Death Guard vs the Tournament

[McElMcNinja]

Great news, the TO has ruled that cloud of flies over rules the sniper rule. That will help against those pesky snipers.

[McElMcNinja]

But my DP doesn't have a plague weapon, so I've never used it on him.

[McElMcNinja]

Round 1, victory is mine. Played against Mech, he had a titan, 2 walkers, 6 robots, 2 shooty squads, and 3 characters. I destroyed all but 2 robots and a walker. Final score: 19-4

 

I lost my plague haulers, 3 marines, and 4 poxwalker.

[BlackTriton]

Wow nice result!

What psychic power did you take?

 

I like blades since +1 to wound is very good and chance to mortal wound is always welcome. Also its easy to cast.

Putrecent vitality is sometime better for the +1T, but mostly for poxwalker. Also harder to cast.

[Prot]

Great news, the TO has ruled that cloud of flies over rules the sniper rule. That will help against those pesky snipers.

 

As it should be! (seriously though Flies > Sniper scope!)

 

Round 1, victory is mine. Played against Mech, he had a titan, 2 walkers, 6 robots, 2 shooty squads, and 3 characters. I destroyed all but 2 robots and a walker. Final score: 19-4

 

I lost my plague haulers, 3 marines, and 4 poxwalker.

 

Nice. Thanks for the mini update. Since I play Admech, I have to say that is one match up I wondered if you'd come out on top of.... was there lots of Terrain/LoS breaking stuff?

 

Your Plague Haulers annoyed him didn't they? 2+ Plague Marines are annoying as heck. :) Did you cast Miasma on the squad??? (added annoyance.)

 

The Kastelan Robots can be strong, but if he's shooting you in Hauler Aura, then you still get 3+/5++. BUT the Robots are T7, and not easy to bring down. Good for you. That sounds like quite a wipe out though... impressive.

 

That said, with a lop sided win like that, your next match up could be super nasty (eldar)... I hate winning big in the first round.

[McElMcNinja]

Sorry for the late update, had just enough time to pee between round 2 and 3. The first match was against a new tournament player as well, so the unofficial score was 31 to 4. After playing my 2 game I understood the scoring system, but it was a lesson I paid for.

I lost 15-24, but had I understood the scoring then I think it would have been closer. He scored 15 points off the objectives which I believe I could have swung the game my way. It was a flyrant army and he brought 6, a spore launcher, zoanthrope, and 5 carnifex (plus 2 termigaunt units). I killed 5 flyrants and 3 carnifex, he got my haulers and a drone. The rest of his points he got for table control, I didn't play that right either.

 

Game 3, win 19-13 against BA. He killed my 2 Plague Marine squads (well 1 ran away) and a drone. I killed 3 scout squads, 4 jump pack squads, 2 tactical squads, 1 devastator squad, and his warlord. He tried to tie the game in the last round by charging my warlord with his. Well Mr Blightspawn rolled a 9 for strength, 5 shots (all auto hit), all wounded, and failed 3, for 9 wounds.

I don't know if I was more impressed with that or my flail taking out 3 5 man squads all by himself. I rolled his attacks first all 3 rounds and he left nobody for the rest of the unit to attack.

 

Much fun and can't wait till tomorrow.

[McElMcNinja]

There were 8 pieces of good size terrain on each board and most blocked line of sight. Deployment was random, started first game opposite corners, second game short edge, and the third was short edges, but pointed towards the center.

I think I was the only player to go to time each game, although in the first game he wanted to call it after 1 1/2 turns. The judge said we had to play at least 4 rounds, so we talked mostly and just ran till time which was 4 rounds.

My opponents stole the initiative in the first 2 games, third one I actually went first. I also forgot a casting phase in the last game, so it could have gone better for me.

[Prot]

That’s awesome. I love Mr.Blightspawn. I do find he catches a lot of people off guard.

 

Aside from myself I really don’t know anyone else using 3 Blight Haulers. Are you finding people are caught off guard by them?

