Batrep: Chaos Marines vs Chaos Marines, 1750 pts

I decided it was time for a change of pace today. After something like 5 or 6 games in a row, fielding nothing but Deathwing, I felt the urge to put a real army on the table - something with some bite and mindless bloody violence... CHAOS!

After getting my Helldrake a few months back, I pieced together a Chaos Marine list which I felt was pretty solid and suitably balanced. The thing was, it never saw action, seeing as I was distracted by any number of other things, like my Necrons, Deathwing, a little Warmachine (alas, Warpspace, I'll miss you...) and of course, experiments with my good old Blood Angels. So, I decided today was a good day for the Black Legion and the Spikey Bikey Lord to go forth... As it turned out, I wasn't the only to think so - the first four 40k gamers who walked into the happy FLGS ALL brought Chaos Marine armies! All is not well in the Eye of Terror...

My List:
Chaos Lord on bike, with Mark of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Axe of Blind Fury, Gift of Mutation (Shred)
10 Chaos Marines with 2 plasmaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
10 Chaos Marines with 2 meltaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
10 Chaos Marines with 2 meltaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
7 Bikers with Mark of Khorne, 2 meltaguns, Icon of Wrath and a lightning claw for the champion
Helldrake with Baleflamer
Forgefiend with 2 Hades Autocannons
5 Havocs with 4 Autocannons
Vindicator with Siege Shield

Note that the Lord, all the Chaos Marines and the Bikers have Veterans of the Long War. This is a nice, straightforward and aggressive list, designed to surge forward en masse and force the opponent into some tough target priority decisions.

David's World Eaters:
Kharn the Betrayer
5 Chosen with 4 meltaguns, combimelta for the champion, in a Rhino with Dirge Caster and Dozer Blade
5 Chosen with 4 meltaguns, combimelta for the champion, in a Rhino with Dirge Caster and Dozer Blade
8 Khorne Berzerkers with Veterans of the Long War and Gift of Mutation for the champion (+1 BS)
8 Khorne Berzerkers with Veterans of the Long War and Gift of Mutation for the champion (+1 W)
8 Khorne Berzerkers with Veterans of the Long War and Gift of Mutation for the champion (+1 BS, 2+ Armour)
Helldrake with Baleflamer
Chaos Predator with twin-linked lascannon and lascannon sponsons
Chaos Predator with twin-linked lascannon and lascannon sponsons
3 Obliterators with Mark of Khorne and Veterans of the Long War

It was only on seeing this army deployed on the table that I noticed a glaring oddity - 3 squads of Berzerkers, walking with Kharne... and NOTHING to help them cross No Man's Land? 6th edition has put a lot of small arms on the table... is 24 power-armoured bodies enough to get across the board and put a chainblade where it hurts?

Mission: The Scouring
Deployment: Dawn of War. I won the roll off and deployed first. Night Fighting was not active on the first turn.

Objectives clustered to one side, just how I like them. Well, in the rare event that I actually could be bothered to seize objectives, at any rate. It's been a while since I'd taken to the field with the Black Legion, but I figured with the units I had, the strategy was simple enough. The Rhinos and Bikes surge forward at full speed, under the cover of supporting fire from the Forgefiend, Havocs and Vindicator. The saturation of targets would ensure either Bikes or the Chaos Marines would get in close enough to bring some hurt, either with bolter or blades. When the Helldrake arrives, it would soften targets up some more so the boots on the ground can deal finishing blows.

Against the World Eaters, I would have to check my advance somewhat, and make sure the engagement is decided by guns, rather than up close.

Turn 1
Black Legion: The whole army surged forward. The bikes turbo boosted up the right flank. The Vindicator fired on the nearest Berzerkers, killing one, thanks to cover. The Havocs immobilized the leftmost Chosen Rhino. On the left, the Forgefiend faced down the Predators, unleashing a vicious salvo into one which wrecked it outright. First blood to the Black Legion!

World Eaters: The Berzerkers moved up, trying to keep to cover. The other squad of Chosen burst through the forest in their Rhino. Meanwhile, the surviving Predator crunched over the wreckage of its partner and blasted the Forgefiend to kingdom come in one shot of its twin-linked lascannon. Eyebrows were raised.

Turn 2
BL: The Helldrake failed to arrive. The Rhinos moved up, castling on the big grubby hill on the right, while the Vindicator peeked from behind and nuked 3 Berzerkers from the nearby squad on the left. The Bikers surged forward, engaging the closest squad of Berzerkers and wiping them out.

