The Fang and the Pox (1000 points)

Haydn had returned with a Space Wolf army. The idea of being a noble frost-bearded viking had clearly gnawed at the edges of his mind like a strong set of timber wolf jaws chewing on a skull. Space Wolves are awesome indeed and they are by far my favourite army in the Imperium.

Lechetern has deemed the Sons of Russ far too healthy for his liking and has ordered they be wracked with bile and plague sword.

Right: One group of Plaguebearers gets comfortable around my objective. Left: One group of Grey Hunters (I think they were used as such) gets comfortable around Haydn’s objective.

Left: The Long Fangs make themselves comfortable atop a tall ruined building. Right: The Wolf Lord and his Wolf Guard, tough enough to sharpen their fangs with a belt grinder without flinching, advance to slay Nurgle’s foul creations.

The combined firepower of the Space Wolves was dropping these Plaguebearers like flies while Lechetern failed to cast Iron Arm on account of indigestion.

The Space Wolves can barely repress their patience as they howl and gnash their teeth, preparing to fight for the glory and hairiness of Russ.

The Long Fangs and Grey Hunters, while successful in slaying several Plaguebearers, had a tough time dealing with the Plague Drones and the Great Unclean One.

Left: “Why must we wait while those bloody maggots are floating and ambling around!?” Right: The Plague Drones took a fair bit of heat but were undeterred.

Left: The Wolf Guard had beaten the Beasts of Nurgle to a disgusting slop, only losing 1 model in return. Right: The Plaguebearers backed up the beasts and brought down another Wolf Guard but were beaten, vanishing into the warp leaving naught but clouds of flies where they once stood.

Left: I need to stop charging the Plague Drones by themselves... They did ok (especially when they lost and I rolled a double 1, meaning all wounds lost in this round were regained) but I need to learn to combine my arms better.

Right: Lechetern devoured the remaining two Wolf Guard and his duel with the Wolf Lord was intense. On one hand the Wolf Lord had a 3+ invulnerable save and on the other hand Lechetern had Iron Arm. On two or three occasions he was Toughness 10, meaning the Wolf Lord’s thunder hammer could only wound him on 6’s! If he were to be gifted with Feel No Pain (4+) and a rerollable Invulnerable save that would have been cruel.

In one round of combat Lechetern lost and rolled a double 6 for his Daemonic Instability test! But he had the Immortal Commander Warlord Trait so he was able to reroll it. Weeding Papa Nurgle's garden would have to wait.

Left: The Plaguebearers on the defence had taken a pounding from the Long Fangs but their awesome cover saves saved their loathsome hides and only one or two of them died.

Right: Both wolf and ugly beast had been brought down to 1 wound. Lechetern snatched the Wolf Lord in his jaws and flung him across the field as any playful monster would do (in other words the Wolf Lord failed a break test).

This would have been very stupid of him to do if it were not done at the end of Haydn’s turn. Instead the Great Unclean One chased his errant playmate and battle was rejoined.

Which of the opposing lords had the strongest breath? I cannot say...

Left: The proud Wolf Lord fell to Lechetern’s relentless attacks but he was quickly avenged by the Grey Hunters that came to his aid. However, no wolf was eager to literally sink his teeth into the foul beast. Right: The Grey Hunters were quick to move away from where Lechetern had been banished, as he left behind a noxious and disgusting-smelling cloud.

Or maybe this was why the Grey Hunters were quickly on the move – to assail my Plaguebearers and take their objective. Luck was not on Haydn’s side and not one Plaguebearer died in the assault. The Grey Hunters didn’t have helmets and the Plaguebearers don’t smell pleasant so that could explain why they were narrowly beaten. They broke away and left the Plaguebearers to their incessant chanting and objective holding.

This was a close game, although on the field I only had the defending Plaguebearers left. Haydn had won 5 to 4, having gained First Blood while we both earned Slay The Warlord and held onto our objectives. His Grey Hunters might have fled a bit far off to earn Linebreaker after this last photo, but Haydn had won anyhow. As always, it was great to play one of Haydn’s various armies.

The Dark Harvest Part 2

My Chaos Daemons allied with Haydn's Necrons to take on a pair of Space Marine players. Each player was allocated 1000 points. I chose to only use Nurgle Daemons for this one.

This too was an enjoyable game, though my memory of some details is blurred or non-existent. My head tends to get so pumped with adrenalin during these games that I get disoriented, so that doesn’t help.

The second stage of the story revolved around Lechetern returning from the Warp to strike a bargain with Phaeron Kutlakh. They had discovered two armies of Space Marines playing Laser Tag nearby.

The two macabre lords agreed that Charlene - I mean the Charnel Lord - would harvest the flesh from the power armour of the deceased space marines while Lechetern would claim their souls.

The Space Marines had just finished the first round of their competition and it was time for the barbecue. The Ultramarines pounded the Bronto-Cattelith carcasses, repeatedly flattening them into massive scotch fillet steaks with their Drop Pods, while the Salamanders did the cooking and heating.

As the Ultramarines were about to land their Drop Pods upon the gigantic carcasses once more, they saw the meat was in the process of corruption. Nurgle had spoiled their food and this could not stand!

