40K Narrative Campaign Week 21

Although it has been a while #warmongers I have played two games, but only one of them was part of the original Siege of Vanithros’s Bastion narrative campaign. In other news, WordPress.com only partially works with the Safari browser so I had to use Google Chrome to start this, the final hobby blog update of 2022…

As this was going to be the final hobby blog update of the year, I planned to also revisit my hobby goals for year. I definitely ran out of steam there for a while painting and got bogged down updating models that I didn’t need for our narrative campaign nor had I planned on painting them in 2022 such as the Beasts of Nurgle which I’ve still not finished rebasing again.

One thing I did learn was you can not even declare a charge if you are not within twelve inches of the enemy, no matter what special rules you have. Also Death Guard have relics that are Relics of Decay which are on page 50 of the codex, but the other relics, the company specific ones are they thus not “Relics of Decay” because they are not on page 50 for the purpose of the “Release the Toxins” stratagem? What say you Internet?

Pre Game

Despite it being New Year’s Eve we will play again tomorrow, so this blog post may become epic if I add another battle report to it. I must type like a maniac to try and get at least most of this blog post finished tonight. Last night I failed to write more than the introductory two paragraphs.

For my first game in quite a while I drew Bill, loyal Ultramarine player. Or so he used to claim to be, now he’s gone back to his first army, the Orks. We played 25 power and our mission was Fat-berg Clearance. I took McFly, Rabban, Gangrene, a rhino and of course the Cancer Cell. Bill fielded some boyz, some grots, some killa kans and a trukk. WordPress hates orky spelling.

My army had five campaign points to Bill’s one, it being his first game with his new old army. So the Orks were the underdogs and got extra command points. I took Cull the Hordes as my agenda but that didn’t work out so well for me. Bill was big on scrapping and busting heads. He also won the roll off and got to be the attacker which suits me fine. My army is slow and has few long ranged guns. I will eventually rectify this but at the rate I’m painting it will be bolters and knifes for the foreseeable future.

Deployment

We were on a small table as it was busy at the Box, but we were playing a combat patrol game. I deployed second but Bill had twenty grots in two squads of ten. I thought I could cull them, but I’m just not so devastating. I put down my cultists the Cancer Cell, Bill probably deployed more grots. I put everything else on the opposite flank. I did not deploy anything in the rhino, I use it more as gun platform in small games, afterall it has a D2 Havoc Launcher thanks to campaign experience.

Battle Round One

In this mission, the attack went first, so not surprisingly the Orks moved forward. Thenthe grots in the top left of the picture headed towards an objective, they are black Ultramarine symbols. Why aren’t they painted Bill? My objectives are all painted.

The Killa Kans killed two Kulitists.

Death Guard Turn One

My first turn was not terribly exciting. I did fire all my guns but I did a lot of missing. However the Reaper Autocannon did some work and orks are not known for their resolve so after taking a few casualties I believe the first grot failed morale. I believe I forgot the psychic phase. Bill let me cast Miasma out of turn, but I gotta remember the psychic phase I often skip it to go to shooting. Too many years with no psychic phase in the game.

Battle Round Two

Of course the orks move forward, as you can see in the picture they ultimately get stuck in. The grots may not have ran completely away just taken some additional casualties so the first fat-burger may have been destroyed this battle round. But perhaps it was Battle Round Two. The ork warlord who badly needs a name was ineffective but I’ve fought orks before this particular model is tough to kill and has a lot of attacks including an attack squig which got forgotten then remembered at least once.

A lowly slugga caused a wound on the dread, which is actually good as it enrages the Hellbrute and they wound better. The hammer has proven its’ value but I miss the heavy flamer which I modelled twice, only the powerfist arm can now have the heavy flamer so at some point I’ll paint a 9th or perhaps 10th edition dreadnought.

The actual trukk charged, I used overwatch but failed to wound it with the Beast Rabban. However the aforementioned hammer did twelve wounds and the trukk exploded!

The Killa Kans had kept shooting at the Cancer Cell but again they passed their morale check.

Death Guard Turn Two

I too moved closer so I could use my psychic powers but I failed to cast Plague Wind, however Smite which is underrated did three mortal wounds. The cultists also managed to wound an ork. I shot the grots dead, preventing them from removing an objective. Finally the Beast Rabban charged the Badmoons killing three with his hammer.

The last lonely ork in the mob ran.

Battle Round Three

The orks of course move forward. The killa kans killed more kultists. They also charge the last two as you can see in the picture, finally removing the Cancer Cell.

Bob the Necessary Evil managed to do a single wound with his powerfist on the warboss. However the warboss fights back killing one member of Gangrene squad.

Death Guard Turn Three

I think I failed my psychic test, suffering perils of the warp, maybe Bill remembers but it did happen but which turn, this game was before Christmas so several weeks ago. I charged the grots with the rhino setting up a heavyweight clash. However I failed other charges I declared.

I did three wounding hits, resulting in seven wounds but I didn’t write down which model did this. The warboss finally Krump’ed killing three plague marines with his klaw.

Battle Round Four

This round some grots again tried to destroy a fat-burger. I think the killa kans may have spent a turn earlier destroying one. Bill did destroy two in total and thought that would guarantee his victory, alas he did not read the mission closely enough.

The warboss with no name charged my Hellbrute leaving it with one wound perhaps, I know Bill complained about my models surviving but isn’t that my thing? The hammer did six wounds in return and the warboss was no more.

Death Guard Turn Four

I had big plans for the psychic phase and using a stratagem in the command phase but then I forgot. I did wound something with the Malignant Plaguecaster’s bolt pistol. The last squad of grots again failed their morale check, apparently that is their thing.

Battle Round Five

The four surviving grots advanced. This was the turn I forgot the psychic phase. The rhino finally managed to kill the last of the grots. Maybe this was the turn it charged, my memory is clearly hazy. Bill was busy patting himself on the back after I killed all his models, but that earned me the defender 50 victory points and I thus won 70-40.

Post Game

The Cancer Cell took another injury, they already have two battle scars and I was thinking of just letting them expire but after thinking more I took minus d6 experience points. I made McFly the MVP giving him 32 XP and earning him a campaign relic, his second, alas it may not count as a Relic of Decay.

2022 Hobby Wrap Up

Since I’ve basically agreed to play another game of Warhammer 40,000 tomorrow morning at Sentry Box this may not turn out to be the last blog post of 2022. But I still want to prepare by reviewing what I said I was going to do versus what I actually managed to accomplish.

I did paint at least eight models, actually I think I painted a lot more than that, but I only needed to choose eight models I worked on to do #ArtVSArtist on Instagram.

