Blood Angels vs. Death Guard Crusade Campaign

[GratasDufan]

Hello everyone, new to posting on B&C here and looking for some help with my crusade list. Backstory: My best friend and I are doing a crusade campaign where we start with the 1st Combat Patrol mission and go through all the missions, in order, until we finish out with the last Onslaught mission. For the last several years, he had been beating the ever living crap out of me. I can't remember the last time I won a game against him, and it certainly wasn't with my Blood Angels. We played the first combat patrol mission (25 PL each) in the Crusade part last week and he proceeded to absolutely crush me. Seriously, I had a 5-man squad on Incursors that I set up in cover on an objective, and he proceeds to roll up with a Foul Blightspawn (this was the first time he's used one, so I didn't know what it was) and wiped out 4 of them with the plague-sprayer. Needless to say, the last man did not survive long. Then the Blightspawn's "Revolting Stench" ability really took the wind out of my Blood Angels' sails. By turn three, nothing remained of my proud Sons of Sanguinius but ash and a plague-ridden sludge.

 

We used to get a good chuckle that the reason I lost so much is because he rolls like he made some pact with an evil spirit and I roll like my dice are weighted.... to roll 1's. I did some ole' googling to find some advice on how to beat Death Guard. While this whole campaign is for fun and to get some immersive narrative play in, frankly, it's stopped being fun playing 40k against my best friend knowing I'm just going to get wiped and he's going to have a card up his sleeve to counter every plan I make (seriously, how to hell are the Death Guard going to get to go first in my own fight phase when I charged with 3 different units....?). So, after doing some researching, I realized I'm going to have to play my Blood Angels in a less Blood-Angelsy manner. I completely swapped out my entire Crusade force and chose some specific units for the next game (Supply Drop). Below is my current 60 PL Crusade army that I can choose from:

 

HQ: Librarian Dread w/ Biomantic Sarcophogus and Gift of Foresight. Quickening and Wings (8 PL)

Primaris Lieutenant (Indomitus) (4 PL)

 

Troops:

10-man Intercessors Squad w/ grenade launcher (10 PL)

Scout Squad w/camo cloaks, 4x sniper rifles, and 1x Heavy Bolter (4 PL)

5-man Tactical squad w/ Heavy Bolter. Probably going to do power sword and plasma pistol for the sergeant (5 PL)

*Including the heavy bolters here due to the update they're getting to be damage 2. Figure having some S5 D2 AP -1 shots would be good to have against Death Guard, especially since things like missile launchers tend to miss thanks to the fact that every single Death Guard has some mystical cloud of flies that makes them impossible to shoot.....*

 

Fast Attack:

3-man Inceptor squad w/ Plasma Exterminator (6 PL)

 

Dedicated Transport:

Impulsor w/ Bellicatus Missile Array (7 PL) (still haven't built it yet, but would like to hear opinions on missiles vs shield dome. Or maybe even do that orbital bombardment thing....)

 

This brings me to 56 PL, so I still have 4 PL if there's something I really need this moment or to put toward something else later.

 

So, for the next battle, we'll have 25 PL each and I've gone with taking the Librarian Dreadnought (8 PL), 10-man intercessor (10 PL), and inceptor squad (6 PL) [24 PL total]. Thought process behind some of this:

 

Librarian Dreadnought is to help counter the Plaguecaster my friend seems to always take. The biomantic sarcophagus will help make sure I get my powers off and make it easier to deny. The Gift of Foresight is to make it a little sturdier. Additionally, taking a Librarian in Dreadnought form gives me access to Dreadnought/vehicle specific stratagems that will make him even sturdier, such as Armour of Contempt to shrug off some mortal wounds from Smite, or Duty Eternal to make multi-damage weapons (like that plague sprayer and its D3....). Additionally, I can use Wisdom of the Ancients to give him the captain's re-roll 1's to hit if I want to supercharge the plasma on the inceptors or just give the Intercessors a little boost.

 

Intercessors are there to do what intercessors do: hold down some objectives and detract a little bit of the Death Guard's hardiness with the -1 AP of their bolt rifles. I plan to keep them as a 10-man blob until the Death Guard make their way to mid-field. Then I'll use Rapid Fire (and maybe Wisdom of the Ancients) to unload 40 bolt rifle shots into the Plague Marines. Then I'll probably use Tactical Flexibility to combat-squad them and have one team hold my backfield objective, while the other goes for a mid-field.

 

As for the Inceptors, I know these guys aren't known for being that great, but they seem to really hit all the wickets for being anti-Death Guard: high mobility and good damage output. I can bounce around the board with them to get objectives, while still dumping plasma shots into whatever needs it, without getting too close. They're also pretty sturdy in their own right, so they should last until turn 5. Depending where the final objective for Supply Drop is on the final turn, I can Upon Wings of Fire them to grab it, assuming there aren't already Death Guard perched atop it....

 

Anyways, would love to know what you all think of the above. I know it might get a little CP intensive with some of the stuff I have planned, so hopefully I won't need too many command re-rolls early on in the game. Thanks!

 

 

[GratasDufan]

Just to update, going to can the tactical squad. As much as I'm trying to keep this list semi fluff-compliant, makes no sense in a list using PL. Same PL cost as an Intercessor squad, but with half the attacks and half the wounds, all so I can take a heavy Bolter... Going to fill that with assault intercessors (whenever they release a standalone box...)

[Karhedron]

My greatest success against Death Guard has been by throwing everything including the kitchen sink at them in order to burn through their resistance. Whilst incredibly durable (even more so now with 2 Wounds each), Death Guard are not numerous or particularly mobile. My last game against them featured a big unit of Sanguinary Guard buffed the Sanguinor, Librarian with Jump Pack, a Priest and an Ancient with Standard of Sacrifice. I also had some Troops units to follow up and take Objectives. This is what I call my Baals to the Wall approach.

 

The Sanguinary Guard form the speartip of my the assault and I used them to go straight for the throat. A character with the Angels Wing charged first to shut down overwatch and then the rest followed in. It was messy and only 2 SG eventually emerged alive but the lot chewed through 2 squads of death guard, supporting characters and a couple of supporting daemon engines. My Troops lent a bit of fire support and took the Objectives but the SG definitely did the heavy lifting.