Daemons vs Grey Knight & Eldar - 1500pts
Saturday I played AngelicZ from The Warmaster forum. I'd like to thank him for travelling up from the Gold Coast to Brisbane to play. It was his first game of 7th Edition and his first game in 6 months, it was my 2nd game of 7th Edition and my 5th game with my Daemons.
I'm really getting a handle on my Daemons now, I know their strengths and weaknesses, and really enjoy the play style of fast moving Slaanesh Daemons. Rending and large amount of AP2 I have at my disposal is really devastating vs Power Armour. So without further ado, the Battle Report.
The game was Emperor's Will and Dawn of War deployment. AngelicZ won the roll and decided to go first.
I played exactly the same list as I played in my last game. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
@HQ [ 1 ]
Keeper of Secrets (245pt.); Mastery level 2; Lesser Rewards; Greater Rewards (x2);
- Powers: Lash of Slaanesh (Slaanesh); Psychic Screech (Telepathy), Dominate (Telepathy)
- Rewards: Corpulence (Greater), Daemonic Resilience (Greater), Etherblade (Lesser)
@Troops [ 3 ]
15x - Daemonettes of Slaanesh (160pt.); Alluress; Greater Rewards (Greater Etherblade);
15x - Daemonettes of Slaanesh (160pt.); Alluress; Greater Rewards (Greater Etherblade);
10x - Daemonettes of Slaanesh (90pt.);
@Fast attack [ 1 ]
10x - Seekers of Slaanesh (145pt.); Heartseeker; Greater Rewards (Greater Etherblade);
@Heavy support [ 3 ]
Soul Grinder (170pt.); Daemon of Slaanesh; Baleful torrent;
Daemon Prince (260pt.); Daemon of Slaanesh; Daemonic flight; Mastery level 1; Greater Rewards (x2);
- Powers: Lash of Slaanesh (Slaanesh); Smite (Biomancy)
- Rewards: Lash of despair (Greater); Corpulence (Greater); Warp Breath (Lesser)
Daemon Prince (265pt.); Daemon of Slaanesh; Daemonic flight; Warp-forged armour; Lesser Rewards; Greater Rewards (x2);
- Rewards: Touch of Uncreation (Greater); Daemonic Resilience (Greater); Etherblade (Lesser)
Psychic powers are hard to cast, so I keep them to a minimum.
I'm not great with Grey Knights or Eldar, so this is the list from memory, I also don't know points.
@HQ [ 2 ]
Castellan Crowe
Spiritseer
@ Troops [ 3 ]
10x - Purifiers; 2 Psycannons, Rhino, Halberds; Thunder Hammers
5x - Terminators; Psycannon, Halberds; Thunder Hammer
5x - Wraith Guard; Wave Serpeant
@ Elite [ 1 ]
Vindicare Assassin
@Heavy Support [ 1 ]
Dreadknight; Heavy Psycannon; Personal Teleporter
So I'm down on Mastery Levels again, but that's OK. I don't rely on the powers, and I should have enough dice to attempt a deny 1 or 2.
The board; on my side is a hill, a ruined barricade and a forest. Pretty bare, but I don't tend to spend much time in it. In the centre is a ruined Fortress of Redemption, ruined Skyshield Landing Pad, and a ruined building. On the opposite side, are two ruined buildings, one on a hill, providing plenty of cover. I forgot to take a photo of the table... sorry! I placed my objective behind the ruined building in the centre, and Angelicz put his in the ruined building on top of the hill.
I rolled the warlord trait and got the re-roll Warp Storm Table (my favourite), and AngelicZ rolled Infiltrate up to 3 units trait. He chose to infiltrate Crowe, the Dreadknight and the Purifiers in the Rhino. His Terminators were held in reserve. That meant he only had the Vindicare Assassin, Wave Serpent with Wraith Guard and Spiritseer to deploy. The Wave Serpent between the two ruined buildings in the centre, and the Vindicare on top of the ruined building on his left flank.
I deployed a squad of Seekers on the hill on the right flank, with the swooping Daemon Prince behind. In the centre if the Soul Grinder with Keeper of Secrets behind it, A Squad of Daemonettes to either side and the Gliding Daemon Prince behind the forest.
Seekers of Slaanesh.
Daemonettes.
Soul Grinder.
Keeper of Secrets.
Daemonettes and Daemon Prince.
