DAEMONHUNTERS versus Chaos Space Marines

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Rescue (modified)
1st turn: Daemonhunters
Points: 1000

Daemonhunters

• Inquisitor Lord Kurven - Psycannon, Purity Seals, Gun Servitor, Plasma Cannon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Imperial Guard Veteran, Plasma Gun, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Targeter, 2 x Sage, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
• Daemonhost
• 3 x Death-Cult Assassins
• Squad Godirtho - 5 Storm troopers, 2 x meltaguns
• Squad Seralvo - 5 Stormtroopers, 2xGrenade Launchers
• Squad Vargas - 5 Stormtroopers, 2xPlasma Guns, Veteran Sergeant with Plasma pistol
• Squad Matoso - 9 x Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, Veteran, Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon, Targeter, 2 x Flamer, Rhino, Extra Armour, Hunter-killer Missile, Smoke
• Armoured Fist Squad (inducted Imperial Guard) - Sergeant, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol, Flamer, Chimera, Multilaser, Heavy Bolter, Smoke Launchers

Chaos Space Marines

• Lord with axe of Khorne
• Dreadnought with twin linked lascannon
• 8 man squad in rhino
• 8 man squad in rhino
• 8 Khorne Berzerkers
• 8 flesh hounds

Terrain and Deployment
This game was played on the store city fight board which looks awesome but is a devil to play on. I won the roll for deployment and chose the board edge closest to me for deployment because I couldn't be bothered to carry my models over to the other side of the board!

My first mistake.

I was stuck in a corner with a massive ruined building while my opponent had clear terrain. Given that we both had to rush forward and collect the rescue counters I was at a big disadvantage.

Just a quick note on our modified version of the rescue mission. Now this is a mission I hate. Not because it is unbalanced or because it has reserves but because my opponent always uncovers the objective in turn one right next to his deployment zone. Always.

So to shake things up a bit we decided that we could collect the rescue counters during the game and only reveal which counter was the real objective at the end. That meant we had to decide whether to push on and collect more counters but risk losing them to the enemy, or whether to consolidate and hang on to the counters we had. It all made for a tense game.

I deployed my chimera inside the ruined building to claim hull down, intending to use it as a weapons platform. There was a counter maybe 8" ahead of it so my Guard squad started on foot ready to race forward and collect it. Behind these units in the building were my two stormtrooper units on foot looking to move to my right. On my left in a spot of clear terrain I had the rhino with the plasma stormtroopers covering them.

Gary began with a rhino at either end of his deployment corner and his Berzerkers in the centre. All the rest of our armies were in reserve.

The game
I won first turn and took some long range shots at the chaos rhinos to try and slow them down but they emerged unscathed. They both raced toward my lines, threatening each flank of my army. My Inquisitor arrived from reserve at the start of the second turn and reinforced my left. On the right my melta gunners had moved up and could just see the rhino round the corner of a building and they blew it up. On the left I failed to hurt the rhino again and knew I was in for some pain in the following turn.

The chaos marines in the rhino barrelled into the Inquisitor and his retinue (having driven over and collected two counters already) but they got a poor spread of rolls and got stuck in a combat they should have won. The other marines who had spilled from their wrecked transport assaulted the storm troopers but only after they summoned the flesh hounds. This combined assault wiped out squad Seralvo and Godirtho to a man. The hounds swept on into the guardsmen who had just retrieved a counter.

Now it was time for the Daemonhunters to counterattack. All the assassins passed their reserve rolls as did the Daemonhost. One assassin came on to attack the marines on my right while the other two piled into the combat with the Inquisitor. Most of the flesh hounds were killed by the firepower of the rapid firing guardsmen and they were reduced to a single model (who had a counter).

Over the next two turns all but two of the chaos marines were killed along with their remaining rhino (except of course for the Berzerkers who were still slogging their way over the battlefield on foot. The Inquisitor had picked up the two counters from the chaos marines and simply stood off to utilise his psycannon; there was no chance of the chaos army reaching him. Two marines had survived the combat with the Inquisitor and the subsequent fight with the Guardsmen and claimed another counter. Somehow the last flesh hound survived the carnage and emerged with a counter. The chaos dreadnought had arrived by this point and although hit failed to hit anything with his lascannon he did pick up a stray counter to take the tally to 3 for chaos and two for the Daemonhunters.

The last of the six counters was being carried by the chaos lord until the last turn when he went down to the Daemonhost in close combat. This should have left us a three counters each but I forgot to consolidate the Daemonhost and so the counter remained unclaimed. Finally, we rolled a d6 to determine the real objective and it turned out to be the one carried by the two surviving chaos marines.

Result: Loss

Learning points

• The variant of this mission worked and kept the game tense right up until the finish. Of course the counter turned out to be the one nearest my deployment zone this time so the regular mission would have actually been better for me. Aaarrrghh!
• We had a few quibbles about terrain in this game but that was more down to the table than the players. When will I ever get to play on a regular table?
• An interesting rules query came up when I had an empty rhino zooming around: could it collect counters? On the one hand it is a model and surely the driver could pick it up but on the other it is an empty vehicle. We ruled no it couldn't and that left the dreadnought to claim it. But surely the dreadnought is a vehicle, too? In the end it didn't matter because the real objective was elsewhere but it would be good to clarify this for future games.
• The death cult assassins were worth their weight in gold in this mission. Showing up late from reserve could have put them out of the game but luckily they all made it into combat on the turn they arrived. Against marines they always seem to make their points back.