Weekend at Burnie’s 4 - Day 2: Black Legion vs Death Guard

Ghock Hackfiend stormed into Gormenghastly's quarters, "Why do you delay? There is blood to be spilt in Khorne's name and I refuse to wait for you to conjour up your new diseases!"

Gormenghastly the Garrotter shook his head, "I will kill more with my perfected toxins than you can ever dream of. You have slaughtered thousands in Khorne's name, but millions have died choking on their own vomit and gasping for one last breath due to my concoctions in Nurgle's honour.

"In fact, my intelligence shows an opportunity for both of us to profit. I hear that the famed warband, The End of All Things have come to Hendris. You will enjoy killing the favoured of Nurgle, and I need something special from their leader."

Pootle here with a report of my final battle from this year's Weekend at Burnies, facing the mighty Winters SEO!

After an absolutely cracking weekend, my final game of the weekend was the absolute icing on the cake: Andy Burn had paired me with the legendary man-in-the-hat himself!

If you've not seen them, then you can see my other batreps from this year's WaB on the main blog page, though I'd particularly recommend my game against Sultan's White Scars here (and, whilst I'm at it, could I tempt you to read the entirely narrative report I did for last year's WaB, culminating in a tremendous game between Ultramarines and Word Bearers?).

Black Legion: Gormenghastly's Garrotters

Repeating info from previous posts, this is my army. Gormenghastly used to lead a Purge warband and found fame in a spectacularly unlikely piece of dice-rolling during Stylus's lock-down Skypehammer campaign. Kraken wrote up a typically awesome batrep here for that game and I've developed his story since then. Given that Purge lost specific rules in the latest CSM codex, I decided that Gormenghastly has joined (and taken over) a Khornate-aligned Black Legion force (the set-up to this, as well as the death of Stylus's own Purge army is written up here) 

- Gormenghastly the Garrotter - Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (HQ, Warlord)
   Force Axe, Combi-Melta, Mark of Nurgle
   Trait: Unholy Fortitude (5+++ FNP)
   Additional Black Legion Trait (1CP): Indomitable (half damage, rounding up)
   Relic: Veilbreaker Plate (worsen incoming AP by 1; once/battle teleport self plus one CORE unit)
   Psychic: Diabolic Strength, Infernal Gaze, Putrid Miasma, Smite

- Ghock Hackfiend - Dark Apostle (HQ)

   Mark of Khorne

   Extra Trait (1CP): Hatred Incarnate (+1S and A when charging; reroll melee hits)

   Extra Relic (1CP): The Black Mace (extra AP and damage, excess damage spills over)

   Prayers: Omen of Potency, Wrathful Entreaty, Dark Zealotry

-  Kararic Bonereaper - Lord Discordant (HQ)

   Baleflamer, Technovirus Injector, Mark of Khorne

   Extra Trait (1CP): Flames of Spite (reroll wound rolls; melee wound rolls of 6 cause additional MW)

   Extra Relic (1CP): Gorget of Eternal Hate (+1 armour save, 4++ invuln, explodes on death

- 8 Accursed Cultists (Troops)

   5 Mutants, 3 Torments

- 10 Cultists (Troops)

  Grenade Launcher, Champion with Bolt Pistol & Brutal Assault Weapon

- 8 Legionaries (Troops)

  Chaos Icon, Mark of Khorne, Hvy Chainaxe, Flamer, 5xChainswords, Champ w. Plasma Pistol & Power Fist

- 7 Legionaries (Troops)

  Chaos Icon, Mark of Nurgle, Reaper Chaincannon, 5xBoltguns, Champ with Boltgun & Power Fist

- Helbrute (Elites)

  Helbrute Fist (with Heavy Flamer), Multi-melta

- 5 Bikers (Fast Attack)

  Chaos Icon, Mark of Khorne, 2x Chainsword, 2x Meltagun & Chainsword, Champ w. Power Fist and (-1CP) Black Rune of Damnation (-1 to wound, nearby psykers suffer perils on any double)

- Chaos Spawn (Fast Attack)

- Maulerfiend (Heavy Support)

  Lasher Tendrils

- Obliterator (Heavy Support)

- Rhino (Dedicated Transport)

   Combi-melta, Havoc Launcher

Points: 1,500 | Level: 88 | Battle-forged - extra warlord traits and relics: 0 CPs

My battleplan is broadly that Gormenghastly himself should be a real pain to kill (-1 to hit from Putrid Miasma, -1 to wound vs S4 or 8 or more, -1 to incoming AP, half damage and a 5+ FNP). He may teleport himself and his Helbrute bodyguard around the table as a distraction Carnifex.

