Howdy all,
So I'm down in Texas for a week and getting some good games in here against the local community! I was able to get lucky and found a small local gaming group that is focused around competitive play and ITC format. Jon is one of the leaders of this small group and was generous and extended me a game literally 30 minutes after finding his group online; which was awesome! Because I forgot my ITC packet (and he didn't bring one with him) we played one of the new
CA 2018 missions; Beachhead. Onto the lists!
Nurgle Knights
++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [60
PL, 1051pts] ++
+
HQ +
Daemon Prince of Nurgle [9
PL, 180pts]: Hellforged sword, Wings
+ Elites +
Blightlord Terminators [27
PL, 451pts]
. Blightlord Champion: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Balesword, Combi-plasma
. Blightlord Terminator: Blight launcher, Bubotic Axe
. Blightlord Terminator: Blight launcher, Bubotic Axe
. Blightlord Terminator: Flail of Corruption
. Blightlord Terminator: Flail of Corruption
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-plasma
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
+ Heavy Support +
Plagueburst Crawler [8
PL, 140pts]: 2x Plaguespitter, Heavy slugger
Plagueburst Crawler [8
PL, 140pts]: 2x Plaguespitter, Heavy slugger
Plagueburst Crawler [8
PL, 140pts]: 2x Plaguespitter, Heavy slugger
++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Daemons) [26
PL, 464pts] ++
+ No Force Org Slot +
Chaos Allegiance: Chaos Undivided
+
HQ +
Poxbringer [4
PL, 70pts]
Poxbringer [4
PL, 70pts]
+ Troops +
Nurglings [9
PL, 162pts]: 9x Nurgling Swarms
Nurglings [6
PL, 108pts]: 6x Nurgling Swarms
Nurglings [3
PL, 54pts]: 3x Nurgling Swarms
++ Questor Traitoris Super-Heavy Detachment Auxiliary Detachment(Chaos - Renegade Knights) [25
PL, 485pts] ++
+ Lord of War +
Renegade Knight [25
PL, 485pts]: Heavy stubber, Twin Icarus Autocannon
. Avenger gatling cannon and heavy flamer: Avenger gatling cannon, Heavy flamer
. Avenger gatling cannon and heavy flamer: Avenger gatling cannon, Heavy flamer
++ Total: [111
PL, 2000pts] ++
Altaioc Eldar
++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [48
PL, 1004pts] ++
+ No Force Org Slot +
Craftworld Attribute: Alaitoc: Fieldcraft
+
HQ +
Farseer [6
PL, 110pts]: 1. Guide, 3. Fortune, Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade
Warlock [2
PL, 55pts]: 1. Conceal/Reveal, Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade
+ Troops +
Rangers [3
PL, 60pts]: 5x Ranger
Rangers [3
PL, 60pts]: 5x Ranger
+ Dedicated Transport +
Wave Serpent [9
PL, 157pts]: Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones, Twin Shuriken Cannon
Wave Serpent [9
PL, 157pts]: Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones, Twin Shuriken Cannon
+ Heavy Support +
Fire Prism [9
PL, 167pts]: Spirit Stones, Twin Shuriken Catapult
Fire Prism [9
PL, 167pts]: Spirit Stones, Twin Shuriken Catapult
Fire Prism [9
PL, 167pts]: Spirit Stones, Twin Shuriken Catapult
Warp Hunter [12
PL, 177pts]: Twin Shuriken Catapult
Warp Hunter [12
PL, 177pts]: Twin Shuriken Catapult
++ Patrol Detachment(Aeldari - Ynnari) [7
PL, 132pts] ++
+
HQ +
Yvraine [7
PL, 132pts]: Ancestors' Grace, Gaze of Ynnead, Word of the Phoenix
+ Troops +
Rangers [3
PL, 60pts]: 5x Ranger
+ Heavy Support +
Dark Reapers [13
PL, 345pts]
.. 9x Dark Reaper: 9x Reaper Launcher
.. Dark Reaper Exarch: Tempest Launcher
++ Total: [106
PL, 1991pts] ++
Mission and Deployment
We rolled Beachhead from
CA 2018. Nurgle won the roll off and picked Dawn of War deployment. The mission has one side deploy fully then the other. Eldar deployed first, holding both his warp tanks in deep strike, nurgle deployed second holding Terminators in reserve. Nurgle failed to seize. Deployment looked like this:
Eldar Turn 1
Jon disembarked his Reapers and his
HQ's on the back side of the long terrain on his side. Both serpents moved toward my largest nurgling unit.
Psychic saw him get a ton of stuff off on the reapers, most importantly Guide failed this turn.
Shooting Jon did well, taking one
PBC to 2 wound left, knocking a second to 5 wounds left, and killing my small nurgling unit. He plinked a nurgling from the largest squad.
He charged both serpents into the nurglings where they looked meanly at one another.
(Forgot a photo!)
Jon scored 1 for First Strike. The primary mission objectives don't start scoring until turn 2 in this mission.
Score is Eldar 1 - Nurgle 0
Nurgle Turn 1
Well, that certainly could have been a lot worse. I start my moving all three
PBC's up maximum after measuring distances; due to where his serpents are I can shoot one of them with all my flamers. My large nurgling unit falls back between the two serpents. The 6 man unit moves to charge his Rangers sitting on his objective in his deployment zone.
