Skypehammer Round 9: Unto The Breach

This is the penultimate battle of the campaign, and in the tradition of building to a crescendo, we're going to be playing doubles!

The Purge & Nurgle Daemons vs Thousand Sons & The Scourged!

The Breach pulsed gently, a glowering blackness in the dawn sky. 

A liquid seemed to pour from it, a cataract of darkness drooling towards Averment below. At the point where it touched the ground, the desert turned green, as though watered by a long-absent rain. New growth blossomed in the sand, tall grass that whispered in the wind. Trees sprouted out of parched rocks, birds sang as they flapped around them. It was miraculous, if you chose to ignore the misshapen forms of the creatures, their cruel talons and many eyes. Or the writhing vines that twitched from the bushes, seeking to catch and devour the birds with groping, root-haired hands. 

Nearby, Ra'ul stood and watched. The sigil of harnessed eternity still blazed in his mind. The rest of his warband stood at a respectful distance. Something about his aura of power made you want to stay away. 

Not so Dolo, who had perched on a rock near Ra'ul's disc. 

"Well? I have told you the truth, haven't I?" he said. "Something has changed in the Breach. You are losing control of it."

Ra'ul didn't reply. 

"Will you consider my offer?" Dolo asked after a short silence.

Ra'ul didn't move. His gaze was locked on the Breach. "I already have," he said. 

"And?"

Dolo waited, but the Thousand Sons sorcerer didn't seem to be in a hurry to answer. He snarled inwardly, although he knew there was no rushing such a delicate alliance. His chest still ached, he found it hard to stand after the near-death battering the Space Wolves had given him. If his Warp Talons hadn't snatched him away at the last second, he'd be lying dead in a ruin right now. 

Ra'ul finally looked down at him. Power blazed from the sorcerer's eyes, it was hard to meet them. 

"You say Tzeentch is your master now, space marine. That you will help us remove the taint of the plague god from the Breach. That you have kept the Black Legion diverted so that they could not interfere in our rituals. You expect me to acknowledge you as an ally in this struggle. But I shall not."

"Why not?" Dolo couldn't hide his anger any more. "What sense is there in..."

"Be quiet." A rumble of warp-touched thunder accompanied Ra'ul's calm voice, and Dolo subsided. "Listen now. 

"I do not acknowledge you as an ally. Nor do I need your aid. You diverted the Black Legion, yes, but only because I set you against them. "

"Must I fight my way past you, then?" Dolo interrupted, still angry. "Waste my strength while the Breach is corrupted by the Purge's prions?"

"I see you are delusional in almost everything. You have no strength to fight against me. No. We shall fight this infestation of entropy together, but not because you beg to accompany us. We shall do it because Great Tzeentch wills it. That is your one truth, Sorcerer, and even that you have wrong. He is not your master now. 

"He always was."

Some slight tweaking of our campaign rules. The two lowest-ranking generals were offered first choice of allies (both leapt into the warm embrace of The Cabal), which made the remaining match-ups narratively clear.

• This will be a 1000pt battle, each side comprising of two 500pt armies.
• All armies will have access to their respective warlord traits and relics, but one warlord is nominated as the warlord.
• All matched play rules apply, and all supplemental rules are available.
• Armies can only be selected from the models in my collection.
• No restrictions on how armies are built (i.e. detachments)
• Every army gets 8CP, no more or less. One nominated warlord of each allied army is in charge of allocating these.

After being kicked around by The Cabal, Pootle's Purge have decided to throw in their lot with Kraken's Daemons, who have made a diplomatic switch from Tzeentch to Nurgle as they spill forth from the Breach. Meanwhile, the success of Rapid's Thousand Sons has convinced b1llyb0b's Scourged that The Cabal hold the true path to Tzeentch.

Nurgle - The Purge & Daemons of Nurgle

Our prayers have been answered. As the Breach exacerbates, it sweeps away the ephemeral neverborn that rushed through the gateway. Behind them comes the slow, relentless tread of disease and pestilence. We shall stand with them to claim the Breach for ourselves. The Cabal will pay for their betrayal as the plague winds sweep Averment from existence.

