List Theory
I was intending on replaying list that I used in my last game so as to see if the Spartan could do any better. However my opponent asked if we could step up to 1,500 points, and I thought I could do it easily by adding Mortarion to my list. If having 50% of your army as silly big models that can die easily is daft fun then having 66% of it as such must be really daft fun? Right?
So Morty goes into the list. There were a few points to play with and so the list was tinkered a bit to add in a Foul Blightspawn, a few more Poxwalkers and some additional weapons on the Spartan.
The Game
Setup
We rolled the Abandoned Sanctuaries mission from the Arks of Omen book. This has a rule that stops any pre-game movement or deep striking into no man’s land. This, I think, turned out to be crucial. My opponent was, I believe, playing a successor chapter to the Raven Guard and had a lot of pre-game movement shenanigans. All of that was shut down. There are also bonus points available for taking the central objective killing enemy units that are near it.
I take the following objectives.
- Spread the Sickeness: Seems to be reliable.
- Grind them down: I’ve got two big models, I need them to be killing lots of the enemy to earn their points and for me to have any hope of winning the game. So I might as well get rewarded for doing what I need to do.
- Psychic Interrogation: Morty is so big he can see almost the whole table, so he should have a line of sight to the enemy so as to be able to do this.
We both deploy with clear plans to go for the centre. I make a bad decision and have the crater between the centre and my Spartan. I thought that Inexorable Advance allowed all Death Guard units to avoid penalties to their movement, but it’s only for infantry. So my Spartan would be slowed down if it drove up the centre. Curses.
The Space Marines would take the first turn.
Battle Round 1
The Space Marines open fire and the Spartan pops smoke to try and protect itself. I was worried by the big Forge World tank in front of Mortarion as I hadn’t yet had a chance to try to use Miasma of Pestilence to protect him. But its shot all missed or bounced off of the Daemon Primarch. A few wounds were chipped off of the Spartan. And that was it. I was surprised, very surprised.
Mortarion races up the centre and rips the tank to pieces, he then manages to consolidate into a unit of bikes. Their chainsword blows are ineffective and now they’re locked in place. On my right flank the Spartan reverses up the flank rather than be slowed down by the crater. Then it melts the enemy Dreadnought. Again this was unexpected, it whiffed so badly in shooting in its previous game. The Death Guard are in a very favourable position as the round ends.
- Space Marines: 3pts
- Death Guard: 8pts
Battle Round 2
The Marine bikes flee from combat with Mortarion and a flyer arrives on the table. However with the loss of the Forge World Tank and the Dreadnought the Imperial’s ability to hurt my super heavies has been dealt a substantial blow. A few wounds are chipped away but that’s not much more than that.
In the centre Mortarion continues to demolish units, possibly the enemy character who came charging out of cover to try and get at him. The Plague Marines pour out of the Spartan and begin to chew their way through the Space Marines around them. I think the Malignant Plaguecaster dents a unit with mind bullets and it’s then finished off by the Plagueburst Crawler on my left flank.
The Death Guard really solidify their position here. What’s left of the Marines just lacks the ability to hurt either the Spartan or Mortarion. Meanwhile those two things are deleting a unit a turn without any trouble.
- Space Marines: 7pts
- Death Guard: 17pts
Battle Round 3
The Space Marines try to salvage something out of the game. The flyer goes for the Spartan while the Predator tries to take on the Plagueburst Crawler, both fail.
On my turn I wipe out what is left of the enemy army, all that is left for me to do is to score more points. Victory to the Death Guard.
- Space Marines: 12pts
- Death Guard: 38pts
Battle Round 4
- Space Marines: 17pts
- Death Guard: 56pts
Battle Round 5
- Space Marines: 22pts
- Death Guard: 69pts
Final Scores
| Space Marines | Primary | Secure or Sabotage | Oath of Moment | Behind Enemy Lines | Total |
| Round 1 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Round 2 | 4 | 7 | |||
| Round 3 | 4 | 1 | 12 | ||
| Round 4 | 4 | 1 | 17 | ||
| Round 5 | 4 | 1 | 22 | ||
| Totals | 16 | 6 | 6 | 28 | |
| Battle Ready | 10 | ||||
| Final Score | 38 | ||||
| Death Guard | Primary | Spread the Sickness | Grind Them Down | Psychic Interrogation | Total |
| Round 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 | |
| Round 2 | 4+2 | 3 | 17 | ||
| Round 3 | 12+2 | 4 | 3 | 38 | |
| Round 4 | 12+2 | 4 | 56 | ||
| Round 5 | 12+2 (9 due to limit) | 4 | 69 | ||
| Totals | 45 | 15 | 9 | 0 | 69 |
| Battle Ready | 10 | ||||
| Final Score | 79 |
Post Game Thoughts
- Oh boy… This list was meant to be stupid, the Spartan did not impress in the last game and backed up with Mortarion and not much else I thought I would take a whipping. But, no, I tabled the Space Marines for the cost of about three or four Poxwalkers. That made the game feel somewhat lacking in fun. It was tremendously well played by my gracious opponent, but it didn’t feel like a close challenging game, and that’s what I like.
