Throne of Skulls Game 2: Renegades vs Deathwing

Game 2 and I get drawn against another space marine list, this time its a unbound force of Deathwing made up of a formation and additional Chaplin from what I can tell. With his force only having 32 models in it I outnumber him over 4 to 1, which is a rather large advantage to me. For the report of Game 1 click here.

The Armies

Renegades and Heretics: Combined arms detachment (primary detachment)

Renegade Command Squad – 90 (warlord: can't remember)

5 disciples, covenant of nurgle, lascannon, krack grenades

Renegade Infantry Platoon

command squad – 100

20 men, demagogue, chaos sigil, militia training, krack grenades, 2x flamer

Infantry squad – 85

20 men, chaos sigil, militia training, krack grenades

Infantry squad – 60

10 men, 2x melta gun, militia training

Chimera – 70

autocannon, heavy flamer, militia training

Infantry squad – 60

10 men, 2x melta gun, militia training

Chimera – 70

autocannon, heavy bolter, militia training

40 Plague zombies – 120

Renegade tank squadron – 280

2x battle tank

Demolisher – 170

militia training

Heavy ordinance battery – 90

militia training, medusa siege gun

Chaos Daemons: Combined arms detachment

Herald of Nurgle (the fool of nurgle) – 95

locus of fecundity, level 1 psyker [smite, haemorrhage]

20 plaguebearers – 180

3 nurglings – 45

soul grinder – 180

daemon of nurgle, phlegm

soul grinder – 180

daemon of nurgle, phlegm

Total: 1875

Deathwing: Unbound (formation + Chaplin)

Belial (warlord: what ever his warlord trait is) w/ knights

Chaplin w/ thunderhammer terminators

terminator armour

5 Terminators

assault cannon, 1x thunder hammer/storm shield

5 Terminators

assault cannon, 1x thunder hammer/storm shield

5 Terminators

cyclone missile launcher, 2x thunder hammer/storm shield

5 Terminators

cyclone missile launcher, 5x thunder hammer/storm shield

5 Terminators

cyclone missile launcher, 5x thunder hammer/storm shield

5 Deathwing knights

The Mission

For this game the mission is Tactical escalation with hammer and anvil deployment. I win the roll to deploy first, and select to do so. On the far right I place the zombies surrounding the medusa to protect it from any deep striking terminators. The medusa is placed behind a building to stop it getting shot at. Not wanting them to sit back, the plaguebearers get placed in the centre ready to push up. On the left the none command infantry blob set up with the demolisher supporting them. Behind the demolisher I place the command infantry surrounding the ruin in the centre. In said ruin I place the renegade command squad where the lascannon has a nice line of sight. At the rear I place a soul grinder and on the left both chimera and battle tanks are placed. I keep the nurglings and second soul grinder in reserve.

The deathwing deploy very differently to what I expect. 3 units of terminators are deployed on the table, one of the assault cannon units deploys in a ruin on the left. The other assault cannon unit deploys in between the two buildings while a cyclone unit is placed in front of them to protect them. The rest of his force is kept in reserve ready to appear later on when needed.

This table has the special rule which allows 1 unit on each side to gain tank hunter, which didn't aid me or my opponent this game.

Steal the initiative: No

Night Fight: No

Deployment

The Battle

Renegades turn 1

I move up with everything, I need to grab as many of the objectives as quickly as possible before the rest of his army comes in as they will be able to pick me apart with ease.

Shooting phase and the infantry that can run do so, the tanks shoot at the few terminators that they can see and manage to bring down a whole 1 model.

Score: Supremacy (3)

Renegades: 3 – Deathwing: 0

Deathwing turn 1

The terminators in the open stomp forwards taking an objective that he doesn't have the card for.

Assault cannon fire and krack missiles shoot at the demolisher but it only takes a single glancing hit, leaving it relatively unharmed.

Score: Nothing

Renegades: 3 – Deathwing: 0

Renegades turn 2

I roll for reserves and the nurglings come into the battle, but they scatter off the table and mishap. I roll to see what happens and my opponent gets to place them, so they appear at the back of my deployment zone but handily enough next to an objective. No sign of the soul grinder. My force again advances towards the terminators but mainly the objectives.

Battle cannon fire and autocannon shells again only bring down a single terminator, I just can't get past that 2+ save. The demolisher cannon just bounced off the storm shield at the front of the unit.

Score: Objective 3

Renegades: 4 – Deathwing: 0

Deathwing turn 2

I expect his force to come in now but they don't... I guess the party starts turn 3. again the terminators move towards me but not enough to get into charge range.

Cyclone missiles again shoot at the demolisher but do no damage. In a twist the assault cannons try to damage the chimera but he just can't get the 6 he needs to do anything.

Score: Nothing

Renegades: 4 – Deathwing: 0

Renegades turn 3

Finally the summoned soul grinder appears but it scatters onto his terminator unit and gets put back into reserve ready to come back next turn. Finally the plaguebearers get into charge range and the herald might actually be able to use his psychic powers this turn. Infantry units get into positions to cover each other with their autoguns and maybe take down a terminator or two.

Psychic phase and reaching into the warp, the herald smites the terminators down killing 2 of them, as the storm shield isn't the closest model to him.

Unfortunately my luck dries up in the shooting phase as I only manage to bring down a single terminator, the one standing on top of the left ruin taunting me. That was thanks to the commands lascannon.

