Kent Wargames Tournament RTT
(Pictures no longer work due to storage issue.)
It's been awhile since I've played at a tournament, however I was talked into going to a local RTT which had been getting some rave reviews by friend. After playing mostly Eldar through the back end of 8th I've been playing with my Death Guard in 9th and getting to learn them. Despite not having all the models I'd like, they list felt pretty strong - although it was the first time I'd run the specific combination of units:
My list:
Death Guard + Demons
1997 pts Starting CP - 4.
Deamons Patrol (Mixed)
HQ - Lord of Change - 270. Warlord. Warlord Trait - Incorporeal Form - Relic - The Impossible Robe, Exalted Trait - Aura of Mutability Infernal Gateway, Gaze of fate, Treason of Tzeentch
Troops - Nurglings *3 - 54 pts
Troops - Nurglings *3 - 54 pts
Death Guard Battalion (3cp) + 5 cp on pre game upgrades
HQ - Chaos Lord - Plague Chosen (Arch Contaminator) Bolt Pistol, Chainsword. 80 pts 1 cp
HQ - Malignant Plaugecaster - Miasma of Pestilence, Blades of Putrefaction -
Troops - Plague Champion with powerfist, plague knife, bolter, 7 Plague marines with bolter/plague knife, 2 plague marines with Flail of corruption - 220pts
Troops - Plague Champion plague knife, bolter, 7 Plague marines with bolter/plague knife, 2 plague marines with Flail of corruption - 210pts
Troops - Plague champion plague knife/ bolter, 2 plague marines with bolter/plague knife 2 plague marines with plasma gun - 110 pts
Troops - Plague champion plague knife/ bolter, 2 plague marines with bolter/plague knife 2 plague marines with plasma gun - 110 pts
Elite - Biolgus Putfier - 65 pts
Elite - Foul Blightspawn - 85 pts
Elite - Noxious Blightbringer- 60 pts - The Demons Tolls - 1cp
Fast Attack - 5 Chaos Spawn, contaminated monstrosity - 115 pts 1 cp
Fast Attack - 5 Chaos Spawn, contaminated monstrosity - 115 pts 1 cp
Fast Attack - 5 Chaos Spawn, contaminated monstrosity - 115 pts 1 cp
Dedicated transport - Chaos Rhino Combi Bolter - 78 pts
Dedicated transport - Chaos Rhino Combi Bolter - 78 pts
Dedicated transport - Chaos Rhino Combi Bolter - 78 pts
The lord of change in particular was new - I'd been using either a Thousand Sons patrol (but didn't like giving up abhor the witch easily) or a mixed nurgle patrol (with sorcerer to buff up the spawn/plague marines) but decided to try the lord of change given I had a nicely painted one that had been gathering dust ever since I purchased in it 7th edition! Otherwise the plan was simple - try and dominate the objective with spawn, and punch/grenade anything that tried to contest with the plague marines. The two big marine squads always started in rhino and the one of the smaller marine squads + all the infantry characters apart from the Blightbringer started in the last one and was never tempted to put anything in reserve.
To be covid compliant everyone was in bubbles - I'd been told beforehand by the same friend that convinced me to join I'd probably be in the lowest tier bubble - suits me given I hadn't played competitively in 9th yet. Was somewhat shocked to find myself originally seeded in the second tier bubble the night before, and when someone dropped to find myself in the top tier.
Game 1 -
Mission - Scouring
My Secondaries - Mission secondary/engage on all front/Assassinate
Matt's secondaries (from memory) - Engage on all fronts, while we stand we fight, linebreaker
Grey Knights first up, I lost the roll off and was asked to go first given my lack of any real guns. I couldn't reach the Grey knights handing back, and with a terminator blob in reserve + the thread of gate felt the best plan was to try and put as much pressure on the objective plan as possible and try and deny linebreaker points. To this end I screened out my deployment + middle part of the board as best I could, and started scanning as many objectives as possible.
