Hammer and Anvil: Ultramarines vs Death Guard

"Ark actual, this is Ark saviour, Grammus reporting. Our armoured column is en route to the front. I estimate our arrival in under fifteen minutes. The vaccine is secure and prepared for delivery."

The engine of Cor Gloria, his Land Raider, growled happily as they tore along the road together. Grammus, a tech-specialist veteran with the chapter's eighth company, could feel the ancient vehicle's desire to reach the battle, aiding him as he operated the throttle. His mission was vital, but the battle lust of the machine spirit was infectious. Even had it been a routine operation, he would be burning to reach their goal with the same zeal.

The hated Death Guard had been pressing hard against the Ultramarines front lines, using a lethal prion disease capable of transmission through sight of a victim alone. The marines of the apothecarium had worked hard to prepare an optic vaccine. This panacea would swing the tide of the battle, allowing the Ultramarines to finally leave their hermetic bunker line, the so-called Ark Bastion, and push back. Time was of the essence, the Death Guard had very nearly breached the automatic defences protecting the bunkers.

"Close range auspex returns at two, ten and twelve, brothers," Vertorix warned over the vox. The Techmarine was riding in the back, keeping an eye on the vaccine crate cooling systems. "The traitors seek to ambush us. We must not be delayed!"

Captain Praesidio responded immediately from his position in the middle of the convoy. "All vehicles, full speed. On wings of glory, ride through them!"

Grammus slammed the throttle open on both tracks and Cor Gloria roared in response. They would not be stopped. The antidote would be delivered.

Pootle here again for another battle report. Quite by accident, I seem to have accumulated over 5,000 of painted Ultramarines. After experimenting with a very few Blood Angels back in 1989/90, I decided to paint up the rest of my marines as Ultramarines, waaaaay before they became the hated Smurfs of today. Back then Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Salamanders and others graced the covers of White Dwarf as often as the boys in blue.

So when I got back into 40k during 8th Edition, I painted up the new batch as Ultramarines or course. Amongst the army, I've acquired quite a few vehicles but not really had a chance to use many of them in a game. Rather than trying to shoehorn the occasional Land Raider, Repulsor or Predator into a list, I thought I'd bung the whole lot into one army and see what happens. 

Kraken is always up for trying something different, so he agreed to play the Death Guard attempting to stop my vehicles from breaking through his line.

Ultramarines

I do have the advantage of knowing what the Death Guard list is going to be (as I wrote it, subject to any adjustments Kraken wants), but the list almost writes itself as it's based around all the painted vehicles I own. The army is led by what would normally be a fairly smashy Captain on a Bike, who doesn't need a Storm Shield as he has the Sanctic Halo, giving him a 3++ and a Deny-the-Witch ability. I'm nervous about his ability to hurt Death Guard, particularly the nasty opposing warlord, but he's not too shabby. 

In the interest of points, I have a unit of Scouts hitching a ride (they fit the theme of being sub-par so I’m keen to make use of painted models) and I think a Techmarine is appropriate in the circumstances as a second HQ. He gets the CP-farming additional warlord trait Adept of the Codex. He's also going to be a Master of the Forge to ensure he heals 3 wounds at a time on damaged vehicles.

I do have a fair amount of choice on the load-out for the vehicles actually because I've magnetised every option going (I’m particularly proud of the Stormhawk, which is magnetised to transform into a Stormtalon). The only significant exception is that, as I've got the easy-to-build Redemptor, I don't have a Plasma Incinerator option, which I probably would have taken if I'd had it. I go with a decent mix of Lascannon, Melta and missiles of various flavours to take down Daemon Engines, and a load of Gatling and Assault Cannon to deal with Plague Marines and Spawn. 

• HQ - Captain on Bike: Combi-Melta, Thunder Hammer, Warlord Trait: The Imperium's Sword, Relic: The Sanctic Halo
• HQ - Techmarine: Boltgun, Servo Arm, Omnissian Power Axe, Master of the Forge, Hero of the Chapter (-1CP) - additional warlord trait: Adept of the Codex
• Elites - Redemptor Dreadnought: 2x Storm Bolters, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Icarus Rocket Pod, Onslaught Gatling Cannon
• Elites - 5 Scouts: 4x Boltguns, 1 Missile Launcher, Sergeant with Chainsword
• Fast Attack - Bike Squad: Attack Bike with Multi-melta, Sergeant with Power Sword, 2 Bikes with Chainswords, 1 with Meltagun
• Fast Attack - Land Speeder: Typhoon Missile Launcher, Multi-melta
• Heavy Support - Land Raider: Hunter-killer missile, Multi-melta
• Heavy Support - Predator: Hunter-killer missile, Predator Autocannon, 2x Lascannons
• Heavy Support - Repulsor: 4x Fragstorm Grenade Launchers, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Hunter-Slayer Missile, Icarus Rocket Pod, Ironhail Heavy Stubber, 2x Krakstorm Grenade Launchers, Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Twin Lascannon
• Flyer - Stormhawk Interceptor: Las-talon, Typhoon Missile Launcher, Twin Assault Cannon
• Dedicated Transport - Razorback: Hunter-killer missile, Twin Assault Cannon