I said I was going to paint more plague marines but I barely pained any. I rebased a lot, painting a lot of skulls and nurglings, but actual new plague marine models added to my army may have just been two.

New Purple Plague Marine

Apparently I thought I’d also finish a Necromunda gang. I did do a test model, but there is no way I can play in two campaigns at once, long term I’d like to switch to skirmish games as they are less painting and require less space, but Siege of Vanithros’s Bastion will continue into next year. I used and plan to continue using Necromunda models as chaos cultists.

Chaos Cultists painted in 2022

My third priority was to rebase old models for new rules. And boy did I spend a lot of time on that. I now have four “chaos” codexes. I’m still using just one, but long term I may get to use all four, whether the Siege of Vanithros’s Bastion lasts that long is to be determined. I had not planned on updating my Nurgle daemons but somehow I got caught up in the enthusiasm and I ordered special adapters for them too. I’ve rebased well over thirty plague marines.

Rebased Purple Plague Marines

My fourth priority was to paint chaos cultists. Of course I’ve collected so many models over the years I plan to run a horde, probably two squads of twenty eventually, but I only managed to paint ten. I did spend a lot of time on these very low points costs models.

Priority five was Night Goblins aka Gloomspite Gitz but I think our Warcry campaign came to an end. I still have partially painted and likely some unpainted goblins from Warhammer 4th Edition but they are clearly not a priority heading into 2023.

I also wanted to employ simple but effective miniature painting techniques but despite my vision worsening every year I’ve been in Alberta I’m stuck painting tiny lines because of Owen and Thor. I will probably never start a new army but if I did, I’d use coloured primer. I have yet to go “slapchop” but I may drybrush more in 2023 as Bill is not the boss of me.

Amazingly I did paint two chaos spawn and due to Maceo the Maligned rolling 31 or was it 13 he is now a chaos spawn in our narrative campaign. He has been converted but as yet to be painted. He may be painted soon and damned if I don’t drybrush him.

My first Chaos Spawn painted to Bill’s specifications

I’m not sure I painted many Nurglings in 2022 but I definitely painted some and I bought more because I’m also using them to enhance bases. I’m thinking of updating the Nurgling Party Mobile for 9th Edition as well. One day I’ll field an absolute horde of Nurlgings like I’ve dreamed of since 3rd Edition of Warhammer 40K. Now in the Death Guard I could only field a few unless we play a truly monstrous game.

Long Neglected Nurglings finally painted.

I also said I was going to paint non-Nurgle Chaos Space Marines but as I’m DIY chapter not truly a Death Guard player I will eventually use what is probably a better Chaos Codex for me. I still will be able to field Plague Marines, but not all the extra Death Guard stuff, but that will have to wait at least another half year, we’ll see how long the narrative campaign lasts. There are new rules coming yet again and maybe even 10th edition.

Although I had no plans to desert the Diseased Sons like Bill deserted the Ultramarines I too was originally an ork player but it wasn’t really by choice. I still have that army and many, many unpainted orks. I even bought Kill Team which I still haven’t played.

I’m going to publish this post. It is already probably too long, but apparently search engines are using machine learning more and more so although this isn’t a popular blog, it is more popular now than it was when I wasn’t updating it. But the blogosphere peaked in the past and although Elon Musk and Mark Zetterberg are doing their best to piss people off, running your own blog let alone an entire domain is a lot of work. I don’t really have the time, but I have some hobby goals, which I may have to detail in a future post, but if you have hobby goals for 2023 you can leave them in a comment below.

40K Narrative Campaign Week 20

For twenty weeks I’ve been typing up these battle reports, not one game the Diseased Sons have played in has been missed. Last week was the biggest week in the campaign based on the number of players who participated, alas this week it seems like no official games will be played but I believe Nurgle is doing well or unwell.

Officially I am not sure who is winning the campaign, but it isn’t me, apparently Chaos is doing well or at least the Chaos Knights are, the daemons, the Alpha Legion and the Death Guard may not have done as well recently but reinforcements are on the way as fast as I can paint or rebase them.

My most recent game was against the orks, this was somewhat by choice having crushed them last time but this time they had a new giant tank and it is apparent I need to get more relics and warlord traits maybe even a new warlord.

Pregame

The mission this week was Oblis Incursion, it is another twist on attacking and defending objectives, I did not play it well or plan specifically for it when selecting my army, I simply added 5 more power to my 45 power level army from the week before. I chose to attempt to Poison the Well and of course went with the old favourite Survivor: Syphilis.

The forces of the Diseased Sons

As part of the random twists, both my Defiler and the Kill Bursta tank got Objective Secured but as you can see from the deployment photos I did not park a unit on the second objective in my deployment zone. I think the plan was to walk the Hellbrute over there but I was concerned about the potential damage output of the Kill Bursta. I was also extremely focused on the three pieces of area terrain, but I need some smaller cheaper units to perform actions, my cultists die too quickly, they will get bolstered or perhaps retired for a bit as my painting queue is already too long, you can see some Beasts of Nurgle have jumped the queue.

Syphilis was deployed in a building but them or my other ten model plague marine squad doing actions or advancing cuts down on my already minuscule shooting, but the Defiler and Hellbrute could be armed better for 9th Edition but the hammer gave the Kill Bursta tank a scare eventually, it has high damage output potential, as does the Defiler Cannon. I tend to shoot it at tanks but what I really need is some Lascannons and Meltaguns or something even harder hitting, eventually when I get through troops and I’ll paint something strategic.

My first roll of the game was a one, as was tradition, so the Orks got to make the first choice but I might have won the roll to go first and I took it, but I really think I should plan to go second and play more defensively setting up behind cover as most of my models can move and shoot just fine, they just can’t move fast we’ll see if the Beasts of Nurgle help in that regard but what I probably will get eventually is the flying daemon engines for my fast attack option.

The Death Guard rush forward but not to one objective apparently…

Battle Round One

The rule about the ash wind was back, but I fear we may have forgotten the part about not shooting over 24 inches when it is blowing, but on the first turn it wasn’t blowing so my two daemon engines or vehicles shot. I did advance with the Scarlet Fevers, the Chaos Spawn and perhaps even the cultists. I may have remembered to do the psychic phase and put Miasma of Pestilence, which is quite good, on the cultists as I figured lots of Orks would shoot at them.

The Defiler Cannon managed to do 4 wounds. I rolled a big six for number of shots but then I rolled less well. Syphilis Squad poisoned the well which was experience in the bank for them, they are my current leaders I believe in XP. There are special campaign stratagems and I advised Daniel to play it on the Stormboyz or the last one so he wouldn’t run. This stratagem is called “Hold the Line” and it is like Insane Bravery but you can use it more than once if you are on an objective. I believe my Defiler split his fire with the smaller guns shooting at the Stormboyz.

