Warhammer 40k game: Orks vs Death Guard 1650pts
Report and story: Jakub
Polkowski and Jarosław Westermark
We are using folding table and mats from
Urbanmatz
Story
— Report! Sensorium! A full scan of surrounding space! Engines! Full
power! Shields and fire stations to be ready IMMEDIATELY!!! Typhus
grunted and slowly leaned back on the throne, which made a
squirmed and clung to his ancient armour like a living
organism as soon as it touched its surface.
The cursed, plague warship Terminus Est has just translated into a
system near the planet Jarnax. Through the tear in reality, the
immaterium poured into the void like pus oozing from an
open wound. The ancient engines came into life and the
ship sped up rapidly, dragging a wake of pure madness behind it.
— Looo-orddd, no signs of activiiiity within thh-ee sensor
range. Hissed the creature that had once been a proud naval
officer. Now, its legless body consisted mostly of ulcers,
pimples, and wounds that never healed. The creature's eyes were
gouged out many centuries ago, and in their place implants
connected directly to the ship's cogitators were installed. Its
hands met a similar fate. The fact that it was still alive (if such an existence may be considered life at all) despite
this mutilation was a gift from Nurgle. The rest of the command bridge crew looked just
as grotesque, but Typhus paid them no attention. All that mattered was that they
obeyed his orders.
Minutes passed. The Manreaper stirred in the hands of the Death Guard, making ghastly noises as if the air itself
was dying on contact with the foul blade. Typhus was weary of the
hunt for the Betrayer. He has spent the last months in an endless
pursuit, always being a step behind. The Betrayer and his
followers left behind only worlds drowned in blood, which had been
their hallmark since the time of the Horus heresy. Was this how
Nurgle wanted to test the stubbornness and steadfast will of his
champion? Typhus was doubtful.
— Coo-ontact. Deeee-teection of a single aano-ooomaly on the
surface.
— All data on my display! The commander's screen was flooded
with a stream of raw data. Typhus absorbed data and analyzed it
effortlessly.
— Repeat the scan! One more such mistake and the sensorium
would have a new officer. The being whimpered as it
read the threat.
— Siii-irrr, scan done. Sendi-iii...
The Traveller assimilated and processed new data in a few
milliseconds. They were inconsistent and contradictory just like
the previous ones. The officer's skull exploded in the red fog
before he finished his sentence. Smoke was rising from the barrel
of Typhus's bolt pistol. The noise on the bridge died down.
Everyone knew the commander's explosive nature and knew it was
better to remain invisible at a time like this.
— Find a replacement for this loser. Helm! Take up a
geostationary position over the anomaly. Armoury! Prepare for
landing. We go to the surface. All positions are to be on full
alert. Typhus rose rapidly from his throne and went alone to
his quarters.
Clouds of dust began to descend slowly to the surface of the
planet Jarnax after demonic vehicles that were once elegant
Stormbirds took off.
Death Guard legionaries stood silently around their commander,
watching the area vigilantly. Their mere presence on the ground
was starting to ruin the planet's ecosystem. The surrounding
lichen rotted in the blink of an eye, and the small rodents living
in the burrows of the sun-cracked soil were clawing at the
cancerous growths which had sprouted on their bodies.
Poisonous fumes spilt from the chimney-like growths on Typhus's
back, and from the cracks in his armour, fly-like creatures slowly
emerged, carrying a disease worse than death. Yes. This world was
already dead. Like thousands before it. However, something was
wrong. Uncertainty lurked in the far part of Typhus' being. A feeling
he has not known in millennia. It came to the surface every time
he focused his gaze on the deserted city in front of him. Exactly
where the anomaly was.
Typhus shook his head to ward off the feeling. No matter what's in
there. Whether it's the traitor or not, they will find the
source of the anomaly and destroy it.
— Forward! He ordered through the vox, and his companions
followed him. Their rotten armour, covered in boils and various growths,
made sounds like dying animals while they were moving.
