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So with my Tau match on hiatus, I was able to snag a game this weekend against local legend and self-proclaimed butterfly of 40k, Sean Figgins. Figgins has amazingly painted armies, and loves to play large games; mainly because he has to drive quite a ways to play at the local shop, so he makes it worth his while. I haven't played a large game in 8th yet, so I agreed and off we go!
Death Guard/Nurgle/CSM ++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [30 PL, 446pts] ++
+ No Force Org Slot +
Legion: Alpha Legion
+ HQ +
Sorcerer with Jump Pack [7 PL, 120pts]: Bolt pistol, Delightful Agonies, Force stave, Mark of Slaanesh, Prescience
+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists [12 PL, 160pts]: 39x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun, Mark of Slaanesh
. Cultist Champion: Autogun
+ Heavy Support +
Defiler [11 PL, 166pts]: Havoc launcher, Mark of Slaanesh, Reaper autocannon
Pre-Game Thoughts James (Nurgle side): So my list looks funky, but I just finished my poxwalkers and I'm gonna play them! YEAH! On top of it, I just acquired a defiler, so same thing - I wanna play it! Otherwise, its stuff you may expect me to take (princes, PBC's, etc.). Sean seems like hes going to be an amazing opponent, dudes amped to throw dice! And his list scares me. I haven't played against fliers in 8th yet, Sang Guard I know are pretty good, and hes got the obligatory BA hammer-captains to smash my face with. But I beat him on bodies, and I'm hoping I can hold out with my resilient units, everything has an invun, and FnP. I'm taking Terminators because they have been chilling in my bag for months un-used... I wanna see em do some pain to the imperials!!!!! Heres to hoping I can win... I'm 23 power level less haha!
Sean (Blood Angel side): Pewpew!
Mission and Deployment Rolling on the Chapter Approved table we got the Eternal War mission with the 4 objectives; I'm slowly finding out many of the book missions are awful... we set up the objectives improperly, but it seems like turns 1-4 are of no consequence due to last turn scoring. Ugh. Anyone else find a way to fix these to make them more progressively scoring....? Anyways, we got spearhead (I believe) deployment and heres what the table looked like:
Before infiltrators....
After infiltrators...
Sean kept both his sang guard, his veterans, TH Captain, and his flying machinegun marines in reserve. I kept my Blightlords in reserve. Thankfully I finished deploying first (by one unit!) and the +1 to go first gave me first turn. Sean failed to seize with a 5 >.> close call!
Death Guard/Nurgle/CSM Turn 1
Spoiler:
Movement: The deathguard movement was simple: shamble forward! Everything basically advanced that could, aside from the PBC's, Defiler, and cultists.
Psychic Phase: Miasma goes on the Bearers, while Vitality goes on the back Poxwalkers (in case sean has some tricks). I think I did get a smite or two off, but due to range didn't get much besides one aggressor in the front. I also get Delightful Agonies off on the cultists, yum.... 40 FnP cultists!
Shooting Phase: So heres the skinny... I didn't realize until this moment just how little shooting my list actually had, haha! I'm gonna have to fix that. That said, shooting proved to be pretty ineffective; cultists plinked two marines, Defiler whiffed every. single. shot.... and the PBC's followed suit. About par for the course!
There were no assaults.
My thoughts this turn; I played way too safe with the cultists. I should have jammed them up closer to something to create a wall, and unleashed a bazillion shots into something. Instead, I infiltrated them kind of far back due to not being sure if I was gonna get first. Secondly, my defiler placement was terrible; it was blocking the plaguebearers from getting the most out of their great advance movement (11". Honestly, I placed really terribly! So my first turn was pretty much botched; I killed two marines. Yippie-kai-yay!
Score is 0-0
Blood Angels Turn 1
Spoiler:
Having escaped turn one virtually unscathed, Sean is in a great position to hurt me.
Movement: Sean moves essentially everything toward the Cultists, leaving his tacs and intercessors in the back to stand on objectives. He brings his banner bearer out front; I know its bait, but I need to kill that dude! Then he does the unexpected; his TH/SS captain and the shooty-jump-primaris guys drop right behind his front lines. I guess dropping in your own deployments not so bad sometimes.
Psychic: Sean fails or gets his powers blocked
Shooting: As you might expect, Sean has a lot of shooting, and it proves pretty effective... except for the fact I had Delightful Agonies on the Cultists. He unleashes EVERYTHING besides the stormtalons into them, and after the dust clears, 8 are left. This is a blessing and a curse; a curse because I now have to spend 4 CP to keep them around and revive them. A blessing because I wanted to try that anyway, haha! He also plugs a few poxwalkers and does 3 wounds to a PBC.
In the assault phase Sean attempts a few assault rolls just because, but fails them.
