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Dakka,

I signed up for the NOVA Open in September. I've never participated in a tournament before, so trying to both learn the ropes and refine a list. All advice on list or competitive tips eagerly sought.

I've put this list together and it just went 71-60 using recent rules update over a non-LOS heavy Guard list. Think it might have some potential as a casual-side tournament list. I'll walk through the list, the concept, and the battle.

List:

Battalion Detachment, 2000 Points, 8 CP
Company: The Inexorable

HQ:

Daemon Prince (Foetid Wings, 2x Malefic Talons, P: Miasma of Pestilence, R: Suppurating Plate, W: Ferric Blight)

Lord of Contagion (Plaguereaper, R: Fugaris' Helm, W: Arch-Contaminator)

Troop:

Plague Marines (3x Bolter, 1x Flail, Champion w/ Powerfist, Bolter)

Plague Marines (3x Bolter, 1x Flail, Champion w/ Powerfist, Bolter)

Poxwalkers (10x)

Poxwalkers (10x)

Poxwalkers (10x)

Elite:

Blightlord Terminators (2x Combi-Bolter & Axe; 1x Flail, 1x Plaguespewer & Axe; Champion w/ Combi-Melta & R: Plaguebringer)

Deathshroud Terminators (nothing extra, 4x Plaguespurts amongst the squad)

Deathshroud Terminators (nothing extra, 4x Plaguespurts amongst the squad)

Fast Attack:

Bloat-drone (Fleshmower)

Bloat-drone (Fleshmower)

Bloat-drone (Plaguespitter)

Heavy:

Plagueburst Crawler (Entropy Cannons, Slugger)

Plagueburst Crawler (Entropy Cannons, Slugger)


Concept:

It is easy to see how this list evolved out of casual play, a little bit of a lot of different things. I picked up the Fleshmower Drones & Deathshroud months ago when they seemed to be carrying teams. The Prince tags along with two or all three of the drones to enhance their AP and facilitate shooting vs. priority targets. The LoC comes down with the Deathshroud to improve their effectiveness.

Intent is to have a stable Objective-Secured core while imposing dilemmas on the opponent via deep-strike and fast-mover potential. Examples:

- Poxwalkers are squishy, but distract from the Plaguemarines kitted to bully the mid-field.

- The fast-moving Bloat-drones are vulnerable to the same weapons fire as the Plagueburst Crawlers. Prioritizing one leaves the other to do its job at full efficiency.

- Terminators can concentrate or disperse as needed, and an opponent would have to screen out both the backfield and the mid-field to really deny them opportunities to make their points back and advance primary points.

The impact of the recent rules update has been interesting:

- Objective Secure core has been advanced via bestowing OS on terminators

- Penalties to non-LOS shooting torpedoed my thought of grabbing a 3rd Crawler initially, but they performed very well in the direct anti-tank role. Non-LOS remains a nice back-pocket option, but not core.

- Armour of Contempt does work and pairs nicely with Disgusting Resilient to degrade adversary lethality.


Secondaries:

My group has played a lot of Crusade over the last two years, so I'm not super familiar with secondaries. Looking for advice. Largely going off the core rules book, but I know some things have changed.

Assassinate: Opponent list-driven. I am not particularly vulnerable to this either.

Bring It Down: I worry about the overall lack of anti-tank in my list, but it might be able to do work in a pinch. With up to 14 points here (2x PBCs, 3x Drones, DP), I am vulnerable to this secondary.

Titan Slayers: Opponent list-driven. May have no choice but to take it against knights.

Slay the Warlord: Why would I ever take this?

Thin Their Ranks: Opponent list-driven. I have reasonable offensive punch in both Shooting and Fight phases, but 10 models:1 VP ratio seems like a lower return than other options. With ~50 infantry, not sure an opponent would want to use this against me.

Attrition: Death Guard could definitely optimize for this, but I haven't. Max-size units make this more likely to succeed. With 15 total units, I'm instead leaning to the MSU front for flexibility. The turns I lose poxwalkers will be rough if I attempted this. I think I might be vulnerable to an opponent taking this, particularly if he has a lot of non-LOS and can reliably pick up a poxwalker unit to bump him over my tally.

While We Stand, We Fight: PBCs and Daemon Prince. All seem likely to get killed, particularly since the PBCs now need to perform direct fire. On the flip side, I'm not sure I have the reliable output to take down some hard adversary targets (e.g., Magnus, Knights). Could be vulnerable here to giving up points.

First Strike: I don't think DG have the lethality to bank this 8 points reliably.

Engage on All Fronts: I built the list partially with this Secondary in mind. Good spread of troops, terminators, and drones gives me options. The consideration is whether to push for this or Domination given how critical Primary scoring will be to a DG strategy. This could be scored by a unit contesting an objective, whereas Domination requires control. I would love for an opponent to take this against me.

Linebreaker: Requiring two units seems both higher risk and it ties my hands with the terminator deployment. I don't particularly want to leave a ton in the backfield, so I might be vulnerable here.