The troops entered the ruins of the city, covering each other - in
a manner their legion had followed since they had served the
Emperor of Terra.
Typhus sensed the threat. He knew that the enemy was lurking
nearby, but some mighty veil prevented him from using his powers
and fully taking in the situation.
Suddenly the air exploded and turned from utter silence to an
overwhelming clatter. The roar of a thousand throats was heard in
the air, but one voice overwhelmed the others.
The ranks of the Death Guard were flooded with bullets and
missiles of various calibres, though the vast majority of the projectiles
missed the targets, or bounced off their ancient armour. Clouds
of black, oil-thick smoke from starting vehicles appeared on the
horizon. The roars of primitive engines hitting high revs
added to the cacophony.
Typhus couldn't believe it. He let himself be surprised and
ambushed. By the orks. Anger and disgust overwhelmed him
immediately.
— KILL THEM ALL! LET NONE SURVIVE!
His brothers responded in the only possible way - shooting and
killing their opponents by the dozen as they pressed forward.
Never backing down.
Armies
Death Guards
The antagonists have always been closer to my heart, so
for today's game, I took with me the Chaos Space Marines. The entire
army is in the colours of my favourite Death Guard legion from the
Horus Heresy era.
Unfortunately, this will only be my
second game in the 4th edition of Warhammer 40k and I hope I will
not make any stupid mistakes during the game. Overall, it is going
to be a long leafing through the pages of the rulebook and codexes…
hehehe
I will play using the codex that came out at the very
end of the 4th edition and was “current” for the whole 5th edition.
Although it is a very simplified form compared to the previous one,
I want to give it one more chance.
With the selection
of the army, I was very limited by the number of painted models
that I have in my collection because everyone knows that unpainted
figures do not fight and do not shoot 😉
Despite this fact,
I am satisfied with what I was able to field.
HQ:
Typhus is probably the most obvious choice because my whole rotten
warband cannot be led by anyone other than him. The demon prince,
Nugel's herald, will be supported on the battlefield by the foul
creatures inhabiting the abyss of the warp.
Troops:
Plague Marines packed in a Rhino in the magical number of 7 models.
So a backbone that you can never go to war without. They're tough,
bad and ugly, do you need anything more from an infantry? 😉
Plaguebearers of course also in the magical number of 7
models.
I cannot imagine the Demon without the company
of his smaller festering brothers.
Chaos Space Marines
packed in a Rhino.
A unit was selected to satisfy the force
organization rules. They will be replaced by the second Plague
Marines unit in the near future.
Elite:
The Dreadnought is the essence of Warhammer and, for me, one of the
most beautiful models in the CSM army. I don't even take into
account its randomness during the game, it just has to be in the
list. End of story.
Chaos Space Marines Terminators is
another unit that is a must-have in the army. If only for the fluff.
Heavy Support:
Obliterators are a walking arsenal of virtually all heavy
weaponry available to the Chaos army, and I want to take advantage
of their unrivalled range and flexibility of weapon selection for any
given situation.
Predator armed with 4 lascannons to
take out heavy equipment of the enemy.
Unfortunately,
my army is not very numerous and each loss of a model will be
costly and painful. To make it even more difficult, I will face a
horde of orks who will strive for a quick engagement. So I will try
to stretch a battle line and thin this green mass a lot with the
help of flamethrowers and area spells.
I hope it will make
it much easier for me to break through in hand-to-hand combat with
the rest of the guys who will reach me.
Let Papa Nurgle
protect us all 😉
Orks
Hello again!
It is hard to believe that the last battle report was published
almost 3 years ago. The covid19 affected all of us really hard when
it comes to wargaming. In the meantime the 9th edition changed so
many times that I have lost track of how to play it - new points,
codex power creep, new missions, updates and erratas made me miss
the old, simpler days. When You had one FOC, your army, the enemy
in front of You and a mission to complete. Without all those combos
of auras, traits, relicts and strategems.
