Tactorkal Objectives: Orks vs Death Guard

The Evil Sunz Waaagh! hit the immovable object of a Death Guard armoured patrol.

Who will survive this maelstrom of war?

Pootle here again, leading my Orks into battle against Stylus, who will take charge of the Death Guard by remote control, as is distressingly standard these days. I think of the Death Guard as "my" army, but I've yet to play with or against them using the new Codex rules, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they do.

Orks - Evil Sunz

My warlord, Bludteef, is still being plugged into a new Cybork Body after yet another near-death experience against the Alpha Legion (one of these days he'll survive a battle...). In his absence I've got a newly-painted Deffkilla Wartrike to play with. He'll be accompanied by a Weirdboy Warphead with Da Jump and Warpath.

Being led by the Wartrike means that nearby vehicles and bikes can advance and charge, so I'm going to pile in three (old-school lead) Warbikes and two (also lead) Warbuggies. No AP on any of their guns, so it'll be hard to hurt the Death Guard but should be good against a Poxwalker screen (S5 and AP0 is perfect for that job), plus it's very Orky to zoom forward and have a go. I'm also fielding a Deff Dread, kitted out with two Skorchas (little point paying for Killsaws whose D2 would be reduced to D1 by the new Disgustingly Resilient rule. It's also got Orkymatic Pistons (for 1CP) to add 3" to its move (and reroll advances).

Three units of Boyz form the bulk of the rest of the army, two 10-strong and one with 27 Boyz. All the Nobz (including the Biker Nob) have Power Klaws and a Choppa.

Rounding out the army are three Smasha Guns. Hopefully having three will mean something will hit at some point!

Orks - Evil Sunz - Battalion

• Deffkilla Wartrike (HQ) (Warlord)
  Killa Jet, Snagga Klaw, 3x Twin Boomstick
  Warlord: Brutal but Kunnin
  Relic: Super Cybork Body
• Weirdboy (HQ)
  Weirdboy Staff
  Powers: Da Jump, Warpath
  Stratagem: Warphead
• 27 x Boyz (Troops)
  Boss Nob with Choppa & Power Klaw, 26 x Slugga & Choppa, 2 x Tankbusta bombs
• 10 x Boyz (Troops)
  Boss Nob with Choppa & Power Klaw, 9 x Slugga & Choppa, 1 x Tankbusta bombs
• 10 x Boyz (Troops)
  Boss Nob with Choppa & Power Klaw, 9 x Slugga & Choppa, 1 x Tankbusta bombs
• 3 x Warbikers (Fast)
  2 x Dakkagun, Boss with Choppa & Power Klaw
• Warbuggy (Fast)
  Twin Big Shoota
• Warbuggy (Fast)
  Twin Big Shoota
• Deff Dread (Heavy)
  2 x Dread Klaw, 2 x Skorcha
  Kustom Job: Orkymatic Pistons
• Mek Gunz (Heavy)
  2 x Smasha Gun
• Mek Gunz (Heavy)
  Smasha Gun

Points: 998 | Level: 56 | Battle-forged + Battalion - Stratagem - Kustom Job: 4 CPs

Death Guard - The Wretched

Only my second outing with the Death Guard, and my first with their new codex, so I'm trying to keep it simple. Just a Patrol detachment with a single HQ, the Malignant Plaguecaster, to keep things cheap. Escort him with a squad of eight Plague Marines, plus the Foul Blightspawn, and I have a solid unit that can take a hit and dole out some punishment.

Two Foetid Bloat-drones and a Rhino should give my small army some mobility, plus a level of toughness that the dakka of the Orks will struggle to penetrate. I also took five Blightlord Terminators, who are a heck of a points sink, and a liability if they have to deepstrike out of position, but are nonetheless too good to pass up.

And finally, fourteen Poxwalkers to screen out the super-fast charges I can expect from the Evil Sunz.

For my extras, I went with things that would be hard for me to forget, but still managed to load up my characters with extras. There are apparently many good Plague Companies to choose, but I went with The Wretched because its stratagem was an easy one: extra psychic power and reroll one psychic test. It was the reroll I was after, because I also gave my Malignant Plaguecaster The Daemon's Favour relic, which doles out more mortal wounds with Pestilential Fallout. I also gave him Hulking Physique to keep this smite-bomb alive. I also upgraded the Blightspawn with Viscous Death, because 10pts to reroll the plague sprayer is a bargain.

