Howdy folks. We wrapped up the BAO today. Good news and bad news. Good news: I won best Daemons, yay!
Bad news: I was a mere 25th overall out of 115, so not a terrific showing for Daemons in general. The top tables seemed to be mainly Space Marines (lots of bikes, Drop Pods and Land Raiders) with Imperial Knights, Necrons and Tyranids. White Scars (which looked suspiciously like Ultramarines) won the whole shebang.
My list:
Herald of Tzeentch, ML3, Grimoire (every game)
11 Horrors
11 Horrors
8 Screamers
8 Screamers
Soul Grinder, Tzeentch, phlegm
Soul Grinder, Tzeentch, phlegm
Soul Grinder, Slaanesh, torrent
Daemon Prince, spell familiar, Tzeentch, wings, armor, ML3
10 Cultists, 2 autoguns
5 Nurgle Spawn
Bastion
1850
I won my first game against Nids and got to see the Heirodule in action. That beastie has 10 S10 shots, and 5 S10 melee attacks. And BAO turned it up to 11 by ruling that it gets to double its dangerous terrain check on 3d6 even though that's not a rule.
I took care of it in the first game by charging it with Nurgle Spawn. They tied it up for two turns, and I just dropped Daemons all over the board and clogged both Emperor's Will objectives. And we ran out of time on four.
Game two was kill points, and if I lost any game, I figured it would be that one. I drew Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson's Nids. He was also rocking a Heirodule. He also had two Flyrants and the Living Artillery formation ducking under a void shield generator. His troops were deep striking Ripper Swarms. After watching the Nurgle Spawn tie up the Heirodule in round 1, I tried the exact same trick.
Turn 1 went great. I had Shrouding up, lost nothing and was setting up to rush him. The Warp Storm table killed turned one of his Flyrants into a Slaanesh Herald for first blood. I figured I had him. Turn 2, the Spawn charged the Heirodule and the Screamers dashed up alongside them. If even one Spawn lived, I would be in his backfield tearing him apart for major KP. Instead Geoff rolled a 6 for stomp and then two 6's and wiped all the spawn in one go, freeing the Heirodule up to attack my Screamers, and pick me apart in general. So I lost hard on KP and couldn't swing secondary my way. I couldn't summon in that battle, either, but I'm wondering if I should have because it was possible to table that army if I could take out the other Flyrant. Either way, I would have done it exactly the same if I had it to do again. I will charge a Heirodule with Spawn in any game except Scouring.
Game three was Relic. I drew double barge Necrons with a Tau Firebase Cadre. I got Cursed Earth with my DP, so I just grabbed the Relic with 2++ rerollable screamers turn 1 and moved it to my board edge while dropping. Not much of a game since there was little he could do about it, though the secondaries went his way. His army did an admirable job of blowing everything I dropped on the board away, but that was the point.
Game four I drew White Scars and Eldar with two Serpents, which was pretty much Objective Secured spam. I got seized on, and we ran out of time at turn 5. Had I made a 3" run, I would have contested the critical objective and won 6-4, but I rolled a 2 and so lost 9-2. Hard luck. I was crushing him, but there wasn't enough time to take out every OS unit. Had it gone six, he'd have been nearly tabled. Seven and a tabling was certain. Daemonettes everywhere.
Game five was against Necrons again, which are just plain easy. I had four full summoned Daemonettes on the board and was out so I was dropping Flesh Hounds just to make sure he didn't get any objectives.
Game six was against the guy who won best IG, which had Yarrick and a mob of Conscripts, a Primaris, Pask with two Punishers, two Eradicators, two Russes and two Vendettas. It was a complete rout in my favor with Daemonettes everywhere. I even managed to kill Yarrick and his whole blob with Nurgle Spawn.
My Bastion only ever died in the first game when the Heirodule charged it. We ran out of time and he may or may not have been able to kill my warlord, so I gave it to him, but he only died legit in the game with Geoff, and only because I left the Bastion for reasons I cannot recall. The Bastion did its job. The Bastion Tzerald will be my go-to HQ for Daemons primary for awhile.