Matt responded by throwing his Interceptor squad up the board and shooting off spawn unit and both Nurgling units, leaving the rest of his army out of counter punch range.
My turn two was essentially a copy of the first - I popped clouds of flies on a plague marine squad and disembarked them so they could hold out the backfield whilst throwing spawn and rhinos forward to keep screening. I made my first offensive move of the game by shooting a single bolter shot at the interceptor squads and passed the turn.
The paladin bomb then came and started to dakka the rhino on my right flank, but some good saves crucially meant it survived. The rest of the army started whittling down the spawn but the game turned very quickly due to two charges with poor outcomes - firstly the interceptor squad charged a spawn squad but only killed one, and were destroyed in the following turn (with assistance from the other squad) secondly the Paladins gated across and charged the rhino and killed with 10 plague marines, in a effort to avoid the Putificer's grenades from the back unit they elected not to touch the disembarking plague marines but a good advance roll on my turn from the Putrifer allowed a devastating grenade combo upon the Paladins, - a couple clang on thanks to a number of defensive strats but were finished off in the assault phase to give me a large lead on both primary and secondarys and with huge advantage on board control
The final Grey knight push went poorly - the terminators had to use a strat to deep strike close to the plague marines on the left flank to avoid a potentially repeat of the grenade death that cost the paladins so much, but failed to eliminate the plague marines holding the objective there and when 2/4 characters rolled a double 1 on the charge on a pesky rhino and the remaining two failed to do any damage of note Matt conceded.
Final score - 97-10
The game plan went way better than expected - mostly due to the mistake with the paladins. If they had wrapped the marines they would have probably been fine, and if they hadn't charged the rhino at all they would have remained a threat long into the match. Thankfully the objective pressure seemed to pay - certainly I was starting to worry about losing too many units and was starting to run out of units to screen with, I was spread very thin at the end of turn two and had the opportunity to delete a paladin bomb not presented itself might have felt the need to overextended to try and claim some kills. As it was, it ended up being a huge win for the death guard - the margin (not for the first time today) flattering them.
Game two - Necrons
Mission scorched earth
Secondaries
Mine - Engage on all fronts - while we stand we fight, psychic ritual
Daniil's - Purge the vermin, raise banners, while we stand we fight
Gameplan was tough here - I really was going to struggle to move the Necrons once they got to the middle. I also got my deployment wrong - I wanted to use the plague marines to bomb the warrior blobs, but put the spawn down too early and ended up having the marines pushed over middle/right with the warriors on the left with a building to shield them if needed. As such I decided to try and push in the middle/right as much as possible - I wanted to screen the Lord of Change from the Nightbringer in the middle for long enough to complete the ritual and hope I could take the right flank quicker quicker than the Necrons could push through the Spawn on the left.
Turn one was very cagey - I lost the roll for the first turn and Necrons double moved into position. Necrons mortal wound splash damage potential surprised me, but thankfully wasn't too bad as Necrons mostly took a strong board position without doing too much damage - most worryingly was the Lord of Change deciding to destroy himself by falling off the table - hence the base in the photo!
On my turn I moved up the field and started casting ritual - with no shooting phase it was a quick turn - the spawns tried some speculative charges and managed to get into some scarabs hiding in the ruin but didn't manage to kill the unit.
If turn one was cagey, turn two was nasty. Necrons came out all guns blazing destroying two spawn squads (one via Nightbriniger in combat), the central Rhino and some of the plague marines inside to leave the left flank reeling - the right flank went better with the Wraiths chewing up some Nurglings and charging a rhino to slow it down.
I needed to counter attack, and managed to hit back hard enough - I unleashed my grenade bombardment killing one Necron warrior squad to a man - just avoiding the chance for them to regenerate, my remaining spawn managed to kill 8 warriors on the other squad - only to see them all resurrect over the course of the next turn! The plague marines on the right got buffed with blades of purification and killed the Wraiths on the right blank but despite a few charges a scarab on the right flank survived - and was later able to deny a primary point. Finally the plague marine squad in the centre killed the Cryptek - only to see him roll a 4+ on a strat to regenerate.