- The Mission: This really hurt my opponent, he was expecting to go to town with movement shenanigans and just just couldn’t. Sometimes this happens, but for me it was the first of this games “feel bad” moments, it just didn’t feel fair. Should a mission rule be able to basically break the concept of your army?
- Psychic Interrogation: This was a stupid choice, if you do Psychic Actions then you can’t manifest any powers. In my head it was something you did instead of one of your powers. I needed Mortarion to be doing other things with his powers so I never did this.
- So, Mortarion? He’s had four outings now, in two he stunk. In the last two he’s been an absolute wrecking ball. Is he random? A 50:50 chance of death or glory? Really hard to call. It seems like if your opponent doesn’t have the tools to take him down and doesn’t take him down quickly he will dominate a table. That we started pretty close to each other and were both wanting the centre just helped him get into a position where he could do his thing.
- The Spartan also did so much better in this game. So with two games, one stinky and one amazing, is it a random unit as well?
The List
Total: 86 PL, 2CP, 1,500pts
Arks of Omen Detachment (Death Guard) [86 PL, 2CP, 1,500pts]
Configuration [6CP]
- Arks of Omen Compulsory Type: Troops
- Battle Size [6CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points) [6CP]
- Detachment Command Cost
- Game Type: 5. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen
- Plague Company: The Wretched
HQ [5 PL, -2CP, 90pts]
- Malignant Plaguecaster [5 PL, -2CP, 90pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 4. Putrescent Vitality, Blight grenades, Corrupted staff, Krak grenades, Sevenfold Blessings [-1CP], Smite, Stratagem: Relic [-1CP], The Daemon’s Favour
Troops [18 PL, 285pts]
- Plague Marines [6 PL, 95pts]
- Plague Champion [19pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
- Plague Marine w/ cleaver [19pts]: Blight grenades, Great plague cleaver, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ flail [19pts]: Blight grenades, Flail of corruption, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ mace and axe [19pts]: Blight grenades, Bubotic Axe, Krak grenades, Mace of Contagion, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ special weapon [19pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Meltagun, Plague knife
- Plague Marines [6 PL, 95pts]
- Plague Champion [19pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
- Plague Marine w/ cleaver [19pts]: Blight grenades, Great plague cleaver, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ flail [19pts]: Blight grenades, Flail of corruption, Krak grenades, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ mace and axe [19pts]: Blight grenades, Bubotic Axe, Krak grenades, Mace of Contagion, Plague knife
- Plague Marine w/ special weapon [19pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Meltagun, Plague knife
- Poxwalkers [6 PL, 95pts]
- 19x Poxwalker [95pts]: 19x Improvised weapon
Elites [6 PL, -1CP, 85pts]
- Foul Blightspawn [6 PL, -1CP, 85pts]: Blight grenades, Krak grenades, Plague sprayer, Revolting Stench-vats, Stratagem: Gifts of Decay [-1CP], Unholy death’s head grenade, Viscous Death [1 PL, 5pts]
Heavy Support [8 PL, 145pts]
- Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 145pts]: 2x Entropy cannon [10pts], Heavy slugger, Plagueburst Mortar
Lord of War [49 PL, -1CP, 895pts]
- Chaos Spartan [24 PL, -1CP, 445pts]: Crushing tracks, Heavy flamer [15pts], Twin heavy flamer [10pts]
Two laser destroyers: 2x Laser destroyer - Mortarion [25 PL, 450pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 5. Curse of the Leper, 6. Gift of Plagues, Attendant’s claws and teeth, Phosphex bombs, Silence, Smite, The Lantern, Warlord
Plague Gardening 