The Purge

• Gormenghastly the Garrotter - Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (HQ) (Warlord)
  Combi-melta, Force axe, Mark of Nurgle
  Warlord trait: Blessed Mission
  Relic: Orb of Unlife
  Infernal Gaze, Warptime
• Helbrute (Elite)
  Helbrute fist: Heavy flamer, Power scourge, Mark of Nurgle
• 4 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)
  Hideous mutations, Mark of Nurgle
• 4 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)
  Hideous mutations, Mark of Nurgle
• 1 x Obliterator (Heavy)
  Fleshmetal guns, Mark of Nurgle

Warlord Bonus: -1 to hit in Fight Phase, +6" to range to ranged weapons

Points: 499 | Level: 35 |

Nurgle Daemons

• Purulouse - Daemon Prince of Nurgle (HQ) (Warlord)
  Daemonic axe, Wings
  Warlord trait: Plaguefly Hive
  Relic: Horn of Nurgle's Rot
  Miasma of Pestilence
• 21 x  Plaguebearers (Troops)
  Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos, Plagueswords
• 3 x Plague Drones (Fast)
  Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos, Plagueswords, Death's heads, Prehensile Proboscis

Warlord Bonus: +2 Toughness

Points: 499 | Level: 27 |

Tzeentch - Thousand Sons & The Scourged

The attack of the neverborn confirmed it: the energies from the Breach are increasing at an exponential rate. This is just as we planned, but its energies must be harnessed and those plague-worshipping turncoats removed from its location. We have already driven them out of The Cabal, now we must drive them into the void. As our latest allies will attest, this victory will belong to The Changer of Ways alone.

Thousand Sons

• Ra'ul Wunes - Ahriman on Disc (HQ) (Warlord)
  Black Staff of Ahriman, Inferno Bolt Pistol
  Warlord: Otherworldy Prescience
  Psychic powers: Glamour of Tzeentch, Prescience, Weaver of Fates
• 27 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  27 x Autoguns
• Tzaangor Shaman (Elite)
  Force stave
  Psychic powers: Tzeentch's Firestorm
  Relic: Dark Matter Crystal
• 9 x Tzaangor Enlightened (Fast)
  Fatecaster greatbows

Warlord Bonus: +1A, +1S on all weapons

Points: 499 | Level: 33 |

The Scourged

• Dolo the Danger - Sorcerer (HQ) (Warlord)
  Bolt pistol, Force stave, Mark of Tzeentch,
  Warlord: Infernal Gaze
  Relic: Eye of Tzeentch
  Psychic powers: Infernal Gaze, Prescience, Warptime
• 4 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)
  Hideous mutations, Mark of Tzeentch
• 10 x Warp Talons (Fast)
  Lightning Claws (pair), Mark of Tzeentch
• Heldrake
  Baleflamer, Mark of Tzeentch

Warlord Bonus: +1A, +1 to saving throws

Points: 498 | Level: 35 |

Mission and Deployment

We're playing Narrow the Search from Chapter Approved 2018, since it fits perfectly with the idea of securing a central objective. There is only one scoring objective on the board and 1 VP is awarded to the side with the most models within 18" (objective secured is irrelevant). At the end of the next round, this is narrowed to 15" and so on.

And to make things extra-spicy, there is a 12" null zone around the centre, which means the Breach is causing everyone's invulnerable saves to fail (and both these armies really like their invulnerable saves).

The forces of Nurgle win the dice-off and deploy first. A good chunk of the army is held off until the next turn: the Plaguebearers are put into the Warp, the Obliterator heads off in the same direction, and the general himself, Gormenghastly, leaves the army to take care of itself while he kicks back in the teleportarium.

Remaining on the field is the Daemon Prince, placed on the left flank and surrounded by his Smite-screen of Plague Drones.

Hiding behind the rocks on the right flank are the two units of Spawn, either side of the Helbrute (someone seems skittish around Tzaangor arrows).

The Tzeentch forces have more of a footprint. The Wolf-Spawn go front and centre, and the big mob of Cultists cluster behind, making sure they're all within the 18" range of the objective (so that's the first point in the bag, then).

