Howdy all,
First game back for 8th edition, and man, am I raring to go!
For anyone who doesn't know me (and you probably don't at this point...) I was once a staple battle report writer here on Dakka. I also wrote some articles for Reecius when Frontlinegaming.com was just getting started back at the tail end of 5th/early 6th edition, and had lots of experience with 5th having played/owned every army besides normal spess marines, Eldar (normal space elves are lame), and Sisters (I hate flamers...). This was back in 2011/2012, and since quitting during 6th, I had a two year stint playing Warmahorde heavily (Skorne, Cryx, Menoth), then quit wargaming all-together for a few years to play board games, and now I'm back with
40k playing the new Death Guard with
CSM (and soon Demons.) You can see my ongoing Battle-report thread here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/387992.page .
I love writing battle reports because, to me, learning this game requires a lot of time investment both by personal experience and reading on others experiences. Video reports are nice, but they add a lot of extra details and distractions a written report does not. Plus I love showcasing others painted works of art, and tactical decisions from both sides... and I'm ugly and most other gamers are too, so who wants to see our ugly mugs?
That said, let me dive right into my first Battle report for 8th (and look forward to many, many others)
Game Played @ Hobby Chest, Jacksonville, NC
Death Guard Army List
++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [11
PL, 170pts] ++
+ No Force Org Slot +
Legion: Alpha Legion
+
HQ [8
PL, 130pts] +
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour [8
PL, 130pts]: Combi-bolter [2pts], Force stave [8pts], Mark of Tzeentch, Prescience, Warptime
+ Troops [3
PL, 40pts] +
Chaos Cultists [3
PL, 40pts]: 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun [36pts], No Chaos Mark
. Cultist Champion [4pts]: Autogun
++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [76
PL, 1326pts] ++
+ Heavy Support [16
PL, 292pts] +
Plagueburst Crawler [8
PL, 146pts]: 2x Entropy cannon [40pts], Heavy Slugger [6pts]
Plagueburst Crawler [8
PL, 146pts]: 2x Entropy cannon [40pts], Heavy Slugger [6pts]
+
HQ [22
PL, 379pts] +
Chaos Lord [5
PL, 74pts]: Bolt pistol, Chainsword RELIC: Fulgaris' Helm
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour [8
PL, 130pts]: 3. Tenacious Survivor, Blades of Putrefaction, Combi-bolter [2pts], Force stave [8pts], Putrescent Vitality, Warlord
Typhus [9
PL, 175pts]: Curse of the Leper, Miasma of Pestilence
+ Elites [18
PL, 333pts] +
Blightlord Terminators [14
PL, 268pts]
. Blightlord Terminator [46pts]: Balesword [6pts], Combi-bolter [2pts]
. Blightlord Terminator [58pts]: Bubotic Axe [5pts], Combi-plasma [15pts]
. Blightlord Terminator [48pts]: Flail of Corruption [10pts]
. Blightlord Terminator [58pts]: Bubotic Axe [5pts], Reaper autocannon [15pts]
. Blightlord Terminator Champion [58pts]: Bubotic Axe [5pts], Combi-plasma [15pts]
Noxious Blightbringer [4
PL, 65pts]: Plasma pistol [7pts] RELIC: Dolorous Knell
+ Fast Attack [8
PL, 158pts] +
Foetid Bloat-drone [8
PL, 158pts]: 2x Plaguespitters [34pts], Plague probe [25pts]
+ Troops [12
PL, 164pts] +
Chaos Cultists [3
PL, 40pts]: 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun [36pts]
. Cultist Champion [4pts]: Autogun
Chaos Cultists [3
PL, 40pts]: 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun [36pts]
. Cultist Champion [4pts]: Autogun
Poxwalkers [6
PL, 84pts]: 14x Poxwalker [84pts]
++ Total: [87
PL, 1496pts] ++
5
CP total (6 - 1)
My grey and green stuffed death guard... not very impressive, sorry :(
David Barretts Space Wolves Army List
++ Outrider Detachment +1CP (Imperium - Space Wolves) [64
PL, 860pts] ++
+ Fast Attack +
Swiftclaws [14
PL, 172pts]
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw Attack Bike
. . Attack Bike: Heavy bolter, Twin boltgun
. Swiftclaw Pack Leader: Wolf claw
Swiftclaws [14
PL, 172pts]
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw Attack Bike
