T3PO (Tony) and I played our first game of 5th Edition today; the rule changes were okay and no bog problem.  The new Chaos codex really made it lame though, my Death Guard had nothing to them and were pretty much paper tigers now.  I try to field a proper fluff army but they have just really lost the flavor.

We played a 1500 point annihilation/pitched battle type scenario.  T had unpainted (bad form old bean!) Chaos Undivided while I had of course had quasi- Death Guard.  Neither side fielded generic demons.

Undivided had a Lord, Terminators, 2x 10 man CM squads, 1x 20 man CM squad, 2x 5 man Havoc squads, and a Defiler.

Nurgle forces had a Demon Prince, 5x 5 man Plague Marine squads, 3x Chaos Beast, 1x 6 man Havoc squad with Nurgle icon, and a Defiler.  My squads were 7 man but this was a 1850 point list I cut down at the moment for this game.

Undivided set-up first and went first also.  The water was considered dangerous terrain to all but the walkers (difficult terrain).


My Defiler getting a little love from the hill.  His CDROM base actually makes him sit up a bit higher then he should be here.


My slow and purposeful Beats slunk forward, then fleeted a few extra inches before launching a 12" assault (even over difficult terrain).  They already suffered a battle cannon shot so they were wounded and only killed a few CSM's before being cut down.

These guys really lack punch, the IA Giant Beast is far superior in assault, but these codex beasts are faster.

The Undivided battle cannon was reigning death upon the Death Guard; feel no pain was useless against it.  Plus every shot he took was a dead on hit!

You can see my forces moving forward to secure the bridges as my DP makes the wrong choice to walk to the flank via bridges.

Plague Marines with a couple of flamers hunker down behind cover on the bridge and roast some CSM's.

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Undivided brought more dakka to the game and took up firing positions forcing the foot slogging Death Guard to try to cross over the bridge of death.  Undivided's shooting was pretty much on target today also, not good for Nurgle!


Nurgle Havocs shooting from the rooftop with dual missile launchers and dual auto-cannons.  First game for these guys ever!  They hung around and did pretty good in general.


My DP really should have just thrown caution to the wind and crossed the river and risked the dangerous terrain roll.  By the time he actually made it into charge range, he succumbed to a hail of fire.  he never did anything in the game.  The Undivided Lord never did anything either and caught a battle cannon round to his noggin' before expiring.


CSM's assault the bridge and take down the sole Champion:


Towards the end, the Nurgle forces were pretty sparse.  Just the Defiler, 3 Havocs, and a sole meltagun left.  Fighting until the end though!

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These two stood off at the river exchanging shots back and forth a few turns but neither ever went down.  The Undivided Terminator is a proxy and actually has a Reaper Cannon.


Both Defilers actually made it through the game.  The CSM Defiler did suffer the loss of the battle cannon (way too late in the game).  His bizarre head is actually some sort of petrified seed/nut.  Strange...  AP rolls against this Defiler really were annoying today; I penetrated it several times but effect rolls were worthless, save the one weapon destroyed result.


"I spy through my little eye..."


Undivided carried the day and finished up a 10 man CSM squad under 50% (one model left), a 10 man CSM squad at full strength, Terminators under 50% (one model left), one Havoc squad right at 50% with 3  heavy bolters remaining, and their Defiler with destroyed cannon.

I still don't like the fluff-less new Chaos codex, as I said before: The flavor has been removed.  Any further 40K5 games I would probably play under Armageddon rules and take the demon codex as allies.  We just play friendly games anyway so that is not a problem.

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