Warhammer 40k - S&B Tournament Round 3 - Zak's Ironwolves vs Death Guard of the Pallid Hand
Now I've done it! I KNEW winning my first two games would lead me to a formidable opponent...
Good day. Zak Ludick her from Cape Town, South Africa. This is a Battle Report of my 3rd game in the Sword and Board Warhammer 40,000 tournament I played in recently.
In Round 1 I played against a fellow Space Wolf and won.
In Round 2 I played against another Space Wolf and won.
Now I matched up against my long time friend and nemesis: Nicholas Rorich!
We started playing Warhammer 40,000 together more than 20 years ago! We went to Wizards in Cavendish, riding in the back of his father's truck to go buy our first models together and had our first battle together.
Since then, Nicholas actually ended up playing MOST of the 27 factions in Warhammer 40,000 and his knowledge and experience makes him an opponent that everyone in the 40k community respects and often fears.
At the end of 5th edition, and through 9th edition, I had not won any games against Nic. His skill and knowledge is something to be awed. In my 10th Edition spree, right up to this point I had only lost one game against Bernard Marchand... I was ready for an honorable loss against Nic. I would play my absolute hardest and if I were to lose, I would lose knowing that I gave it my all.
I was so focused on this game that I totally forgot to take pictures! The above picture is the only one I took of that battle, Nic's army on a tray.
So here is a picture of Nic, on the right, from the previous Round, where he is playing against Orks. He bossed the Orks and thus with the two of us both on a win, we proceeded to Table 3 to play against one another.
Let's get into it!
Opponent's Army
I did do a review of the Death Guard just prior to the tournament so this was an army that I had been studying and I knew exactly what does what in his army before he needed to tell me.
They have a lot of rules and inexperienced Death Guard players might forget all of them. Not Nic. He remembers them all. Luckily I had studied them so I also knew them!
Death Guard 2k typhus (2000 Points)
Death Guard
Plague Company
Strike Force (2000 Points)
CHARACTERS
Biologus Putrifier (50 Points)
• 1x Hyper blight grenades
1x Injector pistol
1x Plague knives
Foul Blightspawn (50 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Plague sprayer
Lord of Virulence (100 Points)
• 1x Heavy plague fist
1x Twin plague spewer
Lord of Virulence (100 Points)
• 1x Heavy plague fist
1x Twin plague spewer
Typhus (100 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Master-crafted manreaper
BATTLELINE
Plague Marines (160 Points)
• 1x Plague Champion
• 1x Heavy plague weapon
1x Plasma gun
• 9x Plague Marine
• 1x Bubotic weapons
4x Heavy plague weapon
9x Plague knives
2x Plague spewer
2x Plasma gun
OTHER DATASHEETS
Blightlord Terminators (330 Points)
• 1x Blightlord Champion
• 1x Bubotic blade
1x Combi-weapon
• 9x Blightlord Terminator
• 7x Bubotic blade
3x Combi-weapon
2x Flail of corruption
2x Plague spewer
2x Reaper autocannon
Death Guard Defiler (190 Points)
• 1x Defiler cannon
1x Defiler claws
1x Plague combi-bolter
1x Twin heavy flamer
1x Twin plague heavy bolter
Death Guard Helbrute (140 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy flamer
1x Helbrute fist
1x Helbrute plasma cannon
Deathshroud Terminators (250 Points)
• 1x Deathshroud Champion
• 1x Manreaper
1x Plaguespurt gauntlet 1x Plaguespurt gauntlet
• 5x Deathshroud Terminator
• 5x Manreaper
5x Plaguespurt gauntlet
Foetid Bloat-Drone (100 Points)
• 1x Heavy blight launcher
1x Plague probe
Plagueburst Crawler (165 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
2x Entropy cannon
1x Heavy slugger
1x Plagueburst mortar
Plagueburst Crawler (165 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
2x Entropy cannon
1x Heavy slugger
1x Plagueburst mortar
Poxwalkers (100 Points)
• 20x Poxwalker
• 20x Improvised weapon
Analysis
This Death Guard army is highly optimized with no wasteful points in units that do not matter or that do not work well. Everything here is a pain to deal with and everything is a threat.
Of course, being an Ironwolf, with the experience of Bjorn the Fell Handed on my side and the calculating mind of the Senior Iron Priest ( I should name him), I needed to create a hitlist of which targets were the highest priority and target them while I did my best to score Victory Points to try my best to win or, should I lose, to not lose by a great margin.
Hitlist:
2x Plagueburst Crawlers - Highest Priority
Defiler - High Priority
Bloat Drone and Hellbrute - Medium Priority - target if above are destroyed
Typhus - High Priority, situational, beware of psychic ability.
Deathshroud Terminators - High Priority, avoid combat at full strength
Blightlord Terminators - Pervent shooting at full strength, prevent before they arrive on objectives
Plague Marines - Dangerous with high damage output, especially to Infantry.
So yes... everything in his list scares me, but I have a list of priority and I was determined to focus on the top of the list first and when not able to target those units, use the rest of the list as a guide of my targets.
The Mission
Deployment: Crucible of Battle - a triangular deployment zone
Primary Objective: Purge the Foe - VP for holding objectives and holding more than the opponent. VP for killing enemy units and for killing more than the opponent.
