Although I just finished typing up a battle report where the Diseased Sons defeated the Imperial Fists, time waits for no man, though it sometimes moves faster or slower depending on the ebb and flow of forces beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. The Pariah Nexus was less busy this weekend, but the Sentry Box was busy regardless.
Bill and I arrived around 11 AM and the only other member of our campaign to show was Aiden much to the disappointment of the waitress at the Pig & Duke. So despite the master plan of it being the forces of chaos AKA Team Bad Ash versus the forces of the false emperor, AKA Team Little Goodie Two Shoes, Bill made me play Aiden. And because of the mission and to try to see what would happen I took three squads of plague marines and even a rhino which both Aiden and Bill think is overvalued by Games Workshop but I used it to successfully complete an agenda.
Pre-Game
Aiden was busy setting up the table when we arrived, but then as Bill had decided to referee he took over setting up the terrain and I guess he wanted the battlefield to be smaller so the Chaos Knights would have to walk less so we measured some obscure number of inches from one end and marked it. The mission was chosen in advance as was the power level. We played “Tech Hunt” at 40 PL.
This mission allows you to use the special Recon Stratagems but I don’t think I used any, but perhaps I should have. I talked about it in Turn One then largely forgot about them. There were four objectives you had to dig up, but half of them were in fact nothing. I also was given a secret agenda, or told I had to try and establish battlefield supremacy as one of my agendas. I did try but I failed. I did better at my second agenda, another one I’d never attempted before Poison the Well.
Aiden won the roll off and got to be player A, this meant I had to set up first but he only had three knights so I could out deploy him, but even with one rhino and a lone chaos spawn I could not out maneuver him. Leaving out my heavy support was also questioned but I did accomplish my agenda and earn a virulence point and several experience points. I didn’t really think I could kill Lord Gogo at forty power.
The Forces of the Diseased Sons
- McFly the Malevolent, Plaguecaster 5 PL
- Syphilis Squad, 10 Plague Marines 12 PL
- The Scarlet Fevers, 10 Plague Marines 12 PL
- Gangrene Squad, 5 Plague Marines 6 PL
- Rhino with Havoc Launcher, 4 PL
- Billalexdevin, Spawn of Chaos 1PL
Aiden deployed his first objective dead centre so I deployed one on the right flank, then he put his second seven inches away and into what was my side of the board so I put my final one on the left flank. I put the one I had hoped to hold, aka the real one on the left flank, but then there was some confusion when Bill flipped it over. We used the old green tokens GW made, either speed one or speed two covered by a damaged vehicle one to obscure it. But as you can see Lord Gogo is so big he can basically stand on top of three objectives at once.
Bill actually nudged some terrain to make it possible for the knights and the lowly rhino to go places and do things but it is basically how he set it up originally. Three pieces of area of terrain were declared. Originally when I chose my agenda it was just two, but then Bill declared a building in the back corner of the Chaos Knight deployment zone was also area terrain, how helpful. This meant in order to try and accomplish my agendas I had to gun the engine. I should have advanced the rhino. Can vehicles advance? I think walkers at least can, but I never thought about advancing with the rhino, I wanted to shoot the mighty havoc launcher.
I put Syphilis, everyone’s favourite plague marine squad, in a piece of area terrain which ultimately earned them two experience, but because they performed the Territorial Contamination action on turn one, Lord Gogo took less fire and I think it is going to take higher damage weaponry than bolters, plasma guns, and knifes to kill him. Aiden even forgot one of his best rules, now that he ignores invulnerable saves in melee I wonder if a tonne of little guys may be able to drag him down or will it take melta gun spam?
I of course lost the rolloff to go first because that is par for the course, but before that according to math, the Chaos Knights and Lord Gogo were declared the underdogs and got an extra command point much to Bill’s amusement.
Battle Round One
To further amuse Bill, the Chaos Knights barely moved. Lord Gogo performed an action, scratching in the dirt like a chicken. The other two knights moved and one used the special stratagem or we talked about using the special stratagem “Maintain Focus” which cost 2 CP, but in the end, Lord Gogo scratched and the little knights shot.
