The Storms of Judgement - Clash of Titans

The war on Morbus was not going well for Festus. The Death Guard had been thwarted by the Castigators at every turn. If it had not been for the Nurglings gifted to him by the Plague God, the Death Guard would have been over-run and forced to abandon yet another planet to the decadent Slaanesh worshipers.
To complicate matters further, Festus was well aware of the whispers surrounding his lieutenant, Tosis Mire, and the growing support that his exploits had garnered.
The arrival of the Castigators' 2nd cohort on Morbus offered Festus with the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. It gave Festus the perfect reason to restrict his lieutenant to fleet duties, but more importantly, it presented the ideal opportunity to strike at the heart of the Castigators by robbing them of their chief Sorceror, Lucian Soulweaver. Festus was well aware how much of a stabilising factor the Sorceror was. If he could remove him, then it would only be a matter of time before the more extreme elements within the Castigators tore the Chapter apart.

The reverberating ground shook the Plague Lord from his reverie as the Chaos Knight moved into position.
"Excellent!" Thought Festus, "let us see if this warp trafficker is capable of resisting the fury of a Plague Knight!"



Greetings sinners!
Me and Rob got together for another instalment of our Storms of Judgement Campaign. Our last game had seen the Castigators defeat the Death Guard for the final territory on the planet of Morbus. However, the jubilation had been short lived as I failed to roll a 4+ on 2d6 to claim the territory....Obviously the entire territory had been infested with Nurglings that had prevented the Castigators from claiming total dominance of the planet!
As the winner of the last game, I chose Morbus once again for the battlefield.
Rob had been busy on ebay (to be honest, he's always busy on ebay or kickstarter!) had had got his grubby little hands on an Imperial Knight that he was going to Chaosify. So we decided on a 2000pt game to let him try it out.

Death Guard
Festus Foulspawn - Nurgle Lord, Bike, Fist, Burning Brand of Skallathrax, Sigil
5 Nurgle Spawn
10 Cultists x3
Maulerfiend
3 Nurgle Obliterators
Heldrake
7 Havocs, 4 Autocannons
2 Plague Drones
Nurgle Chaos Knight

The Castigators
Lucian Soulweaver - Sorceror
6 Chaos Marines, Melta, Combi-Melta and Lightning Claw
Dreadclaw
10 Cultists
Heldrake
Fire Raptor
Helblade
Mayhem Pack - 2 Multi-Melta Dreads, 1 Plasma Cannon and Power Scourge
Greater Scorpion

The Death Guard deployed first, keeping everything pretty central. I deployed my Scorpion on the right flank.

Everything moved forward apart from the Knight which shot at the Scorpion along with the Obliterators. Neither failed to do any damage.

Lucian in the Dreadclaw dropped in and turbo'd behind a packet of cigs ;-)

The Scorpion shuffled forward to target the Obliterators, killing one and wounding another.

The Death Guard hurtled forward en-masse.

Festus and his Spawn claimed an objective....

.....as the Maulerfiend scuttled through the ruins. Shooting from the Nurgle Knight and the Obliterators stripped a hull point from the Scorpion.

The Castigators' Heldrake arrived......

....As did the Mayhem Pack. A Melta Dread mis-happed and went into ongoing reserves. The other Melta dropped in behind the Nurgle Knight in an attempt to draw the Knight back. The Plasma Dread dropped in next to Festus and his Spawn, supported by the Fire Raptor.

The Heldrake roasted the Nurgle Havocs, leaving two desperately trying to put out the flames. The Scorpion killed another Obliterator but failed to damage the Knight.

The Fire Raptor Killed a spawn, some cultists and stripped a hull point from the Plague Knight.

The Plague Knight took the bait and turned towards the Dread.....

..... While Festus and his Spawn surrounded the other Dread.....

 
.....The Maulerfiend moved towards the Scorpion.

Festus Charged the Dread, stripping a wound, but not before the Dread killed a Spawn.

