Word Bearer's Escalation Campaign

[Bonzai]

Our shop has started an escalation league. It's starting at 500 points, and every two weeks it will jump up 500 points up till 2,000 points. Everyone gets 3 official games at each point range. We aren't allowed to use our normal tournament lists, and everything is to painted in at least 3 colors. I took this as a perfect inscentive to get my Word Bearers painted.

The first week was spent franticly painting. I finally finished my 3rd color on my defiler, and was immediately challenged by my little brother. I had helped him with his list, and he was 2-0 so far. Feeling cocky, he challenged me.

My list

Word bearers

HQ
Dark Apostal Malakai, the Ascendant(Daemon Primce w/ wings, warp time)
Troops
5 CSM w/ plasma gun
5 CSM w/ plasma gun
Heavy
Defiler w/ reaper autocannon, extra CC arm.
Total: 495

My Brothers list;

Deathguard
HQ
Daemon Prince w/ wings, mark of nurgle, warp time
Troops
5 plague marines w/ melta gun
5 plague marines w/ melta gun
Heavy
Obliterator
Total: 500

The game had 4 objectives, 12 inch deployment. I won the roll off and deployed first. There was ample terrain for both of us, and a tall bunker in the middle that blocked line of sight. I deployed everything in cover. My brother did like wise, then promptly siezed the initiative.

In homage to the Sanity Assassin's great reports;

Dark Apostle Malakai the Ascendant was the first to set foot upon the ferral world. He cared little for any dangers that might inhabit this planet, for what could be more fearsome than the Dark Apostle himself? He was a hulking, towering monstrosity. Blessed beyond measure by the true gods, he had gone through the metamophosis into a warp entity. Immortal, and immeasurably powerful, he had little to fear from the local flora and fauna. His skin had torn away during the transformation, exposing oily, raw muscle underneath, the color of blood and bruised flesh. The muscles of his enourmous frame were corded and stronger than steel. Two great leathery wings sprouted from his powerful shoulders, and each limb ended in razor sharp claws that could score metal with ease. His head had sprouted horns and his eyes shown with an inner, golden flame. Truly he was perfection, something to which all men must aspire to.

Behind him, the transport finished unloading. Two small squads of his men quickly disembarked, and immediately set about securing the perimiter with the efficiency and precision of life time soldiers. Indeed, his men had fought in countless wars, from a time beyond legend. They had once tamed the stars in the name of the False Emperor, and then had brought war to his very door step. No finer warriors could be found anywhere, he thought with justifiable pride. Lastly off the transport came a blessed daemon engine. The defiler was even larger than the Dark Apostle himself, and nearly as intimidating. It looked almost like some giant mechanical crustation, 6 armored limbs bristling with claws and blades, and it's armored torso bristled with weapons. All this was just crude metal, a mechanical shell. What truly made it dangerous was the daemon bound within it, giving it a malicious intelligence, and empowering it with a hellish fury. The Defiler would provide formidible fire support, while it's many limbs would not get bogged down in the rough and wild terrain like thier tanks and armor would. With the last of it's cargo deployed, the transport took off, and returned to the ship. With quick final preparations, the Word Bearers set about thier task.

It had started weeks ago. The Dark Apostle had been deep in meditation when he felt a disturbance. It was a clarion call. A burst of pure psychic resonance that penatrated his senses, and beckoned to him. Feeling the hands of the true gods at work, he resolved to answer the call. His forces gathered quickly, and his ship "The Illuminator" was soon sailing through the warp at full speed. They had tracked the disturbance to a nebula that had until recently been wracked with untraversable warp eddies. Now the path was clear, and their destination was revealed to be a ferral jungle world. The Dark Apostle decided to lead a small expedition force to investigate the disturbance.

They had trecked for hours through the jungle, pulled by a beacon that only the Dark Apostle could sense. Finally they encountered ruins of an ancient civilisation. It apeared to be the remains of a fairly advanced race, though it must have been abandoned for centuries. Through the wreckage, the Dark Apostle's witch sight saw several strange sculptures that were rich with warp energies. These weren't the source of the call, but were a prize to be studied none the less.

As the Dark Apostle was about to secure the ruins, he realized that they were not alone. Across from them, on the other side of the ruin, he could see several power armored figures. Unlike his Word Bearers, these marines were bloated and disfigured. Their armor may have been white once, but seemed to be rotting and weeping pus. The Dark Apostle's hawk like eyes spotted thier iconography. Deathguard, followers of Nurgle, god of disease and rot. They were led by a daemon prince as well, though unlike the Dark Apostle's sleek and perfected form, he was a writhing mass of disease and corruption. His skin pocked with sores and oozeing pus and other fluids. Trailing behind them was an obliterator. A dangerous fusion of man, machine, and daemon.

Though they were a brother traitor legion, this did not make them allies. They had obviously heard the call as well, and there was no telling how they would react to thier presence. The Dark Apostle quietly Ordered his men to take up position, in preparation for the worst.


Turn 1
He moved up his daemon Prince and one squad of plague marines, leaving the second to claim an objective. His obliterator shot at my defiler, but I made my cover save.

On my turn I advanced my daemon prince and managed to wound his obliterator with my defiler.

Perhaps it was a glint of sunlight off of burnished armor. Perhaps their scanners detected them. Or maybe it was the petranatural senses of the Daemon Prince it's self, but some how or other the Deathguard became aware of their presence. Without hesitation or a word of parley, the Daemon Prince ordered his men to attack. Lascannon fire streaked across the ruins at the Defiler, who answered with return fire of it's own. Dark Apostle Malakai ordered his men to attack, and advanced toward his foes.

Turn 2
He advances his plague marines further forward. The daemon prince advances, flying over terrain. His obliterator fires again at my defiler, but fails to do anything. His daemon prince attacked mine. We both had warp time up, and each ended up with one wound a piece.

On my turn my defiler fails to wound the obliterator. In combat, my brother had failed his warptime roll, and my prince pulled ahead in combat.

Near the center of the ruins, with cannon fire streaking past them, the two Daemon Princes found each other. The Scion of Mortarion struck first, and barreled into the Dark Apostle. Though he was loath to admit it, the Dark Apostle knew that his opponent had the advantage. Not only did he have the momentum, but the blessings of Nurgle made his bloated flesh more difficult to wound solidly. Never the less, he faced his adversary head on. Both their blows guided and powered by the warp. Blade clashed against blade, claws sparked against armor. Both foes were evenly matched. And then the whims of the chaos gods struck. The blessings of the true gods fled from the champion of Nurgle. With his toothy maw forming a savage grin, the Dark Apostle siezed his advantage.

Turn 3
His plague marines continue to march toward the objective. His obliterator lands a penatrating hit on my defiler, but it is a crew stunned, which does nothing thanks to demonic possession. My Prince kills his in combat.

On my turn I fly my prince toward the plague marines, and move up one squad toward the plague marines. Shooting, my defiler fails to wound the obliterator, my marines rapid fire the plague marines, but the plasma gunner kills himself. The Daemon prince fails his difficult terrain test and doesn't get to assault.

The thunder of weapons was momentarily drowned out by a savage roar of triumph. Dark Apostle Malakai stood over his vanquished foe and gave praise to the gods. His and his rivals blood made a perfect sacrifice to Korne. The thrill of combat and the joy of victory a fitting tribute to Slaanesh. The death of his minion, a gift to Nurgle. But most of all, praise to Tzeentch, for withdrawing his enemy's sorcerous gifts, and granting him victory. With a fang filled grin, he set off to find more blood to spill

Turn 4
Again, his obliterator doesn't do anything to my defiler. My prince is gunned down by the melta and bolter fire from the plague marines.

My turn I run my marines to claim the objective. I blast the plague marines with my defiler, but he goes to ground and only loses one.

Laughing, and savoring the kill to come, the Dark Apostle alighted near the vanguard unit of Deathguard. His roar of challenge would have stopped the hearts of mortal men. But these were marines, veterans of centuries of warfare. They had seen the true terrors of the galaxy, and lived to tell the tale. They calmly focused their fire, and a melta blast punched through his armor and cautorized a gapping whole in his chest. The Dark Apostle collapsed with a noisess scream

Turn 5
I pass my cover save with my defiler. His plague marines get back up, and kill a marine with thier shooting.

My turn, my defiler scatters with his battle cannon on the plague marines. Rest of the shooting kills one.

Turn 6
In summary, his plague marines assault my marine squad, and they stay in combat. His obliterator and my defiler continue our long range duel to no effect.

Game ends with 1 objective each, 1 contested. A draw. We each lost our daemon princes, and a couple individual troops.

With their leadership defeated, both sides valiently attempt to claim the contested objective, but the battle is inconclusive. Eventually both sides are ordered to withdraw, each retaining one sculture to take and study. With the Defiler and Obliterator providing cover fire, both sides withdrew into the jungle

Thoughts? I got lucky. First that his obliterator failed to do anything, and that my Prince won in assault. I should have advanced my defiler though, as it probably could have killed the plague marines in assault. I was scared of thier melta though. Over all I thought that it was a great game, and I'm impressed with my Brothers list.

My Brother finishes round 1 with two wins and a draw. I'll see if I can match it in my next two games.

As his chest wound began to finally knit together, the Dark Apostle rose and spit up large chunks of gore. He had been careless. He had allowed his blood lust to get the better of him, and had paid the price in pain. Of his rival, there was no sign. Perhaps he had been banished back to the warp, or had been healed as well. A vox signal later, and he had soon found his men and their prize. Perhaps it would shed some light as to why the gods had called him here

[Bonzai]

Got in my 2nd game vs an Eldar player. His aproximate list was:

Farseer w/ doom, runes of warding.
5 warp spiders w/ exarch, power blades
5 rangers
Fire prisim w/ spirit stones

I have since learned that at 500 points, they are allowing you to take 1 troop choice. But that's ok. I like having 2 for objective games.

