Tzeentch Daemons vs Space Wolves 2000pts.

[Furls]

So my first game of 6th edition and it is the forces of Tzeentch vs the Space Wolves. This battle was down at my local GW. My opponent had not played 40k in quite a long time so he was getting back into the game and we were both trying the 6th rules out for the first time.

Mr army:

Fateweaver (wave 1)
Lord of Change with Master of Sorcery (wave 1)

3 flamers (wave 1)
7 Pink Horrors+bolt+changeling (wave 2)
7 Pink horrors+bolt (wave 2

Soul Gringer+Phlegm (wave 2)
Daemon Prince, MOT, Flight, Daemonic Gaze, Breath of Chaos (wave 1)

Sorceror, MOT, plasma pistol, BoC, Doombolt, Icon

8 Thousand Sons+Sorceror with Doombolt

4 Terminators, Icon of Tzeentch, 1x reaper+pow fist, 1x combi melta+chainfist, 1x combi flamer+pow axe, 1x pow axe (in reserve)

Total= 2000pts exactly

Not sure about all oh his list but I will describe

1 HQ special character on a wolf with lightning claws and 2 little wolves with him
1 HQ special character in terminator armour with a foehammer and gives everyone within 18” reroll failed to hit and wounds (initially is with the terminators)
1 librarian wolf guy

Unit of 5 terminators
Unit of 5 wolf cavalry with storm shields and a variety of weapons
2 units of Space wolves, both with champions in terminator armour, one had an assault cannon, both units had a variety of melta or plasma options

Mission: Purge the Alien
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Warlord traits: neither of us got one that was any use to us.

Deployment

I only deployed my Thousand Sons on a hill on my left flank overlooking a couple of approaches. Everything else was I reserve to deepstrike.

His deployment as my army was facing it (I will refer to his units in these terms throughout) from left to right:
Terminators +HQ on foot, marines with librarian, HQ on wolf, Marines, wolf cavalry

Turn 1

I got the first turn and he did not seize the initiative. Things started badly by me not getting my intended first wave. My Horrors arrived on both flanks in my deployment zone to fire at any incoming wolves on the flanks. My Soul Grinder arrived right behind enemy lines and Phlegm landed smack bank in a unit of marines. But since his terminator champion was the closest model, wound allocation allowed him to shrug off most of it so 1 wound on the champion and 1 marine dead.
His turn both marine units and his foe hammer HQ moved towards the soul Grinder to bring what little weaponry that would be off use against it to bear. The terminators and wolf cavalry advanced around the flanks as did his HQ on a wolf that took some cover behind a large LOS blocking ruin. Firing at the Soul Grinder: foe hammer that needed 2+ to hit misses, melta gun misses, plasma gun nearly immolated himself. I was not looking rather smug. But then the assault cannon champion in the other squad rends, penetrates and blows it up (smug look now disappears!). First blood to the Space Wolves.

VP’s Daemons= 0
Space Wolves= 2

Turn 2
Kairos and the Daemon Prince turn up close together behind my lines. My terminators use the sorcerer’s icon to deep strike within sight of his HQ on a wolf and to plug that gap. The flamers arrive right behind his terminators (and made a dangerous terrain test because of a power his librarian used). The Thousand Sons move off the hill to their right, the horrors on the left edge into warp fire range of the terminators.
Terminators kill the puppies accompanying the HQ. The flamers douse those terminators in flames but they miraculously make all of their invulnerable saves!!!! However the horrors pepper them with fire and though sheer number of wounds inflicted and a few unlucky ones by my opponent and they are gone! The horrors on the right pepper the wolf cavalry that are visible and bring down one.
In his turn his HQ on a wolf charges my terminators who lose two of their number and inflict a wound in return but stay around (this HQ was horrendous, and the other was given him a bonus attack). His wolf cavalry fail to charge my horrors on the right by an inch (despite rerolling one of the dice-phew!) His marines on the left open up on the flamers and kill them. His marines on the right advance using a large ruin as cover (following the wolf cavalry).

