Siege of Adronberg - Bludhaven

Planet: Bludhaven.
Region: Seraphon Sector.

Death Guard vs Orks.
1500 points.
Mission: Spoils of War.
Deployment: Front-Line Assault.

The Siege of Adronberg was fought over a six month period with the Ork horde surrounding the hive city and trapping the forces of Nurgle within. The city defenses were considered undefeatable by the lords of the Death Guard. The final battle consisted of night time bombing by the Orks before the outer wall was breached by gargants and other large siege devices. With the green tide pouring into the streets, the Death Guard forces moved into engage and halt their assault.

So this game was played at home rather than down the club for a change. My opponent was Gary D who turned up with his Ork army. I had set the table up beforehand so we got right down to it and rolled our mission. Spoils of War against Orks was going to be tough but fun match.

As I recall we both set up our armies so that everything was behind some sort of cover to limit incoming fire as much as possible. I decided to give the Orks the first turn in case I was able to use my last turn and secure victory. It seemed like a good idea at the time anyway.

The Orks began by moving up the right flank under cover of large terrain and the killa kan's marched forth up the center of the table. Of everything on the table, the Kan's were my biggest fear. Sure, I could try and bolter some shots off but if they managed to get into combat with my plague marines then I knew that DR was not going to help me. Thankfully I had the right unit on the left flank to try and handle them. Gary's psychic phases for the first few turns was all about jumping big boyz squads up the table where they were able to assault my lines much earlier than I had anticipated.

From a mixture of shooting and all too soon assaults I had lost both my rhinos and eventually my land raider. Thankfully my deathshroud terminators and lord of contagion were no match for those ork boyz but my main means of dealing with the killa kans were gone. The Orks laid down a lot of firepower and Gary knew what he was doing with his conga line to get the best out of his forces. I lost my cultists very early on and one plague marine squad was swiftly decimated.

Oddly the killa kans were not so much a problem as I had thought. A lot of lucky bolter fire, plasma guns and a meltagun turned out to be what I needed to whittle them down. They did get a good way against the table but I was lucky enough to avoid combat with them. Eventually however, the Orks proved more resilient than I needed them to be. It was the number of boyz and their hammering assaults that ended up taking out my infantry.

If I remember right the game got to turn 6 before it came to a sudden end. Neither of us had much left on the table other than a handful of infantry. Counting up the points it was a close match but Gary had just pipped me to seize victory.

---

After match thoughts...

This game was rather odd. The point of Spoils of War is that you can snatch the objective holding cards of your opponent but we never saw any. Everything that came out of our decks had nothing to do with the objective markers. It was all cast psychic powers, assassinate a warlord, kill units in combat...etc. Very unusual but made for an interesting match up.

I've normally had good luck against Gary's Orks in past games but this time around he had the upper hand. Looking forward to seeing what the Ork Codex (when it turns up) can do for his army.

---

The Kult of Speed approaches!

The battlefield laid out before us.

A Call to Arms!

A smash of Ork boyz.

Nurgle Pushes Back - Bludhaven

Planet: Bludhaven.
Region: Seraphon Sector.

Death Guard vs Orks.
750 points.
Mission: Annihilation.
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil.

After suffering severe losses and frequent defeats, the ork hordes retreated back towards their landing sites to regroup. This gave the Death Guard the opportunity to harry their flanks as they fled. Plagueburst Crawlers decimated the fleeing hordes with their mortars before the plague marines themselves marched forward to mop up the survivors. 

This game was the following round of the small escalation league run by my friend Shadbolt. The points have increased to 750 which didn't give me much to play with. I decided to stick with the original army configuration for now, add a plagueburst crawler to handle horde and tanks, and bring the plague marines up to 10 men with some close combat weapons. Even so against a horde list was not convinced especially with so few infantry on my side.

Luke's ork list looked nasty at this points level to me because I don't usually have much luck with horde style armies. I was fully expecting that two big twenty man strong boyz squads he was going to overwhelm me in assault very quickly.

First turn was mine and I decided that rather than being defensive like I wanted to be, that I should actually play more aggressive. If I wasn't going to win then I would take down as many of his little green men as I could before the end. With that in mind I marched the hellforged contemptor up the table and got the plague marines closer but largely behind cover. My shooting was not great and I think I only dropped two maybe three boys.

Luke moved everything except the lootas and his warboss forwards. In hindsight, after the game, I think he should have perhaps left the boyz squad facing the contemptor back a bit and decimate it a lot more with the lootas heavy fire. His shooting did strip a couple wounds from the contemptor but that just made me want to get it into combat even more.

