Foreshocks: Death Guard vs Space Marines

Sweetwater Egress campaign: Episode 2

"It's ready, Lord Helmholtz!"

The master of the Weeping Grave turned at his subordinate's call. Excellent news! The first of his theodolithic tomographs had been set up on the edge of the abandoned prayer shrine. The ancient device began shuddering and wheezing as its motorised innards gradually warmed up. The leathery lungs fastened to the outer casing trembled to life, and a steady stream of smoke piped out of its crooked stack, one more insult rising towards the already troubled heavens above.  

Sweetwater's sky flickered with red lighting. The plains were heavy with smoke clouds blowing over the burned grasslands. Here and there, gaping cracks had opened in the ground. The smell of burning stone plucked at Helmzholtz's senses, uncomfortably acrid. He grinned, then winced as the movement pulled at the feeding pipe wedged into his cheek. No matter - pain meant he was alive. 

He lumbered towards the tomograph, adjusting the reciever in his earpiece as he went. Dolorgus, the marine tasked with setting it up, gave it a proud pat. 

"A clear reading and a steady signal," Helmholtz confirmed. "Fine work."

"Thank you, Lord," Dolorgus rasped. The huge goitre that spilled over the collar plate of his armour made it hard for him to breathe, let alone talk. 

"We shall have our seismology reading within the hour. Move your squad to the next coordinates, please. You may take my Rhino, I feel like taking the air for a spell. I'll be with you presently."

"I'm honoured!" Dolorgus said, bowing. 

"Yes, yes," Helmholtz waved him away. It wasn't meant as an honour, he just wanted some time alone with his recordings. The waveform was pleasingly stable, although it hadn't resolved fully. The display showed it as a twisting ring of green quicksilver, a three-dimensional representation of the turmoil the planet's energy was being put through. 

Finally, a collapsing planet he could take a full tomographic imprint from! The acousto-seismic imprint of this world, resonating within the mantle as the warp took it, would be the final piece of the puzzle. By studying the etheric waveform, he could copy it. And by copying it, he could replicate its effects, adjust them to any size of planet. Deathscream, his cruiser, was fitted with customised waveform projectors that had taken lifetimes to create. Soon, the cruiser's name would no longer be mere fancy. 

He frowned suddenly. Something had changed. The feed from the tomograph was showing tiny spikes and distortions absent moments before. Helmholtz turned ponderously, checking the periphery.

There - a flash of orange by those rocks. Could it be? Even as his hand moved to the vox, it crackled to life. 

"Lord! Contacts incoming, hostile marks. It's..."

"I know, Dolorgus," Helmholtz said. "The scavengers have found our carcasses once again! Hold the Rhino, I'm coming. Bring up our reserves. We stick to the plan. I must have these recordings!"

Death Guard 

Pootle here! My Death Guard are led by Chaos Lord Helmholtz (a breakaway former member of my own Death Guard army The Second Law whose characters are all named after physicists involved in the development of thermodynamics, specifically the formalisation of entropy - the steady decay of all things towards the heat death of the universe). 

He has the enhancement Deadly Pathogen which gives him an extra attack in melee (and ups his strength too). Today he's accompanied by a Foul Blightspawn and both will be embedded in a seven-man Plague Marine squad mostly tooled up for melee but carrying a Plasma Gun and Meltagun too. The whole lot of them will start in a Rhino.

My second unit to deploy will be a five-man unit of Plague Marines (yes, I wanted to do a seven man unit but points and Stylus's somewhat limited Death Guard list didn't allow that).

If you think that's limited, wait until you see what your opponent had to work with.

Lastly I add in a Myphitic Blighthauler. One late tweak is adding the Shamblerot enhancement to the Foul Blightspawn as my opponent's army is even more limited so the game was upped to 520 points.

• Chaos Lord
  Plague Bolt Pistol, Plague Fist, Warlord with Deadly Pathogen enhancement
• Foul Blightspawn
  Shamblerot enhancement
• 7 Plague Marines
  Champion with Heavy Plague Weapon and Plasma Gun; 2 Marines with Bubotic Weapons; 2 Marines with Heavy Plague Weapons; Marine with Meltagun, Marine with Plague Bolter
• 5 Plague Marines
  Champion with Heavy Plague Weapon and Plague Boltgun; Marine with Blight Launcher; Marine with Heavy Plague Weapon; Marine with Plasma Gun, Marine with Plague Bolter
• Myphitic Blighthauler
• Chaos Rhino
  Combi-bolter and Havoc Launcher

520 points

Space Foxes

We have a debut army joining us (more about their origins in a future post), commanded by B1llyb0b, in his first game of 10th Edition.

