Warhammer 40k Tournament, 22.11.2015

The tournament we've been preparing for for such a long time has finally come to pass at our local gaming store!

Tournament setup

Ruleset:

• modified ETC tournament scoring rules (but nothing else, so no list restrictions for example)
• 1500 points

3 games for everybody, with the following mission set:

• Game 1:
• Eternal War: Crusade - 4 Objectives
• Malstrom of War: Contact Lost
• Deployment: Vanguard Strike
• Game 2:
• Eternal War: The Relic
• Malstrom of War: Tactical Escalation
• Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
• Game 3:
• Eternal War: The Emperor's Will
• Malstrom of War: Deadlock
• Deployment: Dawn of War

 Armies:

• Iron Hands
• Blood Angels
• Khorne Daemonkin
• Tau
• Ultramarines
• Imperial Fists + Inquisition
• Necrons
• Space Wolves
• Eldar + Dark Eldar
• Chaos Daemons 

So nice and varied, with only half of the participants playing Space Marine variants.
I assembled the cheesiest list that I could think of using my Chaos Daemons codex: the Flying Circus that I have been refining for some time. This is the same list that I used in my last game:

Chaos Daemons: Unbound

• Kairos Fateweaver, warlord
• Be'lakor
• 2x Daemon Prince of Nurgle, armor, wings, level 3 Psyker, Exalted Gift, Greater Gift
• Herald of Tzeentch, level 2 Psyker
• 10-man Pink Horrors

So room for lots of Psychic shenanigans.
The problem was that everybody did the same thing with their own codex :D

The terrain was set up beforehand by the Judge.

 
Let's get down to the games.

Game 1 

Opponent: Khorne Daemonkin

I have already played a game against this player and list: Chaos Space Marines/Chaos Daemons vs Khorne Daemonkin, 10.11.2015 The only change-up was that this time, the Chaos Lord was the Warlord.

So obviously, I proceeded to disregard everything that I learned during that game, and not give my Nurgle Princes Baleswords for Instant Death.

Deployment

My opponent won the roll-off, and I did not want to steal the initiative.

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 1.

An uneventful turn, with everything zipping forward or camping on objectives. I have sneakily placed everything just out of charge range.

Chaos Daemons, turn 1.

Fire everything!
At least that's what I would have said, if I had anything to fire. So I swooped forwards with Kairos, proceeded to Vector Strike and unleash a Psychic barrage, with the Nurgle Princes moving into charge range and trying some other Psychic stuff. Needless to say, I have barely managed to scratch the Bloodthirster. So I charged it with both Princes. One had Fleshbane, the other something else, so they had to well, right? Right?

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 2.

One Prince died instantly; the other survived due to being outside the challenge. That, however, was soon rectified, as the Bloodcrushers charged in.
The Helldrake, Terminators and Bloodletters all arrived from reserves, and I only had half my army left. Oh well...

Chaos Daemons, turn 2.

I had to move in Be'lakor to kill the Bloodthirster. I also got some help from the Portalglyph. Things were not looking good, however, with not much to survive, fight and capture objectives.
Even worse, I couldn't get off Invisibility.

Turn 3.

The price of failure was soon to be paid.

At least the Bloodletters failed their charge through difficult terrain.

But Be'lakor was left at 1 wound, with no more Biomancy spells to heal him up. Not even the summoned Daemonettes could pull me through this one.

Turn 4.

Be'lakor died in a hail of Bolter fire. The Bloodletters did their job by annihilating my last bastion - the Horrors and the Herald. The Daemonettes held back the Posessed, but the Chaos Lord had already become a Daemon Prince and a Bloodthirster due to the Axe of Ruin. In a last desperate attempt, Kairos summoned a squad of Plaguebearers to get Behind Enemy Lines.

Turn 5.

By this point, it was all going downhill. Fortunately, I did manage to catch a break - somewhat. The Plaguebearers held on, with 1 living through to the end of the game for Linebreaker. 2 separate units of Horrors held on, reduced to 1 model each, to deny additional kill points. With a lucky shot, Kairos exploded the Soul Grinder, then destroyed the temporary Bloodthirster with a 3-charge Flickering Fire. However, I was way behind in points... the match ended 19-1.

