40K Narrative Campaign Year 2 Game 2

Another year of slogging through the mud, orks everywhere, but what should appear across the battlefield than the Astra Militarum. Do they have a new book? Is it even out yet? Do they still die from massed bolter fire? We’ll just have to find out.

Somehow we got to the Sentry Box extra early, this gave us time to get coffee or tea, set up the terrain, then rotate the entire battlefield as this mission was to be played with the battlefield arrayed differently than last week. The mission was “Critical Targets” and once again I got to my choice and this time I chose to be the defender. I had to nominate five critical targets including all my characters, then one of those targets would secretly be nominated as the primary target and another the secondary target.

So I arranged my models so Daniel could see them and then secretly wrote down who would be primary and secondary target:

1. Bagonhead the Unbearable
2. McFly the Malevolent
3. Boris the Defiler
4. Killious Bilious the Silliest
5. Billalexdevin

Once again I took Subterfuge as my primary agenda, this time I didn’t bring the rhino instead deciding that with the battlefield being less wide I’d just hoof it. Of course I took Turn their Hope to Rot because you always need more Virulence Points.

As this was Daniel’s first game with the new book, he’d barely gotten everything glued together in time. I had no idea the book was even out and didn’t know any of the rules, but it turns out the Astra Militarum could have used some more cover and my veteran troops that had been campaigning for over a year had picked up some experience so Daniel got 9 extra command points!

The Forces of the Diseased Sons

This week we had more points and I brought my two big blocks of ten purple plague marines. I of course brought McFly and my one long range gun platform, then to round it out two Chaos Spawn. I deployed as seen below, as I knew the Astra Militarum would be able to shoot indirectly somehow. The plan was of course to cross the open ground as that is what passes for subterfuge in Games Workshops eyes.

Daniel had a lot of guardsmen from different regiments which apparently means something, he had a command squad, a very valuable and well hidden commander and lots of artillery, but with Bill’s preference for small battlefields they are less valuable, I predict more armour will be incoming.

Death Guard Turn One

So not only did I get to be the defender I got to go first and would you look at that there had to be over forty models arrayed before me, time for another Blight Bombardment! I wasn’t able to do anything in the psychic phase, but I opened fire on the big blocks of troops, in hindsight maybe I should have targeted other units or split my fire but I generally shoot at what is in front of me.

Boris killed several Astra Militarum soldiers, then Syphilis did 14 wounding hits. I actually advanced some models too, as I had to cross the killing ground as fast as possible.

Astra Militarum Turn One

I don’t recall the Astra Militarum moving much but they had Heavy Lascannons which fired at Boris, hitting three times, but I saved one so I ended up taking seven wounds. The indirect fire went into the Chaos Spawn and even behind a wall the Astra Militarum got +1 to hit.

The new Imperial Guard roll a lot of dice, I had to lend Daniel more. Three plague marines failed all their Grizzled rolls and everything that shot at the Scarlet Fevers hit, so I played Insane Bravery as they were my human shield for McFly and I don’t think I remembered which of my critical targets I made primary and secondary, but it was all written down.

Death Guard Turn Two

There were a lot less models on the table now and the Blight Bombardment hadn’t even landed, perhaps I shouldn’t have shot at the squads I planned to bombard, but I wanted to thin the herd so I could target the artillery behind. In the end the Blight Bombardment only did two wounds, my best ever was against Daniel’s Sisters of Battle, this is his third campaign army at least.

I think I killed one artillery piece but then in the pictures later they are all back, so I think the Astra Militarum have a way to resurrect dead models, just like the Alpha Legion can bring back Chaos Cultists.

The Chaos Spawn managed to kill a guardsmen unit then consolidated into the next squad, this really is a technique you need to master in 9th Edition. My next note isn’t clear but I think the commander failed to do something.

