Sunday Battle Reports

It was a bad day for those of us bound for the LVO less than a month from now.  Ezra's speeder swarm was handily defeated by footdar, and my own CSM/Daemon cocktail lost 9-1 to the winning list from BAO 2014.  I've gotten pretty solid on what I'm taking, though my confidence is now rocking.  I need a string of victories to feel like this is actually going to compete.


CAD - CSM
Sorcerer, ML3, Psychic Pet, Defensive Grenades
25 Cultists

Sorcerer, ML3, Psychic Pet
5x Chaos Space Marines, BP, CCW
Rhino, Death of Kasyr Lutein, Dirge Caster

Relic Sicaran, Daemonic Possession, Dozer Blades, Dirge Caster
Relic Sicaran, Daemonic Possession, Dozer Blades, Dirge Caster

Allies - Daemons

Tzerald, ML3, Disc
9x Screamers

Tzerald, ML3, Book
18x Pink Horrors

Tzerald, ML3
Tzerald, ML3
18x Pink Horrors

Aegis Defence Line

We were playing Purge the Alien, which I consider my weakest mission.  I start with 14 KP.  My opponent had 9 KP.  Guess what?  I was making more.  My first turn saw summoning fail twice on seven dice, even with the re-rolls.  So my factory backup was broken and I had 1/3 of the daemons I was hoping for.  It was all downhill from there.  It was close in the mid game, then solidified as Khan and the Chapter Master sped away from me in the fourth round.  Couldn't make up kill points, couldn't catch up maelstroms.  I'll share my takeaways, the important shifting moments, where Ashton Kutcher would butterfly effect his way towards a victory.

Being Wishy Washy with my screamers - I had the book go off successfully on my screamers but chose to backup my line instead of putting hurt on the knight.  My line would have held without them, and next turn I had a failed book on them, ultimately letting the knight wipe them out.  I should have put the hurt on him immediately with a 3++. 

Going Full Malefic - A few bolts of change would have been really effective in the mid game.  I got cursed earth, but I chose to keep trying for more sacrifices.  This was especially foolish on both my sorcerers, who should have had psychic shrieks/invisibility/something useful rather than possession and dark flame.  If I have a clear kill target with the screamers, I'm going to try going divination with the Disc Tzerald, hoping for misfortune and taking prescience. 

Deploying Forward - Should have castled in the corner.  With the Aegis, I could have denied KP very easily.  Instead, I didn't appreciate that Khan makes everybody scout, which meant bikes directly in my face.  Of course, my opponent didn't know that you can assault the first turn now.  So this one was 50/50.

Summoning the Wrong Things not Enough Stuff- Daemonettes are not that great against bikes.  Wounding on 6's means I'm losing quite a few hits.  If I'm going to get assaulted by bike spam again, I'll probably bring plaguebearers out for poisoned hits.  (mathammer break - 10 attacks X 1/2 hit X 1/2 wound X 1/3 get through armor = .8 wounds VS 20 attacks X 2/3 hit X 1/6 wound = 2.2 wounds(1.6/3.3 on the charge).  Ok, I'll keep bringing daemonettes.  Ok, I'm going to put more juice into making my initial wall in a similar situation. Again, I pulled out screamers to combat the knight, when I should have built my kill wall.

Let the Knight Live - I took off 2 HP with my sicarans then smashed the screamers in.  Didn't work out great.  I think the screamers can take off 3 HP reliably with a full strength assault.  So I either need luck on my Accelerators, or I need to just let the big guy do his thing.  In this case, he hung back (wisely) and held an objective all day.  The knight killed a unit and got him 3 maelstrom points.  Pretty good payoff.

Roll Better on Maelstroms - While I like these as a compromise on the terrible system GW made, I would still prefer them gone, or not random.  They prefer a highly mobile army, mostly screamer spam/serpent spam/bike spam, and leave more static armies out of luck.  It's especially galling when you roll "something you have no chance of accomplishing" and your opponent rolls "stuff I am sitting on." 

The game ended on turn 6.  It would have been 1-0, still my loss, on turn four (first blood).  Either way, it's not good enough.  While I feel confident in this list's ability to win most of the missions, I'm going to need a lucky draw and savvy play to win Purge.