Battle Report 31

And so from the warp fires of Tzeentch and the psychic maelstrom of the Planet of Sorcerers, I bring to you Battle Report 31! This time, I managed to get a game with Black Legion and World Eaters, and my opponent suggested that I bring my Thousand Sons - which I was more than happy to do so. After all, what could beat a skirmish between rival Chaos factions?

Unfortunately, my Thousand Sons got pounded to...uh, dust, in this game. But it was still an extremely fun game with quite a few unexpected twists and turns (as you would expect of Tzeentch, but I digress), as you'll see if you read.

Black Legion and World Eaters force - terrifying, aren't they?

My opponent brought a Black Legion Battalion, which consisted of a Lord, a Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch, 10 Cultists with autopistols and brutal assault weapon, a 10-men squad that had 2 plasma guns and a combi-plasma (Aspiring Champion), a 5-men squad with a missile launcher, and 4 Chaos Bikers with 2 or 3 plasma guns and 3 Obliterators (how annoying)...I think that's it for Black Legion. As for the World Eaters Battalion, he had a Dark Apostle with Dark Mace, a Chaos Champion with the Khorne collar thing that allows him to deny the witch and cause psykers to peril on a successful deny (how I hate that thing), 2 squads of 8 Khorne Berzerkers, and a 20-men Cultist squad with auto-pistols and brutal assault weapon (and 1 flamer for the laughs). Oh, and 2 Rhinos to transport the Khorne Berzerkers and the World Eaters HQ unit, plus a Chaos Decimator because why the hell not? That should sum up his list. As you can see, it's a really brutal list that deals a lot of damage with plasma and melee units. That's 1,750 points. Yup.

As for me...you guys should know what my Thousand Sons army looks like by now. Nonetheless, I'll just record it for the sake of recording. 2 Battalions - Ahzek Ahriman, Exalted Sorcerer on disc, Exalted Sorcerer on foot, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, 2 squads of 5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns, a 10-men squad of Rubric Marines with warpflamers, their Rhino (I removed the havoc launcher to fit the game within 1,750 points), 3 squads of 10 Traitor Guardsmen that count as Cultists (one squad has a flamer), a Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought with butcher cannons, and a Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought with butcher array, twin heavy bolters and greater havoc launcher. That's about it.

The mission was Relic, so we have a Relic right in the center of the map that we have to secure. Makes for a very fluffy game, doesn't it? The Thousand Sons, as usual, wish to obtain the relic for the purpose of unending knowledge (sounds very similar...cough...Adeptus Mechanicus...cough), but their Black Legion and World Eater rivals band together to steal the relic from them because you know. Chaos. Don't need a valid reason to attack other Chaos Factions, especially those aligned to a different chaos god. Khorne wants to smash Tzeentch and so he will, and snatch the Relic the Thousand Sons desire from them while at it.

The Black Legions and World Eaters attack!

Obviously I have more forces, so my opponent had the +1 advantage, and he went first. I failed to seize, and the game began.

Turn 1

Not very eventful, since our forces are still too far away, and as you've noticed, the Black Legion and World Eaters are a melee-orientated or close-ranged army. The Obliterators are in Deep Strike, by the way, and I didn't bring my Scarab Occult Terminators. Anyway...

All the units moved up. The Black Legion and World Eaters Cultists advanced. I think the Black Legion Marines moved and advanced too, but stayed behind the Cultists so that they wouldn't get smited. Same for the Chaos Bikers. The missile launcher tried to hit my Contemptor Dreadnought, but I don't think it did anything. I think the Chaos Rhinos tried to shoot my Guardsmen with the combi-bolters, and maybe 1 or 2 Guardsmen died here and there. But they held morale. That's about it, I believe. Oh, the Decimator fired on my Deredeo Dreadnought, but did absolutely nothing. It was a very poor round of shooting, as I said.

I fared a lot better. I wiped out almost all the 20-men Cultists, put a few mortal wounds on them and the Rhinos, and I think the 10-men squad of Marines. Ahriman used Doombolt on the Rhino of Khorne Berzerkers to halve their movement. Yay. The Deredeo Dreadnought killed the Chaos Decimator and 4 of the 5-men Chaos Space Marines squad, leaving the missile launcher guy. Or was that the Contemptor Dreadnought? I know the twin heavy bolter took out a big chunk of the Cultists. Anyhow, I killed all but 3 or 4 of the 10-men squad, and I think there were about 3 or so Cultists in the 20-men squad. I thought I had First Blood by destroying the Decimator, but alas, this was Relic, so there was no First Blood. It was an okay phase.

Against the World Eaters and Black Legion stands the loyalist forces of the Thousand Sons, sworn to serve the Emperor...wait, what?

Turn 2

My opponent spent 2 Command Points to use Tide of Traitors, and suddenly the 20-men Cultists showed up at full strength in my backline. What...

Everyone continued moving forward, and one squad of Khorne Berzerks disembarked from their Rhino and moved forward. The Obliterators Deep Struck next to the Chaos Lord and the Chaos Bikers and decimated 10-men squad. Between the plasma survivors in the 10-men squad and the rocket launcher guy, they destroyed my Rhino, spilling my Rubric Marines out. The Chaos Bikers, Cultists, the Obliterators, everything fired at the 10-men warpflamer Rubric Marines squad and wiped them out. Ouch. Damn it. The Chaos Rhino killed more Traitor Guardsmen, reducing 1 squad to just 2 guys (after morale). The Dark Apostle and Khorne Berzerkers then charged and wiped out both my Exalted Sorcerer on disc and Daemon Prince of Tzeentch in combat. Double ouch. That was practically half my army gone in just one turn, with 330 points wasted doing absolutely nothing. Damn. As for the Cultists that suddenly appeared in my backline, they charged my 5 Rubric Marines and killed 3 of them through sheer volume of attacks, and I failed to kill any in return. I was rolling horribly for saves and everything. Oh, the Black Legion Cultists had also charged into my Rubric Marines for more attacks.

