So, in the middle of my codex reading and first thoughts about it I was suddenly challenged to a game. As I had my nose well into the Daemons book I obviously had to play Daemons.
Now, my Daemon collection is a bit lacking which means this army list basically came on by me staring at what models I have available. And even so I'll have to proxy some stuff... So I fully expect to lose this game - because I'm lacking the units to create the cool synergies that exist in this book. But at least it'll give me a feel of how these units in particular will be able to perform, and how the new mechanics of Daemons are working. That in itself should be enlightening!
So, with that in mind I basically grabbed what Troops I had and looked at what I could make. Large unit of Bloodletters led by Herald giving them Hatred. Large unit of Horrors led by Herald with Portalglyph. And two smaller units of Daemonettes with one Herald. Basically my thinking about how to upgrade them can be found here. I also took an abundance of Instruments, really - more than I needed. It does have an additional effect of protecting me somewhat from the wrath of the Chaos Gods in the Warp Storm table...
I also added Seekers - even though I only have five... I expect them to die too quickly to do anything. But they're there to be one of my Icons on the board turn 1, and perhaps they can draw some attention away from other important stuff.
Keeper of Secrets. He really is a mix of everything. I don't really know how to play him in this game, I'd liked to have more MC's to cover him with but couldn't afford it at this point level with the other stuff I wanted to try. Ahwell, we'll see what happens.
Soul Grinder seems like an obvious choice every time. So cheap... Phlegm of course, what else? Nurgle seems by far the strongest choice as well, despite all ready having a demonic save. I worry that he'll die first turn to Drop Pod melta though (edit: Turns out I didn't even play against Space Marines :D ), as I literary have no other targets for such a thing. Perhaps I should Deep Strike him in just because of that... I think it depends on if I get first turn or not really - because I want to shoot with him as much as possible obviously.
And that's it pretty much. Lots of Heralds, quite some Troops and some fun stuff. I'm planning to deploy the Horrors, Seekers and either one squad of Daemonettes (without the Icon) or the Soul Grinder depending on if I get first turn or not. The Daemonettes with the Instrument are pulling the Keeper, and he'll drop safely from their Icon, and the Bloodletters are pulling whatever is left. That's basically my strategy. Not very thought through, just an experiment... let's see what we can learn.
LISTS
Daemons
HQ
Keeper of Secrets - Exalted Reward, Greater Reward
Herald of Khorne - Greater Reward, Lesser Reward, Exalted Locus of Wrath
Herald of Tzeentch - Exalted Reward (for Portalglyph), Exalted Locus of Conjuration, Level 2
Herald of Slaanesh - Greater Reward, Lesser Reward, Exalted Locus of Beguilement, Level 1
Troops
18 Bloodletters - Bloodreaper, Greater Reward, Instrument, Icon
10 Daemonettes - Alluress, Lesser Reward, Instrument, Icon
10 Daemonettes
20 Horrors - Blasted Icon
Fast Attack
5 Seekers - Alluress, Lesser Reward, Icon
Heavy Support
Soul Grinder - Nurgle, Phlegm
Imperial Guard
HQ
Primaris Psyker
Company Command Squad - 2 Plasma Guns, RS, Medic
+Chimera
Lord Commissar - Carapace Armour, Power Weapon
Troops
Platoon Command Squad - Platoon Standard, Vox, Meltabombs
10 Infantry Squad
10 Infantry Squad
10 Infantry Squad
6 Special Weapon Team - 3 Flamers
6 Special Weapon Team - 2 Flamers, 1 Plasma gun
6 Special Weapon Team - 3 Melta gun
+Chimera
10 Veterans - Vox, Melta, Flamer
Fast Attack
Vendetta - Heavy bolters
Heavy Support
Leman Russ - Heavy Bolter sponsons
Demolisher - 3 Heavy Bolters
Basilisk
Pre
So, lots of pre-game stuff to do with Daemons! First the normal stuff, we rolled The Scouring and Vanguard Strike, I won chose sides, he won roll to go first but gave me first turn, there was Night fighting. So I kept to what I wrote above and deployed Horrors, Soul Grinder and Seekers.
