FMC Daemons: 1850 Tournament Report

Yes, I have been pretty much off the grid for the start of 2014 (happy new year everyone :D). Unfortunately, I can't really promise a change to that. Finishing my bachelor's degree and all that. This is however, my 200th post.

So, last weekend was another 1850 tournament held by NjT in Espoo. It was a nice venue, the tourney fee included food (which received some critic for being "basic food" but I really liked it) and overall it was pretty well handled in my opinion. I played almost the exact same list I've been playing up until now:

Fatey
LoC, ml3, 2x greater rewards
11 Horrors, 1 extra, champ
10 Daemonettes, champ
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, ml3, wings, armour, greater and exalted rewards
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, ml3, wings, armour, greater and exalted rewards
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, ml3, wings, armour, 2x greater rewards

Game 1

Game one was against one of the ex-captains of the Finnish ETC team, Pekka. He was running pseudo Daemons (csm/dae) with a csm prince, fatey, grimoire prince, 2x cultists, 2x daemonettes, 2x drakes (one hades) and screamers. Oh, he also had a bastion with comms. The missions were all BAO, this was Big Guns, Relic with Hammer and Anvil. 

Pekka made me go first and the start  of the game was pretty uneventful. Pekka got outflank for his warlord and managed to keep him off until t4. That really restricted me and his screamers did a good job of preventing me from getting the relic. I went aggressive with fatey t4 despite not having the grimoire, and got punished. Then I vector struck some helldrakes only to realize that now I couldn't fire 2 witchfires at his grimoire prince (which I was looking to kill). Silly mistakes on my part but Pekka also forgot GtG when I took FB from his nettes t2 and left a gap for my DP to run and contest the last objective t7. I won Big Guns because of killing the grimoire prince and otherwise the secondaries were a draw. 14-6. I caught a huge break.

Game 2

My opponent was playing a DE/ELD list. It wasn't really optimal and the game was pretty much over before it began. He also wanted to go first because he feared I would fly up and smash his bastion holding scourges inside. Not much to comment on in this game. I don't want to sound arrogant but he was playing with a borrowed army that he wasn't as familiar with, which wasn't on the same level as my own. I waited until t4 and secured the missions (purge and scouring). He managed to keep linebreaker, I had all the secondaries. 19-1.

Game 3

I was up against Roni. He had NEC/TAU. D-lord with wraiths, overlord and haywire-tek, 3 scythes with warriors, 2 anhi barges, buff commander, riptide, 15 sniper kroots and 2 broadsides with missile drones. Mission was big guns, relic, vanguard strike. 

I got to go second but Roni put 2 wounds to my grimoire prince with his ion accelerator. T2 the grimoire came back behind some losblocking terrain with his buddies, but the riptide ripplefired with the buff commander scoring 7/8 hits and killing him off. Not a great start. The glyph prince died to one scythe and an anhibarge on t5. Overall I managed to limit what he could shoot and he left one objective with just a barge to hold it. Despite being a scoring unit, it still isn't a denial unit, so my Daemon prince snatched it from him earning me a 13-7 victory.

Game 4

Jukka is a veteran CSM player. He's been around the block for all the ETCs. This time he had CSM/NEC. sorceror with spawns, 3 cultist squads, 2 baledrakes, 3 oblits, d-lord with wraiths, 2 warrior scythes and an anhibarge. Mission was Scouring, Purge, Hammer and Anvil. 

Jukka made me go first and I deployed aggressively. The tourney used the actual rulebook scouring, so ofcourse Jukka got the 4-pointer in the back of his deployment zone :/. He deployed the wraiths and spawn behind a fortress of redemption (it was just as terrain) and his barge on the opposite flank. I pushed 4 MCs up next to his spawns and fatey towards the barge. His spawns and wraiths fell back, realizing slay the warlord and first blood might be right around the corner, but the barge decided to move up and snapshot a prince. I gambled with fatey and moved up to fire rear shots while the other guys flew off. Destroyed the barge and luckily the wraiths failed their 8" charge to fatey after he'd been grounded by cultists coming from reserves.