2,000 points, Power Level 96. Spearhead detachment (-3CP) plus extra warlord trait = 8CP

The Techmarine must be hiding in the Land Raider (I forgot to put him out)

Death Guard

Normally I’d let Kraken in at this point to explain his choice of army, but I picked both armies. 

It's okay, I know my place. I'll stay outside.

HQs are a wingless Daemon Prince with Sword rather than double talons. He’s not the warlord today (that’s Maxwell the Biologus Putrifier as normal) but is kitted out with a trait for a CP: Revoltingly Resilient, which is the old-style Disgustingly Resilient 5+++. Given he has the new Disgustingly Resilient as well, this will make him a proper devil to get rid of. 

But he’s not just defensively strong. Oh no! He’s got the Mortarion’s Anvil special relic The Plaguefly Hive, which lets him reroll hits AND wounds. Given his sword is S8, AP-3 and D3 and opponents will be -1 T, his six attacks (plus a bonus Talon attack for good measure) are quite capable of taking a tank down all by himself.

Three units of seven-strong Plague Marine squads will make quite an effective roadblock, and they will be capable of dishing out some pain too, carrying an assortment of Flails, Meltaguns, Great Plague Cleavers (v good vs vehicles, those), Plasma guns, Plague Knives and Blight Launchers.

A full load out of Foetid Virion: Maxwell the Biologus Putrifier (warlord with Arch-Contaminator), Kelvin the Foul Blightspawn (paying a bargain 10 points for the Viscous Death Deadly Pathogen to make his nasty plague sprayer S8 and with a reroll to the number of shots. Lastly, Carnot the Tallyman will recycle CPs and make the Plague Marines even more lethal. The Elite slot is filled out with a Multi-Melta toting Helbrute.

Fast attack is a Foetid Bloatdrone with Fleshmower: these things are lethal against infantry, but will chew through tanks pretty well too; and a Myphitic Blighthauler. Backing them up are five Chaos Spawn, spending 2 CP to make them an extra pip of Toughness and make them Disgustingly Resilient as well. 2D3 attacks each at AP-2 D2 can make a mess of vehicles too: I remember five Spawn ripping apart my Rhino with ease in the Averment campaign.

The real anti-tank firepower is a brace of Plagueburst Crawlers, both with Entropy Cannon of course (one isn’t magnetised unfortunately and stuck with plague sprayers but never mind!).

Lastly (and because I want to stick in plenty of my Death Guard vehicles in as well) I’ve added in a Chaos Rhino. It’s unlikely to be needed as a transport, but could make quite an effective roadblock: I won’t want to waste time shooting at it rather than nastier stuff.

• HQ - Daemon Prince: Hellforged Sword, Plague Spewer; Relic: Warp Insect Hive, Plaguechosen (-1CP): additional warlord trait - Revoltingly Resilient. Miasma of Pestlience.
• HQ - Malignant Plaguecaster: Gift of Contagion, Gift of Plagues
• Troops - 7 Plague Marines: Boltgun, 2x Plague Knives, Flail of Corruption, Great Plague Cleaver, Blight Launcher, Melta Gun, Champion with Power Fist and Daemonic Plague Blade.
• Troops - 7 Plague Marines: Boltgun, 2x Plague Knives, Flail of Corruption, Great Plague Cleaver, Blight Launcher, Melta Gun, Champion with Power Fist and Daemonic Plague Blade.
• Troops - 7 Plague Marines: 4x Boltgun, Blight Launcher, Plasma Gun, Champion with Plasma Gun and Daemonic Plague Blade.
• Elites - Biologus Putrifier: Warlord trait - Arch Contaminator.
• Elites - Foul Blightspawn: Deadly Pathogen - Viscous Death
• Elites - Helbrute: Multi-melta, Helbrute Fist with Heavy Flamer
• Elites - Tallyman
• Fast Attack - 5x Chaos Spawn: Grandfatherly Influence (-2CP)
• Fast Attack - Foetid Bloatdrone: Fleshmower
• Fast Attack  - Myphitic Blighthauler
• Heavy Support - Plagueburst Crawler: 2x Entropy Cannon, Heavy Slugger
• Heavy Support - Plagueburst Crawler: 2x Entropy Cannon, Rothail Volleygun

