Sunday, March 31, 2019

Battle Report: Tangling with the Wolves

Background
Contexte



I haven't had the opportunity to fight many pure CC armies in 8th and I've never faced the Space Wolves up to this point, so this game was a nice change of pace from the usual gunline. I discovered 3+ saves are pretty good.

Avec la 8e édition, je n'avais pas eu l'occasion de jouer souvent contre les armées de corps à corps. Cette partie était donc un bon départ de la norme. J'ai découvert que les sauvegardes de 3+ sont assez rentable.

The Armies
Les armées


I had only two guiding principles in the construction of my army: they had to be painted and they all had to have disgustingly resilient.

J'avais deux principes directeurs pour la construction de ma liste: toutes mes unités devraient être peinturé et toutes ont eu besoin d'avoir la résilience dégueulasse.


Death Guard/Daemons List

L'armée Death Guard/Daemon


Battalion 1 (DG)
Daemon Prince of Nurgle (WARLORD) - talons x2, Putrescent Vitality
Lord of Contagion - plaguereaper
Pox x17
Pox x10
PMs x5 - Blight Launchers & Plague Sword
Foul Blightspawn
Bloat Drones x2 - Spitters
PBC - Spitters & Heavy Slugger

Battalion 2 (Daemons)
Spoilpox Scrivener
Poxbringer - Virulent Blessing
30 Plaguebearers - Instrument of Chaos & Icon (upgraded to Plague Banner)
2x3 Nurglings
3x Plaguedrones

Vanguard (Daemons)
Daemon Prince of Nurgle (Stinky/Puant) - Sword (upgraded to Corruption) & Talon, Shriveling Pox
3x Beasts of Nurgle



Space Wolves/Astra Militarum List

L'armée Death Guard/Daemon


Outrider 1 (Space Wolves)

Wolf Priest - Bolt Pistol, Jump Pack
15x Fenrisian Wolves
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 - 4x Storm Shield, Frost Axe, Thunder Hammer x2, Wolf Claw
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 - 4x Storm Shield, Frost Axe x3, Thunder Hammer x1

Outrider 2 (Space Wolves)
Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf - Storm Shield, Armour of Russ, Thunderhammer, Warlord
15x Fenrisian Wolves
Wulfen x5 - 4x Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer x4, Frost Claws
Inceptor Squad x3
Inceptor Squad x3

Battalion(Astra Militarum)

Cadian

Company Commander - Chainsword, Laspistol
Company Commander (WARLORD) - Chainsword, Grand Strategist, Laspistol
Infantry Squad: 7x Guardsmen, Heavy Weapon Team Mortar, Sergeant - Laspistol
Infantry Squad: 7x Guardsmen, Heavy Weapon Team Mortar, Sergeant - Laspistol
Infantry Squad: 7x Guardsmen, Heavy Weapon Team Mortar, Sergeant - Laspistol
Basilisk x3 - Heavy Bolter x3


Deployment
Déploiement


We played Hammer and Anvil with the Disruptive Signals mission from the latest Chapter Approved. My opponent deployed first, putting down all his models at once. This was a departure from what I've come to expect from 8th edition. Then I deployed, keeping my plaguebearers, LoC, and two demon HQs in reserve. Once deployed, I did not try to seize. I figured I'd rather see what his army can do before rushing into them like I usually do.


On a joué « Le Marteau et l'enclume » avec la mission « Les signaux perturbateurs » du Chapitre Approuvée 2018. Mon adversaire avait déployé son armée en premier en mettant toutes ses unités sur la table d'un coup. C'était un départ de la norme de mes attentes pour la 8e. Ensuite, j'ai déployé, en gardant mes porteurs de peste, mon seigneur de contagion, et mes deux AC démons en réserve. Je n'ai pas essayé de saisir l'initiative puisque j'avais voulu voir ce que son armée peut faire, encore un départ de mes normes, puisque j'aimerais avancé directement aux fronts de mes adversaires.


