After the Age of Apostasy.

With the new Space Marine Codex in store, Mike and I decided to run a 40k campaign based on the aftermath of the Age of Apostasy. The Centurion suits had just been given the "ok" stamp from the Mechanicus, and a good thing too, because they would be needed...

A General declared himself the "True Emperor" and set to build his own empire. Making alliances with various xeno races and pacts with renegade warbands and daemons alike, he carved a bloody path through the Imperium.

The alien races still loyal to their beliefs were intent on punishing the traitors, and joined the Imperium to kill this "True Emperor".

The Death Guard assaults the Space Marine lines.

The first encounter was a space marine strike force, defending their position against the death guard. Will the space marines be able to defeat the death guard before they set up defensive positions?

The two deployment zones. The death guard set up on the hill, and the space marines hid behind an aegis defence line, which in this scenario counts as d3 victory points. The bunker in the center is also worth d3 points. Mike rolled 2 points for his defence line, I rolled 1 for the bunker.

"I plan on making a dash for the objective with my death guard deployed in the woods. The prince will support them with some fire power from the helbrute. The beasts, plaguebearers and lord in the rhino are going to go for the space marine lines." 

Mike had his captain and combat squads in razorbacks, while the centurions and heavy bolter wielding squads took up defensive positions behind the defence line.

The vanguards took up positions in the ruins, ready to counter charge the chaos marines. The land speeders would support them with their cyclone launchers.

The Game begins!

I rolled terribly for my Warlord trait! I got Hatred on my lord and his unit, but giving that I had them upgraded with Veterans of the Long War, they already were full of hatred! Not only that, but my lords Gift of Mutation rolled No Reward, and the champion in his squad got +1 BS. Not very useful, considering he had a bolt pistol.

Mike rolled Iron Resolve for his captain.

Turn 1:The prince cast a malediction on the centurions, but managed to gift them with the Shrouded special rule. All my units lumbered forward. The helbrute managed to destroy the lascannon on the razorback, but not stopping it fully. In return, Mike zoomed forward with his razorbacks. The land speeders managed to destroy the rhino, leaving the lord and his unit very vulnerable.

First Blood: Space Marines

Turn 2:The death guard failed to climb the walls to the bunker. The plaguebearers lumbered forward along with the beasts. The daemon prince managed to give the centurions shrouded once again, and they repaid him by blasting him with their lascannons, leaving him bleeding.

The land speeders managed to get 4 hits with their cyclone missiles, and along with their heavy bolters they inflicted 30 hits! The plaguebearers were tough and only took 4 casualties.

The vanguards charged the death guard, who managed to kill one with their overwatch. The beasts tried to counter chargethe vanguards with their special rule, but failed. 2 casualties were inflicted on both sides, and the chaos lord lost a wound to the hammer wielding sergeant.

Turn 3: The blight drone arrives to save taint the day! Its shooting attack failed miserably though... The daemon prince managed to summon his powers and give the centurions a proper curse! -1 strength and toughness should do the trick! Too bad it would be irrelevant since they were out of charge range...

The beasts toads join the fray! The chaplain is reduced to one wound, and one of the toads suffered 2. We're not really sure what the lord and sergeant were doing... They flailed their arms around alot, but didn't focus on actually hitting each other...

"I don't like you, and I'm not afraid to show it!"

The storm talon arrives and reduces one hull point from the blight drone. The land speeders only managed to kill one plaguebearer with their awesome fire power, and the daemon prince survives the punishing fire from the disembarked tactical squads, razorbacks and centurions.

 Turn 4: The blight drone hummed away and fired on the land speeders, destroying one of them!

 "COWARDS!!"

The space marines had tactically parked the razorbacks so the prince wouldn't have a chance of getting through. Furious, he charged one of the tanks and chopped it to bits! He didn't survive the returning fire of the space marines though.

 "F*** you in particular!"

The storm talon picked a new target: The unmolested helbrute. A wise choise, but futile. The helbrute survived the everything the storm talon could throw at him, and cut it down in the next turn!

 Survivor of the match!

Turn 6: The champion holding the objective survived everything the space marines had! Several bolters, heavy bolters, plasma guns and even lascannon shots!
The plaguebearers finally reached the space marine lines and brought down the last land speeder.

 The chaos lord, now all by himself, charged the enemy lines and contested the objective!

The captain managed to get into combat with the death guard champion. The champion couldn't survive the captains burning blade. My objective was denied!

The plaguebearers made it to the space marine lines, giving me a point for line breaker. Speaking of lines, the space marines made a nice conga-line into my deployment zone and got line breaker as well. The chaos lord was finally slain in close combat, so he wasn't able to deny the marines their objective!

Slay the Warlord: Space Marines

Winner: Space Marines!

(5-1)

Final thought from Mike; What did think of the game?

"For Dorn and the Emperor! The space marines win their first game with the new codex! To be honest though this game was a massive experiment for me having used several units i had never done before, such as centurions, vanguard and most importantly, land speeders! The land speeders were my unit of the match! The typhoon missile launchers proved to be deadly! having killed the blight drone, rhino and a handful of plague bearers they had the highest kill count of the match! The centurions also proved to be worth the outlay in points as they killed the enemy helbrute and crippled the daemon prince but the vanguard will quite likely be getting replaced after failing to charge and defeat the chaos lord and plague bearers."

"It wasn't all smooth sailing though, Mattias' Chaos lord proved to be a tricky opponent, killing no less than 13 of my marines single handedly! And on the other flank his daemon prince who kept casting biomancy spells on himself left my space marines and captain so scared that they dared not get out of their Razorbacks for three full turns!! All in all a good match that was witness to some awesome cinematic moments! I'm now planning my list for the next match!"

What can I say? Nurgle is a really hard army. Given that they all have high toughness and Feel no Pain makes them survive most things thrown at them. I realize I played a lot of units wrong; I should have deployed my plaguebearers with deep strike, and the prince should curse units that was within range. He kept casting Gift of Contagion on the centurions, but they were never the target of any shooting nor assault. I was really unlucky with some dice rolls as well (Sure, blame it on the dice...). The toads failed their counter charge, and the plague marines failed two rolls for getting in the bunker.

Nevertheless, it was fun to see Mike sweating when my prince came lumbering towards him. Next time, I will be using more figures, so my death guard will have to be stand-ins as normal marines with Mark of Nurgle. I was really lacking in the fire power department, so a squad of havocs of two should also do the trick. A heldrake would also prove useful, but I consider it too good to be taken in a friendly game.

Heldrake or not, I'll get you next time, Mike!

Until then.
Cheers!