Battle Summary: Death Guard vs. Space Marines (1000 points)

Over the vacation period, we were at it again: my Death Guard against the Blood Ravens space marines chapter for a fun grudge match (cf: here).

Mission:
Capture & Control / Pitched Battle.
Table:
4 ft x 4 ft, scattered ruins and craters.

Death Guard Army:
Deamon Prince, Mark of Nurgle, Wings, Doombolt (160)
7 plague marines (1 champion with power fist), 1 melta, 1 flamer, Rhino with havoc launcher (266)

7 plague marines (1 champion with power fist), 1 melta, 1 flamer, Rhino with havoc launcher (266)

7 plague marines, 2 plasma guns (191)

Dreadnought with plasma cannon (105)

Blood Ravens Army: (approximately)

Commander with relic blade and artificer armour

2 full tactical squads with missile launchers, meltas

5 scouts, sergeant with power weapon

1 rhino

5 thunder hammer and storm shield terminators

5 assault marines, power fist

Early Turns.

Both armies deploy on the board and amongst some ruins, guarding their home objectives.  The image below shows the disposition of the forces at the end of the first turn.  I've ran forward my two rhinos that are carrying two of my squads with the daemon prince running behind one of them for a little bit of cover.  The plasma Death Guard squad are holding the objective in the Imperial Ruins in the background.  Meanwhile, my dreadnought has had a turn 1 craziness result and fires his plasma cannon twice at the oncoming terminators on the left flank.  That reduces them down to a single miniature already -- quite remarkable for me.

With only a single terminator left to deal with, the dreadnought weathers an assault and slaughters the Blood Raven.  However, the servos on the dreadnought's legs have been compromised: he is now immobile and doesn't play much of a part for the rest of the game.  Good job he has a poor line of sight for firing anywhere, otherwise my rhino's would be toast.

Middle Turns.

But it looks like it doesn't matter too much -- both of my rhinos are whacked by krak missiles & the assault marine squad. They get their havoc launchers destroyed and one becomes a wreck.  The on-board Death Guard disembark to brace themselves for the foot-slogging fight.  The image below depicts the early stages of the developing melee.  One Death Guard squad is headed right for the assault marines, whilst another edges close to the main cohort of marines in the ruins.

Over at my end of the board, some sneaky scouts outflank and start racing toward my plasma gun squad.  They slowly get whittled down, but the rhino coming toward the plasma gun squad is also looking like a dangerous threat.  Better set my Daemon Prince on to the task.

Late Turns.

The daemon prince wrecks the Blood Raven's rhino (and discovers that the interior is remarkably well painted!).  The command squad exits and lays in to the prince (killing him!) and moves on to the plasma gun squad.

The scouts also head toward the plasma gun squad and join in the fun.  But the high toughness of the plague marines does their points value justice as they hold out and slay the scouts and the majority of the regular marines. 

At the other end of the table, my marines are readily weathering the melee and finish off several squads.  I re-embark one squad back in to a rhino and make a mad dash back toward the plasma gun squad to support it whilst the other squad is relishing the melee and contesting the opposing objective.

Sadly, the game ends before I can reinforce my plasma squad.  The enemy commander is contesting my home objective whilst one of the plague marine squads is contesting the opposite one.  I just needed more turns!

End Result: Draw -- both objectives contested.