#193: CANCON Game 2 - Ironsunz Vs. Idoneth Deepkin

Going into my second game of CanCon, sitting pretty on a big win against Sylvaneth, I found myself playing a fellow Queenslander, Jack! He was rocking the Idoneth Deepkin, so both armies were going to be battling it out in the activation wars.

Deepkin is an army I've faced a lot, playing against Luke McFadden's army, and so I was pretty relaxed going into this game. I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do if I was going to pull out a win, and I knew exactly what could go horribly wrong if I played a sloppy game.

The Sylvaneth allies were a nice touch, giving Jack an avenue to drop a woods and start summoning Dryads. I knew I needed to shut this down, and either zone out the woods or kill those two characters before they could have a significant impact on objectives. 

The scenario was Startstrike, which is my worst nightmare against Deepkin. Typically, the first couple of turns are cagey, as both players see where the objectives land, and then turn three onward, all hell breaks loose. Unfortunately for me, turn three also happens to be a great time in the game for Idoneth...

We both had pretty defensive deployments. I was confident that he wasn't going to just frisbee his Eels across the table, but I was mildly concerned about the Morrsarr Guard in reserve sweeping on and blowing away a juicy target. I used my 10-man Ard Boy unit and my three foot heroes to make sure there were no windows in my back lines to creep on, while the 5-man Ard Boy units held down each flank, giving my army some breathing room against any surprise assaults from unexpected quarters.

Turn one was a bit of a non-event, with the only event of significance being the placement of the Wyldwood in the middle of the table, with a unit of Dryads emerging from deep within the trees. My Ard Boys on the flanks shuffled out of the deployment zone to push enemy reserves even further up the board, but there really wasn't any big plays. Both armies were biding their time. 

Jack won priority going into turn two, and handed it to me, setting himself up for a potential double turn going into High Tide. Fortune favours the bold, and in an attempt to force Jack to extend into the middle of the table, I managed to Hand of Gork the 10-man unit of Boys onto the freshly arrived objective that was left of centre in the middle of the board. Having 10 bodies, plenty of wounds and a decent save, the Ard Boys put pressure on the Deepkin to commit enough power and bodies to take that objective back as soon as possible, all while my Gruntas and Krusha looked on from easy charge distance. 

At the bottom of turn two, Jack's reserves ripped onto the left flank and slammed into the Ard Boy screen, deleting the entire unit with no damage in return and without having to use their zaps! If I lost priority going into turn three, my nearby pigs were in for a world of pain... Now that he had played his hand, however, I could relax my screens and start making more aggressive moves. 

In the middle of the board, Dryads and the Eidolon moved in to stack the objective with eleven models. Not content to let the gold be snatched away from them without a proper brawl, my Ard Boys made full use of the Ironsunz command ability from the Maw Krusha to make an out of sequence charge and launch themselves into the unsuspecting Dryads. The orruks started swinging and managed to deny the objective, chopping some limbs off but taking a few casualties in return. I was very careful to leave the Eidolon out of combat. I wanted no part of that! 

This is when disaster struck! My worst fear became reality when Jack won the double turn going into the third, and I braced myself for the coming onslaught! The Eidolon was gifted Mystic Shield, which added to his Ethereal Amulet in making him VERY hard to kill. Free from combat, he leapt over the top of my Ard Boys to try and block the avenue, isolating them from the rest of my army, but thankfully for me, failed a 5" charge with a re-roll. Lucky! The Thralls joined the fight on the centre objectives, adding their two-handed blades to the conflict, and adding another heap of bodies to the mix. 

The Morrsarr Guard, fresh from their kill of the Ard Boys, charged the rear of my Gore-Gruntas and wrapped up a Warchanter in the mix. The Megaboss on Maw-Krusha, not content to watch his orruk comrades be murdered, made another out of sequence charge and smashed into the flank of the Eels, wiping one out from impact hits. The zaps and the round of attacks from the Eels weren't nearly as impactful as either of us were expecting, and in return, the Gruntas and Maw-Krusha wiped the unit out completely! 

The brawl on the middle objective was not going my way. The Ard Boys were holding their own in a fight, but they'd lost control of the objective. 

Despite the success of repelling the Morrsarr assault on the left, things weren't so good on the right flank. The other unit of Morrsarr had also committed to combat and unleashed their full power upon the other unit of Gore-Gruntas, killing four outright and wounding a fifth. I chose to use a command point to keep them around, as I really couldn't afford to lose too many more bodies. 

