Battle for Lainus J3V: Warhammer 40k Crusade

 

Shield Captain Adrius Sorex stood, arms folded watching the holo display in front of him. Adrius had been alerted to some troubling activity on the Civilized world of Lainus J3V and had gathered a small force of Custodes to intervene. He watched as a small force of Heretic Astartes made their way towards a small disused water extraction facility. He regarded the schematics of the area with some concern. The valves on the pipes had been closed due to contamination of the ground water, but they would be easy enough to open, and even worse, it was clear from a shambling mass of dead citizens that these Astartes had sold their souls to Nurgle. If they did nothing, the water supply would be contaminated and that might lead to….

Adrius turned to his companions, nodded at them and donned his helmet. They were all enveloped by a shining golden light and in less than a heartbeat they were face to face with the traitors.

 

Battle Commences!

Its been a strange year so far, and this is the first battle of 40k I’ve played since March. And also the first game of 9^th I’ve played. The game will be a match between my Custodes, and Martins Death Guard, and as we are both fairly laid back, we decided we would start the new edition with a narrative campaign using the crusade rules in the new big rule book. We both have several armies to choose from, and we will be playing with all of them over the next few weeks and see if we can develop an exciting narrative.

Here are the army lists we will be using:

Custodes

50PL

Shield Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Salvo Launcher - Warlord

Culexus Assassin

Vexillus Praetor with Vexilla Magnifica, Storm shield and Misercordia.

Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought. Achillus Dreadspear 2x Lastrum Storm Bolter

3x Custodian Guard, Sentinel Blades, Storm Shields

3x Sagitarrum Custodians, 3x Misercordia

3x Sagitarrum Custodians, 3x Misercordia

 

Deathguard

50PL

Chaos Lord. Terminator armour, Combi Plasma, Power Axe

Lord of Contagion. Plague reaper

5 Blightlord Terminators, 4x Combi Plasma 1x Plague Spewer, 5 & Bubotic Axe

5 Plague Marines 2x Plasma gun. Champion: Power fist & Plasma Gun

5 Plague Marines 2x Blight Launcher, Champion: Power fist & Plasma Gun. 1x Icon Of Despair

20 Pox Walkers

4x Chaos Spawn

1x Myphitic Blight Hauler

Mission

We rolled For the mission, and the result was Sabotage. Custodes would be the defenders, with the Death Guard having to take 4 objectives and, as an action burn them for 20vps each (for a total of 80 available) the secondary would be to kill more units, for a total of 10vp’s a turn if achieved. The board size is smaller than we are both used to, and after deployment, the Death Guard opted to go first.

The Battlefield

We will be using the suggested battlefield size, which to me seems a bit small, being 30x44 inches for an incursion. being somewhat new to the new terrain rules we didn't have much variety in the attributes we assigned, but we did try to include some LOS blocking terrain.

 

Deployment

We alternated deploying units, and neither of us decided to put anything in reserve. a new wrinkle with 9th edition is you have to declare this before deployment starts. The board was quite small, so the Death Guard had very little room to do any fancy tricks

Deathguard deploy on the line, Pox walkers anchor the center

Plague Marines with Plasma above them

Terminators, both lords and the Blight hauler on the right

More Plague Marines and Spawn on the left

The Custodes are more spread out, the only cause for concern is the weak right flank, but the Achillus deploys centrally and can go either way.

Custodes spread out over the board

Shield Captain and Sagitarrum anchor their Right

Turn 1

The Death Guard moved forward as quickly as they could, which wasn’t very fast, the spawn proved to be the fastest loping ahead of the plague marines on their right flank. A flurry of shots were made, with bolts of plasma flying across the battlefield Custodes. The effect was minimal, but a single Sagitarrum was removed as a casualty. The only charge that was possible was the spawn, but they failed, handing the initiative to the Custodes

The Custodes had to keep the Death Guard away from the objectives for as long as possible, and the line was going to be quite thin. The Lord of contagion was the biggest threat to them, his axe could kill a Custode in one hit, so the Culexus advanced to distract him for as long as possible. The Custodes opened up with as many shots as they could muster, but the Death Guard proved to be quite resilient, only a few casualties were caused. But they were right where the Custodes wanted them, so in they went….

