40K Narrative Campaign Year 2 Game 1

I actually haven’t played Warhammer 40,000 for several weeks so the campaign has gone on without me, but I did play at least two games for which I have not typed up battle reports. So I will briefly try to summarize what has happened to the Diseased Sons as the Siege of Vanithros’s Bastion continues, no matter how hard it is to spell. For those asking I hear some Arks of Omen are inbound and we’ll probably have to restart the campaign for 10th Edition which also may be released in 2023.

This was to be the battle to find out who the dice hate more and if you’ve been loyally reading for a whole year you wouldn’t bet on Kris. Apparently this battle has already been discussed on a podcast, which just goes to show podcasting is easier because to blog you have to write and spell, anyone can just turn on their camera and blather.

Before the Battle

The mission was to be “Turn out the lights” and even though it would not play to my strengths I chose my army to try and be the attacker because that is the only way to earn Corruption Points or one of the primary ways because I also took “Subterfuge” as my agenda that seems to be the other way I can earn Corruption Points. I also took “Turn their Rot to Hope” as that is the easiest way that I can earn Virulence Points.

I’m not sure what Kris’s agendas were, all the orks are on Krumping Sprees so I’ll go with that and kill everything quickly to get on with the serious drinking. The orks were officially the underdogs or underorks so they got six extra command points!

Death Guard Turn One

That is right I managed to become the attacker, the plan was to race my one psycher and lone character forward in a rhino all by himself as that is the only way to accomplish the mission and the subterfuge agenda. I’m not sure what is subtle about declaring your agenda then driving into the oncoming ork horde. I don’t make the rules, but that was the mission. In order to clear the path a little I ordered the Blight Bombardment.

I underestimated how fast the squighog boys are, I should have blight bombarded the slower boyz. I also should have deployed differently. The warlord is very strong and there is a stratagem that makes it easier for them to kill vehicles and I brought three because I needed the speed for the mission. I also famously had my Chaos Lord turn into a Chaos Spawn and have yet to replace him so I had little chance at defeating the Ork warlord in close combat.

Unusually I advanced some of my units, the mission was odd, I had to get first to one set of objectives, perform an action then get to another set of objectives, so yeah the subtlety was really subtle. I actually managed to kill two orks because you can shoot assault weapons while advancing. Boris the Defiler killed six more and the rhino managed to kill 4 grots. It turns out that the boyz were Insanely Brave, but some grotz ran, leaving one lone grot on the table.

Ork Turn One

Charge, I mean Waaagh! That is the strategy, first turn declare the Waaagh and charge whatever you can with the three characters and two units of Squighog Boyz. Like I said I underestimated their speed. Kris also had a lot of command points so he could play a lot of stratagems on his first turn. The mission played right into his plan as I was forced to rush forward to try and perform actions, before he could destroy the objectives.

A lot of ork units also advanced, they have some way of charging after this. The orks don’t shoot well, they need sixes to hit, but mainly Kris wants to play Monster Hunter on every vehicle and Krump them, my Defiler tried hard, I used Overwatch which actually did two wounds on the Squighog boys.

The big boss squigs can headbutt and do mortal wounds, the Beast Rabban took some as Kris elected to fight that battle first. I played Counter Offensive as Boris is not helpless in hand-to-hand combat, I decided to go after the Warlord as that is the only way I could turn his hope into rot, which was probably a mistake as he made all his saves. I could have crushed some squighog boys instead, that Warlord is giving Lord Gogo a run for his money as hardest thing to kill in the campaign.

It looks like the warlord didn’t make it into combat and maybe he didn’t but then Kris re-rolled, I believe he can re-roll all charges on the turn of the Waaagh or something and moved some boys around and the warlord was ruled in, because why not? Kris is big on following up into the next unit, so next time we play I’ll probably deploy deeper and not rush into his clutches, if the mission allows that.

The Beastsnaggas killed a couple of cultists. Boris started taking wounds, his plated growths started to pay off now that armour of contempt is no more. Our campaign has been going on so long it predates whatever balanced slate that was added in. The orks have low AP, but there were so many of them and Kris spent 6 command points to kill Boris, but I have new respect for the plated growths battle honour.

My Hellbrute did better, he did 4 wounding hits and 20 wounds killing the big boss who charged him, so Boris did have a small chance, but apparently the dice hate me not Kris.

