Sunday, January 22, 2012

January 22, 2012 Starting unit review

So... I've decided to start a unit review of Codex: Chaos Daemons since I've got some spare time today. But first. To the army special rules first since you can't really put daemons in perspective until you know exactly how their army functions. I will not be writing word by word reviews. Since I don't want to infringing on copyrighted material dispite this being non-profit and commercial use as well as for criticize. So... without further adue...

All units in the Codex are Daemons (A shocker I know). And thus follow the four special rules below. (These rules are specifically on page 27 of the Codex for word by word reading if you were wanting to know)

Fearless.
Invulnerable: All daemon saves in their profile are invulnerable saves, armor saves are given out separately via Daemonic Gifts (Instead of wargear, they have Daemonic Gifts) Also, all daemons have the Eternal Warrior special rule.
Daemonic Assault: What this rule means is that the entire army deep strikes. At the start of your first turn. You split your forces into two groups with both groups having as even a number of units as possible. After you have done that. You choose the group that you want to have come in this turn (Commonly known as: Preferred Wave). You then roll a D6 and on a roll of a 3+ the group you wanted to have come in, and the rest of the army is placed into reserves and will deep strike when it becomes available from reserves. On a 1 or a 2, the other group comes in. (Known as Non-preferred Wave)
Daemonic Rivalry: This special rule means that Daemons from one power can not join units from another power. (IE. Herald of Khorne can not join a unit of that is not dedicated to khorne or a unit of furies)

Daemonic Gifts: As a side note, Daemons do not have wargear like the other mortal races, instead they have gifts bestowed upon them by their creator but otherwise they function the same as Wargear and thus can not be negated.
*(Also on a special note, a vindicare assassin with a shield breaker round can not break through a Daemons invulnerable save, since the invulnerable is inherit to the Daemon. It is not bestowed by wargear.)

So there we are for the Army-wide special rules. So.. Now that you know in general how all daemons will power in general. I'll start with the Heavy Support Choices in the army list starting with the infamous Soul Grinder.

Soul Grinder:
The soul grinders... They start off at 135 points, so lets see what you get for that:

WS: 3 BS: 3 S:6 (10) Front and Side Armour: 13 Rear Armour: 11 I: 3 A:4
Wargear is 2 Dreadnought close combat weapons, Harvester, and Mawcannon
Vehicle (walker)
The Havester profile is Range: 24'' S:4 AP: 5 Assault 6
The Mawcannon's initial profile is called the 'vomit' profile and is Range: Template S:6 AP 4 Assult1

The Soulgrinder also has 2 options.
Upgrade the Mawcannon to a Phlegm or Tongue Profile
Phlegm: Range: 36'' S: 8 AP: 3 Assault 1 Large Blast
Tongue: Range: 24'' S:10 AP: 1 Assault 1

The soul grinder had Daemon special rules (Which for this particular unit means that it ignores Crew Shaken and Crew Stunned results on the vehicle damage table, and it is deployed like all other daemon units. It also had Fleet

I have not had any experience with either the unmodified or tongue upgrade version of the Soul Grinder but I have had lots of experience with the Phlegm upgraded Soul Grinder which comes out to 160 points. I find it to be a rather useful unit to have in the army as it brings something that in the Daemons codex is sorely lacking, Large blast guns. Only two are available and one is on a special character and the other is this one. It's got decent killy power, especially if the soul grinder lasts past the first turn. The most regretable downside is that if your opponent scores a weapon destroyed result. It'll remove all the profiles on the maw cannon if he chooses to take the mawcannon out.

I typically drop it half way across the field and shoot a devestator unit with lascannons or try and get side shot on a vindicator (Since those are what I'm really worried about) Missile spam can get annoying but with needing 6s to penetrate I'm not that worried about just a few of them. I tend to deep strike the Soul Grinder first in my first wave because it's such a large model, it suffers from deep strike mishaps most often because of this fact and it's just smart to deep strike him when their is as few deep strike obstacles on the table as possible. I also use it as bait for the enemy who wants to get close to use melta, then I strike with fast moving, hard hitting units to either destroy or cripple the unit that went to deal with it.

As with a chaos Defiler I find him a fire support role first and close combat support second. I don't usually like to get him in close combat just because he's WS 3, and although 13 armour definatly helps against power fists and the like, I would much rather shoot the harvester and Phlegm profile mawcannon at a unit that close. Unless said unit has meltaguns, in which I will throw it in combat to keep it from geting shot by melta. Having fleet just seems like gravy to me but can help if the unit is close but not quite close enough to assault.

