The Mission
Deployment: Battle for the PassSpecial Rule: Units of >30 wounds may not swift reform or move/march more than 8” (did not affect either of us)
The List
Great Unclean One, Lore of Death, Level 4, Exalted Gift, Lesser Gift
25 Plaguebearers, musician, banner, banner of swiftness
25 Plaguebearers, musician, banner, banner of eternal flame
4 Beasts of Nurgle
4 Beasts of Nurgle1 Beast of Nurgle
5 Furies
Soul Grinder, Phelgm Bombardment
Skull Cannon of KhorneSkull Cannon of Khorne
So this list scared the piss out of me.
It’s very similar to a Daemon list that I had built, and straight out of
the podcasts that I listen to. Without
the update in the composition score that was supposed to be implemented, but
wasn’t, this list also scored full points – which is just crazy. And telling… this list (spoiler), ended up
taking overall. It wasn’t fully painted
and there should have been a large comp it, but oh well. Jason was at least a nice guy, part of a
group out of Modesto area that I don’t believe had been up before. I was glad for the chance to meet and play
him.
Now as nasty as this list was, I think that if we had played another
mission I may have had a much easier time of it. But 9 Beasts of Nurgle and a great unclean
one are more than enough to plug up the board space on Battle for the
Pass. In addition, the terrain didn’t
really give me anything to maneuver around, as it was all at the edge (and
would have been with any deployment). We
agreed the terrain wasn’t impassible, as that would block off the edges even
more, but instead was moved through like ethereal (so pass through fine, but
can’t stop on anything where your unit can’t reasonably rest). We also agreed it was hard cover.
For powers Jason starts off with a 6 on his exalted power, giving him
an extra lesser power. He then takes
eternal blade, which gives combat stat bonus (and I don’t care). For his lesser gifts ,he gets a strength 2
breath weapon with no armor (could be bad) and a 2+ ward save versus the first
wound (and with T7 I probably won’t kill without purple sun or spirit leech, so
maybe bad?). For magic, he rolls spirit
leech, soulblight, doom and darkness and fate of bjuna.
For magic I roll searing doom and Final Transmutation. My death caster takes soulblight, spirit
leech, fate of bjuna and purple sun.
For deployment, Jason blocks up his center line with the beasts, and
blocks up the back edge on one side and center with his plague bearers and on
the other with is battery.
I try for my normal spaced deployment, but line up my riders to
minimize stone thrower damage. I also
line up my characters in the hopes that my reverse ward save will prevent the
removal of my charmed shield until later in the game.
We roll and he gets the first turn.
Turn 1 – Daemons of Chaos
Jason doesn’t start off with any strong advances. The blocks do move up and the beasts a little
as well. The furies move behind the
beast line on the left.
With a 9/8 magic phase (yay channel), and a natural 9 for Jason the
daemon table kicks in. I think the
option was Khorn throwing feces like an angry monkey. It hits any unit with Slannash or any of mine
(not in combat) with a normal stone thrower, so S9 center, S3 sides and small
template. It scatters 3D6”. He rolls 2 6s and takes out 4 dark riders
(passing panic) and does a single wound to a bolt thrower. For magic, I dispel doom and darkness on my
shades and a spirit leech attempt on a rank a file model doesn’t do anything.
For shooting, the first Skill cannon blows up, YAY. The other does 3 wounds to the hydra, not
yay. The soul grinder then misses my
level 2.
I’m thinking things might not be as bad as I feared; still had no idea
how to kill a beast though.
Writers Note: its skill cannon
not skull cannon, because at 135 points its 100 points of built in ‘skill’,
meaning it should really be around 235 points.
Seriously, empire cannons are like 90 points, and it’s a chariot which
should be at least another 50 points.
Then its BS5, flaming, and fights on flanks/rear unlike every other
chariot. Just the cannon and chariot
price puts it over 135 points. Oh yeah,
and it can heal itself.
Turn 1 – Dark Elves
I don’t have any charges. I
actually made the following notation in my book “not really sure what to do…
beasts scare me.” I move around some,
trying to set up some chaff to control his charge paths. I want to stay in range to put pressure on
the remaining skill cannon.
I roll a 6/5 magic phase. He
dispels 2 dice on power of darkness with 2 dice and then dispels a small purple
sun cast with my remaining 4 dice and using his remaining 3 dispel dice.
My shades on the right try to take out the single beast. He makes 4/4 regeneration saves. I then open up with everything else on the
center unit of 4 beasts. He makes
another 6/10 regeneration saves for a total of 10/14 saves and only 1 beast
dead. I then get 2 wounds on the skill
cannon with a bolt thrower with the other failing to wound.
Turn 2 – Daemons of Chaos
Jason starts out with some charges.
The solo beast charges a unit of dark riders, taking a wound on the
stand and shoot. The 3 beasts charge the
center shades (placed there because I wanted to see what they could do in
combat), taking 1 wound on stand and shoot. The 4 beasts charge the dark riders
I put up as chaff – the 2 pack leftover from the magic phase (I didn’t want
both units into the shades). He trys to
join a plague bearer unit with the shades but they fail. He also puts the plague bearers into the
shades on the right (this was a huge mistake on my part. I was thinking that based on our agreement on
terrain it wouldn’t be possible, but he made a sound argument to allow for a
non-maximized charge and so I was hosed).