At the end of Jack's turn three, things were a bit all over the shop. Both our home objectives had landed relatively central on the board (mine in the woods beside the Shaman, and Jack's behind his home Shipwreck by the Treelord. Even with it being High Tide, I needed to pull out something special to stay in this fight. I was losing bodies fast, and even though my Shaman was successfully shutting down the Dryad summons, there were still plenty of Aelves on the table! 

I wasted no time in formulating a couple of kunnin' plans! The first was to buff up the two surviving Gruntas from the right flank, and pluck them out of combat with a Hand of Gork. I dropped them deep in Jack's deployment, hoping to make my 8" charge (thanks to the Ironjawz +1" to charges) into the Tidecaster. If I could kill her (which two angry pig-riders shouldn't struggle too hard with on the charge), I'd have two pigs to one Treelord and snatch the objective!

But alas, my dice had other plans...  The charge failed and the kunnin' strategy wasn't as brutal as I would have liked.

Elsewhere on the table, however, pieces were in motion!

A plan was forming in my mind. A trick well known to Ironjawz players was about to be put into play. A trick that would completely bypass High Tide. In my hero phase, both my Gore-Gruntas and Megaboss on Maw-Krusha used their Mighty Destroyer (in the case of the Pigs, for free thanks to Ironfist) to charge the Eidolon. I completely forgot my impact hits, but that wasn't my priority. I had no intention of laying a finger on the Aspect of the Sea. I had other quarry. 

In my movement phase, both the pigs and the cabbage dragon retreated toward their actual targets. For the Gruntas, this was the Thralls that were currently giving my Ard Boys what for on the centre objective. For my Maw-Krusha, this was the Morrsarr Guard threatening my home objective and my Shaman. All I had to do was sit just outside of 3" of each of these units and wait for the perfect time to strike. 

Because both units had made a charge earlier in the phase, both were eligible to pile in and attack in the combat phase, so thanks to some cheeky hero phase charges and subsequent retreats, they could sit safely out of combat, bypassing the activation wars altogether (take THAT, High Tide!) and then pile in at their leisure to give some skulls a good ol' crumping. This is exactly what happened. 

The Gore-Gruntas made their presence felt, trampling Thralls beneath their trotters and reclaiming the objective by a hair. The Maw-Krusha wasn't playing games either...

He'd retreated over to the right flank, and with Violent Fury in full effect, and an extra attack from Strength From Victory, he butchered the entire unit of Eels in a single activation! My perfectly laid plan had paid off! And victory was in sight, but far from safe in my hands. 

By the dying light of turn five, there was not much left on the board! Turns four and five were spent trading individual bodies in two of the tightest turns of Warhammer I've ever played. Every movement was crucial, and every death costly. There were I had my home objective firmly held down with the right-hand screening unit of Boys that had spent the entire game running along to try and be relevant. But the two other objectives were changing hands at every opportunity. 

It was an absolute knife edge game of precision play from both myself and Jack in the end, but when the dust settled, the Ironjawz scraped the tightest of victories! 

This was an unbelievable game, and was unquestionably my favourite match of the weekend. Jack is an absolute champion and we were both playing an incredibly tight game from start to finish. He easily earned my primary favourite game vote. There were a couple of micro mistakes in each of our strategies, but I would have been perfectly content if I'd lost this game. It came down to single dice rolls multiple times throughout the game. The Eidolon failing his charge was a big tipping point, and my 'MD-retreat-pile in' move at the bottom of turn three saved me from complete obliteration!

Sitting on 38 out of 40 battle points after two games, I was headed for the top tables. But the air was getting pretty thin up there, and there are no easy games in the top bracket! 

Check in soon for Game Three! 

Gabe  

#165: CanCon Game 3 Battle Report - Beasts of Chaos Vs. Maggotkin of Nurgle

So, going into Game Three, I was sitting on a major win and a major loss. The world was still my oyster, and depending on how my third game went, I could still set myself up for a good final placing.

At the same time, taking a loss had changed my approach to games, as I knew I wasn't playing for sheep stations. This let me relax a bit and really enjoy my next four games.

Now, I must apologise to my opponent, because I was well and truly spent going into my third game. Between the heat and hours of concentration, I was beginning to fade. Knowing this, I was hoping for a pretty straight forward game, win or lose.

