My 2023 has so far been quieter than last year, off to a bit slower start. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that I’m just not playing quite as many games of Warhammer 40k as I was last year. Which isn’t to say I’m not playing any; between the three RTTs, the boarding actions games, and playing games in Vadinax I’ve put quite a few under my belt. But I’ll admit to being a little burnt out on 9th edition competitive play – something I mentioned back in my roundtable feedback on the final 9th dataslate (read that here).

So let’s talk about the games I’ve been playing.

World Eaters on Crusade

I’ve been playing World Eaters in the Vadinax campaign, both in the global games and those for the local campaigns I play in down in Texas. This has been a mixed bag. While on the one hand it’s good to get more games with them and I think they’re good in Boarding Actions, World Eaters are absolutely terrible in Crusade. They have pretty bad upgrades and relics, and the inability to take named characters in our campaign means I’m playing without Lord Invocatus, one of the army’s single strongest units. This had led to some rough games where I’ve done well against newer forces but been absolutely bodied by some of the armies running more Crusade upgrades out there, as nothing the World Eaters get can really prepare them for Eradicators that hit on 2+ and ignore modifiers to hit. Meanwhile you’re not typically playing GT missions, so the benefits World Eaters get from their secondary objectives aren’t at play here, either.

So the Crusade play has been rough going. I’ve had some decent games, but I don’t really feel like my army has gotten much better, but they’re slowly improving and I’m looking for more ways to get them there. Lord Markarios is trying his best, dammit.

Hobby

I also haven’t been as active from a hobby standpoint. Well, that’s also not true – I’ve painted quite a few things this year, but more of them have been models that I couldn’t talk about while working on them, making it a bit more difficult to include them in Road Through updates. I’ve painted two primarchs and a demigod, plus a bunch of world eaters and a few other odds and ends.

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgoen” Jones

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

When time came to prep for WHF, I went back and forth on the army I wanted to play. While I had options, my World Eaters weren’t anywhere close to fully painted, which meant I wasn’t going to be winning many games. The choice came down to Thousand Sons and Death Guard, and while a 2,000-point Thousand Sons army can fit into a single small Citadel minis case, I went with the Death Guard because they offer a lighter cognitive load and less time spent touching up the bases.

In order to finish the army off for the event I needed to get some additional models painted, so I rushed these three guys out the door in time for the event:

These guys help round out the list I’m working on, an infantry-heavy list that runs four units of Plague Marines and a unit of 10 blightlords. now that all the Death Guard wargear is free, there’s little reason to take the Reaper autocannons over the Blight Launchers, and so it was finally time to paint another blightlord terminator. I’m still in the process of painting a bunch of plague marines with different wargear, but I’ve finally got a decent set of guys. Still need to paint another cleaver or two, but I have all the flails, at least.

Prep and Travel to Warhammer Fest

As I write this it’s 2 am local time in Oxford. My plans to get some sleep and get on the UK time schedule are going better than you’d think, following another rough flight across the pond. The flight from Houston to London is direct, but I seldom sleep on planes to begin with and the best-case scenario is getting 4, maybe 5 hours of sleep on that flight. I got maybe 1-2, plus some naps here and there on various buses and at my hotel. I’m back up for a bit, typing this up while following the NFL draft and watching the Devils blow out the Rangers (hell yeah).

The List

Look, this isn’t a great list, even for Death Guard. It probably needs more Death Shrouds, but I only have three painted. My secret tech here is to get a little more mobility out of the terminators using the Blightbringer, but that’s hardly going to be enough to get me through some of these games. That said, this is a list I’m pretty comfortable with, and I think I can manage 3-3 off it.

My Death Guard list - click to expand

I’m also likely to drop day 3; Warhammer Fest is weird in that it runs Saturday through Monday, since Monday is a bank holiday in the UK. As I’ve got little chance of putting up a real competition prior to then, I’d just as soon take the third day a bit easier and hang out with some people – as always, I’m most excited by the prospect of hanging out with other Goonhammer folks. James “One_Wing” Grover is picking me up in the morning for our hilarious road trip to Manchester, which is sure to be filled with all manner of fun shenanigans.

We already met up over at Wings’ place last night for some solid Chinese food (I had the garlic pork on James’ recommendation) and some Boarding Actions. My Death Guard are pretty solid in BA but I only managed a tie against Wings’ Drukhari horde as he was able to secure objectives early and hold them even after they were completely eviscerated by my flamers and sewer cannons.

The highlight of the game was having a unit of Plague marines survive being charged by his Incubi and Archon, then having the champion lob a blight grenade at the Archon with Rain of Blight to force him to take 6 saves against his shadow field, ensuring he’d be easy to kill later on.

I really like Boarding Actions as a way to play smaller games of 40k. It still feels satisfying and tactically stimulating while not taking nearly as much time or space. There’s a lot of good back-and-forth, and the factions feel distinct and well balanced. There’s some clear care and love that has gone into designing it, and I’m glad they seem to be dedicated to supporting it longer.

Next Time: Warhammer Fest Happens(ed)

Anyways, look for my recap posts in a week or so; I’m liable to cover off each day separately as I normally do so if you read these posts to live vicariously through my tournament experiences, you’ll have that to look forward to. In the meantime, if you have any questions or thoughts, drop them in the comments below or shoot us an email at contact@goonhammer.com.