Blue Armour, Green Pus, and Red Rage

   The painful winds swept across the long-abandoned ruins of this lost Imperial world.  The sector containing this planet is buffeted by the warpstorms, attracting all manner of Chaos creatures.  The Daemon-Primarch, Angron, launched a grueling assault against Roboute Guilliman's forces only a continent away.  Now, the daemons themselves emerge from the warp to assail the Ultramarines here.  

  The Ultramarines took up position in the ruins as the skies overhead changed colours like a prism.  Flashes broke the air everywhere and dark, twisted shapes emerged.  As their forms coalesced, it became apparent that Khorne and Nurgle sent their daemonic hordes.  Masses of Bloodletters and Plaguebearers appeared and Fleshhounds and Bloodcrushers streaked into existence, all charging straight towards the loyalists.  

Mission and Deployment

  We drew the "Scorched Earth" mission, which gives us 5 points for each objective marker we control.  In addition (and very fitting to Chaos), we can get more points for 'burning' an objective marker in no-man's land or the opponent's deployment zone.  We then drew the Sweeping Engagement deployment and two rule cards- Hidden Supplies and Targets of Opportunity.  This meant that the battlefield had all six objective markers down, and we are forced to use the entire objective deck.  With setup being diagonal, this almost feels like the most difficult Leviathan mission of all!

  The Ultramarines, being the defenders, chose the Cleanse and Assassinate secondary objectives.  They were going to be facing a ton of daemonic Heralds and Greater Daemons, so this should be easy points.  Meanwhile, the Scorched Earth part of the mission should focus everyone on the objective markers and they might as well capitalize on that.  Plus, it seems to match exactly the mission narrative already!

  The Daemon Legion, being the attackers, chose the Engage on All Fronts and Behind Enemy Lines secondaries.  For an army that could deep strike all over the table and depending on hoardes-to-hold units, this was a no-brainer.  One unit of Flesh Hounds and one unit of Plaguebearers remained in reserve to steal those positions and points later.  

Round 1

  Unfortunately for the loyalists, the daemons' element of surprise and warp-magics worked so that they could get the first turn.  While they had no ranged attacks, they would be able to stage for the oncoming assault and the Ultramarines would lose that crucial extra turn of shooting.  Captain Acheron, in his gravis plate, hoped the Emperor would protect this day.  He declared the Oath of the Moment to be the hulking Bloodthirster just as the mass rolled forward...

  Instantly, the warp-beasts advanced and took more than half of no-man's land, spreading their Shadow of Chaos effect.  After dashing up, the Bloodcrushers saw the snipers hiding in the top floor of some ruins and screamed.  With warp powers, the howls pierced even the legendary Astartes mind-walls and killed two of the three.  Their speed allowed the Daemonic Legions to end their turn with a score of 5-0.  

  The Ultramarines called for the advancing line.  The Heavy Intercessors moved into their ruins to get closer to the objective, only to be ambushed by some Flesh Hounds.  It took the support of their guarding Intercessors to finally wipe the beasts out.  The Impulsor, on the other side of the battlefield, tried to advance around the ruins and were ambushed by the Bloodletters so the Bloodcrushers could continue their advance around the flank of the loyalists.  It was a severe interruption to the strategy, but it wasn't enough as the fusillade of firepower opened up.  The Desolators missed the Bloodthirster, but the Executioner was keyed in and killed him.  His rage destroyed a nearby unit of Bloodletters, and one of the dreadnoughts almost wiped out another.  After the gunsmoke cleared, half the daemon horde was eliminated and the Ultramarines had taken half of no-man's land.  With the Assassination of a Bloodmaster leader and the Bloodthirster himself, the Ultramarines were able to bring the score to 5-13.

End Round 1: 5-13

Round 2

  The battlefield had certainly swung in the Ultramarines' favour, and they declared the Great Unclean One to be the next Oath of the Moment.  Which was keen, because Rottigus (the name of that Greater Daemon) moved up and vomited over the Intercessors in the ruins, killing one, on his way to charging the Captain and his Aggressors.  With a swing of his mace, he dispatched the entire unit just as the Impulsor transport exploded nearby.  The Bloodcrushers had used the force of their charge to slice through the vehicle and killed one of the marines inside.  While the explosion from the Impulsor's demise did a great deal of damage to all the daemons neaby, Khorne was still pleased.  Captain Acheron tried to stand tall against the towering brute backed up by a mass of warp-rage, but wasn't able to cause much damage.  On the other side, the surviving Bloodmaster and Beast of Nurgle charged into the Intercessors to kill a couple, but the beast was slain and the master was severely wounded in the process.  The distraction worked, however, as another unit of Plaguebearers and Flesh Hounds appeared in the backfield to claim the home objective and spread their Shadow of Chaos across the entire battlefield, and earning enough points to flip the score to 22-13.

