Escalation league week 2, game vs Iron Hands!

I didn't plan to make a Battle report of this... but the game turned out pretty crazy so...

First, his list had Master of the Forge with Conversion Beamer, 15 Tactical Marines, 8 Scouts... a friggin' Vindicator and a Storm Talon. Uh...

We rolled Big Guns Never Tire, and I got to go first, he didn't steal. I rolled absolutely terrible psychic powers, so ended up with just two Psychic Shriek. I got Hellgaze on the Keeper (S8 AP1 Lance)... and Armour on the Herald.

The objectives are behind the ruins and inside the black forest. The forest one turned out to be Targeting Relay, the one held by Plaguebearers and the one held by Scouts turned out to be nothing and the one to the left was Sabotaged.

 So I basically started off by running everything forward. Tried to shoot the Scounts. The Warp storm hit the scouts... for three turns in a row actually. The Chaos Gods really hated them this game.
Vindicator killed all but three Daemonettes from the Heralds unit... ouch. Pot shots from Master of the Forge and missiles took a few wounds off the Keeper.
Turn two saw my Screamers come in, the slashed at his lone Master of the Forge... didn't realise he had 2+ armour... and well, he rolled three 2's for saves of course. Bah. Keeper Hellfired at the Vindicator, only glanced it. Luckily for me his Storm Talon didn't come in, but Vindicator shot at the other squad of Daemonettes who had now been joined by the Herald and ran into the forest. So most of them survived since they went to Ground. A few more wounds on my Keeper also.
Turn three I saw my chance since the Storm Talon was still out. The Screamers moved up to charge the Vindicator and the Keeper the Scouts. Both charges made, the Keeper killed his squad for First Blood. The Screamers only managed a single glance however... And then his Storm Talon came in. Killed my Keeper easily since it only had one wound left and he killed a couple more of the Daemonettes in the forest (but Go to Ground again saved most of them). He forgot to move his Vindicator... so three free hits for my Screamers! Yay! I exploded the Vindicator.
Turn four, I wanted some revenge and moved up the Screamers to charge his Master of the Forge. I got lucky and hit and wounded with two out of three attacks, Slay the Warlord for me! In his turn his Storm Talon came down into Hover mode and just barely killed all my Screamers (he did 6 wounds and I didn't make a single save). He also killed my three Daemonttes that were hiding near the sabotaged Objective, and all but one and the Herald of the ones in the forest (I didn't Go to Ground this round though).
For turn five we got a really weird situation... because suddenly Nurgle showed up in the Warp Storm table, and I got 6 S4 AP3 Poisoned hits on his five Marines sitting on the Objective in the black forest... and killed all five. My Herald split off from the Daemonette, but both ran towards the Sabotaged Objective... I got super-lucky with Psychic Shriek and killed 4 of the 5 Marines!! I failed the charge though. The Daemontte ran a full 9" and grabbed the Objective... So now we were in a situation were we held one objective each that was set, and I held another one with a single Daemonette... he could run and grab it with a lone Marine however... I had First Blood, Slay the Warlord and a extra point for killing his Heavy Support. So in other words, he had to kill both my lone Daemonette and my Herald (that was close enough to contest the objective) and run more than 2" with a single Marine. If he doesn't manage this I win. His far away squad couldn't see the Daemonette, so they shot the Herald and just managed to kill her. The Storm Talon moved up and hit quite poorly, but enough to kill the Daemonette... and the Marine ran... 2". Just enough. We rolled to see if the game ended and it did. Iron Hands vi...
Wait, the objective was sabotaged. And it exploded for the first time all game. And it wounded... If he fails his 3+ save he looses the game... but he made it. So Iron Hands victory, 7-6! Yikes.

 So, here we have it, the final standing after week two I guess:

Daemon World, 1500p: Iron Hands vs Dark Angels

So we wanted to try out the scenario in The Crusade of Fire with all the Daemon World rules and stuff. So here it is. To not make it too complicated and drawn out we went for 1500p. I also decided to bring my Dark Angels... since it'd not give me any advantage with them Daemon-rules and what not.

So for starters I wanted to try out Belial, so in he went. My two units of Deathwing with him. I think I will Deep Strike these two squads in the middle turn 1 to take full advantage of the Deathwing Assault. Also, the scenario gives you points for every turn you control the objective... so if I can grab it turn 1 all ready it will be helpful.

With this get in the middle fast thinking I also grabbed my 5 Scouts. They can Infiltrate in. All though I know he has a lot of Scouts as well, so no guarantee that I'll get the middle with them.

Another unit to get in his face turn one is 10 Veterans arriving by Drop Pod. Hopefully they'll cause some damage. I equipped them with 2 Meltas (one Combi) and a Combi-Flamer. Mostly to be kinda WYSIWIG. Might Combat Squad these, so that either the Meltas are in separate squads, or the meltas+flamer are in the same squad. Depends on his list... if he has a lot of vehicles I'll gamble and separate them. These guys will be joined by a Interrogator-Chaplain, mainly just because I want to try him out - and this is also why I'll most likely NOT Combat Squad this unit. To get the most out of them. But we'll see...

Then I simply filled out with Tactical Marines to advance up as quickly as possible. And that's my 1500p!


