Battle Report: Chaos Space Marines vs. Crimson Fists and Black Templars

The first of the team battles in the Wasp Campaign features my chaos space marines taking on the combined forces of the Crimson Fists and Black Templars chapters.  Since I have less manufactoria, I'm at a points disadvantage overall.  Here are the army lists:

Chaos Space Marines (2100 points):

HQ: 
Daemon Prince, Mark of Nurgle, Wings, Doombolt (160 points)
Daemon Prince, Wings (130 points)

Elites: 
1 Chaos Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon, Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, twin-linked bolter (105 points)

3 Chaos Terminators, 3 combi-meltas, 1 power fist (115 points)

4 Chaos Terminators, 2 combi-flamers, 1 heavy flamer, 1 chain fist (150 points)
Troops: 
5 plague marines, 1 flamer, 1 melta, 1 plague champion with powerfist, 1 icon (175 points)
5 plague marines, 1 flamer, 1 melta, 1 plague champion with powerfist, 1 icon (175 points)
5 plague marines, 1 plasma gun (130 points)

9 genestealers, 1 broodlord (172 points)

Dedicated Transports:
1 Rhino with Havoc Launcher (50 points)
1 Rhino with Havoc Launcher (50 points)
1 Rhino with Havoc Launcher (50 points)

Fast Attack: 
6 Chaos raptors, 1 aspiring champion with power fist, 2 meltas (180 points)

Heavy Support: 
2 obliterators (150 points)
Chaos Vindicator, Daemonic Possession (145 points)

Soul Grinder, vomit and phlegm (160 points)

Crimson Fists (1200 points):

HQ	Wargear	Qty.	Points	Total
Pedro Kantor		1	175	175
TROOPS
Tactical Squad		10	170
	Flamer	1	0
	Power Fist	1	25
	Lascannon	1	10	205
Tactical Squad		10	170
	Flamer	1	0
	Power Fist	1	25
	Lascannon	1	10	205
DEDICATED TRANSPORT
Razorback		1	40
	Twin-Linked Lascannon	1	35
	Hunter-Killer Missile	1	10
	Dozer Blade	1	5	90
ELITES
Sternguard Veterans		5	125		+BS1
	Power Fist	1	25		+Inf
	Combi-Melta	2	10
	Combi-Plasma	3	15	175
Ironclad Dreadnought		1	135
	Close Combat Weapon	1	0
	Seismic Hammer	1	0
	Meltagun	1	0
	Heavy Flamer	1	10	145	995
Drop Pod		1	35
	Storm Bolter	1	0	35
Devastator Squad		5	90		+TH
	Missile Launcher	2	30
	Plasma Cannon	2	50	170	205

Black Templars (1275 points):

HQ	Wargear	Qty.	Points
Emperors Champion			90
	Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds	1	50
Marshal		1	80
	Power Weapon	1	15
	Storm Bolter	1	5
	Iron Halo	1	25
	Artificer Armour	1	20
	Melta Bomb	1	5
ELITE
Sword Brethren Terminator Squad		5	200
	Power Fists	5	0
	Storm Bolters	5	0
	Tank Hunter	5	15
	Cyclone Missile Launcher	2	50
Sword Brethren Squad		5	95
	Furious charge	1	0
	Pair of lightning claws	1	25
	Power weapon	1	15
	Close Combat Weapon	3	0
	Bolt Pistol	4	0
	Frag Grenades	5	5
	Krak Grenades	2	10
TROOPS
Crusader Squad	Initiates	5	80
	Lascannon	1	15
	Plasma Gun	1	6
	Bolter	3	0
Crusader Squad	Initiates	5	80
	Lascannon	1	15
	Plasma Gun	1	6
	Bolter	3	0
HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator Annihilator			120
	Turret mounted twin linked lascannon	1	0
	side mounted lascannons	2	25
	Power of the Machine Spirit	1	30
FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder Typhoon		1	50
	Typhoon Missile Launcher	1	20
Land Speeder Typhoon		1	50
	Typhoon Missile Launcher	1	20
DEDICATED TRANSPORTS
Rhino		1	50
	Smoke Launcher	1	3

Set-up:
The game is annihilation and we square off with a pitched battle set-up.  The terrain features ruins, craters and rocks arranged by independent parties and we roll off for who gets to set up first (etc.) which I miraculously win.  I elect to go first and set up in a castle in one corner of the board, apart from my dreadnought, which goes in the other corner.

My opponents surprise me by NOT reserving everything.  The Crimson Fists set up opposite me apart from one squad on the other side of the board (to take out the dreadnought).  The Black Templars reserved quite a lot (terminators, etc.), but placed on their command squad.

Turn 1.
I bring in my soul grinder (we're playing allies in 5th, okay?!) but he scatters a bit further back than I would have liked ... nearly enough to land on a stone wall, but narrowly avoids going back to the warp.  I move forward key elements of my army: a couple of rhinos, the raptors, the princes and leave a squad of plague marines and my obliterators in one of the ruins.  Then I unleash a firestorm backed up by the dice gods!  Man, I couldn't believe how lucky my rolling was (and how poor the Crimson Fists saves were).  I really felt sorry for the guys as the obliterators and dreadnought hit their squads with lucky plasma cannon shots, followed up by soul grinder barrage, rhino havoc launchers and the rest.  Although I really wanted to take out Pedro before he could summon down his orbital bombardment, I failed.  But most of the rest of that squad perished. Other enemy positions that were taken out included the predator, most of the Black Templar command squad, a few random devastators, a crusade squad and others.

In exchange, my opponents had a terrible opening round.  Pedro's guys unleashed their volley, but the daemonic possession rule saved both my vindicator and soul grinder.  Meanwhile, the ironclad dropped in behind the vindicator and tried to take it out with a rear armour shot.  The shot missed.  The only miniature I lost on this turn was a single raptor.  Seriously, I've never seen such one sided die.

Turn 2.
The remaining Black Templars squads come in for fire from my increasingly focussed targeting.  There's only a few of them left now -- just enough to have a daemon prince do some mopping up in later turns.

Meanwhile on the opposite flank, I decide to outflank my genestealers on to the board (allies, remember!).  They creep up on the Crimson Fists that are gunning for my dreadnought.

Sadly for me, the dreadnought dies this turn and plays no further threat.  But there's nothing that's going to stop those genestealers from contacting the enemy in my next turn.  The opposition's reserved guys fail to show up.  More lucky and unlikely saves ensue for my side, but my daemon princes do lose a couple of wounds each and an obliterator feels some pain as well.

Turn 3.
It's ugly.  If you're a loyalist.

The genestealers make short work of the Crimson Fists, with the brood lord (patriarch!) ensuring the power fist does not strike back.

The daemon princes round up the survivors and finish them off.  A lucky melta shot from my remaining raptors wrecks the ironclad.

And the we look around.  There's nothing left except what is in reserve for the loyalists. We delve in to the books: can reserves come on to the board if there are no other miniatures on your team left?  Apparently not.  The game ends with a massacre victory to the forces of chaos whom the fickle dice gods favoured in this battle.  I feel dreadful for my opponents -- a turn 3 victory is amazing when I'm behind on points like this. But by not reserving everything, they provided me with the targets that I needed and I systematically took them down one by one through my castled up approach.