. . Attack Bike: Heavy bolter, Twin boltgun
. Swiftclaw Pack Leader: Wolf claw
Swiftclaws [14
PL, 172pts]
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw: Bolt Pistol
. Swiftclaw Attack Bike
. . Attack Bike: Heavy bolter, Twin boltgun
. Swiftclaw Pack Leader: Wolf claw
+
HQ +
Rune Priest on Bike [8
PL, 126pts]: 2. Tempest's Wrath, Bolt pistol, Runic armour, Runic sword
+ Elites +
Wolf Guard on Bikes [14
PL, 218pts]
. Wolf Guard on Bike: Chainsword, Storm shield
. Wolf Guard on Bike: Chainsword, Storm shield
. Wolf Guard on Bike: Chainsword, Storm shield
. Wolf Guard on Bike: Wolf claw, Wolf claw
. Wolf Guard on Bike Pack Leader: Storm shield, Wolf claw, Wolf claw
++ Outrider Detachment +1CP (Imperium - Space Wolves) [35
PL, 640pts] ++
+ Fast Attack +
Fenrisian Wolves [7
PL, 87pts]: Cyberwolf, 12x Fenrisian Wolf
Land Speeders [12
PL, 258pts]
. Land Speeder: Assault cannon, Multi-melta
. Land Speeder: Assault cannon, Multi-melta
Skyclaws [9
PL, 160pts]
. 9x Skyclaw
. Skyclaw Pack Leader: Bolt pistol, Chainsword
+
HQ +
Wolf Priest on Bike [7
PL, 135pts]: Bolt pistol
++ Total: [99
PL, 1500pts] ++
Davids painted Biker Wolves; they look amazing!
Pre Game Analysis
Death Guard: Being brand new, and my first game, I'm most nervous of two things; first, any tricks the Space Wolves may have. Secondly, forgetting rules, spells, and all of that. I know the Biker wolves are fast, and if they are anything like they were in 5th, great at
CC. This is a learning game for me, so hopefully I do well!
Space Wolves: David told me he was most nervous of the Plagueburst crawlers; he was unfamiliar with the Death Guard, and knew the
PBC's looked scary and had heard tales of their resilience.
We end up rolling Maelstrom of War mission CONTACT LOST, and HAMMER AND ANVIL deployment.
The field of battle! Great city terrain painted by David himself, he brought the mat and terrain to the store. Thanks bud!
Death Guard deployment - All terminators in reserve
Space Wolves deployment - Speeders in reserve
You can see the 6 objectives are spread out, and because I got to choose side, I chose the side with 3 objectives in my deployment zone. David didn't mind... he wanted to get in my face anyway!
Death Guard finish deploying second, so the Wolves take first turn. I fail to seize and off we go!
Space Wolves Turn 1
All the wolves speed forward! Everything turbo boosts. David uses 1
CP (putting him down to 4) to Outflank his speeders.
Shooting he kills 1 unit of cultists, scoring first blood. He kills 6 in another unit (after morale). His speeders unload into my back
PBC, and he is forced to use 1
CP for a reroll to hit with his melta (leaving him at 3). After all is said and done, he does 6 wounds to it (T8 is hard to crack!). He has no charges due to boosting, and his rune priest stays back to hold his objective.
Wolves in my grill >.>
My pile of dead cultists :(
David doesn't complete any of his tactical objectives (I forget the names :/)
Score:
SW 1 -
DG 0
Death Guard Turn 1
Time for my slow dudes to get movin'! I use 1
CP to use The Dead Walk again (putting me to 4), I then advance my middle unit of cultists into the middle ruins. Typhus, the zombies, and my Blightcaller shamble forward. My damaged
PBC stays steady, while my other
PBC and lord in the back move up. I deep strike in my terminators and both sorcerers near his large blob of bikers to my left. Lastly, my drone advances as far forward as he can, trying to get close to his wolf pack.
In the psychic phase Blades and Vitality go onto my terminators, and David attempts to block Warptime (it goes off) scootching the blightlords closer to their target. I forget to cast Priscience. Typhus miasma's the poxwalkers, but he perils for 3 wounds (I save 2 with DR).
Shooting my
PBC's kill a handful of fenrisian wolves with mortars, and I nick one of the speeders (I missed a lot...). The blightlords and cultists unload into the center bikers, but only kill one and damage one. Lastly, the drone is out of range for the wolves, so blasts the bikers near the poxwalkers.. and does 1 damage. FAIIIILLLLINGGGG
lol.
