Discustodes: Night Lords vs Emperor's Chosen

Plunging straight back into the hobby whirlwind - it's me, Kraken, taking on the might of the night via one of Kasfunatu's armies in a skype match! A thousand points of full Nephilim tournament rules, because the deep end is a good place to learn. 

Cuss Wards

Having played as Custodes all of no times, despite owning close to 2000 points of them, I reckoned I'd try out the shiny gold boys for laughs. I can rack up just over a score of these ludicrous superheroes - trios of jetbikes, shooty and stabby troopers, some elite Wardens with a Vexilla and the customary jetbike shield captain to lead them. Everyone has misericordia because why on earth wouldn't you take the free upgrade?

Not much in terms of whistles or bells, because they're more or less built out of them anyway, but the boss gets a relic and upgrade (extra speedy bike). Emperor's Chosen gives me a reroll per phase, my choice of hit or wound, and they've all got a bonkers 4+ against mortal wounds. Simple and effective, I'm hoping. 

My marital catarrhs will be Calistus (the fast one), Rendax (the killing monsters and vehicles one, which this lot are extra good with) and Conservai (to consolidate and do actions on objectives, assuming I'm still around by this point). So as the Custodes seem to like, the plan is to run into the middle, plant flags all over it and massacre anyone who dares try to pinch it off us. 

Emperor's Chosen Patrol, 1000 points, 2 CPs

• HQ - Shieldcaptain on Dawneagle Jetbike, salvo launcher, misericordia, Auric Aquilas relic, Tip of the Spear 
• Troops - 3 Sagittarum Custodes 
• Troops - 3 Custodian Guard with Adrasite and Pyrithite lances
• Elites - 3 Custodian Wardens with an axe and two spears
• Elites - Vexilus Praetor with Vexilla Magnifica and spear
• Fast Attack - 3 Vertus Praetors with two hurricane bolters and a salvo launcher

Disco Night

Kas is practising with a Night Lords list that he's taking to a doubles event, where I understand his leadership penalties will stack with those of his daemonic allies. There's a Lord Discordant with a daemon weapon, backed by the twin black hole generators of a Decimator, a Forgefiend and his Master of Possession buddy, then a squad of legionaries to hold objectives and a pair of Spawn for ganking stuff. 

Surprise attacks can come courtesy of a pack of Warp Talons and an Obliterator. I'm no expert, but this looks like the kind of list that can close to battle fast, do some nasty damage and back it up with a decent bit of backfield fire support. The Disco Lord is packing enough gear that they've run out of command points before the game begins, which feels like a risk to me - okay, we'll get a steady stream of CPs throughout (it was a mistake of a spend that realised too late), and the upgrades are certainly potent, but there's some nice options off the table early on. Maybe a late counterpunch might be brewing?

Night Lords Battalion, 1000 points, no CPs!

• HQ - Lord Discordant with baleflamer, Mark of Tzeentch, Warlord Trait: Killing Fury, Relic: Q'O'Ak, the Boundless
• HQ - Master of Possession with spells that he came to regret later - (Cursed Earth & Pact of Flesh), Warlord: Dirty Fighter
• Troops - Five Chaos Space Marines with bolters
• Elite - Decimator with twin Soulburners
• Fast Attack - 5 Warp Talons
• Fast Attack - 2 Chaos Spawn
• Heavy Support - Forgefiend with triple Ectoplasma Cannons
• Heavy Support - 1 Obliterator

Mission and Terrain

The blasted cities of Rylstone beckon us once more. Unto these killing fields shall we bring our mission, which tonight is number 23 on your Nephilim song sheets. This is Surge of Faith, where we deploy on the short ends and try to capture four objectives, one each in our own deployment zones and the others across the middle. 

As well as the usual Take and Hold, there is the Surge of Faith action to perform on Objectives. More points the further away it is from your own back line, and no points for performing it on the home marker, Jenkins, don't ask stupid questions. 

On top of this, we're playing these secondaries:

Custodes Secondaries

• Might of Terra - destroy enemy units and don't have any units destroyed in a battle round for 4 points
• Stand Vigil - hold more objectives in No Man's Land than the enemy at the end of a turn for 3 points 
• Auric Mortalis - kill the most valuable enemy (Lord Disco today) for 5 points, with five more if I do it in melee with a Custodes unit and five more if this happens more than 6" from my deployment zone. -2 points for each unit he kills first, though

Chaos Space Marine Secondaries

• Engage on All Fronts - be present in three quarters for 2 points or four for 3
• Assassination - murder characters for 3 a piece plus a bonus point for a warlord
• A Third One - I forget which

Deployment

Kas is the Attacker, and picks the Western Front, and after his Obliterator and Warp Talons sneak into the warp, he broadly splits his forces. The Forgefiend and MoP castle up on the southern objective, the Disco Lord and Decimator take the north with the Legionaries hiding near them in a building. The Spawn take a more central position, ready to swing in where they're needed. 

My guys also split up, with the Custodian Guard lurking behind a tower to the south. They can head forward and fend for themselves; everyone else is going in from the North to try and kill the Discordant. 

I'm going first, so I get on with it!

