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I received the invitation to join in on the Da Boyz Team Tournament from Hyv3mynd at the end of the monthly October tournament at Millenium games. This is the first time I have had the chance to play in a team tournament at the GT level and the format was designed to be similar to the ATC and ETC.



For those unfamiliar with the format the teams were composed of four members. There were no allies, no fortifications and each member had to bring a different codex. Naturally, this was not a problem for me as the Daemon player. We rounded out the grouping with Hyv3mynd's Grey Knights, ChrisP's Tyranids and Terry's (another local player) Chaos Space Marines.

I managed to snap a few shots of our team before the event:







Although I already posted a picture of my army - I have included it again for those who only read battle reports. It also makes enumerating my list a bit easier:



Due to the restrictions in place based on what I had painted - I opted to bring Fateweaver with me for only the second time in tournament play. She is rather sizable broad standing on the center platform. I have also made a conscious decision not to take more than 1 unit of Flamers and Screamers - partially because those are the only ones I have painted but I am going to claim I took the high road.

HQ
Fateweaver

Elites
6x Fiends
6x Fiends
6x Flamers

Troops
7x Plaguebearers
7x Plaguebearers
9x Horrors w/ Changeling
5x Horrors w/ Bolt
5x Horrors w/ Bolt

Fast Attack
9x Screamers

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder w/ Phlegm
Soul Grinder w/ Phlegm

A few quick thoughts on this list. I had previously taken a unit of 4x Bloodcrushers in the elite spot but I found they never seemed to get where I wanted them too. With the speed of Screamers and Flamers I wanted more fast units to go in. Also, with I5 the Fiends tend to take much less return attacks and I could regularly clear a combat zone to avoid taking any hits back. Further, I was stuck with this since I submitted it for the GT the next day and I wanted a few more games with it.

A few quick thoughts on this list. I had previously taken a unit of 4x Bloodcrushers in the elite spot but I found they never seemed to get where I wanted them too. With the speed of Screamers and Flamers I wanted more fast units to go in. Also, with I5 the Fiends tend to take much less return attacks and I could regularly clear a combat zone to avoid taking any hits back. Further, I was stuck with this since I submitted it for the GT the next day and I wanted a few more games with it.

Round 1
Our first round opponents were a great group with a Dark Eldar, Necron, CSM and Tau player. I knew I wanted to avoid the Dark Eldar - and then we all realized that we all wanted to avoid the Dark Eldar. None of us really had a good matchup against light mech spam. I would be, however, almost an auto loss against them. As such we put forward first our CSM player who drew Necrons and then I snagged the CSM player - who was mainly on foot.

Opponent: CSM
Deployment: Dawn of War
Primary: Objectives
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Victory Points

CSM Army List



HQ
Kharn the Betrayer

Elites
9x CSM Terminators w/ Reaper Autocannon

Troops
10x CSM w/ Lascannon, Plasmagun, Icon of Vengeance, Champion w/ Power Fist
10x CSM w/ Plasma, Melta
10x CSM w/ Flamer, Heavy Bolter

Fast Attack
Heldrake w/ Baleflamer

Heavy Support
5x Havoks w/ 2x Autocannon and 2x Missile Launcher w/ Flakk
3x Obliterators

I roll up my warlord trait and Fateweaver gets Conqueror of Cities - largely useless to me in this game



I am Fateweaver, but much more sexy. Hear me roar.



CSM spread out their deployment to avoid mass hits by Flamers and Soul Grinders. Unfortunately - this spreads the front facing of the CSM forces and just begs for a refused flank.



The other half of the CSM deployment has two units of CSM with the Terminators and Kharn anchoring the center.

Turn 1 - Daemons
I have the first turn (I actually almost always take the first turn as Daemons, for more information as to why read here). I choose my preferred wave to include Fateweaver, Fiends, Screamers, Flamers, 2x Soul Grinders. I then promptly get the other wave. The downside to stacking a wave this heavily is it means I cannot put a lot of pressure on from the start. At the same time, I am protected by Night Fight, I placed objectives far back so small arms is not a concern and he is playing a very slow army.



I drop in generally without incident, although one unit of Horrors went a bit too far forward. The ones on the building are, by the way, on the ground floor but placed there for convenience. I used the building to the left to protect the Fiends, who landed out of line of sight to his entire army. The fact that Beasts ignore terrain (never slowed by difficult terrain) makes them absolutely brutal on these kinds of boards because they are scary fast.

--Completion of the full report at:

http://synaps3.blogspot.com/2012/11/calypso2ts-da-boyz-gt-team-event.html

Think of it like a teaser - and how many more reports can I write if I do not have to post and format them all twice!

That's just a bad matchup for your opponent. Though I hate to pigeonhole the new Chaos codex, I do believe they need some cultists (of the fearless, FNP variety) to really compete against some of the better armies out there.

I haven't read the rest of your report yet, but I love your display board.

 undertow wrote:
I haven't read the rest of your report yet, but I love your display board.

