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I decided to take the dust off some daemons that aren't normally used in my all Tzeentch list and have some fun this past 4th of July weekend.

My 1850pt daemon army.

HQ
Herald of Tzeentch w/ chariot, we are legion, master of sorcery, bolt of tzeentch
Herald of Tzeentch w/ chariot, we are legion, master of sorcery, bolt of tzeentch
Herald of Tzeentch w/ chariot, we are legion, master of sorcery, bolt of tzeentch
The Masque

Elite
3 Flamers
6 Fiends, unholy might
6 Fiends, unholy might

Troops
5 Horrors, bolt of tzeentch
5 Horrors, bolt of tzeentch
5 Horrors, bolt of tzeentch
5 Horrors, bolt of tzeentch

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder, tongue, phlegm
Soul Grinder, tongue, phlegm
Soul Grinder, tongue, phlegm



1st round opponent: Tyranids
HQ
1 Hive Tyrant, 2 tyrant guard

Elite
3 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard

Troops
10 Termagaunts
10 Termagaunts
1 Tervigon
1 Tervigon

Heavy Support
1 Tyrannofex
1 Trygon
1 Trygon Prime

Mission: Objectives, the objectives are things from space. So at the start of each players shooting phase the other player deep strikes an objective, it causes a str7 ap3 hit to anything under the template and then that is where the objective is located. At the end of the 2nd turn a final objective lands in the center of the table and all models within 6 inch's take the same hit.

Deployment: Spearhead

My opponent wins the roll off and chooses to go first. He deploys the 2 trygons and the tyrannofex on the side of the quarter thats the half way point up the table. In the middile he deploys the tervigons and hive tyrant the hive guard are behind them. One squad of termagaunts is in front of the tyrant, the other in an area piece of terrain close to the board edge.

Nid Turn 1: The nids move up keeping the same rough formation. I drop my objective way back in my deployment zone.

Daemons Turn 1: I choose as my first wave flamers, masque, 3 chariot heralds, and 2 fiends. I get my chosen wave in. He's a bit clumped up in the middle so I go for it with the flamers, and with some nice roll's wipe out one 3 man unit of hive guard, and both of his tyrant guard and put a wound on the tyrant. The fiends both run behind the piece of area terrain with the gaunts in it, flanked by the masque. The chariots take some pot shots and put a wound on a tervigon. He drops his objective on my flamers but it moves and instead puts a wound on a hive guard.

Nid Turn 2: One tervigon spawns 13 gaunts and runs out the other spawns 9. The trygon's run and fleet towards my objective, the front termagaunts move up and the new squad of termagaunts and the one's already in the terrain move up. Both squads shoot into my fiends, but thanks to cover saves I only take a wound. The hive guard put some wounds on a chariot, and the tyrannofex puts a wound on the masque. Only one of the termagaunts squads makes the difficult terrain test to assault my fiends, and the fiends rip them down. The other squad of spawned gaunts assaults and kills off the flamers. I place my other objective 12 inch's away from my previous one and it deviates 7 inch's towards my other objectives, they are now as deep in my deployment zone as I can get.

Daemons Turn 2: I get in 2 soul grinder, and 2 horror squads. The grinder comes down on the middle line of the table but away from his deployment zone. One squad of horror's drops near each of the objectives. The other soul grinder rolls an 11 for it's deviation and goes off the table, destroyed. The masque pulls one unit of termagaunts out of cover near the fiends, pulls another unit of termagaunts forwards and bunch's them up for the grinder, and the 3rd pavane pulls a tervigon forward. Shooting sees one wound put on the tyrant from the chariots, the soul grinder kills 7 of 10 of a gaunt squad (he went to ground for the 6+). The fiends clear out a unit of gaunts. The other unit of fiends put's five wounds on the tervigon. He tries to put the objective on the fiends but it scatter towards the middle.

At the end of the turn the flaming wreckage lands in the center of the table and kills the other 3 termagaunts.

Nid Turn 3: The tervigon spits out 11 more gaunts and is exhausted. Both spawned unit's of gaunts move up and assault the fiends, I kill a few, but poison, and preferred enemy from the tyrant wipe out the unit of fiends. The tyrannofex shoots at the grinder and does nothing, the hive guard shoot the grinder, 4 hits, one 6, and a 5 to wreck it.

