Month: June 2023

Death Guard vs Grotz (1,000 points) – Battle Report

On By Plague GardenerIn Battle Report2 Comments

List Theory

I’d been feeling a bit down about 40k in the run up to this game. The preview for the Death Guard in 10th Edition had been released and it looked dull. They might be very powerful rules, but they just didn’t seem interesting compared to the other faction rules.

So for this game I decided I’d just take some stuff that amused me, so my take on Sassy Nurgling hit the table for the first time following his promotion to a Death Guard Chaos Lord. I also took my two magnetised Helbrutes. I filled my list out with some Poxwalkers, Plague Marines, a Foul Blightspawn and two Blight Haulers. All things that I think of as being very Death Guard.

The Game

Setup

My opponent rocks up with a load of Grot tanks, I was delighted, they looked awesome. My mood immediately brightens, this is going to be a fun game. We rolled the deliverance mission and chose some objectives, but they’re not going to really matter in this game.

My Death Guard will take the first turn.

Battle Round 1

The Death Guard advance.
That’s one brave Grot.
The tanks are so cute 🙂
Grot tanks on a flanking manoeuvre.
Grots jump across the battlefield!

I push forwards for the centre with my Helbrutes, Blight Haulers and some of my Plague Marines. The other unit of Plague Marines. The rest of my units push on my left flank. My army doesn’t have a lot of shooting but I do begin to remove enemy infantry and tanks. I did make a mistake though. I needed my Helbrutes in melee combat, but they were overtaken by my faster moving Blight Haulers. Due to the shape of the ruins in the centre of the table my Helbrutes were then blocked from charging when the Haulers failed their own charge. I should have had two units side by side leaving a clear channel for either unit to charge.

Then the Grots take their turn, that’s a lot of flash and thunder as the mini tanks open fire but not much damage is done. Some of them do charge me and now that I’ve got them in combat I realise just how delicate they are, they fall to bits alarmingly easily.

Battle Round 2

Sassy Nurgling gets stuck in.
My right flank is secured.
Sassy Nurgling looking sassy…

The only real tactical move that I do is to pull one of my Helbrutes back and to set it up my right side backed by some Plague Marines so as to take on the flanking tanks. Other than that it’s mostly a grind, and the Death Guard are good at that.

By the end of the turn there’s only a couple of Grot models left on the table. I think that we play a little bit of turn 3 but it’s a clear victory to the Death Guard.

Post Game Thoughts

  • This game was just so much fun. There were so many little crazy moments. Bungled charges, heroic Grots who refused to run away, teleporting Grots and Sassy Nurgling getting stuck into his first battle.
  • Especially in crowded and blocked areas I clearly need to learn to be more careful with how I manoeuvre by units, blocking in my Helbrutes was a bad move.
  • I’m really looking forward to seeing this Grot army painted, it’s going to look adorable.

The List

Total: 68 PL, 3CP, 1,000pts

Arks of Omen Detachment (Death Guard) [68 PL, 3CP, 1,000pts]

Configuration [6CP]

  • Arks of Omen Compulsory Type: Troops
  • Battle Size [6CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) [6CP]
  • Detachment Command Cost
  • Game Type: 5. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen
  • Plague Company: The Wretched

HQ [10 PL, -2CP, 175pts]

  • Death Guard Chaos Lord [5 PL, 85pts]: Blight grenades, Combi-melta, Krak grenades, Power fist
  • Malignant Plaguecaster [5 PL, -2CP, 90pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 5. Curse of the Leper, 6. Gift of Plagues, Blight grenades, Corrupted staff, Krak grenades, Sevenfold Blessings [-1CP], Smite, Stratagem: Relic [-1CP], The Daemon’s Favour, Warlord

Troops [24 PL, 310pts]

  • Plague Marines [6 PL, 95pts]
    • Plague Champion [19pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
    • Plague Marine w/ blight launcher [19pts]: Blight grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenades, Plague knife
    • Plague Marine w/ cleaver [19pts]: Blight grenades, Great plague cleaver, Krak grenades, Plague knife
    • Plague Marine w/ flail [19pts]: Blight grenades, Flail of corruption, Krak grenades, Plague knife
    • Plague Marine w/ special weapon [19pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Meltagun, Plague knife
  • Plague Marines [6 PL, 95pts]
    • Plague Champion [19pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
    • Plague Marine w/ blight launcher [19pts]: Blight grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenades, Plague knife
    • Plague Marine w/ cleaver [19pts]: Blight grenades, Great plague cleaver, Krak grenades, Plague knife
    • Plague Marine w/ flail [19pts]: Blight grenades, Flail of corruption, Krak grenades, Plague knife
    • Plague Marine w/ special weapon [19pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Meltagun, Plague knife
  • Poxwalkers [6 PL, 60pts]
    • 12x Poxwalker [60pts]: 12x Improvised weapon
  • Poxwalkers [6 PL, 60pts]
    • 12x Poxwalker [60pts]: 12x Improvised weapon

Elites [20 PL, -1CP, 295pts]

  • Foul Blightspawn [6 PL, -1CP, 85pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague sprayer, Revolting Stench-vats, Stratagem: Gifts of Decay [-1CP], Unholy death’s head grenade, Viscous Death [1 PL, 5pts]
  • Helbrute [7 PL, 105pts]: Multi-melta, Power scourge
  • Helbrute [7 PL, 105pts]: Multi-melta, Power scourge

Fast Attack [14 PL, 220pts]

  • Myphitic Blight-haulers [14 PL, 220pts]
    • Myphitic Blight-hauler [7 PL, 110pts]: Bile spurt, Gnashing maw, Missile launcher, Multi-melta
    • Myphitic Blight-hauler [7 PL, 110pts]: Bile spurt, Gnashing maw, Missile launcher, Multi-melta

Death Guard vs Space Marines (1,500 points) – Battle Report

On By Plague GardenerIn Battle ReportLeave a comment

List Theory

I was intending on replaying list that I used in my last game so as to see if the Spartan could do any better. However my opponent asked if we could step up to 1,500 points, and I thought I could do it easily by adding Mortarion to my list. If having 50% of your army as silly big models that can die easily is daft fun then having 66% of it as such must be really daft fun? Right?

So Morty goes into the list. There were a few points to play with and so the list was tinkered a bit to add in a Foul Blightspawn, a few more Poxwalkers and some additional weapons on the Spartan.

The Game

Setup

Deployment

We rolled the Abandoned Sanctuaries mission from the Arks of Omen book. This has a rule that stops any pre-game movement or deep striking into no man’s land. This, I think, turned out to be crucial. My opponent was, I believe, playing a successor chapter to the Raven Guard and had a lot of pre-game movement shenanigans. All of that was shut down. There are also bonus points available for taking the central objective killing enemy units that are near it.

I take the following objectives.

  • Spread the Sickeness: Seems to be reliable.
  • Grind them down: I’ve got two big models, I need them to be killing lots of the enemy to earn their points and for me to have any hope of winning the game. So I might as well get rewarded for doing what I need to do.
  • Psychic Interrogation: Morty is so big he can see almost the whole table, so he should have a line of sight to the enemy so as to be able to do this.

We both deploy with clear plans to go for the centre. I make a bad decision and have the crater between the centre and my Spartan. I thought that Inexorable Advance allowed all Death Guard units to avoid penalties to their movement, but it’s only for infantry. So my Spartan would be slowed down if it drove up the centre. Curses.

The Space Marines would take the first turn.

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