Big Poppa Pump at Skitterleap

On the weekend we had Skitterleap here in Wellington and it attracted 24 participants. It was the last event of the tournament year and so was the last opportunity to score Masters qualification. From my own point of view I needed to win the event to jump Ross Hillier-Jones and secure top of the rankings.

I took the Daemons I've been playing around with since Nicon - mostly Nurgle with Horror support and a Skullcannon. This list has pretty much become the "DoC netlist" and is seen at events around the world. Based on a Death-dealing Great Unclean One with Beasts, Plaguebearers and Flies.

I was pretty confident going into the event that I would podium. This was based on the lists coming which were strangely bereft of items that could one-shot Big Poppa Pump. Recently I've had the list working quite well and it is certainly competitive against a wide range of armies.

Game One - Glen Burfield (Vampire Counts) - Dawn Attack

Now this was one army that did scare me. Glen had six scream attacks and if he could coordinate them then he was going to be a handful. However the Dawn Attack scenario plays with VC players' heads and they generally convince themselves they are knackered at deployment. Glen's army was a little split up but easily retrievable, IMO.
I attacked diagonally so that I could swamp him piecemeal and the strategy pretty much worked as Glen hesitated coming forward. My Skullcannon removed one Engine and wounded the other which was finished off by overrunning Furies. The game became very one-sided as my units started to double team Glen's units one by one. His Ghoul King killed my BSB but I was able to secure a big win.

Win 20-0



Game Two - James Millington (Warriors of Chaos) - Blood & Glory
James had Archaon leading his army and I knew I didn't want to tangle with the Lord of End Times. In a unit of Khorne Warriors, he walked through a Beast and two Horror units while I ganged up on the rest of his army. The stars were the BoN which killed the Shrine, a Hellcannon and eventually the unit of Tzeentch Warriors (here they had help) while Big Poppa killed the Dragon Ogres and Skullcrushers. I broke James on the last turn to get the bonus.
Win 18-2


Game Three - Peter Williamson (High Elves) - The Watchtower
Peter got the Watchtower but chose to not garrison it. On Turn 2 my 6 man BoN unit entered the building and were never threatened then on. Peter's initial shooting was pretty ineffective and my Furies were, to not put too fine a point on it, saving like Daemons. I started removing units across the board but then Peter's shooting started to pay off. He concentrated on my GUO and weight of fire plus a single successful Ward save reduced him to one wound. Desperate, he caressed Peter's Archmage scoring 7 hits of which four were successful. He was killed next turn and the game ended on Turn 4 (Peter rolled a 6) with the Daemons on the verge of a big win. Curses.


Win 15-5
Game Four - Dave Appleby (Skaven) - Battle for the Pass
Dave was using a Skrolk list with 70+ Plague Monks, a Furnace, HPA, WLC, Gutter Runners and a Doomwheel. This started very bad for me as I rolled snake eyes for Winds of Magic and removed half of each of the Horror units plus a unit of Furies. Turn 2 wasn't any better when I rolled a "4" which reduced my Ward Save to six and allowed Dave's Gutter Runners to destroy the rest of the Horrors.
In the end the game resolved itself around two combats. The HPA charged the GUO and reduced him to two wounds before fleeing and eventually being destroyed. In the centre, a single BoN and the six BoN charged the Furnace (on 4 wounds and without Priest due to a Skullcannon shot). The single BoN tried to engage Skrolk but was challenged out by the Mon Champion who he killed. Skrolk did his dirty touch and I ended up losing 3 BoN. Then the Nurgle Gods smiled. Rolling my instability test I rolled snake eyes and 8 wounds came back. I saw Dave break emotionally at that point. From hereon the single BoN challenged out Skrolk and managed to survive on one wound for two rounds. The big BoN unit finished off the Furnace and then wailed on the unit. When the Plague Monks broke the single BoN, fresh from killing Skrolk, ran down the remnants.


Win 19-1
Game Five - Caleb Rouse (Warriors of Chaos) - Battleline
Going into the last round I was 11BPs clear of the field so unless I got trashed I was likely to secure the win. Caleb had probably the strongest list at the event; Throgg backed by Nurgle Daemon Prince, unkillable Tz BSB, twin Chimeras, Skullcrushers, chariots and Trolls. I quite fancied the matchup as I felt I could potentially blunt the combat power and then grind him out. I started sniping at Chimeras with Skullcannon, removing 2 wounds. Caleb chucked the wounded chimera into the BoN and trolls into Furies. He then flew his DP into Purple Sun range and casting it irresistibly took Big Poppa Pump off. Bugger! That's a nice 700 point hole with most of my magic.
From here it was rescue mode. The BoN killed the Chimera, reformed then charged Throgg and his Trolls. They won this by one and when Throgg failed his Ld 7 Break Test, they ran him down. The Skullcannon took out the other Chimera while Drones killed Marauder Horse. Caleb charged the Plaguebearer block with BSB and Chariot, then eventually DP and eventually beat them for the loss of the chariot. We swapped Skullcannon for chariot and then both ran out of steam. Caleb had 5 models left - DP, BSB and Skullcrushers while I had Horror units, big BoN unit, single BoN and drones. Ended up a small win to him.
Loss 9-11

This gave me a 7BP lead at top of table and with full painting and sports I finished 1st. I also managed to finish 3rd in Army presentation which I was very happy with. The 84 Ranking Points I picked up allowed me to finish First in the rankings for the second year in a row.
Really enjoyable event where I continued to learn a lot about the list.