Mission: Cloak and Shadows
Lists: 2000 points
Chaos Daemons (11 CP)
- Battalion Detachment: Tzeentch
- 2x Changecaster
- 4x Horrors, 5 Brimstones, 5 Blues each
- Battalion Detachment
- Poxbringer
- Herald of Slaanesh
- 20-man Bloodletters, icon, instrument
- 20-man Daemonettes, icon, instrument
- 3-man Nurglings
- 5-man Seekers
- Soulgrinder, Nurgle
- Outrider Detachment: Tzeentch
- Daemon Prince, wings, dual Malefic Talons
- 2x 5-man Furies
- 3-man Screamers
- Outrider Detachment: Khorne
- Daemon Prince, wings, relic: Skullreaver, warlord: Oblivious to Pain
- Bloodmaster
- 3x 5-man Flesh Hounds
T'au: Battalion Detachment (6 CP)
- 3-man XV88 Broadside Battlesuits: 2x Smart missile system, Early warning override, Heavy rail rifle plus 2x MV4 Shield Drone
- 3x 10-man Strike Team, Pulse rifles
- 10-man Pathfinder Team MV31 Pulse Accelerator Drone, MV4 Shield Drone
- 7-man MV1 Gun Drones
- Aun'Va+2x Ethereal Guard
- Cadre Fireblade: Markerlight, 2x MV4 Shield Drone
- Commander: Exemplar of the Mont'ka, 4x Fusion blaster, 2x MV4 Shield Drone, Puretide Engram Neurochip, Warlord
- 6-man XV25 Stealth Battlesuits: Homing beacon, Advanced targeting system, Burst cannon, Markerlight, Target lock
- 3-man XV8 Crisis Bodyguards: one with Drone controller, 2x Flamer, two with 3x Flamer, plus 6x MV1 Gun Drone
- XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit: 2x Fusion blaster, Counterfire defence system, Fusion collider, 2x MV5 Stealth Drone, Target lock
Commander and Crisis team in Manta Strike. Everything else holds the wedge. Pathfinders in top ruin. Characters in the middle to provide buffs. Broadsides in the back. Stealth suits and Ghostkeel deployed forward, intent on roasting my lines on the first turn with the help of the Homing Beacon.
Bloodletters and Bloodmaster, Daemonettes and Herald in reserve. Fast stuff up front, Daemon Princes and Grinder behind. Horrors take up deep strike denying positions. Nurglings infiltrated far forward. On the off chance I get first turn, they can tie up the markerlights. I initially wanted to put the Poxbringer in reserve with his -1T spell, but with the clusterfeth forming on the right flank, I just placed him in my lines.
At 22 drops, I obviously finished second and lost the roll-off, but managed to seize the initiative.
Daemons, turn 1
Assault units surge forward, with the right flank surrounding the infiltrators. Bloodletters drop in on the left flank, Nurglings move forward.
Excellent shooting from the Grinder (on 6s) takes off 2 wounds from a Broadside.
CHAAAAARGE! The right flank mostly makes it in.
I just did not get enough distance covered to consolidate into those Fire Warriors with the Flesh Hounds. At least the warlord is protected...
Nurglings make it in and block the Pathfinders. Bloodletters make it in but not all get to swing due to surrounding the Nurglings. Pathfinders survive by taking all wounds on the gun drones in the back. Seekers also make it in.
A very successful first turn. I had a bad draw on objectives, with Secure 4 (held by Pathfinders), Defend 6 (lower right corner, discarded at the end of turn) and Psychological Warfare (Leadership 9 rerollable thanks to the Ethereal). However, I made First Blood. I annihilated the Stealth Suits and Ghostkeel, thus denying the flamer suits arriving danger close. The Gun Drones died protecting the markerlights. I tied up two squads of Fire Warriors and the Pathfinders in combat. I lost some models to greater good overwatch, but nothing crippling.
T'au, turn 1
The reserves arrive in the back lines, and everything falls back. Unfortunately I did not manage to surround any Pathfinders, so the Bloodletters are left exposed.
Fire concentrates on the Bloodletters, killing a lot; then they flee to Morale, leaving 1 at the end of the turn. I popped the +1 invulnerable stratagem, saving 2 Bloodletters for 2 CP. Not. Worth. At. All. T'au score hold the line, for 1-1.
Daemons, turn 2
Once again, the assault units close in. With the Crisis team already down, I also brought in my reserves, surrounding the T'au bunker. I landed far enough from the Broadsides thanks to a friendly reminder from the opponent. A bit longer charge, but worth it.
Soulgrinder advanced. I did not see the value in another salvo at 6+.
