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Game 3 of 6, photos at the end.

Setting
Clash of the Titans is a yearly tournament in Sydney Australia. There is no score component for how competitive your list is, so its regarded as the place to max out your codex in a competitive environment. This year points available were 1850 with six games variously table quarters, objective and kill points.

My List
I chose a list that was themed around organic elements to a Space Marine rifle company, in my case second company Aurora chapter. I wanted no ‘chapter’ assets, whether librarian, first company veterans or armoured elements that would come from the chapter pool, such as speeders, vindicators or raiders. As such this list was certainly not optimised and one many would regard with near contempt. Given the nature of this tournament, if this list held its own, then I figured I had a right to say the humble Tactical Marine, even though he constantly forgets his chainsword, is certainly solid and reliable. We will see.

Captain with Relic Blade, Plasma Pistol
10 Tactical Marines with Combiplasma, Powerfist, Plasmagun, Lascannon
10 Tactical Marines with Combimelta, Powerfist, Meltagun, Lascannon in rhino with dozer blade and Hunter Killer missile
10 Tactical Marines with Combimelta, Powerfist, Meltagun, Lascannon in rhino with dozer blade and Hunter Killer missile
10 Tactical Marines with Power Axe and Plasma Pistol, Meltagun, Lascannon in Razorback with Twinlinked Heavy Bolters
10 Tactical Marines with Combiflamer, Powerfist, Flamer, Lascannon in rhino with dozer blade and Hunter Killer missile
8 Devastators with 4 Plasma Cannons
7 Devastators with 4 Missile Launchers

His List – I didnt keep a copy of it but from memory it was something like:
Fateweaver (the super Tzeentch Greater Daemon that causes rerolls on everything?)
3 good sized units of Slannesh Daemonettes
2 Heralds
4 small plague bearer units
3 Daemon princes (no wings)

Mission – Kill Points (primary), Table Quarters (secondary) and Objectives (tertiary)
Primary parameter was worth the most total battle points and determined the winner.

Deployment – Dawn of War

I won the roll off and chose a long table edge that forced him to deploy in the open. My plan was to get him deepstriking into clear fire lanes where I could employ my primary weapons to max effect. Unfortunately I underestimated an experienced deamon players comfort deepstriking just about anywhere.

Turn 1
I run the rest of my army on, the razorback comes on empty.

He gets fateweaver, 2 DPs, 2 daemonettes and a plague unit first turn.
One of the daemonette units comes down on my unit and misaps into pink mist. First KP marines.
Shooting does nothing this turn.

Turn 2
OK I now have some targets and I want to inflict some hurt!
I bring down one of the Daemon Princes with a storm bolter and 4 krak missiles.
The plasma cannons run into a better firing position.
The rest of my shooting is directed at his daemon prince and fateweaver, all of which caused a wound on fateweaver (who passes LD)

He brings on the last DP, both heralds, more daemonettes, and 2 of his remaining 3 plaguers. One herald mishaps and is delayed.
The herald that did come in shoots a storm bolter from a rhino.
Fateweaver stuns another.
A DP explodes my 3rd rhino.
His daemonettes assault my unit it cover. My captain cuts two down and the powerfist SGT rolls snakes eyes to hit. One Daemonette puts 3 wounds (2 unsaved) on my captain, the rest kill 7 in the squad, including the SGT and meltagunner. OUCH!

Turn 3
I move a rhino into the centre of the board where to try and put some wounds on something NOT boosted by fateweaver.
A melta/combimelta squad put 2 bolter wounds, and 2 meltagun shots cause another wound on a squad of daemonettes, all saved due fateweaver proximity boosting their invul.
My plasma/combiplasma squad rapid fires, the lascannon missed but the rest between them put 5 wounds on the nettes, 4 are saved.
4 frag missiles cause 3 wounds on the nettes, all saved, although one frag scatters and puts a second wound on fateweaver! He passes LD but is now down to 2 wounds.
Another tac squd hits the nettes for another 2 wounds, both saved.
I think at this point I was having a minor nervous breakdown – remember this game came straight after the DA game so my faith in Aurora bolter drills was taking a massive dent.
The captain and a combat squad consisting of 3 botlers, 2 plasma pistols and a meltagun put 5 wounds on the nettes, all saved.

At least I killed a SS terminator or two with that much fire!

His turn 3, and i prepare for the worst.
Delayed herald turns up, last fiends and plague bearers come on.
His daemonettes position for a charge
Herald kills my razorback
Herald kills a rhino
Daemon prince kills a marine with a psychic attack
Fateweaver puts a psychic template on a tactical squad killing 8, tries to turn the SGT into a frog (passes toughness) and zaps a second rhino immobilising it.
Second DP kills 2 marines in psychic attack.
In assault the daemonettes charge and 2 make it, my marines kill one before he puts 4 wounds and a rend on my squad, we tie combat! Ha!

Turn 4
Im surrounded by the foulest denizens from mankinds worst nightmares and fate itself seems against me with those damn boosted invul. Fateweaver needs to go down!
My plasma cannons put a wound on fateweaver
My squads put 4 wounds on nettes to little effect.
My PF Sgt with one remaining combat buddy charge fateweaver! This is it! Fateweaver hits first and does nothing! I hit with the fist... and do 2 wounds!!! PLEASE ROLL A 1 or 2!!!! Fateweaver passes both with double 6.

Fateweaver is not impressed and turns the SGT into a frog. The DP kills the remaining marine in the assault phase.

