Galaxy In Phlegm: Black Legion vs Death Guard

It's civil war among the heretics as Black Legion take on the Death Guard!

A Maelstrom of War game, fought over Skype between I, Stylus, and my new bogey opponent, Pootle, on my first remote-control battle against Stylus.

Too Many Units Starting With 'Blight'!
It's All-Skype Fight Night!

The Unkindest Cut - Black Legion

The memory of having my teeth effortlessly kicked in by Pootle's Death Guard is still very raw, so I was determined to make a game of it this time.

With only 1000pts to squeeze in, I had to make a few concessions to WYSIWYG (which backfired, as I kept forgetting who was armed with what - always go WYSIWYG, kids). I also spread around my marks of Chaos quite liberally, so thematic fluff also took a bit of a knock.

But it left me with some fairly solid threats: a squad of Berzerkers with maxed-out attacks, a Rhino to cruise around in and a Chaos Lord and Exalted Champion to buff them even further.

I also added a Nurgle Sorcerer who could Miasma of Pestilence the Rhino (which was Nurgle-marked, even though the Khorne Berzerkers were riding it - told you I was being careless with the fluff).

For deepstrike firepower, a squad of plasma Raptors and the ever-popular Obliterators with Mark of Slaanesh. Rounding out the battalion was a small squad of Chaos Space Marines and two mobs of Cultists, mostly for objective claiming.

As before, this is definitely a 'Turn 2' army. I was confident that I could take down anything if I gave it my full attention - even a Defiler - but Nurgle armies are nothing if not resilient.

Battalion Detachment - Black Legion

• Cimber the Enkindled - Chaos Lord (HQ)
  Combi-bolter Power sword
  Relic: Spineshiver Blade
  Warlord Trait: Flames of Spite
• Flavius - Sorcerer (HQ)
  Combi-bolter, Force Stave
  Psychic: Miasma of Pestilence, Prescience
• Varro Bloodearth - Exalted Champion (HQ)Combi-plasma, Power maul
  Relic: The Black Mace
• 5 x Chaos Space Marines (Troops)
  Combi-bolter, boltguns, autocannon
• 10 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  Autoguns
• 10 x Chaos Cultists (Troops)
  Autoguns
• 8 x Khorne Berzerkers (Elite)
  Icon of Wrath, Power Fist, Chainswords and Chainaxes
• 5 x Raptors (Fast)
  Plasma pistol, Power sword, 2 x Plasma guns
• 2 x Obliterators (Heavy)
  Fleshmetal Guns, Mark of Slaanesh
• Chaos Rhino (Transport)
  Combi-bolter, Mark of Nurgle

Level: 56| Points: 1000 |Battle-forged + Battalion - Relic of Chaos: 7 CPs

The Second Law - Death Guard

Having tried a couple of other Nurgly variants recently, I’m back to the Death Guard! I’m expecting the Black Legion to field some close combat muscle and hard-hitting, shooty deep-strikers, so I need a mixed list.
For choppiness I chose a Daemon Prince with Talons and the Suppurating Plate (2+ save and a 50% chance of inflicting a mortal wound back on an opponent in close combat for each successful save). He will be my warlord and Revoltingly Resilient to improve his life expectancy (4+++ save). Alongside him I took a Malignant Plaguecaster, spending a CP before the battle to take a second relic, the Pandemic Staff (+1 to cast Smite and therefore also increases the chance of inflicting bonus mortal wounds on enemies within 7”). 

I decided to try out a Defiler, with support from a Myphitic Blighthauler, to reduce the risk of all my heavy weapons being torn apart the turn that Obliterators arrive and try to ensure I have the capability to shoot back at least once with something capable of damaging them.

I’d initially gone with some Plague Drones in the daemon detachment instead of the Blighthauler as I’d like to try them out, but decided that their distinct lack of AP meant that marines are probably not the best opponents to start them out on. I’ve not used either of these daemon engines in a game yet, so am keen to see how they go. I chose a Defiler over a shooty Helbrute purely for its additional survivability (nearly twice as many wounds, a daemonic save and regenerating 1 wound per turn) – its close combat potential might also be useful if my Daemon Prince falls over.

