For the final confrontation, we played a Cleanse and Capture mission. We set the board up chock full of terrain with a sort of kill box in the middle with four big
LOS blocking pieces surrounded by some good sniping spots and smaller pieces that could be used for cover. We ignore a few of the Matched play rules like the turn 1 deepstriking ban and multiple psykers not being allowed to cast the same spell so if a few moments raise eyebrows in the match, it's because we're a bit fast and loose.
I placed all three of my objectives in a tri-point around the centre of the table, while my opponent put his on top of ruins - knowing my dreads couldn't climb them.
He picked the Hammer and Anvil deployment map, choosing the tile on the left of the picture as his zone - meaning he could easily claim three objectives on his first turn via deployment. Our armies were as follows:
Dreadnoughts Army
- A Salamanders Supreme Command of Volgrim the Ancient (my counts-as Brayarth, with Hero of the Chapter used to give him the +2T warlord trait - taking him to T11, 2+ save, 5+ invuln, 4+
FNP!), two twin lascannon chaplain dreads, and a quad autocannon venerable dreadnought
- A Space Wolves Vanguard of Chapter Master Ulfyr (counts-as Bjorn), the two axe and shield dreads Vilkax and Farkax, and Neckbiter in a dreadnought drop pod
- A Blood Angels Vanguard of still-unnamed Librarian dreadnought (my Warlord, with the Biomantic Sarcophagus relic and Speed of Sanguinius trait) and 3 x furiosos with frag cannons and meltaguns
6 starting
CP
Chaos Army
- A Fallen Vanguard of Cypher and 3 x 6 units of Fallen, all with combi-plasmas. Two units had a lascannon and the other had a missile launcher.
- A Red Corsairs Battalion of Huron (warlord), Sorcerer w Jump Pack and the Murdersword linked to Volgrim, 2 x 5
CSMs w special/heavy weapons (plasma/las) and 1 x 10 with chainswords.
- A Red Corsairs Vanguard of a Khorne Daemon Prince w wings and a sexy daemon sword whose name I forget, two greater possessed, and a hellbrute with twin lascannons
- A Red Corsairs Spearhead of a Master of Possessions, two obliterators, and a venomcrawler
- A Noctilith Crown
Something crazy like 17 starting
CP
Chaos Deployment
Most of his army was tucked in around the
LOS blocking terrain, anticipating I would get the first turn. A unit of Fallen with a lascannon was placed on top of the fuel station roof to claim Objective 4 and have good line of sight down the middle of the map, while another managed to get a marine on top of the held Objective 6. His Venomcrawler, Master of Possessions and one Greater Possessed hid behind the wall on his right flank to all buff each other with cool Daemon stuff, Huron and the Hellbrute set up in centrefield around his Noctilith Crown and Objecive 5, and on the left flank sat his Daemon Prince, the other Greater Possessed, and the last unit of Fallen. The Chaos Marine squads were spread out to try and stop Neckbiter from deepstriking into his backfield. The two Obliterators and Sorcerer were set up in Reserve, ready to deepstrike in and claim yet more objectives!
Dreadnoughts Deployment
Pretty much everything was placed right up on the edge of my deployment zone ready to push forward. On the left flank I had two furiosos. Volgrim held dead centre, slightly ahead of the other dreadnoughts to make him a juicy target, knowing he could tank a couple lascannon shots with ease. With him were Ulfyr, Farkax, the last furioso, and behind them was one of my chaplain dreads. On the right, Vilkax stood ahead of the librarian dreadnought and the other chaplain stood slightly back with the rifleman, ready to forget his buffing litanies every. single. turn! Neckbiter went into his drop pod and into orbit.
I won the roll-off for first turn with my +1 from finishing deployment first, but my opponent (let's call him Ray for ease in this report) managed to sieze initiative!
Chaos Turn 1
He moved most of his shooting units that were out of range/
LOS into position – his Venomcrawler came out from behind the wall, aimed straight at my Furiosos. His Daemon Prince flew downfield from the tower and the Greater Possessed trailed for the +1 Strength aura. His Hellbrute poked his head around the corner so he could see down the line to my dreads.
He pulled Hold Objective 4 – which he did, Defend Objective 6, which would be easily done, and the Long War – which is 1
VP for killing a unit – or d3 if they are Imperium!
