TheChirurgeon’s Road Through 2022, Part 2: January in Asgard

Welcome back, Dear Reader, to my ongoing (mis)adventures in competitive 40k. In my last article I talked about hobby progress and getting in some practice games, and found myself crawling back to Death Guard after swearing them off. They’re not quite good enough to win me more games but they are fully painted and I’m good enough with them to do alright in competitive environments. So I decided to once again bring them to Asgard for their January RTT.

There isn’t much in the way of hobby progress this time around – I’m going full-bore on the battle report side, and I’ll talk a little bit more about the games and what I did strategy-wise this time. The Asgard RTT was 16 people; very respectable and there’s a decent amount of competitive juice in the area so I’m bound to play a couple of tough games whenever I go.

My Death Guard

My Death Guard - click to expand

This is the same list I tested last week. I’ve traded out the Rhino and one 5-model unit of Plague Marines for a third PBC, which helps me shore up the problem of “what happens if both are just kind of blah?” by giving me another fallback in case one is destroyed. Having a third PBC also helps me when I take To the Last, as it gives me one model I can be more aggressive with that won’t give up 5 VP when it’s destroyed.

The two 5-model units of Plague Marines just weren’t doing it for me and really only served to help me do actions on missions where I needed to potentially raise banners or have more Spread units and so far that’s come up zero times. I also moved Arch-Contaminator to the Putrifier to spread things out a bit, since the Blightspawn is everyone’s favorite first target. I’ve also got Viscous Death on the Blightspawn, but in the future I may see about shifting this army around a bit, taking out the Chaos Lord and pulling some upgrades (the Blight Launcher doesn’t do much for me) in order to make room for something else and doubling up on casters.

Game 1: vs. Joshua Reasoner’s Black Templars

My first game was against Josh Reasoner, bringing his Black Templars. I think he was still learning the army, and he was a fun guy to play against. Unfortunately, his list isn’t in BCP so this is my best guess at what he was running based on my memory and the photos I took. It’s off on points by a bit but I’m pretty sure all the units are right and I know the litanies and relics are.

Josh's Black Templars - click to expand

So far new Black Templars haven’t been much more of a challenge for my Death Guard than old Black Templars. As long as they still want to be in the middle of the table for Oaths, they’ll still give me free charges and movement, and I want them in combat just as badly as they want to fight me. The big challenges here are the Redemptor (as always) and the melta shots – the Eradicators and Multi-melta bikes can be a real headache if they get line of sight on my PBCs, and they can just push through a ton of damage on my blightlords if I get some bad rolls.

The Mission: Vital Intelligence

Vital’s not too bad for me. My major goal will be to try and cover as much of the map as I can early on, and the bloat-drones will be key to that. Josh deploys with a clear intent to sweep around from the north side of the map, trusting one unit of Infiltrators to hold both objectives on the bottom right. That’s a mistake – I wait to deploy my bloat-drones so I can put them where they’ll take both.

My Secondaries:

• To the Last – PBC / PBC / Blightlords
• Assassination
• Spread the Sickness

Josh’s Secondaries: 

• Data Intercept
• Engage on All Fronts
• Assassination

I think I can keep two PBCs out of reach at least, and if Josh has to fight my Blightlords then losing them should cost him a good chunk of his army, so To the Last works here. I don’t love Assassination with only 13 max but it’ll work. Spread is also fine here – I think 9 is very doable and if things go very well 12 may happen. My ability to walk away from objectives makes things easier.

For his part, Josh makes what I think are some mistakes here. Assassination is OK but he’s not fast enough for Engage to do much work and he doesn’t really have good units for Data Intercept if he loses his Infiltrators, which are very susceptible to being blown off the table by PBCs. I think he might have been better off taking Banners here and possibly Stranglehold, since he has the ability to steal objectives from me with ObSec units and Rites of War.

I’m Going First.

That’s really bad for Josh, and it’s basically the game. My plan going second was to use the dense terrain to protect the drones and PBCs as best as possible and just use whatever survived to clear off the meltas. I’ve deployed them all far enough away to avoid being in half range for the multi-meltas and Josh would have to advance to get into range with his Eradicators, so this wasn’t as risky as it looked.

