*TAKE NOTE that with effect from the newest GW FAQ (image below) on 16 April 2018, the strategy of using Cloud of Flies on Blightlord terminators the turn they deepstrike used in this series of articles no longer applies.
The weekend of 14/15 October saw 24 players clash over a various landscapes and battlefields in the midst of Gamestart Asia 2017. While traditionally a video game convention, 2017's convention included a refreshing variety of analog/tabletop games to spice things up. Gamersaurus Rex were the main organisers, with support from our local Games Workshop (Warhammer - Red House), Paradigm Infinitum, and local gaming group, Tables & Dice.
Having gotten bored of playing Imperium armies and not wanting to paint conscripts, I wanted a change of pace and resolved to knuckle down and get my Death Guard army up and running for the tournament. That was 3 weeks ago and I won't go through the details of the preparation (maybe in another post later on) so as keep this article to a reasonable length. Needless to say, I could not find the time to play test the list and had my first game with the Death Guard army (or any Chaos army for that matter) on the day of the tournament itself. I knew it was a bold move and had adjusted my expectations accordingly. Throughout the gruelling 2 day event, and over the course of 6 rounds, I had the opportunity to refine the play style and eventually went 5-0-1 with the draw coming from the third round match-up against a T'au list with 6 quad-fusion commanders and a supporting cast of stealth suits, fire warriors and crisis teams.
*Last recorded image of drone Beta-Gamma 1-57-66-4 before contact was lost
First up, I'd like to explain my list choices (and why I didn't include Mortarion or any vehicles for that matter) so that you might understand how I ended up playing the following list for the tournament.
Due to time constraints (I wanted to paint Mortarion up really nicely) and certain Death Guard units only releasing on the 14th itself, the following units were out of the question:
Mortarion
Biologus Putrifier (the grenade dude)
Too many Plague Marines (I only had the DI ones to work with)
Myphitic Blught-haulers (unreleased. No time to convert/scratch-build)
Without the Blight-haulers and with my personal dislike of how the Plagueburst Crawler looks, I decided to go with an all infantry army. That was also influenced by my lack of confidence in converting 3 Helbrutes to look more Nurgle-ish with my limited time. My personal dislike of painting vehicles, list-building ethos, and Shadowswords being a thing again, also contributed a fair bit to the final list.
Having decided on an all infantry list, I knew I was going to want 10 of the sexy, new Blightlord Terminators. A mere 7 points more than regular terminators in the Chaos Codex for +1 Toughness, 5+ Disgustingly Resilient (FnP), an 18" rapid fire range when taken as part of a Death Guard detachment, and the Cloud of Flies stratagem, meant that they would likely be the hard-hitting aspect of the army. It also helped that the unit came up to 570+ points for 10 models... =P
*No green paint was used to on the armour... Tallarn Sand ftw.
With Prescience, the Veterans of the Long War stratagem, and a nearby Daemon Prince giving re-rolls of 1, they would be my anti-tank and anti-elite unit in the army. That means I needed a regular Codex CSM Sorceror (which in my opinion, is an auto-include in any Chaos army simply for the spells) and the improved Daemon Prince of Nurgle from the DG Codex.
On to the meat and bones, and the grinding line of the list. As there wasn't a way to make DG cultists immune to morale tests beyond including Abaddon, I decided to go with Poxwalkers as I fancied the new Typhus model. Easy access via Dark Imperium boxes also made the decision easier. Being fairly pricey (in my opinion) at 6 points per T4 W1 model in Typhus' presence, I brought 40 in the list instead of 60, and rounded out my 3rd Troop choice for the Battalion detachment with Plague Marines. At 174 points, I'm not sure if the 7 Plague Marines were worthwhile bringing at the end of the day as the threat of the blight launchers and plasma gun made them priority targets for many opponents (especially as the Terminators would be under the protection of a Cloud of Flies).
Having gotten the Nurgle portion of the recent AoS release, Blightwar, I rounded off the daemon collection with a Start Collecting Daemons of Nurgle box and a generous donation from a friend. A couple of considerations led me to use Nurgle daemons:
Quick to paint up to a reasonable standard
Fluffy (fit the theme of the army)
Advanced deployment (for the Nurglings)
The 210 reinforcement points that I left in the list were meant for summoning 30 Plaguebearers but after games 1 and 2, I felt that 20 with an Instrument upgrade (total of 150pts) were a better fit and it left me with 60 points that I could use for summoning another 3 bases worth of Nurglings (54pts) that could fill a hole in my lines or be used to capture any objectives on my side of the table later on. While I could have dedicated my Sorcerer to Tzeentch and used him to summon Brimstone Horrors instead, I would have had to change the Nurgle detachment into a "Chaos" one and would not have fit my theme.
In hindsight, I could have fit the CSM sorcerer into an Auxillary Support detachment or a Chaos Space Marine Patrol detachment with a unit of 10 cultists, and made my Nurglings objective secured in a Chaos Daemons detachment (would have needed another daemon HQ though).
As I did not have the time to paint up any plague drones or convert any Beasts of Nurgle (not a fan of the resin one), they were not an option as the target of a daemonic ritual though I felt that having them would have given me more flexibility during games.
I had my list and as most tournament games would usually not last beyond turn 4, my strategy was to clog the board with as many bodies as possible, summon more bodies, and take out important enemy units with the Blightlord Terminators while scoring as many points as possible via objectives in the initial turns. The missions were to be ITC's combined arms missions with both a static objective (Eternal War) and a turn-by-turn component (Maelstrom). In part 2 of the series, I will be covering what worked and what didn't, as well as my thoughts regarding how the army played and fared. In the meantime, enjoy some of the pictures taken of the convention and the armies displayed or in action. Images come from both myself as well as Gamersaurus Rex.
Update: Part 2