Now lets talk about the Vomit and tongue profile (This is theory since I've never actually used those profiles on the mawcannon. The vomit profile is just a +1 strength heavy flamer and it might be good when your going into a horde of orks but I don't see it getting used at all. The tongue profile you have to pay points for. Yes it's S10 and AP1, only one the daemons have, but its only BS 3 and so will hit only half the time, which isn't worth 25 points in my opinion. Especially if I bought phlegm with the tongue, that would mean that if the enemy got an weapon destroyed it would take away all the maw cannon profiles and I would've wasted 50 points on it. It would just not be worth the points in my opinion.

So as far as a rating system goes... i'll just give a semi-quick summery. Its got decent durability as far as battle tanks who are equivalent costs as well as ignoring crew shaken and stunned results. It's got ok close combat ability and just slightly better than a dreadnought (though I wouldn't throw him against a dreadnought with a working close combat weapon) given his lower WS and BS. He's got better than average movement with fleet and a awesome weapon in the form of Phegm profile on the Mawcannon and a pair of dreadnought close combat weapons. It's a good tarpit unit against units that dont have alot of meltabombs and high strength hits in close combat, since it's probably going second to meltabombs and most high strength hits. And with the phegm upgrade, it's worth its points with how I use it.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

January 21, 2012: Battle Reports

So. I got in a pair of games at OCC (Olympic Cards and Comics) The first game was my Noise Marine list vs Gray Knights

My list is as follows:
2 HQ: Sorcerer w/ Mark of Slannesh, Lash of Submission
5 Troops: 9 Noise Marines w/ Sonic Blasters, 1 Blastmaster
1 Troop: 8 Noise Marines w/ Sonic Blasters, 1 Blastmaster
3 Heavy Support: Chaos Vindicators w/ Daemonic Possession

His list is something like this:
HQ: Inquisitor Cotez
HQ: Inqisitor w/... I think a Venom pistol
Elites: I don't believe any
4? Troops: 10 Strike Squad w/ 2 psycannons, 2 halberds, Rhino (Dozerblades) (One squad might have been purifiers, the squad in the land raider never got out so I don't know)
1 Troop: Henchman Squad (6 Warriors, 3 Jokaros)
2 Heavy Support: Psyrifleman Dreadnoughts
Heavy Support: Land Raider

So this battle report will kinda be quick and not quite as detailed as I normally go into them but the game only got past turn 4 and im pretty sure you can guess who lost. If not, your gonna have to wait til the end.

Mission: Total War
This is a culmination of all 3 missions with 2 'Home' objectives, 3 objectives from the multi-objective mission and Kill Points. Whoever wins the more missions, wins the game.

Deployment: Quarters

Pretty much I got my butt handed to me, I first off placed the objectives wrong since I decided to go all in reserve and not having any mobility (Other than being able to move and fire). The army in general is suppose to be on the field for it to really pick up, and it didn't. I killed in total about 5 gray knights and I had lost over 2/3rd of my force and both sorcerers. And since their was no way I could blow him off the objectives at the end of the game (and he had more kill points) After he killed both sorcerers I conceded the game. First game mistakes for this army all around for me. I didn't really come in with a game plan and it showed.

The second game was a bit more noteworth (Ie. less one sided.. maybe)

His list first:

HQ: Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf mount, Storm Shield, Wolf Claw, Wolftooth necklace
HQ: Logan Grimnar
3 Troops: 5 Wolfguard w/ 1 In terminator armor and Cyclone Missile Launcher
2 Troops: 10 Gray Hunters w/ 2 Meltaguns, 1 Power Weapon, Rhino
1 Fast Attack: 5 Thunderwolf Calvery w/ 1 normal, 2 storm shield, 1 storm shield and meltabomb, 1 storm shield and hammer (I think it was set up that way)
Heavy Support: 6 Long Fangs w/ 2 Lascannons, 3 Missile Launchers
2 Heavy Support: 6 Long Fangs w/ 5 Missile Launchers

My Deamons List: (This is the list I most often play with)

