List Theory
I had a free day over a weekend so I decided to play a big 2,000 point game. I thought that I hadn’t played a 2,000 point Terminus Est Assault Force before, I forgot this game, so that is what I decided to do. The obvious choice was to take as many Poxwalkers as possible, and that also meant taking Typhus. I then wanted to continue to use models that I haven’t used in a long time, or that I’ve never used. So to this end the Biologus Putrifier and the Plague Surgeon went in.
There was enough points to take all of my Deathshrouds and Blightlords. The rest of the points were filled up with three squads of Plague Marines and nine Possessed.
The Game
This would be a Tempest of War game, we drew the following cards.
- Primary Mission – Priority Targets – Score points for holding objectives after the first round but also points at the end of the game for what you still hold.
- Mission Rule – Sweep and Clear – Sticky objectives, you can keep holding an objective if you move off of it presuming that no one else takes it.
The game is a Death Guard vs Death Guard slug fest, it’s a rematch against the opponent who hammered me earlier in the year. Could I do any better?
Setup
I had a lot of stuff to deploy. After much pondering two units of Blightlord Terminators went into deep strike, everything else was deployed pretty forward. The three units of Plague Marines went on my right flank backed by the Plaguecaster, Putrifier and the Tallyman. Meanwhile Typhus and his Poxwalker horde went on the left flank. A unit of Deathshroud went on either flank and the Possessed took the middle ready to run straight to the objective in the centre.
My opponent also deployed pretty aggressively. His unit of Blightlords also went into deep strike and he had a unit of Cultists in cover in a building holding an objective.
My opponent would take the first turn.
Battle Round 1
On both flanks things got hot pretty quickly. My opponent pushed forwards with his Rhinos on my left and his Daemon engines on my right. They didn’t kill much but they’re on objectives.
I likewise also pushed forwards. I blew some charge rolls on my right flank but the left was turning into a bun fight. I blew a lot of CP to use the stratagems to cause mortals on attacks by Poxwalkers (Mutant Strain) backed by the Harbingers re-roll stratagem, The Wrathful Dead, to fish for those mortals. This didn’t work out so well, I caused only a few mortal wounds to the enemy Daemon Prince. The Prince was protected by the Hulking Physique trait (would rolls of 1-3 always fail) and the Suppurating Plate relic (2+ save), coupled with the Death Guard’s -1 damage this made him a beast to hurt. Over on the right there were a lot of failed charges, I also forgot the Putrifier’s buffing ability to let the squad that did get into combat cause mortal wounds and I tallied for a different unit so only get the benefits in shooting. Not much damage was done.
I managed to claim two secondary objectives this turn compared to my opponent’s one, a slight lead.
- Death Guard (not me): +5 (5pts)
- Primary Objectives: +0 (0pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +5 (5pts)
- Death Guard (me): +10 (10pts)
- Primary Objectives: +0 (0pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +10 (10pts)
Battle Round 2
My opponent’s Daemon Prince leaps out of combat and eats my Plague Surgeon instead. The Poxwalkers on my left take a hammering and I lose a lot of them. In the centre a bloat drone is grinding away at my Possessed, but I still outnumber him and take the objective. On my right the grinding continues, the Plagueburst Crawlers also get involved. Casualties are low and, again, I hold the objective. The enemy Blightlord Terminators teleport onto my left flank but then blow their charge, I know that feeling well.
On my turn I manage to kill the rampaging Daemon Prince, but other than that it’s mostly our two armies continuing to grind (I’ll be using that word a lot) away at each other. This is good for me, I’ve got a lot of models with Objective Secured and I can hold the contested objectives. One big thing that I did achieve was to deep strike my own Blightlords and to wipe out the enemy cultists on an objective with a successful charge. I dropped both units of Blightlords in and used a re-roll on the charge to achieve this, even then only one of the two units made it into combat.
My Death Guard continue to build a slight lead.
- Death Guard (not me): +15 (20pts)
- Primary Objectives: +5 (5pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +10 (15pts)
- Death Guard (me): +20 (30pts)
- Primary Objectives: +10 (10pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +10 (20pts)
Battle Round 3
It’s another round of my infantry grinding away against his units on objectives, and though the engines are hard for my units to kill I’m still holding the objectives and still scoring those primary points. A nice set of secondary objectives also help me push my lead further. I do use Rotting Tide to resurrect a unit of Poxwalkers on the objective in the enemy deployment zone which frees up the Blightlords to go and get involved in the battle.
- Death Guard (not me): +0 (20pts)
- Primary Objectives: +0 (5pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +0 (15pts)
- Death Guard (me): +20 (50pts)
- Primary Objectives: +10 (20pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +10 (30pts)
Battle Round 4
My opponent flings Rhinos at the units of Poxwalkers that are sitting on objectives, but they don’t have the power to kill enough of them. We both bring our Blightlord Terminators into the fight in the centre of the table. Other than that the slow grinding brawls continue. I can’t really hurt his Deaemon Engines, but he can’t kill enough of me, this gives me the advantage and I score very well this round.
