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This was a 750pt battle between Nurgle Marines and Space Wolves. The space wolves force consisted of: a lord on a thunderwolf ("Immovable Object"), 10 bloodclaws in a rhino, 10 grey hunters in a rhino, and 8 skyclaws. The Nurgle force was made up of: two squads of 7 plague marines each in rhinos, a squad of 6 warp talons, and a chaos lord with a jump pack ("Black Crusader").


We deployed along the long table edges; Chaos placed first, and wolves failed to seize the initiative. We tried to deploy near objective markers.
We rolled for a mission and came up with Maelstrom: Contact Lost. This is the one where you generate one new objective at the start of your turn for each marker you control. I really liked this mission -- there is an incentive to control territory, but you still need to be flexible enough to achieve whatever wacky objectives you draw. We also used mysterious objectives, but they didn't seem to have any impact on the game (sometimes because of power armor, sometimes because we forgot about them).

I was hoping to wipe out the warp talons with my wolf lord before they got to the guys in power armor, so I put him and the skyclaws as close as I could get them.

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Chaos 1 (13:42)
Chaos drew the objectives "Hold the Line" and "No Prisoners". The black chaos rhino started on an objective ("Sabotage!"), and the warp talons shifted a bit to claim a second ("Scatterfield"). The grey chaos rhino moved a bit toward the warp talons. He scored "Hold the Line".
Score: chaos 1, wolves 0

Wolves 1 (13:55)
I drew "Psychological Warfare", which I don't think I ever wound up scoring. Both of my rhinos moved to take objectives (both turned out to be "Grav Wave Generator"), the grey one deploying blood claws into some Ruins to make the claim. The wolf lord and skyclaws advanced and ran toward the warp talons and chaos lord.

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Chaos 2 (14:20)
Chaos drew "Big Game Hunter" and "Secure Objective 2" (which was the one with the blood claws on it).
The warp talons charged (through the grav field and the ruins) to the objective, and wiped out the blood claws. He lost 4 talons to the claws counterassault, but that action scored him first blood and no prisoners. The talons were a bit out of range of the objective, so they didn't score that card.
Score: chaos 3, wolves 0

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Wolves 2 (14:50)
Wolves drew "objective 5" and "hungry for glory". I happened to have objective 5 already, so I left a rhino there. The skyclaws advanced and shot their pistols at the warp talons and chaos lord, scoring an amazing 6 wounds, which wound up taking 2 wounds off the chaos lord and killing one warp talon (who the lord had shoved in front of him).

I kept the skyclaws on an objective, but the Wolf Lord, enraged by the death of the claws, charged in and slew the chaos lord in a challenge, scoring "hungry for glory" and slay the warlord (in addition to objective 5). (The wolf lord was so hungry for glory, in fact, that he charged off to battle despite the fact that the Administorum Courier carrying his backpack and cape had not arrived yet. This semi-girded state may explain why he was only able to make a single 2+ armor save all game...)
Score: chaos 3, wolves 3

Chaos 3 (15:10)
He drew "Secure objective 4", which was occupied by his rhino and my skyclaws. The rhino disgorged plague marines, who rapid fired the skyclaws taking one out. Though the skyclaws were still there, Chaos controlled the marker due to "Objective Secured", so he scored that point. He jumped the remaining warp talons up into the ruins to claim objective 2, scoring that as well.
Score: chaos 5, wolves 3

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Wolves 3 (15:25)
The blue rhino dropped off its grey hunters, and then the rhino and the hunters each went to claim a different objective.

The wolf lord jumped his wolf up into the ruins to kill a warp talon (the other one made two invulnerable saves...) and took a wound in response, but contested the objective up there. [It seems like maybe cavalry shouldn't be able to get up into ruins, but I couldn't find the rule and we agreed that if the thing could run around carrying around a dude in power armor that weighs as much as a forklift, it might as well be able to jump up onto a second story balcony too. Did I cheat?]

The skyclaws fired their pistols and charged the plague marines, scoring one kill with their HoW attack from their jump charge, but missing everything else (the blight grenades (to deny my charge attacks) really were the MVP of this game, I think. Most of my force was "+2 attacks on a charge" guys).

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Chaos 4 (15:50)
He drew "Assassinate". His rhinos both rammed the rhino I had on objective 5 (in the road), losing a hull point in the process, but then stripping a hull point from the imperial rhino with a storm bolter shot against rear armor. The Wolf Lord slew the last warp talon, gaining control of the objective in those ruins. The melee between the plague marines and skyclaws continues, with no unsaved wounds.

