Battle Report #9: Lahkers vs. Slaanesh Daemons

HOOOLLLLLD! HOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLD!

Fight time with seductive goat daemons?
Sorry.  This was my first game against a pure Daemon army.  I was excited and anxious.  Memories of the Bikestar were still fresh in my mind, I did not want a repeat of that, even with beautifully-painted models.

I brought my usual gunline, augmented with a few Marines in a Razorback and a vanilla Dreadnought in a drop pod, my only reliable sources of anti-tank.

Aaron brought a troops-heavy CAD, the main points of which were the flying Daemon Prince, a Keeper of Secrets (warlord), and the big squad of Seekers and two Soul Grinders.

Aaron won the initiative roll-off, and set up symmetrically, save for the Fiends on the left.  He held three squads of Daemonettes in reserve.

Still skittish about bikers, cavalry, and anything with a 12" move, I set up a plain old gunline a few inches behind my depolyment line, Canoptek units up front, the Catacomb Command Barge placed where the Overlord's morale/pinning/reroll trait could do the most good.  (And be an emergency choppy unit if necessary.)

I rolled to seize initiative and got it!  Not really set up to take advantage of it, but a seize is a seize, I cannot complain.

Turn 1

Inspired by Ike's tactics, I dropped my Dreadnought down right behind the right Soul Grinder and blew it away.  That was my big success for turn 1, other than that, the Lahkers inched forwards, pushed center with the Wraiths, and acted like the gunline they were.  On the right flank, the Marines took potshots at the goat-daemonettes; the plasma-gunner burned himself but made his save.  One Immortal squad grabbed the lower objective, and the other sat on the tower and rebuked me for not providing targets to shoot.

Aaron's first turn, he moved everything up.  The Daemon Prince cast Grimoire on the riders for a ++3, the Herald spawned a vortex that would auto-spawn daemons (and did in fact spawn a few Plaguebearers at some point), and two Pyschic Shrieks failed to wound my Spyder.  His Fiends assaulted the Tomb Blades, forced a morale check, and the 18" Immortal Hubris bubble came in handy when the Blades failed their first check.  They made their reroll and stayed in.  The Seekers assaulted the Wraiths, Wraiths won combat, and the Seekers stayed in.

Turn 2

I brought my single reserve in, the Deathmarks, and tried landing them near the Keeper of Secrets.  They scattered onto the Keeper and rolled a 1 for mishap.  Apparently a goat-demoness can distract even soulless robots.

And you're an "Elites" choice?  For shame.

Deathmark fail aside, turn 2 was similar to turn 1, I continued to move up.  The Dread destroyed the vortex, the Wraiths finished off the Seekers and consolidated towards the Keeper.  I got a wound or two on the Keeper, I think through the Razorback's lascannon.  The CCB got stuck in with the Fiends and Tomb Blades.

Aaron's turn.  He had a squad of Daemonettes deep-strike high on the left flank, and moved the Soul Grinder and Keeper in on the Wraiths.  The Daemonettes at the bottom right assaulted and cracked the Razorback, plasma-guy burned himself again (made the save, too), and the Soul Grinder and Keeper got into combat with the Wraiths, killing one.

Turn 3

At this point, I started really thinking about contesting and claiming objectives, and realized this could easily end in a tie.  I moved the warrior blob into the center, ready to take the objective, or if necessary, be a tarpit.  I moved the leftmost Immortal squad towards the left objective, and the Scarabs up to join up in the fight with the Keeper.  The CCB continued to hold the line against the Fiends, and the Scarabs jumped in and did zero wounds to the Keeper.  The Wraiths killed off the Soul Grinder, and the Dreadnought killed off the couple Plaguebearers trying to block it.

Aaron focused on moving his troops towards objectives, and charged the Marine squad and the warriors on the left with his Daemonettes.  The Marines were engaged, and only by a miracle did the Daemonettes fail to make it to my warriors, the game might have been much different if they had.

Turn 4

My fourth turn, the Dreadnought realized victory was on the line and waddled towards the top objective.  The warrior blob got as close to the objective as they could without joining the combat, and the Fiends worked the CCB down to 1 wound.

Aaron's turn, he ran towards the objectives as well, and had his Daemon Prince swoop over and shoot an Immortal or two down.  The Fiends killed off the CCB at last, and consolidated towards the left objective.

Turn 5

Not much happened, besides warriors crowding around the left objective and ongoing combats.  The Plaguebearers glanced the Dread, and the Wraiths finally got the Keeper, scoring the Warlord kill.

Aaron rushed his Daemonettes to contest the top objective, and his Fiends assaulted the Immortals by the left objective, intending to get stuck in close enough to contest the objective.  The Fiends did too well, killed the Immortals, and were left, in the open, in front of 20 gauss flayers.  On the lower part of the board, his other Daemonette squad headed for my lonely Immortals in the forest, getting close enough to contest their objective.

We rolled for game end, and it went on.  Had it ended here, Aaron would have won, holding the top objective and with Line Breaker.

Turn 6

As expected, 20 rapid-fire weapons versus a couple Fiends ended with no Fiends in sight, and the left objective in my hands.  The Wraiths lunged at the Plaguebearers up top, charged them, and wiped them out.  The warriors grabbed the center objective.

Aaron landed his Daemon Prince and I believe got the Grimoire off on one of his squads, and tried to Psychic Shriek the warrior blob, with little to no effect.  The Daemonettes by the lower objective assaulted the Immortals, but didn't kill them.

We rolled for game end again, and this time it did end.  I held one objective and had First Blood and Slay the Warlord, he held one, we both had line breaker, and the remaining two objectives were contested.  End result: Lahkers 6 VP, Daemons 4 VP.

Lahker victory!

Thanks to Aaron for the game, and for being an awesome opponent.

Extra pics:

"If we're very quiet, and we don't move, maybe it won't notice us..."

"Yes, Command, objective is secure...totally secure...gimme a sec..."*punching noises*

"Half dead, squad gone, Razorback wrecked...these day trips aren't what they used to be."

Hero Immortals!

Love it when you get the backlighting on gauss bits.