40k Escalation Tournament - Session 4

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

Part 3 here

Part 5 here

Our escalation continues and now we're up to 1500pts for our forces.  Being underwhelmed by the Myphitic Blighthauler, I decided to drop it for this upgrade to free up some more points for an across the board character increase.

And so I added three additional characters, and increased the size of the poxwalker horde.

First up, Typhus.  Obviously he'll buff the poxwalkers but mainly I want him as an additional psyker as I've been impressed by the effects and damage output of my psykers so far.  With him I maxed out my poxwalker unit to 20 models.

I don't like the Typhus model so I've used the Felthius model instead.

Second I added a Biologist Purifier to run with the Plague Marines to buff their grenades.

And thirdly, I added a Foul Blightspawn to add in another plague spewer, this one with the chance to deal some serious damage to enemy armour.

I was really impressed with the performance of this unit, which dealt some serious damage to a Tau transport and to a Militarum Hellhound.  Definitely worth the points.

OK, so onto the games for the day.

Game 1 - The Tau
I've never played s Tau before but I know they're a serious gunline army.  The mission had our Warlonds begin in a parley situation and they are protected from attack from the first turn.  The fight begins with the parley breaking down, and the fight starting.  Both side have access to orbital bombardments through the game, but this would prove inconsequential for both of us.

The Tau obviously set up to pour fire into my Death Guard as we pushed forwards hard across the battlefield.  We were looking for kills and to get into the opposing deployment zone for Victory Points so I went all out to do both!

Although I took some losses, the Tau were pretty much shattered, and by the end of the game, only the Riptide and rear line battlesuit were left as I flooded into their deployment for a comprehensive win.

My saves and Disgustingly Resilient wound negation really made it feel like I was throwing forwards an unstoppable tide, and the Tau were sprayed off the board with my psychic power and various plague spewer weapons.

Typhus didn't impress me too much (except for his psychic power), but he did buff the poxwalkers really well, and despite the Tau focussing pretty much their whole sooting on the poxwalkers for two full turns, the plague zombies had their losses restored through the Tau losses (with the help of a stratagem).

The armies deployed, poised to spring forth...

...and the warlords parlayed.  In truth, neither had much to offer the other and tensions would quickly boil over into a brutal fight.  The Tau commander fled to the shelter of a nearby transport as Krysler gurgled and giggled a pestilent battlecry that called forth his daemon-engine host.

The poxwalkers are enhanced with psychic power, as the first Tau transport is destroyed.

The desperate Tau resort to melee!

It does not go well for The Greater Good however, and although the poxwalkers all fall, the Tau are decimated by the blessed Nurgle Plagues...

Game 2 - Astra Militarum (Pask's force)

This battle was a relic retrieval mission and I was facing Matt's terrifying Astra Militarum force.  Its heavy in tanks, with a good supporting infantry, and a brick of heavy infantry Ogryns.

Deployment was rough for me, out in the open against the wall of Imperial fire.  I lost initialtive and Matt took the first turn and with a devastating "alpha strike" he pretty much secured the game in the first shooting turn.  Although nothing of mine was taken off the board, all my heavy hitters (foetid bloat drones and plagueburst crawlers) were busted down to only a few wounds remaining each.

"With me Tallyband!  There is flesh to plant our diseases in.  *giggle*

The deployment...whoever goes first is probably going to win...its not me...oh dear.

The Hellhound and Bullgryns strain at the bit to get into range of the hated Nurgle Tallyband...

So my infantry and characters were left to try to secure what relics we could get.  the game played out over the next three turns and the Militarum numbers told, with them being able to recover relics while shredding my efforts to do so.  

I never really recovered from the alpha strike, but did manage to kick some damage back and we had an interesting "character fight" towards the end as Matt's troops tried to stop my daemon prince rescuing the game. 

By turn 2 the mid-field is cleared out with all the Nurgle armour decimated, and the bullgryns massacred (much to Commander Pask's (and Matt's) Surprise!  The bulgryns were mostly killed by psychic mortal wounds and were finished off by the daemon prince himself.  While this carnage went on, the Militarum had men spare to carry off relics - my Tallyband didn't...

The characters begin to square up...

Sadly, the Imperium's indirect fire stopped my Plague marines getting a relic away, and with Matt already having secured two relics there was no way for me to win or even force the draw so we called it a win for him and set about the post-day analysis.

The plague marines managed to snatch a relic and sprint away to get it off the board, but they are caught by Wyvern missile fire and killed.  It did take two of the heavy missiles to do it though;  Disgustingly Resilient indeed!

Taking matters into his own "hands" (tentacles and talons mostly), Krysler the daeom prince rakes about for a relic, but with his plague marines killed by the Wyvern fire it was game over...

Another excellent session of 40k!

Here are the images from the other battles.

Asrta Militarum face off against the Traitor guard,

Loyalist Hellhound burns out the heretics!

Drukhari bombers about to make short work of the Sisters of Battle allied knight

Told you...

Shadowsword also made short work of the Sister's knight.

Oh and footnote, a rare realword casualty; I dropped and then trod on a poxwalker.  Damn.  It lived up to its "disgustingly resilient" ability though and with a few dabs of glue its back to normal!

40k Escalation Tournament - Session 3

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

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.

Tom's super-pretty knight striding in support of his conquering Sisters of Battle

Gorgeous Drukhari!

BRING IT DOWN!!

Tau make their first appearance in our tournament.

Gribblies!  Big gribblies.  Very big and nasty gribblies...