Mission: Eternal War - Retrieval
Chaos Daemons: 7 CP
- ++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Daemons) [44 PL, 776pts] ++
- Chaos Allegiance: Chaos Undivided
- Changecaster [4 PL, 78pts]: Daemonspark, Flickering Flames, Gaze of Fate, Warlord
- Changecaster [4 PL, 78pts]: Flickering Flames, Gaze of Fate
- Bloodletters [12 PL, 235pts]: 29x Bloodletter, Bloodreaper, Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos
- Horrors [8 PL, 120pts]: 10x Blue Horror, 10x Pink Horror
- Horrors [4 PL, 30pts]: 10x Pair of Brimstone Horrors
- Soul Grinder [12 PL, 235pts]: Mark of Tzeentch, Warpclaw
- ++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Daemons) [12 PL, 216pts] ++
- Chaos Allegiance: Slaanesh
- Herald of Slaanesh [4 PL, 66pts]: Hysterical Frenzy, Ravaging claws
- Daemonettes [8 PL, 150pts]: Alluress, 19x Daemonette, Instrument of Chaos
- ++ Supreme Command Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Daemons) [21 PL, 416pts] ++
- Chaos Allegiance: Khorne
- Bloodmaster [3 PL, 56pts]
- Daemon Prince of Chaos [9 PL, 180pts]: Khorne, Malefic talon, Wings
- Daemon Prince of Chaos [9 PL, 180pts]: Daemonic axe, Khorne, Skullreaver, Wings
- ++ Total: [77 PL, 1408pts] ++
- 92 reinforcement points
Death Guard: 4 CP ++ Outrider Detachment +1CP
- Daemon Prince of Nurgle [9 PL, 180pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 1. Revoltingly Resilient, Hellforged sword, Warlord, Wings
- Daemon Prince of Nurgle [9 PL, 180pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, Hellforged sword, Wings
- 2x Poxwalkers [6 PL, 120pts]: 20x Poxwalker
- Foetid Bloat-drone [8 PL, 136pts]: Fleshmower, Plague probe
- 3x Foetid Bloat-drone [8 PL, 158pts]: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe
- Myphitic Blight-hauler [7 PL, 142pts] Bile spurt, Missile launcher, Multi-melta
- Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 146pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Heavy Slugger
- ++ Total: [77 PL, 1498pts] ++
Terrain
We set up the terrain with a theme in mind: a weird, alien landscape map with lush jungles and weird plants sprouting up around an abandoned landing pad and a crashed spaceship, with a possibly chaos-possessed structure in the back.
Deployment: Frontline Assault
I kept the Bloodletters with their Bloodmaster in the warp, so I could reliably bomb the back lines of the Death Guard. They were also my crutch. You see, I sometimes take Daemonettes and hope that they do something. They mostly don't. Same with the Soul Grinder. Daemon Princes sometimes perform averagely but never too well. I did not imagine 10 Horrors to do too well with shooting.
Anyway, I set up my firebase of the Horrors and the Grinder with the Warlord Herald in the middle to reroll 1's to wound. I realized that I should have brought a Daemon Prince to reroll 1's to hit, too. Oh well. My Khorne Princes are right behind, as I saw that the drones all go front and center. Daemonettes counter the Poxwalkers on the flank, with the other Herald and 10 Brimstones hiding behind terrain, ready to take the objective on the last turn. I abandoned the left flank, as I had no objectives there.
Anyway, I set up my firebase of the Horrors and the Grinder with the Warlord Herald in the middle to reroll 1's to wound. I realized that I should have brought a Daemon Prince to reroll 1's to hit, too. Oh well. My Khorne Princes are right behind, as I saw that the drones all go front and center. Daemonettes counter the Poxwalkers on the flank, with the other Herald and 10 Brimstones hiding behind terrain, ready to take the objective on the last turn. I abandoned the left flank, as I had no objectives there.
Pre-game casualties
I dropped the tray of Daemonettes. 11 out of 20 broke some way or another, but these 3 broke off their bases completely. I replaced them with Blue Horrors on the field.
Death Guard, turn 1
The Crawler shot the Soul Grinder, but I made the saves like a boss. Everything advanced.
