2nd 7th edition game! Chaos vs Dark Angels
The board setup – there’s no more ‘roll for terrain’, you just place the terrain as you like it. I imagine tournaments will handle this very differently, but if you want to set up like an entrance to a city with wide-open areas at one side and a mega-dense area at the other, you can do that. It makes it a little less tactical but for ‘serious’ games you can roll 6th edition style. I think 7th requires you to talk a lot more with the other player to decide what sort of feel you both want for the game.
Board setup from the other side. We both went with Battle-forged armies, meaning following the Force Organization Chart. We agree beforehand to limit the Psyker dice to an equal amount, I went with 2 from Typhus and 1 from a standard Chaos Sorcerer. Jack took Ezekiel, who has 3 on his own.
We chose to roll randomly from the Maelstrom of War missions, which are the ones that use the Objective cards. The one we rolled was #2, which lets you draw as many cards as objective points you control.
Typhus MUST choose from the powers of Nurgle, but the new rules mean if you choose from a single power, you automatically get the Primaris power. Mastery Level 2 gets you 2 more powers, which are drawn randomly, so this being Chaos powers there’s only 1 power that Typhus *doesn’t* get. The powers aren’t fabulous, they’re alright.
HOWEVER…the Chaos Sorcerer has a choice of psyker disciplines he can draw from…so he went with Malefic, which has many summoning powers. He drew the Sacrifice power, which lets him summon a Chaos Herald (the really tough but lower-ranked daemons) AND the one that lets him summon a huge number of different daemon troop choices, including 10 Bloodletters, 10 Plaguebearers, etc.! Woop!
We chose to roll both of our Warlord Traits from the main book instead of the codex, and that lets you choose from 4 different types of traits. All of the different traits look pretty good at first glance, really, and Typhus rolled a strategic trait that let him and 3 units Infiltrate! So with my deep-striking units I actually put nothing on the table, even though I rolled to deploy first. I also chose to go first, which is a new thing – I could have let Jack go first. So the Dark Angels deployed on top of 3 of the objectives, so he’d be drawing 3 cards on his turn, and his warlord trait allowed him to discard two cards at the end of his turn, rather than just one like normal.
The rest of Dark Angel deployment – the red power generator was an objective, and there was an objective in the ruins at top left of picture. Now for the infiltration!
NURGLE ZOMBIES!!! The Forgefiend was actually supposed to deploy first, as Typhus’ warlord trait was for non-vehicle units to infiltrate, so Fluffy the Forgefiend was put at the back of the table. Tyhpus is accompanied by 34 Plague Zombies, and the Sorcerer has 17 to shield him. The factory in the background has a squad of Havocs armed with autocannons (should have been plasma cannons or lascannons going against MEQ, but I forget this every time). Waiting in the wings is a 3-man squad of obliterators and a 3-man squad of Terminators.
FRIKKERING DAGGUMMIT! Dark Angels stole the initiative! Theiving Marines!
Dark Angels objectives for this turn. The third card, #13, gave him an easy VP already! (at the end of his turn)
Vindicator ablasted away at Typhus’ zombies…BRAINS…
While the Land Raider did the same to the Sorcerer’s zombies.
Chaos objectives for the turn – no chance of that second one happening, so the zombies had to run for objective 6! Not that they can run…
First attempt by the Sorcerer to summon some Bloodletters! It’s a Warp Charge 3 power, so 3 successes needed on 5 dice, statistically a 50% roll…and SUCCESS! But also a Perils of the Warp! He takes a wound!
But there are now Bloodletters on the field! Yes, those are actual Bloodletter models!
Another success! Sacrificing the soul of a Plague Zombie (I guess according to the rules they have souls…) brings a Herald of Khorne, a tougher, nastier Bloodletter.
The sole Dark Angel casualty this turn was the Devastator Sergeant…Bloodletters can’t shoot!
Turn 2! Challenges and moving to within 12″ of the Chaos back table edge would earn them some valuable points.
The Land Raider blasted away at Typhus’ zombies this time, while the Terminators piled out of the Land Raider and the Vindicator destroyed every. single. Bloodletter.
Terminators and Ezekiel in combat against zombies? Not a problem!
Chaos find out their new objective! NO CHANCE of getting to objective 5! Bleah
But hey, both the Oblits and Termies come in, and deep strike right where they’re needed most (and where I can reach them from where I’m sitting). The Obliterators get a penetration on the Vindi’s side armor, but don’t explode it, just stun the crew, making sure it can’t move or fire next time. The Chaos Terminators blast at the Devastators, knocking them down a bit.
The Forgefiend moves up and unfortunately Fluffy fluffs his rolls! A Gets Hot and a complete miss 🙁
End of the turn and not much has changed, just a couple more Devastators gone.
They still hold the objective, though! What the hell!?
Dark Angels Turn 3 – Fluffy is dead! So’s the Sorcerer! And a lot more zombies (but no one cares about them)
The other squads of Space Marines haven’t seen much action, that’s because they’re holding the objective in the ruins to the left and running forward to grab objective 5 at the red power generator.
Final result, 10 to 1, Jack wins again!