Ork Turn One

The Orks also moved forward, but did not actually invoke the Waaagh, but it did happen eventually even if it wasn’t timed perfectly. Four cultists died, the Kill Bursta tank split fire like the Defiler with the big gun shooting at Syphilis. A command re-roll was even used and five died due to my legendary ability to fail armor saves as it is damage three.

The left flank is already in melee

The Shokk Attack Gun was only strength five but it still did a wound to Boris the Defiler. The Orks also got to charge and cultists got to use their flamer in overwatch killing two of them.

In the morale phase I played Insane Bravery on Syphilis as not only are they an important squad, keeping them alive was an official agenda.

Battle Round Two

The Beast considers his options

There was no scoring in battle round one and when you score varies from mission to mission, in this one it was during the command phase so not parking on the objective cost me. I hopefully won’t make that mistake again. I like having two big plague marine squads, but I see the value in the five model squad or even a couple Chaos Spawn. Cultists are just not reliable, they did not survive turn one, they need to be in a bigger mob.

The Kill Bursta tank can move quite fast, some terrain may have been nudged to make room for it, but my two vehicles tried to target it, but I will have to get some lascannons and more meltaguns. The psychic phase was not forgotten McFly did six mortal wounds with Plague Wind and then three more with Smite.

Syphilis did two wounds to the tank and the Hellbrute did one. Boris killed some orks and charged killing more.

Ork Turn Two

The orks of course moved, but the first thing I wrote down was a Chaos Spawn died due to dakka. I then apparently made a big save with the Scarlet Fevers who I think earned Grizzled after this game but the momentum was short lived as the model died from the Shokk Attack gun seconds later.

The Kill Bursta tank shot at three different targets. It managed 5 skorcha shots then put 9 shot into the my Hellbrute Rabban. But I did not take many pictures or notes, Daniel and I by far played the fastest game of 40K this day.

Boris the Defiler crushed an ork in H2H but lost several wounds in return. I succeeded in poisoning the well, I believe it completes at the end of the battle round, I was two for two, but should not have pushed for the third building we declared as area terrain in hindsight.

Battle Round Three

All my running around poisoning area terrain is not reflected in the scoreboard as I believe it was 20-0 for the Orks. I could have done a little better if I’d just used my spawn as objective babysitters instead of trying to get them into melee.

I also spent a lot of time advancing the Scarlet Fevers which Daniel later questioned as they have basically five special weapons. Apparently a plague marine squad can actually have six, one day I may field that squad but even getting enough for five required some creative squad building, repainting kneepads and painting my first and so far only Blight launcher model. But the ash wind was blowing so they could move extra far.

The Hellbrute killed the Drillboss, this armament is definitely proving better than Toejam’s and I can see me doing another Defiler, Hellbrute and probably predator for 9th Edition but I’m not sure I want to do them all as Diseased Sons.

Rabban actually charged the Kill Bursta tank which meant he had to take the incoming Overwatch fire. This resulted in four wounds but he did 11 wounds to the tank, but somehow it became 9, perhaps due to a command re-roll or does it have damage reduction? Daniel was officially the underdog and got six extra command points this match.

On the left flank Billalexdevin killed the Nob and thus finished off that unit. But all did not go well as somehow the Beast Rabban died in melee. I should pay better attention during my opponent’s turn, asking more questions.

Ork Turn Three

This was the turn the Shokk Attack Gun was strength twelve. Of course the orks moved but this was a bad sign. I actually think I used the foul smokescreen before it happened as Boris was no longer in melee and thus targetable.

Not even the foul smokescreen could save Boris.

The Bursta Cannon also got 12 shots and the Warlord himself tried to gun down Billalexdevin who I think was on one wound, but he failed.

The Diseased Sons left flank is crumbling.

The Ork Warlord also charged so I fired overwatch but he is toughness six! So my auto hitting Plague spewer did little. A plasma gun did manage to do a single wound. The Warboss has five attacks and apparently this was the turn the Waaggh was meant to be declared back in the command phase. Daniel used a command point to re-roll and ensure five hits which killed three plague marine models. His attack squig did nothing.

I played Counter Offensive though perhaps this was unwise. I killed three orks as multiple charges had been declared. I lost more models and likely had a hard time passing my morale test, but once again my notes are sloppily written and the game took place over a week ago so details may have been forgotten.

Battle Round Four

I had few models left but I did have McFly who actually can do a lot of damage if I remember the psychic phase but is a glass cannon with only four wounds. His screen of cultists and the big daemon engine he was shadowing were now gone but in the mean time he Smited the Kill Bursta tank doing two mortal wounds then he cast Plague Wind and killed three more orks.

Syphilis Squad also killed an ork, these were the Nobz mob who had exited the Kill Bursta tank at some point to take the objective I did not camp a squad on.

Billalexdevin was still alive so he charged the Warboss but did nothing due to bad dice rolling. Then he was killed by the ork general. He has no gun so there was no point in not charging. I still want to try a five model or even a three model Chaos Spawn squad and I’m skipping right to the maximum number of Beasts of Nurgle because by the time they get into hand to hand they are rarely still at full strength.

Bagonhead the Unbearable remains defiant

Ork Turn Four

I assure you models moved, but generally my notes start in the shooting phase with the Shokk Attack Gun killing two plague marines. These would have been in Syphilis Squad as the left flank had crumbled. The Kill Bursta tank also targeted Syphilis killing the last three models.

McFly also took a wound in the shooting phase. The Kill Bursta tank tried to charge McFly but failed. The Warlord did charge McFly and did three wounds as once again I failed key savings throws and revoltingly resilient rolls.

Postgame

Boris randomly took a battle scar after my entire army was taken out of action, but I opted to lose D6 experience. I did earn a requisition point and a virulence point but lately I seem to forget about my unique virus as the only person who can spread it is McFly and Bill ruled he can’t spread it in the psychic phase, he only has a bolt pistol and it is best of his health to stay out of melee.

The Scarlet Fevers earned their third battle honour and I did take Grizzled. Once again I gave MVP to the last model to die.

As you may have guessed for no reason other than they were sitting there collecting dust I am rebasing and apparently going to field my Beasts of Nurgle Sluggie, Slimey, and Esmerelda. I don’t think more models without guns is what I need, in fact what I need remains to paint more special weapons as bolters and knifes are not getting the job done. I need a warlord but apparently painting a replacement model for Maceo is higher in the queue. I never said I would win the campaign, I said I would play.

