Ultra Marines Vs The Sons of Despair Highlights:

Jim commanding the Ultramarines, Jesse commanding The Sons of Despair (Nurgle CSM)
2000 points: Mission- Capture and Control Deployment- Dawn of War

Turn one: Due to Dawn of War, very little was deployed on either side. A single Rhino with a ten man squad of CSM ineffectually shoot a single Las Cannon from the top. There is considerable return fire that was largely mitigated by the cover they were parked behind.

Turn Two: Everything else rolls in. LOTS of mech. The Ultramarines call in two Vindicators, two Land Speeders, two Razor Backs a Predator, a Rhino a Land Raider Redeemer and some Tactical Squads. The Sons of Despair summon a Vindicator, a Predator (with the same load-out, no less!), ten Plague Marines in a Rhino, seven Plague Marines in a Rhino, and seven Chosen walk onto the board in the woods behind my objective, Dawn of War having taken away their opportunity to infiltrate and denying me my foothold near the center of the board! The first of my reserves also begin to materialize, two ten man squads of Lesser Demons Deep Strike much to my dismay as I was hoping they would have arrived later. Still to come from reserve: My Demon Prince, a Greater Demon, and two Obliterators.

Two Vindicators square off resulting in the Ultramarine's not being able to shoot, much to my relief!

Turn Three: One of the Land Speeders is shot down by my Predator. However, the other gets revenge by wreaking my Vindicator with a side armor shot that even my Demonic Possession can't ignore! My two Rhinos following behind in a delta pattern are immobilized and stunned by an colossal amount of fire. My advance on the right flank falters.

Turn Four: The Land Raider Redeemer really shines taking heavy fire and an assault from my Greater Demon without so much as a scratch in the paint. More specifically: Two Las Cannons from the Predator, one Las Cannon for the CSM squad still in their Rhino, a Missile Launcher and two Melta Guns (one was even within 6 inches!) from the Chosen and SIX Monstrous Creature attacks all resulting in nothing!! On the other flank the seven man squad of Plague Marines (with two Melta Guns) fail to do anything meaningful! Five Terminators all armed with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields assault the Greater Demon and, even though it attacks first and kills three of them, the two survivors strike back and pound the Demon into next week! I fail ALL of it's 4+ invulnerable saves and it disappears screaming back into the Warp! The surviving Terminators re-embark and lock the doors to the Land Raider just to be safe.

My Demon Prince also arrived this turn, Deep Striking perfectly behind the Ultramarine's lines in range to assault a Tactical Squad holding Jim's objective. I fail my Psychic test for Wind of Chaos and take fire from a Predator, two Razor Backs, the Tactical Squad, and a Land Speeder, losing two wounds.

Turn Five: My Obliterators finally walk onto the board and get into firing position. Massed fire wreaks my Predator. My Demon Prince soars to the top of the ruined building housing the Ultramarine objective and assaults the Tactical Squad holding it, Wind of Chaos is nullified by a well placed Psychic Hood. While my corpulent bag of demonic pus kills many of the Tactical Squad, they elect to lose the combat and withdraw, the Demon, clearly caught up in the bloodshed, fails to catch them and actually starts to sweat as every enemy gun in a three mile radius ominously swivels towards him.

Turn Six: The Land Raider Redeemer hits my lines again disgorging it's deadly cargo, minus three. I counter assault with my CSM squad holding the objective and finally I catch a break as, through a ton of attacks, the nigh-unstoppable Terminators fail two saves! The Obliterators fire on the Ultramarine Vindicator destroying the weapon! Things are starting to go my way! Well.....The Demon Prince catches a ton of fire, and when the smoke finally clears, even the legendary toughness of a avatar of the Plague God couldn't stand up to the massed Krak Missiles, Las Cannon, and Melta fire! A horrible, sizzling smear is all that is left of poor Tubby, cast back into the Warp before he knew what happened to him! The other Ultramarine Vindicator kills one Obliterator and the Stern Guard and Librarian (with Nullzone, Demon players: Watch out for this one! ;) wipe a squad of summoned Lesser Demons off the map! Out of simple defiance, the ten man Plague Marine squad disembarks and Rapid Fires the remaining Land Speeder, wreaking it. The Redeemer toasts some Chosen and CSM in the woods next to my objective, AP 3 and no cover saves!

Turn 7 (!): Yeah, it went the full seven turns! I lay the last of my fire from whats left of my army into the Land Raider, but to no avail. One of the Obliterators miss and the other fails to penetrate and the POINT BLANK Las Cannon in the CSM squad MISSES! Seriously, the barrel must have been touching the hull! *face palm*

The remaining Sons of Despair fallback, intent on regrouping and taking the high ground the Ultramarine held building has to offer.

Final thoughts: My kingdom for some Melta Bombs! For five points they would have been a great investment, I can't see me not taking them in the future, especially on the Chosen, all of which can carry them! Dawn of War has to be my new least favorite scenario, right off the bat I was at a disadvantage and didn't realize it as my Chosen weren't allowed to Infiltrate and had to walk onto the board, denying me my mid-board Demonic Staging Area (tm). A Rhino would have been great in this situation.

I was a little disappointed with my Vindicator, thinking it could take and shrug off a lot more fire than it did, but I wasn't expecting the mobility (and side armor shots) of the Land Speeders. Oh, well, it was the first time I fielded it, it was almost bound to explode.

All in all a good game and a fun time. Thank You Jim!