The Porphyrion – Trying One Out

I have an unhealthy love of big models, as I imagine most people who play Chaos Knights do.

The Porphyrion is the biggest Chaos Knight model, and it was always fairly inevitable that I would get my hands on one to at least try it. To that end, I’ve been thinking about lists for the big guy since the beginning of the edition when I think it was legitimately great for about 2 months while towering was nonsense.

As with the last article I wrote, this first section is all theory and written before the game I play with the list I’ll be including at the end of the theory section. I will then play a game, write a battle report, and talk about the game itself as well as future testing thoughts.

Yes, But How do You Know it’s a Porphyrion?

Let us quickly breakdown the Porphyrion Datasheet, because not everyone has looked at this thing and….well that’s fair, it’s an absurd model.

First of all, it comes in at a whopping 700 points, which is almost enough to play 2x Rampager. I actually think this is almost right, as its output is something like 1.5 Tyrants, which are 510 base. I would love to see it a little cheaper, in the 650 range, but that’s largely a function of my general feeling that every big knight is 25 to 100 points overcosted (or more – looking at you Abominant).

Its statline is actually identical to the Tyrant aside from wound (the Porphyrion has six more) count as well.

Move	Toughness	Save/Invuln	Wounds	Leadership	Objective Control
8″	13	2+/5+ at range	30	6+	10

The big stars are definitely the Twin Magna Lascannons though:

Range	Attacks	Ballistic Skill	Strength	AP	Damage
72″	D6	3+	18	-4	D6+6

It gets two of these weapons, and they have blast and twin-linked.

The Porphyrion also gets either two bog-standard las cannons or autocannons, and then its choice of one of these carapace missile guns.

Name	Range	Attacks	BS	S	AP	D
Ironstorm Missiles	48	d6+6	3	5	0	1
Helios Missiles	48	3	3	10	-2	D6

The Ironstorm Missiles have blast, indirect fire, and heavy. The Helios missiles have anti-fly 2+ and heavy.

Given that this guy wants to be standing still for its ability (lethal hits if it remained stationary), both of these carapace weapons will often be hitting on 2s. I’m personally leaning towards the Helios Missiles, and that’s what I’ll be trying first.

All of these shots combined add up to some pretty absurd anti-tank damage, or a nice mix of anti-tank from the Magna Lascannons and some anti-other stuff with its Ironstorm Missiles and Autocannons.

With his full anti-tank loadout, he has slightly better than a 50% chance to kill Mortarian in one round of shooting, about 75% to kill three Rhinos in one round, and about 72% to kill a Knight full to dead as well.

Absurdly, it only kills 3 Custodian Wardens with their 4+ Feel No Pain active.

I’m personally going to build it out for maximum anti-tank and then rely on the War Dogs to clear enemy infantry out.

Speaking of, how about a list?

War Dog Stalker (Warlord)
– Daemonbreath Spear
– Havoc
– Slaughterclaw

War Dog Brigand
– Armoured Feet
– Avenger Chaincannon
– Daemonbreath Spear
– Diabolus Heavy Stubber

War Dog Brigand
– Armoured Feet
– Avenger Chaincannon
– Daemonbreath Spear
– Diabolus Heavy Stubber

War Dog Brigand
– Armoured Feet
– Avenger Chaincannon
– Daemonbreath Spear
– Diabolus Heavy Stubber

War Dog Karnivore
– Havoc Multi-Launcher
– Reaper Chaintalon
– Slaughterclaw

War Dog Karnivore
– Havoc Multi-Launcher
– Reaper Chaintalon
– Slaughterclaw

War Dog Karnivore
– Havoc Multi-Launcher
– Reaper Chaintalon
– Slaughterclaw

War Dog Karnivore
– Havoc Multi-Launcher
– Reaper Chaintalon
– Slaughterclaw

Acastus Knight Porphyrion
– Helios Missile Pod
– Lascannon x2
– Twin Magna Lascannon x2
– Titanic Feet

Nurglings x3

Nurglings x3

There are a few slightly odd things about the way I’ve loaded out the list.

First, I’m giving the Brigands Stubbers instead of Havocs, because I’ve been finding more and more that they lose the AP bonus against the target they want because the Havoc can shoot something closer behind some ruin, and in this list I can’t really afford to be inefficient with my crowd clearing.