Daemons Turn 3: I get in 2 units of horrors, and the last soul grinder. One unit of horror's and the grinder comes down in his backfield. The other unit drops to go towards the center objective. The masque pulls the tyrant forward the tervigon away from the gaunt's and the other unit of gaunts out of the terrain. My last fiend unit hit's the gaunts and the hive tyrant killing both losing one fiend. The masque assaults the tervigon and takes off it's last wound. The dropped in horror's kill the other gaunt squad. Shooting from the chariots see's one more wound put on the prime.

Nid Turn 4: The tyrannofex shoots and stuns the grinder, the hive guard, shoot get a 6 followed by another 6 to blow up the grinder. The trygon splits off from the pack and assaults the fiends, another fiend goes down but the trygon takes 5 wounds and the fiends hit and run out of the combat. The prime continues to run towards my objectives.

Daemons Turn 4: The masque assaults the wounded trygon and kills it. The fiends assault the hive guard and the tervigon, killing off one hive guard and putting 4 more wounds on the tervigon. The chariots and horror units put the last 4 wounds on the trygon prime killing it.

Nid Turn 5: The tyrannofex moves back towards the fiend scrum. In the scrum the last hive guard goes down but the tervigon is still up. The fiends hit and run out.

Daemons Turn 5: The masque charges into the tervigon and is assisted by the fiends that multi-charge the tyrannofex and the tervigon. The masque kills the tervigon, the tyrannofex kills the masque, and the fiends take all it's wounds but 1.

Nid Turn 6: The fiends finish off the tyrannofex.

Aftergame thoughts: Well the soul grinders died way too easily, I thought they would last much longer. The plan to munch through his units with the fiend/masque combo worked out good. The nid player should have held back a bit more instead of advancing in waves against the fiends. That and spread out while waiting for the flamers. I'm surprised he didn't spend a bit more firepower to take down the masque.

2nd Round: Traitor Imperial Guard
HQ
1 CCS w/ 3 plasma medic, chimera
1 CCS w/ 4 melta guns

Elites
Marlboro

Troops
Veterans w/ 3 melta, chimera
Veterans w/ 3 melta
PCS w/ 4 flamers, chimera
infantry squad w/ lascannon
infantry squad w/ lascannon

Fast Attack
Vendetta
Vendetta
9 rough riders

Heavy Support
3 Hydras
1 Manticore
1 Executioner


Mission: 3 objectives placed evenly across the center of the table. secondary was holding table quarters, tertiary was killing elites.
Deployment: Dawn of war (night fight the entire game, but you get 3 spotting rounds each turn, anything under the ordnance template is illuminated (roll for scatter as normal).

He wins the roll off and has me go first.

He deploys both infantry squads one near the center of the table the other in a back corner in some heavy terrain. He chooses to have the exectuioner, manticore, ccs in chimera, and veterans come in on the first turn, vendetta's outflank, everything else in normal reserves. (not sure why he didn't just have everything come in on turn one, or at least just leave the vendettas to outflank).

Daemons Turn #1: I get in the wrong wave so end up with 4 squads of horrors, and 3 chariots. Most of the horror's drop in the center, except for one real bad scatter that goes towards his table edge. The chariots cluster together. I wipe out one infantry squad.

Imperial Guard Turn #1: On comes the manticore to hide in the corner opposite his surviving infantry squad. The executioner comes on near his infantry squad, and his melta vets come on in the center near the horrors that deviated too close to the board edge. His shooting see's the horror unit wiped out.

Daemons Turn #2: I get in a unit of fiends, 2 soul grinder's. One soul grinder comes down near the vets in the center the other squad comes down near the executioner and other infantry squad. I take a missile off the manticore, blow up the vet chimera, kill 3 of the vets with a soul grinder, and they fail their pin check. The other grinder rips the turret off the exectutioner. I secure the center objective and the objective not near his other infantry squad.

Imperial Guard Turn #2: On comes his company command squad, they dismount near the manticore and shoot the herald that was attacking it in hand to hand. His pcs comes in the center to back up the vet's. His rough riders come in and assault a herald dealing 3 wounds, I take one more for no retreats. He shoots the main gun off my center soul grinder with the manticore.

Daemons Turn #3: I get in the other pack of fiends, the masque, and the flamers. The flamers drop near his dismounted ccs and I fry them, stun the manticore, and shake the chimera. The masque pulls his vets close to the grinder, the grinder assaults and wipes them out. The other grinder flames the infantry squad killing 6, but because they are up on a wall it doesn't make it into base to base and can't charge. The fiends charge in and wipe out the rough riders saving the herald.

