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Nyarlathoth looked at the minions which had answered his hasty summons. He had expected more. He turned to Ga''alathi, one of the bearers of the true fire of change and said "I thought that I saw 6 of you earlier. Where are the others?"

Ga''alathi's color shifted slightly, effectively communicating a shrug.

"Well, anyway, looks like we are the only ones on to these plants, so we will be able to get in fast, harvest the sap and get back out." The sap was a necessary ingredient for a dark salve which would keep the storm in real space for a protracted amount of time.

Smeets, a blue horror sighed deeply. "We should just be out there harvesting souls instead of going after plants. This whole idea is stupid."

Nyarlathoth glared at him. "Smopes, there will be souls aplenty, mark my words. Only a fool would trade a day of gathering for a month."

"Smeets." Smeets replied. He regretted the loss of his true-name more than ever.

Nyarlathoth glared at him. The mirror gate in his palace shimmered and a cool gale of wind blasted through it. The portal was open.

Distracted, Nyarlathoth forgot his plan momentarily and led his forces through the portal.

I got in my second game for the "Tale of Many Gamers' at my flgs (Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica). I switched my army of choice for the league from Space Marines to Daemons for a couple of reasons, not least of which is that they are more fun to paint. I think my Space Marine list was a bit more competitive (I am doing Mono Tzeentch) but that is also keeping more in line with most of the guys at the store.

My draw this month was DrunkenBoxer's daemons. I had hoped to play them a bit later in the league as his list is considerably stronger than mine at this level but I guess I rolled a 1 or 2 on my prefered wave ;-).

I considered just spamming 500 points of horrors but in the end decided just to mix it up a bit and even throw in a herald that sucked up way too many points just of the off chance I could get boon off. Oh yeah, we both forgot our cameras but DrunkenBoxer snapped some pics off with his iphone.

Nyarlathoth's Hooligans
Nyarlathoth (Bolt, Master, Legion, Boon
10 Pink Horrors
5 Blue Horrors (Bolt)
3 Flamers 105

DrunkenBoxer's Tetragon
8 Bloodletters
7 Plaguebearers
4 Fiends of Slaanesh
3 Flamers

We set up the table as kind of around the town center and threw some a couple of big skulls and a big daemon skull (probably fish tank bits) just to make it extra spooooooooky as befits a world trapped in a huge warp storm. We rolled Capture and Control and set our two objectives (little cacti on bases) as the objectives - obviously the plant exudes some kind of sap necessary for some magickal shenanigans.

Obviously Deployment was irrelevant beyond deployment zones for placing the objectives. DrunkenBoxer won the roll to go first and and made me.



Turn 1
I split my army with the 5 horrors in the preferred wave and Nyarlathoth joining the big unit of pink horrors and the flamers in reserve. Nyralathoth, however, was impatient and demanded his wave go first.

I placed both units and ran them a bit to try and make a big footprint but the horrors only got a 1. I also made a bit of a tactical mistake by putting Nyarlathoth as the central model - I need to remember that the center model should always be a generic guy rather than anything that actually matters.

DrunkenBoxer on the other hand gets his prefered wave of a unit of fiends and flamers. The fiends run to get a bit closer to the pink horrors.



His flamers shoot the pink horror unit and I make 4 of 4 invulnerable saves.



Turn 2
The last unit of horrors decided to wait and see how things play out before showing up. I make a pretty crucial mistake here in not breaking Nyalathoth off - I really should have spent the points for a disk. I wanted to try and get a boon off on the fiends, but he missed - in fact, the herald and the full unit of pink horrors managed to only get 4 wounds off onto the fiends unit, one of which is saved. I probably should have charged here, but the fiends would have gone first, instead I counted on them having to move through difficult terrain on the charge letting me go first.



My flamers jumped over the bell tower in the middle of town and blasted the enemy flamers with flame templates flaming two of them to a flaming death. The survivors charged in and killed the survivor with no loss and a huge reduction in the confusion of which flamers were which.



