Crusade Battle Report - Adeptus Mechanicus vs Chaos Space Marines

Hello!

This is the first game of the Helios Exploratory Crusade, the story of Magos Vettius Thannek's quest to recover lost knowledge and archeotech relics and rise up to become an Archmagos. In the first game (and probably in a fair few more games to come) they came up against Prince Vaspasian the Profligate of the Emperor's Children, who's aim is merely to become a legendary name in his legion to rival Fulgrim himself. This was a 50 power level game against fairly regular opponent John, the mission was Supply Cache - granting the winner an invaluable additional requisition point.

I picked a patrol made up of Magos Vettius himself, Skitarii Vanguard, Kataphron Breachers and Destroyers, a maniple of Kastelan robots (with fists) with their Datasmith minder, a Dunecrawler and the new boys, the Serberys Raiders and Pteraxii Sterylizors. At the Incursion sized games each player picks two Agendas - I chose Search for Archeotech, which seemed narratively appropriate but would be difficult to accomplish because it requires an infantry unit to make two actions in the enemy deployment zone in order to get bonus experience points, and Kingslayer, as I thought it again fit the narrative of that Daemon Prince trying to be a legend. 

John's force featured Prince Vaspasian, obviously, who had a relic and warlord trait already. He was bringing a patrol of 30 Cultists, 10 Noise Marines (pumped full of combat drugs - this started John on 4 Crusade points to my 2 in his list, which we missed - should have awarded a bonus CP to myself) in a Rhino, 6 'Bikers' (actually snake tailed mutant marines) and 5 Terminators in the warp. His Agendas were Lord of the Warp, which would give experience to Vaspasian if he casts more powers that anyone else (so, one), and Reaper, which would be bonus XP to whichever unit kills the most enemy units - which felt appropriate for an army trying to compete with each other for glory.

Here's deployment. Point to note, we opted not to reduced the board size any further since we were at the top end of the Incursion power limit, we didn't feel the board was too big or anything. Having more units meant I could 'win' deployment, putting my Neutron laser staring down the Rhino and my Destroyers eyeing up the bikers. I was however outfoxed as the Emperor's Children used a stratagem to reposition the bikers to the other side of the board, leaving the Destroyers to aim at the cultists. We rolled off, and the forces of Ryza went first.

Turn one, the Mechanicus forces moved up the board, getting into range of 3 of the objectives. I also changed the protocols on the Kastelans to the Conqueror setting for next turn. In shooting the Destroyers incinerated a swathe of cultists and the Onager got a lucky shot to take out the Rhino in a single round. The Raiders managed to chip a wound off Vaspasian with their Galvanic carbines, but were perhaps a little exposed after that...

Charge of the light brigade! Unsurprisingly the Raiders were cut down, along with a couple of the Breachers on the central objective and some damage on the Dunecrawler. I regretted not using Acquisition at all Costs on the Servitors, which might have kept more of them alive. None the less, when the smoke cleared I was still holding 2 objectives to John's 1, putting me into an early lead.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a unit of Pteraxii Sterylizors, coming in to see if they can last less than a single player turn on the board! I had a grand plan to burn away enough of the Noise Marines (and probably lose the Pteraxii in the process when the fired upon death) that the Onager could shoot Vaspasian in his Profligate face. Sadly thanks to their combat drugs they were at toughness 5 and only a few were cut down. In their return fire they killed off the last Breacher.

Elsewhere, the left flank moved up, killed more cultists and got into position to possibly search for Archeotech next turn. The robots advanced up to line up a charge next turn, and the Pteraxii failed their charge, losing one to overwatch.

Terminators in the back passage - could be a problem! Their shooting was fairly underwhelming, as were the Noise Marines for once (lack of CP for their big buffing stratagems). The Sterylizors unsurprisingly had their wings clipped, while the Bikers tied up the Onager and nearly killed it in melee. The Terminators charged in to Thannek, stopping the Destroyers from shooting, and taking two casualties themselves from the Magos' axe and the Kataphron's tracks. They did manage to fell the warlord though.

Not much shooting left for me in turn three, the Destroyers and the Onager fell out of combat, the Vanguard killed all but one cultist (who didn't run!), and Datasmith Sek Decima starting rummaging around for Archeotech. The Fists of Reverence - the Kastelan Robots, charged into the Noise Marines and catching Vaspasian, who heroically intervened. Now it's 9th edition that meant the bots got to swing some fists at him as well! He survived the first round of attacks, then interrupted before the Conqueror protocols could kick in, killing off one of the robots, which exploded. In a chain reaction, the nearby Onager was destroyed, and I played Machine Spirit's Revenge to have it explode as well!

