Since the battle which from now on I shall refer to as the "Serpent Spam incident" I mulled over my units and decided I needed to make some drastic list changes. So I put the Helblades to rest concluding that they are paper cannons (Can do a lot of damage, but die if someone sneezes on them) and replaced them with an extra unit of 5 Nurgle Spawn. I also decided to mount my warlord sorcerer on a bike to allow more maneuverability. Looking back on my previous game the spawn did really well considering I didn't know what the Wraith Guard weapons did, but you live on and learn.
This game has considerable alterations in how I worked my army and what tactics I used, especially playing Thunder Cav, drop pod space wolfs for the first time in 7th edition. This was a good game.
Army:
Once again I used the Crimson Slaughter: Chaos Space Marines with Renegade allies and Imperial Armour 13 Weaponry:
Chaos Sorcerer - Divination Gift, Bike, Level 3, Spell Familiar, Force Axe, Warlord
Chaos Sorcerer - Level 3, Spell Familiar, Force Axe
5 Chaos Space Marines - Rhino
5 Chaos Space Marines - Rhino
5 Chaos Spawn - Mark of Nurgle
5 Chaos Spawn - Mark of Nurgle
Mauler Fiend - Lash Tendrils
Mauler Fiend - Lash Tendrils
Chaos Fire Raptor Gunship - Incendiary Missiles, Autocannon Batteries, Maelstrom Raider
Allies
2 Enforcer Cadre
5 Renegade Veterans - Scout, Chimera, Heavy Flamer Turret
5 Renegade Veterans - Scout, Chimera, Heavy Flamer Turret
4 Field Artillery - 4 Quad Mortars
Agus Defense Line
My Opponents list was based around a drop pod list with a Thunder cav unit purely from the Space Wolf 7th edition codex. Wolf Lord with storm shield and wolf claw, 4 Thunder Wolfs w/2 hammers, 2 claws all with storm shields, Bjorn in a drop pod, Rune Priest with 9 Blood Claws in a drop pod, 10 Grey Hunters in a drop pod, 6 Grey Hunters, 5 Devastator with 2 lascannons and 3 missile launchers and a Storm Fang with 2 multimeltas and twin linked lascannons.
Objective and Deployment:
The Deployment was once again Dawn of War and the objective was The Emperor's Will, a mission I favor as I only have to worry about 2 objectives and I can castle up on my own objective keeping it preferably safe.
This battle I remembered to roll for my warlord trait and I chose the Strategic Table and rolled a 3 taking the Master of Ambush trait, this would allow me to set up both units of spawn closer to my enemy and hopefully put him off dropping all his drop pods right next to where I deployed.
My Psychic Powers were: Forewarning, Misfortune, Scrier's Gaze and Prescience for my Warlord on the Divination table and Invisibility, Terrify, Mental Fortitude and Psychic Shriek for my second sorcerer on the telepathy table.
My opponent rolled both his powers on the Space Wolf table getting Living Lightning and Tempests Wrath for his Rune Priest.
I won the roll for deployment so I allowed my opponent to deploy first, He deployed hit thunder cav in the center of his deployment zone in a line, 6 Grey Hunters surrounding his base objective and his Devastators inside a ruin next to his base objective. All other units were dropping in via drop pod and the flyer was in reserve.
My Psychic Powers were: Forewarning, Misfortune, Scrier's Gaze and Prescience for my Warlord on the Divination table and Invisibility, Terrify, Mental Fortitude and Psychic Shriek for my second sorcerer on the telepathy table.
My opponent rolled both his powers on the Space Wolf table getting Living Lightning and Tempests Wrath for his Rune Priest.
I won the roll for deployment so I allowed my opponent to deploy first, He deployed hit thunder cav in the center of his deployment zone in a line, 6 Grey Hunters surrounding his base objective and his Devastators inside a ruin next to his base objective. All other units were dropping in via drop pod and the flyer was in reserve.
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| Space Wolfs dig in around their objective |
With my deployment, I decided to start by deploying my Artillery, Rhinos and Maul Fiends on the field behind my Agus line giving them a fruitful 4+ cover against the opposing heavy guns. My fire Raptor went into reserve and both Chimeras outflanked once again in hopes of catching his devastators off guard and contesting the objective.
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| Iron Warriors bunker down behind their defence line in true IV legion style |
The terminator models are proxy for my Artillery, at the time my models were still in the post.
My Sorcerers and their spawn utilized my warlord trait in setting up deeper onto the board, pressurizing my opponent into not making a B-line for my artillery and keeping his guns away from my transports. Also starting with more models on the table gives me more saturation than I had in my last battle.
