The Apostlecalypse: Chaos Space Marines vs Imperial Guard

 The Gehenna campaign reaches its conclusion, and it's all going down on Sentinel!

Chaos Space Marines vs Imperial Guard!

For the past four months, every faction has been duking it out across the planets and warzones of the Gehenna system. Armies have been annihilated, planets destroyed, but it all ends where it begins: on the once-bastion world of Sentinel.

Battered and blooded, the planet is still held by the traitor legions, who need to recover their prized artefact before it falls into Imperial or Xenos hands. Whoever prevails on Sentinel, wins the campaign.

Guarded Remarks

Guard regiments tick a lot of wargame boxes for me. Ranks of mere mortals backed by big grindy tanks - lovely stuff! If it wasn't for a few facts (I used to own one and sold it, they're expensive to collect and I've already got an infantry horde army with 'Nids), I'd probably be slowly adding one to my collection. For now, much more fun to force Stylus to gradually paint one instead. 

Three guard squads with a solid leadership structure of Commissar, Colonel and command squad, along with some heavy weapon teams, a Leman Russ and a Chimera transport. Even with adding on a techpriest leaves it around 750 points - effective, but on the small side! 

In which case, why not ask the Inquisition to help out?

An Ordo Malleus Terminator seems like just the sort of chap who ought to be helping out in this battle. Acolytes sound like the loyalist answer to Apostles, so two squads of them - one tooled for close range burning, one for close combat. These could be devastating with all the rerolls against chaos types they get, but rather like the cultists they'll be up against, they aren't the most durable. 

Calling them a Patrol Detachment is cheating, rather - no troops, after all - so I'm paying an extra CP and sort of pretending that they're most of a Vanguard group. Acolytes are handy bodyguards, and you can equip them with some lovely toys, but I'm not convinced they ought to be Elites, rather than Inquisition Troops choices, but I can take this up with GW later!

Cadian Guard Battalion Detachment, 722 points, 3 CPs 

• HQ - Lord Commissar Josephus Haart, Warlord with Plasma Pistol and Power Sword, Old Grudges (Cultists, whichever squad ends up deployed nearest)
• HQ - Colonel Wex Moone, Company Commander, Boltgun and Power Fist
• Troops - 10 x Guardmen including Vox, Sergeant with Chainsword and Laspistol, Plasma Gun
• Troops - 10 x Guardsmen including Vox, Sergeant with Chainsword and Boltpistol, Grenade lancher
• Troops - 10 x Guardsmen including Vox, Sergeant with Chainsword and Laspistol, Flamer
• Elites - 4 x Command Squad Veterans including Vox, Medipack, Regimental Standard and Plasma Gun
• Elites - Techpriest Enginseer
• Heavy Support - Heavy Weapons Squad with Mortar Team, Missile Launcher Team and Lascannon Team
• Heavy Support - Leman Russ Battle Tank with 3 Heavy Bolters, Battle Cannon, Heavy Stubber, Track Guards
• Dedicated Transport - Chimera with Augur Array, Heavy Bolter, Hunter-Killer Missile, 2 x Lasgun Arrays, Storm Bolter

Inquisition 'Patrol' Detachment, 275 points, -3 CPs

• HQ - Thora Quemada, Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in Terminator Armour, Combi-Flamer, Nemesis Daemon Hammer, Psyk-out Grenades, Smite and Warding Incantation, Blackshroud Relic
• Elites - 5 x Ordo Malleus Acolytes, 4 with Flamers and Laspistols, 1 with Plasma Gun and Laspistol
• Elites - 4 x Ordo Malleus Acolytes, 3 with Power Mauls and Bolt Pistols, 1 with Thunder Hammer and Bolt Pistol

Three Apostles Walk Into A Bar

Literally hundreds of battles have been fought for possession of Sentinel, so the planet is a bit of a ruin now. The ordinary citizen that have survived would be desperate and psychologically wasted - fertile ground for the Dark Apostles of the traitor legions (who, after all they've been through, could use some fresh recruits).

So this was a chance to try out a very narrative list I've had in mind: three Dark Apostles (sorry Nurgle, maybe next time), sixty Cultists. and a stack of reinforcement points to summon daemons.