When the dust settled, the Prince took a fist from the last bot, before the Noise Marines dragged it down. Going into their turn 3 the Emperor's Children had taken the right of the board and were racking up the points.

Some long range shots and the firepower from the remaining terminators diminished the Destroyers and picked off some of the Vanguard, before the Terminators charged the last servitor to finish off the unit. With not much left on the board, that was pretty much game over in terms of the objective, but I still had my agendas...

Sek Decima continued to scan his auspex array over the area, guarded by the last of the Vanguard, the fear centres of their brains overridden. At last, a blip, a find! He reached into the dust with his powerfist, gingerly pulling the strange item into his eyeline. No time for a thorough scan, as the Emperor's Children cut down his bodyguards with their blasphemous sonic weapons. Over his shoulder he could see the corrupted Terminators approach, barely recognisable after uncounted years in the warp.

He uttered a prayer to the Omnissiah, and placed the strange item into a teleportation capsule, flicked the switch and watched as it flashed away into the ether. The mission may have been failed, but Sek knew that it had been worth it, they had found what they had come for. He steeled himself, cutting off any last traces of emotion in his enhanced mind, as he waited for the inevitable. He could only hope that when the recovery team scoured the planet's surface, they would find his cranial casing intact and he would be able to see for himself the archeotech he had recovered.

And that was the end of the game. A win for the Emperor's Children, granting them an extra requisition point and a whole load of experience points across the board. The Noise Marines picked up the Reaper agenda, putting them over the mark for Blooded, becoming Veteran Warriors for their Battle Honour. Thankfully I didn't roll any ones for my units, so all of them gained the experience for playing the game. Datasmith Decima picked up some bonus experience for finding some Archeotech and I awarded him the Marked for Greatness bonus, putting him into the Blooded category. In line with my goals to collect ancient relics, and because he literally just dug it out of the ground, I rewarded him with a Crusade Relic - the Laurels of Victory - granting me an additional 2 command points while he is alive. In my mind it is some kind of rare cortex cogitator upgrade that spouts out tactical advice into his brain.

Overall we had fun with Crusade, playing in a nice narrative spirit. It does have maybe a bit more admin than it really needs during the game, and we made a few mistakes along the way, but I think this will become easier to deal with over time, so we're definitely going to give it another go. We found the real meat of the narrative in this stage of the Crusade came from the agendas we picked - once the mission was won or lost it was still important for us to keep playing to see who among the Emperor's Children would be showered in glory, and if Sek would managed to return with that archeotech. I imagine the experience would be reduced somewhat by just picking purely the 'strongest' agendas for levelling up your units every time. (I certainly don't think it was 'smart' to pick the ones I did, but it made sense!). Hope you enjoyed this look at Crusade in play, and stay safe out there.

The Helios Exploratory Crusade

Hello!

One of the things I've been most interested about in the new edition of 40k is the Crusade system. It's not something I've seen that many people exploring yet, and I have a lot of thoughts about how it's not suitable for all kinds of narrative play, but the whole unit progression and emergent storytelling thing is right up my street, so I thought I'd give it a go.

First choice was to pick a faction. I put a lot of thought into this - I reasoned I'd probably not play Crusade all that much, so to get the most out of it I'd have to stick with a single army for some time. I considered Orks and Genestealer Cult, but eventually settled on the Adeptus Mechanicus of Ryza (and possibly Knight allies down the line). I reasoned that I've played them in most 8th edition tournaments I went to, so it was probably their turn to be the 'narrative' army while the xenos get their chance in slightly more competitive situations. I also don't really have any background for them, my 'Archmagos' didn't even have a name! I decided the Crusade would be his 'origin story' of how he rose up through the ranks from being a regular Magos to master his craft. I took the opportunity to name him using the Engine War name generator: Vettius Thannek

Here he is in all his weird glory. As an aside he's build from a reversed Tech Priest Dominus, with a load of greenstuff and bits slapped on his shoulders. As his gun is pretty beefy, and he is a Magos, I decided to spend some requisition off the bat to give him a relic (Weapon XCIX - a beefed up Volkite Blaster from Ryza) and a warlord trait (Divanations of the Magos from Engine War). With that sorted I spent the rest of my requisition on increasing my supply and recruited the rest of the Crusade:

A bit of a mix of everything in here, including my new toys and a chunk of the regulars, enough to make either a patrol or a battalion. Nothing too competitive or spammy - the only duplicated unit are the Destroyers, and I think they would be stronger as one unit to benefit from Plasma Specialists. 

