If you’d told me the last time that I’d played Warhammer 40K that it would be six months before I played again, I’d have thought you were crazy. Unfortunately, thanks to a work term during a recent provincial election, and new lockdowns that were only recently lifted in Newfoundland, it was only this past weekend that KinpatsuSamurai and I had a chance to get another battle in for our ongoing Crusade campaign. It was something we’d both looked forward eagerly to – it gave me a chance to test-drive the miniatures I painted over Christmas break, and to try out some of the rules from my new Codex. For KinpatsuSamurai, it gave him a chance to break out his new Death Korps of Krieg army, all of it finished with the exception of the horse boys. The battle was spectacular, and instead of our usual FLGS we played at a table that KinpatsuSamurai set up in his new house.

I popped a couple of strategems to try and bombard one of his nearby tanks in the second half of the first turn with the Foul Blightspawn, only for the dice to let me down. The tank involved actually went on to be a pain-point throughout the game, long outliving its welcome and making tons of problems for one half of my Death Guard advance. I hoped to have my Foetid Bloat-drone tie up his horses and troops while the other “half” of my army moved to try and handle his other tanks, including his Warlord, with Blight Launchers, but…regrettably this was not to be. A third of my troops were wiped out in the first turn and I found myself holding even-at-best through the rest of the game, though there were definitely units in my army that made a blight-ridden splash on the tabletop.

Death Guard psychic powers are fun. I’m still a little spoiled by the Eldar in all things psychic, but I’m quite fond of being able to buff up my Lord of Contagion and watch her go. Which brings me to my next point, and one of the MVP’s of the whole game – my Lord of Contagion. Watching this former Sister of Battle tear through horses and troops was like watching the Darth Vader hallway scene in Rogue One play out in real-time. While I was a little let down initially by my Foul Blightspawn, my Lord of Contagion exceeded all of my expectations. I also found that despite the changes to “Disgustingly Resilient” that my Plague Marines were significantly longer-lived in this match than before – that extra wound makes an enormous difference.

I would definitely change up my strategy if we were to play the same game again, and this game points to a serious problem with my army and dealing with armour. (Which means I might need to bust out my Myphitic Blight-haulers sooner rather than later.) Aside from this, though, and aside from losing 60-30, I was thrilled with how the game played out and with how my army plays now, compared to how they played before. While I still have some concerns with the Death Guard codex and rules, I will readily admit that they made for more streamlined gameplay once the game actually got going. Hopefully, the crusade will continue soon – we’re hoping to wrangle a couple new players in, and see if we can add to our existing Castiel setting through the contents of the Plague Purge book when I get my hands on a copy of it.

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