Whilst I've dallied with other armies, Chaos has always been my first and truest love in Warhammer. After playing a lot of the Death Guard codex since its release, with a decent amount of success at my local club I came to a rather worrying conclusion about them.
They weren't tough enough. Well, at least not in the run up the board and sit in the middle playstyle I was using them in. Whilst they tended to bully other mid board armies like Necron armies that could stay back such as Dark Angels were presenting bigger problems as time went on, and in a Ad Mech/Drukarki world combined with a lack of speed felt like disaster waiting to happen. I started looking at the problem by adding in more guns and speed- Volkite Contemptor/Blight Drone filled the role nicely but it still didn't feel like enough. So I dropped Death guard for awhile and went back to CSM in search of guns, big guns.
The Lord of Skulls had been on my mind for awhile, in part inspired by facing 3 of them at a previous event in 8th (it didn't go well) and I wanted to give them a go. Combined with the Super Heavy Aux detachment going to 1 cp, it felt like a natural place to start. Adding in Demon Engine support was easy enough - 2 Decimators and Venomcrawlers were a starting point, although the Crawlers ended up being cut, with support in the form of a Lord Discordant to give all the daemon engines +1 to hit, and a Master of Possession with Daemonsmith WL to give exploding 6s aura and two spells in the form of, Infernal power to give re rolls of hit/wound of 1 and Cursed Earth to give the Demon engines a 4+ invul. I dabbled with a few things (noticeably Black Legion cultists and Emperors children) but eventually landed back on Death Guard - when I started building the list the aim was to use the Lord of Skulls as the mid board presence, but he often wanted to be hanging back with the Decimtators/buffing characters so I ended up adding Death Guard back in - 3 squads of Poxwalkers, 3 Deathshroud squads as a Poxwalker 'tax' and a Plaguecaster for some additional mortal wound output. The finished list ended up with a huge mortal wound potential, with each Decimator frequently able to inflict 8 mortal wounds to a squad and the Poxwalkers averaging around 12 for 2 cp usage if needed. Otherwise the combination of buffs on the Daemon Engines meant they were normally hitting on 2+, often with re-rolls to wound/hit of 1 + exploding 6's which meant they frequently hit more times than they had shots. If they got separated, or if the Lord of Skulls was shooting something of equivalent size, they could also pop demonforge for a CP for easy full hit/wound re-rolls. So the list ended up as so:
++ Vanguard Detachment -3CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [41 PL, 835pts, -3CP] ++
Detachment Command Cost [-3CP]
Plague Company: The Harbingers
+ HQ +
Malignant Plaguecaster [5 PL, 95pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 5. Curse of the Leper
+ Troops +
Poxwalkers [5 PL, 90pts]
. 18x Poxwalker: 18x Improvised weapon
Poxwalkers [5 PL, 100pts]
. 20x Poxwalker: 20x Improvised weapon
Poxwalkers [5 PL, 100pts]
. 20x Poxwalker: 20x Improvised weapon
+ Elites +
Deathshroud Terminators [7 PL, 150pts]
. Deathshroud Champion: Plaguespurt gauntlet
. 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet
Deathshroud Terminators [7 PL, 150pts]
. Deathshroud Champion: Plaguespurt gauntlet
. 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet
Deathshroud Terminators [7 PL, 150pts]
. Deathshroud Champion: Plaguespurt gauntlet
. 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet
++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment -1CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [23 PL, 465pts, -1CP] ++
+ Configuration +
Detachment Command Cost [-1CP]
Legion: Iron Warriors
+ Lord of War +
Khorne Lord of Skulls [23 PL, 465pts]: Hades gatling cannon, Ichor cannon
++ Patrol Detachment 0CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [36 PL, 700pts, 12CP] ++
+ Configuration +
Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)
Legion: Iron Warriors
+ HQ +
Lord Discordant on Helstalker [10 PL, 195pts]: Autocannon, No Chaos Mark
. Helstalker: Techno-virus injector. Insidium Relic.
