Battle Report - Death Guard vs Dark Angels

Last Friday evening I challenged my nephew to a game of 40K as an opportunity try out my Death Guard once again. I went in expecting to lose because I still need to learn how to play them but I was pleased at ho well they did handle themselves despite the high points cost.

My nephew made a small screw up as he was unsure how the Forge Organisation Chart worked with formations but it didn't matter for this as I was happy to play. He has three armies - Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Adeptas Sororitas. He is such a big Blood Angel fan that I expected to be facing off against a plethora of assault marines and furiouso dreadnoughts. Instead he turned up with a Dark Angel force mounted on bikes or part of a Ravenwing detachment full of land speeders. I was going to have a hell of a time.

We rolled off and got the mission where you can win each other's objectives. I know from the league games where this one has come up that it isn't all that popular and I can sort of see why. We kicked things off with him deploying his side of the table.

I don't quite remember everything he had but it includes Sammael on his jetbike, a bike command squad, a squad of bikes, and the formation that gave him three land speeders and a darkshroud land speeder.

My list was:

Sorcerer - level 3.
Mark of Nurgle. Veteran of the long war.
Powers: Force, Nurgle's rot, summoning, plague wind and the one that makes weapons "get hot".

10 man CSM squad.
Mark of Nurgle. Veterans of the long war. Champion had power fist.

10 man plague marine squad.
Veterans of the long war.
Champion had power weapon and plasma pistol. Icon of despair and two meltaguns.
Rhino with two combi-bolters.

5 man terminator squad.
Mark of Nurgle. Veterans of the long war.
Combi-bolters and one reaper autocannon. Champion had lighting claw. The rest had one power fist and the others power weapons.

Aegis defence line with quad autocannons.

I deployed mine with the sorcerer and his CSM buddies holding the autocannon. The plague marines sat off to the side in a rhino looking to get around to objectives as needed. I also talked myself into holding the terminators in reserve which proved to be a poor choice as you'll see.

Battle was then commenced. He threw everything at my CSM squad on turn one. Bolters and plasma weapons both, and I either made every armour save or passed the cover save for the defence line. One dice in particular rolled nothing lower than a 4 for half the game! It has since been promoted.

Second turn he decided to move across the table and sweep in behind me rather than risk driving over the terrain. When he realised that he had wrecked my Rhino in the gap he needed he was not a happy bunny. On my second turn no terminators arrived. Poured everything into the land speeders and did nothing. The quad cannon did smash through one bike squad though which really helped my bacon.

Turn three and still no terminators! I ended up having to summon plaguebearers to stall his advance with the bikes. They did not last long which I found very disappointing. I really wanted them to last a bit longer but a free unit (although it cost my sorcerer a wound thanks to a issue with the warp).

As the game went along my nephew did manage to kill my CSM squad but not before my sorcerer conjoured a second squad of plaguebearers to halt the bike advance and blowing his own head off with another mishap.

Eventually my terminators arrived turn four way past the point where I really needed them. They came down and took out a couple of bikes but the rest blasted them down to two terminators who then proved ineffectual other than to hold an objective.

My plague marines did fantastic though. They never did put a dent on the land speeders but they survived so much fire power and took down Sammael that I didn't care. At end of turn 5 it was getting late and my nephew was on 12 vp to my 5 so we called it there.

At the end of the day my army is going to be expensive as I want the mark of Nurgle on everything and I'd rather field plague marines than the regular chaos marines. I'd have liked some more models on the table but even so I was very pleased as to how the game played out.

League Update

The league continues and still no one can stop Jon's necron advance to the first place. With only four games left to go for him I cannot see anyone getting close but we shall play on and enjoy the league. It is pleasing to see how some players who in the past didn't do so well are actually getting some good positions on the leader board.

On a side note when this league wraps up we will be having a good break from organised play for some friendlies but come spring next year I am pondering running a small Age of Sigmar league if there is enough interest. If not, I might do a tile based campaign instead for 40K.

Death Guard update

Slowly getting there with my Death Guard painting and I am very pleased with how they are coming out. You may have seen a couple of these photos before but I just grabbed what I have at the moment.