There isn't much guidance on the 'Crusade Goals' in the rulebook, so I took inspiration from the Warhammer Community articles 'We're on Crusade' when picking mine. I decided that, as a Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Thannek would probably be after some rare, arcane technology, so set myself the goal of picking up 5 Crusade relics. I assume this will not be easy but will be achievable in time, though I suspect the intent is that new goals might arise as you play.

So there we go, one Crusade force ready to fight for the Omnissiah! I've got my first Crusade game lined up for later today, so the next article should be a write up of that, and we'll see what progress has been made towards seeking out some lost relics. Hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there.

Battle Report - Orks vs Chaos Daemons

Hello!

Back for game two of 9th edition, and this time I brought the Orks! WAAAGH! I was playing against fellow DZTV patron Sharpy aka Jonathon (j.sharpe0608 on instagram) with his Khorne Daemons, at 2000 points of matched play Four Pillars goodness. With limited shooting and lots of punching on both sides, it was going to be a bloodbath. We did technically play on a 6x4 board, but a significant chunk of the board was some awesome industrial dock scenery, so in avoiding going into the sea we were almost at the new minimum board size anyway.

I took a classic battalion, using the Feral Ork specialist mob from Saga of the Beast for the first time. This meant a chunk of my force had no benefit, but all my boyz, non-mega nobz and some characters could advance 3d6 pick the highest, and had a 6 inch pile in move. I also used a pregame stratagem from the book to make my warboss 'Da Biggest Boss' for +1 attack, wound and a 4+ invulnerable save. Rounding out my pregame spending, I upgraded my weirdboy to a Warphead. For my secondary objectives I took Thin Their Ranks (since there were quite a lot of daemons about), Assassinate (he had 5 characters that I imagined would be getting stuck in) and the mission specific one, Siphon Power.

HQ: Warboss (kombi-skorcha, attack squig, Da Killa Klaw, Might is Right, Da Biggest Boss), Mekboy with Kustom Force Field, Weirdboy (Warphead, Da Jump, Warpath)

Troops: 30 Boyz (slugga/choppas, Nob with powerklaw), 30 Boyz (slugga/choppas, Nob with powerklaw), 20 Boyz (shootas, 2 big shootas, Nob with powerklaw)

Elites: Nob with WAAAGH! Banner, 10 Nobs (9 big choppas, 1 pair of killsaws), 5 Meganobs (2 kombi-skorchas/powerklaws, 3 kustom shootas/powerklaws)

Fast Attack: 3 Deffkoptas (kopta rokkits)

Heavy Support: Battlewagon (killkannon), Battlewagon (deffrolla, 4 big shootas)

Transport: Trukk

Sharpy took a battalion and an outrider detachment, and splurged pregame CP on two banners of blood, sticking a blob of Bloodletters in the warp and making his Bloodthirster Exalted - rolling for it like a boss, and getting a 2+ armour save and an additional +1 to attacks and strength on the charge/when being charged. I forget his warlord trait, but his relic was a mega axe on one of his princes. His secondaries were Thin Their Ranks, Siphon Power and Engage On All Fronts.

HQ: Bloodthirster (Exalted), Karanak, Skullmaster (the herald on Juggernaut), Daemon Prince (wings, sword), Daemon Prince (wings, relic axe)

Troops: 20 Bloodletters, 10 Bloodletters, 10 Bloodletters

Fast Attack: 4 Bloodcrushers, 5 Flesh hounds, 5 Flesh hounds, 5 Flesh hounds

Heavy Support: Skull Cannon, Soul Grinder 

We rolled for deployment, and I was the defender - I picked the most open of the two available quarters and we alternated filling the tip of our corners. I had the Nobz in the Trukk, Meganobz in the kannon wagon and the 20 shoota boyz in the rolla wagon, and I elected to start the koptas on the board. There was a decent chunk of line of sight blocking terrain and plenty of craters, but not much in the way of ruins leaving the centre of the battle pretty open for a big scrap. We left a 5th objective marker in the centre of the board for ease of Engage on All Fronts-ing. Then, admin done, we rolled for first turn, and it fell to the Daemons!