I did some mistakes while placing units, denying the Khorne Prince the juicy target of Broadsides. At least I managed to maneuver the overwatch right, with the Flesh Hounds taking the brunt. Unfortunately, Daemonettes fail their charge even with a reroll.
The dice were not in my favor. The Screamers killed 1 Broadside, but even the Fire Warriors survived the onslaught. Except those attacked by the Daemon Prince. They died, horribly.
T'au, turn 2
After my lackluster turn 2, the T'au retaliated in force.
Again, everything fell back.
The suits unleashed their flamers into the Daemonettes, killing lots and more fleeing. I used my final 2 CPs for +1 invulnerable again, saving perhaps 2 or 3. Again. Not worth it.
A couple Hounds died besides the Daemonettes and the Screamers, yielding Scour the Skies.
Daemons, turn 3
At this point I had my first good draw: Blood and Guts, No Prisoners, Scour the Skies. As I told my opponent, it would be pretty sad if I didn't score any. Given the objectives and positioning, there was really nothing else to do but hammer the T'au gunline, maintain board control and hope for the best.
I maneuvered and charged, evaporating more Fire Warriors, but failing to inflict any real damage. At least the Shield Drones ate the wounds meant for the Broadsides, netting me all 3 objectives.
T'au, turn 3
The T'au retaliate in force again. The Gun Drones melt the flaming Flesh Hound, and then the Flamers unload into my warlord, obliterating him.
Although the T'au lines were getting sparse at this moment, the score was a close 6-5 in my favor and all the heavy hitters were still alive.
Turn 4
Smites and charges all around. I managed to sneak the Tzeentch prince into combat last turn using Heroic Intervention, keeping the Broadsides locked and unable to overwatch.
The Hounds melted to flaming overwatch, but the Grinder managed to get into the Broadsides.
On the T'au turn, the flamers went into the Tzeentch Prince who somehow survived. The Commander killed my Bloodmaster, unknowingly denying me Defend 4.
However, I had another good draw this turn and the T'au did not. (D3 for casting a psychic power with Tzeentch daemons? Yes please!) The turn ended at 9-5.
Turn 5
And finally, the board control paid off. I drew Domination and managed to score it by running my forward Heralds onto objectives. Very lucky smites finished off the Commander and killed suits.
We played out the turn. At the end, the T'au only had some Pathfinders and a Broadside alive, failed to score any points, and failed to score a moral victory by not killing my Tzeentch Prince.
Game ends with the store closing and the T'au conceding at 16-5.
Aftermath
First and foremost, I have tremendously enjoyed this game. A very friendly atmosphere, great spirit and gentlemanly reminders (when we remembered anyway - I still forgot the Tzeentch locus, and the T'au forgot the Ethereal's buffs).
About the lists: I tried the same idea, of a random list with loose synergies, at the beginning of 8th edition, and lost horribly to a shooty Space Wolf list. Now that the infantry can deep strike, the chances are much better. Acknowledging that a codex army was up against an index army, I still would have had an uphill battle had I not seized. The flamers and all that shooting would have decimated the fast assault core of the army, leaving only the infantry to land and hope for the best against the gunline. Even so, the score was very close, and so was the carnage, during the first 3 turns. I then managed to run away with points and probably would have won even if rolling poorly on Smites and combat.
Individual units:
- the Soulgrinder is still way too overpriced for what it does. The T'au immediately realized that he was no threat at a distance, and instead concentrated on the assault units - very correctly done. Even with buffed shooting, he did nothing until he reached the enemy lines. There he performed acceptably against infantry (10 attacks, even on 4+, do kill things) but barely scratched the heavier Broadsides.
- Horrors do what they do best - deny deep strike, hold objectives.
- fast attack choices (Hounds, Screamers, Seekers) do as expected. I was mildly surprised at how well the Screamers do - at least compared to how they did before. Everything still dies to shooting.
- Daemonettes are outclassed by Bloodletters. They are just better in every way: same attacks on the charge, more strength, more AP, charge 3d6, rerolling... and they die all the same.
- Warp Surge (+1 invulnerable stratagem) is not worth it. Those 2 CPs are much better used on making sure the survivors don't run away.
- Daemon Princes did reasonably well, but I still feel Malefic Talons do best against MEQs. Sure, Fire Warriors melted - but that's not enough. The relic/warlord Prince was a beast, though. Except...
On the T'au:
- Savior Protocols are dumb. Sure, let that AP-4 d6 damage relic axe swing... I'll just take a drone off.
- For the Greater Good is an excellent rule, and it pushes both sides to make tactical decisions. What charges where? How best to draw out the overwatch from where it matters? How best to conserve it?
- The only powergamey choice was the flamer Crisis team, but such a small amount of tailoring against an obviously melee army is acceptable. I still managed to deny their alpha strike by slaughtering the Stealth team.
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