My list has trouble in kill point games. Rather than Soul Grinders, I'd much rather have an Imperial Knight equivalent to hold down the center. Almost all the top armies had some sort of rock or two to hold the center. Usually a Chapter Master and a Knight, or a Heirodule. My list works on summoning, so it takes time to build momentum, but by the time turn 4 rolls around, you're drowning in bodies. That technique doesn't work in KP games, and I can't field anything as nasty as a Heirodule or a Knight. Zarakynel with Grimoire? She's no Heirodule. Not BAO legal either. Hope the Slaanesh Knights come out soon.
The CSM Daemon Prince is the shit. He never died, and he got me a unit nine times out of ten with his spell familiar. The Horrors dropped another unit most turns. I really don't think I can improve on this setup if dropping two units per turn is your goal. The Nurgle Spawn were clutch. They held up a Heirodule, killed Yarrick tied up some barge Lords so my Grinders could get in there and finish them. They had some bad luck against Geoff, and weren't much use against White Scars, but having that throwaway tarpit was awesome.
Screamers are problem solvers, but usually die once they reach their target, unless you're playing IG, because IG don't seem to have much going for them besides Wyverns.
The Grinders are needed. They killed Kor'Sarro Khan and the White Scars CM in the Scouring game I barely lost. They shot down a Night Scythe that could have dropped a unit on my side of the board and scored a secondary, but I'd rather have a Knight and a good shooty FMC.
Anyway, I'm on vacation til Monday probably. Looking forward to trying out some Warmachine and probably going to be doing some CSM primary as I think that might be stronger than Daemons, but until I can get something that can take on Heirodules and Knight Titans, I will be at a disadvantage in KP missions. The meta is big, hard-to-kill units/vehicles and a fair amount of objective secured spam. Drop pods, Land Raiders, Wave Serpents, Knights, Flyrants, Heirodules (if LOW is legal for you) and Barge Necrons with the usual suspects. Plan accordingly.
Bad news: I was a mere 25th overall out of 115, so not a terrific showing for Daemons in general. The top tables seemed to be mainly Space Marines (lots of bikes, Drop Pods and Land Raiders) with Imperial Knights, Necrons and Tyranids. White Scars (which looked suspiciously like Ultramarines) won the whole shebang.
My list:
Herald of Tzeentch, ML3, Grimoire (every game)
11 Horrors
11 Horrors
8 Screamers
8 Screamers
Soul Grinder, Tzeentch, phlegm
Soul Grinder, Tzeentch, phlegm
Soul Grinder, Slaanesh, torrent
Daemon Prince, spell familiar, Tzeentch, wings, armor, ML3
10 Cultists, 2 autoguns
5 Nurgle Spawn
Bastion
1850
I won my first game against Nids and got to see the Heirodule in action. That beastie has 10 S10 shots, and 5 S10 melee attacks. And BAO turned it up to 11 by ruling that it gets to double its dangerous terrain check on 3d6 even though that's not a rule.
I took care of it in the first game by charging it with Nurgle Spawn. They tied it up for two turns, and I just dropped Daemons all over the board and clogged both Emperor's Will objectives. And we ran out of time on four.
Game two was kill points, and if I lost any game, I figured it would be that one. I drew Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson's Nids. He was also rocking a Heirodule. He also had two Flyrants and the Living Artillery formation ducking under a void shield generator. His troops were deep striking Ripper Swarms. After watching the Nurgle Spawn tie up the Heirodule in round 1, I tried the exact same trick.