And, well... This is what I came up against.

Allegiance: Nurgle
Mortal Realm: Ghyran

Leaders
Lord of Afflictions (220) - General - Trait: Avalanche of Rotten Flesh - Artefact: Rustfang
The Glottkin (420)
Harbinger of Decay (160)
Festus the Leechlord (140)

Units
40 x Chaos Marauders (200) - Axes & Shields - Tribal Banner - Damned Icon - Mark of Nurgle
40 x Chaos Marauders (200) - Axes & Shields - Tribal Banner - Damned Icon - Mark of Nurgle
20 x Chaos Marauders (120) - Axes & Shields - Tribal Banner - Damned Icon - Mark of Nurgle
6 x Plague Drones (400)

Endless Spells
Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)

Total: 1900 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 2
Allies: 0 / 400

I had serious concerns as soon as I saw the list. My opponent, Dalton, could match me on bodies, and while he didn't have the raw killing power that I did, he certainly had the staying power and endurance to turn the game into a war of attrition. And a war of attrition is something Beasts of Chaos want no part of.

My mind was somewhat put at ease, however, when my opponent cracked about six dad jokes in the first five minutes of our game. So, I knew that it was going to be a fun game, no matter what. This was good because high-model-count attrition armies can easily lean toward a somewhat uninteractive experience. But my opponent made it pretty clear from the start that he was there for a good time, and that's exactly what we had.

The Scenario was Border War, which I was indifferent about. On one hand, Dalton could flood the middle of the board with incredibly durable units, and they would be very difficult to shift. On the other hand, he would have to come to me in order to compete on the scenario. I knew I had a task before me, but knowing that his army became a lot more durable after having a hero phase, I took first turn, threw caution to the wind and launched into action.

I was seriously second guessing myself on whether to move up and screen onto the objectives, or to launch across the board and try to rack up the kill count on Marauders early on to give myself a numbers advantage. Thanks to a gung-ho attitude, and judgement clouded by exhaustion, I charged.

The Bestigor went in and started swinging. Unfortunately for me, Glottkin's aura dropped their To Hit roll, and I didn't do nearly enough damage. I'd managed to hack my way through a fair chunk of them, but I knew the counter punch was going to hurt. On the bright side, I took both middle objectives and started posting some healthy numbers.

In response to the initial onslaught, Dalton pulled out all the stops to deliver some devastating blows. Thanks to a hole I had cut in the Marauders, the six Plague Drones had enough space to charge into the back of my Bestigor. And while they didn't have much in the way of Rend, they did have an avalanche of attacks, and the magical support of Festus, who made sure that armour corroded almost as fast as it was pierced. After battleshock, a single Bestigor stood boldy (boldly? Is that what we're calling it?) against the stinking masses. 

On the other side of the table, my Shaggoth was hacking his way through the other unit of forty Marauders, while my second unit of Bestigor attacked the other end. But no matter how hard I tried, he seemed to outnumber me on every objective. Scoring all four objectives for two back to back turns really put the nails in the coffin for me. 

In a last hurrah, my Doombull charged in and hacked the Lord of Afflictions to pieces, but by then it was too late. Dalton had outplayed and outmanoeuvred me. He pulled casualties out of the perfect places and piled in with precision, earning him a well-deserved major win. 

I think Dalton probably had this game from the start. Had I been a bit more cagey, I probably could have stayed in the game a little longer, but I just couldn't get through the bodies. The Harbinger of Decay was vital to keeping his horde alive, and it was a small mercy that the Glottkin failed every attempt of Fleshy Abundance. As it was, I felt like a lot of my units died cheaply, going down without killing much in return. That said, I played Nurgle for quite some time and that's exactly how they win games. 

Get onto the objectives.

Don't die. 

Dalton was a legend to play, and I couldn't fault his sportsmanship or gameplay.

This left me on one major win and two major losses, which wasn't where I wanted to be. My goal was to at least break even with wins and losses, and that was not looking good at this point. I was going to have to pull out something special on the Sunday to salvage some glory! 

Check in soon to find out ;)

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

#141: The Road To RCGT - Gabe's Maggotkin of Nurgle List Breakdown

With list submission having been and gone for the event, I figured it was a good time to break down my list for one of the iconic Brisbane Age of Sigmar events; the Redland City Grand Tournament.

