I got my first game in with my list and it worked pretty much how I expected. I didn't have super high hopes for the Raptors or Landraider, but they actually did ok. I had high hopes for the Bloat Drones but they underperformed, although this is definitely due to how I used them and what I needed them to do, but I guess I should go through the 2 armies before I talk about what did what and how.
My opponent, Chris, brought a Khorne/Nurgle Daemon army. He had a battalion with Skarbrand, a Daemon Prince with wings and the super Khorne axe, 2 units of 10 Bloodletters with no upgrades and a unit of 25 Bloodletters with the special banner and a musician. He has a second battalion with a Nurgle Prince, who was his warlord, a Sloppity Bilepiper, 2 big units of Plaguebearers (I can't remember the numbers exactly but they were both between 20 and 25), and 2 units of nurglings. Last but not least, he had Mortarion. He put all 3 units of Bloodletters and Skarbrand in reserve and got an extra relic, plus the Khorne banner he used 6 CP before the game started.
I had an Alpha legion battalion (to protect me from all that shooting...) with a Lord as my warlord, he had a combi-melta and I gave him the Axe of BF and the extra attack warlord trait. I also had a Sorcerer in terminator armour with Prescience and Death Hex and a Warpsmith. Backing them up was 2 units of 10 cultists with a heavy stubber and a unit of 20 with combat weapons, a unit of 5 Chosen with combi-bolters and chainswords, a Landraider, 2 Contemptor Dreads each with 2 butcher cannons and 2 units of Raptors with 2 plasma guns and a combi-plasma on the champ. I then had a Death Guard Outrider detachment with a Daemon Prince with the Supporating plate and wings, 2 Bloat Drones with Plaguespitters, and 5 Spawn.
Now I'm not going to do a proper battle report, but I'll go through some of my mistakes and thoughts on each unit and some ideas I have for tweaking the list. The mission we were playing was ITC mission 2, but I didn't want to focus too much on the secondary objectives so we talked about which ones I should choose and left it at that. I decided on Kingslayer (Skarbrand), Marked for Death (Big Bloodletter unit, both Princes, Sloppity Bilepiper), and Reaper. I probably could have taken Behind Enemy lines instead of Reaper as the Plaguebearers are pretty hard to kill. But I really wanted to focus on scoring the primary objectives so I didn't really think too much on the secondaries until after the game.
My deployment was fairly obvious, use the cultists to screen my army from the deep striking Khorne daemons while the rest stays somewhat central to be able to react to where those daemons come in. My Landraider had the Chosen, Lord, and Warpsmith in it and it were a little off to the right, while the Contemptors were to the left. The spawn were holding down the midfield and the Bloat drones were on the front line, taunting Mortarion.
Now I put the big unit of cultists on my left side and one of the 10 man units in the front, but I think I should have switched them. On turn 2 Morty hit the smaller 10 man unit and one Bloat Drone while a smaller bloodletter unit hit the 20 man cultist unit. He double attacked to take the big unit down to 2 models forcing me to spend 2 CP to keep that unit from running so I could ToT them. If they were in the middle, they would have been hit by Morty and I wouldn't have had to auto pass them. Of course he would not have used 3CP to double attack, so maybe it turned out ok. I'm considering if I want a bigger unit at all though. With the Raptors dropping in and the Bloat Drones mobility, I don't know if I need to be able to sneak a bunch of cultists into the backfield, even if I am getting a unit refill.
The Raptors dropped in and were able to snipe the Sloppity Bilepiper despite their rolls, killing 3 of themselves. They really need a Lord with them, so I will likely be upgrading the Lord to have a Jump pack to go along with them. I did pick up the Haarken model, so he just might be the guy. He even has a cool spear that would work as a Hydra Blade. I'll consider giving him a combi-plasma so he can kill himself too... Now I know that I may be beating a dead horse, and that Raptors are just not good, but I'm going to use them a couple more times...just because...I guess.
The Bloat Drones did not do as much as I thought they would, but to be fair, I sent them after Plaguebearers and the Nurgle Prince. I think I will swap out the Spawn for another Drone, then go 2 with the Fleshmowers and one with a Plaguespitter. I don't have a lot of anti-monster in this list and the Fleshmowers are a high enough S and D for it to make a difference. In my next list I think I will also make the DG Prince my warlord and give him the Arc-contaminator trait for all the re-rolls on those Drones.
As an alternate idea, I could drop the Death Guard stuff altogether and get a Knight and swap the 2 Contemptors for a Leviathan. If I got the Leviathan I could also drop the Landraider as the Leviathan pretty much makes up for both the Landraider and the 2 Contemptors.
All those ideas split my list into 2 threads, dropping the Death Guard for a Knight, or upgrading the Death Guard into a battalion for more CP and some Poxwalkers for fearless objective holders.
List 1
Alpha Legion Battalion
Chaos Lord with jump pack
Sorcerer
4 x 10 cultists
5 Chosen with combi-bolters
2 x 5 raptors with 2 plasma guns and a plasma pistol
Rhino (for the Chosen)
Leviathan with dual butcher cannons
2 x Scorpius tanks with havoc launchers
Super Heavy Auxiliary
Renegade Knight with dual battle cannons and iron storm missile launcher.
That's only 8 CP, but I'm less worried about saving the cultists and replenishing them so that saves me a bunch of CP there.
List 2
Alpha Legion Battalion
Chaos Lord with jump pack
Sorcerer
3 x 10 cultists
5 Chosen with combi-bolters
2 x 5 raptors with 2 plasma guns and a plasma pistol
Rhino (for the Chosen)
2 x Scorpius tanks
Death Guard Battalion
Chaos Lord
Daemon Prince - Warlord - Supporating Plate
3 x 10 Poxwalkers
2 Bloat Drones with Fleshmowers
Bloat Drone with Plaguespitter
That's 13 CP, but less long range firepower for more combat power. I will need to count on my opponent coming to me, or being able to make it to my opponent.
Until next time, keep them dice rollin.
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