Calypso2ts @ Da Boyz GT: 1 of 3

I have been avoiding writing up this tournament for almost a month now for reasons that have nothing to do with Da Boyz GT as a tournament and everything to do with my some personal challenges I ran into at the event.  I want to preface this post with a brief look into the 2011 Da Boyz GT.  I brought Daemons with me, a similar list but comp restrictions forced some changes.  Overall, I played well and ended up 4 - 2 with my losses to Greg Spark's Eldar and then in round 6 to the Tau player who went on to take Best General.  That game haunted me because I made one or two minor mistakes that poor luck punished me severely on so that I took the loss in spite of wrecking most of my opponents army.

Regardless, I was killed on painting because I did not finish painting - and I was embarrassed to have brought primed only models.  I planned for the next year to finish painting everything - or at least be so close that only I knew the difference.  It was a tough goal - I lived at my parents house as I started a new job last Spring, I bought a house with my wife and had a daughter.  In spite of that - I was able to paint and base the army and bring a display board with me.

I brought a diverse army to Da Boyz - at least in the respect it did not spam any single unit and the goal of the army was to be scary fast.  Due in part to my desire to have a painted army, I had to bring Fateweaver with me to the tournament and my list was:

HQ

Fateweaver

Elites

6x Fiends

6x Fiends

6x Flamers

Troops

5x Horrors w/ Bolt

5x Horrors w/ Bolt

9x Horrors w/ Changeling, Bolt

5x Plaguebearer

5x Plaguebearer

Fast Attack

9x Screamers

Heavy Support

Soul Grinder w/ Phlegm

Soul Grinder w/ Phlegm

I like a lot of aspects about this list - it has strong scoring potential, it has templates and blasts, Fateweaver adds resilience and the Screamers/Fiends close disgustingly fast.  The shortcomings are it lacks staying power, limited anti-air ability and it does nothing to mitigate poor reserve rolls (i.e. comms relay)

Note that for the entire tournament First Blood was worth 3 points.   Then there were 3 missions - each worth 10 - 5 - 0.

Round 1

Opponent: Space Wolves w/ GK allies

Missions: d3 + 2 objectives w/ Elites scoring, Kill Points, Linebreaker

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

This is my favorite deployment in 6th edition as Daemons - I think most others hate it, but it provide a huge deployment zone in which to land, the trek across the board is tedious for most armies and Daemons can drop on either side of an advancing army to defend their own objectives while also attacking the enemy objectives.  I also have a ton of scoring units in this mission with Elites scoring.

I am playing a cool Brotherhood of Nod themed Space Wolves army - I have since forgotten my opponents name (sorry this is why you do not wait!) but he was a nice guy and his mistake in his army list was innocent at heart I am sure.  Luckily, we caught it before Round 2 started.

HQ

Rune Priest

Inquisitor Coteaz (Prescience, Misfortune)

Elites

-

Troops

10x Grey Hunters w/ standard, 2x Plasma in Rhino

10x Grey Hunters w/ standard, 2x Plasma in Rhino

10x Grey Hunters w/ standard, 2x melta in Rhino

10x Servitors w/ 10x Heavy Bolters (turns out this is illegal!)

5x Grey Knight Strikes Squad in Psyback

Fast Attack

-

Heavy Support

5x Long Fangs w/ Missile Launchers

5x Long Fangs w/ Missile Launchers

5x Long Fangs w/ Missile Launchers

Dreadnought w/ psybolt ammo

We roll up Warlord traits and I get reroll reserves while he gets to redeploy units 3d6" (worthless against Daemons).  It turns out that Night Fight is in effect Turn 1 and my opponent chooses to go first.

Deployment

This is an example of how not to deploy against Daemons - here are a five reasons why.  

1 - He is spread across the whole deployment zone which diffuses his firepower and makes it easy for my to refuse a flank.

2 - His strikes are in the back - the place I will not Deep Strike because I need to fit all my units near Fateweaver - and right next to coteaz who I am not going to DS near either with 10 prescience heavy bolters.

3 - Three of his four heavy weapons are on one side of the board - 10x Missile Launchers and 4x psybolt autocannons are not going to get to shoot because...

4 - He let the building with now windows in the center of the board block off half his army

5 - He also let his quad gun be blocked off

This deployment presents no problems for me and no difficult choices.  I need to deep strike behind the building and then move out from behind it and into line of sight to smash into his army

Turn 1 - Space Wolves

His movement phase exacerbates the problems he has in deployment and exposes a unit of Grey hunters to my army without any support.  The strikes also peril on their Warp Quake and the justicar bites it while Coteaz cast prescience on his crew.  I got a bit caught up in the game at this point and neglected to get a picture.

Turn 1 - Daemons

I want to wreck that Rhino and then use the Flamers, Screamers and Grinders to blow away the squad so that means my preferred wave is Fateweaver, Flamers, Screamers, 2x Grinders and 9x Horrors.  The last seems a bit strange - but there is a piece of LOS blocking terrain behind the rhino I can use to get rear armor shots and finish off the vehicle before committing my big guns.

I come in without incident, although a screamer does eat a wound for terrain.  The horrors (not shown) actually strip away all 3 Hull Points from the Rhino. I light into the squad with everything and wipe all but one model it off the board, while getting everyone except one grinder within 6" of the Swooping Fateweaver.

This picture was taken before I started shooting the Flamers at his unit...

..and this one was taken after the lone survivor high tailed it out of there.  I wish there was still a restriction on regrouping within 6" of an enemy unit.

Turn 2 - Space Wolves

The units on the right flank shuffle around a bit while another rhino appears to take the place of the first.  Once again I miss a picture on this game - I find it very difficult at GT's to remember to take pictures as much as I want to.  Luckily, I always get them after I deep strike so you can see I take very light damage from his shooting with the exception of the two missile launchers that could see the Soul Grinder rolling a 6 and 6 with me failing my 4+ save from the building to eat it. The Horrors took a hit of rapid fire from a disembarked Grey Hunter squad after passing their Changeling test.  I really wanted them to smoke their own Rhino.

Turn 2 - Daemons

I get the rest of my army and finish overloading his left flank while the other two Horror units hang out in back with the other objectives.  Both units of Fiends land in terrain or behind it - remember Move Through Cover now means they can DS anywhere without taking Dangerous Terrain tests.

The new Fiends love nature!

I debated shooting at the disembarked Grey Hunters or taking down the Long Fangs manning the quad gun. Flamers destroy the entire unit in one shot.  The Screamers turbo boosted over the Heavy Bolters and took down half of them while Fate shot up the Grey Knights ride but did not manage to inflict any permanent damage.

There is the last survivor of the first Grey hunter squad - the Fiends will probably eat some fire next turn, but enough should be left to take care of the remnants.

Turn 3 - Space Wolves

He finally has my units in a position where he can actually shoot all his firepower into them and does some shuffling before taking down half the flamers and thinning out the Screamers.  He was surprised at how much firepower they could absorb - T4, 2W, EW 4+ rerollable is hard to crack!  The GK disembarked to join in on the shooting which means they are dead next turn.

Turn 3 - Daemons

I send one unit of Fiends at the Grey Knights - the multi-assault wrecks their ride and leave 1 GK standing to keep me safe from shooting.  The other Fiends multi-assault into the other Grey Hunters and their ride but fail to rend the Rhini while killing most the Grey Hunters but not quite all of them.  The flamers kill everyone except Coteaz who gets turned into a Spawn!

The Screamers spend their time  tearing apart the GK dreadnought.

Not pictured is the Soul Grinder wrecking the last Grey Hunters in my deployment zone.

At this point my opponent conceded - although we played out a few more turns to see if he could save Coteaz.  A few missile launchers manage to do so during overwatch and I end up with full points for the match.

Synopsis

A lot of my games with Daemons are decided during deployment - specifically during my opponents deployment.  I think against a vehicle heavy army my opponent had the tools to deal with vehicle and standard troops but Daemons are vulnerable to massed small arms fire that his army just could not produce given his deployment.  I think the unit of 10 Heavy Bolters (illegal admittedly) should have played a bigger role and if he had taken the other deployment zone there were some wide open spaces to force me to move through.  Combined with Coteaz - who I would have put on the Quad Gun to Skyfire with I've been expecting you - brutal to force deep strikes back and prevent an Alpha strike.

I also would have grouped up my units a but more - probably around the bastion - to better concentrate and focus fire.  The Aegis surrounding the bastion with terrain nearby would have been a tough strong point to breach.  It may have meant playing for the tie - but a tie in this matchup would have been a great result.