Going first, my big plan is to swing both drones around to capture the objectives on the lower right and gut Josh from the jump. I advance the Heavy Blight Launcher drone, re-rolling the advance to get onto the objective, kill three infiltrators, and then use the Fleshmower to take out the rest while capturing the other objective and moving into the terrain to hide from shooting. The PBCs spend the turn wiping out the other Infiltrator squad to prevent them from getting on my objectives but not much else since Josh pops his relic for a 4+ invulnerable save and then avoids taking much more damage.

On Josh’s turn he presses out with his Crusader squads, advancing one across the table to the closest north objective, but doesn’t have shots on my vehicles yet so he holds back his attack bikes and Eradicators, choosing to do Data Intercept with them. He’s hoping to draw me closer and well, I am absolutely going to walk right into that. On the right side he brings up Helbrecht, the Redemptor, and his Crusaders and shoots 6 wounds off my Fleshmower. His Inceptors wipe out my poxwalkers in one volley and prevent me from contesting the north objective, which is a solid play.

On my next turn I score 15 on primary, then the Fleshmower shoots forward and mulches most of the Crusaders with help from the Blight Launcher and eats his way back up to 6 wounds but loses one to getting hit back. Meanwhile the Blightlords work forward and charge the Inceptors and Crusaders, killing the former but unfortunately leaving several in the latter alive. The bigger issue is that Josh left Helbrecht too close on my side of the table, and so I’m able to target him with the Blight Launcher and some PBCs, and I use them to shoot him off the table.

On Josh’s turn things break real poorly. Josh falls back from the Fleshmower and attempts to kill it in shooting, but only takes 4 wounds off it, dropping it down to 1. On the other side, he opens up with his melta and only manages to kill 4 Blightlords – part of this is me spiking my saves, preventing 7 out of 8 eradicator wounds. And at this point, that’s the game. I can clean him out from here and prevent his Eradicators from shooting again while the PBCs pick up everything else. The Fleshmower intervenes into the remaining Crusaders and eats another 3 while wiping the squad, and so things are over pretty early. We talk it out a bit and call it.

Result: 92-33, Victory

That was rough. Josh is a nice guy and he was facing an uphill battle the entire time, doubly so when he had to go second and spend a turn getting decimated. My army also does very well against marines generally so I don’t sweat these matchups that much. It’s a good start for me today, but in the next game I’ll basically get the same experience just flipped on me.

Game 2: vs. Andrew Stallworth’s Freebooterz

I haven’t played against Orks since their new codex came out and that is not a good place to be in, partly because they’re really nasty. Just some insanely good datasheets and the ability to put out stupid amounts of 3-damage attacks. It’s not great for me.

Andrew's list - click to expand

Andrew’s list is basically what competitive Orks have been running since the balance dataslate, with two fewer jets and a single unit of three Rukkatrukks. It’s filled with units that are just stupid good and able to get around the table with ease and shoot without line of sight. I really need to get first turn here to soften up some of these units.

The Mission: Sweep & Clear

Normally Sweep is great for me but here it’s not ideal. Most opponents have to meet me in the middle to contest the center, but the Orks can just blow me full of holes from a distance. The problem is I don’t have a ton of options here on a five-objective map. I really need to go first here.

My Secondaries: 

• To the Last – PBC / PBC / Blightlords
• Direct Assault
• Bring it Down

Andrew’s Secondaries:

• Retrieve Octarius Data
• Engage on All Fronts
• Assassination

Bring it Down is a no-brainer here because it’s worth up to 20 points. But otherwise I don’t have great options here. Spread isn’t very good because it depends on me keeping the poxwalkers around, and Grind isn’t a great option either given that the buggies/trukks are in units of 3. Engage is never a great pick for me, and Poxwalkers can’t do RoD so that’s out. So I opt for To the Last, since I’m gonna lose if I can’t keep the PBCs around, and Direct Assault, since it’s easier to hold the middle than it is to hold three objectives for Stranglehold.