Master of Possession [5 PL, 95pts]: Cursed Earth, Infernal Power, No Chaos Mark, Warlord trait Deamonsmith
+ Troops +
Chaos Cultists [3 PL, 50pts]: No Chaos Mark
. 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun: 9x Autogun
. Cultist Champion: Autogun
+ Elites +
Decimator [9 PL, 180pts]: No Chaos Mark, 2x Soulburner petard
Decimator [9 PL, 180pts]: No Chaos Mark, 2x Soulburner petard
++ Total: [100 PL, 2,000pts, 6CP] ++
The list gave up very few secondaries - No Prisoners, Bring it Down and Assassinate were all 'ok' options, but it was frequently remarked by opponents that whatever was picked they weren't happy with the choice. The downside was I didn't have much in the way of easy secondaries either, no codex option didn't help, but I lacked a few utility squads for Retrive Octarius data/banners/other actions - the Deathshroud had to fill this role in a rather overpriced fashion for the list. Basic aim was to force opponents to the mid board and hit them hard - the mortal wound potential meant that slow elite infantry based armies without too much anti tank firepower (Death Guard, Custodes) were my ideal match up - anything that could outshoot me and keep a distance I was more worried about.
The Event :
My second Kent GT event at the venue with the standard 9th edition template - 6 games from the GT pack over 2 days. Terrain at the event was very solid - a good mix of LOS blocking ruins, plenty of cover - not much dense cover (some of the more open buildings filled this role on occasion.) Potentially interesting, all 9th edition codices were represented by 2+ players, whilst no 8th edition codex was represented by more than one list.
Game 1:
Battle Lines
My Secondaries :
Bring it Down
Mission
Engage
Opponents:
Grind them Down
Missions
Assassinate
Opponents list:
Pregame thoughts : Big knights are always scary to face, although a Khornate Target Rampager v Lord of Skulls seemed awesome (if something I wanted to avoid.) Being able to buff the Lord of Skulls/it having a combat invul seemed like my big edge here. Whoever could land a telling blow first would have a huge edge.
With way more units I was able to wait until my opponent commited his big knights before placing my own - hiding the Decimators on one flank behind some Obscuring terrain, chucking the death guard on one flank and screening the Lord of Skulls with some cultists to avoid any turn one charges into anything too valuable from the Rampager (one Deathshroud unit taking up a position on far left of above shot to stop it getting past the ruin.)
I won the roll of to go first, a mostly happy trend that would continue throughout the event! Both Decimators moved up and unloaded into the Rampager, after they had finished it only had 6 wound remaining. I got greedy with the Lord of Skulls, thankfully it paid off - managing to finish the Rampager with its Ichor Cannon, whilst the Hades Gatling cannon tore apart an Armiger thanks to Demonforge.
Tom's reply had to be immediate, but already down a big threat it didn't connect hard enough. He tore into my first unit of Poxwalkers with the Castigator's firepower and combat but when the Lord of Skulls rolled a lucky 5+ against the Harpoon he struggled to any real lasting damage beyond that, especially when the siegebreaker missile whiffed against the Master of Possession. When the Castigator piled into the next wave of Poxwalkers it was in for a nasty shock and took a decent chunk of damage.
With the Knights exposed I was able to go in for a early kill to seal the game - the combination of Daemon Engine shots took out the Rampager before the Lord of Skulls had to worry about a taking its rather scary overwatch whilst the combination of Deathshroud and a second wave of Poxwalkers overan the Castigator to end the game as a contest.
Thankfully Tom was a good sport about it - but even when the Lighting Lock Moirax rolled 9 or 10 exploding 6's on the return volley v the Lord Discordant it didn't matter (and really poor wound roll resulted in negligible damage.) From there it was a matter of maximising secondaries as the Armigers were subsequently butchered by the on-running Daemon Engines. Final score 96-15
Post game thoughts: First turn was rather big, but the difference in reliability via access to buffs with the Lord of Skulls v Chaos Knights really told. Tom did plenty of damage, but couldn't land a telling blow. Despite being worried about the game beforehand the list turned out to outshoot the Knights comfortably throughout the game and the Poxwalkers combination of screen and Mortal wound source really left the Knights with nowhere to go when the pace of the game accelerated against them.
Game 2:
Vital Intelligence.
My Secondaries
Stranglehold
Retrieve Octarius Data
No Prisoners
Bens:
Code of Conduct
Assaination
Mission.