The newest Chaos Knight to join the campaign does not yet have a name, but Aiden has decreed she is a lady, so I dubbed her Lady Gaga to accompany Lord Gogo into battle. She fired at Syphilis and used a house trait and Profane Knowledge to get a bunch of re-rolls and kill two Plague Marines.
The other Chaos Knight used Elite Crew to hit every single time. So this was eleven hits in total and I failed all the armour saves and I believe four models in the Scarlet Fevers died, but after some debate I played Insane Bravery and avoided the possibility of failing morale.
Death Guard Turn One
To start my turn Syphilis Squad did Territorial Contamination. I thought about using the “Maintain Focus” stratagem as I ended up trying to kill or at least badly damage Lord Gogo with most everything else. But I didn’t commit both my big units, next time I think I commit everything to killing Lord Gogo or nothing.
I also failed to cast Miasma of Pestilence. I actually rolled quite poorly at crucial times again this game. However Smite did better as I rolled an 11 and did four mortal wounds to Lord Gogo, this is the other way I think he can be killed. The Death Guard have a number of ways to do mortal wounds and there is no rule against multiple Malignant Plaguecasters or multiple psykers casting Smite, in fact there are specific rules to allow it.
There was debate whether I should overload the Scarlet Fevers’ plasma guns and in the end I did. But it wasn’t overwhelmingly successful. But I declared a charge with both the Scarlet Fevers and McFly, I thought about keeping him out, but went for it, but six plague marines and one Malignant Plaguecaster just were not enough to destroy Lord Gogo I need to build an even bigger and more powerful unit.
I did play Trench Fighters and Eternal Hatred plus one of the twists was any unit not in cover in area terrain was affected by radiation so Lord Gogo’s toughness went down by two and I had plus one to wound, but I just did not roll high enough or hit hard enough, I need to make specific squads to deal with a unit like Lord Gogo in ninth edition. I ended up doing three wounds with the Scarlet Fevers but it also cost 3 CP so not the greatest deal.
When McFly was fighting I think I used a command re-roll, which failed, as he has quite high strength in melee and I actually got Lord Gogo down to 13 wounds, would that have bracketed him as the kids say?
Aiden then played Bind the Souls of the Slain and Reap & Rend. He also directed all his attacks into the Scarlet Fevers doing 11 wounds at -5 AP so no save possible. This results in Lord Gogo regaining wounds because of the first stratagem.
Also apparently charging someone doing an action doesn’t stop the action unless you kill them.
Battle Round Two
It was in the second Chaos Knight turn that Gatekeeper Gostoc maintained focus. This allowed him to shoot his guns and scratch in the dirt like a chicken at the same time. He decided to get extra cute and shoot his stubber at Killious Bilious the Silliest who was still alive with one wound after Lord Gogo buggered off and then his big gun at McFly.
Bilious made his one required save on a six, but then McFly took six wounds and he failed every single save! I even tried using a command re-roll and that failed too. But I gave McFly the Revoltingly Resilient warlord trait which managed to allow him to survive with one wound.
Lady Gaga used her melta gun on the rhino doing two wounds but Lord Gogo had to turn around and fire all his guns at Bilious and McFly and there was no surviving two knights shooting at my two lonely exposed Diseased Sons.
Next Lord Gogo charged Syphilis and I declared overwatch as they have a battle honour that lets them hit on a 5+ but what I really need is to get the Burning Sores upgraded and back on the table, it is just too hot and I paint too slow, especially during a heatwave.
I don’t think Overwatch did much but the end result of melee was I lost four more guys but passed my morale test.
Death Guard Turn Two
We ultimately had a little trouble scoring this mission and infantry units could dig better than other units which is why I took three units of them, but then my cheapest unit is a single Chaos Spawn so that was my designated digger on the right flank. The rhino continued to race forward and apparently forgot to advance instead using their upgraded Havoc Launcher.
Syphilis was stuck in melee so I used the Blightening. This did 9 wounds but at AP nothing ended up causing just a single wound on Lord Gogo. I also got out of the rhino so I could fire my lone melta gun but it of course missed so I used a command re-roll and missed again.