Lists

Dark Angels
HQ
Belial
Interrogator-Chaplain - Auspex, Melta bombs, Power Field Generator

Troops
5 Deathwing - Chainfist, Assault Cannon
5 Deathwing - Chainfist, Assault Cannon
5 Scouts - Camocloaks, Sniper Rifles, Flakk Missile Launcher
10 Tactical Marines - Plasma Gun, Plasma Cannon
10 Tactical Marines - Plasma Gun, Missile Launcher

Elites
9 Veterans - 1 Melta gun, 1 Combi-Melta, 1 Combi-Flamer, Melta bombs
+Drop Pod

Iron Hands
HQ
Force Commander - Terminator Armour, Lightning Claws

Troops
10 Tactical Marines - Heavy Bolter, Flamer
10 Tactical Marines - Heavy Bolter, Flamer
10 Tactical Marines - Missile Launcher, Flamer

Elites
7 Assault Terminators - Thunder Hammers/Storm Shields
+Land Raider Crusader

Heavy Support
Vindicator
5 Devastators - Missile Launchers


Pre

The scenario is you set up the objective in the middle and then chose long table edges. If you hold the objective in the end of a turn you get the turn number amount of VP. So a bit different. Also there's Daemonic Possession going on, and my Scouts were Possessed by Slaanesh, one of my Tacticals as well, and my Veterans were Possessed by Tzeentch. One of his Tacitcals were possessed by Slaanesh as well. I got to chose sides, he won who to go first but let me deploy first. I set up my Tacticals, putting all Terminators in reserve, Deep striking turn 1. Scouts Infiltrated up in the middle on the objective, hoping to grab a quick VP.
He got Master of Offence for Warlord trait. No night fight and no steal.

Turn 1 - Dark Angels

So, with the Daemon World rules the first thing that happened was that I got to chose any of his units and "re-deploy" it using Deep Strike... so I picked up his Land Raider and put it in a corner far away, hoping for it to mishap and die... and it did. Just that instead of dying it got "opponent gets to place it"... so he put it back basically where it started! And since it suffered a mishap that meant a unit of Plaguebearers spawned where the Land Raider was supposed to be... what a weird start.

Anyway, then my Drop Pod came in, melta:ed and exploded the Land Raider anyway for First Blood, and Belial landed in the middle, the other squad of Terminators behind the Vindicator and they wrecked that one too. I also killed most of one of the Tacical Squads, including special weapons and Sergeant.

Turn 1 -Iron Hands

Daemon World was something against Psykers I think. His Terminators were angry, and moved up and slaughtered the poor Scouts leaving them right on top of the objective. In the one corner he shot away all but two of my Terminators, and thanks to the Possession token on the Veterans he also managed to kill 3 of them.

Daemons 

So in total 16 models died this turn, which meant that 15 Bloodletters spawned in the middle... they scattered off to the Iron Hands side of the board and proceeded to charge and kill the last of the Tactical Squad I maimed last turn. The Plaguebearers charged my Terminators but it was a stand off.



Turn 2 - Dark Angels

Nothing much happened for Daemon World, luckily... the board was all ready crowded with Daemons...

Belial and his Terminators charged the Asasult Terminators in the middle, but before that I shot them up with some plasma here and there. I think I killed two from combined shooting. I also killed a couple of Marines with long distance shooting, and the Veterans charged in against the other large Tactical Squad (after flaming them first). The Interrogator-Chaplain killed two, and the Marines killed two from each side or so... not much more happened there. In the middle I challenged with Belial to protect him from Thunderhammers, actually caused a wound on his Commandor for none in return. My other Terminators were slaughtered though, leaving two alive...

Turn 2 -Iron Hands

Another Daemon World result that didn't have much impact I think.

We decided that you'd be allowed to shoot into a combat where you weren't involved yourself, so he proceeded to shoot at my Terminators and killed mostly Plaguebearers (we randomized the hits) but also just barely finished off the Deathwing. He also fired frag missiles into the clumped up unit of Bloodletters and killed them all easy.
In the challenge Belial caused another wound (!) for none in return. His Terminators killed one of mine for none in return.

Daemons 

Another turn with over 15 kills... so 15 new Daemons spawned... but because we randomed them into Horrors and I only have 10 Horror-models we decided to make two units, the remaining five became Bloodletters. Both hit dead on in the middle... both charged into the Terminator-fight and killed my last Terminators and one of his. The one remaining Plaguebearer successfully charged his Tacticals, was killed and they consolidated up higher on their hill.


Turn 3 - Dark Angels

This turn Nurgle showed up and tried to rust my Drop Pod, but failed.

I started shooting into the Daemons surrounding the Terminators (we decided this was okay since they were so many...), killing off a few. I also took some pot-shots at his troops sitting up on the hills and killed a few with Missile Launcher and Plasma Cannon. The Veterans finally won their fight with 3 models left alive. The Warlord-challenge was a stand off again.

Turn 3 -Iron Hands

For Daemon World, he rolled mass possession... and of course rolled 6 for how many... and of course I had exactly 6 units left so I got all of them.

By this point neither of us had many units to actually do stuff with... he moved closer to the middle, killed some of my Tactical Marines.
In the Challenge nothing happened again, the Terminators killed off a few Daemons.

Daemons 

Only five Daemonettes spawned this turn... but they also got right in the middle. They found a gap in the lines and could charge the Terminators. After all was settled only two Terminators and the challenge (which was untouchable) remained from the Marines and still lots of Daemons.

Turn 4 - Dark Angels

Khorne showed up and gave everyone Rage... yikes.