Now, when I approach an event, the evil part of me wants to keep my list a complete secret in hopes of blindsiding my way to victory, but two things stand in the way of that. Firstly, when it comes to the hobby, I can't keep things under wraps to save my life (see super-secret Chaos Dwarf army that was a secret for all of three days). The second, and more important reason, is that as I'm about to go over all the army lists going to the event for the list review live streams this week, I thought that I'd disclose my list and my thoughts behind it first. That way, everyone knows what I'm bringing before I know what they're bringing.

So, without much more waffling on, let's jump into it...

In an attempt to be a little more competitive in this Handbook cycle, I've chosen Nurgle to be my main tournament army for the immediate future. It's a super strong book, and is a nice change from Clan Pestilens, which started to feel very restrictive toward the end of it's table run. Not only that, but I've already got a massive Nurgle army that is, for the most part, very quick to paint. So with my army chosen, I moved onto selecting a 2500 point army. 2500 feels like a lot of points, but I can tell you, that number quickly dissolves!

Heroes are always my first port of call in any army, and this was no different. My first pick was a Great Unclean One with a Bell and Flail. GUO's are a really solid pick, with their huge reservoir of wounds and healing mechanics, two casting and unbinding attempted, and a really solid command ability. I'm a huge fan of the Daemon spell "Glorious Afflictions", which only casts on a 5+ and halves the move, run and charge of a unit, and most importantly, stops it from flying.

Backing him up on the arcane front is Festus the Leechlord. His signature spell is invaluable in an army with little rend, and he also gives me a candidate to cast Blades of Putrefaction. He's surprisingly tough for a foot character, with six wounds and his healing mechanics.

The third hero was the Lord of Afflictions. When I first read the book, the LoA really didn't jump out at me, but after playing him a few times, he's incredibly versatile. He has all three keywords (MORTAL, ROTBRINGER, DAEMON), which means he has his pick of any traits or artefacts he might want. He's not going to kill a Stardrake, but he can be relied upon the beat down smaller heroes or units, and he's pretty tough to get rid of, with 8 wounds, a 4+ 5++, a heal each hero phase, and the Discharge and Incubatch for added annoyance.

I weighed up whether to leave it there or not, but in the end, I decided to add a fourth hero. And it was actually a pretty easy choice. The Lord of Blights' command ability is ridiculously good, and it didn't take much deliberation to settle on putting him in the list.

With my command structure sorted, I moved on to battleline. Needing four battleline for a 2500 point army, I started off my purchases with two units of thirty Plaguebearers. In a big unit, they're tough as nails, and with the LoB's command ability, this is only accentuated. They make great screens, objective grabbers and catchers for incoming alpha strikes, and putting sixty on the table is enough to make anyone second guess the killing power of their army.

For my third battleline, I took a unit of five Blight Kings. They're such good value, and give me a unit that can move behind my Plaguebearers and stop up any weak points in my line. They also gain a shooting attack if they're near the LoB, and while it's not much, sometimes sneaking one wound through can be the difference between winning and losing a game.

My fourth choice was by far the hardest. My initial thought was to run a cheap unit of Marauders, leaving plenty of points to pour into a unit of 6 Drones, which has fast become a staple of Nurgle armies. However, after a long deliberation, I decided to go with a less popular choice. By electing the Lord of Afflictions my general, I killed two birds with one stone by including a big unit of Pusgoyle Blightlords. They become Battleline under the LoA, and also fill the role of fast moving unit that can reach out and touch just about anything on the board. I know that Pusgoyles are a polarising unit (people either love them or hate them), but I was keen to give them a chance. With 7 wounds per model, a 4+ save and a 5++ Resilient wound mitigation, each model rivals that of heroes from other armies! They're also not too shabby in combat. Sure, there is a distinct lack of high-rend attacks, but they can still push through a horrific number of saves. And with three attack profiles each, with every second dragging a bell, they make great use of the GUO's Command Ability, as well as Blades of Putrefaction. In a practice game, they managed to drop a full-health Rogue Idol down to one wound with barely any buffs on them, so I know they have potential. That potential does require a bit of luck with the dice, though...

With four heroes and four battleline, I was quickly running out of points. My biggest concern was damage output. While I had an army that could rival any in resilience, I really wanted an answer to big scary units; something I could reliably send in and kill everything it touched. And so I went with a bit of a renegade choice...