Meanwhile Ghock, Kararic, the Maulerfiend, Bikers and the Rhino full of Khorne Legionaries will all barrel forwards and follow a fairly simple Khornate plan.

The Nurgle Legionaries and Obliterator will hold the backfield and the Spawn, Cultists and Accursed Cultists act as a screen.

Death Guard: The End of All Things

I'm pretty sure this army will be familiar to all of you, but here it is anyway

- Fluffy - Daemon Prince of Nurgle (HQ), Warlord

  Hellforged Sword, Malefic Talon. Relic: Warp Insect Hive; Trait: Revoltingly Resilient

- 7 Plague Marines (Troops)

  Plasma Gun & Power Fist on Champ, Plasma Gun, Blight Launcher

- 7 Plague Marines (Troops)

  Power Fist on Champ, Plasma Gun, Blight Launcher, Flail of Corruption

- 7 Plague Marines (Troops)

  Power Fist on Champ, Plasma Gun, Blight Launcher, Flail of Corruption

- 7 Blightlord Terminators (Elites)

  Flail of Corruption, Blight Launcher

- 2 Myphitic Blighthaulers (Fast Attack)

- Foetid Bloatdrone (Fast Attack)

  Heavy Blight Launcher

- 2 Chaos Spawn (Fast Attack)

- Plagueburst Crawler (Heavy Support)

  Entropy Cannons, Heavy Slugger

- Plagueburst Crawler (Heavy Support)

  Entropy Cannons, Heavy Slugger

Mission and Deployment

I'd been discussing with others the various random options that Andy had put on the event sheet and made a rash promise that before the end of the weekend I'd play all six twists in one game as that felt like it would be a blast.

Please forgive the poorer map quality than normal: due to the excitement of playing Winters, I completely forgot to take an overhead pic of the battlefield, so I've had to create it from the slightly dodgy icons pre-built into Battle Chronicler

These are:

• We added a sixth objective to the table
• If your warlord is not on the table you do not gain the additional CP in your command phase
• If you do not hold your home objective you do not gain the additional CP in your command phase
• The Command Reroll stratagem costs 3CP rather than 1
• Nobody can use the Insane Bravery stratagem
• At the start of each turn roll 1D6 for each unit in range of an objective; on a 1, that unit suffers 1 mortal wound

Winters was not intimidated by this and suggested a further change to the secondary objectives to maximise the narrative interest: if the enemy warlord is killed you score 10VPs, but if your warlord kills the enemy warlord then you score 20VPs.

The Nurgle Legionaries were detailed to hold my home objective on my left, supported by the Obliterator. Next to them, the Accursed Cultists will push forwards to the lefthand midfield objective.

The main thrust of my army is through the middle, aiming to sweep left around the central pyramid. The Maulerfield and Helbrute try to take what shelter they can from Death Guard Entropy Cannons and Multimeltas, but it's rather futile. Gormenghastly leads this flank along with the Lord Discordant.

My Bikers hold my right flank, and will rush forwards onto the centre-right objective, supported by the Rhino (holding the Khorne Legionaries), Spawn and Dark Apostle.

Winters puts some Spawn on his far left, with two units of Plague Marines in the centre and centre-left, supported by one of the PBCs.

The Death Guard's main thrust is aimed to swing to the right of the pyramid (my left), with the Blighthaulers on the far flank, and the Blightlords and Fluffy aiming to stroll forwards to deal with my warlord. The third unit of Plague Marines holds the backfield objective.

I win the roll-off for first turn so it's time to face the music...

Black Legion: Turn 1

"Forwards! I see the enemy ahead!" bellowed Ghock as he leapt off the top of the Rhino and sprinted towards the Death Guard lines. 

Gormenghastly smiled. Ghock and his troops would provide a useful distraction: he had faced Death Guard before and knew to be wary of their artillery. Gesturing for his Helbrute bodyguard to follow, he advanced whilst keeping the cover of the alien pyramid between himself and the enemy. 

I advance almost all units forwards, hoping to secure most of the midfield, however I manage to roll six ones for the advance rolls and don't make much progress. I hope my dice don't contiue to behave like that - hopefully they're just those ones out of their system.

This leaves the Accursed Cultists and the Maulerfiend hanging in the middle of nowhere and achieving very little.

Fortunately the Rhino just manages to get within range of the centre-right objective...

...and the Bikers auto-advance of 6" means that they get their Melta guns within range of the Spawn, melting one and injuring the second.

