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Leading up to The Grand Strategery (TGS) Parkhammer event I challenged Hyv3 (or did I accept his challenge..) to a 1500 point game. This game was in preparation for the 1500 points tournament at Millennium Games on July 5. To make things more interesting I proposed a wager for the game. A Hyv3 victory meant I would purchase and wire LED boards for him to incorporate into one of his newest terrain projects. A victory on my part meant I would be the recipient of some of Hyv3's great looking terrain - a sample is shown here. The sample is actually the same board we played on for our Mandulian Chapel Feature Match.

Hyv3 outlined his list - Dark Eldar/Eldar last week in his battle report. This gave me a little bit of a sneak peak at how his army worked and a bit of a chill as he utterly dismantled a Tyranid army.

For the game I brought a different list than I usually play - it emphasized some hard hitting hard target that really took huge point investments.

HQ
Keeper of Secrets - 2x Greater Gift, Mastery 3
Lord of Change - Exalted Gift, Greater Gift, Mastery 3
CSM Sorcerer - Mastery 3, Spell Familiar

Elite
5x Bloodcrushers - Blood Hunter w/ Lesser Gift

Troop
10x Horrors
10x Horrors
14x Cultists

Fast Attack
-

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder - Slaanesh, Baleful Torrent
Soul Grinder - Slaanesh, Baleful Torrent

A lot this game was going to rest on the mission and psychic powers I managed to roll. I know if I can get into CC I should be able to roll most of his army - but I need to take out the Beastmaster Pack by hitting it hard and breaking it in combat. Otherwise it will simply slip away and start to take out vulnerable troop units, or even worse the buffing CSM Sorcerer.

Mission/Deployment
We rolled up Vanguard Strike deployment with Purge the Alien. The mission meant that I was going to have to come straight at his gunline and could not count on his more fragile troops trying to advance in my direction.

Terrain Placement
We started by placing terrain in the alternating fashion outlined in the book. I wanted a few line of sight blockers or at least cover save generators between myself and his Aegis. I made a mistake here and placed the large tree when I really should have used the rock wall - it was easier to hide behind and I could have smashed right through it with the Keeper and Crushers, rather than having to go around.



Warlord Traits/Psychic Powers
Dark Eldar Warlord - Archon - Princeps of Deceit: Redeploy 3d6"
Farseer - Guide, Prescience, Psychic Scream

Daemon Warlord - Lord of Change - Herald of Doom: -1 on Fear tests
Lord of Change - Dark Blessing (reroll invulns), Grimoire of True Names (rolled a 1 and received Staff of Change), Forewarning, Misfortune, Precognition
Keeper of Secrets - Dark Blessing, Hellfire Gaze, Invisibility, Puppet Master, Terrify
CSM Sorcerer - Mental Fortitude, Puppet Master, Invisibility
Horrors - 2x Flickering Fire

Hyv3 grabbe decent powers, but my rolls could not have gone much better. I like Daemonic Resilience and Unbreakable Hide on my greater daemons, but I there are some brutal combinations possible with this configuration. I have enough Invisibility to protect the Greater Daemons and/or the Crushers. Forewarning with a Grimoire yields a 2++ save but the Keeper can also get a 2++ rerollable due to Dark Blessing. Also, Precognition is nuts on a Lord of Change in general - providing everything Warp Time used to for CSM Daemon Princes and then some.

To top it all off, I also snag the first turn so I can get my psychic powers up and going from the start.

Deployment


I deploy with the Horrors on the left to shoot his flyer when it arrives and to work forward over the game. I want to leave the option to go to ground in area terrain for a 3+ reroll 1's if I need to conserve victory points.



On the other flank I place the cultists - in retrospect I should have reversed this in case I was seized on. That way if I was forced to take morale before Mental Fortitude went off I would have had some distance to my board edge. I have reserved both grinders to Deep Strike - I want to neutralize the Wyches and then flame/assault away from there.



Hyv3 deploys back to stay out of charge range and shooting range from my Horrors - or Misfortune range. The Beasts are screening the units I really want to assault and I have to deal with them early. The Farseer and Baron join the beasts giving them a Deny the Witch on a 5+, plus Stealth and Hit and Run.

Turn 1 - Daemons
Luckily, hyv3 does not Seize so my cultists mistake is cleansed. I cast Forewarning on the Keeper, Invisibility on the Crushers and the Lord of Change and Mental Fortitude on the Cultists before moving up aggressively. I will cast Mental Fortitude each turn on the Cultists. I also peril here on double 1's to take a wound casting Precognition.

The Warp Storm all game is inconsequential so I am summarizing the results as: Dark Prince Thirsts, Dark Prince Thirsts, Storm of Fire, Nothing, Nothing.



I move up aggressively with my units - I know I am asking for the Lord of Change to be charged but first it needs to be grounded. Even if that happens, I think I can crush the Beasts in the next turn with the Keeper and Crushers piling into them.



After runs the Lord of Change has more company and the Keeper advanced into the open - daring someone to shoot at him. At this point I have 2+ crushers, 2+ Keeper w/ reroll, 2+ Lord of Change w/ Reroll.

Daemons - 0
Dark Eldar - 0

I know a bit of a teaser - but the full report can be found at The Mandulian Chapel

You struck gold with your psychic powers. I really couldn't see how it could have gotten any better for you. Daemons when they are like that is just bonecrunching, spirit-crushingly good.

Daemons are random, but when they get it right...

i ever had those kinda powers, and had to take di on 3d6 on my warlord turn 1 , thanks to warpstorm.

jy2 wrote:You struck gold with your psychic powers. I really couldn't see how it could have gotten any better for you. Daemons when they are like that is just bonecrunching, spirit-crushingly good.

I agree - the only way it could have gotten better is if I had snagged Precog and Misfortune first on the Lord of Change and then swapped to Flickering Fire for the last one. I will take the configuration I grabbed though any day. I missed on survivability gift with the Keeper too, which led me to make poor life choices.

Hitting all my Grimoire rolls also helped immensely with the Keeper.

ImotekhTheStormlord wrote:Daemons are random, but when they get it right...

True, we discussed a bit after the game what to do and had the 'What would you shoot at?' discussion. I really had no idea - all the targets were just bad choices for the first 2 turns of the game.

Deshkar wrote:i ever had those kinda powers, and had to take di on 3d6 on my warlord turn 1 , thanks to warpstorm.

I have not been killed by the storm yet - although I have gotten bad results, including a Punished by the Gods. Interestingly though, I took out a Tervignon on Daemonic Possession later on in the day during another game. The nature of the Warp Storm is one reason I dislike dropping 300 points into a single model - unless it is Fateweaver - for a Daemon army.

Good match. Some great powers for the Daemons. I was rooting for the Baron and his army, but unfortunately the Eldar player just had super bad luck with his HQs it seemed. Though I did have the Baron die 3 games in a row on his first invuln saves...

Thanks for sharing. Great looking minis and terrain. I hope you enjoy your new pieces!