Ben's list:
Pregame thoughts:
Very confident about this one. Death Guard in both Poxwalker and Terminator form had been excellent against Necrons, and the Necron list only had one nasty shooting threat to take out the Daemon Engines. The Void Dragon was scary, but as long as I managed it well I was supremely confident about this match up, especially with the secondaries chosen by Necrons really forcing them to come to me.
Deployment was simple enough - Death guard took a flank, the Lord of Skulls took another with one Deathshroud on each flank to start retrieving that precious Octarius data (one in deep strike. After that, screening out the back field and ensuring the Decimators were far enough back that the Necrons couldn't teleport across to alpha strike them was the main goal.
I won the roll off for the first turn, with Necrons using their pregame move to pressure the early objectives, probably coming just a tad closer than they needed to. I was mostly scared of the large Warrior Blob coming back with the Orb of resurrection nearby but after softening them up with the Decimators the Lord of Skulls finished them off in style, killing the Heavy Destroyer with its Ichor cannon as a bonus. A cheeky long bomb charge from a Poxwalker unit at the end of the turn annihilated the Catacomb Command barge and tagged the Doomstalker.
In response the Lychguard advanced up the middle and charged the Lord Discordant - neither side really landed a telling blow. The Scarabs took an objective each and the Skorpeh destroyers managed a reasonable charge into my far left unit of Deathshroud in what turned into an epic duel.
However whilst I fell behind on the primary and secondary my army was in a very strong position as the Necrons struggled to make a big dent elsewhere. The Decimators and Lord of Skulls started to pick apart any Necron Warriors/Immortals they could see and the remaining Poxwalkers in the middle started to take up space to delay the Void Dragon. When the Lord of Skulls charged into the Lychguard, the Necron army was left with very few units to meaningfully engage - especially when the 9 man Poxwalker squad managed to charge and survive the Void Dragon to keep it still for another turn.
The Necrons kept fighting, but with most of their key units engaged or depleted they struggled to make a dent when the Deathshroud on the far left won there duel with the Skorpek destroyers, the scoreboard advantage they briefly held crumbled as Chaos end up taking a commanding win 84-32.
Post game thoughts :
Game went pretty much to plan. The Void Dragon got bogged down by Poxwalkers and could be ignored up until turn four when it was pretty much the last man standing before Necrons got tabled. The Necron plan of putting under objective pressure was correct, but they could have probably held back a bit further to mitigate my initial salvo better. As it was the plan worked well - the difference in the Lord of Skulls effect on the game v the Void Dragon was very noticeable, both the key centrepiece of the army but the Lord of Skulls ability to contribute in multiple phrases was key (and one of the key reasons I wanted it over Moratioron) although they Void Dragon did manage to amusingly heavily mortal wound then insta-kill via C'Tan power the Lord Discordant at the end to at least go out with a bang.
Game 3 - Scorched Earth
My Secondaries:
Stranglehold
No Prisoners
Banners
James Secondaries:
Uncharted Sequencing
Retrieve Octarius Data
Bring it down.
Pregame thoughts: Well it couldn't be avoided forever - my first game v the new Ad Mech book. I didn't go in with a great amount of confidence here, but I did have a few angles of attack, the Decimators could effectively chew through the Ranger hordes and I planned on using Chaos familiar to swap out Smite for Warptime on the Master of possession and turbo charging the Lord of Skulls upfield to put the pressure on. Beyond that, if possible I wanted to occupy the middle in turns 3/4 to try and mess with Uncharted sequencing, going on the theory it would be picked in the two in his deployment zone first two turns, then middle two then one in mine.
So Death Guard and Iron Warrior split up to take a flank each, I won the roll of to go first and the turn started well enough - I managed to Warptime the Lord of Skulls upfield, get the Deathguard up to the middle objectives on both flanks and the Decimators combined to shoot a Ranger blob off. The Lord of Skulls had the option to shoot some suddenly exposed characters but I elected to try, and mostly failed to take out some rangers hiding in the ruin instead - looking back I feel like this was a mistake but at the time I wanted to neuter as much damage as possible.
Sadly the Ballistarius with Lascannons were hiding too well to be shot at, would have loved to be able to shoot/charge them but the map layout was rather constricted where the lord of Skulls could mavour.
The turn finished the LoS charging into two Dragoon's but whiffing on the big attack profile, even with Daemonforge I only managed force one save, which thanks to a FNP strat didn't even manage to take one out.