I then allowed my opponent to go first, forcing him to drop some pods early and allowing me to take advantage in the air war and get the last turn jump on objectives.
Turn 1
My opponent decided to bring in Bjorn and a the Grey Hunters squad in their drop pods, Bjorn's pod unfortunately scattered a full 12" towards the table edge and mishapped, however he managed to roll high and go back into reserve for the next turn. The Grey Hunters landed close to my Agus and artillery, only scattering away by a few inches, they climbed out of the back to keep distance between themselves and my lurking spawn. His Thunder Cav moved up to threaten my other unit of spawn, although they remained out of charge range for the time being.
In his shooting phase he ran with the Thunder Cav pushing them deeper into the ruins where my spawn were hiding, his Devastators opened up on my artillery killing a single crewman in their efforts. The Grey Hunters shot into my second unit of Spawn taking a single wound off them with their shots.
My Sorcerers and their spawn utilized my warlord trait in setting up deeper onto the board, pressurizing my opponent into not making a B-line for my artillery and keeping his guns away from my transports. Also starting with more models on the table gives me more saturation than I had in my last battle.
I then allowed my opponent to go first, forcing him to drop some pods early and allowing me to take advantage in the air war and get the last turn jump on objectives.
Turn 1
My opponent decided to bring in Bjorn and a the Grey Hunters squad in their drop pods, Bjorn's pod unfortunately scattered a full 12" towards the table edge and mishapped, however he managed to roll high and go back into reserve for the next turn. The Grey Hunters landed close to my Agus and artillery, only scattering away by a few inches, they climbed out of the back to keep distance between themselves and my lurking spawn. His Thunder Cav moved up to threaten my other unit of spawn, although they remained out of charge range for the time being.
In his shooting phase he ran with the Thunder Cav pushing them deeper into the ruins where my spawn were hiding, his Devastators opened up on my artillery killing a single crewman in their efforts. The Grey Hunters shot into my second unit of Spawn taking a single wound off them with their shots.
In my turn I pulled the Spawn, which were facing off against the Thunder Cav back to the main bulk of my force to be protected by the two maulerfiends taking cover behind the Agus. My second unit of spawn along with my warlord blitzed round the LoS blocking terrain hiding the Grey Hunters ready to pounce on them.
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| The Spawn pounce upon their prey |
In my Psychic phase I cast invisibility upon my Spawn chasing the Grey Hunters and Misfortune, I also activated Scrier's Gaze and cast Prescience upon my Artillery squad. My opponent failed to stop all my powers from activating as I utilized my Spell Familiars each sorcerer has.
My shooting opened up with my artillery firing upon the Thunder Cav, scoring many hits, unfortunately my 'to wound' rolls were not as fortunate but I still managed to take out the pack master, even with his 3++ save and put a single wound on another Cav model. My spawn close to the Thunder Cav ran with fleet to get more distance between them and the Cav making sure I was outside the 24" threat range they possessed.
My assault phase consisted of my spawn charging into the Grey Hunter unit. Over watch saw the melta gun armed Hunter take a wound from a spawn then we were in. In combat the Grey Hunters hit first, scoring several hits but no wounds in return the Spawn rolled Poison attacks and a 5 for their random attacks resulting in 3 Grey Hunters going down, the sorcerer followed up putting down another Wolf with his Axe. The Grey Hunters failed their leadership check and managed to get away from my Spawn running 6" towards their table edge. My spawn consolidated 3" into the woods behind them for extra cover saves.
My shooting opened up with my artillery firing upon the Thunder Cav, scoring many hits, unfortunately my 'to wound' rolls were not as fortunate but I still managed to take out the pack master, even with his 3++ save and put a single wound on another Cav model. My spawn close to the Thunder Cav ran with fleet to get more distance between them and the Cav making sure I was outside the 24" threat range they possessed.
My assault phase consisted of my spawn charging into the Grey Hunter unit. Over watch saw the melta gun armed Hunter take a wound from a spawn then we were in. In combat the Grey Hunters hit first, scoring several hits but no wounds in return the Spawn rolled Poison attacks and a 5 for their random attacks resulting in 3 Grey Hunters going down, the sorcerer followed up putting down another Wolf with his Axe. The Grey Hunters failed their leadership check and managed to get away from my Spawn running 6" towards their table edge. My spawn consolidated 3" into the woods behind them for extra cover saves.
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| Taking cover as the Grey Hunters withdraw |
Chaos: 0 - Wolfs: 0
Turn 2
The opening of turn two saw the re-arrival of Bjorn, with no other units making it out of reserve, now landing in the center of the board away from the dangers of the board edge and in range to shoot up my spawn hiding in the woods. The Grey Hunters rallied and moved back towards the cover of Bjorn and the Devastators and the other Grey Hunters. He moved up his thunder Cav closer to my Agus line, looking to possibly assault my units behind my Agus this turn.