I picked two small units of Plague Marines, both with two Blight Launchers to try to hold objectives and take out common-or-garden marine foes and rounded out the battalion with a unit of Cultists.

Following on from my experience of playing some Daemon detachments recently, I took an allied Outrider detachment of Nurgle Daemons. Although they don’t seem particularly scary I chose three units of Furies. It's my third game in a row using Furies, and I’ve increased the unit count by one each time: they’re very much growing on me. 

I used Khorne Furies in my last battle against Kraken for the extra close combat punch, but that punch was frankly limited: two units killed two genestealers in the whole game. As my intention is to use them to screen the DP, I thought that I’d prefer Disgustingly Resilient Nurgle-aligned troops to keep them alive that little bit longer. If the Berzerkers get hold of them, then being Khornate isn’t going to help them anyway as they won't survive to strike back. Another reason is their 12” move, which adds much needed mobility to my plodding army; they can keep up with the flying DP or snatch objectives. 

A Poxbringer with Fleshy Abundance (to heal up either the DP or the daemon engines) led the Daemon detachment.

My scorn of the Nurgle-aligned troops present in the Black Legion is somewhat undercut by the use of quite a few proxies sourced from Stylus's Thousand Sons army

Death Guard Battalion Detachment

• HQ – Daemon Prince with Malefic Talons, Suppurating Plate, Blades of Putrifaction. Warlord: Revoltingly Resilient
• HQ – Malignant Plaguecaster with Miasma of Pestilence & Gift of Contagion. The Pandemic Staff
• Troops – 10 x Cultists with autoguns and a heavy stubber
• Troops – 5 x Plague Marines, 2 Blight Launchers
• Troops – 5 x Plague Marines, 2 Blight Launchers
• Fast Attack – Myphitic Blighthauler
• Heavy Support – Defiler with Defiler Scourge, Twin Heavy Bolters and Combi-bolter

Nurgle Daemon Outrider detachment

• HQ - Poxbringer, Fleshy Abundance
• Fast Attack - 5 x Furies, Mark of Nurgle
• Fast Attack - 5 x Furies, Mark of Nurgle
• Fast Attack - 5 x Furies, Mark of Nurgle

1,000 points, 9CP -1 for second Relic = 8CP

Pre-game planning

I’m slightly uncomfortable, because my plan is mostly reactive to whatever Stylus does, and he's got a couple of heavy-hitters in the Berzerkers and the Obliterators:

• Crack open the Rhino with the defiler/blighthauler if I can, but more likely take down some cultists in turn 1 to secure First Strike as the Rhino will probably either be tucked out of sight or protected by both smoke and a miasma of pestilence for a horrible -2 to hit.

• If the Rhino moves close enough to the DP and his screen of Furies, wrap around it to prevent the Berzerkers disembarking (nasty but effective) whilst the DP chomps on the metal box.

• Unsurprisingly, I really don’t fancy being charged by the Berzerkers, so unless I can wraparound as above, I'll try to keep my distance and then counter-charge. Part of me would quite like to test the DP’s Suppurating Plate against their low-AP weaponry, but there’s also a power fist on the champion, which is a little tricky. Given that I can’t kill him easily, I’d prefer to kill the Exalted Champion first – he’s squishier than the Lord without an invulnerable save, and dangerous as he lets everyone re-roll failed wounds.

• Wait for the Obliterators to land and kill my Defiler before returning fire with the Blighthauler and surviving Plague Marines. I imagine that the Defiler will be a priority target due to its combination of shootiness and choppiness, although I need to make sure Stylus can’t shoot my DP’s screen away with one round of shooting from the Raptors and then murder the DP with the Oblits. 

My only positive plan is to move forwards with the Defiler to threaten close combat on the Rhino and force it to be targeted. I will be in trouble if the Oblits can take down the Defiler with one burst and then damage the Blighthauler with a Slaaneshi second round of shooting. That could leave the Blighthauler open to a load of rapid firing plasma fire from the Raptors.
Planning, you say? I was going to shoot whatever I could and hack up whatever was left. Go heretics!