Death Guard - The Wretched - Patrol

• Boltzmann, Malignant Plaguecaster (HQ) (Warlord)
  Corrupted staff, Bolt pistol
  Warlord: Hulking Physique 
  Relic: The Daemon's Favour
  Powers: Miasma of Pestilence, Gift of Contagion, Putrescent Vitality
  Stratagem: Sevenfold Blessings
• 8 x Plague Marines (Troops)
  Champion with Boltgun and Daemonic plague blade, 5 x Boltguns and Plague Knives, 1 x Bubotic Axe, 1 x Flail of Corruption
• 14 x Poxwalkers (Troops)
  Improvised weapon
• 5 x Blightlord Terminators (Elite)
  Champion with Combi-bolter and Bubotic Axe, 3 x Combi-bolter and Bubotic Axe, 1 x Flail of Corruption
• Kelvin, Foul Blightspawn (Elite)
  Plague sprayer, Unholy death's head grenade
  Deadly Pathogens: Viscous Death
• Foetid Bloat-drone (Elite)
  Heavy blight launcher, Plague Probe
• Foetid Bloat-drone (Elite)
  Fleshmower, Plague Probe
• Chaos Rhino (Transport)
  Combi-bolter, Combi-bolter

Points: 996 | Level: 55 | Battle-forged + Battalion - Stratagem: 5 CPs

Mission

We're using the new Maelstrom of War from White Dwarf. I tried this with Kraken a few weeks ago and we saw some potential but weren't bowled over by the rules. I quite like the look of the one that gives an extra objective to the player with fewer VPs as that would help make a closer game, but as this is Stylus's first time with these rules we're paring it back to just the simple generation of three objectives each per turn. 

Deployment

I knew the Orks were coming for me, but was in no hurry for that to happen. I put the Blightlords into the teleportarium, and all the other Plague Marines, plus two characters, into the Rhino, which I hid behind a building on the edge of the table. The Blight Launcher Bloat-drone went next to it, partly concealed, and I screened out the Poxwalkers in front of both.

The Fleshmower Plague-drone went on the other side of my deployment zone, concealed behind a huge tower. And that was my deployment - I don't have a big footprint!

With far more units to drop I could leave my punchy units and Smasha Guns until the Death Guard had deployed. My fast units are massed together behind the ruined cathedral, backed up by the Smasha Guns. 

The two smaller Boyz mobs go on each flank, ready to advance on the objectives in front of them, with the larger mob lurking near the Weirdboy ready to be Da Jumped into the attack.

I win the roll-off, and since I'm quite comfortable where I am, I choose the Orks to go first.

Turn 1 - Orks

Objectives generated: 
Raid – Push Them Out (control opponent's Objective 1)
Territorial Seizure – Take It Back (control an objective that your opponent controlled)
Holding The Line – Never Give In (control your Objective 1)

I can grab my objective 1 easily, but if I run a Buggy onto Stylus's objective 1 then he could easily move a Poxwalker onto it and steal it back so that doesn't seem all that useful.

My plan is to focus my fast moving units on the Bloatdrones and try to take them down, but as I can't reach either of them I decide to play it carefully this turn and just gently chug forwards to get the Buggies and Bikes line of sight on the Poxwalkers. The righthand Smasha Gun is dragged round the corner and the Grots frantically aim it at the Bloatdrone.

Shooting is about as much as I'd expected: a barrage of fire from the Speed Freeks kills nine of the Poxwalkers, but the Smasha Gun only manages to lift a rock up into the air and smash that to pieces, leaving the Bloatdrone untouched.

Turn 1 - Death Guard

Objectives generated:
Eradication – Crushing Strike (destroy a unit with a vehicle or monster)
Brought Low – The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall (destroy an enemy vehicle or monster)
Eradication – Decimation (kill ten models in a phase)

I roll my first objectives and they want me to kill things - kill something with a vehicle, kill an enemy vehicle, kill ten or more models.

However, I'm not in the mood to venture out yet. The Orks have played it cagey and, with no easy charges and no better position (and the Blightlord reinforcements at least a turn away), I stay put.

The only movement is to shuffle the ragged remains of the Poxwalker screen back into the ruin. The other option was to try and clog up Pootle's advance, but they just don't move that fast and by keeping some objective secured units near my Objective 1, it forces them to be dealt with.

The only other shot of the game is an easy one: kill a vehicle with a vehicle. Accordingly, the Bloat-drone takes aim at the Mek Gun that just shot at him, and obliterates it with his heavy blight launchers. Boom! 

