*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.
Welcome back to Part 2 of the tourney report for the recent 2-day tournament held at Gamestart Asia 2017. In Part 1 of the article, I wrote about my unit choices and the general idea behind the list. So what worked and what didn't? For that, we're going to have to take a look at what armies (and their stand-out units) I faced over the 2 days. Missions were ITC Combined Arms missions so had both a static (Eternal War) component as well as a running (Maelstrom) component.
Game 1 (Secure & Control):
Black Templars with a Gatling/Thermal cannon Knight Crusader, Stormraven & 2 units of Assault terminators
Game 2 (Big Guns Never Tire):
Ynnari with Yncarne, a Farseer, 2 units of D-scythe Wraithguard, 1 unit of cannon Wraithguard, 3 wave serpents & 2 Hemlocks
Game 3 (No Mercy):
T'au with 6 quad-fusion commanders, their drones, 2 units of 4 stealth suits, 2 units of 3 dual-burst cannon Crisis teams and a few units of Firewarriors
Game 4 (The Relic):
Mechanicus with Cawl, 6 Kastelan Robots, 3 Kataphron Destroyers, 80 Conscripts, Saint Celestine & 2 Onagers
Game 5 (Scouring):
Ynnari with Yncarne, Yvraine, 10 Dark Reapers, 4 shuriken cannon Jetbikes, Solitaire, 2 Hemlocks & 3 small units of Kabalite warriors and Razorwing flocks
Game 6 (Retrieval):
Imperium with Roboute Guilliman, 6 Kastelan Robots, 55 Conscripts, 3 Kataphron Destroyers, Saint Celestine, 5 sniper scouts & 3 Aggressors
I will not be going through a blow-by-blow account of all the games as that would take up way too much space and by nature of it being a tournament and games being timed, I didn't have the chance to take pictures of every game, much less every round. Overall, the terrain was alright though some tables had a sparse amount of LOS blocking pieces. Day 2's terrain setup was much better by comparison.
An important note for our international readers, is the local scene doesn't allow Forgeworld in tournaments and I personally feel we're better off for it as FW does not have a good record of putting out properly thought up and balanced rules. Especially with the GW team working so hard in the current edition to play test their rules (this has got to be the best edition so far - and I've been playing on and off since 3rd ed) and balance. This feeling appears to be shared by the Blood of Kittens blog. Therefore, no 10+ Malefic Lords or Elysian drop troops in our meta here (Thankfully).
Without further ado, my main aim with my list was to advance both units of Poxwalkers and Typhus while they were within 7" of the Noxious Blightbringer for the extra chance to roll a high advance roll, and move into the centre of the table. Space willing, a unit of Plaguebearers would also be summoned within 12" of one of the non-moving characters adding a third layer of protection (first being Nurglings, second, the Poxwalkers) to the deep striking Blightlord Terminators that would be the recipient of the Cloud of Flies stratagem, making them unable to be the target of shooting models unless they were the closest unit. The close range firepower and melee capability of the Blightlords as well as the presence of the Poxwalkers and Typhus and Daemon Prince meant that I would be able to hold and dominate the centre of the battlefield. The Nurglings help to achieve that objective from the deployment phase as they are able to infiltrate to just over 9" outside of the opposing deployment zone.
Game 1 (Secure & Control)
*Example of deployment on the Spearhead deployment map in Game 1. Unfortunately, the walkway is blocking part of the shot
My opponent deployed his objectives on the walkways which would make it difficult for my non-flying units to reach. Fortunately, he did not have any infiltrating units (Scouts) and I won the roll-off for first turn, making it easy for my Blightlords to drop in behind the screening line of Nurglings and bring the Knight down to below half wounds. The rest of the units advanced as far as they could to the centre of the battleline while keeping some poxwalkers back to limit the deepstrike placement of the Assault Terminators.
His turn saw the Knight shoot and charge my Nurgling line as he could not Assault through them to reach the Blightlords. The Stormraven flew to where my Blightlords were with its cargo of a dreadnought, 10 initiates, a chaplain and an Emperor's Champion in an attempt to get a bead on them but only did 1 wound. His Assault terminators would end up in my back line and charge the Nurglings i left to hang on to objective 3 and next to his Stormraven where they perished attempting to charge into 14 plasma and 4 Blight launcher shots on overwatch (I was fairly lucky there).
In my turn 2, I was able to take out the Stormraven with my Blightlords using Prescience to buff them and then Veterans of the Long War stratagem to wound the SR on 2s. The Plague Marines proceeded to take out the dreadnought that had disembarked while Typhus destroyed the wounded Knight in assault. The Blightlords and Daemon Prince would finish off the Initiates and Chaplain in the fight phase, leaving the Emperor's Champion standing alone.
The games more or less over by then as all that was left was to mop up the last Assault Terminator squad and the 2 Crusader squads sitting on the walkways.
