+ DREADTASM ROLLS ON: CHAOS VS SISTERS +

As mentioned in the previous post, the on-going conflict with the Witch Hunters continued yesterday, with another 1850 battle. This time we started working through the missions for Da Boyz GT over in Rochester, NY in mid-October, rolling up the "Escort the VIP" mission. Essentially, we each had an extra VIP model (T3, W2, 4+ inv) that had to be attached to a squad (which became Fearless) and walked off the enemy table edge, taking his escort with him.

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1850]

I used the same dreadtasm + deathscreamer list from last time, he used a tweaked up version of his last list:

Cannoness - MC blessed weapon, book, auto-pass faith thing
Cannoness - eviscerator, jump pack, 2+ armor, mantle
5 Dominions - 5 storm bolters, priest; immolator w/ MM
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino
15 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
7 Seraphim - 2x flamers, VSS w/ eviscerator
5 Seraphim - 2x inferno pistols, VSS w/ power weapon, melta bombs
Exorcist
Penitent
Penitent

Might have been another Sister rhino squad in there, but I think he had to drop it to buy more seraphim. Regardless the mission was looking bad for him, as his only options for moving the VIP up was to attach to the big foot squad (which he did, with Cannoness along too), dismount an embarked squad and walk it, or walk the seraphim (who wanted to strike as usual).

Deployment: Table edges
Primary: Escort VIP off the enemy's edge. If he dies, his body becomes an objective that if claimed counts the same as walking the VIP off.
Secondary: Have more units above 50% in the enemy deployment zone.
Tertiary: Have more scoring units within 3" of table center.

Bonus points for not putting the VIP in a transport, killing the enemy, walking off the table with your most expensive unit, etc. All pretty low compared to the primary.

Sisters win The Roll, give it to Chaos so they can go second at end of game.

Early Game
Deathscreamer stomps the yard with the shooty CSM squad, so that the VIP can ride with the flamey CSM in their rhino. They advance up the western flank, under cover of the noise marines, havoks and an obliterator, thoroughly discouraging the enemy from intercepting (a penitent rushes the rhino, doesn't kill it and is kraked for his troubles). 'Screamer, shooty CSM and melta CSM in their rhino push the center, removing the dominions and their ride turn one, the other penitent turn two (at the cost of the melta dudes' ride) and immobilizing both rhinos. Retaliation by the other two mounted sister squads is fierce, reducing the melta CSM to 2 models (AC + melta), but the arrival of the demons adds even more pressure against the middile.

Dreadtasm got off to a fine start, rolling 2 fire frenzies and unloading 4 plasma blasts into the lone sane dread, who popped smoke and survived the lovefest with just a shaken result. They would remain mostly sane for the rest of the game, with no more fire frenzies rolled ..

Mid-Game
The flamer CSM's cruise up the flank was interrupted by the inferno seraphim, who wrecked the rhino but would be clubbed to death the following turn, putting the VIP and friends within easy reach of the board edge. The deathscreamer and his squad assaulted the remains of the foot cannoness' crew with VIP (they had taken a brutal blastmaster shot turn 1, losing 7 girls), and over a few rounds of burning faith chaos came out on top, leaving the deathscreamer (1 wound taken from his own weapon), the autocannon and the power weapon AC to take up firing positions amidst the corpses.

With furious rolling the demons repeatedly broke one sisters squad, eventually wiping it out (leaving 4 demons, not enough to occupy his edge but enough to grab the center), whilst a blood raging dreadnought + the remnants of the melta CSM broke the other 10 woman squad (losing the dreadnought very easily to the eviscerator), but failed to catch it. The other dreads contented themselves with throwing out the odd plasma template between assaults, which was all the one immobilized by the exorcist could do. Also at this point the exy had pasted the obliterator whose lascannon couldn't hit or pen it all game.

Late Game
The other seraphim finally showed and attempted a daring table edge drop to stop the flamer CSM, but a mishap allowed the forces of chaos to misdirect the angelic flyers. They were plopped down amidst the fire lanes of the noise marines / havoks / obliterator, and despite SotM being as irritating as possible the squad was hammered down to 1 girl, who fled and would be tagged by the autocannon marine. The eviscerator cannoness struck solo, absorbed a turn of aggressive fire with 2 wounds (2+ inv is DRUNK) slaughtered the havoks and ran them down, charged a dread and copped a giant chainsaw to the chest.

