1750pt First time Daemon Battle report (Daemon vs. SWolf)

[Talon Darkshade]

My first game with a Daemons army (friend let me proxy 100% as I am trying to figure out if my playstyle can fit this army before I shell out cash on it)

 

My list consisted of

 

Bloodthirster w/ BoBG

2 units of 3 Flamers

2 units of 15 Bloodletters

5 Horros w/ BoC and Changling

10 Horrors w/ BoC

3 Soulgrinders (1 Tongue, 2 Phlegm)

 

Army split:

Preferred wave: 3 Soulgrinders Bloodthirster and Flamer squad

Other wave: 2 Bloodletter units, 2 Horror Units, 1 Flamer squad

 

His list consisted of

 

Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf w/ Frost Axe and Warrior Born

Runepriest

9 Grey Hunters w/ attached (WG w/ Pfist) in a Rhino (Rune Priest road with)

10 Grey Hunters w/ attached (WG w/ Pfist) in a Rhino

5 Grey Hunters w/ attached (WG w/ Pfist) in a Rhino

10 Blood Claws w/ (WG w/ Pfist) w/ Rhino

4 Thunderwolves

6 Long Fangs (5 Missile Launchers) w/ WG in Term with Cyclone

 

(I believe I captured all the major elements in play but probably not pt exact)

 

Game: Capture and Control (His marker was on my far left. Mine was in my far right)

Deploy: Spreadhead (His my far left. Mine...I'm a daemon army. I have none)

Turns: He took first turn

 

His Turn 1:

He was farily aggresive Long fangs went mid board on a hill with clear lines of fire for his half of the board (a big building blocking most of my side of the board for him). His army advanced. Two rhinos (RP rhino and BC rhino) went his side far right trying to wrap around to my marker from the back. The rest of his army (TW, Lord and GH rhino) went south on my left to again get to my marker from the other angle. (Basically forking around this large building mid table). With his small GH squad sitting on his objective.

 

My Turn 1:

Got my preferred wave. Two Soulgrinders dropped (one mid field one just off to it's left parrellel to the TW and LF) in on the left wave both blasted (Phelgm and tongue) the Thunderwolves enough to cause a check and sent them routing. Third soulgrinder landed on my objective and shot at the right BC rhino and got zip. Bloodthirster landed near marker but due to drift landed 11 inches away and used his run to get to a near by building for cover. Played a gambit with my Flamers and tried to deploy them on the squad on his marker in hopes of blowing them out of it and failed horribly and drifted litteraly into the middle of the Wolf objective squad. MIshap of a 2 and bye bye flamers.

 

His Turn 2:

Long fangs pelted the hell out of the mid soulgrinder immoblizing, stunning (no effect) and blowing off it's mawcannon. Thunderwolves were within 5' of said Soulgrinder so couldn't regroup and continued to run. His GH squad moved up deployed and shot at the left soulgrinder getting it immoblized as well. Runepriest tried to Jaws Soulgrinder but failed (little did we know it doesn't affect vehicles). BC Rhino advanced forward pop shotting Bloodthirst will no success.

 

My Turn 2:

10man and 5 man Horror squads made it in with 1 Bloodletter squad. Dropped the 5 man w/ Changling squad in right next to SGs and Long fangs mid field. Shot at the GH off to thier left with no deaths. Soulgrinder shot at same GH taking out a few. Completey forgot my non mawcannon Soulgrinder still had a harvest cannon (fail me) and dropped my Bloodletters and used thier run to spread them out some so they were within 5' of routed Thunderwolves and about 12 from his objective. 10 man horror unit dropped on my objective to secure it but had nothing to shoot.

