Road to the Schools League [Renamed]

[Vassakov]

Righty-ho, a little background info first. I run my schools club and over many years of playing I've amassed around 5500+pts of Space Wolves. Recently, we decided to enter the Schools League and in October travelled to GWHQ - Warhammer World - for the Schools League open day. I took 500pts of Wolves, played 4 games. Lost.

 

All 4. Hammered into the ground. Admittedly, one of these lists was hyperoptimised to nuke PA (DE, Ravager, lots of S5 AP3 guns, very fast. Fortunantely, he's on our team!)

 

This served as the impetous to get a new army that I had been thinking about for a while off the ground - Daemons. Today, I used them for the first time.

 

My List:

 

Herald of Tzeentch - Gaze, We Are Legion.

 

8x Horrors, Bolt

 

10x Bloodletters

 

3x Bloodcrushers, Rending

 

 

My opponent took his Dark Angels, unbeaten at the friendly day (Simoleo Brother Marine on here)

 

2x 10 Man Tac Squads, 1 w/ Flamer & Missile, 1 w/ Meltagun and Plasma Cannon + Power Weapon Sarge.

 

2x Razorbacks, Heavy Bolter + Storm Bolter

 

Objective - Annihilate

 

I won roll off, and gave him first turn. Just to deny him one, really.

 

He deployed in a corner to maximise fields of fire, with both squads as 10 men and with 1 Razorback central to the squads, the other on the right flank. I got the Tzeentch half first, and aimed to come in on the left to try and block LoS to the Plasma squad. Unfortunately I scattered, and ended up smack in the middle. Shooting was pitiful, felling 1 Marine from the closer squad (Flamer squad) Hoorald was useless and Bolt missed. At this point I was worried. Fortunately I was outside of Rapid fire, so I only lost 4 Horrors from his shooting (he was not amused when 5 Plasma Cannon wounds translated in 0 dead Horrors!)

 

Khorne was clearly unimpressed, as my Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers exploded into reality just in front of his lines, the Crushers arriving dead on with the Letters scattering a little. Running to minimise template death achieved as much as the Horrors, who continued to miss wantonly... His turn saw an unusual decision - deciding he was unlikely to kill the 'Crushers from shooting and with no way of avoiding the charge he decided to empty boltpistol fire from the Melta/Plasma squad and their Razorback before charging himself - calculating he would get more attacks and probably more armour save ignoring wounds. The shooting achieved nothing, the combat saw three more skulls for the skull throne and more nothing from the Sons of the Lion in return. He fluffed the Leadership check and fell back to the table edge. His other Tactical Squad braced themselves and blew 6 Bloodletters away with massed shooting.

 

My turn - he was in big trouble. The Horrors continued you throw smoke instead of fire, but combat more than made up for it. The 4 Bloodletters Hellblades sang and killed 7 Dark Angels for no loss, a second failed Leadership check saw them break and the No Retreat finished them. The 'Crushers annihilated the second Tactical Squad with contemptuous ease and both groups consolidated towards the Razorbacks, which promptly floored it. Both emptied Boltgun shells at the Horrors, trying to earn back a Kill Point. As the dust cleared, on Bolty and the Horrible Herald remained. Still no KP's for him.

 

My last turn, and I decided to fire the Bolt at the Razorback. You know, just cause. It hit :o . A 4 - penetrated! Kaboom - catching the Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers, who fortunately were made of sterner stuff and didn't die. The Bloodcrushers slammed into the Second Razorback, and in a fluke roll inflicted 7 penetrating hits - none of which resulted in a destroyed result. It did however blow both weapons off and then get 3 immobilised results - which was good enough.

 

Result - Daemons 4: Dark Angels 0.

 

I've decided that I like daemons a lot - though in all fairness, this list was designed to win first, ask questions later. I hope that after the Tornuament I can have a bit more fun with the list and it's modelling prospects.

[Captain Malachi]

Congatulations on your win Vassakov, always nice to hear that another planet has fallen to the true legions of chaos.

[==Me==]

That sounds like a solid start, but that scattering is exactly why you want to run with Horrors to spread out if you wind up in a bad position. I'd look into giving your Herald Bolt and you should be all set.

