Daemon World Campaign - Scenario #2 - Desecrate the Monoliths

Four monoliths stand sentinel on the plain of Drf'Tk'Nrrrr'Tut each of rock alien to the Daemon World of Gorma’Sh’Muf’Kt’Itz. Each made of the pure essence of one of the four Gods of Chaos: Tzeentch, Nurgle, Khorne and Slaanesh

This is the second game in our Daemon World Challenge campaign - a narrative campaign played with Warhammer 40,000 (9th Edition) and making use of a modified version of the Crusade Campaign rules. 

SCENARIO

In this scenario the Champions of Chaos will attempt to carve the symbol of their chosen God of Chaos into the monoliths of their opponents. 

Monoliths - there are four monoliths on the table - one for each of the Chaos Gods (Tzeentch, Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh. The Champions and their retinues deployment zone will be the one closest to the God of Chaos which they serve. 

Desecrate Monolith (Action) - Aunt can start this action at the end of their movement phase if it is in contact with the monolith (at least one member of the unit is in contact with the base that the monolith model is on). The Action is completed at the end of your turn so long as the unit is still in contact with the Monolith. Once the action is completed roll 2d6 - the unit that has completed the action takes mortal wounds equal to the difference. 

Mission Objectives

Desecrate Monolith (End Game) - Players score 20 Victory Points for each different monolith they have successfully desecrated. They gain a bonus 10 points if one of them was the monolith of their hated opponent (i.e. if the followers of Khorne desecrate the Slaanesh monolith, etc) 

Defend the Monolith (End Game) - Players gain 30 Victory Points if, at the end of the game, the monolith of their chosen god has not be desecrated. 

Victor Bonus

The victor of this battle can select one unit from their army (Not a Character, vehicle, or Monster) that has a crusade card, took part in the battle, and desecrated one of the enemy monoliths, - that unit Gaines on Table Trait of your choice after the battle. 

Other Rules

Daemon World Battlefield Twist:

Scent of Obsession: When an Advance or Charge roll is made for a unit, add 1 to the result. 

FORCES

All of the Forces used in this campaign can now be found on the Daemon World Crusade Forces Page

(I am endeavouring to update the Page after each battle to reflect the current status of each, so if you are reading this report somewhat later, the forces presented on the page may differ somewhat from what was used in this game) 

THE GAME    

All set up and ready to ROCK! 

(Actually, these were taken part way through turn one... but... close enough to where we were at the start of the game when I forgot to take a deployment photo!?) 

Hopefully they give you a good idea of the layout of the monoliths and forces. The opposing god's monoliths were in opposing corners - i.e. Tzeentch and Nurgle were in opposing corners, Khorne and Slaanesh were in opposing corners. 

ROUND ONE

The Emperor's Children got to take the first turn - they held tight and blasted away at the Rubric Marines and Death Guard with their Sonic Weapons! 

First they blasted at the Rubric Marines, killing one. 

The other squad blasted away at the Death Guard, killing two. 

I TOTALLY forgot to use the two great stratagems available to them Excruciating Frequencies (+1 strength and +1 Damage to all Sonic weapons) and Endless Cacophony (One unit gets to fire again at the end of the shooting phase)...

I realized this part way through Oliver's turn and was a little worried, I might not get to make good use of either as both units were likely to be savaged by the units they'd just fired upon! 

The World Eaters went next and moved towards the massive rock in the middle of the battlefield - I thought for a moment he was considering going over it and coming right at me... but by the time we got to the shooting phase, he'd apparently changed plans... or... something... Hey... He's a chaos Lord... He can do what he wants! 

He started blasting away at the Tzaangors that were rallying around the Tzeentch Monolith... 

And then he charged them... 

The Thousand Sons Exalted Sorcerer did a Heroic Intervention and joined the melee. It was a brutal bloody affair!  The World Eaters took out another five Tzaangors and did three wounds to the Exalted Sorcerer... 