The crucial moment came my t5 when his last scythe with 1 hp left denied 3 times in a row. The warriors zoomed up to harass my horrors and eventually take their objective, earning Jukka scouring. I won Purge and got slay the warlord off the warpstorm table. Both had linebreaker. 11-9.

Game 5

Last round was against the same guy as in the last tourney report I did here, Allu. He had the exact same Taudar list. Buff commander, 2 riptides (one skyfire burst, one ion), 2x kroots (one big), broadsides with missile drones, farseer on bike, 2x5 avengers in serpents and a wraithknight. Mission was crusade, emperor's will and dawn of war (only dawn of war in the entire tourney).

Allu made me go first. The game started like the last one but this time allu pushed very aggressively towards my deployment zone. The table had a nice row of impassable terrain to jump on top. It kept fatey safe, but it also kept the riptides and wraithknight free with Allu going second. T2 fatey puppet mastered the iontide to shoot at the broadsides with farseer. Result: 1 broadside and 1 drone left. Nice! T5 allu would have snatched a win with crusade (managed to clear one objective) but it went on to t6 where I forced the draw on both missions and snatched all the secondaries. Allu had linebreaker so 12-8 for the Daemons.

End result? Won all my games and came in 3rd. Oh well, gotta love battlepoints. Jukka ended up drawing with Eetu on points so their was a quiz regarding the Winter War (which was the theme of the tournament) to decide the winner. Eetu was off by about a year regarding when the Winter War broke out, whilst Jukka was only 2 weeks. It was actually a pretty funny way to decide the winner, we had a good laugh about it.

Some final thoughts. I was forced to go first 3/5 matches and still won them all. So Daemons aren't dependant on going second. My wins were never big (well if we leave out round 2) which is probably because I hide away for most of the game. The list is really strong and wins all the time, but it can't really smack the other guys head in when given a good matchup. I used the winnings I got to buy a bastion, but I'm also considering revisiting the screamer star. You can use it conservatively (hanging out and shooting stuff) and break it off to 4 contesting units t5, but you can also jam it at the other guy if he can't deal with it. I do loose FMCs in the trade, which means more limited flickering fires (FMCs are more manouverable) and less skyfire. The screamers would just add a threat onto the table, have more manouverability with contesting (not being limited by facings and actually making most of their move in the shooting phase, after you've cleared bubblewrap) and provide that autowin button if you happen to stumble into the right matchup. Dunno if it'll be better. So far I've always returned back to the good old 5 fmc list.

Fatey
Herald with ml3, exalted locus and disc
Herald with ml2, exalted reward and disc
Herald with ml2
10 Horrors
10 Daemonettes
8 Screamers
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with ml3, wings, armour, exalted and greater reward
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with ml3, wings, armour, exalted and greater reward
Bastion, comms

Formations, dataslates, inquisition; the fall of the codex paradigm

sorry guys, no picture this time. Just a quick post.

The internet is filled to the brink with articles on how escalation, dataslates etc. are changing the game but there is one thing, I'd really like to take under the spotlight. This article (over on 3++) is well written imo, and the end pretty much reflects how I feel.

People are worried about how formations, allies and all sorts of detachments are breaking up the traditional FOC and codex divisions that armies have had. 15 broadsides frightens people as some of the best units in the book are allowed to be spammed even further (and buffed for no extra points). Finland took a 9 broadside, 3 riptide list to the etc this fall. We realised that alot of the other lists (that featured 3-6 riptides and even only 2 riptides) were just better allround lists. Now sure, a 15 broadside tau gunline is gonna just win some matchups outright, but it will leave more opportunities for its opponents to utilise to work around the list and win it. Those same opportunities that could be utilised against our 9 broadside list at the ETC. Recently, Eetu (one of our ETC players) brought a 6 serpent, double wraithknight list to a tourney. He did pretty bad. The list spammed units that seemed great in the book, but fell short on the table.

