Region: Eye of Terror.
Death Guard vs Thousand Sons
2000 points.
Mission: The Relic - Fire & Fury.
Deployment: Search and Destroy.
A largest engagement ensued when Mortarion led his Death Guard into the flesh plains thus far unclaimed by any warlord. There they encountered his rival Magnus the Red, also leading his legion forth. As both armies prepared to face off for dominance, a great storm of Warpfire poured from the blazing red sky onto the battlefield.
This is a game against Marko that we had been planning for some time now but either work commitments or illness got in the way. Last week we finally managed to achieve that game.
I want to start off with a small caveat, I am not a sore loser. Even the most one sided game I can happily take something from it and come out happy. Unfortunately this game was not one of those. Much like the game I had some months ago against my friend Mike, the point of this game was supposed to be one of Primarch versus Primarch while the rest of our armies fought and died over the proper mission. A gentleman's agreement if you will. As you will read that is not how it turned out. I just wanted to put this forward now before anyone comments about "that is how the game is played" and calling me out as a sore loser, when that isn't the case.
With that done, enjoy.
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Unlike most of the games I play at the club in the last year, my opponent and I had not decided upon a mission in advance. All we knew was that we wanted to use the Fire & Fury battle zone. We rolled off and got The Relic, which I had not played for some time and so was rather excited to play. We rolled the Search & Destroy deployment which also does not come up very often. After picking sides we set up our armies.
I was lucky and secured the first turn. Everything bar my plagueburst crawl moved forward to try and get as close to the Relic as possible. I advanced Mortarion up so that we could get on with the main event of the night. Shooting wasn't very accurate but I did managed to do away with some tzaangors and some cultists. About the only time by plagueburst crawler actually hit anything!
This is where the game took the unpleasant turn. My opponent moved his units, cast the plethora of psychic powers that Thousand Sons are known for and then decided to ignore the point of why we set this game up in the first place. He proceeded to throw smites and open fire with almost everything into Mortarion successfully knocking quite a few wounds off him. More than a little irritated I asked my opponent why? His response being something like smug like "Tzeentch changes things" which quite frankly rubbed me the wrong way. He had obviously decided not to play to the narrative game that we had agreed and instead decided to go full competitive and out for the kill.
Turn two and I pulled a few units back as I realized that Marko had some scarab terminators and a terminator sorcerer in reserve. The main infantry, two plague marine squads and a 20 man block of pox walkers moved forward to grab the Relic. Mortarion prepared for the upcoming fight whilse trying to stay out of sight of the predator trio that Marko had brought to the game.
Marko's turn 2 was explosive. Using his psychic might he stripped Mortarion of his invulnerable save before smiting and unloading almost everything into him. I lost a few plague marines to heavy bolters and a few pox walkers fell. Magnus charged into Mortarion and cut him down. The only good bit was Magnus took a mortal wound from the exploding primarch.
From here I just became somewhat self defeating. Where the first two turns neither of us managed to hit with the flaming bits of warpfire plummeting from the sky but from here I don't think either of us bothered with it. I was just hoping for a quick defeat while Marko was going for the kill.
Over the next couple turns I did manage to get my hands on the Relic twice but both times Magnus charged the lucky unit decimating it. His terminators did drop down into my deployment zone where they blasted the plagueburst crawler and eventually dropped it with smite. Turn five however and Marko had tabled my entire force. This was one game that I was glad was over.
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After thoughts...
I find it hard to be objective about this game. When you go into something with an agreed to format and then your opponent ignores that, and proceeds to completely stomp you going to feel a bit pissed off. I must admit that my opponent has history and I am seriously considering not playing them again.
Would it have made much difference had we not made that initial Primarch vs Primarch agreement? I still think Marko would have won. He is just so much more competitive than I am. I would have probably made a very different list but against his psychic might I would still have had a hard time.
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+ HQ +
Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 117pts]: Manreaper, The Suppurating Plate
Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: 3. Plague Wind, 6. Curse of the Leper
+ Troops +
Plague Marines [13 PL, 231pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 7x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
Plague Marines [13 PL, 259pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Flail of Corruption
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Great plague cleaver
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plague Spewer
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher
Poxwalkers [6 PL, 120pts]: 20x Poxwalker
+ Elites +
Deathshroud Terminators [11 PL, 180pts]
. Deathshroud Champion: Manreaper, Plaguespurt gauntlets
. 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlets
Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 196pts]: Havoc launcher
. Left Arm: Hellflamer, Hellforged deathclaw
. Right Arm: Kheres assault cannon
+ Fast Attack +
Foetid Bloat-drone [8 PL, 158pts]: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe
+ 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: [106 PL, 1993pts] ++
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