For Traits he got redployment, I got re-roll Daemonic Instability. He rolled on Biomancy and got Enfeeble and Warp Speed. I rolled on Divination and Change for my Herald of Tzeentch, got Prescience and Infernal Gateway. I took Flickering Fire with Horrors. Keeper rolled on Telepathy, but I went with Psychic Shriek and my Slaanesh Herald rolled on Telepathy and got Invisibility.
Gifts then. Keeper: Unholy Frenzy (Rage+Rampage) and Touch of Uncreation (Armourbane+Fleshbane). Herald of Khorne: Hellfire (melta basically) and Etherblade. Herald of Slaanesh: Greater Etherblade and Warp Breath. Bloodreaper: Re-roll failed saves. Daemonettes Alluress: Warp Breath, Seekers: Warp Strider (+1 to reserve). Oh, and the Herald of Tzeentch took the Portalglyph of course.
He did not steal initiative.
Turn 1 - Daemons
So the first thing that happens is that I reveal the Horrors objective... And it's a Skyfire Nexus! Couldn't have been better! The Seekers moved up behind the cliff, and the Soul Grinder moved a bit closer as well. I use the Portalglyph back in my corner, but it fails to spawn anything.
Then time to roll on the Warp Storm table for the first time ever... And it seems Papa Nurgle is angry at Tzeentch, and good thing for me the majority of stuff on the board I have is Tzeentch then! But it's okay, it only hits on a 6... of course it hits, but only kills one Horror. It also hits the IG flamer squad and kills 1 model.
I cast Prescience on the Horrors.... and then realize they're out of range of everything anyway. The Seekers run (11" thanks to being Slaanesh!) and then the Soul Grinder shoots at the IG blob and kills 6 of them.
Turn 1 - Imperial Guard
Everything moves forward, the Blob gets ordered to Move! Move! Move! and runs 6" in total. The non-command squad Chimera moves into the River and reveals it to be Hyperslime (need to pass Ld to move out or shoot while in it, but gets Feel no Pain while in it). He also reveals three objectives: His Psyker stand on nothing of note, Platoon Command stays on one that gives improved cover save and the one in the forest is sabotaged. The forest gives improved cover against grenades.
The Demolisher shoots at the Soul Grinder, but it's saved. The Basilisk does manage a pen that goes through cover but rolls a three which is ignored, suffers a HP though. The Leman Russ can see Horrors on top of the hill, and with the help of Heavy Bolters kill 9 Horrors and take a wound off the Tzeentch Herald.
Turn 2 - Daemons
Both Daemonette squads fail to come in, but the Bloodletters do come in and they bring the Keeper of Secrets with them. The Bloodletters Deep Strike off the Seekers icon, scattering only 1D6 but actually hits anyway. Then the Keeper scatters off the Bloodletter Icon, and scatters 4" off target but not so bad.
The Seekers then run into the forest, loses one to Dangerous Terrain... the forest then turns out to be Carnivorous. The objective is nothing of note. The Portalglyph spawns two Plaguebearers.
Warp Storm phase! And this time it's Slaanesh that's angry. Probably because the Bloodletters have now arrived... and of course they're hit and loose one. The SAME IG squad from last turn is also hit and loses three models this time. The Chaos Gods truly do not like the Psyker and his squad. The Chimera in the river is also hit and get immobilized!
Both the Soulgrinder and Horrors (with Prescience) shoot at the IG-blob and kill enough to cause a moral check - which they fail. Despite re-roll. The flee 7" and stand right on the edge of the board. The Keeper also used Psychic Shriek on them, but was denied.
Turn 2 - Imperial Guard
The Vendetta does not come in. The Blob does not rally, despite re-roll and flees off the board. First Blood for me!
The Various Large Blasts shoot at Soul Grinder (with no effect) and Horrors (killing 2). The Command Chimera kills 6 Bloodletters though. And the Guardsmen in the Immobilized Chimera disembarked and then got stuck in the river. Not a very lucky turn for the Guard...
Turn 3 - Daemons
The Daemonettes with the Instrument came in and pulled the other squad with them. Now with the huge IG blob gone, they had a nice clear field to Deep Strike in, the first squad scattered off target a bit but not too bad and the other squad landed safely 6" away from the Icon.
The Portalglyph spawns one Daemonette. The Seekers decide that they want to sit in the jungle after all. Bad move, as it eats one of them.
