25 November, 2022

With Kratus's ascension into the Daemon Prince Arkrath, his forces have been seized with a renewed vigor for bloodshed. No longer caring about the relic bounty hidden beneath the city, the Cruentes have turned their attentions to simply butchering their way through the hordes of mutants and xenos pouring from underground, ordering their fleet to bombard the whole city from low orbit. In their lord's wake, wisps of unreality coalesce into Neverborn allies as the followers of the Blood God gorge themselves on their violent urges.

 

However, an old foe from earlier campaigns in this region are likewise fighting their way free from the mutant swarms. Space Marines of the Ashen Ghosts chapter, a Raven Guard successor, seek now to push the Cruentes into a xenos entrapment so they can slip away themselves.

 

In this battle, the newly-ascended Arkrath commands Thrax the Exalted Champion, Validon's and Gorm's Berzerker squads, the freshly-upgraded Covenant of the Bloody Hand Cultist mob and Vervek the Helbrute. Daemonic allies in the form of a Skullmaster, ten Bloodletters and six Bloodcrushers also lend their support.

 

The mission is from the Plague Purge mission pack, with diagonal deployment zones. Four objectives are spread more or less through the centre line between deployment zones and are numbered 1-4. On the second battle round, the Attacker removes either odd-numbered or even-numbered objectives. On the third battle round, the Defender removes one of the final two objectives. Objectives are scored every round with a varying number of VPs each.

 

For my Agendas, I choose Blasphemous Ritual (for Dark God Glory points), Instrument of Vengeance (from Path of the Righteous - basically Assassinate with fewer XP but also gaining Righteous Inspiration points) and Reaper (because it's easy).

 

As part of the campaign, a Chaos warfleet is indisciminately bombarding the city. Each player in their Command phase can place a bombardment token on the table - players roll off, and the winner can move the token that many inches in a direction of their choosing. All units within 3" of the token then take mortal wounds.

 

I set up the Bloodcrushers and Berzerkers in the centre, flanked by Cultists and Bloodletters. Arkrath deploys somewhat conservatively to avoid the enemy Eliminators.

 

My opponent uses some redeployment shenanigans with his Infiltrators to block my Apoplectic Frenzy pre-game moves, however I still manage to use it to edge the Cultists on the right closer to the objective.

I am defending, so I get first turn. The indisciminate bombardment lands in the middle of the enemy army, killing a Suppressor and one of the screening Infiltrators.

 

 

The Cultists on the right and the Bloodletters on the left move forward onto their respective objectives. Everything else moves up, with Arkrath moving to continue avoiding Eliminator fire.

 

Spotting gap in the centre of the line, the Bloodcrushers thunder forward and charge both the Infiltrators and the Vanguard squad behind them. All of the Infiltrators and half of the Vanguard were trampled underfoot.

 

In my opponent's turn, his bombardment was ineffective.

 

On the right, Infiltrators open fire on the Cultists, killing seven.

 

While on the left, several Bloodletters were gunned down, though they took far more firepower to shift than they should. Daemon saves!

 

By the end of the turn, only one Bloodletter was left - I must've forgotten to take a new photo.

 

In the centre, he fell back with the Vanguard, hoping to delay my reinforcements through the centre to the Bloodcrushers.

 

Elsewhere, he also strung out some Infiltrators to delay my Berzerkers on the centre-right, however I forgot to take a photo.

 

My Bloodletters (with the help of the Insane Bravery strat) passed their morale test, though a few of the Cultists ran. Enough were alive on both objectives to score points for me, however.

In my second turn, my bombardment was ineffective. My opponent, as Attacker, also deactivates the odd-numbered objectives - located on my far left and in the centre-right. That's fine by me!

 

Arkrath decides to grab the bull by the horns and attack two of its big close-range threats: a squad of Eradicators and an Invictus Warsuit. Unfortunately, the Eradicators were tracking the Daemon Prince's movements, so were able to get a solid shot off against it as it charged.

