Guardsman Sergei Iyanskee yawned and rubbed his ears - both to warm them up and to clear the phantom ringing. It felt to him like they were frozen solid and he fully expected to lose at least one of them. The silence of the Vardassian rebels' artillery was no longer discomforting but he found that his mouth was still half-open to protect his ear drums from shattering noise of the explosions.
It had been nearly 8 hours of silence and the expected thrust had never come. In the first hour that the shelling stopped all the troops were mustered into defensive postures, many of them, Iyanskee included, dragged out of sleep. Iyansnkee had left his cossack hat in his flakboard habshelter and he considered going back to the shelter for it but the commissars were still wandering the lines.
Maybe Vilozh was right and the rebels just ran out of ammo. Squads had been released back to their shelters over the last couple of hours and now only Iyanskee's platoon still manned the lines. There were rumors that the First Born would be going over the wall at first light.
Guardsman Vilozh nudged Iyanskee.
"Sergei, I think I saw some movement."
Iyanskee looked out at the wrecked buildings watching for what Vilozh had seen. A fog of frost crystals seemed to be rolling in. The fires burning in the city gave the fog an otherworldly crimson shade.
Iyanskee squinted, looking deeper into the fog and saw yellow flashes of light which he took for distant flames until he noticed the fog coalescing and the yellow flashes blink. The silence was broken with primal war cries as the fog became glistening red flesh and daemons from Iyanskee's darkest nightmares came surging out of the night.
Shep has been spending an inordinate amount of time at the
LGS writing up test lists with the new
IG codex and trying to come up with some decent all-comers tourney style lists. He came up with a pretty solid answer to ork horde and wanted to try it out against my daemons so I steeled my soul, muttered a few prayers, hid my Crimson Fists and cracked the seals of binding on the army boxes with my daemons.
I took 2 different monocolor lists to give him his choice of which he thought would be the greater thorn in his side - red or green. He chose red and we were off.
The Lists
My list was pretty close to what I took to the
GT-
The Warbringer's Feast
Warbringer - Bloodthirster
Kel'gran - Bloodthirster
3x8 Bloodletters with instruments
2x5 Bloodcrushers with rending, instruments
2 Soulgrinders, Phlegm
Vael the One Handed - Daemon Prince, Mark of Khorne, Iron Hide
Shep brought a list that was a slight evolution of what he had taken against KevinNash - hopefully he will pipe in and make corrections as necessary.
First Born Liberators of Vardassia
Senior Commander with Astropath, Fleet Officer and a couple of meltas in a chimera
Platoon with 4 squads(?),
AC/Plasma, platoon command in chimera
2 Valkyries with squads in them
1 Vendetta with
PC squad in it
Leman Russ Variant (Executioner?)
3 Griffons
1 Colossus
From memory, it was something like that, anyway.
Pregame
We rolled up the mission and ended up with an objective in each of our deployment zones and dawn of war deployment. I put mine in a building on my right side, Shep put his in the extreme corner. Shep won the roll and chose to go second. My preferred wave was: The Warbringer, 1 unit of bloodletters, both units of bloodcrushers and 1 soul grinder. True to form, I ended up with the rest. Fortunately the deployment type helped me.
Shep deployed 2 squads near his objective behind a hasty fighting position (walls). He chose to outflank with his Valkyries and Vendettas and bring everything else in on turn one.
Turn 1
Dawn of War would definitely be helping me here so I decided to press in as hard as I could. I stacked most stuff on the left half of the table and run forward. The Daemon Prince comes on near a building in the center of his deployment zone to try and hug a little cover. The soulgrinder shot at the troops and might have killed a couple, but not much else.
The
IG reinforcements show up. The artillery come in on the opposite flank planning to pound me from range. The leman russ comes on a bit more centrally, the platoon command comes on behind the shelter of a building with the senior command right next to it and the rest of the footsloggers slog on and take up positions. His infantry fires on the approaching bloodletters and kills 5 from the closest squad. Also, apparently roused from deep slumber, the plasma gunners failed to apply the proper unguents and blessings before firing and 3 of the 4 died. The command chimera lights up the daemon prince and the artillery fires all of its heavy bolters at the daemon prince but I am a bit hot on my armor saves and only suffer one wound. My dice would stay pretty hot for the rest of the game.
