A Tale of Two Battles

Hey there Chaos fans! I'm back with a new post. I recently had a vacation. Now, this vacay was a stay at home excursion, which gave me a ton of time to paint! Just wait till you see my Bloodbrides and new Raider (painted with the new GW Paints, which still impress me, by the way- the coverage is really good, and I love the ability to base 1..2..3). I'll be posting pics of them as I finish them (a bit to go yet).

Daemons- bending the very fabric of reality (or creating an Instagram filter)

 I also had the opportunity to play two games over my break! It's a shame, as I feel that I don't game as much as I want to. It's tough- work, work, work... sometimes its hard to get together with some friends and play a good game or two. I'd go to a store to play, but sometimes I'd be playing against a 10 year old, and then others I'm playing against a meta-gamer with leafblowers or just the latest super-killer internet flavor of the month list. Meh. However, this past week I got to play two games, which was thrill for me. The first game was hard fought, but left me frustrated a bit with the Dark Eldar. The second game had me playing Chaos Daemons, an army I haven't fielded in quite some time. So, let's take a look:

Love that Talos model

 Blood Angels versus Dark Eldar

I had been looking forward to this fight. My friend Joe has been slowly building up his Blood Angels army. Now, he has a TON of stuff, the problem is he hasn't had time to put the stuff together, let alone paint. Joe decided to start getting serious about this, and put his assembly line into higher gear. Joe put together a bunch, including his Storm Raven gunship. Nice model, very large (and a great contrast to the DE Razorwing, I might add). He also put together the Finecast Astorath the Grim, which is wonderful model. I hope that Joe will begin to paint soon, especially since the GW Paints have some great reds that will go on quick AND give him a great looking army...

My new Trueborn Squad

We decided to play in the neighborhood of 1550 points. I decided to mix and match some old things with some new things. I decided to use a Succubus as the head of the army (since I just finished her) and a squad of Wyches in a Raider to keep her company. I also used a new squad of Trueborn (which I had also just finished painting) in a Venom. I had two squads of Kabalite Warriors, a Talos (I LOVE that model), a Ravager, and a Razorwing. Finally, I had two Haemonculi, one would go with a Warrior squad, and the other would go with a squad of Wracks (again, LOVE those models). I felt that I had a good mix of anti-armor (Ravager, Razorwing, Trueborn), as well as anti-infantry (Wyches, Wracks, Razorwing).

The Razorwing and Stormraven in a brief dogfight

 The mission was Capture and Control, with Pitched Battle deployment. I divided with my Raiders ready to sweep around at a moments notice, and I deployed my Trueborn on the landing pad, giving them a clear shot of half the battlefield, with the Razorwing in support. I sent my troops to encircle the objective. The Talos and Ravager were with the Wyches' Raider. I really felt that I had a good set up. Indeed, my opponent told me as much. But from there, my game went right down the toilet...

The Death Company simply wouldn't die...

My rolls were simply atrocious, completely and utterly horrid. I could not punch through the armor to save my life. And the few times I did PENETRATE, I rolled a 1 or 2... Ugh. With rolls like that, my Dark Lances were simply not enough to break through his armor. This allowed him to fire everything at me. In fact, he didn't really move his men at all- he likes to be a long distance shooting game, and I played into his hands. The only men he sent forward were his Death Company with jump packs- I kept shooting them, but he kept getting good Feel No Pain rolls (ironic, since he hates that my Plague Marines have that...). I eventually got them, but it took too damn long.

Bad idea, it turns out...

 Ultimately, he simply outgunned me, destroying my Ravager and Razorwing. His troops continued to fire missiles at my Raiders and Talos (eventually killing the Talos too- which DID absorb a ton of fire). I was unable to put a serious dent in him. He then began to slowly advance his Baal and Dreadnaught, and I knew my troops had about a turn left before getting toasted. I tried a last ditch thing by driving my Haemonculus and Wracks at Astorath the Grim- and he mopped the floor with them. At that point I conceded. I don't normally give up like that, but there was simply no way to win it, or even put up stiff resistance at that point.

