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So, I used my daemons in their first RTT today and did better than I expected. It was a very small showing, but still had fun and all that. I have a horrible short term memory, no digital camera, and no paint skills, so this is just a very very rough outline of the day. and my apologies for the sloppiness of such.

My List:
GUO
KoS

12 x BL w/ Icon
14 x Daemonettes w/ Icon
5 x Horrors w/ Bolt
5 x Horrors w/ Bolt
7 x Plaguebearers w/ Icon

1 x Bloodcrusher
1 x Bloodcrusher
3 x Flamers

8 x Seekers w/ Icon
8 x Seekers w/ Icon

Soulgrinder w/ Phlegm
DP w/ Mark+Bolt of Tz

Round 1 - Imperial Guard (Greg)
Mix of Gunline/Mech. 3 Demo's, 1 hellhound, 1 chimera, 2 platoons, 2 melta vet squads, mortar squad, 3 lascannon sentinels. Scenario is the hunted. He chooses my flamers, I choose one of his Demo's. He deploys in a line, 1 demo/Hellhound on East Side, 1 Demo/Chimera in centerish/west, 1 Demo on west side. His deployment zones has the two large buildings in which he digs in deep. He infilitrates his vets into the two buildings in my deployment zone. He wins first turn and gives it to me. My roll for group A (The 3 icon troops choices, 2 GDs, and 2 Bloodcrushers) is successful.
Scatters kills my KoS, most of my forces overrun his west flank. My two blood crushers try to land behind a large hill on the east flank, one scatters into sight, the other is safe.
His turn 1 sees my GUO lose 2 wounds, he manages to hit my bloodletters with a demo cannon, getting 8 of them, ends up killing 1 (4 1's on the roll to wound). He picks off a few daemonettes and his mortar's do nothing to my plaguebearers. He blows away 1 bloodcrusher. He advances his sentinel and chimera on the west flank up to block off my daemonettes from hitting his command squad and two infantry squads in the center building.
My turn 2 sees my daemonettes kill the veteran squad hiding in the center building as well as the sentinel. My bloodletters wipe out an infantry squad. Big daddy nurgle slowly walks closer to the center building. Flamers come in, kill a whopping 2 guardsman but manage to shake a Demo. My mounted Daemonettes come in and hide behind the center building thanks to daemonettes icon.
His turn 2 kills a few more daemonettes, bloodletters, but nothing major. Papa Nurgle takes another 2 wounds.
My turn 3 has Bloodletters killing a platoon command squad, the 3 flamers killing a Demo, Papa Nurgle getting into CC with a guard unit and wrapping them up, Daemonettes kill an armored fist squad but fail to kill the chimera. Mounted Daemonettes help kill off armored first squad and consolidate into a guard unit in his center building. Horrors that came in shoot and do nothing to a depleted guard squad in the western building.
His turn 3 has two horrors dying, my flamers going down, a few more daemonettes and bloodletters down, and that's about it.
My turn 4 has my Soulgrinder, DP, other horrors come in. Soulgrinder shoots and misses the demo. DP hits Demo on east flank but fails to damage. Horrors try to do the same and get the same result. GUO continues to slowly munch guardsman, inching his way to the east. Daemonettes kill the chimera and bloodletters try to scurry over to the east. Depleted horror squad gets wrapped up with depleted guard unit, doing no damage to each other in CC.
His turn 4 has a sentinel engaging my horrors on the east side, more daemonettes, mounted and walking, die, a few more bloodletters die, Prince takes a wound, Soulgrinder ignored. Sentinel kills 2 horrors.
My turn 5 has my Bloodcrusher come over the hill to ice his sentinel and then consolidate into another on the east flank. Nurgle continues to eat guardsman. Daemonettes continue to fight through center building. Dp tries to take down Demo again and fails, horrors same again. Soulgrinder tries to fleet to assault Demo on west flank and rolls 1.
His turn 5 has east group of horrors wiped, and a few more daemonettes go down.
My turn 6 has Bloodcrusher eat more guardsman, as does Nurgle. Fail to destroy Demo with the remnants of a mounted daemonette squad.
His turn 6 has all daemonettes wiped from awesome shooting. Last horror dies in CC against guardsman. I am left standing with an untouched plaguebearer squad, 2 wounds on DP, 4 wounds on GUO, and 50% Bloodletter squad and a Bloodcrusher. He has two Demo's, a hellhound, and a depleted infantry squad, and mortars left.
Turns into a draw, he got double VP for killing my flamers and I failed to kill his Demo.
Notes: KoS dead on deployment sucked, she would have been fast enough to catch his vehicles on the east flank.
Daemonettes out of combat = dead daemonettes.
Horrors = so much worse than you'd imagine in HtH
Flamers = awesome suicide unit, made their points back, even with the hunted.