Domination: There is strong synergy with this and basic Primary play, but the bar to reach (3-4 objectives) is high and incurs risk.

Investigate Sites: Poxwalkers can't do it, and everything else should be shooting and punching. ???

Repair Teleport Homer: The only units in a position to potentially do this are terminators, and they have better things to do.

Raise the Banners: Strong synergy with Primary play. Shame poxwalkers can't do it. Going to be a tough call to use with terminators, but plaguemarines could do it in a pinch on an uncontested objective.

Mental Interrogation: Insufficient psykers to do this reliably.

Psychic Ritual: Insufficient psykers to do this reliably.

Abhor the Witch: Ineligible.

Fleeing Vectors: Dependent on opponent's list, but it could totally work against a Guard army. I have an abundance of plague weapons.

Despoiled Ground: Death Guard are tough, but I'm not sure they're this tough. I've seen Goonhammer describe this as a "win more", and I feel like I'm nearly tabled too often for this to be attractive.

Spread the Sickness: Reliable 9-12 points? Adversary will know about it, vulnerable to point denial if adversary has long-range non-LOS against the poxwalkers.


Battle Report:

My buddy came over today, rocking Cadians. I've played him nearly a half dozen times in the last year, though he was rocking Krieg, and I've lost every time due to highly efficient Basilisk fire.

Mission: Retrieval

The Board: 4'x6', so non-standard. I also used a lot of LOS blocking hill terrain because I'm running an Italy-set Bolt Action game tomorrow. Great channelization, cover, and LoS-blocking, though this last favors the Guard arty park.

His list: 3x Hellhounds, 2x Lascannon Sentinels, 2x Basilisks, 2x2 Quad-Mortars, 1x Medusa, 9x Infantry squads (kitted with lascannons and plasma), and assortment of leaders and melta squads. He has the counter-Chaos relic and CP recycling traits.

Secondaries: I pick Fleeing Vectors, Spread the Sickness, and Domination. He picks Bring It Down, Raise the Banners, and Domination.

Turn 1, Top: Opponent gets the roll off to go first. Of course he pops the counter-Chaos relic, allowing him to re-roll all hits and wounds for his arty park this turn. Although I deployed somewhat aggressively, the PBCs are out of range of some his artillery. He advances infantry squads and the Hellhounds to cover the midfield objectives. In shooting, he favors whittling down the poxwalkers and the bloatdrones. Lose 2x of the poxwalkers entirely, all-but-one of the third unit, and a unit of plaguemarines are degraded. This hurt, because I didn't want to shift to cover my home objective - it remains empty the remainder of the game as I decide to be aggressive and push him off his objectives in the mid-field. He also demolishes the Plaguespitter drone. He picks up 2VP for Bring It Down.

Turn 1, Bottom: Attempt The Dead Walk in the Command Phase - nada. Plaguemarines run for cover near my mid-field objectives. The bloatdrones and DP try to set up charges, though nearly all are 8-10". The PBCs line up good shots on Hellhounds. Poxwalkers attempt Spread the Sickness. The lone poxwalker can't guarantee Spread the Sickness; it fails on the 4+. Miasma goes off, protecting the DP a bit. In Shooting, one PBC pops a Hellhound and the other degrades another to just one wound, with the mortars and sluggers whittling away at squads on objectives. One of the bloat-drone successfully tags the damaged hellhound on the charge despite Overwatch, and is luckily followed in by the DP. The HH explodes, degrading two squads, the remaining HH, and a platoon leader. I pick up 3 VP for Fleeing Vectors.

Turn 2, Top: Opponent picks up 15 primary points, plus one for Banners. Opponent prioritize the Bloat-drones this turn, now that they're about to tag him hard, but he ends up spread damage a bit across the drones, the PBCs, and my troops. Bloat-drone goes down, leaving the Prince vulnerable. Last poxwalker goes down. Everything else weathers for a turn, and the HH charges the DP looking to tie him up for a turn. He picks up 2 VP for for Bring It Down, at least.

Turn 2, Bottom: With primary scoring at the end of the Command Phase, the DP burns 3 CP to dish out mortal wounds to the Hellhound in engagement range (Diseased Effluents) and the remaining infantry on the nearby objective (Release the Toxins). Both are eliminated, leaving the DP alone on the objective. 15 primary points picked up. The terminators come down, with the Blightlords reinforcing the DP near an objective, and the remainder heading to the other flank. With all three Hellhounds down, the PBCs settle on objectives, take down a Sentinel, and whittle down squads sitting on objectives. One plaguemarine squad performs Spread the Sickness. The Blightlords blast apart an infantry squad, and the Deathshroud repeat with another. Bloat-drone charges a Company Commander and special weapons team, eviscerating them. The DP charges an infantry squad... but gets a lascannon shot to the face. 3 VP for Spread, opponent picks up 2 VP for Bring It Down.

Turn 3, Top: Opponent picks up 10 primary points for his backfield and one of his midfields, plus one or more for Banners. With the terminators down, all the screening infantry squads rush forward to mob objectives. His arty park downs the bloat-drone, kills off one of the plaguemarine squad that had just performed Spread, and tries to whittle down the PBCs. Another 2 VP for Bring It Down.

