This was a 2500pt battle between Chaos Space Marines and the uncomfortably allied forces of Space Wolves and Tau. The mission was Cloak and Shadows (hidden tacical objectives).
The Allied force consisted of: Lascannon long fangs accompanied by a divination rune priest, skyclaws accompanied by a thunderwolf-mounted wolf lord, another squad of skyclaws, three squads of grey hunters mounted in rhinos; some kroot, a broadside, a sniper/markerlight drone squad, some stealth suits, some fire warriors, and Commander Farsight (warlord) with an extensive retinue of bodyguards and shield drones.
The Chaos force consisted of two squads of plague zombies, two maulerfiends, two squads of obliterators, a squad of mutilators, a squad of chaos spawn, warp talons, two squads of plague marines in rhinos, Typhus, and a sorceror (warlord). The sorceror had strategic genius (reroll reserve rolls, which turned out to be pretty good) and had rolled up some good biomancy powers, including Iron Arm.
Deployment (15:50)
Chaos arrived first. The fiends, rhinos, and spawn deployed aggressively toward the ruins, split roughly evenly to either flank. The zombies dug in on the rear objectives. Everything else stayed in reserve aboard the Terminus Est.
The allies counterdeployed, moving cautiously to avoid getting too close to one anther. The long fangs, broadside, and fire warriors held rear objectives. The rhinos full of space wolves advanced under cover in the east, hoping to roll up on a Chaos flank and take an objective. The stealth suits and the kroot infiltrated toward the ruins in the center. The wolf lord and one squad of sky claws held back behind the long fangs. The other squad of skyclaws and the "Farsight bomb" remained in reserve.
Chaos 1 (16:14)
Perhaps cautious of the Long Fangs and the Broadside, the chaos forces advanced into cover. The maulerfiends moved into the ruins in the center of the board, incongrously fast and agile in the rubble. The plague marine rhinos advanced toward the center objectives, but remained conceiled behind rubble as well.
The maulerfiends and spawn charged the kroot in the ruins. Overwatch and supporting fire from the stealth suits targetted the spawn, taking one wound off of one of them. The spawn failed their charge, but the fiends made it in, killed 6 kroot, and crushed the rest in a sweeping advance. The fiends consolidated into cover.
Chaos scored first blood for the kroot, and two tactical objectives (#4 in the backfield and #5 in the center ruins).
Allies 1 (16:50)
The rhinos advanced quickly toward the eastern objective, taking it as the plague marines were a bit out of range.
The Rune Priest failed to bless the Long Fangs, and their fire against the western maulerfiend (in cover) was largely ineffective, scoring one glancing hit. The eastern maulerfiend was painted by many markerlights, but this didn't seem to help as the broadside and the stealth suits failed to damage him.
Score at the end of turn 1: chaos 3, allies 1
Chaos 2 (17:11)
Reinforcements from the Terminus Est arrived, with terrifying coordination (I have never seen such accuracy and punctuality). The warp talons and attached sorcerer flashed in near the broadside and fire warriors, blinding them. The mutilators and one squad of obliterators phased in near the stealth suits, surrounding them. Typhus and the other squad of obilterators arrived behind the wolf lord and long fangs. The western maulerfiend advanced toward the Long Fangs.
One of the plague marine rhinos advanced toward the wolves rhinos, contesting objective #6 (eastern rubble). The other moved flat-out to take objective #5 (center ruins).
The sorceror girded himself with Iron Arm, but failed to Smite. Force was denied. Plague Wind from Typhus killed two skyclaws from the wolf lord's escort. The rest of the skyclaws were subsequently killed by plasma cannon fire from the obliterators accompanying Typhus (this also wounded the wolf lord).
The eastern obliterators detonated one of the space wolf rhinos with their lascannons, forcing the passengers to take cover in the rubble near objective #6. Plasma fire from the plague marines immobilized a second rhino.
The spawn assaulted the stealth suits, slaying most of them and sweeping the sole survivor. The western maulerfiend assaulted the long fangs, killing one.
The other maulerfiend assaulted the immobilized rhino, destroying it and dropping another squad of space wolves into the meat grinder.
