Engaging the new bolter rules...

  Operation Azul (painting my Ultramarines) is still underway, if not a little off course.  I've decided that I want to get four armies painted this year.  Yes.  Four.  That's the Adeptus Custodes, Ultramarines, Chaos Space Marines, and...  well, I haven't decided.  Based on how things turn out, it could be Harlequins or it could be Orks.  But I'll cross that bridge if I'm lucky enough to find it.

  Part of getting these armies done is to write up army lists and actually commit to them.  My Custodes were simple because I own exactly what I need for a 2000 point army list.  My Ultramarines, on the other hand, might be a bit trickier.  But the new bolter rules came out and they made me rethink my Primaris army.  Plus I painted a new Marneus Calgar and figured that I had to use him.

  With the army list and the concept in mind, I challenged my son to a game.  He even set up the battlefield with the Fortress of Redemption being that huge piece of terrain in the middle and blocking line-of-site.  We played a Maelstrom of War mission because we can always blame the cards if we lose (and the randomness can be fun itself).  And it's also part of this little narrative campaign I have going on...

The battlefield.  Notice the Nurgle-y pits out there?  

 So here's the story:
  Having now failed twice to gain any traction in the Imperial territories, the Word Bearers chose to ally with some Death Guard.  The infected had infiltrated the planet's defenses during all the confusion and had gathered enough intelligence to know that that there might be an opportunity through another Fortress.  Allying with some siege-busting equipment and even attracting the attention of Lord Mortarion himself, the forces of Chaos gathered for their new assault.  
  Meanwhile, Lord Calgar had been testing out some ancient tactics and realized the usefulness that the Intercessors in his army could have.  He gathered the demi-company and ordered all bolters to be maxed out.  Reviewing the patterns in recent reports and the weakness in the lines, he immediately dispatched with this force to test the old tactics against the new foe.  Little did he realize just who was coming to the fight...

  We chose 2000 point forces to battle, me using my Ultramarines and playing the Imperial side and my son playing the Chaos side- the Word Bearers with his Death Guard.  We each took a Battalion  and a Spearhead detachment, giving us 9 command points each (3+5+1).  Since I brought Lord Calgar, I got an extra two to add to the Vanguard that I was also running.  This netted me a whopping 12 command points in a monodex army!  I needed that because I had to pay to make this Indomitus stuff happen.

  The Chaos army consisted of a Nurgle Lord, a squad of Death Guard, and three Plagueburst Mortars.  This was backed up with a Word Bearer Lord, a Sorcerer, a blob of Cultists, two squads of Chaos Marines (one decked out to shoot and the other to slash), a unit of autocannon-toting Havocs (which he forgot in the case), and an Annihilator.  All of this was supported by Mortarion himself.  The idea was to destroy everything at range and let Morty do what he does, leaving the troops to 'mop up' or hold objectives.

  The Ultramarines, based on the Primaris thing, consisted of Lord Calgar and a Lieutenant leading three full squads of Intercessors (one with assault bolters).  This was followed by a Captain leading three squads of 5 Hellblasters.  Finally, the Librarian led the Ancient, a unit of boltstorm Aggressors, and two Redemptor Dreadnoughts (one with dakka and one with plasma).  Immediately, there was a command point spent to upgrade Calgar's detachment to Indomitus Crusaders, another to make the Lieutenant the Field Commander, and another two to upgrade the two basic Intercessor squads to Veterans.  I should have upgraded the other unit as well but I didn't think I would have enough points.  This army was just to take advantage of the bolter rule and the Vigilus Crusade special detachments...

  I split the deployment so that the Fortress of Redemption was blocking as little LoS as possible and too the side with the shortest distance to travel with those rapid fire weapons.  He was forced to set up first and he spread out trying to make sure that he had threats everywhere on the table.  To his left flank sat the close-combat elements with the Annihilator as the backup.  Meanwhile, Morty and his marines all piled into the middle of the table with the castle of Mortars and the Lord set up behind.  It actually made me think because I didn't know if I would be able to handle everything and not having the first turn.
  Finally, after much deliberation, I decided to take my chances and set up my entire army on one side to face down the daemon-primarch.  Wanting to take advantage of Calgar's rerolls, I set up in a line with almost everyone in range and an eye on my command points for bolter madness.  Then it came time for the first turn decision.  I prepared my Seize the Initiative die, mostly with some muttered curses and a quick prayer to the Emprah, and waited...

  He gave me first turn.  HE GAVE ME FIRST TURN!!!  Woohoo!

Turn 1

  I didn't do much moving in my turn.  I wanted to remain stationary and use my bolters to their max 30" range.  My objective cards weren't great, but they weren't unkind either.  I used the Librarian to cast Might of Heroes on one of the Dreadnoughts, and then Null Zone.  This gave me that Victory Point.  I moved the assault bolter-armed Intercessors and their accompanying Captain over to the woods and preparation of taking that objective point.  They fired at Morty and put a few wounds on him as he rolled very poorly for saves.  That was my chance- the rest of the army unleashed everything they had into the massive creature.  Some errant rounds clipped down a handful of Chaos Marines, but everything was really aimed there, including some Bolter Storm strategem!  When the smoke cleared, Morty had just a few wounds left but stood nonetheless.  His toughness denied me the No Prisoners objective and First Strike!  Wow...  But I denied him some shooting accuracy when the Lieutenant used his Field Commander ability to enact Strike from the Shadows.  That would result in his force having a -1 to shoot me at their range.  Brutal!

