BoLS logo Today's Tabletop & RPG News
Advertisement

SHOWCASE 40K BATTLE REPORT: Golden Demon Brawl

7 Minute Read
Feb 18 2014
Advertisement

Tyler M. here with a battle report against Slayer Sword winner Victor Hardy. As you would expect from a pair of Golden Daemon winners, it’s all about the pictures – enjoy!
Victor already has me beat in number of Golden Demon awards and has beaten me soundly on the table top twice before. This time he took pity on me and decided to tone down his army list, this meant no cultist swarms and no Helldrakes. As I was unpacking my army he saw my Baneblade which I have only been able to field once and considering he had 2 sitting idly on his shelves we decided to both add one into our armies to make this game truly memorable. We agreed on doing roughly 1850 points and went for a straight beat ’em up kill points game to save some time.

My Army:

The rough list is:

Typhus
Demon Prince with Mark of Nurgle, Power Armor, Wings and the Black Mace
4 Terminators with Mark of Nurgle, 1 chainfist, 1 combi melta, and 1 reaper autocannon
2 units of 7 Plague Marines with a power fist and 2 plasma guns each
1 unit of 7 Plague Marines with a power fist and 2 melta guns
20 Plague Zombies
1 Blight Drone
2 Obliterators with Mark of Nurgle
1 Baneblade with Heavy Bolter and Lascannon sponsons and a Heavy Stubber

 Victor’s army:

Sorry for the bad picture

I didn’t get a written list from Victor so this is based off what I saw and how the game played:

Demon Prince (Golgotha) with wings and a Black Mace
Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor and the Burning Brand
10 Terminators with 4 combi Plasmas and various CC weapons
3 units of 10 Chaos Space Marines with 2 Plasma Guns each
2 Rhinos
1 Spartan tank
1 Baneblade with Heavy Bolter and Lascannon sponsons

I won the roll for deployment and kept my Terminators with Typhus and Blight Drone in reserve. The board had a rive cutting it across diagonally with only two bridges spanning it. We decided to make our deployment zones all the way up to the river. I put my Baneblade at the mouth of the left bridge with my meltagun Plague Marines behind it and my Plague Zombies at the mouth of the right bridge with one of my plasma gun squads behind them. My Obliterators and second plasma squad deployed in the building between the bridges with my Demon Prince hiding in a building on the far right.

My deployment

Victor deployed one of his Rhinos in the left most building with his Spartan hiding slightly behind the same building near the bridge opposite my Baneblade. His second Rhino hid in the leftmost building with his own Baneblade hiding behind the same building ready to pop out and blow up my zombies. Golgotha started at the back of the board hidden behind some ruins. His 3 Chaos Marine squads were in the Rhinos and Spartan with his Terminators and Lord in reserve.

Victor’s deployment

He failed to steal the initiative and I started things out by slowly rolling forward both of my flanks. My Banblade took aim at the nearest Rhino through the windows and only took off one hull point with all of its shooting. My Obliterators targeted the Spartan and also knocked off a hull point.

Advertisement
Forward my minions
The Land Raider posing as a Spartan

Victor then brought both of his Rhinos forward and moved his tanks into position to take aim at my super heavy. His Baneblade managed to take 4 hull points off my own with its demolisher cannon and some lucky rolling while his Spartan took a wound off my Obliterators. I also lost half of my melta squad to the Baneblade Cannon.

Start of my turn 2 both of my reserves came in with Typhus and his retinue landing right on target, commence operation crack open the Rhinos.

ouch

Getting ready to take revenge

Typhus and the Terminators deep struck in right where I wanted them, behind the Rhino on the left ready to tear apart the squad within. The Blight Drone buzzed onto the table heading directly for the 2nd Rhino hoping to do some damage with its maw cannon. Through a combination of my Obliterators, Blight Drone, melta guns and luck I managed to crack open both Rhinos. With their occupants disgorged my remaining 2 Plasma squads tore into them taking down the majority of their numbers with a little help from the Baneblade’s sponsons. I have to say, it was quite the sight seeing the super heavy parked out on the bridge tearing apart the Marines to either side of it. The main cannon and the demolisher managed to knock 1 hull point off of his counterpart and that was about it.

My right flank sweeping Victor’s army

Victor’s turn started off with his own Terminators arriving right behind my own with no scatter and Golgotha flying up to support them. His super heavy repositioned to take aim at my zombies and Plague Marines on the right and the Spartan unloaded its Marine squad to take on my Baneblade. Four combi plasmas later and Typhus stood alone with assault imminent.

Advertisement
He’s right behind me, isn’t he?

The super heavy let loose with it’s main cannon and its demolisher cannon at my tightly packed right flank, but after all the dust settled a mere 2 zombies lay dead. I have to admit that I was extremely lucky, making almost all of my Feel no Pain roles. The remainders of his squad on the left took a few pot shots at my prince but no luck. The squad on the right took down one of the remaining Death Guard in the melta squad before assaulting it. One of my Obliterators finally fell to the Spartan and the squad in the center surrounded my Baneblade for assault.

Take one guess how this ended?

Golgotha promptly stomped Typhus into the ground, which was good for me since it opened up that flank to my template weapons.

How a Baneblade dies

In the center my super heavy lost 4 more of its’ hull points to some power fists and krak grenades. The melta squad held their own taking down one of their opponents.

Now unfortunately we had to cut the game short due to time constraints but we decided to play out the start of the next turn to see what would happen. Essentially the game hung in the balance here and if I could thwart his left flank now then I might stand a chance. His right flanks was crumbling under my assault there and we were heading towards a final showdown in the center. The Blight Drone flew over to his super heavy hoping to knock a few hull points off but no luck.
Engage the pesticide
Backing up my tank I took aim on his Terminators.
Ready, Aim, …

The cannons let loose, the moment of truth, and only 2 Terminators fell. With that we called the game. While no winner was decided I didn’t see much luck left for me, my right flank was facing down a Baneblade with 8 hull points remaining while my own only had 1 with an entire army against it. Once I lost my tank I wouldn’t have much to counter his armor except for my meltas which were locked in combat, my remaining Obliterator, who would most likely die soon and my Demon Prince who had been grounded by a lucky pot shot from a Rhino and taken a wound.

I probably over extended my line by moving my Baneblade so far forward but it was worth the spectacle. There’s nothing quite like seeing it unload all of its guns in almost every direction and doing pretty significant damage. Sadly this was Victor’s and I’s last game since I am moving across country but we went out with a bang. Perhaps our forces while clash once again at a Tournament or Games Day in the future.
I may have forgotten a few details here or there and I think I may have shrunk 2 turns into 1 but like I said at the beginning, this report was always going to be more about the pictures. I hope you enjoyed seeing what happens when 2 Golden Demon winners clash.  
We may have forgotten some rules and I am no competitive player but I enjoyed the game and I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I feel like this portray’s Victor as an incompetent player like myself, but like I said before he toned down his list for me and normally the game would’ve been over much sooner.
Tyler is a life long painter and hobbyist and took home his first Golden Demon award at the 2012 Chicago Games Day with a follow up at the 2013 North American Games Day. More of his work can be found at his blog, Mengel Miniatures.



Advertisement

Avatar
Author: Tyler Mengel
Advertisement
  • Wargames Gallery 2-16-14