Chaos holds 3 objectives, scoring d3=2 VP.
Allies 2 (18:20)
Farsight, possibly seeing how this was going, decided not to show up. The second squad of skyclaws arrived, but jamming from the Terminus Est caused them to arrive off target, isolated and surrounded by enemies.
Grey Hunters disembarked from the remaining rhino. Concentrated fire from the grey hunters destroyed the plague marine rhino, but failed to wound any of the heretics themselves. Support fire from the boardside glanced the eastern maulerfiend to death, and fire from the fire warriors wounded the spawn.
The Wolf Lord knew that he had to turn this around fast, if there was to be any chance of saving the mission. With the Xenos commander cowering in orbit, he was the man to do it. Surrounded and alone, he let out a cry and charged the enemy sorcorer and his warp talon escord. It might have worked...but for the Iron Arm.
Another long fang was crushed by the maulerfiend.
The grey hunters had managed to at least push the plague marines off if objective #6, but, the bad news is that all of our cards involved taking objective #5, not #6. Oops!
Score at the end of turn 2: Chaos 5, Allies 1
Chaos 3 (19:04)
Warpcraft from Typhus failed to wound the wolf lord. Fire from obliterators and plague marines cuts into grey hunters, causing one squad to break and run (subsequently slaughtered by the mutilators).
The obliterators instant-deathed the broadside with lascannon fire, and the chaos spawn charged the skyclaws.
The Wolf Lord fell in combat against the sorceror and his escort, leaving noone to stop the Enemy from rampaging around in the backfield....
Allies 3 (19:40)
...except Farsight and his absurd number of escorts, who arrived from deep strike in position to attack the enemy warlord. (A bit close to our board edge, you might say?)
One squad of grey hunters re-mounted in their rhino and headed for objective #5 (controlled by plague marines).
Farsight's squad slew all of the Enemy sorceror's escort, but failed to take out the warlord himself (Iron Arm, again).
The Long Fangs and attached rune priest continued their fight against the Maulerfiend.
Chaos 4 (20:14)
The sorceror, feeling a bit exposed, attached to Typhus' squad as they closed on Farsight. He then suffered the Perils of the Warp and was dragged into the warp, doubling the allies score by giving them Slay the Warlord. He also managed to drain all of Typhus' remaining warp charge so that he couldn't do sorcery. (That guy was probably our MVP.)
Mutilators and plague marines destroyed the Grey Hunters who remained near the eastern objective, gaining control of objective #6.
The plague marines by objective 5 destroyed the Grey Hunters rhino, spilling them out.
The skyclaws finished off the chaos spawn, and consolidated to assist the grey hunters.
Combined fire from both squads of obliterators destroyed many drones from Farsight's escort. Typhus and his obliterators then charged, losing an oblit to overwatch. Typhus called Farsight out in a challenge.
Three of Farsight's bodyguards were slain. Farsight took two wounds, and then fled off the table. Slay the warlord to chaos!
(There is a bit of a gap here because at this point, the Tau went to the liquor store...)
Allies 4 (21:28)
The grey hunters and skyclaws surrounded the plague marine rhino near objective 5, attempting to glance it to death and give the plague marines nowhere to run. This half-worked, as the rhino was destroyed, but the plague marines managed to escape.
The Long Fangs managed to glance the maulerfiend to death with krag grenades, winning the combat!
The plague marines had run a bit too far, such that the grey hunters captured objective #5 in the central ruins, for which they had two cards.
Score at the end of turn 4: Chaos 8, Allies 4
Turn 5 (21:50)
Fire from the obliterators slew the rune priest and some fire warriors.
The plague marines advanced toward objective #1 (in the ruins by the Long Fangs).
Typhus' squad charged the fire warriors and wiped them out, but one of the oblits actually took a wound in the melee.
Grey Hunters and Skyclaws advanced on the plague marines, trying unsuccessfully to blast them off of objective #1. The sniper drones managed to kill an obliterator.
We rolled that there should be another turn, but we agreed to just end it.
Final score: Chaos 10, Allies 4 -- a decisive chaos win!
Edited by: Volkov on 1/17/16