Imperial Guard Turn #3: On comes both vendetta's filled with the ccs and the other vet squad. And on comes Marlboro. Marlboro bombs one of the center horror units killing one, the ccs gets out of the valkryie, bids on the soul grinder and doesn't phase it, but then his vendetta destroys it. The other vendetta immobilizes itself trying to perch on another wall.

And time gets called. I wasn't really paying that much attention to the clock, and I know my opponent definitely wasn't slow playing me, because he had horrible placement for a last turn grab, so I'm not sure what happened to the time. I end up pulling a minor win since I got the primary, he got the secondary and we split the tertiary.

Round #3

Khorne Chaos Space Marines
HQ
Kharn

Troops
8 Berserkers, fist, rhino w/ combi-plasma, extra armor
8 Berserkers, fist, rhino w/ combi-plasma, extra armor
8 Berserkers, fist, rhino w/ combi-plasma, extra armor
8 Berserkers, fist, rhino w/ combi-plasma, extra armor
10 Chaos Space marines, 2 plasma, fist, rhino w/ combi-plasma

Heavy Support
2 Obliterators
2 Obliterators


Mission: Modified kill points. Troops are worth 1 each. Each other slot is worth however many of that slot you took. So if you have 3 heavy support choices they are each worth 3 kp a piece. My list came in at 30 kp, with 18 points between fiends, flamers, and grinders. His list comes in at 15kp.

Deployment is the funky line down the diagonal of the table so each person gets a triangle to set up in. I win the roll off and he chooses to go first. He sets up with his oblits in some ruins, and the rhinos forming a wall in front of his oblits.

CSM Turn #1: He shuffles a bit but mainly waits for me to drop.
KP: CSM: 0 Daemons: 0

Daemons Turn #1: I don't really want to drop the grinders yet because of oblit fire, so I choose 3 heralds, 2 fiends, and 2 horror units. I drop the fiends off to the side of his lines to try to lure him out. The fiends drop towards the center of the table and split up each on one side of a large building, way outside of his charge range. The chariot's drop down in front of the fiends. My shooting is completely ineffective,
KP: CSM: 0 Daemons: 0

CSM Turn #2: Kharn's rhino advances forwards the rest shuffle out of the oblits way but hold the line. Shooting see's 1 wound each on two of the heralds.
KP: CSM: 0 Daemons: 0

Daemons Turn #2: In come's the masque, and all 3 soul grinders. One drops on each side of the building. The third deviates behind the building and immobilizes itself. All of the bolts do squat, but one of the grinder's tongues blows up kharn's ride. The masque pulls kharn and friend out of cover, I then hit them witha str8 pie plate to kill most of the unit and assault kharn and friends with a unit of fiends, all the berserkers die, but kharn is 2 for 2 for invulnerables and makes all his saves but 1. I hit and run with the fiends, and have them stop in front of my grinder so kharn can't stop them. The last grinder opens up the north most rhino full of berserkers.
KP: CSM: 0 Daemons: 3

CSM Turn #3: He moves up but's out of range with the berserkers, they shoot and some other shooting takes a herald up to 4 wounds. Kharn is out in the wind so he charges back into the fiends, kills one and dies. The oblits fail to hurt the soul grinder's.
KP: CSM: 0 Daemons: 4

Daemons Turn #3: The flamers and the other two squads of horrors come in, the horrors focus to the south with the other 2 squads, and the flamers come in right next to a pair of oblits. I pavane forward the berserkers into range of the grinder that immobilized itself and he kills 5 of 8, then the chariots finish the rest of them off. The flamers kill a squad of oblits. One unit charges the rhino with the csm squad in it and blows it up, the other squad charges the other pair of obliterators (only killing one).
KP: CSM: 0 Daemons: 8

CSM Turn #4: His csm shoot up the fiends ( I'm not sure why he didn't charge instead). And a unit of berserkers charges my fiends. I lose 1 fiend to shooting (thanks to cover), and only 2 fiends to the berserkers, and completly kill off the berserker squad.
KP: CSM: 0 Daemons: 9

Daemons Turn #4: The flamers jump up and fry the csm squad. I pop the empty rhino and kill off the last obliterator. At this point all he has left is one rhino with berserkers left, surrounded by my surviving fiends and he concedes.
KP: CSM: 0 Daemons: 13

Talking to him after the game he didn't really know what to do. The fiends were in front of the grinders so if he assaulted the fiends he would kill some but not all, and then get pasted by the grinders, that's if I misjudged my distances and gave him the charges. He didn't have the mobility to get the charge off on the fiends, and I had enough anti-tank to pop his tranports. I think his best bet would have been to deep strike the obliterators (for chances at my grinders later in the game). And just try and do a bum rush right off the bat and try to get stuck in. Definitly a bad matchup for him, even with the bonus he got because of the scenario rules.