HQ: Bloothister w/ Blessing of the Blood God
HQ: Lord of Change w/ Master of Sorcery, Breath of Chaos
Elites: 6 Flamers
Elites: 4 Bloodcrushers w/ Musician
2 Troops: 10 Bloodletters
Troops: 10 Pink Horrors
Troops: 10 Pink Horrors w/ Changling
Fast Attack: 6 Flesh Hounds w/ Karanak
Fast Attack: 9 Screamers of Tzeench
Heavy Support: Soul Grinder w/ Plegem

Mission: Total War
As above in my first game

Deployment: Pitched Battle (12 inches)

Roll off: I won the roll off and had him go first

Deployment: He placed mostly in one 2 ft area of his deployment zone. With thunderwolves towards the center more and long fangs towards one corner (Gimnar in the unit of long fangs with the lascannons) two wolf guard units were close to the long fangs and the other wolf guard unit sat snugly behind a pair of cargo boxes next to the objective with one terminator with cyclone sitting on top of the box. The rhinos with their compliment sat behind the thunderwolf Calvary.

His first turn... Nothing, he moves nothing after deployment.

My first turn. I roll for the Soulgrinder, Blood Thrister, Lord of Change and both Bloodletter units and the blood crushers to come in. And the gods agree with me to deploy that group. I deploy most everything centeral to the board, though I had to contend with a pair of impassible houses in the center with me I was able to hide my blood thirster behind one of the buildings, the soulgrinder scattered from hiding behind the same building into a rocky outcropping in line of sight of the long fangs towards one quarter but the long fangs were devoid of cover. The lord of change went behind the other building but scattered a little taking it from behind the building but far from the long fangs. The blood letters deep striked between the HQs with one nearly scattering into the lord of change. The blood crushers deep striked towards a ruins in front of the long fangs ready to handle them squarely. After run moves the bait was set for the thunderwolves. If he assaulted anything I could jump back on him with at least two nasty close combat units. In my shooting, the Soulgrinder did what he does best to Long Fang squads. blow them away. He blew one squad with missile launchers away.

His Second Turn: He moved the Calvery towards the Lord of Change and the Rhinos forward mostly. The long fangs with grimnar gained relentless and moved forward to fire on the blood crushers, and two wolfguard squads moved forward as well to support. He 5 missiles at the soulgrinder but only got a cant shoot result (which he ignored, he ignores cant shoot and can't move results). The long fangs with grimnar shot into the blood crushers as well as the wolfguard. Thanks to cover saves and horrible dice rolling (Which I will say now, is a theme in this game for him) I only too a single wound. Then in the assault phase he charged the bloodletter unit next to the Lord of Change. Slaughtering them and only taking a wound on a normal guy in return before consolidating 5 inches away from the center. On the other side of the table, horrible dice rolling strikes again and from difficult terrain tests, only 1 squad of wolf guard get into close combat. The wolf guard do no wounds and the blood crushers kill all but 1 of the wolf guard and the catch the wolf guard when he flees but he doesn't die to no retreat wounds.

My second turn: I get in the Flesh Hounds, Flamers and Screamers this turn. I deep strike the flesh hounds about a foot away from the blood crushers and the screamers about 6 to 8 inches behind them. The flamers I deep strike right next to the wolf guard unit behind the boxes next to the objective but scatter into the long fang unit still there and luckily (for me) gets placed back in reserve. In my movement I fly the Blood Thirster over to the thunderwolf Calvary and the lord of change backs up enough to make best use of his 3 weapons. The bloodletters are close to an multi-objective and a home-objective and decides to stay right there. Nothing is threatening them at this point. The Soulgrinder moves forward to catch sight of Grimnar's unit of long fangs. The Soulgrinder, as expected blows away all but a logan (who took a wound) a sergeant and a lascannon long fang. The shooting from the Lord of change deals a single wound to a thunderwolf Calvary with a storm shield. The bloodcrushers chop up the last dude in the combat but can't consolidate far enough to give them a chance to stay away from the space wolf charge. The Blood Thirster and Lord of Change go at it with the Thunderwolf calvery and deal a single wound to the lord, and when the dust settles takes no wounds from the thunderwolf calvery (Great saves on the blood thirster and horrible dice rolls for him)

His 3rd turn: He moves one of the rhinos behind the house and one over towards the ruins with the blood crushers inside, as well as moving the long fangs and wolf guard closer to blood crushers so they can't fail the charge. The shooting that happens against the blood crushers deal no wounds but the missile launchers score a single penetrating hit against the soul grinder and manage the wreck it. Logan gets into assault with the blood crushers with the support of a unit of wolf guard and manage to deal 1 wound to the musician and 1 more to the normal unit (killing one blood crusher) while logan takes a wound, the lascannon long fang dies and the wolf guard get slaughtered to a man with some lucky rolls on my side. The combat with the thunderwolf and my HQs rages on and they deal a single wound to my lord of change and none to the blood thrister. While the thunderwolf take a single wound as well.