The sorcerer-general, Dolo, stands behind this wall of expendable bullet-shields.

In the ruined temple to the right goes the flying circus of the Enlightened, backed by Ahriman and the Shaman. The Heldrake keeps to the extreme right flank.

Nurgle has the choice of who starts, and nominates their opponents to go first. Since scoring happens at the end of the round, not each turn, they'll have the chance to drive the forces of Tzeentch out of the scoring zone.

Turn 1 - Tzeentch

The creatures of the Breach infested the strange new garden beneath it. 

There, directly under the black waterfall, was all that was left of a Mechanicus Relay. Once a towering spike of metal and steel, it was a rotting, rusted spike now. The last pinnacle curved upwards like an ancient toenail, a morass of power and decay swirling inside that focal point. 

Fields of mould and moss grew all around, pitted with simmering bowls of putrid slush that reflected the black light from above. The new growth had swallowed what had been the monitoring station. Through the ruins strode misshapen hulks that mewled and growled. Vast, feculent wasps hovered in trios here and there. Three of them towed a particularly huge creature towards Dolo with ropes of umbilical flesh, a vaguely man-shaped bring whose original form was lost under great sagging folds of wormy flab. 

They had few creatures of the warp in their own lines. Tzaangor, ready to hunt alongside one of their cryptic shaman. A few of Dolo's own mutated thralls. But the bulk of their forces were mortal. Now that they had seen the true power of the universe, untold thousands of the Imperium's citizens had quickly switched sides. Guardsmen, ecclesiarchy novices, hivers - they were all bound in a greater allegiance now. The most promising accompanied them here, but a legion stood ready to reinforce if need be. 

Ra'ul stood tall on his disc, his aura of power skewed into a kaleidoscope by the psychic weight of the Breach above. Dolo watched as he hurled a discus of energy against the oncoming wasps, immolating one in a flash. Not to be outdone, he waved his last remaining Heldrake forward, a possessed Marauder bomber that spewed acid from slavering maw in its underbelly. 

The Breach would be theirs.

Having near-guaranteed the first VP with their Cultist jamboree, it's a cautious start for Tzeentch. The Spawn step forward, the Disc-riders move into extreme range, the Cultists and Dolo remain still.

The exception is the Heldrake, who rockets across the board in a death-or-glory charge against the Nurgle Daemon Prince.



The Psychic Phase kicks off with some boosts for the Cultists - Glamour of Tzeentch for 1- to hit, and Weaver of Fates for 5++ invulnerable save. The Enlightened also get Prescience, so their bows are even more deadly.

Then it's time for some Smiting. The Shaman's Smite only inflicts one mortal wound on the Plague Drones, but Ahriman rolls a mega-smite (no Perils this time, but the Warp is strong with this one) and blasts four wounds from the bloated flies.

In Shooting, the Enlightened's greatbows follow up and bring down a second Drone, reducing the last one to half-wounds. The Heldrake turns its flames on the Daemon Prince, but it just washes over him.

Learning nothing from this, the Heldrake charges into fight the Daemon Prince, only to find a monster with a hide as thick as a Leman Russ isn't so easy to kill. Only two wounds are inflicted, but the Daemon Prince doesn't fare much better, as the invulnerable save of the Heldrake only lets through three wounds.

So a tentative beginning, but we already have one scrap in progress!

Tzeentch 0 : 0 Nurgle

Turn 1 - Nurgle

Wasps dropped from the air, venting unspeakable gases as they were punctured by the sleek arrows of the Tzaangor. The Heldrake dropped out of the sky on to the shoulders of the towering deformity they'd been towing, belching acid onto its face. It retaliated by slamming a crescent of bone fully eight metres long into the malevolent machine's wing, but the metal held. The bony axe broke in half, hurling rotten splinters in all directions. 

More creatures were loping towards them through the knee-deep lichens, tongues lolling and feelers a-twitch. Many more. 

And in their midst, something else. 

Dolo recognised the silhouette. A sarcophagus - marines? Here?