 

His Turn 3:

Thunderwolves were offically escourted off the board by bloodletters. Wolflord who was hiding out turned around from his mid field position from Turn 1 to take revenge on his wolf kin. Squad on objective had a flamer..imagine my suprise as 5 bloodletters went up in flames (stupid low save). Long fangs took more pop shots at my two mid field Soulgrinders this time triggering 4 Stun/Shaken results must to his irritation. GH obliterated the 5 man horror unit in CC (completely forgot to use changling ability on LFs. Uggh. Bloodclaws shot at 10 man horrors and then CC and butchered them down to 1 horror left who managed to live. His wolf lord saw 2 Letters off the field as they returned the favor and put 2 wounds on him as well. Runepriest and squad popped out of rhino and tried to maw Bloodthirster and Soulgrinder on right field. (SG was immune and Bloodthirster used 2+ collar to save him from maw) then double tapped Bloodthirster with no luck.

 

My Turn 3

Last Bloodletter squad refused to come in. 2nd Flamer however did come in and shot the GH holding his objective to bits. Clearing the objective (God these are nasty when they drop in close). Engaged Bloodletters held on to Lord for another turn of back and forth CC with a few loses. Soulgrinder harvestered the GH then charged killing that squad. Other harvest cannon shot at LF killing 1. Bloodthirster engaged Runepriest and squad. Far left soulgriner engaged BC squad threatening my objective.

 

Recap: His objective is open with flamers, Bloodletters and Wolflord punching it out near by. His long fangs are still mid field playing pin the missile on my still moving soulgrinders with me having an immoblized one that I keep forgetting has a harvest cannon. On my objective side of the board we have Runepriest and squad tagging with my Bloodthirster and my last Soulgrinder chewing on his bloodclaws trying to steal my objective.

 

His Turn 4:

Lord kills last of the Bloodletters. Long fang kills the flamers. Runepriest puts 2 W on Bloodletter and loses 4 in return but does not route. BC fail to hurt Soulgrinder with Pfist and lose 4 in the process fail to route. Bloodclaws rhino and Runepriests rhino use thier Stormbolters to shot last horror and now I have nothing holding my objective (so both objective are uncontrolled)

 

My Turn 4. Last blood letters come in and I drop them on his objective in hopes of living long enough to contest it. Moblile soulgrinder fails to do anything to Longfangs at range and can't get a charge. Forgot about harvest on immoblized (shocker) Bloodletter kills more but is still bogged in. Soulgrinder kills BC squad down to just the WG with fist.

 

His Turn 5: Long fangs kill 4 Letters ignoring Soulgrinder this turn in an attempt to clear contested objective. Lord engages Bloodletters killing 7 (warrior born was ramped up by 6 from last turn and well 5+ even inv still sucks against alot of wounds.). Runepriest squad lost more down to RP and WG. Caused 1 wound to Thirster. And finally SG killed the WG freeing it up.

 

My Turn 5: Thirster killed RP and last guy. Soulgrinder was to far to do anything. Two soulgrinders mid field failed to do anything to long fangs. Lord killed last of squad due to wounds and failed fearless wounds and let out a victorious howl after killing 30 bloodletters.

 

And a 2 was rolled so game ended. Draw game due to no one having any objective held in any way. It was just a blood bath game which I count as a win for Khorne and all, but the book says otherwise.

 

Thoughts:

- The troop choices due to low armor value are pretty flaky. Yes it's invulnerable but agianst normal attacks it hurts so much more. Only counter I can see is take squads of 20 to absorb wounds, only 10 is pretty fragile.

-All the Monsterous creatures are very good at killing but if left to thier own devices will get bogged down for 2-3 turns making them less then terrifying if an opponent.

-Since you really can't do anything on the turn you Deepstrike you really should atleast use your run ability to spread out so your not so clustered together, and maybe some cover if possible.

 

So these discoverys of mine aside, any tips from the veteran players on what I can do to finetune the daemons army into something not so bogged or fragile?

[Ail'Slath'Sleresh]

For your first thought you could also try taking maybe some plaguebearers. They are like a swarm in a sense that if they assault they can lock everything in combat for a very long time. Also facing units with a toughness equal to or less than their strength plaguebearers reroll wounds. I usually take one with an icon just because I know they will last. Try play testing it some more I am sure you can find a build you like and there are lists on the forum that you could even play test with if you'd like. Here's a link to a few lists in this thread here http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=200842

 

GL to you and I hope you do enjoy playing Chaos Daemons!