For this game, the rules from Chapter Approved, that deals with the Empyrean battlefield effects, would be used.
Now for myself, I went for a highly experimental list. No Heavy Slots included, this must have been something from the stone age for myself. Not knowing what army Nemesis would bring, I suspected he would bring along his Iron Warriors with their 3 Rapiers. To that end, I wanted to deep strike in the Sorcerer, Terminators and Raptors, and take those out ASAP, or at least their crews so their effectiveness is severly reduced. The sorcerer also got Death Hex with him, just in case some enemy lords happened to be nearby...
On the other side, my "obligatory" choice of Lucius had to leg it over the table, joined by the Possessed. Cultists led by a Dark Apostle would make up the bulletshield to hopefully accomodate for this...
Ace up the hole is a unit of 10 daemonettes, whom will be summoned by either the sorcerer in turn 2 to cause more havoc, or the Apostle if to many cultists fall to swiftly...
I only realised when pacing up the force I'm rather miffled in the ability to take out enemy armour at range... that might prove to be an issue.
Nemesis brought along a total suprise however as he had dusted of his World Eaters troops. two units of Cultists, two units of Berserkers, a n Exalted Champion, a Daemon Prince and two Helbrutes awaited me... this is gonna hurt without decent anti armour firepower in my force...
And so the deployment is ready, with half my force still in orbit or in the warp, and the long march to the other side can begin...
We played a Tactical Escalation, and while during the course of the battle the Empyrean rules played heavily in my favour, the objective cards did not.
Nemesis grabbed the first turn, and the red tide prepared to come my way and slaughter everything with chainaxe and chainsword...
My first turn saw a Warp Tunnel transport the Possessed to the back of his line, while the Sorcerer and Terminators joined them. Firing blew one of his cultists units of an objective and destroyed a Helbrute, while a psychic attack had the deamon prince reduced to 4 wounds. Not to shabby a start at all, and I grabbed 2 victory points after this first round.
The World Eaters turned their line and moved towards the pink obstacle at their back. Massed fire put down a Terminator, but the following assault was devastating, as the Khornite troops wiped out the unit even before they could strike with the Legion rule. Huzzah for a crappy saving throw series. The score went to 1 - 2 for the Emperor's Children as I would take my second turn.
The Possessed, leaving the sorcerer alone, rushed to grab objective 5 for more victory points. Having seen the Khorne melee skills, the goal would be to score as many points as possible and hold out for the battle.
The Raptors to that end landed on another objective, so I scored d3 points this turn for holding 3 objectives, a roll that came up as 2 points, for a 1 - 4 lead.
The Khorne force, who nicely granted my psyker armour saves re-rolls with the Empyrean roll, charged in again, now on the Possessed as well as the Sorcerer. While the Possessed where wiped out, not having a single chance to strike like the Terminators before them, the Sorcerer miraculiously held out... and only a single point went to Khorne for a 2 - 4 result.
My third turn, and I was running thin on punching models, as the only notable feat was my daemonettes charging and slaying a unit of cultists, granting me some more points and pulling away to 2 - 6 ... but I was in trouble, and I knew it. It would be hard to keep this up for 2 more rounds minimum and avoid being tabled.
Nemesis then got an objective combo that would grant him 4 points minimum if he could control the objective where the daemonettes stood. A charge later with Berserkers and Prince, and it was all his unfortunatly... The Helbrute in the meantime had charged and wiped out the raptors for no damage himself, my saving throws remaining of the abysmall kind tonight. But the World Eaters now took a solid 8 - 6 lead and I had honestly no idea how to get over him again.
It was the Nemesis final turn, and the daemon prince and helbrute closed on the lone cultist unit at the side. They where no match, and after being wiped out, he grabbed another point and went to 9 - 7, which due to one of his cards was virtually 10 - 7. The battle was lost as I went in my final turn.
I decided to screw it, and throw everything forward for cinematic effect, including Lucius to duel his Daemon. And once again, for the second battle in a row, the Eternal failed to wound with any attacks. Though he did bounce back some wounds from the retaliattory strike, Lucius went down against the Khornite daemon, and the battle ended in a sounding 11 - 7 defeat for the Emperor's Children.
It was a hard fought battle, but after some abysmall savings with the Terminators, the game was virtually lost as I had hoped to distract his entire force for a turn longer, or at least be allowed to hit something with them... oh well, I tried some things out, didn`t like a lot of them, and will stack up on ranged troops again in the future as I`m used to do normally...
In the meantime
Noshi is learning 40k. She is also hellbent on whoopying my ass across the tabletop...
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