With those Turn 2 deepstrikes seeming a long way away, what remains of the Nurgle force makes its move.

The Heldrake and Spawn party scamper around the rock, measuring carefully to keep out of an easy charge from the Spawn on the opposite end of the field (everyone has developed a healthy respect for Chaos Spawn - let that be my legacy of this campaign).

The Daemon Prince remains in combat, eschewing the chance to Smite the Heldrake in favour of boosting his survivability with a Miasma of Pestilence. The last Plague Drone also charges into combat for moral support.

This proves to be a bit reckless, as the Drone achieves nothing, but the Tzeentchian tricksters pay 2CP to interrupt combat and aim the Heldrake's attacks at something it can kill. So the Daemon Prince is ignored and the Plague Drone is torn down to secure a point for First Strike.

To add insult to injury, the Daemon Prince then fails to hurt with any of his attacks (so I guess they spent 2CP for nothing!)

The turn ends with Tzeentch claiming another VP for the central objective, taking an early lead.

Tzeentch 2 : 0 Nurgle

Turn 2 - Tzeentch

"It's a trap!" Dolo shouted. If there were marines here, these creatures weren't just blindly attacking. They were being driven here as a distraction. He ran forward, pushing through the crowd of cultists as they chanted madly. "Get back!"

His Heldrake obeyed immediately, dropping its daemonic prey with a last savage shake before leaping back into the air again. It left a trail of acid as it headed back towards their lines. Some of the oncoming hell-fauna rushed blindly into it and collapsed shrieking as their limbs boiled away.

But Ra'ul was drunk with power, not listening. Dolo dropped to his knees and shielded his eyes as Ra'ul unleashed a blinding arc of blue and pink fire that lashed the plague giant. Croaking and burning, it staggered around until one of the Tzaangor put an arrow in its neck. As it dropped, its flesh burst, sending up a great spray of ichor. The Tzaangor hooted in triumph, and its flock swooped forward, nocking more arrows for the hunt. 

"No!" Dolo screamed. But as ever, nobody heeded his warnings. 

Tzeentch is still not over-committing this early, as they're very aware of the deepstrikes that are imminent.

The Heldrake decides it's ridden its luck enough and flies out of combat, the Tzaangor Enlightened swing around to ensure the Daemon Prince is their closest target, backed up by Ahriman and the Shaman.

Dolo scrambles in-between the Cultists and Spawn, just to be extra-sure that no deepstrikers can single him out, and the Cultists nudge themselves into the 15" scoring zone.

It's another round of bounty for the Cultists - Weaver of Fates and Glamour of Tzeentch. The Tzaangors get Prescience and then it's off to the Smites

After the Daemon Prince is tickled by the first two psykers, Ahriman shows them how it's done with
double-six (nimbly dodging the Perils effect with the Adepts of the Immaterium stratagem) that strips the daemon down to its last wound.

That last wound is easily picked off by the massed archery of the Tzaangor Enlightened, and the first of the field commanders slumps into a crater.

That leaves the Heldrake free to breath fire on the Spawn, which it does pretty effectively, killing two of them and leaving one on half-wounds.

Tzeentch 0 : 0 Nurgle

Turn 2 - Nurgle

It was too late, they'd walked straight into the ambush. 

Bulbous mounds of moss to their left suddenly heaved and rose. Haggard forms pulled free, humming a sonorous dirge. Plaguebearers, a great mass of them. Dolo shouted an incantation, sending his own warp visions directly into the minds of the cultists around him. Seeing the new threat, they wheeled, and a hail of fire met the necrotic daemons as they lurched up from the boggy soil. 

Flashes of warp disturbance from the other side of the breach, now. More armoured figures amongst the shambling enemy, directing their charge. In a blink, the Helbrute's coffin was suddenly right on them, crashing into the ranks of Dolo's thralls. Spinning its mass like a martial artist, it grabbed one of the spawn and threw it into another, breaking both creatures' backs, then jammed both nozzles of an underslung flamer into the mouth of a third and roasted it from the inside out. 