As for who is winning, I don’t know probably the Chaos Knights which likely means Chaos is probably winning. Nurgle is definitely winning the Great Game. Alas Bill isn’t big on doing math so I may have to take over score keeping. But what really matters is vanity metrics so lets update that scoreboard:

1. DiceHateKris -235
2. Bill – 64

For the record I have managed to amass three hundred and seventy one followers on Instagram. Doing “math” that is more than Kris and Bill combined.

During the last eight days I’ve been working hard on these models.

I have actually been painting while writing this blog post and might be able to finish the rebasing of these Beasts of Nurgle along with perhaps touching up and enhancing the paint jobs a little. So if you have thoughts on using Chaos Daemons in a Death Guard army you can leave a comment below. If you have thoughts on how to win in 9th Edition Warhammer 40,000 without a warlord armed with multiple relics you can leave a comment below. Finally if you have thoughts on increasing your Instagram followers besides buying them, you can leave a comment below.

40K Narrative Campaign Week 19

This week there was even more chaos in the Pariah Nexus, not only did the Chaos Daemons Codex come out but another person joined our Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition narrative campaign, none other than DiceHateKris himself. There was rumours of another Chris or Kris joining our campaign, but there are a lot of rumours in the Pariah Nexus, another juicy one is the Imperial Fists have withdrawn from the campaign to be replaced by the Tau, I’m sure it is for the Greater Good.

DiceHateKris, not to be confused with any other Chris or Kris, has been observing our shenanigans at the Sentry Box for a while but he’s been busy playing other games, but the lure of Chaos is strong and he has rebased his Nurgle Daemons for 9th Edition as I will do, except perhaps the Nurglings, as I don’t think I can get them off their square bases and I don’t think I should try. There was almost some Nurgle on Nurgle crime or an interfamily squabble then Alex showed up.

So instead of playing DiceHateKris I had to play Alex’s Adeptus Custodes, the AAC, the Golden Host with the Most, and I did considerably worse than last time. I even made it two whole turns without forgetting the psychic phase despite printing up new more elaborate cheat sheets. I didn’t use mine much, but Bill and DiceHateKris used the other one. In fact in addition to the Chaos versus the Imperium rivalry, AKA Team Bad Ash versus Team Little Goodie Two Shoes, Bill and Kris are now competing to see who clicks on the link to their Instagram the most. Bill should win as I think every week, so 19 weeks now I’ve linked to his Instagram page, but apparently it is all about branding and DiceHateKris!

Pre Battle

I was somewhat prepared, then I was told to pick a new army to play a Great Unclean One lead combat patrol, but then Alex arrived so I went back to my original 45 PL suboptimal force. My army not only needs to be more shooty but also more killy in H2H and the squad that should be doing a lot of shooting and killing, the Right Hard Posse is on the shelf while I paint reinforcements. This is a long weekend so I will try to do some painting but it appears I am just slow. Or you could say I have high standards if you like in the comments section.

Death Guard Army

• McFly the Malevolent, Malignant Plaguecaster 5 PL
• Syphilis Squad, 10 Plague Marines, 12 PL
• The Scarlet Fevers, 10 Plague Marines, 12 PL
• Boris the Defiler, 9 PL
• The Beast Rabban, Hellbrute, 7 PL

The mission was predetermined to be Tip of the Spear, I chose Survivor: Syphilis and a new never before attempted agenda Sow the Infection, Harvest the Plague. There was a reason I never chose this agenda before, it is hard and requires extra bookkeeping. I think it will work better in larger games.

The complicated mission objectives and deployment zones.

Today’s mission was an attacker/defender one and I lost the role to choose roles, but Alex gave me the one I wanted, because one of the defender special rules basically allowed Plague Marines to autopass morale in turns one or two. This game also had a twist and it was once again the Long March, this hurt us both, you could not Advance and you could not use any rules allowing you to ignore wounds such as McFly’s warlord trait.

Besides forgetting the psychic phase I completely forgot how I did OK against the Custodes last time and basically moved forward and even did four charges in one turn, spoiler alert. Also of note Alex was considered the underdog and got six extra command points! This adds up as he could command re-roll all the time. I need to get a Tallyman or some other means of generating command points, as I need them. I also need to pick my stratagems I do use more carefully, sometimes I think I make poor choices.

I actually won the roll to go first and shocking everyone I gave it to Alex as I thought I’d need to rush to objectives on the last turn, boy was I wrong. Plus the Adeptus Custodes that were on the board had small arms.

Deployment was nearly forgotten in this battle report, but Alex used some stratagem to deep strike two units but I cared not for his strategy, I put the Beast behind some solid cover then plopped my defiler right on top of the objective I had to defend. I put the two plague marine squads on either side of another pillar behind which I put McFly so I would ensure he would survive a while and could inspire both of my troop choices.

The armies deployed on the battlefield.

Battle Round One

I was right about the Adeptus Custodes shooting not being overwhelming in turn one as a single Death Guard died. Sure they moved forward and had models in reserves but they couldn’t advance so I was feeling pretty good when it came to my turn. I even remembered the psychic phase, shame about the null zone.

Death Guard Turn One

I moved most everyone forward as well and brought models from out behind cover. I did pass my psychic test despite being within 14 inches of a Sister of Silence but then Alex using the Empyric Severance to deny it. So no Miasma of Pestilence occurred but I did take a picture while Alex consulted his book.

The Death Guard move towards the enemy.

To start my shooting phase I played Fire Frenzy which doesn’t double a dreadnought’s shots but does make them more accurate, alas I think I generally rolled below average all game including failing some key armour saves. I decided after witnessing them shutting down my psychic phase and as they were squishier to go after the Sisters of Silence, but the Beast may have shot at the Adeptus Custodes, but despite the stratagem I think he did nothing.

Syphilis squad did better killing three Sisters of Silence. The Scarlet Fevers also killed two. Boris fired his little guns at the Sisters and killed two more, then for his Defiler Cannon he rolled the big six for number of shots, I managed to do this in turn two as well. But it was all for naught as the Adeptus Custodes made all their saves. It is possible a command re-roll was used after all Alex had 12 command points, he did use two on Insane Bravery to keep the last two Sisters of Silence on the board this round.

In this mission you can not score victory points in turn one, but I picked up a single Poison Tally because I was literally standing on an objective.

Battle Round Two

The Adeptus Custodes reinforcements arrive

To start this round, some hard to pronounce and spell stance was assumed. Also the teleporter was proven operational as two additional squads of Adeptus Custodes appeared. The extra special terminators shot and killed a single plague marine in the Scarlet Fevers. They would prove less effectual than the other three Adeptus Custodes who arrived.