In response Ad mech moved up to get some shots on the Decimators and managed to destroy both of them without trouble, whilst on the left flank they annihilated one of the poxwalker squads in shooting and charged another - thankfully 3 of them clung to life and managed to keep the objective to give me 15 on primary.
Going into my turn I warptimed my Lord Discordant up the table to join the fight and my Deathguard flank managed to push forward again - however despite another good turn on both primary and secondary objectives I failed to do much damage - the Ranger squad the Lord of Skulls smashed into remained on two models (annoyingly I forgot about DTTFE which might have made a difference) and the Lord Discordant decided to give me a visual example of how crazily resilient Skitarii are when he only managed to kill one of them - it wasn't even swingy of a roll!
James turn two was another charesticaly brutal turn for Ad Mech, he Solar Flared the unit the Discordant charged across the table and annihilated the Deathshroud squad on the objective and managed to kill another Poxwalker squad - one thing that stuck out throughout the weekend when facing Ad Mech (spoiler alert, this isn't the last time) was they would shoot what felt like a million shots and kill 18 or so Poxwalkers before announcing this was just the first half of the units shots! The Deathshroud on the left proved to be a heroic pain though, managing to stay mostly strong. Sadly however the Bellastari annihilated the Lord Discordant with little trouble. Still going into turn 3, I had a sizable lead on primary (30-15 after Ad Mech turn 3 started) and was edging secondaries.
My push however was running out of steam, and bodies, and was further hit when I had to put the entire shooting of the LoS into the last two Rangers guarding the objective to ensure their demise and deny some primary points - sadly they were too far back for the big guy to charge through between the buildings. The Deathshroud managed to clear out a Dragoon and injure another as the cultists ran away from the Skitarii which had teleported to try and buy another turn of Survival from them.
As Ad Mech began the turn I felt I was in with a chance, but sadly it all but ended in a fusillade of Lascannon shots. The Skitarri moved up to start taking the right flank and removing my Banners and the combined shooting of the Belllastari, Fusilave and Vanguard managed to do exactly 22 wounds to the Lord of Skulls, who failed all 6+ FNP attempts to exactly kill it. Given how favourable he degrades, he had a real shot at doing some damage back - although it probably wouldn't have been enough in reality (given the ignoring of Ap2 on the Vanguard unit he would have probably had to target. The Deathshroud continued their heroics on the left flank, tanking an inordinate amount of buffed shots, 3 of them clinging to life.
The Deathshroud launched a last chance assault, using some cheeky CSM Veterans of the Long War shenanigans and the Plaugecaster managing to smite the last Dragoon to death they couldn't manage to get through the last Ranger squad to get Stranglehold one last time/deny some more primary. In response the Ad Mech blasted me off the table after counting up the score at the end Ad Mech had managed to clinch it at the death with a huge final turn swing 79-70.
Post game - Aaaaaaagh! It felt like this was the best shot I was going to get v Ad Mech. Maybe I was being overly positive about the Lord of Skulls (he probably needed the vanguard to roll badly and roll a huge charge) but it felt like I had a genuine shot before it's unfortunate demise. I never had the time/angle to focus on the Ballastari and they caused no end of pain throughout the game, comfortably the unit of the match. The Death guard flank held up so well, and slightly better roll from them (they rolled perfectly well, just being greedy here) to take the objective in the last turn would have been another potential swing which could have tied the game (another no prisoner point + 3 Stranglehold for me -5 primary for Ad Mech.) Still it was an eye opening experience facing Ad Mech for the first time and I was overly mostly happy about how I played - whilst I had units on the table I had the lead and whilst I possibly made some mistakes with target priority they were debatable and I felt I got the overall gameplan correct (Rush them and put as much pressure on as I could.) James managed to react well to my initial pressure and ended up taking 3rd place at the end.
At the end of day one I had placed in 6th, see if you can see a pattern to the top 10 otherwise:
Game 4
Mission: Sweep and Clear
My Secondaries:
Mission
Stranglehold
Warp Ritual
Opponents Secondaries:
Retrieve Octarius Data
Stranglehold
Grind them Down.
