Specifically Daemons of Khorne, not Khorne Daemonkin. This was my third and final game in the Old School League. Opponent was Chappy, running a Khorne Daemons list. Have I mentioned there were Daemons of Khorne Involved in this battle?
Okay, okay, I'll quit it. I'd recently been musing I wanted to fight Daemons, and by the Silent King, I got my wish.When I saw the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (whew!) I started to regret my wish a little. Oh well. No time to worry, only time to soldier on like a good Necron.
Lahkers list, revised to be slightly more sensible
Catacomb Command Barge (Kobeh) w/Warscythe, Tachyon Arrow, Mindshackle Scarabs, Phase Shifter, Phylactery
Cryptek (Ref-Tek Jahksen) w/Staff of Light, Chronometron, Phase Shifter
10x Warriors
14x Warriors
10x Immortals w/gauss
10x Deathmarks
10x Triarch Praetorians w/Voidblade and Particle Caster
Triarch Stalker w/twin-linked Heavy Gauss Cannon
3x Tomb Blades w/Shield Vanes and TL Gauss Blaster
5x Scarab bases
2x Canoptek Spyders w/Fabricator Claw Array, Gloom Prism, TL Particle Beamer
Doom Scythe (fast skimmer according to Old School rules)
Chappy's Khorne Daemons
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage
2x Daemon Princes
3x 10-man Bloodletter squads
2x blobs of Khorne Hounds, each with a Herald
Soul Grinder
Custom mission was "Mistakes were Made", Purge the Alien with an addition: we got victory points for retreating (on purpose) below-strength/below-starting-wounds units from the opponent's table edge. Deployment was Dawn of War, with our zones split into thirds, each a different length out, the arrangement up to us. Zones were 6", 12", and 18".
Chappy won the roll-off. He allocated his 18" deployment zone to his center field, his 12" zone on his left flank, and the 6" on his right. All the Khorne dogs went in the center, the Daemon princes and Bloodthirster of Insensible Rage went on his left flank, and on his right the Soul Grinder took cover behind the building.
My left flank was the 18" zone, the middle the 12" zone, and my right flank the 6" zone. I put the Doom Scythe on the far right to hang out and try to draw off some of his forces. The rest of my army I packed into the corner, deciding to lay his daemons low as they came at me, or be forcibly deconstructed trying. I did not attempt to seize the initiative.
GAME TURN 1
Chappy had his center and right-flank forces wheel around and head towards my lines. Then he rolled for the Warp Storm, my first taste of the Blood God's anger. It only hit my Praetorians, thankfully, and did nothing. The Soul Grinder dumped Battle-Cannon flavored pie on my Warriors and killed 3. The left pack of Hounds ran further towards my Warriors, and the right pack charged and failed to reach my Spyders.
I didn't do a lot of moving, mostly scooted my Tomb Blades and Praetorians forward, and had my Spyders and Scarabs tiptoe forwards, not quite sure whether I wanted the Scarabs in combat this early or not. Mass gauss killed about 6 of the double-wound Khornedoggies in the left pack, and the right lost about 4 from my Doom Scythe's fire. I tried to charged Kobeh, the Scarabs, and the Spyders into the left pack of Hounds, but only Kobeh got in. He challenged immediately, and the Herald accepted. I hoped to snipe him out and debuff the dogs. Kobeh dealt 2 wounds to the Herald and took none.
GAME TURN 2
Chappy got 2 of his 3 Bloodletters in from reserves. They both deep-struck in on my extreme left flank, one hit in the middle left flank, the other scattered back and landed by the Soul Grinder. I had the Deathmarks intercept the squad that landed nearer to me, and they finally got their act together and killed all but 3 of the Bloodletters. The Warp Storm rolled KHORNE'S WRATH...and nothing happened. Another bullet dodged. Five of my Deathmarks were slain by the Soul Grinder's fire, most likely; my notes contain no reference to how they died. The Daemons moved ever closer to my lines, the Bloodthirster of Incredulous Rage moving towards the Kobeh-Herald combat. The other Prince charged the Spyders and killed one of them. The right pack of Hounds charged and wiped out my Scarabs, getting First Blood for Chappy. The mighty Bloodthirster charged into Kobeh, penned his barge 5 times, and vaporized him for Slay the Warlord.
This was disheartening, but I had nowhere to go. I had to stand and fight (or rapid-fire, preferably). The Tomb Blades finished off the 3 Bloodletters for 1VP, and the Deathmarks and Warriors hosed the rest of the Khorne dogs down for another VP. The Praetorians got into a fight with the Blue Prince, and went 2-2 for wounds inflicted.
GAME TURN 3
Chappy was shoving his Daemons in my face at this point. KHORNE'S WRATH struck again, and this time damaged the Doom Scythe and Stalker. The Herald from the now-vaporized squad of Khorne dogs joined the other Herald and his squad. Then we began the long list of assault moves. The other non-blue Prince assaulted and immobilized the Doom Scythe, bringing it to 1HP. The Bloodletters who had landed by the Soul Grinder charged and wiped the Tomb Blades; the Bloodthirster of Indefatigable Rage kicked my Ghost Ark into the next county; the remaining Dog Squad assaulted and broke my Warriors, with Ref-Tek Jahksen and a single Warrior somehow getting away. The Blue Prince and Praetorians slapped each other, my guys coming out on the worse end.
I was done for, but determined to try and kill at least one more unit. The Stalker and Immortals killed and wounded many Khorne dogs. My Deathmarks fired at the Khorne dogs, got a few Precision Shots, and sniped out the wounded Herald. I charged my Stalker into the dogs, and it managed to hold its own. Only one Praetorian survived the attacks of the Blue Prince, and did nothing of note.
GAME TURN 4
Chappy's final squad of Bloodletters came in, he deep-struck them without incident by my Immortals. The Soul Grinder clumped out of cover and I believe it shot at the Warriors who had formerly been in the Ark, and killed most of the squad. The Bloodthirster of Incorrigible Rage charged into my Stalker and (surprise!) stomped it flat.
I may have played one more turn, may have killed a few Bloodletters off, but my notes say nothing on my possible Player Turn 4. There wasn't anything I could do.
We called the game at the bottom of Turn 4. Chappy ended with 11VP, I ended with 4VP.
Well. I got my wish. I fought Daemons. Chappy pointed out that his two Daemon Princes were T5, and that I could have used my S10 Tachyon arrow to potentially remove one of his powerful dudes from the table. That was a great idea, of course I forgot about it in the moment.
I liked the 40k Old School league. It was fun planning out lists with the old Force Org chart. My opponents were good sports, I got to play new armies...only thing I was really disappointed with was my own performance. It's been a while since I got rolled this bad, multiple times in a row. I want to get good, I want to have fun, but I'm such a scrub general. Read up on tactics, keep playing, hope the dice favor me again...seems like that's all I can do. That and paint the models. Love the painting, it's half the hobby for me.
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