On my left, the Nurgle Legionaries manages to drop one of the Plague Marines opposite them, but everyone else just tries to hug cover behind the pyramid.

Death Guard: Turn 1

Gormenghastly heard the smothered roar of a squadron of Daemon Engines crawling through the mud and the characteristic hum as their Multimeltas activated. Just ahead of him, the Kararic's pet Maulerfiend screamed and fell to the ground, collapsing in on itself as the heat weapons played across it. To his right he heard the roar of the Bikes' engines interrupted and knew they too had engaged the Death Guard.

On my left, the Myphitic Blighthaulers move to claim the left-midfield objective. They draw a bead on the Maulerfiend and destroy it with ease (I think I failed every daemon save).

My Nurgle Legionaries attract fire from the Plague Marines opposite and, most effectively, the Foetid Bloatdrone, killing four of them.

The remaining Spawn charge into the Bikers alongside another unit of Plague Marines. Fortunately, the Black Rune of Damnation once more proves its worth and only three Bikers fall.

Black Legion: Turn 2

Ghock ululated as he climbed up the ancient pyramid in front of him, celebrating as he saw his Legionaries pile out of the Rhino and fall on the Plague Marines who had been hacking at the Bikers, tearing them to pieces. They too roared in triumph amid the pus-encrusted remains of their foes.

The Nurgle Legionaries claiming my home objective and the Rhino just occupying the centre-right one give me 10VPs at the start of the turn.

The Obliterator moves around the rock formation to aim at the Blighthaulers over the shoulders of the Accursed Cultists who scuttle towards the lefthand objective.

I toy with the idea of charging the Lord Discordant into the Blightlord Terminators, but decide that it makes more sense to let them come a little closer before striking next turn when I can take advantage of Wanton Slaughter to maximise my melee damage. Gormenghastly does stalk forwards to unleash a Smite and Infernal Gaze on the Blightlords, dropping one of them.

On my right, the Bikers fall back (well, fall forwards really) and the Khorne Legionaries pile out of the Rhino to charge into the Plague Marines, killing all but the Champion (once again I'm impressed at their combat prowess - they're not buffed by anyone, are not in Wanton Slaughter and still manage to carve through a tough unit without much fuss).

The Accursed Cultists charge into the Blighthaulers (which had suffered some damage from the Obliterator) and manage to (just) kill one of them.

Death Guard: Turn 2

Gormenghastly heard Ghock's howls of triumph suddenly muffled as he disappeared inside a scrum of Plague Marines. He saw Plague Knives rising and falling with repetitve vigour and looked around at the rest of his force as the Death Guard hammered all visible units with blight bombardments. Have I been too optimistic here, he thought. To his left a mass of Blightlord Terminators were trudging towards him, and behind them lurked the hulking form of a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. 

Winters starts the turn on only his home objective, so that's just 5VPs

The Myphitic Blighthauler falls back from the Accursed Cultists and the latter are all brought down by fire from the Plague Marines.

Fluffy advances slowly up the side of the central pyramid, surrounded by his Blightlord bodyguard. The Bloatdrone floats over to secure the centre-left objective and follows up by shooting all the surviving Nurgle Legionaries on my home objective. The Blightlords pour fire into the Cultists and I'm pleasantly surprised when two of them survive.

The central unit of Plague Marines clamber up onto the pyramid and start jeering at the Dark Apostle opposite them. It's just about now that I regret moving him that far forward; I'm really not sure what I was thinking (though a suicidal rush forwards was very Khornate)! The Plague Marines charge my character and things are looking bleak when the Plague Knives reduce Ghock to a brace of wounds and then I have to take six 4+ invuln saves from the Flail of Corruption. Any failure will kill him, so for comedy value I decide to roll them one at a time...

And proceed to save all six! Winters splutters a bit, but is even more surprised when Ghock hacks six of the Plague Marines down (and the Champ goes on to fail morale at the end of the turn!).

On my right, the lone Plague Marine champion falls back from the Khorne Legionaries as the PBCs pour mortar fire into them, killing five of them.

Unfortunately, my unoccupied home objective means that I won't be getting any more CP until I retake it.

Black Legion: Turn 3

Ghock emerged from underneath the Plague Marines covered in blood and pus, and grinning hugely. He pulled a Plague Knife out of a crack in his armour, wincing slightly, and offered a prayer of thanks to the Blood God.

He saw Gormenghastly disappearing round the corner of the pyramid, followed closely by the scuttling form of Kararic and his Helstalker mount. He heard the clash of weaponry and staggered towards the fight. There is always more blood to be spilled he thought.

