Objective Secured

So now I have a chance to get some rest and recover, here is the first part of my wrap up for the WATC 2016 40k event.

As mentioned in my last post, I chose to take a pure harlequin force using the Cegorach’s Revenge Formation. I heard a lot of negative responses from my choice – in person and third hand. Things like “What is he thinking? Harlies are rubbish!” and “I just don’t get the list – it has no punch!” I made no pretence that I was going to take games in a land slide but wanted to at least prove to my local community that they had sorely underestimated my Ninja Space Elf Death Clowns…

Round 1 sees my captain get me a match up against a Chaos Daemons list played by an old buddy of mine, Brad. He and I had not played a game in more than a decade after he moved to Europe but with him back in my neck of the woods it was great to get a game in with him again!

PRIMARY DETACHMENT: Chaos Daemons

DETACHMENT: Combined Arms

HQ1 Warlord: Lord of change (2 greater rewards, lesser reward, paradox, mastery level 3)

HQ2: Keeper of secrets (2 greater rewards, lesser reward, slothful claw, mastery level 3)

TROOP1: Pink horrors of Tzeentch (1 extra horror)

TROOP2: Daemonettes of Slaanesh

FA1: Flesh hounds of Khorne (3 extra hounds)

FA2: Screemers of Tzeentch (6 extra screamers)

HEAVY1: Soul Grinder (daemon of Khorne, phlegm bombardment)

HEAVY2: Soul Grinder (daemon of Khorne, phlegm bombardment)

 

Brad was using the new Daemon rules from the Wulfen Book and I had not even seen them! I am not great with rewards and so on – I do remember the Lord of change having a 4+FNP and a 4+ Invuln while the Keeper had rerolls to his saves. He had one summoning spell and cursed earth as well – the rest did not really matter.

I went all my powers on Phantasm for all 3 Shadow seers and got a good mix of powers with Mirror of minds on my mask of secrets warlord most importantly. I also got the +1 to moves for my warlord trait.

I went first and decided the Soulgrinders were target 1. The first grinder took 3 hull points and lost its harvester cannon to the 4 haywire blasts but that was it. I got veil off on all 3 harlequin units and killed a couple of screamers with the void weaver and a couple of the death jesters. The solitaire was in position for a T2 charge against the horrors. I handed the turn over and then remembered just how bad cursed earth and screamer slash attacks were…

He moved the hounds up as well as the screamers. Most of the army shuffles forward but brad knows I can run and charge so he is keeping back a little to hope I fail some I guess. I failed to deny cursed earth in the psychic phase but otherwise its uneventful. We hit shooting and my vehicles survive the soul grinders thanks to mirage launchers with reroll 1’s. Then the screamers slash attack one of my troupes and I am left with the just the troupe master and 1 player – I lost a shadow seer and death jester and 6 players. The reroll 1’s kept the unit on the table but its largely worthless. He also gets +1 to saves which will haunt me the rest of the game – he rolled it EVERY TURN!

Turn 2 I move the solitaire out with a blitz looking to finish the horrors quickly while the bikes move about to try and finish the wounded soul grinder. The troupes move to engage the screamers and flesh hounds respectively and the remains of the third troupe add support for the screamer attack. Veil goes off on the 2 remaining troupes but everything else fails. I shoot the soul grinder with 4 haywire templates but with a 3+ invulnerable save it lives despite it only having 1 hull point. The assault phase is much nicer to me with the screamers wiped out for no loss and the hounds severely hurt but not destroyed. The solitaire bounces off the horrors despite the 12 attacks and manages just 3 kills.

Brad recovers quickly and moves his undamaged soul grinder in close to engage my troupe fighting the hounds. The daemonettes deep strike in and land between my bike units. The rest of the army moves up ready for a T3 charge. I throw all my dice to stop cursed earth this turn and it works but brad does summon a unit of 10 blood letters thanks to the paradox. His shooting again is ineffective so we move on to combat. The Solitaire kills 2 more horrors and then hit and runs out. I want a run at the Lord of Change and this gives me an extra 9” move before I move, run and charge. The troupe fighting the hounds and now the soul grinder finish the hounds and lose 2 of their number to the grinder. Again I hit and run out to support the solitaire on his attack run.

Turn 3 and its time to strike! My troupe and solitaire move up to charge the Lord of Change while the wounded troupe and intact troupe move up to fight the blood letters. One unit of bikes plus the void weaver take aim at the daemonettes while the remaining bikes aim again at the soul grinder. I forgo veil this turn in favour of Mirror of Minds on the Keeper of Secrets (I only had 5 dice anyway!) and get 2 wounds past it thanks to the mask before it beats my roll. Shooting sees me smash the soul grinder (Finally!) and the 2 haywire blasts on the daemonettes kill half of them. The Troupe attacking the blood letters kill half with their pistols and I sneak a wound on the lord of change the same way. Assault time and the daemonettes and blood letters are wiped out for no loss on both fronts. The Lord of change survives his assaults (BOOO!) on 1 wound but the solitaire is the target of his attacks and the 3+ with reroll 1’s keeps him going.

Brad moves the keeper of secrets up to support the Lord of Change in the Assault. The Second soul grinder moves up to an objective where I have a lone death jester holding it. The horrors move out to claim another objective. The psychic phase is all about cursed earth which I throw all my dice at and dispel! Shooting is skipped as the grinder needs the charge on the DJ to get the objective. In assault the Grinder does just that to the DJ but in a turn of events the Solitaire finished the Lord of Change with the Kiss of Death and the Keepers charge only killed 2 players of the troupe who respond with more kiss of death attacks and slay it!

 

The game ends on time and it’s a win to me. I scored more of the primary objective (11-7) while brad outscored me on the secondary (3-7) but the tertiary was in my favour as well (7-4) leaving me with a win of 12-8 tournament points.

I was pleased to win a game with the revenge and in round 1 no less! I severely underestimated the daemons – specifically the screamers – and it cost me dearly in the opening moves. Apart from that (and a soul grinder that just would not die!) the game played out as I expected. The Harlequins are more than a match for just about anything that wants to close with them and their speed meant I got to dictate the charges. We go on to win the round 3 games to 1 which is awesome as well!

I am hoping next round will let my death jesters have better targets as I really want to see if their tax is justified…