With infiltrate move he moved the Dreadknight on his left flank facing off against the Seekers, the Rhino with purifiers was on the left of the Wave Serpents ready to move forward and support the Dreadknight. Crowe sits on his objective in the ruined building on top of the hill.
I tried to steal initiative and failed.
Grey Knight/Eldar Turn 1
Movement: Dreadknight Jumps forward in front of the Seekers, the Rhino moves up to support inside the ruin. The Wave serpent moves into a position to shoot through the ruins in the centre at the Soul Grinder.
Psychic Phase: Rhino casts Sanctuary on itself, perils, loses a hull point and loses the Sanctuary power. The power is active.
Shooting Phase: The Dreadknight shoots at the Seekers with its Heavy Psycannon, killing one. It's now dangerously close to the very quick seekers. The Rhino is not within line of sight of anyone. The Vindicare Assassin shoots at the Soul Grinder, penetrates, and stuns it. The Wave Serpent fires at the Soul Grinder, and does nothing.
Daemons Turn 1
Daemonettes and gliding Daemon Prince moves up to the centre of the board.
Swooping Daemon Prince moves up to the top of the centre ruins.
Psychic Phase: a Low roll on the dice, sees the Daemon Prince cast Lash of Slaanesh and Smite on the Dreadknight, who Denies Smite and saves versus the Lash.
Shooting Phase: Nurgle comes to aid Slaanesh with the Warp Storm table, hits nothing. The Grinder fires the Harvester cannon at the Wave Serpent, it does nothing. The Swooping Daemon Prince uses his Lash of Despair and fails to glance the Rhino, Warp Breath also fails.
Assault Phase: The Seekers charge the Dreadknight, one dies to the Sanctuary of the Rhino. No overwatch, the Seekers strike first, the Heartseeker whiffs, her buddies land 4 Rending hits... it fails all invulnerable saves and first blood goes to me.
Grey Knights/Eldar Turn 2
Movement Phase:
The Terminators arrive from reserve with outflank and walk on the table edge closest to the action. The Purifiers exit the Rhino and combat squad, one squad of 5 heads around the corner of the building to get access to the squad of Daemonettes, the other 5 stand next to the Rhino and take aim at the Seekers. The Wraith Guard and Spiritseer exit the Wave Serpent and Spirit Mark the Swooping Daemon Prince.
Psychic Phase:
First squad of Purifiers casts Cleansing Flame, it hits the Daemonettes, the Seekers, the Daemon Prince and the Keeper. It eradicates 7 Seekers, and 9 Daemonettes, takes a wound of the Daemon Prince.
The second Purifier combat squad also casts Cleansing Flame, it kills the two remaining Seekers. Cleansing Flame is super effective! I rolled all my dice to try and deny the first Cleansing Flame without success.
Shooting Phase: Vindicare Assassin shoots at the Soul Grinder and destroys the Harvester Cannon, no big loss, it rarely does anything in any game I play. First Purifier combat squad shoot at the Daemonettes, and kill a few. The second Purifiers retreat towards their own table half.
The Wave Serpent shoots everything at the Swooping Daemon Prince, and causes 4 saves, I promptly roll the above dice and the Daemon Prince dies. The Terminators shoot at the Keeper, and knock it down to 2 wounds. Crowe takes a pop shot at the incoming Daemonette squad, kills one.
Assault Phase: The Terminators attempt a 10" charge, and fail.
Daemon Turn 2
Movement Phase: The Daemonettes move closer to the first Purifier squad ready for assault. The Keeper heads towards the Terminators, the Soul Grinder makes its way forwards towards the Wave Serpent and Wraith Guard. The remaining Daemon Prince lands behind the ruined fortress towards the Wave Serpent and Wraithguard.
Psychic Phase: Keeper attempts to use Lash of Slaanesh and Pyschic Screech on the Terminators who are able to deny them both.
Shooting Phase: After re-rolling Khorne's wrath, Nurgle again tries to help out. Hitting Crowe, but failing to wound. Nothing else to shoot!
Assault Phase:
The Keeper charges the Terminators, overwatch reduces him to 2 wounds. This makes me nervous.... but I shouldn't be, 7 attacks on the Charge, 6 hit, 6 wound, AP2 Etherblade reduces the saves to invulnerable and bye bye Terminators. The Keeper rolls a 6 to consolidate towards the ruin.
