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First off, an apology for the quality of the pics. I was trying a new setting on my camera, and it looked fine on the viewscreen, but once I uploaded the pics to my computer, I discovered that the pictures left a lot to be desired.

Anyways, here's the army I brought:

Skulltaker on a Juggernaut

The Bluescribes

Tzz'man'e - Herald of Tzeentch on a Chariot /w bolt of tzeentch and master of sorcery

The Pheonix - Herald of Tzeentch on a Chariot /w bolt of tzeentch and master of sorcery

The Butchers of Khorne - 4 Bloodcrushers /w icon

The Pyrokin - 4 Flamers of Tzeentch

The Hurricane of Shadows - 9 Horrors /w Changeling upgrade, Bolt of Tzeentch

The Twisted Cyclone - 5 Horrors /w Bolt

The Tornado - 5 Horrors /w Bolt

Blessed Children of Nurgle - 10 Plaguebearers

Howling Death - 4 Screamers

Morpheon - Soul Grinder /w Phlegm

Sang-Drakk - Soul Grinder /w Phlegm

If you're interested in seeing this army come together on the painting table, I suggest you look at my WIP Blog thread at:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/218778.page

Game 1 vs. Scott Syverson, Chaos Space Marines

The mission was Seize Ground with 5 objectives, and pitched battle deployment.

Scott fielded a mixed undivided/nurgle CSM army. Not the toughest possible CSM build, but by no means a pushover build either. He had a Chaos Lord in terminator armor with a daemon weapon, 10 Plaguemarines in a Rhino, 2 squads of 10 Chaos Marines, 5 terminators, 2 obliterators, a Land Raider, and 6 Havocs in a Rhino.



I won the roll off for first turn and elected to go second. The objectives were clustered in two areas, with three relatively near each other, and two others relatively near each other. Scott deployed, keeping the land raider empty to start, but the havocs and plaguemarines were mounted up.



Since he held his terminators and obliterators in reserve, I tried to seize the initiative (to give me two turns to concentrate on the rest of his force instead of one) but failed. Scott moved forwardsin two pincers to try and threaten all of the objectives, and he also mounted up one of his CSM squads in the Land Raider.

I nominated Skulltaker and the Bloodcrushers, the Bluescribes and the Flamers, the Changeling-led horrors, and the screamers as my primary, and got my wish. Initial scatters were uneventful, but the bluescribes and flamers scattered dangerously close to the Havocs in the Rhino. Turn 1 shooting was largely ineffectual, as both soul grinders tried coughing on the Plaguemarine's Rhino but scattered off, the Horrors missed the Havoc's rhinos /w a bolt (they ignored the nearby CSM squad due to the potential payoff if my Flamers could have flamed the havocs forced out), and the bloodcrushers ran. The only really effectual hit was having the Bluescribes pavane a CSM squad closer to the Bloodcrushers.



Turn 2, Scott got both the Terminators and the Obliterators in. He brought the terminators down near Sang-Drakk (the Red Soul Grinder), but his reaper autcannon predictably did nothing. The obliterators came down next to the bloodcrushers and the nearby CSMs marched up through the woods, and everyone there (including the havocs, which stayed inside the Rhino) shot at the bloodcrushers. Between saving throws and funky wound allocation, he only caused four wounds total - 2 on Skulltaker, one on the icon, and one on a generic Bloodcrusher.

His Land Raider made up for that Fail by lascannnoning Morpheon (the blue Soul Grinder) to an explosion.

On my turn, Tzz'man'e arrived along with the Blessed, and they used the Bloodcrusher's icon to arrive next to the Havoc's Rhino.



The Flamers and Bluescribes jumped to cover two sides of the Rhino, the plaguebearers ran to cover the third, and the Chariot had landed covering the fourth. 3 bolts of Tzeentch from the Bluescribes, Herald, and Horrors cracked the Rhino, and the havocs inside were unable to perform an emergency disembark.

The Bluescribes used their second power to pavane the oblits towards the CSMs, allowing the Bloodcrushers to charge both units. Skulltaker took down the obliterators, single-handedly, while the bloodcrushers wiped out the CSMs.



On the other flank, I turbo-boosted my screamers in front of the Land Raider and ran Sang-Drakk towards the Land Raider, intending to assault it with my S10 attacks. Unfortunately, failure on Difficult Terrain and Run rolls left me short of the Land Raider.