DrunkenBoxers reserves are also playing coy and his fiends charge the pink horrors. Sadly, I have to move Nyarlathoth first in my counterattack move which puts him in base to base. He manages to finish the wounded one off before he is chopped into tiny bits and banished back to the warp. The pink horrors lose combat but are not wiped out protecting the fiends from shooting and also ensuring that I will never again field a large horrors unit ;-)



Turn 3
The blue horrors, seeing Nyarlathoth return to his citadel, decide to go through the portal in a clear spot not too far from my objective. The flamers bound back into position where they can fry anything that makes a move on my objective. The close combat goes as expected with the pink horrors being wiped out for no loss. The fiends get a pretty good consolidation and start heading toward my flamers.

DrunkenBoxer gets both of his reserves units, dropping the bloodletters on his objective and the plaguebearers on mine. there is a moment of panic on his part and hope on mine as he scatters toward the table edge but he stops just shy of it. The plaguebearers run to claim my objective. Thanks to fleet (and the aforementioned massacre move), the fiends are able to just get a charge on my flamers with only one (curses!) but then the flamers move in and are wiped out for their trouble.



Turn 4
Things are looking grim, but blue horrors are used to it. They blast the fiends with warpfire and somehow, 5 manage to do more than the combined fire of the herald and 10 pink horrors and wipe out the fiends. Maybe I can get some lucky shooting and blast the plaguebearers off the objective and at least get a draw.

DrunkenBoxer decides to go for the win and charge my horrors off of the objective, not so much to wipe them out but knowing that they will be a tarpit from which the horrors will never escape. I figure I am 10 or 11" away from the plaguebearers so I should be okay. The plaguebearers, however, are far more purposeful than slow and get boxcars for their move and then another 6 for their charge. The charge kills a few horrors and no retreat kills the rest. D'oh!



After Action Review
I got absolutely smashed but the game was still extremely fun. I am working really hard to stay in the spirit of this campaign - bringing things which focus far more on theme and fun that balls out competition. I am reflecting that mostly in my list choices and taking the opportunity to try out new things - this game it was a big horror unit and a foot herald. Both of those things will not again see the light of day in my lists ;-)

DrunkenBoxer's list was just so much more solid than mine there wasn't really a lot I could do other than hope for crazy shooting. Plus, it may just be the blood god speaking through me, but I really think that 40k is decided in the assault phase. Even armies like the IG or Tau win in the assault phase - IG through worthless stubborn units that soak of the charge or Tau by allowing themselves to be charged. It is just so much easier to remove entire units in CC than from shooting. I feel that this mono Tzeentch list especially will benefit from a daemon prince or three. Some extra maneuverability in the form of a chariot will help Nyarlathoth out quite a bit. Plus he will be joined by the Blue Scribes next month. The final HQ will likely be either Kairos Fateweaver or two more heralds - it will depend on what playtesting shows me I need.

Eternal Praise
The Blue Horrors earned their paint job with a pretty prodigious bit of shooting.

Eternal Condemnation
If only Nyarlathoth had hit with his boon! Even if the fiend would have made his toughness check, it would have been fun to make DrunkenBoxer sweat! Nyarlathoth obviously just needs his wheels.

Smeets sighed loudly enough to be heard over the general chatter in the portal chamber. "Well, that sucked. As I knew it would."

The rest of the room got silent. Nyarlathoth looked at the blue horror. "What are you talking about, Smoots? That went perfectly according to my plan."

"We got wiped out, my arm stinks and this good will not wipe off, and we didn't get the sap. So we didn't get a day of harvesting souls or even an hour. We were vanquished by daemons so couldn't even claim the souls of the fallen. How is that perfect?"

"Because we know another lord is doing our work and making the obeisances for us. That also means that while he is gathering the rest of the items for the spell, we will be marshaling our forces. Do you claim to understand the ways of the Architect better than I? His way is laid clear for me to see. We didn't get the salve of the plant but it is obviously not necessary. Therefore we won, Smapes."

"Smeets."

"Have you even known the name of an hibiscus bush."

Smeets looked confused, "no, lor-"

"Someone please place my new bush in my antechamber for me to appreciate at my leisure."

The remaining blue horrors scrambled to drag the potted plant into the adjoining room. One of them noticed a small white tag labeled "Smeets" stuck in the soil.