Turn one, and Jon's Daemons raced forwards, hounds on the flanks heading to the objective to my left, and controlling/siphoning the one to my right, while a Bloodletter unit started to siphon off his home objective. No Psychic Phase and minimal damage on shooting, straight into the first charge of the game as the Bloodcrushers barrelled into both my Battlewagons and two units of boyz. The Deffrolla wagon was damaged, but revved up and crushed a couple of the juggernauts, while the boyz were able to pile some in and reduce the unit to a single model at the end of the turn. Not much damage done but it did crucially block me in a bit.

In my turn da boyz moved up as best they could. The white mob disengaged and swarmed toward the nearest objective (just under the lip of the landing pad on the picture) while the Deffkoptas flew over to start siphoning it. The Battlewagons remained in combat with the Bloodcrusher, while the pink mob were left unengaged so advanced up the ramp toward the hounds on the objective. On the far left the Trukk full of Nobz zoomed up to swing around later or something. My characters shuffled around in the centre, the big mek starting to siphon the objective (he did this every turn after this) and no one got out of their vehicles.

In the psychic phase the Weirdboy smited the last Bloodcrusher, removing him and freeing the wagons up to shoot, which they did, removing a few daemons here and there. Then the charge phase - only one to do, the pink mob going into the hounds... and they failed. This was quite significant, as it meant Sharpy was holding two objectives at the start of his turn and managed to siphon power from both of them.

Turn two, points on the board for the Daemons, and they looked to get seriously stuck in as the Bloodthirster moved up for a charge, as did the Soul Grinder and the warlord Daemon Prince. The Bloodletter bomb arrived behind me as well (I'd forgotten about them to be honest), which would get all four corners for Engage on All Fronts. Shooting happened, with the 'thirster using his whip and roar, combined with fire from the Soul Grinder to kill 2 of the 3 Deffkoptas, leaving one alive on one wound. Since he was siphoning power, the Bloodthirster would have to deal with him in melee. Then a whole load of charges went off - the aforementioned Bloodthirster into the kopta, the Prince and Soul Grinder into the pink boyz, and the Skullmaster into the damaged Battlewagon. Crucually though, even with the banner of blood, the musician and a CP reroll, the Bloodletter bomb failed to reach my Boyz and exposed Weirdboy.

Into the fight phase, and it got interesting, with a lot of CP being thrown around. Jonno elected to fight first with the Prince since the pink boyz were looking like interrupting. He killed a chunk of them, but left me on more than 20 models still and within range of the WAAAGH! banner. I interrupted anyway and used my 6 inch pile in to get as many models around the Prince as possible, including the klaw wielding Nob - who proceeded to roll a batch of ones and twos to hit anyway. The Boyz stripped some wounds off, before losing more to the Grinder. The Skullmaster/Battlewagon combat was fairly uneventful, and the last Deffkopta got predictably smashed. With both of us eyeing up 'attack again' stratagems, Sharpy activated his warlord Prince once more to smash some more boyz, bringing me below 20 to remove my +1 attack and out of range of the +1 to hit from the banner. I proceeded to fight again anyway, but the klaw whiffed once more, though the Boyz did well to drop him down to a few wounds. The promptly failed morale, but thanks to the new rules a few stuck around - though not for long...

My turn 2 and I picked up a few points for holding and siphoning one objective. This turn was going to be a big scrap - I started carefully considering where I was going to charge before realising Jon had no command points left, so I'd be free to attack first everywhere. With that in mind, the Meganobz got out and wandered over to the Bloodletters, the Nobs hopped onto the landing pad to eye up the Bloodthirster, the white Mob swarmed up to the Flesh Hounds now on the left objective, the yellow mob got out and lined up against the Prince/Soul Grinder along with Warboss Redtoof himself and the Pink boyz ran away, with their suspiciously similar replacements returning on the other side of the board after I used the Unstoppable Green Tide stratagem. Thanks to the new edition morale rules this stratagem seems like it'll be a lot easier to get off!

The Weirdboy tried for a smite but it was denied, then cast Warpath on the Meganobz with a 13, causing 3 mortal wounds to himself as his brain started to dribble out of his ears. In the shooting phase the Meganobz and their Battlewagon poured fire into the Bloodletter bomb, but did not thin the ranks as much as I had hoped. Other shooting was fairly incidental. Then came the charge phase, with successes across the board.