  

Mission and deployment

We decided to play the Ambush scenario from 8th Edition Crucible of War narrative missions as the most appropriate. The marines will be the Defenders and have to escape off the far right of the battlefield. The scenario suggests having few if any flying units, but as I really want to bring my Stormhawk Interceptor, we're just saying that that unit can't count towards the escape win condition. My total army is Power Level 96, so I need to get 32 points off the table out of an eligible 86 (excluding the Stormhawk).

Rotate it through 90 degrees anticlockwise and you've got the maps below!

So the Ultramarines will be arriving along the nice open road from the middle of the south of the board and heading for the northern edge.

I have to deploy first, but just as blips on the auspex. Pootle enjoyed trying to guess which dot was which (and did pretty well, sadly, I'm clearly too predictable). 

Play along with him at home! Here's the map I sent him. You get one point for each correct guess, and if you get all twelve I disqualify you for cheating.

How did you do? We talked before (and after) the game that Kraken had a couple of options: either hang back and block me from getting past the end-zone or send forces forwards in strength to engage me and hold me up (an intermediate option of only sending, say the Spawn and FBD forwards would have allowed me to concentrate on them and wipe them out pretty easily). 

My choice was definitely the early attack route - I know I can overpower those tanks in close combat, and it will slow them up too!

Seeing that he was (sensibly) pushing forwards, I was briefly tempted to hold back and stop Kraken getting first turn charges off, but that would doom the slower vehicles from having any hope of getting off the far end of the table in time. Instead I put the Land Raider and Repulsor up front: they're both only move 10" but having T8 should hopefully give them a shot at surviving.

The Dread went in the middle to counterpunch, with the bikes in the rear of the main force. The Stormhawk started right at the back to make sure he's out of range of any shots, as he'll have no problem getting wherever he's needed.

There's only one Myphitic Blighthauler in fact!

Death Guard Turn 1

Even as Cor Gloria began to surge forward, Grammus was forced to pull back on the twin throttles. 

"Ordinance inbound, dead ahead!" Vertorix warned. "The traitors are bombarding the road!"

A number of warning indicators lit up around the steerage cabin. Something was targeting them, Grammus saw. And Cor Gloria had detected what - a pair of hulking artillery tanks emerged from mud-daubed camouflage netting almost directly ahead of them. At the same time, the sensorium monitor revealed what the outriders around the convoy could see as a large group of Death Guard emerged around the tops and bases of the wooded hills that surrounded their way forward. 

Voce Victoria, the Repulsor tank immediately on his left, was struck simultaneously with a hefty barrage of energy beams from the crawling gun tanks ahead. The armoured flank of the hovering vehicle took the beating as best it could, but there were flyers and infantry emerging from the woods at the same time. 

Bestia Venari, the Predator immediately behind, was already turning and firing at the attackers. Grammus unleashed the full power of his own guns, giving Cor Gloria her head as the battle joined. He knew that as soon as the path ahead was clear, they would have to push through. Both tank and marine were determined to destroy as many of the foe as they could before they were forced to disengage. 

I'm determined to make the most of my first turn, so in an absolute storm of CP spending, I get to work. First of all, I slap Sudden Outbreak on the Foetid Bloatdrone, hoping to boost its contagion range even further with the Plaguecaster's spells and sap the toughness of all my targets. Then I bring in a huge bombardment just ahead of the Ultramarine advance, so that they'll have to choose between running into a bunch of mortal wounds or hanging back from their escape for another turn. 

Then the pincers of my attack close hard. The Repulsor is first to fall in a clear display of new model syndrome, taking multiple hits from Smites, Entropy cannons and Multimeltas before the Foul Blightspawn sinks it with his goo gun. At the same time, boosted mortars fall on the bikes with Disgusting Force, but I'm only able to bring one down thanks to some good armour rolls. As I'm fairly desperate to take out as much of those mobile meltas as I can, the Land Speeder is also a prime target, and it's eventually taken out at close range by the Blight-Hauler at the back. 

The Plague Marines who've popped out of the Rhino are in a good place to charge, but I know Pootle has the Ultramarine overwatch trick to play, so the Foetid Bloatdrone (whose mower I think can take out the Predator) goes first. Sure enough, almost the entire column targets it, and thanks to some splendid rolls the bloaty bug goes bang when the Predator and Land Raider slap quite a lot of hits on to it. However, the Plague team gets into the Predator. 

