The Lost and the Damned: Death Guard vs Thousand Sons

We've had this in the calendar for months. We had a table booked at Bristol Independent Gaming. But then Storm Ciara arrived and disrupted our travel plans.

Not to be beaten by mere weather, Stylus volunteered to host a Skype battle, so the forces of Pootle's Nurgle Warband, The Second Law, could fight Stylus's Thousand Sons: the Court of Miracles.

The storm shan't stop our play: it's all-Skype fight day!

The Second Law - Death Guard

I've been looking forward to this for a while! The timing of the new rules for Thousand Sons is somewhat inauspicious (no doubt exactly as Tzeentch had planned), but Stylus and I agreed beforehand not to pull any punches and see what our respective warbands can do.

I knew that I was going to have a Death Guard battalion, supported by a Nurgle Daemon Outrider detachment with lots of Furies to act as a mobile screen, and a Purge Spearhead detachment with Havocs, Obliterators and a Venomcrawler.

I know that Stylus will be bringing a mix of the new Cults, centred around the Cult of Duplicity. I'm concerned that the additional mobility that this unlocks could mean he could strike-and-fade and keep my normally plodding advance at arms length while peppering it with multiple fusillades from Inferno bolters. Therefore I built the army around a core of mobile threats (winged Daemon Prince, two Foetid Bloatdrones with Fleshmowers, a Rhino full of close-combat Plague Marines, and the Venomcrawler. I also added in a squad of Blightlord Terminators to drop in and support the action.

I wanted to preserve the screen of Furies for when I moved up the board, so added two units of 14 Poxwalkers to act as a turn 1 screen and then act as a rearguard. All this would be supported by a host of characters: a Malignant Plaguecaster, a Biologus Putrifier (my warlord with the Arch-Contaminator ability allowing rerolls to wound for all Plague Weapons within 7"), and a Tallyman (with Fugaris' Helm, meaning that all Death Guard within 10" could reroll all close combat misses). I've heard some say that there's no point bringing psykers to fight Thousand Sons as they'll just get bullied, however I have four. Clearly I have a few powers I want to get off (Miasma of Pestilence and Fleshy Abundance from the Poxbringer are pretty much top of the list), but having four denials could come in handy.

I chose to put Fleshmowers on both FBDs partly because I've not used them in anger, but mainly because they are damage 2, which therefore means that the Rubric/Scarab All Is Dust rule won't be triggered (the normally excellent Plaguespitters would suffer from this). For the same reason I didn't bring my normally reliable Plagueburst Crawler as Stylus could probably just ignore it.

I also think that Stylus is likely to bring a Spearhead detachment from the Cult of Prophecy with three Helbrutes. This means that he'll have a castle that won't want to move, which is good as it means I have a target to rush my mobile assault troops towards (and try to teleport my Blightlords to).

I also expect him to use Sorcerous Facade to drop either a large unit of Spawn, a Mutalith Vortex Beast or a Defiler in my back lines, so I will use one unit of Poxwalkers to both screen the Havocs and act as general deep-strike denial. 

Of course, the best laid plans...

This is the army I would have fielded if not for Ciara

Battalion detachment - Death Guard

• Daemon Prince of Nurgle (HQ)
  2 x Malefic talons, Wings
  Relic: The Suppurating Plate
  Power: Miasma of Pestilence
• Malignant Plaguecaster (HQ)
  Bolt pistol, Corrupted staff
  Power: Blades of Putrefaction, Putrescent Vitality
• 7 x Plague Marines (Troops)
  3 x Boltgun & Plague knives, 2 x Flail of Corruption, 2 x Two plague knives
• 5 x Plague Marines (Troops)
  Champion: Boltgun & Plague sword, 2 x Boltgun & Plague knives, 2 x Blight Launchers
• 14 x Poxwalkers (Troops)
  Improvised weapons
• 14 x Poxwalkers (Troops)
  Improvised weapon
• Biologus Putrifier (Elite) (Warlord)
  Hyper Blight Grenades, Injector pistol
  Warlord: Arch-Contaminator
• 5 x Blightlord Terminators(Elite)
  3 x Combi-bolters, 4 x Bubotic Axes, 1 x Blight Launcher, 1 x Flail of Corruption
• Tallyman (Elite)
  Blight Grenades, Plasma pistol
  Relic: Fugaris' Helm
• Foetid Bloat-drone (Fast)
  Fleshmower, Plague probe
• Foetid Bloat-drone (Fast)
  Fleshmower, Plague probe
• Chaos Rhino (Transport)
  Combi-bolter 