Death Guard Turn Two

The Blight Bombardment ended up doing two mortal wounds to the orks and two mortal wounds to my rhino! The rhino also managed to kill the lone grot. The Scarlet Fevers managed to kill 11 boyz and 1 squigboy. I don’t always split my fire optimally. Does anyone?

They also charged and I used the Trench Fighters stratagem resulting in six dead boyz and zero dead squighogs. In return I lost five models. I actually failed morale and lost two more. The orks made all their morale checks, it was about at this time I realized I forgot Grizzled, so we did some more rolling and I think I got a guy back.

Ork Turn Two

My handwriting as always is terrible and this game was many weeks ago, but apparently the orks threw rokket spears at my Hellbrute. They also played Monster Hunters again this time on the Hellbrute who was trying to perform the key action I need to perform as per the mission.

Once again a mortal wound was done via squig headbutt. The Beast Rabban went down this round of melee, but I played Putrid Detonation which did a couple of mortal wounds.

The orks also went after my rhino, it first took 2 damage then 14 more. McFly ended up surrounded and had to fight the warboss. They consolidated in to him, I was assured this was all legal.

Big Ripper Red Tooth was overjoyed to face off against McFly, I don’t remember the specifics but I rolled a lot of die rolls below four. But there were just too many orks and of course the dice hate me, but before dying it was decided I would hold aloft the Orb of Decay which we’d also decided after much debating must be a Relic of Decay and it did four more mortal wounds, but no actual orks actually died.

I passed moral for a change, so I had one plague marine left alive. Kris vowed to kill everything because the old ways is best and Krumpin’ ain’t easy.

Death Guard Turn Three

With Rabban and McFly dead the mission was over, no amount of subterfuge was going to survive that charge. I was encouraged to overcharge my plasma pistol since I had one and a command point, I used the re-roll not to die.

As it was my turn the Squighog fought first. Killious Bilious the Silliest remained alive to force another turn.

Orks Turn Three

The warboss was late for his postgame drinking so he sauntered over. Killious died.

Post Game

McFly managed to pick up a battle scar but rather than weaken him I took the loss of two XP. To put it mildly this game didn’t go well and trying to play against type because of the mission and agenda was a disaster but some days you get the bear somedays the bear gets you. Will the Diseased Sons ever win a game of Warhammer 40,000 again or will everyone in the campaign eventually switch to playing Orks? Tune in next time or leave a comment, the choice is yours.

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.

Is Kill Team the future?

I bought the Kill Team book when I moved to Calgary. I got it at the GW store in Chinook Centre. I was eager to play it but Bill wanted to play Warcry. So I’ve played Warcry but not Kill Team nor the most recent edition of Necromunda or either of the two most recent editions of Warhammer 40,000.

That is a lot of money spent on books for games I never actually played. Bill like’s Warcry and we had planned on finishing our campaign, I even got the rules for a second gang. But I do not think Nurgle is an effective faction in Warcry or Kill Team 2.0 or Kill Team 2021 as some people are calling it.

Bill and I were going to play 40K and Necromunda, I have lots of painted models for 40K but not necessarily an effective army by today’s standards. I bought and even started painting models for Necromunda but then the pandemic hit. As a result no in-person gaming and I eventually stopped painting and blogging too.

Kill Team Octarius

Today I’m updating my blog as yesterday I got the Kill Team Octarius boxset and compendium. This is the first GW box I’ve bought since Malcolm talked me into buying Black Reach. I was getting close to finishing my Chaos army and thinking I would revise my Orks. I’ve painted one Nob for a B&C contest so that is why I have lots of rules for lots of GW games but few of the boxsets. Supposedly they are good deals, but they seem expensive compared to the first boxed sets of my youth.

I bought Kill Team 2.0 pretty much sight unseen. I don’t really follow the rumours even though I do follow some of GW’s social media. I knew it was Orks and Deth Korps but I mainly bought it because Bill wasn’t. I figured it would increase our likelihood of playing it, if we owned the whole thing.

The new models are supposedly nice, they have some tiny little bits. I found one that broke off and took a picture. I’m not sure when we’ll play, we’re actually doing a Zombicide campaign now. We still have our Warcry campaign and we were going to do Necromunda and of course the big game. Some people in Bill’s little group don’t seem as addicted to GW as Bill, but they buy a lot of board games. I however think Kill Team may become my go to.