This loss pretty much wrecked my morale, especially since it was my own fault. Nevertheless, after lunch break, it was time to proceed to...

Game 2

Opponent: Necrons

Well...
I've never played Necrons before, but I was somewhat familiar with what they could do.
Nothing could prepare me for this.
The army list was, of course, a Decurion detachment, with 2 Ghost Arks with 10 Warriors each, 5 Immortals with a Lord in a Scythe, Spyder/3 Wraiths/3 Scarabs, Triarch Stalker with 2 units of Triarch Praetorians.
I got first turn, and I wasn't going to let go of the advantage.

Daemons, turn 1.

Kairos swooped forward and got some Psychic powers off, killing a Wraith and two Scarabs. Be'lakor is up front - soon to regret that, with Invisibility not going off. The two Nurgle Princes are hiding in ruins.

Necrons, turn 1.

The Triarch formation ganged up on Be'lakor. Rerolling to hit and to wound left him at 1 wound at the end of the turn. Bad start.
Tomb Blades zipped up on the other side (not visible here).

Daemons, turn 2.

This was the turn to fail all psychic tests. I tried Summoning with Kairos; failed. I tried Invisibility with Be'lakor; failed. I charged in with my Nurgle Prince, desperate to salvage the situation; but Be'lakor still died. At least the other Prince took care of the jetbikes (bottom left).

Necrons, turn 2.

The Triarch formation gangs up and kills the Daemon Prince. The end.

Daemons, turn 3.

Summoning with Kairos. Fails. Summoning with the Horrors. Fails. Well, not completely. I managed to wound myself with Perils of the Warp. Yay.

Necrons, turn 3.

The Ghost Ark in the bottom left holds a Skyfire Nexus; taking Kairos down to 1 wound. Fortunately, he stays in the Air. The Scythe comes in and pounds the remaining Daemon Prince, leaving him at 1 wound. The Triarch Praetorians move on the Horrors, but do not make it to charge distance.

Daemons,  turn 4.

I turned Kairos around and moved towards my own lines at full speed. I needed to drop something in front of the Praetorians. I went for Bloodletters. Perils. Roll 1. Kairos dies. The Bloodletters mishap. Roll 1. They all die.
At this point I had two squads of Horrors and two Heralds (courtesy of Sacrifice and the Portalglyph), and 1 Daemon Prince at 1 wound. I killed two Wraiths and 4 Triarch Praetorians total. I surrendered. 20-0.

At this point, I was tired and disappointed. I felt that the dice have really let me down during the last game, and that there was nothing that I could have done to make a difference. Oh well. Maybe I can salvage at least something. On to...

Game 3

Opponent: Eldar/Dark Eldar

I have found a similarly exhausted opponent, so truly, it was time for a fun game. We already played games before (everything vs Eldar from this list). He knew my list already; and I knew his. It was a variation on what I've already seen:

• Dire Avengers, Swooping Hawks, Guardians with Missile Launcher, Cabalite Warriors
• Farseer on Jetbike
• Wraithblades in Raider
• Spiritseer, Archon and Wraithguard with D-scythes in Wave Serpent
• Crimson Hunter Exarch
• Aegis Defense Line

I no longer had the energy to keep taking pictures; but here goes.

Turn 1.

As expected, the Raider zipped forward to get the Wraithblades into melee. Hawks went forward to capture objectives and support the Farseer. Everything camped back behind cover.
Hilariously, the intent here was to set up the Aegis Defense Line with the Guardians and Avengers on the Emperor's Will objective. However, they got set up on objective 4, leaving objective 6 and the Emperor's Will with only the Cabalites.