Against you, Stylus, I very definitely need a plan: I've read all the battle reports of your armies mashing up others. I only beat you last time due to stonking rolling for Disgustingly Resilient. That can't keep happening...

Battlefield & Deployment

We decided to play the Maelstrom mission Tactical Escalation. We would draw objectives to ensure we held the same number as the game turn. Both of us chose Purge objectives as our tactical priorities - scoring one of these would get us an extra VP (though we'd lose a VP if we discarded it) and whoever had scored more of this category at the end of the game would get an another VP.



I won the roll-off to choose the deployment map and chose Vanguard Strike, with me starting on the bottom right of the table as there were some nice ruins to sit in with a couple of objectives. Hammer & Anvil would have given me two sets of ruins on the right to start in, but I played that against Kraken last week and fancied something different.

I deployed the Daemon Prince in the centre, screened by the Furies. The Defiler and Poxbringer went to their right, with the Myphitic Blighthauler and Malignant Plaguecaster to their left. A unit of Plague Marines held each flank ready to move forwards to grab objectives 2 and 3, with the Cultists in my backfield, spread out around objective 5 in the ruins 

With two-thirds of my army embarked in the Rhino or waiting in deepstrike, deployment didn't take long. The Rhino itself went up the edge of my deployment, while still trying to use the tower to screen some of the Death Guard's shooting.

The only other units down were a unit of Cultists and Chaos Space Marines on the front line, and a second unit of Cultists skulking at the very back. I'd been given a deployment zone with only one objective in it, so the rear guys could rush to grab it, while everyone else would have to venture forth.

I did debate giving Pootle the first turn - most of his army is medium-range at best, so it would do no harm if he had to close the distance. But ultimately I couldn't risk a lucky shot from the Defiler knocking out my Rhino before I'd had a chance to buff it. And I wanted my deepstrikers as soon as possible, so off I went!

You could have started with your Rhino hiding behind a building, but I agree that it's better to keep the initiative, and get your deep strikers in early.

Black Legion - Turn 1

I draw Secure Objective 5, which is right in the Death Guard's deployment. So I'm not getting that - and with only an Autocannon in range, First Strike isn't looking likely either.

The front unit of Cultists jog forward, heading for the Ruined Observatory that held Objective 2 (just in case). The Marines and other Cultists stay put, and the Rhino races forward and pops smoke.

The only other action is the Sorcerer casting Miasma of Pestilence on the Rhino, which is now -2 to hit.

The autocannon failed to plink off a Plague Marine, and I ended my turn discarding Secure Objective 5.

Objectives Scored - none
CPs left: 7

Death Guard - Turn 1

My first objective was Disgusting Devotions, which sounds OK for a Death Guard army, except that in order to pass 7 Disgustingly Resilient rolls I'd statistically expect to fail 14, and if I lost 14 wounds then I'd probably be in trouble with only a 1,000 point army. 

So this turn was all about managing the Berzerkers and looking at where the Obliterators might drop in next turn. The Rhino was too far away to be surrounded by Furies (Stylus is far too experienced for that) and as it was a -2 to hit there it would be practically impossible to crack open, so I wouldn't put significant effort into doing so. I therefore decided to retreat everyone outside 21" from the Rhino. This meant that even if the Berzerkers deployed within 3" and moved 6" they would have a very long charge to get to anything.

The exceptions to the withdrawal were one of the units of Furies (which advanced and flew up to the top of the tower) and the Plague Marines on my left flank which (in a fit of prescience, of which more later) moved towards objective 2 in the observatory building; the Blighthauler moved to keep them within 7" and therefore "in cover".

The psychic phase was quiet (smite-less) as everyone was well outside 18" of anything interesting.

The Blighthauler and the Plague Marines near it decided to try to shoot up the marine squad for First Strike, but only managed to kill a couple of them. On my right flank, and lacking anything else to shoot at, the other Plague Marine squad and the Defiler decided to shoot at the Rhino and managed to take four wounds off it.

Now it was time to brace myself and wait to see what damage was caused on turn two: I did not expect this to be pleasant...