The Space Foxes are a very modest force, just barely above 500pts (hence the 520pt game - it seemed churlish to deny them any of the units), so this will be a pretty consistent line-up for the campaign - assuming they survive.

• Primaris Captain
  Master-crafted Power Sword, Relic Shield
• Lieutenant with Combi-weapon
• Assault Intercessor Squad
  Sergeant with Plasma Pistol and Power Fist
• Aggressor Squad
  Flamestorm Gauntlets
• Suppressor Squad
• Outrider Squad

520 points

Mission and deployment

Another custom mission from Stylus's fevered imagination. Four objectives on the board, with 1VP for each one that we control at the *end* of our turn. 

After we've calculated VPs we roll a d6: 

• 1 - nothing happens, 
• 2-5 - the corresponding objective explodes causing D3 mortal wounds on each unit within 3";
• 6 - all four objectives explode! 

In addition 1VP is available for First Blood (whoever kills the first enemy unit, 1VP for Linebreaker (having a unit in the enemy deployment zone at the end of the game) and D3VP for killing the enemy warlord.

The Death Guard deploy on the left side of the battlefield. The 5-man squad of Plague Marines are in the northern end, with one toe on their home objective and ready to rush the temple objective.

The seven-man squad of Plague Marines, led by the Chaos Lord and Foul Blightspawn, pile into the Rhino and go in the centre, flanked by the Myphitic Blight-hauler.

The Space Foxes also leave nothing in reserve. The Suppressors take their home objective, supervised by the Lieutenant.

The Captain leads the Assault Intercessors on the northern side, also eyeing up the temple objective.

The Aggressors squeeze themselves into the mini-parthenon on the southern end of the deployment, while the Outriders park behind it.

Pootle wins the roll-off for first turn, so off we go...

Death Guard - Turn 1

"Dolorgus, take the wheel," Helmholtz ordered. His subordinate waited for the driver to move aside, then squeezed himself in behind the Rhino's steering column. The years hadn't been kind to their transport - cables dangled from missing roof panels, the driver's chair was a pulpy mass of protruding springs and rotten padding. Half of the augur display was obscured by bracket fungi, an old experiment in self-repair that had broken free of its tank and infested the innards of the machine. They cut it off from time to time, but it always grew back. 

Dolorgus eased the column forward gently and the tank jerked violently into life, nearly sending Helmholtz tottering backwards into the hold. The left treads always stuck and then over-revved, making steering difficult.

"There, those buildings," he shouted over the engine's hoarse roar. Dolorgus nodded, peering through the grimy vision slits at the collection of shrinekeepers' lodgings Helmholtz indicated. "We get there and we set up. Is our escort in engagement range?" he asked the vox.

"Yes indeed, Lord, primed and ready to disgorge." 

"Excellent. Wait for our reserves to clear the tomograph, then give these dogs what they came for. A taste of our flesh!" 

My home objective becomes "sticky" because the Plague Marines control it during my command phase, so they jog forwards and (just) claim the objective on my left flank.

On my right flank, the Blighthauler moves to claim the righthand objective, whilst the Rhino (with a massive 1" advance) accelerates past it into the midfield.

Shooting is limited, but the Blighthauler's Multimelta manages to melt one Aggressor. I claim 3VPs at the end of the turn and then we roll to discover that the Foxes home objective explodes (perhaps triggered by the missile that failed to kill a Suppressor) showering 3 mortal wounds on the Suppressors and achieving what my shooting could not.

Death Guard 3 : 0 Space Foxes

Space Foxes - Turn 1 

Captain Basilanus knew the sound of a plague mortar only too well. The dirty cough, the low whistle of incoming ordinance, the inevitable thump of detonation. He wished he had heavier armour to hand, he'd known the Weeping Grave would bring their artillery. But his strike force was small, the mission too unlikely to succeed to commit such equipment. He knew the tools he had would have to work. 

