Grudge match

The greatest Chaos battle I have yet played started at 12.00 mid day on January 5th 2008. 7500 points of Alpha Legion , using the new codex rules, squared off against a Khorne force with armoured support using Old Codex. Although the Titan was not in evidence (thank feth) there were 2 brass scorpions and a Baneblade to contend with, as well as a Hell-talon bomber, 103 khorne berseckers and a number of armoured vehicles. all those berseckers were going to be dropped via dreadclaw too. I wasn't making it easy on myself.

But then again, I wasn't going to make it easy for him either.

troops and plan.
I had access to the following formations and datasheets.

Strike force Nightmare.
Using the datasheet from speartip alliance, I constructed a strikeforce commanded by Saigo, one of my chaos lords, who was supported by an assault unit (10 marines with 2 flamers) and a security force (10 marines with heavy bolter and plasma gun), with 2 havoc squads. originally for the plan this unit would be deployed right ontop of one of the objectives, but that was until I realised that objectives are placed after deployment. So instead, they were placed right behind the enemy battleline.

Lost and the Damned.
using 40 cultists I constructed a rag-tag force of cannon fodder to hold up berseckers and worry objectives. with there infiltrate ability I sent them in beside strike force nightmare at the start, thus dominatiing both ends of the table with a small number of khorne forces in the middle.

chaos Annililation force
my ace card were 15 terminators plus a chaos lord who would deploy to take one of the objectives late in the game. they did indeed deploy on turn 3 at just the right moment (as you will see)

Predator Assassination squadron
taking full advantage of an imperial datasheet, I had 3 predators ready originally to take out the titan, but as it happened, I choice one of the brass scorpions as there objective instead. they deployed using the marvellous flank march rule which came, again, at the right time,

Vindicator line breaker squadron
3 vindicators packing demolisher cannons were to hit enemy objectives hard and allow my highly mobile infantry to follow up. again, they deployed via flank march.

4 rhinos with 40 troops.
deployed all at once via flank march, these highly mobile rhinos were intended as snatch squads, racing in to take enemy held objectives. in this, they excelled .

15 raptors
They deep striked in but did not do the damage I had hoped. again, they were intended to attack and take objectives already taken by berseckers

18 thousand sons and 10 nurgle marines
intended as 'hold up forces' to slow down khorne attack units. they did this very very well indeed, particularly the thousand sons who deployed via land raider.

chosen
2 squads of chosen further backed up the mutants and Nightmare but did not do so good during the game

chaos lord and havocs
Vedal himself was deployed on my side of the board with a havoc backup but didn't fare so well when he got attacked by a 12 man unit of Khorne Chosen. very nasty.

Hell-blade
this wonderful flyer really did the business, keeping my opponents accursed Hell-talon constantly harassed.

4 dreadnoughts
my biggest victory of the game was with the use of these nasties. deployed across my deployment zone these armoured monsters were to prove vital later in the game for causing damage.

enemy deployment and tactics
My enemy deployed his baneblade back from the fight and his two brass scorpions forward, as well as his Laser Destroyer and Leman Russ supported by bikers and chosen, ready for the immediately armoured thrust. the rest of his army was in reserve via Dreadclaw.

his tactic was standard bersecker. deploy via dreadclaw, kill anything near you, take the objectives. luckly, I was ready for this tactic (though not ready for the casualties I sustained regardless). and the datasheets I deployed proved invaluable.

Turn 1
My opponent simon bid 2 minutes for deployment (and deployed in 1 minute 30 seconds) so he got the first turn (though this left me able to infiltrate so that was the plan, all along). He immediately attacked, one of his Brass scorpions wiping out my havoc squad. his baneblade didn't manage to do much apart from scraping the land raiders armour and he killed a few mutants with his other brass scorpion.

but in my turn, I hammered him hard. in a seemingly suicidal move I had my close combat armed Dreadnought attack the brass scorpion. and killed it (without an explosion luckly)! one down one to go! to add insult to injury, my two havoc squads deployed with strikeforce nightmare (and located cunningly behind the baneblade) openned fire and destroyed the baneblade in one go! 2 big nasty things down, 1 brass scorpion to go. my land raider also destroyed his leman russ, leaving him with only his laser destroyed to engage it.

turn 2
but if I had my small victories in turn 1, Simon had his in turn 2. We simply called it 'the wrath of Khorne'. Dreadclaw deployed Khorne berseckers arrived in there first wave. 8 man units, heavily armed, attacked all across the table. 2 dreadnoughts were killed, the nurgle units rhino destroyed and the havocs of strike force nightmare wiped out. as well as this his Hell-talon appeared and hit the mutants, almost totally obiletrating them even as the brass scorpion laid into them likewise. in turn, poor vedal was killed in close combat.

I used my reserves to redress the balance a tad, deploying my raptors, a small terminator unit and obiletrators as well as my hell-blade to stem the tide. the thousand sons proved there worth as they they deployed from the land raider, wiping out a bersecker squad and assaulting the chosen. in turn the 2 remaining dreadnoughts hammered into close combat and my hell-blade damaged the hell-talon, taking out its accursed lascannon.

the damage on both sides were high. turn 3 was no different.

