Black Legion w Slaanesh Daemons at nottingham GT

[Closet Skeleton]

Went to a 5 round GT with a list I didn't know how to use that's unlikely to be legal next time I go to a tournament with the same terrain.

 

Black Legion Battalion

Abaddon main warlord with council of traitors for bonus traits on lieutenants

Terminator Sorcerer with prescience, warp time and angel's bane, Daemonkin warlord trait to reroll 1s on tests

Dark Apostle with -1 to hit prayer and Black Legion fall back and charge trait (never used but its nice to have) and dark disciples

 

3 squads of 10 cultists for troops

 

3 Slaanesh mutilators for lols

6 Slaanesh Possessed

6 Slaanesh Possessed (wanted more but points)

8 Khorne berzerkers with triple plasma pistols and sergeant power fist

1 Greater Possessed (can never find points for his buddy )

 

5 naked khorne raptors for mobility

5 more of the same raptors

 

Slaanesh Patrol

The Masque

Contorted Epitome with forbidden Gem (which never worked), Hysterical Frenzy and Symphony of Pain

 

20 Daemonettes with instrument but no banner to save points

 

3 Fiends incl. champion

3 Fiends incl. champion

 

First game against novice Death Guard Player with 2 mower drones, Mortiarion, 2 Plagueburst crawlers and a lot of deathshroud.

 

Lost Abaddon early against the mower drones on the right flank, on the left flank managed to kill Mortarion before he could swing after throwing the Masque, Daemonettes and berzerkers at him.

 

Rest of the game was a loss since the exposed berserkers and daemonettes just got shot to pieces but it wasn't that bad on scoring since I still managed 62 points.

 

I made the mistake of taking stranglehold and sacrificed my fiends and raptors to score it.

 

Second game against Admech, managed to get 42 points by keeping all my To The Last in the back but I wasn't winning that game after losing first turn (a lot of first turn charges were available). Got 0 Primary for most of the game since it was that stupid hold 2 for 5 points mission against a mass of obsec infantry.

 

Third game against a tournament noob SoB player.

He had Valorous Heart all the special characters (Morgan Val, Ephrael and Celestine), an always strike last canoness, 3 units of retributors, 2 dominions, 1 seraphim, 2 units of sacrosancts and some rhinos and small troop sister squads.

 

Abaddon, Masque, 6 possessed, Sorcerer and Mutilators charged up the left flank and cut through most of it. Morgan Val and the ASL Canoness were on the right flank with 2 squads of retributors and the sacrosancts vs 1 unit of Possessed, Contorted Epitome, and Berzerkers. Celestine, Ephrael and the Seraphim were in deep strike.

 

I ended up with the Possessed and Berzerkers right in front of two units of Retributors and Morgan Val. The Epitome was there to protect my melee units by stopping some sisters from falling back but I failed the check and lost that flank. Forbidden Gem also failed to work. So that lost me a whole flank on some die rolls.

 

Ephrael Stern and Celestine cleared out the cultists I had defending my home objective and then had to stay around there to score Behind Enemy lines.

 

Again managed to waste the Fiends on scoring points when I should have been pinning units.

 

Ended up scoring 62 again and losing by 10 points. Would have had a draw if the Masque had killed 1 battle sister on a back field objective round 4-ish but a 6+ save was passed. Would have won if not for failing those fall back rolls with the Epitome.

 

4th Game vs Necrons

 

Won 98 points, losing 1 assassinate.

 

Would have totally dominated if I hadn't failed to kill a big blob of wraiths supported by that Cryptec I failed to kill for assassinate. But I did tie them up with 20 daemonettes, 10 cultists and 6 possessed so managed to score the objective they fought over enough to max out primary.

 

Finally worked out how to actually pin things with Fiends of Slaanesh, keeping 5 immortals and a two warrior blob pinned for 3 turns until I warp timed the berzerkers in to wipe them out and get at the characters they were protecting and take 1 board quarter.

 

Easily killed the Void Dragon on turn 2 with a Mix of smites, Raptor close combat attacks and storm bolter shots from my characters.

 

Lost Abaddon charging up the center but didn't take To the Last so it didn't matter. Almost lost him on turn 2 charging some Liche Guard for the center objective but saved him on 1 wound with a CP reroll. With his possessed friends the the Lich Guard easily died and the possessed were able to just continue up, join with some deep striking raptors and take one board quarter from 3 heavy destroyers, 5 immortals, 1 cryptec and his murder buckets.

