Here's what I ended up taking:
Chaos Daemons - 1500
Fateweaver
Great Unclean One w/ Exalted Reward, Greater Reward, ML 3
6 Bloodcrushers w/ Bloodhunter, Lesser Reward
15 Daemonettes
15 Daemonettes
10 Plaguebearers
10 Seekers of Slaanesh w/Heartseeker
Soul Grinder w/ Mark of Tzeentch
The rough idea was to use Fateweaver, the Crushers, and the Great Unclean One as a self-buffing hammer while the rest of the army hung back, picked targets of opportunity, or cleaned up the mess once those units got into my opponent's face. The GUO picked the Grimoire of True Names in every game, and used it to make target priority a nightmare for my opponents throughout the course of the day.
Game 1: Vanguard Strike Deployment, Purge the Alien
My opponent, Jason, fielded Iyanden Eldar, including a Wraithknight (Warlord), Farseer, Vibrocannon battery, a moderate sized group of Jetbikes, three Guardian squads on foot with Brightlances, a group of 10 Warpspiders, 5 Pathfidners, a small squad of Swooping Hawks, and a landing pad. My opponent won first turn and took it, castling up in multistory ruin with most of his Guardians, Spiders, and Jetbikes, while the Farseer, Vibrocannons, and Wraithknight hung out in the landing pad fortification he deployed right next to said ruin.
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| Initial deployment, just before the Pathfidners infiltrated into the woods on the top left. |
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| The beginning of Eldar turn 2, as his army reacts to the arrival of the Bloodcrushers. Obscured by the building and just behind the surviving Pathfinders, the Swooping Hawks have just landed and blinded Fateweaver. |
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| Midway through Eldar 3. |
Relatively little happened on Daemon turn 2. Realizing that he wasn't going to take the bait and charge into Daemonette range, I parked both squads in cover and continued to advance with the Grinder and Plaguebearers. Fateweaver flew off the table edge, Vector Striking the Pathfinders to death on the way out. Unfortunately the Seekers failed their Grimoire role despite a reroll, so instead were buffed with Endurance and sent out in a longshot charge at the Hawks. Here they succeeded, winning combat handily and locking the two surviors.
We ended up playing through the end of Eldar four, but the Eldar were unable to make a comeback. Lance fire could not finish off the Soul Grinder, the Jetbikes had no good targets that didn't involve them getting assaulted in the next turn, and the Hawks died after two rounds of combat, leaving the Daemons with a respectable 4-1 win.
Round 2: Hammer and Anvil Deployment, Emperor's Will
My opponent, Ed, having just purchased the new Marine codex, used the Matt Ward version one last time for this tournament. His army consisted of two Tactical Terminator squads (one foot mounted, the other paired with a Chaplain and a Land Raider, two five man Tactical squads on foot, a Missile/Lascannon Devastator squad, a Whirlwind, and a Storm Raven Ferrying an Ironclad Dreadnought.
Our objectives ended up directly across from one another, mine in a ruin, his in some trees.
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| Deployment, shortly before SM turn 1. His objective is in the woods on the upper left, while everything else is in the opposite corner. Mine is in the ruins straddling my deployment line. |
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| The beginning of Marine turn 2. The Storm Raven has just arrived from reserves, and is lining up an attack run on Fateweaver. |
Space Marine Turn 2 began disastrously with the Land Raider immobilizing itself on terrain. The Terminators immediately disembarked to begin the long slog towards the objectives, but had no good targets for their shooting. Lascannon and Missile fire reduced the Grinder to a single hull point, but its Harvester remained untouched. The Storm Raven advanced to midfield, dropping off the Ironclad on the way, although the dreadnought remained out of weapons range. In the shooting phase the Raven bracketed Fateweaver and put 5 wounds on him between his missiles, assault cannon, and multimelta, but miraculously all were saved.
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| The end of Daemon 2. The Crushers butchered the Tactical squad, while the Plaguebearers form up on my own objective. |
The Marine reaction was swift, furious, and relatively ineffective. Virtually every gun that could draw line of sight to the Crushers did so, including the Storm Raven, which went into hover mode and pivoted on the spot to bring all its weapons to bear. Some wounds got through, but none that would have inflicted Instant Death; all 6 Bloodcrushers remained. Both the Terminators and the Ironclad then charged into the Bloodcrushers. Combat ends with two dead terminators and 3 wounds between two now dead crushers, but I pass the Instability test and lock. Slight better for the Marines, the Land Raider, splitting fire thanks to PotMS, strips the last hull point from the Soul Grinder.
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| Assault phase of Daemon turn 3. |
At this point it became a mop-up operation. Over the next few rounds the Terminators were killed by the Bloodcrushers, who were destroyed by the Ironclad in the same round of combat. This freed him up to be shot in the back and destroyed in turn by Fateweaver, and meant that the Marine objective was free and clear to be claimed by the Daemonettes who had destroyed the Storm Raven.
The game ended with much of the Marine force still intact, but too far away from either objective to alter the course of the game, and with the Daemons up 8-0.
