Blood On The Snow: Space Wolves vs The Purge

The Vlka Fenrika are back! 

And this time, they've got a proper Wolf Lord to lead them.

My opponent - trying out a Skype game for the first time - would be Monkey. We've battled a couple of times before, but instead of the Thousand Sons, I would be bringing the favoured of Nurgle.

Space Wolves - The Rout of Nivag Troshvik

Not having access to his classic Space Wolves army, Monkey had to sully himself with Primaris. And it's a solid all-round army: three squads of Intercessors, a pair of HQs to lead them, with Aggressors, Hellblasters and Inceptors to provide various kinds of punch.

• Primaris Wolf Lord in Gravis Armour (HQ)
  Boltstorm Gauntlet, Master-Crafted Power Sword
  Warlord Trait: Saga of the Bear
  Relic: The Armour of Russ
• Primaris Battle Leader (HQ)
  Master-crafted Stalker Bolt Rifle, Bolt Pistol,
• 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
  Auxiliary Grenade Launcher, Bolt rifle. Intercessor Pack Leader, Power fist
• 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
  Auxiliary Grenade Launcher, Stalker Bolt Rifle. Intercessor Pack Leader, Chainsword
• 5 x Intercessor Squad (Troops)
  Stalker Bolt rifle. Intercessor Pack Leader,
• 5 x Aggressors (Elite)
  Auto Boltstorm Gauntlets/Fragstorm Grenade Launcher
• 5 x Inceptor Squad (Fast)
  Assault Bolters
• 5 x Hellblaster Squad (Heavy)
  Plasma Incinerator

Points: 1000 | Level: 66 | Battle-forged + Battalion: 8 CPs

The Pestilent Congregation - The Purge Vanguard

There's few options for me with The Purge, so I brought everything I had, and then some. Decius, my eternally jovial Terminator Sorcerer is the warlord, naturally. For the other HQ, I brought out Dark Apostle 'Let The Galaxy' Burn, since he tends to supervise all things related to The Cabal.

Plague Marines, Chosen, Rhino, Helbrute and Greater Possessed as standard. I did put all three of my Obliterators in the list to start with, but that seemed a bit anti-social at 1,000pts, so I drafted in a Patrol detachment of Nurgle Daemons. These should be more fun, and having the speed of the Plague Drones to pounce on objectives shouldn't be too bad either.

• Decius - Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (HQ) (Warlord)
  Combi-melta, Force Sword, Frag & Krak Grenades, Mark of Nurgle
  Warlord trait: Blessed Mission
  Miasma of Pestilence, Warptime
• 'LTG' Burn - Dark Apostle (HQ)
  Accursed crozius, Bolt pistol, Mark of Nurgle
  Prayers: Dark Zealotry, Feculent Beseechment, Soultearer Portent
• 2 x Dark Disciples
  Close combat weapons, Mark of Nurgle
• Greater Possessed (Elite)
  Daemonic Mutations, Mark of Nurgle
  Orb of Unlife
• 5 x Chaos Chosen (Elite)
  4 x Combi-bolter, 4 x chainswords, Thunder Hammer, Reaper Chaincannon, Mark of Nurgle
• 5 x Plague Marines (Elite)
  Power fist, 2 x Flail of Contagion, 2 x 2nd Plague Knife, Blight & Krak Grenades
• Helbrute (Elite)
  Helbrute fist (combi-bolter), Power scourge, Mark of Nurgle
• Obliterator (Heavy)
  Fleshmetal guns, Mark of Nurgle
• Rhino (Transport)
  Combi-bolter), Mark of Nurgle

• Poxbringer (HQ)
  Balesword
  Shrivelling Pox
• 3 x Nurglings (Troop)
  Diseased teeth and claws
• 3 x Plague Drones (Fast)
  Death’s Heads, Plagueswords, Prehensile proboscis

Points: 1000 | Level: 58 | Battle-forged + Vanguard + Patrol: 4 CPs

Mission and Deployment

We're playing the Eternal War mission Crusade - which is the Chapter Approved 2019's 'basic' Eternal War. Keeping it nice and simple: just hold objectives at the start of your turn, and the usual bonus points to be had.

We're playing on a 4x4 table, with Dawn of War deployment. I go first, and set up all The Purge on my right flank - looking to race up the edge of the board. The Plague Marines go into the Rhino, along with the Greater Possessed, Dark Apostle and his Disciples (I didn't bring Benediction of Darkness this time, so there's no loss to him starting the first turn embarked.