He tried to kill me by removing a couple of the Possession-tokens, but nothing happened. I again did as last turn, killed some Daemons in the middle and a few of his Tacticals that I could reach with my Missile Launcher and Plasma Cannon. The Veterans started moving towards the Devastators on the hill, but rolled poorly for terrain moves. I also charged one five-man squad into the Daemons, with all those attacks I wiped the Daemonettes out and should've killed three Bloodletters with a single Marine but he made all the saves... The Challenge was once again a stand-off.

Turn 4 -Iron Hands

He decided to shoot back at me instead of killing Daemons in the middle as revenge... I told him not to do it since it'd spawn more Daemons... but he wouldn't listen. :P
The Challenge was a stand off once again. (AP3-weapons in a Terminator challenge is really, really silly...).

Daemons 
 
So, since he killed some of my Tacticals five Bloodletters spawned and scattered once again in his direction... they then proceeded to munch up his five man Tactical unit. Serves him right for killing me instead of Daemons!
  

Turn 5 - Dark Angels

Daemon World gave us Rage once again.

My Veterans moved up to within 6" of the Devatators, charged up the hill... I rolled exactly 6 on three dice. But then he remembered Overwatch and killed my closest guy so I failed the charge anyway... bah.

In the challenge Belial FINALLY managed to kill his Commander and that's +2VP for me, Slay the Warlord and Belials Warlord trait! All Daemons were basically dead by now... I also shot and killed his last scoring Marine, so his only chance to get any points at all was killing Belial and denying me from capturing the middle.

Turn 5 -Iron Hands + Daemons

So of course he shot all he had at my Tacticals and managed to kill just enough to spawn more Daemons who didn't scatter and assaulted into the middle. In the Assault phase Thunderhammer insta-gibbed Belial who had been trying to kill Daemons to save both of them... but no, apparently the Chaos had spread further than he thought as he was chopped down from behind...

We rolled to see if it ended, and it did. So Dark Angels victory, 3-1 after all!



Lessons Learnt

Well, no lessons to be had here as it was just a fun game... but what a strange scenario! The board nearly had us both beat! I think this scenario would have been even more fun with no Marine-armies however, as Fear had no effect at all... So that's it for next time, no silly Marines! 

Escalation league, week 2 update

So, quite a few games has been played this week! Very nice indeed! Here's a short summary of my games.

My first game was of course against the Orks (this league is our baby after all). So I've added a Herald of Slaanesh and another unit of Daemonettes. Lots of upgrades going on here, because he had painted a lot and we jumped up to 750 points. He added another squad of Boys and some Lootas.

We rolled for mission and got the Relic. So we basically ended up with a slug-fest in the middle. My Screamers came in from reserve and slashed back and forth over the Lootas who didn't do much all game and eventually ran off the board. The bikers flanked me, and killed one of the Daemonette squads (which arrived from Reserve) and then got charged by the other squad for a whole lot of nothing. At least the Herald killed the Nob. The Keeper however did a splendid job, and killed both Boys, Warboss and finished the bikers. Game winner! Redeeming himself! Not only that, but by killing the Boys Riftbringer made it so that I spawned a new unit of 14 Daemonettes... who then proceeded to table him and I got a 6-0 victory.

Second game was against Blood Angels. They had added a shooty Dread and some Assault Marines. We rolled The Scouring so his Baal was scoring, as well as my Screamers. I started the Screamers in reserve as usual.

His Baal failed to do much against my Plaguebearers, and was then counter-charged and glanced to death for First Blood. The Assault Marines jumped in the middle and was charged by Daemonettes who didn't do much... the Herald carried them from barely not losing, and then they won by numbers. The Death Company first killed the Screamers in their first charge ever, and later went on to try and help the lone Assault Marine and actually finished off the Daemonettes and Herald.
My Keeper carried the day again however, by first stomping on his Warlord, then smashing his Dread and finally killed the last Assault Marine. He had +1W and It Will Not Die for this game, which really kept him alive against the Dread-shooting. In the end I tabled him, and held two Objectives worth a total of 5VP.

Their first glorious charge ever, right up behind the unsuspecting Screamers...

Meanwhile the Orks played against Tyranids, the Relic. I don't know too much of what happened, but the Tyranids won in the end with the Relic, First Blood and Slay the Warlord.

I got a third game in, this time against Eldar. He had changed up his list completely from last week and instead brought one unit of Guardians with a Warlock, one unit of Dire Avengers, Farseer (Warlord), Spiritseer and two Fire Prisms. We rolled Emperor's Will, he got to go first, but I stole initiative and moved everything but Plaguebearers forward. He also rolled Terrify with both his Psykers, and we realised mid-game that it doesn't do anything against Daemons at all. One lesson for the book!

His first turn of shooting almost wiped out one of my Daemonette squads, I kept running... and the Screamers failed to come in. Not good. His second turn of shooting wiped out the other squad of Daemonettes for First Blood. He tried to bubblewrap his Fire Prism with his Guardians to protect it from the Keeper that was running up one flank. I managed to avoid Difficult Terrain, charged in, he Challenged with the Warlock and survived. The three remaining Daemonettes got a lucky charge in on one Fire Prism and actually managed to stun it. Next turn he made the Guardians Fearless with Embolden, I killed the Warlock and stayed in combat. He finished off my Daemonettes but failed to kill any Screamers. The Screamers took their chance and charged one Fire Prism and ripped it's lance weapon off, while the Keeper killed all but one Guardian who stayed in combat because of Fearless, protecting me from Shooting next turn. He moved up Dire Avengers, killed 1½ Screamers. Keeper finished Guardians, and next turn charged in on the Dire Avengers (who lost three to slashing Screamers) was challenged by the Exarch, won and then swept the unit including Farseer and Spiritseer. With only two Fire Prisms left, he tried to be cute and Tank Shocked my Plaguebearers trying to force them further than 3" away from the objective, hoping the game ended in turn 5. Turns out he didn't manage to push them quite far enough away, and the game ended. 5-1 for the Daemons!

