[Battle Report] What A Nice Supplies We've Hidden | Tenth Edition | Chapter Approved | Strike Force | Necrons vs. Death Guard

 

This week, my rampage across Rhisga encountered a gentleman who rejoices in the nom-de-guerre Von Tinkling. Naturally, there was only one way this could go.

The Demon Code prevents me
from declining a Von-Off Challenge!

What are your terms? What's the ca-a-a-aaatch?

Not much of a catch at all: Hidden Supplies on Search and Destroy please. I knew I'd be playing that mission/deployment combo on Saturday, i.e. tomorrow at time of writing, and I had never played it before and didn't wish to embarrass myself in front of the Shed Men.

I am the Von and only, nobody I'd rather be!

Cursed Legion detachment

• Catacomb Command Barge (Warlord: Destroyer Ankh: Resurrection Orb, Overlord's blade, Tesla cannon)
• Skorpekh Lord (Mark of the Nemesor) leading 3 Skorpekh Destroyers
• Technomancer (Murdermind) leading 6 Canoptek Wraiths
• 2 Hexmark Destroyers
• 2 x 3 Ophydian Destroyers
• 3 Skorpekh Destroyers
• 5 Deathmarks
• 10 Flayed Ones
• 2 Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (gauss infinimurderiser)
• Night Scythe
• Doomsday Ark
• Canoptek Doomstalker
• 2 x 3 Canoptek Scarab Swarms

He is the Von, the only Von, the god of kingdom come, give him the prize!

Virulent Vectorium detachment (he says it should have been Mortarion's Hammer, but he didn't feel like farting around changing enhancements)

Nurgle's Gift: Rattlejoint Ague (-1 to armour saves, -1 Toughness)

• Mortarion, Daemon Primarch of the XIV Legion
• Biologis Putrifier leading 5 Plague Marines (main character syndrome and associated trappings)
• Lord of Contagion (Plague Furnace) leading 3 Deathshroud Terminators
• Lord of Virulence (Daemon Weapon of Nurgle) leading 3 Blightlord Terminators
• Daemon Prince of Nurgle
• 10 Poxwalkers
• Foetid Bloat-Drone (heavy blight launcher)
• Foetid Bloat-Drone (fleshmower)
• Myphitic Blight-Hauler (adorable)
• Defiler (plus size Reaper autocannon, double whammy missile launcher, nipple mounted melta whatsits, ectoplasma cannon, sense of impending points hike, absolutely massive base)

Gulp.
This was not a million miles from the Death Guard list I briefly contemplated when they had that very good value box around Christmas time (seriously, all it needed was a Lord of Contagion and it was sitting pretty on 1000 points with Bloat-Drones aplenty). I had heard things about the new Defiler, something about almost every tournament final for the last month involving three of them on both sides. I also have a healthy dread of Mortarion, which only intensified once I learned he hands out a reactive move, shoot when shot or fight on death reaction every turn. But this is the sort of thing I need to test into, so we press on and stay silly!

Showing here, the best efforts of both players to keep their stuff tucked in behind ruins as neither of us especially wanted to go first. In particular, note the mirrored placement of infiltrating Poxwalkers and Flayed Ones, and the absence of many of the scariest things from the table.

Round One: I'm going second

We did not achieve much in Round One. The Death Guard advanced cautiously, an Overwatch from my Doomstalker into the Blight-Hauler whiffed spectacularly, and the Doomstalker got Defilered for its trouble. I advanced with similar reluctance, and an Overwatch from the Blight-Drone with the two torrent weapons bathed my Wraiths in the smell of Trecelyn after dark (seriously, that place always whiffs to high heaven when I come home on the night train) but did no serious damage.

We both picked up seven secondary objective points - a Cleanse from his Poxwalkers plus No Prisoners for killing the Doomstalker, and Engage On All Fronts plus an Area Denial from some sacrificial Ophydians for me. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be...

Round Two: Von T 7, Von Q 7

This was the state of affairs at the start of the Death Guard movement phase. Note the careful placement of markers achieved through precise wrangling of callipers and checking of Contagion ranges. This will be important later, because:

Dear Reader, I was fair cacking myself at this point. Turns out those Deathshroud Terminators can just appear six inches away from units Afflicted by proximity to their fellows. I had Blightlords coming up behind my poor Flayed Ones, who were only going to get what was coming to them. There was also the small matter of the enormous avatar of pestilence, decay, misery and ruination beating his butterfly wings in the middle of the board.

And then mein Herr von T fluffed the charges from his Defiler, and Mortarion, and the Deathshroud, and the Daemon Prince. The Blightlords and Bloat-Drones made it in, tag-teaming the Flayed Ones and murdering one entire Wraith while its peer group blended the remaining Poxwalkers, but that was small consolation for a man who'd been looking to run the table this turn and was instead standing there plinking wounds off Lokhusts and not quite killing Ophydians. Marked for Death and Engage on all Fronts both put two points in the winner's pot and it was over to me.

