NoVA Open 2012 - List in Review

So with NOVA Open come and gone I want to post up lessons learned with the list I took.  My intent going into NOVA Open was to theory out the effectiveness of an Epidemius list.  I had seen, and play tested, many Tzeentch Daemon lists prior to going to the Open, but after review they seemed so heavily pinned on one model that you could not counter with weight of fire (aka Fateweaver).  That being said I could see some saying that Epidemius was also a list that could be countered by taking Epi out, which though true Epi can hide in a unit of 9 Eternal Warrior Swarms which makes his survivability much more potent.  This was only confirmed even more by the fact that in all 9 of my games (7 in the Open and 2 pickups) no one ever got a wound put on Epi.  The Nurglings were such a tar pit they couldn’t get past them.  But before I get to far in let’s see the list.

Daemon = 1127 pts
HQ = 385
Epidemius (110)
Bloodthirster w/ Blessing of the Blood God, Unholy Might, Instrument of Chaos (280)

Troops = 267
Plaguebearers of Nurgle  x 5 = 75
Plaguebearers of Nurgle x 5 = 75
Nurglings x 9 = 117

Heavy Support = 470
Daemon Prince w/ Flight, Hide, MoN, Breath, Cloud = 235
Daemon Prince w/ Flight, Hide, MoN, Breath, Cloud = 235

Fortification = 100
Aegis Line w/ Quad Gun (100)

Chaos Space Marines Allies = 772 pts
HQ = 225
Typhus (225)

Troops = 570
Plague Marines x 10 w/ 2 Melta, w/ Champ, P-Axe = 280
Plague Marines x 9 w/ 2 Plasma, w/ Champ, P-Axe = 267

Total Points = 1999  


Epi is the lynch pin of the list with his Tally ability.  In combination with his BS 3 for the Quad Gun and him and his nurglings giving me a 227pt quarter control for my side meant most games were going to be him plopping down at the quad gun, or out of sight if it was already gone and reaping the Tally for the rest of the army.  As I mentioned before he never got wounded let alone killed and did get stuck in combat for 3 of the 9 games.  But I feel he never really earned his potential.  227 points of my army plopped down and sat there to no major effect of the game until Tally hit 15+, which only happened in 4 of my games.  Consistently I would lose a game before my Tally got to 15 and my army became the resilient units I wrote the list for.  This tells me that I have dumped to many points into “nice things” and not enough points into “Killing things”.  This needs to be fixed.

Bloodthirster was a late add in to the list.  After combing through the rules and confirming that FMCs don’t come with Skyfire of any kind I felt he was a needed addition, if an out of place addition.  Oddly I expected more fliers but didn’t see but one army with them, and of that one army it was 7 Necron fliers and 1 Thirster just doesn’t have the punch needed to pull that kind of support off.

Plaguebearers who cannot go to ground anymore are neutered.  Back in 5th this unit was a  pain to remove.  They would go to ground (since they had no shooting anyways) and become cheap versions of Plague Marines.  Now they are less than stellar and I think their points would be better served on actual plague marines themselves.

The Daemon Princes were the work horse of the army that is for sure.  However with the NOVA bouncing ball syndrome they did not have the survivability I was looking for.    This may be completely due to the fact that I couldn’t make a 5+ Inv on grounding tests to save my life, but in the end most of the time they were on 1 to 2 wounds after they arrived.  They had more survivability when they got stuck in on CC.  I think if you’re going for Daemon flyers you need to go with Tzeentch.  The higher Inv means you’regetting  a better guard against grounding tests and also means you don’t need to shell out the points to get Iron Hide (something a nurgle prince needs to stay alive).  Add to this the fact that they really didn’t benefit from any of the tally save the 10-14range, and it all just adds up to 470pts over spent on two DPs.  They did get the tally up in many places but there has to be a better point usage to them.

Quad gun is a must for most lists now in 6th in my eyes.  They gave my Nurglings a 4+ cover save.  They gave my army interceptor to shoot down deep striking speeders or teleporting terminators.  Hell even the ability to interceptor a Drop pod for First Blood secondary objective was worth the points.  After that it becomes a long range heavy gun for your army, with interceptor it’s not forced to just firing in the air.  Worth it!

Typhus was a beast and with his ability to use most of the Tally seemed like one of the best add ins for the list.  Problem is he is like Abaddon.  A heavy point sink for little return.  This guy needs to be killing a land raider in points every game andwasn’t doing it.  If I wasn’t using Daemons: DPs and a Thirster maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, but this list was way to heavy in the HQ points and not enough into the troops and killing.  This needs to be fixed.

Plague Marines.  Worth it no doubt.  With the low Inn they already have it seemed a no brainer to take a Power Axe.  Giving my Champ +1 attack for additional weapon at Str 5.  He did carve through terminators on 2 different occasions.  I think the large size was not where they should be.  They were to clumsy to wield properly and did not get their return.  If they died before I got to 15+ the game was lost.  IF I did get to 15+ with a squad alive I claimed the game.  I need to find a way to get my tally upfaster.

So with Mechanicon coming around the corner I need to prepare.   Per the rumors the Chaos codex won’t be out till beginning of Oct so I will need to take old Chaos one last time.  Makes me feel like I am going to either need to take my Tzeentch Daemonsor fine tune this Nurgle list.  TO THE DRAWING BOARD!!!