Rolled for deployment and mission type. It was sieze ground, spear head. Once again with 4 objectives. I won the roll to go first. I picked the corner with a very tall building with an objective on top. I set one squad of marines on the level just below the objective, claiming it. Everything else was on the ground floor, in cover. Plan was to hold the one objective, and race out turn 4 and try to claim another. I knew the fire prisim would be key. If I could disable it, then I would win. If I didn't then he could rush in and contest at the last minute..

He set his fire prism, warp spiders, and farseer behind his best piece of cover, and infiltrated his rangers onto another objective. He failed to sieze, and the match begins.

The true gods favored them, and the wounds suffered from the skirmish with the death guard were not critical. His men were back on thier feet, and on the move in short order. Wanting to put some distance between himself and his rivals, Dark Apostle Malakai pushed on.

Their prize from the battle was intriguing. On the surface it seemed to be a crude bust of a humanoid face. He could not tell if it was a xeno, or a minimalistic representation of a man. Nor did he truly care, for his daemonic sight saw through the surface. This sculpture was alive. Not in the traditional biological sense, but it contained a soul. A powerful one at that.

The entity squirmed and recoiled against his mental probes. He could sense that it was imprisoned within, preventing it from becoming one with the warp. Yet the way it faught him, he suspected that it wasn't involuntary. As powerful as the spirit was, he could sense that it's power was being chaneled elsewhere. "interesting", he thought.

His men pressed forward through the jungle wary and alert for danger. They came to another clearing, and saw yet more ruins. The dark Apostle could detect several more statues amidst the ruins, and something more.

Sunlight reflected off a sleek, xeno craft in the distance, and lithe armored figures moved around it with petranatural grace. "Eldar", thought the Dark Apostle. "the presence of those treacherous xeno bastards certainy complicates things". On reflection, it made sense that the Eldar would be here. The psychic beacon would have stood out just as clearly to thier witch seers as it did to him.

The Dark Apostle ordered his men to take position in a tall structure across from where the Eldar were gathered. With luck, he would take them by surprise, and the battle would be brief.

Turn 1
I flew my Daemon Prince at the rangers, as I knew better than to waste my time shooting at them. They were also his only troop choice, and killing them would grant me a huge advantage. I ran the Prince, and shot at the falcon, but it scattered.

His turn he moved his fire prism into line of sight of my Prince, and moved forward his warp spiders and farseer. His fire prism scattered, but the rangers managed to put a wound on him. He did an assault move with the spiders and lost one.

Just as the Dark Apostle was about to order the attack, a shot rang out against the side of the building. To the east he spied several cloaked figures rising from the rubble. "Curse the sneaky xeno filth", he thought, "an ambush". Now they could get his men in a crossfire. It served him right for thinking that he could get the drop on the Eldar, he thought darkly. With a roar he launched himself from the ruins, his powerful wings and legs devouring the distance between him and his prey. The Eldar craft fired a powerful blast at him, but he was too quick. The Eldar in the ruins began to fire at him, one shot burying deep into his leg. He bellowed in anger, but didn't break stride.

Turn 2
My Prince managed to roll for warp time, and moved right up to the rangers. My defiler fired at the exposed warp spiders, but scattered. In assault I killed 4 rangers, but the last one held.

His turn I fail my warptime roll. The fire prisim moves toward my building, and fires at the defiler. It fails to penatrate. My daemon prince gets doom'ed. His warp spiders join the assault, and the exarch deals a wound to the prince with his power weapon. My daemon kills 3 warp spiders, leaving the exarch and lone ranger. I win combat and the ranger flees combat, leaving the Prince in combat with the exarch.

Dark Apostle Malakai reached for the power of the warp to guide and aide his attack, but met resistance. The Eldar witch was interfering with his connection to the warp. With a snarl and sheer force of will he broke through and channeled the warp energy into his body. Just before he charged into the enemy ranks, he saw the warp spiders rapidly approaching. They seemed like ghosts as they phased in and out of reality, covering the distance with short range teleports. The defiler fired at them as they crossed the open ground, but they were too quick.

And then he was upon the enemy. They were ready for him, but their attacks were as nothing to one such as him. In mere seconds, four of them lay dead at his feet. One was left standing, seeing his death approaching in the Apostles eyes. And then he felt the Eldar witches magic at work, and he failed to maintain his connection to the warp. The next thing he knew, the warp spiders had entered the fray, and the Dark Apostle felt a sharp pain as the exarch slid his blade into his back. Furious, the Dark Apostle slew the other warp spiders before turning his manevolent gaze upon the Exarch. The last surviving ranger took this opportunity to flee, leaving the exarch to face the his adversary alone.

Turn 3
The fire Prism is close enough for me to get 2 single plasma shots and the reaper auto cannon on it. Thanks to holofields and spirit stones, it just can't shoot. I don't want to risk a perils wound, so I don't bother with warp time. Exarch fails to wound, and is killed. I consolidate towards the fire prism.

His turn he turbo boosts the fire prisim away. Farseer dooms the daemon prince, and then assaults. It deals one wound, leaving me with 1 left. I get one through, which is enough to cause insta death. I then consolidate towards the Fire Prism.

At this point he conceeds, as all he has left is the fire prism and a fleeing ranger. I hold one objective, and he would have a hard time getting through the rest of my army to contest.

The xeno craft moved within range of the Word Bearers, and it's hull soon was peppered with fire. Though it was severly shaken, it seemed none the worse for wear when it flew off. The Dark Apostle dispatched his foe, with ease, the as soon as he stepped away from the corpses of the fallen, than the Eldar witch was upon him. She scored a blow with her eldritch blade, but it left her open to the Dark Apostles swift and untimately fatal counter stroke. With the death of the Farseer, the remaining Eldar forces fled. He voxed his men and ordered them not to persue. He couldn't be sure that they wouldn't lead him into another ambush. Instead he took the opportunity to seize his prizes. Best to gather them and move quickly. There was no telling what else was on this cursed planet.

One more to go, and starting Monday we move up to 1,000 points. Still have lots of painting to do.

[Bonzai]

My last official 500 points battle was against a Tyrannid player. He was new, having just started nids. I actually helped him a little before the game by explaining that Genestealers could outflank.

His aproximate list:

Tyrannids
Tyrannid prime w/ Bone swords, devourer
5 warriors w/ Bone swords, devourer
5 genestealers
10 termagaunts
Biovore

It was annialation, 12 inch deployment. He went first.

He deployed his biovore in cover to his right, warriors in cover in the middle, and gaunts in cover to his left. The genestealers were outflanking.

I deployed one squad in some cover/ difficult terrain to make it harder on the stealers to assault me (we play half tables at 500, so thier threat range takes a bigger percentage), and the other squand on a two story ruin, for the same reasons. My defiler and prince were in the center, waiting to counter assault if need be. I fail to sieze the initiative.

The Word Bearers pressed through the over growth, with thier prizes in tow. They were schedualed to rondevoue with their drop ship several miles ahead. They stumbled across another clearing, and what they saw made thier blood run cold. Tyrannids. Dark Apostle Malakai cursed his luck. His ship had detected no hive fleet in orbit, though the Nebula caused lots of interference. If not a hive fleet, then perhaps they were a marooned splinter. If they were lucky, they could slay these quickly and move on before they attracted more of them.

Turn 1
Biovore shoots at marines on my left, and kills one.

My turn, I advance my daemon Prince forward and to the left to take on the biovore. The defiler goes up the middle, and fires it's battle cannon at the warriors. It scatters and clips one. It makes it's cover save.

Turn 2
I use warptime, Gene stealers come in and go for my prince. Biovore scatters.
In assault, the stealers deal 2 wounds to the prince, he kills 4 in return, and they pass thier leadership.

My turn, I advance the defiler forward, and dropped the template on the warriors. He goes to ground and only loses one. In assault, the daemon prince kills the last genestealers.

Turn 3
Biovore kills one more warrior.

Daemon prince moves up to the biovore. Defiler moves up, and tries to run to set up an assault, rolls a one. Daemon prince slaughters the biovore.

Turn 4
The warriors and prime move up and manage to shoot down the daemon prince. The gaunts move up and shoot my defiler in the back and glance it. Thanks to it being possessed, they do nothing.

My marines are in range of the gaunts, and shoot down several. The defiler assaults the warriors and prime, killing two warriors.

Turn 5
His gaunts are forced to lurk. I kill two more in combat, leaving just the prime.

I shoot off the remaining gaunts. The prime is killed off in assault.

Game ends as the Nid player is tabled.

Dark Apostle Malakai lay on his back, digging out wriggling and snapping bio ammunition out of his side with his talons. He snarled in rage, as he dug out yet another one. This planet was starting to annoy him. At least he took the brunt of the tyranid assault, and left his men relatively unharmed. Time to move on.

[Bonzai]

Had one extra game to help get another player get his 3rd game in. He ran Sisters of Battle, which is the first time I've come across them. His approximate list (sorry, not fluent with their codex)

Sister captain equivelent with jump pack and power weapon of some type
10 sisters w/ melta
10 sisters w/ hvy flamer
Evisorator (or whatever the d6 S8 shot thing is)

We each had one objective, and deployment was dawn of war. We both deployed our stuff pretty close to center. He won the roll to go first, and deployed his unit centrally, right at the front on his deployment, as well as the captain.

I deployed my troops behind some cover, with my prince up front. I sieze the initiative, and forget to bring my defiler on.

The Word Bearers trecked on through the night, and nearly into the morning before they came to the drop zone. Even thier astartes physiology was showing signs of fatigue, and many sported injuries from the constant fighting. Despite it all, they had made good time, and had arrived a few hours before the drop ship was due.

As they wearily entered the clearing, Dark Apostle Malakai's keen eyes picked out several armored figures creeping towards them in the distance. An Ambush! He bellowed for his men to take to cover, and charged to meet the nearest attackers.

Turn 1
My prince flys forward, and failed warptime, while my troops run forward to get into cover. Prince gets his assault on the melta squad, killing two. Captain thing wasn't in base to base, but I take a wound from the Sisters.