Opponents List:
Pregame thoughts: Given yesterday's game, I didn't go in confident - before the pairings were finalised I actually thought I was going to end up fighting a rather nasty Drukarki list and in a sentence I didn't think I would say a while ago, I was disappointed when I found out I wasn't playing them. Still the mission felt like it was in my favour, I could go all in on holding the middle and if the game turned into a scrap for the centre I felt like I had a much better shot. The terrain shielded both sides from a turn one salvo apart from the Lord of Skulls, who was sadly blocked from reaching Ad Mech line by terrain apart from one easily screenable entrance which meant Warptiming them up wasn't really an option. I really wanted to go second here to force my opponent out but sadly won the roll to go first.
I charged forward into the centre with everything green, but kept the Decimators hidden - one peeked a gun out to shoot some Serberys Raider but everything was so well hidden that I could only managed to kill two units of them, the Lord of Skulls headed up my left flank with some Deathshroud to secure the objective. The Plaguecaster's spells weren't essential, so using them as a Warp Ritual caster seemed like a good option with the 'go all in on the centre' plan and he managed to cast it.
Then Ad Mech won the game.
It's been awhile since I've felt a more devastating shooting phase and perhaps I underestimated what was coming my way. Looking back I could have drip fed my poxwalkers into the middle rather than charging them all up there but I felt at the time like 58 semi-resilient bodies was enough and that one unit combined with regeneration would then be able to go onto trade with something. This turned out to be woefully optimistic, by the time the guns had stopped shooting every Poxwalker was dead, the Lord of Skulls was barely clinging to life and the Plaguecaster was exposed - only momentarily saved until he was charged.
When one squad of reserved Deathshroud died to Auspex scan the end was confirmed and it was simply a matter of scrapping for points. The Lord of Skulls went into the centre and combined with some Deathshroud managed to clear it for a second bite at Stranglehold/mission but it barely delayed the inevitable as they both were destroyed along with one Decimator
Both were wiped off the face of the earth in the next turn as Ad Mech confirmed their dominance of the game. The Master of Possession went in for another Ritual cast/desperate assault on some Vanguard and the Discordant charged the Knight to try and buy some time whilst the last Decimator hid in the ruin to nab as many points as I could - the last Deathshroud unit also hid in a small ruin.
Thankfully the rest of the game was quick. I only needed to shoot once with the Decimator to try and prolong its life expectancy (didn't work) and pass the turnback to Ad Mech and they broke through. Thankfully, the Deathshroud made it to the end - unable to be targeted to keep the trickle of primary points going and avoid a back to back tabling. Final score 64- 87 to Ad Mech
Postgame thoughts - Jeez that was brutal. Going first really hurt, I couldn't take advantage of it given the terrain and exposing my army to Ad Mech went horribly wrong. Looking back, sending less poxwalkers to the centre turn one would have certainly prolonged the match as a contest, even if it wouldn't have changed the result. Still it was a lesson I did learn from (spoiler warning again) and I was happy that I did manage to scrap my way to a semi-respectable score, especially seeing some of the scores other people were putting in against Ad Mech.
Game 5 - Retrieval Mission
My Secondaries -
Grind them Down,
Stranglehold
Banners
Opponents Secondaries -
Engage
Retrieve Octarius Data
No Prisoners
Pregame thoughts - Going from a match up I was very worried about to one I was much more comfortable about. Having played a decent amount of post-Ritual of the Damned Grey Knights I was very happy with the match up - feeling I did more damage at range and in Melee, with the Grey Knights not having an answer to Decimators other than melee, feeling like it was going to be problematic for them. The potential of damage 4 smites was scary going into the Daemon Engines but I had a large amount of bodies to chuck in the way that weren't vulnerable to smite - adding to this the combination of Engage/RoD in my opponents secondaries meant they had to come to me, so the game plan was simple. Push up, screen the backfield, shoot anything that sat on the objective or pushed too close.
Again I managed to win the first turn. David had hidden well behind the Obscuring that was available to almost entirely mitigate the effect of the Lord of Skulls, however the same wasn't true of the Decimators as they tore into the Interceptors/Purgation squad close by to essentially remove any chance they could be taken out. Other than that the rest of the turn was just a case of moving up to stop any teleporting coming in too close to the middle, screening out my backfield with cultists/Deathshroud and putting some banners down.
