+ Tzeentch Tzucks +

For once a mega-battle went down with sides that made sense ... sorta. Those ultras are so good they're bad, I tell you.

Undivided Chaos & Death Guard & World Eaters & Ultramarines vs. Black Templars & Armored Company & Space Wolves [7500] - Promise to keep this short and focused on my boys in black & brown. We packed the first 5000 points per side onto a 6x4 table with a number of woods scattered around, with the Ultras and Wolves slatted to show up turn 2. Chaos proudly sported 2 statured princes, 2 greater demons and my speed lord, with a couple dreads and a defiler for armored support. Sadly, I failed the first turn roll, and blaimed the 1k Son Sorcerer with his Talisman of Tzeentch ...

Imperial Turn 1 involved hammering those 1k Sons with the demolister, leman russ exterminator and a standard russ, with both templates scattering onto the Sons from their original targets! 4 Sons and a thrall were blasted apart, with the last Son wounded. The infiltrated 8 CSM lost 4 to Templar fire too, despite lurking in the woods, and the only other casualties were the plague marines who infiltrated too close and were assaulted by Templar assault termies from their land raider crusader.

Chaos Turn 1 saw me roll some apocolyptic difficult terrain rolls - 2,1 for the 8CSM and 2,2,1 for the speed lord! - which gutted my dreams of slamming into some Templar who had jumped out of their rhino the turn before. Instead I cooked some shots off at the 10 crusaders, killing maybe 3 with 3 krak rockets, 2 plasma guns, a blastmaster, autocannon, kai gun, 2 flamers and 10 bolters. Luckily the Templar freaked and charged forward, bringing them into assault range! The lord and 4 remnant CSM oblidged and cleaned them out, consolidating back into the woods. Meanwhile, the cursed Sons did nothing, and the dread melted 2 random marines. The rest of the Chaos mostly killed things in combat - the assault termies and began what would be 2 long combats in the center with Templar. Khorne DP killed the Emperor's Chump.

Imperial Turn 2 was more scattering templates around the board, with not too much effect. 3 noise marines may have died this turn, and the obliterator was killed by a lascannon. The Templar bike squad - 3 bikes w/ meltaguns, 3 bikes w/ bolters, 1 attak bike w/ multimelta - a triple lascannon predator and a chimera full of storm troopers fired on my 4 infiltrated CSM, who made save after save and only lost 3 members, leaving the powerfist AC to die in assault. Badass all the same. The bikes consolidated into the speed lord. Otherwise, not a lot else happened for how long it took the Armored Co. general to debate where to shoot ... Oh, the Wolves moved on too. Khorne DP killed the Templar dread.

Chaos Turn 2, and time for reinforcements. Papa Nurgle arrived, along with 2500 in mechanized Ultramarines and a squad of demonettes. The girls came in off the lord and jumped in to help out with the 3 remaining bikes. Noise marines blasted a couple Wolves, havoks kraked the turret off of the pred, dread flipped out and charged through the forest in front of him, and the Sons killed a terminator with cyclone launcher, running out of thralls in the process. The 10 CSM squad can't hurt a rhino after firing everything into its side. The lord killed 1 bike, the girls managed 0 rends with 18 dice and then cause no more wounds, losing 1 girl to the remaining bikers. Khorne DP got to kill some marines with its glaive this turn.

Imperial Turn 3, and the 1k Sons finally bite it. Bad things happen elsewhere on the board - the Nurgle DP dies in assault after killing the basilisk last turn and absorbing half of the Imperial side's firepower - but back on my side a Wolf assault squad hits the girls, who manage 1 rend and then all die either to the marines or instability. The lord killed another bike, and luckily the assault marines were left out of the fight. The defiler also died this turn, and a template found 1 CSM of the 10 squad. The Imperial Lightning flyer appeared this turn too. Khorne DP died.

Chaos Turn 3, my boys last turn before they evac out of the game as usual. The rest of the demonettes arrive off of the lord's ikon, to jump in and help some Ultra assault marines with the Wolves. The Bloodthirster also shows up, exploding a Khorne biker. My dread fire frenzies this turn, vaporizing 2 terminators and flaming the hell out of the Death Guard dread to no effect. The rest of my units all fire at the lightning, resulting in 1 bolter shot that rolled the 6 to hit, as well as 2 overheated plasma guns, 1 of which killed its owner. Well then. My lord killed the last bike, and the Ultras & demonettes vaped the 4 Wolves, turning to face 10 storm troopers in a chimera and 5 Wolf terminators (2 assault cannons) in a land raider. The Ultras were only dismayed when my girls left, along with the rest of my army.

I'm guessing things didn't turn out too great for Evil Team, but I wouldn't give up hope entirely. By the time I left I had the demonettes and speed lord at full strength, 9/10 big CSM squad, 3/6 noise marines, 6/6 havoks and the dread hanging just inside some woods. Death Guard was down to 2 squads of plague marines with minimal casualties, the GUO, a mutated dread and mutated pred. Khorne had the Thirster and possibly a few straggler champs from squads. Ultras had a LOT of razorbacks and 6 man squads left, as well as HQs and heavies scattered along our edge.

So I'd say it comes down to how long people stuck around. The game really dragged on, as the Imperial turn would involve 20+ min of debate and then every combat had to be resolved one at a time. Killed the fun a bit, and meant we got less turns in then larger games I've played of late ...

Painting: 3/6 noise marines done, working on #4