I allied in two Jabberslythes.

These horrific monsters not only look like scrotums with wings and a face, but they have one of the most volatile warscrolls in the game. They're dangerous to kill, they're dangerous not to kill, and they can't be ignored. The first real drawcard on these monsters is their Aura of Madness. At the start of my hero phase, I roll a dice for every enemy model within 6" of a Jabber. On a 6, that model is, for all intents and purposes, turned off. No moving, no casting, no attacking, charging or piling in. It's like a piece of old school Mystical Terrain that I can fly around! I saw this used to great effect when a Jabberslythe turned off a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon for a double turn, so he stood there for two full turns of the game drooling and staring into nowhere. While hardly dependable, it's incredibly powerful when it does go off. And it's not restricted to single models. It can turn off an entire unit!

The second, and more important rule for the Jabbers is Spurting Bile Blood. For every wound inflicted (not to be confused with 'Suffered', as a Jabberslythe can only ever suffer 10 wounds, but may have any number of wounds inflicted on it) on the Jabberslythe, I roll a dice. On a 4+, the unit that inflicted the wound suffers D3 Mortal Wounds. This is my answer to everything scary that I don't really want to fight. I can throw them into combat with Prince V, Morrsarr Guard, basically anything that is going to push through a huge volume of wounds on them, then watch them inevitably die in an explosion so big, it will herald in a nuclear winter. Again, this is not restricted to single models, so a unit of buffed up Witch Aelves with Mindrazor on them that HAVE to attack are going to do a tremendous amount of damage to themselves that not even their Hag Narr save can protect them from.

With the last chunk of points, I purchased Soulsnare Shackles and Quicksilver Swords, as well as two extra command points. This army has three exceptionally good command abilities, and I really wanted enough points to make use of them.

The only thing left to do was distribute my command trait and one artefact. I put Avalanche of Flesh on the Lord of Afflictions, giving him an extra 2" to both his runs and charges, making him even more mobile. I also slapped the Witherstave on him. Thanks to the fact he rides a Drone, he has access to the Daemon artefacts, and the Witherstave is ridiculously good. It affects all enemy units (not models) within (not wholly within) 12" of the bearer, and they must re-roll all 6's to hit, which severely hampers abilities that need an unmodified 6 To Hit or even a 6+. Brutal. I thought about putting it on the GUO, as he is far harder to kill, but the LoA is far more mobile, so I can make sure it's exactly where I need it to be, without having to worry about leaving room for the GUO or getting blocked by screens. It also means that I have three heroes eligible to hold objectives in one of the scenarios where wizards and heroes with artefacts can claim.

Probably the biggest strength of this army is it's ability to completely shut down a hyper aggressive assault. A unit of thirty Plaguebearers with the LoB command ability on them are -2 to hit in combat and -4 to hit in shooting. Combine that with the truly massive Witherstave Aura, and the hardest bit about killing this unit is landing a blow. Because modifiers happen after re-rolls, it just mitigates so much incoming damage.

Let's say a unit hits my line. They hit on a 3+ with re-rolls To Hit. Re-rolls happen before modifiers, so despite the -2 To Hit in combat, they're only re-rolling 1s, 2s, and of course, 6's from the Witherstave. After the re-rolls, the modifiers kick in, meaning only 5s and 6s are actually hits. Then they have to wound, and I have to fail armour saves and Disgustingly Resilient saves.

Tough...

As...

Nails...

Of course, there are plenty of ways around this for a savvy general, and I'm counting on my opponents doing everything they can to crack the combo before they go in. But who knows... It might save my bacon!

What do you think of the list? Rock solid or am I setting myself up for disappointment? I think that while it has immense staying power, it will struggle to cleave its way through an opposing army, as it still kind of feels that it lacks serious killing power across the army. It's easy to focus on what it can do, and forget what it can't, so there will be plenty of practice games between now and the event. It's probably the most competitive army list I've taken to an event in over a year, and I'm hoping to go at least 3 win out of 5 games, but we'll see. The most carefully laid plans rarely survive contact with the enemy.