Renegades of Chaos Battalion Detachment, 600 Points, 5 CPs

• Lucanius - Dark Apostle of Tzeentch (HQ) (Warlord)
  2 x Dark Disciples
  Warlord: Flames of Spite
  Prayers: Warpsight Plea and Mutating Invocation
• Octavian - Dark Apostle of Khorne (HQ)
  Omen of Potency and Wrathful Entreaty
  2 x Dark Disciples
  Relic: The Black Mace
  Prayers: Omen of Potency and Wrathful Entreaty
• Dardanius - Dark Apostle of Slaanesh (HQ)
  2 x Dark Disciples
  Relic: Intoxicating Elixir
  Prayers: Blissful Devotion and Soultearer Portent 
• 20 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  Autoguns, 2 with Heavy Stubbers, Champion has a Shotgun, Mark of Tzeentch
• 20 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  Autopistols and Brutal Assault Weapons, 2 Flamers
• 20 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  9 x Autoguns, 9 x Autopistols and Brutal Assault Weapons, a Flamer and a Heavy Stubber
• 400 Reinforcement Points...

Mission and Terrain

We picked from the Open Play deck: Objective Drop. There is a single, central objective that moves 2D6" at the start of ever turn (players dice-off to control where it moves). From the third turn, each side can score 1 VP if they control the objective at the end of their command phase, and 2VP for controlling it at the end of the game.

(the drop is meant to represent some beacon or node of power that will lead either side to the fabled prize)

Cherry-picking from the Twist cards (this is quite fun for narrative), we thought Exhausted and Last Stand would be appropriate for the end of a campaign. Everyone has -1S, but will automatically pass Morale tests, although any daemons are exempt from both rules.

Deployment

The deployment map put the Imperials in a 12" corridor along the narrow edge of the board, and the Traitors in a block from the centre to the other narrow edge, 12" in from each long side.

Grouping each Apostle with his respective flock. I put the Khorne contingent in the very centre (on the objective - for the moment) and the Tzeentch shooters next to them, on the north road.

Further back were the Slaanesh Cultists and their Apostle.

With more to think about than just dumping three hordes of crazies, the Imperial Guard formed a thing green line on either side of the tower, with the Chimera (loaded with both Acolyte squads) up front and the Leman Russ as backstop.

The third squad of Guardsman backed up on the south side of the tower, along with the Command Squad, Lord Inquisitor and Company Commander. The Ordo Malleus Inquisitor went into deepstrike

Up in the tower went the mixed heavy weapons squad.

Turn 1 - Chaos Space Marines

I get an early stroke of luck as the objective comes under my control! Although I then roll double 1 for movement, so it doesn't go very far,

Let us pray. The Dark Apostles start chanting, although only Lucianus entreaty to Tzeentch is any use. His Warpsight Plea gives the shooting Cultists +1 to hit.

Octavian is blessed by Khorne with Omen of Potency (not that he'll be fighting this turn) and Dardanius gives his Slaanesh Cultists Soultearer Portent (+1 to wound in melee - not that they'll see combat either).

Led by the bloodthirsty Khornites, the Cultists all form a long column down the northern road, ready to race down into the Imperial lines. The three Apostles stay put, and try some summoning.

Octavian immediately conjures up a Daemon Prince of Khorne (who sensibly stays out of sight) and Lucianus brings up a Burning Chariot of Tzeentch. Already running low on reinforcement points, I hold off summoning anything esle.

Tzeentch has the run of the shooting phase, with the Cultists' small-arms fire gunning down most of the Heavy Weapons teams (leaving only a Mortar team on a single wound - who will now be out of sight for the whole game, thanks to the lip of the tower, and free to rain down high explosive with impunity).

Not to be outdone, the Burning Chariot hits the Leman Russ with pink fire and melts away half its wounds. I'll take that!

There's no charges to be made, so I have some shots to weather before the blood can spill.

Turn 1 - Imperial Guard

Well, if the wretched cultists are going to run right for my firing lines, who am I to disoblige them?

Pausing only to superglue some of the exploded bits back onto the Leman Russ, I shuffle the lines forward and keep the command team at the back and in the middle. The Chimera races along the front, taking its precious freight of angry flamethrowers towards the inevitable next wave of cultists. 

Front Rank, Fire! is the obvious order for the nearest guard squad, who are in rapid fire range of the incoming Khorne-Botherers. Applied with Vengeance for Cadia, this proves extremely effective, and completely wipes all twenty out in fairly short order.

Important lesson for me there: don't run a load of t-shirt wearing Cultists into a lasgun killzone!

Which sadly leaves me a little short of targets! The vehicles patter a variety of shots off the Burning Chariot, but that doesn't even scratch it thanks to some warp shenanigans. Dropping a final mortar round into the Slaaneshi guys at the back, I call that turn done. 

I was riding my luck with Warp Surge on the Burning Chariot, but I needed it to survive - and thankfully, it did!

Turn 2 - Chaos Space Marines

The winds blow in the Imperium's favour this time - bringing the objective back to Kraken's lines, and right into the open!

Hmm. One unit of Cultists lost for no reason - I'm clearly going to have to be a bit more careful with their worthless lives!

I chant the same prayers as before Warpsight Plea, Omen of Potency and Soultearer Portent, but no more summoning this time (much as I'd like another Burning Chariot).