Result: Maelstrom win, Eternal War tied (could not get up to the point in time before the game ended)
Game 2 (Big Guns Never Tire)
Neither player had Heavy Support choices so the game became one of controlling objectives. My opponent is fairly new to the game and rather than make use of his longer range of 3 Wave Serpents and 2 Hemlocks, chose to deploy his d-scythe Wraithguard in front of my Blightlords that had just deepstriked and taken out a Hemlock. Of course they had a screen of Poxwalkers and were kept safe by Cloud of Flies. In the following turn, the Blightlords took out a unit of Wraithguard with shooting and another with assault (using the nearby Nurglings to weather the storm of auto-hit overwatch shots).
The Ynnari player's choice to bring on the Yncarne was mistimed as well and the Yncarne took the brunt of the Blightlord's shooting and charge in turn 3. With only a Hemlock, 3 wave serpents and a unit of Wraithcannon Wraithguard left, my opponent faced a tough climb and was unable to get back into the game.
Result: Eternal War win, Maelstrom tied
Game 3 (No Mercy)
A fairly tough match, I won the roll to go first and left my Blightlords in orbit awaiting the deepstrike of the T'au commanders that were in their Manta. The aim was to get to objective 3 in the middle of the table and eke out a Maelstrom win. In my eagerness to get to said objective however, I made the mistake of leaving the area behind Typhus empty, prompting a strike of the other 5 quad-fusion commanders although it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had also left too large of a gap in my line and almost got my Daemon Prince (and Warlord) assassinated by a pinpoint T'au Commander deepstrike. Thankfully the Daemon Prince survived through a triple 5 out of the 4 invulnerable saves he needed to make.
*Assassination attempt in progress
My turn 2 saw my Blightlords arrive as the Plaguebearers were summon to screen them from the Commanders in my back line. With the Commanders being protected by their drones, my terminators took out the 3 crisis suits and 2 of the drones instead. The T'au player's turn passed fairly uneventfully as the Commanders could only target either Poxwalkers or Plaguebearers with their anti-tank arsenal. Turn 3 won me the game as I found what would be my saving grace of having lost Typhus to the Commanders' firepower, Nurgle's Rot (the stratagem). Focusing on Typhus forced them to deepstrike in a blob which put all the remaining 5 commanders and their 5 units of drones within range of the stratagem's 7" radius from a character that I had advanced right in front of them. This took out all the drones and allowed me to focus fire 2 commanders down and charge and kill another for the Eternal War victory.
Result: Eternal War win, Maelstrom loss
Game 4 (The Relic)
Day 2 started off well as I finally got to meet the unit that my Poxwalkers were brought for, Conscripts. Having loss to a Saint Celestine Relic grab-and-run a few months back, I was amply prepared for her in this mission this time round with 2 units of Nurglings surrounding the relic and preventing her from taking it before the assault phase.
*An example of my deployment line when Plague Marines were incorporated into the front line in Game 4
My opponent won the roll-off to start first and his Kastelan Robots proceeded straight into Protector Protocol with Binharic Override stratagem and promptly wiped the floor with my Plague Marines and half a unit of Nurglings before Saint Celestine cleared out the unit.
*The calm before the storm
That was not necessarily a bad thing for me as in his haste to set up his firepower base, my opponent did not provide enough of a buffer with his 80 conscripts which allowed my Blightlords to take out a full 3 robots when they deepstriked in within 18-24" of them.
I followed that up with a charge from the summoned Plaguebearers, Daemon Prince, and Typhus into Saint Celestine, removing the first of her 2 "lives". Typhus picked up the Relic while consolidating forward and held on to it for the rest of the game.
Celestine's player opted to spawn her right in front of my Blightlords to attempt to charge them and tie them up for a round of shooting which proved to be her undoing. The resultant overwatch killed her a second time, fulfilling my 2nd Maelstrom objective of the turn. My opponent then tried to kill the remaining Poxwalkers but could only leave 1 alive (which eventually grew to a unit of 25 thanks to Conscripts dying and "The Dead Walk Again" stratagem).
That was pretty much the game as my Poxwalker hoard kept growing from then on and my Blightlords were hidden flies for 3 turns.
Result: Eternal War win, Maelstrom tied.
Game 5 (Scouring)
Facing my second Ynnari opponent of the day I elected to go second even though I won the roll-off. This was because my opponent's two hemlocks were right at his table edge and his 10 Dark Reapers were safely stowed aboard the Wave Serpent while I did not have the ranged resources to crack the nut and its contents in the same turn. That means I wanted the Hemlocks to move into their firing range as well as the Dark Reapers to be on the table before I dropped my "alpha strike". I placed my 3 priority (3 vp) objective as close to the centre of the table as possible and my main goal was to move the plague horde in between both of the 3 VP objectives.
*My opponent's Ynnari army
My opponent's first turn took out a unit of Nurglings and Plague Marines (they seem to be a nice juicy target). Most of my first turn's psychic powers either failed to cast or were denied and I was left ruing the lack of Prescience as my Blightlords killed 2 of their own from Overcharged plasma fire while taking down a Hemlock.