  The Ultramarines immediately declared the Tactical Doctrine, planning to remove themselves from the melees and give themselves the firepower to eliminate the daemonic threat.  The Intercessors fled from the Bloodmaster, only to get charged immediately and lose another three of their brothers before beating the daemon to death for the last time.  The Dreadnought spearheaded the charge and killed all but two of the Plaguebearers holding the far objective marker.  The Heavy Intercessors and the Desolators tried to shoot down the Flesh Hounds but it finally took a charge from the rocket-boys.  Combined firepower from the other Intercessors and the surviving Infernus marines killed the rest of the Bloodletters on the table, leaving only a single Bloodmaster and the Bloodcrushers to represent the slaughter-god.  Finally, Captain Acheron charged back into the Greater Unclean One after catching his breath and punched through the monster, bring the second Geater Daemon down and crippling the Daemon Legion.  Reclaiming objectives and slaughtering the enemy pushed the score to 22-26.

End Round 2: 22-26

Round 3

  The Ultramarines, clearly in command of the battlefield, declared the Bloodcrushers to be the new Oath of the Moment.  But the powers of Chaos were not cowed and even replenished some of the daemons lost in the lost turn with bright flashes and waves of depression crashing about the loyalists.  The Bloodcrushers, motivated by their successful path of destruction, rammed straight into the Intercessor squad holding the middle, trampling them and claiming the objective marker for themselves.  The Plaguebearers from the center shambled their way to charge the other Intercessors that had just beat down the Khorne-daemons that had been harassing them- this unit seemed to be cursed by the powers of the warp!  The rusty blades of the daemons tore down the marines and left the Lieutenant to continue the fight, where he slew three of the creatures as vengeance.  It seemed that the characters-in-blue were daemonhunters today!  With the stealthy move of the Bloodmaster to the rear and another objective, the Daemon Legion was still claiming almost all the objective markers on the battlefield and racking up the points, bringing the score to 42-26. 

  The Daemons were few and spread out, but the loyalists were set on conquering the battlefield.  The Infernus marines and Captain Acheron moved up to flame the Bloodcrushers and charge the Bloodmaster, losing half the squad and doing nothing as the damonic champion was protected by warp magics.  The Heavy Intercessors charged the Plaguebearers, but again failed to do any damage and lost the Lieutenant as the warp magics retaliated.  The dreadnought finally destroyed the other unit of Plaguebearers and captured the objective, and the other dreadnought added its firepower to the Executioner as they targeted the brutal Bloodcrushers.  With only the champion remaining, the Redemptor dreadnought charged to finish and instead took immense damage back as the daemonic flesh was momentarily invulnerable here too.  The Ultramarines paid a heavy cost to do little, but they took many objectives away and narrowed the score to 42-36.  

Round 4

  The Daemon Legions had very little left on the battlefield and couldn't score objective markers currently, so their focus totally became the slaughter.  The Bloodmaster put all his swings on Captain Agemman, causing some damage before being piled on and finally disappearing.  The dreadnought crushed the Skullmaster claimed the center of the battlefield.  With nothing else, they could only bring the score up to 47-36.

  But the Ultramarines still had to earn enough points- the Executioner fired up the engines and sped to the enemy objective marker, while the rest of the army performed their Cleanse action to purify the battlefield from the taint of chaos and the last daemon died.  The final score- Daemon Legion 47, Ultramarines 72.  And another tabling.  

Conclusion

  This wa a great game!  With the Oath of the Moment change and the sheer amount of options to choose from, I can get a new experience over and over.  I've also not played the Daemons in the new edition and it was very frustrating to see all the trickery that they can pull off.  And when those invulnerable saves can't be failed, it makes a very infuriating exercise for a round (that was our round 3- the daemons rolled so many 5's and 6's and denied so many of the plans!).  We got some great narratives and had a blast, with the Tactical Genius Ultramarines (read "Mary Sues") of the grimdark snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.  

  Captain Acheron slowly stood, the blood clotting on his Gravis plate as he took in the view of the battlefield.  Marine bodies scattered the ground and the survivors had grievous wounds caused by the warp-creatures.  The ruins were now reclaimed for the Emperor and the area could be used for strategic purposes again, but it was with great cost.  The appearance of a Bloodthirster and a Great Unclean One to tower over the fallen buildings and reap through the loyalists certainly affected his force's war-fighting abilities.  The hordes of daemons took their toll, but would not be allowed to despoil this world, as long as the Sons of Guilliman defended it.  

  As the poisonous winds ripped across the broken ground and whistled between the rubble and walls, the victorious forces remustered.  The sergeant of the Heavy Intercessor squad was the first to note that the Lord Commander had already faced Angron and now they just fought against daemons.  This may not be the end of it, and even worse creatures may yet arrive.  Acheron had a flash of fear, uncharacteristic in the Astartes, that another daemon-primarch may make their presence known.  But these were not worries for now, as they now had to report and continue to secure the area.  

Happy Gaming!