This week’s Battle Report brings quite an impressive match-up, as the Astra Militarum sends in a Tank Company to hunt down a foetid host of Death Guard led by none other than the Daemon Primarch Mortarion. We joined the show’s resident Tank Ace Simon for a debrief.
Warhammer Community: This game sounds pretty epic. What inspired it?
Simon: Well, we’ve featured quite a few smaller games of the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000 on Battle Report now, so we thought it was about time to pull out all the stops and have a full-on 2,000 point showdown.
The last time we pitted these two factions against each other was in a 500 point game last year, and it turned out to be an absolute nail-biter in which every casualty mattered. This time, we’ve turned it up to 11, with Ben leading Mortarion and a large, combined-arms force of Death Guard, while I’ve got an army comprising just vehicles!
WarCom: Poor Ben! That must’ve been quite the challenge.
Simon: Yeah, Ben had to deal with all my units having high Toughness values and 2+ armour saves, not to mention all the firepower at my disposal. That being said, we played a Chapter Approved battle, and there’s a lot more to winning those games than merely destroying your opponent’s units (satisfying though that may be).
In fact, the Death Guard’s Plague Company detachment rule, Spread the Sickness, gave Ben a massive advantage in terms of battlefield control, as he was able to leave objectives that he’d already secured, safe in the knowledge that he’d keep scoring victory points from them every turn.
WarCom: How did that affect your game plan?
Simon: Well, it meant that rather than just sitting back and blowing Ben’s army to pieces, I’d have to fight my way through the advancing Death Guard lines if I wanted to reclaim them. Ironically, the Astra Militarum’s Combined Regiment detachment rule, Born Soldiers, encouraged me to Remain Stationary to earn Lethal Hits on my guns, so I had to consider my offensive manoeuvres carefully or risk wasting this powerful advantage.
Thankfully, I’d included three Armoured Sentinels and a pair of Hellhounds for just such an occasion, so I had some solid options at least. I also had a cunning plan in the form of the Reinforcements Stratagem – if Ben destroyed one of my Sentinels, I’d be able to bring it back on via Strategic Reserves later in the game and hopefully steal his home objective if he’d left it unoccupied. To be fair, even if he still was occupying it, I planned on sending in the bailiffs in the form of heavy ordnance first!
WarCom: So, are you able to give any hints as to how things played out?
Simon: Well, it was very close for much of the game. Ben’s choice of fixed secondary objectives – and specifically Bring it Down – did some heavy lifting by rewarding each kill he made with a bounty of victory points. However, as you can probably imagine, the fact that he faced a pair of Rogal Dorn Battle Tanks, a Hellhammer*, and more tanks besides meant his Death Guard took massive casualties despite their unnatural resilience. But as for the result, you’ll have to watch and find out!
Thanks Simon, we’ll definitely be giving this one a watch (if only to be reminded which super-heavy configuration the Hellhammer actually is…)
That’s not all from Warhammer+ this week. There’s also an episode of Loremasters exploring the twisted depths of the Gnarlwood. To catch both episodes, hit the button below and subscribe today.
* Did I mention I had a Hellhammer? Because I HAD A HELLHAMMER AND IT WAS AWESOME!