That is why the
battle-reports team discussed what to do, and we are going to try
to reactivate wh40k 4th edition. I wanted 3rd but was in the
minority. So 4th it be! (but 3rd will be also present ;) ). For me
personally, it will be quite a challenge - I think in the past I
played 2 games of the 4th edition in total, so after all those
years it will be a brand new game for me.
Is
there any better army to fight against to celebrate the end of the
pandemic break than to fight against the followers of Papa Nurgle -
the infamous Death Guard? I also think that this is a perfect
choice :)
I have totally zero experience about how to fight
them or what units to expect(besides I know that Typhus will be the
HQ), so I will simply build a Waaagh that will look nice on the
table. Also, I have zero valid experience with the 4th edition orks
as well :)
So, let's start with the HQ. The choice is simple - it has to start with
Ghazkull himself. Who else might stand a chance to take down the
Traveler, the favoured champion of Decay? 40k is fluff and
mood and for me and it means fielding named characters. This epic
duel has to take place! One thing is bothering me here - the 4th
edition Ghaz model sucks in my opinion. This meant to be the
biggest and the meanest ork in da galaxy??? The kromlech
mega-armoured warboss dwarfed this little fella that was not even
funny. The good thing is that the model was updated for the 8th
edition and it looks AMAZING. Even luckier - I have just painted
him and this incarnation I will be using in this battle report.
My second HQ will be a mek with a shokk attack gun. Why? I
have painted him quite recently and wanted to try him. I am almost
sure that he will do nothing, but hey! Maybe he will actually win
the battle for me?
From the Troops section, I opted
for 3 units of 26 boyz with nobz armed with power klaws and
bosspoles. One unit will have shootas and two others will be armed with
choppas and sluggas. I hope to have enough bodies to drown those stinky
boyz in blood - mine and theirs.
I have added also 11 ‘ard
boyz in a trukk with klaw nob as well - so I could grab objectives
or neutralize heavy stuff quickly as possible.
In the
Elite section I picked 4 meganobz in a trukk - the idea is to push
them as fast as possible into close combat when I hope they will do
some damage or buy me time to main units of boyz to catch up.
Heavy support is packed with grot units - 3 killa kans with
rokkits and 3 kannon batteries with 2 ammo runts. It is good to
have some anti-tank weapons and it is the cheapest way how to
do it. I was thinking about dropping the kans for the lootas but
the rule of the cool ultimately won over.
For fast attack, I
opted for 2 deffkoptas with rokkits - a nice and cheap utility unit
that hopefully won’t die on turn one and maybe will finally kill
someone…
All in all army was 1649 points that looks nice on
the battlefield and is really orky!
My battle plan is easy -
get into close combat and chop the enemy!
WAAAAGH!!!!
Pre battle
Mission: Seek and destroy Alpha level
Deployment:
Death Guard won roll-offs for side selection and for the first
turn and decided to begin turn 1.
Deffkopta on the left flank used its scout move to leap forward.
Battle
Death Guard turn 1
The Dreadnought passed its crazed test and moved forward 5 inches.
Both Rhinos moved only 3 inches. The rest of the army remained
stationary.
The Predator opened the shooting phase -
powerful beams of energy struck the Killa kans - and one of the
walkers was destroyed.
The Rhino next to the bunker shot his pile-mounted
bolter at the Boyz next to the Killa kans and managed to kill a
single ork boy. The rest of the army was out of range so the turn
ended.
Orks turn 1
Except for the Mek with shokk attack gun and the grot
artillery everything pushed forward. The Trukk with Meganobz hid behind
a building so the Predator wouldn’t be able to shoot it. The second
trukk with the ‘ard boyz parked in front of the Dreadnought blocking
his way.
The demon-infested Predator was cooling its
lascannons after its first devastating salvo into the closing orks.
Its target priorities were clear - the towering, crude walkers
were the biggest threat and needed to be eliminated. Soleb was
sweeping the greenskins battleline and shooting the hull-mounted combi
bolter when he saw a potential new threat.
