Welcome back to another installment of, “I played some 40k for the first time in a while as the spare player at Goonhammer Open,” a title which was a bit too long but thought it had a certain ring to it. You can view the previous, and first, installation of this apparent series here where I played with the same exact models barring some substitutions. All about that below. 

Earlier in September we ran the Goonhammer Open UK 2024 September event. We held a 40k GT and a Horus Heresy narrative doubles this time around and is that time of year for me to do one whole post about 40k. If you were at the Open or feel like looking at Best Coast Pairings it’s me, Zach Spare, and no that’s not my real name even though two of the people I played against asked if it was. Next year I’d like that to be spelled Zach Spair…

My job as the spare player was to sit around and play a game if there were an odd number of people at any given round. It’s not to compete or crush anyone in these games but to make sure that people are getting a real game and not just a bye to the next round! That said I have not played any 40k this calendar year and the last games of 40k I did play before this weekend were last November with Corrode. We played two games and in the first he deployed a Callidus assassin within first turn charge range of some melee plague marines, a moment that has stuck with us both.

I ended up playing five of the six arounds across the weekend, without a need for a spare player during round five. Before getting into the list and games just a big thank you to the five people I had the chance to play against. Every game was great and closer matched than I really expected. Just a great experience and if you’re reading this hope you feel the same way!

My Army

This time around I even wrote my list a bit in advance! Although I didn’t actually have that list with me and had to slot in other stuff instead once I was unpacking. Oops. Namely forgetting Typhus and having to just take a Biologus Putrifier instead. You know what’s better than a Biologus Putrifier most of the time? Typhus. Or at least I assume since the hero I had did nothing.

The list in full:

GHO (2000 Points)
Death Guard
Plague Company
Strike Force (2000 Points)

CHARACTERS
Biologus Putrifier (60 Points)
• 1x Hyper blight grenades
• 1x Injector pistol
• 1x Plague knives

Death Guard Daemon Prince (180 Points)
• 1x Hellforged weapons
• 1x Plague spewer
• Enhancements: Living Plague

Foul Blightspawn (60 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Plague sprayer

Lord of Virulence (95 Points)
• 1x Heavy plague fist
• 1x Twin plague spewer
• Enhancements: Deadly Pathogen

Malignant Plaguecaster (65 Points)
• 1x Corrupted staff
• 1x Plague Wind
• 1x Plague bolt pistol

Mortarion (325 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Rotwind
• 1x Silence
• 1x The Lantern

Tallyman (70 Points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Infected plasma pistol
• Enhancements: Shamblerot

BATTLELINE
Plague Marines (125 Points)
• 1x Plague Champion
◦ 1x Heavy plague weapon
◦ 1x Plague boltgun
• 6x Plague Marine
◦ 1x Blight launcher
◦ 1x Bubotic weapons
◦ 1x Heavy plague weapon
◦ 2x Plague boltgun
◦ 6x Plague knives
◦ 1x Plasma gun

Plague Marines (125 Points)
• 1x Plague Champion
◦ 1x Heavy plague weapon
◦ 1x Plague boltgun
• 6x Plague Marine
◦ 1x Blight launcher
◦ 2x Heavy plague weapon
◦ 2x Plague boltgun
◦ 6x Plague knives
◦ 1x Plague spewer

Plague Marines (125 Points)
• 1x Plague Champion
◦ 1x Heavy plague weapon
◦ 1x Plague boltgun
• 6x Plague Marine
◦ 1x Blight launcher
◦ 2x Heavy plague weapon
◦ 2x Plague boltgun
◦ 6x Plague knives
◦ 1x Plasma gun

OTHER DATASHEETS
Blightlord Terminators (310 Points)
• 1x Blightlord Champion
◦ 1x Bubotic blade
◦ 1x Combi-weapon
• 9x Blightlord Terminator
◦ 7x Bubotic blade
◦ 2x Flail of corruption
◦ 5x Plague combi-bolter
◦ 2x Reaper autocannon

Deathshroud Terminators (120 Points)
• 1x Deathshroud Champion
◦ 1x Manreaper
◦ 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet
• 2x Deathshroud Terminator
◦ 2x Manreaper
◦ 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet

ALLIED UNITS
War Dog Brigand (170 Points)
• 1x Armoured feet
• 1x Avenger chaincannon
• 1x Daemonbreath spear
• 1x Havoc multi-launcher

War Dog Brigand (170 Points)
• 1x Armoured feet
• 1x Avenger chaincannon
• 1x Daemonbreath spear
• 1x Havoc multi-launcher

I don’t any chaff or daemons either so if you’re wondering why I don’t have cultists, poxwalkers, nurglings, etc that’s the only reason. I am now planning on finally building and painting some Ash Waste Nomads from Necromunda for cultists though since they’ll fit the aesthetic pretty well.

If I’d had the foresight and/or time to paint just a few things what I’d change now would be:

Drop a unit of Plague Marines, drop two marines from another unit, and drop the Putrifier and Lord of Virulence. Then add in Typhus, three units of ten cultists, and make the leader of those Blightlords a Sorcerer in Terminator Armour. I should also probably paint two flamers for the Blightlords too at some point; these were built back when you weren’t allowed that many special weapons! Spoilers but I only lost the Blightlords from melee attacks so being able to reliably (simply roll a 2+) make incoming attacks -1D with the sorcerer would have saved them and saved me some Command Points at the same time.