In the ruins (on an objective) go the Chosen accompanied by the Terminator Sorcerer, Poxbringer and Helbrute. On the other flank, the Nurglings hide behind a rock, securing another objective, and the Plague Drones hug the other edge of the board. The lone Obliterator goes into deepstrike.

Monkey elects to castle up around the cantina. One rank of Stalker Intercessors, backed up by the Hellblasters, another unit of Stalker Intercessors on the ground and the Wolf Lord and Battle Leader granting rerolls to them all.

On the left flank, behind an ice mound and on another objective, is the regular pack of Intercessors. The Inceptors go into deepstrike, and the Cunning of the Wolf stratagem is played to put the Aggressors 'on the hunt' as well.

As I placed first, I will go first... and then Monkey steals the initiative!

I should have known I wouldn't be able to sneak an ambush past the hyper-senses of the Vlka.

Space Wolves - Turn 1

Despite leaping to seize their advantage, the Space Wolves discover that most of my army is hidden, heavily-armoured or characters. Playing instead for the points, all three packs of Intercessors move onto their respective objective markers, ready to score them next turn.

Conscious of securing an early First Strike, a couple of the Stalker Intercessors and Hellblasters on the roof of the cantina manage to thread the needle between the generators and pick on the squad of Chosen. I slightly regret leaving them in the open now, but there isn't enough firepower to take the squad and only a couple of them fall.

All the other small-arms fire go into the Plague Drones, which is the only other viable target (and those bugs are too big to hide anywhere). Their toughness proves hard to shift, and only one of them is brought down.

And so ends a cautious first turn, no points scored.

Space Wolves 0 : 0 The Purge

The Purge - Turn 1

No hanging about - the Rhino guns its engines and zooms halfway across the board, carrying my attack force. The Helbrute and Decius (my Terminator Sorcerer) follow behind, and the last three Chosen run up to the generators and hug them for cover.

The Poxbringer stays on the back objective, happy that he can't be shot from the castle, and the Nurglings cluster out of sight on the objective behind the rocks, hopefully to be overlooked for the whole game. Finally, the two remaining Plague Drones advance into the middle of their field and flap their wings, trying to look like a tempting target.

In the Psychic Phase, the Poxbringer is out of useful range, but the Terminator Sorcerer puts Miasma of Pestilence on the Rhino (I use a reroll to make this happen, as I really need this not to get shot up), and then Warptime it up the table. This second spell is probably more useful, as I'm able to park it behind the ice mound, which is pretty good at blocking line of sight from the Space Wolves' castle.

The Rhino then pops its smoke launchers, so the vehicle is now -2 to hit. Try hitting that with overcharged plasma!

What few guns I do have in range have no chance of taking out a Primaris, so I don't secure First Strike either (and I'm only on two objectives, so even if I hold them, I'll be behind). A cagey start to the battle.

Space Wolves 0 : 0 The Purge

Space Wolves - Turn 2

The Space Wolves begin the turn with 3 VPs, then do some minor redeploying to get firing angles with their castle. The Intercessor squad facing the Rhino tries to fall back, and still keep one toe on the objective (it's not a bad idea, as I have no objective secured in my force, and even one living Primaris will gain another point).

And then the hammer falls: I haven't managed to screen out all of the backfield from deepstrikers. And worse, I've left my Poxbringer and Terminator Sorcerer somewhat exposed to fire at the back. Both Aggressors and Inceptors appear in a tight pocket in the centre of my backline, ready to wreck boltstorm havoc.

So I'm caught between a crossfire here. Monkey's first plan is to aim the Hellblasters at the Rhino, switching plasma incinerators to overcharge. Before I can get too gleeful, he plays the Keen Senses stratagem, which removes all the hit penalties I've painstakingly added to it. The good luck ends there, however, as the Hellblasters fail to penetrate the armour, and only strip away two wounds.

The rest of the castle's shooting - which had been reserved for the passengers, once they spilled out of the destroyed Rhino - is instead directed at the Plague Drones, taking them out.

At the back, the Aggressors split their fire on targets of opportunity, with three of them into the Terminator Sorcerer. My warlord rides his luck - and his 2+ save + and walks through the mass-reactive fusillade with only one wound lost. The other Aggressors take out a base of Nurglings.

Continuing the pain, the Inceptors wipe out the remaining Chosen, and whittle the Nurglings down to a single wound before making the long charge and jumping up and down upon the poor wee thing.

But the charge that really matters - Aggressors into Decius and the Helbrute - falls dreadfully short. To add insult to injury, Decius plinks off a wound with his combi-melta as they charge in (he has a habit of doing that).

I'm behind on points, and I've got a hell of a problem in my backline, but I feel I got away with that.