There - the expected wet thump of the shell hitting home. Helmholtz used vile teratogens in his shells, each missile a tank of rapidly over-growing tissue that split and burst the container it was fired in. You could see them swelling in the air as they tumbled in towards you, each meaty hank airbursting into showers of shrapnel, bone, teeth and tangling hair. 

Basilanus had seen it dozens of times as he hunted the renegade warlord from planet to planet, but his disgust still felt fresh. He gave his hunt mates the nod, and they rose as one from the cover they'd been lurking in.

"Squad Eero, with me," he said. "We have the artillery's position. Forward for the Emperor!" 

B1llyb0b declares the Assault Doctrine at the start of his turn. I had naively thought that my Plague Marines were out of range for a turn but, after spending his solitary CP to reroll a poor advance into a splendid 6, the Intercessors and Captain pounce on the Nurgle marines and dismember them with ease.

The Oath of Moment target is the Myphitic Blighthauler. The two remaining Suppressors pour fire into it, stripping it of four wounds, before the Aggressors pound into combat (the Outriders failing their charge).

Surprisingly, the Power Fists fail to cause any damage at all (yay for Winters SEO and his 5+ rolling dice, which I bought when I faced him recently!). This is particularly important because, with an OC of 3, the Blighthauler retains possession of the objective from the two OC1 Aggressors.

At the end of the turn, B1llyb0b manages to roll for his home objective to blow up AGAIN, killing another Suppressor. However, with First Blood rolled in, he's also scored 3 VPs this turn.

Death Guard 3 : 3 Space Foxes

Death Guard - Turn 2

"Ambush! Ambush, Lord, we're..." The vox squealed and fell silent. 

"Malagoge? Malagoge, report!" Helmholtz slammed his arm against the bulkhead. A blistered section of panelling popped open, spilling a tangle of sparking wires out like guts. "Damn them, they're in amongst our reserves! Dolorgus, put us down here, then..."

The rest of his sentence was lost in a series of heavy blasts. The Rhino rocked under the impact of gunfire, a sustained barrage of what felt like autocannon shells. "Smoke! Smoke, you idiot," Helmholtz shouted at Dolorgus. "Screen us!"

Dolorgus bobbed his pasty head in panic. Helmholtz leaned over his shoulder, hammered the smoke launcher control and wrenched the steering column to the left. Dolorgus gurgled in protest as the Rhino screeched round in a half-circle before skidding to a halt. 

"Everybody out," Helmholtz bellowed, then cursed as he saw Turgion struggling with the rusted door release. "Incompetents!" 

Barging past his henchmen, he kicked the ramp open and led the squad outside. Rank smoke billowed round the lodge buildings - the launcher at least was working - and they had a modicum of cover to set up the tomograph. 

But the Foxes, he realised with disgust, were already here.  

I'm already feeling like I'm running out of resources, with only two units on the table at the start of the turn. I remedy this by dismounting the Plague Marines from the Rhino, who move through the ruins towards the Outriders,

Meanwhile, the Rhino accelerates forwards towards the Foxes' home objective.

The Blighthauler stays in combat with the Aggressors and has an excellent round of shooting, killing both opponents. The Foul Blightspawn manages to melt one of the Outriders, but this lengthens the charge distance sufficiently to make the unit then fail its charge on the bikes.

I then compound the error by rolling for this southerly objective to be the one to blow up, dealing 3 mortal wounds on both the Plague Marines AND the Blighthauler (which is now reduced to a solitary wound). Damn Winters and his 5+ rolling dice!

Due to sticky objectives I do get 2VPs at the end of the turn though.

Death Guard 5 : 3 Space Foxes

Space Foxes - Turn 2

"Spewstrike! Spewstrike, damn you!" Helmholtz bellowed. Autocannon shells screamed past him, biting holes into a section of wall. "Dolorgus! Go and deal with that fire support. Where in the blind bowels of hell is my escort? Spewstrike!"

Like much of his warband, Spewstrike was fashioned from Helmholtz's own flesh, a clonal sample grown in the Deathscream's laboratorium. He'd fitted the tissue over an armoured wartrike, bound it with a creature of his patron, but the resultant creation was somewhat unreliable. 

With a buzzing shriek, the three-wheeled beast came bouncing out of the smoke, the monocular eye at the centre of its armoured carapace wide with anticipation. 

"There you are, you wretch. Keep me safe while I attend to the tomograph, your brothers are setting it up all WRONG!"

