Magos Krueger allowed himself a slight sigh of satisfaction as his unfortunately fleshy bits were lowered into the amniotic bath. The sigh, and the feeling of delight as the warm liquid eased away any dryness and discomfort from him were two of the only three things he still allowed himself to experience from his inferior former existence as a biologic. A chime sounded softly, a brass gear slowly turning along the wall to bring a silvered mallet to bear on the bell. Magos Krueger didn’t frown in annoyance, that would be far too soft a biologic reaction, but he did feel a twinge that he might have accepted was an emotion vaguely connected to irritation if you had obligated him to examine it at length.

A cursory thought halted the lubrication and retrofitting of his physical chassis, and automated arms brought his flesh bits forth from the bath and began to reattach him to the framework of metal that could, perhaps, be called his body, though he preferred to think of it as a vessel. It was a much more elegant word, akin to one of the great ships in his fleet, rather than something so mundane as a biologic creation of meat and bone.

The chime sounded again, and Krueger quickly made a note on the status log that whomever had been sent to him with the message would need to be disciplined for their lack of decorum and patience. He unfurled a sleek arm from his back to snatch up his red robes of office. There was no need for modesty within him anymore, but he understood the point and purpose of the trappings and symbols of office. Indeed, he had written the most recent iteration of ‘A Treatise on Cowing and Commanding the Biologic Through the Adornment and Infusement of Materials with Meaning Vol. XXXXVI’ a work which he considered well worth the time for anyone to read.

“Enter.” His modulated voice echoed around his Spartan quarters as he took up his rod of office and turned to face the door.

A young Naval Adjutant entered the room, his face growing pale at the sight of the towering Magos wrapped in the red robes of the Priesthood of Mars. He swallowed nervously as he offered up a dataslate. Krueger blinked slowly, reaching out through the etheric information eddies to acces the full information of the dataslate in moments. His mind whirled as he split it into a few hundred processes to quickly break down all of the information, compartmentalizing that which was useful for further review, and noting a need to educate the overseer of the 4th Engine Quarter on a more efficient use of his holy promethium. Despite these hundreds of considerations, one suddenly stood out with stark clarity. Krueger felt his mechandrite hand tighten involuntarily on his staff. If he still had needed lungs he suspected he would have breathed in.

“They found the source of the transmission?”

Krueger didn’t like to ask questions, and had intended it as a statement, but even he couldn’t prevent the excited uplift in his voice at the end. He was after all experiencing the third biologic experience he allowed himself.

Greed.

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Army composition will be as follows;
1850 Points per player.
Detatchments and Formations allowed.
Lords of War allowed with agreement from the opposition.

Claim the Forbidden Knowledge!
There will be five objectives placed on the board equidistant from each other. 2 along the center line of the board. 2 in each deployment zone. A final objective will go in the center.
The center objective is worth 3 points.
Each of the smaller objectives is worth 1 point each.
Obj. Sec. rules are in effect.
First Blood, Last Blood, Linebreaker, and Slay the Warlord are all in effect.

Daemon World!

All of the rules for a Daemon World from Crusade of Fire are in effect, in short;
There is a random effect prior to each side’s turn.
Prior to the game non vehicle units can be affected by daemonic corruption.
Psykers are at increased risk for corruption.
Grey Knights are immune.
Marked units can only be corrupted by the Chaos God they are marked by.

Board setup;

Other than the objectives listed above, there are no special considerations for board setup.

LA VOLTA NYX

Keeper of Secrets
3 Daemon Princesses
Herald of Slaanesh
3x 10 Daemonettes
4 Fiends of Slaanesh


THE THOUSAND SONS

Sorcerer Conclave
Chaos Lord
2x 5 Thousand Sons
5 Chaos Spawn
2x 10 Cultists



The power of the fell sorceries of the Thousand Sons is near incalculable.


