Battle Report - Chaos Space Marines vs Chaos Space Marines and Daemons - First game in 9th edition!

Hello!

Right, lockdown easing, 9th edition released, time for some 40k! I arranged a game with semi-regular opponent John and his Slaanesh force, 1500 points (probably - I was using the recently updated Battlescribe), matched play, with secondaries and everything. This was both our first 9th games, so it was a bit of working it out as we go along.

I took my Alpha Legion, the Fractured Truth. I took a single battalion made up mostly of just models I wanted to use. I spent a couple of CPs on an extra relic and warlord trait, but otherwise nothing fancy.

HQ: Chaos Lord (Blade of the Hydra, Flames of Spite), Dark Apostle (Warp-sight Plea, Master of Diversion, Dark Disciples), Master of Executions (Talisman of Burning Blood)

Troops: 5 Chaos Marines (Plasma, Combi-plasma), 5 Chaos Marines (Plasma, Combi-plasma), 8 Chaos Marines (Plasma, Combi-plasma)

Elites: 5 Terminators (Lightning Claws, Khorne), Contemptor (2 assault cannons), Contemptor (2 fists)

Heavy Support: 3 Obliterators (Slaanesh)

Dedicated Transports: Rhino (combi-plasma), Rhino (combi-melta)

John took, I think, two patrols and an auxiliary support detachment in order to get all his big daemons in, and also spent a CP on making one of them an exalted daemon. It cost him a fair few command points but apart from feeding them into the Noise Marines, I don't think he really needed them.

HQ: Keeper of Secrets, Keeper of Secrets (Exalted - 4+ invulnerable), Shalaxi Hellbane, Dark Apostle

Troops: 10 Daemonettes, 12 Noise Marines (full sonic weapons)

Elites: Sonic Dreadnought, 6 Terminators (Combi-plasma and lightning claws)

We rolled for the mission and got No Man's Land - which meant I couldn't use Forward Operatives to move my Terminators up the board as I was planning to. Instead I plonked them and the Obliterators into the warp. (John did the same with his.)

For our secondaries, John picked Bring it Down, Attrition and Engage on All Fronts. I also picked Engage on All Fronts and Bring it Down, and Abhor the Witch. This meant the big daemons would be worth 8 points each for me to kill.

We also decided the ruins in the middle were actually two separate ruins connected by barricades, to allow our bigger units to get to the centre of the board. We decided a rocky outcropping in my deployment zone was going to be dense terrain. Also worth noting the board was cordoned off to the new minimum size.

We set up, and John won the roll off for first turn. However knowing that I could reposition with my Master of Diversions warlord trait, he chose to let me go first. I loaded up on the left flank opposite the two Keepers, and started moving out to claim that objective, the rest of my forces hanging back behind the ruin. Got some shooting in at Shalaxi, but he/she/they survived without being dropped a bracket. I totally forgot to try and get into 3 table quarters so didn't score any points.

In response, those Daemons are super fast! They were on me immediately, but they weren't without support and the Noise Marines shuffled round to pick some choice targets here.

The other Keeper (the exalted one) ran around the side to claim another objective and make my Rhino dance, hilariously.

I may have been slightly unlucky with my saves, but after the firepower and the melee of the Keepers, my left flank consisted of a 1 wound Rhino. Losing both Contemptors was a big blow, but I still had my reserves to come in. John scored on all his secondaries this turn to go into the lead.

My turn and everything got out of the Rhinos, I moved onto all three central objectives, and the reserves arrived. Obits lined up to take out the big Daemons and the Terminators dropped deep into enemy territory lining up a charge on the Daemonettes. First though I had to get that Rhino out of combat - on one wound and in a crater it's movement was pitiful, so I needed to use the new stratagem to break out of combat and accept the tank's demise. 

Shooting phase was a mixed bag. The Obliterator's first round of fire on the injured Shalaxi was a bit of a whiff, and they had to be finished off with a Daemon Shell and some other incidental firepower. Shots onto the exalted Keeper were pretty ineffectual as well. The second round with Endless Cacophony looked good, the Oblits rolling high strength, maximum damage and got something like 12 wounds. John, using Warp Surge for a 4+ invulnerable, passed all but 2 of them, leaving the Keeper not even bracketed! I had to charge in with the Oblits and all my characters to finish it off - though this cost me an Obliterator and put my characters in a bad position. This would turn out to be very important. Also in the charge phase the Terminators predictably failed, including with a reroll.

I scored quite heavily on my secondaries this turn, but I didn't have much of a presence on the central objectives.

The Slaanesh forces moved in for the kill, Noise Marines looking to clear me off the objective, the last Keeper aiming to do the same, and in the backfield the Daemonettes backed off to give the Sonic dread a clean couple of rounds of firing at the Terminators. The Terminators dropped in as well, and were Ambushed by the Oblits, losing three of their number. In return they killed off one of the Oblits. The last Keeper powered up making two of the marines dance to death and finished the rest off with a super Smite. The Noise Marines managed to pick off the Chaos Lord thanks to the new character targeting rules no longer protecting him, before charging in and easily killing off my marines. More secondary points for John, but more importantly denying my 5 for the Primary.

In my turn 3, I was running out of options. The last Obliterator thinned the ranks of the Terminators down to one, my Terminators failed again to charge the daemonettes on the objective, the Master of Executions lined up to charge the Dark Apostle, but thanks to not being within 3 inches of anything, my Rhino got their first with it's combi-melta! Instead both charged the noise marines, trying to tie them up and thin the ranks. The Master whiffed and didn't make much of a dent before being killed himself. It was a bad turn!

With that, John scored 15 for the primary objective, and went for the kill. The Dread and Daemonettes mobbed up and killed my Terminators. His Terminator killed my Dark Disciples that had been cowering on my objective all game, and to add insult to injury, the Noise Marines rolled really hot (something like 11 wounds out of 13 hits on a 5+) and killed the Rhino. Finally the last Keeper of Secrets duelled my Dark Apostle, dispatching him without breaking a sweat.

With me tabled, John had two more turns to make out the Primary and rack up Engage on All Fronts. End result, including the 10 points for being painted, 86 to John, 44 to me. Ouch.

Luck aside, I was definitely my own worst enemy, I suffered from being rusty on this one, having not played 40k since the pre-lockdown days. I wasted my Dark Apostle and probably my Terminators with their positioning, and I definitely should have held the Contemptors back a bit to keep them for turn 2. More importantly though I think I lacked some big, tough, units to grab the objectives and actually hold onto them. I really could have used my Terminators running up the middle to hold the objective, or on the right flank to charge that Keeper. 9th edition's character targeting rules caught me out as well, I need to be more careful with my characters! Lessons learned.

Ordinarily I might be a bit disappointed with such a crushing defeat, but honestly it just felt good to be back in the saddle. I've got a few more games lined up (assuming we don't have second lockdown here - and no one gets sick!) so hopefully I can get a score on the board in 9th edition soon! Hope you enjoyed this report, and stay safe everyone.