After teaming up to beat down some upstart loyalists in a large 6000pt a side battle earlier in the day my CSM playing friend agreed to a fast 1750 game so I could practice with my daemons before our 40k RTT two weeks from now. If you want to see my exact makeup I have it posted on the army list forum. I did not take any pictures as my army is still under construction (waiting on an order from GW for 3 of my big models) so here it goes!
My list was:
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster
Horrors x7
Horrors x7
Horrors x7
Horros x7
Nurgle Prince
Nurgle Prince
Nurgle Prince
His was approxmiatly:
Lash Prince
Nurgle Prince
Summoned Greater Daemon
6ish Plaguemarines in rhino
7ish Thousand Sons in rhino
7ish Noise Marines in rhino
10 Undivided marines in rhino
Defiler
The Game:
The setup was four objectives and spearhead deployment. The table had four small ruins along each long edge and a large ruin in the middle with forests on either side of it. We put the objectives in the open spaces on all four corners of the large center ruin. I won the roll and chose to go second. He deployed his forces crowding the line with just his greater daemon in reserve.
Turn One
CSM
With nothing to shoot at he pushed straight at the center ruin, dumping his noise marines into the cover and pushing his other rhinos around its perimeter. He moved his defiler up a little bit and set it with its back to one of the small ruins on his side, overwatching the center of the board. His two princes stuck close to the rhinos and prepared for my assault.
Daemons:
I decided to gamble and chose a wave with all my princes and thirsters as my prefered force. The chaos gods seemed pleased with this choice (although by the end I suspected that slaneesh had his way with my dice as revenge for lack of representation) and let me bring in all my heavies.
I placed my first prince in the woods on the opposite of his deployment zone and he scattered towards my table edge. I placed a second prince in the same spot and he scattered in that direction as well although not as far, leading me to believe that the winds of chaos were blowing in my face. I put my final prince in the opposite wood and he stayed where I placed him. I put a thirster between his woods and the central ruin and he scattered slightly towards them. I placed my second thirster between the other wood and his table edge, which he scattered towards for several inches.
In the shooting phase I shot with both thirsters, throwing the fury of Khrone at two rhinos but did nothing. I also ran two of my princes to hide behind trees in either wood.
Turn Two
CSM:
With my opening hand played, my opponent set out to bring down some monsterous creatures. He did not get his greater daemon in, much to the relief of all champions in his force, so he started pushing his rhinos towards me. He ran his Thousands sons towards the prince in the open closest to my board edge and disembarked. Then he flew both of his princes to my thirster that had dropped closest to his edge, away from the central ruin. The rest of his rhinos just milled around the center, moving enough to be hard to hit but still be able to shoot.
The shooting commenced with a bang. His Thousand Sons brought down the prince they were shooting at in a single volley, suprising both of us. As he reentered the warp the noise marines had to find another target to engage so they opened up on my thirster that had dropped closest to my table edge, failing to wound the beast. His rhinos dropped a couple havoc rounds on one of my princes in the woods, but also failed to do anything.
He then charged both his princes at my thirster. His Lash prince went first, but failed to wound. I targeted him for his insolence, but he made both of his saves. The Nurgle prince then proceded to wound the thirster twice, who made both of his fearless saves.
Daemons
The turn started off promisingly with both the prince and the sorceror failing their warptime tests. The sorceror did so spectacularly and was sucked into the warp for his troubles. Pleased by the success of his marine followers, Tzeentch allowed two units of Horrors to enter the field, although the one led by the Changling was not yet ready to depart the warp. I placed them both near the woods to the right of the central ruins, above and below it. Neither scattered far. I then made a crucial mistake that started me down the path of failure. Listening to Slannesh whisper in my ear, I flew my prince in the right woods out to take on the Thousand Sons instead of helping my beseiged thirster above him. He took a wound on the dangerous terrain test for his troubles. On the other side of the field I flew both my thirster and my prince towards the mass of CSM at the central ruins.
Knowing that I was too far to charge, I ran that prince towards the ruins. The thirster was closer and shot the rear of a rhino, hopeing to blow it so he could charge the squishies inside, but he failed to dent the tank. Both of my units of horrors chose to fire on the Thousand Sons, but did little to the ancient warriors.
With shooting complete I charged into the Thousand Sons with my prince and my thirster went after the rhino he missed in the previous phase. Showing a general ineptitude that only a newly painted model can, he only manged to shake the rhino. My other thirster, beset on all sides did manage to dodge the crafty lash prince, doing a single wound to him in return (my to hit rolls were abysmal all game) and was promptly struck down by the Nurgle prince who consolidated with his companion towards the central ruins. My other prince whacked on the newly leaderless Thousand Sons, but only manged to kill one or two. They wounded him return, drawing the combat. Thus ended a miserable round of combat for the Daemons.
Turn Three
CSM
The new round started with the Plaguemarine champion being transformed into a Greater Daemon, right next to my Bloodthirster. The lash prince flew over to play with him and the defiler moved closer to get in on the action. The Nurgle prince flew down to aid the Thousand Sons who were in no real need of rescue to begin with. The rest of his rhinos positioned themselves to get havoc shots off on my horrors.
Both units of horrors were quickly decimated by the blast templates. The one closest to his board edge had a single survive and two lived in the one closest to mine. He shot his noise marines at my prince that I ran the turn before and cut him down easily, leaving my thirster all alone to face the comming onslaught. He lashed the thirster to a more favorable charge range and prepared to attack.