If you haven't already seen, I'll be breaking down the other armies at the event in a List Review Live Stream on Tuesday and Wednesday night, so tune into Facebook and hang out with me! :)

Thanks for reading and I'd love to know your thoughts on my army.
Gabriel

ALLEGIANCE: NURGLE
Lord of Afflictions (General, Avalanche of Flesh, Witherstave)
Great Unclean One (Glorious Afflictions, Bell & Flail)
Lord of Blights
Festus the Leechlord
30 Plaguebearers (Battleline)
30 Plaguebearers (Battleline)
5 Blight Kings (Battleline)
4 Pusgoyle Blight Lords (Battleline)
Jabberslythe (Allies)
Jabberslythe (Allies)
Soulsnare Shackles (Endless Spell)
Quicksilver Swords (Endless Spell)
2 Extra Command Points

#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

#137: Toowoomba Remote League 1000pt Tournament - Game 1 - Maggotkin Vs Legion of Night

After making the pilgrimage up the range to Toowoomba, I was ready to play my first three games of AOS2! Going into it, I honestly had no idea what the player pool would look like, as the only Toowoomba players I had faced were members of the Failed Charge Podcast crew, who were the event organisers. I was going into the day blind a little bit, but after putting Clan Pestilens on the display shelf for a breather, this left me with a couple of options. I ended up settling on Maggotkin, as I had a few events later in the year that I was planning with them. Besides, it's a super strong book...a nice change from the less diverse armies that I had been playing; widely considered to be far from the top tier of armies.

Great Unclean One (General, Bell/Flail, Grandfather's Blessing, Endless Gift, Glorious Afflictions)
10 Plaguebearers (Battleline)
10 Plaguebearers (Battleline)
6 Plague Drones
Soulsnare Shackles (Endless Spell)

This sat me at 1000 points on the dot. I would have preferred to run 20-man Marauder units instead of the Plaguebearers, but I simply didn't have them painted and ready for the event. The GUO and Drones is a pretty staple combination in the army, allowing them to dish out a ton of hits with a huge threat range!

But the real utility in the army comes from the fusion of the Glorious Afflictions spell ( the target's move characteristic and run and charge rolls are halved, and the target unit cannot fly) with its 21" range, and Soulsnare Shackles, which cripples movement once again. The idea behind this was as an answer to such craziness as Stardrakes, Witch Aelf hordes and Bloodletter Bombs. These two spells would allow me to essentially shut a unit down, and put it in a position where it had little to no impact on the game until I was good and ready to deal with it. But you know what they say about the best laid plans.

But I digress...

After arriving in Toowoomba, consuming enough coffee to jumpstart my brain, and shaking a few hands, it was time for round one. I found myself facing off against a gentleman by the name of Gary, with his Legion of Night army.

Mannfred (General)
20 Skeleton Warriors
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
Terrorgheist

The scenario was Shifting Objectives, which meant we were both going to have to be on our toes to come out on top. My deployment was pretty standard, with my tree on the centre lane, and a unit directly opposite each objective. In hindsight, I think the tree was positioned poorly, and clogged up the Drone's lane, but what's done was done. We rolled to see which objective was the "big" one, and the right objective was the priority. I took first turn, and basically pushed my whole army onto the centreline. The Bell and good run rolls meant that I got where I needed to be, and scored maximum points as a result. I made the mistake of holding back with my Drones, instead of pitching into the Skeleton horde, and pinning my opponents numbers far from the objectives.

And my opponent made me pay for that mistake...

The skeletons poured into the Drones, managing to flood the objective with bodies, and claw away ownership. On the left, I was confident that the five Dire Wolves wouldn't be able to grind down the Plaguebearers, but on the right, where the objective was worth three points, Mannfred committed his considerable weight to the conflict and smashed the Plaguebearers into oblivion, firmly claiming the area for Death. His Terrorgheist also showed up on my backline, and screamed at the GUO, who had taken a wound from Manny's magical barrage. Fortunately, his high Bravery stopped the scream from having any impact, and the Terrorgheist failed the 9" charge. What my opponent HAD managed to do was catch me on the back foot, and completely shut down my Contagion Point generation. Uh-Oh...

The main objective shifted to the middle one (not the left as I had hoped), and my opponent got the double on me. The Terrorgheist attempted to make life difficult for the GUO, starting to put some serious hurt on him (which he was able to almost completely heal back at every possible chance). But the real problems were just beginning in the middle of the table. Mannfred, having dispatched the Plaguebearers, turned his attention to the Drones, cutting down three and crippling a fourth with the help of some furious Skeletons. All I could do was hope that the Drones would stay alive long enough to grind down the Skeletons. I threw the Shackles over near Mannfred, and while they failed to have any effect on Manny or the Skeletons, they did do two mortal wounds to the drones. Just perfect...

