BR: 8750 point escalaion game 4

__________PROLOGUE__________

The smell was palpable. The stench of burning flesh assaulted his nostrals. Inquisitor Lord Haeron never liked the smell as it usually meant failure of the faithful. He had investigated his fair share of battle grounds in his day, but never anything like this.

Bodies upon bodies stacked as tall as a two story building in the eye of a crater nearly half a mile long. From what he could make out it seemed several forces had fought over that location to the death. Looking through his auspex scanner he could make out symbols and markings of at least seven different forces. among the crystalized remains were hints of imperial and astrates forces as well as those of various xeno and chaos factions.

There was no possible way to inspect the bodies in the central mass without risking contamination. He had sent scouting vhicles to traverse the ravine, but all attempts to get close to the carnage failed. Once the victims got close enough their heads exploding in a violent cloud of red mist. The flesh and blood of the fallen scouts crystalized instantly and fell slowly into the deep chasm below. Whatever was out there would not be recovered by conventional means. The hair on his arms rose as he could feel the slight surge of arcane energies spewing from the warp.

He clicked on his comm link underneath his collar.

"This is Haeron to Emperor's Light, do you read?"
"Yes Lord Inquisitor, we are standing by"
"We return shortly. Stand by to execute Exterminatus. ETA 10 minutes."
He did not wait for a reply before cutting the comm link. Next to him, the Grey Knight Sargent Kevalis, looking in his direction. The Space Marine understood all too well what had transpired here. He nodded in silent agreement.
"This planet is lost to the taint of Chaos" the inquisitor said "We shall send the faithful to be at the Emperor's side. This incident must never be spoken of."
"Indeed, my Lord" The Grey Knight replied.

__________Last Man Standing__________

8750 points
1275 each
7 armies
To the Death

Game 4 of our Escalation Campaign had a unique twist. We decided to play a seven way death-match. We added in our friend's Raven Guard since this isn't a point based game.

Rules:
Each player's turn rolled a D6 to determine which opponent they could attack. Clockwise 1 being his left and 6 being his right. He can then only shoot and assault that enemy. Any Assaults in progress involving his units are played as normal.

At the end of each turn the board drops off 5 inches from the deployment zone. Anything touching this is removed from the board. Units locked in melee continue normally despite the loss in numbers.

All of the HQs in the game are placed in the center. Their normal benefits apply, but they can neither attack or be attacked. Once a member of their army is in range of them (2 inches) they can be pulled out of the safe zone and into combat.

The entire army must remain in unit cohesion until the HQ is retrieved. Once that happens they act normally (as leadership has been restored).

A look at how the deployment was set up.

7 armies but only one would survive.

Here is half way through turn one. The IG took down a Raven Guard Rhino as the other forces moved towards their leaders.

The Blood Angels make their move. Roll a 6 they get the Nurgle Daemons as their target They manage to drop a Daemon prince and some Plague Bearers, but not before the Daemons take a few kills with them.

The Tally of Pestilence moves to 5, allowing Bearers to wound on a 3+

The beginning of turn two (about 1 1/2 hours later) lol. The Orks took out the Necron Destroyers. Things star getting cramped as more forces move towards the middle.

The Imperial Guard roll Daemons (WTF!) and drop some ordinance in their direction. Nurgle giggles as his followers avoid taking damage.

The Black Legion get the IG as their target. The evil commanders enter the battlefield and
do some damage destroying a Valkyrie, Heavy Weapons team, and some of the commander's retinue.

Now the Raven Guard react. Guess what, they roll a 1 and get Daemons (WTF!!) The Vindicator opens up on the Nurgling causing 4 wounds to the little bastards. In a bold move worthy of their legacy, Shrike leads the charge into assault.

The SternGuard lose two to a squad of plague bearers. Meanwhile Shrike assaults a near death Daemon Prince with his honor guard, but the deamon refuses to fall.

The Tally of Pestilence increases granting all followers of Nurgle Noxious Touch (wound on 2+)

Things get grim as many of the Guardsmen fall to the abyss. The IG get the Necron as their target and open up on the warriors.

Abaddon and his followers get to attack the Raven Guard. He manages to kill most of the marines and disable the main cannon of the Vindicator.

Moving forward a little bit, the Daemons retaliate against the remaining Raven Guard and add to the Tally once again. Amazingly, with one wound since round one, the Daemon prince finishes Shrike and his honor guard.

With nearly 20 deaths to the tally, all the nurgle forces with Feel No Pain roll a +3 making them harder to kill.

As the battle continued on the forces slowly started to diminsh until all that was left were the strongest of each army.

The Raven Guard were the first to fall as the Vindicator finally blew apart. Next came the Necron as Epidemus and his followers faorced the machines to faze out.

The Orks were down to the last Def Dread. The Daemon Prince with the single wound for most of the game finally fell as did the great Unclean one (I forgot he had 5 wounds but he was done I'm sure) leaving Epidemus and most of the Nurglings. The Def Dread charged the last of the nurgle forces. Unable to retaliate against the walking scrap heap Epidemus fell leaving the nurglings to fend for themselves.

Surviving most of the carnage Abaddon and his forces cleaned up what was left of the remaining forces and disappeared into the warp. No one survived to tell the tale of what transpired.

__________EPILOGUE__________

A long battle indeed. It started about 2pm and ended at 9pm, lol. Needless to say we were all done playing for the day, but it was a fun experience. Everyone survived to the very end which is always cool.

The randomness of who you attack and the table dropping made the battle a bit more random. The smaller armies had the advantage in later rounds as they could avoid more casualties from the natural disaster.

Daemon of the Game: would have to be the Daemon Prince that survived the entire game with 1 wound left. The three he took early on were from IG shooting. He managed to take out Shrike, his Honor Guard, a squad of thousand sons and (then some), and most of the remaining Necron warriors. This was mostly due to the Tally of Pestilence strengthening the nurgle forces.

There is one game left in the campaign. It's a 1v1 1500 point game. The last army to face will be the Necron. Commander Kyle surprised me before as I lost to him @ 750. I underestimated the strength of his Necron and it cost me a tie by 5 points! Now it's payback and with the Tally of Pestilence the Nurgle stand a much better chance at victory.