With little in the way of opposition left, the flamer CSM walked their charge off the table, the melta CSM legged it when the lone eviscerator VSS shot the AC in the head, the demons stabbed that VSS to death and would end the game happily frolicking on the center of the table. End game saw only 1 immobilized rhino and the untouched exorcist vs a good number of angry chaos boys (and 1.5 dreads).

CHAOS WIN: Primary, Tertiary, Random Bonuses

A sterling performance by the deathscreamer, with a good selection of rolls (just 1x 1, but 2x 6 and several 3-4), which is quite nice vs T3 power armored opponents (SotM or not). The dreadtasm had it's usual idiotic start, but besides the double blood rage turn (the immobilized dread wasn't angry enough to overcome his shattered legs) were remarkably behaved. As to what they actually did in the game, I suppose it was far less than 360 points worth, and I realized this game that the way I run them so close to each other makes it somewhat easier to limit their damage from fire frenzy (they just shoot the sane one, who can smoke) but also means they hardly move at all, not being able to consistently either march and fire or run up in a pack. Meh, I still like the lugs, and what would I take otherwise? Well, 1 unit of termiciders, and probably my possessed ;D Another excellent elites choice!

Painting: Irongut
Building: N/A

+ SEVERUS GAAL 2.0 +

Finally found the time to bash together the powerfist version of my chaos lord, Severus Gaal:



Not a super crazy conversion (Huron + chaos lord head - iron halo on power axe), but I really like the Huron sculpt, with its "shattered soldier" bionic deal and the badass "stride forward and demand my money, ho!" pose. I'm torn on what backpack to give him when I get to that point, cause I don't think it will be Huron's. I like the huge iron halo (good for the 4+ MoT inv), but I dislike how giant the pack is, and the height clashes with the horns of the headswap. I may simply use a CSM backpack, though maybe chop the stalks off to create a faux-RT era pack ...

Here Gaal 2.0 is next to the increasingly infamous deathscreamer lord:



And some more shots of Mr. Minigun:





I do love the hell out of this model, and I like the concept of the demon weapon in more mundane form, as minigun + power axe + some insane(ly masochistic) combat skills. This model is also my fastest turn around from idea to build to paint to table, taking I think 2 days from inception to battle. Makes me even more proud of how he turned out.

Funny thing, had another game against the Sisters today, and the deathscreamer seemed to sense his possibly imminent replacement - he rolled just one 1 for number of attaks (and wounded himself), but otherwise was hammering 4-6 shots at range and 5-9 attaks in combat. Nicely done Gaal, maybe you can hang around ... until 2.0 gets painted!

Speaking of painting things for this army, here's a quick snap of the last thing I painted for the boys, for Games Day Baltimore back in the summer:



Kringa, the Greater Demon! The idea of that beasty climbing out of a chaos champ's chest is pretty excellent :D

Painting: Irongut
Building: N/A

+ EMP'S KIDS SCOUT TITAN +

Viscount Vash over on the Emperor's Children forum blew my mind earlier today with his 40k-scale Questor Scout Titan. Here's some shots of where the titan was at of May 26:






Hopefully he had a chance to finish and/or paint the big guy up! Check out the rest of the thread for the buildup, the way he sculpted the thing is IMO pretty intense.

Painting: Irongut
Building: Powerfist Lord

+ CHAOS & MORE CHAOS: TRIPLE BATREPS +

Two more weeks means three more slaughterfests! Because last week's is getting fuzzy - and grad school means I've in fact got papers to grade - we'll be making these shorter and more brutal than usual ...

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1850]

Chaos Space Marines
Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, melta bombs
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino w/ extra armor
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino w/ extra armor
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, icon
10 Demons
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
Oblit
Oblit

Witch Hunters
Cannoness - MC blessed weapon, 2+ armor, 4+ inv, book of stubborn, paper of auto-pass faith
Cannoness - eviscerator, jump pack, mantle
8 Celestians - meltagun, heavy flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
5 Dominions - 4 flamers, VSS w/ brazier; priest w/ brazier; immolator w/ MM + smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
15 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS
7? Seraphim - inferno pistol, hand-flamer, VSS w/ power weapon
Exorcist
Penitent
Penitent

Game: KP, Dawn of War

Highlights:
- Chaos steals initiative! And takes it (to get around first turn of night fight whilst heavy guns get in place)!
- All sisters save the exorcist are beaten to a pulp, through combination of CSM rampage + demon slaps.