Then the Thousand Sons fought back and the Exalted Sorcerer killed five of the Khorney Chaos Space Marines! Yikes! 

The Thousand Sons went next and the Exalted Sorcerer unleashed the Gift of Chaos on the Chaos Space Marines and killed the remaining five in the squad! Sweet Jebebuz!? that thing does d3+3 Mortal Wounds!? WTF? 

(note: Re-reading this, I've realized he's been using incorrectly - it's meant to be a character killer, not a unit killer - it does those d3+3 to a single MODEL, not a UNIT!)

The Rubric Marines then unloaded on Sabbatum Nigreos - one of my Noise Marine squads - and knocked out four of them... Ozimandus, the Champion left the table in the morale phase, dragging his bandmates to safety, not willing to let the hated Tzeentch dustbins to have the satisfaction of (or experience points from) finishing them off. 

Then it was the Death Guard's turn... I suggested a temporary truce - if they didn't shoot at the Emperor's Children this round, I promised I would unload everything - using all those stratagems I forgot to use earlier in the round, one the Thousand Sons... The Death Guard went for it and only shambled towards the Slaanesh Monolith... 

Two of their squads shambled towards the World Eaters and blasted away at them with boaters... doing 1 damage to the Warpsmith. 

ROUND TWO 

As promised, I used up all of my Command points and let those Thousand sons HAVE IT! Two rounds of firing - on with extra strength and damage - successfully whittled that unit down to just one - mind you that was over 40 shots fired to take out 7 or 8 guys... Lord Felzik and the Soroibus Tortus Noise Marines charged and finished him off. 

And were conveniently able to consolidate into contact with the Tzeentch Monolith! 

Terrified of the Death Guard's fire (or perhaps just trying to enforce some proper Social Distancing Protocols) the Warpsmith and Helbrute retreated from their steady but ungainly advance! 

The Cultists then charged the last remaining Tzaangor and, again, the Exalted Sorcerer made a Heroic Intervention and joined the Melee... killing all but one of the Cultists. 

Then it was the Thousand Sons turn... and he was getting cocky... or desperate... or perhaps a dangerous mix of BOTH! First, he blasted Lord Felzik with Gift of Chaos (legit use of the ability) and finished off poor old Lord Felzik... Then he tried to Smite the Cultist and that just wasn't cool... The Warpsmith decided to try and Deny the Witch with his brand new Brass Collar of Borghaster! And he succeeded in doing so. When the user makes a Successful deny the Witch test, the psyker attempting to manifest the power immediately suffers Perils of the Warp... 

BOOM! Exalted Sorcerer exploded... and took the Cultist and remaining Tzaangor with him! Good-bye Thousands Sons... 

The Death Guard decided THEY'd had enough of that annoying Emperor's Children Sorceress who kept smiting them... 

They chased her down and Lord Slugbottom crushed her with his Power Fist. 

Lord Slugbottom was then able to consolidate into contact with the Monolith of Slaanesh! 

The others continued their relentless limp towards the World Eaters and their Monolith of Khorne! 

(it's just occurred to me that there needs to be more skulls at the base of that Monolith - SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!)

ROUND THREE

The Sabbatum Nigreos Noise Marines - the sole remaining unit of the Emperor's Children - successfully desecrated the Monolith of Tzeentch. The Warp Power Backlash took out three of them, though... leaving only two Emperor's Children left on the table. 

D'Snydr and Ajax were determined, though... they would carry on and Desecrate the Monolith of Khorne for their fallen brothers! 

The Hellbrute and Warpsmith shot at and then charged and utterly wiped out the Dysentry Dudes! The Bubonic Boys then dodged past them and into contact with the Monolith of Khorne and Desecrated it! (apparently, in addition to carving the symbol of Nurgle into it, they scratched "Khorne is sweet and delicate as a daisy flower")  

Lord Slugbottom desecrated the Monolith of Slaanesh (scrawling upon it "Slaanesh is seductive as a box of Essential Oils"... thinking this was a terrible slight (as Sluggbottom utterly loathes essential oils) but left the dark Prince wondering "how is THAT an INSULT?" Probably why he only suffered on mortal wound for his vandalism...