Not wanting to tank shock over the meltabombs, the Land Raider pulled back six inches and disgorged the CSMs who readied themselves for a charge. The Plaguemarines got out of their transport as well, and fired on the screamers. Between enemy fire and the assault, the screamers were wiped out, and the terminators charged in on Sang Drakk. Sang Drakk killed a single terminator, and the chainfist failed to kill the soul grinder. Push.




The rest of my reserves arrived, and the 5-man horror squads dropped on top of objectives, while the chariot joined its partner. The Bluescribes jumped over the intervening terrain with the flamers and pavaned the plaguemarines closer, then used breath of chaos to wipe them out. As a side effect, the flames combined with 5 bolts managed to immobilize the Land Raider.

The second power was also pavane, so they pavaned the last CSM squad towards the Bloodcrushers, which proceeded to Crush , although the surving CSMs manged to stand firm.



The terminators managed to kill off the Soul Grinder, and Matt was a good enough sport to realize that they couldn't hope to run away fast enough from the bloodcrushers and bluescribes. So he charged at the bloodcrushers gamely, and Skulltaker got another skull. My chariots killed his last rhino, and with only an immobilized Land Raider remaining, Matt conceded at the end of turn 4.



20 points, major win + 3 bonus.

Game 1 MVP - The Bluescribes. Their Pavanes were a key part in letting me murder CSMs, as I brought units within charge range of the Bloodcrushers.

Game 2: Mike Mutscheller, Chaos Space Marines

Mike's a buddy of mine, and one of the famous (or infamous) Toledo Crew. Great guy, sound tactician, and he and I have played several times in previous GTs (although usually not this early in the tournament). We've got a friendly rivalry going, with a 1-1 GT record against each other (he beat me at the Detroit GT, and I beat him last year in Chicago.

His army included a lash prince, a lash sorcerer on a bike, three squads of CSMs with the Mark of Khorne, 5 lesser daemons, 6 oblits, and a land raider.

The game was annihilation, with spearhead deployment.

I've managed to hold my own in playtesting KP missions with these daemons, but KP missions are tough when you include the small shooty objective-grabbing units like I do with the 5-man horrors.

Anyway, I lost the roll to go first and ended up going second. So after deploying and his first turn of moving, this is what the board looked like:



That building was smack-dab in the center of the table. The lash prince hid, sandwiched between the building and the land raider, and the lash sorcerer joined the squad of CSMs in the woods.

I chose Skulltaker and the Bloodcrushers, the Bluescribes and the Flamers, the Changeling and his Horrors, the Screamers, and both Heralds to lead the way. The Chaos Gods liked my choices, and onto the table they went.

Fairly large scatters on nearly everything, but nothing died. The bulk of my units landed as close to his deployment zone as possible, with the exception of the screamers, who deep struck in anticipation of an attack on the Land Raider. Lucked out on the heralds, as one just missed (by a 4+ roll on a d6) landing just over the edge of the other herald's base. (We d6'd it because it was quite literally a hairs breath from overlapping bases - basically depending on whether the angle was 45degrees or 46 degrees. )

The bloodcrushers ran forward, getting close enough that a charge in the next turn was all but guaranteed.

The rest of my forces were dedicated to one objective this turn: killing at least one of the lash platforms. Since the bluescribes and flamers had landed relatively close to the CSMs hiding in the woods, I used the Pavane to bring them out into the open, and lay down four flamer templates. A low roll on the Pavane kept the Flamers at the edge of their range, but I still got enough models under the template (14 total, if I recall correctly) that eight of the CSMs went down. The Changeling and his Horrors killed the last CSMs, and a Bolt of Tzeentch from the Herald killed off the Sorcerer.

The last bolt failed to damage the Land Raider. End of Turn 1: 2 KP for me, 0 for Mike.



Mikes response was to zoom the Land Raider forward at full speed, disgorging the CSMs inside to let them kill off the Screamers. The Lash Prince jumped at the Heralds, lashed one into range, and charged it, killing that unit as well. One squad of obliterators targeted the Bluescribes and their horrors, killing them off with massed plasma cannon fire, while the other squad and and the CSMs fired at the bloodcrushers...and inflicted only a handful of wounds (without actually killing a single model).

I made every reserve roll, and the rest of my force arrive on turn 2. Knowing that the Bloodcrushers could easily take down all of the remaining forces around the building by themselves, I elected to have almost all the remaining units come down in position to attack the Land Raider. Everything landed on target...except for Morpheon, the Blue Soul Grinder, who decided that it was a good time to scatter 11" off the table. Rolling on the Mishap table, Mike got to place the Soul Grinder for me, and decided that my forces around the building needed reinforcement...right between the bloodcrushers and the CSM squad, in fact.

