Uzkul Werit:
For the Cardiff Carnage 2009 Fantasy event , I toke the following 1999pts Nurgle Daemon army:
Gluttoneria (Nurgle Herald, General): 250pts
Lv1 Wizard, Palanquin, Noxious Vapours, Slime Trail
Talthybius (Nurgle Herald,Battle Standard): 290pts
Lv1 Wizard, Banner of Unholy Victory, Staff of Nurgle
Menalus (Nurgle Herald): 200pts
Lv1 Wizard, Noxious Vapours, Slime Trail
18 Plaguebearers: 271pts
Full Command, Standard of Seeping Decay
19 Plaguebearers: 283pts
Full Command, Standard of Seeping Decay
19 Plaguebearers: 283pts
Full Command, Standard of Seeping Decay
5 Chaos Furies: 60pts
5 Chaos Furies: 60pts
3 Beasts of Nurgle: 300pts
It�?Ts the exactly same list I toke last year to the 2000pts event! Ah ha!
Right, my first game was against Ian Scovell�?Ts Dark Elves. They were beautifully painted and the army was a combat build. It consisted of a unit of Witch Elves, Executioners with the Always Strike First Banner and a Witch Elf Hag BSB, some Black Guard, two units of Repeater Crossbows, two Bolt Throwers, two units of Harpies. Characters were rounded off by a Sorceress and a Hag/Cauldron of Blood combo. The aim of the game was to capture a point on the middle of the board. I reckoned it�?Td be easy enough. March up to the centre, park myself on it and wait. Being an elf, he wouldn�?Tt be able to take too much punishment and there wasn�?Tt that much in the way of fast troops. Or Hydras. result! The Executioners were a big worry due to the Killing Blow but there we go.
I stuffed everything in the centre of the board. All the combat units were in the middle, with the Crossbowmen/Bolt Throwers on each flank. The early turns had my Nurgle Wall rumble forwards with Ian sending out some Harpy bait that didn�?Tt really accomplish much. The unit with the BSB sat on the objective with the other two units taking the fight to the Druchii. My Beasts were largely ignored. Perhaps the major highlight of the game was the third Herald�?Ts block versus the Witch Elves, then the Executioners behind them. The Witch Elves charged (ripped up a few Plaguebearers to be fair) but were ultimately wiped out. After charging the Executioners, the Plaguebearers were cut down quickly to just the Herald. Then things got fun. The Herald proceeded to avoid the Cauldron buffed up Executioners for the next three turns, taking down most of the unit and negating their ASF with Noxious Vapours. Another highilight as the Black Guard. I knew they were going to cause trouble because they�?Td just last and last. Luckily I managed to get Rancid Vestitation off on them and wipe them down to four guys.
It ended in a draw. Upon hearing I had Dark Elves, I was kinda dreading it but thankfully Ian was a smashing guy. Next game!
The next game had me pitted against Matt Whitcombe�?Ts Vampires, which were themed around a long dead Empire army (think the Vampire list from SOC). I was surprised there wasn�?Tt more in the way of Vampire players (and Lizardmen)at the event. The objective was the dreaded Messenger scenario, were more points were available if you succeeded in getting three messenger models off the opponents board edge. Matt�?Ts army consisted of two decent sized units of Ghouls (one carrying the Wight King BSB), a smaller unit of ten Ghouls protecting his General (a spellcasting Vampire with Summon Ghouls), a unit of Grave Guard with a fighty Vampire, two units of Black Knights, two units of Dogs and �?~Mister Grey�?T the Varghulf. I�?Tll admit it. I wasn�?Tt looking forward to this scenario just because I don�?Tt think my army has the tools to either remove messengers or protect my own. Sure, theres the Furies but it lacks a lot of the speedier elements that Matt�?Ts army had.
The Vampire General spent most of the game hiding in a building in Matt�?Ts deployment zone as our forces met in the middle. Aside from my General�?Ts unit chewing up the Wight King and his Ghouls, the Undead toke my Daemons apart one by one. Apart from once messenger, the Undead managed to get theirs off by board end. Two of mine were picked off by Wolves with the other one not making it off at all. The Furies were swiftly beaten by the Wolves so I really have no idea has to how I�?Td go about winning the scenario. A unit of Black Knights and the Varghulf on my right flank kept the Beasts tied up all game. Highlight goes to the moment when some Black Knights charged out of a wood to hit my General�?Ts unit flank. Worried about the killing blow, I was saved by my General�?Ts larger base size (thank you Palanquin!) that meant most of the unit was striking last. Throw in a few extra Plaguebearer attacks and the unit was annihilated. Minor victory to Matt, well done!
