Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

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The Other Dave
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Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by The Other Dave » Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:21 am

Edited to reflect crusade reset!

Crusade Force Name: The Dusk Raiders
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Player: Dave

Battle Tally / Battles Won: 8/4
Requisition Points: 0
Virulence Points: 1
Supply Limit / Supply Used: 95/95
Crusade Plague: Bleeding Ravaging Ulcers

*The Dusk Raiders*
HQ
Gurloch Thrax (Lord of Contagion): 6 Power, 4 Crusade Points
Pastus the Impure (Malignant Plaguecaster): 5 Power, 3 Crusade Points
Suppurax (Death Guard Chaos Lord): 5 Power, 2 Crusade Points

Elites
Festasmus the Reeking (Foul Blightspawn): 5 Power, 1 Crusade Point
Thrax' Inner Circle (Deathshroud Terminators): 7 Power, 1 Crusade Point
Urghe's Lords of Blight (Blightlord Terminators): 10 Power, 0 Crusade Points
Phulok, the Wages of Failure (Helbrute): 7 Power, 0 Crusade Points

Troops
Bubox's Plague Marines: 6 Power, 0 Crusade Points
Gangrous' Plague Marines: 6 Power, 0 Crusade Points
Thulgus' Plague Marines: 6 Power, 2 Crusade Points
The Great Horde (Poxwalkers): 5 Power
The Lesser Horde (Poxwalkers): 2 Power
Dedicated Transport: Chaos Rhino: 4 Power

Fast Attack
Unit 8: G'zoethl (Foetid Bloat Drone): 7 Power, 1 Crusade Point
Unit 9: Oegz'yaoth (Foetid Bloat Drone): 7 Power, 1 Crusade Point
Unit 10: Ulth'shog (Mephitic Blight Hauler): 7 Power, 0 Crusade Points

It is just within the realm of possibility that the plague marine warband that styles themselves the Dusk Raiders are actually Death Guard of Terran stock who sided with Mortation during the Horus Heresy, reclaiming their heritage with the splintering of the legion. Perhaps they are instead of Barbarus or later ancestry, adopting the heraldry of the Dusk Raiders to mock or out of a twisted sense of irony. Or it may be that they are renegades from a later age who turned to Nurgle, discovered the history of the 14th Legion and seek to emulate it. In the end, of course, the so-called Dusk Raiders are a tiny warband in a galaxy torn with strife, a glimmer of an ancient history that has passed, for most, into legend. Any questions concerning their ties to the past are, and are likely to forever remain, both unasked and unanswered.

Little is known about the goals and objectives of the Dusk Raiders, beyond their evident interest in sowing chaos. It appears that the malignant plaguecaster known as Pastus the Impure is the mastermind behind the warband’s activities, although who, or what, he may answer to – if anyone – is unknown. They seem to attack more or less randomly, targeting civilian populations and military instillations alike, spreading various sentient poxes and warp-infused diseases with what can only be described as apparent foul glee.

Warp signatures and pict analysis suggest that the Dusk Raiders operate out of a captured Imperial Sword-class frigate, believed with a 68.7% confidence rate to be the Embittered Glaive, reported lost to the warp in 345.M37.
Last edited by The Other Dave on Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:36 am, edited 24 times in total.
Feel free to call me Dave!
-----
Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 3 infantry

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The Other Dave
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by The Other Dave » Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:37 am

Edited to reflect crusade reset!

Crusade Cards

Unit Name: Gurloch Thrax
Battlefield Role: HQ
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 6
Experience Points: 12, Rank: Blooded
Crusade Points: 4

Unit Type: Lord of Contagion
Equipment: Plaguereaper
Warlord Trait: The Eater Plague
Chaos Boons: Unnatural Speed, Diseased Talons, Clawed Feet

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 5/2, Kills: 7

*****

Unit Name: Pastus the Impure
Battlefield Role: HQ
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 5
Experience Points: 11, Rank: Blooded
Crusade Points: 3

