A Rain of Plasma

"Excuse me, Does this belong to one of you?"

This past weekend I made my way to Hobbytown for a game with the mighty Warfrog, but those plans fell through. So I picked up a game with Michael C, whom you may have seen in a recent battle report over on Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop, who was waiting for some hapless fool to challenge his Dark Angels. As luck would have it, I was now more than available to step up to the proverbial plate.

Hapless fools? Look no further! 

I was wanting to give my Chaos Daemons a go, however, despite my stated intentions earlier this year I have not given them the attention necessary to achieve those goals. So I decided to run them as an allied Detachment with a Chaos Space Marines Detachment. I used them in my first 8th Edition battle and wanted to give them another go. They didn't fair too well in that fight, however I was using the Index list and only the 3 core strategems vs. a proper codex army.

The DA staging ground.

Like some sort of ritual, Michael always sets his army up in this scenic display before every battle. And this beautifully painted army always looks briliant on it! This is what he brought to the battle and the next pic showcases his three HQ choices.

Bruisers. 

Here is Michael's discription of these guys: "The Battle Brothers Bruise. Librarian armed with force axe and storm shield. Warlord armed with thunderhammer and storm shield and wearing the Shroud of Heroes relic which always adds one to hit rolls against him. And the 3rd and final HQ choice is a Master armed with thunderhammer and storm shield and carrying the relic Eye of the Unseen which allows him to go first in every combat."

After selecting the mission, somehow I got to pick the deployment layout and I chose that we play short edge to short edge. Clearly I forgot what a disaster this was the last time I made this choice... I guess I like to challenge myself?

Chaos Deployment.

I opted not to bring the Daemons in via reinforcement points as that seemed like more to keep up with than I was presently prepared to do, and with most of my army being fairly fast I figured it wouldn't be too hard of a march to the otherside.

Dark Angel deployment.

The calm before the storm...

Turn One began with the Dark Angels going first. The Dark Angels concentrated on one group of Daemonettes, wiping it out, and the Devastators earned their name by nearly destroying the Vindicator. One lucky re-roll kept it in the game with 2 Wounds left! Meanwhile, my Landraider shrugged off the attacks that were fired at it. In retaliation my Landraider, the The Blood Dumpster, fired back, annihilating one of the Dark Angel Dreads and killing a Marine from a Tactical squad. Meanwhile the Vindicator, clanking around with a Movement rate of 3, limped around in the back field.

End of Turn One

Turn 2 is when everything hits the fan. Michael kicks things off by parking the Drop Pod next to the objective that I had left virtually abandoned in my Deployment Zone. He brought his speeder around to use as bait for the Daemon Prince (or maybe the Vindicator) and sets his sights on a rear assault.

The arrival.

These forces attacked the Black Legion unit in the ruins, wiping them out. And the Librarian put 2 Mortal Wounds onto my Warlord riding the Juggernaut. Meanwhile further up field the entire Dark Angel force unleashed on the Fiends of Slaanesh who were racing quickly forward and in desperate need to hug someone. Their speed and resilience clearly struck a nerve in the Dark Angels and they wanted none of their hugs or attention (the models have out-stretched arms that almost look like that they want a hug!) It took CPs and tenacity, but eventually they were destroyed (note to self: I need more!). "No hugs!" Declared the Dark Angels defiantly.

End of Dark Angels Turn 2.

Chaos Turn 2, and it was time to get stuck in. Tactical Blunder #2: taking the bait! I had assumed that the Champion on the Juggernaut could at least kill that Librarian in the Fight Phase, but although I hurt him, it was not enough. With the other two characters piling on, the Chaos Leader on his Juggernaut was slain. The psychic power the Librarian  had played on him, Aversion, definitely didn't help his survival odds. The Daemon Prince ignored the flyer and dove into the Tactical Squad, however he didn't hardly kill any of these guys and they proved to be quite tough!

The contest of champions! 

Elsewhere, the Blood Dumpster unloaded the Khorne Berserkers to assist their leader in the Juggernaut (they shoot worse than my Space Wolves) while it shot the heavy bolter at the Tactical Squad behind it, the twin-linked Las Cannons blew up another Dreadnought, laying it low with 19 unsaved wounds! The Blood Dumpster likes this edition, clearly!

Blood Dumpster!!!

The Keeper of Secrets, She Who Milks, ran up the field with the remaining Daemonettes. Using one of her psionic attacks to kill one of the Tac Marines lurking in the craters.

The purple wave approaches.

Turn 3.

With the Fiends gone attention was given to the Plaguebearers shambling up to the Dark Angel lines. Thanks to their toughness and Disgusting Resilience, only 2 died.  A few Daemonettes were also picked off but they hung there when it came to check Morale thanks to the careful implementation of my CPs. Somehow my Daemon Prince survived the brutal Fight phase with like a Wound left.

Chaos Turn 3, and the Daemon Prince flew out of melee, thankful to still be attached to the mortal realm, and wanting nothing more to do with those characters and their thunderhammers! His withdrawal gave the backfield to the Dark Angels, leaving only the barely functioning Vindicator left to fire wildly at the remaining Dark Angels.

The Dark Angels take the field and secure the objective! 

The Herald of Slaanesh, Plague Bearers and the last squad of Chaos Marines were slowly making their way up yhe field. The Chaos Marines provided fire support for the Slaanesh Daemons who were making their way swiftly to the Dark Angel lines.

"What does 'meander' mean?"

The Keeper if Secrets charged the Tactical Marines in the Crater, slaughtering them with delightful ease. The Daemonettes crashed into the othet Dark Angel squad in the ruins wiping out all but two if them!

"Hold the line!"

The Landraider chose to be bold and split it's Las Cannon shots between the two Razorbacks, but this only resulted in damaging one of them due to half the shots missing and only one damaging.

With this, it was past time to close up the shop so regrettably we had to stop the game here. The VP tally was 6 vp to 1vp, Dark Angels for the win!

Even if I had managed to take the objective in his zone I would not have been able to claim the points needed to surpass his tally. So what went wrong?

As previously stated my choice of battefield layout did work against me, but it was not a full-on Gettysburg scenario that it looked like it would've been. If not for those Daemonic Invulnerable saves, and a few well executed Command Point Rerolls, the death toll would have been worse I think.

Devastators hold their position.

In hindsight I feel that my 2nd big mistake was going after the Dark Angels that arrived in the Drop Pod in my deployment zone. If I just speed on ahead and ignored them they would have been a less useful asset to him, and I could have used the Berserkers against foes that wouldn't have the Warlord around to lean on.

She Who Milks, claiming souls...

My MVPs in this fight were the Keeper of Secrets and the Land Raider. Particularly the Land Raider! The Blood dumpster racked up some very impressive kills and I was pleased with its effectiveness.

Blood Dumpster earns the MVP.

All-in-all it was a good game and an educational one for me. I think next time I'll keep my detachments limited from choices from the same codex.

Special thanks to Warfrog and Matt for their rules insights and assistance with this game.