Team tourney game 2

[b]Game 2[/b]

Okay, this is an odd thing, but I am having trouble remembering which order I played games #2 and #3. I had spent most of Thursday night in a hospital because of a family emergency and was running on about 2 hours sleep. It probably would have been easier had I not played both games on the same table. So, apologies to my opponents if I get these mixed up. From a story standpoint it is better for me to do the Space Marine game next, so I will just run with that. When I get home I will double check my notes to see if I got it right but don't expect me to change it ;-)

[i]Dacius pressed the bridge of his nose. There was a pounding in his head like the tattoo of some great war drum. Almost a week had passed since he had led his warriors back to the Ultramarines forward base. The Starkiller hadn't been there either. Dacius pitied them, the fools claimed to have never even heard his name yet it was clear that they were under Logithar's influence. Killing them had been a mercy, their souls unstained by their sins of ignorance.

Now his voxcaster was filled with more lies about how the Ultramarines were sending an envoy with Blood Angels in order to rebuke the Emperor's Judgment.[/i]

Facing us across the table were a pair of beautiful armies - one red (Sirus' Blood Angels,) one blue (Steve's Ultramarines.) It is unsurprising that they were so great looking - one of their group (and Steve's wife) won players choice and best painted - more on that army later - I was fortunate enough to play against it. I firmly believe that you can only be as good as your peers (or competition). I take these armies as proof of that point. I am also going to shamelessly steal the final couple of highlights from Sirus' Blood Angels for my Khorne Daemons.

Steve and Sirus - Blood Angels and Ultramarines

[u]Ultramarines[/u]
7(?) man las/plas
7(?) man plascannon/plasma
7 man heavy bolter
Devastators

[u]Blood Angels[/u]
Chaplain with 4 Death Company
2x10 Assault Marines

Looking at the write up for the lists that looks a little light on both accounts. All I remember is looking at their armies and think "damn... that is a lot of marines."

[u]Setup and early game[/u]

The devastators deployed in ruins about dead center of the northwest quadrant. The las/plas squad and the pc/plas squad built the perimeter protecting them from the south. The Blood Angels assault squads packed in tightly in the center of the table among the Ultramarines(we were using the quarters deployment for this game). It was a huge pie plate target if ever there was one. Though typically daemons want to go second, this was too good of an opportunity so we attempted to sieze the initiative. Apparently the dice gods were pleased with our bold maneuver and we would be going first. I decided to tempt fate and throw both the bloodthirster and the soul grinder into wave 1 to take advantage of our opponents deployment. Things looked rough for our opponents.

The soulgrinder appeared opposite a ruined building near the center of the table but fortunately he was easily able to see over it. I figured, with the dice being so forgiving, I would be extra bold with my bloodthirster and I placed it northeast corner, behind the devastators. A gentle drift and things already looked bad for the marines. The dice were hot all over the place this game as I placed the phlegm template right smack in the middle of the cluster of marine armies. I wounded several, but dice were hot on both sides of the table as many of them made their cover checks. The terminators came in and added a little bit of fire, but not much happened.

The red and blue were in a bit of confusion over what to do next. They couldn't really ignore the pie plates from the soulgrinder, but it is never a good thing to have a bloodthirster in your backfield. In the end they decided to focus on the termies and the grinder and wish the devs a good afterlife. The assault marines moved forward and fanned out taking up position and spreading out a bit in order to deny me good deployment areas. The chaplain led his death company to take up position in front of the Ultramarines, defending them from the soulgrinder. Once the shooting had cleared the soulgrinder was pitted and scarred, but little else.

The bloodcrushers arrived at this point and moved into the ruins ready to recieve a charge or, if not, then charge out next round into the ultramarines. The bloodthirster moved into the devastators. The soulgrinder didn't shoot, but instead charged the death company (I reasoned I would rather have them not get +1 attack each with a reroll to miss - besides, with the rending nerf, armor 13 is pretty survivable). The bloodthirster chewed through the devestators over the next turn or so before finally wiping them out. The soulgrinder killed one model and almost killed a second with combat resolution but feel no pain came to the rescue.

[u]Mid-game to end game[/u]

One unit of assault marines decided it was better to assault than be assaulted and charged in at the bloodcrushers. Offensive grenades mitigated the cover I had. The other assault marines took up position behind the soulgrinder in order to charge in and give a hand next turn. The charge ended up not going great for Sirus and the bloodcrushers survived, locking the marines in a combat that they would be hardpressed to win. The bloodthirster finished up the devastators and moved to the las/plas squad. The other terminators showed up deepstriking into the backfield in order to claim the objective.

The assault marines charged in at the soulgrinder but the 5 to even glace for the powerfist was elusive. The other assault marines were eventually cut down by the bloodcrushers and the bloodletters arrived to claim our home objective. At this point we were really just cleaning up.

[u]After action review[/u]
Hats off to Steve and Sirus for taking it with a smile. Everytime I saw them for the rest of the tourney they were like "I hope I am not playing you next." I can't say I blame them, though I hope it was the army and not me personally ;-) They were actually really cool guys, and like I said before, both armies were truly beautiful. This was the kind of army that I knew I would have no problem with. Assault oriented marine armies are just screwed against an all Khorne list. I also probably had the best dice rolls all weekend in this game and when everything goes right there isn't really a whole lot that can be done.

[u]Eternal Praise[/u]
Every one of my units did well. I am going to have to say the soulgrinder had the biggest affect on our opponents as the sudden appearance of the pie place seemed to knock them back on their heels and from then on, not only did they have to deal with an army full of power weapons but they were a bit shaken.

[u]Prized Skull[/u]
The death company chaplain.

[u]Eternal Damnation[/u]
I can't really condemn anyone this game. They all did their jobs admirably.

[i]Dacius understood the problem. Logithar had deceived them all. He had to be here, amongst the red blue corpses. He must have changed his face with some fell sorcery. Any of these could be his foe. There was only one thing to do - collect all of the heads and allow the interrogator chaplains to determine the true face of the Fallen.

Having made his decision he issued the order to gather the heads for the journey home.[/i]