Templars vs. Daemons 2000pts Batrep

[Andhil]

So, I just finished my game against my Daemon playing friend. It was a test game since it was his first one with his new codex. The game itself was very close and tense, with some lucky rolls. Enjoy the batrep!

My List:

HQ

Marshal W/TDA, TH/SS, Adamantine Mantle

MoS W/TDA, Storm Bolter

EC W/AAC

Elite

5 TH/SS Termies in an LRC, joined by the Marshal and MoS.

Troops

Crusader squad, 10 BP/CS Initiates and 5 Neophytes W/Frags, PW and Meltagun (Joined by the EC)

Crusader squad, 10 Initiates (bolters) W/PW, Meltagun in a Rhino

Crusader squad, 5 Initiates (bolters) W/Plasma Cannon, Plasma gun

Fast Attack

Bike squad, 3 Initiates W/3x Plasma Gun

Heavy Support

Stormraven W/Hurricane Bolters

Predator Annihilator W/Lascannon Sponsons

His List:

HQ

Bloodthirster W/ a Greater reward and an Exalted reward.

Skulltaker on a Juggernaut

Troops

20 Bloodletters W/ Icon

20 Pink Horrors W/ Icon

20 Daemonettes

Elites

8 Bloodcrushers W/Icon

5 Flamers

Fast Attack

10 Seekers

Heavy Support

Soul Grinder W/ Pleghm Bombardment, Daemon of Khorne

Daemon Prince of Khorne W/ Daemonic Flight, Exalted Reward

Daemon Reward Rolls:

Bloodthirster:

He rolled a 1 for his exalted reward, which nets him a free Lesser
reward(!) and got Warp Strider (-1 to reserves for him and his unit)

and his Exalted was Souleater, which lets him roll a D6 everytime he causes
an unsaved wound, and on a 2+ he gets an extra wound, up to 10)

His Greater reward was Hellfire Gaze, which is a Str8 Ap2 Lance shooting
attack.

Daemon Prince:

He also rolled the Souleater.

We decided on the Dawn of War deployment, and rolled the Scouring gamemode. We had a small amount of terrain, with a Trench in the middle.

The 4VP objective was in my left side of my deployment zone,

One of the 3VP objectives was in his deployment zone, the other one behind a small barricade in the middle of my Deployment zone.

The Trench held a 2VP objective, the other one was placed in the center, toward the right

The 1VP objective was in his deployment zone, and was completely ignored.

Night Fighting was in effect on Turn 1.

Turn1: Templars

Now, I went first, and placed my Plasma Cannon squad behind the barricade, so they held the 3VP objective, and it happened to be a Targetting Relay!

-My Land Raider rolled up and fired at his Seekers, killing 3.

-My Bikers fired their Plasma guns at the Bloodthirster, and I rolled 1 Hit, 1 Gets Hot (Saved!) and a Miss. I scored a wound, and he made his 5++.

-My 15-strong Crusader squad ran forward towards the Trench.

-The Mechanized Cruader squad rolled up, and 2 guys fired their boltguns, and killed 1 Daemonette.

-The Annihilator scored 3 wounds on the Daemon Prince who failed to save a single one!

The Plasma cannon killed 4 Bloodletters, the rest were out of range.

Turn1: Daemons

Warp Storm Effect: Rot, Glorious Rot! He rolled a 6 for my Land Raider, who couldn't be damaged by it, and my 15-strong Crusader squad, who lost 2 guys. (They later RZ forward towards the Bloodletters)

He placed his entire army on the board.

-He had his Bloodthirster glide towards my Bikers, shot them with Hellfire Gaze and killed 1, and Lash of Khorne which failed to wound. He then assaulted me, one biker failed his Gets Hot! save and died, the second one scored a wound, butt was mercilesly crushed, and the Thirster succeeded his Souleater roll and regained the wound.

-The Soul Grinder did not move and fired his Pleghm at my Land Raider, failed to pen.

-The Daemon Prince made a Vector Strike on my 15-man Crusader squad, killing 2 I believe.

-The rest of his army moved up, only the Horrors stayed behind on his 3VP objective, and fired their Psychic power at my 15-man Crusader Squad. He scored 2 Wounds and I saved both.

(1 VP for Daemons for killing the Biker Squad.)

Turn 2: Templars

-The Stormraven flies in and unloads on the Bloodcrushers, and by lucky saves he only loses a single one, and 1 other Crusher is reduced to a single wound.

