Good tidings to you happy reader and welcome to another battle report from yours truly! I hope you have had some excellent times with your hobbying whatever it may be. I’ve been busy assembling a lot of models myself and I’ve caught myself in a bit of a routine so I’ve not touched anything paint-wise lately. However, I think I’ve put together 3 Necromunda gangs, 42 Plague Marines, some Cryx stuff for Warmahordes, the Blood Bowl starter set, and some other various models here and there. That’s not why we’re here today though, we are here to read up on some fighting, killing, objective securing, and dice-rolling! My good friend Josh came over one Saturday recently and we were able to get a couple games in during the day, one of which was a good classic game of Warhammer 40k. Let’s get to it!
We agreed on a 2000 point game where the Black Legion and Death Guard would face off using the Vanguard Strike deployment and we went with a modified version of Secure and Control with 3 objectives instead of 1. Prior to rolling off for the mission/zone, we had my lovely wife set the board up for us initially and we added a couple of touches here and there. The limited space offered by the deployment zone meant that we would have to fight hard for the objectives as they essentially were turtled into our zones. Would the resilience of the Death Guard overpower the wrath and hatred of the Black Legion, or will they succumb to Abaddon’s forces and relent control? (Side note: due to my irregularity with this game I failed to adhere to the new Psychic Focus rule of being able to cast a power only once, I realized my mistake afterwards and apologized to Josh as I spammed Miasma of Pestilence like a lot, but he also spammed Prescience and Warptime so it was a moot point) *Edit: Josh told me did not so whateva*
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| "Hey you shouldn't have done that." Yeah neither should you. "Oh yeah." |
Our respective army lists:
Death Guard 2000 points, 9 CP
· Battalion Detachment, +5 CP
o HQ: Typhus – Warlord, Miasma of Pestilence + Putrescent Vitality
o HQ: Malignant Plaguecaster – Helm of Fugaris, Miasma of Pestilence + Blades of Putrefaction
o Troops: 9x Plague Marines w/ 2x Blight Launchers
o Troops: 9x Plague Marines w/ 2x Plasma Guns
o Troops: 20x Plaguebearers
o Fast Attack: Foetid Bloat-drone – Twin Plaguespitters
o Fast Attack: Foetid Bloat-drone – Fleshmower
o Heavy Support: Chaos Land-Raider w/ extra combi-bolter and Havoc Launcher
o Dedicated Transports: 2x Chaos Rhinos w/ extra combi-bolter and Havoc Launchers
· Vanguard Detachment, +1 CP
o HQ: Chaos Sorcerer – Blades of Putrefaction, Putrescent Vitality
o Elites: 7x Possessed Marines
o Elites: Tallyman
o Elites: Biologis Putrifier
Black Legion 2000 points, 10 CP
· Battalion Detachment, +5 CP
o HQ: Abaddon the Despoiler – Warlord, +2 CP
o HQ: Sorcerer – Force Axe, Prescience + Warptime, The Eye of Night
o HQ: Sorcerer in Terminator Armor – Force Axe, Lightning Claw, Prescience + Warptime
o Elites: 5x Chaos Terminators – Power Axes, Heavy Flamer, Combi-Bolters
o Elites: Helbrute – Multimelta, Helbrute fist
o Troops: 10x Chaos Marines, Heavy Bolter, Meltagun, Icon of Vengeance
o Troops: 10x Chaos Marines, Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Icon of Vengeance
o Troops: 6x Chaos Marines
o Fast Attack: 5x Warp Talons, Mark of Khorne
o Heavy Support: Chaos Land-Raider, Havoc Launcher
o Heavy Support: Chaos Predator, Twin Lascannons, 2x Heavy Bolters
o Dedicated Transports: 1x Chaos Rhino
So we deployed and Josh seized the initiative, which he didn’t want to get but wanted to see if he would get a 6, and cautiously advanced up to get some firing solutions on the oncoming Death Guard forces. A few lascannon shots lanced through the ruins slamming into my own Land-Raider as he brought his heavy weapons to bear. A house rule we have at my place is that we take into consideration how much terrain covers up your model/unit and if it’s at least 50% then you get a cover bonus, unlike RAW 40k where it’s all or nothing. This house rule alone helped keep my Land Raider from being a pile of molten slag first turn and while I took some solid damage to recognize that I might not get much mileage from the vehicle. Josh also sent his Warp Talons up the midfield to get a head start on the hopeful murdering to take place, and a Rhino filled with marines moved along the edge towards my left side objective aided by Warptime. The Death Guard responded by rumbling ahead in their respective vehicles, which amounted to not a lot of return fire back into the Black Legion’s ranks, but what did connect ended up causing some hurt. The Heavy Bolter from the Land-Raider shot into the Warp Talons killing 2, while the 4 Lascannon shots slammed into the Predator causing it to go down to 4 wounds. The Rhinos moved along with the Bloat-drones to engage the Black Legionnaires on the right flank, whilst on the left, I moved to counter the oncoming forces.