And then, unexpectedly, the Daemon Prince! He was 12" off, I only rolled the charge for a joke, but he clearly took it seriously. 

Obviously the Predator is doomed - the Daemon Prince carves it in half with his sword, picks up both halves and lobs them at the rest of the convoy as it explodes. Just by himself, the DP does a total of twenty plus wounds in a single turn (he also did early smites and weapon shots against the Repulsor) as Pootle rolls all the high mortal wounds on his own tanks and all the low ones on my guys. I mean, he's probably doomed next turn, but I think he's earned his points back!

Ouch! I had assumed that one of the Raider or Repulsor was likely to go, but losing the Speeder and Predator as well hurt, and having a fistful of mortal wounds to boot really added...injury to injury.

Of course, I should have seen this coming: the Bikes, Land Raider and Redemptor have all featured in previous lists, but this is absolutely the first time out for the Repulsor and the Predator...

Ultramarines Turn 1

Burstule, Seventh Lord of Slurry, bellowed his joy to the rest of the attack force. The Daemon Prince stood on the burning wreck of the marine hover tank, underlit by a sickly ochre glare. His unnaturally slender arms, wound round with ropes of calcified nodules and stiff, twitching hairs, held his weapons aloft as he cackled. 

"THY TREASON CONDEMNS THEE," boomed the amplified voice of a Dreadnought as it shouldered the shattered hull of the Predator aside, gatling weaponry already aimed and spinning up. "IN HIS NAME, I..." The rest of the ancient cripple's self-righteous cant was lost in a howl of super-accelerated shells.

Burstule slammed his deformed arms into the ground in front of him. They easily reached, despite his perch on the tank's corpse. The shroud of bony misgrowths on his forearms formed a shield of sorts, and the hail of automatic fire crunched and bit into them. He minded it not at all, the cankers were dead and numb tissue, a crop of bone and cartilage several inches thick. Whatever the assault fire could shake loose would merely grow back in hours. He had to pluck them himself several times a day, crunching them like gristly fruit in his teeth, otherwise they grew too many and impeded his martial skill. 

The Dreadnought's hoppers ran dry. An entire battle's worth of ammunition expended to no avail. Barrels glowing hot, the mobile tomb thundered forward, and the Daemon Prince sprang to meet it. 

Having just suffered a boatload of mortal wounds, I don't fancy driving through another load. Most of the army head to their right. At the front, the Land Raider (after having been healed by the Techmarine) shoots up the Spawn, killing three of them.

Meanwhile the Bikers head towards the Blighthauler: I don't fancy its guns shooting up my backside when I'm running forwards and they're fast enough to catch up with the tanks later. They shoot back over their shoulders at the Plague Marines, killing a couple of them and charge the Daemon Engine, my Captain's Melta takes half the wounds off the Hauler and he finishes it off with his Thunder Hammer.

At which point it bursts loudly, throwing out more mortal wounds!

The Stormhawk sees an opportunity to snipe some characters, so screams overhead and kills the Foul Blightspawn (I split fire and the Assault Cannon knock a couple of wounds off the Biologus Putrifier too).

The Razorback and Redemptor put fire into the Plague Marines, leaving only two alive and then the Redemptor charges the Daemon Prince (this puts the Dread in a nasty position, but I can't have the DP repeating his trick on any more tanks), after first spending a couple of CPs on Death to the Traitors (reroll all hit rolls) and Wisdom of the Ancients (reroll 1s to wound). I'm worried about the 5+++, but luckily for me it's Kraken doing the rolling so the Daemon is brought down.

Death Guard Turn 2

Grammus tracked multiple targets through the trees ahead. It was slow, but Cor Gloria could easily push through the dense vegetation. And it was the correct choice - to his left, the road was being pulverized by a heavy fall of vast shells. Massive craters erupted in the rockrete, the earth beneath bursting upwards like overcooked meat. The heavy tanks would have been trapped or destroyed in seconds. 

The creatures Cor Gloria fired on were slavering monstrosities, beasts corrupted into unrecognisable shapes by the poisons of the Death Guard. A large pack of them had been hiding in the wood, but Gloria's auspex had detected them at close range. Grammus's gunner, Nonnicus, was manning the pintle gun, burning the legs from one of the creatures and leaving it thrashing helplessly in the Land Raider's path.

But the things were fast. Even as Grammus flicked his hands across the controls, directing the sponson guns against the revolting targets, they were pulling themselves through the trees on suckered pseudopods, ululating weirdly as they came. 