 

Give it a few more tries and let us know how it fares. It's a fun army, so don't feel bad if you enjoy it too much :D

[Simoleo-Brother marine]

Admittedly I made some odd decisions within this battle

Oh well, you were fun to play Vassakov :lol:

I'm not exactly used to fighting an army like daemons, but you gave an entertaining game

Maybe we can re-match some time :huh:

 

-Simoleo

[Skirax]

I would like to play you Vass, and you know what I will be using! :P Lets see how you fare in combat then!

[Raptor1313]

Half the battle with daemons is getting used to the way they fight.

 

When you go up in points, you'll find a Tzeentch herald on a Jetbike with Gaze and Master of Sorcery to be a very nasty shooty unit for 100ish points. Arguably one of the most solid forms of mobile shooty the daemon army has access to...

 

Good call on first turn roll. It's always helpful to make him go first...though occasionally, the other guy can bring enough units to spread out and seriously cut off your deep-strike avenues. (footslogging orks, horde nids...)

 

With Horrors: if the enemy has blast/template weapons available, you scatter. By rights, you should've lost 2-3 horrors, but sometimes the dice do that.

 

Bloodcrushers and horrors, though, are pretty much loaded out as you'd want them to be. The rending is an insurance policy against dreadnoughts (...admittedly, not a very reliable one, but it's better than nothing.).

 

Had I been in his position and facing the Bloodcrushers at the same distance...I would've fed them all the gunfire I could, and then if I couldn't kill them all, charge them with the power weapon squad. A plasma cannon, missile launcher, and meltagun (along with all the other bolters) should nail at least 1 of the boggarts, maybe two. However, if you can't kill Khorne units and you're looking at taking a charge, I'd charge them. Fewer attacks, lower strength, lower Initative value. Might as well deny them as much of their killy power as possible.

[Vassakov]

Thank you all for the feedback, it's appricated. To address some individual points -

 

@ Capt. Mal - Just the first baby step on proper, world conquering glory I'm afraid.

 

@ ==Me== - I'll take the scatter as it comes, sometimes it'll be worth it, sometimes it won't. (See the next Batrep for a time I should've run) Bolt on the Herald is too expensive at 500pts, I just haven't got room for it I'm afraid.

 

@ Raptor1313 - Yep, the rending is insurance against Killa Kanz and the like. I should know, I've helped design a list with 3! (At 500pts, thats grim.) 1st turn is always a nice trick to play, and doubly annoying on Objective missions as they will have to give you at least one opportunity to get close (unless it's DE Ravagers)

 

Right then, game two. Dark Eldar. The list that took me, and everyone else to the wall, and now at least 43.8% nastier.

 

6 DE Warriors, Dark Lance, Blaster.

Raider - Dark Lance

x2

 

Ravager - 3x Disintergraters

x2

 

Once again, he went first. He opted for an interesting deployment, and had both Raiders form a "Shield Wall" in front of a Ravager went on a flank.

 

He later said his tactic was to lure me into a corner DS, then use speed and chains to break out (his skimmers had an upgrade which meant if the flew over a unit it inflicted D6 S4 hits) and simply out manuover me.

 

I get my Khorne half first and play right into his hands, forming a wall of Daemon Flesh about 8" from him - two 6's on the run rolls ensured I spread over a good chunk of the board, putting him in a tight spot. He realised he could not break out within going flat out, denying him any shooting and leaving him within 12" of me (charge range) to boot. So, he flipped the raiders round (6" move on each) and pushed the other all the way up a flank - no shooting, but equally no chance of a charge, or a rear attack from the Horrors. Then, he let fly with everything. 4 Dark Lances, 2 Blasters and 3 Blast Templates killed... 1 Bloodletter. I think I made 6 out of 5 5+'s on the Bloodletters, and quite a few 3+'s and 5+'s on the Crushers. He was... miffed, to say the least.

 

Turn 2, and things were looking up. The Horrors belched into play near the second Raider, and fired off a Bolt. Missed. Big Mistake on my part, as it happened. Meanwhile, the Crushers charged one Raider and the 'Letters the other. The Crushers, even with S6 were only able to cripple the Raider, immbolising it and stripping it's Lance. The 'Letters, on the other hand, annilhilated the Raider. The resultant explosion killed 3 of the warriors, who passed the pinning check but failed the morale check and ran off the board. It also killed 5 Bloodletters. Karma for the jammy saves in Turn 1 I suspect.