Space Wolves 3 : 0 The Purge

The Purge - Turn 2

Just the single VP to get me out of the traps - I really wasn't expecting the lose the Nurglings this early (if at all!). But the move has forced the Space Wolves to put his best units close to my punchiest ones, so vengeance is on the cards.

Decius and the Helbrute turn around to deal with the Aggressors, while the Poxbringer gets settled on his objective. The Rhino empties its contents and Plague Marines, Greater Possessed and Dark Apostle all move towards the Intercessors.

Finally, the lone Obliterator makes his appearance: right in the centre of the battlefield, ready to rake fire on either side (and holding an objective for good measure).

The Poxbringer finally gets to speak in the Psychic Phase, putting Shrivelling Pox on the Aggressors to drop their pesky toughness. Decius then Smites away one of them and puts Miasma of Pestilence on himself.



In the Shooting Phase, Decius continues his punishment of the Aggressors by shooting one of them with his combi-melta. In the centre, the Obliterator decides the Hellblasters are the greatest threat, but only manages to kill one of them.

Against the squad of Intercessors, I'm desperate to cause a wound in shooting, since that will unlock my Purge trait in melee. But plasma pistols and krak grenades all fail - until I remember the Greater Possessed was given the Orb of Unlife, and he lobs a vial of the life-eater virus onto the squad, which devours one of them.

Bolstered by that, once the Rhino has eaten the overwatch, everybody piles into the squad: Plague Marines, Greater Possessed and Dark Apostle. The only ones to fail their charge are the Dark Disciples, but they'll hardly be missed.

On the other side of the field, the Helbrute and Decius slam into the remaining Aggressors. Despite the battering onslaught of the Helbrute's fists (each one is a dead marine, so he's well-equipped to take on Aggressors), he makes heavy work of it, and has to rely on his flail to bring the last one down. But the squad is wiped, and the dreadnought consolidates towards the Inceptors, so I can actually screen my characters this time.

The Intercessors put on a good showing too - although their interruption of combat fails to even scratch the Greater Possessed. It takes the combined attacks of my characters and the dreaded plague flails to wipe out the squad - again, the Plague Marines consolidate towards the castle while the characters hang back and claim the objective.

That was a good turn for me. I'm behind in points, but I've hit the Wolves hard, and now I'm rampaging across their backline.

Space Wolves 3 : 1 The Purge

Space Wolves - Turn 3

It's another three points for the Space Wolves, since they got pushed off one objective, but grabbed another. More shuffling of the castle, this time with the aim of targeting the encroachers.

The Inceptors also leave their objective - they can't get far enough to threaten Decius or the Poxbringer, so it's the daemon engines they want this time.

The Inceptors' assault bolters open up on the Helbrute, who rolls pretty badly for his armour saves (six 2s didn't help) and is destroyed. On the other side of the field, the Hellblasters overcharge and shoot into the Plague Marines, wiping them out to a man. Oh my.

The remaining bolter shots go into the Obliterator, who remains standing on two wounds. And then the Inceptors declare a charge against him - and fall just short.

That was a pretty powerful punch back from the Space Wolves. I'm now left trailing points badly, and with a handful of units left to chase the game.

Space Wolves 6 : 1 The Purge

The Purge - Turn 3

I also manage to take 3 VPs this turn (Poxbringer, Obliterator and Dark Disciples), although my Obliterator promptly abandons his post to confront the Inceptors. With mobility and firepower, this a game-winning unit that I need to cripple.

What remains of my invasion force races towards the castle - the Rhino does a handbrake turn to park next to the building, acting a screen for the two characters.

At the start of the round, the Dark Apostle finally got off a prayer - Feculent Beseechment - boosting his toughness, though without any help from the Dark Disciples. This pair are too far away to catch up with their boss, and so decide to take cover behind ice mound, neatly hidden from Space Wolf eyes, but still scoring an objective.

In the Psychic Phase, the Poxbringer repeats his Shrivelling Pox trick, this time on the Inceptors, and Decius takes one out with Smite and combi-melta.

In Shooting, the Obliterator continues to pound the Hellblasters, but the cover save of the cantina is proving durable, and I only mange a wound (which is enough to trigger The Purge ability, so not all bad).

Straight to combat - the Obliterator and Decius charge into the Inceptors. I make a few speculative long-range charges on the Hellblasters with both Greater Possessed and Dark Apostle, and am shocked when I make both of them! Not as shocked as one of the Hellblasters, who fumbles his overcharge and blows himself up. The Wolf Lord and Battle Leader immediately intervene, and the fight is on.