VP’s Daemons= 1
Space Wolves= 3

Turn 3

The Lord of Change does still not turn up. Kairos swoops to my right as does the daemon prince who flies over the wolf cavalry but within 6” of Kairos giving him hull view and close range of the marines on the right. The Thousand Sons and the horrors move to fire on the wolf cavalry and be close to Kairos. The horrors on the left back up fearing his HQ on foot who had advanced to behind a hill and was getting close last turn.
The horrors, Thousand Sons and Kairos open up on the wolf cavalry and bring two of them down (they have 2 wounds each and a 3+invulnerable!!) I had no psychic powers that were of any use at the range in question or their was too much risk of it scattering onto my own units (as I type this I should have realised that even if inferno had scattered onto my daemon prince it would not have matter because it was swooping). The daemon prince opens up with breath and gaze on the marines killing some. The fight between the HQ and the terminators through sheer luck ends in victory by one for me and I inflict one wound, but needless to stay the HQ stays around (he rolled no rending attacks and I made all of my 2+ saves).
His turn the marines on the left advance, the marines on the left hold and rake the daemon prince with fire but thanks to flight only and Kairos nearby they only inflict one wound and he stays aloft. His last 2 wolf cavalry charge the Thousand Sons. Only two die thanks to Kairos. The sorcerer fails to make an impact but the Sons themselves bring one down drawing the fight. The HQ vs terminators results in a power fist wound to the HQ (no instant death due to T5 on mount, but one wound remains), and he kills another terminator. I was very lucky for them to have lasted this long considering all the rerolls to hit and wound the other HG in range was providing. His other HQ not wanting to risk open ground to catch the horrors on the right stayed hidden.

VPs Daemons= 1
Space Wolves= 3

Turn 4

The Lord of Change now turns up and arrives just behind the marines on the right. Kairos and the daemon Prince alter their course and swoop towards the Lord of Change. The horrors on the left back up for when his HQ wins his combat and comes after them. The horrors on the right move to the centre backing away from the same fight just in case.
The Lord of Change and the Daemon Prince open up with every power at their disposal reducing the unit to two marines and the terminator with assault cannon champion. Kairos fires on the other marine unit killing a marine. The Thousand Sons lose a couple more of their number but manage to bring the last wolf cavalry down- woo hoo! The last terminator bites the dust and the HQ consolidates towards the horrors on the left.
In his turn the HQ charges the horrors and misses by an inch again (despite fleet reroll). Despite being fearless I reckon those horrors breath a sigh of relief. His space marines opens up on Kairos with a vast amount of fire, but thanks to the rerollable invulnerable save he suffers nothing (my opponent is getting a strong dislike for Kairos). The remains of the squad on the right opens up on the Lord of Change but he doesn’t even need Karios to save him. His other HQ on foot joins the larger marine squad, and his librarian casts a power that give the squad a 5+ cover save.

VP’s Daemons= 2
Space Wolves= 4

Turn 5

The Lord of Change stays to deal with the remains on the marines on the right, and Kairos and the Prince swoop and land just to the right of the marines on the left. The horrors and Sons on the right move back towards the left and the horrors on the left line up to fire at the HQ on his wolf. The Lord of Change finishes off the marines on the right with his powers. The horrors on the left shoot a mass of warp fire at the HQ who eventually fails a save, loses his last wound and dies- good riddance to him. Kairos and the daemon Prince unleash their powers causing a few casualties to the marines on the left although the cover saves from the librarian and the terminator champion in the front reduced the damage caused considerably.
In my opponents turn he fires plasma weapons, melta guns, storm bolters and foe hammer at Kairos again to no avail thanks to swoop and rerollable invul saves and he manages to stay aloft. This is all that remains of my opponent and his is hanging on for dear life.
We roll and the game continues. At this point when counting up the VP’s I think that my opponent miscounted the amount of units that he had, as we counted me to be on 3 vps. I think that he counted his terminators and surviving HQ as one unit and therefore one kill point that I had not gained. I only realised this when going over his army list.

VPs Daemons= 4
Space Wolves= 4

Turn 6.

Kairos and the Prince swoop 12 inches and land behind the marines squad (thanks to swoop you can fire in any direction you want). The Thousand Sons and Horrors move to get lines of sight through a large gap in the terrain. Thinking that I need to gain one more VP to draw I swoop the Lord of Change into his deployment zone to claim line breaker. The combined fire of Kairos and the Daemon Prince with Breaths of Chaos and other powers, the Lord of Change with Bolt and Gaze, and the Thousand Sons at long range manage to reduce the marines to his HQ on one wound, 1 marine and the librarian whose cover save psychic power saved them from annihilation. The horrors were alas not in range.
In his turn he opts to fire at the Daemon Prince instead because it had already suffered a wound and only had a 4+ invul save. The unit ignores the mirage of the changeling and manages to inflict another wound on the Prince who makes his roll to stay flying.
We roll and the game ends