Green and black armour - the Purge were here. Dolo looked around, desperate. Cultists were banding together in a surprisingly effective firing line. They hadn't forgotten all their imperial drills, and somehow, they were actually forcing the Plaguebearers back, mowing them back down into their impromptu graves. 

But it was all just another distraction. There - Dolo saw him, white face like a flag in a storm, backed by a wall of formless horrors. 

Gormenghastly the Garroter was here. The Terminator raised his gun, and Dolo's majestic heldrake died in a spiral of brown fire.

Nurgle is reeling somewhat, but at least reinforcements are coming. What's left of the ground forces push forward into the centre, with the Helbrute eyeing up a very long charge (The Purge are cooking up a plan here).

Sure enough, Gormenghastly the Garrotter drops into the centre of the Spawn, just in range to Warptime the Helbrute forward.

The lone Obliterator lands nearby, enjoying the cover save of his crater and zeroing in on the Heldrake.



Into the back lines of the Tzeentch forces emerge the Plague bearers, looking for a charge into the Cultists.

With the stage set, Gormenghastly is denied his Smite, but makes that crucial Warptime onto the Helbrute, who surged forward into charge range of the Spawn (and even a long bomb away from Ahriman, who probably wasn't expecting that).

As a bonus, the Helbrute is now in flamer range of the Heldrake and succeeds in singeing a wound of its fellow daemon-engine. 

This single wound is enough to trigger the chapter ability in the Obliterator, who opens up on the Heldrake, rerolling all his misses. When the dust settles, the poor bird is flapping along on just three wounds, which is no protection against Gormenghastly's combi-melta.

As the Heldrake crashes to earth, the Helbrute crashes into the Spawn (not quite getting the reach for Ahriman). It smashes apart three of the wolf-beasts, but even the sole remaining Spawn manages to inflict four wounds on the Helbrute.

On the other side of the barricade, the Plaguebearers make their charge into the Cultists, although three of them are lost to overwatch and the remainder struggle to get past the magically-enhanced mortals, only killing one of them.

In return, the Cultists kill a couple more Plaguebearers, and cause a few more to dissipate back into the Warp (that was pretty ineffective - are we sure they're not Horrors?)

At the end of the turn, Nurgle has closed the jaws of its trap, but its quarry is far from dead. They also rack up another VP, since the Cultists are all within the scoring zone (and the Plaguebearers are not).

Tzeentch 3 : 0 Nurgle

Turn 3 - Tzeentch

Dolo ran, cursing, and flung a bolt of warp energy over his shoulder. That Helbrute was coming for him, he knew it. His spell slammed into it, but it kept coming. 

Despite the visions he'd granted them, the cultists weren't even bothering to engage the Plaguebearers. Ra'ul was commanding them just as he would a group of Rubrics, riding their minds and forcing them to his will. He was sending them directly into the Breach. The Tzaangor swooped onwards, too intent on hunting Nurgle's creatures to have a care for strategy. 

Ra'ul himself wasn't giving an inch, manoeuvring his disc through the ruins so he could send another coruscating lance of energy into the foe. There was another Purge marine ahead, an Obliterator by the look of it, and it took the brunt of it, exploding with a shock that tore a huge hole in the poisoned turf. 

But Gormenghastly was walking directly for the Breach too, and he was much closer. 

"Talons!" Dolo shouted into his vox. "Strike!"

After a bright beginning, Tzeentch has a few threats to address, and one last trick up its sleeve.

The Cultists pull out of combat with the Plaguebearers - most of them getting within the 12" scoring zone (although that's also the null zone - so no more Weaver of Fates for you, lads). Dolo sprints off into the ruins, to avoid trouble

The Spawn holds its ground, confident that the Helbrute is not long for this world, and the Disc-rider slowly move towards the Obliterator, to test their arrows against its 1+ save.

Then, from out of the immaterium, the Warp Talons emerge!

This last unit of deepstrikes appear behind the rocks, looking to pounce on Gormenghastly and his Spawn.

