veteran sergeant before he could swing his power fist. Lord W'at'shem took Lemartes down to only one wound left.
It was now 7KP to 6KP in favor of Nurgle.
(Forgot to take a pic here).
The Pus-Cannons all combined fire on the Whirlwind, stunning the crew. Meanwhile, Lord Wes'Mol lumbered into the fight. Lemartes could not wound Lord W'at'shem, and neither could the Furioso. Prince M'har'cei added Lemartes to his list of snacks as he ate the Chaplain, and Lord Wes'Mol removed the other
DCCW from the Furioso.
Down 8KP to 6KP and left with only his Whirlwind, one Landspeeder, and two broken Furiosos on the table, things were grim indeed for the Blood Angels. We rolled for game, and the game ended there.
Big win for the Daemons!
I continue to be impressed with the performance of my big Daemons, and with the suicidal damage potential of the Flamers. I think this build is inching closer to finalized. It was the first game I've played in a while without Nurglings, and I didn't miss them as much as I thought I would. Still not sure on the Soul Grinder - I'll have to give him a couple more games before deciding.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Comments and such are welcome.
+++++++++++++++++
The last dying screams of his Veteran Sergeant were the last thing that Lemartes heard as the enormous winged monstrosity ripped the poor assault marine to shreds. He activated a small device on his wrist, and was instantly teleported back to the Thunderhawk, mere moments before he would have been killed himself, and barely conscious. He appeared in the medical bay, and looked over to see Mephiston. The Librarian was also in terrible condition; his armor seemed pulverized, ripped to shreds. His wounds would have killed a lesser man, but Mephiston was clearly breathing - heavily, but breathing - as the servomechs went to work stitching up his bleeding body.
Down on the surface, Lemartes knew the last remnants of his cohort were being gutted and demolished by the minions of Nurgle. The Landspeeder crew may have gotten away to fight another day, but both Death Company Dreadnoughts, venerable, ancient Brothers of the Blood Angels, would be empty shells by the time the company could return to retrieve their hulks. The Whirlwind was all but finished, and its crew would probably be devoured.
The city belongs to Lord W'at'shem, and the Emperor protect the poor citizens of that little outpost. They would be new Plaguebearers by daybreak...