Outrider detachment - Daemons of Nurgle

• Poxbringer  (HQ)
  Balesword
  Power: Fleshy Abundance
• 6 x Furies (Fast)
  Daemonic claws
• 5 x Furies (Fast)
  Daemonic claws
• 5 x Furies (Fast)
  Daemonic claws 

Spearhead detachment - The Purge

• Sorcerer (HQ)
  Combi-bolter, Force axe
  Power: Prescience, Warptime
• 5 x Havocs (Heavy)
  Boltgun and Chainsword, 2 x Autocannons, 2 x Missile Launchers
• 1 x Obliterator (Heavy)
  Fleshmetal Guns, Crushing Fists
• 1 x Obliterator (Heavy)
  Fleshmetal Guns, Crushing Fists
• Venomcrawler (Heavy)
  Eviscerating claws, Excruciator cannon, Soulflayer tendrils

Total: 133 PL, 2,000pts, Battleforged + Battalion + Outrider + Spearhead - Relic = 9CP

The Court of Miracles - Thousand Sons

I'm running a similar list to the one I took against the Raven Guard last week, so all the same tricks apply. The exceptions are I dropped a few Spawn and a Mutalith to fit in a second unit of Scarab Occult Terminators (the paint is still wet on them), so my army has definitely swayed towards the shooty.

Also, I had to leave the Hourglass of Manat (free resurrection) relic at home, since I now realise you can only take the relic of the warlord's Cult - and I need the Pythic Brazier for my Helbrute battery of lacannons.

So the plan is simple: keep the Death Guard at arm's length and gun them down with my superior firepower and psychic might!

Vanguard detachment - Cult of Prophecy

• Guron Sekra - Exalted Sorcerer (HQ) (Warlord)
  Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol
  Prescience, Temporal Manipulation, Divine the Future
  Warlord: High Magister 
  Relic: Pythic Brazier
• Helbrute (Elite)
  Twin lascannon, missile launcher
• Helbrute (Elite)
  Twin lascannon, missile launcher
• Helbrute (Elite)
  Twin lascannon, missile launcher

Battalion detachment - Cult of Duplicity

• Arac Rapathwin - Exalted Sorcerer on Disc (HQ) (Warlord)
  Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol
  Death Hex, Warptime, Sorcerous Facade 
• Clotho Assassinbane - Sorcerer (HQ)
  Force stave Inferno Bolt Pistol
  Diabolic Strength, Infernal Gaze, Sorcerous Facade 
• 5 x Rubric Marines (Troops)
  Force stave & Warpflame Pistol, 4 x Inferno Boltgun,
  Tzeentch's Firestorm, Sorcerous Facade 
• 5 x Rubric Marines (Troops)
  Force stave & Inferno Bolt Pistol, 4 x Inferno Boltgun,
  Temporal Manipulation, Sorcerous Facade 
• 5 x Rubric Marines (Troops)
  Force stave & Inferno Bolt Pistol, 4 x Inferno Boltgun,
  Temporal Manipulation, Sorcerous Facade 
• 4 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)
  Hideous mutations
• 1 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)
  Hideous mutations
• 1 x Chaos Spawn (Fast)
  Hideous mutations
• Mutalith Vortex Beast (Heavy)
  Enormous Claws, Betentacled Maw