THE MECHANICUM
Magos
Imperial Knight
Two fancy-pants Forgeworld tanks that dropped obnoxious pie-plates or fired four lascannons.
Robot tanks
Robbie the robot
Electro priests.
Aw, heck, who am I fooling, I can’t recall all the correct names. Sorry :(


THE IMMORTAL HOST (Dark Angel rules, as I recall)
Librarian
Librarian in Terminator Armor
3x5 Terminators
Land Raider Redeemer
6 man Bike Squad
Inquisitor + Retinue
5 Grey Knight Terminators


Marcus’ armies are always so pretty, so let’s just eyeball this one a bit.


The Inquisitor and his band of merry fools.


Someone is trying hard to still be a force in the Psychic phase.

Winning the dice off for both side and setup, the Mechanicum and their Space Marine and Inquisitorial allies arrange for their bid at the ancient and dark knowledge stowed in the temple on the corrupt daemon world.


A powerful array of warmachines supported by light infantry and fast moving units to seek out all of the temple sights, as well as Terminators to hold their gains.


The right flank.


And the left.


When you don’t have enough terrain to hide your giant robots behind, it always pays to have a Land Raider.

It has been a while since I did a batrep – so I clearly decided that I didn’t need to take any photos of the Chaos setup at all, derpa!

The Mechanicum, eager to claim the temples, move forward under the protective support of a Land Raider loaded with Terminators.


The Magos and his squad also advance while the Immortal Host bikers seek cover behind the imposing edifice of the primary central temple.

The Imperium’s shooting leaves a lot to be desired, inflicting almost no damage to the assorted Chaos forces.


Bathsheba leads the way with her fellow daemon princesses, circling about the Land Raider and flailing away with Iron Arm enhanced lashes, ripping huge holes in it, though the mighty war machine endures.
The rest of the daemonic horde also moves forward, laughing cruelly as they prepare to endure the glorious pain of the oncoming Imperial firepower.


The Knight readies its many weapons systems as the cavorting hosts of Slaanesh charge forward.


Magos Krueger leads his men towards a temple structure infested with Fiends of Slaanesh, readying their weapons in anticipation.


Mechanicum units move in, firing in an attempt to protect the damaged Land Raider.


Meanwhile about a full third of the Imperial forces begin firing upon Messalina.


John shows how to do it by trying to shut down a psychic power, all he needs are two sixes…


Deep striking Terminators add their firepower to the efforts, cutting down Daemonettes by the score.


Concentrated firepower tears apart Messalina, banishing her back to the Warp!


The Imperium’s flank feels much safer with one less daemon prince lurking about.


“We have secured the prime temple,” announce Squad Scathan as they prepare to repel any further Chaos incursions.


“We need to claim the structure, destroy the hostiles!” Krueger and his priests move in.


“Excellent work,” Magos Krueger allowed himself to feel some success, after all, he now had placed forces in three of the minor temples and held the center as well. Clearly the knowledge, lost since the Great Crusade itself, would soon be his.


“For the glory of Nyx!” The Daemonettes, damaged from repeated salvos of Imperial firepower, caper forward, eager to bring their blades to bear.


The two remaining Princesses circle about the Knight, looking to down the powerful warmachine.
They would inflict serious damage, but thanks to its shields the Knight would survive.


Meanwhile the Keeper of Secrets let out a roar of challenge as she sinuously twined atop the temple, looking down at the Imperial forces below as she picked her prey-toy.


Not to be left out, the Tzeentch forces moved up as well, the Chaos Lord ordering supportive spells to be cast so that he and his Spawn could rip apart multiple foes.


The Space Marine bikers of the Immortal Host fought bravely, but in the end there was no question as to the outcome.


Cultists and daemonettes rushed against the Terminators, but the thick protective armored plating of their tactical dreadnaught armor carried the day.


Things went less well on the Imperial left flank, where the holy Land Raider and many Terminators were felled by the fearsome onslaught of the Tzeentch forces.


More Terminators strode forward, eager to deal with the horrific Chaos threat.