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| Our respective movements |
Turn 2 passed and the Black Legion held their line to bring about more firepower to the lumbering Death Guard. His sorcerer brought assistance from the warp to his Predator in guiding its shots, bringing it back to standard skill. More lascannon shots slammed into the Death Guard Land-Raider bringing it to critical levels, which really put into perspective its limited time left on the planet. The left flanking Rhino rounded the corner towards the objective, coming face to face with my own forces. Josh’s Warp Talons attempted to pull off more damage on the crippled Land-Raider but failed to penetrate the armored hull. The Death Guard sensed that this was the time to act and so out of the Land-Raider fell back, and it’s unholy hull disgorging Typhus, the Tallyman, and the Possessed Marines into the field. The left side Rhino opened up and pestilent marines accompanied with a Biologis Putrifier, and the right side Rhino unleashed its cargo of marines and the Malignant Plaguecaster. Typhus summoned forth a horde of Plaguebearers between the two buildings with a Plague Pact. Where the field had only a few Death Guard units now there were many! The Biologis handed out free candy for all the good boys and girls and encouraged his marines to do the same, so with 68 grenade attacks (Blight Bombardment + Veterans of the Long War) I ended up doing some obscene amount of mortal wounds to the Rhino and forcing the marines inside to fall back to a better position, but taking some casualties from the exploding husk. Only to be followed by the spitting Bloat-Drone causing more casualties (who then charged in to poke them with its proboscis!). The Malignant Plaguecaster on the right hit the Helbrute with some Smite love and in conjunction with his expanded 10” of “get a free mortal wound on a roll of +7 sweepstakes,” ended up doing a decent amount of wounds. The Plague Marines tried to capitalize on their ranged firepower power on the Helbrute as well but failing to do any lasting damage. The Possessed charged into the Warp Talons and made quick work of the remaining numbers, the Fleshmower Bloat-Drone attempted to charge the Land Raider but failed to roll high enough, and the Plague Marines entered combat with the Helbrute because they wanted a close up to look at the dude inside the sarcophagi but otherwise were ineffective at scratching the dread.
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| Overall battlefield view |
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| There was a Rhino and some Black Legion marines there... |
Turn 3 started off with some slight moved on Josh’s part where he moved the 10 man squad of marines that were chilling around in the back towards the Plaguebearer mob with the hopes to inflict some casualties. However the Plaguebearers are blessed with Granpappy Nurgle’s most annoying flies and so the fusillade of bolt rounds ended up being a light drizzle, which subsequently shrugged off from the invulnerable saves or their disgusting resilience. In the ensuing melee when they were charged in only 1 of the daemons returned to the Warp, and in turn, ended up killing off 5 of their number underneath filth-encrusted blades. The terminators in the Land-Raider left their protection with the hopes of killing off the Malignant Plaguecaster who was alone, but in the ensuing combat rounds, he will prove to be more than enough to handle these veterans from the legion days. His sorcerer used The Eye of Night which ended up killing off the Land-Raider in the middle with a resounding zap of eldritch energy but not enough to cause it to explode. Abaddon and his Terminator clad sorcerer teleported on to the battlefield, alone and detached from the Black Legion defense lines. The small squad of Marines stationed on the building roof leapt down to join their Helbrute brother in slaying the Plague Marines, but even their added number to the melee made little headway against the members of the XIVth. For the Death Guard, the Biologis accompanied Plague Marines hopped back in their Rhino and subsequently left for the greater battle towards the mid-line, leaving the Bloat-Drone to finish off the last remaining 2 Chaos Marines. The Possessed sensed the presence of the Despoiler and with the assistance of the Tallyman, who had not been doing a good job keeping track of those 7’s, fervently charged the legion’s headmaster. If it weren’t for the sorcerer protecting Abaddon and denying some warp powers the Possessed would have felled their warlord, but they managed to bring him down from 7 to 2 wounds. The Malignant Plaguecaster kept ticking down Terminators in combat with him due to his “you get a mortal wound, you get a wound, everyone gets a wound on a +7” but also due to his stick of badassery (dear reader, I think that model looks dumb as hell with his stick but let me tell you…that stick was kicking ass). The Plague Marines fighting the Helbrute made no progress on killing anyone and so slowly kept taking casualties. The Plaguebearer mob, empowered by Typhus, killed 3 more of their Black Legion opponents. The Fleshmower Bloat-Drone did this sort of weird dance where it wanted to charge the melee with the Helbrute but then wanted to charge the Land-Raider as well and so ended up sitting around and looking somewhat confused.
