After my last round of the WATC (you can read it HERE) – I was pumped! I had won a game with pure Harlequins! Who cares what comes of the rest of the day right?!
Moving into round 2 and I end up taking a match for the team that benefits us in the later match ups – against a very savvy player and GW staff member Andrew.
PRIMARY DETACHMENT: Khorne Daemonkin
DETACHMENT NAME: Combined Arms
HQ1 : Chaos Lord 75pts (Juggernaut 45, Power fist 25, Sigil of Corruption 25, The Skull-helm of Khorne 15) 185 pts WARLORD
Troop 1 : 8 Bloodletters 80pts Troop 2 : 8Bloodletters 80pts PRIMARY TOTAL: 345pts
DETACHMENT: Formation
DETACHMENT NAME: The Gorepack
FA1: 10 Flesh Hounds 160pts
FA2: 4 Chaos Bikes inc champ 98pts (2 meltaguns/replace CCW 20pts, Combi-melta 10pts,melta bombs 5pts)133pts
FA3: 4 Chaos Bikes inc champ 98pts (2 meltaguns/replace CCW 20pts, Combi-melta 10pts,melta bombs 5pts)133pts
FA4: 4 Chaos Bikes inc champ 98pts (2 meltaguns/replace CCW 20pts, Combi-melta 10pts,melta bombs 5pts)133pts
FA5: 4 Chaos Bikes inc champ 98pts (2 Flamers/replace twin bolters 10pts, Combi-flamer 10pts,melta bombs 5pts)123pts
Detatchment Total : 682
DETACHMENT: Imperial Knights
DETACHMENT NAME: Oathsworn
Lord of War1: Knight Crusader 425 pts, (Rapid-fire Battlecannon 5, Stormspear Rocket Pod 40pts) 470pts
DETACHMENT TOTAL: 470pts
ARMY TOTAL: 1,497 pts
So the knight will be a concern to my bikes and void weaver and the table is quite sparse in regards to line of sight blockers. The rest looks pretty manageable for me though and I have won the roll off to go first so veil should be up and going. I roll all 3 shadowseers on phantasm again and get fog of dreams on 2 of the shadowseers along with veil – and to be honest these are all that matter. My Shadow Seer gets a 4+ invulnerable as his warlord trait.
We set up and I am pretty pleased. The relic is accessible to me, he chose not to scout with the hounds, the bikes are spread thin across the table… things look pretty good indeed! Then a 6 comes up for seize…
The knight lines up for shots on my solitaire, bikes and a troupe while the chaos bikes surge up along with the hounds. Andrew elects to not grab the relic (a theme for our game it seems in retrospect!) The knight opens up but between mirage launchers, cover and rerolls I lose just 1 bike and a handful of harlequins.
My turn and I move up cautiously. Veil works on all 3 harlequin units but I lack the dice for anything else. On to shooting and my death jesters start plinking away at the bikes and hounds while my sky runners drop templates on the hounds as well reasoning the knight is out of range and with a shield up there is little I can do to it. I get a few kills but not enough.
Turn 2 the hounds line up a charge on my warlords troupe while the bikes loiter just at 12” taking pot shots at the void weaver and sky weavers. The knight manages a wound on the solitaire and another bike slain. The charge is bad and I while I hold thanks to the mask of secrets, I am outnumbered by hounds.
My turn and the harlequins pounce in support. The 2 remaining death jesters leave their units while the 2 troupes move up to charge the hounds. I manage fog of dreams on the knight which leaves it out of position and unable to fire that infernal battle cannon! Since I am in combat I forgo veil this turn. Shooting is pivotal and the Death Jesters make their presence felt. I kill a bike from 2 separate squads and both fail the test. I make them flee so that one unit is close for a sky weaver solo charge while the other has a solitaire to contend with. I declare the charges and throw the 2 troupes in to support the warlord but one of the units fails its fear check! The lone sky weaver charges bikes that are falling back and thanks to being within 12” of the mask of secrets are simply destroyed due to a failed LD test! Win! The solitaire needs no help and removes the 3 bikes with ease. The harlequins rip the hounds to shreds for few casualties and leave the chaos lord feeling very alone!
Turn 3 and we have just 15 minutes left! Time to hurry! Andrew shuffles bikes around to capture maelstrom points and moves the knight up to charge should we manage turn 4. Combat sees me knock 2 wounds from the chaos lord but lose combat due to his fantastic turn of combat. I hold thankfully!
It’s at this point I recognise a critical error in my thought process at the time and had I been more careful I would have done more than draw this game (Spoiler alert!)
Rather than hit and run out of combat, I simply stayed put, content I could knock 2 wounds from the chaos lord with 2 troupes of harlequins in my turn. Mistake!
My turn 3 seems me move my solitaire to charge another bike squad (while blitzing) and the sky weaver claim the relic. A few pot shots here and there and fog of dreams successful on the chaos lord and we move to combat with just 5 minutes to play. First thing I do is forget to actually charge the solitaire. That costs me a kill point straight away. Second thing is despite the impressive array of attacks before him and him only hitting me on 6’s, I manage just 1 wound on him and fail to kill the chaos lord – which costs me slay the warlord and a kill point! A hit and run followed by pistols and the charge would have made this a sure thing.
We tally the points and it’s a 10-10 draw. While happy I held it to this in 3 turns and after being seized on, my mistakes while rushing cost me at least an 11-9 win if not a 12-8. Better to take a breath and regroup then rush!
We go on to win the round as a team and while its not a big win for us – its still a win!
Round 3 see’s us playing on another 2/0/0 team and match ups would be critical…
I must say, it was a fun game, and generally was tense as we both had very effective assault capabilities.
A thing I think we need to start reminding ourselves, and other players, is that physically rolling dice takes up so much time,
because with it being so close, it would have been lovely to fit in a 4th or 5th turn, and we were by no means going slowly. It must be said, we will meet again in battle, this is not the last you will see of the Daemonkin, and hopefully not of the harlequins 🙂
Indeed! Definitely need a rematch!