Turn 1 went great. I had Shrouding up, lost nothing and was setting up to rush him. The Warp Storm table killed turned one of his Flyrants into a Slaanesh Herald for first blood. I figured I had him. Turn 2, the Spawn charged the Heirodule and the Screamers dashed up alongside them. If even one Spawn lived, I would be in his backfield tearing him apart for major KP. Instead Geoff rolled a 6 for stomp and then two 6's and wiped all the spawn in one go, freeing the Heirodule up to attack my Screamers, and pick me apart in general. So I lost hard on KP and couldn't swing secondary my way. I couldn't summon in that battle, either, but I'm wondering if I should have because it was possible to table that army if I could take out the other Flyrant. Either way, I would have done it exactly the same if I had it to do again. I will charge a Heirodule with Spawn in any game except Scouring.
Game three was Relic. I drew double barge Necrons with a Tau Firebase Cadre. I got Cursed Earth with my DP, so I just grabbed the Relic with 2++ rerollable screamers turn 1 and moved it to my board edge while dropping. Not much of a game since there was little he could do about it, though the secondaries went his way. His army did an admirable job of blowing everything I dropped on the board away, but that was the point.
Game four I drew White Scars and Eldar with two Serpents, which was pretty much Objective Secured spam. I got seized on, and we ran out of time at turn 5. Had I made a 3" run, I would have contested the critical objective and won 6-4, but I rolled a 2 and so lost 9-2. Hard luck. I was crushing him, but there wasn't enough time to take out every OS unit. Had it gone six, he'd have been nearly tabled. Seven and a tabling was certain. Daemonettes everywhere.
Game five was against Necrons again, which are just plain easy. I had four full summoned Daemonettes on the board and was out so I was dropping Flesh Hounds just to make sure he didn't get any objectives.
Game six was against the guy who won best IG, which had Yarrick and a mob of Conscripts, a Primaris, Pask with two Punishers, two Eradicators, two Russes and two Vendettas. It was a complete rout in my favor with Daemonettes everywhere. I even managed to kill Yarrick and his whole blob with Nurgle Spawn.
My Bastion only ever died in the first game when the Heirodule charged it. We ran out of time and he may or may not have been able to kill my warlord, so I gave it to him, but he only died legit in the game with Geoff, and only because I left the Bastion for reasons I cannot recall. The Bastion did its job. The Bastion Tzerald will be my go-to HQ for Daemons primary for awhile.
My list has trouble in kill point games. Rather than Soul Grinders, I'd much rather have an Imperial Knight equivalent to hold down the center. Almost all the top armies had some sort of rock or two to hold the center. Usually a Chapter Master and a Knight, or a Heirodule. My list works on summoning, so it takes time to build momentum, but by the time turn 4 rolls around, you're drowning in bodies. That technique doesn't work in KP games, and I can't field anything as nasty as a Heirodule or a Knight. Zarakynel with Grimoire? She's no Heirodule. Not BAO legal either. Hope the Slaanesh Knights come out soon.
The CSM Daemon Prince is the shit. He never died, and he got me a unit nine times out of ten with his spell familiar. The Horrors dropped another unit most turns. I really don't think I can improve on this setup if dropping two units per turn is your goal. The Nurgle Spawn were clutch. They held up a Heirodule, killed Yarrick tied up some barge Lords so my Grinders could get in there and finish them. They had some bad luck against Geoff, and weren't much use against White Scars, but having that throwaway tarpit was awesome.
Screamers are problem solvers, but usually die once they reach their target, unless you're playing IG, because IG don't seem to have much going for them besides Wyverns.
The Grinders are needed. They killed Kor'Sarro Khan and the White Scars CM in the Scouring game I barely lost. They shot down a Night Scythe that could have dropped a unit on my side of the board and scored a secondary, but I'd rather have a Knight and a good shooty FMC.
Anyway, I'm on vacation til Monday probably. Looking forward to trying out some Warmachine and probably going to be doing some CSM primary as I think that might be stronger than Daemons, but until I can get something that can take on Heirodules and Knight Titans, I will be at a disadvantage in KP missions. The meta is big, hard-to-kill units/vehicles and a fair amount of objective secured spam. Drop pods, Land Raiders, Wave Serpents, Knights, Flyrants, Heirodules (if LOW is legal for you) and Barge Necrons with the usual suspects. Plan accordingly.