Objectives Scored - none
Objectives discarded - Disgusting Devotions. Naturally I forgot to count how many Disgustingly Resilient saves I went on to make in the next turn - as it happens I suspect that I did end up rolling seven of them. Never mind!

CPs left: 8

Black Legion - Turn 2

A better draw in my second turn: Master the Warp, which should be easy, as I was keeping out of Deny the Witch range, and Defend Objective 2. I had Cultists running up towards this one, but I also had a squad of Plague Marines and a Blight-Hauler that needed shooing away first.

I began by disembarking the Rhino - it was hardly the optimal spot for the Berzerkers to get out, but I I had taken an unexpected knock in the last round, and the presence of all those Furies had me worried that the transport could be too easily surrounded and taken out.

Now empty, the Rhino charged towards the enemy lines, to act as a speed bump and Smite buffer. At my end of the field, the Cultists ran towards Objective 2, the backline Cultists edged forward and the Space Marines stayed put to use Bolter Discipline.

The Berserkers and Exalted Champion swarmed around the tower, determined to vent their frustrations on the Furies therein. The Chaos Lord ran over to the centre of the board, as he had a feeling something was about to arrive...

And sure enough, down came the Obliterators! They had eyes on both Blight-Hauler and Plague Marines. The Raptors, on the other hand, landed on the other side of the Death Guard lines, ideally to split Pootle's focus (as opposed to splitting my firepower).

In the Psychic Phase, I got Prescience on the Obliterators, so that was a VP for Master the Warp, and my big guns would now be hitting on 2s (for Prescience) and rerolling 1s (for the Chaos Lord).

Grossly overconfident by this turn of events, I got greedy and decided to split my Obliterators' fire between both the Blight-Hauler and the Plague Marines. Their fleshmetal guns had a good roll for damage (3), but only -1AP, which proved vital as over half my shots were saved, and then Disgustingly Resilient kicked in and saved even more.

Even after using Veterans of the Long War to increase my chances of wounding, and Endless Cacophony to fire again, three Plague Marines were left standing and the Blight-Hauler (who'd taken three-quarters of my shots) was left on one wound!

The Chaos Space Marines' firepower was also ineffectual against the Plague Marines, not least because of the cover save given to them by the Blight-Hauler (I knew I should have killed it first!)

(I'd spent most of my army's firepower shooting a tanky Daemon Engine who refused to die - this is horribly familiar) Would it be helpful to comment that Kraken didn't have any trouble killing a Bloat Drone and a Daemon Prince in one round of shooting at Woffboot? No, I didn't think so...

I had better luck with the Raptors, who used Let the Galaxy Burn and overcharged their plasma guns - they all survived and took out four Plague Marines. I declined to charge in, which was a shame, because the Raptor's Ld debuff would have resulted in the final Plague Marine (who still had a Blight-Launcher) running.

More consolation prizes as the Berserkers tore apart the Furies in the tower with ease.

The Rhino didn't do much against the Furies, and in desperation I charged the Obliterators against the Blight-Hauler, even spending a CP to try and make it in, but no luck.

And that was the end of my turn. I'd claimed a Victory Point (which was doubled, as it was one of my selected Purge ones), but I had just shot my bolt and had very little to show for it.

Objectives Scored - Master the Warp (2 as it's a Purge objective)

2-0 to the Black Legion

CPs left: 2

Death Guard - Turn 2

My new objectives were Defend 4 (in the open in the middle of the table, which would be a tall order) and Witch Hunter (which wasn't going to be done this turn, but is a highly appropriate objective - I really don't appreciate a Nurgle sorcerer being on the opposite side to me).

Somehow I'd managed to keep all of my key assets intact (and the Blighthauler wasn't even nerfed by being on 1 wound as it doesn't have a degrading profile). As the Berzerkers were now all up the  (6" high) tower, I could move things forwards to start to bring guns and psychic powers to bear.


First up, the Blighthauler, dripping pus and filth, dragged itself on top of Objective 4, right next to the Obliterators. This achieved several things: I technically started to defend the objective; if (when) the 'Hauler died and blew up (it blows on a 4+ and everything within 7" takes a mortal wound) I wanted my Plague Marines out of harms way and as many of the Black Legion in harm's way; I also fancied a charge from the 'Hauler into the Obliterators to try to lock them up in combat. 

