Chapter 3

We had previously decided that Mission 4 would be The Ritual - I had the Inquisitor in my possession and the Imperial dogs had discovered the location of the ritual site, all I had to do was hold out until the final turn to complete the unclean summoning... Because my role this mission was to hold ground I decided on the Sentinel and Deploy Vox Relays agendas as the bulk of my force were not likely to move very far from the objective. I also opted to spend 1 requisition point on increasing my Supply Limit to 65 which meant I could bring additional support in the form of 20 Plagurebearers. This reinforcement choice was temporary as the unit would be summoned and no unit card was needed, I just felt a tarpit unit of stinking fleshy daemons would be a good way of slowing the enemy's advance. My warlord Typus had to be setup within the Ritual Site so I chose to surround him with his loyal Blightlord Terminators as a heavily armoured and resilient meat shield. In similar fashion to each of the other games, my Helbrute was placed on the back line to give him a good line of sight to the centre of the board, Bubonis and the Flail armed Plague Marine squad held a fortified trench on the left flank and the Plasma Gun Plague Marines and Lord of Nurgle overlooked the right flank from an elevated position.

On turn one the Custodes moved everything they had forward as quickly as they could, Jonny brought an Assassin to the party this time around who immediately reduced Typhus's wounds by 2. The grav tank moved into an advantageous position on my left flank in front of the trench line Bubonis and his flail marines held and put absolutely all of its fire power into my Blightlords destroying all 5 in one go with only a little help from a squad of Vexilus Praetors. I thought the game lost at this point, losing my warlord's only real support in the middle of the table and a full 20% of my entire force in one round of shooting was difficult to watch and meant the rest of the game would be a real struggle. The jet bikes on my right flank pushed quickly towards my Plasma Gun Marines but scored no wounds whilst the second squad of Vexilus Praetors moved in the same direction attempting to draw line of sight to Typhus. Feeling defeated moving into my first turn I needed some luck... what I got was some daemonic assistance. My chaos lord sat in the ruins on my right flank summoned the Plaguebearers who ripped through the warp and manifested in front of the structure and directly in front of the advancing jetbikes. Typhus used the warp rites psychic action to earn 10 victory points and begin the ritual, healing his wounds in the process due to his Putrid Periapt. The Plasma marines remained still and did not shoot as they initiated the Sentinel agenda whilst the Flail marines moved out of the safety of their trench to get into firing range of the Assassin who exploded under a hail of bolter and blight launcher shells. My Helbrute fired all its weapons twice, however failed to hit the grav tank as the majority of its bulk was hidden from view.

In turn 2 things seemed to be getting worse for Typhus, as the jet bikes turned sharply away from the arriving damons and rushed towards him, pulling him into close combat, whilst 3 Allarus Custodians in terminator armour teleporting in from the Imperial forward operating base appeared along my table edge with a clear path towards Typhus and the ritual site. The grav tank turned its focus towards my flail marines and scored multiple kills but failed to route them. The Vexilus Praetors and their champion moved down the centre of the table to gain ground and took casualties from the Plague Marines in the ruins. My Lord this time remained station as he initiated the Deploy Vox Relays agenda and the Daemons lumbered forward to draw 3 of the Praetors in to a melee that they would remain in until the final turn.

The remainder of the game was fought predominantly in the immediate area around the ritual site. My flail marines moved back towards Typhus to support him in close combat and destroyed the last of the jet bikes. The Grav Tank pushed forward and destroyed Bubonis in the trench and then turned its guns of the flail marines and destroying what remained of them too. The Plasma armed Plague Marines moved down from the vantage point to get a better view of the objective and destroyed a squad of Praetors while Typhus fell the remaining Allarus Custodian.

In the last turn the grav tank finally brought down Typhus who was teleported back to the Terminus Est before the killing blow could be struck, given the tank 4 unit kills in 1 game. The Plasma Gun Plague Marines retaliated and destroyed the tank with a devastating volley of molten plasma, surprisingly not killing themselves in the process as they have done in every previous game I have played with them. With Typhus gone and the ritual unable to be continued it was a narrative victory for the Custodes as they had rescued the Inquisitor, however Typhus and his Death Guard won on points so the next game will have an interesting narrative twist...

By far the the MVP for this game was Typhus... his resilience, ability to shrug off and regain wounds definitely won me this game. although it was only by 10 victory points a win is a win and will make for such an interesting story game next round. I'll be 100% taking the Plaguebearers in the next game as they did exactly what I wanted them too. Imperial Custodes are beasts in close combat and the daemons held them in place long enough for me to scrape a victory. As my warlord is a named character he does not gain the bonus for winning this mission however my flail Plague Marine squad champion did gain a weapons upgrade for ranking up.