Special terminators with special flamers

The Shield Captain also did a wound and the two Sisters of Silence who survived both turned out to have flamers, isn’t that convenient.

There was a lot of charging or at least attempted charging going on as in order to teleport you must appear over nine inches away. Another special rule of this mission is the defender could overwatch without paying a command point, I also thought I could do it more than once but that was not the way everyone else read it, so I declared Syphilis would fire at the first chargers, the five model Adeptus Custodes squad with swords and shields.

Syphilis Squad has sensitive dermatitis which allows them to hit on a 5+ but in hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have tried so hard to save them and instead used overwatch against another squad. They were part of my agenda so maybe I did the right thing and just was unlucky in that the Adeptus Custodes made all their saves.

The battle lines clash

After watching four of my models die I launched a counter offensive. It turns out rolling over 9 without rolling doubles is hard. Technically a nine would work for a charge but the two teleporting squads did not make it. I was flush with command points and did not want Syphilis to disappear so I also used Creeping Blight and Trench Fighters. This combo could work if half the squad wasn’t already dead as it was I spent four command points to do two wounds.

The Shield Captain did little then Alex was surprised to learn that plague marines would automatically pass morale this mission.

Death Guard Turn Two

All was not lost, but in hindsight spending four command points to boost Syphilis only to do two wounds and kill a single Adeptus Custodes was not efficient. I need to increase the power of my unit champions, the power fist is free so maybe power fists for everyone or just not get into melee every game, this was a smaller table so it is difficult to avoid melee especially against units that can deep strike.

I did move to set up my own charges and remembered to cast Smite which failed then Plague Wind which did a single mortal wound.

In the shooting phase Boris did two wounds but ended up causing only one due to a command re-roll. I did shoot more guns but what was key was my four charges. The Custodes did overwatch but against Boris which even Alex realized in hindsight was suboptimal but I declared that charge first and he got overanxious. All my chargers went in so I let McFly fight first. He underwhelmed.

Four units of Death Guard charged on Turn Two!

Of course the Adeptus Custodes spend some of their command point bounty to interrupt. The Beast Rabban killed a single Adeptus Custode, the Sister of Silence character had also heroically intervened. I chose to try and kill a unit, but maybe I should have tried to smash her, she is -1 to hit at all times though.

I used Trench Fighters again but this time on the Scarlet Fevers as I would get more stabs, they ended up causing a single wound. Killious Bilious the Silliest did not do well with his power fist, maybe I’ll have to give swords a chance again. Germie the Overly-prepared has one, they can also be upgraded. When Syphilis got to fight they also did a single wound.

The Beast Rabban took a single wound but this just made him frenzied and better in melee. Once again I automatically passed my morale. I stand by my previous statements that a Hellbrute is better kitted for H2H and if only I had one or two optimized for 9th Edition I’d do better. Once I get my painting queue shorter I may indulge myself in painting one or two.

Battle Round Three

The game was still up for grabs. I didn’t even mention Boris getting into hand-to-hand combat where he also underwhelmed. I don’t think I played terribly, but I definitely failed some key rolls and Alex definitely made some key dice rolls, maybe the dice don’t just hate Kris? Starting with twelve command points definitely helps. The score was 4-4 at this point but I only had two Poison Tally points so that agenda is as hard to achieve as I suspected.

Alex muttered something about Stance 2 and told me it wasn’t important. All his models were in melee and I wasn’t feeling two bad as defenders fight first so up steps McFly. I think there was some ineffectual pistol shooting before that.

McFly hit four times, he wounded four times then the Adeptus Custodes made all fours saves. Re-reading my notes Alex made a lot more saves than I did. There was so much melee this battle round, I lost two more plague marines who were fighting the special terminators but that squad actually did the best and Killious Bilious the Silliest may not be so silly after all as he was the last to die.

The Scarlet Fevers actually managed to kill a terminator. Bilious himself did a wound but then, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, command re-roll and it was now an armour save. Boris was actually killed by knives, so not fighting with him first was a big mistake, the spears do two damage and the Defiler does not have Disgustingly Resilient, this surprised Alex, but I checked again and I was right. The knife attack is some sort of special Adeptus Custodes rule, but if I could pass half of my 50/50 armour saves Boris would have lived.

The death of my most powerful single model was the TSN turning point in the game. I thought he was tough enough to take on three little models, but he just did not roll well enough doing nothing on his charge. He would have got to shoot in melee too, this is why I kinda like to keep him out of H2H but his claws are so powerful a more optimal Defiler is also on my with list for 9th Edition.

Keeping with the theme my other massive mechanical monstrosity also did nothing in H2H. Only Bagonhead remained of Syphilis Squad and this movie we keep seeing but there would be no heroic comeback for the forces of Nurgle. McFly did take two wounds and he only has four so he is also better off not in hand-to-hand combat, but I was trying to save Syphilis and I thought I would and mathematically I probably should have done better.

The forces of the Death Guard dwindle.

Death Guard Turn Three

Things were not looking good. Boris is a big amount of points to lose after I charged with him, I could have just stayed at range on top of the objective, that was the plan, but apparently the allure of charging four units at once was too much to resist. The loss of Boris and my ineffectualness in melee clearly had rattled me as after not moving I went straight to shooting, but Alex let me undo that mistake but then the Shield Captain who I Smited can ignore mortal wounds, is this not covered in the no ignoring wounds special rule? I didn’t use Revoltingly Resilient on McFly.

I did try the Blightening, this scares people like Devin, but it is 18 rolls that do nothing against the Adeptus Custodes. I need to find some weaker foes to fight, but unfortunately I think the campaign is turning into a bit of an arms race and I stick to painted models only. In my turn three I learned that one special terminator can have 8 attacks! McFly was nominated to fight and he does nothing, not taking an extra fighty Chaos Lord at the start of the campaign has really cost me, the Shield Captain has played in three games and has two relics.

Bagonhead also did nothing, but at least he didn’t die like McFly who at least did a mortal wound with his conversion field while failing too many saves. I was clearly not going to win this game and glancing down and seeing one command point I decided to Erupt in Filth. This did a wound on the Shield Captain but then I rolled another key one and did nothing to the other Adeptus Custodes unit. I don’t think I had a command point when Boris died as exploding him would have been good, but I couldn’t roll the six.

Continuing the trend the Scarlet Fevers also did absolutely nothing in melee, building a plague marine squad kitted out for melee is of course on the to-do list, the AXE gang is planed but before that I was going to enbiggen the Right Hard Posse, they really are elite. Finally the Beast did one wound, and again this was key roll of one, as he can do D6 damage with his hammer, this must have scared the Sister of Silence character as she backed away after her brush with death.