The Games

This whole weekend is a blur and I’m writing this about a week after which doesn’t help either. What I do have is the Tabletop Battles screeshots of each game and some photos. This wasn’t an ad for Tabletop Battles but now it is, go download it. It’s great and walks you through scoring when you’re an idiot (me) trying to play games.

Game 1 vs Rob’s Custodes (and some sisters of silence)

First up: Custodes. Last time I played against these it was at the last GHO I played 40k in and tabled them much to the shock of both myself and the other player; this was like 4 days before the dataslate that gave DG huge points reductions and more contagion rules. Sometimes Warhammer just happens and 1’s get rolled, that’s about all that can be said. This time I got to take the contagion for -1 save on them which helped only a little actually and looking back I’d rather have had -1WS/BS probably? I don’t know.

This was not a repeat of that, at all. The only humerous thing around that that did happen was taking the Telemon down to 3 wounds in my first turn and then overwatch killing it with Blightlords in his first movement phase after. Best command point I’ve ever spent, probably. Then there as much fighting and much dying across the table basically exactly what you’d expect when these kinds of armies meet each other. In the end it was an incredibly close loss and one of the best games of anything I’ve played this year really coming down to the dice in the end. I sure did miss having 3″ combat range like in AoS though.

Game 2 vs Rich’s Melee Adeptus Mechanicus

This was just extremely cool. I don’t know if this is an extremely off meta choice or something, it felt like it considering AdMech usually go for bigger guns, right? I’m sure I’ll be corrected in the comments here or when I post to Reddit. Regardless, it was just really cool to see and gave an entirely different game from set up to movement not needing to worry about hiding too much. I did take the -1BS/WS contagion this time which was the right pick, especially against those robots making them hit on 5+ was just very good.

I will say that I got really lucky here and managed to take out the big block of robots before they did too much damage at which point I thought I was doing well but we were neck and neck all the way through to the end. Realistically Rich played an extremely good game and got really unlucky with secondaries turns three and four, it could have easily swung in his favour. Just about the closest game of Warhammer I’ve had.

Game 3 vs Tom’s Infantry-heavy Blood Angels

Frankly I did not really know this going in but this seems like it was just a terrible matchup for the Blood Angels. He had a bunch of assault marines, assault intercessors, more elite marines with jump packs, and a slew of named BA characters including Dante. I saw thunder hammers on some of these and assumed they were multi-damage weapons until I went to spend 2CP on Disgustingly Resilient on Mortarion to be very kindly informed by Tom that no those hammers are actually just damage 1 already. Once again took that contagion for -1BS/WS.

Death Guard are still tough. I don’t play a lot of 40k but they do still feel very tough to me and the Blood Angels largely just bounced right off of them. Man, I love this blob of Blightlords. That Eversor is no joke on speed though, just slammed right across the table into plague marines sitting on their own on my home objective. All in all just a brutal game in the end.

Game 4 vs Alex’s mixed-arms Drukhari

Day two and I was still playing 40k with an odd-number of players. First game set up against Drukhari which I assumed were fast and would fly circles around me while picking fights they could win. Some things just never change. Alex played extraordinarily well holding units back, charging-in and fighting only where he would reliably pick up whole units so there would be nothing left to hit back. Seems like anything attacking Drukhari models just picks them up immediately.

The most exciting thing was my Foul Blightspawn-lead unit of Plague Marines charged by multiple units to take the objective off and just enough stuff died and survived on both sides for it stay under my control. Barely. Also when three remaining scourges rolled triple 6’s on wound rolls against two living Deathshroud simply picking them up. Also, it’s day two and I am still full from an Herb full-Thali so I forgot to take more pictures. Oops.

Game 5 vs Jack’s mobilised Leagues of Votann

Due to drops I sat out round 5 so this was round 6, the last round of the event. Jack had a bunch of Hearthguard in both Land Fortresses, and a deepstriking unit, nine bikes in total, and da couple units of warriors in Sagitaurs. Having never played against Votann before and only loosely looked at their rules in the past (cause they’re dwarfs so I assumed I’d be doing an army of them) I didn’t have super high hopes going in. Jack played really well, kept stuff back at the right ranges, charged at the right time, etc etc etc. Very solid Warhammer.

I also made the classic mistake of rolling poorly on saves a few too many times. Yes that’s Mortarion with four wounds left. After doing some healing. Solid game just picked up more Death Guard in a couple turns than I did in any other game this weekend!

Back at 40k

The whole event went well from start to finish and a huge thanks to everyone involved in making it happen. Between this weekend of gaming and playing Space Marine 2 I am more excited about 40k than I have been since before the Covid lockdowns. I haven’t really had much interest in the setting or game other than a passing game here or there for no real particular reason; I play too many other games and have been really big on AoS, which is probably the biggest one. There’s only so much gaming and hobby time! Other than wanting to do up some Nomads for cultists I’m now planning out a whole Tyranid army aimed at as more of a hobby project for something just incredibly different wholly just for myself for fun so expect to see photos in hobby roundups and on our Discord.

I am so back.

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