Emphatic victory to Daemons.

Concluding remarks
I was scared of those DPs however they did very little all game other than scare me off fateweaver. He needed to go down in CC early, that fist assault had real potential to finish him, and if I did this battle again I would try for that. Those daemonettes and DPs would have resulted in a fierce counter assault so that manoeuvre would have come at huge cost however with him alive allowing rerolls for all invuls and cover saves my marines were never going to prevail.
The importance of bringing a librarian here is apparent. A hood and null zone would have been wonderful!
Again my light vehicles were soft kill points in this game, ultimately giving the margin to the daemon player I was never going to recover given I concentrated all my energies blazing away at targets boosted by fateweaver. Like the DA the right strategy here was not to attack his strength but rather to go for his softer units, those plaguers would have been far easier given the powerfists and relic blades I could have bought against simple poisoned close combat weapons.

So three games in and my strategy of springing a defensive formation on my opponents stong point has worked once and failed twice.

This was my first game vs Daemons and I will be turning it over in my mind for a long time to come.

EDIT corrected Fateweavers wounds at 2 after fragging (second wound caused by plasma cannons)

Great report, but in Turn 3 you say a frag scattered on to Fateweaver leaving him with 1 wound, yet when your plasma cannons later wound him again, he doesn't die, and you proceed to assault him. Am I missing something?

Something to keep in mind, if you aren't going to post all of your reports in one thread, linking the previous ones at the beginning of each report will save people the trouble of digging through pages of the 40k BR forum to find the whole story.

Waiting with baited breath for Game 4.

Is that a kirby in the first picture for the daemon army player's box?? GG though, chaos daemons are often underestimated in today's competitive scene. Most never play against them so sometimes they can still surprise people

Sorry Obrek you are right I should link - with kids and workd im getting pieces down and posted so will come back

Fateweaver took 2 wounds during the battle, the fist SGT needed to put a wound on him to kill him. Apologies if the report is a bit confused.

Sudojoe yep this guy told me he was a commission painter but his models were pretty simply painted and most of them were not GW

lol just out of morbid curiousity but what was Kirby standing in as?

My chaos daemon army is also a ton of count as and not everything is GW or it's a different GW line all together like my daemon princes are actually princessess (I can't spell!) based on the Inquisition line with some wings from reaper mini.

Come on' it's chaos! anything works! well maybe if kirby was more grimdark...

Well it was all good with me

Purple dogs vs nettes? They still have a million rending attacks. Gandalf in chariot vs herald? All good.

If the Kirby is the blue guy who looks homemade, he was Fateweaver this game. The large models around him were DPs. One DP had an eagle head and was painted Eagle warriors colours because he did an eagle warriors SM army for his friend.

This opponent was a good guy. Good player with great attitude.

Loricatus Aurora wrote:The importance of bringing a librarian here is apparent. A hood and null zone would have been wonderful!

The librarian would only help you with Daemons that are part of a Chaos Space Marine army. It says in the Chaos Daemons codex that Daemonic Gifts are equivalent to weapons and wargear, and explicitly states that they are NOT psychic powers.

Ah, thanks undertow, well at least null zone would have gone some way to letting me get more wounds through those invul saves.

Tournament history for those who want to read all 6 battles

Tournament Game 1 – SM victory over Space Wolves
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/431321.page

Tournament Game 2 – SM loss to Dark Angels
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/431582.page

Tournament game 3 – SM loss to Daemons
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/431611.page

Tournament game 4 – SM victory over Iron Hands (vanilla) Space Marines
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/431617.page

Tournament game 5 – SM victory over CSM
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/432490.page#3960955

Tournament game 6 – SM loss to Grey Knights
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/432544.page

Nice report. Fate can be a huge force multiplier. I find the best wway to nail him is with lots of small arms fire, a 3++ save is good but you just need him to take a lot of them!

Also, Fate has 3 wounds, I may have miscounted how many you did but he has a nerfed statline for a Greater Daemon, it is

WS 4, BS 5, S 5, T 5, W 3, Ld 9

Just read you report and i'm liking you choice of army list.
Pure fluff, i like it. Makes every victory sweeter. just a shame about the loss. but well done either way.

Loricatus Aurora wrote:Well it was all good with me

Purple dogs vs nettes? They still have a million rending attacks. Gandalf in chariot vs herald? All good.

If the Kirby is the blue guy who looks homemade, he was Fateweaver this game. The large models around him were DPs. One DP had an eagle head and was painted Eagle warriors colours because he did an eagle warriors SM army for his friend.

This opponent was a good guy. Good player with great attitude.

I think I see that kirby guy in the first pic in the middle of the trays. Don't think he was the blue guy you were pointing out.

Lmao I saw him too and LOL'd

Sorry guys, my notes were hand scribbled. I do remember that SGT hit him with 1 wound left.

Yep, now that i know what a Kirby is, yep it looks like one. Is there a story to what a kirby means?

Thanks Malduran, yep it was fun list, and not a pushover at all.

Loricatus Aurora wrote:Sorry guys, my notes were hand scribbled. I do remember that SGT hit him with 1 wound left.

Yep, now that i know what a Kirby is, yep it looks like one. Is there a story to what a kirby means?

Thanks Malduran, yep it was fun list, and not a pushover at all.

A kirby is a toon from Nintendo. He's a big pink puff looking thing that specializes in sucking up enemies and gaining their powers. He's seen as a cute critter and somewhat a comic relief.

Thanks

Gobbling up powers eh. Nifty little dude.