I took my unexpected but very welcome fifteen primary objective points (for the objectives my Wraiths and Ophydians were still standing on, and continuing to hold more in total with my Doomsday Ark parked at home base), surrounded the Deathshroud and ate the inevitable Overwatch on those front Ophydians (they went on Cleanse duty, figuring two victory points were worth more to me than a sudden yet inevitable death). Then I beamed in an unnecessary amount of reserves:

Here's what the Destroyer Cult did on its holidays.

These Skorpekhs charged and blenderised the Bloat-Drone which was honestly overkill.

This Night Scythe strafed the Plague Marines in an attempt to thin them out a bit, but they weren't having it - only killed the one.

This Hexmark inflicted a wound on a Plague Marine (and then confirmed the kill with his free Overwatch the turn after).

This Hexmark did sweet Eff Eh, but at least the photo of him shows the Scarabs lining up their charge on the Blight-Drone so I can set off Spreading Madness and give them an easier charge.

Unfortunately, my primary goal of using combined fire from the Doomsday Ark and Lokhust Heavy Destroyers to remove Mortarion from play did not pay off. One Destroyer missed, and the Ark only generated a paltry three shots, which Mortarion shrugged off with all the ease a 4+ Invulnerable save can provide. My Ophydians and Command Barge killed two Deathshroud Terminators and left another swaying, but not swaying so hard that he couldn't almost swipe the Command Barge and force the Resurrection Orb to go on that and not the midfield Ophydian, who was now almost certainly going to die.

Round Three: Von T 11, Von Q 24

Pict-capture protocols were abandoned at this stage as we were somewhat lost in the sauce of calculating exactly how many Devastating Wounds mein Herr von Tinkling's various characters were able to dish out. 

Although he only scored five primary objective points, the draw of Secure No Mans' Land proved incredibly easy for the Defiler to achieve (it just walked forward, casually swatted the lone Ophydian and both Lokhusts in the shooting phase, claimed two objectives at once with its big fat base and then charged into the Wraiths to pound one of those flat for good measure). 

Mortarion swept gracefully into my deployment zone and removed the Doomsday Ark from his plans for the evening, and the Lord of Contagion tore my Command Barge in half while the Lord of Virulence and friends calmly dismembered five Skorpekh Destroyers between shooting and close combat. My Ophydians spitefully avenged the Command Barge's death by killing the last Deathshroud and then, disengaged from melee, burrowed into the neoprene to escape justice. 

It was at that point I realised the Barge inflicts a -1 to wound malus that would have cancelled out the effects of Rattlejoint Ague to an extent, but you live and learn, or die and learn in my case.

Anyway, we had five minutes left on the club clock and all I could do with my turn was take my five primary points for the objective my Wraiths were still faithfully brawling over, and another six for the resurgent Ophydians popping up in the Death Guards' back line to do a Sabotage.

Close of Play: Von T 31, Von Q 45

Another win for the Cursed Legion, but this one deserves an asterisk of unusual size in the notes. If this had gone to round four, my learned opponent would have lapped me on primary points alone. There was an easy fifteen to be had with his Defiler and Blightlords controlling the midfield - or at least ten. I might have been able to Deep Strike my Deathmarks in and/or disembark the last of the Skorpekhs and steal his home objective, putting us on two divots apiece and saving some of my dignity. The thing is, that would have left all my meaningful assets on his side of the board, while Mortarion and the Defiler ran amuck: I didn't have anything left that could handle both of them, not with the Skorpekhs needing to jump out of a plane and thus miss their opportunity to charge anything.

In other words, I didn't beat mein Herr von Tinkling, the clock did. I was simply lucky enough to be on objectives when he failed charges to get onto them, and he was well on his way to a comeback when we timed out. My commendations to a novice opponent on a fine game, well played.

I've come to the reluctant realisation that the Scythe needs to start with nothing in it. Moving it on, disembarking from it and not being able to charge puts too much of a limit on what my Skorpekh Destroyers can do; the only time it's been useful was pulling unengaged units out of cover on the enemy turn, then beaming them back down on my turn before it moved (and leaving them free to charge).

I'm also thinking I need to put the Skorpekhs into conventional Strategic Reserve, and maybe have their Lord join the big unit after all. That gives me another cheap throwaway unit I can use for scoring, screening and setting up Spreading Madness charges, and another big unit that might have the resilience and the power to extract things like Defilers and Daemon Primarchs from the table. My Wraiths are doing sterling work but I need something else that can lurk in the centre ground and then barnstorm an objective once I've lost control of it.

No changes to the list, I've been locked in since last Sunday: it's all about how I set up and use the tools I've given myself now, and in that respect at least I did a learn. And, even if it's only on a technicality, I remain the Von true Von... even if Von is the loneliest number.