Onto charges, the Poxwalkers make their charge into the biker squad on the top-middle, and the lords double-charge both units they can reach. MISTAKE #1: I forget what blades do, and forget to mention miasma on my poxwalkers. My blightlords roll terribly, and he rolls well for his stormshields, and I only kill 1 biker from each squad, while he kills 1 blightlord. My poxwalkers flail about, and despite a bucket of dice, do 1 damage to his bikers... Morale kills a few more fenrisian wolves, leaving them at 5 model left.
This is beginning of T2, but end of T1.
Terminator and Biker scrum!
Space wolves dead pile T1
I pulled the double
VP strategem combined with the "Warlord must kill 7 models"... MISTAKE #2: I forgot to mark my book page, so I forgot I had this mission. Secondly, I didn't know you kept pulling missions, I thought they were for a single turn... woops. As such, this mission was forgotten rest of the game.
SCORE:
SW 1 -
DG 0
Space Wolves Turn 2
David thanks his lucky stars that I didn't do much, and pulls his two objectives (he secured the middle, and the objective in his zone). Hes now up to three objectives. Movement sees his middle bikers move up a bit, his rune lord turbo over near the terminator/biker scrum, and his fenrisians and bike priest move toward my bloat drone. His speeders stay still. His assault marines hop on his back objective.
His rune lord casts smite + jaws of the world wolf, I fail to cancel both, and hes able to pick off one more blight lord after DR saves leaving me with 3 (one has 1 wound).
In shooting, his speeders unload on my
PBC and do... 0 wounds after saves. His middle bikers unload into my middle cultists, killing quite a few (5 I think). His bikers in
CC shoot their pistols into the blightlords, doing no wounds after saves. I add all my dead cultists as zombies to the walkers... mmmm zombies.
Onto the charges, his fenrisian wolves charge the drone, who flamers the crap outta them killing all but the cyber wolf. The priest then chanrges in too. The middle bikers charge my middle unit of cultists they shot at. Lastly, his speeders declare a charge on my
PBC, but fail because they didn't more (he didn't wanna have -1 to hit).... my Overwatch is brutal; one entropy cannon hit for 6 wounds, killing a speeder outright, which explodes and does 3 wounds to the other speeder leaving it at 2 wounds! Ouch.
In assault the terminator scrum is a wet noodle fight; I kill the heavy bolter biker, and he is able to wound one terminator, I have 3 left still (vitality saved my buns here... yay T6!). MISTAKE #3: I should have swung all my hits into the bikers without stormshields, I hit/wounded 4 times with my flail, but he saved EVERY wound... that would have basically killed the other squad! Hes able to kill several poxwalkers, but theres still 13 left after the cultists he kills. Once again, wet noodle, I kill nothing... even the bloat drone fails to kill the last fenrisian when he makes 2 5+ saves
lol. Morale wipes out my last cultist in the middle squad, so the bikes consolidate into my poxwalkers.
My midfield starts to crumble
3 terminators hold out against the tide of bikers
David accomplishes one of his Tactical Objectives.
SCORE:
SW 2-
DG 0
Death Guard Turn 2
This turn can be pivotal as if he wipes out my terminators, I'm screwed. Both sorcerer lords move up to support my terminators, typhus moves to help out the poxwalkers, and my 4 remaining cultists get out of dodge, moving toward Objective 4 (this turn I used Davids card deck and pulled it... so getting me a card deck) + I pull an objective to have my opponent fail morale. MISTAKE #4: I should have moved my drone out of combat to force him to charge me again.
Psychic phase, Blades fails to go off, but vitality does (despite him trying to cancel it). My other terminator lord smites and kills a single biker, and casts prescience on the terminators. Miasma goes on the walkers again.
Shooting, 2
PBC's shooting all guns (minus mortars) on his remaining speeder leave it with 1 wound... for reals? The mortars kill 3 assault marines in his back field though.
I charge... and typhus makes it to the bikers with a 9 (after spending 1
CP to reroll, leaving me 3)! My terminator lords only one makes the charge (the other rolled a 3 when he was 5 inches away...). In assault, my poxwalkers do... 1 friggin wound on 36 attacks
lol. Typhus hits and wounds three times, and david goes on a hot streak making 3 6+ saves. The blightlord scrum continues, he does 1 wound to my nurgle lord, and kills
Typhus joins the battle!
Cultists booking it for the objective
Lord n' terminators faiiiillllinggggggg
Lord vs bikers
I do not score any objectives again...
