What follows will be a battle report with me using 3.5 edition Chaos Space Marines and my fellow blogger, Hazon, using 6th edition Salamanders Space Marines.
The basic premise behind our game was that I would use the old Chaos codex as-is, with few exceptions. Any Universal Special Rules found in both 3.5 and 6th would used as though they were from 6th.The exceptions to using it directly as is from the book this were:
- Feel No Pain (FNP): Since its nonexistent in this older edition, I kept it as a 4+.
- Khornate Chainaxes: This was a funny one. For the first few rounds, we used the old rules (no save can be better than a 4+, so a Terminator hit by one gets a 4+ instead of his 2+), but we found that this was a bit insane given how strong Berzerkers are (and given that anything Khorne in 3.5 basically becomes a Berzerker).
- Mastery Levels: We assumed any Sorcerer Lord was mastery level 3, Lieutenants were level 2, and anything else was level 1. I stuck with the normal rules for the codex, however, and I didn't generate any new powers, just bought 'em like the good ole days.
- Demonic Resilience: Treated exactly as modified toughness is in the 6th edition.
- Chaos 3.5 Restirctions: 0-1 Limit removed from the Lord for better functionality in a larger list, 0-1 demon weapon restrictions for coolness.
Pellas Mirsan
Troops6 tactical squads + rhinos.
Vulkan hestan
Brayarth Ashmantle (drop pod)
Chapter Master Tushan , Honor Guard,
Command Squad
Elites
Assualt Terminators with thunder hammers + shields (3 squads of 5)
Troops6 tactical squads + rhinos.
Fast attack
Land Speeder Tornado x2
Land Speeder Typhoon
Land Speeder Typhoon
Bike Squad (x7 bikes)
Heavy support
Storm ravens (x3)
Land Raider Redeemer
Predator 110
Chaos Space Marines
(For the sake of simplicity, assume every character has Demonic Armor, Aura, Resilience, Strength, Essence (Independent Characters only) melta bombs and a teleport homer)
HQ
Abaddon the Despoiler
Chaos Lord (Demon Prince): Nurgle, Manreaper, Demonic Speed, Stature
Chaos Lord (Demon Prince): Slaanesh, Combat Drugs, Spiky bitz, Demonic Speed, Stature, Black Sword
Chaos Lord (Demon Prince): Khorne, Demonic Flight, FNP, Berzerker Glaive
(Ally) Chaos Lord (Demon Prince): Tzeentch, Wind of Chaos, Spiky bitz, Demonic Speed, Stature, Warp Blade
Troops
16 Berzerkers, Furious Charge (Talisman of Burning Blood)
(Ally) 9 Thousand Sons (Aspiring Sorcerer has Wind of Chaos, power fist), Rhino (Dozer, Extra Armor)
2x Plague Marines (2 Plasma, powerfist), Rhino (Dozer, Extra Armor)
10 Chaos Space Marines (MoCU, Tank Hunters, Lascannon)
10 Chaos Space Marines (MoCU, Infiltrate, 2 plasma)
Elites
9 Rubric Terminators (Wind of Chaos, Powerfist)
4 Chosen Aspiring Champions, Terminators (Demonic Strength, Resilience, Chainfists) Move through cover, Land Raider (Parasitic Possession, Dozer Blade)
Dreadnaught, Plasma Cannon, Mutated Hull
Heavy Support
5 Havocs (MoCU, 4 Autocannons, Tank Hunter)
5 Havocs (MoCU, 4 Missile Launchers, Tank Hunter)
5 Havocs (MoCU, 4 Lascannons, Tank Hunter)
Defiler, Mutated Hull, Parasitic Possesion, Indirect Fire
Fast Attack
8 Chaos Space Marine Bikes (Mark of Khorne, Chainaxes)
Fortification
Aegis with Quad Gun
With that, here it is!
The gametype involved 3 objectives, so we place one in each of our deployments, and then one in the center.
Pay no heed to the Predator (I setup first), and I went first.
First turn for me involved lots of moving forward! I infiltrated the Chaos Space marines close to the center, where they could avoid LOS and camp the objective in cover. The Berzerkers failed their Frenzied roll, so they just waddled forward.
The Land Raider, like a champ, rolls double ones for its Dangerous Terrain rolls. Of course it does! Luckily, Parasitic possession kicks in later and fixes it! Yay! I rolled for my objectives and the Havocs in the three story building rolled the one where anyone wishing to charge them halved their distance, while the CSM squad in the center rolled skyfire.
