Red’s Ynnari faced off against some Chaos Space Marines.
My List
My laziness got the better of me again, so I took the same list as I have been for quite some time now.
Battalion Detachment
- The Visarch (Warlord)
- Warlock (Conceal/Reveal)
- Warlock (Conceal/Reveal)
- Guardians x10 + Bright Lance Heavy Weapon Platform
- Guardians x10 + AML Heavy Weapon Platform
- Rangers x5
Outrider Detachment
- Farseer Skyrunner + Singing Spear (Guide, Doom)
- Windriders + Shuriken Cannons x4
- Windriders + Shuriken Cannons x4
- Windriders + Shuriken Cannons x3
Vanguard Detachment
- Spiritseer (Enhance/Drain)
- Fire Dragons x5 + Exarch with Firepike
- Fire Dragons x5 + Exarch with Dragon’s Breath Flamer
- Wraithblades + Axe and Shield x5
- Wave Serpent + Twin Bright Lances + Shuriken Cannon
- Wave Serpent + Twin Bright Lances + Shuriken Cannon
The Opposing List
One of the other Chaos players in our area, my opponent took a mix of World Eaters and Black Legion, using the new Chaos rules. Overall, he had 11 CP since Abbadon himself gives 2 CP, and he brought the following list:
Battalion Detachment – World Eaters
- Dark Apostle
- Exalted Champion
- Bloodletters
- Helldrake
- 2 units of 10 Berzerkers
- 2 Predators
- 2 Rhinos
Battalion Detachment – Black Legion
- 3 units of 10 Cultists each with 1 Autogun
- Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Armor
- Abbadon
- Unit of 3 Obliterators
The Game
We decided all of the Fate of Konor stratagems, which both of us had, were fair to use in this game, and we pulled a card from the Open War deck to get our objective, which was Burn & Pillage. This gave both of us three (3) objectives which we had to set up in our own deployment zones, and our goal was to destroy all three of our opponent’s first. This was done by controlling the enemy objective marker at the end of your turn, but since both of us placed the objectives in opposite corners of the table, it was going to be difficult for either of us to accomplish.
Deployment
Knowing my opponent would be leaving some of his models in Reserve for Deep Strike, I balled up my forces and hid them as best as I could behind and in a clump of ruined buildings in which I had set up my objectives. Two of them were on the walkway of a very tall building, which I set up my guardians and warlocks in; the last objective was a ways off towards the corner of my deployment zone. I stacked my two Wave Serpents near it since that put them in a place where Line of Sight was blocked to the majority of the Chaos army, especially the two Predators that would be looking to blow them sky high. One squad of my Windriders also positioned nearby, ready to hang back to keep my Deep Strike denial bubble relatively large after the Wave Serpents moved forward. The rest of the Windriders accompanied the Farseer closer to the center of my deployment zone but still behind a large Line-of-Sight-blocking ruin.
My opponent set up his objectives in the corner of the board opposite of mine, making the minimum distance either of us had to traverse to get to an objective somewhere in the order of 36 inches. A blob of cultists sat atop each of the objectives, the two predators positioned slightly behind two of them since that kept them in cover. The two rhinos, fully-loaded, staged decently far forward, blocking Line of Sight on the Predators and readying them to rush across the space in between us; while the Heldrake hung out in the very back corner to best utilize its superior movement.
Turn 1
Getting the first turn in one of the few instances that it was detrimental to me, I kept most of my army back in anticipation of the Deep Striking Obliterators, who would be accompanied by Abbadon. It was a gamble strategically, but I had doubts that my army would do particularly well if I had to split it – keeping half back to protect the objectives and advancing the rest to deal with everything else. It put me on a mostly defensive foot, but since my opponent was largely melee-based, it was not the worst decision.
What little of my shooting I used killed 2 cultists, but my opponent had a similarly lackluster first turn. Advancing the rhinos and Heldrake to get them as close as possible for turn 2, he managed to kill 2 of my guardians, keeping our outputs relatively similar.6
Turn 2
Now that my opponent’s tactics had been revealed and some of his models were close enough for me to target them without undermining the Deep Strike denial bubble, I moved my Wave Serpents forward, my Farseer casting guide on both of them thanks to one of the Konor stratagems. This enabled the two tanks to wipe out a rhino, exposing the cargo within and allowing my Rangers, who had been stationed quite far out of reach in the top of a giant building, to do one wound to the Exalted Champion. My Windriders and Farseer swung around their ruin but largely did nothing.
The chaos army continued on, undetered. The Exalted Champion and his Berzerkers moved towards my Windriders; while the other rhino and Heldrake continued their advance. Abbadon and the Obliterators arrived, landing within striking distance of my Farseer but thankfully far away from my objectives; while the two Predators stripped eight wounds off the Wave Serpent transporting the Fire Dragons.
Turn 3
Now knowing that I could fully commit since all of my opponent’s models were on the table, I brought all of my firepower to bear. The Heldrake, having moved too close to the guardians, died to a hail of shuriken fire, and the other rhino stopped dead in its tracks from the combined Bright Lances focussed on it. Meanwhile, the wraithblades and Fire Dragons exitted their transports, the Wraithblades charging into one squad of Berzerkers and dropping it to one model remaining.
Unfortunately, the counter-charge was devastating. The other squad of  Berzerkers moved into charge range of the occupied Wraithblades as the Obliterators and Abbadon moved forward as well. The Predators finished off the two Wave Serpents, and the second squad of Berzerkers, backed up by the Aspiring Champion and Dark Apostle, overwhelmed the Wraithblades, using both of their fight phase activations to destroy the squad before spending a command point to activate a third time to wipe out a squad of Fire Dragons, which had killed two Berzerkers in respone to the deaths of the Wraithblades.
Turn 4
Withdrawing all of my army from the whirlwind of melee, the combined weight of my shooting finishing off the Berzerkers, Dark Apostle, and Aspiring Champion; while one squad of Windriders made a mad dash for his deployment zone.
The last turn before we needed to finish the game for time purposes, Chaos answered by finishing off the second squad of Fire Dragons and ending the Visarch.
Conclusions
Since we were using Nova Open style scoring, my opponent and I had chosen secondary objectives that were different from the usual. I scored with Moment of Bloodshed – the slaughter of Turn 4 giving me the required three unit destructions – and Linebreaker – my Windriders having barely made it within the deployment zone. My opponent had also chosen and scored Moment of Bloodshed, although the other secondary he scored was Kill Points.
Since neither of us had completed our Primary objective of destroying the opponent’s objective markers, neither of us scored any points for that, and since we had both killed an entire unit during each of the turns 2 – 4, we both scored 3 tertiary points.
This left us with a tie, and a roll-off to determine the winner, which my opponet naturally won. My dice really hate when I have draws.