His shooting phase opened up with Bjorn taking shots at the Spawn in the woods, scoring 3 hits and putting 2 wounds on my Spawn, luckily the trees saved one of the wounds for me. The Devastators then opened up on my Artillery once again with the Sergent split firing into my Rhino. Luckily the rhino survived due to the 4+ cover save and the Renegades only lost 1 more member of the unit. To my surprise he ran the Thunder Cav closer to my Agus instead of charging, which I considered to be a mistake; the position of the Cav made them very vulnerable and with the inability to charge, they couldn't do any damage to my forces before I countered them.
In my turn I pushed both spawn squads, their sorcerers and my two mauler fiends directly towards the Thunder Cav completely surrounding them. On attempt at moving my forward rhino I Immobilized it on my own Agus, so my marines climbed out the side door to take some shots at the Thunder Cav. I outflanked the Fire Raptor with use of Maelstrom Raider behind Bjorn and his weak rear armour looking to take it down before he got too close to my lines. A single Chimera also entered the field on the same far right side as the Chimera, I moved it up behind some ruins close to where the Devastators were hoping to survive their guns in the next turn.
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| The Fire Raptor lining up for a strafing run on Bjorn |
I opened up my Psychic phase casting invisibility from my Sorcerer onto my Warlord and his Spawn unit, hoping to keep him alive when the inevitable challenge occurs. I also activated his force weapon to make sure I could end the Wolf Lord if I got a wound through. I also cast Prescience upon a Mauler Fiend to give them an extra advantage in the coming combat. Finally I cast misfortune on the Thunder Cav.
I opened up the shooting phase with firing my Field Arillery into the 6 man Grey Hunter squad attempting to shift them off the objective. With terrifying accuracy I hit the squad 36 times and wounded them 28 times with my opponent saving all but 6 of the saves the Grey Hunter squad was destroyed. I then opened up with my Fire Raptor into Bjorn and the Devastator squad with an Independent firing turret. Hitting Bjorn multiple times I achieved 2 glancing hits and 6 penetrating hits resulting in his demise. The independent autocannon scored 4 hits and 4 wounds onto the Devastators, but in a brilliant roll of saves only 1 fell. First Blood achieved.
On the other side of the field I opened up with my marines and rhinos bolters into the Thunder Cav, unfortunately the Wolf Lord tanked every hit on his 2+ save.
My assault phase consisted of piling both spawn units and both Mauler Fiends into the Thunder Cav as I didn't want to take any chances of not destroying them this turn. The Wold Lord accepted my Warlord Sorcerers challenge and moved off to the side so it could be resolved separately. The Wolf lord swung first scoring 2 hits even though I was invisible, then scoring 2 wounds on my sorcerer because of the Shred rule on the Wolf Claw killing him outright as I did not give him an invulnerably save. Warlord to my opponent.
In the main combat his Claw wolfs managed several hits and 4 wounds on my spawn killing the one already wounded and another on full wounds. The Spawn replied in kind with over 50 attacks between the remaining 8, with one unit having poisoned attacks and the other rolling 2D6 and picking the highest they tore apart 2 more thunder cav, both maul fiends Daemon Forged, resulting in one losing a hull point, then swung in on the last squad member, scoring 4 hits and 3 wounds, which he saved all 3 of. Finally the sorcerer took a swing hitting twice, wounding twice and the Cav member failed both of his armour saves. Armed with a thunder hammer he took a swing as my spawn before dieing, scoring another wound on them resulting in the combat being a draw.
I opened up the shooting phase with firing my Field Arillery into the 6 man Grey Hunter squad attempting to shift them off the objective. With terrifying accuracy I hit the squad 36 times and wounded them 28 times with my opponent saving all but 6 of the saves the Grey Hunter squad was destroyed. I then opened up with my Fire Raptor into Bjorn and the Devastator squad with an Independent firing turret. Hitting Bjorn multiple times I achieved 2 glancing hits and 6 penetrating hits resulting in his demise. The independent autocannon scored 4 hits and 4 wounds onto the Devastators, but in a brilliant roll of saves only 1 fell. First Blood achieved.
On the other side of the field I opened up with my marines and rhinos bolters into the Thunder Cav, unfortunately the Wolf Lord tanked every hit on his 2+ save.