His Nurgle prince charged mine and His greater daemon, lash prince, and defiler all charged my thirster. By this time I had fully realized my earlier mistake. I think I did a wound to the nurgle prince before he cut me down and the thousand sons happily danced on his corpse as only soulless suits of power armor can. Both got 1s for consolidation rolls and inched (literally) towards the central ruins. With all of his drinking buddies gone, my sole surviving monsterous creature finally pulled his head out of his butt and read the memo about blood for the blood god. The lash prince went first, but yet again failed to hurt a thirster. With initiative on my side I decided to go after the defiler and was rewarded with an explosion, felling the mechanical beast before it could strike me. Blinded by fire and oil, the greater daemon also missed. Winning by one I was able to get fearless wounds on both fellow daemons.
Daemons
This time the Changling decided he was ready to play. I placed them near the objective on the left side of the central ruins closest to my table edge. The scored a hit and warmed up their warpfire. I shuffled around my three remaining horrors on the opposite side a little bit but not enough to really matter (cover saves lose their importance when all you have is a 4+ invul save).
In the shooting phase I plastered the noise marines with all three units of horrors, doing 4 or 5 wounds to them. With my thirster locked in battle we moved onto the assault step.
Again the lash prince struck, this time doing a single wound to my thirster. Enraged he turned and caused four wounds to the greater daemon, of which he failed three. With the great beast felled, the thirster smiled as the lash prince took a fearless wound.
Turn Four
Deciding to aid their fellow follower of Slannesh, the noise marines left their ruins and moved to assault the thirster. The Thousand Sons reembarked into their rhino and went to sit on the objective to the right of the central ruins closest to my edge. The empty rhino of the noise marines moved down to join them. The rhino with the plague marines went down to the objective that my biggest group of horrors was sitting on while the unmarked marines took their rhino to sit on the objective above the one with the Thousand Sons.
In the shooting phase the havocs continued to murder my horrors, bringing my big unit down to two models. Shooting from the units in the rhinos wiped out my one and two stand units of horrors on the other side of the board.
In the assault phase the noise marines charged my thirster. The lash prince did another wound to the thirster, who yet again vented his fury on another unit. He quickly dispatched the noise marines who failed to get past his skill with weapons. Losing the combat, the lash prince succumbed to fearless wounds. The thirster then consolidated towards the rhino filled with unmarked marines.
Daemons
My final unit of horrors appeared and promptly mishaped into a rhino. They were then placed in the far right corner of my table edge. This sealed the game for my opponent almost certainly (although it was going downhill for me from early on). My thirster flew next to the rhino he was targeting and what was left of the changling's horrors tried to angle for a rear shot on the plaguemarine's rhino. Rather than run the horrors that mishaped (which would have been the smart thing to do) I fired off a Bolt at the rhino with the Thousand Sons and failed to hit. I wasn't able to turn the corner on the plaguemarine's rhino so those horrors did nothing. The thirster fired into the rhino of the unmarked marines but also failed to do anything. I could have called the game at this point, but we use the old GT scenarios at our RTTs that have additional victory points, I pressed on, hoping to limit my opponent's victory.
The thirster then assaulted the rhino and blew it up, killing four marines inside.
Turn Five
CSM
With the game well in hand, my opponent set about mopping up the remenants of my demonic incursion. He angled his rhinos to get havoc shots on the big unit of horrors that had mishapped.
In the shooting phase he wiped out all but three of those horrors and killed the remaining stands in the changling's outfit. His marine's shots bounced harmlessly off of my thirster, angering him for my turn.
For the first time since turn two, we had no assaults to resolve.
Daemons
I moved my remaining horrors up towards the closest objective to them. The thirster just stood and glowered at the marines he was facing.
With a flick of his whip he impaled a marine and threw him off the battlefield. The horrors did nothing worth mentioning.
By this point worked into a mindless rage, the thirster tore into the marines. Even though he struck at initiative 1 due to the crator left by the exploded rhino, he brushed off the marines' attacks and proceded to kill four. Their powerfist was no match for his skillful use of weapons and failed to hit. With no god to watch over them, they turned and fled, only to be cut down by the thirster in a fit of bloodlust.
With that, we rolled and got a turn six.
Turn Six
CSM
Unphased by the demise of their battle brothers, the remaining CSM forces prepared their bolters for what lay ahead. The rhinos adjusted slightly to get clear shots on the horrors and the prince. The Thousand Sons jumped out and got ready to gun down the raging thirster.
With yet another volley of accurate havoc fire, the final horrors went down in a hail of rockets. Despite killing a defiler, lash prince, 3 noise marines, a nurgle prince (just realized I didn't cover where he died. He incercepted the thirster before he got to that rhino and was killed in a single round of combat), a rhino, and a squad of chaos marines, my thirster finally went down to the foul bolts of the Thousand Sons. With no models left, the game ended.
Conclusion
Whew, what a game! The more I play this list the more I like it. Even in defeat I can't help but marvel at what a single Bloodthirster can do to an army. My biggest regret is not moving that prince up to help my first thirster. With five MCs on the table there is no excuse for me letting one get beat on alone by two like that. My princes excell in combat against other MCs and throwing them into that tarpit of a unit was very poor judgement on my part.
The horrors took a pounding from havoc launchers all game. I am starting to think its not a bad idea to drop them out of shooting range so I am forced to run them the first turn to spread them out a little. Marines aren't a great matchup for their warpfire, but the volume they can put out is impressive nonethless. The size I run them at makes them fragile, but my big guys are supposed to fly around and soak up the firepower that would otherwise be going into the pinkies.
Overall I think units did fairly well, even if I can't say the same for how I used them. I really need all of my big units that survive to be able to charge on turn two, so I will probably need to be a little more aggressive in my placement. With that said, there isnt much I can do about bad scatters, its just part of the Daemon's mechanic. While most of my first wave wound up farther away than I would have liked, none mishaped which is always a plus.
Anyways, thanks for reading, hopefully it was enjoyable! Until next time...
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