I haven’t played against Orks, but last time I thought I might have to at Austin, I hit up fellow Goonhammer author (and a good Orks player) Shane Watts for advice against Freebooters. And essentially his advice was “don’t give them any free kills.” That’s a solid plan – GW attempted to balance the insane quality and quantity of Ork shooting by giving them BS 5+, only to then make a subfaction that gives army-wide bonuses to hit each time you kill a unit. That makes it trivially easy to get to 4+ and nearly as easy to get to 4+ against targets in dense cover. My big concerns here are the Wazbom Blastajets, which can throw out absurd numbers of D3+3 and D6 damage shots, and the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggies, which can toss out an absurd number of shots without line of sight at 36″.

The poxwalkers are my biggest liability here – them just being on the table is an issue, since they’re only 10 T4 wounds with a 6+ feel no pain. I put both units into Strategic Reserves and put the Plague Marines behind the terrain in the lower left, such that they won’t be visible to the planes trying to go corner to corner on a normal move without massively outkicking their coverage. My other plan is to use the Fleshmower to box them out and counter them, either charging in or intervening to kill one of them in melee.

I just need to go first.

I’m Going Second.

Ah, fuck.

I weather Andrew’s shooting OK until he tags my Heavy Blight Launcher, then finishes it off to get the +1 he needs. Then he starts unloading on the Blightlords and wipes out six of them. That’s not quite a crippling blow but it doesn’t leave me in a good place at all. He also shoots his shokkjumps across the table to the other side of my PBCs.

On my turn I take out both jets (neither explodes), plus the Kustom Boosta Blasta and a Scrapjet but it’s likely not not enough. I’ve got a real challenge here picking targets at this point – there are too many buggies to hit me with and I don’t have enough guns to remove them all. I prioritize the Jets, which have stupid amounts of shooting, and the Scrapjets because they’re the closest and in line of sight – I don’t have a good way to get a good volume of shots on them.

Andrew drops me to 1 Blightlord the following turn, then takes out a PBC. My Poxwalkers arrive too late to offer much help, and the Deathshroud make a last ditch effort, charging in and killing the Beastboss on Squigasaur, only to be killed when he fights on death and spikes his attacks and I whiff all my saves. That’s the backbreaker in a game that was already likely a lost cause. Andrew sweeps through my backfield with his Shokkjumps and while I’m able to kill most of his buggies, I can’t make up for a bunch of 5-point turns on primary. Meanwhile killing the deathshrouds means it’s open season on my characters, and they fall pretty quickly after that.

Result: 86-58, Loss

That was a real tough game and I’m not 100% sure yet on what I could have done better. Reserving the Poxwalkers was absolutely the right move, so I’m a bit proud of myself on that one. In terms of weathering turn 1, I almost certainly could have held more stuff back behind the ruin and out of line of sight; this would have been a better way to survive turn 1 going second. On the other hand, it also would have likely meant having a nothingburger turn 1 if I went first, killing my ability to meaningfully deplete Andrew’s forces. Basically what this boils down to is that I think it was more important to deploy in a way that would win on T1 than it was to deploy for going second, particularly since Andrew still had several ways to hit me through that ruin wall and dominate the other four objectives from turn 1. I didn’t have the resources to pry him off every objective, and that was a brutal situation to be in.

Orks are just a really bad matchup for me – they’re faster than I am and have much better shooting, with a ridiculous volume of 3+ damage/AP-2 or better shooting and the ability to zip around scoring while shooting me full of holes. Here’s hoping they get nerfed in the next points update.

Game 3: vs. Andrew Corban’s Salamanders

If you’ve been following along you know by now that I’ve played Salamanders a lot and they’re basically free for my Death Guard. They don’t offer a ton more than regular marines and while the flamestorm aggressors are annoying if I have to charge into them, I mostly just need to use my PBCs to take out the eradicators and other melta sources before they can really hurt me.  The rest isn’t too big a challenge.