Spewstrike snarled and raced to attack as Helmholtz furiously turned on his minions. Two of them wrestled with a pair of massive figures in heavy orange armour, smashing at the Space Marines with entrenching tools while their brethren attempted to manoeuvre the delicate tomograph into position. Helmholtz thundered up behind the nearest loyalist and drove the powered tip of his surveyor's rod into the marine's power pack. It exploded, throwing the marine forward on to his face, and the underling fighting him (Crole, Helmholtz thought) quickly dug his spade into the back of the marine's exposed neck. 

There was something deeply wrong with the trace from the tomograph. 

"It's upside down, you fools. Upside down!" he shouted at the clones carrying it. But it was too late. Another rippling cascade of autocannon fire strafed them and the machine tumbled from their clumsy fingers. 

As it hit the ground, everything went mad. 

B1llyb0b decides to conga-line the Intercessors out to claim two objectives (and remove my own sticky objective).

In the South the Outriders are overwatched by the Foul Blightspawn as they retreat, knocking a couple of wounds off one of them.

The Lieutenant moves forwards to double-team their home objective with the Suppressor Sergeant, who opens up on the Blighthauler but fails to penetrate its thick hide. He's joined by the Outriders in hopeless desperation to strip the last wound off the machine but to my glee, they all fail!

However this all comes to naught when B1llyb0b rolls a 6 to decide which objective explodes - they all do (particularly painful for the double-claiming Intercessors who take four mortal wounds. Additionally, the last Suppressor dies along with the Blighthauler.

Nevertheless, the conga antics provided a total of 3VPs as objective control is, critically, counted *before* the explosions.

Death Guard 5 : 6 Space Foxes

Death Guard - Turn 3

Basilanus managed to keep his feet, but the rest of his squad weren't so lucky. The ground bucked around them like the back of a beast, some angry leviathan trying to throw them off. Aaro was buried under a wave of rubble as part of the shrine's stairway collapsed, turning from solid stone to a tide of debris in the blink of an eye. 

A new chasm yawned in the sod next to them, the angry red glow of magma blazing far below. 

"Rami, report," Basilanus snapped. His ambush assault had gone well. They'd caught the Grave's reserves by surprised, wiped them out and located one of Helmholtz's infernal probes into the bargain. The other flank seemed to be struggling, however. 

"The crust is destabilising local to our position, Captain," Rami responded. "Helmholtz's probing is triggering some kind of cascade. The Suppressors are down, we have no fire support, and their transport is heading for my position. Are you able to move to support me?"

"No, brother. We have to destroy the probe here. Don't let him get a third one out as he did on Prefulgus."

"I hear your command," Rami confirmed. 

Basilanus turned his attention to the quivering, half-organic device the plague lord had left in the ground ahead. Too slow to destroy it, and it would complete its recording. Too fast, and they risked the cursed thing exploding. He'd lost brothers to Helmholtz's devilry before and wouldn't do it again. 

The ground shuddered, and a huge plate of soil broke free and toppled into the nearby chasm. The probe now sat on the other side of another new rift. Basilanus tensed himself to spring across - this was going to be harder than he'd hoped. 

Turns are speeding up now. The southern objective is sticky now, so the Plague Marines charge into the remaining Outriders and make short work of them.

The Rhino moves to unload its guns on the Lieutenant holding the Foxes' home objective (failing to dent his armour) and then charges onto him, using Tank Shock to cause a brace of wounds (one of which is saved with the Lt's FNP). 

No damage in combat, but I do manage to roll another 5 to cause this objective to blow up once again! Unfortunately however I only get 1VP (I wish I'd just sat on the Foxes' home objective to out-OC the Lt - I hope that doesn't turn out to be important).

Death Guard 6 : 6 Space Foxes

Space Foxes - Turn 3

Rami watched the Rhino as it surged towards him over the battered ground. 

It was a blunt brick of a machine, stripped of any finery. The boarding ramp at the back flapped open, banging noisily against the ground as the tank sped up. It skewed to the left every so often, drifting off course as the tracks on the left hand side seized up. A sign of a wounded machine spirit, Rami knew. The black vision slits across the front plate were dingy black, the protective lensing scuffed and spattered with dust, completing the image of a long-dead corpse, blasphemously forced into service against all nature by some unseen power. 

He checked his magazine - a single Kraken round left. 