Just a quick clarification on my army list(not that it matters, as you'll see): I actually had 10 bloodletters. But as they showed up at a nicely unoccupied objective well clear of any action, they just looked around, shrugged, and said, "good thing we brought this keg!)

It was a very fun game, and as is so often the case with daemons, things really could have gone either way. There's the old maxim, a plan only lasts until first contact with the enemy. In the case of daemons, a plan only lasts until first contact with the dice.

My MVP was, without a doubt, my unit of Fiends. Wiping out the 10-man horror squad, the herald and the flamers all on their lonesome, these guys were the A-team on crack.

Biggest loser? Yet again, my flamers. I know these guys will someday be capable of good things, but so far, they pop in, fail to kill anything, then retreat back to the warp in shame. Maybe they'll perform better once they get a coat of paint, much like Somnicide's blue horrors.

I'm definitely looking forward to adding more units, and getting some actual shooting in besides just the teflon bullets from the flamers. Though I may have to eventually add a couple more fiends...

Looks like it was a bit chaotic! I really dislike heralds of tzeentch that aren't on chariots. I don't even like them on disks, the only reason the scribes make it in is because of versatility.

Som did you put everything in reserve because of the flamers? I probably would have tried to front load and get my big shooty on the table first.

I definitely think taking the herald hurt you! But like you said it's for fun.

My thinking on keeping the stuff in reserve was that I could see what he dropped where and then put the hurt on it with both the flamers warpfire and the big horrors + herald.

I had hoped that 39 warpfire shots + gaze + bolt would have cleared whatever the biggest threat was (I was thinking, and was proven right, the fiends)

Shooting with horrors can be very hit or miss, just like using, flamerside or screamers. By all rights feinds fold under any kind of shooting. You had a bad turn of shooting and missed a boon. Then made a slight error with the herald. Mono god sucks at low points :(.

Yeah, I am adding a daemon prince for the next game. Either than or Fateweaver :-p

I would definitely recommend Fateweaver. He turns Mono-Tzeentch from a fun little themed list to a pretty strong contender. The Tz DP's are real strong too, but really need Kairos to avoid being shot to death by random Bolters and such (after all, T5 with 4+ is not the hardest thing in the world to kill).

He's also incredibly fun.

As a final note, keep in mind that the Herald can only take 3 upgrades (not counting the "mount"). After taking Legion and Master, he can only have Boon or Bolt, not both.

I haven't messed around with Boon on a Herald any, but I have tried it on the Princes. One thing that happens with Tzeentch a lot, particularly with Fateweaver, is that you'll get in these combats where you won't die but can't get out. So the DP's have to come rushing in to save the day. They normally couldn't shoot the turn they want to rush an ongoing combat, but Boon at least gives them something to do (and also during subsequent turns when they're engaged). En masse, Boon is disgustingly brutal. You pay out the nose for it, but when you can force an uber-character to take 3-4 save-or-die T tests, it can do a lot of damage.

Lysander take a toughness test. Take another. Ahh, you're dead. Terminator next to him, take one. Another.

Yeah, the next game is only 750 points so fateweaver might be a bit of overkill. Thanks for the reminder on the herald, I use a google doc that I wrote up with the points but not the restrictions - I will need to double check that.

I think my 750 list will actually have a winged daemon prince and the blue scribes in it - I am working on the conversion for them and am pretty stoked with how it looks.

I am liking boon more and more, for the reasons you mentioned - as long as your are locked in combat, may as well get a little something else along the way, and it is great for killing eternal warriors.

How do you typically run your sniper princes? I did a bit of a conversion to one of mine and he has wings now as a boon granted to him by me for the last game. They seem expensive but it will help keep him out of rapid fire range which seems to be the bane of my princes.

I've had a few games where boon brought on a victory. Managed to get rid of a carnifex that had fateweaver tied up one round, and on my next turn I flew over to his hive tyrant and manged to get him to fail it's toughness save as well. Bad luck on my opponents part, but darn sweet to be able to occasionally ignore synapse and one shot a MC.

I'm obviously grateful I managed to avoid Boon on my fiends during the game...that could have been the deciding factor right there, seeing how well they performed. But I am looking forward to seeing future battles in the tournament where those special characters(especially, say, Njal) get turned into a cuddly spawn.

