The format was modified Victory Points, with 14 possible from a win on the Primary mission objective and 6 additional points available through secondary objectives. Victory points served as a tiebreaker. Point total was 1750, which was a little tight considering only 15 minutes were allocated for setup and then 90 for play.
I brought my Chaos Daemons, with the following:
Great Unclean One w/ Cloud of Flies - 165
Herald of Tzeentch w/Daemonic Gaze, Chariot, Master of Sorcery, Bolt - 100, x2
6 Fiends of Slaanesh w/ Unholy Might -190
6 Bloodcrushers w/ Icon, Fury, Instrument - 280
10 Daemonettes -140, x2
5 Plaguebearers - 75, x2
5 Horrors w/ Bolt - 95
5 Horrors w/ Bolt, Changeling -100
Daemon Prince w/ Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt, Instrument - 145
Game 1 was against Tau, with Spearhead deployment and Kill Points as the primary objective.
My first opponent. 3 Broadsides, 2 Hammerheads, large Kroot Squad with Hounds, 2 Devilfish with max sized Fire Warriors, and 2 Crisis Suit teams of 3, each lead my an HQ. |
There wasn't too much to this game. No objectives, and mercifully no Pathfinders to buff Tau shooting, so it came down to keeping my own units from being destroyed and bagging easy kill points. I got my preferred assault wave, and deployed it centrally, hoping to pen the Tau gunline.
Daemon initial drop. There's another Daemonette squad to the left off screen. For the record, the GUO in the center of the river didn't get into assault until Turn 3. |
Game two was against Imperial Guard, with Seize Ground and Dawn of War.
The center and right are almost clear... |
The final shot. Note the central objective by the Plaguebearers is contested - the Chimera is wrecked, but the squad survived and has already been pulled in cleanup. |
Overall the game went pretty well; the center and right went according to plan, with the Guard unable to get out of the advancing wave of Daemons fast enough. I think my opponent made a major error in pursuing the Daemonettes after they mishapped. There was no way they would have been able to participate in the game without him providing targets. Granted they should have been destroyed with two squads and a pair of Vendettas unloading into them, but there was no reason not to just fly right over them and start strafing the center.
Overall I won the Primary 2 objectives to 0, tied for eliminating Heavy Support units, and won the KP secondary objective.
Game 3 saw me paired off with Imperial Guard again, in a Capture and Control/Pitched Battle Scenario. Once again my opponent won the the roll to go first/pick sides, and let me go second.
This list was a bit more intimdating: 3 Manticores, 3 Vendettas ( one carrying a flamer laden PCS), 4 meltavet squads, a Company Command loaded with plasmaguns ( all with tournament standard Multilaser/Heavy Flamer loadouts).
The bottom of Daemon turn 1. I didn't get my preferred wave this time, so instead of the heavy hitters, I got my shooting wave. |
Daemon turn 2. Note the lack of Chimera and Daemon Prince in the top left. Mr. immortal corrupter of souls got punched out by a Guardsman before he could swing... |
Offscreen, one of the Heralds continue to harass a pair of Manticores. At this point there's a flamer squad hiding on my objective, while his is clear but with a pair of Veteran squads easily in range to hold it next turn.
The final shot. The Fiends are positioned in the center to stop a Vendetta rush that never came. |
My opponent got a pair of Veteran squads onto his objective on his last turn, but the GUO managed to yank one out of range with assault, while the other Plaguebearer squad ran into contest range.
Overall I took the primary, tied on fast attack elimination, and won on the killpoint and HQ elimination secondaries.
In the end I took second place out of twelve players. First was taken by a Grey Knights player who just about tabled every one of his opponents; I didn't come close to his victory point total.
1st Place Grey Knights. 3 of those Dreads were venerable. |
Another Guard army - didn't get to see this one in action. |
Mechanized Eldar. |
Crash marker rigged up by my last opponent. It's not painted - that's grey and white cotton around a battery tea light. Loses something in the picture, but looked great on the tabletop. |
I'm pretty happy with how the day turned out. My opponents were just about ideal - no Ork swarms, Grey Knights, or poison spamming Dark Eldar. I also had a great deal of luck - I made the saves I needed to make, and made more precise deepstrikes than I had any right to.
In turns of unit performance, the list did well. I almost took a Daemon Prince of Khorne with Blessing of the Blood God in place of the Horrors for tanking Grey Knights; the Horrors were definitely the right choice, as the extra Bolts and scoring units were key in the 2nd and 3rd games. The Fiends performed well as always, and while the Bloodcrushers didn't have any heavy assault units to fight, they performed their secondary role of fire magnet perfectly. Even the Daemonettes did well, mopping up multiple squads and claiming several armor kills via rending. The GUO didn't perform quite as well, simply because my opponents had the good sense not to shoot it, but still managed to carry out area denial and wreck what was in front of it.
In terms of gameplay, there was some room for improvement. Game 1 was a bit frustrating due to the way the canal running across the board center. In retrospect I probably should have concentrated on one flank rather than spreading out the way I did. It worked out in the end, but only due to some good luck.
Game 2 was almost a draw because I got too aggressive and took the Daemonettes off an objective in favor of putting more pressure on the center. It worked in the end, but could have cost me the win.
Overall a great day for me and the Daemons.
You know, I really enjoy watching you consistently win with a codex that most folks consider to be lower-tiered. In the last doubles league at Lost Legion, the winning team was comprised of Black Templar and Sisters of Battle. Good times.
ReplyDeleteEither way, very nice work on the tournament. Was there any prize support? Get anything shiny?
I got $35 in store credit, which went to buying the last bits for the Subjugator. More on that soon, hopefully. The real prize though, was this quote from my last opponent: "I've got to admit, when I saw Daemons, I assumed I was going to just rout you."
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