Thanks, I think I need to do an article on it. For the cost of a 4x4 hard board piece, 2 cans of spray insulation and some leftover spray paint it is pretty reasonable to construct!

The second game is posted as well here

 calypso2ts wrote:

 undertow wrote:
I haven't read the rest of your report yet, but I love your display board.

Thanks, I think I need to do an article on it. For the cost of a 4x4 hard board piece, 2 cans of spray insulation and some leftover spray paint it is pretty reasonable to construct!

Please do, I need some inspiration. When I go to tournaments my Daemonic Horde sits on an unadorned baking sheet.

Good battle. Daemons can defintely compete against the grey knights nowadays.

Posted Game 3 against Imperial Guard - I apologize for the lack of a teaser on this one. Posting a single report is a ton of work on its own!

http://synaps3.blogspot.com/2012/12/calypso2ts-da-boyz-gt-team-event-g3.html

Just want to make sure I read this correctly, you lost Fateweaver to a rules mistake on your part? A template scattered onto a non-gliding model and Fateweaver failed his/her moral check and fled, when he/she should never have taken the wound in the first place?

If so, do you think Fateweaver would have made a difference if he/she had stuck around? My Daemon army tends more to FMCs without going all the way to being a Flying Circus, and I still find that I get a lot of use out of the rerolls, especially with a Bloodthirster and a Daemon Prince or two escorting Fateweaver.

 undertow wrote:
Just want to make sure I read this correctly, you lost Fateweaver to a rules mistake on your part? A template scattered onto a non-gliding model and Fateweaver failed his/her moral check and fled, when he/she should never have taken the wound in the first place?

That is entirely correct. It was a bit hard to admit to have made such a huge mistake. It went something like this:
IG - "So that is 4 Horrors and Fate?"
Me - "Looks right"

Fail 3+, fail reroll, fail ld test on a 10, Fate runs away. I realized the next day that I had made the mistake.

I will lamely defend myself with the fact I was up most of the night with my little Bio Titan (she is 8 months old) and I made the 2 hours drive to the event that morning.

 undertow wrote:

If so, do you think Fateweaver would have made a difference if he/she had stuck around?

No question she would have. Fate would have preserved some Screamers/Fiends from shooting, been able to take pot shots at the Vendetta or been able to wreck transports in shooting to provide an assault target for the Fiends/Screamers. I also would have pushed her into assault in a few cases to tip over some vehicles.

 undertow wrote:

My Daemon army tends more to FMCs without going all the way to being a Flying Circus, and I still find that I get a lot of use out of the rerolls, especially with a Bloodthirster and a Daemon Prince or two escorting Fateweaver.

I agree with this - a 3+ save is much better with Fate and units with similar speeds like a Thirster or Flying Princes do well too. I do think that MC in general took a hit though with the ability to use Krak grenades against them - the barrier of their high toughness is undermined quite a bit.

 calypso2ts wrote:

 undertow wrote:
Just want to make sure I read this correctly, you lost Fateweaver to a rules mistake on your part? A template scattered onto a non-gliding model and Fateweaver failed his/her moral check and fled, when he/she should never have taken the wound in the first place?

That is entirely correct. It was a bit hard to admit to have made such a huge mistake. It went something like this:
IG - "So that is 4 Horrors and Fate?"
Me - "Looks right"

Fail 3+, fail reroll, fail ld test on a 10, Fate runs away. I realized the next day that I had made the mistake.

I will lamely defend myself with the fact I was up most of the night with my little Bio Titan (she is 8 months old) and I made the 2 hours drive to the event that morning.

Hey, it happens. I've lost games like that and kicked myself the next day. Also, I have a few kids myself, although they're old enough come with me to tournaments to play now.

 undertow wrote:

My Daemon army tends more to FMCs without going all the way to being a Flying Circus, and I still find that I get a lot of use out of the rerolls, especially with a Bloodthirster and a Daemon Prince or two escorting Fateweaver.

I agree with this - a 3+ save is much better with Fate and units with similar speeds like a Thirster or Flying Princes do well too. I do think that MC in general took a hit though with the ability to use Krak grenades against them - the barrier of their high toughness is undermined quite a bit.

I've played quite a few games of 6th, and I have yet to have someone use a grenade on one of my MCs. Have you seen a lot of this? I think it was more of a hit to vehicles.

I had to ram Fateweaver into a blobbed IG squad to avoid being pummeled by FRFSRF (if my Fiends failed and the 4 psycannons I was staring at) and they all had Krak Grenades. I had overlooked that in my figuring with Fate - so the were hitting on a 4 and wounding on a 3. (1/3 chance to wound versus normal attacks with a 1 in 18 chance) Luckily I also put a unit of Fiends into the blob to start blendering them down but it still cost me Fate.

Don't be too hard on yourself. Every one makes mistakes when there is some pressure. I've had my share of mistakes in tournament play as well.

