#138: Toowoomba Remote League 1000pt Tournament - Game 2 - Maggotkin Vs. Maggotkin

After a close-fought win in round one, I found myself facing off against James, another player who had made the trip up from Brisbane, and his Maggotkin.

Harbinger of Decay (General)
Horticulous Slimux
Festus the Leechlord
5 Blight Kings
5 Blight Kings
5 Blight Kings

While my army was focused solely on the daemon side of the army, James had chosen to go with the mortal elements, and was going to pose some serious problems. Blight Kings are no joke, and the Harbinger only makes my job harder. The scenario was Knife to the Heart, and I knew that it would be all but impossible to shift him off his objective, so it would come down to kill points and the minor win or loss. Having suffered from caution in Game 1, I made the decision, when presented with turn one, to go straight on the offensive.

 Leaving my two units of Plaguebearers on my own objective, confident that they would be able to, at the very least, contest my objective should something launch an assault on it. As part on my own assault, I cannonballed across the board with both the Drones and the Great Unclean One. My hope was to do as much damage as possible before the Harbinger of Decay was able to get his command ability up and give them another layer of protection from harm.

Despite my most valiant (or nefarious, depending on your perspective...) efforts, I wasn't able to kill off any units. I cut my way through a few Blight Kings, but was unable to wipe any units out with my initial alpha strike. The kings proved to be quite unpredictable, with some failing to have any impact and others triggering their blighted weapons to push through an obscene number of wounds. Thankfully, his lack of rend and my wound negations meant that retaliation was quite minor. 

In what I thought was a horrendously unfortunate turn of events, James double turned me, and piled into the chaotic melee with everyone but Festus. While the Great Unclean One only had three Kings to contend with, the Drones were beset on all sides by Kings, Slimux and the Harbinger. Three Drones were hacked down in exchange for very little damage in return. I did manage to pop a one for battleshock and return a Drone to the unit, which was a bonus, but my attack was blunted. And I needed to pull something incredible out of the bag.

Then I saw it... the path to victory. My opponent had made a single mistake. Between Horticulous and his Contagion Points, he'd planted several trees in order to create a healthy flow of summoned units, but in his haste to hamstring the unit of Drones, he had over-reached with his army, leaving only Festus guarding his objective.

At the bottom of turn two, I retreated with the Drones, flying over the heads of Slimux and the Harbinger, and used my command point from that turn to ensure I ran 6". This got all four Drones within 6" of the objective, but out of combat. With only Festus to contest the objective, I claimed it with ease.

The third battle round began, and as I was holding both objectives, I immediately won a major victory.

This was a bit of a cheeky win, and I don't think my opponent or I really expected it to only go to turn three. Both of us were kind of expecting it to come down to kill points, but even then, the combat was an absolute grind! Both armies were shrugging off damage, and the Wheel was busy healing every Nurgle unit on the table! I'd managed to get two units of Blight Kings down to a single, wounded model each, but didn't get a chance to finish them off, as the game ends immediately when victory conditions are met. I think if James had summoned Plaguebearers over Gnarlmaws, this game would have been a very different story, because he could have stacked numerous, high-quality bodies onto that objective, while keeping pressure on the front line. As it was, I managed to pull off a crafty play that ended up paying off!

 I was stoked to land another major win, but with not a single unit being destroyed from either player's army, it had left me in a difficult place, as I'd have to pull something special out for Game 3 to catch all the other players on two major wins and tons of victory points.

And when the Game 3 draw was announced, I was facing Daughters of Khaine...

This would put my army to the test.

Until next time, thanks for reading,
Gabriel