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Sorry for getting this one up so late - I've been extremely busy with work and life and had completely forgotten it.

Of course, it doesn't help that I only managed one pic of this battle - mainly due to nerves running into the final battle of the tournament.

For those who haven't read the previous 4 battles and don't know the theme, the first battle and info on the tourney can be found here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/400399.page

My army was as follows -

Tyranid Prime – Deathspitter and Dual Boneswords
Tyranid Warriors (4) – 1 barbed Strangler, 3 deathspitters
Hormagaunts (18) – Poison and adrenal glands
Termagants (10)
Gargoyles (10)
Hive Guard (2)
Zoeys (2)

His list was approximately:

1st wave
Greater Daemon of Slaanesh
6 daemonettes with icon
Soul Grinder with big blast gun

Second Wave
6 daemonettes
3 Fiends

Mission/Setup
Annihilation - Spearhead
Secondary mission - Capture

Both myself and my opponent came into this game with 3 out of 4 wins. I wasn't too sure about how to play this. His army didn't look too scary on paper for me, but at the same time I have no experience playing demons. I must admit I went into this game a bit over-confident.

He won the roll off and let me go first.... Thanks!

With nothing on the table, and only using a 4 x 4 table, I decided I would fan out at the start as much as possible to push his deepstriking units back, and then try to overwhelm his first wave if it came too close. I didn't think I'de have much use for may gants, so I left them on my objective in case we tied for the primary mission.

With this in mind, everything deployed forward except the gants ready to fan out and cover as much of the board as possible. I was careful to keep my warriors in area terrain, so that if he got his soulgrinder's gun off at them I would at least have cover saves from ID.

[/i]Sorry, no pic[i]

Nids Turn 1

As per the plan, everything charged forward and fanned out.

Daemons T1

He got his preferred wave, the Soulgrinder came in on target, the daemonettes scattered towards my hormies and gargoyles (Yum!) and his Greater Daemon scattered 11 inches almost off the board and away from my units.

The soulgrinder lets rip at my warriors, but cover saves keep them safe!

The daemonettes run into cover, and the greater demon runs towards me 5".


[b]Score: Nids - 0, Daemons - 0

Nids T2[/b]

Seeing the daemonettes so close, I decide to throw my hormies and gargoyles at them. Plus the greater daemon shouldn't be able to reach me unless he rolls really high for his run.

The Zoeys and Hive guard move into range to take out the soul grinder before it does any damage. The warriors hold in their spaced out position, ready to engage any demons that come in next turn.

A good run roll from the hormies ensures lots will make it into combat. The gargoyles fire at the daemonettes, causing 2 wounds but they both make cover saves. The Hive Guard fire into the soulgrinder - 2 hits, no glance/pen. The Zoeys fire in, both pass leadership, both hit, I get a pen and a glance, and then stun/shake him, which he ignores... This may cost me...

My hormies and gargoyles then charge in, unfortunately terrain means he gets first strike

He mainly swings against the hormagaunts, and manages to bring down 5 hormies and 2 gargoyles. I then swing with 26 attacks from my remaining hormies (didn't realise the daemonettes had defensive grenades) and manage 10 hits... I reroll 1's, and get another 2 hits... I do 5 wounds, reroll and get another 3 for toxin (8 wounds). My gargoyles hit 3 times and wound twice (total of ten wounds). He then goes and makes 5 saves leaving his icon bearer and a stuck combat.

And the one and only pic:



At the start of this turn, I felt pretty good. I thought I could take out his 6 man daemonette unit and his soulgrinder, leaving me with an easy battle for the remainder of the game... Unfortunately I ended up failing on both accounts, and I was now nervous about what would happen next.

Daemons T2

He gets his other Daemonette unit in and puts them down near his icon. The Soul Grinder moves as far as it can towards my warriors, whilst the greater daemon moves towards the locked combat.

Large run rolls from his greater daemon and the soul grinder put both of these units in charge range.... not feeling so good now.

The Soul grinder charges in and sets about a one sided battle with my warriors, whilst the daemon prince charges in to tip the balance against my horde. His Grinder takes out a warrior, his daemons take down about 4 gaunts, but I manage to kill his last daemonette and bring his greater daemon down to one wound - the combat remains locked.

