So today I'm bringing my Daemons out to play. Since I don't really have the models to make a really good army of Daemons at the moment, I always expect to loose when I play them... But I can always take the chance and get a feel for what the units I DO have are up to!
So after my last game I actually got a Skulltaker from my friend (thanks again!), so of course I had to try him out (against the person who gave him to me! Always a gamble I suppose, who will he be loyal too? :P ). I also have a shiny Forge World Herald of Khorne who've not seen the battlefield yet so I figured he'd be a nice pairing with Skulltaker. I then gave them a retinue of 7 Bloodletters each... Kind of expensive and possibly not very effective either... as with Daemons your problem is the horrible Troop choices. But I figured since I knew I was playing Space Marines they might do something at least, and with Herald/Skulltaker in front taking armour saves they might actually reach combat and I figured I needed more than minimum squads to not be shot off the board.
I also wanted to bring my Decimator who I've only played once (where he was lazy and didn't show up until turn 4...) to again see what he can do. And for him to not feel lonely as a vehicle I added a Soul Grinder as well. Giving the anti-vehicle weapons at least two targets to choose from.
For the rest I added the obligatory flying circus, with two Daemon Princes to bring the hurt supported by a Keeper of Secrets with Pavane. Then to fill out some extra Troops in case of objectives a cheap unit of Daemonettes who has one job that is only to camp a back objective all game and hide, and then some Horrors with the Changeling because he's fun. So let the carnage begin. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
LISTS
Chaos Daemons
HQ
Keeper of Secrets - Demonic Gaze, Pavane of Slaanesh, Soporific Musk, Transfixing Gaze
Skulltaker
Herald of Khorne - Death Strike, Iron Hide, Unholy Might
Elites
Decimator - Siege Claws, Butcher Cannon, Mark of Tzeentch
Troops
7 Bloodletters
7 Bloodletters
5 Daemonettes
5 Horrors - Changeling, Bolt of Tzeentch
Heavy Support
Daemon Prince - Demonic Flight, Breath of Chaos, Bolt of Tzeentch, Mark of Tzeentch, Unholy Might, Instrument of Chaos
Daemon Prince - Demonic Flight, Breath of Chaos, Bolt of Tzeentch, Mark of Tzeentch, Unholy Might, Instrument of Chaos
Soul Grinder - Phlegm
Iron Hands Space Marines
HQ
Librarian - Terminator armour, Storm Shield
Elites
5 Terminators - 2 Thunder Hammers/Storm Shields, 3 Lightning Claws
5 Terminators - 5 Thunder Hammers/Storm Shields
Troops
10 Tactical Marines - Plasma Cannon, Plasma gun
10 Tactical Marines - Flamer, Missile Launcher
+ Drop Pod
10 Tactical Marines - Meltagun, Combi-melta
+ Drop Pod
Fast Attack
3 Bikes - 2 Melta guns, 1 Combi-melta
Storm Talon - Skyhammer missiles
Heavy Support
Thunderfire Cannon
Vindicator - Siege Shield
Devastators - 4 Missile Launchers, Signum
Fortifications
Aegis Defenceline
PRE
We rolled for mission and got The Scouring, Warlord traits was both personal - I took Skulltaker as my Warlord and got Feel no Pain when within 3" of an objective and he got Scoring unit for his Librarian. He rolled both his powers on Biomancy and got Enfeeble and Life Leech. Rolled of for first turn, he won and chose to go first - I of course didn't even try to seize initiative. No Night Fighting for Turn 1.
We placed the terrain and then objectives, and there at least I got a nice corner to hide one objective (that turned out to be worth 3 VP, nice!) behind a huge cliff. Daemonettes found their home all ready!
Turn 1 - Iron Hands
So first turn, nothing much to do so he just moved towards the far away objectives waiting for the Daemons to arrive to the party.
Turn 1 - Daemons
I decided to gamble a bit and put all my "big guys" in my preferred wave. Turned out to be good this time, as I got what I wanted!
So I jumped in with all my guys pretty close to each other so they could give mutual support and hopefully grant me First Blood. So my Keeper of Secrets used Pavane to line up the closest Combat Squad for one of the Daemon Princes to breathe into. Killed all but the Plasma Cannon (in hindsight I really should've used Pavane to make sure he was not the last guy in line...). The other Daemon Prince Breathed onto the Thunderfire Cannon and killed 3 Tacticals who stood in between as well as took one wound off the cannon. Fired the Bolt of Tzeentch on it as well which hit and wounded... but he made his cover save for that.