OK, so everything went down totally as expected. I got everybody up in the air to avoid the incoming D-flamers. Psychics failed to destroy the Raider. I summoned Daemonettes for objective holding. Then the Wraithblades got out and wrecked the Horrors. And the Wave Serpent arrived via Deep Strike, disgorged the Wraithguard, and they - lacking a better target - murderized the summoned Daemonettes.
The following turn I landed everybody (except Kairos, of course). For once, the Warp Storm aided me, summoning Bloodletters. I put them on an objective for extra points.
Things went on smoothly. I killed the Wraithblades with the Nurgle Princes. Be'lakor went ahead and murdered the Guardians and Avengers (Psychic Scream for the win). Kairos killed the Cabalites, leaving the Bloodletters to capture the opposing Emperor's Will. I evaded the D-flamers, where ever they went, racking up points in the meantime.
Hilarity ensued all the time. The Farseer charged the Portalglyph with S3 Armorbane, swinging at it for 2 turns to no effect. The Raider suffered an ungodly amount of punishment, until a lucky pen result immobilized it and got rid of the Jink save. It died next turn. Be'lakor was left at 1 wound after taking a lot of firepower to the face (and not getting off Invisibility). The Archon then charged Be'lakor, tanked the hits with 2++ and stabbed him in the face. The Portalglyph spewed forth squad after squad of Pink Horrors, one of them even getting Possession. Kairos shot 4d6 Flickering Fire snapshots at the zooming flyer, getting it down to 1 HP.
Soon, it was turn 5, then 6, and it was time to get serious again.



So the Eldar tried the following: Wave Serpent moved to their deployment zone and the Wraithguard flamed the Bloodletters. The Emperor's Will was theirs. Then the Spiritseer and the Farseer were left guarding my own objective. I had one turn to murder them.
So I charged them each with a Nurgle Prince. Some 4++ saved were failed, and they died a horrible death.
I won by points at the end of turn 6.

In the mean time...

The Blood Angels advance under a withering barrage of Tau firepower.

The Space Wolves hurry into assault against the unyielding Necrons.

The Iron Hands have brought 3 Stalker tanks to stem the flow of the enemy...

... but the Ultramarines are on to their heretical ways!

The aftermath

After the third match, the points were tallied. The final ordering of the players:

1. Iron Hands
2. Necrons
3. Tau
4. Ultramarines
5. Khorne Daemonkin
6. Imperial Fists + Inquisition
7. Blood Angels
8. Eldar + Dark Eldar
9. Chaos Daemons
10. Space Wolves

Daemons vs Eldar/Dark Eldar, 17.11.2015

Mission: Again, ETC. Again, Spoils of War + Relic. 

Points limit:  1500 points

Lists:

Chaos Daemons: Unbound

• Kairos Fateweaver, warlord
• Be'lakor
• 2x Daemon Prince of Nurgle, armor, wings, level 3 Psyker, Exalted Gift, Greater Gift
• Herald of Tzeentch, level 2 Psyker
• 10-man Pink Horrors

This is as much Flying Circus as I possibly could fit into 1500 points.
The Herald rolled on Malefic Daemonology and got Cursed Earth and Posession.
One Prince took the Portalglyph and Corpulency, then rolled on Biomancy for Warp Speed and Life Leech, then Summoning for good measure.
The other Prince got the Grimoire to accompany Kairos, backed up by a Greater Etherblade; then Iron Arm, Smite and Dark Flame.

Eldar: Combined Arms Detachment

• Farseer, level 3 Psyker, Singing Spear, on a Jetbike
• Spiritseer, level 2 Psyker
• 10-man Dire Avengers, with a special weapon on the Exarch (can't remember the name)
• 10-man Guardians with Missile Launcher
• 6-man Swooping Hawks with Exarch
• 5-man Wraithblades
• 10-man Wraithguard with D-cannons
• Crimson Hunter Exarch

Dark Eldar: Allied Detachment

• Archon, 2++, Armor of Misery, Webway Portal
• 5-man Cabalite Warriors
• Raider, Nightshield

Tactic: Wraithblades in Raider; Wraithguard perfect deep striking with Archon.

Let's get rolling!

Note. This was a fairly hurried game, so I didn't take many pictures.

Deployment

The DEldar deployed first. Cabalites and  Guardians in ruins; Dire Avengers in woods; Wraithblades in Raider; Crimson Hunter and Wraithguard in Reserve.
I put my Horrors with the Herald in ruins, with the 4 flying Daemons lined up in plain sight.
I didn't even try to seize the initiative. I wanted the Eldar to go first, then I could get in the air with my guys; then his reserves would come in and be forced to snap shoot; then I would destroy them with Psychics. Well...