Daemons, turn 1
With all the drones bunched up in the middle and very close to flaming my lines, as well as the crawler threatening my own "artillery", I decided to seize the initiative (so to speak) and attack.
Daemon Princes flew forward. Horrors moved to get the Poxwalkers in range. Daemonettes advanced. Bloodletters dropped in the back.
I made my charges. The Princes got stuck in, as well as the Daemonettes and the Bloodletters.
One Daemonette managed to engage the Blight Hauler, to keep that multimelta silent. 3 Bloodletters got into the enemy warlord.
So the Bloodletters rolled way too well (this is the to wound roll) and so I managed to kill the Crawler. There goes my plan of keeping them safe from shooting.
Daemonettes rolled reasonably and killed 19 out of 20 Poxwalkers. My relic-toting Prince killed the opposing Prince. The dual talon Prince barely scratched the Fleshmower Drone.
While I'm happy that the Bloodletters did well, I honestly expected them to.
The Daemonettes disappointed me a bit, by leaving that Poxwalker alive. They are purely anti-weak-horde. They had the +1 attack for being 20, as well as a Herald for +1 S. And so, I sometimes bring them, and always hope that they do something. But they never perform well.
The relic Prince killed the Death Guard axe-Prince, sure, but it was I think 2 5+++ rolls away from not happening. And the axe hitting back would have been painful.
The talon Prince... well, always a disappointment. I think it's just not worth it to send him against anything else but infantry.
Death Guard, turn 2
The spitter Drones fell back and hosed down the Bloodletters, to the last man. The Fleshmower stayed with my Prince in combat, and brought him down to 2 wounds.
The Bloodletters for the Crawler was a really bad trade...
Daemons, turn 2
I had to keep moving. I sent my relic Prince forward, and the Daemonettes in support. The Bloodmaster pulled back, towards the objective.
It turns out that with the proper support, Horror shooting can be really effective. Just look at them dead Poxwalkers.
The talon Prince finally killed the Mower, but it exploded and did 1 MW back. So here he sits at 1 wound.
I initially wanted to send in the relic Prince to kill the Blight Hauler and the Daemonettes against the Poxwalkers, but I messed up the movement and blocked myself in. At least I had the Daemonettes eat the overwatch of the Hauler (no hits, of course). Then the relic Prince swept in and killed it.
At this point I was pretty confident, having killed a lot of units and holding 3 objectives.
Death Guard, turn 3
But the Death Guard was not finished. The Drones massed near the Warlord. The Poxwalkers walked towards the Daemonettes.
Cue Curse of the Walking Dead... and voila! The Daemonettes die to plaguespitters and new Poxwalkers arise...
... who then assault and kill my Daemon Prince. The enemy warlord assaults the relic Prince, who is one rerolled 5++ away from surviving, but didn't.
Well, that turned the tables. All my remaining killing power went away in 1 turn.
Daemons, turn 3
I fell back with my Herald of Slaanesh, so I could shoot the Poxwalkers. I hid my Bloodmaster behind that creepy terrain, maybe to dash out and grab the objective late game.
The Horrors decided to put on a good show and killed a bunch of Poxwalkers.
Turn 4
The Death Guard drones closed in and flamed the Horrors, which I split as best I could, while still keeping 30 points of reinforcements for later.
I shot back, rather ineffectually, and did next to nothing.
Death Guard, turn 5
The Death Guard claims supremacy in this turn.
The warlord Prince assaults and kills my Bloodmaster.
The Drones surround the Soul Grinder, chip a few wounds off, and one assaults and kills my Changecaster warlord.
I went from 3 objectives, board control and more kills to 1 objective, no control and barely anything alive.
Daemons, turn 5
But then, I wasn't done either.
So the Soul Grinder did nothing all game. Most shots went wild (as you would expect hitting on 4+), and not even the reroll 1's to wound did not help much.
I couldn't even kill a wounded Drone in combat in 1 turn, even though I tried both my weapons. My opponent was nice enough to humor me, as I said, OK, I'll attack with my right claw, but I'm curious what the left claw would do. Turned out, the left claw would have done more damage. Still not enough to kill, though.
What I could do, was to kill a wounded Drone in 2 turns of combat. This gave a sliver of hope. By killing 1, I contested the objective.
On the other flank, a desperate gamble was fruitful.