Round 2 - Imperial Fists (Rick)
SAFH marines. 2 chaplains with 8 assault guys each. 18 heavy weapons in the army, mostly missile launchers, plasma cannons, and a few lascannons/multi-meltas for flavor. Scenario is priority. Deployment is L shaped. A lot of hills in his deployment zone, which he happily sits on. One large building in center. I roll for my shooty cohort to come in. Everything lands safe and flamers land just inches away from a large body of marines on the center hill. Flamers kill 8 marines, Soulgrinder kills 10. I essentially punched a huge hole in his center, but he has an entire L of shooty death and there is still plenty left. Plaguebearers land right in front of the center hill. Mounted Daemonettes both manage to take some shelter behind the center building. 1 horror group lands to the west of the center hill, almost dying on the soulgrinder.
His turn 1: A lot of return fire. 1 horror unit is wiped. Flamers wiped. He CC's my plaguebearers to death with 1 chaplain and his squad. blows the maw cannon off my soulgrinder. He puts 3 wounds on my KoS.
My turn 2: Both squads of mounted Daemonettes hit the Chaplain in the center and slaughter them, save for Chaplain who couldn't be hit in combat. Soulgrinder moves towards east flank and kills 3 marines in CC. KoS gets into combat and kills 4 marines but dies in the process. Daemonettes and Bloodletters and GUO come in.
His turn 2: His other chaplain and assault squad hit my Soulgrinder and kill it, (they had the only other powerfist in the army). His wipes my daemonettes and bloodletters via shooting. His lone chaplain dies to rends and 1 squad of seekers consolidate to hit a squad on the center hill, second seekers go west to hit 2nd Chaplain's squad.
My turn 3: Rest of my stuff comes in. DP kills 1 marine with Bolt. Horrors kill 2 marines on the west flank. GUO sits on a objective, too far to get to anything. Seekers continue slaughtering squads, Chaplain is left against 7 seekers and 8 seekers continue to mulch through the dwindling mass of marines on the center hill.
His turn 4: He kills 2 horrors and wounds my DP. I kill his chaplain and finish off the center hill. My seekers both consolidate to hit his last big group of scoring units in the very NW corner of his deployment zone.
My turn 5: I kill his forces in the NW corner of his deployment zone with the seekers and have to remain open as he has one lascannon/plasma guy in South, near the wreckage my soul grinder, and 1 last scoring unit right next to them. Horrors continue to shoot and do nothing, DP walks closer, fails to kill 1 with Bolt. (damn 1's)
His turn 5: He kills 1 more horror and wounds my DP again.
My turn 6: DP hits Lascanon/plasma squad, seekers hit other squad, and tabled him.
Notes:
Rick = Fantastic painter and good sport.
Seekers = Shoot them first or suffer later. 8 of them put out 40 rending attacks at initiative 6 on the charge.
KoS = Sometimes one marine gets lucky.
Soulgrinders = When the template hit, it's fun, but they die easy to PF. Still not impressed, but this was their best game so far.
Flamers = Still good.

Round 3: Eldar (Darrian)
Walking Eldar with some jetbike love. 2 WLs, Avatar, Eldrad, 2 squads of dire avengers, 1 guardian squad, 1 harlie squad, 1 howling banshee squad, 1 shining spear squad, 1 guardian jetbike squad, 1 dark reaper squad. (I think, Darrian can always post his list to be more specific)
Scenarios is traitor, I get a banshee, he gets a bloodcrusher. Yay me...
Diagonal deployment zone. Darrian is in the Northeast corner of the table, using the small village as cover, but mostly out in the open waiting to shoot me. My assault cohort comes in, all safely. Plaguebearers manage to hide behind the center hill. KoS lands on top of it. Bloodletters and bloodcrusher land far off to the southeast corner. GUO lands right next to a dire avenger squad in the North. Daemonettes land on top of hill. My turn 1 I kill 2 dires with Aura of Decay and 1 guardian with Gaze of Chaos from KoS. That's it.
His turn 1: Daemonettes go away. My bloodcrusher goes away via Banshee's. My DP goes away. KoS goes to 3 wounds. 3 wounds on GUO after being charged by Harlies and Shining spears. Fail to kill anything in CC.
My turn 2: 1 mounted daemonettes come in, hide behind hill. KoS rushes guardian squad and kills them down to the warlock who stays. GUO dies to Harlies. 2 Horrors come in and kill a few dire avengers, but unfortunately, they kill the ones in charge range of my Bloodletters.
His turn 2: KoS dies to avatar. Bloodletters dropped down to 4. 1 Horror group wiped by charging banshees who consolidate into Bloodletters. Other horror group wiped by Dark Reapers.
My turn 3: Other mounted daemonettes come in and hide behind hill. Soulgrinder and flamers come in. Flamers suicide close to his lines and hit. They kill 2 dark reapers and 1 jetbike. Soulgrinder finishes off Dark Reapers. Banshees finish off bloodletters. Mounted Daemonettes go for the glory and kill the traitor bloodcrusher and try to hurt the avatar, they do not.
His turn 3: Avatar, Wraithlord, and shining spears wipe Seekers. Harlies wipe other Seekers. Flamers die.
My turn 4: Soulgrinder kills Banshees. Plaguebearers kill Harlies.
His turn 5: Soulgrinder dies. Plaguebearers die. End O game.
Notes:
Me table-ing somebody = Me getting tabled.
Darrian = Bad mutha
Shooty cohort better than assault cohort against such a list.
Make sure Bloodletters get to charge.


I ended up winning Best Themed Army, which is more for using a daemon army the day it officially comes out than my skill at painting or what not. Had a lot of fun, continue being undefeated against Marines, winless against Eldar, and still at a slightly negative record with the daemons.

Things I've learned:
Shooty cohort is more effective as first turn drop against shooty armies. If given one redo, it'd be to have my shooty come in against Darrian, I think the game would have been closer.
Flamers kick ass. While 105 is a bit expensive for a suicide unit, in larger games it can be done, and in smaller games, using the fact they are jump infantry might make them less suicide and more fine blade.
Seekers kick the most ass. For 17 points you get fleet, 12" charge, rending, I 6 and 4 attacks base. Perhaps in 5th, not so great as rend is toned down, but still, these guys did damage in each game, a glass hammer to be sure, but cheap enough to be worth it.
Soulgrinder not as good as just basic troops. In the above list, I will drop the soulgrinder for another squad of Bloodletters or perhaps invest in some nurglings.
KoS = Fast as hell, but best at taking out small elite units. May drop in favor of Bloodthirster who has more survivability with 3+ save, higher str for tank killing/MC killing, 12 " move instead of fleet, and higher WS.

Please note this is written late, I'm tired, I have a horrible memory, so yah...if things aren't quite accurate, please forgive me, and feel free to mention such.

*Edited: Cleaned up some bad grammar/writing, added a closing thought.

Thanks for the game. I am really falling inlove with the Demon army. It is so radical.

I was thinking about that army list of yours. Have you considered just how cheap the Demon princes are with iron hide? 110 points is a great buy, I would consider taking 3

I had thought of running different variants of DP's to test them out. I thought of Mark of Khorne/Iron hide, Mark of Nurgle/Unholy Might, and I ran the Mark of Tz, Bolt of Tz, which is expensive but a +2 to hit str 8 AP 1 weapon seems necessary in the army.