Warp Storm... and it's Papa Nurgle again. My unit was NOT hit this time, woo! And neither was the Primaris' unit either. The Russ, Demolisher and Platoon Command Squads were all hit though, and one in the Platoon Command died.
The Soul Grinder shoots at the squad trying to cross the river, but only kills three of them. Which makes them run back across the river though. The Herald decides to try his luck and uses Infernal Gateway on the Demolisher - hits and causes a Glance at least... but I was hoping for more with a AP1 spell...
The rest of the army just ran to spread out or get closer to the enemy, except the Keeper who moved towards the other side of the board and the Demolisher.
Turn 3 - Imperial Guard
The Vendetta finally comes in. The Basilisk snipes the Khorne Herald and a couple of Bloodletters. The Soul Grinder resists Vendetta + Demolisher + Leman Russ... one or two Daemonettes died as well.
Turn 4 - Daemons
Some movement to reposition stuff, but all shooting missed or failed to penetrate. All of it. Despite Skyfire and re-rolls to hit... The Portalglyph spawned one Daemonette. In the Warp Storm I rolled 3... but luckily for me the Alluress was still alive and the random dice chose her to die. Ah well!
Then I failed every single charge. Even my Daemonettes with Fleet rolled double 1 twice! Keeper, also with Fleet failed. Bloodletters failed. The two Plaguebearers managed to reach the Demolisher though, but caused no damage. Fail fail fail!
And one Seeker was eaten by the jungle.
Turn 4 - Imperial Guard
The special weapon team managed to rally, and with their run reached the objective on the hill revealing it to be another Skyfire Nexus.
The Command Chimera, Basilisk, Russ and Demolisher killed all but three Bloodletters, caused a wound on the Keeper and killed one Horror. The Vendetta killed the Soul Grinder. Not a bad turn at all, especially following my horrible turn.
Turn 5 - Daemons
For the Warp Storm I rolled a 3 again! This time I randomed it on my Herald of Tzeentch... but passed my Ld-test! Awyeah!
The Slaanesh Herald cast Invisibility on her unit, and then left it to use Warp Breath on the 3 IG on the Objective on the other side of the river. Killing two of them, and then Soul Blaze killed the last one. Phew. The Daemonette squad ran up to contest the objective. The other Daemonettes charged and wiped out the Platoon Command Squad claiming their objective.
The Keeper charged and absolutely slaughtered the Demolisher (Armourbane with all those attacks... ouch!). The explosion killed one of the Plaguebearers though.
Portalglyph spawned 1 Horror, and he started running to try and get Rear Armour on the Vendetta, but was far off. The Horrors managed a glance on the Vendetta at least.
And of course one Seeker was eaten by the jungle, leaving only one standing.
Turn 5 - Imperial Guard
The Vendetta decided it was more important to kill those Seekers than to drop off the Veterans sitting inside of it and so killed it easily for a Victory Point. The Command Chimera killed the last 3 Bloodletters, the Leman Russ shot and hit the last Plaguebearer killing him (overkill!)...
Then the Primaris used Enfeeble on the Daemonettes in front of him and succeeded making them T2, and the two remaining flamers killed 5 Daemonettes, enough so that they weren't contesting anymore... And that was that, does the game end? It does.
So I had First Blood, Linebreaker and 2 Objectives (turned out to be worth 2 and 3 VP) and he had one objective (worth 1 VP) and killed one Fast attack. So 7-2 for the Daemons!
Lessons Learnt
Ah, victory in the first game! I did not expect that. But then again, I did not expect IG either. I was really scared by his large blob in the middle, and no less than three battle tanks as well as two Chimeras... not an ideal match up for my list! But I rolled pretty useful stuff for the Rewards, especially Armourbane on the Keeper was perfect. Too bad I didn't use him as well as I could have though, he was kind of on the opposite of the board from all the Tanks!