Lowlights:
- Shooty CSM not deploying on the board in woodland cover, and spending 2 turns running back to where they should have been.
- All chaos firebase deploying in one corner, and completely running out of targets by turn 3/4.
- Deathscreamer rolling a 1 (no wound) for its first volley, another 1 in combat (wound), a 2 in combat, then a 6 in turn 6 to vaporize the last sisters squad, when a half dozen units were ready to assault them anyway.
- Seraphim + eviscerator canny absorbing an ENORMOUS amount of firepower before the blastmaster levels the squad, leaving the eviscerator to be finally punked by the deathscreamer.
- Dreadtasm (all 3 dreads marauding in posse) shenanigans: first turn, reserve on and keep it together; second turn, 2 fire frenzies & 1 sanity, resulting in 4 dead sisters from 1 plasma, a shaken dread with a trashed plasma from 2 PENETRATING plasma shots from his buddy, and another shaken dread from another sterling plasma pen. From here the dreads kept it in their pants more or less, with 1 patrolling the backfield, 1 dying to exorcist, and another ripping apart a pentitent, an immolator, and a sister squad before sheltering behind the immo hulk from the exorcist's rockets. He was, of course, the dread who double-penned the sane dread earlier ;D

CHAOS WIN

A fun game for sure, where victory was never assured, but the sisters lack of combat teeth meant that while he could button up and ride out my AP3 and power weapons with SotM, eventually he was losing the stat game and raw attaks were beating him apart. He's since upped all his VSS to eviscerators, which makes none of those squads quite the easy KP they used to be.

Also, while the dreadtasm I just have to distance myself from and learn to laugh a bit, the deathscreamer, particularly if I'm wanting to run him in a rhino instead of providing fire support, really is irking me. Great model + versatility means he's not leaving soon, but I have been doing a lot of thinking about alternative models. I really like the Huron model, and powerfist leaders seem to be a doable thing, so I was thinking about something like:

Chaos Lord - MoT, powerfist, combi-flamer/melta

Some possibility there, and cheaper than the deathscreamer currently - also, been thinking about counts-as-ing Huron himself, but while he does have 2 things I love (warptime + heavy flamer), I really want the 4+ inv and don't think he's totally worth dropping 20 points from somewhere in the list.

But back to the carnage! Now with 300% more demons!

Khorne Demons vs Sisters [1500]

Khorne
Skarbrand
Gorefiend - unholy might
16 Bloodletters - icon, render
16 Bloodletters - icon, render
8 Bloodletters
8 Bloodletters
Demon Prince - breath of chaos, unholy might, iron hide
Demon Prince - breath of chaos, unholy might, iron hide

Nuns
Cannoness - eviscerator, jump pack, stubborn book, autopass faith paper
10 Celestians - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
5 Dominions - 4 stormbolters, VSS w/ stormbolter; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
8 Seraphim - hand-flamers, inferno pistols, VSS w/ eviscerator?
Exorcist

Game: 2 objectives, table quarters

Khorne's back for some rompin' & stompin', and the girls got in the way ... I feel like mech sisters are the perfect anti-demons (especially khorne demons) army, so this was gonna be a dicey affair ...

Turn 1
Khorne wins The Roll and makes the sisters go first, and so they faff about and wait for the demons to show up, whilst the seraphim chill in low orbit.

The chaos gods agree with my decision and send down the first wave: both big 'letter squads, a wee eighter squad and the gorefiend. Scatters are minimal, and the big 'letter blobs try to keep close to the sister's corner without drawing the fire of every sister next turn (just most of them). The fiend scatters unfortunately closer to the girls, right in the path of the exorcist, and the eighter plops down near my own objective in the opposite corner.

Turn 2
Girls start brutalizing them some demons, vapping the fiend with rockets and cooking the closest big squad down to 7 or so. The dominions tanked toward the khorne objective, and got some help when the seraphim + canny dropped back there and killed 4 of 8 bloodletters. With no backup really intended to save those 'letters I mostly complained about SotM and invincible seraphim ...