Because I killed all the Plague Marines on the centre-right objective, I now hold that and the one on the far right, so that's 10VPs to me at the start of the turn, bringing my lead to a healthy 15 points.

Because it's round 3 and Wanton Slaughter, I decide to make the most of Ghock's surprising survival and push forwards against the Blightlords. The Plague Marines on Winters' home objective suffer some mortal wounds when their objective explodes from one of the mission special rules, and then the Disco Lord's Baleflamer manages to finish the squad off! That means neither of us is getting CPs now.

Much as I'd love the Obliterator to retake my home objective, I really need his firepower in the centre, so he climbs up onto the rocks and opens up on the Terminators, dropping one of them.

On the right of the pyramid, Ghock breathes a sigh of relief and heads round the back to try to get back towards the action, whilst the two surviving Cultists claim the centre-right objective in his place.

On the far right, the Khorne Legionaries dispatch the surviving Plague Marine with ease.

In the Death Guard backfield, I position the Rhino for an easy charge on one of the PBCs (to tie up its shooting for a turn) and move the two Bikers to shelter from the other PBC behind the APC's bulk.

The main event is back on the centre-left of course: the Lord Discordant and Gormenghastly charge in, but there isn't room for the Helbrute to fit in too (blast!), however the Disco Lord does pretty well, bringing down three more Blightlords (only two left, but that's the Champion and the Flail of Corruption). I'm afraid I forget what damage they did, but it wasn't significant.

Death Guard: Turn 3

Gormenghastly looked on in amazement as Kararic cannoned into the Death Guard Terminators. These warriors had fought for ten thousand years, but age, it seems, can catch up with anyone. Kararic stood atop a pile of crushed and pitted armoured forms. Where was the Daemon Prince they were guarding? Gormenghastly heard a sound from his right and suddenly huge armoured form emerged from the mist higher up the pyramid. Emitting a gutteral roar, the Daemon Prince fell on Gormenghastly, hacking repeatedly at his own Terminator plate with his hellforged sword.

Because he lost his home objective, Winters only scores 5VPs (the Blightlord Champion and the Bloatdrone outnumber Gormenghastly's attempt to hijack the centre-left objective). That brings the score to 20:10 in favour of the Black Legion. 

That ten VP margin looks rather precarious however, because Fluffy moves to an unfailable charge on Gormenghastly: that'll bring a 20VP reward right there. The Myphitic Blighthauler and one of the PBCs take aim at the Lord Discordant, who's reduced to just a couple of wounds this time.

Meanwhile, the Bloatdrone flies over to take the centre-right objective and dispatches the surviving Cultists. The Plagueburst Crawler that had been rammed by my Rhino clears the annoyance away with twin blasts from its Entropy Cannon.

I make sure that I tell Winters about Gormenghastly's heroic escapades against Sultan's White Scars the previous day and insist that he's unkillable, but despite my warnings Fluffy charges into Gormenghastly and, because he's rerolling both hits and wounds gets all six hits from the Hellforged Sword through to my 5++ invuln. I'm seem to be obeying the laws of statistics and save only two of them: that's twelve damage (reduced to eight because I'm Disgustingly Resilient too). But I also have the old school Disgustingly Resilient (just like Fluffy) and roll for my 5+ FNP...

...and inspired by Ghock's comedic dice-rolling earlier, he makes all but one!

Gormenghastly can't cause any damage to Fluffy in return apart from trimming one pus-encrusted toenail.

Black Legion: Turn 4

Gormenghastly's armour rang from the barrage of blows from the Daemon Prince and he reeled backwards, impressed despite himself at the ferocity he faced. He raised his force axe and tried land some blows in return, but being so much lower than his enemy made it hard to do more than aim at the Daemon Prince's feet. He brought his axe down on one foot, but was rewarded with no more than a toenail flying up into the air as the axe sparked off the ancient stone. Gormenghastly plucked the debris from the air and stared at it. 

I have to fall back, he thought. He spoke briefly into his vox and ordered his trusty Helbrute and Obliterator to cover his retreat.

I only hold the far right objective, so it's just 5VPs to me on Primaries, bringing the score to 25:10.

I'm really tempted to leave Gormenghastly in combat and try to pyschic Fluffy to death, but that's silly for a variety of reasons, so, despite Winters' accusations of cowardice, he falls back a bit (still holding the objective) and lets others fire in.

Although I could do with the Obliterator reclaiming my home objective, he can't do both that and fire at Fluffy, and I'm pretty sure I need all the firepower I can get to take the warlord down. He knocks a few wounds off and then the Helbrute sterilises Fluffy permanently, or at least banishes him temporarily to the warp.

