[Archive] A couple of games

MartyF:

I played a couple of games this week with the new list, both against daemons.

I used the same list in both games but the daemon player changed his slightly for the second game to make things a little more interesting.

I took the following:

lvl4 with lore of Hashut, 4+ ward, power stone

lvl2 with fire, scroll

BSB, 2+ re-rollable save, +2 strength hammer

1 x 38 Infernal Guard, full command

1 x 20 Hob Gob archers

1 x 20 Hob Gobs with shields

1 x 6 Bull Centaurs, full command

2 Magma cannons

2 x 5 Hobgob Cav, spears

1 k’daai destroyer

Game 1

1 Blood thirster

1 Herald of Tzeentch (shadow magic)

1 herald of Khorne with -2 to cast banner

1 x 38 horrors

1 x 25 Blood letters

1 x 2 Fiends

1 x 5 fleshounds

2 x 6 flamers

The key events in this game where my lvl4 getting killed by pit of shades before I got my second turn :frowning:

The K’daai took out a unit of flamers before having a ding dong with the thirster over a couple of rounds, with the thirster eventually coming out on top (despite the fact I had a 2+ ward against his flaming attacks).

This wasn’t helped by the fact that I failed a toughness test and took a wound or that I declined to charge the bull centaurs into the rear of the combat when I had the chance. My thinking was that with a 2+ ward the K’daai would be able to handle it on his own and I didn’t want to give the thirster free combat res.

The thirster then went on to take out the lvl2, two magma cannons, and the bull centaurs. The centaurs having first taken out the fiends.

While this was going on the rest of my army took on the two daemon blocks, flamers, and fleshounds. The hob gob cav got a flank charge on the fleshounds and took them out, which was nice :slight_smile: The infernal guard got the horrors after a protracted combat and the hob gob archers were destroyed by the flamers and bloodletters.

In the end it finished with an 11-9 to the daemons which was pretty good considering what hhappened in the first few turns. I was pretty unlucky to loose the lvl4, the template actually scattered onto him, and with the k’daai I actually failed 4 ward saves out of about 10 wounds, needing only a 1 to pass.

Game 2

1 Herald of Nurgle, lvl 1(lore of Nurgle)

1 Herald of Tzeentch (shadow magic)

1 herald of Khorne with -2 to cast banner

1 x 38 horrors

1 x 25 Blood letters

1 x 25 Plague bearers

1 x 2 Fiends

1 x 5 fleshounds

2 x 6 flamers

This game was pretty similar but without the thirster I was able to keep my magma cannons alive and this helped them bring the daemon blocks down to manageable sizes.

The k�?Tdaai got killed by the bloodletters (after yet again failing another Toughness test and taking 2 wounds) who then went on to destroyed a couple of units of hob goblins before finally being finished off by the magma cannons.

The infernal guard and bull centaurs were able to take out the plague bearers, flamers, and fiends before we had to pack up before the game had finished.

If we had played on the horrors were almost certainly going to die as they were engaged in the front to about 20 Infernal guard (I lost 17 to pit of shades but luckily both the BSB and Lvl4 passed their lookout sirs!) and the flank to the bull centaurs.

I was really impressed with the magma cannons, they just don’t miss when you have a daemonsmith beside them, and the bull centaurs seem like they could be very good, especially if they have hatred. The k’daai was also unlucky, failing 2 out of 3 toughness tests and with eveything having magical attacks it made him that little bit easier to kill, I really think a lot of armies will struggle to cope with him.

The magic was a mixed bag, the hatred spell is very good but requires some planning as the range isn’t great. I was also never able to get ash storm off (although I didn’t roll it in my first game) as my opponent just saved his dice for that :frowning: and I didn’t seem to have enough threat to get his dice off him before I cast it.

The hob gob archers also impressed me, I didn’t expect them to kill much but it was surprising how much they did do when in range.

nilbog:

Thanks for that, always interesting to see write ups. Daemons can be hard to beat! I have a few questions:

How do you feel the army as a whole performed i.e. is it underpowered as some have suggested?

Did 38 IG do anything that 28 or even 18 IG couldn’t have done or do you think this is the way to go?

Would you swap a magma cannon for a deathshrieker or is the redundancy critical?

Bull centaurs any use?

Time of Madness:

I think you should maybe look at taking a couple of death shriekers, they would be good for the large blocks of infantry, but you’d also have the ability to drop a shell on the thrister.

How have the wolf riders done? I can see them performing well against the daemon army.

Did you arm the centaurs with great weapons? The full command, might be a bit overkill for them. Maybe drop look at taking the musician/standard and the banner of swiftness.

Time of Madness

MartyF:

Some really good observations as I’d already come to the same conclusions regarding the death shrieker and infernal guard size :).

I don’t think 40 IG are needed and I’m looking to drop them down to 25-30.  I’m also planning on dropping one of the cannons for a death shrieker, for the very fact that I did struggle against the thirster.  

I had hoped that ash storm would keep him at bay for a turn or two but I didn’t roll the spell and my lvl4 was dead in two turns anyway so have decided it’s too risky to rely on that.

I did arm the bull centaurs with great weapons, which seemed to work.  The hob gob cav were also very good and I like the fact they are two cheap drops which can help give you a better idea of where to place your good stuff.

They are also very good for just being annoying and can be a threat to the right target, as the fleshhounds found out :)  

I don’t think I’d ever not take them, which means I’ll struggle to take the dreadquake in most games :frowning:

To be honest I did feel it was a struggle (although it was daemons so maybe not fair to draw too many conclusions) and I do think many of our options are overpriced.  My opponent was relatively inexperienced and as a consequence I felt he was too hesitant in pressing home his advantages, especially in the first game.

zhatan87:

Many thanks for the comment.
With your permission, I would like to share my thoughts on the army.

Firstly, as I play Daemons and CD armies, i’m very surprised of the results :
the first daemon list is a very strong one, nearly a no limit list…
the second one is more resilient, but strong too.

After having said that, you have choose, from what I played with the french draft (which seems to be very close to the final list), the best available choices…
Magma cannons are great, nothing to add.
BC are very good too.
K’daai was awesome, and from what I read, it’s still good.

I liked the old wolfriders, but I found that, now, they aren’t cheap (12 pts?). But you say that they are great. Do you think that an hobgoblin khan can not make the same job? (and be a little cheaper???)

Otherwise, your list looks like mine. I think that the list can run with only one small unit of IG, just to protect the level 4 and the BSB. You can put one unit of hobgoblins in front of it, or being in ranks of 2 minis, with the musician and standard in front, to benefit from the stubborn rule of the castellan. Anyway, I think I will play them so.

Not surprised by the performance of the hobgoblin archers, as I find them dirty cheap… Maybe every units of hobgoblins should be hobgoblins archers with shield.

I’d like more feelings about BC with great weapon : I played them with shield. I thought at the beginning, that they were average, but after some games, they impressed me much. What about great weapon? Cause they don’t have too many attacks…

Is the attribute of the Hashut lore more useful? With the new sentence on the ash storm? Is this lore good enough, not to play the death lore?
You should give for every sorcerer a piece of magic armour : enchanted shield, ensorceled shield, or one I found very useful for a daemonsmith (which needs very often to be close to warmachines) the ptolos shield.

Finally, as said by Time of Madness, I found the death shriecker very useful, but not in replacement of the magma : they are very complementary. The magma cannon can deal against armoured units and monstrous infantry/beasts/cavalry, and to generalize, against pretty every big units. The death shriecker can threaten big monster (bloodthirster for example:D), or deal with poor LD units (such as an human units which would be far from the general or BSB).