Turn 3, Bottom: I pick up 10 primary points. A lot goes to plan this turn. With the PBCs on my two mid-fields, and my two terminators in position to contest his two, it's a war of attrition in which I may have the temporary advantage. The lone plaguemarine left on the board performs Spread the Sickness, the Blight Lords solidly encamp on their objective, and the Deathshroud climb a hill to dominate another (unfortunately effective pistol squirts preclude charge movements). By the end of the turn, I pick up 3 for Spread, 3 for Fleeing Vectors, and 3 for Domination.

Turn 4, Top: My opponent is the one keeping score of primaries, and he is getting worried at this point. He picks up 5 points, plus several Banners. Infantry keep running to contested the objectives - each 10-man squad is easily able to outnumber terminators temporarily. He downs a PBC and seriously degrades another this turn - I can't score Domination any more, and I have to stay aggressive to keep "Hold More" scoring from here on out. 3 VP picked up for Bring It Down.

Turn 4, Bottom: Blightlords actually Spread the Sickness on their objective in case they get knocked off it. Deathshroud "clean" off their objective, and the remaining PBC downs the last Sentinel and part of an infantry squad. 3 VP for Spread, another 3 VP for Fleeing Vectors.

Turn 5, Top: Opponent has to knock down the PBC and the Blightlords this turn to have a shot. He picks up 5 primary points plus a banner point. He kills the PBC, for another 3 VP. He kills 3x Blightlords, but that isn't enough to prompt morale.

Turn 5, Bottom: Terminators clean off their respective objectives. Having gone second, I score at the end of the round and pick up 15 for Hold One, Hold Two or More, and Hold More. No secondaries.

Score ends up somewhere around 71 to 60 in my favor, but it was a close game. Burning 3 CP in the T2 Command Phase hurt me in that I was never really able to much more than re-roll saves the rest of the game, but it gave me the initiative on one of his mid-field objectives for essentially the remainder of the game. I was generally pleased with how every unit but the Poxwalkers was able to soak damage with Armour of Contempt + Disgustingly Resilient, and it helped me weather his high volume of shooting. The Bloat-drones will go down if focused on, but they protected the DP (until a rogue overwatching lascannon), and all of that distracted from the PBCs and plaguemarines to a lesser degree. Forcing a bunch of infantry to screen in his backfield also ended up hurting his mid-field performance, as he couldn't hit critical mass and a lot of odd special weapons were out of range or didn't have LOS. The essential proof of concept worked, with the attendant dilemmas visibly in effect.

Looking for feedback. I suspect this list will still fold like wet paper to Custodes, Harlequins, or the T'au (they did fold about a month ago, gotta learn to use LOS blockers better). I have 2x Rhinos, more Plaguemarines, 3x Blighthaulers, and members of the Foetid Virion to play with.

I would probably swap out the LOC for a malignant plaguecaster (I like psychers)

Plaguemarines are still very expensive for what they do, or don't do.(DG terminators are more efficient)

Consider a tallyman with his relic, he combo's twice by giving +1 to hit to a core unit, exploding 6's on all core units that shoot, and gives you command points.


Another thought is to run 3 PBC's and keep all other units under their point cost and plan for to the last secondary.


I do like your analysis, very thoughtful. Its okay to have 3 to 4 characters... if you opponent gets all 4... then likely you were supposed to lose, but usually you lose say 2 and if they went for assassinate, you have tricked them into scoring 6 points and lowering their overall score. Secondary's are a tool and a trap, evil two way street.

Thanks Sazzlefrats. If I don't know what I'm doing, best I can do is be transparent with my thinking.

Plaguemarines and drop from an LOC to Plaguecaster free up 275 points, a WLT, and relic (or 2x CP) in opportunity cost.

A PBC or adding 5 more Blightlords is easy within that framing. I think I'd need another 20 points somewhere to fit the Tallyman in with a 10-block of Blightlords, which is probably what he needs to justify his cost, right?

So, options:
A: PBC and a Tallyman just for CP generation. 45 points to spare.

B: PBC and 2x cultist units to try for more screens, backfield sitters. 15 points to spare.

C: Second unit of 5 Blightlords, probably as range kitted obj sitters. About 50 points to spare.

D: upgrade Blightlords to unit of 10, probably with 2x blight launchers or cannons, and a Tallyman to support. Requires a bit of point hoovering.

Thoughts on those options?

What secondaries to DG armies typically try to reliably achieve?

Usually DG get off 2+ spread sickness easily but you have to competely block off enemy or they will get that 3rd objective and stop you scoring easily. Vectors you don’t get points if you destroy the unit they must fail a save so it’s not good for most matches. Stranglehold is good since DG are tanky they should usually control 3+ first 2 turns. Against Tau ALWAYs take interrogation since they cannot deny it


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Your champion also should not waste points on the fiat. Take the cleaver. If you have spare points get the mace. It’s only -1 AP but deals 3 straight damage so is reliable especially using inexorable company.