Battle Round Four

The score was only 8-4 but I was getting one Poison Tally a turn and was down to the dregs of my army and even my dregs were wounded, my warlord and single most powerful model were dead. It was at this point I observed the spear guys did better, I did not expect them to kill a Defiler in melee. The Adeptus Custodes actually failed another charge roll on doubles but of course they re-roll because they had six extra command points to start this battle.

Of course the Beast Rabban died as once again I couldn’t make key armour saves. Then the last Plague Marine squad needed to make 5 armour saves, finally it came down to just Killious Bilious the Silliest being alive. The last Sister of Silence completed some action involving the body of McFly who apparently is going for a cruise on a black ship.

Death Guard Turn Four

I had one model left who I started abbreviating as KBS. He had a plasma pistol and that did a wound, but then defender fights first and KBS failed the one save he had to make. I had a command point so of course I used it to re-roll and of course that failed too. It just wasn’t my game.

Post Game

Every one of my units was wiped out and I didn’t kill an entire Adeptus Custodes unit so I got no points. I also rolled a one and gained a battle scar, the Beast was willing to wear it but then I pulled a Bill and just lost experience instead. I awarded MVP to KBS as he was the last to die, that’s what passes for MVP in a game like this.

I had previously expanded my supply limit and a Plague Surgeon will join the campaign eventually when he is painted and he has found Maceo’s hat!

This was one of my least successful games of the campaign, but unlike Thomas I am not switching armies. I need to paint more and I need to make my army meaner. Of course I need to remember to use my psychic powers as well as choose my stratagems better.

The talk of the day and of the Internet until the return of the Squats was Codex Chaos Daemons. They won today if you were worried, in fact the only member of Team Bad Ash who lost was me. My army doesn’t need more models who can’t shoot but I don’t own any Soul Grinders and my Great Unclean One is not looking so great after all these years, everyone thinks I should rebase it and use it as a Daemon Prince so rebasing will be a big theme not that it hasn’t already been of this blog. Mud for the Mud God and Skulls for the Skull throne and all that.

I did some quick math once I removed the shrink from my copy of Codex Chaos Daemons. I don’t know why there was no data cards, I’m accumulating quite the pile of them so hopefully they come out as I need all the help I can get remembering rules. A Herald of Nurgle is 5 PL and then your minimum combat patrol troop choice is 7 PL so the magic number is 48. I believe it has been decided we will run 50 PL next week as enthusiasm is still high at the Pig & Duke afterwords.

But you don’t need to bring a combat patrol, you do need a game large enough to take two detachments as in the campaign you are supposed to be Battle-forged which I’ve now memorized is on page 244. You can take your main Death Guard detachment then spend one quarter of your power on Nurgle Daemons but you could take a fortification detachment or an auxiliary support detachment, the latter is probably the easiest to add a single unit of daemons to your Death Guard campaign force. The Feculent Gnarlmaw is perhaps not so useful as an ally but helps Plaguebearers a lot and thus all Nurgle Legiones Daemonica armies.

A single unit of Nurgle daemons from last time someone wanted me to use them in a campaign.

There was considerable speculation at the Pig & Duke, but anyone who turns to page 250 will see there is no compulsory choice that means Nurglings can be brought by themselves. I actually think Beasts may be the best of what I have painted, but they need rebasing again. So we shall see if I spend more requisition points, because I also like maximum sized units, you can take a single Beast of Nurgle. I haven’t even read the rules but extra psychic powers sound good however I’m also interested in Sloppity Bilepiper but that figure was not in stock and neither was the Feculent Gnarlmaw who knew a new book could make trees sexy?

If you really want to go big and I do eventually because one thing I want to do for my army as part of my three year plan is a centrepiece model and the Great Unclean One is a pretty big and elaborate model, but to field that in the campaign I’d need that second combat patrol and at least an 88 point game. I wonder if any of his upgrades increase his power level, I really haven’t read the book, just watched some YouTube videos and read the blogs and forums. It doesn’t appear so, but you would need to requisition any warlord traits or relics you want to give them, so it will be a while before another Great Unclean One joins our campaign, but Daemons are in ascendance and someone claimed that Khorne is the strongest then Tzeentch but I saw three people playing Nurgle at the Sentry Box today.

Well it took a while to get going but into my third beer I may actually finish this blog post tonight, DiceHateKris is all about the content. So if you have thoughts on using Daemons with Death Guard or Chaos Space Marines you can leave them below. Bill is looking forward to the day I use four books to field one army. But that is a long way off and despite Bill’s attempt at goading, I was the only non-Ultramarine to field a painted army and I have custom campaign objectives and markers, take that Marneus!

40K Narrative Campaign Week 18

This week the Pariah Nexus was not such an active war zone, only the Ultramarines were brave enough to oppose the Diseased Sons of Nurgle, the Chosen Sons of Mortarion. The rest of the campaign forces can hold their manhoods cheap for those of us who fought on, well not Saint Crispin’s Day but we have our share of observances to choose from.

And maybe it wasn’t Agincourt and maybe no bards will sing of this battle but it was fought unto the last man in supposedly the largest game store in the world. Bill and I were roused early from our slumber to gourd ourselves for battle over plastic and cardboard and perhaps a little lead and resin. I know I fielded the heaviest model in the campaign, the Beast Rabban may his torque never slacken.

Our mission this day was Methodical Eradication. Our agendas were Turn their Hope to Rot and Survivor: Syphilis. An ill ash wind was blowing across the battlefield with no less than five objectives to be fought over by the Sons of Ultamar and the illegitimate Sons of Barbarus.

The Forces of the Death Guard

• McFly the Malevolent, Plaguecaster of Nurgle, 5 PL
• Syphilis Squad led by Bagonhead the Unbearable, 10 Plague Marines, 12 PL
• The Scarlet Fevers led by Killious Bilious the Silliest, 10 Plague Marines, 12 PL
• The Cancer Cell, led by Cancerous the Extremely Naughty, 10 Cultists of Nurgle, 3 PL
• Billalexdevin & Stumpy, Spawn of Chaos, 2 PL
• The Beast Rabban, Hellbrute, 7 PL
• Rhino with a Havoc Launcher, 4 PL

Opposing them were several heroes of the Ultramarines Chapter including he of the snazziest pants himself, Captain Acheran. The Avenging Sons and a venerable dreadnought of considerable power were also present along with a Lieutenant and a Librarian who alas was not name Jocasta Nu. I have no idea if the Librarian is related to Menoeceus in anyway or if they’ll marry their own son.