First Strike
Le premier coup


My speed bumps, I mean Nurglings, ate the brunt of the initial wolf advance. They got mauled by Wolf Lords and Interceptors and gobs of Fenrisian wolves. My opponent was clever enough to avoid killing the last base to keep his wolves in combat. It meant my bloat drones and plagueburst crawler couldn't just cook them in one fell swoop.

Mes bosses antivitesse, je veux dire mes Nurglings, étaient les premiers à souffrir la colère des loups. Ils étaient démolis par les seigneurs de loups, intercepteurs, et des loups Fenrisien. Mon adversaire était assez astucieux pour garder un socle vivant. Comme cela, je n'étais pas capable de les désintégrer avec mes cracheurs de la peste.


The First Battlefront
Le premier front de bataille


In the first turn, the battle quickly devolved into two fronts, the first being the pack of thunderwolves that rushed into my demon contingent made up of Stinky, the 3 plague drones, and the 3 beasts of Nurgle. They mulched the drones relatively quickly, and then chewed through the beasts in short order as well.

Le premier tour a traduit la bataille en trois fronts de conflit. Le premier était l'attaque des loups tonnerres. Ils ont assommé mon contingent de démons composé de Puant, les trois drones de la peste, et mes trois bêtes de Nurgle. Hors de Puant, ils les ont transformés en paillis assez vite.



I whittled their numbers down a bit but it was slow going. I thought for sure that this front would fail and the wolves would have free rein to pour into my backlines. Stinky however managed to swing the battle through a sudden turn of luck. I had been joking about never remembering Death to the False Emperor. Then all at once I rolled 4 6's for Stinky's attacks. Suddenly Stinky was hitting 8 times instead of 4, and the Wolf Lord was unceremoniously splattered in one shot.

Je les ai réduits autant qu'il n'y avait que le Seigneur de loup et un copain, mais c'était lent. J'étais convaincu que ce front échouerait, et cela libérerait les loups à foncer dans mes défenses arrières. Plus tôt, j'ai badiné que je ne me souviens jamais de Death to the False Emperor. Soudainement, Puant a réalisé quatre résultats de six pour le toucher. D'un seul coup, Puant frappait huit fois au lieu de quatre, et le Seigneur de loup était éclaboussé d'un coup sans gloire.


The intercessors were supporting the thunderwolves, pouring bolter fire into the ranks of my demons. In return, my plague marines kept pitching blight at them. This carried on for most of the game until my adversary tired of the pustulant harrassment and tried to use his artillery to take them out. He only managed to kill 3 of the five man squad though so they got off a final volley to finish the intercessors for good. The last intercessor had his say just before dying though. Two shots wounded Stinky, and knicked off his final remaining wound.

Les intercesseurs ont soutenu les Loups tonnerres, en versant les tirs de leurs fulgurants dans les rangs de mes démons. En retour, mes marines de la peste y ont lancé la rouille. Cela continuait pour presque toute la partie jusqu'au point que mon adversaire était dégoûté de leur approche pustuleux. Il servait de son artillerie pour tuer 3 des cinq. Ce n'était pas suffisant pour museler les lanceurs de la rouille. Mes marines ont donc tué le dernier intercesseur, mais pas après qu'il a livré le coup mortel à Puant.


The Second Battlefront
Le deuxième front de bataille


On the other side of the board, the aforementioned hoard of fenrisian wolves came rushing into my lines. With close combat shenanigans, my opponent managed to tag and tie up my Plagueburst Crawler on a consolidation move, and kept himself shielded from my spitters by staying in combat, I had no choice but to run my daemon prince in. He's quite good at clearing chaff though. His suppurating plate bounces hits back on the enemy more frequently against low AP attacks because he saves more often. The prince was killing upwards of 9 wolves a turn, and had burned through the two packs in 3-4 player turns.

Mes unités d'en face ont subi l'attaque des loups Fenrisien. Avec des manigances de corps à corps, mon adversaire a réussi à accabler mon Lèche-bottes d'éclat de la peste avec un mouvement de consolidation, et il s'est protégé de mes cracheurs en restant en corps à corps. Je n'ai eu d'autre recours que de les attaquer directement avec mon Prince démon. Par contre, il est très bon en faisant le ménage de paille. Les attaques rebondissent sur son armure purulente avec plus de facilité quand ils sont d'une basse pénétration d'armure. Le prince avait tué presque neuf loups à chaque tour, et il a dégagé sa zone en trois à quatre tours de joueurs.