Meanwhile the Orks played against the Blood Angels. All I know there is that they had a hug-party by turn 2, and the Blood Angels came out ahead eventually.

And tomorrow I have a game planned against the Iron Hands, which will probably be the last game this week of the league. A good week for Daemons for sure! Current standings:

Escalation league update

Playday for the Escalation league! Still at 500p. For various reasons I ended up playing Orks again, and later Blood Angels and Eldar faced up.

Screamers in Reserve

For my game, we played Emperor's Will, and the Screamers were king this game. They basically killed the Boys by themselves, and Warbikers failed a charge against my Plaguebearers so was instead charged back and killed off. My Keeper was killed on Overwatch twice (I got the reward that made him come back with 1W)... and thus gave up both first and second blood...

In the end he only had his Warboss left however, and my Plaguebearers held their objective firmly. I won by 3-2!

Second game was a real game of rock, paper, scissors with Purge the Alien as scenario. Both sides had hardcounters to the other army which made the game really fragile. The Eldar had Guardians with a Warlock, Dire Avengers and the Avatar while the Blood Angels fielded a Librarian in Terminator Armour, a Baal Predator and 5 Death Company. Three turns of them basically avoiding each other finally ended when the Librarian didn't run enough to get in cover and the Avatar ran up to snipe him with a Melta-shot for combined First Blood and Slay Warlord. The Death Company then failed their charge and the rest was mopped up by the Eldar.

So this puts the current leaderboard at this: (note, I've not changed positions)

3-man tournament, Daemons, Eldar, Iron Hands

Having a day of rolling dice and shuffling soldiers around! I'm bringing Daemons, and I'll be facing Eldar and Space Marines.

I've made a semi-monster list supported by Hounds basically. Still lacking a lot of options for the army, so basically taking what I have. Keeper of Secrets to get a Flying Daemon Prince of Slaanesh that will go Master Level 3 and hopefully get Invisibility and will be carrying the Grimoire. The other HQ is a Bloodthirster for some extra punch.

Large squad of Flesh Hounds, will probably have the Grimoire on them for most of the time. The rest is just troops. I would've liked another Daemon Prince or two here, too much Troops for my taste and Screamers are basically only there because I'm expecting Devastators... But it is what it is!

List:
HQ
Bloodthirster - Exalted Reward, Greater Reward
Keeper of Secrets - Exalted Reward, Greater Reward, Master Level 2

Troops
15 Bloodletters - Bloodreaper, Greater Reward
10 Daemonettes - Alluress, Lesser Reward
10 Plaguebearers - Plagueridden
10 Horrors - Irricadent Horror

Fast Attack
20 Flesh Hounds
3 Screamers

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince - Slaanesh, Wings, Armour, Exalted Reward (Grimiore), Greater Reward (Lash), Master Level 3


Game 1 - Eldar vs Iron Hands

Objectives in ruin to the left and top-middle.

First game was Eldar vs Iron Hands. Eldar list was something like this: Avatar, 3 Wraithlords, two squads of 20 Guardians led by Warlocks, Farseer with the burning blade, 10 Swooping Hawks, 10 Warp Spiders.
Iron Hands was, Librarian in terminator armour, 5 Assault Terminators, 5 Terminators with a Heavy Flamer, 3 Tactical Squads with ML+Melta and a Rhino, two Vindicators, Predator with full lascannons, Storm Talon with Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolters.

We rolled one mission that all would play, ended up with Emperor's Will and Vanguard Strike deployment.

Eldar won tablesides and Iron Hands won to take first turn. Eldar had Destructor/Renewer, Jinx, Hallucination, Prescience, Scrier's Gaze for powers. Iron Hands got Iron Arm and Enfeeble. Both got Furious Charge in enemy deployment zone for Warlord traits.
No stealing of initiative so Iron Hands started.

Not a very eventful first turn as one Vindicator was out of range and the other scattered way off (but killed a Warp Spider instead) and I think like one Guardian. Eldar first turn wasn't much better, his lances did get some hull points off various tanks and so, but all were still alive by the end of the turn. So not much happened.

Second turn saw both the Terminators and Storm Talon come on, Terminators scattered off a bit, but the Storm Talon came on and started killing off Warp Spiders. Some Guardians died as well. Eldar got their Swooping Hawks in, and they started harassing the backfield killing a few Marines. The Terminators got a lot of Bladestorm-shooting at them which basically killed them all except the Librarian who stood his ground while the Avatar charged in. He had also been Hallucinated to not be allowed any attacks... but Storm Shield kept him alive. The Tanks also continued to be invulnerable, just taking a few HP here and there.

Turn 3 Iron Hands kept moving forwards, while taking their shots at both squads of Guardians. One of the Vindicators finally got a good shot off at Guardians in the open, basically killing half of them in one swoop. But they were Fearless still. The Librarian got Iron Arm off for +3S. Still not allowed to fight though, but Storm Shield kept him alive. One Wraithlord finally managed to kill one Vindicator by charging it, and that was First Blood! He didn't get Hallucination off this time, and in a weird turn of events the Librarian was able to use his Force Staff to kill the Avatar...

