Lando's Friday Challenge - Joshua's Nurgle Daemons

I recently had my fourth challenge game, against Joshua's Nurgle Daemons. For reference, my army is here;

http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.com/2018/06/landos-friday-challenge.html?zx=f668c8e0cfe0c6cb 

Josh took the following (in order of deployment)

• Feculent Gnarlmaw
• 3 Nurglings
• Daemon Prince
• Great Unclean One (in reserve)
• 3 Nurglings
• Poxbringer
• Smallpox Scrivener
• Sloppity Bilepiper
• 3 Beasts of Nurgle
• 30 Plaguebearers
• 30 Plaguebearers
• Daemon Prince with Wings
• 3 Nurglings
• 30 Plaguebearers
• Poxbringer

This looks on paper like a really good match-up. A slow moving army, with almost zero range attacks. That means I can choose where I engage and not have to risk any Overwatch. However, the resiliency of Nurgle is disgusting and 90 Plaguebearers is a lot. Like, almost double my model count on their own. While I can leave combat and re-engage on a whim, if my units ended up bogged down, Aeldari fragility would become a problem.

We chose the Tactical Gambit mission, as Tabletop Tactics videos have made it look fun. Gambling on how many Objectives you are going to achieve and giving your opponent points if you are wrong is an interesting wrinkle.

The Game

Josh had the first turn and I failed to seize. With no real shooting available to his force, I decided to not put any units in the Webway.

Josh guessed 1 Objective, to start the game conservatively. This was good, as he drew a had full of unachievable cards. Behind Enemy Lines and Assassinate were highlights, as cards he could not possibly score in his first turn. He spent the turn manoeuvring into position, getting ready to guard Objective markers and receive my charges. His inability to score anything made the Victory Points 0/1.

My first turn also saw me guessing 1 Objective, having learnt how cruel the cards can be (sidenote; I actually forgot my cards, leaving me rolling for my objectives. Don't do this, it's really annoying).  Defend 5 cant be scored in one turn, so that was no use. Witch Hunter and Assassinate are the same things against Nurgle, so again not great turn 1. Supremacy was scoreable though. I positioned my army to make the charges I wanted where I wanted and moved on to the Psychic Phase.

Mirror of Minds is a high variance power. Because it involves a roll-off that repeats upon success, it can oft-times do nothing. This turn though, this game, it went crazy. I cast it on one of the Poxbringers and managed to win 5 straight roll-offs, and Josh failed to stop the Mortal Wounds with Disgustingly Resilient rolls. That scored me Assassinate, Witch Hunter, First Blood and ensured I would fulfil my Tactical Gambit.

The assault phase saw my start to chew through the Plaguebearers. I ended the turn with the Victory Points at 0/8.

The game continued along this vein. The cards weren't kind to Josh and the score spiralled beyond his ability to catch up. When he conceded at the end of Round Four, the Victory Points we 3/26 in my favour.

Aftermath

While the flow of the game went as I expected, the wrinkle of Tactical Gambit rapidly dragged victory out of Josh's reach in a way that didn't feel fair.

Harlequins put out a lot of attacks, and Josh's force lacked the ability to thin their numbers pre-combat. Add in the re-rolls from the Great Harlequin and the Plaguebearers weren't as big a worry as I expected. They still took multiple units for me to tackle them, but I was able to do things like charge two units in from opposite ends to minimize the return attacks.

Josh played well, but his Tactical Objective deck did it's best to let him down at every turn. In later turns he was having to guess higher numbers so that the bonus points would have a hope of catching him up. Ignoring the mission itself,  the game was fun. Once the Great Unclean One turned up, it was met with a desperate scramble to keep things away from it. Which mostly failed. And it's always a pleasure to game with Josh.

I'll have to get some photos of his armies and do a showcase. He has done a real good job on his Death Guard and his Nurgle Daemons.

I've played four games with the Harlequins now, and I've been really happy with the way they operate on the tabletop. Their tricks are enjoyable to use and Riddlesmiths is fun. The variety of builds is limited though, so I'll get a couple more games in and then change my challenge army to something else.....