Four Karnivore is kind of my low end threshold right now, I’ve been loving these guys. If I could drop a Brigand for a fifth and a third unit of Nurglings, I would.

I could also see dropping a Brigand down to a Karnivore or Executioner and get the sticky objective enhancement on the Stalker, and that might honestly be the right thing to do.

As far as playstyle goes, I expect that I will be reserving 1-2 War Dogs in a lot of matchups and planning to use Rapid Ingress to bring a Karnivore off a table edge in the mid-game. Turn 1 I’ll hide the Porphyrion (easy on GW terrain, hard on player placed) and then move it to basically wherever I think it needs to be for the next few turns and let it hang out there to get lethal hits for as long as I can manage it.

Battle Report

As promised, I got in a game with the big fellow using the list posted above. My usual Deathguard Opponent brought something like:

Mortarion
Typhus on 3x Deathshroud
2×5 Plague Marines with a fight first and free grenade character each
Rhino
2x Plagueburst Crawler
2x Bloat Drone with Fleshmower
Deathshroud
2x Plaguebearers with Musician and Banner
2x Beast of Nurgle

We randomly rolled Scenario I, which is Take and Hold with an extra objective on Hammer and Anvil. We played with GW terrain layout number 4.

We both took fixed secondaries, and both of us took Deploy Teleport Homers and a kill objective. I opted for Assassinate and he opted for Bring it Down.

I won the roll off for attacker and defender, forcing Chris to deploy first. He picked the end of the table that doesn’t butt up against the wall/my kids’ school stuff (fair) and deployed thusly.

Top to bottom, we have a Plagueburst Crawler hiding in the back, then two Bloat Drones and the rhino with a unit of Plague Marines. The second unit of Plague Marines chilled in the ruin with Mortarion and the second Plagueburst Crawler below them.

Notably absent in deep strike, both units of Deathshroud Terminators with Typhus on one of them, as well as both Beasts of Nurgle and the Plaguebearer Units.

For my side of things, I put a unit of Nurglings into Deep Strike, as well as reserving a Karnivore.

Top to bottom of my deployment, I have the Stalker followed by a Karnivore (red) and a Brigand (pink). Just under the central ruin, I also have a Karnivore, then the Porphyrion who stands behind the Nurglings. Finally, it goes Brigand, Karnivore and Brigand on the bottom three War Dogs.

I was fairly ambivalent about going first or second, Chris really wanted to go second. We tied the roll off twice (sixes and then twos) before I rolled a one and he rolled a two, making him take first turn.

Round 1:

We both get a CP, and the back left objective gets infected during the command phase.

Chris pushes wide with one Bloat Drone, puts the other in the center to do a Teleport Homer (“man, I really need Nurglings”), and then does a little switcharoo with his two Plague Marine units and the Rhino so that the unit which was inside goes and touches the left center objective and the other unit ends up in the Rhino which comes forward.

His mortar shots from the Plagueburst Crawlers kill all the Nurglings.

Chris scored three on Teleport Homers this turn.

	Primary	Teleport Homers	Kill Objective
Chris	NA	3	NA
Jaden	NA	NA	NA

For my turn, we spend a CP on Knights of Shade to get a Karnivore out from behind the Porphyrion and into a position to deploy a Teleport Homer. This is not ideal, but it’s also not doing anything else this turn so it isn’t the end of the world.

My Stalker gets the other half of the stratagem to come aggressively to the top objective with a bead on the Bloat Drone sitting there.

My Porphyrion scooches up and toes the ruin in front of it, effectively letting it see 2/3 of the table.

My other War Dogs bunch up in the bottom of the map.

The Porphyrion goes first and kills the top Bloat Drone, the Rhino and leaves the middle Bloat Drone on 5.

Brigands on the bottom clean up the entire Plague Marine unit that exited the Rhino, and then my central Brigand fails to kill the middle Bloat Drone, but does kill a Plague Marine with its autocannon.

My Stalker makes a charge into the Bloat Drone, Tank Shocks it to death, and then consolidates onto the middle left objective to deny primary points.

I’ve scored 4 on assassinate here, and 3 on Teleport Homers.

	Primary	Teleport Homers	Kill Objective
Chris	NA	3	NA
Jaden	NA	3	8

Round 2

It’s crackback time. Chris scores 5 on Primary, and starts pushing up the table with that unit of Plague Marines. I’ve positioned my Karnivore just outside of Grenade range of the unit, and that means he basically has the Stalker as a target for them.

