As the two armies began to open fire upon one another the plaguecasters behind the Death Guard lines began chanting, stirring up the Warp and letting it drift into the real world across the battlefield.
Planet: Fandrel.
Region: Damocles Sector.
Death Guard vs Tau Empire.
1500 points.
Mission: No Mercy - Empyric Storms.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.
After a month long break for Christmas I'm back for a whole new year of Warhammer 40K. First game of 2018 was against my friend Adam and his Tau army. He let me pick the mission so I figured we should have a kill mission with one of the new Chapter Approved 2017 battle zones. Something interesting to start the year off.
To start off with Adam had joked that he could do with the Hammer and Anvil deployment because terrain layout would give him some good shots. That was exactly what I rolled and since both ends were fairly much the same I just picked the end nearest to where I had put my stuff down. I think during deployment Adam made a small mistake. I'm not sure whether he knew or not to be fair, but instead of picking the units in reserve to start with, he nominated them at the end of his deployments. If he had done it the other way around, he would have had a better time deciding where to put his units compared to mine. I don't think it made a huge difference really but it may have helped him.
I had the first turn and Adam failed to seize the initiative. To start with I rolled for the empyric storm and got Empyric Foresight giving my daemons rerolls to hit. This only really helped my defiler this turn but a good start. Everything moved forward. Because of where he had placed his Tidewall Gunrig I had my big guns on the left flank moving towards it. All the infantry moved up on the right hugging the cover. As Adam had dropped a Ghostkeel and some Pathfinders into the central ruins, that's where I threw my poxwalkers to hold it in place. I used the blasphemous machines stratagem with the defiler and smashed some wounds from the fortification. Adam pointed out that it needs a crew to fire properly so I blew the fire warriors manning it to hell with the renegade knight. I really expected that to be a lot worse than it actually was.
Adam's turn 1 and he rolled Reality Speeds which didn't help either of us. He didn't moved and instead went straight to shooting. He knocked some wounds from my bloat drone and killed a couple pox walkers but that was it. His dice did not want to know and he failed to get any markerlight hits.
Turn 2 and I rolled the Empyric Shield so we all got a 6+ invulnerable save. At last something that might help the Tau against me. I continued to move up on both flanks. The bloat drone blasted the ghostkeel with gooing acids and I focused on taking out the tidewall because it was kill points. Smite finally came into play and a unit of fire warriors and the ghostkeel suffered some unpleasentness. The poxwalkers then charged in and I lost another one from overwatch and one more I think from being smashed by the battlesuit.
Adam's turn 2 say him roll a pointless Terrors of the Warp result so he kept going. Nothing moved on his side but he decided to drop his riptide and a unit of three battlesuits into my deployment zone. The bloat drone took some more hits. I lost a single plague marine to the battlesuits but the renegade knight's void shields held up under everything the riptide could throw at it. In battle the ghostkeel feel, pulled down by the poxwalkers who then consolidated into the pathfinders hiding behind it.
Turn 3 and I rolled Empyric Terror which reduced leaderships. At this point I think Adam was feeling a sense of he'd already lost. My forces simply continued moving up the table. The cultists stayed put to handle the battlesuits and the renegade knight turned around to handle the riptide. A number of fire warriors fell to two lots of smite and then in the shooting phase I slaughtered loads of his power troops. Between bolterfire and plasmaguns, Adam lost most of what he had sitting in his deployment zone. Somehow the cultists managed to kill a battlesuit and then charged in. The knight blasted the riptide and charged in as well. The poxwalkers finished off the pathfinders in the center if the table and the knight swung the chainsword and dropped the riptide to just one wound! So close! Adam did unfortunately lose a lot of models due to the battleshock and reduced leadership.
On his turn, Adam rolled a storm effect which doubled the strength, toughness and attacks of my plasguecaster. No use to him whatsoever. I wasn't going to get into combat with the plaguecaster though so not so bad. By the end of this turn Adam was down to just his fireblade and hammerhead - that poor tank had done so little all game it was a real shame.
My turn four and I rolled on the table. Adam conceded when it gave me a free unit of 10 plaguebearers. I don't blame him. The game was not in his favour and I felt really bad. He had two models left but all I had lost was a single plague marine and seven poxwalkers. A pyrrhic victory at best. I had won 9vp to his 1.
Aftermatch...
I felt a bit of a dick at the end because I had taken what I had expecting Adam to field his Stormsurge. I had also hoped that we would have got some better results from the Empyric Storm and we could have seen a Tau psyker or daemon prince on the table. Nothing like that happened.
I also know that Adam was not happy with how his army fairs in the Index book. I agree that they should have a better BS but the markerlights of previous editions were far too good. Unfortunately Adam could not use the new stratagem from Chapter Approved as he never managed to land a single markerlight on my units.
---
My list for the evening was:
++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) ++
+ HQ +
Daemon Prince of Nurgle: Curse of the Leper, Hellforged sword, Wings
. Categories: HQ, Character, Daemon, Monster, Heretic Astartes, Death Guard, Nurgle, Chaos, Daemon Prince, Fly
Malignant Plaguecaster: Curse of the Leper, Putrescent Vitality, The Pandemic Staff
. Categories: Character, Death Guard, HQ, Infantry, Heretic Astartes, Nurgle, Psyker, Chaos, Malignant Plaguecaster
+ Fast Attack +
Foetid Bloat-drone: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe
. Categories: Fast Attack, Nurgle, Heretic Astartes, Death Guard, Vehicle, Daemon Engine, Daemon, Fly, Chaos, Foetid Bloat-drone
+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists
. Categories: Troops, Heretic Astartes, Infantry, Death Guard, Nurgle, Chaos, Chaos Cultists
. 14x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun
Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. Categories: Nurgle, Heretic Astartes, Infantry, Chaos, Death Guard, Troops, Plague Marines
. Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. Categories: Nurgle, Heretic Astartes, Infantry, Chaos, Death Guard, Troops, Plague Marines
. Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
Poxwalkers: 15x Poxwalker
. Categories: Troops, Infantry, Nurgle, Death Guard, Chaos, Heretic Astartes, Poxwalkers
+ Heavy Support +
Defiler: Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon
. Categories: Heavy Support, Daemon, Daemon Engine, Heretic Astartes, Vehicle, Death Guard, Nurgle, Chaos, Defiler
+ Lord of War +
Renegade Knight: Heavy stubber, Reaper chainsword, Thermal cannon
. Categories: Lord of War, Vehicle, Titanic, Chaos, Questor Traitoris
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The boys are back in town!
Surrounded by the damned!
Poxwalkers assaulting the ghostkeel.
Clash of the titans!
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