My 3rd turn: I deep strike both horror units and flamer unit. The horrors go towards the center but about 16 inches behind the rhino who is near the ruins with the blood crusher combat. one unit unfortunately scatter really close to the rhino (scattering boxcars that way.) The flesh hounds move up as well as the screamers to blow up the rhino coming to the aid of Logan. In the shooting phase. The flamers buninate the Wolfguard hiding behind the box (killing all but the terminator and also manage to catch the long fangs and kill all but 1 of them as well. One unit of horrors shoots at the single terminator but only causes 5 wounds to it and it doesn't go down. The other unit of horrors fires at the rear of the rhino near the ruins and blows it's storm bolter off. The flesh hounds and screamers (Also known as Jetbike Meltabombs) go into the single rhino and surround it, and needing 6s to hit only makes it can't move or shoot (which is good enough since nothing is around to support the rhino and it doesn't have extra armor. The combat with the thunderwolf takes a turn for the fatal and at the end 3 whole wolf models are gone and the Lord of Change is sitting on 1 wound left. The combat between Grimar and blood crushers rages on and Grimnar bites it to the blood crusher hellblades but the single long fang manages to not only not get hit, but also passes his leadership roll.

His turn 4: His gray hunters in the other rhino move out to engage the horrors closer to his objective and the rhino moves to block the blood letters from interfering, while tank shocking the other unit of horrors. In the shooting phase he puts 3 frag shots into my clumped up flamers and kills 2 (Good saves on my part since he scored 7 wounds) He elects not to shoot with the gray hunters (doesn't want his shooting to pull him from assault.) and in the assult phase. The blood thirster is sitting on two wounds and the Lord of change is gone but so are the thunderwolves, just the Wolf Lord and the blood thirster, both sitting on two wounds. The blood crushers make quick work of the single long fang. The gray hunters only manage after fearless saves to kill 7 of the horrors (I wanted them all dead so that I could move up with my flamers and flame them to death with the Breath of Chaos (Alas, it wasn't ment to be). Forgot to make attacks against the rhino near the ruins

My turn 4: I move the other unit of horrors up to keep him from exiting combat in my turn (by throwing the second unit of horrors away) I move the flamers to hit both the remaining terminator and long fang near his home objective. The blood crushers move towards his objective because I don't know where to put them. In the shooting phase. I blow the last long fang and wolf guard away with the flamers and in the assault the Lord and Blood thirster trade blows but the Blood thirster finally comes out on top crushing the Wolf Lord in his Soul Grinder converted arm. The blood letters charge the empty rhino and immobilize it in assault. The flesh hounds and screamers surround the rhino and blow it up, killing 3 screamers and none of the gray hunters. After trying over and over to get the gray hunters out of 1 inch from the enemy. He could not, and thus the unit died and my opponent conceded the game.

Summery: Victory to Chaos! But I really have to say that I probably would've won from just generalship and he's a good player but in this instance, his dice lost him this game. It was a new set of dice and they just did not roll well for him. But he was a very nice opponent despite the list (I don't count list as sportsmanship, but that's a discussion for another time).

Friday, January 20, 2012

After a very long time....

Hellos to all reading... This is darkreaver as normal and it's been a good two years since I've even set foot in this blog. I've been busy, but that's pretty normal for most folks. Anyway... I've expanded my collection of plastic crack to include....

About 2,000 to 3,000 points of marines
About 2,000 to 3,000 points of Chaos Daemons
About 3,000 more points in Chaos Space Marines

Painted?... Well... Not much. I'm currently on my Daemons and am acually painting them, unfortunately I have no camera so I can't even take in progress pictures. But I've been doing quite a bit of gaming, far too much to put into a post. (Not that I can remember all of them).

I'm hoping to start putting posts on regularly and detailing my blog's namesake.

My only store I go to is Olympic Cards and Comics in Lacy, WA. I regularly post on a forum called Warsound (A forum dedicated to Warhammer 40k in the South Puget Sound area of Washington)