#142: RCGT Game 1 - Maggotkin of Nurgle Vs Clan Skryre 2500pts

The day had finally come. My army was fully based and mostly painted. I hadn't left anything at home.

I was starting the day on the right foot.

The night before, the Round One matchups had been announced, and I was facing down against Jemma and her Gautfyre/Arkspark Skryre list.

Clan Skryre Allegiance:

Arch Warlock (General, Cunning Creature)
Warlock Engineer (Vigordust Injector)
Warlock Engineer
6 Stormfiends (3 Warpfire Projectors, 3 Shock Gauntlets)
3 Stormfiends (3 Warpfire Projectors)
3 Stormfiends (3 Warpfire Projectors)
2 Warp Grinder Teams
2 Warpfire Thrower Teams
5 Skryre Acolytes
20 Clanrats
Warp Lightning Cannon
Clan Skryre (Warscroll Battalion)
Arkhspark Voltik (Warscroll Battalion)
Gautfyre Skorch (Warscroll Battalion)
Balewind Vortex (Endless Spell)

With the sheer mortal wound output, and her ability to completely bypass my To Hit debuffs, I was genuinely concerned going into this matchup. She had the killing power to just bulldoze straight past my Resilient saves and kill whatever I didn't zone out. I'd laid my army out on a table to see what was going to be the best way to deploy, and basically arrived at the conclusion that, to save my heroes and important elements, both units of Plaguebearers would be taking a punching turn one.

Gritting my teeth and preparing for the worst, I arrived at the event and prepared for my first game. And the scenario was Total Commitment!

This was the single best possible scenario for me, as Jemma was forced to drop her entire army on the board, meaning there would be no pop-up Stormfiends melting my face off. Instead, they would have to march across the board to get to me. I was confident that I had the speed to decide which of her units could even target things to a degree, and so my deployment looked very different to what I thought it would have to be.

 I deployed my army in two very distinct halves. With my opponent outdropping my by a long way, being a three-drop, I had the luxury of laying my army out to best benefit my game plan. My left side was my "offence side" complete with the Gnarlmaw, with the big unit of Pusgoyles, as well as the Great Unclean One and Lord of Afflictions to support them with command abilities, artefacts and spells. One of my units of thirty Plaguebearers also took up residence on the small pyramid in order to lock down my home objective.

My right objective was my "defence side", with the other unit of thirty Plaguebearers being backed up by the Lord of Blights, Festus and the Blight Kings. My two Jabberslythes took up residence in the centre of the board, so as to be of support to whichever side needed it most. Jemma deployed very centrally with most of her army, leaving Acolytes on my left side and Clanrats on my right. Her centre was VERY solid, but there weren't any objectives in the centre, so hopefully I could make the most of the space on each flank...

My opponent had given me first turn, as taking the first turn would have left her relatively short-ranged army with nothing to do. I wasted no time in seizing the opportunity to put some points on the board. I spent one of my command points on Spearhead of Contagion to launch the Pusgoyles across the table and massacre the five poor Acolytes cowering behind the stone blocks. I also cast Mystic Shield on them, but didn't bother with the Great Unclean One's command ability, as I was pretty confident that they didn't need the extra attacks just yet. The Lord of Blights did put Cloud of Flies on his unit of Plaguebearers though, who pushed up a little. This just gave me another sturdy barrier between my opponent's army and the objective. The two Jabberslythes pushed up the centre, staying just outside of Warpfire range, and making sure to put terrain between them and the Warp Lightning Cannon.  In a shock to no-one, the Pusgoyles butchered the Acolytes and claimed the objective for Nurgle, pushing me into a good position on the scoreboard. 

Retaliation was swift, as the nearby unit of Stormfiends turned their flamers on my Pusgoyles, before charging in to punch me! When the dust settled, two flies had been incinerated, and thanks to the two Warp Grinder Teams, the Skaven had clawed back the objective. For now...

On the other side of the board, things were beginning to get ugly. The unit of six Stormfiends barrelled into my lines, and then realised that my To Hit modifiers were able to pretty much shut down the damage potential of the Shock Gauntlets. Two Stormfiends did manage to punch the Jabberslythe to death, which resulted in nine mortal wounds bouncing back at them, killing one of the Warpfire Fiends. All things considered, I didn't think it was going too bad!

After having lost my second Jabber to magic and shooting, I was keen to keep momentum going in my favour. Skryre is one of those armies where, if you present them with the smallest opportunity, they can swing the entire game on its head! With that in mind, I launched my whole left flank foward, using the Gnarlmaw and the Great Unclean One's bell to make sure my Plaguebearers pushed right up onto the objective. I made the decision to charge the Warpfire Fiends on the objective with my Plaguebearers, as it would prevent them from shooting my Lord of Afflictions, but I kept him nearby for that Witherstave aura! The GUO hung back and waddled over to my objective in case push came to shove, and I needed to summon something to hold down my backline. My remaining Pusgoyles, got the hell out of dodge, and retreated toward the handful of heroes and war machine at the back of the board. In my opponent's turn, one Blightlord was shot to pieces, while the other was crippled on only two wounds, but he didn't have a degrading profile, and I was confident he could kill the squishy support pieces on his own. The kill didn't come cheap, however. In their haste to kill the flies, the Warp Lightning Cannon overloaded its reactor, and blew itself to smithereens in a single stroke of bad luck on the Skaven's part. Excellent. 

Much to my surprise, a plucky Engineer decided enough was enough, and charged in. What was an Engineer going to do in combat, I thought. Well, as it turned out, he pushed through just enough wounds to finish off the Pusgoyle unit, saving himself and his fellow wizards from a messy death. 

Things on the other side of the board were getting very messy very fast! The two Warpfire Throwers and the Engineer managed to inflict enough mortal wounds to drop the Plaguebearers below 20 before the combat phase, which meant that the Shock Gauntlets were unhindered by debuffs, and their crackling fists went to work, obliterating Plaguebearers en masse. With only a handful remaining, my objective was starting to look a little exposed. 

That was, until I spent a metric ton of Contagion Points to summon 20 Plaguebearers on again to cover my objective in bodies. The remaining Stormfiends charged once more into the fray killing Plaguebearers in droves, but this time, they were faced with the combat prowess of Blight Kings and the Lord of Blights, and were finally cut down, bagging me a sizeable chunk of kill points. 

On Jemma's backline, I'd managed to cause her no end of troubles with the Plaguebearers pinning down the Stormfiends, the Witherstave preventing them from building any momentum in combat, and both Warp Grinder Teams falling to the Lord of Affliction's Festerpike! With a measly four Plaguebearers left in the unit, it was still enough to stop her from claiming the objective back, and I won the game with a solid lead on the scoreboard! 

I got supremely lucky in this game. If it were any other scenario, I would have been in a real spot of bother, but luckily for me, all my little ducks lined up in a row, and the matchup and scenario played very heavily in my favour. Jemma was a stellar opponent, and is always a delight to play. We're now 1-1 after my pummelling at BrisCon, so we'll see how this friendly rivalry plays out! 

With a major win, and a healthy chunk of kill points, I was moving up through the tables! 

Until next game, thanks for reading,

Gabe