Also on the battlefield were two inconsequential squads of genetically engineered super soldiers who, spoiler alert, died.

The field of battle

Before the battle was joined

The not so thin green and purple line.

We had a smaller table and it was decided rather than change missions or power levels to just giver on the minimum sized battlefield for the mission. We used the store’s terrain, perhaps the same box of terrain as in my last battle. There was much complaining but in the end it was determined the Death Guard were the underdogs and they were awarded two extra command points.

Of course I lost the first rolloff and Bill chose to remain on his side of the table and deploy on my right. Then after rolling several fours in a row I won the choice of going first so I did. Alas my army lacks all alpha strike capabilities currently and I think the ash wind blowing across the battlefield which I successfully rolled 4+ for on the first three turns prevented or restricted shooting over 24 inches.

Deployment was uneventful except me choosing to put nothing in my rhino and Bill infiltrating some Infiltrators on to an objective.

Battle Round One

I love the smell of Blight Bombardment in the morning especially when I have lots of command points and Bill has to defend one objective above all others. As you can see by the photo above I had setup assuming the worst with my heavy weapons in cover. I clearly had control of one objective and with the ash wind I was able to advance surprisingly far, but you score the primary objective in this mission at the beginning of your command phase so although I took several objectives I only got credit for one. If we did this mission over again I might opt to go second because I just don’t do much damage in my opening salvos of shooting.

The Ultramarine Centre

Also it should be noted I forgot the psychic phase but Bill let me cast my defensive power slightly late, but later I chose not to cast powers after forgetting the psychic phase again. When your campaign force only has one character you shouldn’t forget the psychic phase. Bill also forgot the pyshic phase during our game, for some editions they were just shooting attacks. I’ve written it down several times but in the heat of battle I forget to perform key tasks and this time it may have cost me victory or at least allowed the hated Captain Acheran to survive.

Then in the middle of writing this battle report I went on a mission to find something to hopefully remind me not to forget the psychic phase, perhaps this Litko product. But it seems pricy especially with the shipping options. There are free cheat sheets online, I may just print and laminate one of those, of course I made my own but I forget to look at it during the heat of battle.

After getting distracted online and doing an honest day’s work, I’m back to battle reporting. Though I also watched most of turn one of another battle report, Nurgle daemons look fun, but not shooting has gotten old so I will likely use them as allies rather than a pure force except maybe once in a blue moon in a small game.

In the shooting phase of this game the cultist’s flamer hit but was saved. Bolters did little but Bill wanted the Internet to know that my alpha strike did one wound, though the Blight Bombardment did worry him enough to read the card twice.

Ultramarine Turn One

The Ultramarines extra big dreadnought moved forward aggressively. Apparently it has four guns. Bill had an agenda that was securing supply caches aka all the objectives scattered across the board so one tactical combat squad and the infiltrators were busy doing that.

The Librarian was busy failing his first psychic test. We were under the impression you had to be in range to deny, but we could not find that text in either the mini book or the big book. Does such a rule exist loyal readers?

After learning I could deny even hiding behind a wall, I failed to deny the Librarian’s second psychic power.

Dreadnought dominates the centre

In the shooting phase, 8 cultists quickly died. But the Ultramarines are not done, the mega dreadnought split fire three different ways. The dreadnought managed to kill two plague marines with his biggest gun but zero spawn with some of his other guns. I believe the last two cultists were killed.

The dreadnought then charged the spawn so got to fight first and let the record show did 19 wounds killing both of them. So my disposable squads were quickly disposed of. Bill thinks I should hold the spawn in reserve and try to come on a table side and capture an objective. In another mission having units on two more objectives in turn one might have done something, but in this one they just died.

Dying isn’t much of a living so I will boost both of those squads if the campaign keeps going.

Battle Round Two

In this mission you score at the end of your command phase for the objectives hence no points for sprinting ahead and dying, but you also score at the end of the battle round for killing enemy units and not dying, another reason not to sprint like the wind and die. So after one battle round the official score was 16-5 for the Ultramarines.

To start my turn the Blight Bombardment landed, there were only two squads under it so it did 3 mortal wounds but it cost 3 command points so not the best deal, but I still think it has potential against the right army deployed the wrong way.

With my previously advanced troops being no more, the ash wind decided to blow South aka towards me so this didn’t slow me down but it would likely speed up the Ultramarines who all brought kites. I did remember to cast Miasma but even when I place the card right beside them, it seems my -1 to be hit is often conveniently forgotten. I’ll have to be more braggadocios.

I tried to Smite but the Ultramarines played Armour of Contempt which is not just a special rule but a stratagem too! So Smite wasn’t particularly effective.

My hellbrute, the Beast Rabban stepped out from behind a building and didn’t do much. I honestly think in 9th Edition on a hellbrute twin heavy bolters would be better because they are six shots at D2, the Reaper Autocannon doesn’t have longer range but does have higher strength. I have an unpainted Forgeworld Dreadnought but it has been so long I don’t remember what arms I ordered with it, it is not for Nurgle at any rate. I’m not sure I need to paint another Nurgle elite choice or even a Chaos Space Marine one, I have plenty.

Everyone’s favourite plague marines, Syphilis Squad did 12 wounding hits which resulted in three wounds. They have three battle honours so they are my best unit though I think an enbiggened Blightlords will take that crown when I get them painted.

The Scarlet Fevers also do twelve wounds with the Plague Brewers stratagem doing nothing, this is why I need to paint and probably buy even more Plague Spewers. Spew more plague, that is my plan.

Melee is joined

I also was able to charge the Avenging Sons but my dice rolls continued to be poor with the power fist champion, Killious Bilious the Silliest rolling double ones to wound. The rest of his squad did seven wounds with four failed safes so one Avenging Son remained on this flank, the missile launcher.

Ultramarine Turn Two

The ill blowing ash wind helped the other combat squad of Avenging Sons advance 14 inches. Predictably the missile launcher fell back. The Librarian tried to use Psychic Fortress and then Telepathic Assault which did nothing.

Ultramarines Advance

Lots of shots are fired at the Scarlet Fevers killing exactly one with the missile launcher who conveniently withdrew from melee combat.

On the other flank the flamer did six hits but I made all the saves. Then I wrote “Miasma!” because I cast it but then never seem to actually reap the benefit.

The Ultramarines had big plans and decided to charge the Phobos squad first so of course I fired overwatch and I killed one with the Plague Spewer, this is where I think it is best and why I want more, it can potentially whittle down a charging squad. In all, three units charged the Scarlet Fevers.