Anyhow, what did I learn? Horrors are not good. Really. It's so easy to kill them off quickly which really lessens their shooting a lot. Even with the buff to strength and re-rolls to hit they underperformed. Granted, their ideal target ran off the board in turn 2 and then they were forced to shoot the Vendetta. I saw someone suggest that this would be a good thing. No, no it's isn't. Even with Skyfire I only managed one glance in two turns. I rolled rather average on number of shots as well... so no, not reliable anti-air in the slightest. But even the one turn I did get to shoot at a target that were good for them they weren't amazing... and I was mostly worried that I'd just grant Feel no Pain to my target anyway... Now I didn't though, but still. One weird thing though... they're using a psychic power. Not every model is shooting... so I guess only one model need to see the target? Also, I should've replaced Infernal Gateway with the Primaris on the Herald... an additional 3D6 (Level 2...) would probably have helped A LOT more than that spell. But the AP1 hit was appealing against so many Tanks... but I should've considered where my Herald would be located all game. So a mistake from me there.
I did not realize that the Herald of Slaanesh has a BS of 6. And I rolled Warp Breath on her, which probably secured the game for me (the squad she shot off the objective was worth 4VP it turned out). BS6! So that was indeed a lucky reward, which I will definitely keep in mind in the future. As it's only AP4 it'll probably not help much vs Marines, but against other stuff it can be really helpful!
The Soul Grinder. How can it be so cheap compared to the Defiler? Champ of the game for sure. The amount of fire he draws, and what he can kill, and all his different options... so good. Nurgle him up every time!
Oh, and don't sit inside a Carnivorous Jungle. The cover isn't worth it for a 5 man strong unit at least... I guess I got scared with them and wanted to hide them since they were worth a VP as well... and perhaps I should've switched out my deployed units to make use of their 2+ on reserves... but it was early in the morning and I wasn't really awake so couldn't be bothered to think that far. :P
Oh, and another unlucky game for the Bloodletters. New codex didn't change that apparently! I rolled really bad runs for them, so they basically just stood there to take it. But it doesn't hurt so much in this codex since they're dirt cheap anyway. They'll definitely come again!
But it was a weird game. The Warp Storm really makes stuff unpredictable. This game I rolled horribly. Hurting myself in 3 out of 5 turns (and it should've been 4 because passing that Ld in Turn 5 isn't likely statistically). But I had some luck with it as well. I guess this is how it is to play Daemons now! It certainly made for a very interesting game, which was closer that the final scored showed. Now, of course it helps that we play this scenario with hidden values on the objectives... you just don't know until the very end what you've been fighting for. And then all the random stuff on top of that. This army is fun! I can't wait to have the models to bring the cooler stuff...
Now, my Daemon collection is a bit lacking which means this army list basically came on by me staring at what models I have available. And even so I'll have to proxy some stuff... So I fully expect to lose this game - because I'm lacking the units to create the cool synergies that exist in this book. But at least it'll give me a feel of how these units in particular will be able to perform, and how the new mechanics of Daemons are working. That in itself should be enlightening!
So, with that in mind I basically grabbed what Troops I had and looked at what I could make. Large unit of Bloodletters led by Herald giving them Hatred. Large unit of Horrors led by Herald with Portalglyph. And two smaller units of Daemonettes with one Herald. Basically my thinking about how to upgrade them can be found here. I also took an abundance of Instruments, really - more than I needed. It does have an additional effect of protecting me somewhat from the wrath of the Chaos Gods in the Warp Storm table...
I also added Seekers - even though I only have five... I expect them to die too quickly to do anything. But they're there to be one of my Icons on the board turn 1, and perhaps they can draw some attention away from other important stuff.
Keeper of Secrets. He really is a mix of everything. I don't really know how to play him in this game, I'd liked to have more MC's to cover him with but couldn't afford it at this point level with the other stuff I wanted to try. Ahwell, we'll see what happens.
Soul Grinder seems like an obvious choice every time. So cheap... Phlegm of course, what else? Nurgle seems by far the strongest choice as well, despite all ready having a demonic save. I worry that he'll die first turn to Drop Pod melta though (edit: Turns out I didn't even play against Space Marines :D ), as I literary have no other targets for such a thing. Perhaps I should Deep Strike him in just because of that... I think it depends on if I get first turn or not really - because I want to shoot with him as much as possible obviously.
And that's it pretty much. Lots of Heralds, quite some Troops and some fun stuff. I'm planning to deploy the Horrors, Seekers and either one squad of Daemonettes (without the Icon) or the Soul Grinder depending on if I get first turn or not. The Daemonettes with the Instrument are pulling the Keeper, and he'll drop safely from their Icon, and the Bloodletters are pulling whatever is left. That's basically my strategy. Not very thought through, just an experiment... let's see what we can learn.