His turn he moved his free squad toward my objective. His eviscerator comes on, and kills one of my marines. Warp time went through this turn, and I kill 4 more sisters.

As he neared his attackers, his rage turned to disgust. They were female, armed and armored in a crude aproximation of Astartes armor.. Sisters of Battle. Of all the servants of the false emporer, they irritated him the most. A millenia ago, the Word Bearers had worshipped the False Emporer as a god. The Emporer refused thier worship, forced them to kneel in the dust, and shamed them. It was this event that set them on the path that discovered the true gods, and the eventual rebellion. Now, thousands of years latter these.... Women, worshipped the false Emporer as a divine beign. He supposed he should find that ironic, but he felt nothing but contempt. He was unsure what bothered him more... Their dillusional belief in the Emporer, or the reminder that he himself had once been just like them. Either was enough to kill them.

Turn 2
Defiler moved on, keeping cover between it and the exorcist, and lobbed a battle cannon shot at the sisters, but it scattered.

In combat the sister captain thing was now in base to base, and used some faith to make their saves inv. My Daemon prince took 2 wounds from her power weapon.

His turn he secured my objective with his unengaged squad. The exorcist shot at my defiler, but failed to do anything meaningful. They use thier faith in combat again, and the daemon prince is killed.

Half the Sisters lay dead when thier leader stepped forward. She brandished a holy relic and uttered prayers that were painful to the apostals ears. The remaining sisters began to glow with a golden Aura, and the Dark Apostal found himself unable to harm them. Thier leader did not suffer from such impairment, and her power sword began to find it's mark in the Apostles side. Malakai fell uttering a string of blasphemous curses.

Turn 3
My defiler drops a nice pie plate on the captain and the sisters grouped around her, killing all the sisters. A plasma gun from one of my squads finished her off. The other squad pot shoted the sisters on the objective.

His turn his sisters shot at my squads, and the exorcist blew up my defiler.

Their Lord was down.... again. The Word bearers faught on. The defiler blasted apart the Sisters who struck down the apostle, and a plasma bolt slew their leader. Now they turned thier attentions to the Sisters claiming their landing zone. The defiler was angling to make short work of the cretin, but a distant shot from the exorcist exploded it.

Turn 4
I shoot up his squad some more, gambling that the game will go past 5.

His turn he kills another marine, bringing the squad down to 3. And shoots ineffectually with his squad.

Turn 5
I advace my troops and rapid fire, losing my plasma gun to over hearing. My marines in the ruins also fire.

His turn I get lucky and only lose one to the excorcist.

Turn 6
I shoot up the sisters some more, and assault with my remaining 3 marines into the Sisters.

His turn he has nothiing else to do but fire at my remaining marines in cover. I go to ground.

Turn 7
Combat continues.

I am down to 2 marines in the ruins, and 1 left in combat against 3 sisters. I kill 1, win combat, and end up sweeping them!

Game ends. I win 1 objective to 0! Man that was extremely close. I was down to 3 models, while he was down to his excorcist.

The Word Bearers faught hard and claimed the landing zone, cutting down the last of the sisters there. It was not a moment too soon, as the drop ship roared down from orbit, blasting apart the exorcist with it's heavy guns.

They found the Dark Apostle still alive, though barely. His inhuman body struggling to repair the wounds done to his massive body. They reported the area secured, and discovered another one of the strange statues in the rubble. It apeared that the Sisters were trying to destroy it.

It was a mystery for another time. The Dark Apostle looked at his battered forces. Few were unscathed, and several may never rise again. It was time to return to the ship. Time to regroup, mend, and return stronger than before. The Imperiums presence here demanded an escalation in thier forces, not to mention the deathguard, eldar, and tyrannids roaming the planet.

[Bonzai]

Ok, here is the update for the first week at 1,000 points. My new list;

Word Bearers
HQ
Dark Apostle Malakai (Daemon Prince w/ wings, Warp Time)

Troops
Squad Sanguin (10 CSM w/ PF, 2 Melta, Rhino)
Squad Ultamis (10 CSM w/ PF, 2 Plasma, Rhino)

Heavy
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra CC weapon
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra CC weapon

Total: 995

Painting wise, the 2 squads are 100% done, the 2 rhinos just need a little touch up. Prince is 90% done, and defilers are around 75%

I had four games on Saturday, so I won't make fluff for each one.


Game 1: Grey Knights

I don't remember his list exactly. It was roughly;

HQ
Techpriest
Librarian

Elite
Psi-Riffleman dread

Troops
Strike squad of some sorts
Henchman squad, mixed with Monkeys.

Game was objectives, pitched battle. We pretty much both deployed in cover across from each other. His tactic was to use shouding and techmarines to give insane cover saves, and blast away. Upon seeing his set up, I decided to focus on the grey knights, as they only had a 3+ cover save, and my Prince could take everything else in combat. My Defilers proved to be very resilient, and battle cannons dropped his greyknights down to 2 and the techmarine before the Prince got to them. The prince then killed them, and the librarian that joined the combat, before being gunned down by the rest of his army. At this point I had pretty much one, as both my troops were sitting on top of objectives in rhinos. He killed one defiler, stripped the battle cannon off another. I managed to imobilize his dread and strip off an arm.

Results: Win, 2 objectives to 1.


Game 2: Eldar

His list;

HQ
Eldrad

Elite
Harliquins w/ fusion pistols

Troops
Guardians w/ EML
Guardians w/ EML

Heavy
Falcon w/ lots of weapons
Falcon w/ lots of Weapons

Game was anhiliation and Spearhead. I hate to blame dice for a game, but the chaos gods deserted me on this one. Case in point? My Prince was closing in on a guardian squad. They deal 5 wounds to him. Average rolling should see two unsaved wounds twice with a 3+ save. I fail all 5. Still, looking back, with average luck, it would have most likely been a draw with average dice rolls. I could not match his manueverability with the Falcons, and they are a pain to damage. They most likely would have survived no matter what, which capped me at 4 kill points, which is what he ended getting off of me. Long story short? DP went down like a cheap prom date. Harliquins managed to kill both defilers with fusion guns before I killed them and Eldrad. His Falcons were both stripped of weapons and went and played keep away. His guardian squads hugged cover and played keep away, and I flubbed what little shooting I spared at them. I lost my 2 defilers, DP, and a rhino.

Results: Loss, 2 kill points to 4.

Game 3: Vs Blood Angels

His approximate list;

HQ
Librarian

Elite
Sanguinary Priest
Furioso Dread w/ blood talons

Troops
10 assault marines w/ razor back
5 assault marines w/ razor back, melta

Fast Attack
Storm Raven

Dawn of war, one objective each. I rolled to go first, but decided to go 2nd so that I could get the first round of shooting and last turn for objective grabbing. He deploys his 5 man squad in their razor back. Everything else comes on, one razor back is empty, the 10 man unit with the special characters and dread are in the storm raven. Everything moves up. I bring my stuff on, kill the razor back unit. Defiler gets killed by a storm raven. Melta squad pops a rhino on my melta squad, and assaults them. Daemon Prince kills the empty razor back. Melta squad kills his 5 man squad in assault. Moves toward my objective. His furioso is deployed, my Plasma squads rhino is popped, furioso assaults my squad. Defiler pops the storm raven, prince comes back to help. Next his big squad multi assaults my melta squad and prince. Prince gets killed. My Defiler assaults his furioso which is still in combat with my plasma squad. Defiler ends up killing the furioso, my melta squad runs off the board, defiler assualts his last squad. Furious assault ensues. However at the end of turn 6, his power fist manages to kill my defiler.

Result: Loss, tabled on turn 6.

This was a fun, close game that could have easily been a draw. My list held up well vs a competative BA list, and I am proud of it. Good Game!


Game 4: Death Guard

Yup, a rematch with my Brother. His list;

HQ
Daemon Prince w/ MoN, Wings, Warp Time

Troops
Plague Marines w/ melta, pf
Plague Marines w/ Melta, Pf, Rhino

Heavy
Land Raider
Obliterator
Obliterator

Objectives, spear head. We both had our 3 official games, so this one was for giggles. He goes first and imobilizes both defilers. I return the favor and insta death his obliterators. A plague marine squad pops my melta squads rhino, his prince assaults my exposed melta squad and kills them. My prince kills the plague marine squad that poped the rhino. His DP kills mine, I finish it of with shooting. Turn 5 he has one squad of pague marines sitting on an objective, and I end up blasting them down to one plague marine. Game ends at the end of turn 5. He had his land raider and one plague marine, I had two imobilized defilers, and my plasma squad sitting on an objective in their rhino. If the came continued, I would probably have pulled the win. However I am ok with the draw, as it just keeps the rivalry going.

Results: Draw, 1 objective to 1.

My official record goes to 3 wins, 2 losses, one draw. Unofficially I am 4 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws. Over all I am happy with my lists performance. Other than the aberation with the Eldar (I had spectators commenting on how crapy I was rolling, and they didn't even see the Daemon Prince incident), my list has held it's own. I am also very pleasantly supprised with the Defilers. I wanted to be fluffy, so I took out obliterators and replaced them with Defilers. Thus far I havent been disapointed. I've been able to give them cover when they need it, and they always tend to contribute. Lascannons were a nice upgrade, and since they are twin linked, they have been reliable.

One more week at 1,000 points, then we move on to 1500. Started painting on the next 500 points last night.

[James S]

Keep the batreps coming. Needs more fluff as well!

[Spoik]

Enjoyed those.

Good, concise, easy-to-follow reports.

It's the fluff that really makes 'em, though!

[Bonzai]

Thanks for the support guys! Games usually happen on Wensdays and Saturdays. I slacked on the fluff last saturday, as I played 4 games. Yesterday there was only my Brother, the BA, and GK player available. I had a funsies 2k game with the GK player and a 2 on 2 battle with my Brother vs the BA and GK players. The team game wasn't pretty, and we were more or less curb stomped. I'll post a battle report with fluff when I have a little more time for the 2K game.