So now I was left with the Soul Grinder and the Decimator. Decided that the Large Blast would be nice on the Vindicator, shot, hit and penetration... only to get a shaken. Ahwell. The Decimator tried to get First Blood by shooting his Butcher Cannons on the lone Plasma Cannon... Missed three shots and the last one was saved... So some damage made, but not nearly enough.
Turn 2 - Iron Hands
But units of Terminators came in as well as the Storm Talon. Terminators came in right were they wanted in the middle, and the Storm Talon flew in to try and get some shots on the Sould Grinder.
First thing to die was the Decimator, turned out he wasn't that hard to kill after all (at least not if you have three melta-bikers behind him). Then the Keeper of Secrets went down... he got a total of 5 successful wounds on him (from rockets and bolters) and failed every single save. Vindicator return fire on the Soul Grinder and took of the Reaper Autocannon and the Storm Talon took off one of the Close Combat Arms. The Librarian casted Enfeeble on one of the Daemon Princes.
Turn 2 - Daemons
Bloodletters with the Herald came in, decided to try and use his Death Strike on the Rear armour of the Vindicator and then hopefully survive with enough to kill some Marines on the objective.
However every single shot either failed to do damage or was saved. In a move of desperation I decided to charge the Soul Grinder into the Terminators to at least avoid being shot next turn. Storm Shields saved everything and suffered a penetrating hit in return.
Turn 3 - Iron Hands
And here is why I should've made sure that damned Plasma Cannon died in turn 1, as he shot the clumped up Bloodletters (since I didn't run them in favor of shooting with the Herald) and hit spot on. 5 dead Bloodletters. The remaining two and the herald then went down to missiles and rapid fire bolters. 2 Wounds on one of the Daemon Princes from bolters and the Storm Talon as well, but no grounding at that one at least... then he shot storm bolters on the other Daemon Prince... didn't cause any wounds, but he WAS grounded... rolled a 1 on the hit though so no damage taken and nothing close enough to charge him.
Turn 3 - Daemons
Skulltaker and his unit got in, decided to put him in the middle and try to get Slay the Warlord with him. Horrors also came in, put them close to the 4VP objective as well as the Vindicator to try and use the Changeling on it.
The Daemon Prince who was shot by the Storm Talon in the previous turn then wanted revenge and thus Vector striked (got 4 hits!) it to death, and because of the mission that was 1VP for me! The Bolt of Tzeentch then cause a penetrating hit on the rear armour of the Vindicator (which had turned the previous turn to deal with the Bloodletters... turned out they were dead before it got to shoot though), but just got a stunned result unfortunately. The other Daemon Prince on the flank killed a couple of marines with Breathe and made a failed Vector Strike at the Vindicator. The Soul Grinder then died in the assault, exploding but caused no wounds on the Terminators.
Turn 4 - Iron Hands
So he shot at the Daemon Prince on the flank with a lot of bolters, managing only to hit with two... but no wounds of course. But the Prince failed his Grounding Test and suffered a S9 with no armour save allowed (actually we did that wrong as I had invulnerability saves but oh well!) that took one wound off him, then more missiles took the last wound off him as well since he was now grounded and easy to hit. Everything else only had Blast (so could not hit flyers) or couldn't see anything to shoot or missed (I tried to Glamour the lone Plasma Cannon but he passed his Ld-test unfortunately and then missed anyway).
Oh, the Horrors took some Rapid Fire Bolters as well, and lost two of their numbers. Then the Terminators tried to charge over the hill, lost one guy to overwatch... and still came up short due to difficult terrain.
Turn 4 - Daemons
As I kept failing my come back rolls for the Decimator my opponent felt generous and decided to let it come back anyway. Yay! Daemonettes came on automatically as well, and of course they went straight at the objective I set up from them behind the cliffs. Something that went according to plan, finally!
The remaining Daemon Prince went for the Bikes for another VP as well as denying the objective there, killed two of them with Breathe/Bolt. The Decimator then who got a free chance to prove his worth shot at the last one as well... failing to hit with everything but one shot that was saved (and I paid 240 points for this thing?!). So had to use the Bolt from the Horrors to finish the last one, and luckily he did hit and killed the last biker.
Skulltaker and his unit then charged the Terminators with the Librarian in it, I issued the challenge only to find a Sargent accepting instead. Bah. No wounds in the challenge, but one Terminator went down as well as two Bloodletters.
Turn 5 - Iron Hands
Everything that could still shoot shot the Decimator. The Thunderfire Cannon finally got something it could hit and landed three blasts on it which was enough to kill it again. The Stormbolter on the drop pod killed two more Horrors so the Changeling was left on his own. The other unit of Terminators decided to charge the Horrors again, this time making it and slaughtering the poor little Changeling.
