Death World Showdown II: Enter the Vermillion

[FashaTheDog]

The mission was the same Death World Battle Mission as last time, Weather the Storm. Instead of Democrats, I got Republicans instead, er, I mean instead of Ultramarines, it was Angels Vermillion. I cannot remember his list, but he's on this forum, so he can post a corrected version of it.

 

Space Wolves

Logan Grimnar

Rune Priest: Plasma Pistol, Chooser of the Slain, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Storm Caller, Living Lightning

Wolf Guard Battle Leader: Frost Blade, Bike, Wolf Tooth Necklace

Dreadnought: Heavy Flamer

2 9 Strong Grey Hunters - Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Plasma Gun, Rhino

2 6 Strong Long Fangs - 3 Missile Launchers, 1 w/ 2 Lascannon, other w/ Lascannon and Heavy Bolter

Vindicator

15 Blood Claws - 2 Meltaguns, Power Claw

5 Wolf Guard - 2 w/ Plasma Pistol & Power Claw, 1 w/ Terminator Armor & Cyclone Missile Launcher, 1 w/ Power Claw, 1 w/ Bolt Pistol & CCW

----The first two attached to Grey Hunter, the Terminator the double Lascannon Pack, the Power Claw to the Blood Claws, and the last to the final Long Fangs

 

Angels Vermillion -

Dante

Librarian: Jump pack, Hand Flamer

2 Sanguinary Priests, Jump Packs, each with a Lightning Claw

Sanguinary Guard, 1 with infernus Pistol, 1 with Power fist, 1 with Chapter Banner

Sanguinary Guard, 1 with Infernus Pistol

6 Vanguard Veterans, Powerfist, Thunder Hammer, 2 Storm Shields, 1 Power Weapon

Assault Squad, 2 meltaguns, Powerfist

Assault Squad, thunder hammer, 2 meltaguns.

 

Deployment

I got my Vindicator, Dreadnought, and Blood Claws with all my HQ on the starboard third, a Rhino in the center, and the rest on the port side. My foe got both his Sanguinary Guard and their attached Sanguinary Priest in the starboard third with an Assault Squad, the only unit of his not to fall to the Red Thirst incidentally, right next to them in the central third, with an Assault squad with attached Librarian in the port side. He held the rest in reserve, namely Dante and his Honor Guard and his Vanguard Veterans. Surprise, surprise. I won the roll for first turn.

 

Turn 1

Why not start with something useless like Gnashing Earth. With no infantry in his army and my only choices being the Blood Claws or Long Fangs, I went with the much smaller Long Fangs. Half of them failed their Initiative tests, but no one died so all was well. Both of us forgot the Seeker Lightning, so we must have rolled a 1-3 for it, that's it. Happily lobbing a Demolisher shell into the Sanguinary Guard I got a few of them and a couple from the Assault Squad. SOme Long Fang fire saw that only the Sanguinary Priest and a Sanguinary Guard with an infernus pistol lived. A rather lackluster shooting phase overall, especially seeing as a pack of Grey Hunters dumped all their shots in to the port side Assault Squad and only managed to kill a single meltagunner.

 

Ghastly Hallucinations on the Blood Claws and the Long Fangs with the Terminator Wolf Guard did nothing and again Seeker Lightning was forgotten, opps. That meltagun in the Assault Squad blew up the Vindicator in retribution while two Blood Claws fell to bolter fire from the intact Sanguinary Guard squad. The Sanguinary Priest hopped squads leaving the loner to stun my Dreadnought. The Blood Claws were charged by the Sanguinary Guard and lost a few, but were happy to be in melee. The Grey Hunters on the port side were charged, lost eight men, and fled. Overall a rather poor way to start off for the Sons of Russ.

 

Turn 2

Some Treacherous Footing on the terrain the port side Assault Squad as well as the center was next on the planet's list of fun. Remember the cursed lightning, I saw my Heavy Bolter armed Long Fang fried. The starboard Grey Hunters piled out of their Rhino and dumped some pistol fire, both plasma and bolt, into the Assault Squad near the center. Of course even with the charge I lost combat bad, but I stuck around. Grimnar and his Blood Claws finished the fight victorious and took a break in the nearby ruins.

 

A meteor came down and killed the Pack Leader of the Long Fangs with the Terminator and Seeker Lightning zapped a lascannon armed one in the other Pack. Neither Angels Vermillion unit decided to show and I held a hope they would not show on Turn 4 and the game would end, automatically destroying them. I don't think I should have hoped for a unit in reserve to be destroyed at the end of the game as I did get my wish, but more on that later. The two port side Grey Hunters were wiped out along with their Rhino while the starboard ones lost a few but held firm. A quite turn.

 

Turn 3

 

The Treacherous Footing from last turn followed port side Assault Squad to their new ruin while also remaining in the center one. No Seeker Lightning this turn. The Wolves howled in delight. Charging in to help the remaining Grey Hunters, the Dreadnought gave a mediocre performance, so better than the army average, but the combat was still drawn.

 

A Tectonic Shift caused nothing of mine to be pinned and he had nothing that could be, but the Seeker Lightning killed, you guessed it, another Long Fang, this one with a missile launcher. At this point I was giving serious thought to remodeling all my Long Fangs to be laying down. Sadly, both his reserve came in and Dante's Honor Guard killed my up until that point invincible Rhino, which was really a shame. Now I really owe it trophies and extra attention to make up for that. In the combats, the Dreadnought was smashed and exploded harmlessly and the Long Fangs with the Terminator were slain, although their Wolf Guard held fast.