So if we follow the assumption that variance adds strength (although I have learned that this is not ALWAYS the case) what is the actual effect of the lack of FOC and codex distinctions? Added diversity. More way in which to fit units into your army. We all know that most codices have some highly contested foc slots, and some that are seldom used. This changes that. Although you could argue that all armies will feature the same units due to the lack of codex distinction anymore, that same could have happened before. Why didn't people play with the exact same armies before?

The underlying idea here is that all these changes haven't changed the missions being played, nor the points you have to spend on your army. It has simply allowed players more freedom in choosing what they bring to the table. The fact that formations get special rules for free, and the dataslates are ridiculously priced is besides the point, GW has always been like that.

Oh, but don't get me started on strength D.

1850 Daemons tournament report

Hey guys,

The past weekend I played at an 18-man local tournament held in Lauttasaari, by NjT. The missions were similar to BAO, just with battlepoints. Primary objective 4 points, secondary 3 and the rulebook secondaries each worth one. The difference between the two players gave each a score between 0 and 20. Here was my list:





Fateweaver
Bloodthirster (2 greater rewards)
10 Daemonettes
10 Plaguebearers (champ, instrument)
Daemon Prince (tzeentch, wings, armour, mastery level 3, exalted and greater rewards)
Daemon Prince (tzeentch, wings, armour, mastery level 3, exalted and greater rewards)
Daemon Prince (tzeentch, wings, armour, mastery level 3, lesser and 2 greater rewards)

Nice and simple. I slept in and missed the first round, rightfully getting 0 points :D.

Round 1

...zzZZZZZzz... (Megan Fox oiling my bumblebee) ...zzZZZZZzzz...

Round 2

I was playing against IG/SW. A 50-man blob (that didn't combine in the matchup), marbo, 3 vendettas, 2 manticores, LRBT, 2 runepriests and pod with hunters. CCS, PCS and veteran squad went into the vendettas. Mission was Relic (4), Big guns (3) with vanguard strike. I went first, blew up both of the manticores with flickering fire side shots, as they had deployed too far forward. Then I flew off with all but fatey, anticipating the vendettas. I came back ensuring the vendettas would overshoot. They in turn flew off. T4 step one, I grimoired fatey and cast invisibility on all the DPs. Next step, clip area terrain. Third step, 4 guys with 2+ rerollables. Like a boss :D. T5 I took the relic with daemonettes, held an objective with plaguebearers and contested his objectives. Didn't get slay the warlord, so 19-1. The guy was new to 40k (although he's played FB) and felt a little lost with all the daemon shenanigans. He would win best painted.

Round 3

Necrons with dual wraiths and d-lords, triarch stalker, immortals and 2 warrior squads (no scythes!!!), 2 annhi barges and a doom scythe. We played crusade (4) and emperor's will (3) with dawn of war deployment. He seized on me and shot the grimoire prince down to 1 wound. Prince would play keep away and since fatey had rolled misfortune, I went to work on the wraiths with the rest. He didn't ground me, I pounded the crap out of him. Epic movie moment: fatey was grounded and caught by the warlord and wraiths. being the fluff bunny I am, i challenged the dlord into a dual of the warlords. Next round the bloodthirster rolled in, allowed fatey to take the MSS and made a heroic intervention, netting me slay the warlord. I lost 1 prince, maybe the thirster can't remember. In the end I had all the points, 20-0.

Round 4

My original opponent was a no show for day 2. The organizer played me instead. Another 3 vendettas (with veterans),  3 plasmavets in chimeras, plasma ccs in chimera, demolisher and manticore. Purge the alien (4), scouring (3), vanguard strike. It was nightfight so i gave him first turn and deployed out of los, over 36" from the manticore. Fatey flew up with iron arm and 2++, the rest flew off waiting for the vendettas. I couldn't pass a grounding test whole game. T2 it didn't really matter, fatey wasn't dying any time soon. T3 mr. thirster almost felt like giving up first blood (luckily didn't). T4 the grimoire prince took a demolisher to the face. T5 the thirster did infact bite the dust. However, by the end of t5 I had destroyed all the vendettas and forced the CCS to flee. I killed 2 of the vendetta vet squads, the last passed their ld5 against nettes in combat keeping linebreaker. I let him have one objective (all were worth 2 points) and contested the rest, earning me all the points. KPs didn't need counting, I had squads and transports plenty with only 7 units in my entire list. His linebreaker meant it ended 19-1.