With the soul grinder in the way, the Bloodcrushers had to move through difficult terrain to reach the building...and between the movement and assualt phases, failed to make the charge. The 5-man horror and Sang-Drakk killed off a few Chaos Marines that had gotten out of the Land Raider, but largely failed to do much. The Changeling's horrors and the Remaining Herald combined their fires to kill off two obliterators, and a very disappoint turn for me ended.

Kill Points: Me - 2. Mike - 4.

Turn three, his prince flew towards one of my five-man horror squads, seeing an easy kill point, while the full-strength squad of obliterators marched towards the Sang-Drakk. Two twin-linked lascannons and three meltaguns failed to do anything besides knock off one close combat weapon, but the last obliterator fired a multi-melta shot that killed Sang-Drakk. The lesser daemons arrived and with the CSMs, charged the plaguebearers, but the combat ended inconclusively.




On my turn I killed the last obliterator out of the wounded squad, and charged the bloodcrushers into the combat. The results were predictable, and the CSMs and lesser daemons died, although not before he killed off the last of the plaguebearers.

The remaining three turns of the game were a bit anti-climactic. Mike killed off the 5-man horror squad with combined fire from the Land Raider and CSM squad, then hopped the CSMs into the Land Raider to preserve them, while the obliterators managed to take down the Herald. My bloodcrushers ran for all they were worth, but were just short of reaching the Obliterators when the game ended. I did manage to immobilize the Land Raider with a lucky Bolt, but killing it was never a serious option, especially once he immobilized my remaining Soul Grinder.

After 6 turns:
Kill Points: Me-6 Mike-7.

Oh yeah, the Lash Prince that charged the 5-man squad of horrors? Here's what that combat looked like at the end of the game.



Yep. 8 rounds of hand to hand combat...and the Daemon Prince killed 4 T3 single-wound models. Epic Failure.

A minor loss to me, but on the bright side, I had both bonus victory conditions, so I got 10 points out of the game.

Game 3 - v. Ben's Space Wolves

Can't remember Ben's last name, but he brought Space Wolves to the table. Ragnar, a venerable dreadnought, and a rune priest, wolf scouts, two grey hunter packs, two blood claw packs (one in a Rhino), and a land raider. Very well painted.

This was a capture and control, with pitched battle deployment. Using the Venerable Dread, Ben won the roll and made me take the first turn. He deployed his forces in a line, with grey hunters anchoring each flank, and blood claws ready in the center to do...something. He also infiltrated the wolf scouts on top of my objective.



I nominated Skulltaker and the Bloodcrushers, the Bluescribes and the Flamers, the Changeling and the Horrors, the Screamers, and both Soul Grinders as my primary and got them. Deployment went well (i.e. I lost nothing) although the Bluescribes and Flamers scattered farther than I would have liked. I wanted to use the flamers on the wolf scouts, but they decided not to cooperate.



I deployed the Bloodcrushers as far away from the Venerable Dread as I could while still staying relatively close to enemy troops. There's a squad of grey hunters hidden in the building on my left, with Ragnar leading them. Worthy targets for Skulltaker, I believed.

The Bloodclaws out in the open were the primary targets for my soul grinders, and two phlegm attacks killed off nearly half of them. The bloodcrushers ran towards Ragnar, while the Bluescribes attempted to pavane the Wolf Scouts but missed. For their second act, they combined their Daemonic Gaze with the Flamers Warpfire, and killed a few Scouts. The Changeling and his Horrors added their fire into the mix, and killed off all the scouts except for the Wolf Guard.

On his turn, the Land Raider and Venerable Dreadnought combined their efforts and managed to kill Sang-Drakk, but little else of value was accomplished, as the wolf scouts were outside of charge range of the Changeling and his Horrors. Ragnar and the Grey Hunters turned tail and ran away from the Bloodcrushers as fast as their legs could carry them, and got far enough away that a Bloodcrusher charge would probably be delayed for another turn.

On my second turn, the bloodcrushers ran forward but couldn't come to grips with Ragnar's Grey Hunters, while my remaining soul grinder elected to forgo shooting so that he could potentially charge the Land Raider. My reserves arrived in the form of two squads of horrors and the plaguebearers, which all used the Bloodcrushers' icon to arrive safely. An eventful but largely unproductive turn, as the Changeling and Horrors charged the sole remaining Wolf Scout Guard and failed to kill him, the Soul Grinder charged the Land Raider and failed to kill it, and the Bloodcrushers failed to kill anything at all. The Bluescribes did manage to Pavane the Venerable Dreadnought, forcing it back away from all my other units of value.