Astra Militarum Turn Two

“Grizzled!” is what I wrote to start this turn, so I take it I made some die rolls and remembered some rules. I also stabbed a gun to death and even got to use the Chaos Spawn’s Fearsome Aura, it was not looking good for the Astra Militarum.

Death Guard Turn Three

All I wrote down this turn was “one gun left!”

Astra Militarum Turn Three

And so the maiden battle of the Astra Militarum ended with me accomplishing both my agendas according to Daniel. McFly was still alive and had several turns to walk across the battlefield. There was no enemy models left so obviously I turned Daniel’s Hope into Rot.

Post Battle Book Keeping

One of his squads, Farstein took an injury, but they may have just retired from the campaign. Bagonhead the Unbearable survived, this caused Syphilis to become legendary. And after like an hour of book keeping, the end result was -1 armour penetration to his plasma gun.

As McFly completed his agenda too, he earned a Corruption Point and gained an ability called “Murmurs of Disorder”. Take that Beastsnagga Boyz! Of course I had to spend one requisition point too but I had several, I ended up spending another one adding Acidic Malady to McFly’s Staff of Corruption as he needs to hit harder in hand to hand surrounded by all the campaign’s killers.

Who knew I was a Warhammer 40,000 genius, the Las Vegas Open just completed and they all better look out as the Diseased Sons may show up someday. I don’t know if they’ll be Death Guard but that is how they’ll likely start 10th Edition with the pace I’m painting. I have a lot of ideas on how to do better with the current rules, but ultimately the Irony Warriors of Nurgle will happen.

During all the book keeping I recruited another suboptimal, long missing from the battlefield squad, three Beasts of Nurgle that I spent months painting. I’m not sure how zero more guns will help me but I’m leading the campaign in tentacles. If you have thoughts on the superiority of tentacles over guns, artillery, air support, and armour you can leave a comment below.

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 22

It seems like just last night I was typing up a battle report, but since we played another game of Warhammer 40,000 and I do the best job when I write at least a first draft immediately after the game, I’m spending New Year’s Eve blogging. Fear not #Fitfam although I’m also drinking I have plans to be healthier and fitter in 2023.

Of course I plan to paint more next year, doesn’t everybody? I did pretty good at my 2022 hobby goals but I never painted any orks. Both Bill and Kris are painting orks now it seems. They even played each other today, I don’t want to spoil it, but the orks won that game. Aiden ditched us to play some other Chris at Warhammer 40,000 so it fell to me to take on Devin again with his ever more powerful Chaos Lord, apparently it is good not turning into a Chaos Spawn.

Pre Game

When I learned I was playing Devin I could have changed my army list. It was far from optimal but several units are resting while I paint additions to them or in the case of the Plague Surgeon the entire model, so this left McFly, Rabban, Gangrene, and the Cancer Cell to take on a very powerful Chaos Lord. How powerful, powerful enough to have a page of special rules and ten campaign points by himself!

This made me the underdog, even with the newly heroic McFly, no one is afraid of him or my latest five plague marines or my paltry ten cultists. Actually the unit that seems to actually put fear in the enemy when he gets into close combat is the Hellbrute, hammer time can do a lot of damage.

The mission this week was Dangerous Ground. Before our game I announced I was spending one requisition point to follow the path of Corrupting the Weak and after my lack of success at Culling the Horde last week I took “Sow the Infection, Harvest the Plague” as my agenda. A lot of agendas and other parts of the game work better in slightly larger games but once again we were a combat patrol of 25, actually 24 power. In the future I apparently must take as my agenda one of: Break their Spirit, Subterfuge, or Poison their Minds in order to earn Corruption points. I never did anything with my Inflection points, but you can enhance a pyscher with requisition points and corruption points according to some campaign book.

I of course lost the roll to go first and in order to keep the game moving I chose to just stay on my side having set up the terrain pretty symmetrically. This wasn’t my lucky day, but I did do a better job of following and remember the rules so it was basically a moral victory as we had to hurry at the end because it was New Year’s Eve.