SCORE:
SW 2-
DG 0
Space Wolves Turn 3
David pulls only one tactical objective this time. His movement is limited due to everyone, besides his assault marines and lord, tied up in combat. His lord moves to the center objective (he has the Control Objective 1
TO), while the assault marines shuffle forward a tiny bit to shoot pistols at my terminators.
Psychic phase his lord smites at Typhus (I fail my hood), who tanks the wounds like a beast, and he tries to cast jaws but fails (he used his last
CP here, and rolled low :( ).
Shooting his pistols do nadda to my terminators, and his speeder fails to hit my
PBC (lots of failed wounds).
Onto assault! In the terminator scrum, he manages to kill one more, leaving me with the flail dude and my lord against 7 remaining bikers (I think I killed one more?). MISTAKE #5: I kept trying to flail his stormshields... think I'd learn by now to kill the easier squad first ><. Poxwalkers keep on trucking, doing 1 wound and he kills 2 more walkers leaving me at around 11 or 12, my drone STILL cannot kill the friggin fenrisian wolf as he rolls more 5+ saves... stupid thing.
My terminators won't die, but neither will his bikers!
David scores none of his tactical objectives.
SW 2-
DG 0
Death Guard Turn 3
This turn I need to do something, because my terminators are about done, and the rest of my army won't be able to take everything of his AND secure some objectives. In movement, I use 2
CP to revive a terminator with Nurgles Gift strategem, bringing back one of my axe guys. This leaves me at 1
CP. My cultists continue their run for Objective 4. My bloat drone moves out of combat with his dudes (I remembered!). Finally, my other sorcerer lord (tzeentch) moves to challenge his Rune Lord one on one >.>
Psychic phase, miasma goes on the walkers, blades fails (AGAIN!!! balls...), Vitality goes off but I perils. After thinking I decide to roll the wounds... I roll a 6. I use a
CP to reroll.... and roll a 5. My lord is now at 1 wound left and hes my warlord >.> Other sorcerer Prescience on the Blightlords, and then Warptimes himself into charge distance to his lord. I think typhus smited a biker too.
In the shooting phase my army finally does some work. The
PBC's: mortar and kill his Priest who is his warlord (I did 6 wounds), blow up his last speeder, and finally kill the stupid wolf with their stubbers. Split fires kinda crazy... why would they let us do that?
Finally In assault, I learn my lesson, and my flail swings at his non-stormshield bikers. Result? He kills all but one. However, in return David kills my warlord with his lightning claws... crap. My sorcerer lord makes it into
CC with his lord, but I fail my hits, and he actually hits and wounds me 3 times. Typhus wipes out his entire bike squad hes facing (4 hits, 4 wounds) consolidating into the poxwalker/biker scrum. Finally, poxwalkers kill his wounded biker, and he throws all he can into typhus, who makes all his saves.
Lastly, he fails morale on the single biker meaning I finish my objective.
Bikers finally dying!
Just after typhus won his combat, guess I hadn't moved my sorcerer lord yet
This turn was a big swing for me, scoring me two points (warlord, 1 obj), but David also scores one objective. He needs to keep his lord near that middle objective by the end of next turn and he will secure that objective too, so I need to stop him!
SCORE:
SW 3 -
DG 2
Space Wolves Turn 4
David surveys the field and declares my terminators must die. He moves his assault marines to assist in the endeavor, but nothing else can really move.
Psychic phase, his wolf lord gets off smite, and he kills my terminator lord with it... crap. This leaves him on the middle objective uncontested.
Shooting he shoots his pistols again, which do notta, and he charges into my terminators.
The Typhus/Poxwalker/Biker scrum finally finishes, with Typhus wiping them out to a man. This allows me to consolidate 3" and contest the middle objective (typhus vs his lord). In the main event, his assault marines swing and manage to wound one of my terminators... but my flail goes bonkers and kills 6 assault marines! His elite bikers fail to wound again thanks to vitality, thank goodness because next turn its gone. Because of my contest of objective 1, I stop david scoring again.
His assault marines fail morale, but otherwise his other guys are good.
SCORE:
SW 3 -
DG 2
Death Guard Turn 4
My movement phase is simple, the
PBC's shuffle to see his bikers, my terminators fall back from combat. My cultists make to to objective 4, while the poxwalkers are able to advance and spread between objectives 2 and 5. This sets me up to score 2 points next turn as I have Hold objective 4 and 2 for 2 turns as tactical objectives.
Psychic phase is simple; I don't cast a damn thing.