Fighting broke out across the board. The yellow boyz dragged down the Daemon Prince (after the powerklaw failed, naturally), Redtoof obliterated the Soul Grinder with ease, the Meganobz cut a healthy swathe of Bloodletters down (and more fell to morale later), before the Nobz bashed the Bloodthirster - who rolled pretty well for his saves (mostly 3+ thanks to his exalted armour) and got away with 8 wounds remaining. Fighting back he smashed six of the Nobz! I chose to use the stratagem at the end of the turn to automatically pass their morale. Two of the Meganobs were brought down as well by the Bloodletters.

Then things got interesting. That Skullmaster managed to finally chip the last wounds off the Battlewagon - which promptly exploded! That's D6 mortal wounds within 6 inches!

When the smoke cleared, the Weirdboy and the Skullmaster were both gone, while my other three characters were wounded and I lost a load of boyz from the two nearest units. Ouch - but points for Assassinate!

As the dust settled at the end of turn 2, the shape of the battle had changed drastically. Blood was flowing everywhere (though not so much from the Flesh Hounds at the top of the battlefield, somehow surviving the charge from the reinforced pink mob!) However the Khorne forces still held two objectives and successfully siphoned both at the start of their turn, putting them into a fairly handy lead on the points.

Turn three and there was decidedly un-khorne activities. The Bloodletters and the Flesh Hounds left combat in order to secure Engage on All Fronts again and avoid the wrath of Orks striking before them. The Bloodthirster stayed in though, even though the Nobz would go first - as it happend this was the right choice as they got murdered. Elsewhere Karanak and the other remaining Flesh Hounds charged the Yellow boyz to think their numbers and keep them away from the objective, and the two other Bloodletter units held and siphoned their objectives. There was a moment of glorious bloodshed however as the remaining Daemon Prince charged out to cut down Redtoof in the centre (don't worry, there are always more Redtoofs.)

In my turn the pink boyz on to left flank were swarming over the objective, dispatched the last of the Flesh Hounds over there while charging and wounding the 'thirster. The white mob moved up to charge the remaining Daemon Prince along with the wagon looking for some bonus movement, failing to bring him down. The Meganobz handily dispatched the last of the Bloodletter bomb, and with the help of the banner Nob, the right flank Flesh Hounds were removed as well.

Turn four saw more objective points scored for the Daemons and more running away. The badly wounded Bloodthirster fled from combat, while the Prince did the same, landing on my home objective to stop me scoring that. Karanak fell back, while the Skull Cannon moved up for a cheeky charge on my remaining wagon. I imagine all those daemons were gnashing their teeth and stomping with rage after Khorne willed them to claim battlefield superiority rather than fighting to the death. 9th missions are certainly making us think!

I started my turn 4 scoring a handful of points, and knowing that I needed to score big in turn 5 and probably max out Assassinate. To that end the pink Boyz held their objective and wandered over to smash the Bloodthirster. The Meganobz stumbled over to hit the Prince and secure my home objective with the Big Mek. The yellow boyz surrounded Karanak and the remaining few Bloodletters on the right objective, between shooting and melee finishing them off. Finally the white mob moved up around the Skull Cannon to get a 8 inch charge on the Bloodletters on Jon's home objective, succeeding and thanks to their 6 inch pile in, stomping them into the ground.

This left only the Cannon left for the Daemons in turn 5, scoring them no points. In my turn 5 I was holding all the objectives! Time to add up the scores...

And with that, plus the 10 points for fully painted, it was a very narrow win for the Orks, 70-65! As it turned out, if I had failed that charge on the last objective, Sharpy would have picked up 5, plus 1 for Siphon Power on turn 5 and could have held on! Great game - win for the Orks, and a first win in 9th edition for me, but those Khorne boyz were not muckin' about (apart from when they ran away). 

I'm having a lot of fun in 9th so far, though that might just be because I'm playing 40k again, but it definitely feels like 8th but better. The matched play missions feel nice and balanced, but definitely a bit more admin heavy and requiring much more forward planning. I think I probably made a mistake with the Siphon Power secondary, as I didn't have that many units to leave on an objective doing nothing. I also felt under pressure to get across the board rather than kill everything and leave it too late, which is definitely a good thing compared to previous editions of gunlines blasting you off the board then grabbing objectives in the last few turns. I do think, as it stands, the rulebook has a bit of a missed niche in terms of open or casual play - there's only one scenario in the book as written that isn't either matched play or Crusade with all the admin that comes with them. As much as I enjoyed the matched play scenarios, I can imagine going back to the old Maelstrom cards or the open war deck for some less brain intensive games sometimes.

Anyway, I had fun, I hope you all enjoyed reading about it, and stay safe out there.

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.