Hexrifles for the win!

So, today played a relatively inexperienced player at my regular club. He had Nurgle CSM and I knew he had no fliers or AA and wanted to make it a fun game for him so elected to take no Razorwings myself. I decided to try some of the pieces of wargear I've never used before to see if any of the more random type effects would work, also wanted to do a more coven style list. I took: Haemie with Fleshgauntlet and Webway, 3 Grotesques with Liquifier and scissorhand Aberration In a FF Raider with grisly trophies, 10 Wracks with 2xLiquifiers and Venomblade Acothyst in exact same type Raider, 2x4 Wracks with Hexrifle Acothysts in Venoms with Dual cannons, 20 warriors on foot with Sybarite and 2xsplintercannons a Cronos with both upgrades and my trusty 5 scourges with 2xHaywires and Solarite.He Had: Nurgle Lord, 2x5 Plaguemarines with 2x plasma and melta/flamer in rhinos, 20 Cultists, helbrute, 3 nurgle bikes and 3 seperate obliterators. It was only 1250pts.

I got what I am fast considering to be the golden warlord trait, conquerer of cities. Move through cover and stealth in ruins is such a big deal when you've got a lot of them on the table. I really believe it gives such a huge boost to our capabilities.
Anyway, this isn't a full report, more like highlights. I decided to bring the cronos and warriors out of the webway right in his face, never tried a portal before and thought I would give it a go to deliver some serious firepower. That honestly didn't go too well on this occasion, the cronos didn't turn up turn two, so wasn't there to give the expected FNP to the warriors. oh well, I thought I'd try them anyway. Unleashed 43 shots(sybarite only had pistol due to model constraints, I never proxy) straight int 5 plague marines and only dropped 2! Could not believe it. They got wiped by a twin-linked flamer oblit who I missed with both DL and the plague marines charging, those dirty knives they have did areal number on them! 2 got away but even with keeping my raider within 6" I couldnt rally them on snake-eyes, oh well, plan A failed, however.....
The other new thing I was trying out was Hexrifles and, oh my! 1st turn got his nurgle lord with one, 3 followed by 6, rended him, failed invulnerable save, failed wounds test and...crrreeeaaakkk! the dude was glass, solid glass! hahahaaha! Loved it! I'd cleared the path to him with SC from the venom first and I even asked my opponent if he wanted to LOS after the event, he shoulda listened!
Scourges today: Deepstruck, hit a Helbrute in the back armour, 3 glancing hits ( Codex rule says resolve shot normally and THEN roll for Haywire effect, supersedes the Haywire USR in the BRB!) Then got charged by 5 Plague marines with Champ wieding power maul and the rest with the dirty knives, whatever they're called. Lost Solarite to a challenge ( first time i've ever paid the 10pts for him) then lost combat but got away. Rallied, jumped into ruins ( Strategic trait 1 for the win!), sat on an objective that was worth 3 points (the scouring!) then gunned down all but the champ in return. Sadly they couldn't finish him off, but the objective he was on was only a 2pt one so whatever. That has to be the all time best performance they have ever put in, I said it before and will say it again, Legends!
Grotesques managed to smash up a rhino and got beaten in a multi assault with 2 raptors and 3 Plague marines, so decidedly average for them. However they did rally and managed to duff-up about 15 cultists so not bad I suppose. Once the cronos did come on was pretty effective but by then the battle was won anyway. But, as the heading suggests the real star of the show was the Hexrifle, absolutely brilliant! Has anyone else pulled that one off,if so, what happened?

Sounds like quite a fun game, and congrats on the win!
So you advise against the WWP? Is this your only time fielding it?
The one time I tried it, I pulled a Talos and a Cronos through it. Cronos was in range to drop a couple of termies & give the Talos a token, and that let the Talos flense the armour from the rest of a Deathwing terminator group. So in my (single) experience it worked rather well.
What aspects of this list and game did you like, and what would you change if you played it again?

Hmm. Well, I never really like to judge a list too much on just the one run-out. Not many people play 1250pts games, so I've not actually had another chance to run that list. I can't see the Warrior blob failing me so badly a second time, as I said, I really wanted the Cronos to back them up. I was disappointed in the performance of the Grotesques, I felt they really should have done much more damage than they managed. The Scourges get into every list I write, I just love that unit so much. Overall, I thought my strategy was sound and the failures of my Warriors and Grotesques was easily offset by having lots of highly mobile Troops choices in reserve.

Hmm, lots of 1250 in my meta. Yeah definitely thought the Grots & Warriors would have earned more kills, but the Cronos was just a case of dice.
I'm definitely looking into getting scourges; gorgeous models, and plenty of batreps like yours say they're worth the price. What're your thoughts on them VS Reavers for the same role?

I tried to recreate your list; did I miss something, or is it a tad over 1250?

Don't think it was over, what did it come to when you worked it out? I don't have reavers and have never used them, my army has no Wych cult units in. I love the Scourge models and over time have found how to use them without sacrificing them too often. 130points to strip 2 Hp almost guaranteed is actually good value I reckon. I have also posted another good example of how effective they were in a game vs old Tau, although that is yesterdays news now!

That was nice of you to soften up your list against an inexperienced player! I think some people get frustrated when they show up at a store and get tabled by everyone then don't want to come back.

WWPs have a lot of potential but the reason people aren't taking them is that you can't assault on the turn you exit the portal. Most shooting armies will be able to get anywhere on the board quickly thanks to our transports so it's a pretty niche list which can use the WWP effectively. I think Talos probably benefit the most from the WWP, it's just too bad that they can't assault on the turn they arrive - they might even walk into combat faster!

Anyway, good game and keep them coming!

We have a big club here in the upstairs room of a pub, so we have lots of new players who come for the first time and want a fun game. I'm often the first to give them a game and always try to 'down-tailor' my list to make the game as fun for them as possible, and therefore for me too. The WWP does have huge problems with the new reserve rules and I've yet to find a way to overcome that so tend to not use them at all except in these sort of games.