Battle Round One

You can see above how the army was deployed. I put Gangrene in the rhino and since I had extra command points I thought of starting them in reserves but I just am not that strategic. I need to give more thought to my army and tactics in the new year. Usually I just show up and wing it. Devin as an Alpha Legion player often does all sorts of redeployment shenanigans so you need to set up conservatively. This time all he did in his command phase was move one unit forward. In fact his whole turn consisted of moving and most everyone advanced.

Death Guard Turn One

Since I had seven command points, eight actually at the start of my turn I decided to order a Blight Bombardment. I think this game is a little small for a 3CP stratagem and I always wanted a Lord of Virulence but have yet to paint him. I think my strategy was not terrible the plan was to cover one objective with my token, so I chose the objective that Devin had advanced the furthest towards but in hindsight he and I think I should have put the bombardment on the right flank instead.

My rhino with it’s enhanced havoc launcher and damaged combi-bolter managed to kill at least two cultists. The cultists actually failed leadership too so I think three more actually died or ran away. No victory points can be scored in this mission during the first turn.

Battle Round Two

To start turn two, the cultists tried to come back from the dead. I had killed at least two but several died after they failed morale. Thanks to Tide of Traitors and apparently a tiny table four cultists returned to battle at the front of the squad, which actually effectively moved it further up the board.

The smaller squad in the picture is actually Traitor Guard and they have a sniper rifle among other tricks, it kept missing or failing to wound though. Devin also has several melta guns including a combi-melta on his rhino. His actual cultist squad has two of every special weapon those flamers combined with “Let the Galaxy Burn” and some good rolls and re-rolls meant my rhino took some damage but it didn’t die. If I knew every gun in the army was going to shoot the rhino I would have popped smoke. I think next time I put a squad in the rhino I just pop smoke after roaring forward.

The Chaos Lord charged the rhino, but still it lived. The Chaos Lord has so many special rules, he is tough to kill but he is no Lord Gogo.

Death Guard Turn Two

So if you haven’t guessed the Blight Bombardment did nothing, hence my theory it would be better in a larger game when the battlefield has more troops on it. It did redirect the Alpha Legion forces, but as they rely heavily on one model, I should have sent it his way, but he can teleport or something. I probably shouldn’t have played it at all, there are better options in the stratagem deck.

I advanced my Hellbrute as the mission was to just stand beside four objectives nine inches from the centre of the board, perhaps holding off on the bombardment for another turn might have worked better but usually you have the most command points on the first turn, so the cost seems less costly. This game I forgot zero psychic phases, I actually used my crib sheet. It doesn’t have all the answers but it helped me remember to use both offensive and defensive psychic powers. I actually failed a pyschic test with snake eyes, but I rerolled. Plague Wind thus killed three cultists and I killed two more with Smite.

Gangrene got out of the rhino which I left in melee with the Chaos Lord. This made it hard to shoot him but he also was stuck hammering my empty personal carrier. He destroyed it and I made it explode but he has a rule or a relic that lets him shrug off even mortal wounds. That had been my plan to kill him and would be my plan again next time, but he was both lucky and Devin used a lot of command points on that one model. A different mission and you might be able to ignore him and win.

Having played over twenty games in this campaign, I prefer the ten man Plague Marine squads, but in the small games five model squads is more practical. Having extra models enhances their survivability. Of course I still need to paint a lot more special weapons, Gangrene is pretty sparse with just a single melta gun, but they were happy to not fight the Chaos Lord and instead shot and then charged the cultists. Their flakk armour actually made some saves but I finished them off and consolidated into melee with the Alpha Legion / Fallen rhino as seen below.

This turn we did do the scoring, I didn’t earn that many points towards my agenda tally as cultists do not have Contagion of Nurgle but I did take the early lead 15-5 on the big board.