I knew that was on the cards: those guns are perfect to knock out my light vehicles.

It hadn't occurred me at the time, but Brought Low objectives have a couple of vehicle-killing criteria, so Pootle's armada of light vehicles could prove a liability. Yep, and as noted those Bloatdrones are good at killing them. I shall have to try to do something about that...

Score

Objectives scored (Orks): Holding The Line – Never Give In (5)
Objectives scored: Eradication – Crushing Strike (5); Brought Low – The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall (5)

Orks 5 : 10 Death Guard

Turn 2 - Orks

Objectives generated:
Raid – Push Them Out (control opponent's Objective 1)
Holding The Line – Hold Your Ground (control your Objective 2)
Holding The Line – Never Give In (control your Objective 1)

Lots of objective-controlling orders this turn. It only occurred to me when writing this up, but I should have Da Jumped the smaller unit of Boyz on the right onto Stylus's objective 1 last turn - that would have scored me VPs last turn and, as it turns out, this turn too. I'd forgotten this when I put the map above together, but those Boyz can run over the cactus-infested rubble (we're playing this as difficult ground) so will score me VPs at the end of the round if they survive.

I'm hoping that Stylus's attention will be on my main thrust: the Bikes, Buggies, Wartrike and Dread all hurtle towards the Nurgle lines. The Dread's Orkymatic pistons appear to be somewhat rusty however and, despite the free reroll to the advance, I can't quite get within 12" of anything useful to charge, which also means its Skorchas can't come into play.

All the other guns are sufficient to kill the remaining Poxwalkers, and I even tickled a couple of wounds off the Blight Launcher Bloatdrone with the Wartrike's Cutta.

The unit of Boyz on my left are content to play Hunt the Squig behind the hill. Not the most exciting, but two rounds of scoring VPs is pretty helpful. Neither of the remaining Smasha Guns can see anything so the Grot crews decide to have a go at their version of a field gun race (though without dismantling the things) and push them as far forwards as they can get, which does get one onto my objective 2.

The psychic phase is simple and successful - the large Boyz mob is Warpathed and Da Jumped to Stylus's right flank to try to tie down the Fleshmower Bloatdrone; I'm not hopeful of killing it but neither am I worried that it'll kill them in one go, and I'm keeping CPs for Unstoppable Green Tide on them anyway.

The big mob of Boyz go first and, to my surprise, kill the Bloatdrone pretty easily. I was surprised because I can't get the whole mob around the drone, but with Warpath I do have nearly 90 attacks and when the Power Klaw gets two hits through, the Drone's seconds are numbered.

On my right the Ork phase continues well: my warlord tears the second Bloatdrone to pieces with relative ease. I'm pretty sure that this must be causing psychological damage to Stylus - he's struggled to finish off my daemon engines on a couple of occasions so I'm slightly staggered to kill not one but two in one turn (though I know that the new Disgustingly Resilient has made the daemon engines less resilient than they used to be).

I've clearly done something to offend the god of Bloatdrones - they are never on my side! I wasn't expecting the one against the warboss to survive, but I was sad that I never got to rev up my fleshmower even once. 

So I've done as well as I could have hoped. but I'm acutely aware that there's a Rhino full of Plague Marines and a unit of Blightlords about to appear - and they'll be harder to kill than the Bloatdrones...especially if the counterpunch is as hard as I suspect it might be.

Turn 2 - Death Guard

Objectives generated:
Eradication – Decimation (kill ten models in a phase)
Holding The Line – Hold Your Ground (control your Objective 2)
Holding The Line – Never Give In (control your Objective 1)

The Orks have blinked first, although it cost me two Bloat-drones to see it. Now I have to punch back.

I start by disembarking the Rhino. The Plaguecaster and Blightspawn jump on the roof, ready to raid death upon the Wartrike. The rest of the Plague Marines take the long way around, eyeing up the buggies and bikes.

The Rhino itself runs off and parks in front of the big mob of Orks. I've no intention of charging them, but if they want to spent a few turns battering away at its armoured hide, I'll take it.

I've been fortunate that the Orks are spread out far enough that the centre of the battlefield is clear for a Terminator drop - and on my Objective 2 as well! I throw the Blightlords down there - even if they never see combat, they have commanding fields of fire and will be hell to shift.

I get to test out my new Wretched powers in the Psychic Phase and they don't disappoint - a commination of Smites and the boosted Pestilential Fallout bring the warboss down to a few wounds, whereby a good hosing from the Blightspawn finishes him off.