Turn 3
Khorne again let lose, with his second wave of Khorne Berseckers. they landed across the battlezone, dominating the close combats. all my reserves were wiped out almost to a man, with the terminators, obiliterators and raptors all being hit hard and fast. even the thousand sons were wittled down but gave a good account of themselves. Nurgle went better though, easily surviving a round of close combat and tying up a bersecker unit.

but with his last reserves deployed, I now took the iniatitive. the armoured company was deployed. Vindicators, rhinos and predators deployed onto the table and set about straighting out the chaotic battle. The Predators did there job, destroying the brass scorpion and making room for two of my rhinos to head toward an objective. the vindicators fared less well, unable to kill many berseckers. It was the annililation force that was the winner, deploying in close to the objective and wiping out a khorne bersecker squad nearby. the hell-blade continued chasing the hell-talon, preventing it from taking part in the battle. it was now down to what happened with the last 3 turns.

Turn 4
with his reserves gone, the berseckers attempted to hit objectives instead of wiping my forces out. a khorne force attempted to hit the terminators but had no success. bikers and berseckers attempted to move in on the predators but there plasma guns could not penetrate the armour. the laser destroyer again fired on the land raider but the machine had been totally untouched the entire battle, a force for the alpha legion amongst a sea of Khorne at my end of the table. He simply didn't have the heavy hitting heavy weapons to worry my newly arrived armoured company.

in response I returned fire with the predators and accompanying rhinos, wiping out what remained of a bersecker squad and the bikers. the vindicators totally missed there targets, very bad form indeed, causing no damage what so ever and allowing a complete bersecker squad to take an objective. at the end of turn 4, khorne had 4 objectives, whilst consolidating at one and leaving me with only the annililation force with a complete objective.

Turn 5
Khorne struck again, this time attacking with a bersecker unit against the annihilation force, wiping out a terminator unit! his chosen also took down the dreadnought they were in close combat with. but he was running out of bersecker units so could only remain in control of objectives and hope that my bad dice rolling continued. sadly for him, turn 5 was the turn my dice rolling mighty improved.

the vindicators at last did the business, wiping out a bersecker squad and leaving only a bike squad on the objective, with one of my very angry dreadnoughts also finishing off a bersecker squad nearby. my annililation squad still had berseckers in amongst it but the 2 rhinos were almost there, ready to deploy the final turn to turn the tide. my predators also cut down a load of berseckers near an objectives, preventing them from being a scoring unit and depriving khorne of one objective. Finally my Land raider won its dual with the Laser Destroyer, at last destroying khornes final armoured unit. it was all going to come down to the final turn.

Turn 6
turn 6 saw little movement from khorne as his troops were already in place at 4 objectives, with me only claiming 1 even now. his berseckers again worried the terminators, leaving them now with only a terminator lord and 5 terminators.

It was the rhino bore Alpha legion that finally secured victory. 2 units went to secure the objective with the terminators, taking out the remaining khorne units there. in turn, the other 2 rhinos hit another objective, deploying right beside it and wiping out the bersecker unit there. the vindicators didn't need to do anything as the dreadnought charged the only biker left on the objective, killing him and claiming it. and finally my land raider and hell-blade attacked berseckers at a 4th objective but did not manage to bring them down to below 50%.

conclusion
at the end of the battle 2 objectives were held by khorne (one by his chosen and one by a bersecker unit). I had claimed 3 in the last turn, one by a dreadnought (undamaged) one by 20 alpha legion with 2 rhinos (again, unharmed) and one via 2 rhinos, 20 alphas and some remaining terminators. the last objective had only one bersecker beside it so it was not a scoring objective. it was thus, 3 to 2 in my favour.

A costly victory for the Alpha Legion.

Tactics and lessons.
Against khorne dreadclaws the trick seemed to be having units for khorne to attack and thus draw him away from the all important objectives (the very tough thousand sons and nurgle units did this very well). At the same time, it was the highly mobile armoured forces that did the necessary of claiming / reclaiming the objectives toward the end of the game. I think next time it will be more mobile units in rhinos that will be needed. although strikeforce nightmare was a good idea on paper, it was wiped out to a man in the end by charging berseckers as its just too big of a target. the same with the mutants. the annililation force didn't do the business as so many terminators in one place were easy meat for berseckers with chain axes. Khornes big weakness as well is against armoured units as they simply don't have enough heavy weapons, particularly when you take out the super heavies.

As to a rematch, the one thing that impressed simon was the number of troops I could deploy in comparison to him so he may acquire the new codex and build a bersecker army based on it for comparisons seek. It would be interesting to see how a force would look and function now.

As to the next big game, it will be some time before I can it again. And it will be my Eldar next time, my old favourite army.

they need some repair work done but they will be ready. it could well prove the most exciting game though, given the datasheets now available.