And there were too many of them. Grammus braced for impact. 

Wow, even damaged as they were the Ultramarines pack a serious punch. So much of my advance elements are gone before their time, so I'll just have to hope that Pootle's zeal in wiping them out is going to cost him enough time. 

My second wave is the remaining characters and the Helbrute, which gather around the Redemptor with the remaining Plague Marines. I have an abiding fear of Redemptors, they're extremely hard to take down and terribly effective until you do, but between psychic fallout, melta hits and then being charged by everyone, it's Iron Lung Down. 

That's the end of the good news, however. Despite throwing pretty much everything else I've got left at the Land Raider, it stubbornly shrugs off virtually all the shots. Or all the shots that actually land, at any rate, I have a burst of rolling to form and whiff the Crawler fire. Two Spawn charge in, but they sprout tickle sticks on arrival instead of the can openers I was hoping for. 

The Land Raider isn't unscathed, it just squeaks into the middle bracket, but the Techmarine will be fixing that in short order, and my second wave is left looking rather exposed.

Ultramarines Turn 2

Captain Praesidio powered his bike round in an arc, massive tyres hurling grit and soil in a spray like the bow wave of a torpedo boat. Gunning the engine, he accelerated directly towards the row of tangled wire and tank traps directly ahead of him. With a precision born of hundreds of years of combat, he rode the bike up the back of the nearest spike, jumping in a neat arc before landing back on the roadway. 

Bike squad Levantus followed close behind, the exhausts of the big bikes blarting raucously as they landed. Puffs of burnt rubber marked their landings, a perfect chevron from the five bikes. Bolters hammering, they descended on the Death Guard ambushers like a motorised spear. 

Only one of the Plague Marines dropped, head and arm torn away by the blanketing fire. His comrade's belly plate burst open, sheeting ichor in a dark waterfall, but the rotting traitor somehow remained standing, trying to level his meltagun on the incoming bikes. Too slow - Praesidio's hammer took him full in the face, and with a flash he was flung backwards on an arc of pulverised cranial matter. 

Standing the saddle, Praesidio aimed his combi-melta with his other hand, trusting the bike's momentum to keep him straight. The Helbrute ahead, a pock-marked shell whose screaming occupant was still concentrating on smashing the remains of Revered Brother Docantius's sarcophagus into the road, was almost too easy a target.

OK, my rear lines are clear and the Bikes can use the Plague Marines to spring forwards to catch up with the tanks. First off, the Scouts disembark from the Land Raider. They're not much of a screen, but I want all the firepower I can muster now. The Land Raider falls back (well, sideways) from the Spawn. The Spawn are doing an excellent job of slowing the tank down as I can't go forwards and, due the the damage, the big machine is still in the woods so is slowed down still further. The Heavy Bolters and the Razorback's Assault Cannon tear into the remaining Spawn, bringing both of them down.

The Stormhawk has flown down my left flank, ready to turn right next turn and support the dash towards the exit. Its Assault Cannon drop a couple of Plague Marines in the far corners. Its heavy weapons target the farther Plagueburst Crawler but only manage to take a single wound off it (taking the classic opportunity to spend a CP to reroll a 1 damage to another 1). The Land Raider's Lascannon and Multimelta do a little better, adding another few wounds, but the brick is still in its top damage bracket, which could be a problem next turn.

To my rear, the Bikes shoot up the Plaguecaster, Biologus Putrifier and the Meltas reduce the Helbrute to molten slag. I leave the Plague Marines alive as a target to charge; the Captain makes short work of them and then the Bikes consolidate further forwards, forming a screen.

Death Guard Turn 3

"Incoming infantry," Grammus said. They were nearly clear of the wood, but the back tracks were badly snarled in broken wood, and one of the main drives was giving him amber warnings. Vertorix  was out there even now. The Techmarine would fix it given time, but time was the one thing they didn't have. 

"Our time to shine," Scout Sergeant Tavolus answered over the vox. The veteran's scouts had been keeping themselves in reserve, inside the Land Raider where they could evacuate the antidote in case of emergency. Tavolus knew this wasn't their battlefield, but somebody needed to screen Cor Gloria long enough to get back on to the undamaged road ahead. 

"Emperor's speed," Grammus wished him, and diverted as much power to the engine as he dared. The machine spirit fought him, draining vital reserves as the sponson lascannons blasted away at the Death Guard armour, but Grammus knew he wouldn't deny that hatred even if he could. 

The Scouts darted through the open glacis hatch almost before it had finished opening, and the noise of bolter fire flooded the interior of the tank.