That train of thought led me to realise that the 'Hauler wouldn't last a combat round... but my Daemon Prince certainly would. So, carefully bubble-wrapping him with two units of Furies, he moved 12" forwards to try to charge the Oblits.



The remaining three Plague Marines near Objective 2 moved round the corner to shoot at the Cultists who were about to grab and start to defend the observatory. I considered advancing so that both Blight Launchers could shoot, but I wanted to charge later.


In the psychic phase I started by asking my Poxbringer to heal the Blighthauler with Fleshy Abundance. He only managed to put one wound back, but that did double its health. The Daemon Prince smote the Obliterators (after spending a CP to reroll) for one wound. The Malignant Plaguecaster finished off the wounded Obliterator with another Smite. He tried to put a Miasma of Pestilence on the Blighthauler, but was denied.

The 'Hauler then unloaded all its weapons onto the remaining Obliterator, but whiffed all the shots. On my left flank I had two Plague Marines who put shots in on the Cultists, killing three of them, and one blight launcher-armed marine who could only see the Obliterator; unfortunately he didn't manage to wound it.

The Defiler and remaining blight launcher-armed Plague Marine in the ruins on my right killed three of the Raptors, including the champion, leaving two plasma gun-armed Raptors.

The Blighthauler then charged the Obliterator. I was slightly worried by the prospect of being killed on the way in and then having to repeat the exercise with the DP, but thought that it was worth the risk...and Stylus duly managed to miss entirely, despite a reroll from Cimber the Enkindled. The DP and Furies then both charged in too, with the Furies stacking themselves to the right to protect the Prince from a counter-charge from the Berzerkers.

I had assumed that the Prince would shred the Obliterator into tiny pieces of heavy armour, but Stylus was rolling daemonic saves like I roll Disgustingly Resilient saves and only two wounds snuck through, leaving the Obliterator on two wounds. 

Obliterators aren't too shabby in close combat and he decided to target the Prince rather than the near-dead Blighthauler. He managed to hit and wound the Prince three times and I smiled to myself as I remembered the Suppurating Plate, as if I saved two of these wounds (as I expected to on a 3+) it could be enough to kill the Obliterator. 

Demonstrating that my dice are not loaded, I managed to fail all three of the saves, though I passed one using a CP reroll. I then failed a Revoltingly Resilient roll and took a wound. The Suppurating Plate did cause one wound back on the Obliterator however; he probably slipped on all the pus leaking out of the Blighthauler.

In other close combat action, the three Plague Marines near Objective 2 charged the cultists (killing another couple and leaving five standing), and the Defiler made short work of the Rhino, which did not explode.

I drew the Cultist casualties from the front, which meant they were disengaged and didn't fight back (but also that they could advance next turn). Bloody heroes that they are, the Cultists passed their Morale check.

That ended a reasonably good turn for me. Despite not scoring any VP, I'd almost killed the Obliterators (and stopped the survivor from shooting next turn) and damaged a number of other units, though not, importantly, the Berzerkers...

Objectives Scored - none

2-0 to the Black Legion

CPs left: 6

Black Legion - Turn 3

My new strategy was to rack up the Victory Points and prey for an early finish. With Defend Objective 2 still in my hand, I drew Secure Objective 4 (right in the centre) and Secure Objective 2.
High command really wanted that ruined observatory!

And we both wanted the objective that you'd cunningly placed right in the middle of nowhere! I do like it when a story emerges from the cards rather than randomly being ordered left, right, backwards and forwards. 

I didn't have a lot of troops left, but my Cultists were Objective Secured, so it wasn't impossible I could scoop up these points. As for Objective 4, it was in the middle and so were my Berserkers, so that was pretty clear.

With eyes on the Plague Marines, the Chaos Space Marines stayed still. The backline unit of Cultists continued to run forward and the remains of the Cultists in the Observatory rolled a big advance and jumped on Objective 2 - yes!

