http://wargamingtrader.com/epic-batrep- ... hite-scars

Full post-game analysis still to be added, but roughly speaking:

List/Units:

• Plague Marine Destroyers are just too short-ranged to be useful, and the Assault Dreadnoughts suffered from range issues as well.
• Nurgling Swarms did a decent job of adding to formation sizes, in general forcing an extra activation of shooting to break each formation.
• Nurgle's Rot would have had an impact in three assaults, but in all three cases the Marines were either dead or already wiped from combat res hackdowns anyway.
• As expected, intentionally slow list was sloooooow...

Gameplay:

• I messed up deployment for multiple formations, deviating from the rough plan that I'd made for the army, and was punished for it.
• I messed up deploying the Terminators in turn two and was punished for it, having spent the last few activations of turn one planning to bring them on on my far right flank on the tail end of three intermingled White Scars formations and out of range of the Whirlwinds!
• While INV saves saved my bacon a few times, a bunch of other armour rolls (notably the Plaguereapers, Terminators and the unbroken BTS) were notably poor.
• In fact the Plaguereapers were slightly cursed when it came to dice - two of them Doubling and firing at the two visible Land Speeders with 6BP, 6 Heavy Bolters, 6 Lascannon and two Thunderer Cannon got two hits (no Disrupt) which were both saved, the first time they came under fire the one shot that got through critted and the second time they came under fire the Predators got above average hits and the remaining Plaguereaper got below average saves to get wiped by one volley. Hmm, I just realised - 6BP meant the Land Speeders should have taken two BMs and therefore had one unit suppressed. Not that that would made much difference.

_________________
The Wargaming Trader
NetEA Death Guard Army Champion

Some more in-depth notes on tactical mistakes...

• Deployment - the Contagions and Chosen were supposed to garrison off the Blitz and act as Blitz guards. Although they did do a good job of holding the rural end of the table (with some Zombie help), it did leave me without a good choice for guarding the Blitz objective.
• Deployment - the Plaguereaper formation as a slow and short-range formation were supposed to start more centrally instead of being way off on the left flank.
• Deployment - given the number of garrisons, the Contagions would probably have been better set up at the very back of my Deployment Zone near the Blitz, as I knew the White Scars would be advancing into range.
• Deployment - the Plague Zombie Infestations were probably too far forwards, and would have been better off a bit further back and mostly in cover to make them harder to hit. Given the massive speed disparity between the forces, the left flank formation should probably have been most of the way back to my Blitz to act as another layer of protection against Predators etc. getting to my Blitz objective.
• Deployment - the BTS formation was too far forwards and too unsupported. If they'd had the Plaguereapers coming up the road behind them (instead of the Rhino retinue) they'd have been a bigger threat.
• Terminators - at the end of the first turn, Paul had made his biggest tactical blunder. After moving up Tacticals on my right flank so that they could provide supporting fire for the Bikes hitting the Zombies, he then forgot to consolidate with the Bikes and left all three formations intermingled in a long line across the whole flank. Instead of going after the Whirlwinds, the Terminators should have landed on the far right edge of the table where they could potentially have broken every White Scars formation on that side of the table! Losing the strategy roll might also have been less damaging.
• Overall, I kept my forces too dispersed which let Paul use his superior speed to single out formations and simply go past formations when needed.

Unit-specific notes can be found in the Death Guard development thread: viewtopic.php?f=82&t=31961&p=603609#p603609


EDIT - note that for line of sight we played the area terrain (woodlands, ruins and buildings) as being 'solid' blocks as tall as the tallest element on the base, and hills were played using true LoS so units on the top were usually getting cover from attackers that were lower down.

_________________
The Wargaming Trader
NetEA Death Guard Army Champion