Longtime lurker of this thread (and site) with a little AAR.
First game with the Sons yesterday. 1000p vs Blades of Khorne. Ran Breaker Tribe with the FL that gave +1 to hit against Heroes. My buddy who plays Khorne LOVES to spam Slaughterpriests and the like and usually runs 3-4 heroes. My Gatebreaker took the CT which gave +2 attacks to the Flail and the +6 FNP Artifact. Took the Mega and a unit of 3 Mancrushers. He brought a lord of Khorne backed up by three units of Blood Warriors, some Blood Hounds, and a bunch of characters. Battleplan was Total Conquest. First "mistake" was him winning the roll off for realm- choosing Chamon not only slowed my gargants down but also forced me to reconsider attacking near terrain even though as Breaker Tribe I would want to. Really smart choice on his part (I would've of course chosen Ghur)
Turn 1: I took first turn, charged up the center with my entire force. Mancrushers peppered his front lines with boulders and killed a couple warriors and hounds. Critically, my Mancrushers made their charge but my Mega didn't- that Entangling already was spoiling my plans. Hilariously, all three Mancrushers managed to stuff 3 two-wound Blood Warriors in their bags, plus did decent damage with impact hits. First turn combat saw me wipe out his Blood Warriors, while also bringing down his dangerous Lord of Khorne down to two wounds. His dice rolls were terrible first turn, only bringing one Mancrusher down to half. His first turn saw his prayers fail to go off, crippling his slaughter priests, but he soon brought the pain- two Mancrushers were killed in his combat phase, but between one falling on him and the last Mancrusher fighting back I was able to kill the LoK. His surviving Blood Hounds race along the flank and grab one of the neutral objectives. Score is 3-1 in my favor.
Turn 2: I won the roll off. He spent his Blood Tithe points to attack in my hero phase and killed my last Mancrusher. At this point I have one model left, but I'm able to snipe a Slaughterpriest with the boulder and wipe out the last of his foot troops. He does decent enough damage, as I believe his subfaction allowed him to attack with slain models. As an added bonus I destroy the Skull Throne. His hounds tag another objective, evening up the score.
Turn 3: He double turns me. At this point his characters are taking on my Mega (not a good idea) while his hounds race around the board gaining as many objectives as possible. He summons a unit of blood hounds onto another objective I abandon his original objective and wipe a squad of hounds off the table. He takes the lead.
Turn 4: He wins priority again and actively is avoiding me, chipping me off with Blood Boil. I manage to kill a group of hounds off an objective, but at this point I'm banking on a double turn. Memory is foggy at this point, but if I remember correctly if I got the double going into turn 5 I would be able to table him and edge him out by a point, but alas the dice gods say otherwise, and we called it a game at that.
Overall, very happy how the units performed combat wise. Mancrushers hit like tanks but the +5 save is BRUTAL against even -1. Mega Gargant was still a blender, even though at the end he had sustained 24 wounds. Happy with my choice of CT but not Artifact- might have been bad rolling but I think I would've chosen the one that gives you mortal wound damage on a 6 with your flail. As stated, Realm hurt ALOT. If I had managed to charge in my Mega, my Mancrushers would have been freed to fall back on the objectives that were eventually taken by the hounds. Obviously this all is prefaced by the fact that 1000 points is hard to do with this army. Splitting my Mancrushers into 2x1 units would have helped with board control but left me with 100 points or so to spare. My group usually plays late at night so the 1000 point amount is the sweet spot in terms of time. Will try single Mancrushers though next time. Gargants are a lot of fun to play with! And unlike Ogors or Troggoths (which are my two primary armies) requires alot more strategic thinking than I imagined they would.