The Raptors jumped into the ruins to better their cover save, the Lord moved closer to the Furies, and the Berserkers and Exalted Champion jumped down from the tower to ready for a charge.

The Obliterator fell out of combat - but could not get far enough out of splash damage if the Blight-Hauler blew up, so I had written him off.

In the Psychic Phase, the Sorcerer put Misama of Pestilence on the Cultists (who I had the foresight to Mark with Nurgle) and then hit the Blight-Hauler with a Smite. Sure enough, it exploded in a shower of filth, taking out the last Obliterator, a Fury and even wounding the Daemon Prince.

I thought about spending a CP to force the detonation of the Blighthauler, but decided to roll and hope to get a 4+ and consider spending a CP to reroll that; I didn't need to! I was slightly annoyed to lose a wound to the explosion myself though: I even spent a CP to reroll Revoltingly Resilient, but it didn't work.

Shooting was less effective - both Raptors missed their mark against the last Plague Marine, as did the Chaos Space Marines shooting through the archway at the other squad.

In the charge phase, I had an interesting conundrum: because of his screening, the Berzerkers couldn't get to the Daemon Prince without first going through the Furies. By declaring a charge on both, I could use my second round of attacks to pile into the Deamon Prince (but that left me open to being interrupted with Counter-Offensive - costing me a couple of CP). There wasn't much I could do about that - the Berserkers needed to get in combat and I needed to clear Objective 4.

(Ironically, if my Berserkers had been armed with pistols, as shown on the models, they could probably have shot away the Furies and cleared a path to the Deamon Prince - always go WYSIWGY, kids). Though those chainswords weren't going to be much help against the Prince's Suppurating Plate: no AP and mortal wounds back again can sting...

And so the Berserkers and Chaos Lord made it into the screen of Furies, hacking them down before the Daemon Prince fought back and killed four of their number. When it came time for the Berserkers second round of combat, they only managed to scratch off a wound (the power fist failed every attack) and lost a further two to the Suppurating Plate.

The good news was I'd killed enough to secure Objective 4. The bad news was I'd lost both my hard-hitting units this turn, and spent the last of my CPs to keep the Berzerkers from fleeing (I'd rather the Daemon Prince killed them him his turn, than be free to charge).

Objectives Scored - Secure 4 (1), Secure 2 (1)

4-0 to the Black Legion

CPs left: Black Legion 0, Death Guard 3

Death Guard - Turn 3

High command saw the importance that the Black Legion attached to Objective 2 and therefore ordered me to secure it for Nurgle (although technically the Cultists who were sitting on it were aligned to Nurgle already; never mind - they clearly weren't proper Nurgle worshippers!). 

I planned to reduce the numbers of Cultists by moving my Plaguecaster so they were the nearest unit and advancing him (spending a CP to reroll) so they were within 7" so Pestilential Fallout would cause additional mortal wounds if I rolled high enough. Although I had three Plague Marines within a 3" charge, I ideally wanted only one left alive as I couldn't count on their plague knives killing more than that. The Poxbringer ran forwards to get into position to help out in close combat next turn if required.

I moved the Defiler forwards, planning to shoot the Exalted Champion and charge the Chaos Lord. My Cultists shuffled forwards so that they were ready to run to either of Objectives 3 or 5 if needed. 

My psychic phase was almost too good (poor me): although the Prince failed to smite the Berzerkers, the Plaguecaster smote the Cultists for three mortal wounds, causing a fourth with Pestilential Fallout. That left only one alive so I chose not to cast Miasma of Pestilence on the Prince in case I killed the remaining cultist: my Plague Marines weren't within 3" of objective 2 so I needed someone to charge. The Poxbringer cast Fleshy Abundance on the Prince, restoring him to full health.

I spent a CP in the shooting phase on Blasphemous Machines on the Defiler so he could put shots into the Exalted Champion, mulching him into a fine black mist.

The combination of the remaining blight launcher-armed marine in the ruined temple on Objective 3 and crossfire from the Cultists in the other ruins killed the remaining Raptors.

