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IMPERIAL FISTS FIFTH COMPANY TASK FORCE
First Captain Darnath Lysander, Commanding
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Still seething with righteous fury after his victory over the Iron Warriors on Malodrax, Darnath Lysander—First Captain of the Imperial Fists—sought out a new quarry. Moving toward Cadia to answer the threat of Abaddon’s latest Black Crusade with the forces assigned to him by Chapter Master Vladimir Pugh, the Captain’s eye came to rest on the traitor Ahriman and his lieutenants. Lysander hated the Iron Warriors, but he understood them and their way of war. The devious trickery of Ahriman’s tactics, the hell-spawned beasts that followed him, and the sorcerous energy powering his lifeless soldiers were capitally offensive to the heir of so noble a warrior as Rogal Dorn. Knowing that he understood little of this traitor’s mind, Captain Lysander sought aid from the chapter’s librarium, even securing the return of an Epistolary on detached service with the Ordo Xenos.

His mind made up and his forces behind him, Lysander sought the hidden patterns behind the apparent madness of Ahriman’s appearances in the Cadian sector. The Captain’s ships began to track the traitor with increasing proficiency, sometimes arriving at a world or moon while its soil still crackled with warp-fire left in the wake of the heretic’s dark rites. When the Planetary Defense Forces of Korolis sent out their initial distress call warning of anomalous warp activity, the strike cruiser Righteous Endeavor and her escorts had just entered high orbit.

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Pregame Setup

First Captain Darnath Lysander 
Deathwatch Librarian- Lvl 2 
Brother-Epistolary (Varro Tigurius) 
Deathwatch Squad (Sternguard)- 9 Marines ,Power Weapon, Drop Pod
 Sternguard Squad- 10 Marines, Power Weapon, 4 Combi-Grav Guns, Drop Pod, Locator Beacon
Terminator Squad- 6 Marines, Assault Cannons 
Terminator Assault Squad- 7 Marines, 4 Thunder Hammers
 Tactical Squads One-Two- 5 Marines, Plasma Gun 
Tactical Squads Three-Four- 5 Marines, Heavy Bolter 
Scout Squad (Ultramarines)- 5 Marines, Teleport Homer
 Devastator Squad One- 8 Marines, 4 Plasma Cannons 
Devastator Squads Two-Three- 5 Marines, 2 Flakk Missiles 
Aegis Defense Line - Quad-Gun 

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire with 4 Objectives
Deployment: Dawn of War

The Imperial Fists chose to deploy first and go first..

Objective 1: The Prometheum Tanks
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Objective 2: The Water Purification Tanks
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Objective 3: The Downed Imperial Ship
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Objective 4: The Temporary Refugee Medicae Facility
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Space Marines:
Deathwatch Epistolary: Hallucination/Invisibility
Tigurius: Misfortune/Perfect Timing/Prescience
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Thousand Sons:
Ahriman: Endurance/Smite/Puppetmaster/Doombolt
Fateweaver: Enfeeble/Molten Beam/Psychic Shriek/Misfortune
Kaim Osirix: Firestorm
Hathor Maat: Boon of Mutation
Tzehron Myr: Doombolt
Horrors of Tzeentch: Bolt of Change
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Deployment:

Lysander joins the Tactical Terminators, who will Deep Strike into battle along with the Assault Terminators, Deathwatch and Sternguard. Devastators will be deployed by the Water Tanks and Medicae Facility. The Scouts Infiltrate next to the Prometheum tanks, oddly undefended by the Thousand Sons...

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Ahriman rolls a 6 and chooses to give the Plasmagun Havocs, Terminators and Kaim's Rubricae squad the Infiltrate rule. The Heldrakes are held in Reserve along with Deep-striking Screamers of Tzeentch and the Havocs which ended up Outflanking.....

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Game on!

The Opening Turns
Ahriman fails to seize the initiative and steal first turn, so the Imperial Fists can keep their original plan- Assault! The Sternguard immediately Deep Strike in their Drop Pod while the Devastators and Tactical Marines put the hurt on Rhinos and Terminators from a distance. Tigurius uses Misfortune to destroy the Rubric Terminators, gaining First Blood! The Thousand Sons are forced to redeploy and react to the sudden threats, without knowing where Lysander will end up Deep Striking!