His obliterators dropped in on an objective each, one on Objective 3 in the killbox and one on Objective 2 on the roof next to my centre and right flank squads. The Sorcerer landed his jump pack in the perfect spot to try and deny my librarian’s plans to buff himself up and charge into the
DP.
His sorcerer tried to Death Hex away Vilkax’ 4+ invuln but was denied, then cast Infernal Gaze and managed to get a mortal wound off on Vilkax.
For shooting, Volgrim took a lot of lascannon fire – as was the plan! – and they managed to take 3 wounds off his mighty chassis. One of my furiosos on the left flank was taken out by a combination of Venomcrawler, Fallen and Obliterator fire, giving Ray First Blood – and that was thankfully it.
Nothing charged – so it was time for the dreadnoughts to march!
Dreadnoughts Turn 1
One of the Furiosos advanced up the left flank, knowing he could still unleash his Frag Cannon and meltagun and the autohits provided a pretty good charge deterrent against the incoming
CSM squad and daemon blob behind it. He threw all his weapons into the 5 man
CSM squad and managed to wipe them out.
Farkax moved into the centre and targeted the Obliterator on Obj 3 with his
HF but couldn’t wound. Ulfyr followed suit and managed to get the Obliterator down to 1 wound remaining. Volgrim advanced directly down the centre and shot his smoke launchers.
The other furioso advanced straight down the middle and rolled well enough to be within Frag Cannon range of the Hellbrute. In combination with his Melta and some Lascannon fire from the chaplain, he managed to peel 7 of its 8 wounds off in the shooting phase.
The rifleman dread smooshed 3 of 6 fallen even with their cover saves, and the other chaplain tried to mince the Greater Possessed that was just slightly closer than the
DP, but only managed to take off a single wound.
The librarian moved his 6” out, following behind Vilkax, and tried to cast Wings of Sanguinius and Quickening – though one was denied and the other failed even with his re-rolls.
In the charge phase, the Obliterator was set upon and quickly despatched by Ulfyr and Farkax, and the librarian made it into the Greater Possessed and sliced him in two with his Furioso halberd.
Neckbiter arrived into the hole left by the advancing Daemon Prince and Greater Possessed and attempted a charge on Huron but failed – even with his innate rerolls. He was safe for the next turn’s shooting at least thanks to his drop pod being slightly in front and his character status.
At the end of Round 1, Ray was ahead 8-4 on Victory Points. I still had all 6
CP remaining, but he had burned through 6 of his, taking him down to 11.
Chaos Turn 2
Movement was pretty quick here. The Daemon Prince moved in to charge Farkax, and the Sorcerer eyed off Volgrim with his Murdersword. His backline
CSMs reshuffled to be within range to use their pistols. By now Cypher and a unit of Fallen were totally on top of Objective 6’s building and had been happily sniping away.
In the Psychic phase, the Master of Possessions buffed up the Venomcrawler to re-roll hits and wounds, the Sorcerer managed to smite a wound off Volgrim, and Huron managed to get in position to smite two off Neckbiter.
Farkax took some heavy plasma fire and stood standing with 3 wounds remaining. Ulfyr was the target of the Venomcrawler and Master of Possessions who managed to take him down to 3 wounds remaining as well.
The Sorcerer managed to take a single wound off Volgrim with the Murdersword but was squashed in return. The Daemon Prince put some hurt down on Vilkax and took some heat back, but both were still standing at the end of the turn.
The obliterator on the roof pulled a wound off the Chaplain dreadnought and would prove to be a thorn in his side throughout the game.
The Fallen on the back rooftop destroyed Neckbiter’s drop pod as it was their only available option. The Fallen on Objective 6 destroyed the second Furioso, and Huron and the Hellbrute combined to kill the last Furioso.
Dreadnoughts Turn 2
Ulfyr and Farkax headed downfield to shoot up and charge into the Venomcrawler, who they managed to tear to pieces between the two of them, and then consolidated into the Master of Possessions and Greater Possessed.
Volgrim continued his march downfield towards Huron and managed to aim his Dreadclaw flamers at a unit of
CSM and melt them completely, then charge in to Huron, crush him with his claws, and consolidate into the Noctilith Crown.
Neckbiter met him there, via destroying most of the 10-man
CSM unit on his own after charging in, popping the exploding hits on a 4+ stratagem, and managing to roll 3 1s to hit!
The chaplains and rifleman did their part, clearing out the Fallen in cover on Ray’s left flank and killing the Hellbrute.
