BATTLE REPORT - SPACE MARINES VS. CHAOS SPACE MARINES 1750

At last, back to war, er... something like that.

I was jonesing very badly to apply some of my tournament lessons this weekend, so I conveniently scheduled a game with a buddy of mine, General Travis.

 This is his battle face.

The points value was 1750 and my army was the one posted earlier.

The Prodigal Sons, led by Khaldun, assembled.

Travis is famous(in my mind) for playing an awesome raptors space marine army.

Four tactical squads, a devastator squad, two thunderfire cannons, two level 2 librarians, a bastion, and a stormtalon... pretty tough, pretty scary.

The game type was crusade(5 objectives) and hammer and anvil deployment. Ouch for the Sons.

We place terrain, making sure I only gave him one ruin to bolster, and generate warlord traits and psychic powers. Boon of Mutation and Doombolt for the two rubricae squad sorcerers, and Tzeentch's Firestorm and Psychic Shriek for my lord. Warlord trait was the soul blaze one. Gift of Mutation on my sorcerer awarded him a 2+ armour save with a 3+ invulnerable, while the warpsmith gave an unworthy offering. I won the roll and let him deploy first so that I might get a chance at vector striking his stormtalon before it can shoot down my dragons.

I placed 2 objectives near my deployment zone and one in the center, while he placed 2 on either side of the ruins. I placed the warlord with the boon sorcerer and start them outside of the rhino. Night fight was in effect and I had counterdeployed to be outside of 36" of his thunderfire cannons, while also allowing myself boon table roll at the start of the game. The cultists deployed near objectives lodged in area terrain, and the warpsmith was inside a rhino with a thousand sons squad. The obliterators deployed at the front of the line, next to the vindicator, which was poised for a turn 2 template on the quad gun, and a turn 1 drop on an enemy tactical squad. After deployment, I made no attempt to sieze and the game began.

Travis didn't move much. He cast his psychic shenanigans which mostly involved biomancy powers giving out feel no pain and relentless, as well as iron arm for his librarians. One deployed with a tactical squad, the other with the dev squad atop the bastion. His turn one saw nothing but a glance on the warpsmith's rhino - a glance which he heartily laughed at.

My turn one saw a 12" push to center with both rhinos, cultists moving into cover and seizing objectives, and heavy guns moving up. The obliterators fired harmless lascannon shots at the quad gun, and the vindicator's template failed to kill more than 2 marines due to night fight. The warlord moved flat out, while the warpsmith repaired his hull point to keep his rhino trucking. The boon of mutation successfully wounded the warlord, though it granted him 6 rolls - multiple boons first, followed by poisoned attacks, adamantium will, another multiple boon, wounding enemy psykers, and +1 BS. Amazing rolls, giving me an amazing, albeit fragile and wounded sorcerer.

Travis' turn 2 was exactly what I was anticipating. The stormtalon arrived, and now that the sun was up, things got nasty. The sorcerer's rhino was destroyed by tactical marine lascannons, and his squad was pelted heavily by thunderfire cannons. The vindicator took a ton of fire and ended being immobilized with one hull point remaining. Painful, the warpsmith was too far away to do anything.

My turn 2 saw one heldrake arrived, which i nervously placed near the center, knowing interceptor fire was coming. In general I pushed up even further with the rubricae and the obliterators, managing to kill half a squad of tacticals outside the ruins, and quite a few in front of the vindicator. With his interceptor quad gun firing on the heldrake, it took one pen, which only amounted to a shaken. Of course, my dumb ass forgot daemonic possession, which would've ignored the result on a 2+ and resulted in a fully dead tac squad. Instead, I forgot, and moved flat out to prepare to sweep the back of his line. 

His turn 3 saw pain brought to me. Staggering amounts of damage resulted in the sorcer being by himself with his one remaining wound, and the warpsmith losing 4 rubricae and hte aspiring sorcerer lost to thunderfires.

My turn 3 saw the next heldrake arrive. Knowing due to the long table edges I would need time to position, I brought it up on the left side to prepare to ignite the ruins holding both thunderfires, two tactical squads, and a librarian. The other heldrake zoomed over the bastion and performed a vector strike on the quad gun, causing 1 wound to it. The sorcerer was unable to reach enemies but managed to use his torrent flamer to kill all but two of a tactical squad which then fell back. The obliterators fire TL-meltaguns at the stormtalon to no avail.The warpsmith fire and did very little, failing a charge.

Travis rallied his two tactical marines and embarked them into the bastion for more shots - a decision he would later regret. He snap fired two tactical squads into the heldrake in his lines, getting a lucky melta hit, pen, and explosion with the second squad, and furthermore the wreckage did not scatter and hit nothing. The thunderfires turned to my cultists and decimated them with ignores cover shots, though they held their ground and ducked out of LoS.

I immediately pushed the warpsmith within 6" of the bastion, as well as the obliterators and the warlord. My heldrake that yet lived flew next to the ruins and managed to wound the librarian and kill 4 tactical marines, his pesky biomancy feel no pain preventing me from totally annihilating the unit. The obliterators fired multimeltas, got a single pen, and rolled a 7 for the building damage - detonation. The building collapsed and killed the two marines inside, and the librarian and devastator sergeant were forced to jump off - right next to the warpsmith and his escort. Because of Iron arm, the unit was considered T5, so I fired at and killed the librarian before the warpsmith assaulted. 

This is it. My moment of glory. "My warpsmith will challenge." "I have to accept." No wounds from the sergeant. I felled him easily. "Boon, first digit is... 6. Second digit is... 6!!!!! DARK APOTHEOSIS!!"

I gleefully retrieved one of my daemon princes and placed him where the warpsmith was.

Travis proceeded to shoot everything at him and kill him before he did anything(Oh well, it still soaked fire and still happened), then assaulted the 4 rubricae left over, their hatred doing little for their one attack each. 

The heldrake went into hover and flew circles around the ruins, dodging shots and making invulnerable saves like you wouldn't believe, all while killing off all of his troops. At the end of 7, I slaughtered all of his tactical marines, had lost my warlord, and took a very close victory - 4-1. I held one objective and had first blood, he had slay the warlord.

Great game, definitely brought up new list adjustment ideas which you will see posted shortly.