Calypso2ts - Dec Millennium Invitational - G1

I cannot help but notice that it seems the vast majority of my posts so far have been focused on Battle Reports - probably because I have been playing so many games.  I have a GT to write up still, this tournament and then another practice game to boot!  I would lie to drag it out because I will probably not get a chance to play many over the next few weeks - ski season starts here in the Northeast.

For now I am going to start with the most recent event - the Millennium Games end of year invitational.  We posted a brief summary of the invitational and our lists (hint I am the Daemons) here.  Once again, I made the drive to Rochester (it is about an hour and a half for me) with this image in mind - or more precisely thinking of ways to avoid this outcome occupying my thoughts.

A shot of my army - in all its glory (ignore the unpainted Aegis, the unbased Daemonettes) and admire the nice Zombies as cultists!

Game 1

The first game saw me placed against Nogle (might be Nogel, but that seemed too much like Christmas) from the Beef and Wings team out of Buffalo.  Nogle has had a lot of success in 5th edition, but struggled a bit with the advent of 6th edition.  He brought with him a foot Blood Angels army with some nasty surprises.

HQ

Astoroth the Grimm

Elites

3x Sanguinary Priests, Brother Corbulo (not sure if he belongs here)

Troops

10x Tactical Marines in Drop Pod w/ Melta, Combi-Melta, Lascannon
10x Assault Marines w/ 2x Flamers
10x Tactical Marines w/ Lascannon, Plasmagun, Combi-Plasma

Fast Attack

Storm Raven w/ Hurricane Bolters

Heavy Support

9x Devastators w/ 4x Heavy Bolters
9x Devastators w/ 4x Missile Launchers

Fortifications

Aegis Defense Line w/ Icarus Lascannon

Deployment

The primed Aegis line is mine - I just did not have the time to get it painted to a good standard.

This is the first time in a while I have had the chance to deploy anything.  I need to be cognizant of the drop pod coming in with Flamers on Turn 1 - they can really disrupt my Cultist squad.  Also, I want to be far enough away that his Descent of Angels (and drop pod) come in relatively unsupported if they choose to be aggressive.  I want to block line of sight to the comms relay so I can have at least one model sitting on it for Turn 2.  Finally, I rolled up my psychic powers on Telepathy and I grabbed Dominate, Puppet Master and Terrify.  Terrify could be potentially useful, since his Red Thirst replaces ATSKNF - which might give me the chance to sweep a unit.  The other two are blase at best.

My opponent sets up behind his Aegis - in range of Sanguinary Priests, but also really tightly packed given my Battle Cannons and Flamers.  He gets Red Thirst on everything except one Devastator squad, so I am going to have to kill them to a man.

This is also the moment I realized that Corbulo gets a 2+ save against everything for his Feel No Pain unless I hit him with a Battle Cannon or Bolt of Tzeetch.  That is really good!  Also, keep a close eye on that ruin - it is going to help an aweful lot.

We roll up to see if it is Night Fighting and it is not.  I have Turn 1 and get ready to blow apart some marines.

Turn 1 - Daemons

I am almost drooling at the site of those Marines and I choose a Preferred wave with Flamers, Bloodcrushers, 2x Grinders, and Screamers.  I then roll a 2 and get the other stuff.

I bring in a unit of Fiends behind the fortification, the Daemonettes drop nearby and the Horrors flank them out of Line of Sight after their run rolls.  I move the Fiends to respond to the unit I am about to have shooting at my 2 KP's of Sorcerer and Cultists.  I then do the Cultist shuffle to make sure I am in range of the Comms Relay and prepare to take some Drop Pod Pain.

Turn 1 - Blood Angels

Instead of wiping me off the Comms relay - the Drop Pod comes in near the Fiends and opens up on them with Meltas, Lascannon and Bolters.

I am a bit surprised, but I lose 4 of the 6 Fiends when all is said and done.  One of them was finished by a Snapfire'ed Storm Bolter on the Drop Pod too.

The only other target for shooting is my Cultist squad who eat Frags and Heavy Bolters.  Luckily my saves are hot and I go to ground behind the Aegis line.

Turn 2 - Daemons

With the comms relay in play I get all of my reserves this turn and I Deep Strike very aggressively.  I need to take advantage of those bunched squads so Flamers come in on a hit and I remember why a Herald is so great to run with them.

The Crushers scattered back a bit - but should still be in play next turn and the Screamers scattered back but  who cares due to their turbo boost.  I mishapped one grinder into his squad on an 11" scatter - and he placed it in the back corner on the fortification.  The other takes an Interceptor shot but it misses.

My shooting wipes most of the Heavy Bolter devastators and takes down a few missiles.  The Daemonettes get a decent move (~5") and are set to try the charge.  I declare against the Missile Launcher Devastators and he scored 3 hits, 3 wounds but I save 2 removing the front model.  I then flub the charge on a 1, 2, 5 - but I have Fleet!  I flub it again on a 3, 3 being just short.  That one overwatch shot was brutal.

On a more positive note the Screamers form a wall in front of the Flamers.  The Fiends take a shot at the leftover assault marines - the Horrors shooting actually did pretty well here - and the tacticals are locked after some more failed saves.

Turn 2 - Blood Angels

The Storm Raven and the Assault Marines both come in.  I did not realize he had a Locator Beacon on his pod - so they drop there without any hassle.  I was a bit of a dick here - my apologies on that one - I should have scrutinized the list more closely rather than being indignant.

There is not much movement other than reserves coming in and the shooting starts.  I lose the majority of my Horrors from the Assault Marine flamers and bolt pistols.  The crushers though manage a 6-6-6 invulnerable save against the Missiles and I lose one Flamer to Heavy Bolters

In this picture you can see the remains of Corbulo's assault marines who tried to charge the screaemers - they really had no choice at the end of the day - and Corbulo is left chilling with a sergeant while a few screamers remain.

Turn 3-5

The game started moving pretty fast from here and I missed some of the pictures - it was mainly cleanup though.  I use Puppet Master on his flyer to destroy the Drop Pod - and then failed to Dominate or Terrify any unit.

Astoroth is eaten by a Battle Cannon after a failed "Lookout Sir!" and the crushers move back towards the Assault Marines just in case.  I eventually lose the Horror squad, but the Crushers wipe the rest of the assaults.

The Flamers take out the rest of the Heavy Bolters and a number of the Missile Launchers while Daemonettes cleanup.  Finally, his flyer suffered a Stunned result from an Icarus Lascannon to the back - compliments of my Tzeetch Herald and the Fiends finished off the Tacticals with a few rends.

At this point we called the game and discussed the outcome a bit.

Synopsis

I am not a fan of the Storm Raven as a whole this edition.  You want it to be a flyer, but it was not really conceived as one in the way it works as a transport.  I also think there were too many bodies in the Devastator Squads and Astoroth's greatest ability - Death Company - was a bit underutilized.  That said - even making significant changes to optimize the list - this is a really tough matchup for Blood Angels or marines in general.

Looking at the new additions to the army - the Comms relay performed great and it was huge to have all of the Daemons on the board turn 2.  The Sorcerer was lackluster and the vulnerability of the cultists was a bit scary in this game too.  Against opponents with significant mobility - drop pods, other Daemons - those cultists are going to have to be careful.

Game 2 is around the corner, but this win put me in the elite bracket of 1 - 0 (along with about half the tournament).