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In this Warhammer 40K video battle report, recent Anime Expo GT winner Janthkin comes up to Frontline Gaming with his Daemons and Chaos list at viewer request to challenge Reecius' Eldar! Will the Eldar finally meet their match and see their hot streak come to an end?

Brutal game seeing the Eldar put down like that, but you had it coming!
Really liked the post-game bit though, lots of insight from this BatRep on what makes Eldar tick (and what takes their lunch money)

I say it every time but another awesome report man, good to see Ferrari Fullmane alive and kicking (even though he got possessed).

After I saw Kev's list I knew you'd have your work cut out for you, which was totally exacerbated by the dice abandoning you and even more confounded by that hangover, which I could see in your eyes (my liver was hurting for you).

I think the Shard of Anaris needs to see a few more games with you, it didn't really get to shine.

Your after action segment was good to, it's good to see you took the time to consider your loss and learn some lessons. You're a solid player with a solid list so it just goes to show you never stop learning.

Looking forward to more!

Stop the tired talk, it's bad form. You lost because you psyched yourself out before the game started in regards to the Heldrake. You said it yourself. Lots of people on the Internet dismiss the psychological aspect of certain units. At the table, during a game, many players lose the cold calculating steel resolve that comes to them so easily while at a keyboard and moves are made in the moment. You have been bemoaning Heldrakes for a long time and it psyched you out.

Also the Shard of Anaris blew it for you. I bet if the Helions were not fearless they would have been swept and wiped. Then you could have shot the seekers and fiends to pieces.

Great to see a tough match up. As you said losing is when you learn the most so it was by no means a total loss. I'd love to see a rematch!

@Jifel

Yeah, it was a kick square to the nuts! But I know I wont make the same mistakes, twice and Kevin is always a pleasure to play. And yes, I certainly did have the loss coming! Haha, my hot streak did last way too long.

@Sheokronath

Yes, the blasted Imperial Agent certainly did rear his ugly head again!

@Darth

I wasn't making excuses. I literally had been awake for almost 48 hours, I have bouts of insomnia. That was exacerbated by the fact we played Whiskey Hammer before and I got sick drunk. But, like I said, I wasn't trying to undermine Kevin's victory at all, he whipped my ass fair and square. My point was that I believe I made some of the bad choices partly because I wasn't clear headed which I think is a very reasonable (and truthful) point.

However, the Turkey did psyche me out, you are right, and I said that in the video point blank. I do hate the damned things, too! Haha, such a stupid, OP unit.

The Shard did hurt me this game but what hurt me more was that half-assed retreat, allowing Kevin to dictate the terms of the assault. He expertly positioned his models and just took that unit apart. Ouch! I won't allow that to happen again.

@Darth

I certainly want a rematch! I know my army has the means to win the game, I just played it poorly and Kevin played well. Painful lessons usually teach us the most!

Wherever your farseer takes a perils, he will be there, drilling holes in her Ghost helm.

Whenever you need to roll a good power, he will be there, replacing every power with death mission.

Whenever you fire a prescienced demolisher cannon at that Deathwing Terminator squad holding the relic at the bottom of seventh, he will be there, gently nudging that big ol' pie plate on to your last troop.

He is Ferrari Fullmane, saboteur extraordinaire.

I'm unfamiliar with Whiskey Hammer but it sounds incredible

Any idea who the next video will be against?

Very nice game. Pretty interesting that your winning streak has been ended by the eldar's ancient doom, slaanesh.

btw did you remember the ancient doom rule which gives you hatred against slaanesh daemon but -1 fear checks?

I understand why you kept your WK away from the slaanesh models due to all of the rending attacks they can put out but I think this is the first batrep I have seen of yours where the opponent ignored big scary and focused on the rest of the army.

Did you think about throwing big scary at the fiends? With 2 rounds of shooting and a charge big scary + prescience could have killed 3 fiends (average) with shooting and 3 more (average) in CC. In return the fiends should have put 1 wound on big scary. This would have freed your other units to handle the seekers and perhaps even do something about fatey.

Thanks for the game, Reece. You were pretty whipped, and I felt a little bad for taking advantage of you in your depleted state. But only a little; time to stop drinking like you're still 22, dude!

I agree with your assessment, to an extent - the half-assed fallback by the Hellions made very little sense. But as we discussed afterwards, I don't think you should have given me the first turn to begin with. Yes, you'd to deal with shooting at me through Night Fight at range, but you had enough firepower that I would have had to deploy more conservatively, or risk having my hammer units too trashed to matter.

But at the end of the day, I think the problem was, as already noted, that you give Helldrakes too much respect. They're going to come in, and they're going to do some damage. Spread out, suck up the initial hit, and then blow them out of the sky with your War Walkers or Wave Serpent. Much like Ymgarl genestealers, the principle advantage to including a Heldrake is that it screws with your opponent's deployment, early-game movement, and overall plans, all without even being on the table. Hammer & Anvil just makes that worse, as it offers the (false) option of lurking back out of Heldrake range, but at the cost of leaving you boxed in.