 

5th game vs White Scars

He had MM attack bike squad, 2 units of 10 claw and storm shield VV (combat squaded), 1 unit of blade guard, 2 Redemptor Dreads, Apothecary, Biker Chaplain with obsec aura, Korsorro Khan. Troops were all assault intercessors and 1 squad of infiltrators.

 

Turn 1 I sacrifice 2 dark disciples to claim the center for the mission secondary and manage to pin 5 VV with a unit of fiends. He moves 5 obsec bladeguard onto the center for oath of moment + mission secondary and I have to make a choice. Its late in the event so I say whatever and throw Abaddon, 20 daemonettes, box slaanesh daemon characters, greater possessed, 3 mutilators and 6 possessed into the bladeguard veterans to take the center and 6 possessed and 3 fiends into another VV squad who are chilling out in a corner with the 5 infiltrators on an objective.

 

Contorted Epitome actually works, stopping the objec bubble chaplain from failing back from the daemonettes which protects my character blob from 2 redemptors and a MM attaack bike squad. The -1 to hit prayer buffed Possessed get shot to bits but I don't care because 1 survives to move up and do a retrieve Octarius data action.

 

Turn 3 Abaddon gets killed by a Redemptor but his sacrifice means that a unit of 6 possessed are able to shred a unit of vanguard veterans giving me a whole table quarter in the long term since those nearby infiltrators can't do enough. Mutilators roll badly for their weapon damage and fail to avenge Abaddon but with the help of The Masque, 2 surviving fiends and 5 raptors knock it down to 2 wound to kill next turn. The Daemonettes get killed defending the center objective but I'm able to warp time the berzerker I held back in to kill the other Redemptor. Next turn the Berzerkers turn the MM attack bikes, Chaplain and Apothecary to powder. Korsorro Khan runs into the center to get Oath of moment points before getting killed by Dark Apostle and Sorcerer double team.

 

Won with 97 points because that's how Retrieve Octarius data works. Probably would have only been an 80 point win if my opponent hadn't been too CP conservative to give his VV damage 2 on early game charges vs my possessed.

 

I built the list to be fast, melee focused and abuse the new Death to the False Emperor and breachable terrain heavy boards and that worked when I had inexperienced opponents and had worked out what I was doing.

 

I was expecting the 6 man possessed units to be as much of a joke as the Mutilators but no, they were actually really good in combat, defeating White Scars VV even with a 1 on their attack roll. They're still very CP dependent but that didn't matter since I had few opportunities to use World Killers instead and only used Endless Cacophony once (on my terminator sorcerer of all things vs a 1 wound Void Dragon), Veterans of the Long War, Merciless Fighters and Let the Galaxy Burn are 3 stratagems but its only 3 CP and you don't need all 3. You don't need more than 1 base attack when every attack is 1.75 hits. That's an average 5 hits per possessed which then wound on 3s at -2 AP (the best AP in an invulnerable save meta). "But i'm not rolling 3s on my attacks every turn!" you say? That's 5 average hits IF you roll a 1 +2 from Merciless Fighters and Brutal Assault. With Prescience and Abaddon nearby its 8-9 average hits if you roll max on your d3 attacks.

 

Abaddon + Prescience/The Masque to explode on 4s, rerolling 2s and 3s to get extra exploding hits just makes everything good. Even the naked raptor squads were shredding Necrons and Primaris marines like paper (they'd have cut through Sisters too if not for the Valourous Heart trait) with no real stratagem or psychic power support.

 

If you trap a single model with a fiend of slaanesh at the end of the opponent's turn then Hysterical Frenzy is like a Smith and a Warptime in one.

 

Even if you're not running a list that wants Locus of Slaanesh just keeping back 85 points to summon The Masque is pretty broken in a Black Legion list.

 

But this only works when the Tournament Organisers throw down so many ruins that 12"+ move and fall back cancelation = invincibility from all shooting. Berzerkers aren't fragile when they're backed up by Warp time, Fiends of Slaanesh and that much terrain and you don't need more than 8 with the Masque or Prescience to boost them up. Didn't even need Abaddon in range, Let the Galaxy Burn + prescience to explode on 5s with rerolls to hit was overkill enough.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Closet Skeleton

[Tallarn Commander]

Thanks for the batrep. It looks like you got in some good games.

 

Yes, Possessed are an underestimated unit. They perform differently than Zerkers and can be quite lethal and somewhat durable if supported.