Final VPs

Daemons= 5
Space Wolves= 4

Final Thoughts

I initially thought I had drawn this match and I feel slightly unsportsmanlike posting this as a victory. If I have misunderstood his army list then please correct me.
My main thought is that Kairos rocks!!! Swooping around with the Prince and Lord of Change was great and my opponent with his close combat based army just couldn’t get at them despite the amount of fire that got thrown at them. I need to remember vector strikes for when I flew over units. D3+1 AP3 hits is better than daemonic gaze having to roll to hit. I was very lucky that he did not make the charge rolls with his wolf cavalry and his HQ on wolf back otherwise they would have minced both units of horrors and I would have lost. I was slightly disappointed about my Soul Grinder, but then it managed to split up his forces allowing me to take on a bit at a time. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to try out any of the new cool psychic powers. I was out of range of psychic shriek and the puppet master power that I got was not much use against the close combat units I faced that often had no other allied unit to fire at. Ah well, there is always next time for them.
It was a very enjoyable game. We both forgot a couple of rules at times, such as him needing 6's to hit me when swooping, or hit storm shield being a 3+ not a 4+ invul save. But we live and learn.

[Pandiano]

Nice BatRep! I guess most of us are still learing about the rules, but I hope we can read more of your battles soon. Daemons are not plenty in those usually so this is nice. Can you ask your opponent to give you his list for referrence next time? For some of us who don't play a certain army list entrys like "some dude on a wolf" could be clarified better. nontheless keep up the good work!

[Infidel]

IIRC - only scoring units can Line Break.

I don't think the Grinder is much use in a list like yours - you're rocking Fatey so your heavy choice should naturally be DPs of some description.

[Furls]

It says that scoring or denial units can count for line breaker on page 112 in the BRB.

Another thing that really helped in this Battle Report was the pre measuring. I was able to keep the Horrors at maximum range of their warpfire while maximising his charge distances. This saved my bacon.

I included the for 2 reasons: one I had only recently painted in and wanted to use it. And two, I wanted it to be a distraction from my momstrous creatures in the first turn they arrive. Since you cannot swoop in the first turn that they deep strike I didn't want Kairos taking any shots. In this game landing it behind the Space Wolves split his army between advancing and staying to deal with it which helped a lot.

[Infidel]

It says that scoring or denial units can count for line breaker on page 112 in the BRB.

You're quite right. I thought it was only scoring units.

Between this and first-blood, daemon should be playing at a 2 VP advantage over most opponenets so being low on scoring units isn't all bad.

And on the matter of swooping the turn they deepstrike - there are a lot of argument about it. The point is, if zooming fliers can do it (which they should, otherwise Scythes will spontaneouly combust the moment they arrive using their Deep Strike rule) then a FMC should be able to as well.

"and obviously count as having moved in the previous Movement phase"

That's under the shooting phase, but it didn't say "for the purpose of shooting". I'm fully confident that RAI they can, and will be FAQ'd as such.

[Chaospling]

How did the Assault cannon Terminator manage to kill the Soul Grinder? Was it from behind?

In the second turn where he fails his charge against your horrors, did you still Overwatch shoot at him?

[Furls]

The assault cannon rolled a 6 to hit an got rending, then rolled a 6 for the pen, plus a 2 on the D3 resulting in a pen on the side armour and got a 6 on the damage chart blowing it up. Lucky yes, but then he just failed miserably with a BS5 character with the for hammer and tr melta gun.

I did stand and fire with the horrors but it came to nothing. I may of forgot about that when the HQ charged the other horrors. It's something that I will have to make sure that i remember because I normally have my Thousand Sons in min who cannot stand and fire.

[Infidel]

The assault cannon rolled a 6 to hit an got rending, then rolled a 6 for the pen, plus a 2 on the D3 resulting in a pen on the side armour and got a 6 on the damage chart blowing it up. Lucky yes, but then he just failed miserably with a BS5 character with the for hammer and tr melta gun.

I did stand and fire with the horrors but it came to nothing. I may of forgot about that when the HQ charged the other horrors. It's something that I will have to make sure that i remember because I normally have my Thousand Sons in min who cannot stand and fire.

Rending is only on roll of 6 to penetrate, not that it matter a whole lot here. But 6/4+/6 to destroy is still very slim odds. 4th edition rending worked off to-hit rolls, which is one of the reason why AC spam was so prevelant.