Custodian Guard Face the Blightlords

Close Combat was Furious. The Blightlords proved to be very tough, but the Custodian Guards managed to cut several down in close combat, their storm shields protecting them from everything the terminators could throw back in return. The Achillus started to go to town on the pox walkers, cutting several down easily, but they managed to pin it in combat. The Culexus scores 1 wound on the Lord of contagion, for no damage in return, all attacks missing.

On the other flank, the shield captain cut down several of the spawn, but was pinned in combat with the Plague marines, taking some damage in return, and leaving him out of combat with the spawn

Turns 2 & 3

The plague marines had to break through the Custodes, and a meat grinder began, this lasted 4 rounds. Another Sagitarrum was felled by the Blight haulers shooting, but the invulnerable saves of the Custodes did sterling work in minimizing the damage. They weren't so fortunate in avoiding the damage from Nurgles Rot which took a toll on the Custodes.

Death Guard Move up

The combat brawl continued, with the Spawn charging into the Sagitarum protecting one objective, and they managed to down one of them, taking a few wounds in return

Spawn Attack the Sagitarrum

The Achillus continued to thin the ranks of pox walkers with each sweep of its blade, and those it can't kill in with the dread spear, it guns down with the Lastrum Bolters

'How Dare you!' The Achillus takes a wound, and then starts the slaughter of the Pox Walkers

The Chaos Lord Enters the Fray, but cannot hurt the Vexilla

The shield captain managed to kill 3 of the 4 plague marines he is engaged with, but the return attack is solid, and knocks him down to a single wound! The next round saw the captain slay the impudent wretch. The Sagitarrum fighting the Spawn managed to cut them down for no extra damage in return

The Plague Marine Champion almost kills the Shield Captain

The Achillus finishes off the Pox walkers, and engages the Plague Marines. The combat is short and brutal, the plague marines die to the last man

Plague marines rapidly Dwindle

Turn 4

The meat grinder saw the Custodes emerge victorious, but they had taken a lot of damage in return. The Shield captain and Achillus each took down one of the lords, and at the start of turn 4, the Death Guard were left with only the Blight Hauler which ran over another Sagitarrum, killing the last man in the unit. but the game was effectively over. There were many angry Custodes bearing down on it.

The Blight Hauler Takes an objective, but it's too late

 Conclusion

Custodes 80VP. Death Guard 20VP

The Battle was over, It had been a Brutal close quarters fight with the Custodes showing their mettle and emerging victorious. The small board, and the slow speed of the Death Guard meant that they had to get close to the Custodes, which is never a good thing. The key points were the Culexus holding up the Lord of Contagion long enough for the Custodes to whittle the Plague Marines down to nothing, and the failure of the Heretics to break through early enough to threaten any of the objectives. The pivotal unit was the Custodian Guard. they took everything that was thrown at them and survived. only really suffering when it was mortal wounds coming their way. When the lord of contagion did reach them after killing the Culexus, he bounced.

Custodian Guard are hard to crack

The Achillus Managed to score the most kills, Taking out most of the pox walkers, a squad of plague marines, and then cleave the Chaos lord into tiny pieces (14 wounds). I did forget he gets to do mortal wounds on the charge though.

The Dread Spear is a really nasty weapon!

The Plague Marines did make a mistake in not having anything in reserve, with the Custodes not having to worry about anything jumping into the back of the board, they were able to pin the Death Guard well outside range of any of the objectives till turn 4. they were also fortunate to win every single significant combat.

Ultimately the board size, and mission objectives were definitely in favour of the Custodes, had the roles been reversed, it would have been a tougher fight, having to close the distance to get to where Custodes shine.

Thanks to Martin for being a great opponent, and I've got my work cut out to get the rest of the Custodes finished, and paint up the terrain.

Gallery