Chaos Knights vs. Death Guard – a Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report

I enjoyed the Abaddon list I played in the last report so much that I couldn’t wait to get it onto the table once again.

It’s the same lists as last time! In case you haven’t read that battle report, here’s my version of the Abaddon list.

++ Super-Heavy Detachment -3CP (Chaos – Chaos Knights) [83 PL, 1,525pts, 2CP] ++

+ Lord of War [92 PL, 1,700 pts, -1CP] +

War Dog Brigand Squadron [24 PL, 465pts]: Iconoclast Dreadblade, Worthy Offerings
. War Dog Brigand [8 PL, 155pts]: Avenger chaincannon, Daemonbreath spear, Diabolus heavy stubber
. War Dog Brigand [8 PL, 155pts]: Avenger chaincannon, Daemonbreath spear, Diabolus heavy stubber
. War Dog Brigand [8 PL, 155pts]: Avenger chaincannon, Daemonbreath spear, Diabolus heavy stubber

War Dog Executioner Squadron [9 PL, 170pts]: Iconoclast Dreadblade, Precision Cruelty
. War Dog Executioner [9 PL, 170pts]: Diabolus heavy stubber, Tzeentch – Mirror of Fates [1 PL, 15pts], 2x War Dog autocannon

War Dog Karnivore Squadron [25 PL, 440pts, -1CP]: House Herpetrax
. War Dog Karnivore [9 PL, 160pts, -1CP]: Character (Traitoris Lance), Diabolus heavy stubber, Helm of Dogs, Reaper chaintalon, Slaanesh – Beguiling Majesty [1 PL, 20pts], Slaughterclaw, Stratagem: Relic [-1CP]
. War Dog Karnivore [8 PL, 140pts]: Diabolus heavy stubber, Reaper chaintalon, Slaughterclaw
. War Dog Karnivore [8 PL, 140pts]: Diabolus heavy stubber, Reaper chaintalon, Slaughterclaw

War Dog Stalker Squadron [25 PL, 450pts]: House Herpetrax
. War Dog Stalker [9 PL, 160pts]: Daemonbreath spear, Diabolus heavy stubber, Khorne – Collar of Infernal Brass [1 PL, 15pts], Reaper Chaintalon
. War Dog Stalker [8 PL, 145pts]: Daemonbreath spear, Diabolus heavy stubber, Reaper Chaintalon
. War Dog Stalker [8 PL, 145pts]: Daemonbreath spear, Diabolus heavy stubber, Slaughterclaw

War Dog Executioner Squadron [9 PL, 175pts]: Bold Tyrants, Iconoclast Dreadblade
. War Dog Executioner [9 PL, 175pts]: Daemonbreath meltagun [5pts], Undivided – Warp-borne Stalker [1 PL, 15pts], 2x War Dog autocannon

++ Supreme Command Detachment 0CP (Chaos – Chaos Space Marines) [15 PL, 300pts, -1CP] ++

Legion: Black Legion

+ Primarch | Daemon Primarch | Supreme Commander [15 PL, 300pts, -1CP] +

Abaddon the Despoiler [15 PL, 300pts, -1CP]: 3. Merciless Overseer, 5. Eternal Vendetta, 6. Paragon of Hatred, Drach’nyen, Stratagem: Warlord Trait [-1CP], Talon of Horus, Warlord

++ Total: [107 PL, 1CP, 2,000pts] ++

And this is the Death Guard list.

++ Battalion Detachment++
Plague Company

+ HQ +

Malignant Plaguecaster [5 PL, 90pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 4. Putrescent Vitality Typhus [9 PL, 165pts]

+ Troops +

Plague Marines [12 PL, 210pts] .
-Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun
-2x Plague Marine w/ blight launcher: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Blight launcher, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
-2x Plague Marine w/ cleaver: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Great plague cleaver, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
-2x Plague Marine w/ flail: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Flail of corruption, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
– Plague Marine w/ mace and axe
– Plague Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun
– Plague Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun

Plague Marines [6 PL, 105pts] .
– Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife, Power fist
– Plague Marine w/ blight launcher
– Plague Marine w/ cleaver
– Plague Marine w/ flail
– Plague Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun

Plague Marines [6 PL, 105pts] .
– Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife, Power fist
– Plague Marine w/ blight launcher
– Plague Marine w/ cleaver
– Plague Marine w/ flail
– Plague Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun

Poxwalkers [3 PL, 50pts] . 10x Poxwalker: 10x Improvised weapon

+ Elites +

Deathshroud Terminators [9 PL, 150pts, -1CP] . Deathshroud Champion: Champion of Disease, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet . 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet

Foul Blightspawn [6 PL, 95pts, -1CP]: Revolting Stench-vats, Stratagem: Relic, Viscous Death
Tallyman [4 PL, 70pts]

+ Fast Attack +

Foetid Bloat-drone [7 PL, 120pts]: Fleshmower

+ Heavy Support +

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 145pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Heavy slugger

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 145pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Heavy slugger

+ Dedicated Transport +

Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 85pts]: Havoc launcher

++ Supreme Command Detachment +3CP (Chaos – Death Guard) [25 PL, 450pts, 2CP] ++
+ Primarch | Daemon Primarch | Supreme Commander +

Mortarion [25 PL, 450pts, -1CP]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 1. Revoltingly Resilient, 2. Gift of Contagion, 2. Living Plague, 4. Arch-Contaminator, 4. Putrescent Vitality, Gloaming Bloat, Stratagem: Warlord Trait, Warlord

++ Total: [112 PL, 3CP, 2,000pts] ++

We ended up on scenario 22, Corrupted Ground. This mission rewards you for holding objectives outside of your deployment zone with extra primary mission points, punishes you for not controlling your deployment objective by reducing your score by a point, and stops generating CP for you if your Warlord dies.

Chris won the roll off and opted to place the giant Mortarion blocking terrain close enough to the center that he could Warp Ritual from right behind it.

I made little bunkers for my models, and kind of messed up by not putting a screening piece of terrain in my top center deployment zone to hide a War Dog behind. This meant that I couldn’t go and touch the top zone on turn one without a good Advance roll.

My deployment sees the three Brigands, which I think are the most important models in this matchup due to Worthy Offerings hiding as far away as possible, and then a mix of Stalkers and Karnivores up front with Abaddon right behind. My Tzeentch Executioner does his normal thing of holding down my deployment objective, and the Karnivore with Helm of Dogs hangs out near it and the Brigands.

Chris technically deployed first, but I only have five deployments so he wasn’t done until long after I was. Left to right, we have a small unit of Plague Marines, followed by a Bloat Drone and Foul Blightspawn. Another unit of Plague Marines is hanging out directly above Mortarion and the Malignant Plaguecaster. The unit of Deathshroud are bodyguarding Typhus, and then a Plagueburst Crawler is skulking behind Mortarion and a second is behind the house on the right next to the Rhino that contains the ten man unit of Plague Marines.

Finally, the Tallyman and the Poxwalkers cower behind the obscuring terrain on the backside of the objective.

I’d like to take A Fitting Challenge against slower lists like this, but the targets are Mortarion, the ten man unit of Plague Marines, and Typhus, none of which I can reliably take down turn one. With the potential to score 12 on Storm of Darkness on this map, I opt for that, Grind them Down, and Ruthless Tyranny.

Chris decides on Warp Ritual, Spread the Sickness, and Bring it Down.

I lost the roll off and Chris went first!

Round 1:

Death Guard

Mortarion decides that one War Dog is not a tempting enough target and stays behind the big wall. The Plague Marines and Deathshroud go out in the open, and “fort characters” hang out with Mortarion behind the big piece of terrain.

On the left side, the Bloat Drone and the Plague Marines make big advances, and the Bloat Drone gets into the left objective.

The Rhino zips up the table, and both Plagueburst Crawlers jockey for firing lanes. The Deathshroud perform Spread the Sickness in the center.

During the Psychic Phase, Abaddon denies the Warp Ritual on a 4+ thanks to the Chaos Space Marine Stratagem Scorn of Sorcery.

Miasma of Pestilence goes onto the Deathshroud, and Putrescent Vitality lands on the Plague Marines to make them Toughness six.

The shooting phase sees the Green/Blue Stalker at the top of my deployment suffer a good amount of damage, bracketing it, and not much else. The combination of -1 to hit from the forest on the right side Plagueburst Crawler, the obscuring terrain, and rotating to a 4+ Invulnerable Save against ranged attacks keeps things relatively calm.

