Had a game last night vs dptdexys and his EUK emps children, the lighting at the venue was terrible as always, will add the few decent pics I got later
Red Corsairs list
Retinue - warlord, hunter, pact, rhinos
Retinue - pact, rhinos
Terminators - pact
Strike Cruiser
Thunderhawk
Thunderhawk
Chosen - pods, pact
Berzerkers - pact
Brass Scorpions
Hellblades
Helltalons
+4 lesser daemons (9 in total)
Emps children list
Retinue - warlord, pact, rhinos
Retinue - pact, rhinos
Retinue - pact, dreadclaws
Bikes - pact
Terminators - daemon prince, pact
Terminators - pact
Defilers
Hellblades
Spaceship
+7 lesser daemons (13 in total)
Turn 1
Neither of us had many ground units, dptdexys won the rolloff and chose to bring his spaceship turn 1
Red corsairs win rolloff and let EC go first, EC activate spaceship and hit retinue on the left with the barrage killing a marine and a rhino, pinpoint hits a scorpion but it passes its invulnerable save for one point of damage and survives, drop pod troops summon daemons and engage the survivors, breaking them but breaking in turn. Scorpions marshall and advance, bike company doubles, BTS retinue shoots at them for no kills, EC hellblades CAP, thunderhawk with berzerkers battlecannons a defiler placing a BM, defilers marshall, second thunderhawk tries to repeat the tactic, hellblades CAP, score 2 hits neither of which are saved, dead thunderhawk and terminators
planes generally fly around and shoot stuff, thunderhawk flies off with 3 BM, all formations rallyTurn 2
both EC terminators teleport, EC win rolloff and engage, first formation wipes out damaged retinue, second engages BTS, breaking them and reducing to 3 models including warlord, they run away, EC terminators take a casualty from support fire. RC spaceship activates, barrage hits EC supcom retinue doing a couple of kills, deathwind kills a bike unit, chosen retain and summon 5 daemons, then engage bikers, breaking them for no kills in return. Defilers sustain on chosen killing 1 and placing 3 blast markers. Thunderhawk stands down, retinue engages scorpions in a firefight, destroying them both, RC hellblades strafe BTS terminators, killing a second stand and breaking them, helltalons CAP to protect broken BTS. End of turn RC BTS rallies, EC BTS fails despite reroll
Turn 3
RC win strategy roll, BTS summon daemons then march and hide out of reach of EC formations, chosen retain, summon daemons and engage nearby retinue, breaking them and breaking in turn. EC Retinue on left flank summon daemons and march onto RC blitz, hellblades strafe EC BTS and kill last terminator, Daemon prince survives, EC hellblades go on CAP, helltalons strafe and kill EC daemon prince (yay!) EC terminators double to T&H objective, thunderhawk berzerkers land on EC blitz, defilers double and contest and shoot killing a berzerker, bikes fail to engage with reroll, game ends 2-1 to EC (Blitz + T&H vs BTS)
Post game thoughts
Well that was a tense game, turn 1 definitely went dptdexys way, but my chosen did stellar work and really pulled me back into the game, the thing that lost it for me was almost certainly losing the thunderhawk and terminators so early, unlike codex marines, a single chaos hunter is not sufficient AA cover!
Berzerkers are completely fine as a unit, they were pretty underwhelming and could probably do with a points drop or having a couple of extra stands adding (an 8-strong unit is 275 pts in the EUK world eaters list) as right now, they cost the same as terminators and are demonstrably worse (them being fearless and having 6 stands rather than 4 are the only advantages) they also make a less effective drop pod loadout as the random scatter can leave them out of CC range of an enemy quite easily
I still stand by thunderhawking terminators in, this is the price you pay for being able to pick your fight anywhere on the table. I enjoyed the game a great deal, looking forward to the next one!