 

I hope if you meet Eldar tomorrow, you have a good game. I’m glad you’re having* fun with the army. I bet yo7 aren’t having second thoughts about not taking Mort either. (Are there many DG players?)

 

Good luck tomorrow!

[McElMcNinja]

Right now, 1st and 5th place are reaper Eldar, 3rd is a ranger Eldar, 2nd place is Nurgle daemon and 4th is tyrannids, with Russ tanks and rattlings.

4 others listed as Death Guard, but they are all daemon armies with PBC's and/or Poxwalkers and then one just has Mortarion plus tzeentch/slanesh.

 

Right now I don't think I would change anything in my army, I just need to control more objectives and choose better secondary missions.

 

My haulers are doing great, hitting on 3+ early forced my opponents to concentrate on them. But with so many wounds to get 1 victory point, is really a good thing for me. I do need to keep my guys between 3" & 7", when 1 goes I was the only one taking mortal wounds. I was actually spending command points to reroll my explosion rolls.

[Prot]

I bet. Those explosions on the Blight Haulers always drive me nuts. Are you hitting them with Miasma?

 

I think it sounds like you are giving the meta a good run. As disappointed as I am to hear Nurgle is is more popularly represented in Daemon form over Death Guard, I’m glad to hear you’ve done this well just have fun tomorrow, and you never know. :tu:

[McElMcNinja]

Edited March 18, 2018 by McElMcNinja

[McElMcNinja]

So that's a round 1 pic from each match in order, they are pretty lenient on the whole 3 color rule if you ask me. Edited March 18, 2018 by McElMcNinja

[Prot]

So that's a round 1 pic from each match in order, they are pretty lenient on the whole 3 color rule if you ask me.

Haha. Yea no kidding. Your army looks miles ahead of theirs. And as a side note that is the funkiest looking AdMech colour scheme I’ve ever seen!

 

It looks like there is a respectable attempt at Los blocking terrain, especially in the mid table. Good to see.

 

Your dice are perfect btw, never seen that green shade before and it works for you.

 

Surprised at that point in the BA picture he is so defensively positioned. Nice pics. Good luck tomorrow.

[McElMcNinja]

Thank you, and now that you mention it that was a 2nd round photo against the BA. He also had a nicely painted army. The dice were a gift from the son in law and they were hot today with DR. My Terminators survived 10 out of 11 wounds from plasma cannons on their DR rolls. But before you say there're loaded, the turn before I rolled all 1's to wound with them with my multi-melta.

I did miasma them, which helped when they got charged making them -2 to hit in combat. I believe I only lost 2 wounds on them that game.

My casting otherwise was uneventful the entire day. The nids denied almost all my spells. The other games I just kept rolling low, usually by 1 point and neither of them had the ability to deny.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Hope you are doing well today. Looking forward to hearing about what match ups you had and how you crushed them (utter faith in you, plague brother, lol!)

[McElMcNinja]

Game 4, I lost 10-11 against Salamanders w/Baneblade and 3 assassins. His army also consisted of 6 dreadnaught and 2 scout squads.

My Terminators took out a normal dread and a redemptor and then died to a third. He got my DP and haulers in the last turn, giving him the win. I managed to kill off all 3 assassins who didn't kill anything. I also got the baneblade down to 3 wounds.

I could have sat back and won, but I didn't want to win that way. He also had said I scored more points, but I made him correct the score after I re-tallied my points.

Fun match, one more to go.

Edited March 18, 2018 by McElMcNinja

[McElMcNinja]

Game 5, win 20-9 against 3 titans, a baneblade, and an assassin. He managed to kill both drones, a hauler, and 2 Terminators. I took out his titans and my remaining haulers and DP were setting up to take out his baneblade.

Haulers dropped the first titan down some, then my drone shot him down more, charged with both drones, and the fleshmower took his last 6. Then they were in the open for his baneblade to kill.

The second titan charged my Terminators who I had dropped on an objective, they pretty much punched each other till my casters finished it off with smites.