Skarbrand didn't feel like playing, though a demon prince and 8 more bloodletters did, crawling out of the blood-soaked ground near the closest icon to the sisters. The prince yelled at the foot sisters squad, exploding 5 heads and sending them fleeing (but not quite to the edge), whilst the 7-of-16 bloodletters charged the rhino that slewed to a halt in front of them (cooking them with flamer fire in the process). With all those attaks they could only manage to shake it. The 4 letters by the khorne objective charged the seraphim with no high hopes, but despite SotM loads of sisters died for 1 dead demon, leading to a failed -3 break test and a caught seraphim + canny squad! Result!

Turn 3
Fleeing girls rallied, girls in the shaken rhino hoped out and completely wiped the fresh 8-demon squad (heavy flamers bad!), a few bloodletters died from the other big squad, the DP took two wounds from the exorcist, and the dominions dismounted and started hammering the last 3 bloodletters on the khorne objective, killing 1.

Skarry B continued to forsake joining the battle, though the other prince joined his twin brother, dropping with a nice line to yell at the sisters who trashed the 8-demon squad last turn. Which he did, but only popped one. They were charged by the 7 demons from the original big squad, only to lock them down for minimal loses due to SotM love. The wounded DP yelled at the exorcist and blew its tracks off, then charged in and detonated it, with no wound caused to him or his brother. The other big bloodletter squad, still at 11 strong, charged the last loaded rhino and exploded it, killing a girl in the inferno for no demonic loss - AND pinning the squad in the burning crater. The 2 'letters down by the other objective cowered inside the building sheltering the objective ...

Turn 4
The girls were running low, and the greater demon had yet to show up ... The rallied squad from earlier advanced on the wounded DP but couldn't wound it, whilst the celestians continued raining fire down from their perch in a building near the objective, this time wounding the other DP once. The Dominions succeeded in dropping another bloodletter, while their rhino slammed through both walls of the infested building (because it could). Combat continued to lock the demons down, with some bloodletters dying from the larger squad and the other squad gutted entirely, leaving 4 girls free near the objective (and an angry DP).

Skarmaster continued to be a tool and not come play, as the number of models who could benefit from his reroll dwindled ... The DP with 2 wounds piled on the previously rallied squad (after yelling at 1-2 of them), managing to take a wound but not get through the SotM invulns. His brother climbed into the celestians' building and screamed 7 of them to puddles, then assaulted the other 3 and was locked down similarly. And the other bloodletter squad continued to smack the girls, with little result (but not too many dead demons).

Turn 5
- RECAP -
Objective 1: 1 bloodletter vs 5 dominions + 1 rhino
Objective 2: 2 bloodletters (fighting) + 1 DP (fighting nearby) + 1 DP (fighting farther away) vs few girls (fighting) + few more girls (fighting) few celestians (fighting) + 4 girls + 1 rhino

THIS COULD BE IT! So the girls continue along, with only the dominions being able to move, looking into the building's windows to bring the last bloodletter into their sights - they miss / fail to wound / hit the building. With faith severely drained, SotM only goes up on one of the DP fights, leaving the one sisters to die by bloodletter (leaving 2 free) and the other to be smacked by the other DP (leaving the eviscerator). The other DP can't quite stuff the celestians with their inv save.

With no choice, Skarbrand finally appears, off the icon held by 1 of only 3 remaining 'letters on the board. He yells at the 4 sisters sitting on their objective, rupturing 2 of their skulls, but they easily pass their break test. With faith running low, the demon princes are largely free to finish of the nuns and then stomp on their corpses out of sheer spite. And then the last bloodletter down on the khorne objective pounds through the objective 1 building and slams into the dominions, killed 2, taking no wounds back, breaking and catching them! Delicious.

Turn 6
The battle continues! Two sisters + 1 rhino hold the WH objective and a rhino contests the CD one, and after shooting the final bloodletter the rhino triumphantly does wheelies with that objective secure. The last two sisters shoot and assault the final two bloodletters, easily dispatching them and denying the demons any ability to score.

Skarbrand however is unimpressed and orders his demon princes to yell at the women, and the insolent whelps crumple unconscious.