This is Colic my sorcerer of Nurgle and his bodyguard squad of regular Nurgle chaos marines. This squad has since been completed but I don't have a photo of them. The models were 2nd or 3rd ed chaos marines which my boss found in a charity shop and bought for me. They had already been build hence the odd poses on some of them. 

This rhino was also found by my boss but it had originally been covered in pretty much every bit from the sprues which took some time to prune off of it. Any holes created have been plugged with rust (Armageddon Dust). 

Typhus (who I've just realised is also missing a photo) has a squad of terminators as his bodyguards. All five have been painted but this photo was taken as I worked on these three. You might be wondering why they and the chaos marines above are white-ish rather than green? I decided that the bodyguard squads shoukld look different and so are coloured more like the original Death Guard colours but filthy and rusted.

One twenty man squad of Plague Marines complete. Very pleased with how these have turned out. Most are the plastic chaos marine models but some of them use the plague marine parts and others have elements of the Forge World plague marines upgrade packs (thanks to a friend who bought two sets for me). I still have another twenty man squad to build and paint.

Work in progress of a plaguebearer squad I was painting last night. I've painted them different colours to make them a bit different and to have them stand out. Some of the other five are different shades of green and grey. My favourite is the standard bearer as I think he came out looking the best when you see them in the flesh.

You can see three bikes in the background of some of these. They were also part of the figures that my boss found but they are a bit poorly built. I'm having to think how I can paint the riders properly as I can't get to most of the front of the riders.

I've also got another box of plaguebearers, two boxes of raptors, one box of chaos marines, a box of cultists, a box of Warhammer Fantasy zombies to work through. I've also bought myself Cypher with plans for a box of the hooded Dark Angels to represent his chosen bodyguard. 

I decided that my army represents the Death Guard as they are during the 13th Black Crusade. The theory is that Cypher may be the mysterious "Voice of the Emperor" so I liked the idea of using the dataslate to have him as an ally in games against the Dark Angels.

League Update

It has been a couple weeks since my last posting and the league still rumbles along nicely. On our club Facebook page I have posted all the remaining dates so we can work around the summer and holidays. This goes on till September! Next time I think it will have to ensure that the league is smaller somehow.

As we currently stand Jon is still very much in first place, and it just remains to be seen who steals second and third place. For now I think Ashleigh with his Astra Militarum will take second but third is too close to call, and you never know what fate might have in store for the other players.

Update... sort of

It's been a while since I've been able to sit down and do some painting for my Death Guard army so I am glad that this week I was able to sit down one evening with Joel Tate and have a painting night. Managed to complete my first twenty man squad of Plague Marines. Going to work on some Plaguebearer allies before I attempt the next twenty man squad.

I'm pleased with how they have come out but I think it is going to be a while before I have enough built and painted to play them.

--

The big old 40K league is going along still. Finalized the games and it wraps up at the start of October! The problem is we have so many players who want to partake but we just don't have the room. I don't want to be an arse in future and limit who can play. I'm afraid that I would show signs of favouritism. We shall have to see.

In the mean time one player, Adam Winstanley, has dropped out. He said that it was due to a conflict of things he also does on a Thursday evening but I've also been told he was getting bored of not winning any games. As much as I hate it when players drop out it is a fair point if you aren't enjoying it and it does help speed up the league end a little. The only problem now is players going on holiday, having evening work and the like. As much as I understand, it is driving me around the twist having to constantly update and change weeks that games are organised on. And take a deep breath. :-)

As you can see Jon Quinn is still storming ahead with his Necron army. Out of the players he has left to face I really don't think any have the ability to steal that top spot from him.