My thoughts this turn: Welp, Delightful Agonies saved my cultists asses. I can see why it would be a very effective tactic, and I may try this more often! That said, that turn didn't go as bad as I figured. Those Aggressors are mean though, I didn't know how much punishment they could put out man. Definitely scary stuff. However, I was able to hold tight due to FnP, and denied Sean any points. Not bad!
Score is still 0-0
Death Guard/Nurgle/CSM Turn 2
Spoiler:
So turn one for both sean and I saw us flail uselessly against one another; he killed a bunch of cultists who are about to respawn, and I killed two marines. Pretty crazy game!
I start my movement phase by moving both Demon princes up; one ready to charge his forward storm talon + some marines, and the other ready to charge his bait banner dude + aggressors. Everything else (besides the PBC’s and Defiler) advance. Once again, the Defilers getting in the way, blocking the plaguebearers from getting further upfield. I respawn the Cultists in the backfield, behind all his marines, aiming to distract and possibly kill some. Lastly my Terminators drop down on the south side of the table.
My psychic phase this turn is more than underwhelming; its abysmal. I fail to cast Vitality, and Miasma. I then fail to cast Plague Wind. I get off one smite (damaging an aggressor I think), but prescience goes off on the terminators.
Shooting is pretty bad as well, Sean is hot with his saves! Defiler + PBC’s cannons and mortars do jack, but one PBC’s able to flamer his forward storm talon for 3 wounds. The terminators unload into his jump primaris, but I only kill one with the blightlauncher. Pretty…. Neat. Lastly, the cultists shoot 67 shots into an intercessor squad, but guess what? It only causes 2 unsaved wounds. Yeash man, I should just stop shooting haha!
Assault sees both DP’s reach their targets (with a bit of help with a CP), and my Blightlords charge all his marines on the south side. In response, his TH/SS captain intervenes the terminators, and Sanguinor intervenes the middle prince.
Results of the combats – in the middle, Sean goes hot on saves, and I do 2 wounds to his banner due and he does 5 wounds to my prince. Aggressors are crazy man, didn’t realize they all had power fists! My Warlord DP takes no wounds, and punches his stormtalon down to 1 wound, and munches two marines. Lastly, the blightlords do 1 wound to his Captain, and nom 7 out of 8 marines, the last one holds steady!
This turn I feel like I did a few mistakes. First, charging his stormtalon with my DP. It really wasn't that much of a threat yet, and this put my prince in a precarious position. Also, charging in with my other DP. The Aggressors, at best, would have been able to flame my Plaguebearers... at best. However, I had the defiler there, so I could have just done one massive charge the following turn; this may have been a better bet. Overall, though, I did pretty well. Terrain was really slowing down the PBC's though, I think I should have deployed them at the speartip, instead of on a flank. I was able to secure First Blood!
Score is DG 1, BA 0
Blood Angels Turn 2
Spoiler:
Sean still hasn’t taken many losses, and I’m more or less right where he wants me… however, all his aggressors are locked in combat, as are in characters.
Sean starts by falling back with Sanguinor toward my Warlord DP. Both storm ravens fly toward my backfield, straffing the PBC’s. Sean positions his flying primaris guys to shoot stuff up, and everything down toward the south end of the table is a giant melee. In the backfield, sean positions his tac squad there to intercept the mass of cultists. End of movement his melta vets drop on the north end of the table, next to the PBC’s, and one set of guard drop to intercept the terminators and my warlord prince. To be sure he makes the charge, Sean pops the strat for 3d6 charges on the guard charging my prince.
Psychic phase is simple; I block Unleash Rage, but Quickening goes off.
Shooting sean doesn’t have much to do; he mows down 6 poxwalkers in my backfield. His melta vets plus both talons result in my PBC being put down to 6 wounds; still not crippled! In the back he kills a handful of cultists. His flying dudes also mow down two nurgling bases.
The assault phase is much more… interesting. The cultists in the back punch two marines to death, while they punch 4 cultists in return (subsequently I only lose lik 7 to morale leaving them at about half strength). His bottom sang guard fail a charge on the terminators, while the terminators kill all the aggressors there. His librarian/TH/SS captain/aggressors put down all but one terminator (the flail). My middle demon prince bites it, but only after he kills the stupid banner (I think he plinks and aggressor too). My Warlord demon prince uses the stratagem to interrupt combat due to the order of events, this allows him to wax two sang guard (poor wound rolls). In the end, the warlord takes 4 wounds, and returns a mortal wound on Sanguinor.
Before the charges...
This turn saw a lot happen, but I must say; I'm impressed by the resiliency of the Blightlords. 5 terminators tanked 3 aggressors, a TH/SS capt, 8 marines, a Quickened librarian, and a lieutenant w/ power fist for two turns, with rerolls to everything, and ones still alive! Otherwise, I was happy the FnP bubble was gone, and I'm in what seems to be a great position to put the pain on stuff.