DRAW

100% happy with a draw vs mech sisters, and it was a fun game to be sure. Khorne demons kind of drive me mad with how slow they are, but when you drop all up in the other dude's junk (o_O) I guess that's in fact kinda speedy. Skarry not showing until he had no choice was kinda irksome, and ultimately his rerolls mostly helped the eviscerator chicks hit the DPs more (hitting on 5+ vs WS7). Epic lumberjack action by that bloodletter vs dominions though, high five to that goaty demon.

Khorne Demons vs Tau [1500]

Tau
Shas'el - missiles, plasma, shield, multi, target, 2 shield drones
3 Crisis - twin missiles, target, 2 marker drones
12 Fire Warriors - uberwarfish (SMS, etc)
12 Fire Warriors - uberwarfish (SMS, etc)
Hammerhead - uber (SMS, etc)
Hammerhead - uber (SMS, etc)

Game: 2 objectives, pitched battle

Mech tau then? Yowza ... This could be very bad, with all those fast tanks loaded with a lot of high rate of fire or template guns. Ah well, don't think I've ever faced tau with kr0n, so here goes ...

Unit Breakdown:

Skarbrand - showed up turn 2 as planned, distributed rerolls like a champ, bellowed a fire warrior unit off the table (killed 3, they failed break and ran like fishmen), ran down the table and gutted the crisis team in one go, ran back the other way and tore the shas'el a new one, caught a railgun slug with his 4+ inv but then copped 2 wounds off 2 SMS wounds
Gorefiend - dropped with the first wave, absorbed an epic amount of firepower with his 5+ ward (seriously, so many 5's and 6's), lasered in and assaulted the crisis team before Skarry could get to them and killed 1 suit + 1 drone before being clubbed to death (should have gone for a hammerhead and trusted in Skarry's reroll power to hit it)
16 Bloodletters - dropped first wave, absorbed a DRUNK amount of fire (including 24 fire warriors) whilst keeping the icon waving for the big guys in coming turns, evaporated the other fire warrior squad in vengeance and would die when assaulting the shas'el after being reduced to just 3 models (hey, they killed his drones!)
16 Bloodletters - scattered on top of a hammerhead in the first wave and died :'(
8 Bloodletters - dropped first wave on the chaos objective, and spent 6 turns kissing the dirt and enjoying a 3+ cover save against the attention of the tau grav tanks, but holding it in the end
8 Bloodletters - kindly dropped turn 2 and shook a warfish before cowering on the tau objective for several turns, eventually holding it with 2 bloodletters
Demon Prince - dropped turn 3, chased devilfish around and succeeded in wrecking one by yelling it's engines off (immobilized) and eventually catching and destroying the other with its ten foot long brass sword
Demon Prince - dropped turn 4 with mostly just vehicles left, so followed Skarry around and managed to yell 1 wound off the shas'el before S-Brand tore its face off

CHAOS WIN

I was seriously worried about the battle, but the pressure I exerted so early in the game made him pop his fish-o-fury too soon, leaving his troops very vulnerable to a horrific death. Khorne obliged, and from that point it was a question of him trying to wipe bloodletters out and force a draw, while Skarbrand and his noisy friends chased them around. Frankly he might have tried to power some tanks in and contest an objective in Turn 5 or 6 and chance a draw that way, though I guess I did have a lot of MC waiting for him around the objectives. Entertaining game though, enjoyed.

Painting: Ogre Irongut
Building: N/A

+ CSM VS SISTERS: FIRE BAD! +

School's back in session, but that just made the wait for my last game all the longer ... Threwdown against my friend's fledgling Sisters army, which is so WIP that he had to proxy two rhinos with cardboard squares. It would be his very first outing with C:WH, and maybe his 3rd game of 5th edition.

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1000]

I brought along an entirely undivided bunch of maniacs -

Sorcerer - MoCU, warptime, doombolt, familiar, melta bombs
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
Oblit
Oblit

- and he met me with more rhinos and power armor:

Cannoness - blessed weapon, artificer armor, rosarius, auto-pass-faith book
Priest - flamer, power armor
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino
9 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino
9 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino
5 Seraphim - melta-pistols, hand-flamers, VSS w/ power weapon
Penitent Engine

Game came up a pitched battle capture and control, and he won The Roll and took it. I was looking at a rhino (sisters + priest) & penitent making a run for the objective near my zone, the other two rhinos prepping to take 'his' objective, and the seraphim in orbit. In response I deployed oblits to the left and right, the shooty CSM center and near 'my' objective, and both rhinos revving their engines to intercept the Inquisition rhinos on the right. The sorcerer joined up with the flamey CSM, pimp hat and all.

