So last night I was finally able to play my first game with my Daemons in 6th.
Yes I know it has been a long time coming, but with night classes, a new job and a new dog, time has been hard to find. Amazingly, in my first game I was paired up with a friend of ours by the name of
SeeJay who was trying out a new Tau list as well. Needless to say, ours wasn't the fastest game of all time...
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Game: The Scouring
I rolled to deploy and go first, but elected to pass to SeeJay instead.
Lists:
Fateweaver
Great Unclean One
Herald of Khorne on a Juggernaut, with Locus of Wrath and an Axe of Khorne
15 Plaguebearers
10 Daemonettes with Alluress upgrade
10 Pink Horrors
20 Flesh Hounds
Prince (Red) Tzeentch, Armor, Wings, Grimore, Psyker (3)
Prince (Grey) Tzeentch, Armor, Wings, Portaglyph, Psyker (3)
I don't remember everything SeeJay had but I think it was close to this
Darkstrider
Cadre Fireblade
5 units of 10 Firewarriors
3 units of 10 Pathfinders with pulse rifles
2 units of 3 Crisis Suits with SMS galore
2 Hammerhead Gunshipsm one with Longstrike
1 Sky Ray Gunship
1 Razorshark Strikefighter
Aegis Defense line with a Quad Cannon.
All his vehicles had disruption pods, and i think he had something like 20-25 marker lights.
Then I had to roll for my psychic powers, and this is where things got interesting.
Fateweaver:
Shriek, Warp Speed, Prescience, Fire Shield
Nothing to brag about here, but nothing really bad either
Great Unclean One:
Iron Arm, Life Leech, Haemorrhage ....and Dark Blessing for his Greater Reward (re-rolls ++ saves)
I think the term here would be "Yahtzee!"
Daemon Prince (Red):
Endurance, Iron Arm, Warp Speed
It doesn't get much better than that.
Daemon Prince (Grey):
Iron Arm, Endurance, Life Leech
It was at this point that the happy dance was started.
Horrors rolled Firestorm, but took Flickering Fire instead.
SeeJay castled up in the back of his corner, with everything. He had just mobs of firewarriors behind his defense line with the Fireblade on the quadcannon. He put 2 units of firewarriors in the woods toward the middle of his side of the board, and a unit of pathfinders in the middle of them with darkstrider. 2 Units of suits on either side of the defense line and a unit of path finders in the ruin in the far corner. Flyer in reserve.
I put the 15 Plague bearers in the woods on my side of the board (No idea why, bad move in retrospect, but it wouldn't matter in the end) The pink horrors just in front of them behind cover, with one exposed for flickering fire. Hounds as close to the line as I could get them. Daemonettes on the right side, behind cover to steal the other objective in the woods. I elected to start Fateweaver and both princes on the board in glide mode, due to the amount of shooting he had, and the fact that Tau can knock them out of the sky with marker lights (Yes it's true, and ridiculous in my opinion, check the Tau FAQ) Great Unclean one in reserves.
Hounds make scout move up towards him.
Tau turn 1
Basically everything he had shot my hounds. Everything. So many marker lights, and so many shots.
But amazingly, I only managed to lose a few hounds, I think maybe 2 or 3 here. Suits move some, fire some shots off, and jump back.
Daemons Turn 1
All prince powers go off, and 5's and 6's are everywhere for Iron Arm. Both are now S9, T8, Eternal Warrior, Feel No Pain, It Will Not Die, 3+, 5++ and rerolling 1's on ++ saves. I'm so excited I forget to roll for Warpspeed, luckily it really wouldn't have mattered this turn.
Grimore on Hounds is a success
Portaglyph lands DIRECTLY in front of his pathfinders in the ruin.
I move the hounds up to assault his firewarriors.
Fateweaver moves up into the ruins
I swoop both princes directly at him, as they are basically almost invincible at this points, to help get into CC faster. Plagebearers move up to mid field to hold objective. Daemonettes move up into better coverage so the suits cant wipe them out as fast.
I forget to roll on the WarpStorm table.