Death Guard/Nurgle/CSM Turn 3
Spoiler:
Now is the time for plaguebearers! I walk them up 7”, intending to multi-charge into a bunch of stuff if I can. The defiler also shambles up. On my right, my poxwalkers and typhus mosey up behind my Demon prince, ready to help. Both Blightspawns walk up as well. My PBC’s move forward. Lastly, my jump sorcerer flies over, intent to charge his jump dudes.
My psychic phase goes much better this time. Prescience goes on the flail (just cuz), smite goes out which plinks something. My Demon Prince gets healed for 3 from the poxbringer. Typhus throws down a smite and plague wind, killing the last aggressor from the middle squad. Vitality goes on the poxwalkers near the prince, and I forget to cast blades.
Shooting goes much better this time; I shoot down the wounded stormraven, kill two melta-vets, my mortars go off, killing several intercessors in the backfield, my defiler sucks again.
In assault I charge my poxwalkers into my Sanguinor scrum, and charge my PLaguebearers whom only manage to reach the lieutenant (along with my defiler). My sorcerer charges into the shooty flying dudes, but dies to overwatch (3 wounds, 3 failed saves : ( ).
My last Terminator goes down, and he consolidates his librarian and captain toward my Warlord. My defiler with 8 plaguebearers doesn’t kill the lieutenant… seriously. My Poxwalkers swing wet noodles, they get like 9 wounds on the sang guard, and sean makes them all. My DP kills off multiple sang guard and all the remaining marines, leaving the sanguinor and 1 guard, who do nothing in return. My cultists punch out two more marines in the back, and I lose 2 more cultists.
The eternal melee...
This turn I really wish my dice were a bit better... that lieutenant should have died. However, things aren't going too poorly; sean has 6 sang guard, 1 stormtalon, his 3 HQ's, and a lieutenant left essentially, while I have the bulk of my army (I've lost terminators, a demon prince, and some poxwalkers/cultists at this point). I think I can grind this out!
Blood Angels Turn 3
Spoiler:
Sean looks at the field and exclaims that “The Warlord must die!”
For movement, sean moves EVERY. SINGLE. MODEL. Toward the Demon prince, surrounding her. He also pops a stratagem to redeploy his last unit of sang guard. Everything in combat with the prince falls back.
Psychic phase is quick; I block both powers.
Shooting sees: 4 infernus pistols, all the boltrifles, 2 melta guns, numerous angelus boltguns, his flying dudes, and more pour into my demon prince. The result? 3 wounds. 2++/5++/4+ FnP is hard kiddies!
The assault phase is essentially the same; everything charges the demon prince. I forget that the blightspawn is close enough to make his Captain go at normal speed, but what happens is this: his captain hits and wounds 7 times on the prince. I pass 6 of 7 5++ invuns… then pass 2/3 FnP’s. Its up to sanguinor to put him down finally. Because I pointed out afterward the captain would have gone last it may have changed stuff, so Sean sportingly said that his Sang guard swung as well. Not that it mattered much, all I had was poxwalkers for him to beat up (which, BTW, he saved a bunch of wounds from).
Every thing in his army targets one thing; my Demon Prince!
This turn was a blast and really made it feel like my Prince was some sort of demi-god on the table. It was pretty epic and me and Sean had a lot of laughs every-time the dice rolled and he lived. This is what 40k is all about!
Anyways, he wasted my final DP securing his first VP. This left the score and 1-1. At this point I had to get packing up. After some discussion Sean and I both agreed I probably could table him given the game went on; however, if I didn't, I would have easily held enough points to take the game on VP's. We both had zero CP left, Sanguinor and his Captain were heavily injured, 6 intercessors remained, his Librarian, and a Lieutenant on 1 wound (plus a few sang guard and vets)and I still had most of my poxwalkers, typhus, two spawns, an untouched defiler, 30 plaguebearers, and two PBC's.
After Game Thoughts
Spoiler:
Sean was, easily, the most fun opponent I've faced since I returned to 40k. He was jovial, easy going, and any disputes we handled quickly and efficiently. We both allowed one another to fix mistakes, and neither of us neckbearded this game; it was just two buddies rolling some dice. I agreed to make this a tie, because I felt it could go either way, but Sean insisted I could win. Thanks bud!
That said, I made a lot of mistakes. I'm still forgetting rules, for example I forgot Veterans of the Long War ALL GAME which could have made a huge difference in some combats. I also made a few glaring deployment errors, which resulted in some units being useless most of the game.
I've also learned to hate any mission without progressive scoring; its essential for the game to feel dynamic, instead of killing each other til something of consequence happens. Perhaps we will roll a mission, and them implement "each unit is a VP, and each obj held at end of turn is a VP" on top of the mission itself. I just feel like many of the book missions feel half assed, personally.