This was enough to put me into 2nd Best general. Overall a great time, only bad thing was the no air conditioning part of it!

Nice batrep--I really appreciate all the Daemon stuff you do.

How would you compare the Grinders to Princes? Having read your other batreps I was surprised to not see them out Bolting down tanks

Nice battle reports. Very well written, makes it easy to follow what was going on.

Question, the last two games didn't seem to last long after the flamers came in, but you didn't mention your opponent making much of an effort to get rid of them. I'm wondering why you think that might be. I usually run 3 squads of them myself, and my opponents go out of their way to try to make sure they drop all of the flamers as quickly as possible, they don't want to let the flamers get off a second round of shooting. I'm wondering if it was more because of the late game arrival, or that you only had one squad, or something else I might be missing.

Masque and flamers, that's just mean...

those s8 plates on the grinders really seemed to have helped you out, not sure a DP could have done what those grinders did for you in some cases

@Mosg: Grinder vs. Daemon Prince to me always comes down to composition of the rest of the army. I think Soul Grinder's mesh well when you have fiends as your elites or greater daemons in your hq's. The daemon princes get used when I have heralds in hq and crushers or flamers in elites. Mainly it comes down to what they are good at. Grinders suck against other walkers and monstrous creatures. They excel at tying up large mobs, they are better at taking on things like nob's, thunderwolf cav, etc. And they provide cover saves to cowering fiends.

Daemon princes are better against dreadnaughts, monstrous creatures. They usually have increased survivability, and tie up low attack, high power units.

@dancingcricket: Well the 2nd game ended on turn 3 so he really only had one turn to attack them. At that point I had cleaned out that section of the board and he didn't really have anything hear them. In the third game I think my opponent just wasn't used to playing them. I think he went after the fiends instead because they were better able to pop a rhino, and he still had a few mobile ones left to hide in. Either that or he had kind of given up at that point and didn't really care.

@Mafty: The big plates definitly did some damage in games 1 and 3. However I wouldn't have lost a daemon prince to the scatter roll in game one and the hive guard wouldn't have killed one each round (well unless I rolled absoulte crap), and I wouldn't have immobilized a daemon prince in game 3. I still like both units, but I would never mix the two. I like the ability of the grinders to shrug off small arms fire, and I like the ability of princes to shrug off big guns. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking grinders and fiends to WarCon, so I'll post some more comparisons then.

Fiends are pretty damn powerful. Most people overlook them because of bloodcrushers but they are still up there in relative kill potential.

thehod wrote:Fiends are pretty damn powerful. Most people overlook them because of bloodcrushers but they are still up there in relative kill potential.

After reading this battle report I'm convinced to give them a try. I've been running 3 groups of flamers myself. Wiping out foot squads on the drop, and stunning/shaking vehicles to make it easier to get my screamers in was sufficient for me, but this will throw people for a loop. Might even consider an all slaaneshi list. Fiends, seekers, daemonettes, that's an awful lot of rending...

Reading a report like this just reinforces to me the fact that putting assault troops into a rhino is a bad idea. I know alot of people say differently but I think the only way to use berzerkers is to give them a landraider with demonic possesion. The landraider extends the charge range of assault troops greatly. I'm not saying the results of this battle would have been any different though.

Always great to read your batreps Warmaster. Your reports and threads were really my number one inspiration to play tzeentch demons.

@dancingcricket: The 3x3 flamers is very nice, but it's good to switch it up every now and then I haven't used the fiends and the grinders since I went to the Baltimore GT 2 years ago.

@augustus5: So where are your tzeeentch daemon battle reports to reciprocate .

Personally I have a tough time choosing between fiends and flamers, for me crusher's will always be 3rd best. Maybe that's because I play against a lot of eldar.