I took on captPiett's LatD army with my Daemons today.
Daemons: 7 x Plaguebearers w/herald - 275 7 x Nurglings - 175 7 x Plaguebearers w/herald - 275 7 x Plague Drones - 350 9 x Horrors w/herald (supreme co) - 325 11 x Screamers - 275 8 x Bloodletters w/herald - 300 2 x Bloodthirster Greaters (bts) - 500 6 x Soulgrinders - 450 Chaos Portal - 75 Total pts. 3,000 w/ 9 activations
LatD: Stigmatus Coven #1(Nurgle) w/ Demagogue - Arch Heretic (supreme co), 6 x Land Transporter, 1 x Hydra - 310 Nurgle Plague Tower - 325 Stigmatus Coven #2(Nurgle) w/ Chaos Marine Aspiring Champion, 1 x Spawn, 2 x Hounds - 245 Nurgle Plague Tower - 325 Stigmatus Coven #3(Nurgle) w/ Demagogue, 4 x additional Mutants - 260 Nurgle Contagion Towers - 300 Stigmatus Coven #4(Undivided) w/ Demagogue, 6 x Land Transporters, 1 x Hydra - 310 Thunderbolt Fighters - 150 Stigmatus Coven #5(Khorne) w/ Chaos Marine Aspiring Champion, 1 x Chaos Altar, 1 x Spawn - 375 Khorne Lord of Battles - 400 Total pts. 3,000 w/ 10 activations
I held the Soulgrinders, Horrors, Nurglings, Bloodletters and Bloodthirsters in reserve to deploy via Teleport later in the game. The Plaguebearers, Plague Drones and Screamers were deployed normally.
I won strategy turns 1 - 3 and captPiett won on turn 4. I Teleported all five formations on his right flank on turn 2. Four out of the five formations received bms coming onto the board, with the Soulgrinders not getting any. The Horrors engaged Stigmatus Coven #1, breaking it. This unfortunately left the Bloodletters too far away from the next target, a Nurgle plague Tower. I attacked that Nurgle plague tower, after it had broken the Nurglings that had ZoC'd it, with the Screamers and Soulgrinders. None of those three combats even laid a bm on it. It took two rounds of CC with the two Bloodthirsters to finally destroy it - captPiett's armor saves were ridiculous. The LatD's Nurgle Contaigon Engines were very effective at breaking my infantry formations with their 4bp Disrupt shots. CaptP. decided to intermingle Coven #5 with the Contaigon Engines to protect them from assault. They defeated the two attacking Bloodthristers, (killing one greater and breaking the other) in turn 3. CaptP was able to sweep the Plaguebearers and Plague Drones aside with the Khorne Lord of Battles and a couple of Covens on my right flank. I was able to rally pretty well at the end of turn 2, but after barely keeping captPiett from winning 2-0 (DTF, Blitz) at the end of turn 3 by marching the Bloodletters to contest one of his DTF objectives, I rallied poorly and the LatD won 3-0 (Blitz, DTF, T&H) at the end of turn 4.
I've realized that this army, while very unique and very fun, is very unforgiving when you make a mistake. I should have Teleported the Horrors and Bloodletters to a more central location behind is Covens, so that they would be in range to assault multiple formations. By placing them on the far flank, they were left behind as the situation in that sector changed. I have learned that when Teleporting, one or two Scout formations need to be included to ZoC the enemy, in order to protect the other formations in case the opponent wins strategy. By being aggressive with this list (which is necessary), it is hard to send the mainly slow formations back to defend the Blitz in the case of an enemy breakthrough. The 1+ activation helped a lot, I didn't roll as many failed activations this game and it was easier to rally of course.
My main concern at this point is the lack of ranged shooting in the list. I realize that this army list is based on the WH40K Daemon codex and has only a little shooting in it, so I am absolutely not suggesting any new made-up units or formations. What I would like to propose however, is that all Heralds get a 15cm ranged shooting attack. This is supported by the codex with lesser, greater and exalted chaos rewards that Heralds can obtain. The 15cm range is in line with the short range of those attacks. The Heralds' shooting attacks could all have the same stats, or they could have different stats based on each mark. It may not seem like much, but to a strictly assault army, being able to prep an enemy formation for assault is essential. Even with bms from Teleporting, the Herald would be able to shoot by positioning other friendly units within 15cm and suppressing them instead. Four out of my five formations that teleported were already at a -2 for combat resolution if/when they assaulted because of bms and they had no way to prep the enemy formations to even things up.
Since I have played I.G. and LatD, I will try to play against Space Marines (good guy or bad) next.
_________________ "Live off the land. Go to find war. Kill wot comes close. The old ways are best." - Grodd, Ork Snakebite Runtherd
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