The Tzeentch Cultists scamper behind cover, along with all the characters, while the Slaaneshi ones melt into the shadows and a Tide of Traitors appear in the Imperium's back lines!

The only bold move is to push the Burning Chariot towards the Imperial lines, and the Daemon Prince towards the objective. They're both at peril here, but we start scoring points in my next command phase, so I want to be near it.

The Burning Chariot breathes over the Leman Russ once again - just falling short of destroying it! I try a 7" charge to finish it (or even tie it up), but it falls short. Then the Daemon Prince fails his charge into the Chimera. Then the ambushing Cultists fail their charge - clearly the tectonic plates of Sentinel are rocked by all this devastation and no-one is getting good footing!

With some apprehension, I wait for the Guard's response.

Turn 2 - Imperial Guard

The Daemon Prince is exposed! I reckon this is the moment for the Inquisition to set flamers to grill. Both Acolyte teams leap out, the close combat ones heading in as close as they can get. They feel a bit spare, however, because between a Smite from the incoming Inquisitor and some las-fire from the supporting Guard I'm able to fry Big Red before he can get going.

Nooo! I really didn't do my Khorne units any favours with their positioning here.

He's close enough to the Acolytes for him to make an example of him, though - Battlefield Excruciation is a free Inquisition strat that gets me two CPs back and drops all the enemy leadership by one for the rest of the game (not that it helps here). 

Between the tank and a round of close range guard fire, the Burning Chariot also drops, which just leaves me a big unit of cultists in the backline to deal with. Stylus suggests sticking a squad of Guard back in the Chimera to get the las-arrays working, so I do that and head for the Cultists. 

After shooting a couple, it rams the rest using the Run Them Down strat to make the charge a little more effective. I lose a wound to massed cultists jamming pamphlets under the windscreen wipers, but I can deal with that!

Looking solid so far. If the wind can just keep blowing in my favour...

Turn 3 - Chaos Space Marines

... and it does! Kraken once again wins control of the objective and pulls it almost into his deployment zone. No points for me this turn, and I've got some chasing to do.

First order of business is to avenge the Daemon Prince. Octavian and Lucianus both round the corner, backed up by the Tzeentch Cultists.

Dardanius decides he's going to make himself useful and summons three Fiends of Slaanesh (taking a mortal wound in the process). Perhaps not the ideal choice, but I wanted everyone to have at least one daemon represented.

And finally, the Slaaneshi Cultists realise they're not going to batter down a Chimera, so slink away. Luckily, they are replaced by a second Tide of Traitors to reinforce my push!

Some sporadic fire plinks away a few Guardsman and the nearest Acolytes (the furthest Acolytes are spared as charge fodder), and then we all charge. Lucianus, the Cultists and the Fiends all make their charges into the Acolytes, and Octavian goes into the Inquisitor herself.

Continually pumped with his Omen of Potency and The Black Mace, Octavian makes short work of the Inquisitor. Lucianus and the Fiends chew up the Acolytes before the Cultist get a chance to fight, allowing me to pile-in and consolidate 6"closer upfield. We're getting closer!

Turn 3 - Imperial Guard

The Guard in the Chimera get out again, because it's time to throw the metal box at the incoming melee threats. The Apostle of Khorne, in this case, he's clearly a dangerous chap. The rear ranks of Guard move up cautiously, the front rank unleash a short range volley and prep bayonets. 

Shooting goes okay, but not as well as I want. The Fiends scare me, I want them dead, but it takes most of my shooting to do it. There's enough leftover to make a dimple in the Tzeentchian Cultists, into which the nearest Guard charge. However, both sides are so exhausted that the combat is very clearly just knackered people leaning on each other, the kind of dynamic combat you see in the fifteenth round of a well-matched boxing tournament. 

Not so for the Chimera, who meets a fresh-faced heavyweight who's raring to go. Bang - it's a knockout punch in the first round there, and bits of tank go pattering lightly to the rockrete.

Go Octavian! He's putting in quite the shift here.

Everyone who is still standing braces for what looks to be quite a nasty counterpunch.

Turn 4 - Chaos Space Marines

And still the objective drifts away from me! No matter - if I can stop Kraken controlling it, I can still claim it in the fifth turn.

Just pressing ahead is the new plan. Dardanius is clearly out of the fight, having nothing left to summon and being too far away from the action. 

The Tzeentch Cultists fall away from the Guard unit they were fighting (that may have been a mistake - everyone is so exhausted that wrapping in combat is probably the best way to stay safe from gunfire. The Slaaneshi Cultists (Wave 3, if you're counting) move within charge range.