WE: The Helldrake arrived, killing 2 luckless bikers in a vector strike, then another with its Baleflamer. The Chosen from the immobilized Rhino disembarked, vaporizing another 2 bikers with their meltaguns. The Predator tried to blast one of the Rhinos on the hill, but was thwarted by cover and only shot off its combi-bolter. The other squad of Chosen moved up, disembarked and nuked the nearest Rhino, killing 3 of the Chaos Marines inside in the explosion. A salvo of bolt pistol fire from a rapidly approaching squad of Berzerkers killed another killed (I rolled three 1's for the armour saves!). The Berzerkers then charged, and you know what? One of the surviving Chaos Marines blew himself up with his own plasma gun in the process... The charge failed, by the way, so the beleaguered squad survived to shoot another round...

Turn 3
BL: Again, the Helldrake disappointed me and failed to arrive. The Rhinos moved up once more, as did the Bikers, seeking a glorious charge to cause as much carnage as possible. The Vindicator's cannon roared again, blasting apart 3 Chosen and immobilizing their Rhino. The remnant of the Chaos Marines in the crater took down another, and the last was slain by a melta blast from the fire point of a nearby Rhino. The Bikers charged into the remaining squad of Chosen, but the Biker Champion stupidly ran into a tree. The Spikey Bikey Lord easily slew the Chosen Champion, and no other wounds were dealt.

WE: The great red Helldrake swooped over the Vindicator, scoring 3 penetrating hits with its talons and wrecking it. It then put the plasmagun-bearing squad of Chaos Marines out of their misery with a quick blast of Baleflamer death.The Obliterators arrived a little to the right of my Rhinos, blowing one up with Lascannons. The Predator tried, but failed to do any damage to the last remaining Rhino. Kharne's squad moved up, then tried, but failed to charge the Chaos Marines who had just lost their ride, losing one Berzerker to overwatch fire. The other squad of Berzerkers joined the fray against the lone remaining Biker and my Spikey Bikey Lord. The Skull Champion, of course, fell to SBL's big nasty axe. The Biker was buried in an avalanche of chainblades, and the melee continued.

Turn 4
BL: At long last, my Helldrake arrived, smacking a hull point off the enemy flyer as it few past. It then went on to incinerate 6 of the Berzerkers accompanying Kharne, including the Skull Champion. The Chaos Marines clambered out of the debris-strewn crater of what was once their Rhino and grabbed the nearby objective, which granted Skyfire. 2 melta beams lanced up to the enemy Helldrake, one failed to penetrate, the other struck true, obliterating the daemon engine. The squad of Chaos Marines in the last remaining Rhino fired its meltaguns at the Obliterators, instantly killing one. The Biker Lord then shredded all the hapless fools who continued to engage him in close combat, receiving the boon of Shrouding.

WE: David really didn't have much left on the table now. The Obliterators and Predator all fired on the Spikey Bikey Lord, killing him. Kharn and friends moved a little closer to the nearest squad of Chaos Marines, and again failed a charge.

Turn 5
BL: Somewhere around this point, I remembered I actually still had a squad of Havocs in play and made a mental note to actually shoot something with them. The Helldrake swooped over Kharne's squad, tearing apart the last 2 Berzerkers in a vector strike and wounding Kharne. The Havocs finally put their autocannon to some use, pummeling Kharne into the ground with a hail of high-caliber death and maiming. At this point, with 3 models left on the table, none of which were scoring units, David conceded.

Afterthoughts:
Well, that was a blast! David had some pretty good luck with his gifts of mutation, and when the battle got started, the dice really swung in silly extremes. First, the Forgefiend kills a Predator in one salvo. Then, the other Predator kills the Forgefiend in one shot. Then, 3(!) mysterious objectives are revealed to grant Skyfire. Then, the absurdly unlucky squad of Chaos Marines lost 3 members to their transport exploding, 3 to bolt pistols and another to plasmagun overheating! An interesting battle, though once again, I brought a Daemon Prince model for nothing...

So, would I change anything? List-wise, no. I like this list a lot. It's wonderfully versatile and reasonably fluffy. Tactic-wise, just one thing: I really have to remember I have Havocs in my list. 4 Autocannons of dakka is nothing to sneeze at - and I'd let them go to waste for 2 turns! Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Anyway, that's it from me. Happy wargaming, all...