Grey Knights turn one didn't go to plan, they moved up keeping to cover in tide of Shadows as best they could, but when the Plaguecaster managed a cheeky deny to stop Astral aim on the terminators there wasn't much they could do other than chip off a fairly trivial amount of poxwalkers - a decent amount of which I brought back next turn to keep my screen strong. Combined with failing the couple of long charges they could attempt put them in a very bleak position already.
Although I had the option to move a Poxwalker up and get an almost guaranteed charge off (with stringing out the returning bodies) I opted to almost skip my movement phase, just tweaking a few units to get better line of sight. I ended up getting a tad greedy - leaving a few units on one remaining, but still managed to clear up the terminators on my left flank and the Purifiers (who's potential access to a 2+ invul meant nothing when shot by Soul Petards consistent mortal wounds) to decimate the little remaining on the left flank whilst being able to ignore everything on the right.
Grey Knights went all in, pushing forward as aggressively as they could on my right flank and teleporting in danger close to take my central home objective, but they still lacked any real targets of note. They shot a poxwalker and cultist squad of the table, and put some damage into the Deathshrouds but it never felt like enough, especially with another failed longbomb charge failing.
With the Grey Knights fully committed now and in the open I could take the offensive. On the left flank a Poxwalker squad charged out the ruin and massively overkilled a strike squad with mortal wounds whilst on the Right my combined firepower left the flank in tatters with only Dreigo and a Chaplain left to take on the good fight.
Dreigo charged into the Plaguester to continue what sounded like a very impressive tally of kills throughout the tournament, but it was way too little and way too late and Chaos stomped into a 92-35 win.
Postgame thoughts - Plan worked perfectly here - I'm not sure Grey Knights made any mistakes here. Despite having plenty of anti-daemon tech they were the sort of slow, elite army my list thrives against and they couldn't chew through the Poxwalker hordes in time to get to the juicy daemon tech beyond which mowed them down every time they showed their face. Curious to see how a rematch would go in a couple of months' time when they have an updated book.
Game 6 - Priority Target
My Secondaries
Mission
Banners
Stranglehold
Opponents Secondaries
Eradication of Flesh (Whilst you have a vehicle on the table if you kill more infantry units than you lose vehicle unit gets 3vp)
Mission
Stranglehold
List:
Pregame - 3rd Ad Mech on the last day of a long weekend. Having been dabbling around the top tables all event it perhaps wasn't unexpected but it felt harsh especially as this list had even more long range anti-tank tech than the other two. One thing I'd been aware of is that my record in previous tournaments had typically been pretty good - I'd been putting myself into a position to end up either in/close to podium and often losing the last game to close any hope of that, so winning the last game had been a real goal before the event, especially as I had spent the event on the top few tables. However, again 3rd Ad Mech was very disheartening, although with a hidden upside that a repeat of game 3 would mean I could finish early and get home in good time. With another Ad Mech and a shooty Tyranid to my left and on very similar tournament points (whose Hive Guard I was terrified about facing) it wasn't as though a different match up would have been better. Pregame plan was simple - again try and use the Lord of Skulls to put as much pressure on as quickly as possible again and then fight for the centre. The Mission combined with the terrain meant that we weren't going to be able to touch our opponents mission secondary/home objectives baring a real disaster and both of us choosing Stranglehold meant the centre was crucial.
For the 6th time in the event I went first - can't complain about my luck in that regard! Two Deathshroud units made themself comfortable on either flank and made themselves at home with a banner on the objective. The Poxwalkers pushed up - unlike last time I expected them to die but I couldn't hide them as well and hoped it might take some pressure off the Lord of Skulls or force a combat unit to commit. I was more cautious on my right flank, not exposing either Decimator to firepower and hiding some Cultists behind a wall. Finally I swapped out Smite for Warptime and turbo charged the Lord of Skulls upfield to touch the Obscuring terrain, popped Demonforge and shot a Ballistarius unit hiding at the back. A very strong roll combined with a lucky explosion meant I managed to clear a unit completely.
Ad Mech's return was typically brutal, with one crucial exception. The Raiders moved in to get the middle objective in the start of their pattern to move in and out (but they did fail to shake it or do the hokey cokey) and the various infantry squads proceeded to blast all but a small handful few Poxwalkers off the table with one squad of vanguard teleporting across the table to threaten my right flank (bottom flank on most pictures) However for the first time all tournament Ad Mech shooting had a poor activation - the remaining 3 Ballistarius only managed one successful wound after saves against the Lord of Skulls doing 5 damage. Given it auto healed one and I spent a strat to regain an additional 3 he was going to present a real obstacle to Ad Mech going forwards.