This is my back foot I'm on right now. The Ultramarines are taking me to pieces, and as Pootle starts swinging his troops to the right, one of the backstop Plague Marine squads is going to be out of position. 

Right now, in fact, all they can target is that damned flyer. No bad thing! And a quick volley of full-strength plasma, boosted by the Tallyman, knocks it to half wounds. 

I should have made sure that squad couldn’t target the Stormhawk: leaving it in range reduces the effectiveness of my dodge to the right flank.

Elsewhere, the mortars drop concussives on the bikes, helped again with Disgusting Impact. This time, their armour is less effective, and I kill two of them as well as wound the attack bike. Once again, the Land Raider manages to dodge various bullets, and although I manage to bracket it again, it's not going away fast, even if it wants to!

Unlike the Scouts! The Plague Marines nearest to them slog in, shooting ineffectually at the Land Raider as they close, then charge the scouts and utterly murderise them in seconds. They follow up on to the big tank, which somehow manages to run one of them over. Will this slow it down enough for me to land a killing blow?

Ultramarines Turn 3

Praesidio jinked his bike left and right, slipping through the hail of mortar fire that the Death Guard were hurling at him. Already ruined beyond repair by the earlier artillery barrage, the roadway wasn't worthy of the name any more. A network of crater rims provided the only safe route, an impossible feat of balance and skill for any lesser rider. 

Praesidio slipped through it effortlessly, forward guns blazing as he swept in towards the infantry bracketing Cor Gloria. 

The nearest turned his flank into the enfilading fire. Ceramite plates that were thick with stinking ooze sparked and flared as the bolts impacted on them. The Plague Marine leaned into the weight of fire like a man advancing through heavy surf, trying to get his own bolter up and firing. A ricocheting bolt howled off his spaulder and detonated in his linemate's face, dropping him like a sack. 

Praesidio dropped his melta across his lap and fired off to side as he tore past one of the heavy Death Guard crawler tanks. Its forward dozer blade sagged and glowed, metal shrivelling away in streams of orange slag. There was no time to follow up, however. Maglocking the combi-weapon to his thigh, he swiftly switched back to his hammer and kept his head as low behind the front plate of the bike as he could as he closed the last few metres to the green-armoured enemy infantry.

I'm a bit rattled by the damage that the Stormhawk has taken. I decide to fly well out of range of the Plasma Plague Marines, though this will mean it will be forced to fly off the table next turn; I'm OK with that as it'll be able to return in turn 5 and (hopefully) fly over the tanks as they make their exit.

Concentrated fire from the Land Raider and Stormhawk finally drops the damaged Plagueburst Crawler, whilst the Bikes are able to unload their Meltas into the undamaged one, causing half a dozen wounds. Once again they gain ground by charging the Plague Marines who'd been bothering the Land Raider and wipe them out, the Captain's Thunder Hammer being the perfect tool for the job (he's having a great game).

Death Guard Turn 4

The shrill engines of the Ultramarine's air support screamed overhead, and the nearest Plagueburst Crawler erupted in a shattering fireball. Tallyman Slugius Croup drew a thick black line through the Crawler's icon on the cracked screen of his dataslate with one weeping fingertip. His lips moved ceaselessly in a verminous ripple as he enumerated spent bolt rounds and fallen troops. 

The Ultramarines were almost through the ambush. 

Beside him, the leader of his bodyguard squad was blazing away with his plasma gun. The marine's name was Corplugh, he was laughing hysterically as the weapon poured pulse after sun-bright pulse into the bikers up ahead. Slugius daubed a line through his name at the exact moment the gun's coolant failed. He'd reckoned it to a dead second, and the icon had faded from the screen before the blasted remains of the champion's armour even fell to earth. 

It meant nothing. The ambush was all - if the Ultramarines main force could be kept hemmed up in their armoured pen, then the Second Law had the perfect surprise in line for them. If they could break out, use their tactical acumen across the full range of the battlefield, then their demise would be less... inevitable. But the Optic Plague would be hurt by whatever accursed medicines this convoy held. A field test would let the loyalist sawbones adapt their cure. Better to deny them the opportunity, adjust the prion before they could get to grips with it. 

Without pausing in his interminable reckoning, Slugius dragged another inky line across the dataslate as the remaining mortar fired. Two rounds left; they would have to count. 

There's almost nothing left to fight with, but what I have can still do work. The two tanks block up the line of advance as best they can, and the Crawler finishes off the bike squad. But neither Entropy Cannon feels like connecting with the Land Raider, so it looks like I'm not going to be able to stop it. In my desperation, I'm cranking up the plasma shots, and that costs me the remaining champion to an overheat.