I'd like to fight first with the Greater Possessed, but the Armour of Russ has scuppered that, and he'll fight last (if he survives). And so the Dark Apostle takes up the slack: smashing down the last three Hellblasters with his accursed crozius. The Battle Leader (being only armed with a rifle butt) fails to harm the Dark Apostle, and the Wolf Lord predictably tears the Greater Possessed into shreds.

On my side of the field, the Obliterator brings down two Inceptors, and Decius accounts for another. The Inceptor Pack Leader does manage to kick away a wound from the Obliterator, but having lost four of his squad, he will need to check morale...

It's a 6.

But they know no fear!

It's another 6.

Clearly, he knows a little fear and bounces back to the safety of low orbit.


Space Wolves 6 : 4 The Purge

Space Wolves - Turn 4

Just 2 VP this time, as the Space Wolf footprint is shrinking back into their castle. The Battle Leader falls out of combat, making room for the Wolf Lord to charge into the Dark Apostle. Even his increased toughness isn't going to save him, and he joins the rest of the invasion party in a crumpled heap.

The Intercessors would like to have shot the Dark Disciples, but they really are keeping their heads down. That option is not available to the Obliterator who, despite bring behind a building, can still be seen (stupid shoulder guns). Sadly, there aren't enough shots to get past his toughness, and he's left alive on one wound.

For all that, the Space Wolves are certainly in ascendancy with models on the table. But it has cost them a reduced footprint, and I've still got some guns left.

Space Wolves 8 : 4 The Purge

The Purge - Turn 4

Back to 2VP for me, though Decius runs onto the central objective to claim it back. The Obliterator scrambles to the roof of the building, for what must be his last round of shooting. The Poxbringer and Dark Disciples stay put - essentially out of the game, but bringing me precious points.

The Rhino parks itself on top of the Space Wolves' objective. I can't claim it over the squad of Intercessors, but while it's there, Decius can't be targeted. I also have a plan - if I Smite and shoot away the Intercessor squad with everything I have, then I'll able to steal the objective from them.

It goes badly when my Smite fails (so no Purge re-rolls) and then both combi-melta and Obliterator underperform, taking out only two Primaris marines.

There's nothing to charge, so I just have to hope I can hang on somehow.

Space Wolves 8 : 6 The Purge

Space Wolves - Turn 5

Monkey extends his lead yet again with 2VP, and the Wolf Lord wastes no time in jumping down from the cantina and making for the Rhino (with his power fist, he's the only thing left that can credibly hurt it).

The rest of the Intercessors' fire goes into the Obliterator, and it topples from the roof.

Things are no so fortunate in the Assault Phase - the Wolf Lord fails an easy charge (maybe he sprained his ankle jumping down) and the Rhino is left alive.


Space Wolves 10 : 6 The Purge

The Purge - Turn 5

Back to 3VP, with Decius adding to the Poxbringer and Dark Disciples' tally. I dismiss the idea of a warlord-vs-warlord fight, and just repeat the earlier plan - kill the half-squad of Intercessors. This proves just as fruitless when the Smite and combi-melta fail to dent the marines.

With nothing left, Decius tries to cast Miasma of Pestilence on himself, and rolls a double-six. Just as I'm contemplating that I might have killed my own warlord, he only suffers one wound, so lives to Smite another day.

But it's the end of Turn 5 - which is the same number of models I have left on the table. Once that Wolf Lord gets close, my chances of survival are looking grim.

Then Monkey rolls a 1 - and the game ends there!

Space Wolves 10 : 9 The Purge

And in the final tally - the Dark Disciples are also score Linebreaker!

Result 10 : 10 - a draw!

Locker Room

Decius, you jammy sod.

Well, I nicked that at the last minute! At one point, I was despairing about overturning either the points, or the run of the game, but I just managed to have enough board presence scattered around to claw my way back.

Even at 1000pts, it was interesting to see fights happening all over the board - especially with the Gravis-armour hammer blow landing in my backline. Once I'd survived the first hit, I wasn't too disappointed to have all those units within reach of my deadliest units. And the Inceptor failing morale check may have been the turning point of the game.

The charges were also critical: I made all the ones I needed to, Monkey failed a couple that could have turned the game.

Great fun all the same. The Daemons and Purge play well together, and it's inspired me to get some more of each. I figure if I get different units than my Black Legion, I can justify the expansion (plus I love the colour scheme!)

Thanks again to Monkey for being a sport and trying out a Skype battle (I don't think I've turned his head to Primaris yet). It's not a patch on being there in person, but with the right approach, it does make for a fun evening of casual play.