 

His turn 3, and the Warriors from the crippled Ravager jumped off, and leveled their guns at the Bloodletters. First though, the Ravager swept across them, killing 3 with the chains. The last was blasted from existance by the Warriors. Meanwhile, one Ravager fired on the Crushers, inflicting a wound. Meh, I can live with that. Unfortunately, my decision not to run with the Horrors was capitalised on by the other Ravager - 3 templates, 15 wounds, 7 dead Horrors. Fortunately, Bolty survived.

 

My turn, and the Herald finally pops in, possibly to say hi. I don't know, really. He dropped behind the Ravager dueling the Horrors, and Bolty lined up for another shot. The Crushers lined up for a charge on the second Ravager. Shooting, Bolty finally hit! And blew a disintergrater off. The Herald, bless him got 2 penetrating hits, immbolising it and stunning it. The Crushers tore the second to shreds, and lost a Crusher to the expolsion.

 

In his final turn the surviving Warriors were able to put a single wound on the Crushers before they were wiped out by the charge, his only models left at this point were a crippled Raider and an immbolised, stunned Ravager. He conceded, 4KP's to 1.

 

Blimey, that battle was tough. Fortunately, the dice came through for me when I really needed them - though I really am going to have to think carefully about the Horrors in future.

[djkest]

The Bloodcrushers slammed into the Second Razorback, and in a fluke roll inflicted 7 penetrating hits - none of which resulted in a destroyed result. It did however blow both weapons off and then get 3 immobilised results - which was good enough.

 

If the vehicle was immobilized with no weapons left, it would have been upgraded to a "destroyed" result. In other words, a 3 or a 4 becomes a 5 IF you have already immobilized/destroyed all weapons. According to what you said here, you actually destroyed it.

[Vassakov]

The Bloodcrushers slammed into the Second Razorback, and in a fluke roll inflicted 7 penetrating hits - none of which resulted in a destroyed result. It did however blow both weapons off and then get 3 immobilised results - which was good enough.

 

If the vehicle was immobilized with no weapons left, it would have been upgraded to a "destroyed" result. In other words, a 3 or a 4 becomes a 5 IF you have already immobilized/destroyed all weapons. According to what you said here, you actually destroyed it.

 

Yes, it was destroyed - I was just commenting on the fact that I rolled 7 dice and failed to get a 5 or 6, but the rest of it had the desired results.

[Vassakov]

Schools League Midlands Finals were today, and the team and my army did them selves proud. Although we haven't got confirmation we believe we placed highly with 4 fully painted and based armies. I'll post some batreps and an army shot below, but first just a shout out to the Guys and Gals at GWHQ formaking it possible - great fun all round!

 

ROUND 1: Tau vs Daemons, Annhilation

 

My list was as above, his was in the order of:

 

3x Crisis Suits, 3 Plasma Rifles, 2 Missile Pods, 1 Airbursting wotsit, 2 Shield Drones

2x Crisis Suits, 2 Plasma Rifles, 2 Missile Pods

8x Fire Warriors

9x Kroot

 

He won first turn and let me have it. Unfortunately, he'd never faced Daemons before and was a bit miffed when my deployment phase amounted to nothing. He chose to deploy the Kroot centrally in a wood, with a squad of Crisis Suits on each flank and the Fire Warriors on the right on top of a hill. I spilt my forces into the Horrors and Crushers as preferred, and Bloodletters and Herald as the other half. Then promptly got a 1. Unperturbed, I deep struck on the right, the Bloodletters scatter and run nudging them away from the 3 Crisis suits and Kroot and towards the Fire Warriors. The Herald stuck a wound on the Crisis Suits, which shocked my opponent.

 

In his turn, the Kroot held their ground in cover, but found themselves out of range of the Bloodletters with their rifles. The Crisis Suits that were way out of action moved round the woods cautiously, ready to attack when needed. The Crisis Suits facing the Herald let rip, and failed to achieve anything. 4++ is nasty like that sometimes. Panicked by this rapid firing, AP 3 Horror, and believing themselves to be out of range of the Bloodletters, the Fire Warriors blew the Herald away. First KP to him.