LISTS
Daemons
HQ
Keeper of Secrets - Exalted Reward, Greater Reward
Herald of Khorne - Greater Reward, Lesser Reward, Exalted Locus of Wrath
Herald of Tzeentch - Exalted Reward (for Portalglyph), Exalted Locus of Conjuration, Level 2
Herald of Slaanesh - Greater Reward, Lesser Reward, Exalted Locus of Beguilement, Level 1
Troops
18 Bloodletters - Bloodreaper, Greater Reward, Instrument, Icon
10 Daemonettes - Alluress, Lesser Reward, Instrument, Icon
10 Daemonettes
20 Horrors - Blasted Icon
Fast Attack
5 Seekers - Alluress, Lesser Reward, Icon
Heavy Support
Soul Grinder - Nurgle, Phlegm
Imperial Guard
HQ
Primaris Psyker
Company Command Squad - 2 Plasma Guns, RS, Medic
+Chimera
Lord Commissar - Carapace Armour, Power Weapon
Troops
Platoon Command Squad - Platoon Standard, Vox, Meltabombs
10 Infantry Squad
10 Infantry Squad
10 Infantry Squad
6 Special Weapon Team - 3 Flamers
6 Special Weapon Team - 2 Flamers, 1 Plasma gun
6 Special Weapon Team - 3 Melta gun
+Chimera
10 Veterans - Vox, Melta, Flamer
Fast Attack
Vendetta - Heavy bolters
Heavy Support
Leman Russ - Heavy Bolter sponsons
Demolisher - 3 Heavy Bolters
Basilisk
Pre
So, lots of pre-game stuff to do with Daemons! First the normal stuff, we rolled The Scouring and Vanguard Strike, I won chose sides, he won roll to go first but gave me first turn, there was Night fighting. So I kept to what I wrote above and deployed Horrors, Soul Grinder and Seekers.
For Traits he got redployment, I got re-roll Daemonic Instability. He rolled on Biomancy and got Enfeeble and Warp Speed. I rolled on Divination and Change for my Herald of Tzeentch, got Prescience and Infernal Gateway. I took Flickering Fire with Horrors. Keeper rolled on Telepathy, but I went with Psychic Shriek and my Slaanesh Herald rolled on Telepathy and got Invisibility.
Gifts then. Keeper: Unholy Frenzy (Rage+Rampage) and Touch of Uncreation (Armourbane+Fleshbane). Herald of Khorne: Hellfire (melta basically) and Etherblade. Herald of Slaanesh: Greater Etherblade and Warp Breath. Bloodreaper: Re-roll failed saves. Daemonettes Alluress: Warp Breath, Seekers: Warp Strider (+1 to reserve). Oh, and the Herald of Tzeentch took the Portalglyph of course.
He did not steal initiative.
Turn 1 - Daemons
So the first thing that happens is that I reveal the Horrors objective... And it's a Skyfire Nexus! Couldn't have been better! The Seekers moved up behind the cliff, and the Soul Grinder moved a bit closer as well. I use the Portalglyph back in my corner, but it fails to spawn anything.
Then time to roll on the Warp Storm table for the first time ever... And it seems Papa Nurgle is angry at Tzeentch, and good thing for me the majority of stuff on the board I have is Tzeentch then! But it's okay, it only hits on a 6... of course it hits, but only kills one Horror. It also hits the IG flamer squad and kills 1 model.
I cast Prescience on the Horrors.... and then realize they're out of range of everything anyway. The Seekers run (11" thanks to being Slaanesh!) and then the Soul Grinder shoots at the IG blob and kills 6 of them.
Turn 1 - Imperial Guard
Everything moves forward, the Blob gets ordered to Move! Move! Move! and runs 6" in total. The non-command squad Chimera moves into the River and reveals it to be Hyperslime (need to pass Ld to move out or shoot while in it, but gets Feel no Pain while in it). He also reveals three objectives: His Psyker stand on nothing of note, Platoon Command stays on one that gives improved cover save and the one in the forest is sabotaged. The forest gives improved cover against grenades.
The Demolisher shoots at the Soul Grinder, but it's saved. The Basilisk does manage a pen that goes through cover but rolls a three which is ignored, suffers a HP though. The Leman Russ can see Horrors on top of the hill, and with the help of Heavy Bolters kill 9 Horrors and take a wound off the Tzeentch Herald.