Unit Type: Malignant Plaguecaster
Psychic Powers: Smite, Miasma of Pestilence, Plague Wind, Putrescent Vitality
Relic: The Daemon's Favor
Upgrade: Sevenfold Blessings
Crusade Relic: Conversion Field

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 5/1, Kills: 2

*****

Unit Name: Suppurax
Battlefield Role: HQ
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 5
Experience Points: 1, Rank: Battle-Ready
Crusade Points: 2

Unit Type: Death Guard Chaos Lord
Equipment: Plasma pistol, Balesword
Warlord Trait: Living Plague
Relic: Plaguebringer

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 1/1, Kills: 0

*****
Unit Name: Festasmus the Reeking
Battlefield Role: Elite
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 5
Experience Points: 8, Rank: Blooded
Crusade Points: 1

Unit Type: Foul Blightspawn
Relic: Revolting Stench-Vats
Deadly Pathogen: Viscous Death

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 4/1, Kills: 1

*****

Unit Name: Thrax' Inner Circle
Battlefield Role: Elites
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 7
Experience Points: 2, Rank: Battle-Ready
Crusade Points: 1

Unit Type: Deathshroud Terminators
Upgrade: Champion of Disease: Reaper of Glorious Entropy

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 2/0

*****

Unit Name: Urghe's Lords of Blight
Battlefield Role: Elites
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 10
Experience Points: 0, Rank: Battle-Ready
Crusade Points: 0

Unit Type: Blightlord Terminators
Equipment: 2 Baleswords, 3 Bubotic Axes, 4 Combi-bolters, Plague Spewer

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 0/0

*****

Unit Name: Phulok, the Wages of Failure
Battlefield Role: Elites
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 7
Experience Points: 0, Rank: Battle-Ready
Crusade Points: 0

Unit Type: Helbrute
Equipment: Multi-melta, Helbrute Fist, Heavy Flamer

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 0/0


*****

Unit Name: Bubox's Plague Marines
Battlefield Role: Troops
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 6
Experience Points: 0, Rank: Battle-Ready
Crusade Points: 0

Unit Type: Plague Marines (5)
Equipment: Plague Champion with Plasma Gun and Power Fist, 1 Plague Marine with Plague Spewer, 1 Plague Marine with Blight Launcher, 1 Plague Marine with Meltagun, 1 Plague Marine with Boltgun and Icon of Despair

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 0/0

*****

Unit Name: Gangrous' Plague Marines
Battlefield Role: Troops
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 6
Experience Points: 4, Rank: Battle-Ready
Crusade Points: 0

Unit Type: Plague Marines (5)
Equipment: Plague Champion with Plasma Pistol and Daemonic Plague Blade, 1 Plague Marine with Plague Spewer, 1 Plague Marine with Blight Launcher, 1 Plague Marine with Plasma Gun, 1 Plague Marine with Boltgun and Icon of Despair

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 4/0

*****

Unit Name: Thulgus' Plague Marines
Battlefield Role: Troops
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 6
Experience Points: 16, Rank: Battle-Hardened
Crusade Points: 2

Unit Type: Plague Marines (5)
Equipment: Plague Champion with Power Fist, 1 Plague Marine with Flail of Corruption, 1 Plague Marine with Great Plague Cleaver, 1 Plague Marine with Bubotic Axe and Mace of Contagion, 1 Plague Marine with Boltgun and Icon of Despair

Battle Honors: Writhing Tendrils, Fleet of Foot

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 5/2, Kills: 7

*****

Unit Name: The Great Horde
Battlefield Role: Troops
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: none

Power Rating: 5
Experience Points: N/A

Unit Type: Poxwalkers (20)

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 2/0

*****

Unit Name: The Lesser Horde
Battlefield Role: Troops
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: none

Power Rating: 2
Experience Points: N/A

Unit Type: Poxwalkers (10)

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 0/0

*****

Unit Name: G'zoethl
Battlefield Role: Fast Attack
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 7
Experience Points: 10, Rank: Blooded
Crusade Points: 1

Unit Type: Foetid Bloat-Drone
Equipment: Twin Plaguespitters
Battle Trait: Infectious Buboes

