40k SN Battle Report: Harlequins vs Chaos Space Marines
SN Battle reports brings you another great battle report! Its the Harlequins!!!
The very air shook as if the planet itself trembled with fear as the final voyage of the Respindal rapidly approached its violent and terminal end. Like a fiery spear hurled by an angry god, the once mighty star faring vessel ripped through the atmosphere at supersonic speed, trailing sonic booms and bleeding debris from its wounded flanks. With an impact that would set off tectonic upheavals on the worlds far side, the armoured prow of the Respindal smashed into the verdant landscape releasing incalculable energy as a torrent of heat and light. In but an instant, the lush steppe was transformed into rad-scorched desert leaving a colossal red scar on the world visible from orbit. The Respindal was forged in the orbital dockyards of Mars itself and even a cataclysmic collision against a planetary body could not obliterate its proud hull. Instead of atomising itself the Respindal carved a furrow 20 miles long along the surface, propelled by the momentum of its precipitous descent.
The stresses finally overcame the integrity of its Martian frame, breaking her into three pieces as she finally slew to a halt amidst the desert of her making, the air distorting due to the waves of atmosphere breaching heat bleeding from her rent and torn skin. High above, in a painfully blue sky shorn of clouds by Respindals death dive, the punch dagger like silhouette of her assassin hung seemingly motionless, like a vulture over carrion. Already the fiery trails of smaller craft could be seen descending through the upper atmosphere in aggressive, but not terminally so, ingress to the surface. Respindal’s killers were coming to claim their prize from her now exposed innards. Adamantium containers bearing the seal of the Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Biologis.
The organic treasure held within of immense worth to those who had turned their back on the Emperor. Even before the assault craft hammered down onto the tortured surface the boarding ramps were lowering and armoured Giants in the blood red livery of the Word Bearers pounded onto the red baked earth, weapons always ready to deal death for their dark masters. The landing forces lead elements reached for the wreckage only to recoil as Khorghast and his squad suddenly halted mid stride as one, then, but a second later, fell apart in neatly dissected pieces, also as one. Armoured segments and tainted flesh fell to the ground with a crash or slopping sound respectively. The Word Bearers quickly reconfigured into battle formation and scanned for targets, finding “it” perched above the wreckage of the Respindal’s mid section.
The lithe figure in an ankle length black coat and daemonic mask sketched an overly theatrical bow and vanished into thin air mere milliseconds before the metal plates behind him exploded with the impact of hundreds of mass reactive bolt rounds. The bright flashes on the debris fields far side evidenced the arrival of yet more warrior acrobats. Ten thousand years of war had rendered the Word Bearers immune to surprise or fear. They knew their enemy. They had fought and killed them before but always at a steep price in lives, pride and nefarious objectives denied. The traitor legionaries advanced as one, chanting the litanies of their cruel Gods as conversely the Harlequins danced and capered towards their foes from the Respindal’s opposite side. The dance of death would be joined and this particular interpretation would be bloody indeed.
Deployment: Dawn of War
Points: 1750
Mission: Crusade (5 Objectives)
+++ The Heroes Path Formation +++
Solitaire [Haywire Grenade]
Death Jester…
Shadowseer [Mask of Secrets, Mastery Level 2]
+++ Harlequin Masque Detachment.+++
Death Jester
Shadowseer [Haywire Grenade, Mastery Level 2, Neuro Disruptor]
Troupe [5 Players, 3 Caress]
[Troupe Master, Haywire Grenade, Crescendo, Caress]
Troupe [10 Players, 5 Harlequin Kisses, 4 Fusion Pistols]
[Troupe Master, Haywire Grenade, Cegorach’s Rose, Warlord]
Troupe [10 Players, 6 Harlequin Kisses, 4 Neuro Disruptors]
[Troupe Master, Haywire Grenade, The Storied Sword]
4 Skyweavers [4 Haywire Blasters, 2 Zephyrglaives]
Starweaver
3 Voidweavers [3 Prismatic Cannon]
+ sigil of corruption
+ Veterans of the Long War
+ Mark of Tzeentch
+ Burning Brand of Skalathrax…
Daemon Prince
+ Psyker (Mastery Level 2)
+ wings
+ power armour
+ Daemon of Tzeentch
14 Chaos Cultists
+ 1 Cultist Champion
9 Chaos Space Marines
+ 9× close combat weapon
+ meltagun
+ meltagun
+ Mark of Khorne
+ Veterans of the Long War
+ 1 Aspiring Champion
+ close combat weapon
• Chaos Rhino
+ havoc launcher
2 Chaos Terminators
+ Mark of Tzeentch
+ 1 Terminator Champion
• Chaos Land Raider
Heldrake
+ baleflamer
4 Raptors
+ 2× flamer
+ 1 Raptor Champion
Defiler
+ twin-linked lascannon
+ havoc launcher
4 Havocs
+ 4× autocannon
+ Mark of Nurgle
+ Veterans of the Long War
+ 1 Aspiring Champion
Terrain Porn! Will you all look at this awesome terrain, the kind we always dreamt about….. Well thanks to the Guys at Wargame Terrain Factory our dreams have come true with this awesome crashed ship on our tabletop! Amazing work again by our friend, please give them a visit and a like as they do excellent work and have great customer care! Board custom made by www.studiolevel.com.pl check them out!
Well here is one of the 5 Objectives which were scattered around the board in different locations to symbolise them dropping out of the ship when it crashed. The crates painted by our paint monkey Lawrence make excellent objectives for this mission. But looking at these armies I think its just going to be a purge the alien mission as both are looking for revenge. This is going to be a bloody one!