Our second turn saw me drop a loota with plague mortar fire. I tried to to get the deff dread with my entropy cannons but the damage rolls kept rolling 1's and 2's. I could have used my paltry three command points but I wanted those more to keep the contemptor alive. Combat was soon forthcoming as the boyz and the contemptor starting swinging. Luke tried to maneuver both his deff dread and his warboss around behind the fight. This was good for me as the entropy cannons on the plagueburst crawler finally found their mark and turned the deff dread into so much rusting scrap.

I the contemptor smashed three boyz on average each round and was slowly healing back to full strength when Luke's warboss got to it. He knocked it down to 5 wounds meaning that I had to turn the contemptor's wrath upon him. 9 wounds later and a successful heal roll, saw the contemptor open up and eat his warboss!

Meanwhile Luke continued to ignore the plagueburst crawler and focused all the heavy weapon fire on my plague marines. Somehow I survived most of what struck the unit losing only a total of three plague marines. I got the upper hand when my lord of contagion charged his second boyz squad, losing one wound on the way. The plague marines then made in after him and despite his numbers I was mowing them down with plague weapons and mortal wounds. Lots of liquefied ork bodies drenching the mouldy earth. Luke did have a spot of luck when finally he was able to bring down the contemptor but it was too little too late.

Finally probably about six turns in the last ork fell or fled leaving the Death Guard were left holding the battlefield.

---

In the week leading up to this game and perhaps up to half way through the game I still thought Luke was going to win just by the numbers game so I was surprised that I went through his army as easily as I did. I thought the lack of infantry was going to be my downfall but the contemptor is a real monster once it gets to it's destination and it did carry the game quite a bit.

I do hope that Luke wasn't disappointed by the outcome. I know as a newer player he is expecting to lose a few games but I hope he had fun and I look forward to a normal game rematch at some point.

---

Lord of Contagion - tainted regeneration trait - suppurating plate.
10 man plague marine squad with icon, 2 plasmagun, plague spewer, flail of corruption and great plague cleaver.
Hellforged contemptor with kheres assault cannon, hellflamer and havoc launcher.
Plagueburst crawler with rothail volley gun and two entropy cannons.

The green tide readies for battle!

Battle is joined at the center of the battlefield.

A mighty Deff Dread!

Hold the Wall - Bludhaven

Planet: Bludhaven.
Region: Seraphon Sector.

Death Guard vs Orks.

Mission: Blitz.
Deployment: Mission specific.
Points: 2000.

Despite the losses they had suffered the Orks continued to throw themselves at the Death Guard fortress wall. This would be the largest land battle of the war and would ultimately prove the deciding action when the war was over. The presence of both Typhus and Mortarion during this engagement bolstered the plague marines and their hatred of the greenskin xenos.

At last Gary and I got our Blitz mission as was originally planned. Gary decided not to change his list from the previous week. I really wanted to take Mortarion this time and have him slice through vast numbers of orks so I had to make some sacrifices to fit him in. It did mean that I pretty much figured my army would get mobbed to death but it would be worth it.

We both arrived early and set the table up so we could ensure we got a complete game this time. With only a three hour time limit it is tough to fit a 2000 point game in properly.

I set my units up secretly and after Gary deployed he fired his preliminary bombardment. It was rather ineffective knocking a couple wounds from the predator but not much else. And that was when the greenskin tide came at me en masse!

Gary moved everything forward advancing as quickly as it could. It brought the infantry almost to the center of the table. Shooting was ineffective. I think I lost one plague marine and that was it. My turn only Mortarion moved. He came out from behind a tall building to a slightly smaller building ready to launch himself into the boyz. My heavy firepower was directed at the gorkanaut as that was something I did not want on the table. It took me two turns but lascannon fire took it out.

The bikers then roared into my lines triggering the proximity mines stratagem. Sadly it did nothing and they got into combat with my defiler. It took a couple wounds but then stomped on them with ease. They, like any other destroyed unit in his army, went back into reserves. I felt sorry for my opponent because they never reappeared until the last turn of the game by which point it was too late.

Once the orks did get into my lines they didn't last long. Between smite attempts and Mortarion charging, they were soon just large piles of dead bodies. Mortarion did so well in his first charge that the ork boyz failed their battle shock by 17 points!!! That made it worthwhile taking him in my eyes. Very soon I had destroyed everything that had hit my lines but they kept coming. Even the damn gorkanut came back stomping up the table.

