catalyst2 | Battle #33

Tonight was 2500 points Apocalypse against Tim's Chaos Daemons. We did some advance negotiations - I was taking a Shadowsword, no formations and no strategic assets whilst Tim was taking two formations and two strategic assets. We would also play on a 6' by 4' table because, with such small armies, we would take ages to close in if we started on the bigger 8' by 6' that's usually used for Apocalypse games in the club.

My army was the Shadowsword (with Chronus for the BS5), a Drop Pod Ironclad, an Annihilator, a Whirlwind, 3 HB/AC speeders, Sicarius, a command squad (in a TL HB Razorback), a sniper scout squad and 5 tactical squads, all on foot. Tim took the Tetragon of Darkness and Host of the Daemon Forge with a scribe thingee chucked in for luck. We decided on six objectives and then added in the Chapel of Sanctuary with special rules. The CoS would count as two objectives if held, could only be held if you were inside the terrain, not within three inches, and could only be contested if you were inside the CoS, not within three inches. Tim bid 0 for his deployment and I bid 5 minutes. I rolled to seize the initiative and, for the first time ever, got it! I duly set up (in 4 minutes and 58 seconds), leaving only my Ironclad in reserve. Tim deployed his Tetragon of Darkness and things went wrong straight away - his Keeper of Secrets scattered off the board and died, losing the advantage of the formation. Tim decided to take a risk and deployed his pink horrors close to one tactical squad on my far left, with with his Bloodthirster and Lord of Change within charge range in the centre. The plaguebearers took one objective on my left, the Blooodletters aimed to hook around to my right wing whilst the daemonettes hung around the centre, able to flip either way. The Great Unclean One hung about at the back, lurking. Tim's shooting was appalling - the pink horrors killed just one marine and nothing else he fired did anything. The assault began - the Bloodthirster hit a tactical squad in the center and killed the entire squad! The Lord of Change attacked the other squad, failed to cause a single wound but took two himself. Nothing else was in reach so everything else ran if it could. Almost every one of his units was in assault range next turn - I was in trouble unless I did something good.

Turn 2 - and, guess what, I did do something good! A combination of Tactical squad rapid fire plus Razorback killed off all of his pink horrors. The Whirlwind killed all but three Daemonettes . The drop podding Ironclad appeared in support of the armour, ready to flank any incoming assault units. The Shadowsword fired - all of his bloodletters died (Tim had used his first strategic asset on them, Blood Thirst of Khorne, so lost any advantage for them!), and the Bloodthirster lost two wounds. The Speeders picked off at the Great Unclean One, causing two wounds. The sniper scouts took another wound off the Bloodthirster and the Annihilator missed everything. The only reserve unit of Tim's that came on was his scribe unit and that deployed in a very strange position that I didn't grasp the significance of. The Keeper of Secrets was now the only unit that could assault and it did, killing just one marine. The Bloodthirster turned towards the scouts who had occupied the CoS but couldn't quite get to them. From a turn of near disaster, a devastating round of my shooting reduced him to a handful of troops - but the Host of the Daemon Forge was still coming.

Turn three - and things went a bit wrong. Remember that scribe unit that was deployed in a "funny" position? How wrong I was - not only did it turn Sicarius into a spawn but Tim deployed his master stroke and used his second strategic asset - Mirage of Tzeentch - and took control of my Shadowsword! ARRRRRGGGGGGGGHH! The Shadowsword killed an entire tactical squad, reduced another to 3 and immobilised my Annihilator. Without the Shadowsword, my shooting was not quite as devastating but two important things happened. The whirlwind killed off the rest of the daemonettes, keeping the sniper scouts just a little safer and the drop pod's deathwind ML killed two plaguebearers. Given that the drop pod was right next to the objective that they were on, the surroundings became very uncomfortable for the plaguebearers and they resolved to move away as soon as possible. The Speeders took another wound off the Great Unclean One. In the center, the Keeper of Secrets killed one more marine but nothing else.

Tim's Host of the Daemon Forge arrived, deployed right in front of my gunline with no scatter and assaulted the Shadowsword, and the razorback. The Spawn went for the Annihilator and the Bloodthirster went for the sniper scouts. The plaguebearers also went towards the scouts but ony got nine inches closer (move + run) - that number's important, btw. The Shadowsword was destroyed and wrecked instantly whilst the Razorback blew up, causing one casualty to the command squad, the Spawn destoyed the TL lascannon on the Annihilator and the Bloodthirster killed seven scouts. The scouts ran but escaped because he couldn't catch them. At this point I held no objectives and he held three.

Turn 4 - unobserved by Tim, my Ironclad quietly snuck out from behind the Drop Pod and got within charge range of one Soulgrinder. One tactical squad and the command squad moved to assault the other one. The Annihilator took two wounds off the Spawn and a lone HB tactical marine took the last wound off it. Both the Whirlwind and the deathwind ML (remember that 9" move last turn? yes, it meant the plaguebeaers were still within range of it) hit the plaguebearers, reducing the squad to just three. My assault was wonderfully effective - the Ironclad destroyed one Soulgrinder whilst the combined krak grenades of the two squads, plus two powerfists, destroyed the other one. The Keeper of Secrets lost his last wounds dying in combat with the same tactical squad he had assaulted in turn two. Up until this point, I had considered the game really close but now as I looked up, I realised that all he had left was 1 Soulgrinder, 1 spawn, his Bloodthirster, his scribes, 3 Plague marines and the Great Unclean One. Still, an effective assault here could still be devastating. This is where Tim made some unusual choices - the Soulgrinder went for the tactical squad, not the Ironclad, Whirlwind or Annihilator whilst the Bloodthirster went onto the CoS, not towards another tactical squad and the Plaguebearers also went for that objective. The Great Unclean One also moved onto an objective, but in doing so moved towards my lines again.

Turn 5 - all the plagemarines and Bloodthirster died under a hail of massed rapid fire from two tactical squads and my last two scouts came back towards the CoS. The Ironclad charged the the third (and last) Soulgrinder and again wrecked it. The other tactical squad consolidated onto an objective. Because of his move back onto the objective, the Great Unclean One was again in range of my speeders so they blazed away and took one more wound off him. At the point it was a draw, one objective each. We decided to roll for turn 6 and duly rolled a six so it came around.

Turn 6 - The two scouts moved and then ran back into the CoS. One tactical squad finished off the scribes whilst the other tactical squad moved and ran onto another objective. The Great Unclean One waved his fist impotently in the distance so the Speeders fired again and killed him. Victory by total annihilation or 4 objectives to 0 depending on your point of view.

What I learned tonight:
1. Above all else, don't lose your nerve against demons. Soulgrinders are enormous models and very visually intimidating but they can still die.
2. The Shadowsword was tremendous fun to use even if it only got off a couple of rounds, one of which landed on me.
3. It was a very entertaining game, probably the most fun I've had for a while playing 40K.

Thanks for a great and entertaining game, Time!

Note that the battle number changed - I've added in other categories
My W-L-D record is now
40K: 22-7-0
Apocalypse: 2-0-1
Planetstrike: 0-1-0