Turn 2
Shep makes the mistake of wondering aloud how a Fleet Officer would interfere with the daemons appearing. Sadly, he convinces my dice that he is right and I get everything but my last bloodletter squad on a 5+. I brought a unit of Bloodcrushers in the center of the table and the other squad coming in on the right flank to threaten the artillery. They get a huge scatter and almost have a mishap but we both measured several times and it was safe but just over an inch from them artillery. The rest of my scatters are mostly oblique to the deployment zones - not terrible but not great.
The full unit of bloodletters is out of charge range and runs to hug the left table edge and spreads out in a line to protect from pie plates. The 3 bloodletters are in charge range of two different units and do a dual charge, killing 5 guardsmen but losing 2 of their own, it is enough to keep them from shooting next turn. The daemon prince charges through the building at the senior commanders chimera and destroys it. Kel'gran flies over and charges the infantry squad the soulgrinder had targeted last turn and kills all but one who, quite sensibly, breaks.
The platoon command chimera tries to drive through the wreckage to shield their commander but the tank is immobilized instead. One of the Valkyries shows up and between the shooting from the artillery and the valkyrie the full squad of bloodletters is knocked down to 3. Panic fills all vox channels as the enemy appears all around them (shep gets boxcars on his first order). The daemon prince is banished back to the warp. The last bloodletter is dragged down by the guardsmen after claiming another skull. The guardsmen spread out to protect their commander like human shields. Shooting against the bloodthirster is largely ineffective thanks to armor saves and the guardsmen needing a 6 to wound with the lasguns.
Turn 3
The cold was long forgotten by Iyanskee. Iyanskee watched in mute horror as the giant winged daemon grabbed Vilozh up in one mighty fist. The daemon appraised him for a second before ripping him apart with his bare hands and casting the two halves several meters apart. Its dread gaze settled on Iyanskee who threw his lasgun on the ground and, screaming and crying like a child, ran blindly trying to find a place to hide.
He only half heard the voices over the vox telling the Vostroyans to hold, that the Elysians would be dropping in some much needed reinforcements.
Well, in my experience, I have found that turn 3 is typically the sweet spot for a daemon army. My first wave has usually crashed against the enemy and done some damage, but not quite broken the foe but I am starting to get into position. What happens this turn will usually hint whether the game will be won or lost. My remaining bloodletter unit shows up, honestly I wouldn't have minded it waiting another turn. They begin a mad dash towards my objective. The other unit of bloodcrushers starts to move toward my objective as well to provide cover for them.
The unit of 3 bloodletters on the flank charges a single unit of 10 guardsmen and wins combat for no loss and the unit flees. The Warbringer moves on the leman russ and destroys it. The bloodcrushers charge the artillery, destroying the colossus and all but one of the griffins, though they destroyed its mighty gun and stunned it. The other Bloodthirster moved toward the command squad as does one of the soulgrinders. This turn I pull the only trick I think Shep wasn't expecting. My soulgrinder breaths and shoots up the guard squad that only had 3 members left in it which opened a gap wide enough for my bloodthirster to charge the command squad. I wanted to kill the command squad to take out the astropath - I didn't want him to be able to reroll when his other valk and the vendetta showed up. I hit and wound 5 times, the commander gleefully pushes the fleet officer into the path of carnage with such disgust that I spray diet coke out of my nostrils. The commander himself makes his refractor save and the astropath is unwounded. However, their courage fails them and they flee off the table.
The remaining skimmers arrive from the same side as the previous one with their cargo of Elysians. The platoon command squad gets out of their chimera to blast the soulgrinder with meltas - unfortunately they are outside of 6" and only succeed in destroying the mawcannon.The vendetta's lascannons target the same soulgrinder and struck with pinpoint accuracy, destroying it. The valkyries both open fire on the three bloodletters and banish them back to the warp leaving me with only a single scoring unit. The bloodcrushers in base contact with the griffon destroy it.
