Revolt! - Susperia

Planet: Susperia.
Region: Eye of Terror.

Death Guard vs Death Guard
1500 points.
Mission: Dominate and Destroy.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

The ranks of the Death Guard have become split between those loyal to Mortarion and those who serve Typhus. Typhus has become insensed that Mortarion continues to support the situation on Susperia. The true enemy, the Imperium, is where the servants of Nurgle should be directing their attacks not playing to the whims of the Ruinious Powers. Angered by Typhus blasphemy, Mortarion marches into the enemy camp to show who is in command of the Death Guard here!

Jack is a new member of the club and last night we played our first battle against one another. It has been an entire edition ago that I think I last experienced some Death Guard on Death Guard action so I was looking forward to this. We chose 1500 points because it fits easier into the club's time limit than a 2000 point game does and since I don't believe that I have played Dominate and Destroy before it seemed like a good choice. We rolled Hammer and Anvil for deployment and Nurgle was with me for I rolled a 7 to get first turn and Typhus didn't seize the initiative.

Despite Jack holding most of the objectives on his side of the table I decided to play a more defensive game. Two plague marine squads held the objectives that I started with and everything else moved up the table. I kept the plagueburst crawler back to provide artillery fire. As usual my shooting was pretty bad and I think I knocked 1 wound off of a bloat drone.

Jack's first turn saw most of his forces moved forward, including his plagueburst crawler which I found a bit strange but it did have plaguespewers so understandable. He was able to grab the more central objective giving him the edge.

I'll be honest that from here the next few turns blurred together for me as we were having too much fun with this match. I was doing terrible even so. I was being forced to hold the two objectives I had unable to go forward. My hellforged contemptor was destroyed far too easily for my tastes by Jack's plaguespewers if I remember right. Likewise my poxwalkers did not survive the firepower pumped into them.

My saving grace had to be Mortarion. He spent up the battlefield hewing through traitor plague marines, blightshroud terminators, poxwalkers and a daemon prince with ease. The problem was that he had not charged up Lantern before the battle, and either that damn pistol either failed to hit or failed to wound. It did nothing all game which was both amusing and just utterly frustrating. Mortarion did survive the game however, having only lost two or three wounds, and was the only chance I had of scoring linebreaker.

Mortarions greatest moment came because I think Jack made a small mistake. Second or third turn he deepstriked his blightshroud terminators and his daemon prince (also his warlord) into my deployment zone in the hopes of taking out one of my plague marine squads sitting on an objective. They failed to do anything and Mortarion ended up charging into the terminators, cutting them down with ease. The daemon prince ran away and tried to deal some damage to my plagueburst crawler, but the daemon primarch caught up with him and delivered a lethal swing which sent the traitor screaming back into the Warp. It made a for a cool moment in the game but in hindsight perhaps they should have dropped more central and held up my advance even more.

The game kept going until the very last second of turn 5. Neither of us really had much left on the tabletop. I think I had just a plague marine squad, plagueburst crawler and Mortarion, while Jack had some poxwalkers and a plagueburst crawler of his own. I had not been counting points for both sides but I figured it was close but he definitely had the win. In the end I think Jack was on 25 to my 12. A much bigger gap than I had thought.

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This was a great game and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I always have fun but sometimes it is really nice to play someone who also has that same level of fun and not take things too seriously. I am really looking forward to future games against Jack.

If I had a grumble... well two, considering Mortarion's pistol not working... it would be that damn plaguecrawler. I know that a 4+ BS is 50/50 but that damn unit never seems to be accurate for me. If it wasn't such a good choice I'd probably shelve it due to it hitting for toffee.

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++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [57 PL, 1027pts] ++

Use Beta Rules

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 117pts]: Manreaper, The Suppurating Plate

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 6. Curse of the Leper

+ Troops +

Plague Marines [13 PL, 218pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Great plague cleaver
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plague Spewer
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 174pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Flail of Corruption
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher

Poxwalkers [3 PL, 60pts]: 10x Poxwalker

+ Elites +

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 196pts]: Havoc launcher
. Left Arm: Hellflamer, Hellforged deathclaw
. Right Arm: Kheres assault cannon

+ Heavy Support +

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 152pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Rothail volley gun

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [24 PL, 470pts] ++

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: 4. Blades of Putrefaction, Warlord

++ Total: [81 PL, 1497pts] ++

Typhus and his traitors advance.

The instigator of the Death Guard rebellion.

The battlefield bathed in the glow of an unnatural sun.