The usual buffs are thrown out during the Psychic Phase, followed by a couple of Smites from Dolo and the Shaman that remove the Helbrute, and then another mega-Smite from Ahriman (he's really rocking the energies of the Breach!), this melts the Obliterator to slag before anyone even gets to shoot.

So instead, the Enlightened open fire on the smaller unit of Chaos Spawn, wiping them out.

The Warp Talons attempt their charge, which fails (even with a CP reroll), and with nothing left to engage, that ends another strong turn for the forces of Change.

Tzeentch 3 : 0 Nurgle

Turn 3 - Nurgle

Nothing happened. 

No familiar blaze of warp travel, no hawkish screams of Talons on the charge. A moment of silence instead, a quiet second on the battlefield. 

Gormenghastly strode straight past the Relay, ignoring the warp portal there. He fired his melta from the hip as he marched, and the last of Dolo's thralls toppled backwards as its guts exploded in a cloud of red-black steam. 

The cultists ran screaming towards him, then a herd of warp-beasts came thundering through the ruins on either side of Gormenghastly. They scythed through the hapless men and women, crushing those who tried to stand and driving those who fled into the waiting blades of the still-rising Plaguebearers. In instants, what had been a confident firing line turned into a mad rout. 

"Send the reinforcements!" Dolo screamed at Ra'ul. 

Ra'ul ignored him.  

But the Nurgle forces have the advantage of converging on the centre, and that's where the points are going to be scored.

The last unit of Chaos Spawn scramble past the Breach, their eyes fixed on that smörgåsbord of Cultists. The Plaguebearers similarly give chase, although they move around the flank to ensure that, when they do charge in, they'll also be in the scoring zone.



Gormenghastly follows his crew, pausing only to kill the last of the wolf-spawn and look absolutely fabulous posing amid the fires of the Breach.

In the Assault Phase, all three of the Spawn, Plaguebearers and Gormenghastly make it into the mass of Cultists. With the Chaos Spawn rolling eight attacks each, and Gormenghastly being something of a murder machine, the Cultists are quickly shredded to a handful left.

The Tzeentch side had been planning the trick of paying 2CP to auto-pass morale and 2CP bring them back with Tide of Traitors, but they were one CP short of such shenanigans (that Warp Talon reroll looking a bit costly now).

The remaining Cultists melt away (probably hiding beneath the big pile of dead that has suddenly appeared), which means the forces of Nurgle gain control of the Breach for this round!

Tzeentch 3 : 1 Nurgle

Turn 4 - Tzeentch

Dolo ran with all his might. The reinforcements weren't coming. Torn apart by more of the creatures of this damned Oasis, in all likelihood, or merely realising the desperate perils of worshipping such uncaring gods. 

This was no place for mortals. 

The Tzaangor were still sounding their unearthly tantara. They were terrifying shots. Almost every arrow brought down another of the mutant spawn. The central field was almost bare of them now, in fact, Gormenghastly stood alone at the head of a small pack of Plaguebearers. 

The portal beneath the Breach was nearly unguarded. 

There -  now Dolo could finally see his Talons arrive. They burrowed through the warp, leaping in darting surges over the broken ground. But they weren't answering his vox, and they weren't attacking the Purge. What were they doing?

The battle is tightening up, but not enough to make the Tzeentch Disc-riders enter the null zone, nor to stop Dolo from sprinting away to relative safety.

The only unit brave enough to venture towards the Breach are the Warp Talons, determined not to be denied their prey a second time.



All the Smites and Greatbow shots from the flying circus are directed at the final unit of Chaos Spawn, who are all brought down, leaving just Gormenghastly and the Plaguebearers.

In the Assault Phase, the Warp Talons fail their charge, and are denied their prey a second time.

So the momentum is with Tzeentch, but they just haven't managed to shut the door on Nurgle yet.

Tzeentch 3 : 1 Nurgle

Turn 4 - Nurgle

They were chanting! The Warp Talons were chanting, forming a triangle and making ritual movements in synchronisation. 

Ra'ul was riding them too. His aura still shone like a negative sun. He was channelling something through the Talons, using their proximity to the portal to feed Breach power into it. 

The portal started to change. 