Meanwhile the wolf priest was harrassing my bloat drone, catching him in a heroic intervention even though neither were in combat. He got within 3" and so could heroicly intervene. I had never seen this reading of heroic intervention, but now I intend to abuse this extensively.

Entre-temps, le prêtre de loup a harcelé mon drone gonflé, en attrapant avec une intervention héroïque, malgré le fait que les deux ne sont pas en corps à corps. Il a réussi à se déplacer en dedans trois pouces. Il pourrait donc faire une intervention héroïque. Je ne l'ai jamais vu cette utilisation de cette règle, mais maintenant j'ai l'intention de l’abuser impunément.


Once the fenrisian wolves were all dead, my daemon prince splorched the wolf priest. He was hiding in the ruins but my opponent kindly pointed out that I could still attack by moving within one inch even if I couldn't enter the ruins.

Dès le mort de tous les loups, mon prince démon a écrabouillé le prêtre de loup. Il se cachait dans les ruines. Par contre, mon adversaire m'a gentiment indiqué que je pourrais toujours l’attaquer, même si mon prince n'y rentre pas, si je le déplace en dedans d'un pouce.


Simultaneously, the wulfen came sneaking up and hid in the ruins next to my PBC. I deepstruck my Lord of Contagion and with luck snagged them in combat on the turn of the drop. He got pretty bashed up but he managed to take down a few. Then the aforementioned bloat drone and PBC finished the job with loads of spitter attacks. It was another slog though that took most of the game.

Simultanément, les wulfen se sont cachés dans les ruines à côté de mon Lèche-bottes d'éclat de la peste. J'ai téléporté mon Seigneur de la contagion pas loin et il a réussi à y arriver en corps à corps avec eux le même tour. Il était assez magané après quelques tours de combat, mais il a réussi à descendre quelques un. Le reste des wulfens était descendu par les cracheurs de mes drones et mon Lèche-bottes d'éclat de la peste. C'était un effort pénible quand même qui a duré plusieurs tours.


The bloat drones were eventually destroyed by artillery fire, but my PBC and daemon prince survived the game largely unmolested. The Lord of Contagion survived as well with 2 wounds remaining.

Les drones étaient par la suite détruits par les tirs d'artillerie, mais mon Lèche-bottes d'éclat de la peste et mon prince démon ont survécu jusqu'à la fin. Le Seigneur de la contagion était toujours vivant avec deux blessures restantes.


The Demon Drop
La descente des démons


In the second turn, my plaguebearers and daemon HQs dropped in. The plaguebearers did a conga-line all along my opponent's deployment zone and pulled off a successful charge the turn of their arrival. I was a bit nervous because the HQs didn't make it with them though. In the end, it didn't matter because nothing was left from my adversary's army that could pick them off.

Pendant le deuxième tour, mes Porteurs de la peste avec les AC démons se sont présentés pour dire bonjour. Les Porteurs de la peste ont fait une ligne de Conga tout au long de la zone de déploiement de mon adversaire. De plus, le tour qu'ils sont arrivés, ils ont réussissent à se rentrer en corps à corps. J'étais nerveux puisque mes AC n'ont pas réussi avec eux. Cela n'avait pas posé des problèmes puisque mon adversaire n'avait rien qui peut les harceler.


In a nutshell, they chewed through the loyal 32 and made it to the artillery by about the fourth turn. By then my plaguebearers numbered about ten but with the HQ, and PBC support, they managed to damage one of the basilisks and blow up another. They nicked one of the company commanders as well. His warlord scurried off to the relative safety afforded by a bunker.

Pour résumer, ils ont bouffé la plupart des 32 fidèles, et ils sont arrivés aux artilleries pendant la quatrième tour. En ce moment, mes Porteurs de la peste étaient réduits en nombre à 10 ou moins, mais avec le soutien du AC et le Lèche-botte d'éclat de la peste, ils ont endommagé un des Basilics et ils ont détruit l'autre. Aussi, ils ont incisé un des Commandants de la compagnie. Le Seigneur de guerre était parti en courant pour la sécurité relative d'un abri fortifié.