My final game of the first day was an Assassination scenario. Extra points were given for wounding or killing Large Targets and characters. Each General also hated each other, although this didn�?Tt really come into play considering I got Wood Elves. My opponent was a slightly hungover Chris Fitzsimmons but a smashing chap regardless. His Woodies consisted of �?~Caddy�?T the Wood Elf Mage, a BSB with Hail of Doom Arrow, another Noble (I think), several small units of Dryads, a few small units of Glade Riders, three units of Glade Guard, two units of Wild Riders, a unit of War Dancers and a Treeman. A lot of the terrain was stacked over on his right hand flank, with a house in his deployment zone and a few woods just up from that. Chris deployed the two Archer units between the house and the board edge, with some of the chaff facing my army. Now, I�?Tm not sure if he was trying to avoid the Plaguebearers but his deployment of the Archers sorta hampered him. A lot of the stuff was hdden up behind those two Archer units. The game involved me slowly rumbling towards his line with a Glade Rider unit and Dryads bothering one of the Plaguebearer unit. The BSB popped out, shot Hail of Doom (which didn�?Tt do much) and ran off again. Highlight was the Treeman and a Dryad unit charging my Beasts, only to have my Beasts rip them apart and negate their Ward Save. Free combat res baby! Chris was one of the most entertaining people I�?~ve played in a while, with cries of �?oDouble Podhammer!�?� and �?oDouble Crown!�?� whenever our dice were rolled. Minor victory to me.
He still owes me pint.
The second day was odd: two Dwarfs! What luck! For the Nurgle Daemons, Dwarfs are the hardest matchup because they have easy access to flaming attacks and my S4/S5 can�?Tt kill enough Dwarfs, quickly enough. I was doubly concerned about the flaming attacks as the next scenario had all daemon ward saves reduced by one! A little unfair, if you ask me but there we go. Thanks to Stuart who gave us the match ups in the pub the following evening, I was playing Paul Phelan�?Ts Stunties. It turns out it was the guy I played first last year �?" its becoming a tradition! Thankfully, there was no fire in his army. Terrain ended up scattering to the sides so unfortunately for me, it was a run into the line of fire. Paul had a hill on each side of his deployment with some Quarrellers on each. A Dwarf Warrior unit stood off to the right opposite my Beasts. On the right hill, there was also a Bolt Thrower and an Organ Gun. Sat in the middle was three Dwarf Warrior units (one being Longbeards) and another Bolt Thrower. A Thane, BSB and a Runesmith led the army.
I�?Tm starting to notice a trend in these games. That�?Ts right �?" slogging forwards! Due to their Ward Save being knocked down to just a six, my Furies were unable to deal with the war machines as swiftly as I would have liked. They hide behind the blocks for a while, before jumping on the right flank Bolt Throwers. The neighbouring Quarrellers were deal with by the Beasts quickly. Combat got interesting due to the positioning of the Warrior blocks. The two blocks not including my General were going to tackle the middle unit, overwhelm it and break through. However Paul had a third Warrior unit was just out to the side. He had they positioned for a flank charge, if I did go for that middle unit and if I charged the side unit, I�?Td only get three Plaguebearers. So each Plaguebearer unit ended up against a single Dwarf unit each. My General bust up one Warrior unit, then ran off the board. The other units were at a stand still. Eventually my General�?Ts unit rear charged the middle Dwarf unit and ran them over. The final turn ended with the Dwarf unit that had been deployed off infront of the Beasts flank charging the General�?Ts unit and doing nothing. I believe this was a draw.
Just because I end up playing him every year, I�?Tll be grudging Paul next year with my Chaos Dwarfs. Hashut�?Ts coming for ya!
The last game was also against Dwarfs, this time against Matt Guntrip �?" a fellow Border Prince. I had heard about his list being full to the brim with lots of fire. Sigh. Still, the scenario was a complete, full Pitched Battle (including table quarters) so in aid of this, I placed a building in each of my tables quarters. I could in theory then put a group of Furies in each and be safe in the knowledge that the Dwarfs would never get there! In the end, only one Fury unit hid as I needed to stamp out the war machines. Matt toke two hills for himself with one scattering into the centre. His army had a Thane, a BSB (the first in a Longbeard unit, the second in a Warrior unit), a Slayer Hero in a unit of Giant Slayers (deployed on his right flank), another big unit of Warriors, two flaming Bolt Throwers next to the Slayers and a flaming Cannon, Organ Gun and Quarrellers. All deployed on the board edge.
My Furies raced right forwards because all he could hit me with was his Bolt Throwers. They were in by turn two. My Beasts followed, pounding into the Slayers. I reasoned they should be able to kill them quickly, due to a lack of armour. How wrong I was �?" both units had been killed for all but one guy. The rest of the game was much like the previous Dwarf game, with my Plaguebearers butting heads.The middle unit had been the core focus of Dwarf shooting and so slowly got ground down. It was a solid victory to Nurgle.
I came 34th, about middle in my group. Kinda disappointing but there were better players there this year and 1999 is much much harder a playing field.
Roll on Carnage 2010 and the Chaos Dwarfs!
(Pictures can be found on the Border Princes Facebook group)