I charged the enemy warlord Prince with my squad of Brimstones, and summoned another squad to hold the objective using my last reinforcement points.
The assault went as well as I could hope. The Brimstones moved in, engaged the Daemon Prince as little as possible (with 1 model), and moved the rest to take the objective. That 1 model did a wound, the Prince made his 2+ relic save, which did a MW back on 4+, the Brimstone died, and the Prince was out of combat, unable to kill more.
And so I took back some of the board, controlled 2 objectives to the Death Guard's 1, and contested the 4th. I had First Blood, while the opponent had Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker, for a neat 1 point advantage to me.
Unfortunately, we went to turn 6.
Death Guard, turn 6
The Drones moved towards the Grinder, intent on hurting it while controlling the objective.
The warlord Prince sat on the objective, ready to kill some measly Brimstones.
Both Drones shot and assaulted the Grinder, which I believe was a mistake at this point, as I could focus on the wounded one and kill it.
The Prince absolutely wrecked my Brimstones, as expected, but 2 models survived the Morale Phase.
Daemons, turn 6
Obviously, I did not have the killing power left to win me the game, so I had to control objectives.
I fell back with the Brimstones. They had just enough movement to still hold the objective, but be out of Heroic Intervention range. These aren't the summoned ones, so they still have the objective secured type rule.
The Grinder shot and assaulted, doing a couple of wounds, but not enough.
And so at the end of turn 6, we were back to 2 objectives held by me, 1 by the Death Guard, and 1 contested.
The only way this could end well for me was to end here. Otherwise, the Prince could easily kill 2 more Brimstones. Even if I managed to also kill the Drone, secondary objectives would grant victory to my opponent.
All the game, everything, came down to a 4+.
I ROLLED A 3.
Game ends 7-5. Victory to the Daemons.
Aftermath
Allright, so obviously the list were nowhere near optimized. I tried something wacky - I think my list was actually weaker.
And almost nothing performed well.
The Bloodletters obviously did well and killed something when coming in, but did not make up their points.
The talon Prince killed 1 Drone before being killed - again, not enough points.
The Daemonettes killed 1 Poxwalker squad - again, not even.
The Horrors killed some Poxwalkers, but not the whole squad, and not anything close enough to what I invested in the Horror unit, considering splits.
The relic Prince finally performed well, killed 3 threats (anything he touched in 1 turn, basically).
The Soul Grinder made a surprising comeback at the end of the game, in melee.
But everything killed just enough for these two models to carry the game. The point difference of "survivors" at the end was just about 100 points for the Death Guard.
Tactics wise, we both made both brilliant and bad decisions. I regret sending in the Bloodletters for that measly Crawler, but those Brimstones made up for it. My opponent could have sent 1-2 Drones the other way and get rid of the Brimstones. At least most of the Daemonettes became Poxwalkers! I can't deny that being awesome.
And at the end of the day, this was a really fun game. It started off pretty laid back, but I was sweating blood in the last two turns. And finally, the game came down to a 4+. Can't be more balanced than that, now can it?
And almost nothing performed well.
The Bloodletters obviously did well and killed something when coming in, but did not make up their points.
The talon Prince killed 1 Drone before being killed - again, not enough points.
The Daemonettes killed 1 Poxwalker squad - again, not even.
The Horrors killed some Poxwalkers, but not the whole squad, and not anything close enough to what I invested in the Horror unit, considering splits.
The relic Prince finally performed well, killed 3 threats (anything he touched in 1 turn, basically).
The Soul Grinder made a surprising comeback at the end of the game, in melee.
But everything killed just enough for these two models to carry the game. The point difference of "survivors" at the end was just about 100 points for the Death Guard.
Tactics wise, we both made both brilliant and bad decisions. I regret sending in the Bloodletters for that measly Crawler, but those Brimstones made up for it. My opponent could have sent 1-2 Drones the other way and get rid of the Brimstones. At least most of the Daemonettes became Poxwalkers! I can't deny that being awesome.
And at the end of the day, this was a really fun game. It started off pretty laid back, but I was sweating blood in the last two turns. And finally, the game came down to a 4+. Can't be more balanced than that, now can it?
P.S. Don't worry about the girls, they're all right now.
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