Kraken recently posted about starting up a new campaign and Stylus and I (Pootle) are kicking things off, harking back to 8th edition with my Ultramarines trying to kick the Death Guard off my home planet of Bagot Prime.
I think you'll find it's my home planet.
Nope, I can confidently say that Ultramarines and Orks have been fighting here for 35 years!
The Jimulthuan Campaign looks a lot of fun and as both Stylus and I chose Bagot Prime as our main base of operations, it makes sense for that to be the site of the first battle. My Ultramarines have been fighting Death Guard there for years (well, since August 2019, though the planet is named after the village I grew up in, hence it really is MY home planet; it's interesting looking back at that, my first game hosting on the blog, to see the development of my terrain collection!) so it's highly appropriate to start here.
Forces
Ultramarines: Ultra-mad
As this is a return to beginnings, I've chosen an entirely first-born list. It's relatively mobile, reflecting that it's meant to be a strike on the Death Guard position (within the campaign structure, I initiated this attack on Stylus' base).
I'll (obviously) be using the standard Gladius detachment.
- Epistolary Valerius Astralhand, a Terminator Librarian (warlord with The Honour Vehement enhancement) leading 5 Terminators (Power Fists on everyone apart from the Sergeant who gets his (disappointingly rubbish but unarguably cool-looking) Power Sword, Cyclone Missile Launcher)
- Lieutenant Cator (with Master-crafted Bolt Rifle and Power Fist plus Artificer Armour enhancement) leading a Tactical Squad (Storm Bolter and Power Fist on the Sergeant, Grav Cannon and Plasma Gun as special weapons)
- Scouts (Missile Launcher, Sergeant has a Shotgun)
- 3 Bikers (Sergeant has a Power Fist, one marine is carrying a Plasma Gun)
- Attack Bike (Multimelta)
- Land Speeder Typhoon (Heavy Bolter & Typhoon Missile Launcher)
- Land Raider (all the Lascannons, Multimelta, Twin Heavy Bolter, Storm Bolter, H-K missile)
990 points
Librarian Astralhand will be my overall leader of the Imperial alliance fighting in the Jimulthuan Quadrant campaign. He has the Honour Vehement enhancement, boosting his melee strength and attacks by one, and by a further one when the Assault Doctrine is active. He's ably assisted in this battle by Lieutenant Cator, who gained a name as a result of his heroics in a recent game against Chaos Space Marines and bears the same Artificer Armour (2+ save, 5+ FNP) that helped him hold a whole flank of a battlefield against two Obliterators and a Heldrake.
Death Guard: Fitting the Mould
After a hiatus of nearly two years, I, Stylus, have been brought back into 40k (I wasn't going to pass up a Kraken campaign). I'm very ring-rusty, but Pootle was kindly coaching me through my return game.
My army was basically chosen on what would confuse me the least: three units of near-identical Plague Marines, some Poxwalkers for objective-squatting, Deathshroud Terminators for some punch, and a couple of the classic light daemon-engines.
For characters, I had to go with Maxwell, the legendary Biologus Putrifier. Plus a Foul Blightspawn, because they still seem nasty; and a Plague Surgeon because he was the cheapest (sorry, doc, you can't all be heroes).
My detachment is the Flyblown Host, which gives my infantry Scout (I only have to remember at the start of the game) and Stealth (it's up to Pootle to remember). My Chaos legions have designs on other part of the quadrant, so I see this as a holding force (maybe grinding the Ultramarines down, while the more mobile elements are elsewhere).
- Maxwell, a Biologus Putrifier (warlord) leading 7 Plague Marines (Power Fist & Plasma Gun on the Champion, 2 Heavy Plague Weapons, 1 Blight Launcher, 1 Meltagun, 1 Bubotic Weapons, 1 Bolter)
- Kelvin, a Foul Blightspawn leading 7 Plague Marines (Power Fist & Plasma Gun on the Champion, 2 Heavy Plague Weapons, 1 Blight Launcher, 1 Meltagun, 1 Bubotic Weapons, 1 Bolter)
- Planck, a Plague Surgeon leading 7 Plague Marines (Power Fist & Plasma Gun on the Champion, 2 Heavy Plague Weapons, 1 Blight Launcher, 1 Plasma gun, 1 Plague Spewer, 1 Bolter)
- 10 x Poxwalkers
- 3 x Deathshroud Terminators
- Myphtic Blighthauler
- Foetid Bloatdrone (Fleshmower)
1,000 points
Mission
We're playing my favourite mission for relatively simple games at the moment: hold-more-kill-more. At the start of each players turn (from round two) that player scores one point for holding an objective, an extra point if they control two objectives and one more if they control more than their opponent at that point. Similarly, at the end of each battle round players score one point if they killed an enemy unit that round, an extra point if they killed two units and one more if they killed more than their opponent.