At this point, turn four I think, Gary's luck was a bit better. He had managed to drop the defiler down to around six wounds and stripped a few from Mortarion. He was intent on getting the gorkanaut into combat with my primarch - a situation I did not want! That thing would just kill him outright if it got the charge. Sadly that is exactly what happened. Mortarion didn't even get a chance to swing back. Disappointing but he had done what I wanted.

Turn 5 and I do admit to becoming a little despondent. I was being whittled down and with so many bodies coming at me I fully expected to be tabled. Typhus and the lord of contaigon went down under the gorkanut. My defiler soon blew up. It had not done very well all game other than crushing the bikes early on. It was then that I noticed something. Only I get victory points for killing units. Gary's orks had to be in my deployment zones to score points! With one turn to go he couldn't even come close to winning.

The game ended the following turn and all Gary had in my deployment was his gorkanut. Everything else was still footslogging up the table. I had 12 victory points to his 1. I was quite amazed. The Blitz mission is one where I expect the defender to be utterly crushed if faced with a huge horde army. I think that Mortarion won me that game. Just taking out the boyz saved me so much. Once again the vengeance weapon platforms proved to be a waste of space. Once the nearest enemy unit is locked in combat they become dead weight.

Very good game. Played nicely into the Bludhaven narrative. I just have to make sure that I can win some games against the orks in future.

---


++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) [12 PL, 200pts] ++
Rules: Plague Weapon

+ Fortification +

Vengeance Weapon Batteries [12 PL, 200pts]
. Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon
. Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon

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

+ Lord of War +

Mortarion [24 PL, 470pts]: Blades of Putrefaction, Curse of the Leper, Gift of Contagion

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [70 PL, 1305pts] ++
Rules: Plague Weapon

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion [7 PL, 137pts]: Manreaper

Typhus [9 PL, 175pts]: Curse of the Leper, Plague Wind

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists [3 PL, 48pts]
. 9x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 182pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 182pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

+ Elites +

Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

Noxious Blightbringer [4 PL, 70pts]: Dolorous Knell, Plasma pistol

+ Heavy Support +

Chaos Predator [9 PL, 182pts]: Combi-flamer, Havoc launcher, Twin lascannon
. Rules: Combi Weapon
. Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter

Defiler [11 PL, 190pts]: Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon
. Rules: Combi Weapon

---

Mortarion, daemon primarch.

The orks charge into my lines!

Those darn gorkanaut's!

The ork forces charge up the table.

Hold The Line - Bludhaven

Planet: Bludhaven.
Region: Seraphon Sector.

Death Guard vs Orks.

Mission: Bunker Assault.
Deployment: Mission specific.
Points: 1750 vs 2000.

This engagement was a major battle at the start of the war. The Orks amassed a vast horde in very little time and threw almost everything they had at the Death Guard fortress line over a 35 mile front. The goal of the greenskins was to destroy the Death Guard command fortress and it was here that the future of the campaign would be decided.

Gary had challenged me to a game against his Orks. Specifically the Blitz mission with his new greenskin army as the obvious choice for attacker. That game is coming but this week we played a practice game using the Bunker Assault mission.

After playing this mission a few months ago against Adam's Tau and how totally one sided it was - the Fortress does not balance out a loss of army points - we agreed that he should have 2000 points of Orks and I would field 1750 of Death Guard plus the fortress. I feel that this way was a much better way of playing the mission.

Gary had the the first turn as per the mission rules. Everything came forwards except for some lootas sitting in a ruined tower on the edge of his deployment zone. They had a good field of fire towards my troops and the fortress. To start with Gary seemed very keen on destroying my predator throwing what fire he could at it. Over the next few turns he would throw everything at it including a unit of rokkit boyz who spent most the game in assault with it but only stripping one or two wounds at a time. If I remember correctly they took four turns to destroy it. But his turn was mostly taken up moving large numbers of boyz forwards into my line of fire.

I barely needed to move anything all game as the Orks were coming to me. I did manage to do some small damage with the fortress and the barrage strike that the mission gave me. The fortress is rather useless though with just BS 5+ and most shots I fired this game simply went off into the distance. My own shooting was a lot more effective and the the start of the game saw my vengeance weapon platforms doing their job reasonably well. But these are Orks and I could not do enough damage.

Once the Orks were close enough my psychic powers came to the fore. Mortal wounds were thrown about which did well. His painboy however was giving them an FNP benefit and he didn't lose anywhere near enough models because of it.

Turn three and we were in brutal combat. Once this became the case my vengeance platforms were useless as they couldn't shoot anything due to the nearest unit being in combat. I need to read certain rules a little bit better in future.