[Bonzai]

Ok, as promised, here is a brief battle report on the 2k game, though I don’t remember all the specifics.
My list:

Word Bearers
HQ
Daemon Prince w/ Wings, Warp Time

Elite
5 terminators w/ 4x combi plasma, AC, CF, RAC, Icon
5 Terminators w/ 4x Combi Plasma, AC, CF, RAC, Icon

Troops
10 Chaos Space marines w/ 2 meltas, AC, PF, IoCG, Rhino, Extra Armor
10 Chaos Space Marines w/ 2 meltas, AC, PF, IoCG, Rhino, Extra Armor
10 Chaos Space Marines w/ 2 Plasma guns, AC, PF, IoCG, Rhino, Extra Armor

Heavy
Defiler w/ TL Lascannon, extra CC arm
Defiler w/ TL Lascannon, Extra CC arm
3 Obliterators.

Total: 2,000

My opponent wanted to try something out. I don’t know the specifics but it was something like;

Grey Knights
Brother Captain
Librarian
5 terminators
5 terminators
5 Paladins
Psi Dread
Storm Raven
Storm Raven
Land Raider Redeemer

It was pitched battle, annihilation. He deployed centrally, I deployed more on my right side, but with a defiler on my center in cover, and a melta squad in a rhino near it to help support. I managed to pop a storm raven turn one. He focused on killing the isolated defiler with the remaining storm raven, while the troops on foot and the land raider slowly advanced on my corner. My terminator squads came down, and shot the foot slogging terminators off the board with their combi plasma. The storm raven dropped off the paladin squad with the librarian, and the dreadnought. The paladins charged the two terminator squads, and the dread shot down my Prince after it failed to kill the land raider. The defiler killed the raider in assault and my melta squad popped the dread. The storm raven popped the melta squads rhino, and the misc fire wrecked my other rhinos. The Paladins killed all my terminators, but they did enough damage that my shooting was able to finish them. All that was left standing was the librarian. The game ended on turn 5. At that point he was down to a librarian, one terminator squad, the Brother Captain, and a storm raven. I was down to my three CSM squads, minus the rhinos, and a single obliterator. He won, 8 KP to 5. I felt that the momentum was shifting to my favor though, as his librarian would have probably died the next turn to combined fire from my CSM squads, and he would have been left with the storm raven and a foot slogging terminator squad. It was his game regardless, as I would have had to table him to draw it, and that storm raven could have played keep away.

Over all I was ok with my lists performance, with the exception of my Obliterators. They might have contributed to dealing about 2-3 wounds total, and were completely out shown by the defilers.


I had one last 1,000 point game on Saturday, as one more player needed his third game. His list:

Vanilla Marines
Librarian
3x 10 scout squads with sniper rifles
Dreadnaught w/ two weapons (no CC arms, can’t remember what exactly).
2x 5 Devastators with Missile launchers
Las Cannon predator

He said that he had designed this list to take out vehicle spam, (evidently he feared the Imperial Guard player). We rolled, and it was 2 objectives, dawn of war, and he went first. The deployment type really screwed up his list, as he was looking forward to giving me hell the first turn. He deployed a scout squad and librarian in cover, on his objective, and another scout squad with in elevated terrain. I deployed my prince and plasma squad in their rhino almost mid table, behind cover to my right. I failed to seize, and the game began.

The Word Bearers had fought long and hard on a world that had seemed to have gone mad. Imperial lap dogs, Xeno filth, and even fellow traitor legions all battled for supremacy. Even the forces of the Imperium seemed to fight each other over the strange relics. Not all their battles had resulted in victory, and many of their number sported wounds. Yet they trudged on, unsure as to their purpose, yet only knowing that it was their gods will. Dark Apostle Malakai scouted a head with Squad Ultimus, they had encountered another relic, and could sense another close by. They approached warily, but were still surprised when a hail of weapon fire exploded around them. Following the angle of the shots, the Dark Apostles inhuman eyes could detect lightly armored figures… Space Marine Scouts! Voxing the rest of his men, he ordered them all to advance and attack.

Turn 1
He leaves one squad of scouts in reserve, and walks on the rest. One devastator squad ran up to join the scouts on the objective, the other and the dread moved up to challenge my daemon prince. The predator comes on his table quarter, and pretty much everything fires at my stuff. Thankfully, it is mostly ineffectual, and my daemon prince ends up with 1 wound.

My turn the rest of my army comes in. I park my melta squad next to my objective, move up my Daemon Prince and plasma squad. Defilers focus fire on the devastator squad, killing several, and some scouts. My plasma squad manages to rapid fire into the devastators and kill two. The daemon prince gets an assault on the Predator and immobilized and stuns it.

Turn 2
Everything that can focuses on the Daemon prince, yet somehow he lives with a wound left. He has a horrid round of shooting actually. So much so, I kind of feel bad for him.

My turn I evidently didn’t feel bad enough to let him off easy.
Defilers continue to pound the devastators. Plasma squad continues to shoot up his other defiler squad. Prince rips apart the predator.

Turn 3
He finishes off the Daemon Prince and immobilizes my rhino.

My turn, one defiler gets a lascannon shot at the dread, and blows it up. The other blasts the devastators, and one is left at the end of the shooting phase, and almost runs off the table. My Plasma squads rhino fails to self repair, but the plasma squad finishes off the devastators they have been firing at.

Turn 4
Everything that can fires at my plasma squads rhino, and wreck it.

I run up my plasma squad towards his objective, taking advantage of cover where available. Defilers continue to pound it, and he is down to one scout and a librarian.

Turn 5
His last scout squad automatically comes in, and run to his objective. My plasma squad takes some minimal shooting.

My plasma squad advances and rapid fires into the new scout squad, followed by two battle cannon blasts. A few scouts are left standing though.

The Word Bearers closed in upon their foes. Once again their Dark Apostle had drawn the enemies fire, his immortal body able to withstand wounds that would slay even an astartes instantly. His sacrifice had allowed them to gain the advantage, and drive a wedge through their lines. The noose was set, and all that remained was to clear the last few battered survivors from the relic. Yet they were denied their victory, as the familiar sound of a Thunder Hawk gunship shot through the heavens. The Word Bearers were forced to fall back as it’s guns laid down heavy cover fire. The ragged survivors scrambled into it’s bay, dragging their relic with them. With a roar of its powerful engines, it rocketed off into the sky. With their enemy gone, they set about securing their own relic, and reviving their master.

Game ends and it’s a draw, one objective a piece. One more turn and I probably would have had it. That’s it for 1,000 points. Tomorrow I start the 1500 point games!

Epilogue
Dark Apostle Malakai meditated in his sanctum. The many wounds he had suffered planet side had long since healed. He sat cross legged in the center of large eight pointed star, etched in brass in the floor of the room. At each point of the star, a brazier burned with incense. Various symbols and words of eldritch power were written in blood around the brass icon, drawn from sacrifices made by the Apostle’s own hand. In his hands he held one of the relics. This one was recovered from the Sisters of battle, and had suffered damage. Chanting the sacred verses recorded in the blessed book of Lorgar, he willed his consciousness into the relic. Penetrating through it’s damaged surface, he forced his will upon the essence inside. The battle was fierce, but never in question. Soon he bound it to his will, and began to probe it’s secrets.

Hazy memories of a long forgotten past filtered through his mind. He saw images of a thriving xeno civilization, dominated with powerful psykers. He sees a great calamity, as a particularly powerful psyker lost control and opened a large warp rift. Their civilization falls apart as Daemon pour out, and overtake the psykers. Many of the ruling class perish, and in turn further strengthen the rift. He sees lithe beings in light armor appear from shimmering doorways…. Eldar, the apostle recognizes. He sees a great ritual, as the life force of the remaining psykers is drawn into relics like the one he is holding. He senses the anger of betrayal, as the xenos were deceived about the nature of the ritual. Yet it worked. The rift was suppressed, using the trapped psychic energy of the xeno race. A millennia passes in silence, the essences within the relics become resigned to their fate. Then humans arrived, and eventually the Sister’s of Battle. The Sisters viewed the alien relics as heresy, and set about destroying them. The released essences triggered long latent wards left by the Eldar. A pure psychic cry that traveled across the cosmos.

The Dark Apostles consciousness returned to his body, and he rose to his feet. Understanding washed through him. The god’s purpose in bringing him here was clear. The warp rift, though suppressed, was stable. Or at least as stable as such things can ever be. With enough of the keys in his possession, he could throw the gates wide open. Such a warp rift could be used as a safe haven for him and his legion. Far away from the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom and out of reach of the Dark Council’s meddling and interference; such a prize would be invaluable to his ambitions. Yet the ultimate prize was not yet in his grasp. Obviously, the Eldar were here to ensure that their wards remained in place, having been alerted as he had by the beacon. The meddling Sisters of battle were of no concern, and it would be highly amusing to watch them unwittingly unleash a warp rift upon themselves. However, the presence of the Grey Knights concerned him. They knew enough about the mysteries of the warp to potentially seal the rift permanently. This he could not allow. He left his sanctum with renewed purpose. He summoned his First Acolyte and Coryphaus to the war council chamber. Tomorrow, the battle for the planet was about to begin in earnest.

[Bonzai]

All right, here are the 1500 point battle reports.

Word Bearers
Hq
Dark Apostle Malakai (Daemon Prince w/ wings, warp time)

Elites
The Annointed (5 terminators w/ 4 combi plasma, reaper, ac, cf, Icon of chaos glory)

Troops
Squad Sanguine (10 CSM w/ 2 melta, ac, pf, icon of chaos glory, rhino)

Squad Draco (10 CSM w/ 2 melta, ac, pf, icon of chaos glory, rhino)

Squad Ultamis (10 CSM w/ 2 plasma, ac, pf, icon of chaos glory, rhino)

Heavy
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra CC arm
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra CC arm

Total: 1500

When composing this list, I mulled over a lot of options. In the end I went with a third troop choice and the terminator squad. My terminators are always pretty reliable and always accomplish the same goal. Drop in, gut a squad, and force my opponents army to focus on them. Each squad brings some anti tank and should hold thier own.