Stylus had kindly advised me to make sure I kept a CP to reroll the Defiler's charge on the Chaos Lord. Being an adept at the intricacies of charging and the fight phase, he pointed out that the Chaos Lord was currently not engaged and could have heroically intervened on the three remaining Furies on Objective 4 in his turn, preventing me from defending it. I duly failed the initial charge and needed a 4 on the CP reroll to make the 8" charge...which I duly produced.

That will teach me to keep my mouth shut.

Despite a plethora of attacks the Lord managed to survive the Defiler's embrace. It must have been like being savaged by a giant, mutated Labrador. Actually, I have a Labrador (though it's neither giant nor mutated) and I don't imagine being on the receiving end of a charging Defiler can be anything like that; sorry.

The Daemon Prince then murdered the remaining Berzerkers (I don't think we even rolled for it given that time was advancing), and the turn ended with the Death Guard in a strong position, having killed all the dangerous units apart from the Sorcerer and the Lord, whilst keeping the large majority of their firepower intact. 

Let's not forget the true battle of this turn: the three Plague Marines in the Observatory charged the lone Cultist, failed to kill him and he took out one of their own in return! Now, I was still out numbered by objective secured troops, so I lost the objective, but it was a damn fine performance!

I was still a way behind on the VP count: if Stylus was lucky with his next draw he could pull a win out of the bag, so I couldn't relax yet.

Objectives Scored - Secure 2 (1)

4-1 to the Black Legion

CPs left: Black Legion 0, Death Guard 0

Black Legion - Turn 4

Heroics of the Lone Cultist notwithstanding, I was in a pickle. My cards were almost helpful: Defend Objective 3 (this could have been a tasty one if my Raptors hadn't crumpled), Hold the Line (I couldn't quite get three units back into my deployment zone this turn - and I didn't think I'd have three units left next turn), and Will of Chaos (you have to secure a randomly assigned Objective that changes each turn. This time it was, you guessed it - Objective 2).

Very little to do this turn. My Chaos Lord hastily fled combat, calling all his Cultists to come and bubble-wrap him from Smites and Daemon Princes. My Sorcerer ran up to the ruined observatory to help the lone Cultist. The Cultist just stood there, flexing his muscles.

My only action this turn was to cast Smite on the Plague Marines, but it was a good one - going off as a super-Smite and wiping them from the board.

That left the lone Cultist to claim another Victory Point. Of course it did.




If he could somehow survive everything that was going to hit him next turn, I'd get another two points for Defend (and I'd probably have to make him a Daemon Prince).

Objectives Scored - Will of Chaos (1), Objectives Scored, Death Guard - Defend 4 (2)
Objectives discarded - Defend 3

5-3 to the Black Legion

Death Guard - Turn 4

I drew Scour the Skies (unfortunately I'd killed the last Raptor last turn), Secure 3 (in the temple ruins and currently sat on by a Plague Marine), and Assassinate (which paired nicely with Witch Hunter that had been sitting in my hand for a while - I'd had eyes on that Nurgle Sorcerer for a while). 

My Daemon Prince accordingly flew up and landed next to the Sorcerer, tipping the guy a wink before flexing his claws. The Plaguecaster followed up with a super-smite (which was unnecessarily over the top, and caused an extra mortal wound from Pestilential Fallout). I'm sure the Sorcerer saw the error of his ways before his head popped.

Pootle seems to have omitted to mention that he also Smited off the lone Cultist, but I'm happy with that. Let the record show that he was summoned into the warp to receive his rewards from Grandfather Nurgle.

I keep trying to forget him! Maybe I assumed he was a true Nurgle worshipper after all and should be tempted to join me. Actually, now I think about it, I think I popped the Cultist's head with Pestilential Fallout from casting something else and then did a super-smite on the Sorcerer.

The Defiler moved round the corner and unloaded its guns on the Cultists, killing half of them, but failed to charge into them.

Objectives Scored - Secure 3 (1), Assassinate (1), Witch Hunter (1)

6-5 to the Death Guard

Black Legion - Turn 5

I held on for as long as I could, but now the Victory Points are beginning to tilt against me. I draw my cards in the hope of something useful: Overwhelming Firepower (not with Cultist autoguns), Blood and Guts, and For the Dark Gods (just kill something).

