To prepare for a local GT in March and Adepticon in April twenty of us from the Frozen North Gaming Club are participating in a league to both build community as well as test lists out against a variety of opponents. We are following the Bay Area Open missions and I am using the new Chaos Space Marine Codex with allied Daemons of Chaos. Note that because it is a playtest league there is no painting requirement and proxies are allowed on the condition that you are actually working toward purchasing or converting the model. I have included what model is being used as a [proxy] in brackets.
Typhus [Gold TH/SS Terminator]
33 Plague Zombies
10 Plague Zombies
10 Plague Zombies
10 Plague Zombies
Heldrake (Baleflamer) [Vendetta]
Heldrake (Baleflamer) [Stormtalon]
5 Havocs (4 Lascannon)
5 Havocs (4 Lascannon)
Masque [Tyranid Warrior]
9 Flamers of Tzeentch [Black Termagants]
5 Plaguebearers [Grey Termagants]
9 Screamers of Tzeentch [Dark Elf Warriors]
Aegis (Comms Relay)
It was my first time ever playing Michael, who brought Sisters of Battle with IG Allies.
St. Celestine
Uriah Jacobus
20 Sisters (Power Weapon/ 2 Flamers)
10 Sisters (Rhino/2 Meltagun/Combi-Flamer)
10 Sisters (Rhino/2 Meltagun/Combi-Flamer)
5 Retributors (4 Heavy Bolters)
Exorcist
Exorcist
Lord Commissar (2 Powerfist)
Marbo
10 Veterans (Auto-Cannon/3 Grenade Launchers/Forward Sentry Doctrine)
Vendetta [Razorwing Jetfighter]
Basilisk
Aegis (Quad-Gun)
I feel pretty confident about facing his list. Once I unmech his sisters they will be rip for my heldrakes. The vendetta will be a pain, but one tough unit does not take away from what looks to be a good matchup. The mission is Emperor’s Will (marked by blue) as primary and Crusade (3 objectives) as secondary with all three rulebook bonus points in play. Celestine will get an additional victory point for each one of my characters she kills in a challenge. There will be nightfighting turn one.
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| The last crusade (red) objective is just out of frame on the left. |
I win the roll to go first and deploy one set of havocs in the building to my right with a 10 man zombie squad hiding mostly behind it. The other three zombie squads are in reserve. The other havoc squad is placed behind a barricade with Typhus in the front. They are also manning my comms relay. My Aegis is on the far side to give protection to any cultists I send at the left objective.
Michael deploys his blob with the commissar, Celestine, and Uriah on the left. In the building is one rhino, with the retributors on the second floor. Behind the building he is hiding one exorcist. He has the veterans running the quad gun, as well as placing the second exorcist behind it. The basilisk is in the forest by the far right objective, and to the extreme right is the second rhino. Michael seizes the initiative.
Sisters 1
Michael moves his army forward, focusing on Typhus and the havocs. Between the 4+ cover and additional nightfight, 2+ AV, and FNP all that results is Typhus taking two wounds.
Chaos 1
I get my preferred wave of flamers and screamers. The screamers hit dead on in the center of the table, but the flamers scatter back to my lines, and so I run them to get some space between models. The screamers turboboost over the vets and kill seven. I also wreck a rhino for first blood.
Sisters 2
Michael gets the Vendetta on, but wisely hangs it back. This prevents me from vector striking it as well as increases the chances it can shoot at my heldrakes next turn. He moves the dismounted sisters toward the screamers, moves the vets across the aegis away from the screamers, and disembarks the other sisters to shoot at my screamers. I am brought down to four, two of which only have one wound. He also kills three flamers and wounds another.
Chaos 2
I get both heldrakes, Masque, plaguebearers, big zombie squad, and a little zombie squad. Plaguebearers land near the top right objective and Masque goes front and center. One heldrake flies next to the center building to be protected from the Vendetta and the other goes so that it is 17” from the Vendetta, forcing it to either go past or hover. The right heldrake takes a HP from the quad. Typhus moves into a ten zombie squad. The Masque pulls the retributors out of the building, bunching up both them and the center sister squad. Four retributors die and seven sisters die with the remaining three fleeing. The right heldrake kills most of the right sister squad. My flamers warpfire the remaining vets off the table. The screamers explode the exorsist and kill the remaining sisters on the right. I have three left, two with only one wound. They consolidate into the forest.