Generally in my tournament list the Princes are just Mark, Bolt, Gaze. I would like to have Unholy Might on them to make them more reliable at killing T4 in combat and penetrating vehicles, but hard to find the points.

I can't find room for wings. I wish I could, and I've definitely played winged princes at times, but in my current list adding 3 sets of wings means dropping 2 units or Flamers, 1 of Flamers and 1 of Horrors, or an HQ and a Horror unit. None of which I like. I've at times run a "TzeentchZilla" list with 3 Winged Princes with all the toys (Mark, Hide, Might, Bolt, Gaze, Breath, wings) and a 2nd LoC with every upgrade possible, and some random units of Horrors (plus Kairos, of course). A hilariously fun army, and decent, but not exactly the strongest in the world. And horrendously suffers from a failed Daemonic Assault roll. I took that to a tourney a while back (at the same store in fact), went something like 1-1-1 essentially.

On the subject of Boon, it does occasionally have the capability to be hilarious. I've had 2 separate games where Kairos's Boon has nailed 2 CSM Princes on turns 2 and 3. I've also gotten occasional Hive Tyrants, and recently nailed a Wolf Lord with Wolf Claws and various toys on a Thunderwolf. That was hilarious.

A note though: I almost never actually place a spawn anymore. Obviously never in KP games, but even in other games it seems more like a liability. Like he'll run into a big multiple combat near Kairos, and after my opponent fails to do much to me, he'll get 3 free wounds off the spawn and I'll have 3 no retreat saves on every unit in the combat. Also, in that game where I Boon'ed the Wolf Lord, I decided to place a spawn, because why not? Well, a turn before Kairos had been charged by a unit of 2 Thunderwolf Cav with SS's and a PFish, failed to wound him, he wounded one, and they broke and ran. Very awesome. So the spawn decided it was going to chase the TWC down and charge them...letting them regroup, wreck the spawn, and start heading back toward me. So be careful if you decide to actually use the spawn.

And as a final note, the Blue Scribes are amazing. I tested them a long time ago, and stopped using them for whatever reason...I've since come back around to them and can't imagine why I ever stopped using them.

Cool, thanks. yeah, my original sniper princes were just bolt and gaze - I am interested in how 2 buff princes will do in comparison to 3 stripped down ones. I am really starting to feel that boon is becoming necessary if the list is to have any CC ability - hidden commissars and powerfists/klaws are just too devastating and there is no way to single them out.

I was thinking about the same concerns with the spawn of them giving easy combat rez. I will try it out. This league I am in isn't super competitive so I am gonna try out the expensive princes and probably thin them out some for more competitive games unless they just prove themselves indispensable.

I have also been thinking more and more about some of the synergies of slaanesh but that will probably not get tested out til Feb/March.

I've been thinking about adding in slaanesh to my list, or changing things up a bit. I've vaguely considered dropping a couple models from some of my troop squads to add in the masque. Just to make my flamer drop squads more devestating, and even safer for me. Can drop them a bit further out, and then get my opponent to line up for the flame templates. Also would be useful for pulling my opponent out of cover for the bloodletter charge, and effectively gives the bloodletters fleet. Just really don't want to reduce the strength of my shooting, or the bloodletters... But there are enough drawbacks to such a thing that I've been hesitant to try. I've vaguely wondered how well a mixed slaanesh and khorne army, led by skarbrand might work out. More hits from the daemonettes, more chances to rend, hopefully less return hits, so they have a better chance at winning outright, or locking up an enemy till the bloodletters can get there to finish them off.

Thanks for the posts on the League and the Combat Patrol missions. The FLGS near me is going to have combat patrol tournaments in January (and February?) and an escalation league starting in March, so this information has been most helpful.
Look forward to the next installment

FYI for everyone reading this, Somnicide is planning a Tzeentch-only list(though as you can see, he's considering some Slaanesh after my fiends tore through his units) while I am planning a mix of all four gods. It will be fun to compare how these two armies perform.

Actually, I am gonna do Tzeentch only for the whole of the campaign - the slaanesh stuff will be on the side, most likely against Shep, AbsoluteBlue and KevinNash (with a side of GitSmack if real life ever lets him out of the sleeper hold).