APOCALYPTIC BATTLES: BOMBARDMENTS

Emperor’s children (slaanesh): turn it up!

When to use: before the enemy’s movement phase. The ship’s of the emperor’s children that are flying over the battle field carrying tons of noise marines let of a defining blast which deafens some of the enemy troops and sends panic through their army. 

Place a large blast marker any where in the enemy army. All models completely covered may not benefit from their army’s HQ’s leadership and are at a -2 to their own leadership, additionally must all take a leadership test that turn and are immune to rules such as: “get back in the fight”. Points: 65

Chaos space marines and orks: “cut ‘n’ burn”

When to use: any time. The men observing the battle from up above in their gun ships and landing craft see a decisive moment in the battle! Their ships fly as to the rescue of their comrades in the heavy fighting, but the pilot’s mission is a very different one! The crew set about tearing their ship to ribbon’s with burnas and chain swords right over the enemy lines. 

Place D3 templates 6” long and 1.5” wide all models partly or completely covered suffer 1 strength 6 hit that counts as flaiming, these attacks ignore cover saves. Points: 12

World eaters (khorne): BEZERK!

When to use: any time. When the men of khorne cut ’n’ burn in becomes contagious and soon their fleet is a smoldering ruin!

You gain D3 extra cut ’n’ burn templates. But no non daemon troops may deep strike and must come on from a board edge. Additionally all drop pods not used yet must come on in your next turn, place a large blast marker to symbolise each drop pod all models completely covered by this template count as being hit by a cut ‘n’ burn template. The models that were in the drop pods are removed as casualties. Points: 35

Thousand sons (tzeentch): flame on!

When to use: before your movement phase. A magic bombardment of fire from the thousand son’s weird ships pelts their army flinging those noble heroes into the enemy lines and setting fire to their weaponry.

All shots and attacks for that turn count as flaiming, furthermore all your HQs have a movement of 10” and can fleet for that turn. Points: 35

Plague marines (nurgle): plague them out!

When to use: in your shoot phase. Plague bombs are dropped onto buildings that quickly mutate and rot.

Place the large blast marker over a chosen area. All terrain covered makes 2 attacks at weapon skill 5, strength 5 and initative 5. All squads touching them are at -1 ballistic skill and -1 weapon skill. At the end of the turn remove the terrain from play. Points: 20

Ice bears (slaanesh): rain of icicles.

When to use: before the enemy’s movement phase. The gunship’s and drop pod carriers of the Ice bear’s chapter are covered in sharp ice. Now and again the crew of the space craft beat the walls of their ships with their weapons.      

1 squad on the board suffers 1 strength 4 hit per member of the squad. These blows ignore cover saves and all members of the squad that carry AP 1 or 2 weapons don’t receive an armour save. Points: 12

Space wolves: earth shaker.  

When to use: when a drop pod lands. The drop pods of the space wolves are heavy constructs that are dropped with force from a great height. They are the pride of the iron priests that they drop sending prayers to the emperor for their safe landing and full force.

All squads within 10” of the drop pod suffer 2 strength 4 hits per member of the squad. Points: 10

Daemons of slaanesh: inspiring flames.

When to use: at the end of your movement phase. Slaanesh sends flames through the sky that form symbols of slaanesh and the chaos icons.

All your daemon troops of slaanesh may move an extra 6” and then fleet. Points: 20

Daemons of khorne: sea of blood.

When to use: at the end of your movement phase. The rocks split and the trees crumble and blood spews from the ground!

All your daemon troops of khorne may move an extra 10”. Points: 20

Daemons of nurgle:

Daemons of tzeentch:

More bombardments for the other factions later in this issue.

Slaanesh subjugator: apocalypse

The subjugator embodies the essence of slaanesh: lithe, swift and deadly. It’s hell slicers can rip apart a foe many times it’s own size, while the psychically-charged tormenter cannon it carries leaves a trail of chared wrecks and ashen corpses wherever it is fired. When the hordes of slaanesh attack, a subjugator will race ahead of the army, galloping towards it’s foe, with it’s long, powerful legs, the daemonic spirits inside chattering and screaming with the sensations the battle brings. These shrieks turn to howls of elation as the tormenter cannons are brought to bear and the foe is destroyed in exquisite agony.

Slaanesh subjugator POINTS: 500

UNIT: 1 slaanesh subjugator.

TYPE: super-heavy walker.

Structure points: 3

WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT:

- Two tormenter cannons

- Two hell slicers

- Twin linked blastmaster

- Subjugator doom siren

Weapons	Range	Strength	AP	Special
Tormenter cannon	48”	8	3	Heavy1, 5”blast, pinning, primary weapon
Blastmaster varied frequency	36”	5	4	Assault 2, 5” pinning
BlastmasterSingle frequencey	48”	8	3	Heavy 1, blast pinning
Subjugator doom siren	Hellstorm	5	3	Assault 1

ARMOUR

Ws	Bs	S	Front	Side	Rear	I	A
4	3	10	12	12	10	2	5

Special rules:

Possessed: a subjugator ignores gun crew shaken and driver stunned results.

Hell slicer battle claws: the subjugator is armed with two hell slicers, which count as primary weapons, even though they are not big enough to count as titan close combat weapons. A subjugator loses two of it’s attacks for each claw it cannot use in an assault.

Agile: in the shooting phase the subjugator can choose to:

-fire all available weapons as normal

-or fire a single primary weapon and move an extra D6” (as per the fleet of foot rule)

-or fire no weapons other than it’s doom siren and move an extra 2D6” (as per the fleet of foot rule)

It is 13“high, 3“wide, it’s arms are 6“long, it’s legs are 3” apart and each 1” wide.