 

My reserves were poor, neither the Horrors nor the 'Crushers could be bothered, apparently. Ah well. You know I said the Fire Warriors thought they were out of range of the 'Letters? They weren't :devil: Only a whisker in, but in none the less. Unsuprisingly the Fire Warriors put up less fight than a wet paper bag in a Nuclear Firestrorm, and the Letters moved to prevent the Crisis Suits breaking out effectively.

 

His turn saw the 3 strong Crisis Suits move into a firing posistion, the Rocket Pods claiming 1 Bloodletter. The Kroot sprang forwards, but only a couple were in rapid fire range and their paltry shots did little to upset the footsoldiers of Khorne. Finally, the Crisis Suits blasted the Bloodletters with Plasma and HE missiles, but only two fell. He tried to manuvore away, but to no avail as 3 Bloodcrushers erupted from the warp in front of the Kroot, hoping to draw them away from the Bloodletters. The Horrors arrived and hurled Warpfire and Bolts at the Crisis Suits with the drones, blasting both Drones from the sky and wounding a Crisis Suit. The Bloodletters tore the other two suits apart and then consolidated back towards the centre.

 

Running out of options, my opponent desperately put distance between the Crisis Suits and the Hellblade wielding terrors. A combination of some damnable blast weapon, plasma and rockets saw 5 Horrors blown away. The Kroot, hearing the Bloodcrushers stats opted to stand and shoot, reasoning that they might put one of the monsters down. It didn't, and the Crushers wiped them out in my turn. In addition the Horrors dropped another suit and wounded a second. The Crisis suits final round of shooting banished 1 more Horror, before the Bloodcrushers annilhated them.

 

GAME RESULT: 4 - 1 KP's, Daemonic Victory.

MVP: Bloodletters. They won the match, no doubt about it. They locked down the Tau left flank and scared his Kroot from moving to seize the initative.

 

GAME 2: Dark Angels vs. Daemons, Capture and Control

 

1 Objective in the centre of the board. He has the nearest unbroken, above 50% infantry unit to it at the end of the game, wins. In all fairness to my opponent, he bought a gun to a knife fight on this one.

 

10 Tactical Marines, Missile Launcher, Flamer

10 Tactical Marines, Missile Launcher, Flamer

5 Devastators, 4x Heavy Bolter

 

Once again, I lost first turn and ended up going first. Unfortunately for my foe, I picked deployment zones, and promptly grabbed the one with the least available LoS to the objective as there was a wood in the way. He obliged, with his units deploying in a rough semi-circle with the Devastators on the far left and the Tactical Squads in the centre. I split the force Crushers/Horrors and Letters/Herald and this time I got my preferred choice.

 

What followed was a game of cat and mouse. The Horrors wiped out the Devastators with shooting, then went on to harass a tactical squad. The firefight wiped out the Horrors, but to fire at full effect the Tacticals stayed put. In the meantime the Bloodcrushers looped round, charging on turn 3 and driving a Tactical squad to the table edge, where they rallied but failed to achieve anything more. The Bloodletters appeared on the objective, and held it until the final turn. My opponent was down to 3 Marines from 1 squad, 7 from another and was nowhere near the objective.

 

GAME RESULT: Daemonic Victory.

MVP: The Horrors, as they accounted for most of the Tactical Marines and Devastators and absorbed the enemy fire for most of the game, allowing the Crushers and Bloodletters to advance unmolested.

 

Game 3 and pics to follow...

[Vassakov]

Double Post... Internet fail.

[Raptor1313]

Ah, low-number marine armies. Gotta say I'm impressed that the bloodletters held on so well and so angrily vs. the Tau. That's some terrible shooting on his part, to be sure. In game 2, that's why I don't like the DA codex. It's just not that GOOD, and a 5-man devastator unit is cool 'til it gets shot at.

[Vassakov]

That, and the DA player did not play a great game. He should have used the Combat squads rule - 2 Flamer templates could have done a lot of damage to the 'Letters.

 

As for the Tau player... well, he was fairly unlucky with his rolls but at the end of the day he just didn't know how to respond to the threat that the Tzeentch half posed, and that bought time for the Khornate units to catch him. After that it was game over.