A volley of bolter shots and a krak grenade from the Plague Marines takes out one of the warbikes.

Back in the centre, the combi-bolters from the Rhino gun down three of the big mob of Orks, but I'm very wary of putting too much damage of them - if the unit gets below half strength, I know Pootle is itching to use Endless Green Tide and bring them all back.

Accordingly, I only put half the Blightlord's combi-bolters into them, and half into the smaller mob back in the Ork deployment zone. Although I do give them Vermid Whispers (+1 to hit) and Eternal Hatred (+1 to wound) because I want them to do some damage.

I only manage to plink away one Ork from the back, although I do gun down eight Orks from the big mob. That's not below half-strength yet, although Pootle does manage to fail morale on a 6 (although does not lose a single Ork more - I couldn't tell you who was more relieved).

I could: if I'd rolled two ones on fifteen dice then I'd've been able to Unstoppable Green Tide them next turn...

In the Fight Phase, the characters jump from the roof onto the nearest buggy. The Plague Marines charge both warbikes and buggy, but I put all my attacks into the warbikes. I should have thought through my attack allocation, since the flail of corruption wipes out all the bikes before anyone else can swing, and the buggy survives the attacks of just the characters (who aren't really built for melee). 

I don't even position well enough to wrap the buggy, which would have spared me a round of getting shot at. But I can't grumble - I've managed to wipe out the first thrust of the Orks, land my terminators in a good place, and racked up another 10VPs to stay in the lead.

Score

Objectives scored (Orks): Raid – Push Them Out (5); Holding The Line – Hold Your Ground (5)

Objectives scored: Eradication – Decimation (5); Holding The Line – Hold Your Ground (5)

Orks 15 : 20 Death Guard

Turn 3 - Orks

Objectives generated
Raid – Storm The Line (control opponent's Objective 2)
Raid – Push Them Out (control opponent's Objective 1)
Holding The Line – Fall Back Position (control either your Objective 1 or Objective 2)

Well, I'm not going to be taking the objective off the Blightlords, and frankly my best bet is to stay the hell away from them.

The damaged Warbuggy falls back from the Death Guard and drives round the corner to at least make Stylus move a bit to kill it.

The Deff Dread and the Boyz mob on my right move forwards to charge the Plague Marines (the map above is wrong - the Boyz were a lot further forward than shown - I misremembered what they were up to when doing the maps). It's a bit of a long shot, but the Deff Dread has damage 3 Power Klaws, which will kill Plague Marines in one go, even with the new Disgustingly Resilient. I also have another idea.

First, the Smasha Gun on my objective 2 tries to take down a Blightlord (or two...you never know). One wound slips through the armour but I roll a 2 for damage; this is worth a CP to reroll as I'll not be getting many shots through...but I reroll to a 1!

In the back left, the large Boyz mob is also keen to avoid the attentions of the Terminators. Piling forwards into the Rhino seems a good bet as the metal box could get annoying and score Stylus late-game VPs. They scream forwards but only scrape a couple of wounds off it.

The Deff Dread only has a 6" charge, but I play the Ramming Speed stratagem to give me a 3D6" charge range (overkill), but I'll cause D3 mortal wounds on a 2+, which could be extremely helpful against the Plague Marines. And then I roll a 1...blast!

The Boyz mob do make their charge and they fight first, killing only a single Plague Marine. Stylus elects not to interrupt and the Deff Dread kills another two, but that's not really enough. The Plague Marines manage to fluff their return strike and half a dozen Boyz remain standing, though the Dread drops to only a couple of wounds remaining.

I'm rapidly running out of boots on the ground, but I'm still scoring VPs - and if I can Unstoppable Green Tide that big mob then I might yet turn this around.

Turn 3 - Death Guard

Objectives generated:
Brought Low – Tear Down their Heroes (destroy the enemy unit with the highest power rating)
Brought Low – Coordinated Strikes (destroy a vehicle or monster with two or more units in one phase)
Brought Low – The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall (destroy an enemy vehicle or monster)

This is a head-scratcher - the enemy unit with the highest power level is the big mob of Orks. But as mentioned previously, that's going to be a 'destroy them all, or not at all' deal. Destroying a vehicle should be easier, since there's no shortage to pick from. Coordinating my attacks is a bit more of a problem, since I have so few units left to coordinate.

In the end, I decide not to go for the big mob, and allow the Rhino to continue tying it up for a turn. The Plague Marines remain in combat, the Blightlords remain on their objective, and the Blightspawn advances to get in range of Objective 1, so he can hose down the Ork Buggy.

