40k Battle Report: The Battle of Cherbull

After yesterday's deployment report we're straight into the action…

On my right, the Speeders swung out further right facing back into the board, giving them a good line of fire next turn. The Vindicator trundled forward, firing its Ordnance weapon at the nearest Rhino. Bull rolled a hit on the scatter dice and the shot went through. I was in danger of losing a squad on the starting grid, but he rolled a Crew Stunned result which was downgraded further thanks to my Extra Armour. Took my first Hull Point damage.

The Tactical squad in the centre ran out towards the objective on my right. The Venerable Dread moved forward and got a shot off against my wounded Rhino – saved by cover (helped by the fact it was night). On the left, the Command Razorback shot forward and popped smoke. The Land Raider flew up the board, ripping gunfire into the Zombies, taking down a couple.

1. Rhinos move up

End of Bull's turn 1 and I was relatively unscathed. The damaged Rhino moved forward to block line of sight to the centre of the battlefield (1). The Plasma guns in the back shooting to no effect. The other Rhino moved forward slightly to give the Forgefiend more protection, the Plasmas in the back shooting at the Razorback to no effect. The Forgefiend itself stepped into the wood to his left and opened up on the Razorback, stunning it.

Elsewhere the Zombies moved up, towards the Land Raider, whilst the Obliterators broke off and positioned themselves on the top of the rise behind the sandbag cover. They fired Lascannons at the Land Raider and got a glancing hit.

Bull's Turn 2 is where things started to get tasty – I'll only talk about the moments of significance from now on but please take into account that I'm wearing some pretty rosy-coloured glasses and the truth may become distorted a little. You'll have to check out Bull's blog for his version of events.

2. Belial incoming

The Speeders opened up on the already damaged Rhino and glanced it to death, the Plague Marines tumbling out on the left side, leaving the Vindicator with nothing to shoot at. The Razorback tried to reposition and imobilised itself. The Land Raider moved up further and delivered the Deathwing Terminators who charged up the hill (2), into the Obliterators and also engaged the Zombies. One Obliterator wound, a dead Terminator Sergeant and several dead (again) Zombies later it was my turn.

3. Outnumbered

The Heldrake turned up, attacked and glanced the Multimelta Speeder on the far right and hit the Tactical Squad with the Baleflamer, killing two (I rolled three 1's!). The Forgefiend finished off the damaged Speeder. Typhus and the Terminators also arrived and managed to Deep Strike into the space in front of the Razorback (threading the eye of the needle!). In combat, the Deathwing took down an Obliterator and more Zombies, but the undead were making their mark and the 1's were creeping into Bull's armour save rolls. Two more Terminators were now down. Belial was looking a little lonely with only a Power Fist swinging, Assault Cannon wielding Terminator left by his side (3). The Zombies moved in.

4. Typhus engaged

Next turn the Vindicator hit the Forgefiend, catching a couple of Plague Marines in the blast. The fiend survived the effects, thanks to being Daemonically Possessed (we forgot to take off the Hull Point damage so the maths doesn't add up later). The Chaplain and Command Squad jumped out of the Razorback and fired at Typhus and his unit. One died. The Land Raider, Razorback and Dreadnought (who had moved up in support) all shot at the Nurgle Terminators. Not a scratch. The Command Squad charged in and challenges were made (4). Typhus was unable to kill the Veteran Sergeant (!!) and the Terminator Champion inflicted a wound on the Chaplain, who rolled terribly in the attack.

It was about this time that Bull made an observation. My dice rolling was developing into two extremes. My defensive dice were full-on heroic, whilst my attacking dice had been awful. The ultimate outcome being that things weren't dying much!

5. Typhus on his own

The Heldrake attacked the Vindicator with no effect and toasted the remaining members of the Tactical Squad. The Forgefiend moved up and killed off the second Speeder. The full strength Plague Marine unit moved over to support Typhus and block line of sight to the Forgefiend. They shot and imobilised the Dreadnought (who made me re-roll a 6 result thanks to being Venerable). Elsewhere combat continued. Typhus killed the Vet Sergeant, the Chaplain killed the Terminator Champion. The remaining Chaos Terminator took out a single marine before being taken down by Power Axes. Typhus was on his own (5).

The Zombies swarmed over Belial and eventually he fell, despite killing another 3. The hero of the Deathwing was gone, overwhelmed by the horde of plagued undead. The Deathwing vs Obliterator Power Fist face-off resulted in a stalemate. The lone Terminator now faced quite a task.

6. Lone Terminator

The Vindicator moved and shot the Forgefiend again, taking out two Plague Marines in the blast again. It was becoming something of a pain in the backside. The Daemon vehicle survived again.

The Plague Marines supporting Typhus were shot by every weapon in range but managed to lose only one of their number. The Deathwing Terminator managed to take down the last Obliterator and survive the Zombie attacks (6). Typhus killed the Chaplain in a challenge with no damage in return.

7. Tag team

The Forgefiend went nose-to-nose with the Vindicator, getting a glancing hit on the front armour. The Heldrake repositioned itself for a final run at the tank next turn (7). Typhus was joined by the Plague Marines and all but one of the Command Squad were killed. Amazingly the survivor passed his morale test. The Deathwing Terminator killed a couple more Zombies – I was now down to 9 left!

As we went into Turn 5 things were tipping in my favour. Bull could not claim any objectives – no scoring units left – and I already had 2 Victory Points in the bag thanks to the secondary objectives "Slay the Warlord" and "First Blood". I was confident of claiming the centre objective marker but that could easily go astray.

The Vindicator blasted the Forgefiend, rolling a hit (AGAIN) on the scatter dice. I was down to my last Hull Point and was unable to grow any back it seemed. The Plague Marines killed the last Command Unit marine, but not before he inflicted 2 wounds on Typhus. They then fell back towards the centre objective marker to support the other Plague Marines. Typhus moved towards the sole Deathwing Terminator fighting Zombies on the hill.

8. He's behind you!

The Heldrake swooped in on the Vindicator and took out its last Hull Point. Typhus charged into combat with the Deathwing Terminator (8). Alas, he didn't get to place the killing blow as the Dark Angel marine was finally taken down by the Zombies.

Bull rolled for variable game length and the game ended.

When we stepped back and surveyed the landscape the Plague Marine army had won 3–0. A superb game that ebbed and flowed and was hard fought throughout. It was one of those games that feels like a real slug-fest and totally lived up to the pre-game banter.

The Aftermath

Wow, after all that I need a lie down.
Discussion and conclusions in tomorrow's post…