At this point, the game was getting tight! We were both just on the edge of our seats, knowing full well, that things were on a knifes edge. I had spent the first two turns on the ropes, getting pummelled, but momentum began to shift back toward Nurgle. The GUO managed to not only dispatch the Terrorgheist, but also send a Plague Wind through the Drones and into the Skeletons, healing and killing as it blew. The Plaguebearers on the left lost a single model to the dogs, rolled a 1 for Battleshock, and replenished their numbers to solidify their position on that objective. And the Drones, with added attacks from the GUO's Command Ability, finally ground down the last of the Skeletons. 

What really put the nail in my opponent's coffin (pun fully intended) was the main objective swinging back to it's original position on the right flank. With the Skeletons depleted, and Mannfred having taken a few wounds over the course of the battle, despite his armour and healing, I decided it was time to make my big play for victory. The last remaining Drone (they really took a beating) was unaffected by the shackles this turn, and retreated over the top of Manny and onto the objective, claiming it away from Death. The Plaguebearers on the left objective finally put their plagueswords to the last undead dog, and the GUO, who had healed back every single point of damage suffered earlier in the battle, took the fight to Mannfred, punching the Mortarch of Night until his army and vampiric healing could save him no longer! 

The game ended with a firm victory for the minions of Nurgle, but it was far from a sure thing until the dying moments of the game! The battle swung back and forth many times, with every dice roll being vital to winning or losing. Gary was a fantastic opponent, and he won my Best Sport vote! 

Having only lost 120 points in the Plaguebearers, and killing 940 points worth of my opponent's army (one pesky unit of dogs escaped my clutches!), I found myself sitting on the top tables, unsure of what new terrors I would face next... The kill points from this game in no way reflected just how ridiculously close this game was! 

Thanks for reading, and check back in soon for game two!

Gabe

#133: Age of Sigmar Battle Report - BrisVegas Open Game Five - Skaven Pestilens Vs. Maggotkin of Nurgle

After two big wins and two big losses, I found myself facing one of the five Maggotkin players!

Lord of Plagues (General)
Rotbringer Sorcerer
Gutrot Spume
Verminlord Corruptor
Plague Priest
Rotigus
20 Marauders of Nurgle
5 Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)
5 Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)
5 Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)
5 Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)
Blight Guard (Warscroll Battalion)

At first glance, I was pretty stoked. Thanks to the Nurgle keyword, I could make use of her Feculent Gnarlmaws to run and charge with my Monks, as well as benefit from certain results on the wheel. Then I looked a little closer and realised what a rough stretch of road this was going to be. The Blight Guard meant that I was at -1 to Hit against all of the Blight Kings, which completely blunted the Monks' melee triggers. The scenario was Scorched Earth, so I had the numbers advantage, but whether I could capitalise on that was yet to be seen.

I deployed pretty across a pretty wide frontage, being well aware of the threat posed by Gutrot and his goons. I left a Catapult in each corner to zone out my back field, made sure to park my Arch-Warlock next to Arcane Terrain. 

 My opponent built her offence using Rotigus as the anchor. The Sorcerer and Lord of Plagues protected him, along with five Kings. On the left, the Marauders were left relatively unprotected on the objective, while the right flank was held down by two units of Kings, the Corruptor and the Priest. Gutrot and a unit of Kings were waiting off the board.

My opponent gave me first turn, and I was determined to stop her from ruining my back field with Spume. Luckily for me, I had enough bodies in the list to do that effectively. 

My first turn was very conservative. I knew that, especially in Scorched Earth, if I gave Spume & Friends an opportunity, they'd run on, burn an objective and get ahead on the scoreboard. If that happened, I was going to be in serious strife. So, I chose to sit back and force Spume to commit, and then react from there. Usually, I hate playing a reactive play style, but in this situation, I felt I had to. The Warlock jumped up on his Balewind and started chipping wounds off characters that didn't have a built in ability to heal (like Rotigus) but it was to no avail, as in the following turn, the King's Discharge rolled perfectly and healed the nearby heroes back up to almost full wounds. The gutter runners popped up in the right-back corner, in hopes of running along the back board edge, and burning a cheeky objective. Only wounding Nurgle on 6's, my Plagueclaws were pretty much just paperweights this game.