Grey Knight/Eldar Turn 3
The Rhino attempts to move out of the ruins, and rolls a 1 for movement. The second Purifier Squad moves to get a view of the Keeper. The Wave Serpent moves up towards the Soul Grinder allowing the Wraithguard to move up behind it to get a shot at the Daemon Prince.Psychic Phase: The Spiritseer casts Twilight power to give the Wraithguard Battle Focus. Crowe casts Cleansing Flame and removes a six Daemonettes.
Shooting Phase: Crowe fails to kill any more Daemonettes. The Soul Grinder passes all saves against the Wave Serpent. The Vindicare reduces the Soul Grinder to 2 HP. The Wraithguard run and shoot at the Daemon Prince. He fails his Invulnerable saves and his Feel No Pain... Another Daemon Prince down without doing much. The second squad of Purifiers shoot at the Keeper, it's down to 1 wound.
Assault phase: The Daemonettes kill the remaining Purifier, the consolidate towards the second squad.
Daemon Turn 3
Movement Phase: The Daemonettes arrive from reserve and walk on from the deployment zone board edge, heading to wards my objective. The Daemonettes on my right flank head towards the Purifiers with the Keeper right behind them. The Soul Grinder moves up in front of the Wave Serpent. The last squad of Daemonettes continue towards Crowe.Psychic Phase: The Keeper tries to cast Psychic Screech on the Purifiers but they successfully deny. I fail to cast Lash of Slaanesh.
Shooting Phase: Nurgle again! The god is persistent in trying to help, but again fails to wound anything. The Soul Grinder fires it's Baleful Torrent hitting the Wave Serpent and the Wraithguard squad killing two Wraithguard and knocking a wound of the Spiritseer.
Assault Phase:
The Soul Grinder charges the Wave Serpent lands 4 attacks and knocks 4 hull points of it, destroying it.The Daemonettes attempt to assault the Purifiers, and lose a few to overwatch, the Purifiers hit first and kill the last remaining Daemonettes and consolidate 6" away from the Keeper. The Keeper is out of range from the Purifiers and can't draw line of sight to the Rhino for a charge, so runs forward.
The Daemonettes finally reach Crowe and charge him, overwatch misses and the Daemonettes manage to knock a wound off him and Crowe kills one Daemonette. Combat is a draw.
Grey Knights/Elder Turn 4
Movement: The Wraithguard move towards the Soul Grinder. The Purifiers move towards the Daemonettes readying to charge.
Psychic Phase: Nothing of note happens.
Shooting Phase: The Vindicare fires again at the Soul Grinder, but fails to penetrate the Invulnerable save. The Wraithguard unleash on the Soul Grinder, and finally brings the beast down. The Purifiers kill another Daemonette.
Assault Phase: Crowe is killed by the remaining Daemonettes, the Consolidate towards the objective.
Assault Phase: Crowe is killed by the remaining Daemonettes, the Consolidate towards the objective.
The Purifiers charge the Daemonettes and kill them with Halberds, a 6" consolidate sees them move further away from the Keeper.
Daemons Turn 4
Movement Phase: The Keeper continues to advance on the Purifiers. The Daemonettes stand their ground on the objective. The other Daemonettes, after successfully killing Crowe, move up to the Grey Knight objective.
Psychic Phase: The Keeper casts Psychic Screech on the Purifiers, I finally roll high on my dice and it kills all remaining Purifiers.
Shooting: I re-roll a Calm Warp Storm and get a -1 invuln save on all Daemons...
Assault: With the Purifiers dead the Keeper charges the Rhino and knocks the last 2 hull points of it. It consolidates towards the Daemonettes on the objective.
Grey Knight/Eldar Turn 5
Movement Phase: The Wraithguard move around the corner to confront the Daemonettes on the objective.
Psychic Phase: The Spiritseer casts Protect on the Wraithguard, for a 2+ save.
Shooting Phase: With nothing left to shoot the Vindicare shoots the Daemonettes on the Grey Knight Objective, killing one. The Wraithguard shoot the Daemonettes killing 2.
Assault Phase:
The Wraithguard and Spiritseer charge the Daemonettes. The Spiritseer issues a challenge and the Alluress duly accepts. They both strike at init 5, but the Alluress proves too much for the Spiritseer, with preferred enemy, all the Alluress' attacks land and the Spiritseer can't make all its saves. The Spiritseer does take the Alluress with him though, as I can't get that 6+ save. The rest of the Daemonettes kill one more Wraithguard.