If we had time to play another two turns and granted the game actually lasted two more, it might have been a tabling. All he had left were the scraps of his Astra Militarum detachment.

Si l'on a eu plus de temps pour jouer pour un autre deux tours, et si la partie a vraiment duré pour deux autres tours, j'aurais fait le ménage au complet de la table. Ils avaient seulement des miettes de son détachement d'Astra Militarum.

Retrospective
Le recul


Looking at the table at the end of the game, it would appear that I did quite well. Funny thing is that I lost regardless. My opponent had 17 victory points and I had eleven.

En regardant la table à la fin de la partie, il a l'air que j'ai eu une performance assez impressionnante. Par contre, ce qui est drôle est que j'ai perdu. Mon adversaire a eu 17 points et moi, j'ai eu 11 points.

There is a simple explanation. If you read through this report, you will see no mention of trying to achieve tactical objectives. That's because in the midst of battle, when I'm bathed in sweat and arterial spray, I get so excited by the havoc ensuing that I forget all strategy. Any objectives I got were largely accidental except maybe for the one moment when I recovered sufficiently to count how many psychic tests I successfully set off.

Il y a une explication facile. Si vous lisez le rapport, il n'y a aucune discussion des objectifs tactiques. C'est en raison de mon état au beau milieu de la bataille, quand je baigne dans la sueur et le saupoudrage artériel. Je deviens tellement stimulé que j'oublie carrément la stratégie. J'ai poigné la plupart de mes objectifs d'une façon presque fortuite. Il y avait peut-être l'exception quand j'ai compté tous mes tests psychiques.

From the beginning, my adversary had his eye on the ball. He took care to tie up and prevent my units from being effective, all the while seizing any opportunity to grab points. He was also quite sporting, suggesting better tactics when he saw me missing opportunities. One example was when he said I should tag the basilisk with my Plaguebearers' consolidation move. All in all, it was a well deserved win.

Dès le début de la partie, mon adversaire restait vigilant. Il prit soin d'accabler mes unités pour les rendre moins efficaces, tout en ramassant les points de victoires. De plus, il était un joueur juste, en suggérant des meilleurs tactiques, quand il avait vu que j'ai raté une opportunité. Par exemple, il a suggéré que je balise son basilic avec le mouvement de consolidation des Porteurs de la peste. Au total, il a bien mérité sa victoire.

Years of playing Death Guard passively in editions past has made being able to play them aggressively in 8th so exciting. They had really crappy damage output in 5th so every game was just one tabling after another. The sad saga of my daemon princes was always the same. They would get shot to hell before they made it into combat. Then when they did make it, their damage was underwhelming. Now they eat so much firepower without faltering and devastate whatever units they tear into.

Au fil des années passée à jouer les Gardes mortelles des éditions passées d'une manière passives, je trouve que leur nouvelle incarnation agressive en 8e est très passionnante. Leur sortie de dégâts était tellement déprimante dans la 5e, chaque partie a terminé avec toutes mes unités démolies. L'histoire triste de mes princes démons était toujours la même. Ils seraient mitraillés avant qu'il n'arrive en corps à corps. Quand il l'a réussi à s'y rentrer, sa sortie de dégâts était décevante. Maintenant, ils peuvent manger autant de coups sans cesser, et ils sont dévastateurs sur toutes les unités qu'ils attaquent.


It's taken me awhile to get used to the new oomph of the Death Guard. When the shine wears off, I might be able to play more strategically. Until then, I'll just keep rolling over the squishy stuff with gleeful abandon.

Il m'avait pris de temps pour m'habituer à la nouvelle force de la Garde mortelle. Quand l'attrait est diminué, il est peut-être possible que je sois plus capable de jouer d'une façon stratégique. D'ici là, je vais continuer de rouler dessus les choses souples avec un enthousiasme insouciant.

