Scenario: A Tenuous Alliance
Requires 3 players
1) Player A: Nurgle 3000 pts
2) Player B: any force 2250 pts
3) Player C: any force 2250 pts
Apocalypse deployment - roll scatter to determine division of table except no man's land only extends into Nurgle's side. Roll for who deploy's first and if either Player B or C win, they both setup first, but turns cycle following the hierarchy of rolls. Player B & C deploy one unit at a time on their side. Warp Gate is placed by Nurgle player in his deployment zone.
Fluff
Having obtained information that a gateway into the warp has opened on the desolate Planet X, two forces descend upon the location intent on exploiting/destroying the dark powers sure to pour forth. Upon arrival the hideous sight of Chester (my warhound) overwhelms the commanders of both forces and they are forced into a tenuous alliance with the aim of stopping the forces of Nurgle spewing from the warp.
Thus:
1) The warhound is under the control of a Nurgle controlled psycher. Should this psycher die, the warhound will go berzerk firing at the outset of the next shooting phase all functioning weapons x2 each at the closest target friend or foe. The warhound can only fire in this fashion once per a complete turn (all 3 of the player's turns combined).
2) All psychers friend or foe within 24" of the warhound at the beginning of their turn can attempt to take control of the warhound if it is going berzerk (a psycher cannot wrest control of the warhound from a controlling psycher unless they kill the controlling psycher first). On a 3+ the psycher succeeds and can move and control the warhound as if it were his/her own. On a 1-2d6 the daemon instead inflicts 1 wound on the psycher. Should this new psycher controller die, the warhound will go berzerk again as before.
3) Player 2 & 3 are allies on the first turn. This alliance dissolves on a 4+ in T2, 3+ in T3, 2+ in T4, and automatically in T5. As long as these players are allies they cannot attack each other although for all other purposes they are independent armies.
4) The Nurgle player wants to spread infection. Every time a model is killed by weapons in the Nurgle player's arsenal, a d6 is rolled. A roll of 6 means an infection has started. To win, the Nurgle player must infect 10 models.
5) The other 2 players either want to control or destroy the warp gate. The one who wants to destroy the gate must score ten penetrating or glancing hits vs. armour 10 but must be within 24" in order to bypass the warpgate's shields. The player that wants to control the gate must have the most units within 6" of the gate at the end of the game.
Scenario's Strategy Guide
What makes this scenario exciting is that it plays on the generals' lust for power. The warhound can easily be destroyed in the first round by a concentration of fire from both opposing players. However if power hunger sets in and the generals decide to try to seize the warhound's weaponry for themselves, they take a risk by gambling they can wrest the daemonicly possessed machine from the forces of Nurgle. This will in all likelihood expose them to repeated rounds of destroyer weapon fire. There exists also the possibility of deliberately triggering crazed episodes by killing the controlling psycher when the warhound is positioned appropriately, thereby gaining twice the usual allotment of Apocalypse weapons. Either way, the warhound represents a volatile and dangerous variable that helps balance out the usual drawbacks of playing a three player game (such as one player concentrating on another and letting the third rise too quickly to power).
The Board
We played on my new 4x8 feet board. It has special terrain features such as sandstorms wherein on a 4-6 on a d6 there is a sandstorm in the area giving a 4+ cover to units that are obscured by it, either behind or directly within. This roll is made at the beginning of each turn for each sandy area. There are also trenches and what looks like a dessicated river bed now (it began as a road but suffered when I used contact cement to afix rubble; contact cement chews right through styrofoam). We decided the trenches were not difficult for troops. However the Nid player had an asset that made all difficult terrain dangerous. Ouch! Although it didn't really affect me much from what I remember.
Loadouts and Setup
Player A: Death Guard Loadout
HQ
2 Daemon Princes
Elite
1 squad of chosen x7 with 5 plasma guns in rhino
Bucky - Chaos Dreadnought with lascannon and missile launcher
Troops
3 squads of Plague Marines x7 each with: 2 flamers x2 and 2 meltas; powerfists & combi flamer or twinlinked bolter in Land Raider or 2 Rhinos
Heavy Support
Obliterators x 2
Havocs x7 with 2x lascannons + 1x missile launcher
Predator with lascannons
Chester - Corrupted Warhound with Plasma Blastgun & Turbo Laser Destructor
Player A: Death Guard Setup
I won 2nd initiative so I placed my models last. I was a bit taken aback by the swarm of tyranid warriors set to rumble into my lines. All the Imperial guard stuff looked menacing at the far end of the table as well. I put the warp gate close to the setup line because there was a convenient aesthetically pleasing spot for it, not so much because I thought it would give me some tactical advantage. In retrospect I should have backed the gate up all the way to my table edge to force the Nid player to travel further.