Conquest Revisited

I've been playing a lot of Conquest lately and I still feel that it is a good game despite one or two minor niggles. One is the usual issue with Fantasy Flight's living card games in that you do need to buy two or three starters, preferably three, in order to get three of every card. It really isn't necessary to do that to players. Thankfully a friend bought me my third starter as a late birthday present so at last I have all three starters.
The other niggle is far more annoying. Normally you alternate doing things between yourself and your opponent, but in the combat phase you can play an action and make an attack with a unit. After many games I find this to be the closest to broken that the game gets. It makes some factions - Dark Eldar I'm looking at you - far too strong. It really needs to be reduced to you get either an action or an attack. Then it would be balanced.
Ok, there is actually a third as I think about it. One of the victory conditions is to bloody and then kill the opponents War Lord. Unfortunately it is a bit of a dick move as it just ensures that one player doesn't get a good game. It's far too easy to do when you build a deck around it, and the Space Wolves war lord Ragnar Blackmane is all about war lord hunting. Other than that, I'm really enjoying it.

So, how do the factions play now? That is what I want to cover here today.

Space Marines.
Space Marines in Conquest feel very much like a jack of all trades but master of none. They have some great units that cover the range from very cheap to just too expensive to field. Their event cards however are rather naff for the most part. They have some handy ones but most either have yet to fill a role for me or seem to be there for just the use of shield icons only.
Cato Sicarius. Cato is the Ultramarines war lord that comes with the starter set. I think he is one of the better war lords as in the right situation he generates resources when enemy units are destroyed. His signature units are about right in cost and strength as well.
Ragnar Blackmane. Ragnar is the Space Wolves war lord. He is built around hunting down and killing the enemy war lord. Coupled with his signature unit he is the primary reason for my dislike of that victory condition in the game. But even so I cannot fault how good he is as a war lord.

Astra Militarum.
The Imperial Guard Astra Militarum currently feel rather underpowered although I find them relatively fun to play because of it. They just aren't going to be very competitive for the moment in my opinion. I think the problem with them is that the units just don't mix well together. They don't share enough synergy with one another with one another like the other factions do. The The non-unit cards are ok but I'd like better.
Corporal Straken. Straken is the war lord who comes from the starter set and is the best of the current Astra Militarum war lords. His ability boosts many of the units you'll play which is always handy. His signature cards are reasonable but, again, I'd have liked better.
Torquemada Corteaz. The inquisition enters the game with an AM war lord. Corteaz isn't bad as a war lord but he starts with 0 attack and needs to sacrifice one of his units to get a +3 attack. Thematic but I'm not keen on the ability. His signature cards are ok with the exception of The Glovodan Eagle which I cannot see the use for except for it's three shield ability. I'm not sure about how well he will do based on his war lord ability.

Eldar.
The Eldar in Conquest resemble their Warhammer 40K counterparts in being annoyingly powerful. They tend to be highly mobile and with an ability to control the battlefield. They are very frustrating to play against. The units themselves are cheap, balanced in regards to attack and wounds, but they work really well together. The Eldar events are very strong not to mention cheap and are what allow them to control the game.
Eldorath Starbane. The first war lord for the Eldar and at the moment the best of the two available. Eldorath has ability to exhaust a unit when he commits to a planet. This is a strong ability that does tend to give the edge to the Eldar in engagements. Couple this with Starbane's Council, one of his signature units, who get more powerful when attacking exhausted units.
Baharroth. The newest war lord for the Eldar is the Phoenix Lord of the Swooping Hawks. By himself I don't think he's great as his own ability is to move from one planet to another. Mobility is a good ability but as a war lord's only ability and the stats being average, I'm not rating him great yet. Maybe once I have had opportunity to play him. However, his signature cards are very handy and worthwhile which may make up for Baharroth himself.

Tau Empire.
The Tau are another powerful and well designed faction. They Tau are good at mobility and are real masters of combat with plenty of ranged opportunities. The units are the masters of shooting but are weak in the wounds department to make up for it but are nicely balanced points wise to compensate. The Tau are good at winning the command struggle as most units of at least one icon and are cheap enough to deploy a fair number to win a planet. I do enjoy playing against the Tau as they make for good games.
Commander Shadowsun. Shadowsun is my favourite Tau war lord as he is balanced (unlike his current counterpart) and comes with some nice thematic signature cards. I think he has become less popular since we received a second Tau war lord but that may be because Aun'shi plays better for a more competitive game. Shadowsun is good for a casual game.
Aun'shi. This new war lord quite frankly is broken and overpowered in my opinion. Aun'shi gives all your Tau units at his location armourbane which prevents the opponent from using shields to resist against damage. This only goes away once he attacks as he then retreats back to the HQ area. My experience of playing against him is simply that he's not fun to have as an opposing war lord.