Game 1
I played against the Blood Angels player again. His aproximate list;

Blood Angels
Mephiston
Sanguinary priest
Furioso dreadnought w/blood talons, magna grapple
10 assault marines w/ 2 meltas, pf, razor back
5 Assault marines, 2 meltas, razor back
5 Assault marines, 2 meltas, razor back
Storm raven
Vindicator

The mission was dawn of war, anhiliation. I chose to go second, and don't deploy anything. My reasoning is that I wanted to come on the board and have targets to shoot.

Turn 1

The Word Bearers convoy pressed through the ruined landscape. Three rhinos treads ground through the ruined city with a slow, yet unyielding pace. They were followed by a pair of defilers. Thier mechanical legs negotiated the uneven terrain with ease, while thier heavily armed torsos slowly pivoted back and forth, covering the procession. High above them all soared Dark Apostle Malakai. His powerful, demonic wings held him aloft as he searched the area for signs of his enemy. In the distance he spotted a red blur, streaking toward them... A blood angels storm raven. Luck was on thier side, as the rising sun was behind him, and it was unlikely that it had spotted him. He dove below the tree line, and voxed his men to intercept and maintain radio silence.

His stuff comes on, mephiston hops into an empty razorback (it's owners were in the storm raven). They are push forward towards my table edge.

My turn everything comes on. My defilers fail to do anything to the storm raven. Most of my stuff has cover.

Turn 2

Everything moves forward, the storm raven kills a defiler, and squad Dracos rhino is imobilized.

On my turn Squad Draco disembarks, moves up to try and pop a razorback. My defiler had moved up and fleeted to set up an assault if it worked. Squad ultimis moved to keep in cover and take pot shots at the raven. My Prince moved up to take advantage of it if it did. Squad Sanguine moved up to try and pop mephistons razorback.

Shooting was disapointing. Squad Draco failed to pop it's razorback, squad sanguine immobilized mephistons razor back. Squad ultamis failed to do much, and I lost a model to gets hot.

In assault the prince fails to take out the storm raven, though the defiler destroys the razorback.

Turn 3

The vindicator moves in from reserve. Mephiston disembarks moves up to squad sanguinus, and the storm raven moves to support him. In shooting, the squad that had thier razorback destroyed fired thier meltas at the defiler, stripping off it's battle cannon. The storm raven blew up squad sanguines rhino, and mephiston charges. I deal two wounds, and lose several marines. Fortunately, they held in assault.

My turn my daemon prince angles to take down the exposed assault squad, my defiler moves and fleets to assault the vindicator. Squad ultamis fails to do anything significant, squad Draco advances and wrecks the last razorback with passengers. Squad dracos rhino repairs. The prince assaults and kills 4 of 5 assault marines. The last one runs and gets away. The defiler fails to take out the vindicator. In assault mephiston kills everything but my sgt with a power fist, and he manages to kill him! He then consolidates toward a nearby ruin.

Turn 4
The vindicator moves, and the squad from the wrecked razorback moves for a rear shot at the defiler. The storm Raven moves up, and drops a ton of missiles on the prince and kills him. The vindicator shoots at squad draco, and takes a huge chunk out of them. The assault squad meltas the defiler and takes his CC arm. Mephistons immobilized razorback fires at squad sanguins sgt, but he makes his saves.

My turn my terminators drop down behind the vindicator. Squad Dracos rhino moves up and collects the survivors. The defiler moves up to attack the assault squad that had melta'd it. The Aspiring champion from squad sanguine moved towards the immobilized razorback. The terminators blow up the vindicator, the aspiring champion destroys the razorback, and the defiler assaults the assault squad.

Turn 5

The storm raven deploys the furioso dread, and pretty much everything fires at the terminators, killing all but the reaper autocannon. The dreadnought assaults and kills him, and consolidates back towards my table edge. In assault, my defiler looses a lascannon, but kills one.

My turn I advance the survivors of squad Draco to try and pop the dreadnought with thier meltas, but roll ones and twos. The aspiring champion from squad sanguine runs for cover to try and deny his kill point. The defiler wins combat, and the squad runs. I consolidate between them and the single survivor from the squad the daemon prince nearly destroyed, and was still running.

Turn 6

The storm raven deploys the last assault squad with a sanguinary priest, and then moves up behind squad dracos rhino. The dreadnought wrecks the rhino, and the storm raven finishes them off even though they went to ground. The assault squad fired at squad ultamis's rhino but fails to pop them. They assault and manage to blow it up.

My turn squad ultamis rapid fires the assault squad and kill a few. The defiler assaults the individual marine, hoping to kill him. He doesn't.

Turn 7

The fleeing squad runs off the table. The storm raven moves and fires everything at squad Sanguines champion, and he dies even after going to ground. The assault squad shoots and assaults mine. I manage to kill his priest with my power fist. My defiler stays in combat.

My turn, the defiler/marine is a stale mate. Squad ultamis loses combat, rolls double 6's, and is swept.

Game ends 9 kill points to 8, Blood Angels win.

The battle was long and bloody. Both sides suffered heavy losses. The Sons of Sanguinus proved to be worthy foes. In the end, the Word Bearers got the worst of it, and were forced to initiate emergency evacuation proticals. Yet the battle was not a total loss. The Blood Angels were not much better off, and Mephiston himself had fallen in battle. Sergeant Ertai and squad Sanguin would recieve much glory for this... if they still lived. For now the 76th Company of the Word Bearer legion would retreat and regroup. Their primary target was yet to be engaged.

Once again, it was a very close game that could have gone either way. It was a good game, and I am satisfied that my list was able to hang with a competatively built BA's list.

Game 2
Next match was vs the grey knights player. His approximate list;

Grey knights
Corteaz
Librarian
Tech marine
Psi riffle dread
Psi riffle dread
Henchman squad w/ assasins, monkeys, chimera
Henchman squad w/ assasins, monkeys, chimera
Henchman squad w/ assasins, monkeys, chimera
Grey knight squad

It was spear head, and we each had to pick a terrain piece as an objective. He got to go first, and picked a nice 3 story terrain piece. I picked a bastion in my back corner. He deployed everything in his terrain, which he fortified.

I deployed squad sanguine in the back to hold my objective. Everything else was deployed about as far forward as I could, taking advantage of cover.

They had been fortunate, as there had been suprisingly few permanent casualties from their skirmish with the Blood Angels. Soon the 76th Company was back on the planet, and approaching their primary target.... The Grey Knights. Of all the enemies that lurked on this world, the Grey Knights and their Inquisitorial allies were the gravest threat to their goal. For they possessed the knowledge to be able to seal the warp rift for good. This could not be allowed. Dark Apostle Malakai led his men to where they had detected their enemey. A structure that they were re-inforcing and creating a beach head. The Word Bearers quickly established a fall back point, and prepared to assault the enemy.

Turn 1
He fired everything at my defilers, but I made my cover saves, or possession took care of the rest.

I moved everything up (except squad sanguine who was holding the objective), and kept to cover. My defilers fired thier battle cannon, but thanks to thier 2+ cover save only killed a couple henchmen.

Turn 2
He moved up the grey knight squad in the chimera, and continued to blast at my defilers, killing one.

My turn I moved up squad Draco, and they popped thier chimera. The grey knigts failed leadership and were pinned. My daemon prince assaulted them and wiped them out.

Turn 3
He split up his fire. He put a wound on the daemon. My rhinos couldndt shoot.

My turn the terminators drop in. I made a big mistake, as I was unfamiliar with corteaz's rules. I drop in close to them, and his army gets to shoot at them. One lives. Lesson learned, no dropping in next to corteaz. My rhinos move up, and so does my daemon prince. Rhinos pop smoke. Defiler and terminator shoot ineffectualy.

Turn 4
Terminators are killed off, defiler is imobilized and loses the battle cannon. Squad ultamis's rhino is immobilized. Daemon Prince is brought down to one wound.

Daemon prince makes it to my opponents ruin. My defiler trys a lascannon shot at one of the rifle dreads. Squad Draco moves up. The prince then destroys a rifle dread in CC.

Turn 5
My defiler and prince are shot down. Squad Draco's rhino is wrecked.

My turn I move and run squad Draco, and I am close enough to contest. If the game ends here, I win.

Turn 6
Game continues. Squad Ultamis's rhino gets wrecked. They shoot and assault squad Draco, kill them, and consolidate forward and spread out to block me from contesting again.

My turn I know I can't get to his objective this turn, and rapid fire them, killing a couple.

The 76th Company charged their enemy fortifications with a fanatacism that only the righteous and zealous posses. Dark Apostle Malakai breached the fortifications, and Squad Draco and Squad Ultamis strove to follow suite. Yet the fortifications were held, and the order to withdraw had been given. The enemy was too entrenched, and a to continue the headlong charge would only result in further casualties. However, their fortifications were their prison. For if there were to leave them, they would be picked off with ease. It was a stalemate.... for now.

Game ends, it's a draw with one objective a piece. I made a huge mistake with my terminators, but over all it most likely wouldn't have changed the outcome. Due to the mission, it was most likely going to be a draw regardless. Still, I almost stole the win, so I can't complain in this game either.

Over all, two good games againt two of the top codexes. I can't complain about my lists performance. One more official game at 1500, then we move up to 2,000.

[dreaknyean]

I enjoyed our games; Silly Mephiston was tired from fighting off a hive fleet-- wasn't looking out for that powerfist!

:P

[Bonzai]

Had my final 1500 point game with my Brother. He was frustrated with his mono deathguard list so went with chaos united. His approxate list;

Black Legion
Daemon prince w/ wings, warptime
Daemon prince w/ wings, MoS, LoS
Plague marines w/ 2 melta, ac, pf, rhino
1k sons w/ WoC, rhino
Defiler w/ las cannon
Defiler w/ las cannon
3 obliterator

Game was spear head, anhiliation. We each deploy our units in cover.

