Myself, Ian and Kieran recently all met up to face off against one another with our new armies in the opening of our Tale of Four Gamers challenge. None of us have really played a lot of 8th edition, so it also served as a bit of a learning experience. Unfortunately Euan wasn’t able to make it along but one of our friends, Gav was more than happy to jump in and make up the numbers with his Silver Skull reminiscent Primaris Space Marine army.

After a little smack talk, most of which came from Kieran, we rolled off and determined who would face who for the opening games. My Death Guard were fittingly drawn against Ian’s Ultramarines, leaving Kieran’s Necrons to face off against Gav’s Primaris Marines.

Facing Guilliman’s Finest

I’ve played a few games in the new edition of Warhammer 40k with my old Chaos army and faced off against marines but this was my first experience against the new Primaris. The two wounds a model certainly makes them tough and gives them quite a lot of staying power. Also, the extended range of their Bolt Rifles over normal Boltguns and the added -1 AP make a mockery of cover for the likes of Poxwalkers who start with a 7+ save.

This is something I’d completely forgotten about during my deployment which caused me a few Plague Marine casualties early on. Thankfully I had my Disgustingly Resilient special rule across my whole army to fall back on, the fact that you get this to everything for the Death Guard (or at least most things) is a pretty big boon, allowing your models to shrug off even the heaviest of wounds.

I felt that my army was pretty slow and lacked any real firepower as I marched into the Ultramarine’s guns. This wasn’t helped by the fact that Ian had fielded a Redemptor Dreadnought with a Gatling cannon, ideally suited for mowing down infantry.

Playing on the defensive but also needing to close ground I hugged cover with my Plague Marines and Bloat Drone, sending the Poxwalkers forward as fodder, trying to close the gap. I also deep struck my Lord of Contagion in Ian’s backfield, behind cover, safe from his guns. In response his Intercessor squad moved to intercept my lord, firing at and then charging him in the assault phase, they didn’t fare to well and we both learned how tough this guy really is. His Redemptor used Fury of the Ancients and wiped out my Poxwalkers much to my dismay.

As I’d closed the gap I was able to start whittling down the second Intercessor squad, mainly due to my Blight Launcher causing 2-3 wounds per hit and removing a marine with each unsaved wound. I think I would have lost the game if not for this gun. My Bloat Drone also sprung forward, seizing an opportunity to douse Ian’s now unprotected Lieutenant with bile, dropping him to a single wound, I charged it in but was unable to kill his HQ as my own lord stalked forward having finished off the first Intercessor squad.

Despite my initial concerns, the game had a lot of back and forth, and was a lot of fun but ultimately ended with Ian sneaking the win by a single point.

Wrath of the Silver Skulls Generic Primaris Marines

My second game was against Gav and his as of yet unnamed Space Marine Chapter, he should really use our Chapter Name Generator. To his credit, Gav had attempted to take a middle of the road army that wasn’t too competitive. The army consisted of a squad of Hellblasters, a squad of Intercessors, a Captain in Gravis armour and a squad of Reivers.

His familiarity with the army and on how to deal with slow moving Death Guard really shone through, enabling him to pick apart my force with surgical precision. I felt that the lack of any real long weapons range really hurt me here. I won’t go into quite as much detail on this game and leave out the step by step account as it was basically over in two short turns. By turn three all I had left was a few Poxwalkers who managed to kill a second Revier, bringing my kill total to 3 whole models!

Other Games

In other games that were played on the same day Kieran faced off against Gav and although it was his first real game he fared a lot better than I had, beginners luck clearly! It looked like a fairly even match. Kieran managed to pull off a victory verses Gav’s Primaris Marines. I’ve included some pictures below that I snapped while I playing Ian.

Ian also played against Kieran, unfortunately I don’t have any pics of this game and one of them may be able to elaborate in an update of their own. It was pretty close again, ending in a draw.

Post Battle Analysis

We all felt that 25 Power level games seemed to be a pretty good starting point for getting to grips with the rules. This allowed the games to be a manageable size and play fast without losing track or getting bogged down reading up rules. It’s also good to have a mix of units at this points level to allow you to try out different things and get a feel for what needs to be added. As for me, I found it to be quite obvious that I needed something a bit heavier hitting as well as some more boots on the ground.

Thoughts on Expanding the Army

With only a 15 power level to increase for next month I had some hard choices. I’ve already picked up a number of models to be added to the force but am torn between adding another squad of Plague Marines or a Foul Blightspawn to my army for now. I’d also like some more Poxwalkers and a Blightbringer to herd them but that means another month of not much shooty elements in the army.

The one thing that is definitely going in the list a Plagueburst Crawler as it’ll fill a much needed gap and give me something to threaten enemy armour. I’ll have to ponder the other choices over some more.