Psychic phase is pretty uneventful; I smite the closest serpent, heal 3 damage off the tank that had 5 wounds (bringing it to 8).
Shooting I do pretty well, all three
PBC's flamers claim the nearest serpent, while my mortars are super unlucky and I only kill a couple reapers thanks to fortune/protect. My Knight, however, can see the reapers, and unloads killing most of them. He also puts 4 wounds on the Prism in the open.
Assault my 6 nurglings make it into his Rangers, but he makes a bunch of saves and 2 are left after I swing.
I score First Strike as well. This makes the score Eldar 1-Nurgle 1
Eldar Turn 2
Jon is still in good condition, so he drops in both his Warp tanks behind my lines; I had never faced these before... and afterward I'm glad I know what they do now! He moves his remaining serpent onto the middle objective. Not much else movement.
Psychic he gets off everything except for his soul burst power and something else minor, but it didn't matter much.
Shooting he puts his remaining reapers, his wave serpent, and all his rangers into the
PBC with 2 wounds left... bad rolling on his part, along with some good saves, sees it live with 1 wound still! Next he sends both Warp tanks and his Fire Prism into the Knight; this forces me to pop rotate, and it pulls through with 7 wounds left.
Jon doesn't assault anything, but my Nurglings kill only a single ranger (seriously... 24 attacks and they kill 1 T3 model????)
Jon did not control any objectives (per the mission you score all objectives at the beginning of your player turn). So the score is Eldar 1-Nurgle 1.
Nurgle Turn 2
When my turn begins I control Jons side objective and my objective, so I score 4
VP. Movement is pretty easy, I move both
PBC's toward the middle, while my Knight,
DP, and 1 wound
PBC move to intercept his backfield drops. My large nurgling unit moves into cover to attack his stuff there. I drop my terminators toward the middle, aiming to move them to control and contest the middle objective (which is worth 2
VP).
Psychic is simple, I cast Virulent blessing on the large nurgling unit. I heal the 1 wound
PBC, but only roll 1 wound back.
Shooting I use my remaining
CP to trail of destruction again; the Knight knocks his exposed Fire Prism to 2 wounds left, and plinks a few wounds off his Warp Hunter. The Blightlords fail to kill the 2 wound prism with 4 Plasma and 4 Blightlauncher shots, but they do kill two rangers on the tower terrain. My
PBC's do the business, knocking the middle Serpent to 10, an the warp tanks both take a few wounds.
In assault my large nurgling unit charges the reapers, and do exactly jack squat, and I lose 2 bases in return due to intervening characters. I finish the ranger finally on his objective, and my blight lords make the charge into his wave serpent! Oddly enough, I roll 7 attacks for my flails, and roll 6 1's and 2's to hit.... lmao. However the axes redeem me somewhat, putting 6 wounds on it and leaving the serpent at 4 wounds. I also charge the Warp tanks with my knight and
DP, and luckily I live (I didn;t realize the guns auto hit!) and do a bunch of wounds, leaving one tank at 2 wounds, and a second at 7 wounds.
Score is Eldar 1-Nurgle 5
Eldar Turn 3
Jons in a bind; he is not able to score any points again! I contest the middle with a
PBC and multiple blightlords, 6 nurglings are having a party in his deployment zone, and my backfield objective is controlled by a
PBC and Poxbringer. Surveying the field Jon declares that this will decide the game.
He moves both his warp tanks out of combat, posing them to try and threaten my large stuff. His remaining serpent flies onto the ruins in the middle, while his reapers fall back. His 2 wound prism moves to kill nurglings as do the others.
Psychic doesn't matter much, he gets off everything on the reapers.
Shooting he UNLOADS 3 fire prism's stuff, plus his reapers, into the nurglings on his objective and only kills a base and half. On my backfield he is able to knock the Knight to 3 wounds, fails to hurt my demon prince ( poor rolls) and even the 2 wound
PBC laughs at his tanks, every shuriken weapon and ranger snipers weapon fails to hurt the guy.
At this point Jon has: one warp hunter with 2 wounds, serpent with 4 wounds, second warp hunter with 8 wounds, 2 unwounded prisms, 1 prism with 2 wounds, his characters, 4 reapers, and 8 Rangers. I have only lost 3 nurglings, and even damaged my tanks wound be able to probably kill most of his stuff this turn. With that he concedes as I would score a whopping 6
VP next turn.
Results and Post game thoughts
Nurgle wins through concession.
The Chapter approved missions are.... interesting. It definitely encourages you to play the mission, and not just focus on killing. As it stands, my list did this mission very well; the idea is to pin my opponents army and then win through attrition. While I will say Jons rolls at time were meh, dice swung both ways; 5 rangers lasted 2 full turns in
CC with 6 nurglings. So... yerp. Dice are dice. I didn't like, however, the way deployment worked; deploying one army then the second is a huge boon to actually going second, allowing a good counter deployment. This worked heavily in my favor, allowing me to blunt Jons alpha strike with good deployment and the good ol prepared positions strat, which is a big part of why I didn't lose a
PBC turn one.
Jons army was pretty cool and I gave him some tips to improve on it; hopefully I get to face him again this week in a good rematch!
As for my list, it operated as I expected, but I have to stop trying to get nurglings to kill stuff, or rely on them to secure a kill... seriously. One day I'll learn.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave me some C&C!