End Ultramarines Turn 1

    My son's turn wasn't any better.  His objective cards weren't really possible and the one he could get was at the end my next turn!  With little else to do, his army simply jumped up to begin pressuring the blue line.  Morty jumped atop the hill, now so weakened that he wasn't very fast, and fired his pistol to incinerate a petulant loyalist.  The marines around him donated their firepower and saw a few more bodies go down, but nothing significant.  The Cultists and Annihilator, eager to get into the fight, abandoned their frenzied brothers and moved around the fortress to engage.  Well-placed lascannon shots did little more than scrape the paint off the thickly-armored Dreadnought.  Even the Plagueburst Mortars were ineffective at doing more than wiping out a couple of Primaris.  With so many targets on the field and not enough firepower to take them down, the Chaos forces scored nothing this round.

End Chaos Turn 1

Score 1-0

Turn 2

  The Ultramarines were confident after surviving what could have been a crucial beating.  But with most of the line intact and a clear understanding of what their bolters could do now, they executed the same tactic as last turn.  The assault-bolter Intercessors moved through the woods, ready to engage whatever targets they could on the way to disrupting the artillery line.  Firing their bolters, they wounded Morty again, but still the monster stood.  Some marines and Hellblasters moved up to get better shots against the primarch, wounding him more but still unable to deliver the killing blow.  Finally, Lord Calgar ordered the Dreadnoughts to finish him off and the hulking war machines obliged.  With plasma and gatling round, the Death Guard's primarch was banished from reality yet again.  Now the Intercessors had less targets and turned their bolters to heretic marines and Cultists.  Immediately, half the enemy body count was destroyed.  Some quick shuffling to claim objectives and that turn saw the Ultramarines earn ALL the objectives!  

End Ultramarines Turn 2

  It was getting very desperate for the Chaos forces now.  Their primarch was gone and half their infantry, both green and red, were destroyed.  The artillery line was still intact, but it hadn't done too much yet.  The frenzied marines moved along the fortress hoping to get some action while still defending their objective but could do little else.  The marines and Cultists continued to move up and put some firepower down, wiping half the assault Intercessors and a few more loyalists besides.  The lascannons from the Annihilator opened up and obliterated the Dreadnought in salvo, while the rest of the artillery line failed to cause any significant damage again.  The Mortars' effectiveness against hordes was definitely underwhelming.  Luckily, we remembered that there was a unit of Havocs that were missing.  They walked on from Reserves and laid down some firepower as well, but ultimately didn't contribute much.  However, destroying the Dreadnought did earn Chaos one of the objective cards.  

End Chaos Turn 2

Score 4-1

Turn 3

  Lord Calgar's luck continued as the objective cards were set up to get max points again.  There was still an enemy psyker to kill and the army was definitely showing the overwhelming firepower that it had.  Plus, I could wipe out units over there, which was perfect for Lightning Strike!  The entire line of Ultramarines now pushed forward, taking the ground that they'd cleared already.  Tons of shots downrange saw both units of marines, the Death Guard and the Word Bearers, destroyed and leaving the characters standing in the open.  The Annihilator was targeted by the remaining Dreadnought and severely crippled.  The most striking moment was when the Cultists were found to be in range of the stationary boltstorm Aggressors- 62 shots with rerolls to hit and 1's to wound?  Wow!!!  Boltstorm Aggressors might actually be the real deal...

End Ultramarines Turn 3

  It was time to actually do something for the forces of Chaos.  They were severely depleted and had no chance to wipe out the cursed boys-in-blue.  But they could still score something.  The objectives card draw was actually decent and resulted in points for the Defend and the joy of wiping out enemy units.  It was on!  The two characters ran as fast as they could to threaten the Ultramarine Captain and the frenzied marines tried to do the same.  The Fortress of Redemption is awfully large when you're trying to run around it!  It was up to the artillery- their fire accounted for the death of multiple squads!  It was glorious to behold as nearly a third of the loyalists were smashed by disgusting bombardment.  The Chaos Lord tried to charge into the Ultramarines Captain, murder in his heart.  The roll was too low.  A command point was used.  The reroll was also too low.  Murder turned to despair as fate had conspired against the Lord.  Even with that, the forces of Chaos were able to score three points themselves, bringing the battle much closer...

End Chaos Turn 3

Score 6-4

Turn 4

  The Ultramarines could taste victory now, their strategy and deployment having worked perfectly (founded on a very poor tactical decision of the enemy, but we'll take it!).  The entire blue battle line moved forward again to begin to bring their bolters into range of the artillery.  The Captain simply shot down the errant Chaos Lord and moved to engage the Sorcerer.  Intercessor shooting had taken care of that.  To add insult to injury, the line moved away from the edge of the fortress, putting even more space between them and the threat of the frenzied Chaos Marines.  The field was clearly under the control of Lord Calgar.  Another good draw saw the loyalists earn four more points.  

End Ultramarines Turn 4

  Minus a great draw in the cards, including the magical "You Win!" card that has been rumored to pop up in decks, there was little hope for the forces of Chaos.  The cards fell that they could only potentially earn a couple points.  With that, the frenzy wore off the remaining Chaos Marines and they chose to abandon the battlefield with the artillery detachment.  That battle was over.  

End Chaos Turn 4

Final Score 10-6

Well, that was a fun battle!  For the Ultramarines, anyway.  The poor forces of Chaos should have never given up the first turn.  That being said, we saw that the first turn wasn't very strong anyway, so how much of a difference would it have really made?

  The real lesson here is the strength of the new bolter rules in conjunction with the specialist detachment.  Wow!  A big squad of Intercessors putting out 40 str 4, AP 1 shots with reroll to hit and 1's to wound... that can cause quite a bit of damage!  Strangely enough, even more damage was put out by boltstorm Aggressors.  I didn't realize that they could have that many shots when they don't move and all those rerolls really help there too.  All in all, I think that Ultramarines definitely have ways to bring the str 4 pain.

  With that, let me know if you've had any games like this lately.  Happy Gaming!