Turn 4 and 5 was basically Iron Hands still slowly moving forwards hoping to contest the Eldar objective in the building while the Eldar took pot shots with Wraithlords and harassing with Swooping Hawks who eventually took Marines off their objective. He also managed to gun down the Librarian and Assault Terminators. Which made Iron Hands concede.

Eldar got one objective, First Blood, Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord, Iron Hands got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker. 6-2 for the Eldar!


Game 2 - Eldar vs Daemons

So, to see if we could decide this little tournament I played the winner. He got to chose table edge again, and took the very same building. He also won roll off to go first, but gave me first turn for some reason.

He rolled Invisibility, Prescience and Precognition for the Farseer, the Warlocks got +1WS+I and +/-S. He got Furious Charge for Warlord trait again...
My Bloodthirster was Warlord, he got Instant Death weapons (woho...), and Riftbringer and Corpulence (+1W) for Rewards. My Keeper got Doubly Blessed and rolled Wind of Chaos, Admantium Will and then 3+ Armour. For Powers I rolled on Telepathy and got Terrify and Hallucination. My Daemon Prince got Grimoire and Lash of Despair, and for Powers all Telepathy, got Terrify, Psychic Shriek and Puppet Master.

I scouted my Flesh Hounds up, he didn't steal initiative. I got Grimoire off on the Hounds, and moved everything up. Flesh Hounds in his face basically. Then Warp storm, Khorne showed up and killed all but four Warp Spiders. In his turn he tried to block the Hounds with the Spiders, one got lost in the Warp though. He killed a couple of Hounds, but 3++ saved most of them.

Turn two saw me multiassault Guardians not on the objective and the Warp Spiders, hoping for First Blood with the Hounds. Bloodthirster also jumped over and charged the Guardians, but from the side. Precog on the Guardians and Invisibility on the Warp Spiders made it not terribly effective however, so just a few of each died. Oh, Horrors stayed off the board and Bloodletters mishapped back in Reserve. He counter charged with Avatar and one Wraithlord, but due to position couldn't challenge my Bloodthirster. Finally the Warp Spider Exarch managed to Hit and Run out of there and they tried to hide in the ruins.

Turn three Bloodletters came in on my side instead, trying to drive off the Swooping Hawks that had appeared on my side of the board. Horrors stayed out. My Screamers made their Slashing attacks on the Warp Spiders and actually killed both for First Blood. They ended up in a dangerous position, but since I got First Blood it was worth it. Keeper got Hallucination off on the Farseer+Guardians on the objective, and they killed 5-6 of their own number. The Daemon Prince got Terrify off on the Avatar. His Warlock challenged my Bloodthirster and was dully chopped down. Most of the remaining Guardians went down as well, leaving 4 I think. So Avatar actually fled out of combat and stopped right at the end of the board edge... He put Invisibility on the Guardians and charged the Avatar back in, tried some shooting at my other big guys but didn't manage anything. Swooping Hawks picked off some Bloodletters. One of his Wraithlords charged and killed my Screamers. In the big combat I finished off the Guardians (barely) and due to the positioning my Bloodthirster ended up outside of combat after pile ins. So in turn 4 I jumped over, charged the Avatar and challenged him, Wraithlord accepted and died instead. Keeper got Hallucination off on Guardians, stopped them from fighting, and the Daemon Prince got Terrify off on a Wraithlord who decided to flee, but was then charged by Keeper... but T8 was too much for my Keeper because I forgot to Smash... Daemon Prince charged the Guardians as well, was challenged by Warlock who died. His Avatar challenged my Bloodthirster in his turn after having Invisibility on him, but it was killed off anyway. His Swooping Hawks lept up in the sky again.

Turn five, I got Terrify off on the Guardians who decided to flee, might've done this wrong, but since it was in the Movement phase I didn't get to Sweeping Advance so he got away (but off the objective). Keeper kept flailing at the Wraithlord who didn't do much back either. Daemon Prince and Bloodthirster both charged the Guardians, killed all but the Farseer, but he was Swept (since he was still terrified). Swooping Hawks came back in and contested my objective while killing a couple of Plaguebearers.

The Farseer got his world a bit tilted. I thought he was on top of it all, but turns out he was falling...

Turn six wasn't very eventful, just more of the same basically, still no one held any objective. And the game ended there. I got First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker, he got Linebreaker. 3-1 to Daemons!


Game 3 - Daemons vs Iron Hands

So we had to play a last deciding game then! He chose sides, and got to go first as well.
He rolled Furious Charge (again?!), Life Leach and... something else I don't remember what. I rolled Doubly blessed on both my Greater Daemons, took a Portal and Doomstone (just for fun to try), extra Weapon for BT and Adamantium will for Keeper Again. Keeper rolled on Excess, got power 2+3 that I never used all game so don't remember their names. Daemon Prince got Grimoire and Lash again, rolled Psychic Shriek, Invisibility and Hallucination.

I scouted up the Hounds, and stole initiative. I failed Grimoire on the Hounds, but still moved up everything. Daemonettes on one flank, because his objective looked a bit unprotected. Dropped Portal which spawned 6 Daemonettes at once (woo!). So, he jumped out of his Rhinos to make as much shooting as possible. And he did some very good rolling... basically every 5 Marines killed two Hounds. Afterwards I only had 8 left.