I'm not really seeing what the chaos allies bring to your new list. I don't even believe that the sorcerer is fearless, though I don't have my codex with me right now. I think fearless is more important than a 3+ G-t-G cover.

The Chaos Allies bring a Comms Relay with the Aegis Line. I was torn on bringing either a Sorcerer or just a stock Lord (maybe with Burning Brand) to hold backfield obejctives.

I opted for the Sorcerer because I wanted to experiment with both Biomancy and Telepathy - Mental Fortitudein Telepathy grants Fearless which I grabbed in my last game.

More interesting to me is Invisibility which can give a unit in Area Terrain a 2+ cover save (Stealth, Shrouded, 5+) when they drop in. I am thinking this is great for Fiends - which also gain added protection in Assault by being hit on a 5+ and hitting on a 3+.

I think it is 2+ behind an Aegis line for GTG?

You're probably right. Don't have my dex with me....and I've never gone-to-ground behind an Aegis. Guess it has something to do with fearless troops or wanting to fire at full BS. Lol.

But honestly, with the amount of threats you have in your army, you really don't have to be too concerned with your opponent shooting your objective-sitting units, at least not until they are cleared.

2+ covere GTG behind an ADL and the sorc can still use maledictions while GTG.

We all made our mistakes this part of the event. I fortified a big ruin and deployed some terminators with orbital strike chatacters behind it to outrange one of my enemies. Ended up giving my opponent's entire army 3+ cover...

 calypso2ts wrote:
The Chaos Allies bring a Comms Relay with the Aegis Line.

Why not just drop something from your initial Wave onto the Relay instead of taking an allied detachment? Granted, sometimes you'll scatter too far off the mark to be able to run close enough to use it the next turn.

 undertow wrote:
Why not just drop something from your initial Wave onto the Relay instead of taking an allied detachment? Granted, sometimes you'll scatter too far off the mark to be able to run close enough to use it the next turn.

This is something I considered but there are a few potential problems with it. I am a bit worried about infiltrators hopping right next to the Comms Relay and making it hard to DS or wrecking the models that go there. I would also have to remove one of the threats from my initial wave which dilutes its killing power. Finally, the 2+ GTG behind the Aegis seems wasted on a Fearless unit.

I also like the Sorcerer as a buffer/debuffer engine for the army and I found myself wanting cheap scoring units in later games. I do not have enough completed cultists yet to bring two units, but I would eventually like to bring two units of 20 to hold backfield objectives - which ends up being all my obejctives. They would replace Plaguebears in that capacity - I have been really disappointed with plagues in general - I feel like each unit is 75 points of slowness that are just asking to be destroyed by a few well placed blast markers.

 calypso2ts wrote:

 undertow wrote:
Why not just drop something from your initial Wave onto the Relay instead of taking an allied detachment? Granted, sometimes you'll scatter too far off the mark to be able to run close enough to use it the next turn.

This is something I considered but there are a few potential problems with it. I am a bit worried about infiltrators hopping right next to the Comms Relay and making it hard to DS or wrecking the models that go there. I would also have to remove one of the threats from my initial wave which dilutes its killing power. Finally, the 2+ GTG behind the Aegis seems wasted on a Fearless unit.

Good point. Enemy infiltrators are the reason I decided not to take an Aegis Defense Line with a gun emplacement. I didn't want to have stuff I paid points for used to shoot my own models as they arrive.

I also like the Sorcerer as a buffer/debuffer engine for the army and I found myself wanting cheap scoring units in later games. I do not have enough completed cultists yet to bring two units, but I would eventually like to bring two units of 20 to hold backfield objectives - which ends up being all my obejctives. They would replace Plaguebears in that capacity - I have been really disappointed with plagues in general - I feel like each unit is 75 points of slowness that are just asking to be destroyed by a few well placed blast markers.

My only problem with using allies with my Daemons is that those allies will have to start the game on the table. I've really grown to like not having anything for my opponent to shoot at if he decides to (or I make him) go first. I've seen enough games be decided by who got First Blood that I don't want to offer anything easy for my opponent to kill if he goes first. Granted, a blob of Cultists in cover would be pretty hard to wipe in one turn (especially if they GTG behind the ADL) so I could see where it might work, but they'd probably be more of a boat anchor in the odd Purge the Alien mission.

I'd like to play with a Sorcerer as well, but I think I like my Daemons too much to dilute them with allies.

I only have one test game, but I found that by paring down the Daemon troops - which are really there more for to help me push stronger units into the first wave - and bringing the Comms relay it feels like I have more points than before.

I agree with the deployment part - the only difference I have found is that these units have no intention on really fighting the enemy - they hang out near objectives which is where opponents tend to bias their deployment anyway. With them huddling in fear most of the time, I am not trying to frame my attack strategy around them.

In a non-objectives game I would probably deploy them aggressively as fodder with an Aegis as far forward as possible and use them as a Daemon meat shield/overwatch eater/charge obstructor.