One additional campaign rule as selected by Kraken is that on Bagot Prime all units have the sticky objectives ability.
Deployment
Although my Land Raider will be tough for the Death Guard to deal with, individually none of my other units (even the Terminators) will be all that tricky or dangerous for them. Therefore I really need to focus my attention on one or two units at a time.
I therefore decide to refuse my right flank entirely, placing the Land Raider (loaded up with Terminators), Bikes and Land Speeder in the centre and the Tactical and Scout squads on my left. The Scouts infiltrate into midfield so I can easily grab the objective if I need to.
It's easy to predict that Stylus will march all three Plague Marine squads onto one midfield objective each, so my plan is to isolate the one on my right and focus all fire on the left then move onto the centre later.
As predicted, I divide my deployment into three sections, and place one character-led Plague Marine unit in each. The Deathshroud Terminators go into deepstrike.
Foul Blightspawn squad goes on the right flank, opposite the ruins.
Plague Surgeon squad goes in the centre, flanked by the Blighthauler and with the Poxwalkers shambling behind.
On the left flank, facing the hill, goes Biologus squad. On their extreme flank is the Bloat-drone. This may seem a bit far out for a unit with no guns, but I go all excited about a flank attack.
Stylus wins the roll-off for first turn (which I'm glad about as it brings him forwards onto my guns - there'd have been precious little to shoot at if I'd gone first).
Before the first turn though, there are quite a few Scout moves to resolve. First off, my Scouts scout the hell away from the advancing Plague Marines (I'd positioned them so their 6" move can get them behind the screen of the ruins). All three Plague Marine squads trudge inexorably forwards towards their respective midfield objectives.
Death Guard Turn 1
It's a quiet first turn for me, as everything in the army advances forward in a relentless, shambling horde.
The Biologus grabs the objective on the hill, backed up by the Bloat-drone.
The Plague Surgeon run behind the building, where the Blight-hauler joins them and tries not to think about lascannons.
Behind them, the Poxwalkers shuffle onto my home objective, bunker down beneath the rock outcrop and get comfortable. With objectives being sticky, they don't have to stay there, but I'm wary of redeploying Scouts stealing my objectives.
The Foul Blightspawn's unit is the most daring, driving hard into the ruins in the face of half the Ultramarine army.
I didn't claim any objectives at the start and I haven't fired a shot yet, so it's a goose-egg for my starting tally.
Ultramarines Turn 1
As planned, I put Oath of Moment on the Plague Marines in the ruin on my left. I also declare the Devastator Doctrine (as I plan to play the Storm of Fire stratagem on the Tactical Squad, which will boost their shooting considerably - an extra pip of AP and ignores cover too). The Tactical Squad move forwards and Stylus overwatches them! The Foul Blightspawn alone kills four, but the rest of the firepower only knocks one more wound off (that made me sweat a bit).
The Bikes, Attack Bike and Land Speeder all move so they have clear line of sight on the Oath of Moment target and I unleash a hail of gunfire. When the smoke clears the Plague Marines are all dead and the Foul Blightspawn is left on only three wounds! Perfect!
The Land Raider pushes forwards and, while its smaller guns add their contribution to the Plague Marine main target, the heavier guns all target the Myphitic Blighthauler (the one thing in Stylus's army that could put some serious hurt on the big tank). Stylus lets out a Smokescreen and it helps significantly with no damage being done at all!
I'm very glad that I didn't overperform on the shooting and kill the Foul Blightspawn too as this way the Tactical Squad have someone to charge and get onto the midfield objective. The Blightspawn uses his first-first ability (he may as well) and armed only with the butt of his magnificent Plague Sprayer, manages to knock the last wound off one of the loyalist marines! In return Lieutenant Cator uppercuts him to death with his Power Fist!