Chaos.
The forces of Chaos in Conquest are probably the staple for power level against which the others are compared. I think so anyway. They have some extremely powerful units, cards and combinations at their disposal. Some of which are ridiculous in the right situation. The standard units and cards are fairly balanced but those which come as signature cards are the ones to watch out for, especially when combinations are concerned.
Zarathur. This Thousand Sons sorcerer is the war lord from the starter set and is probably the best of the two we currently have. The amount of damage that can be put out because of him and his Flamer's is really rather scary. He is the Chaos war lord for the competitive player.
Ku'gath Plaguefather. This greater daemon of Nurgle is my preferred war lord for Chaos. He and his signature cards are great for bouncing damage onto the opponent's units. It is very thematic representing the spread of Nurgle's foul diseases. Unfortunately however, there isn't a lot of damage prevention in the game right now so it is very easy for an opponent to overload him with damage, and boom, you've lost your war lord.

Orks.
The greenskins are a faction that I don't think live up to their potential. They are a faction that should be built around getting loads of small units in play to swarm and overrun the opponent's units. Instead the Ork units tend to be larger expensive units so that you don't get quite as many out in play as you would like. I really want to see this adjusted as I think the game is missing a swarm faction but maybe Tyranids will cover this aspect instead. Eitherway, right now I don't find Orks very playable.
Nazdreg. The default war lord for the orks and again, arguably the best of the two. He gives his ork units present where he is the brutal ability so that they get better attack for being wounded. If played right, you have a lot of damage potential from your army but in my experience it just makes him an obvious choice for war lord hunting.
Old Zogwort. In Warhammer 40K Zogwort is all about venomous snakes and poison, but to avoid messing about too much FFG have instead tied him into the snotling generation mechanic. The problem is that he is terrible for it as at the end of your turn all snotlings on your side get discarded! They give you a handy dandy ability with one hand and snatch it away with the other. Unlikely to ever play him because of it.

Dark Eldar.
This faction drives me up the wall. I hate playing against them with a passion. If you know Magic the Gathering, these guys are black. The units are weak and should be easily killed but they have good damage and some nice abilities. The non-unit cards however are designed to just screw you over. They force discards from your hand, destroys your units and basically controls the game so that you can't do anything. All of which makes for another very dull game.
Packmaster Kith. The starter box war lord and not too bad by herself. She works by bringing Khymera tokens into play when she deploys.Of the two we currently have she is perhaps the fairer of the two to play as her ability isn't too bad. Neither war lord actually impacts things too much instead relying on the regualr cards to screw the opponent over.
Urien Rakarth. The latest warlord is a bit odd. I need to see him played to get an idea of how he works. Events you play with the Torture keyword are cheaper but non-Torture cards are more expensive. I am guessing that he is a war lord who will come into his own as more cards are released for the Dark Eldar faction.

2015 League round 12

Week 12 of brutal combat among the stars! Only two games this week as one player forgot he had a game. Both players are currently discussing whether to call it a win for the player who remembered or whether to replay it at a later date. I think it will be replayed for fairness.


Game 1.
Mark Thomas vs Ashleigh Granger.
World Eaters vs Astra Militarum in this game. In my mind this was always going to be Ashleigh's game and I was right. I didn't see much of the game but I figured with his experience Ashleigh would have the upper hand and I doubt Mark was prepared for a decent mechanized army. Victory to the Imperium.

Game 2.
Michael Parker vs Joel Tate.
Now this game was a shocker. Michael is a playing a Horus Heresy World Eaters list which hasn't done him very well so far while Joel's chaos daemons list had been doing so very well lately. In a strange twist of fate Michael actually built a list that won him the game, although against daemons I'm not sure how. Victory to the World Eaters.

The scores now look like this: