Managed to test out the proposed Black Legion changes at the weekend. I took my 'default' Chaos list, which is: 3 units of legion marines, 1 with obliterator and SC (BTS), and 2 with rhinos, bikes, chosen with rhinos, terminators with oblit, 2 death wheels, 2 units of fighters, vs an air assault heavy Dark Eldar list, which now that i sit here and point up may have had one too many units. Ah well. It had the Archon unit with extra incubi, 2 units of warriors, 1 with dracon and portable webway, 2 wyches with extra flesh hounds, 2 slavebringers, fighters, bombers, scourges, mandrakes, and 2 vessels of pain.
Deployment: DE have just the two vessels deployed, i'm arranged in the centre of the board.
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Turn 1: DE go for some strafing, a bomber goes down to fighters, the other fighter unit fails to activate, both vessels go on overwatch. One unit of warriors (non-dracon) comes out of the webway and hides behind the hill. My BTS stays on overwatch on the blitz, the rest of the force moves in and tries to break the warriors, being just off sadly.
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Turn 2: Scourges and mandrakes deep strike, as do the terminators. DE go first, warriors come around and prep the warrior unit nearest to the portal, and assault with scourges. This does however allow me to drive a rhino into the suppressed warriors and pull them into combat as well. The unit holds, and breaks the scourges and warriors. Bikes then summon daemons, get 5 flamers, and go kill a slavebringer. Only 3 hits from the flamers though, and it ended up a lot closer than i'd have liked! Retained with terminators and killed mandrakes, but lost 2 terminators which broke them unfortunately. DE then assault the same unit again, this time with the Archons unit and wipe it out, they do take 2 incubi and 1 raider casualty however. Followup is a slavebringer wych assault into the other unit of marines, which again wipes them unfortunately. Death wheel assaults and wipes the wyches and destroys the slavebringer after breaking it, other deathwheel assaults the archon's unit, breaking it. Second wych unit in slavebringer goes for BTS, i completely forget it has overwatch, and the unit gets pasted, with a few units and obliterator running away. Chosen summon daemons and assault other vessel after it goes for a shot on a death wheel and fluffs, and my assault fluffs and they break. They're definitely not as robust an assault unit with only half the daemon dice. Chosen don't rally, so run back towards the broken DE units. Archon rallys anyway, but the other two don't, and neither do my terminators. My BTS unfortunately rallies.
Turn 3: I think i win the rolloff, and bikes summon more daemons and finish off the other vessel of pain before it can shoot a deathwheel, also leaving it on the blitz and one other objective. I then retain with a deathwheel then break the archon's unit. DE then activate wyches and destroy my BTS, i respond my destroying his with fighters. Bombers make a run at my other deathwheel, and strip some shields off. Deathwheel doubles back to my blitz to contest and try and kill some wyches. DE then make runs on the deathwheel to try and break it with fighters and slavebringer, only taking it to 3 out of 4. Game ends with 3-1 to Chaos, with Blitz, take and hold, BTS vs BTS.
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It was an interesting game, the Chaos lack of Ground AA was a bit of a pain in this matchup, and i struggled to keep the superior DE Air off my back, the slavebringers being particularly nasty given their shields give them cover. Daemons definitely felt much more toned down, and weren't carrying assaults on their own like they normally would, although the DE air assaults did leave units a bit more vulnerable than they would normally be due to having no chance to summon daemons before being assaulted. Fighters at 30cm range was handy given it allowed me to sit in obliterator flak bubbles and avoid the DE fighters having carte blanche to come in and attack.
Things would have been a bit different around my blitz if i'd remembered to overwatch, but such is life. Overall Chaos units felt a little less dependable without the massed daemon support though, which imo is a good thing.