Time to put this injured beast out of its misery. 

The Assault Intercessors and their Captain consolidate towards my home objective to make sure of Linebreaker later. 

Now they've made it across the field, their troubles are over.

The Lt remains in combat with the Rhino, conscious that falling back would result in another Tank Shock with messy results. This means that he does claim the VP for being in range of the objective whilst the Rhino is not.

At the very end of the turn B1llyb0b once again rolls to damage his own troops, this time killing an Assault Intercessor and injuring another.

Death Guard 6 : 8 Space Foxes

Death Guard - Turn 4

Dolorgus pressed the steering column forwards further. There was the wretch he'd been sent to destroy! A solitary figure, orange and white armour bright against the burnt steppes. It hurt his eyes, that orange. He remembered fighting them on Prefulgus, their speed and tenacity. Some of his brothers had fallen to their strikes. 

Not here. He wasn't going to disappoint his father again! Helmholtz would be proud, proud of his flesh and blood. Dolorgus would triumph, and father wouldn't shout at him any more. 

He reached up, pulling an armature with a simple firing reticule down from the mess cables jouncing above his head. It slotted into place across the vision slit. 

"Got you, little fox," Dolorgus gurgled to himself, and armed the havoc launcher. 

I do what I should have done last turn and move to hold the Foxes' home objective, confident that I can ignore the scratches from the Lt.

We measure up whether the Plague Marines have any hope of getting a charge on the Intercessors next turn (I'd really like a warlord-on-warlord fight), but it's impossible, so they jog towards the Foxes' deployment zone and a Linebreaker point of their own.

With the sticky southern objective, that's 2VP for me, and then the western objective blows up again, killing another Intercessor!

Death Guard 8 : 8 Space Foxes

Space Foxes - Turn 4

Rami watched, tense, as the Rhino raced closer. 

A tubular rack sprung into place on the vehicle's roof, twitching slightly as the gunner adjusted the range. It wasn't going to fire until it had a sure shot, but Rami wasn't about to let it have one. He darted behind the nearby ruins. 

One shot. A single chance to take out the driver? Perhaps, the Kraken round could penetrate the armour well enough. But Rami knew from experience just how hard it was to inflict a terminal wound on Helmholtz's clones. Too stupid to know they were dead. Helmholtz had lost so much of his original band over the years, he'd been forced to copy himself. However riddled with mutation and disease his clones were, they were just as tough as their original.

He'd put the round in the fuel tank, that should do it. But it would have to be closer, the tank was protected by a double layer of self-sealing armour. 

No time to second guess again. The Rhino was nearly here. Best to take it out before there was any chance of the crew getting out and deploying another probe. He sprang to his feet again, jumping out of cover and taking aim. 

The Rhino was maybe fifteen metres from him, speeding almost out of control. He pulled the trigger. 

Its launcher fired at almost exactly the same moment. 

The only real action is that the Lt decides to bug out and head for the objective on the temple mount (aware that the Rhino won't be able to follow him up onto the rooftops.

At the end of the turn the western objective blows up AGAIN (!) killing the last Intercessor and putting a wound on the Captain.

Death Guard 8 : 9 Space Foxes

Death Guard - Turn 5

Dolorgus saw the marine leap to his feet and fire. He flinched before he could stop himself, sending the Rhino careening sideways across the turf. His own shots were out, though, the hail of missiles from the launcher tearing the ground all around his enemy to pieces. He'd got the lock. 

The little fox vanished amidst the plumes of smoke and flame. 

"I got him! Tantaraa, I got him!" Dolorgus crowed. 

Then he saw the spidered crack in the vision slit, the clean hole punched straight through it just to one side of his eyeline. "Missed me!" he said, pleased. 

Through the hole, he saw a flash of orange. The fox! He was getting away!

He jammed the controls forward, forcing the Rhino into a skidding pursuit. 

I now have two sticky objectives so move the Plague Marines into the enemy deployment zone to claim Linebreaker and cackle as I move the Rhino towards the Lt, who’s on his last wound, intent on Tank Shocking him to death. 

Imagine my consternation when B1llyb0b, master tactician that he is (and not at all gleefully reminded of the ability by Stylus), activates the Lt's ability to move if an enemy unit ends its move within 9". This move takes him up onto the temple and of range of a charge!