Sisters 3
Marbo shows up right in Typhus’ face, killing three havocs with his demo charge. It was pretty awesome. The vendetta also took me by surprise, moving onto the building to get shots on my right drake, but fails to hurt it. Celestine challenges the Masque and they draw combat. The falling sisters regroup and the block of sisters kill some zombies. The basilisk kills some zombies and he moves his last rhino onto the other side of the aegis. The last retributor took over the quad but didn’t do anything.
Chaos 3
My last zombies come on. I move zombies forward, with Typhus slaying Marbo. Celestine does a wound to the Masque in combat. The screamers explode the Basalisk. One heldrake flies off, vectoring unsuccessfully the back exorcist. The other kills a bunch of sisters. Flamers warpfire the last retributor.
Sisters 4
His vendetta lands on my building now, killing two havocs who fail their morale and leave the table. His back three sisters bring me down to one screamer. The big squad kills some zombies. Celestine finishes off the Masque and consolidates toward my lines.
Chaos 4
Typhus joins the large zombie squad, charges Celestine, and kills her. The screamer finishes off his sisters in the back. Flamers take over the quad gun but fail to do much to the vendetta.
Sisters 5
Celestine gets back up and charges a zombie quad, killing the champion. His Vendetta hovers and kills some zombies on my back objective. His big block of sisters charges the big block of zombies and he kills enough to prevent Typhus from swinging. Somehow on this turn or the last the final screamer died.
Chaos 5
I shoot at the Vendetta but do nothing. All the big block of zombies die, but Typhus holds his last scoring unit in place. Celestine can not kill all of the zombies she is fighting. The game ends.
I am winning the emperor’s will 1-0, crusade 1-0, and have first blood. Michael has linebreaker with Celestine and two points from her winning challenges. I win the game 8-3.
Immediately afterwards I played a second league game against a very good vanilla marine player with Calgar, 10 TH/SS terminators, two stormtalons, a thunderfire, and more.
It was the relic and big guns never tire with hammer and anvil deployment. I got to go first, but after my opponent deployed all I could see with my army was this…
I got double lucky on turn one, killing the thunderfire despite its really good cover, and having my flamers scatter out of line of sight for his whole army. Even after adjusting his army he only had sight to four of them. On my second turn the Masque bunched up the terminators and the flamers were able to kill all the terminators and Calgar, at which point we called the game. Without the scatter David would have been able to kill most of the flamers which would have led to a totally different game.
Over the last few weeks I also got a game in against the same Grey Knight player who had beat me when I was first testing out Chaos. I had some bad luck against his Draigo/Coteaz combo, including the Masque scattering directly into “I’ve Been Expecting You” range (and dying from it naturally) as well as sneaky Coteaz seizing the initiative. Dave (of Adepticon 2012 top 8 fame) played his list really well, outflanking with two dreadkights to force me to hang back with the screamers. I can not recommend lascannons enough. For only forty points more than an autocannon havoc squad I can double out paladins, gain +2S fro anti-tank, and get AP2. Between lascannons and flamers I killed Draigo and got him down to five paladins. Typhus once again was a beast against them thanks to his 2+ armor. If they don’t hammerhand (to make the hammers S10) he really can fight them with impunity. Typhus killed them all but the last hammer finished him leaving Coteaz (who had been declining challenges) by himself. My dragons made short work of his henchmen.
At the end of turn 5 he had Coteaz, a damaged razorback, and damaged stormraven with three henchmen inside, and one wounded dreadknight. I had two dragons, two zombie squads, and one partial havoc squad. We called it there determining that I had better positioning. I al really happy with how my list matches up with that build, as it is one I think we will still see at many tournaments.
Tonight I have my last league game for November, against either Ork/Tau or Ork/Necrons. Until then!
nice battle report =)
ReplyDeletebut thunderfire cannons can't be put in upper levels of the ruins like your opponent did, p.98
I didn't think of that. Looking in the book though, it only specifies they can't move on the upper levels. What if they are deployed on the upper level and never move?
DeleteI know GW's wording is rather poor, but I think that everyone gets their intention of the rule. And it can be argued that you "move" it onto the upper level by placing it there. And they don't want artilly there =)
DeleteI guess I would be fine with it being interpreted/rules lawyered that they could deploy there if an opponent wanted to. That said looking at that section I wouldn't try and pull it myself.
DeleteLascannons are pure win .
ReplyDelete