He deep strikes both units of Deathshroud, one top middle and one bottom against the ruin, and puts a unit of Plaguebearers onto the objective I vacated with the Stalker the turn prior. A Beast of Nurgle drops into my deployment zone and puts down a Teleport Homer.

His shooting phase leaves the Stalker on one, and the bottom pink Karnivore on 7 or so.

He makes the infamous Typhus and Deathshroud 9″ charge into the pink Karnivore and also charges the Stalker with the Plague Marine unit.

Both dogs die, and the Marines consolidate into the middle right objective while the Deathshroud engage the blue Brigand.

Chris scores 4 on Teleport Homers and a further six on Bring it Down.

	Primary	Teleport Homers	Kill Objective
Chris	5	7	6
Jaden	NA	3	8

Having gone from most likely scoring 10 on Primary to only scoring 5 stings, but it’s still something so we take it.

On my turn, I find a nice little place to drop Nurglings into his deployment zone so that I can perform a Teleport Homers with them and score max on that for the turn.

I line up a ton of firepower onto his Deathshroud with Typhus, including a Karnivore, one Brigand and the Porphyrion. Chris uses Rapid Ingress to put a unit of Plaguebearers onto the center left objective.

Between my shooting phase and a charging Tank Shock into the Plague Marines from the middle Brigand, I kill the entire Deathshroud/Typhus combo, all the Plague Marines and the characters on them, and the Karnivore that’s just barely off screen to the right takes out the Beast of Nurgle in my deployment zone.

With the Nurglings infiltrating and three more characters dying, I’ve maxed Assassinate out and scored 4 on Teleport Homers this turn.

	Primary	Teleport Homers	Kill Objective
Chris	5	7	6
Jaden	5	7	20

Round 3:

Chris scores a nice 15 on Primary with the back zone, the top zone, and the middle left zone under his control.

The big brick of Plaguebearers move up to charge my Brigand in the center right zone.

His remaining Deathshroud line up another 9 inch charge into it as well.

Mortarion decides to come out to play and try for his own 9 inch charge on the green Karnivore.

The second Beast of Nurgle drops into my deployment zone and does another Teleport Homer.

I use Rapid Ingress to get a Karnivore in the bottom of the map.

His shooting phase obliterates the Nurgling unit in his deployment zone and does minimal damage to the bottom Karnivore that I’d just dropped in.

The charges for both the Plaguebearers and Deathshroud land, but Mortarion does not make it there.

The Brigand actually survives the combat on five wounds, which was pretty remarkable.

	Primary	Teleport Homers	Kill Objective
Chris	20	11	6
Jaden	5	7	20

I score ten on Primary thanks to the bottom and far right objectives, and my Brigand passes its battleshock test.

Side note – I continue to be convinced that battleshock as an army mechanic is an abysmal thing to be saddled with. It’s basically never relevant, it’s affected a total of 1 game I’ve played with Knights, and I hope GW give us something else at some point here. Every battleshock test Chris had to take was passed and did nothing to affect the outcome.

I set up the green Karnivore to come and charge the back line of the Plaguebearers in the middle, and the red one Shades through a wall to hopefully help out. My recently dropped in Karnivore walks a few inches to the right and drops a Teleport Homer insolently in front of the Plagueburst Crawler sitting there.

My first Brigand whiffs damage on Mortarion, and then the Porphyrion deletes him from existence so that worked out nicely. Sadly, the other Brigand also whiffed into the Plagueburst Crawler, leaving it on 2, and my charging Karnivore that made it into the Plaguebearers killed…..two. So that was bad.

I still managed to score Teleport Homers here, but I was starting to get concerned I was going to get behind and lose on time if I couldn’t catch up on Primary. I was ahead still, but that was only thanks to Assassinate, and when Chris started to catch up on Bring it Down I knew that would equalize.

	Primary	Teleport Homers	Kill Objective
Chris	20	11	6
Jaden	15	11	20

Round 4

Chris scored 15 on Primary once again, controlling the left objective, both center objectives AND the top objective.

The Deathshroud, now free from the constraints of melee, walked towards the red Karnivore and the Porphyrion. The top Plagueburst Crawler moved through the ruin to draw a bead on my pink Brigand.