It was a really fun game, with lots of nail biting moments. I really enjoyed seeing tactics employed that I've only read about in competitive tournament style battle reports. If I can remember them, I may even be able to use some of these tactics myself in further games. I'm looking forward to future battles with my friend. He takes rolling dice to the next level.

C'était une partie très drôle, avec beaucoup d'occasions d'un suspense redoutable. J'ai fortement aimé d'être témoin à l'exécution des tactiques qu’auparavant j'avais vues seulement dans les rapports compétitifs des tournois. Si je peux m'en souvenir, je vais peut-être réussir à les exécuter moi-même dans les parties du futur. J'attends avec plaisir une autre occasion de jouer contre mon ami. Il amène le roulant des dés à un autre niveau.

Contents
Tables des matières

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Battle Report: 1st Chaos Outing of 8th Ed.

Background
Contexte



I got the idea of doing a nostalgic army as I was picking through my old minis. The idea was that I would try to make a viable army from units I used regularly in 5th and 7th (6th I took a break from Death Guard because they were just unplayable). My friend was game, so this battle was a test drive to see what needed tweaking before I waged a full size battle. Turned out, everything needed tweaking. It didn't help though that I hadn't played in over two months.

The Armies
Les armées



CSM/Daemons List

L'armée CSM/Daemon


Spearhead (CSM)
DP - talons
Lord - Combiflamer, fist
Maulerfiend - lashertendrils
Havocs x5 - flamers x4, combiflamer
Rhino - combibolter, combiflamer, havoc launcher
Havocs x5 - autocannons x4

Battalion(Daemons)
Spoilpox Scrivener
Poxbringer
Plaguebearers x16
Nurglings x3 x2
Beasts of Nurgle x3



CSM List

L'armée CSM

Emperor's Children Battalion (CSM)
Chaos Lord - Inspiring Leader, bolt pistol, chainsword, mark of Slaanesh, Warlord
Daemon Prince - wings, malefic talon, slaanesh
Cultists x29 - autoguns, MoS
CSMs x5 - combiplasma, boltguns, lascannon
Noise Marines x5 - blastmaster, 3x sonic blaster, doom siren, sonic blaster
Helbrute - MoS, missile launcher, twin lascannon
Spawn x2 x2 - MoS
Havocs x5 - MoS, Missile Launcher x4


Deployment
Déploiement


We played Beachhead on a 4'x4' table since we were playing only a 1000 points each, with a typical hammer and anvil style deployment.

The Chaos Forward Advance


In a nutshell, my maulerfiend and rhino full of havocs and my Lord charged forward, as my Nurglings rushed forward to try to tie things up. It was a half-assed plan which produced predictable results. Everything died.

The maulerfiend was shot to hell by the end of turn 1 and whacked by a bunch of spawn in my opponent's turn 2. This was in no way a deviation from his usual performance. In all three games that I've ever used the maulerfiend, it was always dead by turn 2 without ever doing anything.


The Havocs tried to flame the devastators not realising they had a 2+ save in cover. Even with 7 flamers, only 1 or 2 died. I think my Lord killed another with his powerfist, but there was a demon prince waiting in the wings which heroicly intervened. My Lord did make a phenomenal amount of saves in the first round but went down, the second time around.


The first two toads/beasts of Nurgle did OK against the spawn but then were unceremoniously gunned down.


My second toad hopped up to support the nurglings tarpitting the cultists. This went OK, but hadn't enough killing power to stop the cultists from doing their Tide of Traitors thing. He was then squished by the demon prince.


Humorously enough, my rhino traded blows for several turns with the shooty dread in CC. Both vehicles being terrible in CC, it was a textbook example of how not to use vehicles.


The Autocannon Havocs


These guys were pretty good. They maintained a decent kill rate, popping cultists and knicking off havocs for several turns before focus fire finally took them down.

The Demon Deepstrike


I decided to use my plaguebearers to grab two objectives and catch the spawn I saw creeping around the edge, trying to get at my Havocs. This was a waste of a great tarpit unit. They mostly got shot to bits without their buffs and being below 20 models to start.