Score: Nids - 1, Daemons - 0

Nids T3

My Zoeys and Hive Guard move to circle behind his soul grinder so I can shoot it in the back as soon as it breaks combat. The other combat rages with not a lot happening. His Daemon Prince 'hit and runs' out of the combat and heads towards my Zoeys.

Daemons T3
The greater daemon continues to advance on my Zoeys, whilst the new daemonette squad looks to engage the hormies and gargoyles. The Fiends fail to come in.

Daemonettes charge into the hormies and gargoyles, taking them all down in a flurry of claws. The greater daemon again gets a good run and charges into the Zoeys, dealing 5 wounds but I make all but 1 save. Zoeys attempt to headbutt the greater daemon to take his last wound but fail to even hit. The Grinder munches another warrior.

Score: Nids - 1, Daemons - 2/b]

[b]Nids T4

Nothing I can really do now until something happens. Hive Guard move to shoot up either the greater daemon or the soul grinder, and take pot shots at the daemonettes in the meantime felling one.

Greater Daemon deals 4 wounds on the Zoeys, which I save all of. Zoeys faill to deal the 1 required wound back. Soul Grinder munches another warrior.

Daemons T4

Daemonettes advance on the termagants, whilst the fiends come in nearby.

Greater daemon finally gets a wound through and kills one zoey, the other wounds the greater daemon, but he makes his save. The Soulgrinder finishes off my warriors and Prime, and braces himself for the Hive Guard shooting him in the back.

Score: Nids - 1, Daemons - 4/b]

[b]Nids T5

Not much happening - Hive Guard fire into the back of the Soul Grinder, 3 hits, two pens, shake/stun - which he duly ignores

The greater daemon wounds my last Zoey 4 times, and I make all my saves but fail to kill him back.

Daemons T5

The Daemonettes and Fiends get into position to charge my termagants next turn.
The Soul Grinder moves, fleets and charges into my Hive Guard ... Killing one.
The greater daemon finally causes a wound on my Zoey, who fails to kill him back.

Score: Nids - 1, Daemons - 4/b]

[b]Nids T6

My Zoey Survives again, but again fails to wound his greater daemon. My other Hive Guard gets wounded.

Daemons T6

Daemonettes and Fiends assault my termagants - termagants all die...
Zoey Finally succumbs to the greater daemon, as does the hive guard to the soul grinder.

Score: Nids - 1, Daemons - 7/b]

[b]Post Game Analysis

Sigh - The tourney ended on a bit of a low with me getting tabled in T6 by Daemons. I thought my luck was a bit average in this game, however there are lots of things I could have done in hindsight which would have greatly increased my chances of victory:
1. I should have used the termagants as a screen for my warriors, Zoeys and Hive Guard. This way his soul grinder couldn't get the charge on them, which would give me an extra turn of shooting on it, hopefully allowing my to kill it.
2. I should have screened my hormagaunts with my gargoyles and let his daemonettes come to me. Striking last cost me against the daemonettes, where as if I charged them in the open my adrenal glands would have had me hitting at the same time. It may have also brought them into range of my deathspitters from my warriors, which would have made a mess of his daemonettes.

All in all, I had all the tools to take this army down, but just lacked experience fighting daemons, and probably wasn't as focused as I should have been.

I ended up coming about 18th out of about 52 people at the event, and the Daemon player I played ended up getting the best general award.

Sorry about the lack of pics for the batt rep - to make up for it - Check out some pics I tool of the other armies that came to the tourney - Hope you enjoyed!

Disappointing finish, but that is how we best learn. I'm sure you won't make the same mistakes twice!

It is tough playing against Daemons without experience, and this also really demonstrates how good AV 13 can be. I would call his SG a bit cheesy though, the DS footprint on a real SG is MUCH larger than that small MC base he used.

I am surprised you did not take down the GD with the Toxin Sack gaunts, they are ideal for taking down MC. I might have stayed back and shot a bit more against him. The real weakness for Daemons is getting cut to ribbons with shooting so they are too weak to win in assault.