An unexpected ally on Teritarius Secundus

Dark Angels Interrogator Chaplain by tacticangel on deviantart

Begin of transmission:

Brother Parcival

We have received your distress signal

By the Emperor's will, Brother Seraphicus is in the immediate vicinity of your sector on... unrelated business

He shall rain down fiery absolution the likes of which that world has never seen

Stay strong, and hold out

End of Transmission.

This game was about loyal Space Marines (Blood Angels 500pts, Dark Angels 1'000pts) versus Chaos Daemons (1'500pts) in continuation of the first installment Ambush on Teritarius Secundus. I played the Death Company (with an ordinary Chaplain) and the Furioso remaining from the previous game in an Unbound formation, Tudor was throwing in a Ravenwing heavy DA expeditionary force lead by Interrogator Chaplain Seraphicus. Sven was playing his unmodified Chaos Daemons list (except for some weapon alterations) from the previous game.

This is how the game was set up with BA and DA at the southern edge.

On the left flank, the Furioso immediately moved forward to be within 3" of the Mission Objective (MO) behind the corner to his right. Unfortunately, the Daemon Prince (DP) is already looming at the horizon.

The Death Company (DC) moved towards the center...

...and so did the Ravenwing (RW) on the right flank.

Because the Marines already held 3 MO by the end of our turn 1, we already lead the score 3:1.

On the Daemons' turn 1, the Juggernauts didn't waste time to charge the RW...

...but the dice said the DP was out of charge range and - crucially - not contesting the MO.

The RW ate up the damage, swung back and left one single wounded Juggernaut.

To make matters worse, we were able to score another point on the Daemons' turn while they scored none.

The begin of turn 2 saw me do something very coward with the DC by letting them fall back and wrap the DA Tactical Squad (TS) that proved to be more and more important. With Bloodthirsters deepstriking this turn, it was available to not let our rear totally unguarded. Also, quick calculation showed that the DC had no means to harm the monstrosity on the other side of the crater (except for the Chaplain glancing on sixes). The Deathwing (DW) Knights teleported in right in the center of the table and were going to take care of that instead.

However, rather than just waiting for the DW, the RW decided to take matters into their own hands and wounded the machine with their Plasma Gun.

On the right flank, the DW made clear who's the boss and moped the floor with the remaining Juggernaut.

The Furioso charged the Daemon Prince, but left him alive with 2 Wounds remaining and suffered an Immobilized result in return.

Because we were comfortably holding MOs, our points count rose to 6.

From my point of view, at the beginning of the Daemons' turn 2 it payed off I let my DC fall back - only one unit of Daemons arrived from reserves and they defensively deepstruck into their own backyard to an unguarded MO.

The Monstrosity continued to battle the RW...

...the DP destroyed the Dreadnought and moved onto MO #2...

...for the second point for the Daemons. Luckily, our counter rose as well to a 7. (the orange dice has already been turned to turn 3 here, but this is the result from the end of turn 2)

Turn 3 saw the DC move out again to meet that DP who had to be taken care of...

...which was an acceptable risk as the DA Scouts,...

...the DA TS...

...and the DA Interrogator Chaplain kept shoveling points onto our account.

Part of the DW moved forward to fire at the freshly arrived Daemons,...

...the DC battled the DP and (important!) was able to score on MO #2 again,...

...and the combined efforts of the RW and DW finished off this Monstrosity on two legs.

All this scoring allowed us to break away to a lead of 8 pts.

With the DC at the center of the table engaging the DP, these Daemons did what they had to do and arrived in the TS back. The DW Knights in the upper left corner, however, already prepared to come back and help their brothers on MO #1.

The main host of the Daemons from the previous turn charged the DC and made them suffer heavy losses...

...whereas their Champion decided to confront the RW.

Unfortunately, this was a bad idea and although they suffered heavy losses, the RW continued to sit on MO #3.

By now, the number of Marines were decreasing with every dice rolled, but the Daemons still couldn't significantly score on MO.

The beginning of the fourth turn witnessed the Interrogator Chaplain throwing a Frag Grenade at the Daemons from the previous turn. It was the first time anyone at the table ever witnessed a Frag Grenade actually being thrown!

The Snipers fired at the Daemons, too,...

...and the TS thinned out their numbers as well...

...until the DW charged in to keep the backyard clean.

Not as favorable was the close combat for the DC, by turn 4 they fulfilled their purpose and were now fully gone with the DP left at 1 counter.

Things started to get obscene by the way we kept trucking in victory points despite the Daemons relentlessly pressing.

The Daemons' turn 4 saw them defensively deepstrike again.

Much worse, the Winds of the Warp (WoW) dealed Nurgle's Rot to the Scouts and they were gone in an instant, leaving our MO #4 unoccupied after it delivered so many valuable points. Was this the turn of the game and a crazy comeback for the Daemons?

They charged the DW on all fronts...

...and the DP quickly reduced our TS on this MO...

...to their valiantly fighting Veteran Sergeant (VS).

Still it appeared like the Daemons' counter was hardly moving at all.

The Loyalists turn 5 saw mostly this close combat here with further decreasing numbers on their sides, but the remaining Marines stood strong and did not yield.

However, we didn't score any points this turn.

The aforementioned close combat continued in this round reducing the Loyalists to one DW Knight still refusing to fall.

Yet again, a lone DW Biker moving to the right flank edge in order to avoid being killed and granting the Daemons a total victory by killing all Marines...

...scored in this turn again bringing us up to 13.

In turn 6, the game was pretty much over and the Daemons dominated the battlefield...

...yet our hero DW Knight finally killed off the DP and reduced this  champion's Daemon host to himself alone.

The evading DW bikes still continued to give us points from MO...

...while the Daemons now were able to get important points themselves, but the game ended after turn 6 with the final score of 16 : 8.

Conclusion

Once again, the game was truckloads of fun because of the Maelstrom Missions that required you to make the best out of every new situation and because Sven simply is such a great sport - at a tournament he'd easily get the prize for best sportsmanship!

In terms of the meta game, I can see why everyone and their grandmother are playing Green/Blue/Red White Scars these days as bikes really are strong in 7th Edition. They move fast, making them ideal to the ever changing flow of MO grabbing, plus their Toughness 5 makes them very resilient. Yet I won't play any bikes soon as I neither have the money for the models nor do I consider them exceptionally fluffy for the BA.

In terms of the campaign, the BA got finally wiped out on the surface of this planet, yet their remaining force fell honorably assisting the DA. The DA on the other hand were successful with their "unrelated business" by killing off the Daemon Prince, yet they don't entirely know yet what viper's nest they stepped in as the Daemon Prince and the Interrogator Chaplain didn't manage to fight a challenge and thus didn't introduce themselves properly to each other. For the continuation of the campaign, anything can happen.