Shooting for me was murderous. I stunned the Redeemer, and blasted three Rhinos and a Speeder. His retaliation wouldn't come this turn, as his turn consisted of moving forward as well, his shots plinking off my demon princes (2+ armor save is rad!). Bray came down in his drop pod, right in front the Zerks. Great! Knowing my luck, they'd become frenzied next turn and go in on him and the pod. He tried to melta my Dread, though it shrugged it off and was promptly charged by the bikes.
Turn Two was very similar to the first. The Berzerkers rolled a 1 for the frenzy, so they rushed to be as close to Bray and the pod as possible. The Slaanesh lord went for a tactical squad, while the Khorne lord hit another. The Tzeentch lord wrecked the land raider redeemer, and combined fire couldn't bring down Bray (who is immune to melta weapons), but I did break a pod. The Zerks charged Bray and did about as much as you'd expect. The bik\\es hit a squad and chewed through most of it, though they stayed. None of his birds came in, though all of his terminators did and his big command squad with characters came down near the land raider.
Things looked rough for him until the terminators came down, though the one on the on the right side of the board went way off course and would take another turn before they could pose a threat to my poor, poor Berzerkers. Bray killed a few more those Zerks, and my bikers finished off his squad in the middle, consolidating towards the remaining force.
Turn three saw Abaddon and company get out of the land raider and kill the bikes remaining, where the Slaaneshi demon prince had turned back to deal with Bray (this prince ignores all saves, and so to make things more interesting, I deliberately kept him away from Assault terminators). My Tzeentch terminators came down, near the center. The Khorne Lord hit the terminators nearest him and commenced an epic slap battle with the sergeant that would last until turn five. The Nurgle Prince to the left side of the field was engaged nearest terminators, and killed a few of them in the initial round while the Slaaneshi prince killed Bray.
More of his units came down, and things proceeded to get hairier for me. Vulkan and his blob of characters crashed down next to Abaddon and the Land Raider and all of the Storm Ravens came in, bearing down on my units. They made quick work of the Land Raider, though it took more firepower than I think he would have liked. His large command unit blasted away at Abaddon, killing all four of his bodyguards. Utilizing his orbital bombardment, he fired at my Rubric Terminators in the center, though much to his dismay they shrugged it off, passing 6 of the 9 saves he caused me to take.
My turn four had Abaddon charge the command unit, though they were in most 2+, so his claw didn't do much in the ensuing round of combat though his sword killed one of the unnamed models, while the Tzeentch Prince had broken through his lines and went for the Predator with the Rubric Terminators moving to snag an objective he was holding. True to form, the Berzerkers on the right went after his Terminators, having dealt with Bray seeking to deal some damage. It was at this point that we decided to use the 6th edition rules for chainaxes, since my unit would have swept through his unit in a single round of combat. Instead, it took another few but the Zerks carved through the their opponents with only a few to spare. My havoc squads fired on one of his Ravens and managed to bring his total down to two.
His HQ that had been in the backfield went after the Tzeentch prince, tying him up and eventually killing him in two rounds, before making his way to the Rubric Terminators where he would meet his end at the fist of the Sorcerer in the final turn. Come turn four he finally had enough firepower to deal with my princes, which fell in short order over the next two turns, with the Nurgle prince dying first to his Terminators, while a nearby Raven killed my dreadnaught. Abaddon went on killing a model or two a turn, and proved to be a tough nut to crack though he was still engaged in combat by game's end.
By the bottom of turn five, he had wrecked my Defiler and had put a serious dent in both of my scoring units in the center of the field, and with only a handful of models between them holding the objective was a dubious proposition at best and by the end of turn six he managed to remove enough models that I was close enough to the objective that it was too close to call, so we decided they were just outside holding it. Unfortunately, he still held his as none of my units nearby were able to climb multi-leveled terrain, so it ended in a Tie, with both of us having Linebreaker and neither of us taking each other's warlords. First blood went to me, but it was close enough that a draw was fine by me anyways.
In terms of how the game was played, it was quite enjoyable for us. Demon princes can be crazy tough (a 2+ is MASSIVE on them), but old school princes only were WS6 with three attacks, something that limited their killing power and helped balance them out. Tank hunter on demand is a bit too powerful (though a chapter in IA9 gets it as a chapter tactics) but overall even with no flyers on my end, this book has shown that it hasn't really lost its luster and performed admirably despite being 3 editions removed.
All in all, a fun little experiment, and the most fun I've had playing chaos in awhile!
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