— Brother Hakoss, the orks seem to have brought
up some scrap artillery. Do we care?
Hakoss was generously bestowed by Father Nurgle's gifts. His legs
and arms were transformed into multiple dripping tendrils that
were permeating the whole tank like the nervous system. He was
fused with the machine spirit of the vehicle. He was the tank.
The inbuild vocalizer screeched:
— Original target remains. Those
grots are not able to hit us from that distance.
Soleb vox-clicked confirmation and resumed firing at the closest
orks. The last thing he heard in his millenia-long life was the
sound of triple explosions in the distance and the screams of
a scorched Hakoss a few seconds later.
Grot kanons targeted the predator. All of them
hit(one after using an ammo runt) and then 2 were converted into
glancing hits and one was a penetrating hit, which resulted in
“Vehicle destroyed”!
The remaining two killa kans shot at the rhino
next to the bunker and one of the rockets found the weak spot in
the transport armour also causing a “Vehicle destroyed” result as
well.
The shokk attack gun sucked one of the grots
and aimed at marines in the bunker. The strength was 9 but the
ordnance scattered 4 inches. Still - it managed to kill one of the
marines.
The rest of the shooting did not cause any
damage.
Death Guard turn 2
Once again the crazed dreadnought managed to control itself.
Next, three demon-possessed Obliterators materialised next to
Typhus.
The Plague Marines took position next to the ruins.
The Demon Prince and Typhus hid behind the mechanicum silos.
The only operational Rhino inched forward.
The Dreadnought moved toward the doomed orks
in the Trukk.
The ancient machine fired at the Trukk with
every weapon. The lascanon managed to hit the engine immobilizing
the transport and a heavy flamer stunned the crew.
Budrom pushed the acceleration pedal to the
floor. The engine wailed loudly hitting the revs and thick black
smoke flew out of the exhaustion chimneys and the trukk rushed
forward. His vision narrowed into a small tunnel surrounded by
yellow and blue. He screamed with joy. He lived for speed.
Budrom heard the metal sound of the clunky Nobz armours collide in
the back when the truck's wheel dropped into the hole and made the
whole vehicle slide to the left.
— WOTCH ‘UT! U DAMB GIT! DE’R SHOTIN
UZ! - Zragbozz, the meganobz boss yelled at him.
— Wot? - the driver screamed back. Then he saw it. Out of
nowhere, the 3 huge figures appeared on the right. He managed to
lock one axis and overcharge the second one and pushed the trukk
into a semi-controlled slip but it was too late. One las shot went
wide but the other two energy beams hit the machine and ignited
the fuel tanks. The trukk with its’ crew and passengers were
obliterated in the torrential explosion.
The Obliterators transformed into living
lascanons and managed to hit the Trukk twice. Hits penetrated the
scrap armour. As a result both the transport and its
passengers were destroyed.
Other units did much worse. The Plague marines
tried to eliminate the Deffkopta but failed to cause even a single
wound. The remaining Rhino also failed to kill anybody. The same
happened to the Chaos Space marines in the bunker - no orks killed
but at least the plasma gunner survived after his weapon overheated
and vented superheated gas straight into his helmet("1" to hit and
"1" to wound!).
Then the Dreadnought, roaring with hatred,
charged the Trukk.
All attacks were auto-hits due to the vehicle
being immobile. It was shredded into pieces and exploded killing
all its passengers outright. The blast wiped out two Shoota boyz as
well.
Orks turn 2
The orks pushed forward across the board. The
Deffkopta flew behind the ruin to avoid shooting from the
Obliterators.
In the shooting phase, the Killa kans shot at
the Dreadnought. One of the missiles hit the target but failed to
penetrate the ancient sarcophagus. Next, the kannons shot at the
same target and 1 shell managed to destroy a close combat weapon.
The rest of the shooting was ineffective.
The Shokk attack gun aimed at the Chaos space marines in the bunker. It
generated a strength of 7 but scattered missing the target completely.
