DAEMONHUNTERS versus Chaos Space Marines

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Ken
Mission: Pitched Battle (a Cleanse variant)
1st turn: Chaos Space Marines
Points: 1000

Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Severus, Daemonhammer, Bolt pistol, Holocaust, Icon of the Just, 2xAcolytes, Power Armour, Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, Combat Servitor, 2xMystics, Rhino with Smoke Launchers
• 3 x Death Cult Assassin
• 2 x Daemonhosts
• Squad Matoso, 9 Stormtroopers, 2xFlamers, Veteran Sergeant with Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon and Krak Grenades, Rhino, Smoke launchers and Extra Armour
• Squad Vargas, 7 Stormtroopers, 2xPlasma Guns, Veteran Sergeant with Plasma pistol, Auspex and Krak Grenades
• Squad Godirtho, 6 Storm troopers, 2 x meltaguns
• Squad Seralvo, 6 Storm troopers 2 x grenade launchers
  

Chaos Space Marines

• 2 x 8 man Khorne Berzerker squads in rhinos
• Lord with power fist
• Tooled up dread
• Tooled up defiler

The game
Another heavy terrain board, favouring the forces of Chaos. We decided to play the Gauntlet Pitched Battle scenario with night fight rules for a change. I won the dice roll for the first turn and chose to go second (to bring the Berzerkers into the range of my guns). My meltagun storm troopers routed off the table due to combi-weapon fire from the rhinos then a guess hit from the defiler.

In my turn my rhinos swung to my right and my grenade launchers took out the Berzerker rhino on my left. On my right the Khorne Berzerkers raged and dismounted from their rhino which promptly failed a difficult terrain test and was immobilised. Both Khorne units ran forward ready to assault in the next turn. The defiler took a direct shot at the Inquisitor's rhino and hit directly. One 6 later and it wiped out everybody on board.

I struck back when the Daemonhosts appeared and my storm troopers leapt out of their rhino ready to flame the Khorne Berzerkers. Another squad behind readied their plasma guns and a death cult assassin skipped out of cover. When the smoke cleared the entire Chaos Space Marine squad had been wiped out.

My other Daemonhost ended up in combat with the remaining Berzerkers on my left but was splatted by a power fist. Undeterred another death cult assassin leapt forward and chopped down the power fist. When the combat had ended the assassin had taken a wound but had killed an entire 8 man Berzerker squad single-handed. The chaos lord was advancing with this squad but was killed by the third assassin.

The other Daemonhost was killed by the dreadnought in close combat while my tightly packed storm troopers were decimated by their exploding rhino (another direct hit from the defiler). In fact over six turns the defiler took two direct shots, hit both times and rolled a five and a six on the damage tables, and on its remaining four indirect shots it rolled 3 'hits' on the scatter dice. Even the shot that deviated killed two models.

My army was shattered; only the wounded assassin remained. On the plus side I had decimated Ken's army; he only had the defiler and dreadnought left.

Result: Loss

Learning points

• Ordnance is devastating. Ken was using it to snipe heavy weapons troopers from my storm trooper squads. Of course his incredible dice rolling helped.
• My lack of ranged punch told again as both his dread and defiler had the mutated hull upgrade taking their armour to 13. Virtually nothing in my army could take them on including, crucially, the Daemonhosts.
• I rolled badly for the Daemonhosts again as they were destroyed cheaply. I bought two so that I could negate an unlucky dice roll but I only seem to roll badly for both or well for both. Oh, well, I tried.
• My assassins were awesome in this game, taking out 9 Berzerkers and a chaos lord between them.