What was left of the Relay tower lost its tarnished sheen. New colours, garish and deadly, streaked across it. That curled fingernail began to straighten, and the green and brown fug across the battlefield receded. 

Bellowing defiance, Gormenghastly charged the Talons, the moaning Plaguebearers trudging along behind him. 

No other moves to make - Gormenghastly leads the Plaguebearers against the Warp Talons. He personally brings down three of them with Smite and his trusty combi-melta, and then both units charge in.

But here their luck ends - even without their invulnerable save, the Warp Talons' astartes armour is enough to see them through all the attacks. Their lightning claws strike back and tear down enough Plaguebearers to ensure they are in the majority around the objective.

And since the Plaguebearers' objective secured counts for nothing, that's another VP to Tzeentch and with it, Nurgle's last chance to make an impact.

Tzeentch 4 : 1 Nurgle

Turn 5 - Tzeentch

The Purge's leader was terrifying to see in action. Firing his combi-melta one-handed, he could gun down a Talon whilst choking the life from another with a thought. Even as his suffocating spells did their work, he would stride towards another target and smash the life from it with his staff. Worst of all, he laughed mirthlessly as he worked, his relish in taking life abundantly clear. 

But it wasn't enough. Ra'ul was protecting the Talons. The Plaguebearers were staggering back, too, as the portal behind them changed focus. One of them stopped its endless counting to stare up into the portal, rusting blade dropping from its fingers as it raised its rotten hands in awe. A Tzaangor shot it through the back of its head, the arrowhead bursting out of the single bloodshot eye. 

The Talons soared away from Gormenghastly, their daemonic vanes lifting them into the air. They arranged themselves into a circular formation around the portal. 

Through it, Dolo could see an enormous feathered shape moving, wings bright with stars and massive eyes terribly alive with malicious thoughts.

It's a similarly straightforward task for Tzeentch. The Enlightened swing into the enemy deployment zone (with eyes on that Linebreaker point), the characters close in on the Breach and the Warp Talons fall out of combat and frolic happily in the magical energies.

With Gormenghastly safe from being targeted, all the mortal wounds and magical arrows are sent against the Plaguebearers, who don't stand a chance.

When the last arrow falls, the general is the only enemy model left on the field.

Tzeentch 4 : 1 Nurgle

Turn 5 - Nurgle

"It is over," Ra'ul called. Under the seething portal, Gormenghastly stood motionless, impotent to damage the Talons or break Ra'ul's aegis. "I am the Finite Eternity, the still eye of the warpstorm. This Breach is mine. You have failed yours. Bow and accept a new master."

Gormenghastly dropped his weapons and fell to his knees. 

"Wiser than I thought," Ra'ul said, and swept towards the vanquished sorcerer, staff blazing with power. 

But Gormenghastly, Dolo realised, was still laughing. And he had something in his hands, something round and glassy. 

"Get back!" Dolo shouted, but it was too late. Gormenghastly lifted the orb and smashed it over his own head, and a grey-green cloud blasted outwards, engulfing everything nearby. 

But he's not going down without a fight! With his courage firmly screwed to the sticking-place, Gormenghastly runs at the Warp Talons, wiping out three of them with a mega-Smite, and another three with Infernal Gaze. Boom!

Observing a cluster of characters before him, Gormenghastly unpins the Orb of Unlife and lobs a sphere of life-eater virus at the Tzeentch high command.

"Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three..."

The effects are dramatic: despite needing 4+ to wound, the holy grenade wounds all four of the units it surrounds - the last Warp Talon is killed, Ahriman and the Shaman are down to two wounds, and Dolo is down to his last wound.

Not one to pass up that kind of opportunity, Gormenghastly then proceeds to charge into the spluttering characters, attacking both Ahriman and the Shaman, both of whom are currently missing their invulnerable saves.

Of course, Gormenghastly cuts them both down with ease, leaving only Dolo (who was wise enough to hold back).

These two opposing generals are the only ones in range of the Breach, so they cancel each other out as we head into the sixth turn wondering how Gormenghastly managed to turn the tide of battle single-handed.