Frankly, I'm still reeling from the last turn, so my decision-making isn't at its best. Rather than having the Bikes outnumber the Bloatdrone on the centre-right objective, they pootle along the backfield. 

Similarly, I somehow forget to charge the Disco Lord into the Blightlords on the far left objective!

But I do gain another 10VPs for killing Fluffy, so the scoreline is an impressive 35:10 in my favour.

Death Guard: Turn 4

From his vantage point on the pyramid, Gormenghastly could now see one of the Plagueburst Crawlers that had been pouring fire into his army. Beams of twisted energy came from another direction and lanced into Kararic, knocking him off his mount and leaving him dead on the ground. Unbridled, his Helstalker mount bounded towards another daemon engine, but fell to the ground when its front legs and head were melted away and skidded several metres forwards until the gathering mound of earth dispelled the beast's momentum.

Winters is on three objectives at the start of the turn to my two, so that's the full 15VPs to him and bringing the score back to a somewhat nail-biting 35:25 in my favour.

I'm afraid I forgot to take any more photos of the game as I was concentrating aplenty now! 

The Bloatdrone moves around the pyramid slightly and executes Ghock, whilst the Death Guard's Daemon Engines finish off not only the Lord Discordant, but also the Obliterator.

Black Legion: Turn 5

Gormenghastly thumbed his teleport homer, but nothing happened. Muttering to himself, he retreated behind the pyramid. Above him, a Foetid Bloatdrone emerged from the gathering dusk. Irritated by the malfunctioning technology, he gestured for his Helbrute to dispatch the enemy machine.

Gormenghastly is still claiming the centre-left objective, so along with the Khorne Legionaries on my right, I score a valuable 10VPs to bring the score to 45:25 to me.

A quick calculation shows that there's nothing I can do to stop Winters scoring 15 VPs in his final turn, so the only way he can overcome my lead is killing Gormenghastly, and he has indirect artillery too.

The Helbrute follows his master around the pyramid: it's essential they take care of the Bloatdrone and I give myself a bit of a scare by rolling Perils for a smite on Gormenghastly (and no CP to reroll). This leaves him on a perilous three wounds. Fortunately the Helbrute doesn't let the side down and melts the Daemon Engine.

Death Guard: Turn 5

Gormenghastly realised that the assault from the Daemon Prince had damaged the outside of his terminator plate so much that his long-range antenna was not relaying his teleport request to the orbiting battle barge. He attempted to jury-rig it back into operation when he heard the Helbrute fall to the ground behind him. Then his view was interrupted by an onslaught of shells dropping out of the gloom and exploding all around him...

We have something of a crowd watching the final turns of the game and everyone knows Winters is hunting the Terminator Sorcerer. 

First, the Myphitic Blighthauler moves to melt the Helbrute, which is preventing the PBCs from targeting Gormenghastly. Then he faces two rounds of indirect fire. The first PBC causes just two wounds, leaving him on a solitary wound, and it all comes down to one final armour save...which I make and scrape a win by just 5 points!

Result: Black Legion win 45:40

Locker Room

Talk about a dramatic end to the weekend! I'm sure anyone reading this would appreciate my feelings when I was told I would get to play the Man-in-the-Hat, and, as I'd hoped, it was such fun. 

Let's be clear though, I only won because of two sets of freaky dice-rolling - Ghock had no business surviving the Plague Marines attacks and Gormenghastly should have died to Fluffy, or at least had a couple of wounds knocked off which would have caused his demise later in the game. However, I've just watched Winters' game against my good friend (and co-blogger here on Woffboot) Stylus and, without giving anything away, I feel a lot less guilty about my dice rolling now! So I'm going to revel in Gormenghastly's continued dice-based story development.

Thank you to Winters for being such a fun opponent and to Andy Burn for organising another absolute belter of an event (I typed tournament there originally but deleted it). 

An excellent day's work, thought Gormenghastly as he busied himself in his lab. Yes, he would have to recruit more warriors to assist him, but the number of lives ended appealed to the part of him that had led a Purge warband for so long. Joining the Black Legion was only ever the next step in his plan to end all life. And now he had something very interesting from which to develop a fabulous new toxin.

He whistled tunelessly as he prepared his equipment, fumes rising into the air from acidic mixtures. Then, very carefully, Gormenghastly extracted a grimy object from a sealed test tube using rusty tongs. He held it up to his eyes for a moment, marvelling at its hideousness, then dropped the daemon's toenail into the bubbling retort.