One of the Plagueburst Crawlers had eaten its wheaties that morning (the top one) and it blew the brain out of my pink Brigand. The other one had not, and did something like 1 damage to the Karnivore it was shooting at with its stubber.

Chris charged the Plagueburst Crawler into the Brigand, logic being it was on 2 already and a tank shock could bracket the Karnivore (it did). The Deathshroud got a charge into the red Karnivore and banged it up a bit, but I was able to knock the Plaguebearers still engaging my Karnivore on the right side objective down to 1 model, giving me back control of that objective. The Karnivore fighting the middle Deathshroud spiked his hit and wound rolls, hitting and wounding six times, which killed all three Terminators. The other Karnivore killed the Plagueburst Crawler despite having -1 to hit, and suddenly I was controlling 3 objectives and quite handily ahead on attrition.

Chris’ annoying little beast scored him 4 more points on Teleport Homers.

	Primary	Teleport Homers	Kill Objective
Chris	35	15	6
Jaden	15	11	20

On my turn, things took a simple and brutal route. My Porphyrion backed up so that it could see the Plagueburst Crawler (it was basically touching the red dice by the phone in the picture, my Karnivore (who passed his battleshock test) advanced onto the backline objective, the blue Brigand moved in and popped a Teleport Homers for me, and my other remaining Brigand moved off the bottom objective to shoot at the Plaguebearers on the top objective.

The Porphyrion did 35+ damage to the Plagueburst Crawler, the Brigand killed 5 or 6 of the Plaguebearers, and I took this picture right before combat when I killed the remaining Plaguebearer from the first unit in the center.

I had scored another 4 on Teleport Homers and max on Primary this turn.

	Primary	Teleport Homers	Kill Objective
Chris	35	15	6
Jaden	30	15	20

Round 5

With only two units left on the board, Chris had a fast turn. He scored five on Primary, and then the Plaguebearers advanced to contest the middle objective. His Beast of Nurgle scored him 4 more points on Teleport Homers.

On my turn, the Porphyrion ludicrously overkilled the Plaguebearers and one of the models in the deployment zone put down a final Teleport Homer for me.

So…that was neat. The final kill count for the Porphyrion was:

Mortarian
Plagueburst Crawler
Rhino
Bloat Drone x1.5
Deathshroud x3
Typhus

Which means he actually killed 890 points of things on his own, plus half of another Bloat Drone. That’s remarkably good for a 710 point model, and I was actually reasonably happy with the big guy. I’m not sure how durable he is, which is a real concern against something like Eldar, but he sure blows up whatever he wants to.

I don’t know how to compare this list to the double Tyrant list, but I like them both better than single Rampager, so we can safely discount that. I think the preference is still heading towards double Tyrant, but I’d like to try them both another time into something else.

From a painting perspective, double Tyrant is almost certainly more doable – I expect the Porphyrion to take me over 150 hours – but I want to have a Porphyrion on my display board at events which will probably inform my decisions a little bit as well.

Overall, I felt like the Porphyrion was okay, but probably it’s 50 to 100 points too expensive. If it was a character and I could put the Armor Piercing reduction on it that would also be something to think about.

As far as things we learned about Death Guard in this game, Nurglings are basically mandatory for fixed objectives, at least one unit. Further, it’s possible that giving up 20 points on Assassinate trivially is also bad. Expect to see slightly different lists the next time I play against Death Guard (and next game will be against Custodes instead anyway).

What’s Next?

I’m still buzzing with ideas that I want to try. My next list was going to be a Desecrator, a bunch of Brigands, and a Lancer. You, my dear readers, convinced me that buying a Lancer was a thing I should do and by golly, I’ve done gone out and gotten one.

My first idea, which I talked about in that last article, was a Desecrator, some Brigands, a Lancer, and a couple of Karnivores. However, some brilliant person went 5-1 at a super GT in the last week with a Rampager, Lancer, triple Karnivore, triple Brigand, Nurglings and Beast of Nurgle build that I am also super interested in trying out.

I don’t think I’m going to really love the Desecrator build, but I am willing to be convinced otherwise, and once I’ve tried both of those lists out and maybe gotten one more game in with double Tyrant I’ll make a choice about what I’m playing and cram painting whatever I need to paint to get it on the table by the end of April for a practice RTT leading up to my first GT of the year.