I placed Chester (my warhound) at the middle of my right table edge thinking he'd be nice and close to the gate in the event of an Apocalyptic explosion however I could have placed him directly at the gate and avoided the hassle of crossing difficult terrain. I kept most of my force in reserve so they wouldn't be destroyed in the first turn but I did drop my havocs in the bunker so they could harass the Nids a little.
Player B: Imperial Guard Loadout
HQ
Elite
Troops
Fast Attack
Heavy Support
HQ
-Le Hetman Kraxon avec son squad de commandement de compagnie
-Psycher Primaris Nebula Artois avec son ampli-psy dorsal
Troops
-2 escouades de mes Sardokars, mes soldats vétérans. Tous sapeurs avec Melta bombs et Demolition charges. Montés dans des chimères
-2 Pelottons de troupes. (6 escouades de troupes, 2 escouades de commandement de pelotton)
-2 unités d'armes lourdes (6 Canon lasers)
-1 Unité de specialistes (3 lance-plasma)
Heavy Support
-Leman Russ standard
-Leman Russ Exterminator avec bolteurs latéraux
-3 Basilisks hexapodes
-Véhicule anti-bunker medusa
Player B: Imperial Guard Setup
Player C: Tyranid Loadout
HQ
Elite
Troops
Fast Attack
Heavy Support
Player C: Tyranid Setup
Turn 1
Imperial Guard won the initiative so they began. None of their forces were close enough to shoot the gate so they concentrated their fire on my psychers. Thus my daemon princes took a few hits but were still in the game. His heavy weapons also succeeded in killing an obliterator. I placed them in a really dumb position but it was a good idea because they drew attention away from the warhound.
Strangely enough he did not target Chester. I was convinced the warhound wouldn't last a turn. Was the lure of wielding Destroyer Weapon power too great?
I went second and tried to march Chester forward to the warpgate. I knew it was going to be that kind of game when I rolled two 1's for difficult terrain messing up his drive and halving his movement. However unphased I let loose with the full fury of Chester. He fired his big plasma pancakes at the IG hiding in cover and wreaked a bit of havoc on their heavy weapons.
The turbo laser destructor on the other hand popped one of the beautifully painted and modded basilisk defilers. It was a shame to have to destroy one but they represented the biggest threat to Chester at that point.
As if that wasn't enough, my two daemon princes were perfectly setup to close assault immediately into the IG ranks. They flew from hiding behind the the bunker straight into melee.
The troops in the trench didn't stand a chance even though my prince had only 1 wound left.
The plague princess was still strong with three wounds and set upon the hapless stragglers that my first DP didn't engage.
As for Bucky, he was under control and didn't kill anything he wasn't supposed to. That would not be the case for the rest of the game however.
All told I scored something like 6 infections in my first turn due to excessive slaughter and great dice rolls. I decided I like how squishy the guard are.
The Nids didn't do much for their first turn except move forward. Their goal was the warpgate and the player calmly kept his forces bent towards it.
What forces didn't move forward spread towards the IG enclave in the top right with the intention of removing their foothold on this side of the board.
Scratchbuilding and painting:
Warhound
Plague Reaper
Warhound's Necrotic Companions
Fellios the Fallen and cohorts
New table
Chaos Lord
Chosen squad
Scratchbuilt Greater Daemon
Scratchbuilt Rhino
Epic Titans
Team game battle reports
Heretics of the Broken Dawn 2 x2
Lady Pestilence’s' 1st Outing
Regular Battle reports
Scrapyard Blues
Making Don’s BA sweat
First time facing pure Necrons
Christmas with the Greenskins
Don’s IG on a new board
Nurgle Annihilated by Blood Angels
1st time versus Tarkand
Mexican standoff: 2nd Game vs. Tarkand
Nurgle Downs the Sisters
Faceoff with the Lions of Achaea on a brand new board
Tight match against Corbeau’s Nids
The death of Pedro Kantor
Apocalypse battle reports
La Chute de Dominus Org (Fr.)
Fall of Dominus Org (Eng.)
The betrayal of Fellios and the fall of Engel Sarg
Chester’s first outing and first time going Nuclear!
Chester gets schooled by the Eldar!
Experimental Games
NERFed Battle with the Tau
Convergence
Easter Egg hunt
Super Heavy Scrum
1st Spearhead Match
A tenuous alliance
Events
Chaos Ludik 2011!
Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 2
Storms Cityfight Tournament: part 1
’Ard Boyz Practice Match against Valkom’s IG
Game Summit
Random stuff
Gorillapod tripod test with remote
Warhammer in a nutshell
