Prot's Death Guard quickies: 2 games (w/Pics)

[Prot]

Sorry guys, I've just been unable to find time for true battle reports. The last several games using the Blight Haulers have been fun, but I'm really not sold on them anymore.

I think they can work, but they REALLY do require a list build for them.

I tried two games: One vs Orks which I knew would be tough. 2K Maelstrom:

Game 1: Orks

- I had a pretty standard deployment. This time I dropped down to 2 Blight Haulers.

- The Orks had a lot of speed in this list, and a Gorkabot or Morkabot... the one with the 5++ full of what I call cheap Termie killers. (Boyz with choppas.... they make me hate Taking Termies).

- As you can see I decide to NOT advance too much but my cards dictate I need to get stuff all over an objetive on my far right. This was NOT what I wanted to do because it puts me opposite two full Trukks and the Dorka-bot. I drop in my first real Blightlords squad. Man they did squad, but they couldn't be killed..... One Melta made it through a trukk.. .everything else was out of range.

- I unloaded the Plagueburst crawlers and the blight haulers on the Dorka bot... I did surprisingly well but it held on to one wound for 2 full turns. This drove me nuts.

- The big game changer? The Foul Blightspawn. The Orks did not know how to handle him. Well out of 4 combined assaults, the Blightspawn would be in range of 3... canceling their charges. This was HUGE.

- This is the other side of my deployment, about to get hammered:

- There was a moment where I was sure I was toast. But once the Poxwalkers started joining Orks to the zombie union... it was all gravy from there.

- End game was close score wise because he had better board control, but I held firm to the notion I could wear him down. The big issue in this game was he held back on 2-3 additional charges. This allowed my Poxwalkers to grow up to about 50 models before he brought in the second wave. I strongly believe he would have won if he would have hit my lines all at once.

- It was a brutal game. the Blight Haulers had no effect. The Plague crawlers cannons had one solid turn but the rest was really blah. I find them so hit and miss.... I hate to admit this but having the Daemon Prince hang back with the Haulers and Plaguecrwalers is probably one of the smarter things I did. Re-rolling 1's, AND re-rolling to wounds on Plague weapons is massive in a game like this!!!

- Deathguard get the win, but it was my opponents first time facing DG. He instantly wanted a rematch... which was impossible since 60% of his army was now a Poxwalker. ;)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Game 2:

Sorry not a lot of pics on this one. It was a BRUTAL game, but it was a rematch against Nids. We had such a close one he wanted to try again. It appears a lot of my opponents like playing against this army since it doesn't have a real "I win" button, and everyone thinks these games come down more to a matter of tactics.

- Big changes in this one for me: I went up to 10 Blightlords with a mix of Combiplasma and Melta. A Lord in Termie armour with Plasma, one Blighthauler, 10 extra Cultists. I kept the Plagueburst Crawlers just because they're so essential in my crappy shooting phase.

- We had Quarters for deployment. He had a lot more shooting than our last encounter.

- I stole the initiative and started to truck forward but since I couldn't get a first turn charge off, I waited a bit, did some Plagueburst shots, and with only ONE squad of Plaguemarines, I felt I only needed one Blighthauler to provide cover.

- My cards were so bad in this start... way off in the opposite corners, and it turns out he had some real deep striking so I did not want to leave the Plagueburst crawlers to die.

- I do one of my stupid moves because I want to test out the Blightlords and Termie Lord: I drop them straight into bloody hell.

- So this is 10 Blightlords (melta/plasma/Blightlaunchers) and the Termie Lord. Was this stupid ? Perhaps... most likely... yes. But I think it was worth the test.

- Like I said he has some super hard hitting junk. I also hate those Hive Guard, and nearly the entire army seemed to have that Venomthrope -1 to hit on it! So I unload into the Hive Guard and kill them. I put melta on the big fat bug with the giant weapon across from me. But I am DEEP in bug town. I will have no support.

- I'm not going to lie.. .the Nid player rolled SO HOT that I joked he was wasting his time and we should be a in a casino. (Although I think he would have lasted 5 mins before getting tossed for cheating!) In fact he couldn't stop laughing at his own stupidly terrific luck. But this happens right? time to suck it up and see what I can do.

- A desperate move. I have to tie up the Zoanthropes, they are killing my psychic phase. But my opponent will surely drop in and threaten my lines.

- The game turns out to be a total slugfest. His shooting is far superior. My Blightlords bought me time but I fear they are done, but then again.... 14 Genestealerrs rush in. The Broodlord can't make it in this turn. I manage to take down (in total) 4 hive Guard, 1 Broodlord, 14 Genestealers, a big bug with a super flame shot (can't remember the name) and 3 wounds off of a Hive Tyrant I couldn't touch with my lord's crappy sword..... In turn I lost all 10 dudes, and the Lord (my Warlord).

- I did another horrendously stupid move... I wanted to get Plague Wind off so badly I moved my Plaguecaster in what I knew was a stupid spot, but I've failed to get off Plague wind in my last 4-5 games. I finally get it off on 14 Genestealers. I roll two 6's. I perils, so I use a command point, roll another 6. Then another 6 to take 3 mortal wounds... gees. This is going to hurt. In turn I take down a whopping 3 Genestealers. This did not seem like a good experiment.

- Next turn the Nids drop in and draw: Kill a character, Kill a Psyker, Shoot a unit to death. Guess what wounded Psyker is about to give 3 points to the nids? Yup... brilliant move on my part.

- End game is on T6. I score 2 points, and could win by 1, but he manages 2 points, and we each have line breaker, and Slay the Warlord. Nids win by one point. Really good game though. He wanted to try a slightly different list, and has been trying to do some experimenting without the Swarmlord. I got to try some new units out as well. I'm loving the Blightlords but am continually disappointed by Plasma.