From here I tried to remember the lessons that my last game against Ad Mech taught me, and only trickle a unit into the centre to score Domination rather than try and hold it at the start of my turn - this turn the sacrifice had to be a Poxwalker squad although I had to also move up a Deathshroud unit to force the Raiders back. My plan at this point was simple - trade on the middle and kill the remaining ad mech tanks to stop them getting Eradicators of flesh - doing so whilst continuing to trade on Stranglehold/secondary objectives/primary meant if I killed them in two turns I would end up against by one point thanks to banners reliable 10 points. The Lord of Skulls, popping Demonforge again popped another two Ballistarius and charged into the Ranger squad - despite having a huge amount of high strength multiple damage attacks with the chance for DTTFE the concentrated buffs meant he killed about 4 of the Rangers (I mistook Rangers and Vanguard throughout the tournament, they could easily be either squad in any mention above) and there roadblock stopped him pushing further into Ad Mech lines. On the other flank, the Decimators lined up into the Vanguard and deleted 15 of them, all the ridiculous armour buffs in the world unable to save them from the deluge of mortal wounds coming their way with some cultists exposed to help protect them from any melee counter attack.
The next wave of Ad Mech came in - Electro priests teleported in behind me and took out my Plaugecaster with a strong charge as the Raiders retook the middle, shooting the Poxwalkers to death, however for the first time v Ad Mech it felt like it was still in the balance and that they were running out of options quicker than I was especially when despite a huge volume of firepower coming in from the backfield Ranger squads (including the engaged one which could fall back and shot without issue) the Lord of Skull remained, relatively health sitting just below half health.
I chose not to heal the Lord of Skulls beyond his automatic regeneration, to leave him just bracketed on his middle profile to gain some bonus attacks (Yay for angry degeneration) the movement and strength loss almost irrelevant and he charged back into the middle with some Deathshroud - this time his guns finished off the Bellastarius and Decimators opened up on the Dunerider - just as I was feeling confident about stopping eradication of flesh, a 4+ FNP strategem came out to keep it alive for another turn. The Discordant for the first time in the event had a meaningful combat, charging into the backfield Electro priests, leaving one left after morale to stop any chance Ad Mech had left of meaningfully getting into my backfield. Finally the Lord of Skulls annihilated the Infiltrator squad in combat as the Raiders again fell back to avoid the Deathshrouds charge (although they joined the charge on the Princeps to get some extra movement)
The last meaningful wave of Ad Mech crashed into me - unable to screen them out any longer the other Infiltrator squad cleared out my last cultists to stopped them jumping on the middle next turn, whilst also charging both Decimators, although they failed to do much last damage after Infernal Regeneration and popping the Iron Warriors heal 3 strat on one. The Raiders retook the middle again and rolled hot on there mortal wound output to blow the Deathshroud away but the remaining Ad Mech still couldn't meaningfully damage the Lord of Skulls, especially when I remembered that I could dull their Ap by 1 with another strat and had the CP for it!
Out of CP and low on units, the Ad Mech were finally vulnerable as I retook the centre in commanding fashion with the Lord of Skulls and Lord Discordant. The Lord of Skulls finished off the Dunerider to deny Ad Mech their source of Eradications of Flesh points. One Decimators managed to clear up most of the infiltrators tagging them, although smart removal of bodies left the other with little to shoot at even after being freed up. However as if to prove a point how the battle was going to go, the Lord of Skulls charge on the Raiders was hilarious brutal - managing to roll a insane 27 additional attacks thanks to the Lord Discordant buffing death to the false emperor to a 5+ and each attack being an additional 3, it was hilarious overkill against the Raiders even before this and left Ad Mech with no way to keep throwing things onto the middle. Even then, the mission still ended up close on the scoreboard but Chaos wasn't to be stopped as they came out 90-82 winners.