We were pressed for time at this stage - turn 3 saw the Necrons finish off my remaining left almost to a man and teleport the warriors across the table via the respawned Cryptek to kill my plague marine squad. With my army in tatters but time up, I passed my turn baring casting the third physic ritual to complete the secondary and totted up the points - despite being slightly behind on primaries my ritual had just put me slightly ahead at the time we had to call the game, and ended up winning 59-55
The final rush at the end was a bit of a blur as we scrambled to get the time in to play a third round - it was very harsh on Daniil to end up losing like that given he would have been in total control of the battlefield for rest of game baring a huge series of bad luck.
Game 3 - James Raven Guard Successors -
No list available on BCP - so from memory
2 Contemptors with quad lascannons
2 Eradicator squads 4/5 man
1 Plasma Interceptor squads
1 assault centurion squad with flamers
1 Scorpius whirlwind
1 Captain with teeth of terra/stormshield/jetpack
1 Chaplain
2 5 Aggressor squads
My Secondaries - Engage on all fronts, while we stand we fight, Mission
James secondaries - Grind them down, engage on all fronts, deploy scrambles.
I'd played James a couple of times before - they had always been really good games and James is a great opponent. This game came straight on the back of game 2 given we had overrun and I was a tad frazzled in my deployment, completely forgetting to screen out with my Nurglings.
James took full advantage, Raven-guarding his way forward and starting unleashing havoc - the dreadnaughts/eradicators blew up two Rhinos and the Interceptors and forward aggressor squad blew up all but 3 plague marines. The aggressors charged a spawn squad - but thankfully a combination of poor rolls and good saves meant only one died - the interceptors also charged some Nurglings but failed to do any damage of note.
Behind, I had to try and push back the initial wave and hope for some luck. The turn didn't go as I'd hoped but it wasn't a disaster - I killed the forward aggressor squad without much issue via Spawn/remaining plague marines and threw the Lord of change at the Captain - sadly he rather whiffed and only managed 2 mortal wounds via Smite. The Interceptors were reduced to two men via other spawn.
Turn two threatened to be devastating, most of my army was in the open and the centurion's deep strike and threatened to raise hell. Thankfully for me - things mostly bounced. Whilst the Centurions made there charged on the lord of change only a handful of wounds made it past the creature saves, the left flank eradicators did manage to blow up a good chuck of a spawn squad, but the two Nurlings squads managed to survive the turn - a squad on the far right flank tanking a entire aggressor volley for a mere two wounds. At the end of James' turn I was still mostly in shape, and critically was matching him on both primaries and secondaries.
Turn two I started pushing out, after some consideration I fell back with the lord of change to allow one of the small plasma plague marines squads in the rhino to start to take out the centurions, combined wit the foul blightspawn and some physic assistance from the plaguecaster they managed to reduce the centurions to only 1 left who they finished off in assault - three crucial charges, one from a spawn squad into the middle eradicators, , one from two nurlgins into the plasma interceptors and one from the three nurlings on the far right into the whirlwind didn't kill much, but massively hurt James ability to shoot me next turn and by the end of turn I had snuck ahead on points on the slenderest of leads.
From here - the game became very scrappy half beaten up units clashing - but the secondaries started to slowly pil up in my favour - the nurglings continued to be a huge pain, the squad on the right took 4 lascannons the attention of one of the dreadnaughts for a turn - and one survived as they continue to harry the whirlwind scorpius - for the rest of the game the last one followed it around, charging it and tying it up. The captain charged deep into my right flank were a solitary objective was held by a plasma plague marine squad (who I'd basically forgotten about) - however they managed to tank the damage, the plaguecaster got stuck in on my turn, trying to kill the captain but whiffed allowing the captain a chance to kill him and probably take the flank - however a couple of slightly above saves and disgustingly resilient kept him clinging to life on a wound and the plague marines managed to kill in next turn.