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 4/1

*****

Unit Name: Oegz'yaoch
Battlefield Role: Fast Attack
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 7
Experience Points: 6, Rank: Blooded
Crusade Points: 1

Unit Type: Foetid Bloat-Drone
Equipment: Fleshmower
Battle Trait: Plated Growths

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 1/0

*****

Unit Name: Ulth'shog
Battlefield Role: Fast Attack
Crusade Faction: Chaos
Selectable Keywords: The Wretched

Power Rating: 7
Experience Points: 3, Rank: Battle-Ready
Crusade Points: 0

Unit Type: Mephitic Blight-Hauler (1)

Battles Played / Battles Survived: 3/0
Last edited by The Other Dave on Tue Aug 24, 2021 11:46 pm, edited 21 times in total.
Feel free to call me Dave!
-----
Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 3 infantry

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The Other Dave
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Posts: 5096
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by The Other Dave » Sun Jul 26, 2020 9:42 am

<Fragments from the personal journal of Pastus the Impure>

The first forays of the Dusk Raiders into this new warzone have been... inauspicious. Our initial scouting forays met with fierce resistance from the servants of the Corpse Emperor, and it seems as if the "Daughters of Russ" purposefully harried our withdrawal to drive us headlong into a line of the tanks of the Imperial Guard. We were unable to break through, but did manage to isolate the commander of that force, although he was able to skilfully-enough put enough bodies and steel between us and him that, slay those bodies and melt that steel as we did, he was able to escape our wrath.

Of late, though, we did intercept a supply drop being guarded by the so-called Adepta Sororitas, and while their cursed warp-inhibiting mewling prayers to their dead god made my connection to the immaterium weak and sluggish, still we were able to drive them off from the much-needed supplies in the way we do best, through a grinding process of attrition. Delicious to finally taste victory.

I find myself losing confidence in my fellow Marines, Thrax especially as he seeks little but more slaughter - I relate much more closely to the daemonic entities with which I truck. The entity G'zoethl that I summoned to possess one of our wrecked drones, in particular, only grows more powerful as it settles into its connection to the shell we have given it - I have watched as its armor plates thicken and stretch, and it is always by my side. We were also able to fashion a similar mechanical shell for another being called Ulth'shog. I hope it serves us as well as its cousin does.

OOC-ishy:
I had 4 games this first day out:
1. A 25PL Sweep and Clear against Jye's Daughters of Russ, where I was tabled I think at the end of turn 2? Or close enough.
2. A 50PL game against 25PL of Jye's Wolves and 25 of mattb's Guard, a Behind Enemy Lines mission, which... does not play to the Death Guard's strengths. Having to hoof it across the field, into the literal teeth of a bunch of Space Wolves, with a bunch of guys with move 4 and 5 is not bound to end well. I think I was tabled by turn 3 here. :D
3. A 25PL Assassinate, as the attacker, against mattb's Guard, and I almost got it - he was very canny with using other units to block charge lanes to his leader, and tying my units up so they couldn't get to him. I got the remnants of some poxwalkers into base to base on turn 5, and got wounds in a couple times, but it was too little too late.
4. a 25PL Supply Drop against Jye's Sisters, which I managed to win solidly, thanks to the Death Guard finally acting like Death Guard and just refusing to die while putting out nicely solid shooting.
The two stars across all 4 games were definitely Pastus himself and his pet Bloat-Drone G'zoethl. Pastus just melts anything he gets close to with a combination of psychic blasts and Nurgle b*****t mortal wounds, Sisters anti-psychic shenanigans notwithstanding. He took out both a leman russ and an exorcist basically entirely on his own (actually, as I think about it, literally entirely on his own). The Bloat-Drone has a lovely combination of just refusing to die and spewing out damage with its twin heavy flamers, especially after it got the "+1 armor save vs weapons with 0 or -1AP" battle honor.
Last edited by The Other Dave on Sun Jul 26, 2020 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Feel free to call me Dave!
-----
Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 3 infantry

Mattb
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by Mattb » Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:52 am

Oh nice! I love the idea of doing a small in character log of all the games we play. Also you're not wrong about Pastus - he's a psychic monster. I'm honestly not as bothered about your Bloat Drone upgrade as I am about Pastus now having a bloody 4++ save. :?