From every quarter they came, circling around the death star. In a brutal wave of armored might the Imperials would tear apart the Sorcerers, Spawn, and Lord in a fearsome melee.


Magos Krueger and his band made towards a lone batch of cultists, but failed to engage them in assault.


The Grey Knights move up to secure the temple Krueger left behind.


Its vox casters unleashing a roar of challenge, the Knight bravely ascended the dark temple to meet the Keeper of Secrets in hand to hand combat.


The Keeper proved too fast and deadly for the Knight, yet to her dismay as she tore apart his nuclear reactor a catastrophic explosion tore her physical body apart.


The carnage was impressive.

As we neared the end of our game time the Imperials were ahead 7 to 1.
That said, the remaining Chaos forces were pretty maneuverable, and with Objective Secured rules in play, a lot can happen.


Thousand Sons marched forward, their firepower proving enough to shoot back the Imperium from scoring range on the left flank objective (as well as netting Last Blood).


The Imperials held tight to Krueger’s claim of the right flank.


A Daemon princess came to ground, contesting the Imperial’s home field objective (and netting Linebreaker).


Cultists hopped forward to contest the central objective while the Chaos home field objective was claimed.


“By all the laws of combat, and despite us shredding your army, we shall withdraw, accursed Traitors!”

Chaos ekes out the last minute win – 4 (2 objectives, Last Blood, Linebreaker) to 3 (1 objective, First Blood, Slay the Warlord)

A tight back and forth game – if it had kept going I suspect Chaos would have been pretty dead barring some really amazing assaults, as they were being steadily picked apart. Still, I play DE, I never look a gift horse objective grab win in the mouth. I’m a little sad that the daemon planet rules actually amounted to very little. I think we killed one Ranger, and the Imps got a cancelled psychic power (albeit invisibility on the Tzeentchstar, so that was kind of a telling moment) but overall only a minor effect on the course of the game I feel. I’d play with the rules again, they are fun.

Chaos MVP
I would say the tossup here is between the Daemon Princesses, who absorbed a lot of firepower, as well as had the mobility to really snag last minute objective needs that saved the game.
Honorable mention to the Tzeentch death star that absorbed a hellacious amount of firepower and abuse,a nd also tore apart a lot of foes for us.

Chaos WTF
The Daemon Princesses again, actually. I think I allowed some of my rustiness with the army to really show. I never remembered to Vector Strike, and I also landed them too late – I should have accepted the higher risk of shooting accuracy in exchange for the higher damage output they could have done by having more assaults. I also did myself few favors in wasting time shooting a Land Raider (and maybe the Knight…though I think that one worked out fine for me)– I should have aimed at troops.


Imperial MVP

Probably ‘long range firepower’ though I think solid mention goes to the raw number of hits Marcus was able to tag my flying Princesses with, that man was a boxcar rolling machine, and it helped scare me into suboptimal strategy.

Imperial WTF

I can’t say anything did ‘nothing’ for them. But, probably for a points spent versus benefit gained it is probably that Mechanicum laser tank or the Grey Knight squad. Both did stuff (a wound on a Daemon Princess and the Keeper, and killing some Fiends and some Cultists respectively) but at the end of the day it was a fairly iffy gain considering their costs when another Troop option camping the home objective could have obligated a tie by doing nothing else.

Magos Krueger watched in…disappointment in the efficiency of his allies, as the shattered remains of the Imperial Knight were being carted away for repair. Clearly it had been the failure of the Space Marine legion and their adherence to fleshy habits that had caused the failure to his plans. Also, the very planet itself had battled against his forces in an unforeseen and anomalous way.

It had greatly adjusted the efficiency of his battle algorithms.

The Magos turned and headed back towards his chambers. He would need a long soak and time to consider how best to explain these setbacks to his superiors. He would also have to concoct a new stratagem to extract the ancient lore from the planet, for that lore must belong to him…and Mars, of course.

Krueger allowed himself a twitch of atrophied muscles, it might have been the faint echo memory of a smile.

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