Sunday, February 20, 2011

W3 Escalation League Battle Report: Daemons vs Space Marines

Week 3 has come and gone, and another game is done for the league. This is my second 1K points game and this time we are playing a special scenario. Called Carnage, the idea is to place a counter in the middle of the table, and the closest unengaged infantry unit to the counter within 12 inches wins the game. I rolled the deployment and got quarters once again, which won’t matter for the Daemons but will for my opponents Space Marines......Lets take a look...

Points: 1000 Points Per Player
Mission: Carnage (Special Scenario)
Set Up: Quarters

The Armies:

Chaos Daemons-
This time around thanks to the higher points I was able to beef up some units with some nice upgrades, while bringing in another force to join the legion from the Lord of Change…Tzeentch! Along with my original 500 point force, I was able to add a few more flesh hounds to the unit to beef it up more, the Plaguebearers were upgraded with some Noxious Touch, and the herald was given a few upgrades to make him nastier. Finally a new force joined the ranks, a Herald of Tzeentch, along with a unit of Horrors to give my army some shooty goodness. Both Heralds were upgraded to Icons to help bring in my forces and avoid scatter mistakes.

Space Marines-
This time around I am facing another Space Marine army in the 1K points range. This is a themed Salamanders list out of the regular Space Marine codex. By Salamanders theme I mean one thing, and we all know what that thing is....Forgefather Vulkan He'stan of course! Along with the Forgefather, this army is built with 3 Attack Bikes with Multimeltas, a Land Raider Crusader, a basic Rhino, and finally 2 Tactical Squads with Flamers and Plasma Cannons, which will be broken down into 5 man combat squads for the game. Again, I am a bit worried about taking on the land raider, since I have nothing really to counter it, but it's a crusader so I should be ok for most of its firepower. The Character as always will be a tough one to beat, and his ability with flamer type weapons will be annoying, but I will deal with it. The army is fairly a small one for the points, but when you have a Land Raider and a Special Character eating up your points your army isn't going to be that big.

Deployment and Terrain:

He won the roll off and he chose to go first this time and move first. We dropped 2 building templates on the table with one on top of the center objective and another beside it with a small ally between buildings. The table was fairly empty with lots of open ground to move and shoot thru. With quarters again being the deployment choice he selected his quarter of choice in one of the more open areas of the table. The 2 combat squads with plasma cannons were placed on the table, along with the Rhino, Attack Bikes, and Land Raider. Vulkan and his 5 man retinue resided in the land raider, while the other combat squad took residence in the rhino. I rolled to see how the gods were feeling tonight, the two heralds with units of Horrors and Plaguebearers for retinues were my choice units to drop since they both had icons to help deep strike. To the pleasure of the Gods, they were on my side that night. Everything else which accounted for most of my Khorne strike force would be in reserve.



Turn 1

Space Marines- First turn his entire army was moving and running close to the objective. The rhino rolled up beside and deployed its force to support the other 2 combat squads.





Daemons- Enter the Daemons! Leading his nurgle forces, my herald would touch down first in an open area, a bit ballsy but they are nurgle so they can take the heat if they have too, the drop saw them pushed back to the table edge a little bit. The Tzeentch forces would shoot for the ally between buildings and arrive on target. The nurgle forces would run in the shooting phase to spread out and move closer to the space marines. Meanwhile the horrors and herald unloaded on the flamer combat squad that was in the rhino, the shooting resulted in 3 marines dead and passed its leadership roll. First Blood To The Daemons!





Turn 2

Space Marines- Turn two saw the marines with a bit of a black eye from the horrors, but the counter attack was on! The marine vehicles backed off to a safe distance and out came Vulkan with his combat squad retinue from the land raider. The Plaguebearers were about the take a heavy toll from the marine forces in retaliation for the first round of shooting. Meanwhile the 2 man squad moved in on the horrors, and they would get the attention of the plasma cannon squads as well. The shooting went well for the marines as both daemon groups came under fire, the problem was that I was making some incredible saves for the army, something that would be a major problem for my opponent this night. The Gods of Chaos were indeed on my side this night! Out of all the fire poured into the nurgle forces only 3 bearers were taken down and the herald took one wound. The unit that took it hardest was the horrors, losing half their numbers thanks to the plasma cannons and marine shooting. With shooting done it was time to get in close and do some dirty fighting! Vulkan lead the assault on the nurgle forces, taking down the herald in one vs one combat, this would be his only win as the other marines failed to kill anything else. The other smaller combat squad jumped into the middle of the horror squad but that also resulted in tied combat. My forces were now tied up with marines, and I had lost one of my icons which didn't help me.