Mission Rule: Chilling Rain
Analysis
I would use the speed of my tanks to take objectives ahead of the Death Guard to score bonus points early.
His unit count is low and every unit has an innate toughness to it. I would need to focus on his damage-dealing capabilities first. My list above stays unchanged.
He has a lot of Characters, thus I select Assassination as a Secondary. He also has 5 Vehicles so I choose Bring it Down as a Secondary.
Deployment
Ironwolves deploy in typical fashion. Razorbacks and Dreadnought support on both flanks, supported by a Techmarine and a Vindicator on each side. The Ballistus Dreadnought holds the home objective. The Land Raider sits front and centre.
The Death Guard Deployment was Defiler in the centre, flanked by Plagueburst Crawlers on either side. One side of the battlefield sees the Blightlord Terminators, Hellbrute, Typhus and the Poxwalkers. On the other side sees the Plague Marines with their two characters attached and the Foetid Bloat Drone. The Deathshroud Terminators and one Lord of Virulence are kept in reserve for Deep Striking.
My deployment was made in such a manner that all vehicles save for maybe one should receive Benefit of Cover to his Round 1 shooting. I would then use Smoke to cover the vehicle that did not have cover to make my own.
We roll off for first turn... I go first!
Turn 1
I let loose, wasting zero time. I could see Nic playing in a rather brisque manner, which is the way of players at top players. There is not time for nonsense in the competitive tables and the worst thing that can happen is wasting time and not finishing all 5 rounds.
I declare Oath of Moment on the Plageburst Crawler on my Right Flank.
I use Blessing of the Omnissiah with my two Techs on either Vindicator Tank.
I roll forward, Razorbacks gunning for Objectives on the flank. The Land Raider holds back, too many Blightlord Terminators in the centre to expose my Blood Claws so I position it for a shooting role. Wulfen Dreadnought sprints on the Left Flank after the Razorback, his shooting is minor and short ranged. Protecting the Grey Hunters on the Left Flank is more important and he would sacrifice himself to protect them.
I let fly with my shooting, Razorback Lascannon and Hunter-killer into the Oath target and hurt the Crawler. The blessed Vindicator let's loose with the Mercy is Weakness Stratagem and destroys his target!
The Ballistus cannot see a tank target and lets fly Frag Missiles and its lascannons into the Poxwalkers with Typhys, felling many.
The Razorback and Vindicator on the other flank manages to destory the other Plagueburst Crawler!
My Redemptor Dreadnought and the Land Raider shoot what they can into the Defiler with short ranged weapons targeting the Poxwalkers.
I destroy the Defiler!
Three of my highest-priority targets were destroyed in my first turn! This was a massive blow to Nic. Usually, for most opponents I would see despair at this kind of result but Nic kept calm, a seasoned player.
He stalked forward with what he had and blew away my Razorback on my Left Flank.
Turn 2
My Oath of Moment target is the Blightlord Terminators and I bless a Vindicator and my Redemptor Dreadnought. It had taken some damage, which I healed.
Nic surprises me with a Rapid Ingress move at the end of my Movement phase, slamming the Deathshroud Terminators down on the Centre objective on the table.
Now all the Death Guard were committed and I knew that he was not coming in from behind me with the Terminators. Up till now, I was carefully screening out my backlines, he had 7 Terminator Bases to fit down more than 9" of enemy models and I made sure that there was nowhere to go, this is the same as I had done to 
Nic saw all my measuring in my movement phase and so he knew I was not going to allow him to get in at the back. He checked himself briefly and then decided on the middle of the board. It did not take him long to deliberate. This is where the experience comes in!
In my turn I caught the Bloat Drone and destroyed it. Some focus fire sorted out the Poxwalkers and I killed Typhus with severe prejudice. I have fought against Typhus many times. He is a pain.
My Wulfen Dreadnought placed himself between the oncoming Blightlord Terminators and the Grey Hunters as planned.
With the arrival of the Deathshroud Terminators, I could not thin out the ranks of the Blightlords as planned and leave the Deathshroud alone. So a lot of Firepower was poured into the Deathshroud, killing many. Again, usage of extreme prejudice and determination.
In Nic's turn my Wulfen Dreadnought was destroyed in defence of the Grey Hunters and Bjorn the Fell Handed also joined that combat!
Turn 3 and beyond
At this point I had been scoring both the bonus for killing more units each turn and bonus points for holding more objectives than Nic. All of my high damage dealing units were still on the board and so it became a crab shoot... with crabs with a lot of armor...
I wore him away, all his vehicles removed by Turn 3 and full Character Assassination by Turn 5. I scored full VP for Primary Objectives.
Final Results: Ironwolves 94VP, Pallid Hand 37VP
Zak wins Round 3!
This was incredible! Unfortunate for Nic that I had Destroyed so much of his Armor in Turn 1 but that is the nature of war. If he had gone first he would have likely destroyed one of my Vindicators and a Razorback. It would have been a really hard battle if that had happened, I would have still managed to score bonus points for holding more Objectives early in the game but with less guns, I would have dealt less damage.
But that's for a future battle against Nic. I am sure we will cross paths again!
Thank you for reading this Battle Report!
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