We'll play again, and see if repeat exposure helps tone down the Eldar's fear of the Daemons.

btw did you remember the ancient doom rule which gives you hatred against slaanesh daemon but -1 fear checks?

Ancient Doom didn't really come up - the only Eldar in CC with a Slaaneshi daemon was the Autarch, who was Fearless, and that unit already had Prescience for rerolls on the first round of the combat (but there were only 2 models left to use it).

Did you think about throwing big scary at the fiends? With 2 rounds of shooting and a charge big scary + prescience could have killed 3 fiends (average) with shooting and 3 more (average) in CC. In return the fiends should have put 1 wound on big scary. This would have freed your other units to handle the seekers and perhaps even do something about fatey.

He never really had a chance - the Fiends & Seekers deployed intermingled, but with the Fiends completely encapsulated. I have a healthy respect for attacks that instant-kill Fiends!

By the time the Dreadknight could have engaged the Fiends (at best, bottom of 2, but more likely turn 3), he would have needed to be hunting down Troops to keep the game competitive. And in the backfield, a Chaos Sorcerer with Iron Arm and a Force Axe was waiting....

@Janthkin
Nice game, you played very solidly with a good list.

See I don't understand why he couldn't have deployed a refused flank since he went second and killed the seekers with the helions and the fiends with the WK. I understood they were intermingled (which is mean against a depleted Reece ) but the hellions obviously were capable of clearing out a significant number of the seekers or alternatively the WK could join the combat to bail them out if Reece had decided to charge instead of shooting with the helions.

Do you always intermingle them together like that? They seem like a really good 1-2 combo. Are you ensuring the combo lands with the heldrake and fatey acting to corral your opponents forces?

Is that a flat battle mat with the stones printed on it ye were using Reece?

Awesome report, sucks about the loss Reece but janthkin is a real good player and he capitalized on the mistakes. I feel your pain as this past Saturday I took one of my worst beatings to a similar demon list in a tournament. I loved the after battle rep.

As someone who is trying to become a better tournament player stuff like what's going through your head about why you made the decisions you did is invaluable to those of us who are less experienced keep it up and I'm sure lots of us will keep watching these awesome batreps.

@Sheokronath

Do not ever play Whiskey Hammer...ever! Hahaha, that was the worst idea. I was sick all day the next day, so dumb. Beerhammer is great, Whiskey Hammer is for the masochistic and/or alcoholic. I will never, ever play again! And like Janthkin said, I am 32, not 22, my body just doesn't bounce back from a big night of boozing like it did when I was younger.

@Ansacs

With the volume of attacks the Fiends and Seekers have plus the high initiative, they would have mulched the WK in short order, possibly before he even had a chance to swing. I wanted him to get into the backfield where he could mulch Kevin's troops (hopefully). However, a combo charge with he and the Hellions would have not been a bad idea, at all.

@Janthkin

Yeah, that was a grade A ass kicking! hahah.

But yeah, my fear of the Turkey did cause me to make a tactical blunder and you then exploited the mistake expertly, but then, I would expect no less. You outplayed me and it showed!

And yes, a rematch would be awesome. I will be in your neck of the woods a lot more now that my GF is going to be going to school in Santa Clara, so we can grab a game at Game Kastle.

@Godless

Yes, it is a battle mat, although now OOP, unfortunately. We are actually looking into manufacturing something similar to sell. We should have more information on that in the fall.

@Chance

Yeah, against a good player if you make a mistake like I did, the game is often decided right then and there. Sometimes the game is over during deployment! It makes for much more difficult games but much more engaging games.

And thanks! We enjoy making the videos so it is good to know people gain something from them.

Kevin is a man of many words.

BTW, he also won with the same army in one of the local RTT's that I went to:

1750 Game Kastle RTT Tournament, June 30 - Space Wolves!


This is how I look at Janthkin's play. He is like a surgeon with a very sharp scalpel. If you are not careful, he will slowly dissect your army and take out 1 organ at a time. You can't really afford to make any mistakes against him or he will make you pay.

Ironically, both Janthin and Reece's lists and playstyles are very similar. They both take unique, synergy-based, non-spam, non-traditional lists that are deceptively good and they both really know how to use it well. The difference here is the mental aspect of the game. Against another very good player, if you don't bring your A-game mentally (i.e. if you are too tired or too drunk or just out of it mentally), then you are definitely at a disadvantage.


Congrats to Kevin for the win. He beat me to the honors of taking down the mighty footdar. Now the test is if he can take down the mighty mechdar.

Any chance to see the exact armylist of Kevin? as they weren't in the video.