Daemons- Turn 2 brings with it 2 of my reserve units onto the table, the second Plaguebear unit and my Bloodletters! Two units that are very welcome additions to the assault on the marines and will make for an interesting counter attack force. The Bloodletters would use the icon to land between the combat and building, while the plaguebearers would be a drop right on top of the counter and in the building, which will cost me at least one plaguebearer for dropping into terrain, oh well that's the risk we take. Both units will bunker down in the building to hold out for the incoming fire, the bloodletters got enough models in the building to get a cover save, while the plaguebearers spread out to cover the objective. The close combat continued, with the horrors taking more losses to combat but my saves making it only a loss of one, Vulkan and his marines were stuck taking down 3 bearers in the combat.







Turn 3

Space Marines- The Marines began to counter the arrival of the new daemon forces on the table, the center building became a bunker under siege by the forces not in close combat, one of the plasma cannon squads moved to a new position while the land raider and attack bikes moved to get better shots at the occupants of the building. The land raider unloaded completely into the squad of plaguebearers and I did not take a single wound from the attack, if that is not a sign that the gods of chaos were not on my side this night, I don't know what is! Heh! Although the other marine forces did cause a few losses on the squad the bloodletters survived without a loss to their name. The close combat continued to take its toll on my forces but they continued to hold out, the horrors lost another of their number and the plaguebearers took more losses but held Vulkan in place which would be crucial for the next round!







Daemons- Time to cut down the numbers of these marines! With two squads already locked up and only 2 marine combat squads the bloodletters rushed out for a counter attack! The flesh hounds chose not to enter again, and the plaguebeaders held their ground in the building since they had gone to ground in the previous turn. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!! The bloodletters rushed out to take down one of the plasma cannon units, along with freeing the horrors in the process. The battle was brutal but Khorne got his skulls this night, as both marine squads were taken down completely, freeing the bloodletters to retreat back into the building and allow the horrors to fall back into the building too. The cost of course was the death of the first plaguebearer unit which was well worth the cost, since Vulkan was held for the needed time to bring the bloodletters into the game. Now all combat was done and was once again an open game to see who would take the objective!







Turn 4

Space Marines- Time was running out and the daemons had firm control of the objective. The marines had to pour every bit of fire into that building and clean out the daemons if they were going to win this game. With Vulkan free now, he was able to bring his heavy flamer into the game, the other marine assets spread out to provide some good fire support. The marines unloaded with everything they had, but it was no good the daemons held the building! The bloodletters took the brunt of the fire, but at least half of the squad survived and the horrors and plaguebearers took some wounds but were still on the table after the heavy fire cleared out. YES!!!



Daemons- FINISH HIM!!! This turn saw the final nail on the marine coffin slammed into place, as the flesh hounds chose this time to enter the fun. I dropped them in the ally way ready to rush out and join the fun. The Plaguebearer and Bloodletters chose this time to rush out and finish the marine troops once and for all. The horrors chose to hold the objective while the herald joined the fun rushing out to take a shot at Vulkan! The shooting was quick but effective as the horrors ran instead of shooting, as did the flesh hounds to spread out a bit, the herald took his shot on Vulkan and took down 2 of the marines in his squad. Once again BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, as the bloodletters rushed Vulkan's unit and the plaguebearers rushed the last plasma cannon squad. The results were awesome!! The bloodletters finished off the marines, and Vulkan took a wound, which resulted in little Vulkan turning tail and running for home! The last marine combat squad also failed and turned to run with the plaguebearers keeping really close by....VICTORY IS MINE!







Turn 5

Turn 5 was cut short due to the store we were playing in closing for the night. Although at this point in the game it was a done deal, since both Vulkan and his last combat squad were on the run, and would continue to run since daemons were close by both units to not be able to rally. There was also the matter of the horrors sitting on the objective at the end of turn 4 and there were no more marine infantry units available to contest the objective. Therefore we both agreed to call the game at the start of turn 5. Another fun game had by all and my first win the league! WOO HOO!!


Final Score:
Dave L/Chaos Daemons: 1 Unit Holding the Objective
Dave M/Space Marines: No Units Close to Objective

Winner: Chaos Daemons


Final Thoughts: As always a Dave vs Dave game is a fun time for Team Dave, and this was another good game for the books. I had a great time, and it was fun to finally see my daemon army work the way it was meant to work, the combo of Khorne entering later on in the game was effective to the max. My MVP unit of choice was a hard one to pick this time, but I have to go with the Bloodletters, they are brutal in close combat and they proved how nasty they are in this game. Although all my units shined in this game, the plaguebearers did their job holding Vulkan till the bloodletters were ready for him, and the horror got to be effective in shooting some too, finally the herald did his job as an icon. The ridiculous amounts of saves I was making in this game also helped me a lot, even with high power weapons I was brushing off whole attacks from that land raider as if nothing hit me, truly awesome!...Until Then!

Enjoy! :)

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