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| Side view of the field |
Turn 4 started off with the Predator moving into firing lane with the Rhino that had moved closer earlier on, thus implying its impending doom. Across the field, the Black Legion had come into contact with their enemy and there was not much need for movement, but the Land Raider switched places with the Predator and moved to counter the oncoming Plaguebearers, as they had finished their mission in killing the Chaos Marines. Firing solutions were cogitated in the Predator, aided by a Warp entity, and the Death Guard Rhino exploded in an incandescent display as its armor was punctured by Lascannon fire. The ensuing explosion was grandiose and caught Typhus in the blast as well as the surviving members of the squad inside. The Biologis Putrifier did not survive the explosion and Typhus was wounded. The Terminator-clad sorcerer moved to the side, allowing his master the glory of melee alone and projecting his psychic barrier further up the field. Abaddon cleared out the Possessed with the Fist of Horus and Drach’nyen, dispatching the combatants with relative ease. The Terminators continued to struggle to finish off Hootie and the Nurgle-fish and continued to take casualties from The Stick. The Helbrute combat finally finished as the remaining Plague Marines perished under the combined weight of the blows, leaving the Marines to climb back on top of the roof and the Helbrute to move on towards the Malignant Plaguecaster. The Death Guard responded by closing the gap between the remaining forces and the objectives laid out on the enemy’s lines. The Malignant Plaguecaster finished off the remaining Terminators and the Helbrute with some psychic boogaloo Smite jam being shot everywhere. The Predator has finally finished off this turn from the combined weight of fire plinking away from the Rhino and a spurt from the Plaguespitter. The Fleshmower Bloat-Drone buzzed its way towards the sorcerer standing on top of the objective, and with a surprisingly quick burst of energy charged up the building and subsequently pulverized the psyker into a fine red paste. The Plaguebearers moved up the field while Typhus slinked around the building. I attempted to cast some powers from my remaining sorcerer, with the hopes of creating a Warp-infused combat machine, but with a timely Counter-Charge stratagem, Josh was able to activate Abaddon who swiftly murdered the sorcerer. Drach’nyen was a little more hungry than expected so he took a mortal wound from the weapon biting the hand that fed him.
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| The Possessed did a hurtin' on ole Abby! |
The last turn of the game (we rolled a 2 to end it) resulted in the Land-Raider making an effort to thin down the Plaguebearer ranks with not a lot of impact and Abaddon cutting down the Tallyman. Unfortunately, that did not allow him enough time to get a move on the objective in my own zone and so he stood alone across the battlefield with the bodies of the dead and a sorcerer as his only companions. The Plaguebearers charged the Land-Raider the turn before, mostly for big ole’ Pappy Nurgle’s amusement, but simultaneously securing the objective and causing the Land-Raider to disengage. The Fleshmower Bloat-Drone flew towards the remaining Chaos Marines, but the combined weight of Blight Launcher rounds and psychically charged acidic bile a la Smite ended the small squad before the drone had a chance to eat something new. My Rhino moved up to contest the objective held by the Land-Raider and so with the turn coming to a close the game ended with the Death Guard victorious with 5 to 4 victory points!
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| End of Josh's turn 5 |
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| End of game battlefield shot |
Afterward, Josh and I decided to have a 1-on-1 with Typhus and Abaddon to see who was the better warlord since they never met in combat otherwise. We decided no psychic powers and we would roll a d6 to see who struck first. Josh won and swung with Drach’nyen and the Talon, but only managed to get a couple wounds in. Typhus returned with a swipe of his Man-reaper, doing 4 wounds right off the bat to Abaddon! The subsequent initiative roll-off led Typhus to follow up with another assault and in doing so did 7 wounds! Abaddon fainted, making Typhus the winner of this matchup!
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| Here we see Abaddon in his natural state, prone before the better warlord. |
Overall it was a great game with a lot of good moments. I think my list was overall a fun one and I took a couple of things I haven’t before, and so I learned a few things about their use. List-wise I felt more prepared than I did with Well’s Tzeentch daemons and I think pumping up the Plague Marines to higher numbers helped them last longer on the field. Some of those Disgustingly Resilient rolls were phenomenal though and I think that rule alone makes up for a lot if played right. I prefer the Plaguebearers to the Pox Walkers so having them come in, reliably with the stratagem, and being a nice sized blob to contend with was a good source of pressure. Josh and I talked about the game afterward and one thing I felt like he could have done differently was putting the Warp Talons on reserve so when I came closer he could have shredded some infantry instead of being shot at mercilessly. Also, Abaddon being so far away from the main combat didn’t help out either, the aura he projects to help his own troops would have been invaluable. If he teleported let’s say right in the Helbrute fight, well I wouldn’t have had anything to really counter that over there. Overall a good game and it was a lot of fun!
So that wraps up this battle report, I hope you all have enjoyed it and next time we’ll talk about the other game we played. It’s a game you might not have heard, or have had much experience with, but you should! Until then readers happy gaming!
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