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A Devastator takes aim at a Thousand Sons Rhino Transport, knocking it out of the game at max range!
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The Thousand Sons inside are forced to disembark and suffer withering anti-infantry bolter and plasma fire from across the river
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Fateweaver destroys the Drop Pod while the Thousand Sons slaughter some Sternguard, making them fall back. The Flamers end up charging them. How long will they last?
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The Thousand Sons who survived the transport getting destroyed embark upon another transport, seeking safety..
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Lysander mourns the Sternguard's losses by ordering the Scouts to initiate protocol Beta Morix at the start of turn 2 - A Teleport Homer beacon-assisted Deep Strike into enemy territory!
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Kaim (aka Gary Busey in the gaming store) makes a last stand against the assaulting combat squad, hoping to delay them from capturing the downed Imperial ship.
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Tigurius assists the Imperial Fists plasma cannon devastators with his prescience skills, destroying an entire squad of Thousand Sons down to one last Rubricae. The lone "survivor" mills about mindlessly, looking for direction.
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A tactical squad surges across the river, pouring bolter fire into the Thousand Sons
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Lysander's force uses every available weapon to try to destroy Fateweaver, including the tactical squad on the right flank.. but they fail to banish him. The Thousand Sons near the terminators withdraw in hopes that the 1st company veterans follow them..
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The Thousand Sons Heldrake arrives and slaughters the Devastators holding the Medicae location while Ahriman summons Screamers of Tzeentch to distract the terminators in hopes that they can harass Imperial Fists across the river later.
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Midgame- It's getting brutal.

The Imperial Fists call for Deathwatch marines at turn 3, who proceed to hunt down the Thousand Sons fleeing towards the Prometheum tanks
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Devastators annihilate Screamers with plasma..
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....and lol, Invulnerable Saves and Daemons of Tzeentch.... Tactical Terminators barely dent the daemons.
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...That's okay, though. There are other ways of making them get "sleepy".
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Scouts destroy Fateweaver for good with some well-placed shotgun and bolt pistol fire..
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Kaim is too busy obsessively reading his book to notice that the Imperial Fists keep shooting back. He ultimately decides that it's best to just go to sleep, and three 1's help him lay down.
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Things are looking bad. The Thousand Sons try to get away from the fighting and end up getting shredded by Hellfire bolts. Okay, things are getting HILARIOUS. Everyone starts taking naps.
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Ahriman decides that it's best to get into the game and arrives from watching his army do his dirty work. No place looks safe, so this is the closest to Lysander.. Maybe he can destroy the Captain!
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The Heldrake moves up to kill more Devastators, but leaves two alive. Will he regret being so close to the quadcannon?
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Lysander had enough in the 4th turn. It's time to destroy the traitor Ahriman for good so he can quit this disgusting planet. CHARGE!
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The Heldrake is shot down with 3 penetrating results. To add insult to injury, Tigurius used Misfortune on the beast (not that he needed to help the marksman devastators with Flakk!). It goes down in flames and sets chemicals on fire around the Medicae facility! "BURN, abomination.."
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This is the end.....................

In his 4th turn, Ahriman realized that he had better start showing off. In a fantasic display of sorcery and with a big smile on his face, he targets Lysander's terminator escort with Smite and Doombolt after making sure he and his plasmagun havocs had Endurance. To add further insult to the psychic assault on the terminators (and the tactical marine up front who got hit with the Beam), he rolled a 5 for Puppetmaster to make the Assault Cannon terminator shoot the Devastators holding the Water Tanks with Tigurius. 4 hits, 4 wounds, 2 dead Devastators and a 2nd Victory Point for the Thousand Sons.
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Simultaneously, the Heldrake gets annihilated by the Aegis Defense Line's quadcannon, setting off a massive explosion from the Prometheum Tanks! Automated systems kick in to put out the fires and salvage what remains..
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The Horrors of Tzeentch try to fend off the Imperial Fists, but to no avail..
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The Imperial Fists pick apart Ahriman's bodyguards to make room for Lysander's vengeance..
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With nowhere to run, Ahriman is forced to fight Lysander alone, in the most climatic scene of the whole game.
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Ahriman fights with all his skill, but is too weak after using 4 psychic powers last turn. Lysander's Thunder Hammer blasts the sorcerer into bits, leaving a gory smear as reminder of the traitor who once stood proudly in that spot. Lysander rolls a 6 and receives 3 additional Victory points for slaying Ahriman in a challenge.....
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The last horror is slain at the top of turn 6, and the Thousand Sons threat is ended upon this world.. The Space Marines move onto the objectives.