The game became fairly measured as the Ynnari player pulled his reapers back and out of LOS to prevent getting shot by the Blightlords but also limiting their own field of view and firing arcs. However, that ceded ground control to me and as I had chosen to go second, had the last say and ended up winning the Eternal War portion by taking both 3VP objectives.
Result: Eternal War win, Maelstrom tied.
Game 6 (Retrieval)
The most difficult out of all the matches played over the weekend as my opponent was the most tactically astute and had not lost a game yet. His deployment of his Kastelan Robots made sure I could not get the drop on them without leaving my Blightlords open to counter fire without their screen. That however, did leave them in a position with less than optimal firing lanes and they had to move a couple of times during the course of the game. He was expecting to go second due to the comparison of our number of drops so was not as able to capitalise on going first when he won the roll with a 5 vs my 3.
As usual, I tried to cluster as many of the objectives together as possible and chose to place my objective 2 within 12' of his placement of objective 1 and the one in my deployment zone, creating a triangle that I could advance into and sit on while being out of LOS of a portion of the other half of the battlefield.
Saint Celestine got sacrificed as my opponent tried to claim as many Maelstrom objectives as possible (he rolled some unfavourable ones like objective 2 and needing to be in my deployment zone) while advancing his conscripts forward in an attempt to deny my Maelstrom objectives (Obj 2 was one of them). That allowed me to create additional Poxwalkers as my Blightlords went for the conscript horde instead. With careful positioning blocking LOS and the activation of Binharic Override, Elimination Volley and the Wrath of Mars stratagems, the Imperium player was able to take out 4 of my Blightlords with just 36 Heavy Phosphor Blaster shots (ouch). Fortunately, the Nurglings I deployed on the extreme end of the other side of the table were in LOS and close to 2 of the Robots than my Blightlords were and Plaguebearers soaked up the wrath of the remaining 2 Robots.
I eventually won that game by a secondary objective (Big Game Hunter) by killing Saint Celestine off a second time as we had tied both Eternal War and Maelstrom objectives.
Result: Eternal War & Maelstrom tied. Win via secondary objective.
What worked and what didn't
10 Blightlord Terminators paired with Cloud of Flies, are possibly the most difficult unit to dislodge as long as they have an ample number of bodies between them and the enemy (not always literally). They may not hit as hard but stretch that out over a length of 3 turns, it adds up as most other terminator units will get focus-fired the moment they pop up. Prescience along with Veterans of the Long War will allow them to take down most units and reduce the effectiveness of super-heavies and Knights by at least half. You want to deepstrike them early as well to make full use of their firepower.
I started the tournament summoning 30 Plaguebearers but ended up summoning only 20 with an Instrument of Chaos later on, leaving points to spare for 3 bases of Nurglings. The unit of 30 was too unwieldy and I only needed 20 Plaguebearers to trigger the -1 to hit ability at the start of a phase. That left me with enough points to summon a unit of Nurglings to sit on my rear objectives or as a stopgap screen in case of emergencies.
Would have preferred if I had the option of summoning Beasts of Nurgle or Plague Drones as well but I didn't have the time to get them painted up and ready. The former can be useful against armies with little anti-tank firepower and the latter, against static armies or parking lots where I would have to tie up multiple units quickly. Making use of Daemonic Ritual also reduces the number of deployment drops in an army that wants as many Battalion detachments as it can take. As it stands, I love summoning and would not leave home with a few reinforcement points to make use of Daemonic Ritual.
There is the drawback of requiring a character to stand still (a Death Guard one if you want to make use of the summoning stratagem) and the risk of taking mortal wounds but you have access to the re-roll stratagem to mitigate that risk. The important thing is to make sure you aren't shooting for the moon when attempting to summon daemons and plan accordingly. A unit of 20 Plaguebearers or 4 Beasts of Nurgle only require an 8+ on 3d6 without the stratagem and 3 Nurglings only a 3.
The MVPs for me were the Nurglings as they allowed both early board control and act as a nuisance, blocking charge/movement lanes and deny good enemy alpha striking locations. Without at least 2 units of them, I doubt my Blightlord Terminators would have lasted as long as they did to dish out the pain. They do cost 18 points, coming in at 4.5 points per T2 wound but their infiltration and double save against small arms fire somewhat make up for it.
The Death Guard list that I brought to the tournament over the weekend plays to their strengths of a resilient, mid-ranged firepower/assault army that excel in controlling the centre of a battlefield within a 12" to 18" radius. I'm sure it required some luck to get there and some inexperience on the part of my opponents in facing a Death Guard list such as this but I'm happy with the final results and had a great and entirely exhausting weekend that I'll remember for a long time to come.
ps: Will leave you with a slideshow of some of the models I managed to scrp together and speed paint within the span of 2.5 weeks.