Turn 5 - Daemons
At this point it looked really grim for me. But I had a slight chance to turn it around if I managed to kill his Warlord (and had I wiped the unit I'd also claim 2VPs from the nearby objective as well) and thus I decided to charge in with my Daemon Prince as well. I made a grand total of 0 wounds (Storm Shields again...) and he killed my Daemon Prince in return.
So I decided to concede and it was a 7-5 victory for the Iron Hands! Actually it was closer than it looked in the end there, especially had the game ended in turn 5. There were a lot of points hanging in the balance there - but turn 6 had been a decisive victory for the Space Marines.
Lessons Learnt
Okay, so I didn't expect much from this list as I wrote in the beginning all ready but I still made a lot of mistakes. For one thing I was far too aggressive with the first unit of Bloodletters with the Herald because I was really annoyed by the Vindicator still being alive - I should just have ignored it and landed somewhere safer. Against this list of Daemons that Large Blast wasn't really that important - so bad priority from my side there. Bloodletters are decent for killing Marines after all and I left a whole flank uncontested for him to run on.
Another thing... never, ever let a Plasma Cannon stay alive if you actually have the means to kill it easily...
Because things went as they did with my shooting in turn 1 I changed my target with the Decimator. I think I'd been way better off if I'd stayed with my original plan and let him deal with the bikers (that's why I placed him on that flank after all!). And while on the Decimator, he really is overpriced as of now - he might do better if I can get him into an assault so I guess I'll have to give him another chance or two.
Oh, and I confirmed yet again that Bloodletters aren't worth it. Far to expensive for what they do, especially as they die so easily. It's especially not worth it to add Heralds to them - could use those slots for something useful instead! Granted, I didn't use them well this game but I don't think it would've made a huge difference. Probably better off taking two small units of Daemonettes (much cheaper!) and hide them away instead and spend the points elsewhere!
I also think that my objectives placement turned out pretty well, it dictated the fight to the area where I wanted the fight to be on. So that was nice, and it really is an important aspect of the tactics to get the objectives right. So something positive to take away from the game at least! But yet again I had some really poor luck in the beginning which really shaped the game... but such are dice!
So after my last game I actually got a Skulltaker from my friend (thanks again!), so of course I had to try him out (against the person who gave him to me! Always a gamble I suppose, who will he be loyal too? :P ). I also have a shiny Forge World Herald of Khorne who've not seen the battlefield yet so I figured he'd be a nice pairing with Skulltaker. I then gave them a retinue of 7 Bloodletters each... Kind of expensive and possibly not very effective either... as with Daemons your problem is the horrible Troop choices. But I figured since I knew I was playing Space Marines they might do something at least, and with Herald/Skulltaker in front taking armour saves they might actually reach combat and I figured I needed more than minimum squads to not be shot off the board.
I also wanted to bring my Decimator who I've only played once (where he was lazy and didn't show up until turn 4...) to again see what he can do. And for him to not feel lonely as a vehicle I added a Soul Grinder as well. Giving the anti-vehicle weapons at least two targets to choose from.
For the rest I added the obligatory flying circus, with two Daemon Princes to bring the hurt supported by a Keeper of Secrets with Pavane. Then to fill out some extra Troops in case of objectives a cheap unit of Daemonettes who has one job that is only to camp a back objective all game and hide, and then some Horrors with the Changeling because he's fun. So let the carnage begin. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
LISTS
Chaos Daemons
HQ
Keeper of Secrets - Demonic Gaze, Pavane of Slaanesh, Soporific Musk, Transfixing Gaze
Skulltaker
Herald of Khorne - Death Strike, Iron Hide, Unholy Might
Elites
Decimator - Siege Claws, Butcher Cannon, Mark of Tzeentch
Troops
7 Bloodletters
7 Bloodletters
5 Daemonettes
5 Horrors - Changeling, Bolt of Tzeentch
Heavy Support
Daemon Prince - Demonic Flight, Breath of Chaos, Bolt of Tzeentch, Mark of Tzeentch, Unholy Might, Instrument of Chaos
Daemon Prince - Demonic Flight, Breath of Chaos, Bolt of Tzeentch, Mark of Tzeentch, Unholy Might, Instrument of Chaos
Soul Grinder - Phlegm
Iron Hands Space Marines
HQ
Librarian - Terminator armour, Storm Shield
Elites
5 Terminators - 2 Thunder Hammers/Storm Shields, 3 Lightning Claws
5 Terminators - 5 Thunder Hammers/Storm Shields
Troops
10 Tactical Marines - Plasma Cannon, Plasma gun
10 Tactical Marines - Flamer, Missile Launcher
+ Drop Pod
10 Tactical Marines - Meltagun, Combi-melta
+ Drop Pod
Fast Attack
3 Bikes - 2 Melta guns, 1 Combi-melta
Storm Talon - Skyhammer missiles
Heavy Support
Thunderfire Cannon
Vindicator - Siege Shield
Devastators - 4 Missile Launchers, Signum
Fortifications
Aegis Defenceline
PRE
We rolled for mission and got The Scouring, Warlord traits was both personal - I took Skulltaker as my Warlord and got Feel no Pain when within 3" of an objective and he got Scoring unit for his Librarian. He rolled both his powers on Biomancy and got Enfeeble and Life Leech. Rolled of for first turn, he won and chose to go first - I of course didn't even try to seize initiative. No Night Fighting for Turn 1.