In the Psychic Phase, the Plaguecaster sets his sights on the Deff Dread, and history repeats itself once again as the vehicle collapses under the barrage of mortal wounds.

That's nothing compared to the Shooting Phase, where I use The Blightening stratagem to turn three of the Plague Marines blight grenades into Pistol 6 weapons that autohit in combat. With the Orks reduced to T3, they are wiped out many times over. Good strat!

The Blightlords open up on the closest Mek Gun and plink off four wounds, while the Foul Blightspawn succeeds in destroying the Buggy, denying an objective to the Orks.

The only fly in the ointment comes in the Fight Phase when the Rhino, who'd wisely elected not to shoot into the Boyz unit, manages to crush one of them under its treads - I don't want any more to die!

Score

Objectives scored (Orks): Holding The Line – Fall Back Position (5)
Objectives scored: Brought Low – The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall (5)

Orks 20 : 25 Death Guard

Turn 4 - Orks

Objectives generated:
Raid – Driving Rush (one or more units in opponent's territory and outside engagement range)
Holding The Line – Never Give In (control your Objective 1)
Raid – Slay The Defenders (destroy an enemy unit in opponent's territory)

The Boyz mob are marked as destroyed this turn - sorry, should have been last turn!

This looks like a good objective draw as I might be able to achieve all three, which would be really handy. I'm 

The remaining small Boyz mob continue dancing around the squigs on objective 1!

The Weirdboy Da Jumps himself over the Stylus's backfield so that even if the big Boyz mob doesn't kill the Rhino then I'll still have him unengaged in Stylus's deployment zone.

Annoyingly however, the Boyz once more fail to kill the Rhino - just not enough attacks against the armour. The silver lining to that however is that the Rhino does manage to run over another Ork (much to Stylus's regret), dropping the unit below half strength and therefore unlocking Unstoppable Green Tide next turn.

Turn 4 - Death Guard

Objectives generated:
Eradication – Break Their Will (destroy 3 or more enemy models in the Morale phase)
Brought Low – Outmanoeuvre (control more objective markers than your opponent)
Holding The Line – Fall Back Position (control either your Objective 1 or Objective 2)

Outmanoeuvre isn't really a Death Guard forte, especially since I've lost both Bloatdrones and my Rhino is nearly kaput.

Speaking of that damn Rhino, its dumb heroics in the last Fight Phase have finally enabled the Big Mob to return with Unstoppable Green Tide. So if I'm going to destroy them, it has to be now.

In the end, I decide against it. This is an objectives game, and pulling the Blightlords off Objective 2 to engage the Orks will cost me points. The terminators stay put and the Rhino finally disengages. I'll just have to live with the fifth-turn appearance of a full mob of Orks.

But I have some damage to deal myself. The Plaguecaster heads into the central alley, and promptly rolls a double-six to Smite the Mek Gun. I take the damage (3 wounds, luckily his Hulking Physique allows me to weather it) and the Pestilential Fallout destroys both Mek Gun and the nearby Buggy - what a game this sorcerer is having!

My mapping skills appear to have completely deserted me - not only is the Gun marked as still alive above, but...what Buggy?! Now I read this I remember that you're completely correct - I just forgot quite when you killed which unit! Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of turns 3 and 4 (or those that I did were too blurry to work out what was happening).

That leaves the Blightlords nothing to shoot at, but the Plague Marines did manage to jog onto Objective 1, which means I'm now controlling more than the Orks. Another ten VP!

Score

Objectives scored (Orks): Raid – Driving Rush (5); Holding The Line – Never Give In (5)
Objectives scored: Brought Low – Outmanoeuvre (5); Holding The Line – Fall Back Position (5)

Orks 30 : 35 Death Guard

Battle Note: Up until this point, for simplicity, we had been rolling all our objectives in one go, and taking it from there. However, the correct method is to alternate rolling and - since things were going right to the wire - we alternated for the last turn. There were also a number of Maelstrom-specific stratagems you can use to change or affect the results of your roll, and we most certainly did that (I used two, Pootle used one) - things were getting very tactical.

Turn 5 - Orks

Objectives generated:
Hold The Line – Enemy Repulsed (no enemy units in your territory outside engagement range)
Raid – Slay The Defenders (destroy an enemy unit in opponent's territory)
Raid – Push Them Out (control opponent's Objective 1)

I absolutely love it when a story emerges from the random Maelstrom objectives. So many times against Stylus and Kraken, we've been ordered to attack or defend the same objectives, so when we're both ordered to take Stylus's objective 1 (which is reachable by an Unstoppable Green Tide of Orks) I practically jump for joy! 