Chris scores 4 from Spread the Sickness, 2 extra from Primary for controlling a zone in No Man’s Land, and nothing else.

Chaos Knights

We both get a CP and it’s time for the speedy boys to start rolling out. The Brigands move up to get a bead on both the Bloat Drone and the left Plagueburst Crawler. My Karnivores scatter to the top, middle, and right to be a counter punch and Stalkers sacrifice their lives in the name of denying Primary.

In the shooting phase, my Brigands absolutely explode the Bloat Drone (which made me very happy as that thing is the bane of my existence), and even though the Cloud of Flies stratagem prevents me from shooting at the top unit of Plague Marines with most of my army, the center unit is not so lucky and gets destroyed to a man.

The Plagueburst Crawler on the left drops to six, which sadly does not bracket it.

I don’t believe that any of my exposed War Dogs will survive the turn, so my Tzeentch marked Executioner starts a Storm of Darkness on the deployment zone objective, and I score 3 each on Grind Them Down and Ruthless Tyranny, as well as two on the Primary.

Round 2:

I hop over into Despair to reduce auras and command range abilities since Gheiststorm is useless against Death Guard. Chris scores 4 points.

Death Guard

We get a CP apiece, and then Chris continues to push Plague Marines at me. The ones in the Rhino hop onto the bottom right objective, and the ones at the top move up and start Spread the Sickness.

The Deathshroud move up and use their relic to do enough mortal wounds to finish off the green Stalker.

The Foul Blightspawn scootched up out of the character bunker with murderous intent, and the Rhino came around to move block the back Plagueburst Crawler.

The top screen Plague Marines moved onto the objective and Spread the Sickness.

The Psychic phase sees a successful Warp Ritual through my attempted deny and some various buffs put out.

The shooting phase takes my Karnivore in the center with Helm of Dogs off the table – the Blightspawn’s relic gun is bananas – and dings up the bottom screen Karnivore.

The Deathshroud charge in and kill off the anti-psyker War Dog and the ten man unit of Plague Marines fails to kill the Stalker through the -1 Damage Stratagem and it kills a couple of them back!

Chris scores his first tick on Warp Ritual, four more on Spread the Sickness, and another six on Bring it Down in addition to the two extra for the primary.

Chaos Knights

I also score four on Primary, but once again there are a lot of exposed pieces and I hope to make big scenario plays this turn.

My Karnivore and Stalker swap spots on the bottom half of the table. My Brigands move up and the Karnivore left alive up there moves into position to kill a bunch of Plague Marines of his own.

Abaddon and his escort move into the center even further, staying carefully behind the obscuring terrain. I deep strike my Executioner down on the far right side to shoot at Plague Marines with AP-3 auto cannons.

During the Psychic phase I get three points on Storm of Darkness.

My shooting phase is brutal. I put a zillion shots into the Plagueburst Crawler which is character blocking the Blightspawn from most of my army and basically it barely dies at the end of everything with barely enough thots left over for the Blightspawn itself.

On the bottom, the Executioner kills five Plague Marines all on its lonesome.

Abaddon charges the Deathshroud, and Karnivores on the top and bottom of the map charge into and obliterate their Plague Marine targets.

When the dust settled, Chris only had Mortarion, Typhus, the Plaguecaster, Tallyman, Poxwalkers, and two vehicles left to try and provide coverage on an entire table against 40 obsec bodies and Abaddon. We talk through a couple turns, but he just simply cannot put enough damage into Abaddon before he has to expose Mortarion to the counterattack and I will quickly max my primaries and most of my secondaries while Chris struggles to score more than 4 per turn.

Post-Game Thoughts

As in the last report, this list feels incredibly consistent and has tons of redundancies built into it. The pressure it exerts on the primary mission is impressive, and it backs it up with reasonably good to great secondaries and a ton of fire power.

On five objective missions, the ability to just be active on all sides of the table that really matter is incredible, and having a melee threat like Abaddon that can be screened, obscured, and breach through terrain is a breath of fresh air.

There’s an RT event coming up in about a month and I am debating pretty hard painting up the four War Dogs, eight weapons, and Abaddon that I’d need to play this list in that event to get more experience with it, but I might lazy out and go back to my tried and true 2/7 build. Either way, stay tuned for that and all the other Chaos Knight coverage I’ve got planned for the next little while!

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