Calypso2ts @ Da Boyz GT - 3 of 6

If you missed the action from the first two games then you can check out  Game 1 and Game 2.  For game 3 I was paired against a Slaanesh themed CSM army with Daemon allies run by Beth.  I had the chance to play Beth in the team tournament locally back in the spring - so I had a pretty good idea what list she was bringing.

As it turns out, she made some modifications that made her list much stronger for the GT - which is to be expected!

Game 3

This is the halfway mark of the GT, although it seems like it has just begun at this point.  I only had to move a few tables up and I got to play on another table that I was pretty familiar with - it had been created by Hyv3 and I have played on it four or five times at our local tournaments.  Upon reflection, it is a fairly significant advantage to get a chance to play on your home turf when it comes to a GT.

Mission/Deployment

Primary: Big Guns Never Tire

Secondary: The Scouring

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Beth brought the following CSM w/ Daemons allies for this game.

HQ

CSM Lord on a Bike  w/ Mark of Slaanesh, Power Weapon

Herald of Slaanesh on Seeker Mount w/ Greater Gift

Elites

-

Troops

10x Noise Marines w/ Sonic Weapons, Blast Master, Icon of Excess

10x Noise Marines w/ Sonic Weapons, Blast Master, Icon of Excess

10x Noise Marines w/ Sonic Weapons, Doom Siren, Icon of Excess in Rhino

16x Daemonettes

10x Daemonettes

Fast Attack

Heldrake w/ Bale Flamer

Heldrake w/ Bale Flamer

10x Seekers of Slaanesh

Heavy Support

Obliterator w/ Mark of Nurgle

Obliterator w/ Mark of Nurgle

Psychic Powers/Warlord Traits

Fateweaver: Prescience/Fiery Form :: Hemorrhage/Terrify (I should have swapped Fiery Form and Hemorrhage for the Primaris)

Herald of Khorne - Grimoire of True Names

CSM Lord: Hatred for his unit

Deployment

We place the Scouring and Big Guns Objectives and they end up spread across the board.  I push my Scouring objectives forward knowing that my Fast Attack options are also my mechanism to dislodge Beth's scoring units

Beth deploys strong centrally and takes advantage of cover to present a strong right flank.

Although cover is almost meaningless in this game - those Noise Marines simply ignore it for most of their shooting.  However, I want to stay away from at least one of those Noise Marine units.  

The Hounds scout forward and attempt to get a Turn 1 charge off against the Noise Marines in the center - and maybe the Seekers if they are in range.  I make a rules blunder here and forget the Seekers can charge me if they like - Beth is great about my error and we work it out.

I decline to Seize and we are off to the Races.

Turn 1

We are going to get into it fast as the Seekers and Herald move straight up to engage the Hounds while the Noise Marines block their flank with the Rhino.

Shooting knocks down a few dogs - the Blast Masters luckily scatter a lot and cannot remove many of the dogs.

I plan to let the second hound unit lock up the Noise Marines while the Seekers pile into the Rhino and Beth's Seekers.  The Blue Hounds get the Grimoire.

Shooting manages to wreck the Rhino through the Soul Grinders fire and Flickering Fire.

The Noise Marines join a giant Melee due to the Seekers multi-assault - I opt to hit the disembarked Noise Marines with the hounds since the foot squad was far away.  The assault works out almost perfectly as only a pair of Noise Marines remain for me to clean up next turn and I am safe in combat with the Seekers/Hounds.

Turn 2

Beth rolls for reserves and gets in both Daemonette squads and both Heldrakes.  She drops the Daemonettes to put pressure on my backfield objectives - I make sure she knows they cannot hurt the Soul Grinders due to AV 13 and she uses her runs to position them more safely.

The Heldrakes go after the purple Flesh Hounds but only manage to remove a few bases.  I am starting to get worried for my Herald though as his bodyguard is dwindling in numbers.  I then fail to kill the last of the central Noise Marine unit in CC (somehow!) which means I have a full unit of Hounds and Seekers stuck in combat with 1 model on my turn.

Luckily the single model is the Chaos Champion so I can challenge - Beth must accept and we both whiff against one another.

My purple hounds assault into the central Daemonettes and wipe them, and attempt to hide from the the Drakes and Noise Marines. A Soul Grinder assaults into the Daemonettes.  Fateweaver gets to snag the Grimoire on my turn since the central Noise Marines are sitting on a Skyfire Nexus.

Not shown are my Daemonettes that Deep Struck near Beth's left flank and the Plague Bearers that came in near my backfield objective.

Turn 3/4
We are running close on time so these turns moved quickly  The Heldrakes go after the Plague Bearers but do not manage to kill them all due to some hot saves on my part.  The Grinder has a tickle fight with the Daemonettes and Fateweaver takes a ton of fire but a 2+ rerollable save will always be awesome.

I line up a huge multiassault by stringing out the Seekers and I terrify one of the Noise Marine units to cause them to break and flee after combat.  The Drakes are still flying around my backfield but there is nothing back there anymore for them to take down.

Fate drops Warp Rift at S 10 onto the Biker Lord who fails his 4+ cover save and goes splat.

The table next to ours is vacant - they actually finished in under an hour - and Beth lines up her army afterward.  The bases on the Seekers look really good and it is a shame assault troops tend to be pulled off the board so quickly.

Results
Primary: Win 7 - 0
Secondary: Win 3 - 0
First Blood: 1
Slay the Warlord: 1
Line breaker: 1

A second win with a full 33 points is great but I am still not a fan of how this list is playing.  Beth was a great opponent though and took everything in stride - even as we had to rush the last few game turns to get through the required 4 turns.  I realize after these games that I need to start trying to play faster with this army.

Round 3 Thoughts
There was no subtlety to how I played this game, although it did not require it. It was a rough matchup for Beth from he start with so many bodies on the floor.  Her list was ideally situated to knock out 3+ armor saves with the Blast Masters, Heldrakes and Daemonettes.  My army just did not present enough targets of that type.

I am a little happier with this list overall - but I think that might be because I did not have to deal with any 2+ saves or large Monstrous Creatures that can hold down the Hounds units.  I still need to learn to deal with those units effectively with this list without giving up whole Hound units as an expensive tarpit.

Since this is the halfway point it is a good time for a heading check.  After this round  my scores are:
Round 1: 2 Points
Round 2: 22 Points (based on TOF)
Round 3: 33 Points
Total: 57/99 or approximately 46 of 114