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Ryan and I are both trying out new armies - I am going with Daemons (his old army, in fact) and he is doing Eldar. We got in our first game last night and it must have been painful for John to watch the two of us stumbling through.

I ended up basing my list more or less on what he was using:

Bloodthirster
Keeper of Secrets - Musk, Pavane

2x5 horros
8 plaguebearers with icon

2x Daemon Princes, MoTz, Bolt, Gaze
Daemon Prince, MoSl, wings, pavane, breath, musk

2x3 Flamers

The Eldar list was something like this:

Eldrad the Omnipresent
Bike Autarch the Neverpresent

3x4 bikes (shrieker cannon, destructo-lock)
6 rangers
5 dire avengers

10 scorpions with move through cover, power fist
2x Vypers with EMLs

Falcon with stones, holofield
2x fireprisms with stones and holofields

Khorishaya the Pleasurer gazed through the mirror of eternities and watched as the swift Eldar host scouted the newly rediscovered world. Maiden world, they called it though Khorishaya knew many of the secrets this world bore. The Keeper would collect their spirit stones and present them to her Dark Prince as an offering and, perhaps, regain his pleasure. It was time to recall some ancient debts...

We rolled up the mission to claim objectives in each other's deployment zone with a pitched battle deployment type.

I won the roll to choose side and allowed Ryan to pick and go first.

Eldar Turn 1:
The Eldar heed the ancient farseer's warning of an impending attack and take a defensive posture.

Daemons Turn 1:
Slaanesh was still peeved with Khorishaya and thus, in my first game ever, I end up with my B team - the horrors, the plaguebearers, The Eye (Daemon Prince of Tz), one flamer unit.

The Eye is pretty much on target as are the two units of Horrors. The plaguebearers drift a bit from my own objective but not too bad. The flamers try to occupy the same space as the rangers and go back into reserve. One unit of horrors fires up a unit of bikes, killing half. The other unit of horrors blow the missile launchers off of the vypers. The Eye finished off the wounded unit of vypers and the plaguebearers ran towards my objective seeking to surround it in pus filled love.

Eldar Turn 2:
Ryan forgot to roll for his reserves. Bikes and Vypers shoot a unit of horrors down to 2 and kill 1 off the others. The rangers take 2 wounds off The Eye.

Daemon Turn 2:
Everything but the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince shows up. That is probably because he is the only one without a cool name. One unit flamers lands near the rangers, both greater daemons take advantage of the icon and appear midtable, the other flamers appear on my left flank with a shot at both some bikes and the falcon but drift. Shooting this time around isn't quite as good, though I do manage to kill one other bike unit and knock the rangers down to a single model.

Eldar Turn 3:
The scorpions come on my right flank and try to move through some woods but just manage a 2 on 3 dice. One unit of flamers is doomed and wiped out. Eldar move about some. The doomed plaguebearers take some shooting but only lose one model. Those guys are pretty freaking tough, btw.

Daemon Turn 3:
Tzeentch DP number 2, henceforth referred to as The Brain, knocks a gun off a fire prism, the Slaaneshi DP shows up and there is a bit of question on if one can pavane a unit and then flame it - we decided no since shooting is simultaneous. I flamed and then moved them into the woods to try and force difficult terrain check. He made all of them, but it was still fun to try.

Eldar Turn 4:
The autarch still doesn't show up. The remaining bikes units charge into the flamers along with the old man himself. The bloodthirster took a couple of wounds from shooting. One flamer survives combat.

Daemon Turn 4:
Slaanesh daemon prince charges into the combat hoping to kill off the bikes and maybe chase Eldrad off the table. I kill the biker but the warlock makes his armor save and the flamer is cut down. The brain knocks the pulse laser off the falcon with his mind bullets. Khoroshaya and the Brain turn their attention toward toward the gunless fireprism, ripping it apart.

Eldar Turn 5:
The autarch shows up and charges that slaanesh prince. The falcon moves over to cover the objective in case the game ends. The Vypers move over to contest mine. And the both fire prisms line up to tank shock the plaguebearers off the objective. The DP takes a couple of wounds.

Daemon Turn 5:
The horrors blast the vypers, destroying one. The plaguebearers charge the other and drag the pilot and gunner out Blackhawk Down style. The Bloodthirster and the Eye head back towards the objective in my zone, realizing that if I don't claim that one, I lose. The daemon prince and the bikes stalemate, the daemon prince hit and runs off towards the falcon.

