Well, my plan of having a dedicated web-site for 40K didn't work out. I hardly ever posted anything on the new blog and it cut the number of posts in this blog down considerably.
So from now on, 40K is back on the menu at Terminus Omega. To prove it, here's a much shortened bat-rep of a game between my Khorne-themed CSM list and Luke's Slaaneshi themed list. I say much shortened, because the game was nearly six weeks ago now and I can remember very few details. Even with the aid of photographs to jog my memory. I do recall it was a big guns never tire mission.
My Army:
My army was Khorne-themed, with a Daemon Prince armed with "THE AXE" and a Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut armed with a powerfist and a lightning claw. I had a strong unit of bikers with the Mark of Khorne and two melta-guns mounted on the bikes. I also fielded a Land Raider with a full complement of Berserkers (a change from my normal Possessed contingent) and eight Khorne Terminators with combi-melta's. To round things out I had ten chaos marines with plasma guns on foot, ten cultists and I used a Vanilla Marine razorback as a proxie for a CSM Predator with autocannon and heavy bolters. Finally, I had 150pts to spend so I fielded a unit of Thousand Sons.
Luke's Army:
Luke fielded a Slaaneshi Lord with the Burning Brand on a bike, escorted by a small squad of Bikers. His second HQ choice was a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh with maxed out spells including a lot of Biomancy. He also fielded two ten man Noise marines squads loaded with AP3 eating weapons, a ten man Havoc Squad with four autocannons, an Aegis Defence Line and a normal CSM squad with Mark of Slaanesh, BP and Close Combat Weapon.
He also fielded a Helldrake. Boo! Hiss! As if he didn't have enough AP3 already.
Deployment:
Luke positioned both units of Noise Marines in area terrain, one of them centrally. He placed his Biker Lord and escort behind the centre Noise Marines along with his CSM marines and DP. He placed his Havocs with his Aegis on my right flank. He held two objectives, one with his Noise Marines on the left, one with his Havocs (inside the defence line) on the right. He kept his Helldrake in reserve.
I had one objective on my left behind a hill. Stupidly (and crucially) I'd forgotten that Thousand Sons were only troops in my Tzeentch list and so they couldn't actually hold the objective. Being so damnably slow, they then did nothing all game. I placed my Land Raider and Predator centrally along with the Bikes and Juggerlord. My cultists screened my CSM on the right. Seeing as Luke had the first turn, I kept my DP in reserve, hoping to use him to take out Luke's DP wherever he ended up.
Early Game:
Luke's first turn shooting was fairly ineffective. I had placed most of my army either out of range or out of LOS of his army. I only lost a single Biker to shooting because his wheel was poking out from behind a bus. I may have lost a cultist or two to some long range Havoc fire but that was it. I had no shooting at all to speak off. Turn two, his DP fries a few of my cultists AND my CSM's. With Havoc fire and the turn 2 arrival of his Helldrake that sealed the fate of both units who promptly failed morale and eventually ran off the table in turn 3 In return, I knock a few hull points off his Helldrake with twin-linked heavy bolter fire and Lascannon fire from the Pred and killed his DP with some twin linked bolt guns and melta guns from the bikers, who by this point were turbo-boosting in circles behind the bus.
Mid Game:
Luke's horde of AP3 firepower has nothing much left to shoot at apart from my vehicles (everything else being out of LOS) and does almost no damage. The Helldrake managed to Vector Strike the Landraider to no effect and then kill a few bikers with his fiery breath. In return, I shoot down the Helldrake with my Deepstriking Terminators and their combi-melta's, who now threaten the right hand Noise Marine objective. My Predator shoots across the board towards the objective on my back left because, as Heavy Support, it can capture objectives in this scenario.
To our combined delight, it turns out to have been a Skyfire Nexus all along! To only my delight, my DP with THE AXE charges the central Noise Marines and easily slaughters the Champion in a challenge. The Bikes move up for a charge next turn and blast away at the Havocs with their bolt guns and kill a few of the autocannon gunners.
In Luke's turn, his Chaos Lord and Bikers charge my Daemon Prince. The Chaos Lord has to challenge the Daemon Prince and who rolls a 1 for the Axe and wounds himself and takes another wound from Luke's Chaos Lord. My DP is now tar-pitting two whole units on his own. His Havocs kills a few Terminators though volume of fire. His Noise Marines on the left shoot at and destroy my Predator with a lucky shot. The Landraider moves up to threaten the Aegis Defence Line objective once the Terminators clear out the Havocs. It still has not yet disgorged it's cargo of 'Zerkers , mostly because I'm expecting Luke's Biker Lord to counter-attack the Terminators once they've driven off the Havocs. The Zerkers would then counter-attack in turn.
I then charge my own Bikers and Jugger Lord into the huge tar-pit around the Daemon Prince, hoping to clear away the central Slaaneshi units and open up a charge route to the Noise Marines on Luke's left. My DP kills the Chaos Lord. My Chaos Lord kills the Biker Champion. My bikers tear through Luke's Bikers, despite their initiative advantage.