In 9th Edition the defender fights first if there are no chargers so this meant Lord Gogo got to fight first, only Bagonhead survived, he has proven luckier than most.
Battle Round Three
This game was a bit hard to score as mentioned above, because you got 10 points for digging up an objective and after turn one you could hold objectives but infantry could dig quicker, so when you got your points was odd. Regardless the score was probably 20-0 for the Chaos Knights as Lord Gogo doesn’t have objective secured and Killious Bilious the Silliest did, but then he died before I could earn any points for holding the dug up objective.
Aiden had stopped trying hard at this point and barely moved his models. But after some ridicule he moved two whole models. The Chaos Knight missed with its melta gun but Aiden gets to re-roll almost everything. But I saved against it with a six. Then there were seven more shots into Gangrene from Lady Gaga who again used her Profane Knowledge. But I made all the saves. Gangrene has really done well for a small suboptimal squad.
Lord Gogo was even more bored than Aiden so he killed the rhino with his laser destructor. But Bagonhead survived the stubbers shooting at him, only to die in melee to Lord Gogo’s legendary relic weapon.
In the Death Guard half of the round Gangrene which was my only surviving plague marine squad moved into the area terrain and performed the Territorial Contamination action.
Battle Round Four
I think the score may have been 30-10 at this point as I had dug up an objective and was guarding it with Billalexdevin so Lady Gaga unleashed upon him doing 13 wounds. The rest of the Chaos Knights were holding objectives or performing an action to accomplish their own hidden objective.
Exiting the building the melta gun could once again shoot, but I once again rolled a one to hit, so I used a command re-roll and got another one. It was just not my game, but I didn’t give up and I’d actually accomplished one of my agendas earning the bonus virulence point.
Battle Round Five
One member of Gangrene died to autocannons and then another to the melta gun. The other two knights performed actions to earn more experience but I didn’t write down what the agenda was actually called.
In my half of the turn the plucky Gangrene squad tried to kill off the Chaos Knight closest to them, but Lady Gaga was concerned enough to rotate her ion shields but that ended up doing nothing. Gangrene then charged into overwatch which killed off more of them but I still played Eternal Hatred, however Bob the Necessary Evil and his power fist missed all three times. But the two plague knife attacks actually caused a wound. One day I’ll stab a knight to death, just like I did the Wraithlord.
Post Game
The game was now over and the final score was declared to be 55-20 for the Chaos Knights and I wasn’t even tabled even though a lot of units are off active duty as I was trying to paint more models for them. I definitely make things harder on myself than they need to be, but only playing with painted converted models is the way to go, lowering your standards just results in lower standards and lousy battle report pictures.
A lot of my units were put out of action and the rhino and Billalexdevin ended up taking battle scars. There was a lot of talk about me buying nine Myphitic Blight Haulers but that wouldn’t be my army. I want to upgrade all my plague marine squads for 9th edition, once that is done maybe I’ll paint some daemon engines, but I doubt I’ll do nine, I actually think the flying fast attack choice is cooler.
Although I lost the game, I did complete an agenda and that earned Syphilis and especially Gangrene a bunch of XP. Gangrene was once again declared MVP so soon I’ll have to rest them as I need to paint three more additions to this squad so they can have two Blight Launchers and I’m giving them the Sigil of Decay represented by a new cool icon bearer.
So although I thought about adding a landraider or a predator, neither fit simply into my case, so I ended up recruiting the Beast Rabban and spending one requisition point to increase my supply limit. I also decommissioned two of my single spawn units in favour of a unit of two Chaos Spawns. I’d like to eventually try a unit of five, but that is yet more model building and painting. Did I mention my hobby time is limited and we are in the middle of a heatwave in Calgary?
If you have thoughts on killing Chaos Knights who are swollen with campaign power you can leave a comment below. Apparently I’ve forgotten Creeping Blight, I should use that Trench Fighters and Eternal Hatred all at once if I get a big charge on a difficult to destroy enemy unit in the future. Aiden actually bought the bigger knight after pooh poohing it, apparently Lord Gogo can be transferred into an even larger knight if he earns 72 experience points.
Musk's Miniatures 
3 thoughts on “40K Narrative Campaign Week 17”