You'll want to hear the tale of the duel above!
Yesterday I had the opportunity to fight my good friend Chris's Sisters of battle once again, and it was the first battle of my chaos space marine forces to boot!
We played the Nephilim "Recover the Relics" mission, a pretty standard one where we fight for control of objectives with bonus points for killing enemy units.
Kalonymus, Slayer of Fate
Kalonymus used his sorcerous scrying powers to sense the coming of his prey, the behemoth Kralkatorrik, The Elder Maw, an infernal Dreadblade who he aspired to dominate. He knew the demon engine was drawn to incoming conflict, always thirsty to feed his accursed runes with the souls of the dead, so the sorcerer prepared his demon trap by inciting rebellious cultists on the decaying imperial shrine world named Durantel. He had brewing the words of dissent for months now, and the cultists were hunted down by the adepta sororitas with extreme prejudice: entire cities burned in their holy fire in name of their corpse emperor, a melting pot of violence that Kalonymus knew would draw the dreadblade in.
The sorcerer sent his brother Mhustalla, the headhunter exalted champion of the Dark Seers to set-up an ambush for the sisters. The heretics chose the ruins of a chapel city and desecrated it by dismembering a Palantine the cultists had captured, spreading her bloody remains across the district. Falling in their trap, the Supreme Commander of the sisterhood, Morvenn Vahl herself came to lead the recovery and sanctification of the fallen martyr, a perfect bait to draw the attention of Kralkatorrik.
As the sisters burned and marched across the streets, slaying and burning a cities worth of enraged cultist rabble, the trap was sprung and the Legionaries of the Dark Seers marched forward with their demon engines. Kalonymus was at the forefront of the formation and invoked his accursed runes of fate, tearing reality asunder as the tentacled shape of the Elder Maw broke through the maelstrom, carrying the bulwark armored shape of Kralkatorrik atop it.
His summoning had worked and the Dreadblade was near, he would let the imperial fools weaken it before binding it to his will...
Mission: Warzone Nephilim Recover the Relics
Chaos secondary objectives: Infiltrate and Subvert, Assassination, The Long War
Sisterhood secondary objectives: Sacred Ground, Sacred Shrine, Leap of Faith
Both forces deployed aggressively to contest the 4 objectives in no-man's land.
Kralkatorrik, The Elder Maw, was ready to charge alongside the right flank, followed by a host of chosen, legionaries and possessed.
The left flank was anchored by the flesh demon engine known as Storm, a maulerfiend of flesh, sinew and bone.
A large formation of Sacresants was ready to face the advancing Dreadblade
A large host of sisters advanced through the left flank
The saint Celestine manifested to protect and counter-charge threats coming onto the left flank of the sister's advancing formation.
On the left flank, the Sisters faced the wrath of Storm, the Maulerfiend, backed by a group of Negavolt Cultists led by a daemonhost (counts-as possessed) backed up by the sorcerer Kalonymus, who had cast Diabolic Strength and Prescience on the charging possessed.
Morvenn Vahl led her forces from the back, directing the sisters with her commanding presence, ready to plunge the Lance of Illumination on the Dreadblade's core.
The Negavolt cultists and the demonhost (counts-as possessed) destroyed the leading Rhino transport and engaged the sisters who disembarked from the wrecked vehicle.
On the right flank, the Dreadblade was engaged by Morvenn Vahl and her Celestian Sacresants. The Dreadblade was defeated in combat, but the demon had his last vengeance with his spiteful demise, exploding on death and wrecking havoc all around: five legionaries and the Hellbrute who were following his advanced were consumed in the explosion, as well as the sister's Canoness, some Sacresants and, most important, leaving Morvenn Vahl on her last breath with a single wound remaining.
By interrupting the sister's charge, the possessed negavolt cultists, blessed with Diabolic Strength and Prescience by the sorcerer Kalonymus killed the saint and her Geminae Superia, not suffering much damage from the sisters squad in return, thanks to their higher toughness.
A group of Plague Marines engaged the surviving Sacresant on the right flank.
A second group of possessed beastman (counts-as possesed) blessed by the sorcerer's spells, killed the reincarnation of Celestine.
Fueled by hatred, the single surviving aspiring champion of the legionaries squad who was engulfed and killed by the dreadblade's explosion disengaged from his combat against some puny sisters to charge Morvenn Vahl, Abbess Sanctorum of the Adepta Sororitas.
Raising his tainted Chainaxe in defiance, he charged in and delivered a fatal, final wound to her, and not her armour of contempt, nor a command re-roll could save her. The dark gods had sealed her fate, and she fell side by side of the head of the dismembered Palantine she had come to sanctify.
"Cursed fate of Tzeench – thought Kalonymus as he watched the Dreadblade's demise – it'll be some time before the beast reforms now"
Failing to bound the infernal engine to his will, he turned the attention of the Dark Seers to the subverting of this shrine world so that he could use it to summon the beast again when the sisterhood inevitably returned to reclaim these grounds in their blind devotion to their corpse emperor.
He looked across the battlefield and saw his brother Mhustalla stalking the sister's Hospitaller and Dogmata at the back of the formation. They both joined in and killed their prey, this much wanton slaughter would certainly rip the fabric of reality and allow the summoning of a great daemon horde.
The game ended in a tight score of 89x83 with a Chaos victory!
It was an amazing game and the Abominant Dreadbalde proves once more to be a swingy but assured investment, even if he is felled by turn two after having failed to cast his winds of the warp, he allowed the epic charge of the aspiring champion that killed Movenn Vahl. That guy deserves a taller top knot now!
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