Horrors cast 2d6 fire on the suits on the far left side. 7 hits, and a few wounds. He loses one model , but makes his toughness test, they now have FnP(6+)
Fateweaver says go big or go home, and casts 4d6 shots into a firewarriors unit, wiping almost the entire unit out. They fail the Toughness test and take 2 more wounds, only a few left.
Hounds assault into the full unit of firewarriors successfully.
So...much...overwatch. SeeJay was using a great method of this where the pathfinder shoot marker lights in over watch, so the better units are overwatching on 5's instead of 6's.
Thankfully the wounds I get are spaced out and a few of them only take a wound a piece. I think I may have lost 1-2 in this phase and taken around 5-6 wounds total.
The assault is a blood bath, and the whole unit is wiped out.
I use the consolidate move, to move the models with 1 wound left to the back of the pack and the 2W models to the front. I stay in the woods for cover.
Tau Turn 2
Flyer does not come in.
He moves everything back from the hounds, and groups up a lot more to maximize his over-watch potential.
Darkstrider moves from the unit of pathfinders to a unit of firewarriors.
All of his firewarriors and pathfinders again shoot at my hounds, except for the unit of suits on the right, which manage to take out the portaglyph on a glancing shot! But at least they aren't shooting at my hounds or princes. So far I have lost about 7 of my 20 hounds.
Longstrike unloads on the Grey Prince and does nothing. Same with the other Hammerhead.
The Sky Ray manages to take him down to 2 wounds however with missiles.
In his assault phase he jumps his suits back farther into cover.
Daemons Turn 2
Great Unclean One Deep strikes in, scatters 11" and goes into ongoing reserves.
Grimore Successful again
All Powers go off again on princes, this time 6's on both for Iron Arm and Warp Speed on the Red one. SeeJay doesn't look very happy.
Plaguebearers move up to hold midfield objective. Daemonettes move up farther into ruins toward objective on his side of the board instead. I did think because I knew that he was expecting me to go for the one on my side of the board in the woods. Fateweaver moves a bit to better cover. Princes glide into assault range. Horrors move to keep out of LoS of the 2 suits just off the left side of the picture.
I forget Warp Storm Table again.
Daemonettes run and are now into his deployment zone but in cover, should be able to charge them in next turn if the Great Unclean One doesn't scatter very far or mishap
Horrors Flickering fire again, and wipes out the suits on the left.
Fateweaver unloads another 4D6 into the unit of pathfinders and wipes out the unit on a failed Toughness test for a Victory Point. Grey Prince casts Life Leech on the unit of firewarriors with the Fireblade in it, and regains 2 wounds.
Hounds Assault in and take out another unit of Pathfinders for another Victory point, but loose another few models, they consolidate back to hold the objective in the woods.
Red Prince assaults in, takes zero wounds to overwatch, and takes out darkstrider and the remaining firewarriors.
Grey Prince assaults in, and takes a wound to overwatch. He challenges the Fireblade who refuses. I decimate the unit, and only the fireblade and 2 firewarriors are left in it.
It was at this point that it was getting late and we decided to call the game.
I held 3 objectives to his 1. I had First Blood, Line Breaker, killed 2 of his Fast Attack units, and was on the verge of killing his warlord next turn. We checked the points on the objectives and it was currently 14-2.
Lessons Learned:
If you're going to play Daemons and you aren't going Mono-Khorne, memorize the psychic powers.
15 Plaguebearers is too many to hold backfield objectives.
I will most likely need an icon on the Daemonettes if I'm going to deep strike in the Great Unclean One.
Hounds are worth every point.
The Locus of Wrath May be overkill, more testing needed.
There was never one single shot fired at my troops or Fateweaver, and even with all the focus on my hounds and Princes, neither one went down.
For the first time playing in a few months, it was fun to get back into the swing of things. And see that the timespent building this army from scratch was worth it. He didn't have any Broadsides or Riptides, so more testing will definitely be needed, but the list will surely be adjusted for next week.
Daemons 1-0! Undefeated!