In shooting, I shoot EVERYTHING that can see the bikers at them, but I roll all 1's and 2's to hit or wound... lolz. Lame
Assault sees Typhus cleave his lord in half thanks to having a 5+ invun.
Death guard spreading to take all the objectives.
Terminators fall back to allow the
PBC's to try and get work done
Typhus takes the center, glory to nurgle!
SCORE:
SW 3 -
DG 2
Space Wolves Turn 5
All he has is his 3 elite bikers, and after some thought, he decides he needs to try and take objective 1 to have a chance to win. He moves them toward typhus.
Shooting he unloads everything into my poxwalkers, but cannot get enough wounds to stop me from holding two objectives.
He charges into typhus, and... gets no wounds thanks to a bunch of 1's to hit and wound. Like seriously... I think there was 8, I had a picture but dunno where it went. Typhuses wounds are all blocked by stormshields.
Bikers attempt to secure the middle objective in a last ditch effort!
SCORE:
SW 3 -
DG 2
Death Guard Turn 5
Theres no movement other than my terminators getting close to the bikers. Also no shooting.
In assault, Typhus + Terminators = dead bikers finally.
Game end state
This secured me line breaker, objective 2, objective 4, and I scored another tactical objective as well.
As a result the score was Space Wolves 3, Death Guard 6.
Post Game Thoughts (Space Wolves)
Davids thoughts via
FB message:
as for what I think went wrong. I feel like I didn't take advantage of my outflank stratagem, could have placed more of my heavy hitters behind you which might have helped out.
Also my dice need to be blessed by the omnissiah
anyone have any holy oils?
so revisiting what i could have done better, i just realized that outflank stratagem is only for Space Wolves Infantry models, totally messed that up. luckily it didn't have much of an impact on the game overall
seems like this list doesn't work well with the current rules for Space Wolves. back to the drawing board
He said his MVP was the elite biker squad, and his LVP was the Speeders (6 wounds over 3 turns shooting at a single tank).
My thoughts would be he should have utilized his mobility better to play "keep away" a bit and shoot up my squads. He has superior mobility and firepower, all I had was a drone and 2 tanks. I'd also say he needed more solutions for high toughness models, everything had
Str 5 lightning claws, but he had nothing to reliably wound T6+ models. I would have also been more agressive with the assault marines, had they moved up the field rather than sat back holding objectives he could have possibly wiped out my walkers and cultists far earlier, allowing his army to reach my back lines. His bikers were easily tying up the terminators all game. However this is my first game, and he did mention he didn't know what he was going to do to tackle my tanks.
Post Game Thoughts (Death Guard)
I would say my MVP was my Flail Blightlord Terminator, he accounted for a LOT of kills (6 bikers, 7 assault marines) and Typhus (6 Bikers + lord). My LVP would probably be my Blightcaller, he was nice to have, but he didn't do much (plus I forgot about his Knell relic all game....)
There were a lot of mistakes I made, which is to be expected on my first game. First, I kept forgetting what powers did what, and had to keep researching stats. I need to get some spell markers so I know where I cast what, and how many spells I have left to attempt; a few turns I forgot what my secondary power was and forgot to cast it (I think I remembered Curse of the Leper at the end, but it didn't do anything). Second, I need to buy me one of those objective decks... rolling for
tac objectives is a horrible pain, and you have to keep track of which ones you have. I had 3 objectives I even forgot I had at games end. Third, I played some rules wrong. For example, I didn't know Miasma worked in
CC until turn 3, or that
tac objectives were cumulative and you could have 6, or that you roll to hit for the flail and then for EACH hit you get D3 hits. I was rolling 2d3 for attacks then rolling attacks. Fourth, I now see why Arch Contaminator is a must for the
PBC's; Fulgaris' Helm is great on models that need to cover a lot of ground, but my lord and two tanks say pretty well within 6" of one another all game. Those 3" more did squat other than waste an extra
CP. Lastly, I kept swinging at the damn stormshields which did nothing.... I need to learn target priority and what does what.
However, David was a great player, and he allowed me to make mistakes and see what I was doing wrong. There was a few times he said "I was wondering when you would do that" and we had a good laugh. He was extremely patient and answered all my questions, and it was a great introductory game. I'm definitely looking forward to future games, and we will definitely get a rematch!
Thanks for reading and feel free to discuss any mistakes, give advice, etc.
Slow and heavy vs quick and deadly!
10000 pts
4000 pts
Jan 20th is the game bro! Probably be posted on the 21st (22nd at the latest). I wanted to get a leg up and get this started to get my format down for future B-reps