Octavian charges off alone into the back squad of Guard, while everyone else surrounds the closest squad. Exhaustion is taking its toll, as the fresh mob of Cultists only manage to slap down four Guardsman (if only Dardanius was close enough to boost their strength).

But the Apostle of Khorne is on a roll, smashing aside six of the squad, only stopping because he ran out of attacks.

At least I'm now surrounding that damn objective, so I have some chance of grabbing it when it drifts again.

Turn 4 - Imperial Guard

There's a surprising amount of Guard left for this late stage, and I do my best to make the most of it. The undamaged plasma squad mow down the surviving Tzeentchians with First Rank Fire and Vengeance for Cadia again, whilst the Leman Russ (now qwik-fitted back to top tier stats again) blasts down more of the Slaaneshi pack. 

In this, they are helped a tiny amount by the fleeing guard squad, who get ordered into a fighting retreat, but a frag grenade and two lasguns don't really contribute much.

Not much I feel I can do against the Acolytes, their armour is too daunting. I do have a go at killing the Khorne Disciples, though, just to try and stop his bloodlusty shanties from buffing him, but the command squad and assorted characters only manage to pick one off. 

Turn 5 - Chaos Space Marines

Once again, the winds turn against me! Kraken gains control of the objective, but with a short move, and me fairly spread out, his options for placement aren't great. In the end, the prize finishes up with the leading squad of four Guardsman.

Now I'm stuck. Taking the objective off Kraken won't be a problem, but I need to control it at the end of the game to take the 2VP for victory. I've seen that the Imperial firepower can delete a unit a turn, and there are a couple of objective secured units that could Move! Move! Move! onto it.

As I see them, my options are: use my last Command Points on Tide of Traitors and hope that I can make a 9" to swarm the objective with more Cultists than can be killed - but the whole game then rests on a single dice roll (and my charges have not been great).

Or I try and tie up the Imperial lines as much as I can, while screening off the objective so the Guardsmen can't get close enough, even if they advance.

I opt for the second choice, move Octavian to slaughter the untouched Guard squad, while the remaining Cultists shoot the furthest squad and charge the nearest one.

And I make a complete hash of it. Octavian's legendary strength fails him (no Omen of Potency this turn) and he only kills one Guardsman. The shooting fails to kill the furthest squad, but then the flamer utterly obliterates the nearest one (that was silly of me to even shoot it), leaving me with nothing to charge into!

I'm on the objective, but with nothing to screen the smaller Guardsman unit from moving onto it, I won't have it for much longer.

Turn 5 - Imperial Guard

Seeing my moment has come, I concentrate all fire on the remaining Cultists. This proves unnecessary as the Leman Russ (boosted with Vengeance for Cadia) murders the lot, after which I can simple yell Move Move Move! at one of my depleted guard squads and nick both the objective and victory in the nick of time. 

Guardsmen of Sentinel, you've done me proud today!

Result: 3:0 to the Guard!

Locker Room

Talk about a lucky escape - even a single round of the incoming package heading towards the bad guys, and there is no way I'd have had a hope of getting it back! Equally, that would probably have been a less exciting game, whereas this was up for grabs right the way to the last. Great stuff, and a really good narrative matchup!

It was very cool to see chaff units deployed as the main force, and even more so to have secondary characters take centre stage - go Apostles!

This being the first time I'd tried a list anything like this, I made some daft moves. Feeding the Cultists in piecemeal, and getting overexcited about bringing on daemons. I should also have thought more tactically about how to position for that last turn, which may have cost me the game. I've been guilty of this before - when my blood's up, I just want to kill the enemy!

Summoning still doesn't function well enough in 40k, but I love the idea, so I hope it gets fixed (the absence of it in the new Death Guard and Thousand Sons codices is ominous). I'd like to try it again, and would probably make all the Apostles god-agnostic, to give myself some more flexibility. Imagine if I'd had enough points to drop a big unit of Plaguebearers on the objective...

The humble Guardsmen were my MVP, putting out more than enough flashlights to leaf-blow the Cult swarms away. Those Daemons were a nasty surprise, but it was luck piled on luck tonight. The Chariot very nearly took out the Leman Russ in a single turn, and was desperately unlucky not to do it in a second one. Without its firepower, I'd have struggled even more than I did. 

If I could tweak the scenario, it would be to score points for holding the objective at the end of your turn, rather than the beginning of the command phase. With the enemy having the opportunity to push you off and the chance of losing the roll-off, it felt like it was very difficult to score any points until the very end. Better we both have a chance to rack up some points, rather than neither.

But it was great fun, and brilliant to try out a narrative idea with a slightly eccentric list. Thanks to Kraken for playing along, and congrats on the victory.

Good stuff - but I wonder if it will be enough to help turn the tide in the Gehenna campaign?