The Shoota boyz charged the damaged
Dreadnought.
Without its close combat weapon it managed to
slay a single ork. In return, the power klaw wielding Nob chopped off its second arm.
Death Guard turn 3
The Rhino rushed forward to block the Slugga boyz
and Ghazkull. The Demon Prince and Typhus moved backwards. The
Plague Marines moved closer to the Deffkopta to be able to shoot it
down.
The Obliterators transformed their arms into
lascannons and shot at the Killa kans and one of the rusty walkers
was destroyed.
The Rhino managed to kill a single ork with
its bolter.
The plasma gun-wielding Plague marine caused a
wound on the Deffkopta. The Chaos Space marines for sure must have
had betrayed the Father Nurgle as bolters did no damage to the
closing Slugga boyz, and the plasma gunner once more rolled "1" to
hit but "1" to wound.
The dreadnought tried to fend off the
surrounding orks but only one of the assailants was too slow to
avoid being smashed by his foot. The Nob destroyed its power
generator immobilizing and stunning it.
Orks turn 3
The Rhino rush slowed the Ghazkull and the boyz in the center. But
still, they moved forward.
The Deffkopta on the left flank
fly away from the Plague marines. The one in the middle of the
battlefield jumped to get to a better shooting position.
The SAG opened the shooting phase. It was a
direct hit at Chaos space marines occuping the bunker. With S3...
It was not enough to cause a single wound...
Then the Grot artillery fired their guns
aiming at the Rhino. Once again - their aim was true and three hits
resulted with two penetrations and one glancing hit! One of the
results was "Vehicle destroyed". What kanon-snipers!
The Deffkopta in the centre of the board shot
his missiles at an Obliterator, but demon-infested armour saved him
from harm.
The second Deffkopta hit one of the Plague
Marines. Armour cracked and flesh burned but the sons
of Mortarion are well known for their resilience to pain.
The Dreadnought was stilled stunned and could
not attack. The Nob continued to mutilate it - he caused two
penetrating hits but failed to finish it off.
Death Guard turn 4
Terminators Squad teleported next to its
master. The Plague marines moved closer to finally kill the
annoying ork rusty flyer.
The pilot of the Deffkopta managed to jink
fire from the Plague marines but then the Terminators unleashed a
hail of fire from their bolters and managed to convert it into a
fireball.
The Obliterators concentrated on finishing off the last of the
Killa kans. This time the laser beams managed only to shake
the grot inside.
The Chaos space marines in the bunker tried
to kill the thing with its plasma gun but even though the
superheated gas hit the target it did not manage to penetrate the scrap
armour of the walker.
Tozdrax Killsnappa was doused in liquids squirting out of the
Spikey Dreadnought. Other gits tried to penetrate its’ armour but
it was too thick and all the cables and pipes were hidden in the
adamantium sarcophagus of the machine. It was almost dead -
immobilized and its’ both arms were reduced to pathetic stumps.
The dreadnought roared with anger trying to fend off the swarming
mob swinging them like a club but it was not enough.
Nob
howled at his kin to make him room so he could deal the killing blow. He
jumped at the back of the machine and stabbed it with the power
klaw. He felt the stench of the long dead body inside. The ancient
machine fell to the ground. Cheering orks jumped on its’
back shooting the dreadnought occupant with shootas at point-blank
range and hitting him with the butts of the guns to make sure he
was dead.
Then the final gift from the broken son of
Barbarus happened - the machine ended its self-destruct protocol
and exploded, taking many of the assailants with it in the storm
of fire.
The almost dead Dreadnought with the last
sparks of willpower managed to kill a single ork. Then the Nob with
a single glancing hit made it explode. The blast consumed ten more
orks.
Orks turn 4
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka spread his arms
wide and loud as thunderstrike warcry rolled over the battlefield.
The Waaagh! was declared.
Using the Fleet rule boyz rushed forward.