As for my units, I felt like they needed to be graded this game on performance:
Typhus - C - This game showcased his 4" movement with half-advances as being a huge issue if you roll a deployment other than Dawn of War; by Turn 4 he hadn't even made it halfway across the table. I think from now on if hes in my list, I will absolutely bring a Noxious Blightbringer for the 2d6 advances.
Slaneesh Jump Sorcerer - D - Prescience is great, as is Delightful Agonies. Whats not great? Taking them on a subpar unit that, my himself, does nothing. This is the real highlight for why many people take a 1k sons detachment; it gives them access to the amazing powers from the CSM codex on units that don't suck.
Nurgle Demons Demon Prince - B - I love demon princes, they are amazing in so many ways. My nurgle one just had some bad luck. Also, taking the Horn of Nurgle is useless when your not even remotely near the Plaguebearers. I misplayed him tremendously this game.
Death Guard Demon Prince - A++ - Revoltingly Resilient, combined with the Supporting plate, character protection, flying, and 7 2 damage attacks makes for some extremely disgusting unit. I loved this loadout so much. It felt like Sean had to dedicate far more to killing this one unit than anyone really should have to. Arch Contaminator is still better IF your running a pure DG force, but for a combat unit I'll be taking this every day. I'm also going to stop putting buff spells on my Demon Princes unless they work on themselves to. Curse of the Leper and Plague Wind I'm going to take standard on many of my lists now.
Poxbringer - B - Guy is a great buffer, and healing demons is awesome. I love this little guy, even if he doesn't directly punch stuff often.
Scrivener - N/A - This guy was tucked behind my poorly placed Plaguebearers, so I feel rating him would be unfair.
Slanesh Cultists - D+ - I don't know if I just have terrible luck, but the "death by a thousand cuts" idea never works for me. 60 shots doing 5 wounds is the norm for me. However, with Delightful Agonies these guys tanked a lot of firepower. Also, 4 CP to guarentee you get off a stratgem seems like a heavy tax; and I think in the new gun-heavy meta, these guys aren't going to be as viable in large groups.
Defiler - F - What... the... balls. This guy was awful. He can't hit the broad side of the barn, and when he gets into the CC, he can't do much either without a Power Scourge (I didn't take that because the one I'm buying second hand has a launcher). Either way, now I see why people just throw this guy into CC as fast as possible... blech.
Poxwalkers - C - These guys... felt pretty much the same. Without them getting the massive numbers, they are free to wander around and try to get into CC to stay at max size. Not to mention they walk around with essentially a 5+ invun and fearless. Great still, even if they aren't OP.
Foul Blightspawns - B - While they didn't get anywhere til late, I missed having them at the front' they could have made short work of those aggressors. Love these guys!
Plaguebearers - D+ - So I found that a huge weakness of large units of these guys is space. THey take up a HUGE chunk of the field. While I misplayed them, this is a definite consideration for future games.
Nurglings - C - They did what they do, nothing else.
Blightlord Terminators - B+ - this game proved to me that, if they had WS/BS2, Blightlords would be a great unit without any support. Presience mean't they could actually hit stuff with their small number of attacks, and these guys tanked so much stuff it was insane. I did miss blades on them, they really would have mowed down stuff then!
Plagueburst Crawlers - B - What can be said that hasn't already? PBC is the primier long ranged unit for Chaos, I feel. T8 is a massive boon combined with a 5++ and FnP. I can't wait to get a third one.
Thanks for reading my report and feel free to leave C&C!
This message was edited 10 times. Last update was at 2018/05/27 22:43:56
Bow down to Guilliman for he is our new God Emperor!
Martel - "Custodes are terrible in 8th. Good luck with them. They take all the problems of marines and multiply them."
"Lol, classic martel. 'I know it was strong enough to podium in the biggest tournament in the world but I refuse to acknowledge space marines are good because I can't win with them and it can't possibly be ME'."
DakkaDakka is really the place where you need anti-tank guns to kill basic dudes, because anything less isn't durable enough.
Bow down to Guilliman for he is our new God Emperor!
Martel - "Custodes are terrible in 8th. Good luck with them. They take all the problems of marines and multiply them."
"Lol, classic martel. 'I know it was strong enough to podium in the biggest tournament in the world but I refuse to acknowledge space marines are good because I can't win with them and it can't possibly be ME'."
DakkaDakka is really the place where you need anti-tank guns to kill basic dudes, because anything less isn't durable enough.
Primark G wrote: I really liked it and think it’s an improvement.
/thumbs up
w00t!
My next rep is gonna be a tourney recap, once I get my list solidified I'll be posting the pre-rep... won't be in depth by many means (pausing to take pictures takes time...) but it should be good!
. Honestly, I placed really terribly! So my first turn was pretty much botched; I killed two marines. Yippie-kai-yay!