- Death Guard (not me): +5 (25pts)
- Primary Objectives: +0 (5pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +5 (20pts)
- Death Guard (me): +15 (65pts)
- Primary Objectives: +10 (30pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +5 (35pts)
Battle Round 5
My opponent’s Rhinos had disgorged two squads of Plague Marines earlier and they’d been causing havoc in the centre and on my left. However there’s not too much more that they can do, I sit on a lot of objectives and am too numerous to shift.
- Death Guard (not me): +10 (35pts)
- Primary Objectives: +5 (10pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +5 (25pts)
- Death Guard (me): +5 (70pts)
- Primary Objectives: +5 (35pts)
- Secondary Objectives: +0 (35pts)
Final Scores
The game is over, I pick up some more points for being in control of a number of objectives at the end of the game. The scores are counted, victory for the Death Guard, my Death Guard.
- Death Guard (not me): 55pts
- Primary Objectives: +10 (20pts)
- Secondary Objectives: 25pts
- Battle Ready: 10pts
- Death Guard (me): 90pts
- Primary Objectives: +15 (45pts, limit reached)
- Secondary Objectives: 35pts
- Battle Ready: 10pts
Post Game Thoughts
- Today’s game was brought to you by the word “grind”, and the number seven.
- Death Guard vs. Death Guard is a hard match up, we don’t have much capability to do high damage attacks and we take one off of the damage we receive. So we tended to get locked in combat and to just punch away at each other to little effect.
- I was quite impressed with how the enemy’s Myphitic Blight Haulers worked. They’re quite nippy yet also fairly tank. That they could shoot when engaged in melee combat really helped them out. I’ll be looking to get mine back on the table.
- My opponent took some melee Plague Marines armed with things like the cleaver and the mace, they did sterling work, they can really get through things when they want to.
- I kept forgetting that the Putrifier can use Foul Infusion to help a unit cause mortal wounds with Plague Weapons in melee combat. That would have been helpful to chip through the tough units that I was facing.
- The cards, again, produced a fun game that I really enjoyed. It felt closer than the points suggested with both of us working hard to try and win.
The List
Total: 112 PL, 11CP, 1,996pts
Battalion 0CP (Death Guard) [112 PL, 11CP, 1,996pts]
Configuration [12CP] +
- Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) [12CP]
- Plague Company: The Harbingers
- Terminus Est Assault Force
No Force Org Slot [8 PL, 145pts]
- Plague Surgeon [4 PL, 75pts]: Balesword, Blight grenades, Bolt pistol, Krak grenades
- Tallyman [4 PL, 70pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plasma pistol
HQ [14 PL, 255pts]
- Malignant Plaguecaster [5 PL, 90pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 5. Curse of the Leper, Blight grenades, Corrupted staff, Filth Censers, Krak grenades, Smite
- Typhus [9 PL, 165pts]: 3. Pernicious Dose, 5. Rotwind, Blight grenades, Harbinger of Death, Master-crafted manreaper, Shamblerot, Smite, Warlord
Troops [36 PL, 615pts]
- Plague Marines [6 PL, 105pts]
- Plague Champion [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plasma gun
- Plague Marine w/ blight launcher [21pts]: Blight grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ flail [21pts]: Blight grenades, Flail of corruption, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ plague spewer [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plague spewer
- Plague Marine w/ special weapon [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Meltagun, Plague knife
- Plague Marines [6 PL, 105pts]
- Plague Champion [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plasma gun
- Plague Marine w/ blight launcher [21pts]: Blight grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ flail [21pts]: Blight grenades, Flail of corruption, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ plague spewer [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plague spewer
- Plague Marine w/ special weapon [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Meltagun, Plague knife
- Plague Marines [6 PL, 105pts]
- Plague Champion [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plasma gun
- Plague Marine w/ blight launcher [21pts]: Blight grenades, Blight launcher, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ flail [21pts]: Blight grenades, Flail of corruption, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ plague spewer [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plague spewer
- Plague Marine w/ special weapon [21pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Meltagun, Plague knife
- Poxwalkers [6 PL, 100pts]
- 20x Poxwalker [100pts]: 20x Improvised weapon
- Poxwalkers [6 PL, 100pts]
- 20x Poxwalker [100pts]: 20x Improvised weapon
- Poxwalkers [6 PL, 100pts]
- 20x Poxwalker [100pts]: 20x Improvised weapon
Elites [54 PL, -1CP, 981pts]
- Biologus Putrifier [4 PL, -1CP, 65pts]: 4. Arch-Contaminator, Hyper blight grenades, Injector pistol, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plaguechosen [-1CP]
- Blightlord Terminators [10 PL, 200pts]
- Blightlord Champion [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminator [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminator [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminator [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminator [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminators [10 PL, 200pts]
- Blightlord Champion [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminator [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminator [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminator [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Blightlord Terminator [40pts]: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
- Death Guard Possessed [12 PL, 216pts]
- 9x Possessed [216pts]: 9x Horrifying Mutations
- Deathshroud Terminators [9 PL, 150pts]
- Deathshroud Champion [50pts]: Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet
- 2x Deathshroud Terminator [100pts]: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet
- Deathshroud Terminators [9 PL, 150pts]
- Deathshroud Champion [50pts]: Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet
- 2x Deathshroud Terminator [100pts]: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet
Plague Gardening 
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