Blood Tithe International Team tournament was the weekend just gone, and it was a huge success! Even the 'Beast from the East' couldn't stop the event from running.
I was due to captain a team from the South London Legion, but due to real life I had to drop out, but I was able to help out fellow Legionnaires; The Kunniest Ruk. Rob could not play his game 3 on the Saturday, so I stepped in to play his game for him.
The Lists
Rob's Nurgle list:
Allegiance: Nurgle
Great Unclean One (340)
- General
- Doomsday Bell & BileBlade
- Trait: Grandfather's Blessing
- Artefact: The Endless Gift
- Lore of Virulence: Glorious Afflictions
Festus The Leechlord (140)
- Lore of Malignance: Blades of Putrefaction
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (160)
- Mount: Steed
- Runestaff
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
- Lore of Foulness: Plague Squall
30 x Plaguebearers (320)
30 x Plaguebearers (320)
20 x Chaos Marauders (120)
- Flails & Shields
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
9 x Plague Drones (600)
- Prehensile Proboscis
Total: 2000 / 2000
Wounds: 152
The team was playing fellow Legionnaires, Only the Filthful. I was paired up against Tom and his Darkling Coven, who I've played on many occasions. (Lots of irony in the fact I've turned up to play 1 game at an International Team tournament just to play against a fellow club mate, who I've probably played the most games against!).
Tom's list (Pre-Daughter's of Khaine Book):
Allegiance: Darkling Covens
Sorceress On Black Dragon (300)
- General
- Darkling Sword
- Trait: Impossibly Swift
- Artefact: Decanter of Egos
Sorceress (80)
- Artefact: Shadowshroud Ring
Cauldron Of Blood (200)
- Witch Brew
- Allies
10 x Darkshards (100)
10 x Darkshards (100)
10 x Darkshards (100)
30 x Executioners (480)
10 x Black Guard (160)
20 x Witch Aelves (200)
- Allies
Thrall Warhost (180)
Reinforcement Points (100)
Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 400 / 400
Wounds: 122
100 Reinforcement Points for that Balewind.
Mission
Game 3 of Blood Tithe was
Total Conquest, the one with the awkward deployment zones.
Blood Tithe operated with Secondary Missions; mine was to kill a Behemoth with a Battleline unit.
Deployment
I won the roll off, and chose the side with two Damned terrain.
Turn 1
Tom chooses to go first, and immediately summons a Balewind on the Sorcerer pushing the Executioners forward. Command Ability or artefact on the Dragon gives the Executioners run and charge.
Shooting and magic take a wound of the Great Unclean One. Tom moves on to all the objectives and the Executioners charge into the Plaguebearers.
Five die to deadly terrain, removing the threat from the
Great Unclean One, after Endless Gifts saves, takes only 1 wound. After combat, six dead Plaguebearers vs eight dead Executioners.
My Turn 1. I buff the Plaguebearers in combat with the Executioners with all my spells and command abilities. I move the Drone's back and run the Marauders across to shield them, I move the other unit of Plaguebearers up to take the left hand objective.
Turn 2
I win Priority, and continue to buff the Plaguebearers in combat with the Executioners. The Drones I keep back and I move the Marauders further across to be in range of the left hand objective. The Great Unclean One casts Glorious Afflictions on the Black Dragon, to prevent her from getting in my backfield.
The Executioners are all killed in the combat phase.
Tom's Turn 2. he moves the Witch Aelves up the field to threaten my left hand objective, he moves a unit of Darkshards up to prevent my Plaguebearers on the right from getting to his objective. The Black Dragon also puts herself in the way. A third unit of Darkshards run towards my left hand objective.
Tom elects not to charge the Witch Aelves.
Turn 3
I win priority. The Drones are fully buffed, and sent in to kill the Witch Aelves, 2 are left standing.
I charge my Plaguebearers on the right hand side into his unit of Darkshards, and tag his Black Dragon into combat. I bring in two Feculent Gnarlmaw's to block his Black Dragon from getting in to range of the Drones. Tom kills just enough Plaguebearers to take me down to below 20 and unable to cap the objective.
Tom retreats his Black Dragon over my Plaguebearers to threaten my backfield. He also retreats the Darkshards from combat with the Plaguebearers back to the objective. He moves his Blood Cauldron back toward his left hand objective looking to block the Drones. He also moves the Darkshards on the left flank back to prevent my Drones from flying past.
Turn 4
Tom wins priority, his Dragon moves down towards my back objective, and with the Darkshard shooting, kills my Sorcerer. It then charges into Festus, causes only 4 wounds, before the Plaguebearers, Festus and the Great Unclean One pile in to cause several wounds on the Black Dragon. Tom continues to move his left flank back to protect the objective, but chagres the Blood Cauldron to tag the Drones in to combat. It suffers several wounds as a result.
I put as many buff spells as I can on my Plaguebearers to the right, and heal Festus. The unbuffed Drones bring the Cauldron down to a couple of wounds. The combat vs the Dragon, brings a few more wounds off it.
The Plaguebearers are able to take the unit off holding the Tom's backfield objective and win me the game (Not enough time for turn 5, Tom concedes that his Black Dragon will not be able to take my backfield objective).
Result
10 - 7, Major Victory to me. Neither of us got our secondary objective.
Summary
The key to this list are the buffs you can the Drones for an Alpha hit. He are the list of buffs you can give them:
- GUO Command Ability for +1 to melee attacks
- Mystic Shield for +1 Save (GUO)
- Blades of Putrefication for 6+ to hit cause Mortal Wounds
- Daemonic Power for re-roll 1's to hit, to wound and Saves
- Locus of Contagion to give +1 attack to all attacks
- Damned Terrain giving +1 to hit
Add these up and it makes the 9 Drones a devastating alpha attack. Even if Blades of Putrefication doesn't go off, the sheer number of attacks will mean they delete many units.
With the Great Unclean One's Bell, giving +3" move and the Feculent Gnarlmaw's giving run and charge makes them incredibly quick, and great for alpha strikes. Multi-charging is key here too, especially against many small units.
It's not a one unit list however. the 2 units of Plaguebearers can also be buffed with the same spells above to great affect. Not many opponents relish the choice of attacking a unit with -2 to hit in the shooting phase and -1 to hit in the melee phase.
Overall, it's really good list, but will take a bit of practise. Measurements are key! You need to keep everything in range to keep the buff's up.