At the end of the round I've killed two units (the Plague Marines and the Foul Blightspawn) against Stylus's none, so I score the maximum three VPs for that.
Score: 3-0 to the Ultramarines
Death Guard Turn 2
I already seem to have put myself somewhat out of position, so I try to remedy that. The Bloat-drone swings over towards the centre, and the Biologus squad does the same, throwing out some desultory small-arms fire as it does so.
I decide to go big in the centre and throw everything I have against the Land Raider (it's either that or get pushed around by it all game). With the vehicle now in contagion range, I can drop in my Deathshroud Terminators a mere 6" away.
Before charging, the Blight-hauler opens up with its fire-power. Thanks to being a tank-hunter, it scores hits with both multi-melta barrels and the krak launcher - and then fails to wound any of them.
The Blight-hauler and Plague Surgeon squad both make their charge into the Land Raider. The Deathshroud fall 1" short, however. I was contemplating using my only CP to re-roll the charge, but I have high hopes for the Blight-hauler's Tank Shock.
The Tank Shock only inflicts two wounds, and the rest of the squad can do no more than claw away a few more armour panels. One of the plague marines gets run over in return. This could be a problem.
I have yet to kill anything, but at least swarming over the battlefield has secured my three VPs for objectives, so I'm off the mark.
At the end of Stylus's turn my Scouts are more than 6" away from any enemy so sneak off into strategic reserves...
Ultramarines Turn 2
I'm holding two objectives at the start of the turn (my homefield and the one in the ruins), so that's 2 VP (as the Death Guard control three at the moment). I do decide to spend a CP on Insane Bravery so that Cator and his squad auto-pass their battleshock test. That means I not only hold the objective but make it sticky so I can walk away and help the fight in the centre.
The plan for the turn is that the Blighthauler has to go. We've both whiffed once but if I can hunt down the tank-hunter then it should make it an uphill battle for Stylus to take down my Land Raider. Accordingly, I make it the Oath of Moment target.
The big tank puts itself into reverse and back away from the Plague Surgeon and his Plage Marine escort. By swinging around to the right it sticks its bum out at the Deathshroud Terminators and, because it has OC5, steals the central objective back off them.
Although there aren't many left, the four remaining in the Plague Marine squad are all scary, but Lt Cator knows no fear and leads the remains of his squad in. He strikes first and kills all of the Plague Marines by himself, while the rest of the squad reduce the Plague Surgeon to just one wound! What a hero!
And we're in! The Plague Marines, Bloat-drone and Deathshroud all charge into the Land Raider, hoping for a bit of magic.
The first order of business is for the Land Raider to take down the Myphitic Blighthauler and I only need the Lascannons to do so. Its secondary weapons plus the Bikes, Attack Bike, Land Speeder and Cator & the Tactical Squad (who've moved through the ruin to threaten the Plague Marines too) all pour fire into the Plague Marines and reduce them to just the Surgeon and three Heavy Plague Weapons
Realising that I can't sneak the Scouts back onto the table in Stylus's deployment zone yet, they reappear just a short distance from where they departed and shoot the Plague Marines too.
Although there aren't many left, the four remaining in the Plague Marine squad are all scary, but Lt Cator knows no fear and leads the remains of his squad in. He strikes first and kills all of the Plague Marines by himself, while the rest of the squad reduce the Plague Surgeon to just one wound! What a hero!
At the end of the round Stylus still hasn't killed a single unit (ouch), but I've killed the Plague Marines and Blighthauler so that's another 3 points there to add to the 2 from holding objectives at the start of the turn.
Score: 8-3 to the Ultramarines
Death Guard Turn 3
Faced with incompetent underlings, it looks like Maxwell is going to have to do it all himself. At least I'm still scoring two from the home and hill objectives.
I decide to throw everything into the Land Raider (because that worked so well last time) and hope the Tank Shock can deal a few more wounds (because that worked so well last time).
The Biologus squad and Bloat-drone move to within charge range of the Land Raider, while the Deathshroud take up positions on the roof and prepare to jump.
Once again I throw around what little small-arms fire is available to me, but it doesn't seem to trouble the loyalists overly.
And we're in! The Plague Marines, Bloat-drone and Deathshroud all charge into the Land Raider, hoping for a bit of magic.
