The enemy beyond... Daemons vs Imperial guard 1500

Something out of the ordinary for this weeks battle report, I will be using Chaos Daemons against Imperial guard in a pitched battle, annihilation game. Now these aren’t my daemons so I didn’t have much choice in what I could take as I didn’t want to proxy but I felt I had a chance to do some real damage...

Now first things first, before you all shout out noob, I have never played daemons before and was working with another person’s army. So there is my excuses right now for any and all mistakes I make in the game or army making.

I have always like the idea of a daemon army but never wanted to spend the money on yet another army, but seeing as I had the chance to use then I jumped at it. From his collection this is the 1500 point army I made. The (n) refers to either first wave or second wave.

Bloodthirster – 250 (1)

3 Bloodcrushers – 120 (1)

8 Bloodletters – 128 (1)

8 Bloodletters – 128 (2)

8 Bloodletters – 128 (2)

8 Plaugebeareres – 120 (2)

11 Daemonnettes – 154 (1)

16 Pink Horrors – 272 (1)

Daemon Prince – 200 (2)

Mark of Tzeentch, wings, Bolt of change

Now I know it’s not the most powerful build but I felt it had potential with a little firepower from the horrors and a lot of combat potential. If I can just get into combat I should rip the guard to pieces. That is if I don’t get blown apart in the turn I deep strike in.

Unfortunately I don’t have the exact list my opponent had but I have a rough list here to give you an idea of what he used.

Command squad

Master of ordinance

Infantry platoon (blob squad)

Commissar, auto cannons

Infantry platoon (blob squad)

Commissar, lascannons

Penal legion (assault weapons)

2 x Stormtroopers

3 x plasma gun

Marbo

Hell hounds

Hell hound

Hydra

Leaman Russ battle tank

imperial battle line

A very infantry heavy list with a few tanks to back them up, with that many shots my blood letters might be some trouble. I know it’s mainly strength 3 but with such volumes of fire I could be in trouble. Also with such a large volume of guardsmen in two large units it could take a while to whittle them down in combat, so I might have to whittle them down with the horrors in order to kill them quickly. The tanks... either combat with a monster, or a lucky bolt of Tzeentch, either way I have a little up hill battle again.

Anyway onto the game, we rolled to see who set up first and I loose... so I'm forced to deploy and go first. So nothing on the board for me and I'm forced to go first The guard sets up with the hydra on the right, with the penal legion, russ, and hell hound next to it. Then on the other side a hell hound from the left, with a blob squad, command squad then the last blob. Great. He doesn’t attempt to steal the initiative surprisingly enough so I go first.

Daemon 1

I roll to see if I get my preferred wave and with a good ol’ roll of one, I get my second wave instead of my preferred one. Not the start I hoped for but such is life. Starting with the Prince, I place him near the hell hound so I can target it with my bolt, and my price scatters directly towrda the leaman russ, stopping just over an inch away... mm is in it but we call it as being safe. That was too close. Next up I place my Bloodletters one scatters closer towards the blob squad in the middle, the other one into dangerous terrain, taking no losses. The Plaugebeareres scatter away from the guard and into some trees but luckily they are appear unharmed.

Shooting and the daemons run to spread out form the blast templates while the price targets the hell hound closest to him but misses.

A good turn to begin with...

Guard 1

The hell hounds both move towards the daemons while the rest of the army holds the line to blast the daemons.

Shooting and the master of ordinance targets a unit of Bloodletters but scatters onto the other one killing 4 in the blast. The hell hounds both shoot at the Bloodletters and manage to hit the second unit, reducing the foremost unit of Bloodletters is reduced to one man killing 2 from the other one. The blob squad then gets orders from the command squad to down the larger bloodletter unit, twin linking the weapons, totally wiping out the unit in one volley. The second blob squad target the daemon price with the long range weapons managing to cause a single wound on the beast. The command squad then opens up on last bloodletter and with an expert shot from one of hte veterans manage to send him back to the warp. The platoon command then fires there sniper rifles at the price also taking a wound from him. It’s starting to be a bad day for him. The hydra then targets the prince blowing another chunk out of the price, reducing him to 1 wound, his invulnerable save failing to stop anything. Inspired by the army’s efforts, the penal legion charge at the prince, but fail to do anything with their lasguns.

Combat phase and the penal legion charges the prince and one quickly dies to the princes claws, ripping him apart. However the amazing skill of the prince shines though again, taking his final wound from the guardsmen, banishing him to the warp. Banished by inmates, just some pissed of convicts. So almost loose my entire first wave first turn. A great first turn.    

Daemons 2

The Bloodthirster appears on the left flank about to threaten one of the blob squads (looking back now this was a bad call, I should have targeted one of the tanks). The blood crushers are placed in the middle but scatter back away from combat. The Plaugebeareres move towards the guard and run. A very, very quick turn.

Guard 2

One unit of storm troopers deep strike in close to the Bloodcrushers, readying their plasma guns. One hell hound moves towards the Plaugebeareres, the other, past the Bloodthirster towards the crushers. Seeing the threat posed by the newly arrived daemons the leamon russ moves towards both units, able to target either with its immense battle cannon.

