Tournament: Daemons/Word Bearers vs Astra Militarum

Mission: The Schemes of Tzeentch

Regular Maelstrom game with fixed Dawn of War deployment, with a twist: while the opponent generates 3 objectives at the start of the turn, I generate 9 objectives at the end of the turn. These become active immediately; I check which of them I completed during the turn, scoring a maximum of 3; then I discard all of them.
The sheer randomness was at the same time daunting and hilarious. I realized that I'll be out of objectives in 4 turns (4x9=36 :D), so that I'll have to make the most of it at the beginning. And then the Guard player got first turn, and I faced down the tanks and the wyverns... and decided to put my heavy hitters in reserve. That got me worried... how to score without mobility? But no points are better than losing the important units that actually can score later.

Deployment

Battle tanks on the left; Chimaera ready to advance; Wyverns and Lascannons in the middle, with the Company Command Squad behind the hill; then Pask and his buddy behind the fearless blob of guardsmen.

Opposing them was my wall. Well, walls. Behind the Aegis Defense Line, the Horrors with the Heralds attached; Cultists spread out, holding objectives. I kept Kairos, the Screamerstar, and 2 Sorcerers in reserve.

Astra Militarum, turn 1

Most things advanced, with the Battle Tanks circling to the left. A lot of firepower was poured into the Horrors until the opponent learned that they are nigh invulnerable behind the ADL.

So then the Battle Tanks opened up on the Cultist squad with the Sorcerer, killing some. But I passed the morale check.

Daemons, turn 1

Survive! That's all we have to do. That, and summon reinforcements.

Oh, and draw good objectives. I pulled one I was sitting on, Supremacy for 3 and Harness the Warp for 3.

7-1 at the end of the first turn. That was... unexpected. For both of us.

Astra Militarum, turn 2

The Guard kept advancing and shooting.

At the end of the turn, I had lost my red Cultists (the Sorcerer was still hanging on) and enough of the Horrors that I was no longer holding the Comms Relay. Well, shute.

Daemons, turn 2

Fortunately, I rolled well for reserves and only a Sorcerer got left out of the action.

I decided to push on the left flank, leaving the right flank to fend for itself.

The Sorcerer deep struck in the guard backfield and summoned Daemonettes and Screamers.
Up front, I summoned more Screamers, then poured psychic shooting into everything within reach.

I managed to down the Chimaera, then slashed across the Veterans. Also slashed across the Company Command. I even managed to kill a Lascannon team with a krak grenade.

With this push, I had seized the initiative, severely limited my opponent's mobility, and scored a lot of objectives, bringing the score to 12-4 at the end of the second turn.

Astra Militarum, turn 3

The gamble paid off, and the entire Guard line shifted to the hotspot I just created.

Never underestimate Lasguns! Holding a Skyfire Nexus objective and having Prescience (Yes, I failed to deny. Yes, I had a lot of dice. No, they weren't enough.), the Guardsmen shaved 2 wounds off Kairos. I managed to pass the grounding test.

At this point, both my Horrors squads have died off, along with most of my Heralds, and everyone had gone to ground. I was still holding the objectives, though.

Chaos Daemons, turn 3

I had suffered some losses, but I still had enough of a punch in the backlines. Especially with another Sorcerer landing there. Kairos had flown off the board, but not before destroying a Wyvern with psychic shooting, and summoning a Burning Chariot to take out the other one.

My own backfield was still up and running with some summoned Heralds.

The Daemonettes failed their charge against the Veterans, but my Sorcerer made it into the Command squad.

I also sent in the Screamerstar against the fearless blob, taking out whatever mobility and objective-hunting capability the Guard had on the right flank. Summoned Screamers charged Pask, but did not inflict damage.

We went on to turn 4, to witness some more shenanigans. Like my Sorcerer killing the company commander, then turning into a spawn due to the displeasure of the Chaos Gods. 

We played to the time limit, at which point the game ended with me having a large lead in points. Even if the game went on for more turns, the Guard player could not have recovered the 10 points difference, with all his mobility hindered and troops tied up. Pask was still alive and well, and so were the battle tanks, but that didn't really matter at this point.