DEldar, turn 1.

Raider moved forward at full speed, with Fortune on from the Farseer to reroll that 3+ Jink save. Dire Avengers move towards the Relic. Hawks move off  the table.

Daemons, turn 1.

Just as planned.
The corpulent Prince swooped forward, deployed the Portalglyph next to the relic, then flamed the Avengers with Stream of Corruption. This was followed up by Terrify and Psychic Shriek from Be'lakor. The Dire Avengers fell back into the woods.
The other Prince used the Grimoire on Kairos, then they both swooped forward to Vector Strike the Raider. No damage. Stream of Corruption killed a Wraithblade; the rest of the Psychic stuff was Jinked.
Summoning got off, but the Daemonettes mishapped and were placed next to the Guardians (upper right corner), so I deployed Cursed Earth to protect the Horrors.
Note that the Portalglyph proceeded to be completely useless for 4 turns.

DEldar, turn 2.

First of all, the Dire Avengers failed their Regroup test and fled off the table. First blood!
Then I got assaulted from all sides. The Guardians shot the Daemonettes (1 survived). The Hawks landed and dropped their bomb on the Horrors. The Cabalites shot Be'lakor. The Crimson Hunter shot the Prince with the Grimoire. The Wraithguard shot at Kairos (no 6's on the D-table, thankfully; although snapshooting helped on this one). The Wraithblades disembarked and annihilated the Horrors - they all died due to instability. And I didn't get to use Posession!

Daemons, turn 2.

Although none of my flying baddies was hurt, the loss of the Horrors and the Herald was a big dent in my scoring capabilities. So I decided to gamble: I landed everybody.
Be'lakor went for an objective. The corpulent Prince went for the Relic. The jinking Prince landed in the ruins next to the Wraithblades.
For the main event, Kairos landed next to the Wraithguard.

... 19 warp charges later, 7 Wraithguard and the Spiritseer were dead.

DEldar, turn 3.

The Wraithguard shot Kairos, but again, no 6's on the D-table. Rerollable 2++  to the rescue!
Everything else fired; again, ineffectively.
The Wraithblades embarked into the Raider.

Daemons, turn 3.

The Prince and the Daemonette worked together to destroy the remaining Wraithguard. Well, the Daemonette just ate the Overwatch, but contributed nonetheless.
Kairos assaulted the Raider. The corpulent Prince summoned more Daemonettes to hold and objective. Be'lakor went for another one.

DEldar, turn 4.

The Wraithbades assaulted Kairos, hoping to get a wound in and phase him out with Instability, but I saved them all. The Guardians and Cabalites kept shooting, and the Farseer kept jumping around, grabbing objectives. However, the brunt of the Eldar forces has been already taken out.

Daemons, turn 4.

A fairly boring set of Mysterious Objectives: from left to right, the Emperor's Coffee Maker, the Emperor's Bathtub, and the Emperor's Pillow.

 Hero Damonettes still holding the objective. Hero Portalglyph still doing nothing. Hero Daemon Prince helping out Kairos and destroying the Wraithblades. Other Hero Daemon Prince doing nothing but summoning Horrors (they got Posession by the way).

Turn 5.

All the Eldar could do was to stall and grab objectives here and there; while I racked up as much points as possible. I killed the Wraithblades in combat; Shrieked the Cabalites into oblivion; and scored Supremacy and Ascendency, among others. The Portalglyph decided to do something and spit forth one (1) Plaguebearer to hold the Relic; he then sat comfortably in 2+ cover for the remainder of the game.

Turn 6.

At this point, I hurried the game along as I had to leave. The turn went along swiftly, with the Farseer getting into combat with Be'lakor, the Corpulent Prince engaging the Guardians and the other Prince blowing up the Raider (Iron Arm for the win).

We didn't tally up the points; it was a clear win for the Daemons, both in objective points and killpoints.