Turn 2 - Daemons
Both Daemonette squads fail to come in, but the Bloodletters do come in and they bring the Keeper of Secrets with them. The Bloodletters Deep Strike off the Seekers icon, scattering only 1D6 but actually hits anyway. Then the Keeper scatters off the Bloodletter Icon, and scatters 4" off target but not so bad.
The Seekers then run into the forest, loses one to Dangerous Terrain... the forest then turns out to be Carnivorous. The objective is nothing of note. The Portalglyph spawns two Plaguebearers.
Warp Storm phase! And this time it's Slaanesh that's angry. Probably because the Bloodletters have now arrived... and of course they're hit and loose one. The SAME IG squad from last turn is also hit and loses three models this time. The Chaos Gods truly do not like the Psyker and his squad. The Chimera in the river is also hit and get immobilized!
Both the Soulgrinder and Horrors (with Prescience) shoot at the IG-blob and kill enough to cause a moral check - which they fail. Despite re-roll. The flee 7" and stand right on the edge of the board. The Keeper also used Psychic Shriek on them, but was denied.
Turn 2 - Imperial Guard
The Vendetta does not come in. The Blob does not rally, despite re-roll and flees off the board. First Blood for me!
The Various Large Blasts shoot at Soul Grinder (with no effect) and Horrors (killing 2). The Command Chimera kills 6 Bloodletters though. And the Guardsmen in the Immobilized Chimera disembarked and then got stuck in the river. Not a very lucky turn for the Guard...
Turn 3 - Daemons
The Daemonettes with the Instrument came in and pulled the other squad with them. Now with the huge IG blob gone, they had a nice clear field to Deep Strike in, the first squad scattered off target a bit but not too bad and the other squad landed safely 6" away from the Icon.
The Portalglyph spawns one Daemonette. The Seekers decide that they want to sit in the jungle after all. Bad move, as it eats one of them.
Warp Storm... and it's Papa Nurgle again. My unit was NOT hit this time, woo! And neither was the Primaris' unit either. The Russ, Demolisher and Platoon Command Squads were all hit though, and one in the Platoon Command died.
The Soul Grinder shoots at the squad trying to cross the river, but only kills three of them. Which makes them run back across the river though. The Herald decides to try his luck and uses Infernal Gateway on the Demolisher - hits and causes a Glance at least... but I was hoping for more with a AP1 spell...
The rest of the army just ran to spread out or get closer to the enemy, except the Keeper who moved towards the other side of the board and the Demolisher.
Turn 3 - Imperial Guard
The Vendetta finally comes in. The Basilisk snipes the Khorne Herald and a couple of Bloodletters. The Soul Grinder resists Vendetta + Demolisher + Leman Russ... one or two Daemonettes died as well.
Turn 4 - Daemons
Some movement to reposition stuff, but all shooting missed or failed to penetrate. All of it. Despite Skyfire and re-rolls to hit... The Portalglyph spawned one Daemonette. In the Warp Storm I rolled 3... but luckily for me the Alluress was still alive and the random dice chose her to die. Ah well!
Then I failed every single charge. Even my Daemonettes with Fleet rolled double 1 twice! Keeper, also with Fleet failed. Bloodletters failed. The two Plaguebearers managed to reach the Demolisher though, but caused no damage. Fail fail fail!
And one Seeker was eaten by the jungle.
Turn 4 - Imperial Guard
The special weapon team managed to rally, and with their run reached the objective on the hill revealing it to be another Skyfire Nexus.
The Command Chimera, Basilisk, Russ and Demolisher killed all but three Bloodletters, caused a wound on the Keeper and killed one Horror. The Vendetta killed the Soul Grinder. Not a bad turn at all, especially following my horrible turn.
Turn 5 - Daemons
For the Warp Storm I rolled a 3 again! This time I randomed it on my Herald of Tzeentch... but passed my Ld-test! Awyeah!
The Slaanesh Herald cast Invisibility on her unit, and then left it to use Warp Breath on the 3 IG on the Objective on the other side of the river. Killing two of them, and then Soul Blaze killed the last one. Phew. The Daemonette squad ran up to contest the objective. The other Daemonettes charged and wiped out the Platoon Command Squad claiming their objective.
