More battles ft. Deathpack and Wyrdstorm Bros

[Frater Cornelius]

I finally got some more 40k games under my belt, what with all the preparation for the AoS global campaign. We got a 40k campaign going and I did 4 games, 1500pts, 1000pts, 1250pts and 1500pts respectively. I won't go into detail of each specific one, but instead talk about the performance of the army.

 

Each game I used the same setup: Deathpack and Wyrdstorm with either CoF or Unbound in addition, which usually involved an Iron Priest, a Lone Wolf, an empty Pod and a BlizzDread in Pod. The Wyrdstorm always consisted of two Rune Priest, one with the Helm of Durfast, with varying armour and mastery levels.

The Deathpack usually consisted of 10 dudes with 2 Plasmas, 1 Plasma Pistol and sometimes a Combi-Plasma (expect during the 1000pts game, where I scaled them back to 5 men and the fourth game, where the had Meltas, because I was facing 3 Knights).

The Lord had the same loadout through all games with a Fist, a Claw, a Thunderwolf and Runic Armour. The TWC varied between 3 and 4 members. Everyone had a Stormshield and the fourth guy had a Fist if he was present.

 

One thing that surprised me was the performance of the Formation against Super-Heavies. I know that TWC are no slouches, but the Wyrdstorm really carried those engagements. The 1000 points game was against a single Lord of Skulls. The Wyrdstorm Bros managed to knock off I think 3 HP before the Deathpack stormed in and finished it off. However, the real deal was the 1500 game against 3 IK (a Crusader with Thermal Cannon and Gatling, who was the Warlord and had Sanctuary; an Errant and a Paladin; everyone had the Stormspear missiles). I rolled on Technomancy with the Rune Priests. One get the 6, which allowed me to basically remove D3 HP of a Vehicle per turn. A Knight took 3 HP damage before the IP ran in and took care of it. However, once again, the MVP award goes to the Helm guy. He went into overload and knocked 5 HP off a Knight T1 from the front (no 4++ there) and the Meltas finished it off. He then proceeded to knock off another 3 of the Crusader (could have been more if he didn't fail on cast).

What I am saying is, beware of Living Storm. That skill beyond deadly, even with just 3D6 shots.

 

The first game was against 30k Mechanicum, a full of Thallax list to be specific. The Living Storm did not have that much of a good time here as I engaged them into melee from the second turn onward. Still, I managed to kill 2 models (3 wounds, 4+ save, 6+ FnP) in a psychic phase. Given that he camped on a Skyshield Landing Pad, the speed of the Deathpack TWC was the deciding factor. I managed to get my unit into melee on the first turn after a solid Run move. It was very risky de to him having Rad Grenades and a Rad Furnace (-1T and -2T respectively) as well as S7 on everyone. Still, the S10 managed to double them out pretty effectively.

Here, the TWC were the MVP due to their sheer speed. It is amazing how much of a difference the Run move makes when you have Fleet.

 

The 1250pts game was against a very heretical alliance of Eldar and Ravenwing. One Rune Priest needed to be sacrificed to avoid the Overwatch of the D-Scythe Wraith Guard. After that it was a long melee battle because I needed to get past Invisibility. The Lone Wolf did a very good job here as he took the attention of a Serpent, survived its fire and killed it in melee with a few good hammer blows. The Dread also survived the Ravenwing assault and killed them off in melee, but not before the Living Storm guy managed to decimate the unit. And he thought he had a 2+ re-rollable :D

 

In conclusion, the speed of the Deathpack, the resilience of the Lone Wolf and BlizzDread and the sheer stopping power of Living Storm made one helluva combo. In fact, I removed the Wulfen from my list in general, seeing as they would serve little purpose in the exisiting setup. They will find their home in another type of list though.

 

All of us learned few good lessons and I hope some of you will take something away from this as well ;)

[dtse]

Cool. Great report. I'm gonna be playing a full on tournament demon list soon. I decided not to play a deathstar and instead bring a Deathpack, a murderpack, and a fully decked out wyrdstorm brotherhood. Will see how it goes