We begin with the Bloat-drone's Tank Shock - two mortals wounds. Oh dear.
And then something absolutely ridiculous happens: the Bloat-drone revs its fleshmower and scores half-a-dozen lethal hits! Followed up by a few more wounding strikes. Pootle is now in danger of losing his Land Raider and, even with a re-roll, can't pass enough armour saves. Engine kill!
Insult is about to be piled upon injury, because neither the Plague Marines nor Deathshroud have activated yet, and so could be in a position to jump on the Ultramarine Terminators as they stumble out.
Pootle is aware of this, and places them as far away as possible (dragging one of their wounded, who was hurt in the explosion), but as luck would have it, my Death Guard detachment has the Vermin Cloud stratagem, which allows a unit to pile-in 6" instead of 3".
The Deathshroud Terminators dutifully step forward and chop up the Terminators, taking out four of them for no loss of their own.
The Biologus squad consolidates back onto the central objectives and I've now got three pretty nasty in a good position to do some damage.
I also get to add a kill point to my VP tally, so that's something.
Ultramarines Turn 3
I'm only holding my home objective at the top of the turn, so only 1VP there.
I've got three Death Guard units right in front of me, any one of which can (and will) murder anything it touches next turn. The Death Shroud are right there so I decide to make them the Oath of Moment target and leave the Bloatdrone and last Plague Marine squad for later. I spend a CP to put my remaining (two!) Terminators into the Tactical Doctrine.
The Scouts emerge from the shadows to threaten the Poxwalkers and the Death Guard home objective. Their shots add to a couple of previous long-range casualties.
The Librarian and last surviving Terminator fall out of combat, ready to charge back in again. I can't let that go unremarked, and so the Deathshroud Overwatch the pair with their plague spurters, killing the Terminator and earning me another kill point!
Lt Cator backs up to retake the objective in the ruins and eye up a charge on the Plague Surgeon. I'm confident enough that they can do that in melee that their shots go into the Death Shroud, killing one and injuring another. I add the Land Speeder's fire in too and it takes down the second one leaving just one for the Librarian to take in melee.
I've developed a lot of confidence in Lt Cator and his trusty Power Fist and, sure enough, once again he upper cuts the Plague Surgeon. It's at this point that I realise that the name I've given him (more or less at random) is strikingly similar to Pedro Cantor...and his formerly blue Power Fist is now distinctly Crimson, what with all the Plague Marine blood all over it...
Astralhand the Librarian charges into the last Deathshroud but whiffs his attacks (having AP of only -1 doesn't help against a Terminator) and it's left to the Biker Sergeant to rescue his boss and down the enemy. Phew!
In the backfield, the Scouts make a 9" charge and tear down a couple of Poxwalkers, fortunately not losing any of their number to the return blows.
We each managed to kill two units this round, so that's a brace of VP apiece.
Score: 11-7 to the Ultramarines
Death Guard Turn 4
I try to take out as many mobile elements as possible, as this game might come down to nicking objectives in the final turn. The Bloat-drone hovers off to the Ultramarine home objective to hunt the Land Speeder, while the Plague Marines bear down on the Bikers and Librarian.
I actually have some guns to use at this range, plinking off a couple of tactical marines and using the meltagun on the Attack Bike. I have to use a reroll to ensure its destruction, but that's the multi-melta gone and another kill point for me.
I have no more CP for the Bloat-drone's Tank Shock, but it may not be needed, as its fleshmower rolls an embarrassment of Lethal hits - 8 out of 10. I can barely stammer out an apology when Pootle does almost exactly the same for his saving throws and the Land Speeder is alive on a pair of wounds. What a time for the dice to spike (twice!)
The Librarian proves annoyingly resilient to the Biologus' hyper-blight grenades, remaining on a single wound. And when the Plague Marines charge in, the last two Bikers are smashed by the power fists (another kill point!), but the Librarian stubbornly weathers every attack I can throw at him.
That Librarian may have cost me a VP there, lucky he can't fight worth a damn.
Ultramarines Turn 4
I'm back on two objectives at the start of the turn, but the Death Guard still have three so still only 2VP there.
Oath of Moment has to be the last Plague Marine squad (that reroll to hit really helps overcome the -1 to hit coming from their Stealth ability).