Battle Round Three

In this turn the Alpha Legion did a lot of shooting killing one cultist and one plague marine. The Chaos Lord charged the cultists and I played Overwatch, I even rolled a six for the number of flamer attacks but ultimately I accomplished nothing. I strongly prefer the plague spewer or for models that can get one the heavy flamer. That may actually deter some charges or make someone pay. As it is strength four just doesn’t cut it, but that is the best cultists can do. Today I learned I can field Gellerpox Infected and they can have a heavy flamer.

His squad of Legionaries also got out and charged, hence the extra shooting with an additional squad on the board. They have both a power fist and a heavy chain axe, that did some work. I decided to fight back with my cultists, this turned out to be a mistake, not only did they not do anything as the Alpha Legion Chaos Lord has very good saves, but the rhino was still in melee with my two remaining plague marines and killed both them after I failed all my armour saves. This was Devin’s highlight of the match.

I decided as I still had a lot of command points to play Insane Bravery on the cultists which I just realized was illegal as they have a battle scar which prevents it. Oh well so much for getting all the rules correct for an entire game.

Death Guard Turn Three

It was around this point that Bill announced he had to leave soon and he was my ride. So that affected my strategy and we basically rushed so Devin could get his kills as I did not think I would win after this turn because although I remembered it my Smite psychic attack was denied and that was my plan to kill the Chaos Lord. I also had the Orb of Decay and some stratagems but now command points were in shorter supply after I illegally played Insane Bravery. I failed to cast Plague Wind at all and this is when I started thinking today was not going to be my day.

Rabban, even though armed sub-optimally in my opinion, killed a cultist. I declared two charges as remember Bill said we had to speed things up, I was considering advancing or just avoiding melee with his Chaos Lord, but McFly charged in to try and save the illegally insanely brave cultists. The Beast Rabban also charged.

Although my Malignant Plaguecaster got to fight first, he failed to do anything as Devin has many ways to protect his Chaos Lord from relic armour, to invulnerable saves, to shrugging wounds, to command re-rolls. He also has the Mark of Slaneesh so he smote McFly who really should stick to casting psychic powers. Next game he will and Devin is encouraging me to requisition a Relic of Decay for him as the ruling seems to be the Orb of Decay is not a Relic of Decay. What say you Internet?

The Cancer Cell of course did not hurt the Chaos Lord either but my Hellbrute pasted two cultists.

Battle Round Four

We really hustled through the last two turns. Devin even thought he had another whole turn as he failed to table me, but I pointed out I was taking notes and had a turn marker on the table. But the score at this point would have been 35-25 so not terrible but with my Malignant Plaguecaster now gone the game was basically over and I sacrificed him mainly because it sped up the game but in theory he could have done 12 wounds to the Chaos Lord.

My cultists obviously died and my Hellbrute started taking wounds but he has eight. The melta guns started missing and Legionaires charged which resulted in Rabban killing three of them.

Battle Round Five

The Chaos Lord charged but failed to kill the Hellbrute. This was the end of the game as far as Devin was concerned but I pointed out he got to fight again in my half of the turn. The Hellbrute gave the Chaos Lord a scare getting two wounding hits through but then a command point was used, but D6 wounds from the hammer is no joke. Having the ability to shrug off wounds definitely helps.

Post Battle

Not that anyone cared to ask, but I think I ended up with six in my poison tally earning me nothing. The final score was 50-30 so a respectable performance by the underdog. Without any corruption points I couldn’t use the new fancy requisitions, but as Devin seems to imply I could requisition the Relic of Decay that is Plaguecaster or Sorcerer only. Also after doing all the post match book keeping I picked up no new battle scars, made Rabban MVP and after some deliberation enhanced his engines as speed is also in short supply in my Death Guard army, though I was tempted to enhance a weapon.

I will probably write another blog post in the future detailing my plans for the new year as I already partially summarized my painting accomplishments in the previous post. If you have thoughts on this battle report or hobby goals to share for 2023 you can leave them below.

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.