-The Land Raider turns towards the Bloodthirster, and the Terminators disembark to face the Greater Daemon.

-The Land Raider's fire brings the beast down to 2 Wounds, before it is charged and challenged by the Marshal. The Daemon scores 3 wounds, I make 2 SS saves, and use my re-roll and get a 4! I hit with 4 out of 6 attacks, and cause 4 wounds and the infernal beast fails to save a single one and is banished to the Warp!

-The 15-man Crusader squad walks to the edge of the Trench, and reach the objective only to find that it's a Skyfire Nexus! They shoot and destroy the Daemon Prince.

-The Rhino squad disembarks and shoots the Seekers, they kill 2 or 3.

-The Plasma cannon fires at the Bloodletters and I roll an 11 on Scatter, horrible miss. He saves the few Bolter rounds that find their mark.

-The Pred fires at the Soul Grinder and misses his Lascannons (1,1,2) but my Twin linked turret doesn't let me down and hits on the re-roll. It fails to penetrate.

(1VP to Templars for Slay the Warlord)

Turn 2: Daemons

Warp Storm Effect: The Dark Prince Thirsts! He got really luck with this one as he rolled a 6 on my Raven, and penetrated and wrecked it. The pilot steers the plane into the ground and causes a wound on Skulltaker.

-His 4 remaining Seekers decided that the Rhino squad was annoying, and assaulted them, they killed 2 Templars, and the Templars killed 3! He then failed his Instability test and the final Seeker lost it's hold on reality and vanished into the Warp.

-His Flamers jump in front of my Terminators and flame them. I save 9 out of 11 wounds, but we completely forgot about the Warpflame rule, and did not roll the Toughness test.

-The daemonettes occupy the Trench, and attempt to assault the 15 man Crusader squad, they suffer an Overwatch casualty, and fail their assault roll.

-The Crushers did succeed in their assault and utterly smashed the Templar Squad after the Champion struck down one of the beasts, three Crusaders were left standing. (NOTE: Normally the Champion and Skulltaker would have been in a Challenge, but Skulltaker was not engaged and could not be challenged.)

-The Pink Horrors fired at my 15-man squad again, and, again, scored 2 Wounds that I saved.

(1 VP to Templars for killing the Seekers)

Turn 3: Templars.

-The Terminators decide not to let up, and assault the Flamers. This time only 1 Terminator falls in the following Inferno, and the squad makes it's Toughness test and gets FnP 6+! The Flamers are wiped out to the last.

-The Champion challenges the Skulltaker, whose Unholy sword failed to penetrate the Armor of Faith. The Champion causes a wound on the Daemon. The three Crusaders are wiped out, and cause 1 wound.

-The Plasma Cannon squad fired at the Pink Horrors and kill 2.

-The Land Raider turns it's attention to the Daemonettes and kills 5.

-The Predator again targets the Soul Grinder and this time it is succesful and blows it up.

Turn 3: Daemons

Warp Storm Effect: I forgot the name, but it was the Tzeentch variant of the ones he got in Turn 1&2. This time nobody gets hit.

-Skulltaker's epic duel with the Champion comes to a swift and bloody end as he rolls 2 6's to wound, which gives those wounds the Instant Death rule. I roll 2 1's.

-His Horrors fire at the Plasma cannon unit and take out the Cannonier, Plasma gunner and a regular bolter user .

-The Bloodletters run towards my Plasma cannon unit.

-The 5 remaining Daemonettes capture the Trench Objective.

Turn 4: Templars

-The Marshal leads his squad towards the center to aid in the last stages of the fight, and hopefully turn things around for the Templars.

- The Rhino squad add their fire to that of the Rhino to deal with the daemonettes. Poor rolling ensures the survival of 5 more.

-The Land Raider fires at the Crushers, and takes of some wounds. No casualties.

-The 2 remaining marines of the Cannon squad move around their objective and fire some rounds into the Bloodletters. The Warp Gods smell victory, as he only fails 1 save.

-The Predator shoots the Crushers point-blank, and he loses 1 model.

Turn 4: Daemons

Warp Storm Effect: This time his Invul saves were bumped up to 4+. Just what I needed.

-Skulltaker abandons his squad to destroy the Predator, and the Crushers assault the Rhino marines and reduce them to 3 men.

-The Pink Horrors can rest easy, nothing to be done here.

