Well I had another game against my favourite Death Guard opponent again tonight. Was another 2,000pt battle this time doing Cloak and shadows (Fitting for the Raven Guard).
My list was:
Battle Demi-CompanyChapter Master- Artificer Armour, Jump Pack, Swiftstrike & Murder
5 Tactical Marines- Melta, Combi-Melta (In drop pod)
5 Tactical Marines- Plasma, Combi-Plasma (In drop pod)
5 Tactical Marines- Plasma, Combi-Plasma (on foot)
10 Assault Marines- Vet Sarge with Lightning claws, 2x Flamers
5 Devastators- 4x Grav Cannons (In drop pod)
Dreadnought- Assault Cannon (In drop pod)
Raptor WingLandspeeder- Multi Melta & Heavy Flamer
Storm Talon- Assault cannons & Skyhammer missiles
Storm Talon- Assault Cannons & Skyhammer Missiles
Shadowstrike Kill Team5 Scouts- Camo Cloaks, Sniper rifles
5 Scouts- Camo cloaks, sniper rifles
5 Vanguard Veterans- 3x Lightning Claws, 2x Thunder Hammer Storm shield
5 Vanguard Veterans- 3x Lightning Claws, 2x Thunder Hammer Storm Shield
His list was roughly:
Typhus
Sorceror
20 Plague Marines- Plasma pistol, 2x Melta guns
18 Plague Marines- Plasma pistol, 2x Melta guns
Predator- TL Lascannon, Heavy Bolter
Hellbrute
Chaos Knight titan- Thermal lance, D slapping chainsword, Daemonic possession
DeploymentI won the roll to deploy first and decided to deploy first and take the first turn thinking that I could try and do some crippling damage before he gets moving.
My single Tac squad on foot and the two scout squads all deploy on objectives within ruins, the Landspeeder hides behind some line of sight blocking terrain.
His Knight is deployed directly in the centre of his lines, with a Plague Marine unit on either flank (One with Typhus, one with the sorceror) the predator set up on his right flank and the Hellbrute pushed up as high as he could looking to challenge for the objective in the middle of no-mans land.
Turn 1He elects not to sieze so I start my first turn. I chose my Devastators and Melta gun units to come in on drop pod assault but passed the rolls for both of my other drop pods.
The Grav Devastators drop down next to his largest plague marine unit on his left flank (With typhus) and managed to kill a whole 3 Plague marines......uh oh! The melta gun unit dropped next to the Knight and managing to deploy out of the arc of his Ion cannon they both hit, both penetrated.......an
d he passed both 5+ Invulnerables! My Plasma unit drop podded into midfield to claim the objective and the Dreadnought dropped behind the Hellbrute. The Plasma squad, Dreadnought and Landspeeder all lined up the Hellbrute and did no damage...... No quite an Alpha strike! Despite the poor rolling and lack of damage I managed to rack up a massive 4 Maelstrom points thanks to two D3 objective cards
In his turn Typhus's squad turned round and utterly shredded the Devastators with bolter rounds and the other Plague Marine squad did the same to my poor Melta Gunners. The Knight took out one of my Drop pods, The Hellbrute shot at my Dreadnought and missed and the Predator failed to do any damage to my Landspeeder. The hellbrute charged my Dreadnought and did a single hull point damage, The Dreadnought wrecked it with 3 Penetrating hits.
Turn 2My Storm Talons and Vanguard Veterans arrive but the Assault Squad stays off. The Storm Talons fly straight in and Wreck the Predator. Vanguard Veterans appear on either side of the largest Plague Marine unit preparing to charge along with the Dreadnought. Land Speeder moves next to some ruins to hide from the Knight. The Vanguard Vets, and Dreadnought assault the Plague Marines and do a couple of Wounds with Hammer of wraths. The Lightning claws then fell a fair few others but Typhus then strikes back with his massive Scythe and cuts down a Veteran Sargeant and 5 other Veterans! The thunder Hammers and Dreadnought strike back and take down another couple of Plague marines leaving just Typhus and half a dozen plague marines.