My assault phase consisted of piling both spawn units and both Mauler Fiends into the Thunder Cav as I didn't want to take any chances of not destroying them this turn. The Wold Lord accepted my Warlord Sorcerers challenge and moved off to the side so it could be resolved separately. The Wolf lord swung first scoring 2 hits even though I was invisible, then scoring 2 wounds on my sorcerer because of the Shred rule on the Wolf Claw killing him outright as I did not give him an invulnerably save. Warlord to my opponent.
In the main combat his Claw wolfs managed several hits and 4 wounds on my spawn killing the one already wounded and another on full wounds. The Spawn replied in kind with over 50 attacks between the remaining 8, with one unit having poisoned attacks and the other rolling 2D6 and picking the highest they tore apart 2 more thunder cav, both maul fiends Daemon Forged, resulting in one losing a hull point, then swung in on the last squad member, scoring 4 hits and 3 wounds, which he saved all 3 of. Finally the sorcerer took a swing hitting twice, wounding twice and the Cav member failed both of his armour saves. Armed with a thunder hammer he took a swing as my spawn before dieing, scoring another wound on them resulting in the combat being a draw.
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| "Oh Emperor why me!" The wolf lord screams as the forces of Chaos surround him. |
Turn 3
My opponents turn opened up with the arrival of his Storm Fang moving on the board and parking right next to my Fire Raptor, his surviving Grey Hunters moved back towards his objective now that it was clear of scoring units. His last drop pod failed to come down in an unfortunate roll of the dice.
His shooting phase began with the Storm Fang firing into my Fire Raptor, as soon as he declared this I said "Jink" several times in quick succession. He missed with the Fang's large cannon but scored hits with both mutli-meltas and the lascannon. He failed to pen with the lascannon but scored 2 penetrates with the Multi-meltas, which I saved one from with Jink.
Now a very unfortunate thing happened here, my enemy rolled a 4 on the vehicle damage chart, with the addition of the AP1 that became an Immobilised result. I then rolled a 1, resulting in my Raptor crashing to the ground in a fiery pile of metal as the Fang claimed its vengeance.
His Devastators then opened up on my hidden Chimera stripping all its hull points but failing to destroy it. A good roll for my renegades leadership gave them LD10 which allowed them to stay in the game thanks to the Cadre.
Combat returned and stowed the fate of my second sorcerer, forced to challenge the Wolf Lord once again and receiving the same fate as the last. In return it opened him up for another vengeance as both my spawn and Mauler fiends crushed him under the weight of dice I had to throw. Spawn are good in combat! All my units consolidated away, both spawn units in hot pursuit of the last unit of Grey Hunters and my Maul fiends hid behind the large ruined bastion trying to block line of sight from the Storm Fang for the next turn.
In my turn the last Chimera unit showed up, luckily on the same side as the first and drove full speed towards my enemies objective. The second unit of renegades moved up towards my opponents deployment zone hoping to claim Line Breaker. I also disembarked my Marines from my rhino sitting on my own objective and moved flat out up the board, also wanting to claim Line Breaker with my Rhino. My maul fiends moved behind my Agus and fully behind the ruined bastion to keep away from the Long Fang. I pushed my spawn up directly behind the 6 Grey hunters and in perfect charge range for this turn.
With both my sorcerers dead rather quickly there was no psychic phase...
In my shooting phase I turbo boosted both my rhino and chimera towards the enemy's deployment zone and ran the Renegades too. My artillery opened up on the 6 Grey Hunters, however without the help of Prescience the shots were wildly inaccurate resulting in the death of only 1 Grey Hunter. They did however fail their pinning check and were pinned to give me the upper hand in combat.
I then charged my spawn into the Grey Hunters, both getting in because of fleet, unfortunately for me the dice were against me this turn and I only managed to kill 3 Grey hunters between 8 spawn. Before dieing the hunters took two wounds off one of my spawn. The remaining Hunter passed his leadership test.
Chaos: 2 - Wolfs: 1
Turn 4
Opened with the arrival of the rune priest and his Blood Claws landing extremely close to my artillery and Agus line. His Storm Fang zoomed in and joined them at an angle where it could pick on one of my Maul fiends.
The psychic phase saw the Rune Priest use Living lightning on my Artillery killing 3 crew members in the process and causing a Leadership check, which I passed.
The shooting phase saw the drop pods and the Blood claws firing into my Artillery once again scoring several hits but no wounds. The Storm Fang fired on one of my Maulfiends with everything, unfortunately the angle of the shots made my attempts at finding cover for naught as the Mauler exploded brilliantly, luckily the blast only went a few inches and failed to kill any artillery men near by. The Devastators opened up on the new Chimera taking it down to 1 hull point and immobilizing it, Bjorns drop pod finished it off with a brilliant side armour shot rolling a 6 forcing my Renegades to climb out.