The storm troopers rapid fire their guns into the crushers, dealing 3 wounds with the plasma guns. The hell hound closest to the crushers targets them but fails to do anything thanks to save provided by the jauggernaughts. The russ targets them as well but it scatters into no where. The snipers target the wounded crusher and manage to kill him, leaving one alone. The Hell hound close to the bearers kills one while the hydra also kills another one. On the other side of the battle field the blob squads target the Bloodthirster with everything they have, lasguns, lascannons and autocannons all fire only dealing two wounds.

In combat the penal legion charge the Plaugebeareres some how managing to kill two while the legion only loose 1 in return. Those penal legion are starting to become a real problem.    

 Daemons 3

Ripping though the warp the horrors and the Daemonnettes appears, with the horrors right in front of the blob in the middle and the Daemonnettes on the left hoping to support the Bloodthirster. The last remaining Bloodcrusher moved towards the storm troopers as the thirster flew towards the blob squad.

Shooting and the horrors shoot at the guardsman killing 12 in the inferno.

Combat and the crusher charges the storm troopers killing two but holding ignoring the fury in front of them. The Bloodthirster charges the blob squad in front of it missing its attacks bar 1, killing a single guardsman. That was so impressive. But thanks to its high ws and t it takes nothing in return. The Plaugebeareres combat with the penal legion continues terribly, taking one loss and dealing nothing. The combat continues.

Guard 3

Another unit of storm troopers deep strike down onto the table while Marbo appears near the horrors readying his demo charge. The hell hounds once again move to immolate more daemons.

After his sudden appearance Marbo throws his demo charge onto the horrors locking on, hitting 16, killing 9 of them. The storm troopers then lay into the horrors taking out a further 4. The hydra opens up on the Daemonnettes killing 3, followed by the russ who locks on hitting 6 and killing 2 of them. With a large gout of flame the hell hound manages to burn a further two Daemonnettes.

Combat phase and the Bloodthirster crush another three guardsmen, taking no wounds in return. The final Bloodcrusher kills another storm trooper leaving it as duel between the sergeant and the daemon. On the other side of the battle field the Plaugebeareres manage to finally kill a legionnaire but some how lose another daemon, another drawn combat.  

Daemon 4

The final bloodletter unit arrives from reserve, attempting to hit behind the blob squad, this time scattering towards the damaged blob. The Daemonnettes run towards the Bloodthirster aiming to help thin out the blob squad. They then charge them, managing to kill a single guardsman. The Bloodthirster kills 4 but some how manages to get a single wound back from the blob. Winning the combat, the stubborn blob fail their leadership test, so one of the sergeants gets killed by the commissar. The blood crusher fails to damage the storm trooper who also fails to do any damage. In a strange turn of events Plaugebeareres manage to kill a single legionnaire who fail to damage the daemons, winning the combat, and they guard flee the combat but manage to escape.

Guard 4

The storm troopers who aren’t in combat bail for cover to avoid giving any kill points away. The penal legion manages to regroup as the leman russ moves to aim at the newly arrived bloodletters. As only one target isn’t in combat the hell hounds move to flame the bloodletters.

To open the shooting phase the hydra shoots the bloodletters taking 2 of their number, as do the remnants of the blob squad and one of the hell hounds. The final daemons are killed but a combination of the final hell hound and the command squad. The newly regrouped pineal legion shoot down a plagueberer which are then eradicated under the thunder of battle cannon shot from the russ.

Sly marbo seeing an opening charges the lone bloodcrusher but fails to any damage to him preventing him murdering the final storm trooper. He stays thanks to a double 1... Insane courage!!!

The Daemonnettes deal a further 1 wound to the guard, who are then out shone by the thirster, killing two. All the guard attack the Bloodthirster again but fail to do anything to him. Again the unite fails the leadership test so another sergeant is executed.

Daemon 5

Straight to combat and Marbo shows how much of a man he is and deals two wounds to the bloodcrusher killing him. The Daemonnettes kill 4 guardsmen thanks to 2 rends and 2 lucky wounds. Not one to be outdone the Bloodthirster matches them killing 4 of his own guard, who hold.

Guard 5

The command squad nearest to the blob in combat moves to help out the blob squad and charges them. In combat the Bloodthirster killed 3 guard, while the Daemonnettes fail to inflict any damage. The command squad then kills a single daemonnette. Combat resolution ends up with the daemons winnign by 2, making the command squad flee while the blob holds.

Daemon 6

The combat abruptly ends with the daemons finishing off the unite.

Guard 6

All guns open up and take down the daemons, no frills, just dead.

Well that wasn’t quite what I hopped for. So the game ends

Guard 9 – Daemons 1

Never having played with daemons before I got quite what I expected, to get crushed into the ground with out chance of winning. And that’s exactly what I got. What did I learn from this?

·         Purely combat is not the way forward, you need some more shooting when you deep strike... or hide behind cover... probably should have though about that.

·         The big monsters lasted the longest (theoretically) so more than one prince is necessary

·         If I had my own daemon army I would defiantly have a bit more from other slots, not just troops.

·         Not sure what else... I need to play with them more.

So that was my first time playing with daemons, if I was against a marine army I cant help but feel I would have done a little better as the torrent of shots would have been amazingly reduced. So I should probably play more... if I ever wanted to have a daemon army, which I kind of do.