Custodes Turn 1

Using my extra movement from Calistus, I move everything up and into as much cover as possible. Which isn't much, these streets are pretty open apart from the odd pipeline. The Wardens welcome me back to 40K by rolling a double one and breaking into a sarcastic jog. 

Not much else happens - I'm keeping the jetbikes lurking at the back, partly to screen my home objective but mostly because their speed can get them to where they need later. The Sagittarum plink two wounds off the Decimator, but he grows them back over the next two turns. And that's all I wrote!

Night Lords Turn 1

Kas immediately springs traps on me. Warp Talons can deep strike in turn one? Why was I not informed? Heads will roll... (it is a night lord only strat) 

The Disco Lord and his Decimator gambol forwards, taking the objective and eyeing up an early charge on the Sagittarum. Alas, the pipe in the way makes this a bit dicey - the Discordant in particular has a big base that will make it hard to get all the way over, what with the Custodes being in the way and all. 

An obvious solution presents itself - shoot a hole! Between the Forgefiend and the Disco Lord, two of the golden boys cark it. It helps to some extent, but it's still going to need a 10" charge, which sadly doesn't turn up. The Warp Talons, however, get an easy 12" and pounce on the Custodians. 

Warp Talons really aren't what I remember. They don't turn off overwatch, but they're much more adept in melee than before - I'm confused and scared. Luckily this doesn't affect my armour too much, and their claws pull just one Custodian down. Popping Avenge the Fallen for an extra attack each, I carve up three of the Talons in return. They pass morale, but they're probably not happy about this. Still, their new powers at least they can lock me in melee if I try to escape, so that's nice for them. (not a good target for the talons it seems... lesson learned)

Kas is in three quarters, so gets the first score - two points on Engage on All Fronts. 

Custodes Turn 2

Right - that Disco Lord is asking for it. Switching to Rendax, I pile the troopers forward and surround him by plonking the Shieldcaptain down behind. The other jetbikes move out of cover in case the Obliterator is thinking of pinching an objective, and that's movement done. 

The little shooting I have targets the Disco Lord. Kas has explained that his Tzeentchian ability lets him shrug the first damage he takes in a turn, so I reckon I need to get this out of the way as soon as possible. It takes everything I've got, his armour of contempt is harder to shift than I'd like! One of the salvo launchers eventually pops it. 

That pipe cuts both ways - the Warden Guard don't make their charge over it, so it's down to the Shield Captain and the lone Sagittarum to take down the spider rider. Despite his mighty lance, it's not going to be a one turn kill. The Captain takes 6 off, the Sagittarum somehow does one with his Misericordia, but the Lord Discordant is not dead. Uh-oh. 

He rears up on his terrible steed, ready to blenderize the Shield Captain, draws his Daemon Weapon, immediately loses control of it, cuts his own head off and very inconsiderately denies me ten victory points. What a cad. 

(I guess that is my only solace. Quite a risk that daemon weapon. Spoiler: in the doubles tournament I went on to fail to use multiple times and did more wounds to myself than opponents did trying to control!)

Night Lords Turn 2

Somewhat dismayed by this setback, Kas concentrates all firepower on the Shield Captain, but those auric saves are holding. The Obliterator pops up to help, but between all the guns they can only drop five out of nine wounds. 

The Spawn barrel across the field to keep the Custodians from claiming the midfield objective, charging in and scrabbling against the armoured champions, but it's a one-sided fight. Both die almost instantly to the return attacks. (Second lesson)

The Shieldcaptain is close enough to Intervene on the Decimator, and does so, slapping a handful of wounds off it. It's not the turn around Kas was hoping for, but we grimly move on to the next round. 

Custodes Turn 3

Sticking to Rendax, I sweep the bikes forward, stick the Custodians on the objective and start performing the mission action. 

Shooting sees a missile pop the Obliterator and a lone Legionary mildly chipped by bolter fire, but the real action is in melee. Down goes the Decimator, lanced by the bikers, and the Sagittarum clambers into the ruin and starts punching Legionaries, killing the wounded one. 

Faced with this golden tide, Kas calls it a night. 

Lord. 

Result: Victory to the Custodes!

Locker Room

Ouch - Custodes really are bonkers. Fun bonkers, I can't say I didn't rather enjoy that sleigh ride! Even my luck (and there were more ones than average in all my turns, as ever, fewer than science can explain) can't quite dent their performance. 

The poor old Disco Lord was very unlucky, he really deserved to kill my Warlord. Equally, he'd perhaps gone out on a limb there. Holding back another turn, or tag-teaming with the Spawn or the Warp Talons might have helped a bit, but it was always going to be a tough match-up for his army. 

I made mistakes too - the Warden Guard should have gone ahead of the Sagittarum, who are better at holding off and shooting than charging in as front line troops, and I clearly have some things to learn about the new Chaos Codex! 

Short and brutal, it's still the first game I've had for a few months. Good to be back!

Great, albeit brutal, fun. But slightly sobering before the tournament. 

We played this last month. It was the 99th game Kas played that year - impressive enough, but I think he racked up the century before the end. Just one shy of a full dalmation!