The unit of the match was one of my helbrute trio. It charged into the damaged gorkanaut taking a wound from overwatch. The assault was brutal and left the ork machine hanging together with good thoughts. The helbrute survived the return attack and then entered it's berserk mode for being wounded. The second set of attacks tore the gorkanaut into so much twisted scrap. The helbrutes soon died to a force of killa kans and a deff dread.

Once the orks were in my deployment zone they massacred their way through my plague marines and began to smash away at the base of the fortress. Typhus and the plagucaster both fell in combat. Typhus, at least, I assume gets teleported bask to the Terminus Est before the final blow came down. My cultists were the only unit to come out of that game unscathed for a change.

End of turn five and we had to wrap up the game as we had gone over the time that the venue was open. At this point I won 9 vp to 8vp only because the fortress remained standing. Had the game gone to the final turn 6 it would have fallen and victory would have gone to my opponent.

---

Bunker Assault is one of those narrative missions that is hard to play for the defender. The bastion or fortress that you effectively get for "free" isn't worth the points for a fair game. It has plenty of weapons but the weak Ballastic Skill means that it isn't going to do anything worthwhile other than be the ultimate target for the enemy.

I certainly enjoyed the mission more this time around than when I played Adam's Tau. It is far too easy a mission for Tau to achieve with their superior weapons.

---

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [85 PL, 1549pts] ++
Rules: Plague Weapon

+ HQ +

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: Curse of the Leper, Plague Wind, The Pandemic Staff

Typhus [9 PL, 175pts]: Miasma of Pestilence, Putrescent Vitality

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists [6 PL, 64pts]
. 13x Chaos Cultist w/ autopistol and brutal assault weapon
. Chaos Cultist w/ special weapon: Heavy stubber
. Cultist Champion: Shotgun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 181pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines [10 PL, 181pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

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

+ Elites +

Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta
Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta
Helbrute [7 PL, 139pts]: Helbrute fist, Multi-melta

+ Heavy Support +

Chaos Predator [9 PL, 171pts]: Havoc launcher, Twin lascannon
. Two heavy bolters: 2x Heavy bolter

Defiler [11 PL, 190pts]: Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon
. Rules: Combi Weapon

++ Fortification Network (Chaos - Death Guard) [12 PL, 200pts] ++

+ Fortification +

Vengeance Weapon Batteries [12 PL, 200pts]
. Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon
. Vengeance Weapon Battery: Punisher Gatling Cannon

---

Deployment at the start of the battle.

A monstrous gorkanaut.

A band of killa kans and a deff dread slaughter my helbrutes.

The man of the match moment!

Battle for Fort Ranick - Bludhaven

Planet: Bludhaven.
Region: Seraphon Sector.
845.M41

Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons / Renegade Knight vs Orks.

Mission: Tactical Escalation (with Night Fight).
Deployment: Vanguard Strike.
Points: 2000.





The battle for Fort Ranick was a minor engagement in the early days of the Bludhaven invasion. The Death Guard had moved to seize an old Imperial supply depot known as Fort Ranick before the approaching ork forces to do likewise. Unfortunately as night began to fall the greenskin hordes reached the walls and lay siege to the plague marines trapped within.

A couple of nights ago I played a game against my friend Jon. I didn't want to know what he was fielding but expected it to either be blood angels or orks, and he turned up with a very interesting ork list. We randomly determined the tactical cards mission and then added the Battlefield: Nightfight rules to make it more interesting.

Most of Jon's army sat in reserve waiting to come in under cover of night. He did have a good number of boyz and a couple units of loota's sitting there waiting for me. I, however,  found the deployment zone very restrictive for what I had but it helped because he couldn't then drop anything in behind me from reserve.

I set up first and decided to let Jon have the first turn. The boyz started up the table and if I remember right one unit of kommando's popped up around the corner from my deployment. Night fight ranges got in the way here so he used a command point to light up one of my plague marine squads. It came down to DR rolls and I lost nine models, leaving just the champion to stand his ground. He also managed to knock a few wounds off my knight as making saves was not something I seem capable for doing for that thing.

My first turn was spent just moving forward to grab a couple potential objectives. The defiler and knight put fire into his fighta aircraft but not enough to bring it down. I then charged the defiler into the kommando's but I couldn't finish the whole unit off.

Jon then just some freaky ork psychic power to jump his weirdboy and a large unit of boyz across the table, followed by two other units of boyz running to keep up. They assaulted the defiler in a huge rabble, tearing it apart. Sadly it did not explode otherwise that would have been very nice.