 

Turn 4

A Lasher Nest did nothing and Seeker Lightning killed another missile launcher armed Long Fang. Seriously, these guys are getting lightning bolts painted on them as ceramite clearly conducts electricity through the wearer and not around it. I looked at the Vanguard and saw a pair of storm shields so I figured that Living Lightning was the better choice as I could get up to a half dozen S7 shots instead of one, but I only got one. Despite marksmanship that would put a Vindicare to shame, the Vanguard were unimpressed. The assault that followed, however, left a mark as they couldn't die fast enough; the two Blood Claw (technically one and a Wolf Guard, but they're the same pack so close enough) power claws didn't even get to crush Veterans like empty beer cans on a frat boy's forehead. Sadly, the Rune Priest died in the process, but them's the breaks. Back to the ruins to await Dante. By this time we had agreed that the Chapter Masters must meet and that if Dante split off to do so, he would be met alone by the old Wolf.

 

With a Gravitic Anomaly sending the last two Long Fangs into reserve, I was spared yet another one from being reduced to ash. Instead I was rewarded by the Librarian being hit instead! The jubilation that something other than my Long Fangs was getting blasted by 2D6 S8 AP5 hits was immense. Even better, he died from it too! Moving Dante and his squad was all that was left besides a single bolt pistol shot that failed to wound.

 

Turn 5

Things were starting to go my way as Dante took a wound from the Deathly Miasma that arose. A bunch of Angels Vermillion had to take armor saves too, but no one else was otherwise affected by it. Even better, the Seeker Lightning left me alone. Returning from way up in the sky, the pair of Long Fangs found themselves in the other corner of the table. Some lousy shooting later and my turn was over.

 

An Indigenous Beast pounced upon and killed the Blood Claws' Wolf Guard, dragging the Astartes off the field to feast but the joke was on him, that Wolf Guard had worms! Sadly the Seeker Lightning found the banner pole of my Wolf Guard Battle Leader on a bike and killed him, but the fact an enemy died to it prior made it alright. Some shooting at the Blood Claws caused them to fall back into assault range and finally the fight we waited all game for arrived; Dante and Grimnar faced off. There was also a trio of others helping Dante, but no one cared about them and they failed to matter anyway. While his squad was cut down, Logan Grimnar was wounded by Dante, and having only a single wound left thanks to being the target of the Death Mask of Sanguinius.

 

Turn 6

A Flaystorm arose, which did nothing, but the Seeker Lightning struck down an Assault Marine who intentionally chose to rise higher than Dante to protect his lord. Still, that was now two dead from Seeker Lightning that were not Space Wolves. I was quite pleased by that. A krak missile dropped another Assault Marine, but that didn't matter at this point. Ignoring the others, Grimnar slew Dante outright with the Axe of Morkai, giving me the moral victory, huzzah! Never mind the fact that after all the other attacks that hit him, it was a single thunder hammer blow that felled him, the important battle was won and that's what counts.

 

Remember how I wanted to see stuff destroyed by being in reserve at the end of the game? Yeah, I got that wish right there when a Gravitic Anomaly sent my last unit into reserve. With nothing left of mine on the table and the game automatically ending, that was all she wrote.

 

After Thoughts

So the game tabled me, not my foe. Can't say I've had that one happen to me. I mean I've tabled myself with Khârn killing off his squad and then failing his No Retreat wounds when he lost combat, but this was a new way for me to lose a game. It was fun. I also loved seeing stuff that wasn't mine being hit and killed by Seeker Lightning; that was spectacular. The showdown between Chapter Masters was also great. We did give Dante an extra 1/2" to make base contact with Grimnar because it would have been a shame otherwise. I had really pitiful shooting which did me no favors at all and there were a few combats I should have done far better in, but I've benefited from the whims of the dice too often to begrudge them a single game. I can't even say they were mad at me; I put them back in their tin in the proper order with all the 1s facing, the side with the design on it, facing up, but it's fine as I know they're saving up the amazing for another game. A great game, despite the rather overwhelming defeat. It is quite clear to me that the Death World of Shikyo has truly fearsome lightning as nothing struck can survive, no matter how armored they may be, a fact demonstrated by nearly everyone not only failing their saves, but failing multiple saves. I believe I will develop some history and story for this Death World in greater detail...

[JamesI]

That was a fun read, and was a fun game to be in.

 

We did cheat a bit, as while Dante on the charge could make base contact with a Blood Claw, he could not reach Grimnar.

 

I think it had been about 2 months since I had a unit fall to the red thirst, hence my planning to bring Astorath instead of Dante until I was challenged to a chapter master duel. But somehow my army thought it had Astorath, and I got 5 1s when rolling for Red Thirst. Astounding.

 

I will not have another unit fall to the Red Thirst until Fall, I'm sure of that after last night.

[JamesI]

I wanted to add, when the blood claws assaulted the Vanguard, one of my guys died to the Battle Leader at higher initiative, than at I4, I took 10 wounds on 5 guys. Some of those were power weapons (Grimnar and the Rune Priest) some were normal. But due to storm shields every one of my guys ended up with 2 3+ saves. Every single guy failed exactly 1 save.

[FashaTheDog]

I wanted to add, when the blood claws assaulted the Vanguard, one of my guys died to the Battle Leader at higher initiative, than at I4, I took 10 wounds on 5 guys. Some of those were power weapons (Grimnar and the Rune Priest) some were normal. But due to storm shields every one of my guys ended up with 2 3+ saves. Every single guy failed exactly 1 save.

 

Good catch, I forgot to write that down.