Turn two I charged in at a squad of 5 and a Rhino (get's blown up for First Blood), get Grimoire off on them. Bloodthirster jumps up and kills 5 Marines (but takes a wound of a overwatch melta). Screamers started in reserve, but stayed out. He get Storm Talon in, and Assault Terminators... Assault Terminators mishap and go back in reserve. Storm Talon kills some Daemonettes. He charges 3 5-man squads into the Flesh Hounds, one squad fail but the other two get in. I still win combat due to 3++. Vindicator kills a lot of Bloodletters.

Turn three, Keeper kills Vindicator, Bloodthirster kills Vindicator. Daemon Prince flies over and puts 2 HP on one Rhino. Flesh Hounds slowly kills the Marines off one by one. Assault Terminators gets in behind my Plaguebearers on objective. Warlord and Terminators stays out. Storm Talon turn towards the Plaguebearers, but 2+ cover saves them. Marines with a Melta shoots my Bloodthirster... melta misses, but he causes 3 wounds with Bolters. I fail all three saves... with one wound left, the Predator turns around and shoots him down. The Keeper only had one wound left as well, and was killed off by Missile Launchers.

Screamers come in last turn, so this turn they jump up to the Predator and kills it off in the assault. Daemon Prince takes the long lap around the board, puts Grimoire on Bloodletters and gets behind the Storm Talon and lashes is down from the skies. Bloodletters kill a five-man squad of Marines, and Hounds finally finish off their Marines. My Horrors gets behind his Assault Terminators to try and drag them away from my objective, rolls a double 6 for assault though, so no dragging... just holding in place instead. Good enough, because they survive. His Termiantors arrive, the shoot away one of my Daemonette squads going for his objective, and tries to hurt the Screamers.

Crash and Burn into the ruins...

Turn five, I fail Invisibility for the first time. Warp Storm kicks in and kills his Librarian... Woot! But Daemonettes + Daemon Prince charges remaining Terminators. Daemon Prince kills 3, Daemonettes nothing. I charge the Plaguebearers at the Assault Terminators as well to back up the Horrors, because my Portal spawned three new Daemonettes that could grab the objective instead. My Screamers slash at his last 5 Marines, kills two, and then lands in a spot that contests his objective. At this point he has 3 Marines, 2 Rhinos, 2 Terminators (locked in combat with angry Daemon Prince) and 2 Assault Terminators (locked in combat with Horrors and Plaguebearers) left, he decides to concede. I got First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker and one objective, he got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker. 6-2 to Daemons!



Lessons Learnt

So, first of all I did get some respect for the new Guardians. Those 20 man units are quite tough to shift when they have Fearless and some support! Bloodthirster, Flesh Hounds, Daemon Prince... took a lot! And in the end it was the special-rule that lowered Eldar Ld that made them flee at a critical point that moved them off the objective...
Other than that, perhaps it was a good thing that I wasn't able to take the list I wanted to take. Managing to win both games in this environment, and it was the monsters that carried me. Imagine what another Daemon Prince would've done instead of all those troops...
Also, the Slaanesh Prince with Invisibility and Lash of Despair carrying the Grimoire is awesome. You basically don't need any more anti-air, and he'll support everything else... awesome combo.
Horrors are still horrible, nothing new there. Don't know why I still take them. Plaguebearers haven't impressed me either. And well, Bloodletters are too slow to really do anything. Daemonettes are by far my favourite troop choice. All though, people tend to say that they're good against Terminators... I say no. They're terrible against anything T4 or more. What I love about them is the agility, as they're not harmless in combat your opponent really have to account for them at some point... and if he doesn't, they're so fast you'll get some objectives or denials going on.
Screamers. I really liked them in game two, I used them very defensively and then sneaking around and managed to contest his objective in the end. And they did kill the Predator. I actually think a unit of 3 might be worth it, because their threat-level is so low that your opponent will focus on other stuff, and then you can use their speed in the very end. Worth considering if you have 75 points to spare. And Deep Striking them is a must to protect them, and not giving up First Blood I feel.
So all in all, monsters rule. Flesh Hounds are amazing at Meat-shielding. The fact that you can really direct the opponent makes them so strong. Even failing that Grimoire... 8 is enough to do the job I guess.

Escalation league, game 1: 500p Orks vs Daemons

So we decided to motivate ourselves to paint more with a small escalation league, starting at 500 points painted models, then adding more for each week. So I basically took this as a good reason to paint my Daemons that have been lagging behind a bit... which means my choices are purely based on "this needs to be painted".

My list for week 1 of 500 points:

Keeper of Secrets - Master Level 2, Greater Reward

10 Daemonettes - Allures, Lesser Reward
10 Plaguebearers - Plagueridden

3 Screamers

Not that amazing, huh?

First game was against Orks anyway! His list was something like this:

Warboss - Combi-skorcha, Attack Squig, Power Klaw, Boss Pole

12 Slugga Boys - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole
8 Warbikers - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole


So we rolled for mission, got Purge the Alien, Vanguard Strike deployment, he chose sides and he chose to go first. My Warlord got Hatred, rolled Dominate and Pavane of Slaanesh for powers, and got a 1 for Exalted Reward (for another roll that gave me the one that returns the unit if he dies + a Witstealer Sword). Daemonette champ got a Etherblade.
There was Night Fighting turn 1 and I didn't steal initiative.