Hoping to buy some time for the Death Guard, the Maulerfiend charged the Scorpion but was ripped apart by the mighty Titan.

 The Plague Knight ripped the Dread apart with contemptuous ease.

The Castigators' second Dread arrived from ongoing reserves, dropping in to tempt the Plague Knight. The Heldrake and Fire Raptor flew across the battlefield causing mayhem throughout the Death Guard's battle lines. The Scorpion charged into the combat with the Dread and Festus ripping apart a Spawn.

The Death Guard's Plague Drones arrived, spitting a hail of Fire at the Fire Raptor and stripping a hull point.

The Death Guard's Heldrake flew on, vector striking its Slaaneshi counterpart but failed to do any damage.

The Plague Knight charged into the Dread blocking its path.....

...Smashing it apart, but unable to prevent the other Dread and Scorpion from ripping apart the Spawn and the Plague Lord Festus!

The Dreadclaw returned and the Helblade made a devastating arrival by blowing the Nurgle Heldrake from the sky. The Fire Raptor shot at the Plague Drones 'immobilising' them.
The Plague Knight ignored the final Dread and closed in on the Scorpion....

The Plague Knight charged into the mighty Titan in an attempt to reclaim the prone body of Festus that the Scorpion still held in its claw......

The Scorpion cast aside the fallen Plague Lord and turned to face the onrushing Plague Knight. The Knight smashed into the Scorpion, hacking wildly with its Foe-Reaper. The mighty chainsword found its mark, striking a critical blow. The Scorpion thrashed wildly as the Blade caused catastrophic damage.....but to the Plague Knight's disbelief, the Scorpion still had one Hull point left! (Rob rolled a 6 on the destroyer weapon, but then rolled a one for the additional damage)
The wounded Scorpion hit back, tearing apart the Plague Knight. The resulting Explosion scattered harmlessly away from the Scorpion.
The Helblade and the Fire Raptor blew the Plague Drones from the sky, just as Lucian and his Marines disembarked from the Dreadclaw and wiped out the last Cultist squad.

 The Scorpion and Dreadnought made their way towards the Castigators' Chief Sorceror as the Helblade, Heldrake and Fire Raptor patrolled the battlefield looking for any signs of movement. The Death Guard had been wiped out to a man.

What an epic battle that was!

Rob was using a lot of new stuff (Plague Drones and a Chaos Knight) and it showed. I'm sure the next time he uses his Knight, he won't hang about chasing Dreads and will go straight for the Scorpion. It would have made all the difference if he had. I'd stripped two hull points from it before it got to me, so the Scorpion managed to finish it off in one round. If it had been on full hull points it would have survived the Scorpion's attacks and would have finished it off in the next turn.

While we both enjoyed the game, we both felt that we want to go back to smaller games for a while. We miss the impact that a single character can have on a game and both feel that larger battles limit the story of our respective warbands somewhat.
Oh, and once again I failed to roll a 4+ on 2d6 to claim the territory!

Darius flipped over the mutilated body with the toe of his boot. A gurgling moan escaped from the repugnant Festus.
"Hell's teeth! They're tough these Death Guard" marvelled the Aspiring Champion.
"Shall I finish him off?"
"No." Purred Lucian.
"Once we've cleaned him up and he recovers, he'll make an excellent addition to my menagerie." Continued the Sorceror.
Darius shuddered at the thought of becoming one of Lucian's pet projects. The Sorceror's art in binding daemon to flesh was legendary, but even he couldn't bind a Slaanesh Daemon to a favoured Champion of Nurgle, surely?
"Shall I secure the area?" Asked Darius.
"No, let Nestor worry about territory. I have what I came for." Said the Sorceror as he opened a comm-link to his Flag-Ship.
"Assemble my Fleshsmiths." Ordered the Sorceror "I have a new pet to add to the Sullied."

Of course, Sullied! 
Better dead than Sullied, thought Darius as he shuddered once again at the Plague Lord's fate.