Round 5

Taudar: buff commander, 1 skyfire bursttide, 1 iontide, 2x kroots, 3 broadsides with missile drones, jetseer, 2x davu in serpents, 6 warpspiders, wraithknight. Big Guns (4), relic (3) with hammer and anvil. Big gunz is a little tricky for me. it gives me great mobile scoring, but it also means I bleed points from my princes. That's why I prefer scouring. Anyway I give my opponent 1st turn in nightfighting and deploy 3 monsters (fatey, grimoire and the non-exalted prince) out of range of all but his single iontide. iontide does a wound on the grimoire. Fatey powers up with 2++, heading down a flank and eyeing the spiders for first blood. The rest fly off. 1 Spider survives fatey. One of his kroots comes on from outflank, right next to fatey. 

My t2 everything comes on. Nettes lose 7ish to intercepting but none of the monsters are aimed at. I focus on the kroots, bringing them down to below 25% and breaking them. Still no first blood. It got super intense when my opponent was pounding my grimoire prince t3 (brought it down to 1 wound) and only had the resources to bring the nettes down to 2 models remaining. The second kroot squad came up on the opposite flank to the last one. 

All FMCs flew off. My premium assault unit, the plague bearers, took invisibility and charged into the kroot. 3+ to hit (and 5+ for the kroot) coupled with poisoned saw the kroots obliterated. First blood!!!! My opponent was just left with lesser daemons to shoot at, killed all but 1 plague bearer. My t4 saw all the FMCs come one. Dropped the portaglyph and spawned 6 nettes. Intercepting forced me to use the fatey reroll to keep the grimoire alive, fatey failed grimoire. I finished off the lone spider. 

T5 my opponent killed off fateweaver and snatched the relic with some avengers. All game I'd been trying to puppet master the wraithknight to kill the burst tide. Unfortunately, no 6s to wound were rolled. I had stripped a couple of wounds with flickering fire but also given him a 5+ fnp (need to do some math and figure out if it's worth using flickering fire to strip wounds off a wraithkinght). Now I grimoired a warpspeed reroll invul prince and went into the wraithknight, assisted by the 6 nettes from the portal last turn. He was sitting on an objective and worth a point. Brought it down to 1 wound (damn you fnp!!!). Thirster was let lose on the bursttide and commander (who had monster hunter, not stubborn). He rolled 3 sixes to wound and instagibbed both of them giving me slay the warlord. Flickering fire killed the avenger holding the relic. 

Game went on to t6. My opponent killed off the thirster but despite his best efforts the grimoire prince wasn't gonna stop partying. he did get grounded and was charged by the jetseer. I finished off the wraithknight, securing big guns and killed off the avenger who'd again picked up the relic. One FMC also flew to get linebreaker. The grimoire prince might have died to the jetseer, it wasn't relevant. I got all the rulebook secondaries and big gunz, neither had relic and he had slay the warlord and linebreaker. 15-5 victory.

I wrote a more in depth report of the last game since it was the most intense, and it was a good test of evasion as a tactic against taudar. Some minor things both of us should have done differently, but overall it was a great game. It came down to those critical 2 shooting phases (t3 and t5) where my opponent just couldn't do quite enough damage.

Almost forgot to mention my final standing. Due to the small amount of players, battle points and sheer awesomeness the daemons flew in 2/18. Closing thoughts? Troops are for pussies, min troops ftw. Playing with 5 models is awesome! Piotr was wrong in saying that herohammer isn't fun. Seriously though, I've come to the conclusion that FMC spam always pisses off either the daemon player or his opponent. Due to the nature of the rolls, the daemon player will only get pissed off 1/3 of the time whilst his opponent will be glowing 2/3 of the game.