This game made me think- where did I go wrong? It has happened several times- sometimes the Dark Lances work, sometimes they don't. I think I depended too much on them. I also got into a shooting match with him, when I should have been a bit more aggressive. Should I have tried a different combo? It was too bad, as feel I had been doing so well with the DE, that even in defeat I'm at least difficult, but this round was an utter disaster, as he simply stream-rolled me.

Chaos Daemons versus Grey Knights 

The next day, my brother said that he'd been thinking about playing a match- despite my loss to Joe I was ready to fight again. Last time, my brother and I did Chaos Marines versus Grey Knights, which was a ton of fun, so we decided to keep up the theme- this time I'd play as my Chaos Daemons (perhaps this was another part of the war as continued from the last game- a nice mini-narrative there).

Politics makes strange bedfellows in the Warp...

 I haven't played as the Daemons for like two years now. I didn't even use them at my big "Bachelor Party Apocalypse" game, in which I just used Chaos Marines. I thought it would be fun to give them a go. Interestingly, I have read that many people don't like the Codex, and they feel that it is unfluffy to have a "Daemon Army", and it caused specific daemons to be cut out of the main Chaos Marines Codex. While I agree that at least the core Daemons SHOULD be in the Chaos Marines book, I like the idea that there are Daemonic hosts. If a planet is falling to Chaos, I could see all sorts of horrors emerging from the Warp, laying waste to the planet as civilization becomes unglued and the planet enters its death-throes. Well, that's my two cents, anyways.

The Bloodthirster of Khorne

As for my list, I decided to go with a Khorne and Slaanesh motif. I have a ton of Nurgle related stuff, and I need to do more Tzeentch daemons (I need to pick up a set of the new plastic horrors), but I wanted to have the two opposing gods joining forces here. For Khorne, I had 2 sets of Bloodletters, 5 Bloodcrushers, and a Bloodthirster. For Slaanesh, I had 2 sets of Daemonettes, 5 Seekers, and of course a Keeper of Secrets. My plan was to send in the Slaaneshi daemons first. I knew they'll get shot at, but with their run rolls and fleet, they can get in his way and get into combat with him. Though they'd be unable to finish him, they would tie him down until Khorne's daemons arrived, and they'd be able to mop up. But, would the gods show me favor and allow the Daemonettes to come first, or would they curse me?

The Daemonettes showed up right where I wanted them to.

It turns out that the gods of Chaos must like this blog- I got the rolls I wanted; the Slaanesh host was allowed to materialize first and the Daemonettes appeared where I wanted them. As they advanced under bolter fire, my Khorne Daemons quickly appeared in turn 2 (except the Bloodthirster, which took till turn 3 to pop up). My plan worked, as the Slaaneshis got targeted. The Keeper of Secrets tangled with the Dreadknight and lost (though he did wound the thing twice). My Seekers got in to a group of Terminators, and managed to whittle them down a bit before dying.

The Seekers do their job effectively

 Ultimately, it all hinged on my Bloodletters and Juggernaunts, and it worked! The 1 squad of Bloodletters pounced on the Dread Knight. Between their furious charge (+1S and +1I) and their power weapon swords, they got some lucky rolls, killing him. My other Bloodletter squad charged the first Terminator batch, finishing what the Seekers started. The Crushers got into the other squad of Terminators and put a serious hurt on them.  Finally, my Bloodthirster had crushed the Dreadnought, and was getting ready to go after the Land Raider. However, my brother had so little left that he decided to call it.

More blood for the Blood God!!

 Now, this was a game where just about everything went right for me, as opposed to the DE/BA match, in which so much seemed to go wrong. Its not about winning (well, sometimes it is, but...), I just like to be competitive, which I felt I hadn't been. Then, with the Daemons, every roll of the dice went my way, and that led to a big win. I need to see that the dice rolls are what they are, and I shouldn't let that impact my enjoyment, though I still want to make an opponent really fight for the win. I realized that I shouldn't be so hard on myself or the DE, for the dice gods are fickle indeed... And besides, there will always be another battle to fight...

Until next time!!