Vanguard detachment - Cult of Time

• Yr'bith Fulred - Daemon Prince of Tzeentch (HQ)
  2 x Malefic talon, Wings
  Gaze of Fate, Warptime, Time Flux 
  Magister: Otherworldly Prescience
• 5 x Scarab Occult Terminators (Elite)
  Force stave, 4 x Inferno Combi-bolter, 4 x Powersword, Soulreaper cannon, Hellfyre Missile Rack
  Weaver of Fates, Time Flux 
• 5 x Scarab Occult Terminators (Elite)
  Force stave, 5 x Inferno Combi-bolter, 4 x Powersword, Hellfyre Missile Rack
  Weaver of Fates, Time Flux 
• Gnawshrike - Tzaangor Shaman (Elite)
  Force stave
  Glamour of Tzeentch
• 4 x Tzaangor Enlightened (Fast)
  Fatecaster greatbows
• 4 x Tzaangor Enlightened (Fast)
  Fatecaster greatbows

Total: 131 PL, 2,000pts, Battleforged + Battalion + Vanguard + Outrider - Magister = 9CP

Deployment

Stylus wins the roll-off and chooses to be the Defender, picking Hammer and Anvil deployment and taking the Eastern edge of the board. This is the deployment I least want as it gives me the most ground to cover, but at least the camera is behind my deployment zone, so it feels like the right side for me.

The Rhino (loaded with the close combat marines, Tallyman, Biologus Putrifier and Malignant Plaguecaster) is ready to roll down the avenue on my right flank as it looks a marginally better bet than the northern route. All the other fast stuff goes in the middle, ready to go left, right or fly straight forwards. 

The Havocs go on the ground next to the building in my back left (not starting on the roof just in case Stylus steals the initiative). One unit of Furies sits to the Daemon Prince's left on my left flank with another a few inches behind. The third unit goes on the right flank.

I castle up around the main power generator building, putting all three Helbrutes and my warlord up top. The Rubricae get stretched across my deployment zone in a style that would make Mordian proud, with a sacrificial Spawn in front of each Terminator squad to soak up the Smite damage.

On my left flank is the Mutalith and big unit of Spawn - but they're Cult of Duplicity, so could end up anywhere. And the Tzaangor Enlightened string out along the back lines to prevent deepstrike.

Death Guard – Turn 1

Stylus doesn't seize the initiative, so off we go...

Objectives drawn: Death Begets Life (1VP for each 7 enemy models killed), Secure Objective 1, Secure Objective 5

I start by advancing the Poxwalkers forwards, then move everyone forwards to stay behind their screen. I contemplate hurling all the faster units over the top (led by a screen of Furies) but I'd still be hanging some way off Stylus's lines, so I opt to play it safe to start with.

In the backfield, the Havocs climb up onto the roof of the building and draw a bead on the Helbrutes.

In my psychic phase I fail to cast the one power I really need (Miasma of Pestilence on the Rhino). 

However the shooting phase goes as well as it possibly could: on my left flank the two Blight Launcher-armed marines take out the solitary Spawn sitting opposite them for First Strike, then I put Daemonforge onto the Venomcrawler and open up on the central Helbrute, knocking a handful of wounds of it. Because it's wounded, the Havocs now get a free reroll to hit so are able to finish it off. That's good as now I've only got 6 nasty big guns facing me, not 9...

Both units of Poxwalkers were curled round a lot more than in this map; none were hovering in mid-air off the table...

Objectives scored: First Strike (1), Secure 1 (1), Secure 5 (1)

I discard Death Begets life as killing 7 models in Stylus's army is going to be hard.

Thousand Sons – Turn 1

Objectives drawn: Ritual Slaughter (kill nine enemy), Behind Enemy Lines, Defend Objective 3

Well choosing to go second has cost me a Helbrute (and a Spawn!), so I’d better make this count.

The only movement is to push up the left flank with my Mutalith and big unit of Spawn, to act as a combination of speed bump and defending objective 3. I expect them to get killed, but hope it delays Pootle’s advance sufficiently for me to get in another round of shooting.

The Psychic Phase begins with the Daemon Prince managing a successful Gaze of Fate cast, and Diabolic Strength on the Mutalith (just to tease the Death Guard with the idea he might charge). It worked - I know Stylus generally plays pretty aggressively and I wanted to charge it, not have it charge me.

Then it’s off to my warlord - did I mention his name was Guron the Unfavoured, on account of his terrible luck in past battles? Anyway, he rolls Perils on his first test. I have to use my Gaze of Fate reroll early – and it’s still a Perils. I have to use a CP to reroll the other dice – and he finally manages to fail the cast with no harm done.