So much colour!

Turn 1

Turn one wasn't very eventful on either side. He started by revealing the artefact in his deployment zone which gave all psykers D3 S4 hits... of course I took a wound from that. Other than that he killed one Plaguebearer.
I moved forwards, got both Dominate and Pavane off, neither did anything though. Warpstorm killed my Plaguebearer champion. I turbo-boosted the Screamers over the Boys and killed 4.

Turn 2

He turned his Boys around, combi-skorcha and sluggas killed one Screamer. Warbikers killed all but 2 of the Plaguebearers despite going to ground... then the Boys finished off the Screamers in the Assault in return for one boy. First blood!
I continued to move up and cross the river with the Daemonttes, Plaguebearers being stuck from Going to Ground. Warp storm was calm, I got Dominate off again, and the Pavane hit the Warbiker Nob, taking one wound off him (too bad it didn't hit a normal biker...).

Turn 3

The Orks castled up, waiting for me to get closer. Warbiker shot at my Keeper, putting him at one wound left.
I move up to charge the Bikers with both Keeper and Daemonettes, get Dominate off again. Plaguebearers gets up too for a long charge. Warp storm... 3 again. Kills my Keeper... bah. It'll come back next turn though, but without the Keeper-support the Daemonettes doesn't stand much chance against the Bikers... but I charge them in anyway, because it's safe in assault than outside. He kills 4 on overwatch, then challenges my Allures, neither does anything to the other basically and we stay put.

Turn 4

His Boys find a gap in the lines and manages to charge in to help the Bikers. I kill one biker, but the only thing that does is let more of the Boys get in to attack... he wipes my Daemonettes out easily.
My Keeper comes back, put both Dominate and Pavane on the Bikers. Pavane hits the Nob again, and he finally dances himself to death. Another biker dies as well.

Turn 5

His Dominated bikers refuse to move for the first time of the game (finally that mob rule doesn't help them!). Warboss and squad crosses the river.
I charge the Boys with both Keeper and Plaguebearers... he challenges with nob which I kill easy. Plaguebearers actually kill 3 boys though despite all dying so I still win combat but he stays.
We forgot to roll for if it ended...

Turn 6

His non-dominated bikers gets around and charges the Keeper from behind... And kills me with Hammer of Wrath... but since the Keeper is still I10 I also get to attack and I kill the last boys for a KP at least.
He got First Blood, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord and 4 KP, I got one KP, so 7-1 to the Orks!


Not much to say here, Warp Storm really screwed me over at a critical point of the game. I probably made a mistake with the Screamers though, running them off alone like that. I think I should've been a bit more defensive with them, only slashing if I could get to a safe spot after. Ah well! Other than that it was just a bad match up for my units, and well - the fact that the army isn't really planned shows through as well. Plaguebearers really stick out here - in Purge the Alien especially... they're too slow to keep up with the rest! And with no objective to camp... Ahwell. At least I got stuff painted! We'll see how many more games I'll manage to get in before next week where we're aiming for 600 points...

Oh, and scoreboard so far:

1000p: Eldar vs Chaos Space Marines

Got a small game in tomorrow vs the new Eldar. To get a feel for them!

So I basically just threw something together. As I'm back in love with my lovely Preds both went in. Autocannon-versions this time though, and lots of dakka. In with three Obliterators, because... you can't go wrong with Obliterators. To lead I went with the Warpsmith... simply because I felt like it. He could also be useful to repair those Preds.

Then full horde mode. 35 Cultists and 15 Chaos Marines. Lets see how much fire power those pointy ears have at 1000 points...


Lists

Chaos Space Marines
HQ
Warpsmith - Aura of Dark Glory, Mark of Nurgle

Troops
35 Cultists
15 Chaos Space Marines - 2 Plasma guns, Combi-Bolter

Heavy Support
3 Obliterators - Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War
Predator - Autocannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons, Havoc Launcher, Combi-Bolter, Warplflame Gargoyles
Predator - Autocannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons, Havoc Launcher, Combi-Bolter, Warplflame Gargoyles

Eldar (Don't remember all of his upgrades, but something like this)
HQ
Farseer
Farseer - Singing Spear

Troops
10 Dire Avengers
+Wave Serpent - Holofields
10 Dire Avengers
+Wave Serpent - Holofields

Heavy Support
Fire Prism

Pre

We rolled for Dawn of War, The Relic. He chose table sides, he won roll off to decide who goes first and let me deploy first.
I got Warlord trait that my Warlord and unit got Soulblaze in CC, he got one of the one use things which I don't remember since he didn't use it. He rolled twice on Divination and once on Telepathy for both Farseers, one got Psychic Shriek, Precognition and Prescience, the other got Hallucination, Misfortune and Precognition. No night fighting for turn 1, he didn't steal initiative.
Oh, and I basically forgot about taking pictures after deployment. sorry for that!

Fire Prism is deployed right behind the Wave Serpents (that may look like Falcons, but you'd be wrong to think that).

Turn 1 - Chaos Space Marines

Well, since he hid in a corner I basically moved everything up. I moved my Preds side-ways to get some shots off at his closest Wave Serpent. I actually wrecked it, but then he remembered he had Holofields and luckily for him he had rolled all 4's on his Cover saves. So back to life it went! (This is why the Dire Avengers are piled out on the picture... he realised right after). So not too eventful first turn.