Deployment (Harlequins) Julian wins the roll off and decides to deploy first. He sets up as close to the deployment line as possible, in order to try and cover as much ground as early as he can. He is wearing his flamboyant pink SN Tshirt in the hope the Laughing God will give him the luck he needs. Will it work?
Deployment (Harlequins) The voidweavers cover the right flank, while his skyweavers cover the left so that they may act as a pincer formation.
Deployment (Harlequins) Julian leaves his Heroes Path characters aside so that they may infiltrate in the hope to cause some mayhem from turn 1.
Deployment (Chaos Space Marines) Dave deploys his army focusing his main force along the centre of the board, but leaving his cultists on the same flank as the voidweavers to hopefully work as a distraction.
Deployment (Chaos Space Marines) Dave’s Daemon Prince sets up centre with his eye on burning alive some Harlequins, while also taunting them to dare come closer. Love it!
Infiltrators (Harlequins) With Dave finished, Julian deploys his infiltrators.The Deathjester rests on top of the crashed ship making sure he will get cover from the fire below.
Infiltrators (Harlequins) The Shadowseer hides within the wreckage so that he can peer round the corner later and start some psychic shriek madess.
Infiltrators (Harlequins) The Solitaire hides at the centre of the board to offer some extra support to the troupes. The Chaos attempt to seize the initiative but fail, so it’s on to turn 1!
Turn 1 (Harlequins) The Skyweavers move up in view of the Chaos Landraider to try and get a couple of haywire blasts at it. The rest of of Harlequin army move up as close as they can get, but while also remaining in cover.
Turn 1 (Harlequins) The voidweavers move in a position to attempt to gain some long range fire at the cultists. It backfires and one of them fails their dangerous terrain test, and it’s 5+ invulnerable, knocking it down to 1 hull point. Not the best of starts for Julian.
Turn 1 (Harlequins) The psychic phase begins and the Harlequins were only able to grant themselves veil of tears on the troupes containing the Troupe Master warlord.
Turn 1 (Harlequins) The Harlequin Skyweavers misjudge the distance and were only in range with 1 of their haywire blasters. It scatters but still manages to knock a hull point off the Defiler.
Turn 1 (Harlequins) The infiltrating Deathjester fires his Shrieker Cannon at the Havocs. He kills one of them, but they successfully pass their morale check, even with the Shrieker Cannons -2 to leadership.
Turn 1 (Harlequins) Only 2 of the Voidweavers are just about in range with the Cultists. The Cultists opted to go to ground and sustained 4 casualties. They pass their morale and hold their ground.
Turn 1 (Harlequins) The remainder of the Troupes run up the board making sure they keep all the cover they can get.Then during the assault phase the Skyweavers use their assault jump to become obscured from view. The Turn ends with Julian failing to achieve first blood.
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) Dave advances forward with his Defiler in order to leave space for the Land Raider to travel behind it.
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) The Chaos Lord and Terminator retinue disembark the Land Raider and now have a clear view to one of the Harlequin Troupe units. Julian definitely did not see that coming!
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) Dave’s Daemon Prince takes flight and gets himself in the heart of the Harlequin force. This surely can’t end well for Julian.
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) Julian fumbled his Skyweaver assault move, completely forgetting about the Chaos rhino lurking just around the corner. The Chaos gods see this and seize the opportunity to do a great deal of damage.
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) The Chaos Daemon Prince uses his Burning Brand of Skalathrax against the Troupes, wounding with every hit. Julian rolls above average and suffered only 3 casualties.
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) The Chaos Terminators take their shots at the same unit and kill off another 2 of them.
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) The Chaos knew that targeting the Troupes with Veil of Tears active would probably fail. So rather they decided to fire at the Starweaver to try and take some out in the splash damage. The Starweaver successfully passed it’s invulnerable, and only 2 Players died as a result.
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) Dave uses his Havocs to try and insta-kill the Deathjester who fired at them previously. He managed to inflict 5 wounds, but the Deathjester passed them all on a 2+ cover due to being granted stealth and shrouded from his formation.
Turn 1 (Chaos Space Marines) The Chaos Marines unleash a hail of bolter fire at the skyweavers and they opted to use their once use mirage launchers, granting them a 4+ invulnerable against shooting attacks. Julian chose to do this as there were 2 meltagun shots also being fired. Typically the meltagun shots missed, rending the mirage launchers redundant. However he wounded with 7 bolter shots, and the Skyweavers whiffed their saves, only surviving with 2 models, one of which remained on a single wound. That hurt Julian a lot!
Turn 2 (Harlequins) With Dave also being unsuccessful in wiping out a unit, it meant that neither were able to gain first blood. Julian passed all his necessary morale checks previously, and then proceeded to advancing his army forward.
Turn 2 (Harlequins) The psychic phase begins and Julian uses his infiltrating Shadowseer to cast psychic shriek on the Raptors. They were all also within his mask of secrets, giving them an additional -2 to their leadership. As a result of that they were wiped out entirely with a roll of 13.
Turn 2 (Harlequins) The unit of caress Players disembarked from the Starweaver in the movement phase, and chose to run closer to the Defiler. The Masque Detachment allows all of their infantry to run and assault as from turn 2. With some decent rolling this could be costly for the Chaos Marines.
Turn 2 (Harlequins) Julian placed his Voidweavers in a manner that kept his options open. He could either fire a shuriken cannon and prismatic cannon towards the main army, or use only the prismatic cannon on the cultists again. He also knew that the Cultists had no way of damaging the Voidweavers. As it happened to be, when the shadowseer wiped out the Raptors, it left no other target besides the Cultists. So he fired, Dave went to ground again, and some more died, but they still passed their morale check.
Turn 2 (Harlequins) The remaining Skyweavers fired at the Chaos Marines in the hope to thin them down before an inevitable assault, but they were only able to kill one.
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