Guron then attempts to put Prescience on the Helbrute – and Perils again. I have to use Adepts of the Immaterium stratagem to stop this from going bad, which means I’m two CP down already and haven’t managed to do anything. Worse, I’ve got nothing left for any more Perils in this phase.
The reason I’m skittish about this is because Daemons have a Daemonic Possession stratagem which forces a Psyker who Perils to take 2D3 mortal wounds, rather than 1D3. This is enough to kill a character or wipe a squad, and I don’t fancy taking that risk for the sake of Smiting a few Poxwalkers, so my Psychic phase comes to an abrupt end.

The only power I have to risk is Sorcerous Facade on my lone Spawn, catapulting him into Nurgle’s back garden to secure me a VP.

Onto the Shooting Phase, the two remaining Helbrutes wipe out the squad of Havocs – which may be overkill, but lascannons were all I had to reach them. One unit of Scarab Occult takes Veterans of the Long War to crack open the Rhino, then Infernal Fusilade to gun down a couple of its former occupants. One died in the wreckage as well, so the squad was down to only four.

The other Terminators take out half of the Plague marines on foot (leaving only the Blight Launchers, which is all that really matters), bringing my kill score beyond nine for another VP.

And that’s it from me. No charges, and three VP for me.

Objectives scored: Ritual Slaughter (1), Behind Enemy Lines, (1), First Strike (1)

Death Guard – Turn 2

Objectives drawn: Area Denial (I drew this in the first turn, but we agreed that it's a bit unfair to give a guaranteed D3 VPs on turn 1, so this objective should be treated like Hold the Line and only scored from turn 2), Disgusting Devotions (make 7 Disgustingly Resilient rolls in one turn), Grandfather's Gift (kill something with a Plague Weapon)

I need to stop Stylus from defending objective 3, but I don't want to do it via shooting as they will also allow me to slingshot everyone forwards. The Poxwalkers advance forwards first and then everyone else on the right or the centre moves towards objective 3. That's the close combat marines (who get within 6" so I can use Blight Bombardment), two FBDs, the Daemon Prince and the Venomcrawler. All the supporting characters also advance forwards to try to keep their buffing auras in range. The Blightlords teleport in on the southern table edge and I land the Obliterators on the roof of the building next to them. 

I then move the Poxwalker rearguard towards the Spawn interloper hiding in my backfield. I make sure to string them out so the unit remains within 10" of the Tallyman so they can reroll hits in the fight phase. I don't expect to kill the Spawn this turn, but I want to tie it up, knock some wounds off it and stop it causing mischief later.

I then have a psychic phase to make Stylus very jealous, starting by successfully casting both the powers I really care about: Miasma of Pestilence (-1 to hit) and Fleshy Abundance (healing one wound) onto the injured Bloatdrone. I then cast two (or maybe even three - I can't remember) Smites at the Spawn, killing one. I also put Blades of Putrifaction (+1 to wound and mortal wounds on a 6+) onto the close combat marines and Putrescent Vitality (+1 S&T) on the forward Poxwalkers.

I can't remember exactly how I distributed the shots from the Blight Launcher Marines, the Blightlords, Venomcrawler and Obliterators. I think the Venomcrawler shot at one of the Helbrutes (using Daemonforge again) and took four wounds off, and I think I took down the Mutalith with one Obliterator with the second targeting the nearer unit of Scarab Occult Terminators, killing a couple of them. 

I spent a CP on the new Indomitable Foes stratagem to boost their saves to 4++, but it did me no good. You did that twice: once in the shooting phase and once in the fight phase, but it didn't help. In retrospect it was also not useful in the fight phase as all my weapons were only -2AP.

That's a lot of wounds in one turn on the Mutalith and Spawn...

One Spawn was left alive to charge, and I get one of the FBDs, the Blightlords and the Plague Marines into combat, who finish off the Spawn without any problem. They all then consolidate further forwards...



I only roll a 1 for the D3 VPs for Area Denial, however I'm pretty confident as I'm in a great position now: Stylus has a lot of credible threats to deal with, and only one turn to do so before the rotting wave crashes into his castle.