The shooting phase
began with the two of Grot kannons shooting the Terminators. One
projectile managed to hit, but thick armour saved its bearer.
The Shoota boyz with 26 shots managed to kill a single Chaos space
marine in the bunker. The Shokk attack gun aimed at the Deamon Prince.
The crazed grot sucked into the machine and generated an S8 direct
hit. It caused a single wound on a Demon Prince, one on Obliterator
and killed a single Terminator.
The last Deffkopta failed to
hit the Plague marines. Then the Ghazkull shot his kustom shoota
and managed to wound 3 times the Plague marines, but only one of
them failed their armour save.
In close combat, the Chaos Space marines in
the bunker attacked first killing 3 of the orks, but then 84
attacks were enough to kill 4 of them. The last one was gutted by
the power klaw wielding Nob.
The fight between boyz and Obliterators was a
disaster - 3 orks fall dead and only 1 wound was caused on the
Obliterator, which was enough to finish a single demon-possessed
marine.
Death Guard turn 5
The Plaguebearers materialised next to the
Demon Prince. The rest of the army remained stationary.
The Plague marines were in rapid fire range, so they fire
everything they got into Ghazkull. One of the bolter shots
managed to hit the exposed flesh and caused a wound.
As a
target, the Terminators selected another Deffkopta. The combi-melta
shot the white-hot beam that struck and damaged the machine. This
caused an uncontrolled spin that allowed the heavy flamer to scorch
the pilot.
Typhus cast Nurgle's rot and 3 boyz fell to the
ground with their bodies falling apart. Then the Demon Prince used
the same power and 8 more lay dead.
Typhus, Demon Prince and the Plaguebearers
charged into the boyz.
The Demon struck first, causing only 1 wound.
Which was saved. Then Typhus tried to attack, but the demon
living in his Manreaper screamed and attacked him. He was wounded
by the cursed weapon. The Plaguebearers were next and from 14
attacks they managed to cause a single wound, that was unsaved. In
return, the boyz killed two Nurgle demons. The Obliterators smashed
one more ork and the Nob with the power klaw caused one wound on
the Obliterators. In the end, Orks caused 3 wounds to two caused by
the Chaos and surprisingly won the combat.
Orks turn 5
The Killa kan and the Shoota boyz decided to
back off.
Ghazkull moved towards the Plague Marines.
The boyz that purged the bunker moved closer to join the fray in
the centre.
Both Mek with Shokk attack gun and grot
artillery had no targets to shot at so there was no other shooting.
The boyz charged the Plaguebearers and
Ghazkull the Plague marines.
The Demon Prince was first to attack - killing three ork boyz
outright. Typhus once more was unable to controll the ether-born
entity living in his blade and lost one more wound. The
Plaguebearers attacked the newly arrived boyz and managed to
kill one of them. The rest of their attacks was allocated at the orks
already in the fight and one more was killed. Next the charging orks
attacked the Plaguebearers and caused six wounds and 5 of them were saved on a 5+!
The power klaw wielding nob killed one more Plaguebearer. The
locked unit of boyz did nothing to the deamons. The Obliterators
killed 2 more orks and the Nob caused another wound on Obliterators
with his power klaw.
The combat ultimately resulted in a draw.
For over 10 000 years there were 7 of them.
The sacred number of their Patron, who gave them almost as much as
he took away. And it all changed on that blasted desert
planet. Suddenly the air around them was thick with high calibre
projectiles. One of them struck Garstos in his breastplate and
cracked it into pieces like an eggshell hit by the sledgehammer.
—New threat! - bawled Festus, squad champion.
Festus
felt the roar of the running beast in his guts - like there was no
power armour on his body at all. Auto senses of his armour tried
to mute the thunder-like sound when the beast's feet were hitting
the ground but it was failing badly. Then he saw it.
His brothers were emptying their bolters
clips at a frightening pace but still - this huge mountain of
muscles and armour plates was closing.