The Intercessors went first and I told Bill I was sensing a Counter Offensive as the dreadnought had charged Syphilis Squad and I chose not to heroically intervene or I just forgot. Either way I didn’t do it, because I wanted to keep McFly alive and I was thinking Syphilis would hold and I could counter charge.

I also used Creeping Blight which resulted in 3 damage being done to the dreadnought which did not quite bracket him.

In the end I lost three members of the Scarlet Fevers and four members of Syphilis squad who failed morale and I lost two more to that. Bagonhead remained, haven’t we seen this movie before?

Bagonhead fears no dreadnought, he has his trusty knife.

Battle Round Three

The score was now officially 21-16 for the Ultramarines but I then got ten victory points for holding three objectives as I had the objective secured squads or the champion of an objective secured squad.

Mind the dreadnought sized gap.

I didn’t take some key pictures but both McFly and Rabban moved to support Bagonhead. I really want the heavy flamer and I used to have one on Rabban I literally converted him to have it when the rule came into effect but now it is only the fist that can have the flamer.

I didn’t have a lot of shooting but I did do a single wound with Smite. I wrote down that Bagonhead did one wound, I’m not sure how, I think from the Blightening as he has no pistol. I did remember to shoot the other champion’s plasma pistol.

After charging in, I went first with the Beast Rabban and chose to just target the Ultramarine Dreadnought as there can be only one. The Gravis Captain had intervened and in hindsight maybe I should have smacked him, because I did 19 wounds and then the Ultramarine dreadnought didn’t explode, but as a result McFly and Bagonhead got to stand around and watch Captain Snazzy Pants use his 8 attacks and two relics.

But before that the Librarian was selected to fight then I got to counter with the Scarlet Fevers who killed two, I was splitting my attacks between the little guys, the Librarian stayed away from the power fist wielding Killious Bilious the Silliest.

Ultramarine Turn Three

It was time for Fallback and Re-Engage. A reckoning is coming as there are ways to make that not go so smoothly and I keep buying codices so I think Captain Snazzy Pants is in for a surprise eventually. But as it is, this allows him to re-charge and go first in melee.

Fallback, re-engage, rinse, repeat

We didn’t forget the psychic phase or actually we did, but I let Bill cast his power then denied it with a twelve!

A krak grenade was thrown this is a forgotten option but they no longer are as strong as krak missiles and it did nothing to the Beast. Other shots were fired at Rabban but they all did nothing. Bagonhead did take a key wound however.

In melee four sword attacks were sent at McFly. His conversion field actually did a wound as I remembered an obscure rule much to Bill’s surprise, but McFly also ended up taking a wound. With his other four attacks Captain Snazzy Pants killed the Beast who didn’t explode. I do have that stratagem but I think I was low or down to zero command points by now. This is another strike against Blight Bombardment, sometimes later command points are more valuable.

Killious killed two and his drinking buddies killed one so the Ultramarines played Avenge the Fallen to avenge alas not the Avenging Sons, but some lesser squad.

Finally it was McFly’s turn and he hit all four times and ended up doing two wounds to the Ultramarine Captain.

Battle Round Four

Consulting my somewhat carefully taken notes the score was now 29-29 but I’m not sure either of us realized, but it was close until I forgot a key psychic phase, but with my newly earned command point I dug out a stratagem I plan to use more Diseased Effluents and did 4 MW to Captain Snazzy Pants. This left him with exactly one and he was in engagement range with McFly but I didn’t forget the shooting phase.

Damn you and your snazzy pants!

The rhino, remember my rhino, it had been sitting on an objective not seeing much and not getting shot at, but it can move and using its damaged combi-bolter lined up a shot across the battlefield killing the Avenging Son with the missile launcher! This was this unit’s first kill of the entire campaign, but in truth it was only this unit’s seventh game, Nurgle be praised!

After all that excitement I realized with the defender fighting first it wasn’t looking good for McFly who could have just used mind bullets, we talked about pretending I didn’t forget, but I wanted to feel the pain and shame.

The Captain only got seven attacks as I pointed out to Bill as no one charged this turn and he used a re-roll on a miss but that failed, but McFly did not make enough saves or revoltingly resilient rolls and died.

Ultramarine Turn Four

Losing McFly likely turned the game, he just doesn’t have the staying power of the other warlords in the campaign. My actual warlord turning into a Chaos Spawn definitely didn’t help, but if I can paint, reinforcements will be on the way.

I had considerably less models on the board, two in fact eventually. Killious Bilious did four wounds this turn as he finally got the hang of his power fist, the rhino unfortunately took six from the Gravis Captain.

Battle Round Five

The score was now 42 to 40 and the Death Guard were briefly in the lead but with no McFly and only two models, a damaged rhino and a lonely champion there wasn’t much I could do. I did get a command point.

Only two Diseased Sons remain.

The rhino of course put it in reverse but in the shooting phase did nothing. Killious Bilious did better and I used my command re-roll to kill the Lieutenant without a memorable name.

Captain Snazzy Pants of course finished off the rhino in melee and I failed the last armour save I had to make so no Diseased Sons survived. This was a disheartening loss, because I came close but then failed to play my best when it counted. I picked up no battle scars which was lucky, but the Ultramarine Lieutenant was not so lucky, maybe he’ll lose an eye like the Librarian did.

Post Game

I already gave away the key rolls and after updating my roster decided to award MVP to Killious Bilious the Silliest. The Beast Rabban did do pretty well, better than Toe Jam seems to do in 9th Edition, I do think Hellbrutes should get into H2H ASAP where their high strength and toughness counts for more.

As I now had five I had to spend a requisition point, so I increased my supply limit and the Plague Surgeon I assembled will now get recruited, this will delay my expansion of the Right Hard Posse and the Cancer Cell but the Death Guard need a new hero and I did build the custom campaign agenda specific objective marker.

If you have thoughts on the new Daemon Codex and how awesome my army will soon become you can leave a comment below. If you have a top secret cheat sheet you can share that too. Apparently it isn’t easy campaigning with the Death Guard.

40K Narrative Campaign Week 17

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.

The Forces of Chaos deployed, it’s looking good for Team Bad Ash.

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.

How many plague marines does it take to kill Lord Gogo?

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?

Lord Gogo less surrounded.

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.

Gatekeeper Gostoc maintains focus, but not enough to kill anything.

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.

McFly’s six failed saves at once.

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.

Can Syphilis stop Lord Gogo?

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

Gangrene exits the rhino and fires the melta gun.

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.

Plucky Gangrene Squad attacks Lady Gaga.

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.

The Beast needs more torque.

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.