Everyone passes their battleshock tests and Librarian Astralhand decides that discretion is the better part of valour and falls out of melee with the Plague Marines so won't be helping the fight this turn.
I spend a CP to put the Land Speeder into the Tactical Doctrine. It flies over the top of the Bloatdrone and steals the central objective back off the Death Guard! It then fires its weaponry into the Plague Marines and kills one. Then it uses its innate ability to back a further 2" away from the Bloatdrone.
Cator and the two surviving Tac Marines once again show their worth by shooting down more of the Plague Marines. The enemy squad are down to only three plus the Biologus.
Someone who thinks that valour is the better part of valour is Lt Cator. He's faced three heavy plague weapons and a DG character before and leaps forwards into melee. Unfortunately he can't quite manage the same heroics again and the Biologus and Champion are left standing. Their return blows finally finish off the Tacticals and leave Cator bloody but unbowed.
On the Death Guard home objective, the Scouts finally kill the last of the Poxwalkers. This grants me 1VP for killing a unit at least. The scores are getting very tight and I'm running out of bodies. Can I make it to the finish line?
Score: 14-12 to the Ultramarines
Death Guard Turn 5
Just two objectives (the enemy's home and the hill), so I could really do with getting some kill points.
The Bloat-drone has an easy enough choice. It sweeps into the damaged Land Speeder, chews it up and takes the central objective.
The Biologus and his champion have more of a problem, being stuck in combat with Cantor and with a wounded Librarian on the run.
Once again, my choice of detachment comes in clutch: the Eye of the Swarm stratagem allows me to use ranged weapons as pistols, so I can give Cantor a facefull of overheated plasma.
We start with a dab from the Biologus' Injector Pistol, which does score a wound, but a reroll keeps Cantor intact. It's all down to the champion's plasma gun now - two wounding hits and Cantor just needs one Feel-No-Pain save to stay alive.
He fails it, and a teleportarium flash carries the wounded hero off to the med-bay.
That frees up the pair to charge the Librarian in the assault phase. Rather than take any chances, I play another stratagem, Enervating Onslaught, that allows each model to deal mortal wounds on a 5+. I only need one, and instead deal two. The Librarian goes down (no teleportarium for you, chump) and I max out my kill points.
Ultramarines Turn 5
I score my objectives at the end of the turn (fortunately). And it's a quick one given I only have the Scouts left - they reappear from reserve back on my home field objective which means I control three (both home and away objectives plus the one in the ruins).
That gives me another 3VPs for hold-more, but I can't kill anything (the last Plague Marine is hiding behind a rock and the Bloatdrone is too tough), so we tot up the final points…
Final score: 17-17 DRAW!
Locker room
Wow! What a game! I thought I had it in the bag early on when I took down two squads of Plague Marines and the Blighthauler and still had my Land Raider intact. I was almost apologising to Stylus for a bit of a mismatched game! But then, after killing nothing for two turns, he had something of a turnaround in turn 3.
Absolutely. If not for a huge slice of luck at that turning point, my game would have been well and truly over. I did manage to cling on throughout by grabbing lots of objectives, but I definitely started off with the hardest thing to take down.
The strats for the Flyblown Host detachment were critical twice (turning the Plasma Gun into a pistol in turn 5 was huge as if Cator had not been shot down then he'd' have killed at least the last Plague Marine as well as stopping the Death Guard from killing the Libby. But before that, the 6" pile-in strat was fantastic after the Land Raider popped; if my Terminators had been allowed to shoot and charge someone then I'm sure the game would have ended differently.
I was very surprised that a detachment I'm basically chosen without much consideration proved to have so many useful stratagems, but they all proved to be pivotal. It's still a bugbear with 40k proper that there are way too many options to casually keep in my leaky mind, so it would have been impossible to plan for.
As always happens, the dice told a fantastic story - building my love for Lt Cator further, and then crashing it when I couldn't roll a single 5+ FNP from four damage.
First time back in 40k for Stylus in quite some time, but I fancy he might be back soon...?
For casual play in a narrative setting? Most definitely, this was tremendous fun. Can't wait to see how the campaign unfolds.
What this game means in terms of the campaign is that we’ll be back to fight again at some point and (try to) remove the stain of chaos from Bagot Prime!
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