I Get Knocked Down

 A visiting challenger - General Plumbawumba is working in Gothenburg for a couple of months, and hasn't played for about nine years. He took me up on the offer of a introduction to 9th, and we had a couple of quick 500 point matches over lunch. 

After choosing his vitally important Woffboot nickname, Plumbawumba decided on the Alpha Legion for his comeback. Here's what 500 points got him - 

• Chaos Lord, Warlord with Clandestine trait, Mindveil Relic, Combi-Melta and Lightning Claw
• 10 Chaos Cultists with autoguns, one has a heavy stubber
• 6 Chaos Space Marines with bolters, Champion has plasma pistol and chainaxe
• 5 Noise Marines with chainswords and bolt pistols, Champion has a doom siren, sonic blaster and lightning claw
• 1 Chaos Spawn
• 1 Obliterator

He used to be an Ultramarine player, so I'd made him a Space Marine list thinking it would be an easier onboarding, and I'd given him some good toys to make a good impression. I ended up running them myself and didn't take relics or traits to keep things simple - 

• Primaris Librarian, Warlord with Lightning Call and Ride the Winds powers, Force Sword and Bolt Pistol
• 7 Assault Intercessors, Sarge has power sword and plasma pistol
• 5 Intercessors with Bolt Rifles
• A Vindicator with storm bolter and siege shield

Slightly simplified rules - basic strategems only, no combat doctrines for the marines, but both armies got their traits. 

A simple game - 4x3' table with three objectives. Deploying from the corners, you get 1 VP for each victory point you hold at the end of your turn, with one in the front corner of each deployment zone and one in the middle. 

Game 1

It started off badly for the Alpha Legion after I got first turn and managed to psychically murder half of the Chaos Marines before they could do anything. The Vindicator drove fast round one flank, the Assault Intercessors hid on the central objective and I could see General P looking a bit dismayed. 

He stayed back for a turn, not wanting to get killed on an early rush, and his shooting merely plinked off a couple of Assault marines. I duly rushed in, throwing down the Noise Marines as the Vindicator killed the rest of the Chaos Marines. 

This was met with a Spawn, who did reasonably well against the Assault team until the Sarge put it down with an overcharged plasma pistol shot. The Cultists sallied forth to try and keep me off the objective, but it was a short-lived defence. 

Meanwhile, the Chaos Lord and Librarian duked it out over the middle objective, but I'd somehow brought the good dice and kept making all my armour saves, eventually bringing down the shifty warlord after several rounds of combat. 

The poor old Obliterator materialised in the mid-field, managed to whiff his shooting and kill a meagre Intercessor and then eat a Vindicator shell. So it was very much game to the Mantis Warriors, and I was fully expecting to have put Plumbawumba off the game for good. 

Game 2

But he's a competitive man! So we gave him a Sorcerer with the Warptime and Infernal Gaze powers, talked through the Alpha Legion strategems, and had another go. 

This time we fought across the other diagonal. The Cultists used Forward Operatives to grab the middle objective before the game started, but I got first turn and rapidly removed their taint with a wind-assisted Assault Intercessor charge. 

But this rather played into the Alpha Legion's hands - the Chaos Lord and Noise Marines countercharged, along with a bit of shooting, and wiped the Assault squad out with relative ease, although I did interrupt the combat to bring the Lord down to his last wound. Thanks, Sarge!

The Sorcerer threw his Chaos Marines forward with Warptime, and they surrounded the Vindicator. Not that they could hurt it, but that was a lot of firepower I couldn't use when I needed it, and Plumbawumba was definitely getting in the groove. 

Turn two saw the Librarian smite off the wounded Lord, then shoot and assault away the Noise Marines with supporting fire from the Intercessors on the rear gantry. This nearly killed him, they kept throwing Krak grenades with their Apocalypse ability! But his armoured cloak once again saved him. The Vindicator was stuck, and failed to kill any of the Chaos Marines. 

But they snuck away by re-infiltrating shortly after, leaving the Sorcerer to use Infernal Gaze to kill his loyalist counterpart. The Obliterator popped out in my back lines, used Endless Cacophony (from a newfound mark of Slaanesh) to batter the Intercessors, and I was left with not much. 

Although I'd scored well early, the Vindicator found that it couldn't actually cross any scenery to take any objectives. So it blew the Sorcerer up, and then most of the Chaos Marines when they reappeared on the middle objective, but by that time the Obliterator had killed off the Intercessors and taken their objective. Plumbawumba had, in traditional Alpha Legion style, come from behind and stolen the victory!

Locker Room

Getting two swift games in over a Monday lunchtime was a lovely start to the week. Plumbawumba has asked for a decider, to be played next week for 1000 points and full rules, so I'll report that once it happens. But he's eyeing up what to add to his old forces even now, as well as planning a custom chapter to repaint them as. Job done, I'd say! 

"Good game, lads. You can all have a coke from the machine on me."