The 76th Company had fallen back and regrouped. The Grey Knights had been far more firmly entrenched than they had hoped. Dark Apostle Malakai was plotting his next attack when the perimiter sensors detected incoming hostiles. A few hastily barked orders, and his men were in defensive positions in time to recieve the attack. When the enemy finally came into sight, he saw power armored warriors of various legions, all sporting the symbol of the Eye of Horus. Among them he spotted the death guard he had fought before. "Black Legion", Dark Apostle Malakai spat in disgust. His respect for his rival had diminished greatly, now that he knew that he had placed himself under the Despoiler. The Dark Apostle had met Abaddon during the great Crusade, and had been unimpressed. He was no Warmaster, and he would never bow or submit to such an oaf. He would rather see his prize destroyed, than fall under the dominion of the Black Legion. With a deafening roar of lascannon shots, the enemy began it's attack.

Turn 1
He advances his rhinos and princes and in shooting blows up one of my defilers.

My turn I attempt to pop his 1k sons rhino with my remaining defiler, but fail. Everything else hugs cover and waits for better opportunity.

Turn 2
His shooting shakes and stuns two of my rhinos. His daemon princes had advanced, and lashed my prince out of cover. They then assault my prince and kill it, but one takes 3 wounds in the process.

My turn squad Draco is in the only rhino that can move. I move up 6, and attempt to melta the wounded prince. However I am litteraly a milimeter short. Grrr. I shoot at the wounded prince with the battle cannon, but it fails to wound.

Turn 3
He doesn't have as good a round of shooting, and most of my stuff can't move or shoot. He did move up and disembark a unit of plague marines in front of squad Sanguine, but after 2 meltas and a charge they fail to penatrate. His two daemon princes assault squad Dracos rhino.

My turn my terminators come in. I was going to drop them in to take care of the obliterators, but then they would be sitting ducks for the defilers and whatever was left. Instead I used squad sanguine's icon and deep struck them. Squad Sanguine moved back, and in shooting I was able to take down both princes, and several plague marines.

Turn 4
He moves his plague marines into cover, and disembarks his 1k sons and wipes out squad Draco. My terminators come under fire from the plague marines and battle cannon. I make a huge mistake and don't declare my wound alocation. So instead of re-rolling, I randomize the single wound I failed. It turned out to be my chainfist. More about this latter.

My turn I move up my defiler and terminators, shoot at the plague marines, and pop thier rhino. Defiler fleets and assaults the 1k sons, terminators assault the plague marines. I roll abysmal for the terminators, and the defiler starts whittling the 1k sons down.

Turn 5
Squad Ultimis's rhino is imobilized and has a weapon destroyed. Combat continues. My defiler whittles down the 1k sons, and the terminators continue to roll below average, while the plage marines power fist keeps them in combat, or even slightly ahead.

My turn squad Sanguine gets behind cover, and squad Ultamis's plasma takes out the plague marine rhino. Combat continues.

Turn 6
He blows up squad ultamis's rhino, and bombards them with las cannon. They go to ground and survive it. The deathguards champion manages to kill the last terminator, and consolidate into terrain.

My turn I move squad Sanguine into terrain and shot at the deathguard with it's two meltas. He went to ground and survived.

Game ends 6 kp to 5 for my Brother. Losing that chainfist cost me the game, as it would have kept pace with the powerfist. Oh well... Pressure is on me to win the next one. It grinds on me that my mistake ended up costing me the win.

It was a savage battle. Both sides took heavy losses. Yet in the end the Word Bearers were forced to retreat. The Black Legion's defilers and obliterators were moving into position to bombard the remaining troops with their fearsome weaponry, and had the advantage of range and higher elevation. To hold their ground would mean death. Reluctantly, the order was given to retreat. The thought galled the Dark Apostel. He vowed then and there to gain revenge. The time had come to unleash the most fearsome weapons at his disposal.

Official record is 3 wins, 4 losses, 2 draws. Unofficial record (not counting the team game, or the 2k list I threw together for that one game) is 4-4-4. Today starts the 2,000 point round.

[Bonzai]

Sorry for the delay in updating this. I had all three battle reports all typed out, went to post, and the page timed out and I lost it all.

Here is the 2,000 point list that I used;

Word Bearers
HQ
Dark Apostle Malakai ( daemon prince w/ warp time, wings)

Elite
The Annoited ( 5 terminators w/ 4 combi plasma, reaper, cf, AC)
The blessed ( 10 possessed)

Troops
Squad Ultamis ( 10csm, 2 plasma, ac, pf, IoCG, rhino)
Squad Sanguine ( 10 csm, 2 melta, ac, pf, IoCG, rhino)
Squad Draco ( 10 csm, 2 melta, ac, pf, IoCG, rhino)

Heavy
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra cc arm
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra cc arm
Land Raider w/ possession

Total: 2,000 points

I know, possessed are not the most competative choice. But since I am playing word bearers, I felt like I needed some more deamons in my list.

My first game was against the grey knights player. His approximate list was;

Grey knights
Corteaz
Librarian
Tech marine
Terminator squad
Psi cannon dread
Psi cannon dread
Dread w/ force weapon
Grey knight squad w/ razor back
Henchman squad w/ monkeys, assassins, vets, chimera
Henchman squad w/ monkeys, assassins, vets, chimera
Storm raven

It was 4 objectives, spear head deployment. We had 2 objectives placed centrally, and one in each of our deployment zones. I deployed first, with squad ultamis near my objective I my deployment. It was behind terrain to give it cover. My defilers were in cover, as well as my Prince. My two melta squads and raider were deployed fairly far forward towards the center.

He chose to reserve everything but two chimeras with his henchman and librarian in terrain which was fortified, and close to his objective. I roll for my Possessed... And get a 6! Power weapons!

The time had come for the decisive battle. Dark Apostle Malakai knew that he would not have enough time to mount another attack. The Grey Knights were close to unlocking the relics mysteries, and soon discover the rift themselves and perhaps how to seal it.

The bulk of his forces were committed, as well as his most formidible soldiers, the blessed. Each a veteran warrior merged with a holy warp entity, combining the power and skills of both to deadly effect. Carried into battle by a sacred land raider, they were among the company's most potent weapons. The Dark Apostle prayed to the true gods that it would be enough.

They were arrayed against thier enemies, who were secure within fortified ruins. Reinforcements were in route, and thier best chance would be to destroy them and secure the relics before aid arrived. Trusting to the dark gods, Dark Apostle Malakai ordered the attack.

Turn 1
Land raider moves forward with squad Draco behind it for cover. Squad sanguine moves forward with my daemon prince and pops smoke. I fire everything at the chimera with a 3+ save instead of a 2+. I manage to immobilize it.

His turn is some largely ineeffective shooting against my land raider.

Turn 2
Squad Sanguine pushes ahead, my daemon prince flies into cover. Land raider moves up, and Squad Draco stays right behind it for cover. Shooting accomplishes nothing.

His turn all but one rifle dread comes in from reserve. Storm raven drops off a dread near squad Ultamis to harass them. Shooting see's my land raider blown up, and the possessed squad dropped down to 2 survivors. Both defilers (who were sitting in cover) got destroyed. Squad Sanguine's rhino was destroyed, and two wounds were put on the daemon Prince who was thankfully in cover and took all four of his missiles from the storm raven. Ouch!!!

Turn 3
That was a brutal round of shooting. My only chance to salvage this was to focus on the mission and go for the objectives. My terminators came in from reserve, and I elected to deep strike them off squad ultamis'es icon to help them deal with the dreadnought and bolster my objective. Squad sanguine moved up to the fortified ruins. The daemon prince moved next to the unimobilized chimera. The possesed ran for all they were worth towards the ruins, and squad Draco advanced toward an objective and popped smoke. Squad ultamis immobilized it's rhino trying to move to support the terminators.

In shooting squad sanguine popped the grey knights razorback. My terminators shot the heavy weapon off the dreadnought, and immobilized it. Left with just a force weapon and storm bolter, it was mostly neutered. I was still a little rattled from the previous turn and forgot to assault with the daemon prince. It wouldn't end up making a difference, but it still irritated me.

His turn his last dread comes in from reserve. The storm raven comes over, disembarks the terminator squad, and then blows up squad ultamis'es rhino. In shooting the terminators get shot at, but only lose one. The deamon prince is shot down, squad sanguinus is shot up some, and squad draco's rhino can't move or shoot. His terminators assault and kill mine.

Turn 4
Squad Draco is a turn away from their target objective, but can't move. Squad ultamis falls back towards thier objective, squad sanguine moves up into the second story of the fortified ruin. The possessed move up to assault the grey knights. Squad sanguine stuns the mobile chimera. Squad Ultamis shoots up the grey knight terminator squad. The possessed assault the grey knight squad and kill 2, and then make thier invulnerable saves.

His turn he runs the last dread toward squad ultamis. He disembarks a techmarine from the mobile chimera to help against the possessed. Squad sanguine gets shot down to a melta and one other marine. Draco's chimera is immobilized. Squad ultamis is assaulted. The possessed kill two more grey knights before being killed. Squad ultamis does ok in assault, but power fist rolls a one to wound.

Turn 5
Squad Draco fails to repair it's rhino. Squad sanguine imobilized the other chimera. I left them embarked, gambling on a turn 6, where I would make a dash for the objective. Assault continues, this time the I roll 2 ones to wound with the powerfist.

His turn the dread continues it's dash toward the battle with squad ultamis. The henchman squad with the librarian disembarked and advanced toward squad draconis. Thier rhino is destroyed, and between the librarians jaws of the world wolf flame template, 5 meltas, and some hot shot guns, the squad was wiped out. Squad sanguine was shot down to the melta. In assault squad ultamis continues to hold on even though the dreadnought finally joins the assault. The power fist again rolling a one to wound on its to wound. At this point it's practically over, but I continue on.