Eldar Turn 6:
The fire prism considers tank shocking the bloodthirster and the Eye, but then decides against it and just flies over, contesting my objective. The Scorpions set up a charge through the smoking remains of the vypers. At this point I realize that i screwed up and put my horrors frighteningly close to the plaguebearers. Anything above a 3 on 3 dice will see both units getting tied up and possibly destroyed since the horrors will be easy kills. Ryan curses the fates and says that he hates WH40k and just charges the plaguebearers. We screwed up and thought that plaguebearers had clouds of flies, but they don't so the plaguebearers just lose a couple and stick the charge. Eldrad mindwars the daemon prince and gets a 5 and I get a 1. It is enough to banish me and have me playing for a desperate tie.

The bloodthirster hops over and sets up a charge on the scorpions as does Khoroshaya. In an all or nothing blowout the greater daemons and plaguebearers make cut down the green armored specialists. It isn't pretty, but it isn't a loss either.

Results:
Draw as each army claims one objective.

After action review:
I was impressed with the horrors. They performed much better than I expected and that 4+ kept them around much longer. Plus, they were pretty low on the target priority list so were able to shoot mostly with impunity. I even forgot to use the Changeling and am considering adding the Bolt of Tzeenth (but not sure where to find the points). Tzeentch Daemon Princes are awesome as shooting platforms. They can take a lot of damage and not lose any of their shooting. I like the idea of Soul Grinders, but it is hard to compete with the Daemon Princes. The winged Daemon Prince of slaanesh, while good, was kind of out of place in this list - it is just too expensive. I might try something like using them as greater daemons and going with a bunch of heralds just to try the concept.

Eternal Accolades:
Has to be the Keeper of Secrets. She destroyed both fireprisms and embarassed the bloodthirster by killing more scorpions than he did.

Immortal Enmity:
Eldrad, undoubtedly, though the falcon camping on the objective and making it impossible for me to claim or even contest due to it being in a corner has earned a place in the great grimoire of grudges.

Khoroshaya let out a wail of anguish. It hadn't gone like it should have. Not at all. The Eldar still lived, most of them anyway. Rather than a mountain of spirit stones there was a mere handful taken from the green armored eldar. There had been a couple more from the pilots of those gun platforms but they were so slime covered that Khoroshaya decided just to let them sit. There would be vengeance on these Eldar. And this world. She would just have to be patient.

Patrick, you always write the best reports. You need to play more, so you can write more. I would love to get a game in with your demons once you get your list finalized. LMK.

Tell my wife that ;-) Actually, I have been getting in a few games here and there but am trying to finish up for the GT.

Good report.

How did the Fire Prisms? Do you think they are worth it. Against tanks (Rhino pattern) they seem to be pretty unreliable as they too often for my liking scatter wide.

They didn't do a whole lot against my daemons. The gun platform daemons of tzeentch kept them shaken for much of the game so they were unable to shoot. One time there was a huge drift that hit nothing, another time it killed a couple of plaguebearers.

I have to say that it has absolutely owned my Black Templars though. Against Daemons, meh, against meqs better than meh.

The BS 4 really helps keep it on large vehicles (land raider and such) but yeah, against rhinos, they aren't great - falcon pulse laser is much better.

So magnanimous of you to refrain from posting the results of the OPTIONAL victory point tiebreaker.

yeah he had a pretty big win... but I'll take the tie haha...

Thats what i get from bringing a decidedly 4th edition eldar army to a 5th edition party.

That demon list was a slight variation on the MC spam lists that have a little traction in the demon community.

Tzeentch princes are just rotten good! They land and shoot well, walk forward and shoot well, do it again, always getting closer. the solution to them never lies in charging them (unless you've got the bodies to swamp him).

If your demon prince killing guns are on tanks, he'll shake you. I couldn't get rid of those guys. Bloodthirster is just fast and scary... Keeper has some nice tricks to synergize with the other big guys. I dont like horrors, but they keep working for him, and what can you say about that except to revise your opinion

I know that the crusher list is coming, and I'm looking forward to taking another loss trying to figure out what to do when those dump trucks land on my front porch.

Bloodcrushers = Dump Trucks.