The big mob will need to make a (rerollable) 10" charge onto the Plague Marines (+1" for being Evil Sunz; -2" for charging through the cactuses).

First of all the Weirdboy moves forwards and successfully Smites the Rhino away, then the remaining Smasha Gun well-and-truly smashes the Foul Blightspawn. 

It comes down to the charge. First attempt is snake eyes. But that's OK, we wanted a bit of drama. Second attempt is...

...an eight. Oh.

Turn 5 - Death Guard

Objectives generated
Holding The Line – Never Give In (control your Objective 1)
Hold The Line – Targets Held (opponent does not control any of your objectives)

Eradication – Decimation (kill ten models in a phase)

That failed charge by the Orks basically sealed the game, but just in case I haven't done my maths right, I set to secure my own objectives.

The Blightlords advance into the Ork territory, denying them Enemy Repulsed, and with all my objectives secure, I just have to kill ten Orks in a single phase.

The Plaguecaster nearly manages it himself with another super-Smite, but only manages to kill eight boyz, and the sporadic bolter fire from the Plague Marines only takes off one more.

But it proves irrelevant - the Death Guard have held the field, and torn the heart of the Ork Waaagh!

Score

Objectives scored (Orks): Raid – Slay The Defenders (5)
Objectives scored (Death Guard): Holding The Line – Never Give In (5); Hold The Line – Targets Held (8)

Orks 35 : 48 Death Guard

Result: Victory to the Death Guard!

Locker room

That was fantastic - easily one of the most fun games of 9th Edition I have played. All credit to Pootle, for setting up a terrific board (with two camera angles no less), but this really sold me on Maelstrom battles for 40k.

There's really a lot to recommend them: the end-of-turn scoring mitigates the first-turn advantage; the objectives are 5pts (with one 8pt exception in each table), which means you don't get the D3+3VP swings that could throw off 8th Ed games; the objectives all seem pretty straightforward and comprehensible (although the names need some work), and knowing what everyone has at the start of the turn makes the game more tactical (and sociable - I never liked an opponent having secret objectives he couldn't discuss with you). In this case, it made for a very sharp and tactical game, but I reckon it would be just as easy for a knockabout one, without the bookkeeping of Eternal War games.

I agree, that was such a fun game (though it's hard to have a game involving Orks that isn't). Although Stylus ended up winning by 13 points, we calculated that if the big mob had made its charge on the final turn that would have been a 22 point swing, enough to turn the result around. It was never a likely charge (though with Orks even a 10" charge should come off 40% of the time), but just the fact that I had a chance at all on the final turn says a lot about how close the game was. 

For the battle itself, it was interesting so see such a cagey start on both sides, and I was worried I'd blundered hugely when I lost both Bloatdrones in one turn. But I think my counterpunch strategy worked well - Plague Marines in particular have become more durable and punchy. The Blightlords had a relatively quiet game, for their points cost, but they did provide a solid presence in the centre that scored a number of VPs.

I knew that whatever they reached in combat would be history, so the only way to deal with them was give them space and leave them be. 

My biggest concern was that the small mobile units would push out their deepstrike options. On a board this size, I might be tempted to go for another Rhino of Plague Marines instead.

Yes, in retrospect I wish I'd used my Warbuggies a bit more cleverly to restrict where they could have teleported in, and while writing up the report I spotted a few other tactical plays I could have done with the Bikes and Buggies - I need more practice with a Speed Waaagh! 

I also think now, with the benefit of hindsight, that I should have Da Jumped the big unit of Boyz to attack the Fleshmower on turn 1; they may not have killed it as they did on turn 2, but all I did there was delay my attack by a turn, and that could have ended up helping me in turn 5. Never mind!

The MVP was undeniably the Malignant Plaguecaster. Woe betide anyone with psychic defences who gets up close with him when he has The Wretched powers - there is some serious damage output there.

He was ferocious - he knocked a load of wounds off the Deffkilla Wartrike and killed the Deff Dread, a Buggy, a Smasha Gun and a load of Boyz; not at all shabby. I played a game against Kasfunatu back in September using the Wretched and the Plaguecaster was pretty potent there too. I was very pleased to see him challenging Gormenghastly for the award for most mortal wounds in one phase.

All in all, a great game, and makes me want to get a shift on and get my Death Guard in action.