I've been toying with an MC list that is 2 GUO's with Aura/flies, and then 3 DP's, maybe 1 Tz for ranged AT, and 2 cheaper Khorne's or just one each of for fluff.

So far that would be (for one of each and the two GUO's) 765 points, in an 1850 list that leaves plenty of room for mass troops. (ideally, 2 plaguebearers, 2 BL's, 2 horrors, and then some flamers/screamers thrown in for taste.)

Anyway, had a great game against you, and also of note, Darrian walked away with a well deserved, 3rd (or is this 4th?) straight RTT victory at the shop.

Thank you again for the game!

BTW, you did get the nominated Demolisher (it was the one of the 3 you managed to kill), I added its points into your total when I was doing the calculation

The Daemons were great fun to play, and I look forward to facing them in the future.

I will confess that I did get a huge boost with the KoS dying on turn one (yay Infiltrating Vets!), and without that happening the game would have been completely different.

Oh and in case anyone was curious the GUO really is impossible to kill, particularly if the dice are with Feel No Pain.

The GUO is S&P for a reason. Avoid it, kill everything else and then deal with the GUO. If you have a decent tarpit or a skimmer you can box the GUO off in a sandbox and ignore it.

lemurking23 wrote:
Seekers kick the most ass. For 17 points you get fleet, 12" charge, rending, I 6 and 4 attacks base. Perhaps in 5th, not so great as rend is toned down, but still, these guys did damage in each game, a glass hammer to be sure, but cheap enough to be worth it.

I don't think Seekers have fleet, but they do seem to be very good for the cost.

Thanks for the good batrep.

Seekers are cavalry, cavalry get fleet.

Darrian

Alpharius,

Ooh, I didn't even know. (Wow, I would have went after that hellhound harder then.)
I do not blame you what so ever for taking joy in the KoS splattering itself on 5 veterans, who I believe you should name as they survived the game and took down a greater daemon. It was funny to watch, although yah, I was missing her presence real quick.
It was a great game, I'd like to try your DE with my Daemons at some point as well.

Stelek:
Yes, a skimmer is what a GUO cannot deal with, only 4 attacks means it isn't going to do much. As for tarpits, I think Aura of Decay helps quite a bit as a str 2 hit to everything within 6" is quite nice against horde types. But then it all comes down to rolling those 5's and 6's.

Aura is nice but it's a nerfed Rot with a slight bonus vs marines.

GUO can't really deal with any vehicle moving fast and pushing it around. It's quite humorous to see a rhino push it back 5" every turn and it can't do much but go RAR at it. Can't feel no pain 'splat'...and can't fix it's S&P problem.

Yes it won't die, and it's moderately dangerous to weak troops. It gives up 50% of it's VP's after being wounded once, and unless you get lucky it won't move into combat until your opponent has neutralized it's supporting units.

You do realize that FNP doesn't work vs fists, and it doesn't take a whole lot to kill it with power or rending weapons...especially the latter. Sadly, stealers with feeders or acid maws really really hurt it...and harlequins with doom up just...make it cry.

Oh, I know harlies make Papa Nurgle cry. GUO's have glaring weaknesses, because well that makes the game more interesting.

But, they are the cheapest GD, as a psychological tool, they are intimidating to many players and therefore absorb fire better spent elsewhere, they block LOS, and dangsnabit, I love my toad.

While FNP doesn't work against Pfists, the guy is WS 6 with a 4+ invulnerable save, so it takes bout 4 swings of a pfist to put 1 wound on him and he has 5. If the pfist rumor in 5th is true, most fists will also be carrying along one less attack.
Stealers would eat the GUO, but then what don't stealers tend to munch on?

Well, let me know how it goes against the following lists:

Grey Knights with Psycannons. Lots of them. Can you actually get troops on the ground and keep them there before you get evaporated? Took years but the GK finally have a list they can laugh at.

Orks.

Nids.

Mech anything.

Eldar anything.