Why Kill Team?

1. Low model count to buy and paint.
2. Smaller table needed.
3. No need to build more terrain.
4. Actually would consider a new faction in a skirmish game.

After I bought the game or at least pre-ordered it from the Sentry Box, I watched a YouTube video or read a blog post. Gangs seem to be between 3 and 20 models. They aren’t called gangs like Necromunda, they are called teams like Bloodbowl. This low model count and the fact I have painted hundreds of Orks and CSMs implies those are my two factions. I’ve already said I don’t think Deathguard will be great, I too think Harlequins may be where it is at, until the next greatest thing comes along, but I also think six 18 wound Tyranids may be intimidating on the tabletop.

During all this Covid-19 stuff I actually moved into a larger apartment. I still don’t own a car, so games with lower model counts requiring less table space and weighing less to carry around have a lot of appeal. Smaller tables require less terrain which GW is happy to sell you. I still hope to finish my trench table eventually, but in the meanwhile the Octarius terrain looks nice and as you can see there are so many factions some requiring as few as three models to buy and plaint. That said I’m unlikely to do an Imperial team unless Bill makes me. I bought the boxset so I’m making Bill play the Imperium.

Waaagh Musk WFB Target Army List

I finally got my hands on the new Orc and Goblin army book for Warhammer Fantasy battle. All the cool Orc and Goblin players already had it and have been adapting their armies to the newest rules. What I lack in coolness I make up for in stubbornness and weirdness. Here is the 2000 point all Goblin army I’m going to be running some day. I actually have almost every single goblin painted, I just need to do some basing and some shields.

I plan on running the new mega spider with a Shaman on top so I use up almost all of my Lord allowance. The core of my army remains however three big blogs of infantry, three war machines, and a hero to lead each mob. When I totalled it all up, using most of my allotment for magic items, I was just 80 or 90 points short of 2000, enter the Squig Hoppers. I might eventually go higher points and run a second Lord on a Gigantic Spider or even just a Big Boss and a block of spider riders to continue the spider theme. Not sure what I’ll do with all my ork models, maybe I’ll sell them or use some of them for 40K…

Here is a picture of my ‘bigger’ unit of Night Goblins. It is the only unit completely finished, complete with Shaman leader Icky Bob.

Army List

Lord

• Goblin Great Shaman, riding Arachnarok Spider, with Catchweb Shrine and Opal Amulet 490 points

Heroes

• Night Goblin Shaman with extra level, Ironcurse Icon, and Dispell Scroll 115 points
• Goblin Big Boss, Battle Standard Bearer, Mork’s War Banner, Light Armour and Shield 164 points
• Night Goblin Big Boss, Light Armor and Short Bow, Enchanted Shield, and Obsidian Loadstone 84 points

Core

• 54 Night Goblins with Short Bows, full command, three fanatics  267 points
• 29 Night Goblins with Short Bows, full command, three fanatics, and nets 237 points
• 65 Goblins with spears, shields, and light armor, full command and three skulkers 320 points

Special

• 6 Night Goblin Squig Hoppers 72 points

Rare

• 2 Doom Divers 160 points
• 1 Stone Thrower 85 points

Philosophy

My theoryhammer, besides just finding a use for all the old plastic goblins I own and have almost gotten painted over the years, is, the goblins do the fighting. So much so I don’t even have a single ork in my army, even though the ten point bully might be worth it. I went with a hero in each squad as the heroes and the upgrades arguably will do more damage than the actual goblins.

Having played once and a while, generally every second edition of the game, I know goblins aren’t very good, but lots of them can look intimidating. The plan with the massive units is to not take panic checks. Every hero has defensive magic items, that boost their squad, I even opted for the most expensive magic banner. I also hope to dominate the magic phase and maybe even the shooting. The war machines can hurt most anything and the big spider should be able to handle itself. My main plan is to advance so I can’t run away in the first turn, release the squigs and just wait. Bombard the enemy with stones and spells and eventually arrows. After they get through all that I release the fanatics and hope to halt the charges. But if all else fails hopefully 60 plus goblins in a horde is a tough nut to crack. The Night Goblin units run away often, but hopefully not before they release their fanatics and get off a volley or two of arrows.

Wish me luck.