Conclusion

• Vector Dancer is insanely useful for a Flyer that can't Hover. The Crimson Hunter could dance around the table without the need to fly off to get better angles of fire. Even if it didn't do anything useful, I was still amazed by its abilities.
• Death Stars don't always work, as the 10-man D-cannon squad demonstrated.
• Psychics are unreliable. I can see this in every game. Unfortunately, I don't have anything else to rely on. Fortunately, the odds balance each other out. The weak Psychic phase in the first turn was followed by an amazing one in the second turn.

 

Assembling a PC (part 1)

Not at all miniature-related, but it is gaming-related (sort of) and DIY (sort of), so here goes: I decided to custom build a low-budget gaming PC.

Components ordered

• CPU: http://ark.intel.com/products/78955/Intel-Celeron-Processor-G1820-2M-Cache-2_70-GHz
• motherboard: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/B85ME/
• RAM: Kingston 8GB, DDR3, 1333MHz
• chassis: Delux MV419 450W
• graphics card: https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/STRIXR7370DC2OC4GD5GAMING/
• SSD: http://www.kingston.com/en/ssd/v#sv300s3 240GB
• HDD: http://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/us/product/storage-products/client-hdd/dt01acaxxx.html 500GB

You can see the monitor, too; but it's not relevant. Yet.

Reasoning

It's been around 5 years since I bought my Asus X55SV laptop. Back then, I needed a laptop for university-related activities; and I thought, hey, let's buy something that can actually be used for gaming also. And it was quite the nuclear reactor, thanks to the included GeForce 9500. I remember running Crysis and Assassin's Creed right after they came out. Of course, it did not prove a good long-term investment. It soon needed a RAM upgrade (to 3 GB), and I also experienced a bad case of burned-out graphics card (the replacement costed about 30% of the total price of the laptop). I then learned to always use a cooling pad.
So the laptop aged nicely, and it's still capable of running most games. The first one that I couldn't run was Crysis 2; then there was FarCry 3, Witcher 2 and so on. But it's still running StarCarft 2 and Diablo 3 at full details with no issues. Well, it was running, until the HDD went bad. It just simply stopped working one day; probably due to bad sectors. No idea. I will not invest any more money into this laptop. Time to move on.
For my new PC, I wanted something to run most of today's games. In the same time, I'm not willing to sell a kidney to get a high-end graphics card. I picked something from the middle of the benchmark list. Moving on.
For most components, I went for the cheapest. I took the the cheapest chassis with a 450W power source; and I found a good one, with two additional cooler slots for later, if needed. I bought the cheapest 8GB RAM chips, and a cheap 2-core 2.7GHz processor. I don't intend to do any intensive computing to require more; and as far as I know, games mostly use the graphics card. Moving on.
For the motherboard, I chose the cheapest one that satisfied my requirements: support for everything above, support for 32GB RAM and 4 RAM slots (for later, if needed). I got another good one here; it has 2 cooler power slots, 6 SATA slots and so on.
For storage, I bought a cheap SSD and a cheap HDD for a couple of reasons. I experienced working with SSDs at work; and the speed-up is worth every penny. On the other hand, you don't need a very large SSD. To be honest, my laptop had a 250 GB HDD and it was enough for whatever I used actively. I also have an external HDD, but it's only about 10% filled (another bad investment). So the plan is to use the SSD for the OS and installed applications; and use the HDD for media and other stuff, where the speed-up isn't relevant.

Step by step assembly

credit: 9gag

Well, at least in theory. I opened up all the manuals before doing anything for instructions. The thing you're looking for here is the motherboard manual. That actually lists the steps of assembly; you can go from there, component by component. Whenever you're stuck or unclear, search youtube for a tutorial. There's loads of  them, such as this one which I've found relevant and useful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ9QHOHhGCg

 Step 1. Installing the motherboard

Screw in the little legs, put in the motherboard (guided by the holes for screws), then screw them in.

I was in no way prepared for having to wrestle with this piece of hardware. I had to use brute physical force to push it into its place.Your best bet would be pushing it into its approximate place, fix a screw in a corner; then fixing a screw in the opposite corner. Then just go in whichever direction you want, alternating opposite corners for as long as possible.