Festus was holding his bolter in one hand
aiming at the cable connector that seemed to deliver power to the
beasts' armour. His second arm was clad in a power fist, which was
already buzzing due to the overcharging. The monstrous ork was
almost at them.
The Plague Marines' champion pulled the trigger
and his aim was true. For a second the ork lost his balance. Festus
didn’t need more - he hit the metal panels laying on the ground in
front of him and suddenly the ork succumbed into the abyss below.
At the last moment before his descent, he managed to extend his
arm and snap his power klaw, cleaving Rahox and Darrus into meat and ceramite
pulp. Then he was gone.
Festus heard that the gargantuan ork was
wounded badly but alive. However, by the time he returned to the surfave, the battle would be long over.
—Covering fire! Move on! - Festus
yelled. There were 4 of them now. And nothing would be the same
again.
The regular Plague marines did nothing to the
Ghazkull and then both - the Warboss and the Nurgle champion struck
simuntanesly. The Chaos champion had three atacks, which all hit,
all wounded and none of them were saved. Ghazkull was dead! However, he simultaneously managed to kill
two Plague marines. The rest of the unit consolidated into the
ruins.
Death Guard turn 6
The terminators moved to be able to charge in.
There was no
shooting.
The Demon Prince cast Nurgle's rot killing 5
orks. Typhus managed to add 6 more to the tally.
In close combat, the Demon Prince killed 3
orks. Typhus rolled “6” for his demon blade and with 9 attacks he
managed to finish off the first mob. The Plaguebearers killed
another 2 orks. The remaining orks did nothing to the Plaguebearers due
to some nice invulnerable saves rolls. On the other hand, they
wounded the Demon Prince once, and he failed his armour save.
This time orks failed the morale and ran away
from combat.
Orks turn 6
In the orks' turn nothing could be shot at and there
was no close combat so we ended the game here.
Epilogue
Typhus breathed heavily. His
hands were burning with the etheric power released by the demon
inhabiting his weapon. What was left of his soul was bleeding as
well. Almost. The demon almost took control of him. He was filled
with rage. The Traveller noticed that one of the orks laying on
the ground was still breathing. He walked to the creature and
smashed his head with his armoured foot. For a second he felt
better. Wurdulak the Rotting Maggot, elevated to demonhood was
looking at him. Typhus could swear that he was smiling. Another
issue he would have to solve - and soon. But not now. Now he was
vulnerable and what is more, he needed to know what was causing
this warp anomaly. When he would master it, he would be ready to
reclaim what was rightfully his.
Ghazkull roared like a mad bull.
He was deprived of a propa fight by these cowards. Just before he
fell into this pit he saw his true target. The scythe-wielding
spikey boy, just like the warpy pointy-choppa had promised. He
needed to reach the surface and rejoin with his boyz before the
'oomie gitz could flee. Ghazkull already had a new GUD PLAN. He
laughed. He truly was a Prophet of the Waaagh as the orks is never
beaten!
FINAL SCORE
Death Guard 3 : 1 Orks
Post game
Death Guard
I would like to thank Kuba again for playing together and having a nice time in the tumult of the bolter
fire and the atmosphere heated by flamethrowers ;)
The scenario we drew was not very convenient for me, especially with the small number of scoring units that
I had on my army list, and bearing in mind that I will have to sacrifice some of them to slow down the speeding orks.
Our game was more like a chess duel than a merry firefight between two opponents. Still, there were some exciting twists and it
was some real action happening on the battlefield.
I spread my force across the entire width of the table in order not to
concentrate all my forces in one place and made my opponent divide his attacks in more directions.
It was the easiest part of the plan, and I was anxiously waiting to see which one of us would win the first round. I succeeded, so I had one more round of shooting and making any corrections in setting up the units.
Unfortunately, Kuba hid the Deffkoptas very wisely and even using their special extra move rule before the battle,
they were not in my field of view. The only thing I managed to shoot with the heavy weapon was the rusty Killa kan : /
On the other hand, the first round of orks shooting ended with an explosion of my Predator.
