#144: RCGT Game 2 - Maggotkin of Nurgle Vs. Dispossessed 2500pts - Focal Points

Coming off a big (and frankly, downright lucky) win in Game One, I really had no idea where I would land when it came to opponents. As it happened, I ended up facing Dion with his Dispossessed horde.

Allegiance: Order
Realm: Ghur

Warden King (General, Anraheir's Claw)
Runelord (Gryph-Feather Charm)
Runelord
Unforged
40 Warriors
30 Warriors
10 Warriors
30 Longbeards
20 Hammerers
20 Ironbreakers
10 Irondrakes
3 Skywardens
3 Skywardens
Grudgebound War Throng (Warscroll Battalion)

The first thing that stands out about this list is the sheer volume of models on the table. With 160+ models in his army, my biggest concern was that we just weren't going to get through our game. We had a really good discussion at the start of the game regarding time management and Dion assured me that he played fast with the army. To my delight, that's exactly what he did. He had movement trays for the larger units, he was decisive with his tactical decisions and he knew the warscrolls inside out; all key elements to playing a smooth and concise game with a horde army.

While I was having dreams about playing this list in Three Places of Arcane Power, which would have leaned heavily in my favour, the mission was Focal Points. With so many high-armour bodies, I was going to have to be quick on my feet!

Knowing full well that I was going to be outdropped, I went with my kneejerk reaction and hid everything behind a wall of Plaguebearers. In hindsight, this was probably a tad over-cautious, as the only thing in my opponent's army that could hit me early were the two flanking units of Skywardens. But the scenario is all about numbers, and I wanted those hard-to-shift bodies up front to flood objectives. My Lord of Afflictions with the Witherstave was nice and central, and the GUO was carefully placed so as to give both Plaguebearer units, the Blight Kings and the Pusgoyles extra movement from his Doomsday Bell. Festus parked on my bottom objective, knowing full well that his spell would be vital in getting through the resilient armour of the duardin. 

Unsurprisingly, my opponent took first turn in hopes of getting onto the objectives before me, but even with the first moves, their short little legs only just got them onto the central objective. At the top of the table, a unit of thirty warriors got onto the objective in the woods, while on the left side, Ironbreakers planted themselves on the objective at the foot of the hill, shielded by the Unforged and Hammerers, who got the available buff from the Runelord nearby. Irondrakes held up rear of his centre line, moving into a position to fire on anyone who got too close. Having taken next to no casualties in turn one, I struck back, and hard. With the exception of the Blight Kings, I pushed up with absolutely everything. The centre (cream-coloured) Plaguebearers, buffed by the Lord of Blights, lurched forward, intent on pushing bodies onto the central objective. My opponent had left a little too much space in front of him, and I was sure I could get Plaguebearers between him and the objective. 

The Pusgoyles had a similar idea. Launching around my right flank, and using the Gnarlmaw for some added speed, they circled the ruins and slammed into the exposed flank of the Warriors. The GUO had used his command ability on the Pusgoyles to give each profile an extra attack, and the Lord of Afflictions was close enough to give them re-roll 1s to hit. Caught between the anvil of -2 To Hit Plaguebearers and some very aggressive flies, the Warriors began to melt. I managed to kill enough to claim the objective, but there were still so... many... dwarfs. 

Seeing a golden opportunity, I launched the Jabberslythe over my army on my left side, and straight into the front of the Hammerers. In a stroke of perfect luck, the Jabberslythe survived on a single wound, meaning that they were still locked in combat with the horrifying monstrosity, but that it caused maximum damage with its Bile Blood. Nine Hammerers were dissolved inside their armour as a result of the damage they had inflicted. Perfect! 

Scoring the cheeky double turn going into turn two, I was keen to keep momentum in my favour. I utilised my very healthy Contagion Point bank to summon a second tree, as well as five Plaguebearers on my back objective, which left the Blight Kings free to go punch on with things. Thanks to the Bell and the tree, they raced across the open ground to hit the three Skywardens threatening my flank. With any luck, I was hoping to draw the Unforged and Hammerers away from my lines, and killing units that would have no real impact on the scoreboard. The Hammerers finally took the last wound off the Jabber, with minimal repercussions. 

At the top of the table, the Skywardens found themselves trapped in a combat that they had no hopes of winning, against a horde of Plaguebearers that, every time they took casualties, would grow them back with a cheeky one on the Battleshock test. Every... single... time...

The other Jabber, seeing what stellar success his comrade had had, decided to barrel toward the Dwarfs and fail a charge. But the real action was in the middle of the table. 

The Pusgoyles, not content with slicing and dicing Warriors, used a sly pile-in to drag the Warden King and Irondrakes into combat with them. With their lack of rend, the Blightlords all but ignored the Warden King, and instead divided their attacks between the Irondrakes and the surviving Warriors, inflicting horrific casualties on both! The scales of battle were tipping in my favour, as I solidified a lead on the scoreboard. 

In a "Just As Planned" moment, my opponent took the bait and sent the Hammerers and Unforged after my Blight Kings. While the Unforged's little legs couldn't quite make the charge he needed, the Hammerers went in and delivered some grudge-settling, splatting Kings left and right, leaving one alive on two wounds. Before they died, though, they did manage to dent the Skywardens. But with them now dead, and the Plaguebearers otherwise indisposed, my back objective was looking awfully weak, and if my opponent could claim it, even for a turn, I was going to be in a real pickle. 

But I had one more trick up my sleeve. My Great Unclean One and Festus managed to draw out both unbind attempts from the Runelords with obviously potent spells, like Curse of the Leper. After successfully shutting them down, Dion found himself in a real spot of bother when the GUO cast Soulsnare shackles with no opposition. The impact was crippling, slowing all the threats to a snail's pace, as well as dishing out some sneaky mortal wounds here and there. 

At the top of the table, things were not going well for my opponent either. Having absolutely butchered their way through a full unit of Warriors and the Irondrakes, the Pusgoyles continued their path of destruction north, tagging another unit of Warriors in tandem with the Jabberslythe. This also pinned the Duardin between two units, stopping them from maximising their output thanks to awkward pile-ins in two different directions. 

As time on the clock ran out, it was apparent to both of us that I'd managed to take a commanding scoreboard lead, and that my position on the battlefield was firm. I'd managed to land another major win, and actually get a sizeable chunk of kill points out of it too! 

The game as a whole was great! We had a few laughs, and I was pleased with how fast my opponent played, considering the army. I think he was a little bit stand-offish with a few of his backline units. You can see in the photo that there was a whole unit in the backfield that never really entered the conflict. I think they would have been well used to either reinforce the top objective or push on the centre if only for a turn to take the objective out of my hands. Once my Plaguebearers got onto that centre objective, I made them as difficult as possible to shift, with their Locus, Witherstave and the Lord of Blights all contributing to their tenacious manner. 

I think baiting the Hammerers away with the Blight Kings saved Festus and his objective, as there would have been little I could do to stop him from getting his bloated head caved in. And I think the Pusgoyles had a dream game, just butchering whatever came within arms reach! They ended up killing 700 points worth of my opponent's army, practically on their own. Standout unit of the game. 

All in all, the army did what it was designed to do. Get onto objectives and never leave. But being on two major wins now, with both offering up plenty of kill points, I found myself going into round three on Table One!

Check in for game three soon! 

Thanks for reading,

Gabe

#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