Step 2. CPU

This one was easy. Just follow instructions.

 Step 3. HDD & SSD

Mount them close to the SATA connectors. Put the RAM chips in in the same go.

Step 4. Notice missing screw in motherboard

Yeah, I missed one. And since it needs its little leg under the board, it can't be mounted with the motherboard in place. So I had to unmount it, put the leg in its place, and re-mount it.

Yay.

Step 5. Back to the storage devices

With these new SATA connectors, the days of setting jumpers on HDDs are gone. What a relief! Just plug everything in.

Step 6. Graphics card

Mount it in the PCI-E slot. Or at least I would have, but it didn't fit due to the HDD. I unmounted and remounted everything several times until I managed to fit everything in the right place.

Step 7. Get frustrated

Everything above was done in a single evening after work. I was getting tired (and frustrated, and sleepy), so I just cut the assembling off right here.

Not the best state to leave the living room in, but at this point, whatever.

Step 8. Get back into the game

Another day, a fresh start. I continued with plugging in all the extra cables into the motherboard; this means the front panel connectors (USB, audio, power switch, reset switch), and all the power cables. Everything looks ready to go. Time to connect the monitor and confirm that it works.

Step 9. Get frustrated... again

See that metallic "lip" there, right above the graphics card's connectors? The connectors actually don't fit because of it.

Step 10. Try to get the monitor working with the PC

The monitor came with a single cable: DVI-to-mini-DVI. It wasn't working with the graphics card, or the integrated graphics card. Some quick googling pointed me towards problems with certain (most?) adapter cables, so I went out to the nearest hardware store and bought an HDMI cable. It wasn't working either; but at least it proved that the cable itself and the monitor were good, as I once again quit the assembly process and went ahead to watch a movie with my wife on our new 24" monitor. I somehow got into a different hardware store the day after, where I bought an HDMI-to-VGA cable to try out; it obviously did not work either.

Step 11. Try desperately to get the monitor working with the PC

I was very close to just taking the whole thing to a PC repair shop. I just gave myself one last shot. Following a guide found thanks to Google, I started removing components. With the PC almost empty on the inside (again), I connected the monitor to the integrated graphics card again. HDMI - nothing. HDMI/VGA - nothing. DVI/miniDVI - working! Yea!
I have no idea what's up with that.
Anyway, further investigation showed that the graphics card has an additional power connector; but there was no cable included, and the chassis doesn't have an appropriate outlet. So it had no way to work anyway.

Recap. I have everything installed into the chassis, except the graphics card. I can boot up the PC and get into the BIOS (which is awesome by the way, nowhere near the old BIOS-es I'm used to).

Step 12. Install Windows

With no optical drive, the solution is simple: use a USB bootable stick. Except that I got an error message related to the CD/DVD device driver when installing. By all the Gods of Chaos, this is getting frustrating.
Solution. In true Windows fashion, pull it out and plug it back in.

Step 13. Install applications

A usable browser. A free antivirus. A good media player. A free image viewer. The list goes on.

Step 13. Realize that more components are needed

So for starters, an optical drive. Then wireless capability, because I don't want to have a huge cable across half the house. Speakers, since we only have laptops at the moment. And last but not least, a power cable for the graphics card.

To be continued...

Chaos Space Marines/Chaos Daemons vs Khorne Daemonkin, 10.11.2015

Mission:

As training for our upcoming tournament, we used the ETC tournament scenarios. This is the second time I'm trying this - and for the second time, I got a mix of Spoils of War and The Relic.

Points limit:  1500 points

Lists:

Chaos Space Marines: Combined Arms Detachment

•  Daemon Prince of Nurgle, armor, wings, lvl 3 psyker, the Black Mace (got Smite and Iron Arm. I got mixed up and thought he was CD and forgot to roll on the Nurgle chart, but I got Haemorrhage and I didn't use that anyway)
• Ahriman, warlord (all 3 Tzeentch powers plus Smite from Biomancy)
• 2x 10-man Cultist squad
• 4-man Chaos Terminator squad, all combi-plasma and power axes, Mark of Tzeentch
• 5-man Havoc squad, 4 plasma guns, Mark of Tzeentch

Why all the Mark of Tzeentch, you may ask? Especially on Havocs? Well, to be able to attach Ahriman and Outflank together for some shooty goodness. I want to be able to get in rapid firing plasma range (and psychic range) with Ahriman, the Havocs and the Terminators. The Termies can deep strike, so if I get 1 on the d3 units, I can attach Ahriman to the Havocs. At least so goes the plan.
I rolled a 5, so I gave Outflank to the Havocs, Ahriman & the Termies, and a squad of Cultists.