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The Other Dave
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by The Other Dave » Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:07 pm

Mattb wrote:
Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:52 am
Oh nice! I love the idea of doing a small in character log of all the games we play. Also you're not wrong about Pastus - he's a psychic monster. I'm honestly not as bothered about your Bloat Drone upgrade as I am about Pastus now having a bloody 4++ save. :?
Pastus is a beast to be sure! But the drone really did a job melting pretty much any infantry squad I pointed it at, and tanking like 3? 4? rounds of combat with 8 sisters on a single wound remaining (and then using the auto-explode stratagem, although the single mortal wound it does in that case is pretty lackluster) was just hilariously annoying.
Feel free to call me Dave!
-----
Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 3 infantry

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The Other Dave
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by The Other Dave » Tue Jul 28, 2020 2:42 am

<Overheard belowdecks on the Embittered Glaive>

<extended squelching sounds, the ring of a steel boot on steel decking, colorful cursing>

"Brother Gangrous, what seems to be the trouble?"

"Ah, Bubox." <more stamping and squelching noises> "Is it me, or are there more of these damned nurglings around lately?"

"You noticed too. Yes, it seems our commander has been honing his summoning skills of late."

"What!? Summoning, yes, he's welcome to, but nurglings? They're bad enough when they manifest naturally. They get into everything - you'll reach for a grenade, and whoops! Nurgling! And the gibbering!"

<gibbering noises, another curse, a single authoritative stamp; gibbering ends abruptly>

"That's what you get. Cheeky bastard."

[My headcanon is that nurglings are basically like disgusting tribbles, and the plague marines absolutely hate them.]
Feel free to call me Dave!
-----
Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 3 infantry

Jye Nicolson
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by Jye Nicolson » Tue Jul 28, 2020 3:15 am

The Other Dave wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 2:42 am
[My headcanon is that nurglings are basically like disgusting tribbles, and the plague marines absolutely hate them.]

How could anyone hate this sassy prince

Image

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The Other Dave
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by The Other Dave » Thu Jul 30, 2020 1:44 am

Just so nobody's surprised next games day, I spent some RP. (Still have to paint though, so how many of our new friends will make a showing is up in the air.)
Feel free to call me Dave!
-----
Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 3 infantry

User avatar
The Other Dave
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by The Other Dave » Tue Aug 11, 2020 1:17 am

A bit of rejiggering to account for the new power levels.
Feel free to call me Dave!
-----
Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 3 infantry

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The Other Dave
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Re: Crusade Campaign: The Dusk Raiders

Post by The Other Dave » Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:04 am

Ponderings after the power level changes:

I'm definitely thinking getting lots of nurglings and souping into daemons is the right choice. At 50-power games, losing 2CP (for the daemon patrol) and getting 48 wounds of infiltrating nurglings to camp objectives, plus a poxbringer to heal the bloat drone, for 12 power is probably well worth it.

I may just bump both units of plague marines up to a fluffy (and durable) 7 models - 8 power is still very easy to work with, and more bolters play to the strengths of the faction.

For expansion, I definitely want a Helbrute since they're cool-lookin' and I can spend a requisition point to give it disgustingly resilient. Power fist and power scourge for 9 attacks on the charge at a mix of S8 and S12 is Not Bad with a base move of 8.

On the other hand, for only 3 more power than the helbrute I could bump my blight haulers unit up from 1 to 3 models. 15 power total is an investment, but that's a total of 24 T7 wounds with 3+/5+/5++, good mobility and one of my few sources of anti-tank, which would now actually be at BS 3+.

(Of course, why not both? RPs seem to come pretty fast when games go so quick.)
Feel free to call me Dave!
-----
Miniatures painted in 2023: 252
Miniatures painted in 2024:
Epic scale: 9 vehicles, 56 stands of infantry, a whole buncha terrain
32mm-ish: 3 infantry

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