Turn 6
Squad sanguine fails to do anything. In assault, the power fist finally does something and kills the last two terminators

His turn the last model of squad sanguinus gets shot down. Assault with squad ultamis see's me down to the power fist and one model.

Turn 7
Power fist dies in assault.

His turn the chimera with the henchmen still in is repaired by the tech marine, the lone marine from ultamis fails to do anything to the dread, but survives combat.

Game ends. Grey knight victory, 2 objectives to 0.

Wow... That was the first game with my Word Bearers where I didn't feel like I held my own. Sure I had some bad dice rolls. Sure I made a mistake (not that it had any bearing on the games outcome), and the possessed and land raider were sub optimal choices (though the possessed that actually made it to combat did me proud). However I think the biggest factor in this game was that at this point level the differences in our respective codex'es become very apparent. The amount of sheer fire power that he threw down was impressive.

Still, I went 1-1-1 against them this league, so I guess that's something. I'll type up the next two reports soon.

The battle had turned into route, and the 76th Company was reduced to a bloody ruin. "How? How is this possible?" thought Dark Apostle Malakai. It felt as though the Gods had become distracted, thier attention elsewhere. Without thier blessings, they were no match againt the Imperiums finest. Malakai felt betrayed and abandoned, which stung far more cruelly than his defeat. He vowed to determine the source of this disturbance, and perhaps he may yet sieze victory.

[Bonzai]

The next match was against my Brothers Black Legion list. He was kind of down on his daemon princes at the moment, so I loaned him my Abaddon. He started using him, and really liked the results. His approximate list;

Black Legion
Abaddon
4 terminators w/ land raider
Squad of 1k sons w/ rhino
Squad of plague marines w/ rhino
Squad of CSM w/ rhino
3 obliterators
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra CC arm
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra CC arm

The mission was objectives, and dawn of war. There were a lot of people playing, so we had to make do with odd fantasy terrain. We arranged the objectives all in the middle around the central ruins, and one in the dead center for 5 objectives. One for each chaos god, and one for chaos united.

Dark Apostle Malakai soon had his answer as to why the gods attention was drawn else where. His scanners had detected a new ship in the system... The Vengeful Spirit. The Despoiler himself had come to claim this world. Rage filled the Dark Apostle. It was bad enough to have to contend with the Black Legion attempting to steal his prize, but to have the gods casually discard him in favor of their favorite pet... that was an insult he would not take lightly. One that he would avenge piece by bloody piece from Abbaddon's hide!

His men soon discovered unusual activity in one quadrant near the Black Legion's Beach head. A strike force was mobilized, and during the cover of night the Word Bearers advanced. Malakai's warp blessed eyes easily penatrated the darkness, and he could see slaves franticly building a giant altar. It was 5 altars really, 4 smaller altars, each dedicated to one of the True Gods, and the large, central one was dedicated to the glory of the warp it's self. Being well versed in the rituals of the gods, Malakai was able to deduce Abbaddon's intent immediately. By performing a complex ritual, he intended to overload the seals upon the warp rift, and blow it wide open. The Altar would become the epicenter of the rift, and from there Abbaddon could control it. This, Malakai could not allow. Gathering his forces, he ordered the attack.

It's been a while, so I don't remember the exact play by play. So I'll just give a general overview. Once again, my possessed rolled 6's.

I had everything come in from my table edge except for my terminators. He moved forward aggressively with his plague marines and 1k sons, and basically parked them on the middle objective.

I remember popping his 1k sons rhino easily, and then being set up to multi assault the 1k sons and plague marines with my Daemon Prince, all I had to do was pop the plague marines rhino. 4 melta shots and several lascannon shots latter the rhino was unscathed. To add insult to injury, my prince rolled 1 inch shy on difficult terrain test to assault the 1k sons, and was gunned down the following turn.

My possessed wiped out his CSM squad, and then spent the rest of the game attempting to get to the rest of the fighting.

Abbaddon and his squad wiped out my terminators, and squad Sanguine. Squad Draco was assaulted by the plague marine squad, but by a stroke of luck, managed to kill them off over several turns, thanks to me rolling better with my power fist. At the end of the combat, only the Sgt was left standing, but it was enough to claim an objective.

Lastly, squad Ultamis made a wide circle and was able to finish off the 1k son squad and claim an objective as well.

Game ended on turn 5, I won 1 objective to 0. The plague marine rhino, that I was unable to hurt all game, contested the objective with squad Draco.

The battle was brutal and grisley. Abbaddon himself stalked the battle field, slaying all who came before him as if they were no more than cattle. Even Malakai had to grudgingly give respect for his prowess. But in the end, the Word Bearers were a Company of brothers. Hardened and tested over centuries of battle. The Black Legion was a loose alliance of diseperate warbands, loyal only to themselves. In the end, that proved to be the difference, and the Word Bearers were able to fight through and capture enough Altars to disrupt the ritual. In time, it could be repaired, but that was an commodity that neither Legion could spare. With their objective complete, the Word Bearers withdrew.

Dark Apostle Malakai knew that this was only the begining. The Despoiler would not soon forget the bloody nose he and his men had given him. A reconning was coming, and Malakai was filled with equal parts dread and anticipation. Still, the battle for the planet was not over. Both of them would have their hands full with the forces of the Imperium.

With this win, I tied up our rivalry with one win a piece and 2 draws. We will have a tie breaker at 2500.

Thoughts: the way the table was set up, it turned into a meat grinder in the middle. If the game continued I would have probably lost another squad to abaddon and friends, but then the possessed would have tied them up for the rest of the game (hopefully).

When the possessed roll 6's, they are worth thier points. Still, there are a lot of points tied up between them and thier land raider, and it's a big points sink to come back from. Still, I like the models, and am giving them a fair try.

[Bonzai]

The last official game for me was against the Blood Angel player. Again, it's been so long that I can't remember the specifics.

He had changed up his list, and was running a hybrid MSU/descent of Angels list. It was spear head and anhiliation. I got to go first, and my possessed rolled scout... Sigh. If the land raider could be a designated transport, then that would have been awesome.

The first few turns were promissing. I popped several razorbacks, and made some decent headway. The game swung back into his favor though, just as soon as his jump infantry came in. Thier meltas took down both defilers and my raider. With scout, the possessed didn't hold up to the assault squads with librarians. From there the jump infantry pretty much started sweeping across the board. The game went to turn 7, and I was tabled. He won convincingly, 12 kill points to 7.

Like the battle against the Grey Knights, I felt that I didn't present much of a challenge. It's a shame, as up till now all of our matches have been close and competative. However, at this point value the codex'es strengths were able to shine through.

So that officially ended the escalation league. My official record ended up being 4 wins, 6 losses, and 2 draws. Not bad I guess for a non-cultist CSM army.

Thoughts? I enjoyed the experience. It was a lot of fun to take a relatively new army and play through the various point levels with it. It also motivated me to get painting on them, and I think that they came out fairly well.

I played a 2500 point game against another BA player. I pulled a draw, and the game taught me a bit. To get to 2500, I added in a 2nd plasma squad, another terminator unit, and added dozer blades on the land raider. What it taught me, was that even at 2,000 points, the possessed in the land raider are a big point sink. At 2500 they start to feel right. If I had to do my 2,000 point list again, I would go with the 2nd plasma squad and terminators instead.

I've enjoyed the experience, and now I almost have a fully painted 2500 point Word Bearer army.

Lessons Learned:

1. Defilers work better for me than obliterators for some reason.

2. My daemon prince rarely survives a game, but he is worth it. Warp time is a must though.

3. Possessed are over priced unless you roll a 6. Then they are about right.

4. CSM troops are a solid core for the army. The people who say they suck are probably the same people who say Tacticle Marines suck.

5. Termicide Squads are great. The may not always make back thier points, but they will at least grab your opponents attention for a turn.

6. What Eldar lack in raw power, they more than make up for by being annoying!

7. Never deep strike anywhere near corteaz. Ever!

8. After 1500 points, the men start being seperated from the boys in terms of codex power.

9. Mephiston isn't as broke as people made him out to be.

10. I really need to think of better tactics vs castling grey knights like the one I faced. Objective missions are fine, but anhiliation games are a problem.

This won't be the end of this thread. I at least still have my grudge match with my Brother at 2500 points to get through.

[totgeboren]

Great thread, I enjoyed reading it all (and the reports over at dakkadakka)! Word Bearers are so awesome they make using the current codex (almost) bearable.

Possessed, I had a very similar experience using them. Rolled a 6 the first time around, and I felt they were ok (not great, just ok), but only got other results after that, and on anything but a 6 they outright suck.

I really like the Defiler with lascannons idea, never seen that being used before. I think I'm gonna make me one of those.

Anyway, good luck in the future, and hopefully we will be able to compete at higher point levels with the next codex!

[Bonzai]

Thanks dude! I enjoyed your painting log btw. Yeah, I like the twin linked lascannon better than the reapers. Longer range, better anti-tank, lower AP, and when the battle cannon inevitably gets blown off it is still a ranged threat. Since I was going without Oblits for fluff reasons, I kind of needed the lascannons.

Btw, which reports at dakka dakka?

[totgeboren]

Thanks!
And... hmmm, good question. I though you had linked some reports from Dakkadakka in your first post... but I must have gotten something mixed up. This thread took some time to read. :P
Oh well, too many tabs in firefox I guess.

[Bonzai]

Well, the league is over, and I still have no clue who actually won. I haven’t been able to play 40k at all since then until last night. I was all set to have my 2.5K showdown with my Brother, but he ended up bringing a friend with him. Whenever we play a 3 way game, the person in the middle always seems to get screwed. So we reluctantly invited another player to join us. My Brother’s friend played Grey Knights, and so did this other player, so it ended up being 2 Grey Knight armies vs Black Legion and Word Bearers. The 2nd player was not the strongest player, so we were kind of handicapping my Brother’s friend with his team mate. However, considering that they were playing Grey Knights, we felt that it was fair enough. Since we had this game however, I am going to shamelessly subvert it to continue on with the Saga of the 76th Company of the Word Bearers.