Luke counters by charging into this huge melee with his Close Combat Marines, whose Champion promptly challenges my Chaos Lord and dies horribly to a Powerfist in the face. His close combat marines flee combat but rally. Meanwhile, I'm slaughtering everything in sight. My terminators charge home into the Havocs and route them, but lose more than half the squad in the process. They then occupy the Quad gun.
Late Game:
Luke' Noise Marines on the left continue to stay put, knowing that if they break cover my AP3 Thousand Sons will have a field day. Meanwhile, my Thousands Sons stay put knowing that if they break cover the AP3 Noise Marines will have a field day.
On the other side of the board, we're busy annihilating each other. My Daemon Prince manages to kill itself by rolling another 1 with it's axe.
After which a series of bad dice rolls lead to the death of my Lord. Luke's remaining forces in the centre (half a dozen miniatures or so, including his rallied close combat CSM's) somehow manage to retake the Aegis Defence Line from my Terminators. My Zerkers then charge out of the Landraider and re-take the objective but fail to kill one model, leaving it contested. I try to zoom my Landraider across the board to contest Luke's other objective but it's too late.
I've managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and Luke wins with First Blood, one objective and Slay the Warlord. Meanwhile, I have Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker.
All in all a very enjoyable blood bath. Luke may have won on points but at the end of the day Khorne never loses. Because, you know, "Blood for the Blood God" and all that jazz.
Things to Remember:
Number One: (and this is the biggie that cost me the game) Thousand Sons are only troops in a list with a Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeentch.
Number Two: Even if your guys can't score on an objective, you should still move them forward the bloody half inch required to see what that mysterious objective is! It could be Skyfire.
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| Luke's/Slaanesh Deployment |
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| My Deployment. Take BEFORE I remembered to place the Pred Proxie |
Early Game:
Luke's first turn shooting was fairly ineffective. I had placed most of my army either out of range or out of LOS of his army. I only lost a single Biker to shooting because his wheel was poking out from behind a bus. I may have lost a cultist or two to some long range Havoc fire but that was it. I had no shooting at all to speak off. Turn two, his DP fries a few of my cultists AND my CSM's. With Havoc fire and the turn 2 arrival of his Helldrake that sealed the fate of both units who promptly failed morale and eventually ran off the table in turn 3 In return, I knock a few hull points off his Helldrake with twin-linked heavy bolter fire and Lascannon fire from the Pred and killed his DP with some twin linked bolt guns and melta guns from the bikers, who by this point were turbo-boosting in circles behind the bus.
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| Both DP's were flying at this point, but it's still a cool photo |
Luke's horde of AP3 firepower has nothing much left to shoot at apart from my vehicles (everything else being out of LOS) and does almost no damage. The Helldrake managed to Vector Strike the Landraider to no effect and then kill a few bikers with his fiery breath. In return, I shoot down the Helldrake with my Deepstriking Terminators and their combi-melta's, who now threaten the right hand Noise Marine objective. My Predator shoots across the board towards the objective on my back left because, as Heavy Support, it can capture objectives in this scenario.
To our combined delight, it turns out to have been a Skyfire Nexus all along! To only my delight, my DP with THE AXE charges the central Noise Marines and easily slaughters the Champion in a challenge. The Bikes move up for a charge next turn and blast away at the Havocs with their bolt guns and kill a few of the autocannon gunners.
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| My turn 3: DP Charges and kills the Noise Marine Champ in a challenge |
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| His turn 3: Slaaneshi Chaos Lord and Bikers charge DP who rolls a 1 for The AXE |
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| My and Luke;s Turn 4: My DP kills Luke's Chaos Lord and my Chaos Lord on his Juggernaut kills his Biker Champion. Luke counter charges in his turn with the Close Combat CSM Marines who lose their Champion to my Lord. |
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| After shooting, this turned out to be a very easy Assault Phase for me. |
Late Game:
Luke' Noise Marines on the left continue to stay put, knowing that if they break cover my AP3 Thousand Sons will have a field day. Meanwhile, my Thousands Sons stay put knowing that if they break cover the AP3 Noise Marines will have a field day.
On the other side of the board, we're busy annihilating each other. My Daemon Prince manages to kill itself by rolling another 1 with it's axe.
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| With 1 wound left my DP rolls a 1 for his Axe Attacks and kills himself. Bummer. |
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| These six marines somehow managed to kill all three Terminators before they could even strike back! |
I've managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and Luke wins with First Blood, one objective and Slay the Warlord. Meanwhile, I have Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker.
All in all a very enjoyable blood bath. Luke may have won on points but at the end of the day Khorne never loses. Because, you know, "Blood for the Blood God" and all that jazz.
Things to Remember:
Number One: (and this is the biggie that cost me the game) Thousand Sons are only troops in a list with a Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeentch.
Number Two: Even if your guys can't score on an objective, you should still move them forward the bloody half inch required to see what that mysterious objective is! It could be Skyfire.
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