Objectives scored: Area Denial (1), Disgusting Devotions (1), Grandfather's Gift (1)

Thousand Sons – Turn 2

Objectives drawn: Hold the Line, Overwhelming Firepower, Lines, Defend Objective 3

Hmm, my speed bump appears to have become a slingshot for the Death Guard. But I’ve drawn out all the deepstrikes, and I’ve got one turn for my thin blue lines to do as much damage as possible.
My Daemon Prince can’t wait that long, and flies off to intercept the left flank advance, putting a lot of faith in his 3++ save. The half-strength Scarab Occult Terminators follow after him.

No longer needed for deepstrike screening, the Tzaangor Enlightened swing around to add their bows to the barrage.

The Psychic Phase … is another bust. I manage to return one of the Scarab Occult Terminator with Time Flux, and throw out a few Smites to tickle the advancing Death Guard units, but I either fail to cast or Pootle’s quartet of psykers manages to deny all of them. I only remember one successful denial: I think Guron had some competition for poor casting.

But I need the Shooting Phase to sing for me, which doesn’t have the best start when my Rubric small-arms can’t get past the daemon save/disgustingly resilient saves of the Furies. I eventually manage to plink off the smallest unit of daemons, so that’s one VP, and the two Helbrutes each take down an Obliterator, so that’s D3. I blew a CP on rerolling the daemonic save for the last missile launcher into the second Obliterator, hoping for a lucky 5+, but to no avail. 

I aim both units of the Scarab Occult Terminators (one with Veterans of the Long War) to shoot at the Blightlord Terminators, Bloat-Drone, and Death Guard. But I’m unable to concentrate firepower (due to the terrain – I would have if I could have!) and only manage to take down the units to half-strength without killing any of them.

The only charges are putting the Daemon Prince into the Bloat-Drone and the Scarab Occult into the last two Plague Marines. I choose to fight first with the Daemon Prince, which was probably an error, since he doesn’t finish off the daemon engine, then survives the counter-attack on half-wounds.

The Plague Marines interrupt combat with their two flails of corruption and, despite using Indomitable Foes to boost their invulnerable save (don’t know why I did that – they were saving on 4+ anyway!), I roll terribly and lose three Terminators. The Aspiring Sorcerer is so shocked that he can’t even beat down any of the Plague Marines.

So my counter-attack has stalled rather badly, but as a consolation, I do roll 3VP for Overwhelming Firepower, so I’m holding in there.

Objectives scored: Overwhelming Firepower (1), Hold the Line (1)

Death Guard – Turn 3

Objectives drawn: Defend objective 3, Secure objective 2, Overwhelming firepower

I've been holding defend 3 and secure 2 for a couple of turns and now's the time to put them into play. The Poxwalkers sit tight on objective 3 and move so the other end of the unit is on objective 4. The other Poxwalkers string out between objectives 1 and 5. This is just in case I need to claim these objectives later (Poxwalkers are great for holding objectives, but not dashing for them).

Everyone else piles forwards. Maxwell's Daemon (Prince) flies behind his opposite number, ready for a Princely scrap, and the undamaged FBD floats towards the undamaged unit of Scarab Occult Terminators.

In the psychic phase I put Blades of Putrifaction onto my Daemon Prince, use Fleshy Abundance to put a couple more wounds back onto the injured FBD (taking him back up to six wound and his top bracket) and (I think) Smite away the last Scarab Terminator.

I've not got a lot of shooting left now, but the Venomcrawler knocks some wounds off the right-hand Helbrute (I forgot to mark the shots on the map below) and the Blight Launcher-armed Plague Marines and the Blightlord Terminators take more wounds off, however I don't quite manage to kill it to achieve Overwhelming Firepower.

I do have plenty of close combat muscle however. The Venomcrawler charges forwards, the Blightlords make contact with the Tzaangor Enlightened, the second FBD plunges towards the uninjured Scarabs and Maxwell's Daemon Prince taps his Tzeentchian former-brother on the shoulder with a festering claw.