Game Over: Major Victory Daemons
End Game Analysis
Wow, this was a great game. momentum swung back and forth so many times it made me seasick. Cleansing Flame is so powerful. I will have to make those units target priority in the future. Sanctuary is also a really useful, thankfully the Rhino perilled and lost it, or that could have really hampered my movement.
I don't want to moan about my bad dice, but it started to become a running joke with the amount of 1's I was rolling. After the second turn I started discarding any dice that gave me 1's as I'm sure they were cursed. I lost both Daemon Princes because I rolled too many 1's when making saving throws.
The Keeper was my MVP, this guy is an avoid close combat at all costs! Killing a squad of 5 Terminators in the first round of combat before they can strike back was the highlight of the game. With the Seekers killing the Dreadknight in a first turn charge a close second.
I think Angelicz would have been better suited not being so aggressive with his army. I have virtually no shooting and rely purely on Rending attacks, which are so dangerous against Terminator and Power Armour, and with the number of dice I get to roll, you can count on at least two or three 6's. Spending another round or two shooting at me as I ran across the board would have helped even the numbers when I finally make it into combat.
All in all a great game, we've already discussed a rematch in the near future, with both of us taking good lessons from the game.
AngelicZ was kind enough to offer his comments on the game:
AngelicZ was kind enough to offer his comments on the game:
I DEFINITELY could have avoided Close Combat more and kited you all the way to my board edge, that probably would have been an easy victory given how the Daemon Princes went down early. I failed to keep my distance against Daemons which is a BAD idea against any god bar Tzeentch. To be honest I had never really faced Slaanesh before, so I wanted to see how they would fare in Close Combat, I know my Purifiers are capable but I failed to grab the charge on almost every occasion meaning that supreme Initiative and Rending cut through me. Done again I don't think I would avoid combat, but I would make sure to set my charges up better and use your lack of shooting against you to force you to close the gap. The Psychic Phase was a bundle of learning, first of all getting Powers off on a 4+ you NEED a fair amount of dice to guarantee anything, this also brings Perils in to light a lot more though, having suffered it three times in total on double 6s. Power priority then is an absolute horrible concept, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I MUST cast, what I really needed to get through. Then it came to Deny the Witch, I wasn't pleased even with re-rolls on 1s from The Aegis, I wasn't able to Deny that final Psychic Shriek on FIVE dice where I needed 5+. It is so much harder than it seems even when you can generate as much Warp Charge as Grey Knights/Eldar can. The Assault turned out much different than I thought it would, I can really see how mean Slaanesh is in combat, and I already know of Nurgle's Toughness and Khorne's ridiculousness there, Daemons as a codex should be avoided in the brawl unless it is on YOUR terms, also the 'Sergeant' type characters for any squad are absolutely ridiculous with such easy AP2 access.On my end I learned that Crowe is a little better than he was, not much, but with the new Cleansing Flame he can really throw down some Anti-Infantry hate. I have to comment on the changes to Purifiers here, Cleansing Flame + Shooting (2/4 Psycannons depending on Squad Size AND Psybolt Ammunition). They are able to put down some EXTREME anti-infantry power, through sheer number of hits and variety alone, anything with a 4+ or worse save relying on Cover Saves will really be punished by Cleansing Flame and the rest of the shooting just stacks on the wounds, overall being able to deal damage across three Phases I think they are more consistent than previously. The Vindicare Assassin... well.. let me start by saying I love this guy to death, but Vehicle are SO MUCH HARDER to kill when you're aiming for that Explodes! result, even with AP1 I could not roll a 5+ for the life of me, sure I was able to strip a Hull Point a turn but I felt like his presence didn't really pay for the points I spent. Usually I get 145 points back out of threat value alone, but he was left do plink away at the Soul Grinder all game. That said, the changes to the damage table, especially Stunned taking three spaces, means you can consistently take Vehicles out of the game, no movement and snap shots means they may as well not be on the table, anything higher though really was a pain in this situation.On the Eldar side I definitely need to be a little more Reserved with my Wave Serpent, after delivering my Wraithguard where I wanted them I definitely should have leveraged the Range, I didn't really get to use Jink either for that 3+ Save even though it would result in Snap Shots so I can't comment on the effectiveness of that 15 points until later.All in all i'm still going to reserve judgement for a later date, but I think my lists will get better as time goes on.
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