Painlord Titan Princeps of Slaanesh
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Well today was a fine day - and I replaced the local reigning bad luck champion! Nice accomplishment, I must say. Onto the game!
Me:
Lash Prince
Lord on bike, daemon weapon
5 noisemarines, blastmaster, 3 sonic blasters
5 noisemarines, blastmaster, 3 sonic blasters
10 noisemarines, champion, power weapon, doomsiren, personal icon in a rhino with EA
6 lesser daemons
10 raptors, icon of slaanesh, meltagun, flamer, champion with lightning claws and meltabombs
10 chosen, icon of slaanesh, 3 2x lightning claws, 1 meltagun, champion with powerfist
Vindicator, daemonic possession, havoc missle launcher
2 obliterators
1 obliterator
Him:
I'm not actually sure, all I know is there were about 4-5 units of 5 guys with 4 meltaguns, a half dozen of 5 guys with 1 plasmagun, and about four to 6 10-man squads with a plasmagun in them, with two units with demolition charges and two sentinels with improved comms and lascannons. Apparently he was underpointed [a fact that was rather depressing after the second turn, as you'll see].
Deployment:
Recon mission.
The board had a decent bit of cover on it, which was good. He deployed his two sentinels in different patches of woods. I deployed fairly close to the center with the lash prince on the extreme flank to go after a sentinel early, along with one of the smaller noisemarine squads to try to shoot the other down. He used his scout move to move into the open. I left my obliterators and raptors in reserves with the daemons
Turn 1:
He went first, moving forward and taking potshots. One sentinel fired at noisemarines and missed, the other hit and wounded the prince, but he passed his invulnerable save. On my turn I moved some noisemarines into cover, the other squad closer to shoot the offending sentinel, and the vindicator up near a rock wall. Noisemarine squad's shooting only shook the sentinel, while the daemon prince assaulted and ripped apart the other.
Turn 2 - game over man!
One unit of his didn't show up. One. Only one. EVERYTHING came in. He lost about three squads to bad scatters, but the rest landed well and began laying waste to my army. The rhino with the noisemarines with smoke launchers popped was destroyed, and 8 of the marines were wounded 2 of them dying. He then kept firing. ALL of his plasmagun shots hit except for two, and by the end of it I was out one full noisemarine squad, the 10-man one was down to 4 and entangled, and the chosen were down to 3. The lord had been killed as well, despite turbo-boosting, by failing 3 out of 5 saves against lasgun and plasma fire.
My single obliterator and the daemons arrived. Ugh. See what I can do with these... On my turn, I moved the remaining noisemarine squad out of cover, turned the vindicator [miraculously unharmed] in place, moved the daemon prince down back towards my deployment zone to handle the troops that had appeared. The chosen wandered over to one of the 10-man squads that had appeared near them, while the one obliterator deepstruck using their icon next to another squad of clustered together guardsmen. The daemonettes used the entangled noisemarines' icon to appear in the center of the board near another of the bigger squads. The noisemarine squad that broke cover managed, with all of their shooting AND the charge, to kill only three guardsmen - two from shooting, one in cc, and I lost a noisemarine in return, drawing the combat. The daemons managed to kill 2 guardsmen but lost one as well, and the guardsmen held. The chosen tore up several guardsmen, who then broke and fled. The obliterator managed to score 10 wounds with his twin-linked flamer, but only two died thanks to the carapace armour in the whole army. The prince charged and wiped out the small squad in front of him, sweeping into another one nearby. The vindicator did try to shoot the meltagun squad coming on it, but the shot scattered and killed only 1.
Turn 3:
Things looked bleak as his final unit showed up, but luckily almost everything of mine was in combat. Despite a good bit of shooting the single obliterator took only 1 wound, and the chosen shrugged off the meager firepower directed their way. I lose another noisemarine of the 10-man assault squad, but that couldn't be helped. The vindicator had its demolisher cannon shot off and was immobilized. In the assault phase the noisemarines still managed to avoid being useful, the daemons gained the upper hand, and the prince finished off another squad.
On my third turn, only the raptors showed up, and deepstruck over in the woods near where the daemon prince was playing cleanup. Chosen advanced and charged a fresh squad, obliterator gave the flamer another shot and killed 1 despite wounding 7, then charged, the vindicator killed only 1 more guardsman with its havoc missle launcher, the prince charged a fresh squad after lashing them into better position. The 3 remaining members of the rhino-bound noisemarine squad proved their worth as the doomsiren scythed down 7 guardsmen. The three noisemarines charged the 3 remaining guardsmen and did....nothing. At all. The daemons finished off their adversaries and consolidated into the ongoing combat with the noisemarines and the guardsmen.
Turn 4: The turning.
This turn is where things really started going the other way, heralded by the arrival of the raptors. He charged a 5-man squad and the sentinel from the game's start into the combat with the rhino noisemarines, and on the side with the daemon prince ran forward to try to shoot the newly arrived raptors. Nearly everything else was engaged in close combat. The noisemarines and daemons finished off the initial squad they had been fighting and scored some damage on the 5 that just charged, but the sentinel made it so we couldn't outnumber them, so they stayed put. The vindicator saw its end this turn.
My turn is where the title of worst luck came about. After a rather poor showing of armour saves and accuracy, I proved myself I could do worse by both obliterators finally arriving and missing all their shots on the target unit. The 4 remaining noisemarines from one of the original 5-man squads opened fire on 4 remaining guardsmen of one of the remnants squads and killed only 2. The raptors flew in and surrounded a squad, but killed it with shooting fire. The prince wiped out another squad, the chosen helped the obliterator clear his deployment zone, and then the daemons and the noisemarines.
4 daemons, 2 noisemarines with an aspiring champion. The champion hit once and didn't wound [just like the turn he charged], and then came the remaining dice. Of all the dice rolled, all 12, the end result was 9 1's, one 2, and two hits that went on to wound as well with a 4 and a 6. Calling the previous reigning bad luck champion over we denounced his title and I ascended to the throne. Hooray.
At the end of this turn the guardsmen were proving to be easily handled in close combat by the arrival of my elite troops, and we called the game in my favor.
Comments:
It looked terrifying at first, and I lost a lot of important things. Half my firepower gone, 4/5 of my heavy assault gone or inaccessible [entangled], my chaos lord gone, and my vindicator missing its assassins. My bad luck proved to be beneficial though, as most combats lasted into his turn and were finished there, allowing me to freely wander to other squads once they finished. In the end, it was guardsmen versus chaos marines, and the numbers didn't lie.
The game was quite enjoyable though, and proved a real challenge. I know several players that would have given up after that first turn when only an obliterator and daemons arrived, but I wanted to see if I could pull it out and I did! Despite 9/12 1's.
-Spellbound
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