The Razorback, well, I can ram that with the Rhino at least, reducing the firepower a little and forcing it to take a less direct route. And (despite the map above) at least I'm spared the attentions of the Stormhawk for a turn! But it's not looking good for the jaws of my trap, there's a lot of missing teeth out there.

Ultramarines Turn 4

The last few trees crashed to the ground, flattened by the mass of Cor Gloria, then Grammus drove the tank over the verge and back on to solid rockrete driveway. The ruined road was behind them, there was a clear path aheadandd they were through the ambush.

The Machine Spirit was fighting him for every ounce of power. The venerable tank knew where the enemy was - behind them! The left track throttle kept locking and failing, the mighty war engine drifting round as the right track rolled at full speed. Automated firing solutions crackled up on the monitors faster than Grammus could abort them, and the drain on the main drive was noticeable. 

"Vertorix! I cannot maintain course!" he snapped into the vox. "Offensive programming is overriding my control!"

"Deactivate the manual interface and recite the psalm of ignition with me," the Techmarine replied. "As we affirm the Acknowledgement of Administrative Privilege, switch Ultramar Sanctic Bind 5 with 9, then reactivate the coupling. You should regain primacy over the steerage."

"I must," Grammus said, and grabbed the main power lever.

The Land Raider is finally clear of those blasted woods and there aren't any troops left to clog up the tracks - it's time to run for home! 

But not without aiming its Lascannon at the last Plagueburst Crawler. Another demonstration of why this tank is the pin-up for Marines as it destroys the beast.

The Captain charges into the Rhino to open a hole for the Razorback to escape through next turn and smashes a gaping hole in its side. I hold my breath as Kraken spends his last CP to ensure that the transport explodes and rolls for damage - my Captain has only 3 wounds left...fortunately Kraken's ability to roll 1s continues and I'm let off. I've deliberately not counted up whether I still have enough points on the table to fulfil the victory conditions; it's definitely close though and I'm pretty sure that I can't afford to lose any more units.

Death Guard Turn 5

Praesidio cursed as he picked himself up. The Death Guard transport had erupted like a lanced boil when he hammered it, sending gouts of bloody oil from all its hatches. The abruptly slick road was too much even for his skill to handle, his bike had slithered out of control and bucked him off. He was back on in seconds, but that was all he had to spare. Any more, and the last of the traitor infantry would be on him. 

"Covering fire," Acclamatius announced over the vox. The Razorback he drove was making some headway over the shattered road, but it was slow. He'd already correctly determined the best use of his vehicle was to hold off the traitors. A steady stream of cannon shells, visible only through the yellow tracer rounds every fifth shot, poured into their diseased armour. 

"Grammus! Have you Cor Gloria in hand once more?" Praesidio asked. 

"Indeed, Captain. With the destruction of the last traitor tank, the machine spirit was appeased. I have a clear path past the refinery."

"All speed, brother," Praesidio said. "We make for Ark Actual."

With so little left I can do, it's with a feeling of impending doom that I throw the last of my troops into the grinder. Not a single bolt shot, plasma blast or grenade makes it past the Razorback's armour, so I charge it anyway, hoping that the weight of attacks I can pull with Trench Fighters (the Tallyman has finally remembered to give me an extra CP for the first time since the first round, and I had wondered about Eternal Hatred, but I end up spending one of my two points on stopping the plasma gunner killing himself). 

No, it's not to be. Apparently, rusty knives just aren't the tank killers they're cracked up to be.

Dammit, they're through!

Ultramarines Turn 5

Even at close range, the Razorback's assault cannons were still struggling to deal with the Death Guard power armour. A Plague Marine hacked at the track feed with a trenching iron, trying to jam the tool into the sprocket, but even his foul strength wasn't enough. 

"Ark Saviour, this is Ark Overhead. Batten down, firing run commencing."

The cool voice of the Stormtalon pilot rang clear across the vox. The blur of the interceptor shrieked by overhead. Blossoms of flame erupted in the midst of the Death Guard ranks, precise strikes that avoided the armoured hull of the Razorback by mere degrees. The Plague Marines were torn apart and flung to the muck where they belonged. 

Praesidio revved his bike. Cor Gloria was back on the road, lost to his sight behind the first building of the plasma refinery that lay between them and their goal. There was just one traitor left, a corpulent figure in misshapen armour lurking at the back of his fallen brethren just out of bolter range. Praesidio saluted him with his hammer. 