The shades did put 2 wounds on with the stand and shoot. The solo beast doesn’t make it.
Jason moves up with his rear support (skill cannon, soul grinder and
daemon).
For magic, Jason rolls another 9 with 2 6s. I lose 2 harpies but the other scatters. With a 10/6 magic phase I scroll Doom and
Darkness on my general to prevent the combat with spirit leech. Doesn’t matter though as I fail to dispel
spirit leech and a roll of 6 and 3 later he’s toast. Jason then irresistiblely casts soul blight
on the shades in combat with the beasts.
He rolls a 10 for miscast and loses spirit leech and soul blight, along
with 2 levels of magic.
The skill cannon blows away the hydra.
The soul grinder misses again.
In combat both my assassins roll crap to hit. Jason is able to make all his regen in the
beast/shade combat and runs the unit down, over running into some blocking
harpies (and much farther then I planned).
The dark riders do a wound before getting slaughtered. The other shades manage 3 wounds to the
plague bearers before running off the table.
Very painful.
Turn 2 – Dark Elves
I move around some trying to avoid future, continued slaughter.
I roll a nice 10/5 magic phase and chuck all 10 dice at final
transmutation – because with 5 magic phases left, I had a good chance of
getting that daemon to roll a 6. He
didn’t this round. Didn’t record the
miscast, but it didn’t kill me.
A bolt thrower takes off the skill cannon in shooting. The other uses up the greater daemon’s 2+
ward save. Not a good turn, my fate is
long sealed.
In combat, the harpies die, and the beasts overrun towards the bolt
thrower in front of them.
Turn 3 – Daemons of Chaos
To start of the turn, Jason charges the bolt thrower with the
beasts. The other beast unit charges the
other unit of harpies, which flee and get further pushed by a unit of plague
bearers. The soul grinder charges a unit
of dark riders. I was thinking that the
furies would charge and somehow missed the soul grinder… oops. The beast unit actually catches the fleeing
harpies.
Jason rolls his third 9 for magic in a row, but only rolls 1 6, which
scatters off. With his 9/6 magic phase,
and only two spells left. I fail to
dispel both and he puts Fate for 1 wound and puts doom on my BSB (who wasn’t in
any sort of range for panic tests).
The dark riders put 2 wounds on the soul grinder, and then he kills 4
and they both run off the table. The
bolt thrower dies to the beasts.
Turn 3 – Dark Elves
Knowing I’m going to lose, I decide to have some fun and put 2 dark
rider units into the solo beast, on the rear and flank. If I can pick up some small points, and
restrict future loses, perhaps I could squeak out a lesser loss.
For magic I roll 6/4, and once again he doesn’t roll a 6 on final
transmutation.
My BSB’s breath weapon kills 6 plague bearers as an ineffective act of
spite. The last bolt thrower fails to
wound the greater daemon. The dark
riders manage to do 2 wounds to the beast, losing 1 model and popping the
single beast. I overrun with one unit
and reform with the other (who is trapped between enemies).
Turn 4 – Daemons of Chaos
To start it off the 4 beast unit goes into the remaining bolt
thrower. A dark rider unit gets trapped
between charging units and dies.
Jason rolls a 9 for the 4th magic phase in a row. Then rolls 2 6s on both characters (I only
have 3 units left at this point, so that’s amazing). It misses the wizard and knocks the charmed
shield off of the BSB. With a 9/5 magic
phase, he gets off an irresistible fate on my caster, killing him and then
sucking himself in the warp.
The soul grinder wounds himself
The bolt thrower dies in combat.
Turn 4 – Dark Elves
Its turn 4 and I have a BSB and a single unit. Yay! I
run around some and shoot a fury.
Turn 5 – Daemons of Chaos
Jason fails his march test of the furies, leaving them in the line of
fire. The soulgrinder misfires again and
wounds itself. For magic he rolls an 8
but doesn’t do anything with the table and has no casters left.
Turn 5 – Dark Elves
My dark riders charge the flank of the furies. I manage to kill 2 with riders and 2 with the
horses, clearing out the unit.
Turn 6 – Daemons of Chaos
Jason double charges my dark riders, which flee to the board edge. For magic he rolls a 6 and does some strength
3 hits to my BSB that fail to actually cause a wound.
Turn 6 – Dark Elves
My dark riders rally, and while I do a few wounds to the soul grinder,
he makes his saves and doesn’t go down.
In the end the game is a 16/4 loss.
Thanks to the near 900 points given to me by my opponent (I only killed
120 worth of points), I didn’t get an absolute slaughter. If we had played battle line I may have had a
better change, with the extra room to move around, but I’m pretty sure there
isn’t a good way to make myself able to kill beasts of nurgle without purple
sun. If we weren’t restricted to 12 dice
magic phases, I may be able to swing that into a truly abusive magic phase
which may help me should I run into a list like this again. We’ll see.
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