Another day and another Cadians vs Death Guard battle, against Mark’s Death Guard. My long-running nemesis! I have lost the last two games against Mark, see here goes!

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This game was at Boards and Swords, in Derby.

Cadians 2,000 Points List

Cadian Battalion Detachment

Command Points

• Super-Heavy Auxilary Detachment 1CP
• Imperial Commander’s Armoury 3CP
• Tank Ace 1CP
• Whiteshields 1CP
• Arbiter of the Emperor’s Will 1CP
• I am starting on 5CP

I have gone heavy on CP spending before the game, something which I thought about not doing. But it seems like the best way to spend them at present. I have guarantees with this CP expenditure.

I get;

1. A Baneblade
2. Relic of Lost Cadia for guaranteed re-rolls to Hit and Wound
3. Laurels of Command for the possibility of an extra order
4. Gatekeeper for guaranteed Damage 3 and +1 to Wounds vs Chaos
5. Guaranteed 3 Damage on the Manticore and 6 Damage on the Hunter Killer Missile
6. Improved Leadership and guaranteed Orders on the 2 units of Conscripts
7. The ability to cast all three powers with Coteaz

The 10CP (5 from the start and then 1 per turn gained) I have left needs to be put toward surviving, my firepower buffs can come from Relic of Lost Cadia and Vengence for Cadia for 1CP on turns 2 to 5. Turn 1 I can use  Relic of Lost Cadia.

That leaves at least 6CP for surviving type Stratagems, assuming I game none from Grand Strategist. 6CP is enough for the Take Cover or Cadia Stands Stratagem on every turn for a unit of Infantry with 1CP spare. It is going to be tight!

Agents of the Imperium

• Inquisitor Coteaz with Arbiter of the Emperor’s Will for a Warlord Trait, powers Smite, Psychic Fortitude and Warding Incarnation

Inquisitor Coteaz

HQ

• Warlord Company Commander with Laurels of Command and Grand Strategist
• Knight Commander Pask with Battle Cannon, Lascannon, Hunte Killer Missle and Multi-meltas
• Gatekeeper Battle Cannon Tank Commander with Heavy Bolters, Lascannon and Hunter Killer Missle

Troops

• 20x Conscripts
• 20x Conscripts
• Infantry Squad with Meltagun
• Infantry Squad with Meltagun
• Infantry Squad with Meltagun

Elites

• Platoon Commander with Relic of Lost Cadia
• Psychic Barrier Astropath
• Mental Fortitude Astropath

Heavy Support

• Demolisher Leman Russ with a Lascannon and Multi-meltas
• Full Payload Manticore with Hunter Killer Missile

Manticores

Cadian Super-Heavy Auxilary Detachment

• A Baneblade with a pair of Lascannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Baneblade

Mission – Surround & Destroy

Neither of us took the mission-specific secondary. This will be my last game using Chapter Approved 2021.

Surround & Destroy

The battlefield

Deployment

Turn 1

I got the first turn.

I popped Relic of Lost Cadia to give my Tank Commander, Baneblade, Pask and the Manticore re-rolls to Hit and Wound.

The Conscripts all moved up to get the central objectives for the Primary on turn 2 and for Stranglehold. Mark spent the pre-game and my 1st turn fretting about Morty being killed right away. I spent the pre-game and 1st turn fretting about not killing Morty turn one.

The Guard delivered as I expected, 11 Wounds dealt, Morty lived, 7 Wounds remaining. Using MathHammer after the battle, this was about the average outcome for what I shot at him. A Vengeance’d for Cadia Babeblade does not even kill him. I also knocked a PBC down to 1 Wound.

The Death Guard moved forward as they do, but did not target the Baneblade. Instead, Pask took a hammering – he lived on 7 Wounds. Which was a nice surprise.

The Lord of Contagion (I think) did get into my (white) Conscripts, 14 or so survived thanks for their 5++ from Coteaz.

Morty failed his 8″ charge, with a CP re-roll to my Demolisher!

Turn 2

I pulled back my Conscripts and moved the others forward to get onto the objective more and also get them within Rapid Fire range of the Plague Marines opposite. Their shooting failed badly, Laurels of Command failed so they only got FRFSRF and not Take Aim (for full Cadian re-rolls to hit). So 80 shots, did 1 Wound. Fantastic guys.

Morty did go down this turn though and so did the PBC on 1 Wound. I got another down to 1 or 2 Wounds again. Sadly, not dead though.

The Death Guard now did what they do best. Terminators came in and got into combat with two of my Leman Russ. Pask died in the shooting phase. I was now on the back foot as my frontline was crumbling to the Lord of Contagion and now the Plague Marines.

Turn 3

I felt like I had lost at this point. I was in combat, the slightest error (leaving a gap for the Terminators to charge my Leman Russ) was mercilessly punished because 9th Edition Codexes are just so brutal and reliable. The Terminators could fail a charge or fail to kill what the charge, survive and then just complete it the next turn, no problem at all.

Meanwhile, all my shooting can’t kill Morty and a single PBC.

The Baneblade came out of hiding and charged the Deathshrouds, killing one using Crush ‘Em.

The one thing I felt I did right this turn was to wrap the Plague Marines with my infantry to stop my infantry from being shot off the objective. The Plague Marines had only two models left now, so did not have the attacks to kill my guys outright and retake the objective.

But no, they can pay a CP to each make their Blight Grenades Pistol 6, that auto hits. So that is 12 auto hitting shots into my Guardsmen, while in Engagement Range. So most of them died during the Shooting Phase and they were all killed off in the Fight Phase, giving the objective to the Death Guard. Sigh.

Turn 4 & 5

This was just going through the motions mainly now. The Guard lines had crumbled again and it felt like there was nothing that could be done about it. 30 Wounds of Terminators with a 2+ Armour Save and a 4+ Inv are impossible to deal with. On average, a whole Baneblade without Vengence for Cadia would kill 5 of those Terminators. On average though – so I roll 4 shots on the Baneblade Cannon – it could be 1 or zero dead Terminators.

Outside of the 1-day event, I played in November, this is my 7th loss in a row. I think I need an extreme step change in the way I am playing my games if I stand a chance of feeling like I am even playing a game and not just waiting for the turn 3 crumbling of my lines.

Yes yes, I know that it’s not about winning. But ya know, sometimes it’s about winning or even feeling like I could win.

Anyway, let us hope the next game is better…

Final Score

Astra Militarum – 43
Death Guard – 69

Death Guard Victory