This was the heaviest vehicle in my roster and this caused my fighting spirit to drop significantly.
After this unpleasant incident, I came to the conclusion that the vehicles in this edition are just an interesting addition
to what the infantry and artillery do on the table.
Somehow I did not manage to thin the green horde before the melee clashes. Also I must admit that having
infantry in light transports was a big risk from Kuba and my only shooting success;)
The fate of our battle was resolved in close combat. Unfortunately, Typhus fought with a rebellious demon in his weapon for two turns,
stabbing himself 2 wounds, which did not fill me with a surge of enthusiasm.
Fortunately, with the support of the Demon Prince and a few summoned demons, the scales of victory began to tip towards me.
The biggest surprise of our battle was a squad of Plague Marines who bravely survived the duel with Ghazghkull himself and,
to our surprise, managed to kill him in one round. This feat will be remembered for a long time, and
Power Fist for Champions in infantry units is something hellishly strong ;)
Another nice surprise is the Obliterators unit. The models really are worth their points. On the other hand, landing somewhere behind the enemy lines with a random spread of 2d6 inches on the table with a large number of terrains is not worth the risk.
I think that I managed to create a fairly universal army and for the next duel I will definitely have two Plague Marines squads as the Troops choice.
A squad of regular Chaos Marines is not worth its points and is not very climatic to have them in the Death Guard army.
For sure in the next battle, I would like to test a new heavy toy in the form of the Chaos Defiler.
Orks
Well, that was a KO from the stinky boyz! The battle seemed to go
quite nicely till turn 2 when I lost both Meganobz and ‘ard boyz. I
knew it will be very tough to pull out even the draw. Then the
Dreadnought blew out taking 10 boyz with him and the Shoota boyz
stopped being a scoring unit… I had only 2 options left: fall back
and secure my 2 scoring units and hope that I will be able to shoot
1 out of 3 units: Plague Marines, Terminator or Obliterators.
Option number 2 - push forward, without caring about the final
result and give some propa fight in the name of Gork and Mork.
Of
course, I chose the second option!!!
On the other hand, Kuba played
very well - the timing and placement of the Obliterators was top
notch(exactly the same as the rolls to hit afterwards…). Keeping
his heroes and backbone outside of artillery range was also
very smart. In a sentence - the execution of his battle plan worked.
The durability of the Death Guard was enough, even though his rolls
in close combat were bad. But it was all just enough to beat the greenskinz this
time!
My army worked mostly as expected
- the main failing was me. I should have read the rules for
transports more closely - then I would have known, that I could travel 11
inches and disembark units, which could charge the same turn.
Lesson learned!
The biggest disappointment for me was for
sure the Ghazkull himself. I am used to his “performance level”
from the 8/9th edition and it is quite unimaginable that a regular
unit champion with a power fist could kill him in one round of
close combat. Also, him killing only 2 Plague marines with his 7
attacks on the charge… I really would like to forget that close
combat ever happened…
The Mek with the shokk attack gun was also not worth the
points invested in him - but this was kind of clear before the
battle. The boyz were like always - they deliver some punch but in
this edition, they struggle against enemies with good armour. And
the Death Guard is the toughest enemy out there - with power armour
and feel no pain. Deffkoptas took some firepower and were a
distraction, but I was hoping for some kills and they failed here.
Still, I think that they are a must in the ork army.
On the
other scale of performance was the grot artillery. It was fantastic
- they fired their first salvo and the predator went down. Second salvo? Dreadnought
close combat arm shredded. Third? The Rhino destroyed. Not bad for a 66pts
unit that also counts as a scoring unit! The kans are too fragile
and don’t have enough shots, to be honest. It is the second game in
a row when I think those points could be spent better elsewhere.
The models look amazing and it is the strongest point of that unit.
Will they be found in my next army list? Can’t tell yet.
All in all - it was a great game and
frankly, I cannot wait for the rematch in August!