Turn 4
Kel'gran moves toward the valkyries and the Warbringer charges the immobilized chimera, destroying it. The remaining soulgrinder destroys the platoon command squad with shooting and consolidates with its front armor toward the vendetta. The second unit of bloodcrushers starts running toward my home objective to provide cover for the scoring unit. There isn't much
IG left on the table at this point.
The first vakyrie on the scene makes a dash toward my objective and gets about halfway there, but is in charge range of my central unit of bloodcrushers. The vendetta moves a little to take aim at the soulgrinder but its eldritch armor is too thick and the only effect is to stun it, which the daemonic vehicle ignores. The last vostroyan unit shoots at the bloodthirster, knocking off a wound. The final valkyrie makes a dash toward Sheps objective.
Turn 5
The central bloodcrushers charge the vakyrie and hit it a couple of times despite needing 6s. I get a pen but only succeed in destroying one of the weapons to Shep's great relief. The soulgrinder fires a massive glob of acidic phlegm at the vendetta and destroys it. Kel'gran charges the valkyrie in Sheps deployment zone and destroys it but the Elysians just hop and get pinned out on top of the objective from which I am still 5" away. My bloodletters claim my own objective and I cross my fingers. The warbringer charges the final squad of vostroyans on the table and wipes them out.
The remaining valkyrie zooms over and contests my objective. There is nothing in Shep's army left that can shoot. He rolls the dice for the last turn and, luckily for me, the game continues. We call it at this point as it is obvious that I can wipe out his scoring unit and claim my own objective. I can't quite table him because of the platoon command that was riding in the vendetta unless we go to 7.
After Action Review
Well, my army performed incredibly well. I made the saves and reserve rolls when they mattered and the Dawn of War deployment helped me out as usual. That being said, despite the carnage, had the game ended on turn 5, Shep would have won by claiming his objective and contesting mine. It was a tense game throughout and yet another absolute blast against new
IG.
Commendations
My dice? No, seriously, it has to be the bloodthirster that showed up on turn 1. He was an absolute beast destroying everything in his way. It was far and away the best performance of a Bloodthirster I have seen.
Condemnation
Valkyries are no jokes, folks. They give the
IG general a tool that has always been missing - mobility. The fact that I basically tabled Shep for minimal losses was irrelevant. He was 1 pip away from winning at the end. Shep kept his head in the game and never gave up and the Valks kept him in it. I find it hard to imagine any competitive list not including 3 of these guys with a naked platoon just for objective grabbing.
Thanks for reading and congratulations if you actually made it this far.
The hordes of the Warbringer scoured the field collecting what skulls they could in the little amount of time allotted to them in the materium. Already the lesser daemons had begun to fade out. The daemons, summoned by the mass suicide of the rebel army had completed their part of the pact and slaughtered the besiegers almost to a man.
Iyanskee had wedged himself under a partially collapsed wall and curled into a ball. He watched as the daemons collected their grisly trophies, floating over the battlefield like glistening red spectres. He let out a soft shuddering wail as he saw one of the winged giants pop the head off of the naval liaison Lt. Commander Dariek.
The massive horned head turned toward him and its lips sneered in a mocking dog smile. It closed its fist and a massive battle axe formed as it ran at Iyanskee. It threw the wall off of the cowering guardsman with an almost casual shrug. Iyanskee closed his eyes and said a quick prayer, commending his soul to the Emperor.
Still breathing five seconds later, Iyanksee opened his eyes. The battlefield was abandoned - his only company the butchered remains of his regiment. The wind began to howl and Iyanskee began to weep.
2000 Points
1000 Points
1000 Points
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. Standard tactic's vs. daemons is usually to go second (especially when it's daemons and an objectives game). I wonder if going first would have been more beneficial for you. You would have been able to move everything on the board to fill up the zone and gotten everything in position to fire when Somnicide's stuff came in, especially since his shooting was a grand total of 2 grinders 
Red Templars
Radical Inquisitor
- The Emperor's Judgement
- Commander Shi'Ar'Tol's Fal'Shia Expeditionary Force