We placed the terrain and then objectives, and there at least I got a nice corner to hide one objective (that turned out to be worth 3 VP, nice!) behind a huge cliff. Daemonettes found their home all ready!
 |
| Here you see the board and the objectives, there's also one objective behind the cliffs at the top and in both woods. |
 |
| Iron Hands deployed, looking at the nature. |
Turn 1 - Iron Hands
So first turn, nothing much to do so he just moved towards the far away objectives waiting for the Daemons to arrive to the party.
Turn 1 - Daemons
I decided to gamble a bit and put all my "big guys" in my preferred wave. Turned out to be good this time, as I got what I wanted!
So I jumped in with all my guys pretty close to each other so they could give mutual support and hopefully grant me First Blood. So my Keeper of Secrets used Pavane to line up the closest Combat Squad for one of the Daemon Princes to breathe into. Killed all but the Plasma Cannon (in hindsight I really should've used Pavane to make sure he was not the last guy in line...). The other Daemon Prince Breathed onto the Thunderfire Cannon and killed 3 Tacticals who stood in between as well as took one wound off the cannon. Fired the Bolt of Tzeentch on it as well which hit and wounded... but he made his cover save for that.
So now I was left with the Soul Grinder and the Decimator. Decided that the Large Blast would be nice on the Vindicator, shot, hit and penetration... only to get a shaken. Ahwell. The Decimator tried to get First Blood by shooting his Butcher Cannons on the lone Plasma Cannon... Missed three shots and the last one was saved... So some damage made, but not nearly enough.
Turn 2 - Iron Hands
 |
| The first wave of Daemons arrive. |
But units of Terminators came in as well as the Storm Talon. Terminators came in right were they wanted in the middle, and the Storm Talon flew in to try and get some shots on the Sould Grinder.
First thing to die was the Decimator, turned out he wasn't that hard to kill after all (at least not if you have three melta-bikers behind him). Then the Keeper of Secrets went down... he got a total of 5 successful wounds on him (from rockets and bolters) and failed every single save. Vindicator return fire on the Soul Grinder and took of the Reaper Autocannon and the Storm Talon took off one of the Close Combat Arms. The Librarian casted Enfeeble on one of the Daemon Princes.
Turn 2 - Daemons
Bloodletters with the Herald came in, decided to try and use his Death Strike on the Rear armour of the Vindicator and then hopefully survive with enough to kill some Marines on the objective.
However every single shot either failed to do damage or was saved. In a move of desperation I decided to charge the Soul Grinder into the Terminators to at least avoid being shot next turn. Storm Shields saved everything and suffered a penetrating hit in return.
Turn 3 - Iron Hands
And here is why I should've made sure that damned Plasma Cannon died in turn 1, as he shot the clumped up Bloodletters (since I didn't run them in favor of shooting with the Herald) and hit spot on. 5 dead Bloodletters. The remaining two and the herald then went down to missiles and rapid fire bolters. 2 Wounds on one of the Daemon Princes from bolters and the Storm Talon as well, but no grounding at that one at least... then he shot storm bolters on the other Daemon Prince... didn't cause any wounds, but he WAS grounded... rolled a 1 on the hit though so no damage taken and nothing close enough to charge him.
Turn 3 - Daemons
Skulltaker and his unit got in, decided to put him in the middle and try to get Slay the Warlord with him. Horrors also came in, put them close to the 4VP objective as well as the Vindicator to try and use the Changeling on it.