Postgame thoughts - I was buzzing after this. Two Ad Mech defeats had somewhat dented my spirits going into this game (both opponents were great, taking the time out to tell me what there stuff did, warning me about Auspex scan etc) but it had felt so unwinnable, and it felt like the Lord of Skulls dying failing all the FNP rolls in the first Ad Mech game would have been my best chance of victory against them. Even after a strong start, it wasn't until half way through turn 2 when I realised that Banners v Eradication in secondary scoring could put me a point up that couldn't be matched was the key to win, until then it was very much a case of put the pressure on and see what sticks. After then I could be slightly more restrained with that I threw in the centre until eventually the Lord of Skulls/Lord Discordant couldn't be displaced at the end. The Lord of Skulls was a superstar - going off alone and away from the buffs, tanking most of the Ad Mech firepower after turn one and being an all around pain.
Final standing: 4/2 wins/losses, 6th overall out of 43 players with those above me going Ad Mech, Iron Hands, Ad Mech, Ad Mech, Drukari. Just below me was another Ad mech, then two Drukari with a pure Death Guard list rounding out the top 10.
From where I was I was delighted to finish 6th, especially with facing 3 Ad Mech players who at the halfway stage had been 2nd, 4th and 5th at the event before the Ad Mech mirrors began. I made sure I didn't take any risks in the match ups I was favoured in, typically playing defensively behind a huge wall of Poxwalkers and was much more aggressive against Ad Mech. Given the change to replay the loss's I'm not sure there was anything meaningful I could have done to chance the outcome, and I'm happy with how I scrapped for points in both games given some of the horror stories going around - even in my worst loss in game 4 I managed 64 points which felt respectable given how badly I was outshot in that match, a friend of mine (and a very good player) who played the same player I did in round 3 only managed 26 in the same match up and had to "fight bloody hard even for that."
Normally when I look back on an event I want to find ways to tweak the list, but it's hard to find room to tweak anything without huge changes. Swapping out Death Guard for another Chaos detachment would be an option - but they gave me exactly what I felt the list needed beforehand, tough mid-board presence that didn't need CP (unlike Emperors Children) or if they did it was with the potential to be game winning against the right opponent - I was sad to avoid the multitude of Death Guard players throughout as the mortal wound output + screens would have put them in a very tough tough spot. The weakest unit was probably the Lord Discordant - there was only one match were his melee input was remotely worthwhile and 195 points is a lot for a +1 to hit buff (especially compared to the cheap and powerful buffs Ad Mech characters were throwing around), even though it does make both the Decimators in particular monstrously efficient at range. Originally I had envisaged using him more aggressively with Advance + Charge Relic and Baleflamer to up his damage output, but going more defensive with Autocannon + Insidium relic for extra Toughness + Wound ended up being the better choice. One weirdly key decision I made was to keep marks off units were possible - there weren't any relevant strats I could use thanks to given them a mark and it opened up the chance for all sort of random and surprisingly numerous faction bonuses against units (Aeldari re rolling v Slaanesh for example.)The only other thing up for consideration would be swapping Daemonsmith on the Master of Possession for one of the Shadowspear buffs to make the powers more reliable at casting - in the games were the Ad Mech were able to shoot the Decimators off he hadn't got the 4+ invul power off (once by choice, I had already used a re-roll to cast and would have had to spend a extra CP to try and cast a 7+) which could have potentially kept them alive longer. Still its more of a season to taste choice than anything that fundamentally changes it. If I had to make a change, dropping the Lord Discordant for a sorcerer with Prescience to somewhat mimic the effect + probably Warptime and a utility squad like Raptors would seem like a reasonable inclusion, or if I had to go with a 'pure' CSM only build then trying out Abbadon + fearless Cultists instead of Death Guard + Discordant and using Abbadon's full reroll aura near the Demon Engines would also seem like a reasonable shout with some extra utility but weakens the combat presence considerably. If I was really teching the list to beat Ad Mech dropping down on the Death guard elements to add another big tough Murder machine would be an option although its awkward having 2 Lord of Skulls in a list (and 3 requires a drastic re-write) so I'm not sure what this would actually be - maybe adding some Plagueburst Crawlers wither either flamers or entropy canon would be a best option and the added Non-Los firepower to help tease out some backfield units bieng an option. Overall though I was delighted with how the list performed and probably wouldn't change anything, even if it took pretty much a perfect storm of going first, good mission, poor Lascannon volley and some good rolls on my side to actually get over the line against Ad Mech!