Vilkax finished off the Daemon Prince but forgot to pile in/consolidate and was stuck in the open.
At the end of Turn 2, Ray was ahead 15-7 on Victory Points, but only had 3
CP remaining.
Chaos Turn 3
Things were looking pretty dire for Cypher at this point – he knew he had to work out a way to keep somebody alive. The Master of Possessions buffed up the Greater Possessed and then teamed up with him to put Ulfyr out of action. An overcharged plasma pistol from the remnants of the chainsword squad managed to not only kill the firer but cause the remaining marine to flee.
In return, Farkax chose to use the cleave property on his axe, which only managed to do a single wound to the Greater Possessed.
The Fallen atop the fuel station had no choice but to target Vilkax as their other options were either in combat or characters and managed to get him to half wounds.
The obliterator continued to plink wounds off the backfield Chaplain dreadnought.
Dreadnoughts Turn 3
Volgrim and Neckbiter smashed the Noctilith Crown, which exploded – taking Neckbiter out of action and bringing Volgrim down to his last wound.
The librarian managed to get both his spells off this turn, and flew downfield to be a big damn hero. With his new FLY keyword, bonus movement, +3 to charges and rerolling them, he managed to make it up to the top of the fuel station – death had arrived on fiery wings for the Fallen holding Objective 6! He caught a few plasma wounds on the way but took out the entire squad on his own and consolidated on top of the Objective.
Vilkax did something very silly and split his attacks, Scythe style, between the Greater Possessed and the Master of Possessions, killing neither and allowing them to kill him in return.
The fire support dreads killed a few fallen from Objective 6, and that was the turn.
Chaos Turn 4
The Greater Possessed advanced to the top of Objective 6’s building with Cypher and the fallen, hoping to counter the librarian’s inevitable charge. The Master of Possessions climbed the wall he had hidden behind at the beginning of the game and took aim at the librarian with Smite. Between that and the Fallen’s shooting, the librarian only had a single wound left.
Dreadnoughts Turn 4
Volgrim left the fiery mess of the Noctilith Crown and Neckbiter’s smouldering sarcophagus to chase down the Master of Possessions.
The Librarian flew over to Objective 6 but needed to advance, meaning he couldn’t shoot or charge, but managed to smite away the two remaining Fallen, leaving Cypher to be shot and killed (or was he…?) by the rifleman from across field. The chaplain then melted the Greater Possessed, leaving just the Master of Possessions alive on his perch on the wall, facing down certain doom from the librarian and Volgrim.
The backfield chaplain dread finally shot the obliterator on the roof to pieces!
Chaos Turn 5
It was getting dicey now! Ray’s Master of Possessions was his last remaining unit. He dropped down off his perch and advanced backwards – he tried to smite the last wound off the librarian but was denied. He could only sit and wait for the inevitable and hope the dice gods were kind!
Dreadnoughts Turn 5
All I could do here was advance Volgrim to get in position to shoot and charge next turn (if there was one!), and attempt to get my librarian down to smoosh the Master of Possessions. Wings didn’t go off – even with the reroll, and then I failed a Smite as well. There was nothing else I could do – it would come down to the dice roll to see if we went on to Turn 6!
Ray picked out a low-rolling die from dice jail – its love of 1s and 2s would come in handy here.
It skittered across the table, bounced off a few terrain pieces, and landed – on a 2! There would be no round 6, and Cypher somehow managed to pull victory from the jaws of defeat twice in a row.
At the end of the game, despite the Iron Jackals managing to whittle the betrayers down to their last man, that man was far ahead on Victory Points – winning 25 to 10.
I had an absolute blast, though – nearly everyone did their job and got their moment to shine. On to the next campaign – we’re going to start a Sigmar slow grow with his Fyreslayers v my Chaos Orcs, going from 500 to 1500. I’ll try and take better pictures and keep better records for some more reports to go into the blog!
The pics i did manage to take:
Neckbiter and Volgrim just before the explosion.
The Master of Possessions faces down both Volgrim and the librarian.
Farkax and Ulfyr in combat with the daemonic marines.
The dreaded army also looks fantastic, love the fire effect instead of the expected ice one!
). I had planned to take photos at the end of each phase to have a go at writing a battle report, but forgot a lot of them!
Finished Tau Sept Cadre 
Alaitoc Eldar Warhost 
Finished Order of Our Martyred Lady - Sisters of Battle 
Finished Necromundian Imperial Guard Regiment 