I made my Poxbringer my warlord and gave him a bunch of buffs. He squashed a spawn but that was about it. With 3 attacks, even buffed up, he's a bit pathetic as a warlord. It was fun to try something different though.


The Tide of Traitors


The enemy cultists appeared in my deployment zone and quickly got mulched by my two demon HQs and Havocs. At least the Spoilpox Scrivener got to do something as he certainly wasn't buffing my plaguebearers.


The killing Blow


My opponent's Demon Prince zipped in for the final kill, taking out both demon HQs as I tried to hold onto my objective. His lord even knicked the uncontested middle objective. It was almost a tabling except my rhino stubbornly held on with 1 wound.


Retrospective
Le recul


So, what went wrong? Well, everything really. By turn 2, all the CSM stuff except the autocannon havocs were dead. The demons lacked their usual resilience and played rather lackluster as well. I'll consider two of the main problems here.

List Design

The list design itself was terrible. I didn't really know what I was doing when writing it and it showed. I realised as the game started that I hadn't even read the CSM spells/stratagems, artefacts, or warlord traits. It's hard to find synergies in a new army without doing a little reading.

I chose the maulerfiend as an answer to other heavies like the demon prince and the dread but it suffers from being an easy target for heavy weapons. I went in hoping it would make it. I guess this is a side effect of playing Death Guard for so long. Stuff does make it when it has a demon save and disgustingly resilient. A possible solution is threat saturation. Of the units that were ported/copy & pasted into the DG codex like the Helbrute and defiler, none will survive turn 1 if there aren't many other nasty things to distract my opponent from firing at them. The unfortunate truth is that a vehicle unit like this has no threat saturation protection in a 1000 pt list. That said, maybe I should just embrace the fact that it's going to die, treat it like a distraction carnifex and sacrifice his points to keep the rest of the army rolling.

The plague bearer squad was too small. Without buffs such as the -1 to hit when above 20, they were easy targets for all my opponent's guns.

The beasts of Nurgle were there since I wanted to try out the models. They hadn't been expressly worked into the list with a purpose. Future list lists will use them better. I find they function somewhat like Nurglings with a little more punch. Nurglings are probably better though since you can have two bases for every beast and are so much more versatile with the scout move.

The flamer havocs were the only unit I had thought a little about. I figured 7 flamers would decimate anything. Little did I know that flamers are fairly rubbish now in this edition. In 5th, I could catch a bunched up squad of marines, scoring a reliable 10 hits a flamer with a template. The single d6 of hits in 8th shakes out to considerably less in the same situation. Statistically I should get about 15-20 hits compared to the 70 I'd get in 8th. In this game I would have hit the squad 35 times relatively easily. I think I got 21 hits which was above average but not good enough. It's going to take some doing to make this unit combat effective and points efficient in 8th. We'll see how they do in the next 2000 point game.

My Gameplan

My strategy was terrible: run at the enemy and hope I don't get gunned down by the gunline, then hope the demon prince doesn't pulverize what's left.

To be fair, I didn't have many options with the list I chose. 5th edition was a lot like this as well though. I didn't have many options with Chaos if I wanted to play fluffy death guard. I would try to use cover as best I could, and usually would have nothing left by the time I got to the enemy. Death Guard can weather the first turn pretty well and then the demons drop in to shut down the guns. Pure Chaos however dies to a stiff breeze, and they're expensive. Not sure I could have done anything differently with the same list except maybe remember Miasma of Pestilence and use the stratagem to boost invulnerable saves on the PBs. That wouldn't have saved the CSM contingent though. If there was a large LoS blocker in the centre of the table, I could have hidden the maulerfiend for a turn or two while the demons shut down the guns temporarily. Also, the havoc squad was in the tower, a difficult position to quickly assault so difficult to silence.

The Challenge

I've dipped my toes in the water of the CSM codex now. Can I make them combat effective in 8th and still respect my desire to reproduce my 5th/7th ed. lists? I think it'll take some list building shenanigans but it's doable. My 2000 point list has much better synergy and includes death guard support as I was running a DG prince all along. I will definitely pour over the CSM codex before my next outing and adjust my list with what I've learned from this battle.