Sisters 1
The penitent raced forward 16" or so (rage + move + run), while the left rhino moved forward 12" in support and the right rhinos advanced more cautiously, keeping their own objective nearby. It was here that I was reminded of how awkward not automatically having smoke on rhinos is, and since he didn't spring the 3 points he couldn't pop any ...

Chaos 1
As obliterators shuffled around to draw beads on transports, the two spiky rhinos slammed forward 12" and discharged their own smoke launchers. The shooty marines locked, loaded and managed to stun the penitent (which it ignores), though the oblit came through and wrecked it with a lascannon beam. The other oblit however failed to pen the rightmost rhino with his own laser cannon.

Sisters 2
Playing a cagier game than the eevil marines, the Imperial rhinos responded to chaos' show of force - the left rhino advanced and put the penitent's smoking corpse between itself and the shooty marines, and the right rhinos moved 6" or less to park in front of their objective, while allowing the specialists within to fire. And melta they did, stunning the sorcerer's ride (smoke fail) but being unable to hurt the chopped-top rhino (smoke win). This turn the seraphim arrived as well, striking behind chaos lines and unloading on the right obliterator - but a shakey 5+ inv later and the melta-pistol was shrugged off.

Chaos 2
Time for killing things! All marines disembarked their transports and moved up to the two right rhinos, and the sorcerer started out strong by rolling an 11 to cast warptime for melta bomb fun later ... But shooting first: the left oblit las'd the left rhino, immobilizing it, which left the shooty marines to happily turn in place and shower the seraphim with lead, killing 2, which the oblit brought to 4 with twin-linked plasma fire, leaving just the VSS. The melta CSM failed to hit the rhino right in front of them, which meant they'd have to make things personal ...

The Huntsman was happy to oblidge and smashed his love-glove through the rhino, detonating the Sisters' sacred stock of hairspray and showering ALL the rhino-borne marines in fire - an amazing four hardened killers would succumb to the flames!! Dirge repeated the show in his squad's assault on the other rhino, wrecking the vehicle and disgorging the Sisters within. The oblit had less luck with the seraphim VSS, who popped faith, wounded the oblit (!) and coasted through his fumblings with her 3+ inv save.

Sisters 3
Retaliate! The Sisters from the wrecked rhinos readied flamers and pistols to blaze into assault, but first the sorcerer did his warptime dance ... and rolled a 12, wounding himself (and I learned how nasty PotW is, having to reroll my successful 5+ save :P). Unphased the chicks cooked a few marines and charged in - cannoness & friends into sorcerer & flamey marines, other sister squad into melta marines.

Before fighting ensued, two sisters from the squad hanging out in their broken rhino took pot shots at the left oblit, combining with the stormbolter to put 3 wounds on the beast. Thankfully a 2-2-2 to save kept him from an embarrassing end.

Fighting, and a lot of faith, finally went down. The seraphim kept up her 3+ inv save jig, drawing combat vs the oblit. The unassisted sister squad was beaten up by the melta marines, broke and the VSS / melta / flamer were sent running. The cannoness & crew popped +2I, but thanks to the sorcerer distracting the cannoness (5+ saved the only wound through) and the CSM shattering haughty cheekbone the girls lost by 3, only to hold on 7.

Chaos 3
With targets few and mostly locked in combat, the chaos boys got right to business, starting with the sorcerer casting warptime (!!) for once. The left oblit tagged the immobilized rhino and zaped off its stormbolter, and the melta marines (6 left now) and both rhinos hammered the fleeing sister squad, who had popped SotM in fear of the meltaguns. The flamer chick dropped, then the other two were pulped when the melta marines charged in shortly after.

