5 August, 2022

Kratus once again lead a small Combat Patrol against the Death Guard, this time accompanied by his lieutenant, Thrax, Dreior's Berzerkers, and a small mob of Cultists. The mission was to punch through the enemy line to cause as much havoc as possible. For my Agenda, I chose to initiate yet another Blasphemous Ritual to earn some more Glory for Khorne.

 

Unfortunately, I had been painting Kratus's model and completely forgot to bring him along, so a random Terminator will have to be his stand-in.

This was my opponent's third ever game of 40k, so it was going to be another relaxed game with minimal pressure. Just throw some dice and have fun!

 

 

In this mission, my opponent had to deploy his entire army first, and was forced to split it into three parts. I took advantage of this, by putting the bullet catchers highly valuable Cultists in the middle, backed by my Chaos Lord. My main push would be on the left flank, where the Berzerkers and the Exalted Champion Thrax would be able to overwhelm the flank and sweep around to the middle.

 

 

 

I won first turn, and moved everything up the field. The Cultists began an Action in the middle of the board to raise some mighty skull piles for Khorne.

 

I was going to use Apoplectic Frenzy on the Berzerkers to yeet them up the field for a first turn charge, but decided against it at the last minute. My opponent was only new to the game, and I didn't want that to be how he found out about such an ability. I told him what I could have done, and against his protestations I continued simply moving the Berzerkers.

 

 

In his turn, he shuffled some Plague Marines on both flanks to get some shooting off, and left his Blight Hauler in the middle. When all was said and done, a few Berzerkers were slain and most of the Cultists were killed. I forget how many exactly (and didn't take a photo), but I think there were only 1-2 cultists left - but it was enough to keep their Action going. Khorne was evidently pleased with their sacrifice, as the action succeeded and I gained a Dark God Glory point (and a bunch of XP on the Cultists).

 

 

In my turn, Thrax killed a couple of Plague Marines, continuing his trend of being completely incapable of rolling 6s to wound for Gorefather, even with rerolls.

 

 

Thankfully, Berzerkers were more than enough to finish the rest.

 

 

Meanwhile, Kratus bounced off the Blight Hauler. We both dealt just a few wounds to each other - I always forget how tough these damn things are!

 

 

My opponent continued to string out his Plague Marines on the right and finished off the Cultists.

 

 

While the Lord of Contagion swept around to take care of Kratus. Unfortunately, Kratus's knack for surviving against the odds abandoned him and he fell to the Manreaper.

 

 

In my third turn, I declared the centre objective to be the Alpha objective, since I planned to move there anyway. The Berzerkers and Thrax moved up to wrestle the Blight Hauler off the objective...but I foolishly left my squishy Exalted Champion standing directly in front of the Lord of Contagion. This is a theme you'll see me repeat a lot!

 

 

Wisely, my opponent charged the Champion and Berzerkers, killing the Champion. In return, the Berzerkers carved chunks off the character's armour, reducing him to just a single wound. In my own turn, the Lord of Contagion slew two more Berzerkers, and shrugged off their attacks.

 

 

At this point, I was slightly ahead on points. Had my opponent just stayed in combat, there was a good chance I could finish the Lord and just hold the Alpha objective until the end of the game, maybe also shuffle over and add to the cultists' pile of skulls. So, weighing his options, my opponent initiated a Hail Mary charge with his last Plague Marines - and he made it. The sons of Mortarion finished the last of my Berzerkers to claim the objective.

 

Result: 25-45 Loss

 

Unfortunately, Kratus gained some wounds that would not heal after the battle, gaining the Deep Scars battle scar (cannot perform Actions, cannot Heroically Intervene). The Cultists also gained a scar, but I ended up just deleting them from my list to make room for other units.

 

Despite losing, I still rolled well for my Chaos Points. Kratus lost a little glory for dying so ingloriously, but Khorne was pleased with the sacrifices and I made sure to keep my Warfleet in Favour.

 

Kratus's Personal Glory: 4 -> 3
Khorne's Dark God Glory: 4 -> 6
Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 7 -> 7