I could pull all three units back and claim Hold the Line, but to make it more fun, I ran my Chaos Lord forward to take on the Malignant Plaguecaster in single combat - potentially claiming two VPs there.

Sadly, the Spineshiver Blade whiffed (and I forgot about Flames of Spite for the whole game) and the Death Guard sorcerer was left alive.

Behind on points, and with no means of generating any more, I decided to concede.

The points were close, but Pootle had at least one more turn to score VP (even if the cards were duff, Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord were near-certainties), and I was looking down the barrel of a tabling.

Result: Victory to the Death Guard!

Locker Room

Ouch. That was a proper thumping. I can't really blame the run of the dice, or the cards (they probably kept me in it - it certainly made a good narrative that everything hinged on the observatory). I made a couple of basic errors and it cost me dearly.

The major one was not dropping all my deepstrike firepower against one flank. Maybe I wasn't thinking in a 1000pt scale, but I'm used to dropping Raptors as a distraction unit, when what I really needed them for was to add to the Obliterators' firepower. If they'd repeated their performance on the right flank, they would have killed that squad of Plague Marines and Objective 2 would have been easier to defend.

I agree, it would have been much worse for me if the combination of Obliterators plus Raptors had focussed fire, whether on the Blighthauler or Defiler. One other reason I'd considered Hammer & Anvil deployment was that it would enable me to focus all my fire on your army rather than being too spread out. The much longer frontage of Vanguard Strike meant that you could have concentrated your units on one side, all but ignoring the other side. Of course the law of sod would have meant you'd then have been asked to secure objectives on the other side of the field...

But of course the biggest slip was the Obliterators themselves. They're quite expensive for a game of this scale - and that can backfire when they don't perform. I should have probably rerolled the dice to improve their AP, but I certainly shouldn't have tried to split fire in their first round - that was just hubris, and I was justly punished.

I feel a little guilty there as we talked through some options there. However the AP -1 on both rounds of fire for the Oblits was a life-saver for me. 

In fact targeting the Blight-Hauler in the first place may have been a mistake. It's not that killy, but it can tank wounds until the cows come home. Between that and the Bloat Drone, I'm developing a real phobia for this dreadnought-scale daemon engines. The Obliterators should probably have been shooting the Defiler - at least that can degrade (and doesn't have Disgustingly Sodding Resilience!)

Once more I tormented you with a Disgustingly Resilient daemon engine refusing to die and left on one wound! The Defiler was interesting to play with, but it was a bit overpowered for everything it ended up engaging in close combat - maybe I'll have to get one for a larger game.

Another error was holding back my troops for too long - I didn't have much to defend in the back, and no deepstrikers to worry about. The Cultists could have provided a nice screen against charging or Smite - which did the most harm to my good units.

But this takes nothing away from Pootle's victory - errors can be forced, and he played a very canny game, keeping out of harm's way rather than sit there and get a bloody nose from my units. The Furies were a really good addition too - in terms of killing, they did almost nothing, but in blocking my advance, threatening to wrap around my Rhino, jumping on objectives, they were invaluable. The Mark of Nurgle is another good shout, as it makes them so much more durable. I'd never thought about them before, but they're so cheap it makes them practically and auto-include.

Yes, 40 points for a 12" move unit with a daemonic 5++ and DR 5+++ gives a great bit of mobility to the generally slow Death Guard. They didn't kill anything I think, but work fantastically as a screen for a flying Daemon Prince and/or objective grabbers. I'll definitely be using a big mob of Furies buzzing around a DP again!

One thing that helped me was being able to think about the lists in advance. Stylus charitably shared his planned list well in advance and I tweaked my army slightly as I wanted to try out a few different things. It was very clear from the components exactly what Stylus wanted to do, and this meant that I could plan how to deal with it (refusing to engage the Rhino and staying well out of charge range of the Berzerkers on turn 1). However I didn't expect it to work quite as well as it did.

So that's my Space Wolves and Black Legion fallen to the Second Law. Can the Thousand Sons stop it becoming a hat-trick?

There's only one way to find out...and we should do that face to face!