Empire vs Nurgle Daemons

Empire (Me) Vs Chaos Daemons (Eric)

Game Size: 500 points

Scenario: Meeting Engagement

Restrictions: No Level 4 casters, No Magic Items

Edition: Warhammer The Old World 1.0

Month and Year: Apr 2024

Event: Escalation League at Mighty Meeple

With the month of April we had our first official start to the league and pairings were drawn - my first match up was against Eric's Chaos Daemons - he was played Nurgle monogod.

With some success with my 500 point in the past games I stuck with it for the first round (500 pts) of the escalation league; here it is in a more formal format:

The Empire of Man - Escalation 500 - [494pts]
## Characters [60pts]
1. 1. Captain of the Empire [60pts]: Hand Weapon, Great Weapon, Pistol, Full Plate Armour, General
## Core [317pts]
1. 1. Empire Knights [128pts]: - 5x Knights with full command
  2. Free Company Militia [36pts] - 6x (detachment for state troops)
  3. State Troops - Halberds [153pts] - 23x with full command
## Special [117pts]
1. 1. Outriders [117pts] - 5x with Marksmen with Grenade Launching Blunderbuss and Musician

Eric went with a Nurgle Daemons list:

Daemons of Chaos [495 pts]
++ Characters [175 pts] ++
1. 1. Daemonic Herald of Nurgle [175 pts] - Plaguesword, Death's heads, Level 1 Wizard, General, Palanquin of Nurgle, Daemonology
++ Core Units [320 pts] ++
1. 1. 10 Plaguebearers of Nurgle [130 pts]
  2. 10 Plaguebearers of Nurgle [130 pts]
  3. 5 Chaos Furies [60 pts]

A couple closeups of our minis are shown below.

Deployment and Why You Shouldn't Play Meeting Engagement in Small Games

Ok - this game is shows the reason to not play meeting engagement at small points levels. First off the 12" distance between deployment zones can greatly skew games at the small level. Secondly the random deployment vs reserves of some units can also greatly skew the game. This game mode is probably fine for 1250 points and above but I would really avoid it in smaller games.

In the meeting engagement scenario each player rolls a D6 for every unit in their list - if a player rolls a "1" then that unit starts in reserve. If you have many maneuver elements this is not a big deal - however at small games even being down one unit will be 25% or 33% of your army. In this case Eric rolled a "1" for TWO of his four units resulting in half his army not being deployed at the start.

The view from my deployment zone shows how meagre Eric's deployment is. He has deployed quite a bit back from the deployment line but he'll basically have to give me the middle of the field uncontested which will greatly limit the mobility of his reserves once they come on the board.

Early and Mid Game

Turn One

If I recall correctly - Eric has first turn and moved up his General and Plague Bearer slightly just out of charge range of most of my army. In turn one my Outriders opened up killing SEVEN Plaguebearers with a single round of shooting. I also advanced my Knights onto the hill to head off Eric's reserves and potentially threaten a flank charge if his units stalled instead of approaching my line.

At the bottom of turn one . . . Eric only has four models on the board . . . not looking good for the Daemons.

Top of Turn Two

In the top of turn two Eric attempts to buy some time by throwning his general into the halberdiers. The Plague bearers shamble forward to guard the Herald/General's flank. Eric also brought on both his reserve units almost directly into the fight (i.e. they are deployed and moved very close to my Knights.

Can the Herald/General stall the Empire advance?!?

Bottom of Turn Two

The Outriders shoot again and manage to completely destroy the Plague bearers - additionally due to losing combat the herald has taken three wounds (from daemonic instability). On the hill the Knights charge the Plague bearers and manage to win combat but not decisively (a single model on both sides is killed).

Things continue to look grim for the Daemons with the Herald/General almost dead and a unit of Plague bearers down.

Top of Turn Three

The Herald challenged and killed my Empire Captain (general) Konrecht - however it was not enough to stave off instability and he disappeared into the ether permitted the Empire infantry to overrun in his turn. The Furies would rear charge the Knights - end up winning combat then chasing them down and capturing their banner. Between

The Furies managed to run down the Knights - combined with eliminating my general Eric made a respectable showing on turn three keeping it a game.

Late Game

Turn four went quickly - although Eric was able to keep the hill with his Plague Bearers - the Furies were not able to escape the unerring fire of the Outriders - resulting in their second unit kill of the game. With Eric down to one unit and the majority of my army still intact I believe we called the game with the hope of re-racking for a more competitive game.

End Game Summary and Lessons Learned

Do not play Meeting Engagement at low points values - you would think that this scenario would be best played by small armies - but it just has too large of random chance of screwing one player. Other than that a few things that I learned:

I need to stop accepting challenges with my Captain/General. Whew unless the opponent is a man or a goblin - take it with the unit champion - my guy got pasted against just a baseline daemon herald.
People say that ballistic skill shooting has been nerfed - which it has been - but I will say that Outriders are definitely still good - I had never used them in previous editions so I was pleasantly surprised with their coming out performance this game.

Men of the Match

OUTRIDERS! Killing two units of Daemons was a huge net positive for us and when building subsequent lists I would name these guys the Daemonquell Riders.

Final Tally

Empire VP: General, Herald of Nurgle, Plague Bearers, Furies
Daemon VP: General, Captain, Knights

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