Thanks for checking it out. Hopefully I can do some more thorough battle reports in the next few days.:tu:

[Panzer]

 

- I'm not going to lie.. .the Nid player rolled SO HOT that I joked he was wasting his time and we should be a in a casino. (Although I think he would have lasted 5 mins before getting tossed for cheating!) In fact he couldn't stop laughing at his own stupidly terrific luck. But this happens right? time to suck it up and see what I can do.

 

Hah, I know that feeling. The DG player I went against had that kind of luck last weekend as well. My buddies Paladin squad of four charged a Plaguecaster who didn't lose a single wound the whole game until the Paladins were no more. Meanwhile his unit of 10 Poxwalker killed my 3 Inceptors in two rounds.

Tho to be fair I think my GK buddy was cursed. He lost half his army by rolling double 1s for psychic stuff and didn't cause a single wound loss to the enemy the whole game.   At least he was a good sport and didn't get mad about it lol

[bozo69pd]

Excellent write up Prot, I love seeing these. The more and more I play Nurgle CSM/DG/Daemons the more I want to just bring my DP's (for auras, dispel, and counter assault lol), pox walkers, and spitter drones.

[lanceqi]

Great reports! And IMHO Drones are essential to all DG lists since they are fast and quite tanky.

[Kilofix]

Do you find the PBC’s main gun helpful?

[Prot]

Excellent write up Prot, I love seeing these. The more and more I play Nurgle CSM/DG/Daemons the more I want to just bring my DP's (for auras, dispel, and counter assault lol), pox walkers, and spitter drones.

 

Yea the DP's are just so good in almost any army but that lack of inherent to hit aura's in DG makes it even better.

 

 

Great reports! And IMHO Drones are essential to all DG lists since they are fast and quite tanky.

 

They're good... they're tanky, but they are quite high priced. After a while you start to realize if you only have one squad of plague marines, there's not much point to more than 1. I'd say there's a good time to take 3, but not that often (just too cost prohibitive for a missile launcher and a 24" melta that doesn't hit that often.

 

Of course add a reroll aura and it all gets better. It's odd because there's no reason to advance a DP in this type of list... it's counter intuitive to me, but it does work.

 

I have a slightly older Batrep (maybe last week) where I took 3 Blight Haulers.

 

Do you find the PBC’s main gun helpful?

 

Generally speaking? It's okay if I don't move. Specifically against nids? Horrible. Everything is -1 to hit. It's ridiculous. Even after I got rid of the fart cloud Venomthropes the deep striking Carnies/DP's? had some add on that was still -1 to hit. For my army that just destroyed my shooting output.

[Panzer]

 

Do you find the PBC’s main gun helpful?

 

Generally speaking? It's okay if I don't move. Specifically against nids? Horrible. Everything is -1 to hit. It's ridiculous. Even after I got rid of the fart cloud Venomthropes the deep striking Carnies/DP's? had some add on that was still -1 to hit. For my army that just destroyed my shooting output.

 

Yeah those negative to-hit modificators are ridiculous. And now imagine playing with T'au against it where everything is BS4-5 and the only way to improve it is hitting with more BS4-5 shooting first. Nobody should be surprised why I shelved them for now. 

[lanceqi]

 

OH I mean the foetid bloat drones... and yes I agree that the blight-hawlers are best pair with PMs since they provide extra protection for foot-slogging meq. But the drones...they are quite capable to save the day whenever needed.

[Prot]

AH.. okay. Well Bloatdrones... I stopped using those quite a while ago. I'm lucky to fit one in now a days, but they're great. I'd just rather put the points into the Plagueburst Crawlers for a different kind of shooting (which my army severely lacks). And I really don't like plasma. I've gone with the majority on the forum and tested several games with it.... I really just don't get the mileage out of it in games with Nids, Astra, or anything with High T and Wound models in general. So I find my big gap is for taking tanks, superheavies, etc down.

 

 

BTW: one thing I probably didn't emphasize enough in the Nid batrep was the Zoanthropes. Their high powered Smite is BRUTAL. If I didn't have a few packs of garden variety cultists and the poxwalkers bumping around, I would have been in serious trouble. (Plus that shadow in the warp and the strat that forces a test on 1D6... pretty strong.) (I think Zoanthrope packs are going to be a real pain to Custodes)

Edited January 24, 2018 by Prot

[lanceqi]

Thx for the feedback. I really need to take cultists into consideration. BTW how many cultists/poxwalker do you take into those two games?

[Prot]

I've been taking 10 to feed the Pox. But lately I'm to 20. (second game was 20.)

[lanceqi]

I've been taking 10 to feed the Pox. But lately I'm to 20. (second game was 20.)

Emmmmmm I was against those mortals in an army full of Demi-gods but, your reports really set me a different angle. I guess Papa Nurgle gives his love to everyone equally. :P

[Prot]

 

I've been taking 10 to feed the Pox. But lately I'm to 20. (second game was 20.)

Emmmmmm I was against those mortals in an army full of Demi-gods but, your reports really set me a different angle. I guess Papa Nurgle gives his love to everyone equally.

 

 

I think you'll find it takes a bit of finesse and timing with the strategems but I find it usually pays off. It's the circle of life really.... you work for the Imperium in a supermarket, turns out you're genetics are messed up, and you turn into a Genestealer working in a grocery store for the Hive Mind. Next thing you know you've been bit by a Zombie and become a Poxwalker.

 

Poxwalker > Genestealer > Cultists > Imperium Grocery clerk.  (papa Nurgle says so)  ;)