Chaos Day Report Part 2: Dark Eldar Vs Daemons

In part 1 I took on the might of the Imperial Guard and was left bloodied and bruised by the encounter. Let's see if the Kabal can pick itself up in time to repel the Dark Kin's greatest fear...


Game 3
Opponent: Chaos Daemons
Mission: Capture & Control
Deployment: Pitched Battle

The Daemon List: (Not sure about specific wargear)
Daemon Prince
The Keeper of Secrets
The Masque
10 Khorne Bloodletters (Icon)
10 Slaanesh Daemonettes (Icon)
10 Nurgle Plague Bearers (Icon)
3 Flamers of Tzeentch
2 Slaanesh Fiends
Bloodcrusher (herald?)
Soul Grinder

 

Having not played against Daemons before I have no idea what to expect in this game, but knowing the history between the Dark Eldar and the Chaos God Slaanesh I'm very exited to see how my Kabal holds up against their arch enemy and hunter.

I win the roll off and choose to go second. I decide to deploy my army in two sections. On the left flank I create a wall of armour around my objective. I have the three Ravagers at the front with two Raider Squads placed in between the gaps giving me a nice gun line. I also have the Dracon and Incubi and the Reaver Jetbike unit sitting back ready for a counter-attack against any beasties that get too close.

On the right flank I adopt a similar tactic on a smaller scale as I place three Raider Squads around the Wyches Raider. This flank will assume the role of the decoy in an attempt to split the enemy’s forces.  If all goes to plan in the last turns of the game they will launch an assault on the enemy objective.

The Daemon player opts to have his Daemon Prince, Keeper of Secrets, the Bloodletters and the Daemonettes arrive on turn 1.


Turn 1

The Bloodletters and the Daemon Prince take the bait and deploy towards my right flank. The Bloodcrusher hides behind ruins in front of my left flank. Everything else comes in close to the middle of the board.

My right flank draws first blood. All four Raiders and the one Dark Lance Squad open fire on the Daemon Prince, killing it. The two Splinter Cannon squads open fire on the Bloodletters managing to kill off four.

The left flank doesn’t disappoint either killing off six Daemonettes with Disintegrators and knocking a wound off of the Keeper of Secrets with a Dark Lance.

Turn 2

The Soul Grinder arrives, takes cover behind a building and destroys my Dark Lance Ravager with a well placed shot. The Plague Bearers arrive and sit on the Daemon’s objective. The Flamers arrive to support the Bloodletters on my right flank. They manage to glance and wreck a Raider carrying a Splinter Cannon Squad. Everything charges forward hiding behind what little cover the table offers.

On the left flank I send out my Reaver Squad to shoot at the Keeper of Secrets but they fail to cause any damage with their blasters. I fly my Dracon and Incubi into position to ambush the approaching Daemons next turn. I take a wound off of the approaching Bloodcrusher with a Disintegrator blast. I shoot my Dark Lances at the Soul Grinder but fail to do anything.

On the right flank I weaken the  bloodletter squad some more with Splinter Cannon and Dark Lance shots. I decide to seize the initiative by going on the offensive as I send out my Wyches to assault the Flamers (they gain the reroll misses for their Combat Drugs). They decimate the unit with ease but face an interesting next turn being so close to the Bloodletters. (Annoyingly I forget to use my 6” move in the assault phase for my bikes so they suddenly become an expensive sacrificial unit.)

  
Turn 3

The Fiends arrive and take cover behind the building in the middle of the board.  The Bloodcrusher charges forward but gets unlucky with his movement rolls. The Soul Grinder grows impatient for combat and forgoes shooting to gain more ground but only manages to find energy for an extra inch. The Keeper of Secrets changes course and decides to shoot down the Dracon and Incubi’s Raider. The Daemonettes take his place and manage to find themselves within assault range of the bikes. I completely forget to roll for combat drugs and I fail to cause any wounds on the Daemonettes.  In return they kill two of my bikes.

On the right flank the Bloodletters charge my Wyches but I easily manage to wipe out the weakened squad before they have a chance to attack back.

The Wyches re-embark their Raider and fly flat-out toward the Plague Bearers (I've since found out that they can't move flat-out after embarking but fortunately it makes no difference in this game). The rest of the right flank follows behind in support firing Dark lances at the Fiends but failing to find their aim. On the left flank I manage to finish off the Bloodcrusher with more Disintegrator blasts. Every Dark Lance I can muster takes aim at the Soul Grinder leaving it a smoking wreck. The remaining Reaver Jetbike is wiped out in combat with the Daemonettes.

I charge my Incubi into the Keeper of Secrets but the Deamon’s Initiative 10 makes it a deadly opponent. It cuts down three Incubi before I have a chance to retaliate. I reduce the beast to its final wound with my Dracon’s Agoniser.

Turn 4

The Masque arrives and uses the Daemonettes icon to arrive safely on my objective. The Daemonettes attack the Raider holding the objective. They tear it down and the squad hides behind the wreckage. The Fiends charge the Wyches Raider but fail to do anything to it. The Keeper of Secrets kills two more Incubi but fails to hurt the hardy Dracon. In retaliation the Dark Eldar Lord cuts down the Daemon sending it back to the warp.

The Wyches move the Raider as far away from the Fiends as possible and disembark to assault the Plague Bearers who are still sitting on the objective. Two wounds are caused by each side and they stay locked in combat. The rest of the supporting right flank open fire on the Fiends but only manage to cause one wound. On the left flank the Raiders and Ravagers make space for a volley of Disintegrator blasts. The Daemonettes are wiped out but the Masque remains standing. The Splinter Cannon Squad behind the wrecked Raider opens fire and succeeds in killing off the Daemon leaving the Dark Eldar objective uncontested.

With no Daemon units within at least 50” of my objective and with so many Raiders surrounding his, the Daemon player realises he has no hope of getting a draw and so concedes the game.

Summary

Wow. I’ve never had a game go so according to plan. Every time a unit of his arrived it was faced with a volley of Splinters, Lances and Disintegrator fire. It’s not often that I can be so brazen with my vehicles but the lack of ranged anti-tank weaponry allowed me to have my skimmers sitting out in the open with a full field of vision.  Having two flanks worked a treat too as I was able to separate his army into manageable chunks and thanks to the awesome counter-attack abilities of the Wyches it ended with my right flank having a clear run to the enemy objective.

The only thing that let me down in the game (in fact all three games) was the Reaver Jetbike Squad, two blaster shots just aren’t reliable enough at taking down big threats to justify the points cost of such a sacrificial unit. I think I could find a better use for the points in my next game. Other than that though I was pleased as punch with the way the Kabal were able to decimate everything in their path. I suppose they realised they needed to get their backsides in gear when Slaanesh incarnate dropped out of the warp!


So that wraps up my time at Chaos Day, I’m sorry there wasn’t more to report but I hope you enjoyed reading about the few games I did have.

Happy Raiding!