Those Dire Avengers in the top corner are just an illusion. They're totally not there. Stop imagining things.

Turn 1 - Eldar

He split up his Wave Serpents to come around to ruins one on each side and the Fire Prism just moved a bit to get it's Jink basically.
He let loose his... shields (seriously, what's up with that?) at one of my Predators. He managed two Hull points on one of them. Not too bad for me. The Fire Prism whiffed.

Turn 2 - Chaos Space Marines

The Cultists grabbed the Relic and tried to stay with the closest models in Area terrain so I could go to Ground with them... The Chaos Marines moved up.
Both Predators shot Autocannons at the same Wave Serpent from last turn, only managed to get one HP off it and forcing it to shoot Snap Fire next turn (I think we forgot this though). The Obliterators moved up into Multi-melta range of the Fire Prism... all hit... and two ones and a two for pens... bah.
Plasma Guns on the CSM tried at the Wave Serpent as well... two Gets Hot. One died. Awesome.

Turn 2 - Eldar

He unloaded both Dire Avengers, one of them got Prescienced, both Precog'd (he did this last turn too by the way), and again shuffled the Fire Prism.
Dire Avengers let loose at the Cultists... but after Go to Ground I think only 5 or 6 died in the end (three to Psychic Shriek). The Fire Prism killed 3 Marines, and the Wave Serpents finished off the damaged Predator for First Blood. He forgot he could run after shooting though, so was left in the open.

Turn 3 - Chaos Space Marines

I shot everything at the Dire Avengers closest to the middle, Assault Cannons from Obliterators, Havoc Launcher, Autocannon, Heavy Bolters, snap firing Cultists and Marines (plasma got hot again). That 4++ made it so that the Farseer had one wound left and four Dire Avengers were left standing afterwards though. Not so awesome.

Turn 3 - Eldar

He Precog'd up, but failed Prescience this time. The Wave Serpents spread out, one went into my corner to get side armour on my Pred, the other moved up closer to the shuffling Warp Prism. The Wounded Farseer and Dire Avengers shot at Cultsists and then ran into cover. The other squad moved closer instead while shooting, and left around 15 Cultists left that passed their morale. The Fire Prism and Wave Serpent shot at the Obliterators and killed two (one had taken a wound in the turn before, but can't remember from what... might've been Dire Avengers).
The large squad of Dire Avengers then charged the Cultists who killed one on Overwatch (they were damn good at snap fire this game). The Exarch challenged my Champion and chopped him down. The others killed five cultists. The remaining ten or so Cultists killed four Dire Avengers in return. But I still failed my Ld-test and was easily swept.

Turn 4 - Chaos Space Marines

I moved the Chaos Marines into the area terrain in the middle, close to the dropped Relic, and the Obliterator turned around and moved towards the Dire Avengers that had killed the Cultists. I was planning to flame them... but the Predator rocked this round and killed all but one DA and the Farseer... the Obliterator shot plasma at them instead hoping to ID the Farseer, but only killed the DA instead. The CSM squad shot at the other squad of DA but no wounds caused (got hot plasma again...).
The Obliterator then charged the Warlord Farseer, saved his attacks and squished him with the Power Fists (only one wound went through, but enough to ID him!). He had the item that made him explode and try to steal your soul and come back, but turns out Obliterators doesn't have any souls. So Slay the Warlord for me!

Turn 4 - Eldar

Dire Avengers moved back towards his table edge to get the most out of terrain, the Farseer rejoined them (he had previously went into hiding behind the ruins). The Wave Serpent at my side finally managed to finish off my Predator. The fire Prism killed a couple of Marines and put a wound on my Warlord.

Turn 5 - Chaos Space Marines

I grabbed the Relic, moved up with the Obliterator. Shot Lascannon at his Fire Prism, but failed to do anything. At this point I had 5 Marines, Warpsmith and the Obliterator left. But I had the Relic, so a 4-1 lead. He had a lot of fire power left though...

Turn 5 - Eldar

He tried to cast Misfortune on my Marines, but was denied. Everything shot at them anyway. Leaving only the Warpsmith left. Which was actually good for me, because with the Icon of Vengeance gone he was no longer Fearless and could thus go to ground in area terrain for that scary Fire Prism shooting. In the end I only took one wound, so I had the Warpsmith left with one wound and one Obliterator. We rolled to see if it ended, and it did. So a draw! He got First Blood, I got Slay the Warlord.


Lessons Learnt
So again a draw against these Eldar... we seem to play pretty evenly. All though in this game the dice did not help me... Turn two I SHOULD have killed his Fire Prism with three bloody melta shots, that would've given me First Blood and gotten rid of his scariest fire platform. But no...
So what I've learnt is that the new Eldar tanks are pretty damn tough. Holofields and AV12 makes them quite durable indeed. They also bring quite a lot of shooting as well. And those fast skimmers really make up for the short range of the infantry...
The Dire Avengers didn't scare me though. Maybe it's just because I had a lot of Cultists, but their shooting didn't feel very dangerous... and they absolutely folded in close combat.
On the tactical side... he really put my Marines mostly out of the action by deploying on the other side from them. My Warpsmith was never in range to actually do anything. When I had the chance to move up and try to blow up his Fire Prism with him I had to move back towards the middle and go for the Relic since the Cultists were gone. Smart play on him, those Rapid Fire bolters and flamer would've been death on his Dire Avengers, 4++ or no 4++.