 Chaos Daemons: Combined Arms Detachment

• 2x Herald of Tzeentch, lvl 3 psyker, 1 Exalted Gift (Portalglyph)
• 10-man Pink Horrors (Summoning)
• Soul Grinder of Tzeentch, Warp Gaze

Ok, let me explain this too. The Heralds roll on Divination for Scryer's Gaze, so the Outflanking plasma gunners arrive when and where needed. They also get Prescience to compensate for the Grinder's BS3.
... and of course, 6 rolls of Divination and no Scryer's Gaze.

Khorne Daemonkin

Combined Arms Detachment 

• Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage, warlord (+1 attack)
• 2x 8-man Cultist squad
• 3-man Terminator squad, combi-plasma
• 3-man Bloodcrusher squad, banner, character 
• Helldrake, Baleflamer

Blood Host Detachment 

Slaughtercult:

• Chaos Lord with Axe of Ruin
• 5-man Possessed
• 8-man Chaos Space Marines
• 8-man Bloodletters

War Engine:

• Soul Grinder, Phlegm Bombardment

Pretty straightforward. So let's get rolling!

Deployment & stuff

I won the roll-off for objectives, but we placed most objectives onto one side of the board. I was thinking to get placed there, because the Khorne Daemonkin would come to me in any case. But then my opponent chose table sides and he chose that one, so I had to come up with a new-ish plan on the fly.

Left to right: Bloodcrushers, Cultists in the ruins, Possessed with the Lord, Chaos Marines, Soul Grinder, Cultists, Bloodthirster. Bloodletters and Terminators in Deep Strike Reserve. Helldrake in Reserve.

Left to right: Soul Grinder, Horrors with both Heralds close by for prescience, Cultists in the ruins, Daemon Prince. Havocs, Cultists, Terminators with Ahriman in Outflank.

The red spot is the Relic.

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 1.

Bloodcrushers, Possessed and Chaos Marines advanced. Bloodthirster swooped across the board. Combined fire from the Marines and Grinder took out 1 Horror.

Tzeentch, turn 1.

Well, sort of. I got a Prince of Nurgle mixed in.

I deployed the Portalglyph and got some Daemonettes out. The Grinder turned towards the Bloodthirster for skyfiring goodness. The Nurgle Prince moved in on the Bloodcrushers.

Unfortunately I got a very weak psychic phase, with nothing going off. I failed Smite and Iron Arm on the Prince, so I got 1 wound out of the combat. I failed Prescience on the Grinder, so naturally he missed everything.

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 2.

The Bloodthirster turns towards the Grinder. Bring it on!

The Bloodletters do a perfect Deep Strike thanks to the banner on the Bloodcrusher.
The Helldrake flames the cultists but only kills 3, and they hold.
Chaos Marines shoot some Daemonettes.

Tzeentch, turn 2.

I was pretty upset about Scryer's Gaze; fortunately, all my reserves came on turn 2 AND on appropriate flanks.

We've got the Termies and Ahriman marching on from below, with the Bloodletters in perfect position for a flame template. The Havocs are all clumped up across the board, aiming at the 'Thirster. The Cultists come on next to the Khornate Cultists. Time to unleash some pain!
I also aimed my Grinder towards the Bloodthirster, and got some Pink Horrors out of the Portalglyph.

