GamesHub League 2022 - Game 1

 Last week saw the new 40K league start at our new gaming venue, GamesHub. It's a single fixed codex at 1000 points but you can change your list each round if you so desire. Each round is two weeks and any match not arranged/played counts as a draw. We have enough players that the league will last until the middle of the summer I guess.

Last week I played my first round against an old friend Mike, and he brought a Death Guard army to the league. Over the past year and a half since 9th has been out, I have played a few small 1000 point games against Death Guard. With one exception (against a very skilled player) I have always won, so I went in with very high hopes. 

Although I'm not a fan of the smaller table sizes, it was agreed at the start of the league that we would use the suggested minimum. We set a table up but there isn't much room for terrain at that size and we shifted things slightly so that we could fit the objective markers up outside of terrain. The mission rolled was Centre Ground (core rulebook) and once we had started the game we realised that we had set the objectives up slightly wrong somehow. It was still roughly the same so we left it.

My secondary objective choices were Oaths of Moment, Engage on All Fronts and Slay the Warlord. I very rarely ever bother with the objective that comes with the mission and this was no different. Oaths of Moment, however, has become the staple in every match I play.

It started to go wrong from pretty much the first turn. Every opponent I have had previous to this match played infantry heavy armies at 1000 points. Death Guard are expensive so this makes sense. Mike's list was not like that at all. He brought a Plagueburst Crawler and a Bloat Drone with lawnmower and I was not quite prepared for that. He won the roll to go first and away he went. Straight away I was under fire from the crawler's artillery. I managed to get my ATV up the side of the table and get a decent hit with the multi-melta but due to poor dice I either failed to wound or he passed his invulnerable save. I subsequently lost my ATV which meant my main method of dealing with anything tough like that was gone. Sure, I had a Redemptor Dreadnought but it was too slow to get that far up the table and I was needing to hold it for the waves of pox walkers coming in and the threat of a deep striking Lord of Contaigion with Deathshroud bodyguards. 

Pox Walkers were not such a problem. Massed firepower dealt with them easily but that damn Bloat Drone. I went straight into my Intercessors and decimated the lot. It took the sacrifice of my Bladeguard with help from the Captain to bring it down but by then I had next to nothing left. Mike brought his reinforcements in from deep strike behind my lines which forced me to turn the dreadnought back to hold them. Took one Deathshroud down but it then was brought down itself, and far too easily.

The game went to turn 5 where it was just my Captain left who just would not die. Last dice roll of the game proved to be his undoing, and that dropped him otherwise he would still be there. Mike won 55 points to my 44. Just 11 different which is quite close really and I was happy enough with that. But it was that damn Bloat Drone that won him the game. It just would not die and I was not fully prepared for an opponent bringing that or the crawler to a game this size. It's always been infantry heavy armies DG players brought to my table.

Even so it was a very good match. Frustrating but good banter which softens the blow somewhat. Next round I have a match against another friend's Drukhari army. Another game where I fear I won't do so well but keeping the fingers crossed.

My list for the game was as follows. It was nothing special, just a basic list I keep on hand for small point games.

++ Patrol Detachment 0CP (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Imperial Fists) [53 PL, 6CP, 1,000pts] ++

+ Configuration [6CP] +

**Chapter Selector**: Custom Chapter, Imperial Fists Successor, Inheritors of the Primarch

Battle Size [6CP]: 2. Incursion (51-100 Total PL / 501-1000 Points)  [6CP]

Gametype: Matched

+ HQ [5 PL, 105pts] +

Primaris Captain [5 PL, 105pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Iron Resolve, The Burning Blade, Warlord

. Heavy bolt pistol, Master-crafted power sword and Relic shield [15pts]: Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted power sword [5pts], Relic Shield [10pts]

+ Troops [30 PL, 525pts] +

Assault Intercessor Squad [10 PL, 200pts]

. 9x Assault Intercessor [171pts]: 9x Astartes Chainsword, 9x Frag & Krak grenades, 9x Heavy Bolt Pistol

. Assault Intercessor Sgt [29pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Plasma pistol [5pts], Power sword [5pts]

Intercessor Squad [10 PL, 200pts]: Bolt rifle

. 9x Intercessor [180pts]: 9x Bolt pistol, 9x Frag & Krak grenades

. Intercessor Sergeant [20pts]: Astartes Chainsword, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades

Intercessor Squad [10 PL, 125pts]: Bolt rifle

. 5x Intercessor [100pts]: 5x Bolt pistol, 5x Frag & Krak grenades

. Intercessor Sergeant [25pts]: Astartes Chainsword, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Plasma pistol [5pts]

+ Elites [14 PL, 285pts] +

Bladeguard Veteran Squad [5 PL, 105pts]

. 2x Bladeguard Veteran [70pts]: 2x Frag & Krak grenades, 2x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 2x Master-crafted power sword, 2x Storm Shield

. Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant [35pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted power sword, Storm Shield

Redemptor Dreadnought [9 PL, 180pts]: 2x Fragstorm Grenade Launchers, Heavy flamer, Icarus Rocket Pod [5pts], Macro Plasma Incinerator, Redemptor Fist

+ Fast Attack [4 PL, 85pts] +

Invader ATV Squad [4 PL, 85pts]

. Invader ATV [4 PL, 85pts]: Bolt pistol, Multi-melta [5pts], Twin auto bolt rifle

++ Total: [53 PL, 6CP, 1,000pts] ++