Victory for the Imperial Fists!

Let's look at the objectives at the end..

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So what's the final Score?

Imperial Fists:
-3/4 Objectives (Prometheum Tanks, Water Tanks, Crashed Ship)
-First Blood (Chaos Terminators)
-Linebreaker (Deathwatch)
-Slay the Warlord (Ahriman)
-Additional 3 for Lysander's slaying of a Warlord
-Destroyed a Heavy Support choice (Chaos Havocs)

Thousand Sons:
-Destroyed 2 Heavy Support Choices

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"So what happened? Well it's safe to say that Lysander is still a beast. He belongs in combat. As for Imperial Fists, bolter drill is army-wide now so that means that the benefits really add up (vs. just getting Bolter Drill from Lysander last codex). I believe that the Quadcannon is absolutely amazing when paired with Flakk missiles. Space Marine players need them against Heldrakes.

This was my first game with the new Daemons and MAN did I mess up. There were times when I forgot to move my flamers, essentially leaving them out of the game. Also, I should have deep striked Fateweaver to keep his Re-roll in the game as long as possible. With the powers he rolled, he wasn't very effective. For a psychic shooting platform, Ahriman is best.. I should have kept buff powers on Fateweaver instead of switching for the Primaris powers a few times, and Molten Beam didn't do anything against lots of Marines. I should know better!

Compared to my last Battle Report against the Imperial Fists, my damage output this game was about 30%..... Unacceptable, and with only myself to blame for being too cautious when I should have played aggressively to avoid being picked apart at range.

I was tragically out-played by Aspartame but I really had a lot of fun with this game. A lot of stuff happened and I don't care if I lost. It was fun to focus on taking pictures for you guys, and it made me keep an eye out for cool events. Turns out I saw lots." - Brometheus, Thousand Sons

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"Grav-Guns are just fine, though in this game, plasma would have been nearly identical. With a drop pod, it’s easy to set up to be within their shorter range, and not having to worry about gets hot is nice. It would seem grav might be better suited for relentless units like bikes or on someone who isn’t planning to move. For a suicide squad, it was pretty much a wash.

Bolter drill army wide definitely paid huge dividends. While it was nice in the old book when Lysander could drop in with 10 Sternguard and twin-link their special ammo, the new way is fine. As the battle report shows, there were a number of times where precision bolter fire was game changing. Killing off the Thousand Sons across the wide bridge and the wounds poured into Fateweaver are good examples. Even though it didn’t end for Fatweaver until some young scout secured an early mention in the Liber Honorus by finishing the daemon off with his shotgun, the bolter fire from the rest of the army the previous turn made it possible.

Tank hunting devastators are awesome. The early long range Rhino kill was good, but against the Helldrakes it really paid off. The first one was only injured at first, which unfortunate let him roast five Devastators. But he crashed the next turn after a few missiles from another squad found their mark. The second Helldrake never even had a chance, going down to tank hunting quad-gun fire as soon as it arrived. The re-roll really takes the sting out of AV12 fliers. Had those Helldrakes lasted longer, it could have been a vastly different game.

Lysander’s Champion of Humanity warlord trait is nice, but seems very situational. Against a non-Chaos player, it would be fairly easy to just avoid the challenge. Better perhaps to die in the back of a squad not swinging than give up extra VPs. Even in this battle, the Fists had to be sure to kill off the Havoc Champion to ensure Ahriman couldn’t refuse.