Remember, it helps when you're honest and you say:

Yes, my list is utterly useless against all of these armies.

Great against marines/IG setup in gunline formation though...man I own in those games!

lemurking23 wrote:

Anyway, had a great game against you, and also of note, Darrian walked away with a well deserved, 3rd (or is this 4th?) straight RTT victory at the shop.

I will see what I can do about ending that streak.

I've heard that before.

Darrian

lemurking23 wrote:It was a great game, I'd like to try your DE with my Daemons at some point as well.

Yes, Wyches v. Daemons could get quite interesting indeed . . .

I will let you know the next I am coming west out of Riverside.

Stelek wrote:Well, let me know how it goes against the following lists:

Grey Knights with Psycannons. Lots of them. Can you actually get troops on the ground and keep them there before you get evaporated? Took years but the GK finally have a list they can laugh at.

Orks.

Nids.

Mech anything.

Eldar anything.

Remember, it helps when you're honest and you say:

Yes, my list is utterly useless against all of these armies.

Great against marines/IG setup in gunline formation though...man I own in those games!

Yes, GK with many pyscannons and mystics would suck...but seeing as that entire codex is dedicated to giving it the ol in-out to Daemons, not all that surprised. When it happens, I'll laugh and see how long I last. Either that or I'll complain loud that somebody brought something that might hurt me and call it cheese and chipmunk and then get on dakka and rant and then....no...I'll just be happy the GK get to give as good as they get for a change.

Orks - Depends. Soulgrinders and flamers can put big dents in boys, massed horrors as well. Daemonettes and Seekers would be necessary most likely. Nurglings maybe as a tar pit. Really, against Orks it seems to be about isolate and eliminate. Hit 1 30 man squad with 2 squads of daemonettes or seekers after taking some shots from soulgrinders or flamers. Move on to next target, have lambs ready to keep other 30 man squads busy.

Nids: Horde, same as Orks. Zilla, I dunno, would like to try with many different set ups. Maybe rend o clock as Nids have limited range on many weapons, so Seekers and Fiends can stay out of shooty range and still be in assault range. Flamers for 4+ to wound, Plaguebearers (if they could get there, which maybe not), bolt spam, Bloodthirster, a lot of possibilities that could work, but really, gotta play them to see.

Mech - Horrors with Bolt, a lot of them. Heralds of Tz with bolt. Anything with bolt. Seekers might not be bad for the rend o clock, but Fiends might be better in that they are higher base str with still many attacks. I admit a tough matchup, but then what is the point playing an army you know you can always win with?

Eldar - Both of my games against Eldar, they were not hopeless causes, more out of my generalship than anything else. Had I chosen a different tactic and ran with that, things might have worked out different, or worse, who knows?

In a vacuum, yes I'm sure my little daemon army is never going be the belle of the ball like Eldar/Nids/Orks, but good thing I don't play in space. You play the table and your opponent as well as the models and the codex. We'll see how it goes.

Missed you guys at the store. My (fencing) tournament didn't end till 8 pm and then by dinner it was 9:30 by the time I made it to Game Empire. Heard you won again Darrian. I'll be bringing my Dark Eldar to the next one, I hope.

Daemons looks like a unique and fun army. 1-1-1 isn't bad for what looks like an early outing with a new army.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Thanks for the batrep... must have been fun to be playing in a tourney so soon after the book came out.

Its also been really fun trying to figure out what the more successful builds are going to be before the internet gestalt deciphers the codex. Reading tourney reports is really helpful for that.

the combination of demons and the changes 5th edition brings are finally killing heavy weapon armies. It will be very interesting to see what the new space marine codex and the new imperial guard codex have to offer in the mobile shooty department.

in regards to your 'things i've learned' section

shooty cohorts- should probably always ask the gods for these guys. Having an instant impact has been very useful for me... Did you get your preferred DMA (demonic assault) in all 3 games?

flamers- an emphatic yes. I've basically been playing only 5th edition with the demons, and yes, they rock hard. I would go as far as to say 'essential'

seekers- nice to hear good results. but with the rending nerf, and their loss of scoring stauts, both the rending ponies and the regular demonettes have been a touch frustrating for me. not being able to beat down on heavy infantry quite as much as they used to.

soulgrinder- agreed. I see you had a DP with mark of Tz and bolt of tzentch. I suggest you spring for the gaze of chaos. turning your DP into either a single shot heavy tank hunter, a 4 shot light tank killer or a 4 shot marine killer is great. All the same range all AP3 or better and all BS5. if the MC nerf rumors are true, then you can just add a 10 point master of sorcery upgrade to be able to take all those juicy shots. That might help soften the blow of losing the pie plate.