Beginning up top, I shot 4 rapid firing Plasma Guns into the Bloodthirster, followed by all the weapons on the Grinder, for 2 wounds inflicted. I then charged in the Grinder, and scored another 2 wounds in melee thanks to Prescience. I then took 4d3 HP damage to the face and died.
The newly arrived Horrors rolled on Malefic and got Posession. I immediately threw down a Great Unclean One onto the Relic, also secured by the surviving Daemonettes.
Ahriman threw 3x Breath of Chaos and more unto the clumped up Bloodletters, scoring First Blood. The Terminators then shot all their plasma into the Lord and his Possessed, leaving the Lord at 1 wound and 1 Possessed alive.

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 3.

At 6 Blood Tithe points, just below summoning a Daemon Prince, my opponent threw down 3 Bloodcrushers next to the still surviving banner. The Lord then split from the Possessed and joined the newly arrived Crushers for ablative wounds.

Terminators in reserve arrive and Deep Strike in the middle, too afraid to go into a densely packed area.
The Helldrake aimed at the Horrors. The Bloodthirster went for the Great Unclean One. The Chaos Marines approached the Relic.

In a rare moment of luck, the Soul Grinder's Phlegm Bombardment completely missed the Havocs.

The Bloodthirster charged  the Great Unclean One. I did manage to inflict a single wound at I4 - but that was enough to finish it off. The Marines then destroyed the Daemonettes.

In a forgotten moment of heroism, the Khornate Cultists in the far corner charged my own Cultist squad, but due to difficult terrain, I managed to win the combat.

The final state of the board.

Tzeentch, turn 3.

The Nurgle Prince finally finished off the remaining Crusher.
Ahriman's psychic volley took out the other Crushers and  the Lord, summoning the Bloodthirster of the Axe.
The Great Unclean One charged and overran the Chaos Marines.
The Havocs spread out.
The Horrors summoned more Daemonettes who scattered forwards, then ran unto the objective on the far side.
The Terminators shot the cultists, but failed to charge.
The Cultists finished off the Khornate squad, and secured the objective in the far corner.

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 4.

With enough Blood Tithe points racked up...

... it was time to summon a Bloodthirster from the Cultist Champion!
Both 'Thirsters then concentrated on my Terminators with Vector Strikes and ranged attacks.
The Possessed ran to get Behind Enemy Lines, and the Helldrake and Grinder shot, but to no great effect. 6++ on the Tzeentch Havocs saved 2 guys!

Tzeentch, turn 4.

With more Daemonettes coming in to secure objectives and the GCU sitting on the Relic, I was pretty safe.
For good measure, I secured the middle objective with the Nurgle Prince (which then exploded due to Sabotaged, wounded and I failed my save. Because if something should take wounds from Sabotaged, why not a Daemon Prince?!) and killed the remaining Possessed. The Terminators failed to charge the Cultists, so that's that.

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 5.

 

 

Cultist fire and Bloodthirsters were whittling down my Terminators, but not much else happening.

Tzeentch, turn 5.

With some smart maneuvering and objective-denying, I scored Supremacy and Ascendency. Nothing died though.
And on we go to turn 6!

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 6.

Having drawn Big Game Hunter, my opponent was now eyeing my Nurgle Prince, sitting at 1 wound.

After an unsuccessful Vector Strike, a Lash of Khorne and a failed 2+ Jink save, the Nurgle Prince died.

 

The other Bloodthirster then charged and killed Ahriman for Warlord kill.

Tzeentch, turn 6.

I didn't do anything cinematic; maybe scored a couple of points with objectives.

And then the game ended!

Final score: 29-17 in my favor. I didn't have much of a lead in kill points or tactical objectives, but a solid 6 points from holding the Relic sure tipped the balance.

Anything to add?

Khorne Daemonkin sure looks like a fun army to play. I tried a couple of times (with mostly Daemons) but couldn't get the gist of it. However, with proper Chaos Marine support (Helldrake, Terminators) it's fast, fun and strong.
On my side, it was the first time I tried a mostly-Chaos Space Marine list. Of course I consider the codex weak-ish (just like my own), but the proper things stacked together (outflanking plasma gunners, Daemons to provide Warp Charges for Ahriman to spend) still seem to do the trick.
Also, once again, putting too much faith into the Psychic phase is a huge risk. It can go well (take the summoning of the Great Unclean One), but it can go the other way, too, and fast.