I changed up my 2k list a little. I took out the possessed and Land raider for a 2nd plasma squad and another squad of terminators. I felt that the possessed under performed a little, and were too much of a point sink for this point range. My Brother’s list remained the same.

Word Bearers

HQ
Dark Apostle Malakai ( daemon prince w/ warp time, wings)

Elite
The Anointed ( 5 terminators w/ 4 combi plasma, reaper, cf, AC)
The Anointed ( 5 terminators w/ 4 combi plasma, reaper, cf, AC)

Troops
Squad Ultamis ( 10csm, 2 plasma, ac, pf, IoCG, rhino)
Squad Sanguine ( 10 csm, 2 melta, ac, pf, IoCG, rhino)
Squad Draco ( 10 csm, 2 melta, ac, pf, IoCG, rhino)
Squad Angelus (10 csm, 2 plasma, ac, pf, IoCG, rhino)

Heavy
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra cc arm
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra cc arm

Total: 1,995 points

Black Legion
Abaddon
4 terminators w/ land raider
Squad of 1k sons w/ rhino
Squad of plague marines w/ rhino
Squad of CSM w/ rhino
3 obliterators
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra CC arm
Defiler w/ tl lascannon, extra CC arm

I don’t know/recall all the particulars of our opponent’s lists. Both had a storm raven, dread knight, a dreadnought, and a squad in razorback. Brother’s friend also had a Land Raider with a squad in it, and Draigo with a Paladin Squad and a librarian. The other player had an Inquisitor, some henchmen, another razorback, and several servo skulls.

Prologue

The two small transports docked to each other in high orbit above the planet below them. Dark Apostle Malakai stood impatiently in front of the air lock. He was accompanied only by a small honor guard of the Anointed. Slowly the rumbling of gears began to fade, and there was an audible hiss as the airlocks opened. As the bay doors opened, the Dark Apostle could see his foe waiting for him. Abaddon was also flanked by an honor guard of terminators. The brutish, haughty face of the despoiler was exactly as he remembered it, so long ago during the Great Crusade. Yet, there was something different… An inner radiance and aura of confidence that was not there before, the favor of the true gods practically exuding from him. The obvious favoritism by the gods only irritated the Apostle further. “Speak”, he said, “You called for this parley, say what you will and be done with it”.

Abaddon’s eyes seemed to brim with barely checked fury, yet his voice was cold and expressionless. “You have caused me and my men quite a bit of trouble, lord Apostle. The damage you have done has inconvenienced us greatly. Surely you are aware of what is at stake, and that to cause the loss of such a prize would not only bring down my full wrath, but the wrath of the dark gods as well. You have proven your strength, and I will admit to not being able to fight you and the Imperium at the same time. The bulk of my forces still fight at Cadia, and it would take most of what I have deployed here to destroy you. That would leave the rift in the hands of the enemy for far too long. Therefore I propose a truce. I will ignore the aggravation that you have caused, and allow you to join me. Together we can destroy the Imperials and claim the prize”. “Join you!?!”, snorted the Dark Apostle, “I’d sooner grovel at the corpse Emperor’s feet”. Abaddon’s mouth tightened slightly, yet his voice remained level, “A partnership then? At least until the Imperium is driven from this world?”. “And after?” asked the Dark Apostle. “The after, comes after. There is no use worrying about that until victory is in hand”, replied Abaddon. Dark Apostle Malakai gave him a fang filled grin, and nodded. With an accord reached, the two transports disengage, and each set about to make their preparations.

To save time and simplify things, we just chose 12 inch deployment and annihilation. The 2nd Grey Knight player asked if since they were the same army more or less, if they could both use the servo skulls. We said that that would be fine, just so long as we could use each other’s icons as well. They agreed. We won the roll off and deployed first. They then seized the initiative.

Turn 1
They had deployed a squad of henchmen, and 3 razor backs with the rest held in reserve. Their shooting blew off the battle cannon on one of my defilers.

Our shooting ripped a lascannon off a razorback, killed a few henchmen, and shook the other two razorbacks.

Turn 2
A storm raven with paladins deep struck off a servo skull on our left, a dread knight came in the center, and squad of grey knights came in on our center right. The storm raven blew up my Brother’s left defiler.

One Terminator squad comes in, and I deep strike it off Abaddon, near the storm raven. I throw a battle cannon at the nicely bunched grey knight squad but scattered off, my brother had moved up his land raider and disembarked Abaddon and his terminators, and advance towards the Dread Knight. The plan was for the oblits to pop the storm raven so I could rapid fire the Paladins inside with combi plasma from my terminators, plasma from squad Angelus, and meltas from squad Sanguine. The oblits, the Land Raider, Squad Sanguine, Squad Angelus, and my terminators all end up firing at the freaking Storm Raven, and all we manage to do is immobilize it. My defiler shot a lascannon at a razorback, but failed to do anything. Abaddon and boys charged the Dread Knight and dropped it to one wound.

Turn 3
The 2nd storm raven drops in on our right. The deep striking squad had advanced and spread out. The GK land raider advances toward Abaddon, and disembarks it’s squad to help out the Dread Knight. The immobilized Storm Raven disembarks it’s Paladins and Dread Knight. In shooting it blows up squad Angelus’s rhino. The dread knight does a number on my Terminators, but I manage to knock off it’s CC arm in assault. The Paladins fail to charge Squad Angelus thanks to the wreckage between them and the Paladins. The Grey Knights from the land raider join the assault on Abaddon, and manage to kill some of his terminators. The Dread Knight falls in assault.

Our turn, I activate warp time on my Prince and fly him next to the Storm Raven on our right. My Brother advances his rhinos, and his squad of 1k sons and squad Draco disembark and prepare to rapid fire the foot slogging squad of Grey Knights. Shooting does far less than I would have hoped, but he still has several left in the squad. I had moved squad Angelus and Squad Sanguine into position to rapid fire the Paladins. Shooting was abysmal, and his paladins made EVERY save. We did immobilize the other storm raven, and my Prince destroyed it in assault. Abaddon and his remaining terminators won assault and caused the grey knights to flee. They consolidated after them.

Turn 4
The fleeing squad continues to run as Abby and crew are behind them. The last Dread Knight comes in near the blown up Storm Raven. The Paladins destroy squad Sanguine, the foot slogging grey knight squad assaults the 1k sons, the razorback with the blown up lascannon had moved up and tank shocked squad Draco for some reason. I get out of the way. My Brother’s CSM squads rhino gets blown up. The squad from the blown up Storm raven assaults and kills the Daemon Prince as the whole squad has halberds. Hmm.. that gave me an idea on what to do next turn.

Our turn, my last terminator squad came in, and deep struck off squad Angelus’s Icon. Abby splits off from his terminators, and goes after the Henchmen in cover. I move up the Defiler without the battle cannon to charge the Grey Knight squad that killed the Daemon prince. My brother’s land raider finally kills off the Paladin’s immobilized storm raven. We focus fire and kill the dread knight. Squad Angelus and my second terminator squad rapid fire the Paladins, and he once again makes EVERY save! Squad Draco calmly meltas to death the rhino that tank shocked them. In assault, I wipe out the GK squad with my defiler. Abby sends the Henchman running. Oh, and that combat between the dreadnaught and my terminator squads? It finally was down to having no arms, and my chain fist was the last terminator standing. The last survivors of my Brother’s terminators assault the GK land raider and manage to wreck it with a chain fist.

Turn 5
Due to time constraints, we agree that turn 5 will be the last turn regardless. Their last GK squad comes in mid field off a servo skull. Henchmen and grey knight squad are ran off the board. The Paladins wipe out my terminators, but I manage to insta death one with my chainfist. My Brother’s terminators get shot down, and I think he also lost a couple CSM’s to random shooting. In assault, the dreadnaught and chainfist continue to slap fight.

Our turn I load up squad Draco, move it up, and blow up his Dreadnaught on the right. Las cannon shots take out a Razor back, and I battle cannon the squad that just deep struck, killing all but one. I was about to las cannon the survivor when the player got frustrated and quit. Just for fun, my brother’s friend and I rolled out the combat with the dread naught, and I would have won on my turn 7.

In total I lost 1 rhino, 1 CSM squad, 1 terminator squad, and a Daemon Prince. My brother lost a defiler, a rhino, and a terminator squad for 7 kill points between us. The Grey Knights lost 2 Storm Ravens, 2 razor backs, 2 Dread Knights, 2 GK squads, a Land Raider, a Dreadnaught, a Henchman Squad, an Inquisitor, and maybe an independent character in one of the squads. What they had left was a unit of 4 paladins, Draigo, and a Librarian, a lascannon razorback with a squad on a far corner, 1 GK that was about to be shot down when they conceded, an armless dreadnaught loced in combat, and a broken squad that my Brother’s 1K sons would be escorting off the table. All in all, I would say a pretty resounding win for Chaos United! MVP for us? Abaddon. The guy is a beast. MVP for our opponents were the Paladin wrecking ball unit. They failed one save the entire night despite the amount of rapid fire and low AP thrown at them. I think my list is definitely better without the Possessed and land raider.

The Grey Knights had seen the attack coming, thanks to their perimeter of servo skulls. Yet it didn’t help them as the Legions of Chaos descended upon them. United, the forces of Abaddon the Despoiler, and Dark Apostle Malakai broke the enemy before them, forcing them to fall back in disarray. Having fought each other so many times over the last few months, they had learned to anticipate each other’s movements, and had become a surprisingly effective team. Shattered, the Imperial forces were forced to withdraw, and within a few weeks the planet was scoured of resistance. Yet just as soon as the joy of victory began to ebb, both sides knew that an inevitable betrayal was soon to follow… Only one victor could claim this prize!