Game 3: Dawn of War Deployment, 5 Objective Crusade
My opponent for the last game was Dave, who once again brought his Mechanized Eldar, consisting of 2 Crimon Hunters, 3 Wave Serpents with full upgrades and 5 strong Dire Avenger squads, a 4th Serpent carrying five striking Scorpions and his Autarch, and a pair of Fire Prisms with holo-fields. This was exactly the situation I did not want to confront with my Daemons. Massed Wave Serpents put out an absolutely withering amount of fire that can cripple or destroy just about any unit they focus on. In my first crack at this style of Eldar, also against Dave, things did not go well . Furthermore, the mission type is not one I shine in. With only 3 scoring units, all of them relatively fragile, I have to balance holding my objectives with getting my scorers killed in an attempt to get them onto enemy objectives.
To make matters worse, I lose the rolls to go first and place objectives. I place both of mine outside my deployment zone, one behind a LoS blocking ruin, the other near the table edge in an ice forest as close as I can get to the first. Dave mirrors my placement, with two shielded by a LoS blocking ruin near his DZ, and then places the third in midfield, out in the open.
Dave clusters his Waves Serpents on the two objectives in his deployment zone, placing one Fire Prism near the center of his board edge, and the other near a hill, giving him cover and a potential angle of fire onto both of my objectives. His Scorpion Wave Serpent stayed in reserve to outflank.
I responded by splitting my army. A unit of Daemonettes and the Plaguebearers went onto the left corner of the board (from my angle), mostly shielded by the ruins and poised to grab the objectives I had placed. The Soul Grinder went between them to provide a deterrent if the Scorpions and their transport arrived on this side of the board edge. On the opposite side of the table, the Great Unclean One, Bloodcrushers, and Seekers line up as far forward as they can and prepare for a suicide run against the clustered Serpents. Fateweaver was held in reserve, partly to prevent him from being killed while on the ground by focused Wave Serpent shooting, and partly to allow him to intercept the Crimson Hunters when they arrive.
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| The Eldar movement phase in Turn 1. |
The Eldar response was not lacking, however. The Wave Serpents shuffled around around to prevent auto-hits, and one of the Dire Avenger squads hopped out to add some extra firepower. Shooting saw the Seekers go down to Wave Serpent Fire, giving up First Blood in the process, but subsequent fire was insufficient to kill even one of the Bloodcrushers. Their enhanced save combined with different firing angles ensured that while many were wounded, none went down.
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| Wave Serpent parking lot, just after the Bloodcrushers' charge. |
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| End of the Eldar shooting phase, turn 2. |
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| Daemon turn 3, shooting phase. |
At this point the Eldar still had significant firepower remaining, but were exposed and had multiple targets that needed to be destroyed if they were to make a comeback. The Velocity locked Crimson Hunter flew off the table, but was replaced by another. This one promptly put three wounds on Fateweaver, who luckily passed his grounding test. Combined shooting from the Dire Avengers killed one of the Crushers and put the other on his last wound, but couldn't finish him off. Both Fire Prisms drew beads on the Daemonettes on the central objective, but poor scatter and good placement minimized the damage. The Autarch's Wave Serpent also fared poorly, only managing to kill three of the five Plaguebearers camping the last objective.
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| Midway through Eldar turn 4. |
At this point we were running out of time again, and were told to finish the turn and stop. The last Wave Serpent moved as far away as it could get from the Bloodcrusher, then gunned it down, while the undamaged Hunter ineffectually strafed Fateweaver. The action then moved to the other flank. Both Fire Prisms and the reappearing, Velocity Locked Crimson Hunter bracketed the Daemonettes in the center, devastating the unit but leaving several alive and at least one within scoring range. The Autarch scored a penetrating hit on the Grinder only to see it pass its invulnerable save. In desperation the Autarch and Scorpions launched a multiassault against the Grinder and the last two Plaguebearers (which come to think of it, they shouldn't have been able to do, having been torn out of their transport in my last turn). The Scorpions managed to kill the Plaguebearers, sweeping me off an objective, but lost the combat when the Autarch was cut in half by Soul Grinder.
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| Final positions at the end of the game. The Scorpions denied an objective, but couldn't claim it, while my Daemonettes are still on two. |
Top 3 for the day consisted of 1.Chaos Daemons (3-0) 2. Space Wolves (2-0-1) 3. Mech Eldar (2-1)
Overall I was surprised at how well the list handled. While the first game didn't offer any particular challenge list wise and the second gave me an advantage in terms of composition, the third was about as close to a nightmare scenario as I can dream up. While the Bloodcrushers seldom survived a game, they never died alone, and did so after absorbing an unholy amount of shooting. Grimoire buffed they were able to absorb about as much firepower as they could in previous editions, and they were about as close to unkillable as its possible to be in this game with Forewarning added to the mix. The only real disappointment was the Seekers. While they really need larger numbers to be effective, they were useful only in the first game, drew little fire, and died the first time my opponent decided they needed to go away. In future games I think I'll swap them out for Screamers, which seem to offer similar combat ability and speed coupled with better durability.