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Wolves 4 (16:05)
Wolves held three objective markers, and so drew "Hold the Line", "Domination", and "Capture objective 6". Chaos elected objective 2 for my "Hold the Line", which was the one my warlord was standing on in the ruins. The wolf lorddecided to stay up there (dangerously exposed to shooting) in order to hold the objective.
The skyclaws lost two of their number to the plague marines and broke, falling back shamefully.
I scored objectives 2 and 6.
Score: chaos 5, wolves 5

Chaos 5
He drew "secure objective 1". The black rhino deployed plague marines onto objective 1 ("Targetting Relay"). Massed bolter fire from the plague marines and chaos rhinos took 2 wounds off of the Wolf Lord, leaving him with just one. He scored objective 1.
Score: chaos 6, wolves 5

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Wolves 5 (16:22)
Again on three objectives, I drew "Objective 4", "Ascendency", and "Supremacy". I repositioned the grey hunters a bit so that they could score "linebreaker" while still holding their objective. The skyclaws took objective 4, and I scored a boatload of points for holding so many objectives (definitely got a lucky draw this turn): "Hold the Line" (with the wolf lord, 2 points), "Secure Objective 4", "Ascendency" (d3=2), and "Supremacy" (d3=3).
Score: chaos 6, wolves 13
We rolled for "variable game length", but the game continued.

Chaos 6
He drew "Secure objective 1". The far squad of plague marines shot at the Wolf Lord and took him out, scoring "assassination" and "slay the warlord".
The other squad of plague marines shot the skyclaws with pistols, slaying 1. And then charged the grey imperial rhino, destroying it with krak grenades to score "big game hunter". Then he also scored "control objective 1".
Score: chaos 10, wolves 13

Wolves 6
Skyclaws charged the plague marines (I didn't learn, I guess). One skyclaw and one plague marine bit it. I score objective 6.
Score: chaos 10, wolves 14
We rolled again and the game went to turn 7.

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Chaos 7
He drew objective 6, and "hungry for glory". the grey chaos rhino drove for linebreaker. A plague marine issued a challenge to a skyclaw, scoring glory and a mutation.
Score: chaos 11, wolves 14

Wolves 7 (17:10)
I didn't do anything.
We both scored linebreaker.
Final score: chaos 12, wolves 15

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Edited by: Volkov on 3/21/15

I brought an assaulty force because I figured there was a 2/3 chance I would be going up against Tau or Guard, but then I wound up fighting the CSM guy.

I had originally been planning to try to just take him out (primarily with the overpowered wolf lord), but then he told me about the blight grenades. 2/3 of my force was claws (+2 attacks on a charge guys, who otherwise suck) so I changed tactics and decided to try to win through points.

It was a very close game. I think I only won due to drawing two of those lucky 1d3 point cards in turn 5. I scored 8 points in turn 5 -- ridiculous.

I had been making an effort to "create luck" through holding a lot (4?) of objective markers (so I could draw a lot of tactical objective cards), but I could have just as easily drawn two single-point cards, in which case the game would have been a draw. (I think that would have been a more likely outcome than what happened.)

I was not impressed with the claws (cheaper troops who have BS3 and WS3, no bolters, but +2 attacks on a charge, pistols and chainswords). But I think it was just because they are useless against plague marines (with their defensive grenades). I may try them again under different circumstances.

The thunderwolf lord was as ridiculous as advertised, though his weakness sure seems to be bolter fire. I made that worse by sticking him off on his own, though, instead of keeping him in a unit (or in CC). I was just trying to hold as many objectives as possible (which I guess worked).

I really liked (in a sense) the plague marines -- they are what SM are supposed to be, I think. Super tough, solid troops, good all-around. My guys felt like guardsmen, shooting at those guys. (They looked great too.)

Objective Secured seems good (though I think this is the first game where it has come up).
Transports seem good.
I like the mobility of the jump pack guys.

I think in the future I may go the 'pound the plague marines with missiles from 48" away' route.

Edited by: Volkov on 3/21/15

My daddy always said, "When you want to insert a nail into a piece of wood, don't do anything fancy or glamorous. Just take the damn hammer and hit the son of a bitch until it's in."

Everything we got.

Edited by: Volkov on 3/22/15