The game started heating up here as the remaining kommando's started popping up around my deployment area. Some were gunned down but soon combat was joined. One poor band of orks were surrounded by plague marines, cultists and poxwalkers! They didn't last long and I got a couple extra poxwalkers out of the deal.

Unfortunately one of the random objectives Jon claimed gave him the ability to call in an airstrike and he kept dropping mortal wounds on my daemon prince of chaos. Concentrated fire also brought down my knight. Once again it has died far too easily. In retaliation I poured what fire and psychic power I had at his flyer but I could not destroy the damn thing. I believe it was left on 1 wound when the game ended. Bad luck. The game devolved into lots of combat and my daemon prince was slain as that poor surviving plague marine champion.

We called the game end of turn 3. Partly because we were running out of time and also because I had just 1 vp and Jon had about 4. The cards were far more in his favour than mine. Two of the games I drew involved defending two objectives for two turns which wasn't going to happen with the number of boyz against me.

Another good game. One that has made me have to consider what I need to take against orks in future. Night fight didn't impact me too much but to start with it made Jon focus on other targets than what he would have liked. Jon also lost a couple units because the Night Fight rules meant that they had not arrived at the end of turn 3 and so were considered lost. So we both had some bad luck this game.

My list:
Daemon Prince of Chaos (warlord)
Lord of Contagion.
10 Plague marines - meltaguns and icon of despair.
10 Plague marines - meltaguns and icon of despair.
20 Poxwalkers
18 Cultists
Renegade Knight - thermal cannon, heavy stubber and chainsword.
Chaos Predator - twin lascannons, heavy bolters and combi-flamer.
Defiler - battle cannon, autocannon, scourge and combi-flamer.

Death Guard deployment.

Ork deployment.

Orks control the skies.

A defiler stomping the greenskins!

The Children of Sickness, a cult of Nurgle.

Blitzkrieg - Bludhaven

Planet: Bludhaven.
Region: Sereaphon Sector.
845.M41

Death Guard vs Orks.

Mission: Blitzkrieg.
Deployment: Special.
Points: 2000.

After making planetfall the Death Guard began to fortify their landing site in preparation to take battle the greenskins. However, the Ork horde had other plans and launched a fast attack on the barely prepared chaos forces. Sorcerer Cholic ordered the few teams of bikers to intercept while the remaining ground forces advanced behind them. Battle was soon joined but the Death Guard found themselves quickly outnumbered and out gunned.

I don't get to play against Orks very often. In fact I think it has been a couple of years since I last made war against them. So when my friend Jon challenged me with his Orks I was very pleased. I asked him to pick a mission and he chose Blitzkrieg from the Battle Missions book. As I still don't have a lot of time to paint and build I knew I was going to be on the back foot here. The mission really requires fast attack options and right now I have three chaos bikes and that is it. Still I wasn't going to let that spoil my fun so that was my option.

The Blitzkrieg mission requires only fast attack options to start on the table in opposing corners. Everything else, on both sides, has to sit in reserve waiting to come in. My choice was three bikes and Jon's was a nice sized squad of warbuggy's. The game gave him the first turn and thankfully for me none of his reserves came on the table. However, I got a handful of my units including my Chaos Knight, which proceeding to blast through the buggy unit.

I pretty much decided that there was no way I could hold all three objectives so I focused on the two nearest me and dispatched squads of plague marines, chaos terminators and chaos marines to take them. The turns went quickly as both of us failed to get our units in from reserve. Battle was hard fought around my objectives, and the Knight spent it's time smashing deffkopta's and a large unit of boyz before it finally fell. When i say fell, I mean it fell over backwards and crushed my sorcerer and his chaos marine bodyguards. But it had definitely earned it's points that night before it went down.

It was about this time that my game began to fall apart. Jon's Orks smashed through what I had left trying to contest the central objective, and I completely forgot that he had a small truck under the landing platform where the first objective was sitting. So when the game came to an end turn 6 he had the victory.

Having seen the mission requirement I knew that this was not a game I could win easily. As I have repeatedly said I need the time to expand the army options that I currently have. Had I had more fast attack options I may have done a little better in this one but I don't mind. It was just nice to play against the greenskins again after so long.

The Orks surrounded the Death Guard landing site and through sheer force of numbers obliterated the first wave of chaos marines. Cholic somehow survived the cataclysmic death of the Knight through this psychic skills, but upon informing Typhus of his losses on Bludhaven, he had soon wished that it had crushed him! Typhus called for his champions and teleported to the surface of the planet.