 

Frustratingly, Transhuman Physiology and some lucky saves protected the Eradicators, though the Invictus was pummelled into the ground with only a single wound left.

 

I forgot to take photos of this, but in my centre, the Exalted Champion, the Skullmaster and Validon's Berzerkers all charged the Vanguard. My opponent smartly chooses to interrupt here, and rips apart both characters (despite each having several wounds and Invulnerable/Daemon saves!). Thankfully, the Berzerkers finish off the Vanguard.

 

Gorm's Berzerkers on the centre-right easily blitz through the Marines in their way, though unfortunately it does set us back a turn. They use the Kill, Maim, Burn! stratagem to get right into the teeth of a Suppressor squad.

 

In my opponent's second turn, the Phobos Librarian and the Chaplain move up to deal with Arkrath, while the Eradicators fall back. Arkrath's Blackstone Shard Amulet wards off any damage from the witch's mind bullets, though.

 

The Invictus suit crawls off to be a roadblock to the Berzerkers on my centre-left.

 

The Eradicators unleash their firepower on Arkrath, with completely unsurprising effect.

 

I use the They Are Risen! stratagem from the Path of the Righteous rules to resurrect the Daemon Prince. This puts it at its maximum number of Righteous Inspiration points, however, which means it can never use those stratagems again in the campaign. 

 

Over on my left, the last, pesky Bloodletter was finally banished.

 

Over on the right, some Intercessors march onto the objective and turn the Cultists into red paste.

 

At the end of the shooting phase, Arkrath stands back up with three wounds remaining, but it's surrounded by a witch and some melta-toting enemies...

 

The Marines charge the Daemon Prince, with the Librarian scoring two wounds against it...

 

And, with me lacking the CPs to interrupt, the Eradicators pile into the Daemon Prince as it fought off the shadowy Librarian. Striking from an unexpected angle, the heavy infantry sapped away the last of the Daemon's hold on the material world.

 

For what must be the first time in the history of Daemon Princes, Arkrath suffers from New Model Syndrome twice in the same turn.

 

Thankfully, not much else happens across the battlefield.

 

At the start of my third turn, I deactivate the objective that my Bloodletters had been guarding on my centre-left, since I want to move Validon's Berzerkers away from it anywaty. The bombardment was ineffective.

 

On my right, Gorm's Berzerkers charge the Intercessors standing on the objective. A spray of blood later, and the Intercessors were gone.

 

Meanwhile, Validon's Berzerkers move in to avenge their master's fall by charging the Chaplain, Librarian and Eradicators. They carve into the Librarian first, causing the shifty witch to disappear in a display of psychic sneakery, while also killing an Eradicator, wounding another, and injuring the Chaplain.

With only a handful of Marines left on the battlefield, my opponent concedes, since he doesn't really have much left that can threaten my objective. He offers to let me choose which units killed the remainder of his army, and we decide that Validon's squad would've been able to perform the Blasphemous Ritual once in the centre of the board before the end of the game.

 

I only gain four Chaos Points to go towards my trackers, however I dogain an extra Dark God Glory point thanks to the ritual.

 

Result: 55-20 Victory

 

Arkrath's Personal Glory: 7 -> 7
Khorne's Dark God Glory: 7 -> 8
Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 6 -> 7

 

The battle was extremely close in points for most of the game, however having the objectives down the middle of the table was massively in my favour since my opponent very much did not want to get close to my army. Still, aside from a few small mistakes, I think this army worked reasonably well.

 

None of my units gained Battle Scars, and I ended up giving the Bloodletters Marked for Glory for their part in securing the early objectives.

 

(I also just realised that I never mentioned the Helbrute during the game, because I kept forgetting to take photos of him. He was deployed behind Arkrath, and just fired potshots all game before charging some Suppressors at the end, wiping them out. At least he did something!)