In the middle things threatened to swing both ways, but ended up in a stalemate. The eradicators and dreadnaughts were back up by the final aggressor squad to push the spawn back, but not before the eradicators were felled by the lord of change who then swept off the right flank - with the time the spawn had brought them though and a cheeky rhino charge into a dreadnaught they put me ahead on primary for the first time - a 10 point swing in my favour and a additional 2 on the secondary. The aggressors threatened to advance down the middle back into my lines, gunning down a plague marine squad however the blightspawn overcharged his gun and held them back.
With the game tight, secondaries became important - James had to give up big shooting opportunities - one with plasma interceptors, one with his final eradicator unit on the left flank to start deploying scramblers - only to be intercepted by a spawn unit stopping them from getting to my deployment - ending up costing him vital secondary points and shooting time.
The game was decided late, with time running out the Blightbringer passed 2 5+ invuls to shrug off some lascannon shots after the chaplain had shot across my left flank to take my objective, the spawn then rolled hot to kill the final eradicators on the left flank, and pushed forward to take objective in front of them - denying primaries and secondaries.As a result, I could then hide my stand and fight characters (apart from Lord of change who was gaining wounds at this point) to claim a win 91-57, another flattering scoreline on a brilliant sea-saw game.
The curiosities of the covid-required bubbles meant out of 26 players, 7 players at the event went 3-0, with only 3 players going 2-0! I finished 5th which given the strength of opposition I'd have certainly taken at the start. The undefeated lists in order - Harlequins, Raven Guard, Blood Angels, Harlequins, Death Guard/Demons (me), Chaos Demons, Sisters of battle.
As for my list itself there were certainly some tweaks I'd make if running again - the loadout on the plague marines was mostly dictated my actual models - swapping the plasma guns for more flails and dropping the bolters for extra plague knife would certainly have increased their output, albeit they were plenty killy enough with buffs when needed. Over the three games I think I shot a total of 21 bolter shots, none of which were especially relevant.
The various support characters were clutch, Boilgus allowed the army to wrack up huge amounts of damage and the resulting board control from its threat range was game winnings, the Blightbringer was huge all tournament in combination with the spawn and the plague plaguecaster's blades of putrefaction was another key piece of the puzzle, even if miasma tended to be something of a second thought. The Blightspawn, despite being incredible in a lot of my other death guard games was rather underwhelming - party as I was using him starting him in the Rhino and following the plague marines who tended to be charging, rather than being charged - the plague marines also tended to hog the little cp I had so I didn't use his plague sprewer a great deal at range. Retrospectively sending him with the spawn to utilise his counter-assault aura would have probably been a better use of his abilities.
The rhino's were a quietly brilliant unit, their speed was key in getting my troops to the middle and they did a lot of work screening and protecting the plague marines from chip damage. The nurglings picked up engage on all fronts consistently and were a constant pain, especially in game 3 a lone Nurgling base following a whirlwind scorpius around the battlefield for several turns the most memorable sub-plot of a great game.
The Lord of change was the most interesting unit looking back - he killed 2 models over the three games, but was key on secondaries so often and his ability to tank damage like nothing else helped turn around game 3 after a horrid start.
In more general terms if I was to try and optimise the list going forwards, I'd probably lean heavier into demons and away death guard - having the demon battalion and DG/patrol frees up a lot of CP - especially if I swap the Spawn for Beasts. There's a really interesting comparison between the two units - if I went with spawn again I'd probably go back to having a Nurgle sorcerer to cast Warp Time/prescience on them, although not having that option probably stopped me over extending when feeling behind! The list in general was a very different playstyle to what I had been running in 8th, frequently at the start of the game I moved into position and passed the turn without a shot in anger which is a rather unsettling feeling still! I did want to include a nasty mid/long range shooting unit - but equally I'm not sure what there is for DG/demons (outside of FW models perhaps) and also critically, I'm not sure what I'd drop to make room. I'm pretty sure that in terms of the point values of units remaining, in all 3 games I was down - the list often sacrificed units for board position and couldn't also make efficient trades given the large number of support elements.