The Plague Marines were going to unload a Plasma Gun at the Lt, but his Lone Operative ability means he can't be targeted from that far away, so it's all down to the Rhino's shooting to stop the Lt claiming an extra VP (which we think is going to be critical to the outcome of the game). 

Both of us scour our stratagem options, with B1llyb0b playing Armour of Contempt and me spending three (!) CPs on Ferric Blight (improving my AP by one), Boilblight (granting Ignores Cover) and Sanguous Flux (Sustained Hits 1). 

Much tense dice rolling later and the Lt has to pass three FNPs to survive, and that proves one too many for him. Phew. With Linebreaker, that's 3 VP to me.

To add some more jeopardy to the last turn, the eastern objective explodes AGAIN, knocking another three wounds off the Captain.

Death Guard 11 : 9 Space Foxes

Space Fox - Turn 5

He'd known his shot wouldn't reach the engine the moment he'd pulled the trigger, but Rami hadn't had time to fully adjust. At least he had the attention of the cretin behind the wheel. As long as the Rhino was chasing him, it wasn't deploying the probes. 

He risked a swift glance back. There it was, an eyeless, grey-green corpse-tank roaring towards him on a billowing trail of dust. The bolters on its back barked, sending shells howling past him. He couldn't hope to outdistance it for long. Even in its deathless state, he couldn't match the machine's spirit for speed, especially given his wounds. 

He didn't have to - the ruined stairs of the shrine were just ahead. He forced himself up them, but his injured leg gave out before he reached the top. 

He turned, watched the Rhino growing larger as it screamed towards him, dark barrels of its launchers promising death even if it couldn't run him down. 

There's nothing for the Captain, all by himself now, to do except claim a VP for holding the eastern objective and another for Linebreaker.

Death Guard 11 : 11 Space Foxes

Result: a draw!

Helmholtz paced towards the Rhino. He'd survived the seismic shocks the dropped probe had caused, righted it, but it had been damaged in the fall. The waveform recording was useless. He was not happy. 

Dolorgus was capering about next to it, his goitre wobbling obscenely over his neckplate. In his hands, he held the cracked orange helm of one of the marines. 

"I got him! My lord, look, I got the fox!" 

Helmholtz slapped him across the face hard enough to knock him over. As his offspring mewled and whimpered at his feet, he tried to forced himself to calm down. He should have known better from his children. He sighed, and knelt by the pitiful boy. 

"I'm sorry, Dolorgus, I should not have hit you. That was wrong of me. But do you know why I did it?" he asked as patiently as he could. 

"No, father," sobbed the marine. "Sorry, my lord!"

"I did it because I was angry. And I was angry because you didn't do what I asked you, did you?"

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean, I forgot, father, I'm sorry!"

"Get up, boy," Helmholtz said, and stood patiently until his deformed scion managed to right himself. "Where is the tomograph?"

"In the Rhino, father, where we stowed it. I know I should have..."

"Oh, be quiet. The foxes are gone, you did at least manage to drive them off. We can deploy it in peace now."

"Yes, father! Thank you father!" Dolorgus croaked. The pair walked over to the Rhino and up the boarding ramp, which now lay at an awkward angle at the back of the tank, held on by only a single hinge, and looked into the dimly-lit hold. 

The tomograph was clipped safely in place, held to the wall of the hold by secure cargo straps. A single bolter round had punctured the upper compiling chamber, however, and it was clearly beyond repair. 

Helmholtz looked at Dolorgus. "Your birth was a mistake," Helmholtz told his clone. "Which I shall now put right."

He was so intent on administering a final punishment to his wayward son, he failed to notice the feed from the damaged probe. If he had, he'd have seen the waveform resolve for one brief moment before the machine producing it was lost in another opening crack. 

Locker Room

That was so much fun! A draw was definitely the fairest result here and both B1llyb0b and I had great fun. I'm amused to note that my MVP (by some considerable margin) was the explosive objectives, which caused (I calculated in a bored moment) 22 mortal wounds on the Foxes (compared to 9 on my forces). The whole of my actual army caused 23 wounds on the marines (9 for the Blighthauler, 6 for the Foul Blightspawn and the Chaos Lord and a crucial 2 for the Rhino) so that's quite the contribution!

Thanks to Stylus for hosting once again, B1llyb0b for taking up the reins in tenth for the first time and Kraken for the ongoing narrative. See you all next time...