Nice report, happy to see deamons perform well out of the 54 dog spam!!

Really disappointed in not seeing the game reach to a natural ending especially against a couple of juggernaughts in the 40k world. How far was that charge with the warp spiders to the pink horrors? It seemed like 10+ inches which isnt that easy to achieve even with fleet. I like whiskey just as much as the next guy but playing a drinking game with it doesnt seem like a great deal of fun. Please stay sober for your game against Jy2.

My list:
Fateweaver
Herald of Slaanesh w/Greater & Lesser Gifts, Locus of Grace, and Steed
Herald of Tzeentch w/Exalted Gift, Locus of Conj, and Lvl 3 upgrade

6 Fiends

12 Daemonettes w/Alluress
12 Daemonettes w/Alluress
18 Pink Horrors

18 Seekers w/Heartseeker & Rapturous Standard

Allies:
CSM Sorcerer, Lvl 3 w/Spell Familiar
10 Cultists w/6 Autoguns
Heldrake w/Baleflamer



I think it was a 9" charge. Certainly not a gimme, but possible, especially with Fleet. But really, it was the Warp Storm table that just stripped him of his will to continue. "11" (and "3") are idiotic results. Tack on the near-certain death of his Spiders to a Demonforge-active Heldrake, and the dubious future of the Wave Serpent, there wasn't much left in doubt. The Wraithknight might have gotten his licks in in another turn or so, but by then, there wouldn't be much else in his army (and even the Knight would have to risk the Sorcerer w/a Force Axe).

Out of curiousity what does heartseeker do for you? Just the 1 extra attack? Or is there something I'm missing?

Chancetragedy wrote:
Out of curiousity what does heartseeker do for you? Just the 1 extra attack? Or is there something I'm missing?

Soaks challenges, in situations where I'd rather my Herald is chopping up normal models.

Haha totally missed that part! Great 5pt investment I think then!

Not much to add beyond ty again for uploading this Was a fun watch.

Great game, report, and post-game evaluation.

I like your logic about shooting yourself out of charge range. I think it's a mistake that people make quite often, but it's a hard one to avoid... especially hard because sometimes the "wrong" decision can prove to be the right one just due to the roll of the dice.

I think going first could've also helped, as Janthkin said. Based on some of your other games, you rarely NEED to use your speed for last turn objective grabs with NewDar. The offence is that powerful that you can really control the game if you get some early kills. Janthkin's point about his deployment is also really good - if you went first, he'd have changed his deployment reflecting that, which might have limited his ability to push like he did.

The other thing about Eldar is that while it's true they can really hit hard now, they are stil pretty fragile. Points wise, the bodies are expensive for low toughness, with poorish saves.

Painful lessons usually teach us the most!

QFT! +1

 Janthkin wrote:
My list:
Fateweaver
Herald of Slaanesh w/Greater & Lesser Gifts, Locus of Grace, and Steed
Herald of Tzeentch w/Exalted Gift, Locus of Conj, and Lvl 3 upgrade

6 Fiends

12 Daemonettes w/Alluress
12 Daemonettes w/Alluress
18 Pink Horrors

18 Seekers w/Heartseeker & Rapturous Standard

Allies:
CSM Sorcerer, Lvl 3 w/Spell Familiar
10 Cultists w/6 Autoguns
Heldrake w/Baleflamer



I think it was a 9" charge. Certainly not a gimme, but possible, especially with Fleet. But really, it was the Warp Storm table that just stripped him of his will to continue. "11" (and "3") are idiotic results. Tack on the near-certain death of his Spiders to a Demonforge-active Heldrake, and the dubious future of the Wave Serpent, there wasn't much left in doubt. The Wraithknight might have gotten his licks in in another turn or so, but by then, there wouldn't be much else in his army (and even the Knight would have to risk the Sorcerer w/a Force Axe).

The list is really challenging, has alot of options and 2 psykers for buffs, only one thing when i write up the list I only get to 1720 points, for how much points where you guys playing?

Should be 1750 on the nose.

 Janthkin wrote:

Chancetragedy wrote:
Out of curiousity what does heartseeker do for you? Just the 1 extra attack? Or is there something I'm missing?

Soaks challenges, in situations where I'd rather my Herald is chopping up normal models.

They are also included in the roll off to see if one of your characters get owned by the warp storm table. Much rather lose one of them than a 300+ MC.

 Eldarain wrote:

 Janthkin wrote:

Chancetragedy wrote:
Out of curiousity what does heartseeker do for you? Just the 1 extra attack? Or is there something I'm missing?

Soaks challenges, in situations where I'd rather my Herald is chopping up normal models.

They are also included in the roll off to see if one of your characters get owned by the warp storm table. Much rather lose one of them than a 300+ MC.

But that's some serious insurance... one of the main reasons to run Fatey is to get the rerolls :-)