Tzeentch 4 : 1 Nurgle

Turn 6 - Tzeentch

The Talons dropped from the sky as the cloud touched them, one bouncing off the lip of the portal and leaving streaks of blood on the golden metal. 

Dolo watched in horror as Ra'ul dropped off his disc. His aura sputtered out just before he thudded into the dirt head-first. The disc came apart at the seams, fading into just more of the dirty miasma around it. The Tzaangor Shaman, who had been following behind Ra'ul, clutched its wattled throat and gave a great, despairing cry. Then Gormenghastly came stomping out of the smog and burned its head clean off with his melta. 

"Infinity doesn't exist!" the huge terminator shouted. "Everything ends!" His own flesh was melting off him, bleeding tatters clinging to a skull in which mad eyes rolled. "I dedicate this death to Nurgle. Come, Grandfather, see your dominion grow from my seeds!"

And he brought his armoured heel down hard on Ra'ul's helmet.

Above, the pinioned being peering through the portal gave a terrible shriek as something writhing with bloated muscle grabbed it from behind and began throttling it. Dolo threw himself down and took cover as the energies of some colossal struggle began to play out inside the Breach. The earth shuddered and bucked, the heavens reeled. 

Only the Tzaangor kept coming, bright arrows leaping from their bows to fail against Gormenghastly's armour. 

The first order of business is for Dolo to complete his sprint across the battlefield and take cover in the nearest crater within the enemy deployment zone (he's been rolling well for his advance rolls all game - retreating suits him).

The Tzaangor Enlightened have other fish to fry, and move to engage Gormenghastly and give him the St Sebastian treatment for which they're renowned.

Remarkably, Gormenghastly lives through this too! As his terminator plate fills up with arrow shafts, he remains defiant on the objective on his last wound.

"Can anyone see an apple on his head?"

This leaves them with the unenviable option of charging into Gormenghastly, who finally falls to their claws and spinning blades, but not before completing one last heroic pose in the midst of the enemy.

That leaves the Tzaangor conclusively in charge of the objective, with additional points for Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker, it's a big swing for Tzeentch.

Tzeentch 7 : 1 Nurgle

Victory to Tzeentch!

And then it was over. 

There were simply too many Tzaangor. And Gormenghastly was dying at last, at long last, eaten from inside by his own viral weapon. 

There was a distorted crack as Nurgle's champion died. The Relay Tower shivered and split, the last rotten layers flaking away from the outside to reveal a gleaming metal spiral within. It flexed, stretching silvery spines into the portal that dragged and stretched at it. 

A loathsome tentacled juggernaut came barrelling through, myriad mouths screeching. Dolo tried to burrow further into his trench in the loam, this impossible thing would doubtless be the last thing he ever saw. 

Except that it was already dead. 

Magnificent in the false light of the Breach, the feathered demi-god he'd glimpsed before stepped out onto the soil of Averment. Untold shoals of lesser warp creatures came sweeping in behind it, filling the sky. It opened its marvellous beak, still wet with the gore of the thing it had just killed, and cried in triumph, and Dolo wept in an incomprehensible mix of joy and dismay. 

The Warp had come to Averment. The planet was doomed.

Locker Room

What a comeback! Though the VPs tell a different story, Gormenghastly certainly carved himself a legend in the tally of Nurgle that day!

Similarly, the Tzaangor Enlightened didn't have bad game throughout the campaign, and their combination of mobility and firepower once again made them hard to live with.

I was keen to see how this mission played out, as I've only watched it on battle reports, and they seemed to fizzle out. I'm glad this turned out to be a real slugfest - there was real trepidation about overcommitting to the centre (and that treacherous null field), as well as ensuring there were enough scoring bodies left.

I would have backed the Plaguebearers to hold fast, but the big mass of Cultists did sterling work when they received their psychic buffs (which you rarely see - who wastes spells on Cultists!). Ultimately they were too much to cope with in the early rounds, and built a lead that was hard to overturn.

So now we come to the finale of the Averment campaign: the Breach is in the hands of The Cabal, so will The Alliance decide to destroy the whole planet in order to save it?