The assault phase saw my Spawn quickly bring down the last Grey Hunter and consolidate towards the objective and the Devastators now surrounded by an abundance of units.
In my turn I secured my opponents objective with the unit of spawn which had the most wounds and sent the others off to assault the Devastators. One unit or renegades moved into the enemy deployment zone along with my Rhino at the other side of the field. The last renegade squad moved up to shoot at the Devastators situated in the ruins. I also strung my marines out from my objective so they could see the Blood Claws. The Artillery crew abandoned their guns and moved up to the Agus to rapid fire the Blood claws. The last Mauler fiend moved round so that he could assault them too if any survived.
No Psychic here...
The shooting phase saw the death of a single Devastator at the hands of the Veteran Renegades lasguns. Also the Artillery crew, Rhino and both units of marines fired into the Blood claws killing 5 all together.
The spawn then charged the Devastators, losing one to the heavy fire powered over watch and my Maulfiend charged the Blood Claws. The Devastators took out another spawn in combat with a flurry of 6's whilst the Spawn failed to slay a single Wolf. The Blood Claws brought the fiend down to one Hull point from more brilliant rolling with Grenades and my Maul Fiend replied by crushing two Claws in his hands. The Blood Claws failed their leadership and my Fiend failed to catch them, the Blood Claws did not run far however and my fiend managed to get behind my Agus.
Chaos: 2 - Wolfs: 1
Turn 5
My opponent auto rallied the Blood Claws and moved them into cover, he also moved the long fang closer to my Agus line.
The pschic phase saw his attempts to bring my fiend down with living lightning, unfortunately I was extremely lucky and passed my Cover save and denied him a much needed kill.
The shooting phase was the same, as the Storm Fang rained shots into my Fiend bringing it down to it's last hull point but failing to put it down.
The assault phase saw my spawn receiving more horrifying abuse from the Devastators as another 2 wounds were placed on the spawn and the spawn yet again failing to drop a single Wolf.
In my final turn I moved my Mauler Fiend up towards the Runepriest and his last surviving Blood Claws. The unit of renegades who shot at the devastators closed in to give a helping hand to the Spawn as the weight of models was now against them.
In my shooting phase the Artillery crew and Marines opened up once again into the Blood Claws killing both of them and leaving the Rune priest standing alone against the Maul Fiend.
In the assault phase saw the charge of my fiend and my renegades into both their targets. The Priest failed his over watch shot with his plasma pistol and his attempt at grenading my Fiend, my fiend replied by crushing the poor Priest in his large fists and feasting on his fleshy remains. Meanwhile, the Devastators luck ran out as they failed to inflict any more wounds onto my spawn or renegades whilst the renegades went completely berserk slaying the last of the Devastators before the Spawn could even strike.
Turn 6 did happen, but all that happened was the Storm Fang finished off the Maul Fiend and sat in my deployment zone, as I couldn't hurt it we ended the game.
The game ended with me controlling both objectives and also securing Line Breaker, First Blood and Warlord with my opponent securing Warlord and Line breaker.
Chaos: 9 Wolfs: 2
After thoughts:
Out of the two games I have played with this army, I believe my second game was "Fluffier" as my opponent had only been playing for a few years and said that he was not truly into making a competitive army so I am not going to blabber on about what I did well or what I think he did wrong because I feel it would be unfair. What I will concentrate on is what I did wrong this game, which is allow my sorcerers into combat with a Wolf Lord. Granted they took the heat for 2 turns instead of the Spawn bearing the brunt of the damage, but in a single turn I lost all my Psychic powers and my Warp Charge leaving me painfully open late game for the rune priest to do more damage. If I took the sorcerers out of the Spawn units before the charge I could of continued to buff them and when the combat finished rejoined the squads.
I also think that the Cadre and Veterans can do with being replaced by something that doesn't spend all its turns on the board dieing in droves, although they helped me take out the Devastators at the end of the game it really was unneeded as I only needed to tie them up and the spawn were keeping them busy. I also think my Marines were under used and not even targeted for the entirety of the game and they did little besides sit around and score my objective, which is important, I do acknowledge that, but when you have a 3+ armour save and bolt guns you want to be doing a bit more than hiding at the back.
I think the way I went with 2 spawn units, spell familiars on the Sorcerers and Outflank on the raptor improved my damage output and my durability so they will be staying put. The maulers also performed well this game although they did not pass a single IWND roll.
Thanks for reading id you got to the bottom! Please leave a comment, I also noticed that the Devastators are actually called Long Fangs, but I cannot be bothered to go back and change every single one as I spent around 4 hours writing all this out.
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