Empire vs Daemons 2000pts

[Deathbysoup]

Hello peeps
So contrary to my previous post of being a whiner (I was in a bad mood that day) I have decided to take a positive outlook on the new empire book. I went to my LGS with a positive attitude and a new list and had a game against one of my local opponents. He has a pretty balanced list so it was a good chance to get to know the new book.
I decided to try out 40 Halberdiers instead of swordsmen this time and also threw in a luminark(still undecided which is better the luminark or hurricanum). Anyways, heres the lists. Sorry there are no pics/battle chronicler(having issues downloading it)

Empire
Lvl 4 lore of light w 5++ ward and scroll (bironas, speed of light, phas and banish)
captain BSB w 4++, plate and shield
captain w plate, shield and crown of command
2x Warrior priests w heavy armour and shield
40 Halberdiers w FC - Detachment of 20 swords
2x 10 Handgunners w Long rifles
Cannon
Luminark
27 Greatswords w FC

Daemons
Daemon Prince w 3+ save and ASF, also winged
Herald of tzeentch lvl 2, loremaster shadow
25 Bloodletters w FC and charge banner
~28 Daemonettes w herald(lvl 1)
25 Horrors
3 Fiends
5 seekers

Deployment
I decided to play like a dwarf and found a hill at the bottom right corner to deploy on. handgunners at the back with cannon and lumiark next to them. Screen of halberd horde and swordsmen horde. Greatsword horde at base of hill. He had his fiends facing up the halberds with the prince behind, bloodletters facing the Greatswords. Daemonettes were a bit out of the way, to the left of the greatswords. We rolled off and he got first turn, vanguarding his seekers towards me.

Turn 1
He moved all of his stuff towards me. The fiends are now about 5" in front of my halberdiers with the Prince hiding behind them. Magic didnt really do anything as most spells were out of range.
My turn started with a charge from my halberds at the fiends and I moved the lumiark for the ward on them. Magic I got 11 dice and I successfully cast bironas and speed of light on the halberds. Banishment got scrolled. Shooting I managed to have a cannon misfire and it couldnt fire this turn and next. Handgunners couldnt see. Combat my halberdiers predictably wiped the fiends out and overran into the prince.

Turn 2
He got a failed charge from his bloodletters and his seekers moved to the flank of my swordsmen detachment. Magic he tried a few things but didnt really have any effect. Combat my halberds killed the prince quite comfortably with all of that combat res!The reformed facing the flank of the bloodletters.
My turn my halberds charged the letters in the flank and my swordmen moved forward as a sacrifice for the daemonettes. Magic I got off banishment killing 9 daemonettes and irresistable phas protection on the halberdiers but that was all. Shooting claimed 3 seekers. Combat the halberds claimed their 3rd victim in the form of the bloodletters, they overran about 8"

Turn 3
Daemonettes charged the sacrificial swordsmen. Seekers charged the cannon. Magic my swords got melkothed. Combat saw my swordsmen soundly beaten and the daemonettes overrun took them into the greatswords. Seekers won combat vs cannon but I held.
My turn saw the halberds towards the horrors. Magic (by this point my mage had power drained and had lost bironas and phas), so i elected to put a 5+ ward on the greatswords. Combat saw the daemonettes kill 4 greatswords but got 11 dead in return, this was enough to wipe the rest of them out with combat res.

We called it there as he had a unit of horrors left and that was it.

Thoughts
Well it was just one magic phase on turn one that really won it. Luminark supported quite well but not too much of an impact. Halberdiers really did the damage killing triple their points so I think this will be a permanent change for me now. I dont care about anvils when I have 2 units of stubborn hold the lineness!

[Confessor_Atol]

Thanks for taking the time to write up a battle report. I don't mean to take the piss our of your win, but it looks like your opponent blew it on turn 1. Why did he let you charge his fiends and overrun into his prince? Was he a new player, or just over confident with daemons?

[Deathbysoup]

I'm not really sure. He's experienced with his daemons. If I hadn't got off all those spells his fiends would've stayed in combat and then the prince would've been into my battle lines. I could see what he was doing I just think I got lucky with bironas and phas on the halberds.

Not quite as bad as my second game vs lizards where I had greatswords with bironas(+1 attack and Asf), speed of light(ws & I10), reroll wounds and hits from the priest and +1 to hit from a hurricanum. The saurus I was fighting didn't stand a chance!

[Lord Solar Plexus]

Nice report, Deathbysoup, thanks for sharing. From the lists I see, just two combat units (or three in 2,500) seems to become the norm. To be honest, when I first saw that I thought you wouldn't stand a chance. Congrats on the win!

[GodlessM]

I have to ask, are you sure he's experienced with his Daemons? Just seems like he made quite some rookie mistakes there, and from what you've written you seem to have gotten lucky against the Bloodletters as you shouldn't have wiped them out in one go. Still, maybe you left out some details about spells etc? Either way, well done.

[Deathbysoup]

He's actually experienced with them, not to the extent that he is with his other armies but hes played a few games. I guess it was just a combination of one mistake with his fiends at the start and the fact my magic was good.

I wiped the bloodletters in one turn as I had 40 nhalberdiers in the flank with a bsb. Hatred rerolls meant I killed 12 of them with the 20ish attacks I got and he didnt kill any back(only having 4 attacks and I had a 6++) so combat res meant he was at ld -3 for his unstable check which caused the rest of the letters to die.

Cheers Solar, I definately think empire work well with 2 big combat units. They need the numbers and the combinations(what with the new warrior priest prayers being so good) can be very powerful with magic backup.

[Deathbysoup]

double posted in error