Driven forwards by the Herald of Nurgle, the plaguebearers charge straight into the 3 man unit of terminators. Before the marines can even strike at them they drag down 2 of the terminators with their disease riddled blades. They win the combat but as the terminator is fearless the combat continues. Thankfully the terminators don't have objective secured, but the bearers do allowing me to hold objective 5 in combat.

Score: Objective 5, Objective 5

Renegades: 6 – Deathwing: 0

Deathwing turn 3

Finally his reserves all come in, and im glad it was turn 3, as it won't have to hold them up all too long. The knights lead by Belial come in straight in front of the soul grinder, and as they don't scatter they go where they want. The other two units of terminators come in on my right and only scatter very little. With the reserves coming in it signals to the terminators to push forwards. The ones in the ruin push forwards towards the demolisher while the other unit gets ready to punish the daemons for assaulting their brethren.

A cyclone missile launcher into the flank of the demolisher shakes it preventing it shooting its demolisher next turn and reducing it to a single hull point. They try to finish it off with the rest of the missiles but they fail to get past its armour. Assault cannon and storm bolter fire hits the large unit of infantry on the left and causes 5 kills, and the renegades fail their moral test, but thankfully the chaos sigil keeps them in it. All of the terminators are also allowed to run after shooting apparently so they do that this turn.

Assault phase is rather interesting. The terminators from the ruin charge into the infantry on the left and kill 6 of them without taking damage. They run for it leaving the terminators in the open. In the centre the lone terminator is supported by another squad but only a single daemon dies thanks to some very bad rolls on my opponents side, but he doesn't lose anyone.

Score: Nothing

Renegades: 6 – Deathwing: 0

Renegades turn 4

Finally the soul grinder appears and comes in behind his lines ready to aid the daemons if need be. On the left both of the chimeras drop out their units to attack the terminators that just killed the infantry. The running infantry rally thanks to the sigil. With the knights in front of the other grinder I decide to take a risk. As they can only make a single strength 8 attack each, and Belial is only strength 8 the soul grinder might be able to hold them up for a turn or 2. Seeing fresh meat teleport right in front of them the zombies go after the terminators close to them as the medusa no longer needs protecting.

With the terminators on the right so clustered together the medusa attempts to drop a few but the shot scatters off target missing. On the left all of the infantry and chimera shots manage to bring down 3 of the terminators but 1 is left alive, which is just as dangerous to me.

Its metal screaming, the soul grinder runs at the deathwing knights who strike first. They fail to do any damage but the grinder fails to get past their shields. Belial swings his thunder hammer and gets a single penetrating hit on the walker but its daemonic form flickers and takes no damage. On the right the zombies get a sudden burst of speed and charge the terminators in front of them. 5 of the zombies are reduced to a puss smear on the floor but a single terminator is dragged down and killed in exchange, good deal.

Score: Objective 3

Renegades: 7 – Deathwing: 0

Deathwing turn 4

The lone terminator goes straight for the demolisher and is in a good range to assault it. Lead by their Chaplin the other unit of terminators go to support Belial.

No shooting this turn.

Again showing how dangerous how a single terminator can be, he charges into the demolisher and wrecks it with ease finally gaining first blood. On the right the chaplains unit attempts to charge the soul grinder but rolls double 1 and fails the charge. The soul grinder takes a single glancing hit from the knights but deals no damage back. The plaguebearers try to kill off the terminators attacking them but fail to do any damage and lose 2 of their number but are fine.

Score: First blood

Renegades: 7 – Deathwing: 1

Renegades turn 5

Not much movement this turn.

Again all of the infantry on the left target the lone terminator but he is finally gunned down before he can do any more damage. The medusa targets the Chaplin but again the shot scatters off.

In the rear the soul grinder in his deployment zone charges in to aid the plaguebearers and kills off 2 of them, leaving 1 model left in each unit. No daemons die and the combat continues. Another bit of the soul grinder gets smashed off as its takes a glancing hit but finally two of the knights get pummelled to death by its iron claw. Another 5 zombies get crushed.

Score: Objective 4, take no prisoners

Renegades: 9 – Deathwing: 1

Deathwing turn 5

The Chaplin leads his terminators within an inch of the soul grinder and charges in. Under the pressure of all those strength 8 attacks the soul grinder explodes. 5 more zombies die but another terminator gets killed as well. The daemon combat again has no one die, its a real handbag fight.

Score: Big game Hunter

Renegades: 9 – Deathwing: 2

We roll to see if we go to turn 6... we don't.

End of Game

Renegades: 9 – Deathwing: 2

Victory to Chaos!

Post-Battle

I think my list was just unfortunate for the deathwing to come across, with so many pseudo-fearless units and actually fearless ones in such large numbers it would be a grind for him to take them out with out much shooting in his list. Against tank armies he could do well and I think that is what he was hoping for.

Having so many units as well gave me a massive advantage when it came to taking objectives which helped in the early game but towards the end I got cards which required me to kill units which is very hard to do with all those 2+ saves.

In this game we both had some bad rolls, but I think my opponent had the worse of the two. This gave me the edge in the game and things like the plaguebearers and soul grinder being able to hold their own against the terminators was unexpected and really shouldn't have happened.

So in the event that's a win and a loss so far, things are looking up.