The Daemon Prince who was shot by the Storm Talon in the previous turn then wanted revenge and thus Vector striked (got 4 hits!) it to death, and because of the mission that was 1VP for me! The Bolt of Tzeentch then cause a penetrating hit on the rear armour of the Vindicator (which had turned the previous turn to deal with the Bloodletters... turned out they were dead before it got to shoot though), but just got a stunned result unfortunately. The other Daemon Prince on the flank killed a couple of marines with Breathe and made a failed Vector Strike at the Vindicator. The Soul Grinder then died in the assault, exploding but caused no wounds on the Terminators.
Turn 4 - Iron Hands
So he shot at the Daemon Prince on the flank with a lot of bolters, managing only to hit with two... but no wounds of course. But the Prince failed his Grounding Test and suffered a S9 with no armour save allowed (actually we did that wrong as I had invulnerability saves but oh well!) that took one wound off him, then more missiles took the last wound off him as well since he was now grounded and easy to hit. Everything else only had Blast (so could not hit flyers) or couldn't see anything to shoot or missed (I tried to Glamour the lone Plasma Cannon but he passed his Ld-test unfortunately and then missed anyway).
Oh, the Horrors took some Rapid Fire Bolters as well, and lost two of their numbers. Then the Terminators tried to charge over the hill, lost one guy to overwatch... and still came up short due to difficult terrain.
Turn 4 - Daemons
 |
| Skulltaker and his unit gets ready to charge at the top, and you can see the lack of Daemons left on the board at this point... |
As I kept failing my come back rolls for the Decimator my opponent felt generous and decided to let it come back anyway. Yay! Daemonettes came on automatically as well, and of course they went straight at the objective I set up from them behind the cliffs. Something that went according to plan, finally!
The remaining Daemon Prince went for the Bikes for another VP as well as denying the objective there, killed two of them with Breathe/Bolt. The Decimator then who got a free chance to prove his worth shot at the last one as well... failing to hit with everything but one shot that was saved (and I paid 240 points for this thing?!). So had to use the Bolt from the Horrors to finish the last one, and luckily he did hit and killed the last biker.
Skulltaker and his unit then charged the Terminators with the Librarian in it, I issued the challenge only to find a Sargent accepting instead. Bah. No wounds in the challenge, but one Terminator went down as well as two Bloodletters.
Turn 5 - Iron Hands
Everything that could still shoot shot the Decimator. The Thunderfire Cannon finally got something it could hit and landed three blasts on it which was enough to kill it again. The Stormbolter on the drop pod killed two more Horrors so the Changeling was left on his own. The other unit of Terminators decided to charge the Horrors again, this time making it and slaughtering the poor little Changeling.
Turn 5 - Daemons
At this point it looked really grim for me. But I had a slight chance to turn it around if I managed to kill his Warlord (and had I wiped the unit I'd also claim 2VPs from the nearby objective as well) and thus I decided to charge in with my Daemon Prince as well. I made a grand total of 0 wounds (Storm Shields again...) and he killed my Daemon Prince in return.
So I decided to concede and it was a 7-5 victory for the Iron Hands! Actually it was closer than it looked in the end there, especially had the game ended in turn 5. There were a lot of points hanging in the balance there - but turn 6 had been a decisive victory for the Space Marines.
Lessons Learnt
Okay, so I didn't expect much from this list as I wrote in the beginning all ready but I still made a lot of mistakes. For one thing I was far too aggressive with the first unit of Bloodletters with the Herald because I was really annoyed by the Vindicator still being alive - I should just have ignored it and landed somewhere safer. Against this list of Daemons that Large Blast wasn't really that important - so bad priority from my side there. Bloodletters are decent for killing Marines after all and I left a whole flank uncontested for him to run on.
Another thing... never, ever let a Plasma Cannon stay alive if you actually have the means to kill it easily...
Because things went as they did with my shooting in turn 1 I changed my target with the Decimator. I think I'd been way better off if I'd stayed with my original plan and let him deal with the bikers (that's why I placed him on that flank after all!). And while on the Decimator, he really is overpriced as of now - he might do better if I can get him into an assault so I guess I'll have to give him another chance or two.
Oh, and I confirmed yet again that Bloodletters aren't worth it. Far to expensive for what they do, especially as they die so easily. It's especially not worth it to add Heralds to them - could use those slots for something useful instead! Granted, I didn't use them well this game but I don't think it would've made a huge difference. Probably better off taking two small units of Daemonettes (much cheaper!) and hide them away instead and spend the points elsewhere!
I also think that my objectives placement turned out pretty well, it dictated the fight to the area where I wanted the fight to be on. So that was nice, and it really is an important aspect of the tactics to get the objectives right. So something positive to take away from the game at least! But yet again I had some really poor luck in the beginning which really shaped the game... but such are dice!
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