KoS- a good way to think of this guy is as a support GD. you can either choose to fleet with him or pavane a unit. think of the KoS pavane as giving fleet to the GUO, or a unit of bloodletters. if you pavane their charge target and move them in close, then you have just given multiple demon units fleet for a turn. I really like the inclusion of 1 kos. the other GD should be something that stands to gain from pavane though, like a bloodthirster or your GUO.

Oz,

How'd the fencing tourney go?
Yah, 1-1-1 is not too bad for an army I still don't really have a full handle on, I was happy with the results.

Shep,
Shooty Cohorts do seem to be the way to go. My preferred came in all 3 games (I usually roll 1's). My assault strategy did ok against the Guard as I got my daemonettes and Bloodletters into CC the next turn, I just forgot that eldar light arms fire is more deadly than IG light arms fire. I think that when fighting an army that relies on weapons that are high str, low rate of fire, assault is better to land first. But against Darrian's group, I definitely needed to do damage first.

Glad to see other people are having success with flamers. I am toying with a Nurgle/Tz MC army that will have a few flamers.

Seekers are great in 4th, but yes, I do not think they will be the best unit in the codex in 5th. They will still be very useful, but I don't think I can rely on them to do the damage they can do now.

Adding gaze makes the DP a bit too expensive for my tastes, perhaps because I used to play Nids, I still like my MC's cheap and plentiful. I really like Darrian's Iron hide only idea and will try it the first chance I get to proxy those suckers in. But it is also true that it seems a sin to waste BS 5 when they have access to some very nice shooty.

I like my KoS, she has done damage. But in the build of her I used, and then my application of her, I think you are right. I should have used her more of a pavane monkey (although The Masque is superior in this regard and much much cheaper) to make sure my BL and GUO had something to eat. I was using her as a hammer when for 10 points more I could have had a Bloodthrister, a much better hammer. I should have dropped Pavane and given her hit and run or just picked up another bloodletter or something. She is invaluable against Eldar though, as I10 (or Igofirst), she can cut through harlies and can take on Banshees, not to mention 6 base attacks is fun.

I am hoping to be able to try out a bunch of ideas (Like furies, I have some hopes for them.) in the new league starting at my shop, so we'll see what goes on.

I am also hoping to play different armies as so far its only been Space Marines, IG, Eldar, Tau, and Chaos. I'd like to see how a well rounded or non enemy specific list does against Orks, DE, Sisters, GK, Nids, and so forth.

I took 20th out of 113 fencers so I'm happy. And I qualified for Div 1A at the Summer Nationals (needed to get top 29 to do so).

I really am going to try to make it to the next 40k tournament. I go to about 1 a year and I'm trying to get more into that scene. Should be another one in June, no?

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Ozymandias wrote:
I really am going to try to make it to the next 40k tournament. I go to about 1 a year and I'm trying to get more into that scene. Should be another one in June, no?

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Game Empire Pasadena rotates between 40k and Fantasy, so the next 40k event will be in July.

If you feel like driving a bit further, the two Riverside FLGS are currently scheduled to have back-to-back Saturday/Sunday RTT's (2000 & 1750) on the 14th & 15th of next month

I am definitely going to go to those 2 events. Adventurers Guild of Riverside and GMI are great venues for RTT's.

Darrian

Oooh, back to back. If you guys are up for it, there will be a 1,500 pt. RTT here in SLO on July 5th. I'll post more info when we get closer in the appropriate forum.

Ozymandias, King of Kings