Stylus no longer has enought CPs to interrupt, so I start the fighting with the Daemon Prince, who makes short work of his task. Stylus's luck lets him down once more as he fails a number of 3+ invulnerable saves, but between the DP, FBD and Venomcrawler I think his card was marked.

Next up the Foetid Bloatdrone carve up four of the Scarab Terminators (again, poor rolls for invuln saves not helping Stylus's cause), then the Blightlords marmalise the entire unit of Enlightened.

Despite only scoring 1 VP and so technically being behind on the VP count, I know I'm going to defend objective 3 and I'm rapidly removing all the dangerous Thousand Sons units without suffering much damage in return.

Objectives scored: Secure 1 (1)

Thousand Sons – Turn 3

Objectives drawn: Big Game Hunter, Assassinate, Defend Objective 3 (I really should have ditched this by now)

That’s most of my melee units gone, but I have some guns left, and I have a sneaky plan (between you and me, I’m holding Kingslayer in my hand, and the Biologus Putrifier is exposed at the back with nothing but characters screening him. I’m thinking of jumping a unit of Rubrics over there with Sorcerous Facade, followed by Tzeentch’s Firestorm and a rapid-fire volley with Veterans of the Long War – with a bit of luck, that will bring me 3-5VPs at a stroke).

Unfortunately, magic lets me down again. Guron casts Perils – again! – and I have to use that CP to ensure I don’t lose my own warlord. I then fail to cast Sorcerous Façade, so the plan is a bust before it even begins.

Elsewhere, my last Scarab Occult – who naturally fell out of combat with the Bloat Drone, fail to resurrect any of their number, and I Smite down a few more of the Blightlords, leaving one left alive.

I vent my frustrations on the Venomcrawler in the Shooting Phase – the Helbrutes struggle to finish it off, and it takes the combined mass of small-arms fire to shift it. But, as a bonus for my perseverance, the daemon engine explodes, taking our the last of the Plague Marines, and splashing wounds everywhere else. I used a CP to reroll the initial explosion...and naturally rolled another 6.

In the assault phase, I charge a squad of Rubrics into a pack of Furies – because I should be able to take out a couple – and throw my Disc Sorcerer, Tzaangor Shaman and Tzaangor Enlightened into the last Blightlord.

Sadly, none of my Sorcerers are having a good day, and the Blightlord tanks all the damage. My Rubrics also fail to scratch a single fury, so I’m glad that I wasn’t chasing Blood & Guts. I'm now wincing and apologising to Stylus for all the fives and sixes I'm now rolling for daemonic and disgustingly resilient saves.

Getting rid of the Venomcrawler nets me a VP, but there are too many big threats left on the table for me to deal with.

Objectives scored: Big Game Hunter (1); Death Guard: Defend objective 3 (2)

Death Guard – Turn 4

Objectives drawn: Behind enemy lines, Assassinate

My objectives are perfect since I fully intend to push my units onwards into Stylus's deployment zone, and I also want to knock out some more of his sorcerers. To that end my Daemon Prince lands on the roof in front of the hapless Guron. I also land the fresh unit of Furies on the same rooftop, intending to charge the uninjured Helbrute and stop it shooting, and the injured FBD floats forwards to threaten either the injured Helbrute or the Tzaangor surrounding my last Blightlord.

Maxwell's Daemon Prince starts with a Smite on the right-hand Helbrute (he actually landed so he was marginally closer to it than Guron the Perpetually Unlucky - wobbly-model syndrome prevailing in the pic above). 

Despite my lack of guns, I still have a chance to get Overwhelming Firepower, so my Sorcerer (who stood still to rapid fire his combi-bolter) and Plague Marines open up on the injured Helbrute and (because this is the way my luck is going today) finish it off.

Not surprising either of us, my two Bloatdrones and the Daemon Prince make short work of their opponents, which unlocks a couple more VPs.

Objectives scored: Behind enemy lines (1), Assassinate (1), Overwhelming firepower (1), Slay the Warlord (1)

Thousand Sons – Turn 4

Objectives drawn: Assassinate, Witch Hunter, Psychic Supremacy

My castle has become a small redoubt, so I’m playing for pride here. At least killing the Daemon Prince that so rudely barged his way in here will net me a couple more VPs.

