The Shire and everything after: 40k Escalation Tournament

Part 4 here

Part 5 here

Our 40k escalation tournament continues at a pace and we're now up to 1250pts. Each session we add another 250pts with some rules around temporary drops and unit reconfiguration to allow advances in chunks up to 500pts.

This session I've added an additional Foetid Bloat Drone and a Myphitic Blighthauler, dropping a few points from the poxwalkers and plague marines to fit them in.

So my Death Guard force now looks like this.

Batallion (8CP) - 1248pts

Daemon Prince of Nurgle [Warlord] ("Krysler")

- Wings, Hellforged sword, Plague spewer,

- Revoltingly resilient, Relic (Suppurating plate)

- Smite, Miasma of Pestilence

Malignant Plaguecaster ("Lastor")

Relic: Pandemic staff [1CP]

- Smite, Miasma of Pestilence, Plague wind

5x Plague marines

1x Blight launcher

5x Plague marines

10x Poxwalkers

2x Foetid Bloat Drones

2x Plaguespitters

1x Myphitic Blighthauler

2x Plagueburst Crawlers

2x Plaguespitters, 1x Heavy slugger

Here's the assembled Tallyband in all its pestilent glory.

So far, I've used the poxwalkers to "bubblewrap" the plaguecaster and its worked really well. The plague caster has barely been attacked let alone harmed in any of the games, and his pandemic staff has seen him deal out a lot of mortal wounds. The poxwalkers are also surprisingly good - able to soak a lot of damage and deal it out in melee.

Here's the big guy himself, my flying daemon warlord. He's performed brilliantly in every battle, screend by the bloat drones and dealing spewer damage before diving into melee himself. Its also super-tough and hard to kill.

This upgrade I've added an additional Foetid Bloat Drone to the existing one. Operating together with the daemon prince, I think these three will make a devastating close assault team, flying up to unleash their massed plague spray.

Stalwarts of the army, I've had two small units of plague marines. They're in to maintain the batallion structure mainly, as I've focussed on the build and tactics around the various daemon engines I've included. In this iteration, I've stripped them of their blightlaunchers, but these will be back in the next upgrade. Overall I've found that my opponent targets these early on and takes out 2-3 of them, but the remaining marines stick around to annoy the enemy. They'll get a bit of a buff with the new unit I've added (the Myphitic Blight Hauler), which spews out foul steam that provides cover to nearby infantry units.

And finally, the new kid on the block, I've recruited a Myphitic Blight Hauler. This daemon engine prvides some much-needed anti-tank firepower, but more importantly provides some buffs to nearby friendly infantry. In my research on their utility, someone said they're basically a heavy weapons support team for the Death Guard infantry, so I'll use it in that capacity and see how it goes. I know these Myphitic Blight Haulers work better in a full unit of 3, but I'm limited to a 250pt upgrade, so one will have to do.

OK, so, onto the games day!

We had mismatches so I sat out the second game, but it did mean I got to take a few more pictures so, swings and roundabouts...

Anyway, my game was a "hold the line" game with me defending three deployment objectives on against John's Blood Angel attack force.

I deployed a solid line, giving up my backfield for John's deep striking units. I've found it difficult with my smaller army, to shut off my rear to counter this so I tend not to worry about it. The way I've developed my Death Guard they're really just focussed on killing anything they can find, so I figured I'd let John drop in his units and kill them wherever they arrive. I intended for everything except the plague marines/myphitic blighthauler blob to move forwards and attack.

A view down the battlefront, with me defending the open flank beyond the trenchlines.

John deployed his Blood Angels in an assault line ready to jump off and assault my hated Death Guard. The Land Raider was carrying more tactical marines and a mix of sniper scouts and tacticals were ready to go. the Librarian and assault marines were descending from above and would arrive at some point...

My daemon prince and daemon engines push forwards to intercept the advancing loyalist marines, while the plague marines and blight hauler held the objectives.

Near the trenches, the tactical marines met the daemon engines in a desperate close quarter struggle, led by their Captain.

It was a brutal and desperate melee, but with the gouts of plague-filth and the savagery of Krysler the daemon prince, the marines were wiped out - or rather reduced to pitiful, festering mounds of diseased flesh and rusted wargear.

With John's reinforcments not yet deployed, the battle looked to be all but over...

But then the librarian and assault marines turned up in a bit to take the objectives from their nemesis plague marines.

Err...

Could this die be any more cocked? I mean how is that even possible?!

And with the ebb and flow of battle, the Blood Angels leap upon the plague marines and blight hauler, shredding the daemon engine with psychic power, bolters and chainswords.

Having dealt with the front line advance, I was therefore able to bring my forces back to counter the Blood Angels assault from the sky, and swathes of pestilent fire corroded the assaulting Angels. More tactical marines pured out of the Land Raider, as the metal behemoth's las cannons felled a foetid bloat drone.

It was a last ditch effort from the Blood Angels, but to no avail and as the last of the tactical marines were felled and the Land Raider destroyed, the game was over and John conceded.

Another fun game. My main new unit was the myphitic blight hauler and I must say I was underwhelmed by its performance. I suspect they're better in the unit of three, perhaps with a character to buff their poor 4+ shooting attack.

Anyway, here's a montage of images from the other games through the day.