-The Daemonettes huddle around in the Trench, still holding the objective.

-The Bloodletters run around the cover, not willing to charge through the barricade.

Turn 5: Templars

-The Marshal and his entourage charge into the Crushers, trusting in their armor to keep them safe, which it did, and smote the vile Daemons. Sadly, they were too late to save the 3 Initiates.

-The Land Raider wiped out the Daemonettes.

-The Rhino took some pot-shots at the Bloodletters, along with the last 2 Crusaders, but his improved saves rescued all but 1 Daemon.

Turn 5: Daemons

He didn't roll on the Warp Storm chart this turn, it was getting late, and we both have work in the morning.

-His Bloodletters charged and destroyed the last Crusaders.

-The rest didn't really move.

He rolled a 1, so the game ended then and there.

Daemons: 3VP objective, First Blood, Biker kill, Linebreaker=6VP

Templars: Seeker Kill, Slay the Warlord=2VP

Victory Daemons.

So, we both learned alot this game. The new Daemons are strong, but balanced. Flamers aren't worth taking anymore, and Bloodcrushers being Cavalry is nasty, even though they're T4 now, which let's them get Insta-gibbed by Str8. And Slaanesh is lightning-fast with getting +3" to Run rolls, and even +6" if they're Cavalry!

The rest seemed very ok, and the Warp Storm chart was really fun, before the game we said: "That it isn't going to do alot, except if you've got a lot of luck or bad luck."

Well this time he was very lucky! The luck in taking down the Raven was amazing! A 6 to activate it, a 3 for number of hits, and one 6 to Rend and penetrate and a 5 to Wreck it. We agreed that it won him the match.

Besides that it was a very fun game, he did what he had to do in targetting my Troops, and I honestly made the mistake of letting 15+ Bloodletters reach my Deployment zone unopposed.

Tip: Bloodletters are T3 now. Shooting them is even more effective now, so do it!

I do have to say that my Terminators were my MvP's. The Marshal took down the Bloodthirster, they destroyed the Flamers and eventually mopped up the Bloodcrushers. Rage+Chaplain baby! 15 Insta-kill wounds! I never get tired of using them.

I was happy with my Land Raider, it killed alot of Daemons, and in the end he had nothing left that could damage it.

The Predator performed brilliantly, taking of 3 wounds of the Prince really put the pressure on him instantly. Destroying the Soul Grinder was it's most important job, and killing a Crusher was just icing on the cake. This thing earned itself a permanent position in my army.

Conclusion: While his saving rolls were amazing at times, and we both made some mistakes, or forgot stuff, it never felt like a one-sided match, it was a close fought and really fun game from the start.

[Black_Crusader]

Nice report, you got a bit unlucky at times i think, losing the raven to the warp storm was pretty tough. Good to know how the new daemons work in practice

[Andhil]

Yeah, losing the Raven literally cost me the game, but it's a one in a million event (I hope!) so I'm not too bothered about it.

I learned alot about the new Daemons, especially their new weaknesses and strengths. Besides that the game completely justified the extreme amounts of trust I place in my Terminators, and I'm looking forward to fielding my Templars again.

[Captn Dees]

"and one 6 to Rend and penetrate and a 5 to Wreck it"

 

Would it not have needed a 6 to wreck it?  It is AP -, and rending is only AP2 for wounding guys, not vehicles.  Page 5 of the Rulebook Faq.

 

Otherwise it sounds like a fun game despite the loss.

[Andhil]

Ah! You are correct! Oddly enough I thought that hadn't been faq'd yet...

So that means I would have suffered Locked Velocity. Well, I guess I'm not going to get that one wrong again.

Thank you for that!

It was an immensly fun game, there's some fun in the Warp Storm table, because I always found myself hoping he'd roll a 6 on his own guys, or just roll a bad effect.

[Captn Dees]

It is no problem.  I had messed that one up not long ago as while shooting my LRC at a hellturkey and was corrected in game (D'OH!).  I have a helluva time trying to bring those awful things down.

 

I'm looking forward to getting in some games with Daemons.  I've been toying with Abhor the witch lately and wondering if this will help against some of the Daemon tricks.

[Andhil]

Abhor is gonna work way better vs. daemons now that all Tzeentch and some Nurgle and Slaanesh are Psykers. I can imagine how having a 5+ to negate the entire shooting attack of the Horrors is nasty. It's not gonna help one bit when facing Khorne, but most people still play Tzeentch.