The third one (also his warlord) my haulers got it down to 10 wounds and I send in Mr Blightspawn. Hit with 4 S8 shots, he failed all his saves and asked how many wounds he took. I smiled, as you would smile at someone that brought 3 titans and a baneblade, and said 12.

 

So overall I finished 24th out of 70 @ 3-2. Great time, learned a lot, and walked away with some nice prizes.

 

Top 3:

1st Eldar

2nd Ultramarines

3rd Orks

[Prot]

24th you have to be happy with that. That’s well in the top half of what seems like a pretty hardcore field.

Was there any soft scoring? Or just purely based on game scoring?

 

I imagine the Eldar were loaded with Reapers, and Ultra had Guilliman fire base. Orks can be really strong. They’ll be scary with a codex.

 

That Knight list.... I dunno. I’m not sold in them for tournament play this edition. Don’t get me wrong, your list isn’t tuned for them but many are.

 

Do you know how the Mort DG guy did?

 

Inhope you had fun opponents, it can make a world of difference.

[McElMcNinja]

Morty army scored 21 points more then me and finished 22nd with a 3-2 record also.

[Prot]

So to ask the obvious, what would you change? What’s your after tournament thoughts on the Blight Haulers and how they mix with your list?

[McElMcNinja]

Well my goal going in was to see how I would do against cut throat lists. Now had I understood the scoring system going in I think I could have won game 2. My second loss was my fault, had I just sat back and left the baneblade alone I could have killed everything else on the board. But I thought it would be fun to take it out and these guys weren't playing for fun the way I was.

So the first thing I would change is my play style, I would concentrate more on getting points and not just trying to kill everything on the board. At my local shop we usually just have slugfests and try to table each other.

I think my list was solid and if (IF) I were to change anything it would be the Poxwalkers. The only combat they saw was against a carnifex and rarely got shot at. So I may try 3 5 man squads of plague marines, giving me 3 more special weapons.

The Tallyman didn't do much at all, so I may swap him for a another Blightspawn. His weapon is too good to only have 1 on the board.

I am also considering 5 more Terminators, but I really have to do the math on that before I get to ahead of myself.

Everyone I played was surprised at the fact I had 3 haulers and they killed way more points then they cost. My last 2 games I didn't even use them for their cover bonus after turn 1. With their 10" move I was able to zip around the board and take out big threats easily. So good alpha strike protection, 24 wounds with great saves and DR, 3 heavy hitters that place as 1 unit choice. I was set up first in all but the last game, just got the initiative stolen twice with 6's.

[Checkmate77]

Well congratz on a great tournament experience, and thanks for sharing said experience with us.  I learned a lot from reading your posts.

[wulfgar hammerfist]

Great report and congrats on the placing! I have been following your progress for some time now and I have learned slot from your experience. I have been on an extended hiatus from the game but I might dip my toe back into the pool with Death Guard.

[Prot]

Well I have run10 quite often. But I started using 1 squad of 10 over 2 x 5 just to maximize Strategem and Psychic buffs.

 

It’s definitely a double edged sword because you start adding more and more to make your deep strike more effective but this inevitably pulls away from your back lines. It’s a juggling game that I’m not sure is worth it. I need to test the Haulers out more to justify it.

 

The Tallyman comment could be very true for you. My infantry lists focus more on Poxwalkers than yours, so I could be turning any infantry into them, hitting an opponent 10” away with part of the squad, and rerolling all to hits with a S5 Poxwalker squad using Bkades of Putrefaction. I can say from personal experience, if you hit someone with this, the Tallyman does shine. But your list is more elite troops than mine so perhaps his ability isn’t worth it.

[McElMcNinja]

I didn't get to use his reroll ability, but I agree he is a better option then a lord when it comes to a unit of cc. I can see the advantage, it's just a matter of me finding the right place for him and my play style.

I have nothing against Poxwalkers and Typhus, I just prefer Plague Marines over them. Then use them to fill any spots I may have left.