Not to mention one of the carcasses had morphed into Lechetern himself while Plaguebearers, Beasts of Nurgle and Plague Drones crawled out of the twisted recesses of the others. Yes, things got a bit worse and the Astartes, while angered with the meat spoilers, were thankful there were no bits caught between their teeth.

Lechetern’s host crawls out of the befouled meats while the Necrons begin the harvest (half are in reserve).

The Salamanders are very angry at the gatecrashers who had put a damper on their day off. The Ultramarines are soon to descend from the skies.

Left: That Dreadnought looks too pristine. Its lack of filth disturbs me.

Right: The drop pods are descending in earnest.

Left: A bit of a coordination error, or was the drop pod descent aimed to crush the Vindicator? Or maybe it’s a big esky full of Coca Cola the crew ordered. But seriously, our resident Drop Pod man has the worst luck. We believe a black cat ran through an entire house of mirrors at the same time and place of his birth. Poor fella. He handles it very well.

Right: The Immortals lived up to their... um... I forgot. But they didn’t die.

Left: A Salamanders tactical squad takes cover in the ruined basilica with their game faces permanently etched into their helms.

Right: Before you “oooh” and “aaaah” the work of the Ironclad, those Necrons ain’t dead; they were just hastily put in the reserve pile.

Left: The Daemons of Nurgle are eager to corrupt the Salamanders, their appetites whetted. But the poor Herald of Nurgle tripped up and fell onto one of his buddies.

Right: The Ironclad Dreadnought had landed in our lines. Lechetern was quick to greet his new metal playmate.

Vulkan Hestanes hides behind his Dreadnought. Fair enough, that sounds like an accommodating spot.

“Hey Billy, shouldn’t Pest Busters be doing something about this? I know the meat wasn’t perfect, but seriously! Damn!”

“Guys, those things aren’t gonna be any further away from us. Shoot them!”

They actually did shoot at those foul Daemons. It just proved to be a very difficult task...

Left: A tactical squad hangs onto this objective like grim death, which wasn’t far away. Meanwhile the Vindicator is still trying to drive past that blasted Drop Pod.

Right: Lechetern wrestles with the Ironclad Dreadnought named... Leon Maxima?

Left: I barely managed to avoid that Dreadnought. What a problem its power fists could have been for the Drones! The Beasts had broken a tactical squad but the members were quick to rally and add to the downpour of shots into these foul creatures.

Right: The city of drop pods is outgrowing the actual city. If there were any natives left they’d be freaking out...

“Erm... Earl, I think an angry-lookin’ space marine is runnin’ towards us.”

“No angry bugger’s a match for the children of the fly.”

Left: The dwellers below... Riddip!

Right: The Beasts opted for a disordered charge to bog down the marines. This stopped them from firing, but both sides struggled like hell to bring each other down.

Left: The Nightshroud Bomber was in fine form, blowing up the Salamanders Dreadnought and, with help from the Tesseract Ark, destroying many Space Marines. Meanwhile the lone Salamander and the ones guarding the objective opened fire upon the Plaguebearers with some much-needed support from the Vindicator.

Right: Lechetern is sated for a few seconds from swallowing a Librarian in Terminator armour. For supper he tears down one Drop Pod after another with ample assistance from the Necrons.

Left: The Vindicator takes aim, unshaken by the incoming Nightshroud Bomber.

Right: Vulkan is no slouch in combat. With the help of a pair of marines he had beaten back the Plague Drones into the Warp.

Left: I was expecting the Vindicator to obliterate most of this squad but it went way off target. Maybe the crew spilt coke all over the targeting systems. They’re gonna need some Vindex to clean that.

Right: Detaching the Herald from the Plaguebearers was a bit of a mistake. Why did I do it? Because I wanted the Plaguebearers to attack the Dreadnought and not waste the Herald’s Feel No Pain boon as it would have been nullified by the power fists. However, it was blown to pieces by the Nightshroud Bomber. The consequences weren’t too bad though.

Left: This was one hell of a grind, with the Plaguebearers vs Vulkan and a handful of marines.

Right: These devastators did land a few good shots on the Nightshroud Bomber, but their luck didn’t go further than to penetrate its armour once or twice. And by this point, the bomber had vaporised the Vindicator.

After taking little losses from the Vindicator blast, these Plaguebearers had kinda lost their momentum as the marines fought back valiantly, despite the Herald adding a fair bit of punch. I think the marines were eventually worn down, driven off the table or at least pinned in place.

Left: The Nightshroud Bomber and Tesseract Ark had scoured away so many marines...

Right: That Plaguebearer looks like it got charred, charnelle style!

Left: The marines were holding up well against the Beasts of Nurgle. I think the next pool of septic fluids they roll about in needs to be a strong acid that eats through ceramite.

Right: This zone was firmly in Necron hands.

Although it was a victory for the Necrons and Daemons, the Space Marines had performed well considering how barbecue-deprived and hungry they were. Despite their bad luck, they had started to make a comeback towards the end.

One could wonder if Lechetern’s essence had inadvertently blessed the Charnel Lord and his minions because not a single Necron died! Sure, a few were knocked down, but Haydn passed his Reanimation Protocols tests like an illegal programmer.

Lechetern and Phaeron Kutlakh, both pleased with the outcome, divided the spoils as agreed and went their separate ways. The surviving Astartes decreed they would go vegetarian after what they had witnessed.