The Keeper charged and absolutely slaughtered the Demolisher (Armourbane with all those attacks... ouch!). The explosion killed one of the Plaguebearers though.
Portalglyph spawned 1 Horror, and he started running to try and get Rear Armour on the Vendetta, but was far off. The Horrors managed a glance on the Vendetta at least.
And of course one Seeker was eaten by the jungle, leaving only one standing.
Turn 5 - Imperial Guard
The Vendetta decided it was more important to kill those Seekers than to drop off the Veterans sitting inside of it and so killed it easily for a Victory Point. The Command Chimera killed the last 3 Bloodletters, the Leman Russ shot and hit the last Plaguebearer killing him (overkill!)...
Then the Primaris used Enfeeble on the Daemonettes in front of him and succeeded making them T2, and the two remaining flamers killed 5 Daemonettes, enough so that they weren't contesting anymore... And that was that, does the game end? It does.
So I had First Blood, Linebreaker and 2 Objectives (turned out to be worth 2 and 3 VP) and he had one objective (worth 1 VP) and killed one Fast attack. So 7-2 for the Daemons!
Lessons Learnt
Ah, victory in the first game! I did not expect that. But then again, I did not expect IG either. I was really scared by his large blob in the middle, and no less than three battle tanks as well as two Chimeras... not an ideal match up for my list! But I rolled pretty useful stuff for the Rewards, especially Armourbane on the Keeper was perfect. Too bad I didn't use him as well as I could have though, he was kind of on the opposite of the board from all the Tanks!
Anyhow, what did I learn? Horrors are not good. Really. It's so easy to kill them off quickly which really lessens their shooting a lot. Even with the buff to strength and re-rolls to hit they underperformed. Granted, their ideal target ran off the board in turn 2 and then they were forced to shoot the Vendetta. I saw someone suggest that this would be a good thing. No, no it's isn't. Even with Skyfire I only managed one glance in two turns. I rolled rather average on number of shots as well... so no, not reliable anti-air in the slightest. But even the one turn I did get to shoot at a target that were good for them they weren't amazing... and I was mostly worried that I'd just grant Feel no Pain to my target anyway... Now I didn't though, but still. One weird thing though... they're using a psychic power. Not every model is shooting... so I guess only one model need to see the target? Also, I should've replaced Infernal Gateway with the Primaris on the Herald... an additional 3D6 (Level 2...) would probably have helped A LOT more than that spell. But the AP1 hit was appealing against so many Tanks... but I should've considered where my Herald would be located all game. So a mistake from me there.
I did not realize that the Herald of Slaanesh has a BS of 6. And I rolled Warp Breath on her, which probably secured the game for me (the squad she shot off the objective was worth 4VP it turned out). BS6! So that was indeed a lucky reward, which I will definitely keep in mind in the future. As it's only AP4 it'll probably not help much vs Marines, but against other stuff it can be really helpful!
The Soul Grinder. How can it be so cheap compared to the Defiler? Champ of the game for sure. The amount of fire he draws, and what he can kill, and all his different options... so good. Nurgle him up every time!
Oh, and don't sit inside a Carnivorous Jungle. The cover isn't worth it for a 5 man strong unit at least... I guess I got scared with them and wanted to hide them since they were worth a VP as well... and perhaps I should've switched out my deployed units to make use of their 2+ on reserves... but it was early in the morning and I wasn't really awake so couldn't be bothered to think that far. :P
Oh, and another unlucky game for the Bloodletters. New codex didn't change that apparently! I rolled really bad runs for them, so they basically just stood there to take it. But it doesn't hurt so much in this codex since they're dirt cheap anyway. They'll definitely come again!
But it was a weird game. The Warp Storm really makes stuff unpredictable. This game I rolled horribly. Hurting myself in 3 out of 5 turns (and it should've been 4 because passing that Ld in Turn 5 isn't likely statistically). But I had some luck with it as well. I guess this is how it is to play Daemons now! It certainly made for a very interesting game, which was closer that the final scored showed. Now, of course it helps that we play this scenario with hidden values on the objectives... you just don't know until the very end what you've been fighting for. And then all the random stuff on top of that. This army is fun! I can't wait to have the models to bring the cooler stuff...
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