On his turn, Ben began knocking down Bloodcrushers, and tried to kill Morpheon with more fire from the Land Raider and Venerable Dreadnought. This time he failed, but the Blood Claws who disembarked from the Land Raider got the job done with their power fists.

On my turn, the two Heralds on Chariots arrived, and I deep struck them with the intention of shooting at the Dreadnought. Thanks to rear armor shots, they managed to destroy all of its weapons and immobilize it, effectively removing it from the game. As it was far away from either objective, I could safely ignore it.



The Plaguebearers and Flamers advanced, along with the screamers. The Bluescribes and Flamers killed off half of the Blood Claws accompanying the rune priest, while the Screamers flew overhead and took out the Land Raider. The Bloodcrushers, however, displayed some Epic Failure, with only two or three of the remaining Blood Claws dying when they charged in. Skulltaker himself would eventually fall victim to the Rune Priest.



The last flamers were gunned down, but the Bluescribes themselves managed to survive, and jumped over the Rune Priest and left the nearest Grey Hunter pack for the Plaguebearers to deal with. Thus began a long, drawn-out hand to hand combat that continued until the end of the game.

The bluescribes used breath of chaos to kill off half of the blood claws accompanying Ragnar. A second Breath of Chaos killed off most of the remaining Blood Claws, and the two five-man horror squads shot down the rest, leaving ragnar all by Himself. I charged the screamers in - hoping to tie up Ragnar for a turn - and learned that even the screamer's 4+ invulnerable was insufficient to the task.



The Rhino that had dropped off the Grey Hunters moved to the other squad, who embarked on the Rhino. He obviously wanted to get the grey hunters to my objective and contest or claim it. In a last-ditch effort, I shot both heralds at it, and manged to kill the Rhino. The Bluescribes again laid down two Breaths of Chaos, and the first Grey Hunter squad was toast.

After turn five all of Ben's troops except the Grey Hunters facing off against the Plaguebearers were dead. My two five-man squads of Horrors were too close to Ragnar and the Runepriest to get away, but had managed to avoid getting charged through failed difficult terrain tests. I moved them up into the building and unloaded on Ragnar. Combining the firepower of both squads of horrors allowed me to kill Ragnar, but as best I could tell, they were too far away from the objective to claim it.

Ben charged his Rune Priest at the squad of horrors closest to the objective. He learned what Mike learned last game...don't charge Horrors with a single model and expect to accomplish anything in one turn. Thanks to his charge move, my countercharge move brought my horrors to within 3" of the objective...and the game was over, with my troops in possesion of both objectives (as the rune priest was too far from the objective to contest.)

MVP - Undoubtedly the Bluescribes. By themselves, they accounted for nearly two full squads, not to mention the use of the Pavane to keep the Dreadnought away from my forces.

Game 4 Placeholder

Game 5 Placeholder

AAR Placeholder

Great posts on all of your Deamons work. I blisfully wasted an hour at work and look forward to more slacking. Will you be bringind Deamons to Baltimore? I would love to see it up close.

Also, when you get a chance, perhaps you could tell us about your conversation with the other daemon player about his list or experiences.

Outstanding report (at least, the first one). And well played. Sounds as though you managed to apply the right tools to the right jobs -- something at which demon armies excel... when things go right!

Too bad you had to face such a tough opponent in the second round. Still it was very close. Great report.

G

Does anyone notice what all of these armies have in common?







Warhammer 40K 5th edition...the rise of the landraider!!!

Land Raiders are amazing in 5th. They're really tough to crack now, and can bunker the remnants of a troop squad while it still counts as a scoring unit. Unless you've got rail guns or close-by meltaguns, you're probably not killing it by shooting at it.

That is why my Templars army has 3!

Capt K

Blackmoor wrote:Does anyone notice what all of these armies have in common?







Warhammer 40K 5th edition...the rise of the landraider!!!

Dear Captain K, I also have 3 Black Templar Land Raider Crusaders, newly done up. But, BlackTemplars won't play nice with Daemonhunter Inquisitors to help prevent DeepStrike, as in Demons, and now Sternguard. Do you have any regrets about going Black Templar instead of Vanilla or Deviant, I mean Variant marine chapter? Sorry for interrupting the thread...

:< still no more than game 3! tsk tsk!