My plan is keep the Helbrute in combat, but Smite away all those Furies, freeing him up to unload a couple of lascannons at point-blank range.

Three of the Furies on the roof did die this phase, but I've not marked that up here

However, even this proves too much for me. Three Smites can’t even manage to peel away the Furies, which had been the story of my Psychic Phase. I remember you landed three mortal wounds on them at one point and I was (almost) as appalled as you when I made three successful Disgustingly Resilient rolls. The only successful cast was the jump a unit of Rubrics onto the roof with Sorcerous Façade, so they can join in the last-ditch charge on the Daemon Prince.

After a smattering of Boltgun fire, everyone (but the Helbrute, still trying to stamp on Furies) charges in. However, with no close-combat weapons and the Suppurating Plate to deal with, none of my attacks hit home and most of my guys are killed by the splashback mortal wounds. Ah well, it was better than surrendering.

Able to see into the future, the last surviving Sorcerer, Clotho, decides now would be a good time to make his escape into the Warp and blame it all on Guron.

Objectives scored: none
Objectives scored (Death Guard): Linebreaker (1)

Result: 14 : 8 - Victory to the Death Guard!

Locker Room

Well, that final score flattered me - I took an absolute hiding there! My own fault for taking the same list twice in a row - Tzeentch doesn't like that and punished me with one of the worst psychic games I've yet experienced.

I know that with the sheer number of dice you roll in the psychic phase you're bound to perils at some point, but it wasn't just that: you failed to cast quite a few other key powers, particularly Sorcerous Facade (apart from once in the first turn). And the contrast between your poor rolling for invuln saves versus my disgustingly resilient rolling was also pretty stark.

You normally expect a bit of an ebb and flow with psychic powers - two good phases, two bad phases, a mediocre phase - but there was barely anything I could do. It didn't help that Daemonic Possession was hovering over my head (and Guron kept rolling Perils), but even without that, Pootle was consistently able to deny my powers and I was consistently unable to block his. Just one of those games.

As I noted above, I don't think I actually did deny very many of your casts. 

In the material world, my generalship was lacking, probably due to my inexperience at running gunlines. The original plan had been to deny Pootle's long-range firepower and fast units, forcing him to come onto my guns. And, up to Turn 1, that was working.

So I don't know why I thought it wise to feed him the Mutalith and Spawn, followed by the Daemon Prince and Terminators, to allow them to get overwhelmed and give the Death Guard a chance to leap forward even faster. I think the melee player in me was just getting impatient and I wanted to get stuck in. All the units I squandered would have been better served as countertattack units in later turns.

Absolutely. I think that was possibly almost as big an issue for you as the terrible psychic phases: despite the mobility of the FBDs, you would have had one more turn shooting me up, and possibly two if you'd been able to fall back as I advanced. Sorcerous Facade would have helped that enormously. 

I think the reason you made the mistake (apart from an admirable desire to get stuck in) was the order to defend objective 3, which probably looked pretty likely with both a Mutalith and 4 Spawn parked on it. In retrospect, it would have been better to ignore the order and concentrate on the threat approaching it; as soon as you moved forwards I was rubbing my hands with glee as I wanted to get my units forwards as quickly as possible and was confident that by concentrating my forces I could dispatch both those two units. Never do what your enemy wants you to do!

Also, I think that paying a CP to take a Dark Matter Crystal could have been a good idea to enable two units to have outflanked me at a key moment (or made absolutely sure of the scheme to take out my warlord). Moving one unit to the far side of the battlefield is all very well, but it could either be ignored or concentrated on: two units would be a lot more of a problem.

Congratulations to Pootle - still undefeated, no matter what army I throw at him. He built a very strong list with lots of synergies and worked it well. Had I not rolled high on my D3 objectives and he rolled low, it could have been a hockey score of VPs.

Thank you Stylus, I really relish these games and although we didn't get to fight in person it was still a good fight, though not really indicative of what the Thousand Sons are capable of. We'll have to book another slot at BIG as I'm sure the Court of Miracles need to get their revenge on the Second Law. Perhaps it was all a trick to lull them into a false sense of security?