Find a picture at: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1181266_Chaos_Space_Marines_Datasheet_-_Slaanesh_Subjugator.pdf

(I’m thinking about using one or two of these in the final apocalypse battle against Adam’s eldar that ought to send his wraith lord packing- Benj) 

RULES: CHAOS SPAWN

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
Chaos spawn	2D6	3	0	4	5	3	2	1D6+1	10

Points/each: 55         2 spawn count as one rare choice

Special rules: fear, unbreakable,

Lurching Horror: has D6+1 attacks, roll for this each turn,

Flailing Appendages: moves 2D6 inches, (this is a compulsory move) roll for this each turn.

Options:

Mark of nurgle (all models in base contact -1 weapon skill and -1 to hit by shooting)

Mark of tzeentch (6+ ward save)

Mark of khorne (frenzy, blows count as strength 5)

Mark of slaanesh (always strikes first, immune to panic, fear and break) 20pts

Armies that contain spawn

Empire: spawn of hochland may not have a mark

Dark elves: spawn of the cult have the mark of slaanesh

Chaos: chaos spawn see above

Cathay: spawn of wizards have the mark of tzeentch

“NAZGÛL TACTICA

As an Evil player it is always worth

Considering including a Nazgûl in

Your force. They are simply too

Valuable and versatile to overlook. I’m

Convinced of that fact, because I use them

And do well with them myself. What better

endorsement can there be?

So, what makes them so good? What

makes them so versatile? Well – I’ll show

you! Behold my four-fold principles of

Ringwraith warfare – Dominate, Destroy,

Terrify and Command.

Dominate

This is all about making the enemy do

what you want, and just as importantly

stopping him doing what he wants. In a

nutshell, your Nazgûl has the power to

force enemy Heroes out of the game

completely – often in a very fast and brutal

way. The best examples of this are Transfix

and Compel. These two magical powers,

which are both relatively easy to cast, both

have the effect of preventing an enemy

Hero from further action that turn, as well

as rendering him almost useless in a

fight. It doesn’t matter who you are –

you’re going to get hurt badly when

you’re surrounded by Orcs intent on

clubbing you to death with twohanded

weapons and you’re only

rolling one dice (with a Fight value

of 1) in combat.

Dominate stretches further than just

helping you kill Heroes in combat though.

It also covers tactics such as forcing Banner

Bearers away from the models they are

supporting, dragging models off of

objectives and even preventing Heroes

from making Stand Fast! tests.

In terms of magical chicanery, the

Undying stands supreme – 20 Will points

and the ability to recover them so easily,

sits the Undying at the top of the

“Dominate” list.

Destroy

Oh the fun of it all. “Destroy” is simple

and effective: select a target, say “I am

casting Black Dart” and roll some dice (I

recommend three). Job’s a good ‘un. Of

course, there’s a little more to it than that,

and in fact there can be quite a lot of

finesse involved in using your Nazgûl to

destroy effectively. Choosing the right

target is the first, and most important step.

Use Black Dart against Banner Bearers,

models with high Defence, models that are

defending key areas of the battlefield, and

to whittle down enemy Heroes. Once

you’ve cast the power, make sure it works.

Generally you’ll only need a 3+ to wound

your target, so if you fail to wound

consider using a Might point to ensure

success. There’s nothing worse than

wasting 3 Will points to cast a spell and

then failing to wound. The other warning

I’d apply to this power is that it drains your

Nazgûl quickly, so use it when it’s going to

make a significant difference to the

outcome of the battle, but don’t just cast it

willy-nilly, or you’ll lose your Ringwraith.

Instead, stick your Nazgûl on a Fell

Beast, pairing your Nazgûl’s magical

prowess with the destructive power of a

big, flappy killing machine. Because

Nazgûl cause Terror and have the

Harbinger of Evil special rule, they’re very

hard to counter charge, so throw them into

the heart of the enemy force, singling out

the finest enemy warriors and Heroes.

Transfix your target on the way in and

smash them to pieces in combat. Excellent.

The Witch-king of Angmar is clearly the

baddest, most combat-focused Nazgûl on

the block, although the Dark Marshal and

Khamûl are both hot on his heels.

Terrify

Yes, we all know that Nazgûl cause Terror,

and I imagine we’re all aware of the effects

of Harbinger of Evil… but it’s the long term

consequences of those powers that will

serve us best. Consider, for example, how

hard it is for an enemy force that has

broken to make Courage tests with a

Nazgûl on the scene. What about enemy

models trying to get onto an objective

when there’s a massive Fell Beast blocking

their path – the Terror test combined with

the Courage penalty for Harbinger of Evil

can stop most models in their tracks.

Then, if all that isn’t enough, you can

really get to work at depleting an enemy’s

resolve with the Drain Courage power. On

the face of it this is such an unimpressive

power that most players (myself included)

won’t bother spending any Will points to

resist it. It’s a rather different story when

your force breaks and suddenly your

bravest model finds himself with a Courage

value of only 3 or 4.

The Tainted is especially good at this

little trick. If your enemy is broken, and the

Tainted is in amongst their formation,

they’re in very, very big trouble.

Command

With a minimum Courage of 5 and a

bucketful of Will points, the Nazgûl are not

likely to fail many Courage tests, and that

is why they are the perfect leaders for an

Evil (especially a Mordor) army. When your

Ringwraith finds himself running low on

Will points pull out of the fighting and take

up a position close in the heart of your

army, preferably with a screen of Orcs

between you and the enemy. It’s not rocket

science, but it’s really, really handy to have

a Nazgûl calling the shots when your army

is hard-pressed.

Obviously, this is not a tactic you can

rely on with the Tainted – but all of the

other Nazgûl are great at it.”