ROUND FOUR

Ajax and D'Snyder made their way over to the Monolith of Khorne and blasted away at the remaining Death Guard still scratching their names into it. 

And then charged the sole survivor of their sonic assault and killed him... D'Snydr survived the combat and morale and ended the turn in contact with the Monolith of Khorne! 

Tempting as it was to stay and pummel the Noise Marine that was about to further deface their monolith, there was no gain in doing so at this point as they'd lost the points for protecting their own monolith, so the Helbrute and Warpsmith split up - the Helbrute charged all the way to the Monolith of Nurgle - but, having advanced, was unable to do the desecrate action. 

The Warpsmith also advanced - but in the direction of the Tzeentch Monolith, hoping to make a regular move to get there on the last Round and still be able to DO the desecrate action - another utterly sensible action from the followers of Khorne... Do they even KNOW Khorne!? 

Lord SLugbotton wasn't about to let the followers of Khorne desecrate the Monolith of Nurgle - and charged back to fight the Helbrute! 

ROUND FIVE

In the Final Round, the last of the Noise Marines desecrated the Monolith of Khorne, further and were finished of by the Warp Power Backlash! 

Both the Leprosy Lads - Death Guard Plague Marines - and the Warpsmith successfully Desecrated the Monolith of Tzeentch. 

With the Death Guard Chaos Lord in engagement range, the Helbrute exchanged blows with Slugbottom... by the end of the game Slugbottom was down to two wounds and the Helbrute was down to ONE! 

END GAME

Wow.

Wow wow wow. 

WOW!

What a game! 

In the end the Death Guard scored 100 Victory Points - having successfully desecrated ALL THREE enemy monoliths and preventing their own from being desecrated! The Emperor's Children scored 50 Victory Points - for desecrating Tzeentch and Khorne - their hated enemy - monoliths. The World Eaters scored only 20 Victory points - for desecrating the Tzeentch Monolith. Thousands Sons scored ZERO points. 

As the Victor, Finnegan chose the Leprosy Lads to take the bonus Battle Honour - they selected Fleet of Foot - or, as he called it, "Enhanced Shambling Techniques". 

Lots of units wiped out - doing Out of Action tests, once again the Tzaangors failed - along with the Leprosy Lads Plague Marines and Soroibus Tortus Noise Marines. The Tzaangors just took the devastating Blow - removing the single experience point they gained for the battle. The Plague Marines and Noise Marines both took a Battle Scar, but then used the Requisition Point gained this battle to offer them a chance to Repair and Recuperate and remove said battle scar!  

All units gained 1 Experience Point. The World Eaters Cultists, the Thousand Sons Exalted Sorcerer, the Death Guard's Leprosy Lads Plague Marines and the Emperor's Children's Soroibus Tortus Noise Marines were all Marked for Greatness and gained an additional 3 Experience Points. The Exalted Sorcerer gained an additional Experience Point for taking a third unit out of action. 

Once all tallied up, the Exalted Sorcerer and the Warpsmith all gained a level and were blooded. The Exhalted Sorcerer took Master of Lore (and picked the Weaver of Fates psychic power to go with it!). The Warpsmith took Fleshbane weapon enhancement for his Power Axe. 

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Next game is on Thursday! next post will probably be that game report! 

(Unless I get excited and crank out the rest of the Raptors to add to my force for a little fast-attack-fropping-behind-enemy-lines kind of action! I'd have to replace one of the Noise Marines with them, though... and they've already got some experience... We shall see. I probably won't get to them as I'm actually trying to get SOME work done in the basement this week!)