They are coming...

The Thousand Sons were pretty much shaken by the blow they had taken, but I did my best to retaliate. Between psychic spells and the shooting of the Hellforged Dreadnoughts, I killed 2 Bikers, all Khorne Berzerkers, finished off the plasma Marines, charged my Traitor Guardsmen in, and killed a few of the 20-men Cultists, and this time I killed another with my Rubric Marines, but that was it. I lost a bunch of Guardsmen to the Khorne Cultists or Black Legion ones, doesn't matter. On the other hand, the 2 survivors of the decimated Guardsmen squad, and the other squad, moved up to the center to grab the relic. Not that they would be holding it for long. Right, and the Rubric Marine on the far left descended the stairs.

Things were not looking good for me.

Turn 3

Needless to say, the Thousand Sons were getting slaughtered. The Khorne Berzerkers piled out of their Rhino along with the Champion, and they killed all the Guardsmen on the left, with the Rhinos destroying the 2-men squad. Uh, the Obliterators shot and reduced my poor Contemptor Dreadnought to 4 wounds, I believe? I can't remember. I might be mixing things up. The Cultists killed more Guardsmen and I was struggling to hit back, but I did manage to reduce the 20-men Khorne Cultists to just 1 dude. Phew. Other than that...I think Ahriman took a few wounds here and there, and was charged by the Dark Apostle and 2 remaining Chaos Bikers, but didn't do much. Oh, he made his saves against the Dark Apostle and did 3 wounds to him, but that's about it.

Yup, a lot of Black Legion and World Eaters, but not a lot of Thousand Sons...

During my turn, I spent 3 Command Points on Crosucrating Beam and failed to do any mortal wounds to any of them. Damn it! I think I did a couple of mortal wounds to a Rhino and 2 mortal wounds to an Obliterator, but failed to kill any of them. UGH! That was about it. But Smite did 3 mortal wounds to the Bikers, and the Exalted Sorcerer finished him off with an inferno pistol shot. But the stupid World Eaters collar denied Ahriman's spell and caused him to peril. Ouch. Yeah! The Deredeo Dreadnought wiped out the Khorne Berzerkers with his shooting, and that really should be all I could do, since I didn't have much left. I believe I lost all my Traitor Guardsmen in combat in this turn. But at least the 2 Rubric Marines survived, but as usual they killed no one. Oh, and the Rubric squad moved down another level. The Deredeo was able to shoot and kill the Dark Apostle because he was finally the closest model so a small victory there. But I was dangerously running out of models.

Turn 4

The World Eaters Champion, Dark Legion Lord  and Obliterators moved forward. The Rhinos as well. Hmm, I believe the Obliterators finished off the injured Contemptor Dreadnought and destroyed him. The Champion and one Rhino charged Ahriman and my Deredeo Dreadnought and killed Ahriman while dealing 10 wounds to the Deredeo Dreadnought. As I said, I was rolling pretty badly for my saves. On the other side, the Cultists finally finished off the last 2 Rubric Marines. So I had only a heavily wounded Deredeo Dreadnought, an Exalted Sorcerer and 5 Rubric Marines left on the table.

We're getting our asses kicked!

I spent a command point to swap the Aspiring Sorcerer's Glamor of Tzeentch power for Warptime. Then I moved them twice and advanced them. Meanwhile the Exalted Sorcerer was denied by the dumb collar and periled. I tried to charge the Champion with my Exalted Sorcerer but the Sorcerer got wiped in combat. Lesson learned. Never try to challenge a World Eater in melee. The Deredeo Dreadnought took another 2 wounds, leaving him with just 2.

Turn 5

As I said, things were not looking good for me. I only had 6 models left while my opponent had so many. He got his Obliterators, Lord and Cultists to move toward the relic but they were too far out. That's fine. The Obliterator fires and killed 2 Rubric Marines, the rest surviving because of their invulnerable saves. The Aspiring Sorcerer also denied the Black Legion sorcerer's Warptime, denying the Obliterators from moving forward so only 2 of them could shoot. The Champion destroyed the Deredeo Dreadnought in combat, however, meaning I only had 3 models left. Holy Emperor...

At least I managed to kill these Khorne Berzerkers! Both squads!

Again, I moved the Rubric Marines forward and advanced them. I cast Warptime again, but the Black Legion Sorcerer failed to deny  (or was it that dumb World Eaters collar?) Which allowed me to move and advance to the relic, and the last 3 Rubric Marines grabbed it, taking sole possession of the relic. That's all the models I had left on the table.

Here, my opponent said that I had a one out of three chance of winning the game. Which is fair, since I only had 3 Rubric Marines left and he had Obliterators and Cultists all ready to shoot them. He would have tabled me then. So he rolled to see if the game continues...only to roll a one.

The Thousand Sons...before they got wiped out.

The game ended there. When the dust has settled (see what I did there?), there were only 3 Thousand Sons models left on the table facing an overwhelming number of Black Legion and World Eaters forces. With the 3 remaining Rubric Marines in control of the relic. It was a Thousand Sons victory against all odds. Despite me being on the verge of being tabled. Just as Tzeentch planned. Both my opponent and I got a huge laugh out of it. I mean, what are the odds? This definitely was Tzeentch scheming and screwing around!

And so, despite being one-sidedly massacred, the Thousand Sons won. Yay! Just as planned!

Yup, the casualty rate of the Thousand Sons are increasing. When the dust has settled (see what I did there?), only 3 Rubric Marines remain against overwhelming odds.