Realising that there wasn't much point in waiting, my opponent made the choice to bring Spume & Friends on the right flank, to strengthen the weaker side. I was confident that the Bale-Chimes would protect me from a long-bomb charge. 

Fortunately for me, Mystical terrain was not kind to my opponent. A unit of Kings, the Plague Priest and the Marauders were all befuddled, but fortunately, they were on objectives and had no urgent need to move. 

Nurgle got the double turn, and wasted no time in hitting the gas. Spume and his friends had a tree pop up behind them, and got ready for a charge on the Priest and Monks, while on the other flank...

...a unit of Blight Kings butchered their way through twenty Monks to leave an objective dangerously exposed! Oh dear.

Spume and the Kings made it into combat, and began punching things to death. The Priest was no match for the grizzled sea-captain's onslaught, and the Monks and Catapult took a punishing amount of damage from the Kings. It was at this point that I realised how badly the game was going for me, primarily because of Blight Guard. -1 to hit on all the Blight Kings meant that all of my monks were hitting like wet noodles, as none of their triggers were able to go off. 

In my following turn, realising that I had nothing to lost, and everything to gain, my Corruptor sprinted forward, running and charging thanks to the nearby Gnarlmaw, and launched into the Marauders, hoping to slice and dice his way through the unit and maybe even get a sneaky burn!

On the other side of the board, I was celebrating the little wins. After my opponent's Corruptor got befuddled by the same Mystical Terrain that had basically derped out that whole flank, my monks made full use of the opportunity, running and charging to punch on with both the Corruptor and the Priest. Thankfully, they had no negative hit modifiers, so my attacks actually put a great deal of pain on them! 

Not content with murdering my Priest and Plagueclaw on my right-hand objective, the Blight Kings chose not to burn the objective, as there was no real threat to it, and instead, tag the tail end on ym unit of Monks, stringing them out and mitigating the volume of attacks.

The Blight Kings accompanying Gutrot were losing models one by one, but were able to kill plenty of rats in return. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to put Inspiring Presence on them, which meant that they weren't going to be going anywhere in a hurry. Through sheer numbers, they managed to hold that objective all game! 

The Corruptor had also charged in and done significantly less that I would have hoped! Instead of leaping into the horde and decimating them with his scythed blades, he killed three... three marauders. Cool. 

The right hand combat fortunately did not result in complete carnage, but it did end with both right hand objectives firmly in my opponent's control. Game ended with a decisive victory for my opponent. 

You may have noticed that my Arch-Warlock, Plague Furnace and Gutter Runners had very little to do with this game. This was thanks to Rotigus and some truly masterful Wheel manipulation! The sheer mortal wound output of this army at long range is terrifying. In the end, the game ended up going about as well as I expected. I knew that even with some luck, I was going to have to fight tooth and nail to gain the upper hand. As it turned out, my opponent outplayed me and managed to catch my army in an awkward spot and hold them there. 

\

This was probably my most relaxed game of the weekend, as both of us knew we were nowhere near the podium, and therefore weren't playing for sheep stations. 

The event as a whole was fantastic, and I actually managed to hit some (but definitely not all) of the goals that I had going into it. To claim the Best Pestilens badge on the Australian Matched Play rankings, I needed to finish 26th out of 48 players or better. 

I came 27th...

I missed it by one spot. Spewing. That said, I can't complain too much. I managed to place higher than a lot of scary lists. With two wins and three losses, what really boosted me up was the painting scores. I managed to score maximum painting points, which was a real bonus; the painting journey for this army has been a hard road, and it was paying off! This was a goal that I really wanted to nail for the event, and I did just that.

I also wanted to get a "Best Game" vote from one of my opponents, and while I didn't actually end up seeing if I got anyone else's, I did get one from my opponent in Game Three with his Greenskins. I also gave him my "Best Game" vote, and it was well earned. That was probably the funniest game of Age of Sigmar I have ever played. So.. many... things... died.   

The BrisVegas Open was run seamlessly by the Tournament Organisers, had a fantastic pool of players, and ended up being a really enjoyable weekend! I will definitely be going again next year, and if you have the opportunity to, by all means, buy a ticket and get along to it. 

Thanks for reading, 

Gabe :)