In sadder combat news, the oblit was killed by the (still inv) VSS, freeing her to do irritating things. The sorcerer was stuck fighting the cannoness, who's 4+ skills absorbed his force weapon attaks, and the combat was looking bad for chaos - Big Sister chopped down 2 marines and her underlings accounted for another, with chaos scoring a big 0 from sorcerer and normal marines. Thankfully Dirge stepped up his game and fisted 2 sisters into submission, making the -1 break test easily passed.

Sisters 4
Time, and options, were growing short for the chicks. The priest-led girls finally left their rhino and moved for the chaos objective, dropping a CSM from the shooty marine squad with a single rapid fired bolter. The seraphim VSS hopped behind the shooty marines, aiming to get in the way and possibly contest the objective in Turn 5.

Combat drug on with the invinco-cannoness, who popped SotM for the hell of it, easily absorbing the sorcerer's attaks - who, it should be noted, rolled a 2 for his warptime this turn, wounding himself again. Wow. Despite this incompetence, Big C's squad all but vanished, leaving just the cannoness against the sorcerer, the fister and two spiky marines.

Chaos 4
Sisters needed to die, so the forces of chaos mobilized a bit to make that happen. The shooty marines scooted up and rapid fired into the ex-rhino sisters, killing 3-4 girls and wounding the priest, while the remaining oblit rapid-fired plasma into the VSS that had killed his new friend. Alas SotM once again saved her supple buttocks from certain death and defilement.

In combat the chaos gangbang resulted in a flamer marine eating blessed weapon and the cannoness' 2+ inv save keeping up with the flurry of attaks, except for 1 slap from Dirge which crushed her irritating skull. What was left of the squad booked it 6" through central ruins to get at the remaining squad of girls.

Sisters 5
One objective firmly in chaos' talons meant the jig was all but up, but the Imperium might at least annoy the spooky marines a bit yet. The last sister squad popped Divine Guidance and bathed the shooty marines in 10 hits of flamer ... 5 wounds but 0 6's meant the dice were in my hands now, and 2-2-1-2-1 meant half the squad was dead! The panic test was easily passed, but the odds for the coming assault had been evened up some. However The Reaver showed how it's done and killed 3 chicks with his 3 power weapon attaks, which combined with solid armor saves from the other marines meant the girls had lost by 3 - they broke and were caught.

The seraphim meanwhile suicide charged into the sorcerer to try to tag off his last wound, but he lashed out with his power staff and caved her 3+ inv save skull in. This after rolling another 11 to cast warptime.

The Witch Hunters called it at this, as only an immobilized, weaponless rhino was left on the field.

CHAOS WIN

Post Game Thoughts:

• The sorcerer was ridiculous, managing to fail to cast warptime twice, get PotW twice, and successfully cast only once. Easily worse than the deathscreamer, who vs sisters is pretty good (S4 is only so-so against the world of T4) barring 1's. Eh, I suppose if I run any HQ that can hurt itself, it will. I still like what warptime does for my bad-dice problems, if I can ever get it off!


• I appreciate the free smoke launchers / grenades a little more after fighting somebody who has to pay for all these little extras, or more so doesn't pay for them and suffers a bit for it. Makes your troopers seem more properly equipped, while making your points go further and be less odd-number-y.


• My friend asked what he could have done differently, and I'm frankly not sure. Maybe been more aggressive with the rhinos? But he was trying to cover his own objective too ... I clearly had him out-gunned as far as ranged AT goes, but he might have come off better had he swapped his two wings, sending the two rhinos full out for my objective and leaving the other sisters to hold his, with the penitent as counter-assault or along with the two rhino wing as distraction / support.


• My new big, square, translucent green dice make me happy. They aren't totally amazing, and there were a couple BAD rolls (the 5/5 armor fail one!), but they're either somewhat hot overall (hence sorcerer rolling HIGH on his tests no doubt) or I was getting the feeling that the luck was more even, rather than being a suckfest through all the phases.

Somewhat of a random aside, but there was also a newbie kid there with his chaos, running an interesting (if model-dictated) list, including 5 possessed and something like 6-7 spawn. He was basically playing his first game of 40k, and I so wanted to help the little blighter out, with a little list tweakage and in-game guidance. Maybe next time I'll be able to show him the ropes, though I did encourage him to keep the painting up and not jump armies quite yet ...

Painting: Sorcerer
Building: Pyre Troll