His Knight now advances towards the combat just incase I manage to break free but also trying to get some cover inbetween him and the Storm Talons. He doesn't have a huge amount else to do but the Knight destroys another drop pod although didn't get the scatter onto the Dreadnought as he was hoping. In combat my Vanguard Veterans failed to do any damage! Typhus finished off the Veterans and the Dreadnought killed some more Plague Marines.
Turn 3My Chapter Master and Assault squad again fail to turn up! My land speeder and Storm Talons all advance looking at the Knight. Scouts and Tactical Marines hold their ground knowing that there isn't much imminent danger to them and their hold on the objectives was pretty safe. Land speeder opened up at the Knight and stripped a massive 3 Hull points off it! Storm Talons managed to do another one with the Skyhammer missiles, couldn't do anything with the remaining Plasma shots. In combat the Dreadnought took out a couple of the Plague Marines and Typhus did nothing.
His sorceror led Plague Marine squad started up a Conga line across his deployment zone to try and capture two objectives, his Knight attempted a scatter ontop of the Dreadnought but this time managed it and took a hull point off the Dreadnought. In combat though the Dreadnought did get the last laugh and instant killed Typhus again! The final two Plague Marines stood their ground.
Turn 4My Chapter Master finally arrives and not wanting to get blasted by the Knight he drops in with his unit behind a ruin and runs up to get some cover from it. The Land speeder moves up to get within Melta range of the Knight and the Storm Talons fly off the board to go into ongoing reserves. The Land speeder manages to take another hull point off the Knight but that was all the damage I managed to do in this shooting phase. The Dreadnought finished off the last of the Plague Marines and moves right next to the Knight to try and prevent being hit by a Thermal Cannon.
His remaining Plague Marine unit continues it's conga line and the Knight blew the Land speeder out of the air with his Thermal cannon. He then charges into the Dreadnought, although he didn't manage to get that glorious 6 on the D-Weapon chart he easily destroyed the Dreadnought....... The Dreadnought however did strike at the same time and registering two hits and one penetrating hit the Knight failed it's invulnerable save and went down!
Turn 5My Storm Talons come back on and fail to really do much to the Plague Marine unit. My Chapter Master and his Assault Marines jump forwards looking for a charge. Not wanting to lengthen my charge I elect not to shoot with my remaining units and the Assault Marines make an 8" charge. Naturally I call a Challenge and my Chapter Master squares up against his Sorceror. In the challenge I make my 6 attacks and only register 1 hit! (Hitting on 3s!) this gives me an extra attack but in the end he only manages to do one unsaved wound! The sorceror then strikes back and of the 3 Artificer armour saves I have to make I failed one. My assault marines took a handful of Plague Marines out with a combination of the Veteran sergeants Lightning claws and their chainswords. They lost two of their number in return. Leaving the Sorceror and 5 Plague Marines left.
In his assault phase my Chapter Master attempts to make up for his dismal performance in the previous phase and makes his attacks. 5 Attacks registers 5 hits, another 5 attacks now registers me another 5 hits! I convert 9 of this into wounds (I love Shred!) and he only manages to pass 2 of his feel no pains. This takes out his remaining models and gives me a victory by tabling!
By the end of the game I had run away with the Maelstrom mission points and had somewhat of a stranglehold on the table as he wasn't able to get out of his deployment zone. He really struggled with a lack of speed in my opinion as he just couldn't contest the objectives that I was holding and had no real options after that.
I was concerned after my Alpha strike absolutely failed but I managed to plink away models here and there and eventually managed to rack up the damage without suffering any damage to my Scouts and Tac marines who were quietly winning me the game via the cards.
Man of the match again has to be the Dreadnought. In the last two games he has killed Typhus twice, a Hellbrute, a couple of Terminators, a Vengeance battery and finished off a Knight Titan! I definitely think he is deserving of promotion to a Contemptor pattern!