Andrew's Salamanders - Click to expand

Andrew’s list is a bit unique in that he’s running three Redemptors instead of multi-melta bikes – those are a bit more of a pain to handle thanks to the -1 damage rider, but they’re great targets for entropy cannons. That said, Andrew can also protect them from entropy with Psychic Fortress and the Obsidian Aquila, which both give them a way to not just take massive damage from the guns. That’s pretty annoying, but I can just turn my guns on the eradicators and aggressors instead. Andrew puts one of his Eradicator squads into Strategic Reserves before the game.

The Mission: Priority Target

Priority Target gives us an easy third secondary and it’s better for me than Andrew. I’ve got an incentive to max out here – a good score and some luck will get me into the top 3 for the event.

My Secondaries

• Stranglehold
• Priority Targets
• Spread the Sickness

Andrew’s Secondaries

• Oaths of Moment
• Priority Targets
• Stranglehold

Priority Targets is great for Andrew and Oaths but running to the meat grinder in the middle is exactly what I want. It actually benefits me to go second here to mess him up on Oaths and get some free movements but going first is still better as it allows me to take out his melta before he gets a chance to act.

speaking of which, I need to avoid catching +2 damage so I stand a bit back from the edge of my deployment zone, though I think the dense terrain will carry me through this as well for one turn of shooting.

I’m Going First

That’s bad news for Andrew, who has deployed a little too aggressively here. I swing out with my PBCs and kill three of his Aggressors and most of his Intercessors near the southern point as I push my terminator blob toward the middle of the table. The Apothecary makes this a bit of a chore; I need full squad kills on the stuff that’s near him or he’ll just revive models, which is what happens with the other unit of Eradicators. Likewise, wounds on the Redemptors can be healed by the Techmarine, so I need to go all-in on killing each.

On Andrew’s turn he presses forward, gets little done with shooting, and is forced to wait another turn for me to come in. I wipe out the other squad of Eliminators and the Flamestorm Aggressors before the Blightlords charge in and take out the Infiltrators. There are still three Redemptors on the table but the game is basically over. Some variance spikes keep Andrew in it for a while but the Blightlords wipe out two Redemptors, the PBCs take another, the remaining Eradicators show up and whiff all their shots, then get murdered by the Bloat Drone and the PBC, and I table Andrew on turn 5.

Final Result: 97-43, Win

That was a rough game for Andrew, who got a bit too aggressive early on with his deployment – a gamble that didn’t pay off – and was in an uphill battle anyways. I’d have likely tanked his shooting with the PBC on dense terrain going second – 6 Eradicator shots would only result in an average of 1-2 unsaved wounds and maybe 5 damage – and that likely wouldn’t have been enough to throw off my game. The bigger issue would have been the Reserves Eradicators arriving a turn earlier, though I had some tools for screening them out with the blight launcher drone. Going second makes it a closer game, but doesn’t change much.

Final Record: 2-1, 6th place

I end up finishing 6th with a 2-1 record, which with my points total puts me in 6th place – that second game against Orks only being in the 50s really kills me. Because the ITC scoring is completely fucked, I end up scoring fewer ITC points from this than my 7th place, 1-2 finish last month because that event had 3 more players. Fun times. Still, the event was great and I can’t recommend Asgard Games in Houston enough. Great location, good mask policy, fun events. I win best painted, narrowly edging out a wonderful bloke named Carmine who has some lovely Ultramarines but hasn’t finished basing the entire army yet. I suspect a couple of pots of Valhallan Blizzard and he’ll steal it away next time, though.

This may be it for me in the 2021 season. I’m not sure on LVO yet – that decision will come down to the wire, I suspect – and if I don’t attend that’s basically my score for this year, which puts me just outside the top 500 currently and likely to drop a few more spots as people get massive bumps just from being in the same zip code as LVO. I’m not unhappy with that, as I’m not sure LVO will prove I’m any better a player than I currently am, and being in the top 500 at one point or another was solid. Over the last year I went from someone who just wanted to go .500 to someone hoping for 4-2 or better (and generally expecting to be able to pull it off), which is a solid feeling. I’ve got some things to work on but it’s been a good ride.

Next Time: Probably More Practice

That does it for this week’s update. I’ll be back in a week or two with more practice and hobby progress to talk about. In the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback, drop me a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.