I didn’t always make the best choices on psychic powers. Invisibility was nice from the Deathwatch Librarian, I should have probably traded out Hallucination for Shriek to start helping with damage output right away. You know it’s been a good game when you go from thinking there’s no way you can lose to no way you can win and back again. High (low?) point of the game was definitely the successful Puppet Master taking over the assault cannon terminator and dealing 4 hits, 4 wounds, 4 failed saves, for two dead Devastators and two wounds on Tigurius! Someone is in for a long debrief from the Librarium back on the strike cruiser. " - Aspartame, Imperial Fists

Thanks for watching..

-Brometheus



Special thanks to Bobe's Hobby House of Pensacola for letting us play on their amazing table! What a great store and great hosts.

Can't wait! Your armies and table always grab my attention. Also that awesome gaming room if I recall!

Thanks man. This game will be fun for everyone..

The fist's will turn the cursed traitors to dust!

So it's going to be with the new codex?

phatonic- YES! : ] Cool, huh?

Always bet on the invulnerable, empty suit of armor. I believe in the power of Egyptian marines.

Fancy looking nameplate, too.

Will you be using the new imperial fist rules? Ya should because they are awesome.

Also, that army is beautiful.

Things are looking nice! Aspartame and I are looking forward to tomorrow's game. I'll post more info today as we get closer. Pretty sure he's going to be as Dorny as possible. It looks like people have faith in the new book.

A note on that- I don't play Imperial Space Marines, but I am happy for those who do. I am impressed with the book. It's not revolutionary in my opinion (since we are so used to rulebooks being released lately), but it is exactly what I hoped and expected the 6th Ed SM book to be. I think SM players will be juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust fine..

Thanks for everyone's comments so far. Keep votin'!

The army looks very nice.

The negative thing imo is that the second I saw it containing two of those flying cheese turkeys I said to my self ah well, what a boring and one sided battle this is going to be.

Ha! We will see.

Always love seeing thousand sons battle reports! I'm deffinatly rooting for the good ol Tsons. Helldrakes arent that big of a deal anymore, a fantastic unit but not particularly terrifying if handled correctly..... those screamers on the other hand....

I converted the drakes so that they could fit in the box/bag.. but I like the way they look now. I need to finish painting them- Normally my opponent and I only use painted models! :(

I do like them.. but I am no longer under the impression that they are an auto-include. This is no place for that discussion, though.

Updated first post! Talk to you guys later, when I update it again. Stand by for lots of pictures!

I like both of these armies although the Dev's with only 2 HWs apiece seem inefficient. I recognize that it adds value in the form of more bolters that can re-roll 1s but I also think that the targets they will shoot at will negate that advantage. Otherwise 2 interesting and solid lists. Flakk missiles will be a problem for fateweaver (FlMCs are basically all flakk is good for). I really like the 4xPG havoc squad, I had stopped running my 5xPG and 5xMelta chosen as of 6th ed chaos (except huge games) but i might have to stir one back in. I;m really looking forward to this batrep.

Also, I love how quickly the Deathwatch player is reverting to 3rd-4th ed marines. You can't make me take 10 man squads!

Updated first post.. Trying to fix pictures. Right-click them now if you wanna see 'em! That should be a temporary fix. Sorry!

Hope you´ll get to fix the pics soon, will be nice to read the batrep over breakfast tomorrow.
I´m sure it´s going to be awesome.

Instead of doing your own image tags go to the gallery page and copy and paste the first option under share this image. That should give you a clickable image on the forums.

Thanks man ill get on it asap!! Bedtime for now. Ill fix after breakfast.

Victory for the Sons of Dorn!

A well fought game against a worthy opponent with a well-painted army on great terrain. Great way to spend an afternoon.

Well fought indeed.

Very nice read. Looking forward to more batreps like this.

Looks like a great game with great armies. I especially like this photo;

I really like that photo, too. Too bad I can't charge from Rhinos anymore..

great game fellas! Though the poor 1000 sons got quite the beating ha ha.

you couldn't put the pics in the article?

I am only working with a phone at the moment, so no- not with a toddler too!

Great battle

Also I don't think you can roll on the warlord table with Ahriman. He has a fixed trait.

Well for the purposes of this battle report, I always (and will always) use Master of Deception anyways.