"You have failed, heretic. Your day is done and the advance of your kin will be broken," he shouted, his enhanced voice carrying easily across the battlefield even over the thrum of his bike. The Plague Marine didn't reply, just pointed to himself and then held up a lone finger.  

Everyone breaks for the back line and escape. The Stormhawk reappears to cover the remains of the army. The Razorback and Stormhawk shoot down all the Plague Marines so there's only one defiant Tallyman left in Kraken's army.

I can't quite get off the board this turn (even with an advance), so I need the game to continue to a sixth turn. For that to happen, the player who went first will need to roll a 3 or more. I should be fine...

...but rolling low is Kraken's speciality and the game ends, not unreasonably given 9th Ed rules, after turn 5.

Result: victory to the Death Guard

Praesidio frowned. What was the meaning of this? A last, heretical insult? Futile. Yet he shouldn't expect more, the Death Guard were the very concept of futility made flesh. 

The lone figure gestured again. This time he pointed to Praesidio, then held out one finger and thumb, linked in a circle. Praesidio scoffed, then gunned his bike and thundered away, pulling in close behind Cor Gloria. 

Slugius nodded, unsurprised. The Captain had failed to take his meaning, his limited imagination finding no tactical value in the gestures. But Slugius knew otherwise. He had pointed to himself, then tallied one. 

Pointed to the Ultramarines, and tallied nil. 

Right on cue, just as he knew they would, the melta charges hidden in the refinery stacks counted down to zero and the entire complex vanished in a vast blaze of unrestrained plasma. 

Stopping the Ultramarine convoy had never been possible, not with the limited materiel at his disposal. Delaying them just long enough that they rode into the hastily-sabotaged refinery had always been the plan. 

Satisfied, Slugius wiped the skinless and septic tip of his finger across the dataslate icon representing the Loyalist convoy, then turned back to counting the dead. 

Locker Room

Ah, but what if it had gone on another turn? Would Pootle have managed to get enough through the trap to swing it?

In fact, yes I would! The Land Raider (15), Captain (6), Razorback (6) and Techmarine (5) together would have given me exactly the minimum 32 Power Level I would have needed. We only worked that out after the game though as it kept the final turns exciting. 

But what a nail-biter! I was surprised (and pleased) with how close the game ended up. I was worried that one side or the other would win by turn two, but despite both sides had extremely impressive first turns it seesawed quite a bit as the game progressed. I was convinced I had lost on turn one, and then equally convinced I was going to make it later on in the game (we had agreed earlier that we'd be using the 8th Ed random game length).

My original Ultramarines army had a Land Raider in (pretty similar to the one below, though obviously rather less well painted!), but unfortunately though my infantry survived, I lost all my old vehicles. I did fall a little bit back in love with the big machine during this battle - I'm glad Kraken plumped for killing the Repulsor!

For my part, after an amazing first turn, I saw my early lead just evaporate. I'd been worried about all those mobile meltas, and quite rightly! With my piecemeal deployment, the Ultras could mop up the nearest units with ease and bounce on towards the next ones. They felt unstoppable, and I'm extremely glad that the Repulsor and Predator never got a chance to add their considerable firepower, I'd have melted away far too soon. 

Yes, although the Land Raider was an indestructible bullet-magnet (rather like I'm used to Plagueburst Crawlers being) and dished out quite a substantial amount of firepower, the Bikes, and particularly the Captain with Melta and Thunder Hammer, were extremely powerful.

Even if it ended up being settled by that old 8th Ed Friend, the Random Game Length Timer, I suppose I did manage to hold the boys in blue up just long enough. It was skin of the teeth from turn 4 onwards, but the Death Guard are certainly able to pull some great tricks with their new codex. Being able to squeak a slightly hollow-feeling win was lucky, but it certainly made for a great game!

If you'd rolled a 5 or 6 to inflict 3 mortal wounds on the Captain when the Rhino blew up that would have killed him outright, so you had a couple of chances for the win - it didn't feel like it was from out of nowhere. Besides, it reflected the tactics you've put into the narrative - Ultramarines' firepower is scary and always likely to carve through even the disgusting resilience of the Death Guard. Your tactics of slowing down the Land Raider and Razorback were absolutely spot on - I was planning to ensure I got off the table on turn 5 and not have to wait for a possible extension to turn 6.

It occurs to me that this game was almost the mirror image of this game in that one side was almost wiped out but, according to the rules we'd put into the narrative won despite that - makes for a really cinematic feel to the game, which I love.

Thanks to Pootle for the match, and a really grand-looking battlefield too. Can't wait for the next one!