Updates and New 1850 Army List

It has been a bit tough lately for me to get content up - I have completed a lot of painting, basing and created a display board in the meantime.  This was all for Da Boyz GT, which left me a bit behind on my other obligations when it ended.

Naturally, those obligations include this blog, battle reports, and household projects.  The last two weeks have been very productive on the household project front - which means I am finally going to have a chance to do a little blogging.  I want to discuss today some thoughts on an 1850 hybrid Daemons list and go from there.

RTT - 1850 - Daemons Tournament List

It is that time of the month again, a magical moment when my wife has the chance to visit her parents in her home town.  More relevant to me, and this Blog is that it just so happens that the last several of these visits have corresponded to the monthly tournaments at Millenium Games.

Last time around I played a slightly different Daemons list that emphasized heralds - this was on the eve of the Lookout Sir! changes and 1 surprise FAQ later I had to change my strategy.  You can read all about that list here.  If you look really carefully- I would look at those posts labeled Battle Reports - you can also read how that list played out for me.

Da Boyz GT - 1850 List - Second Thoughts

I have been doing a lot of thinking about the list I plan to bring to Da Boyz this year.  In previous years with the composition requirement, it was a bit easier to figure out what to expect - but the meta now is wide open with the inclusion of allies, flyers and fortifications.  I know Fateweaver is strong - but it pains me a bit putting my Warlord, anti-flyer and generic force multiplier into a single slot.  I am going to test the list out this Tuesday - but I am considering making a few revisions to the overall list as well.

My original list can be found here.

Da Boyz GT - 1850 List

Although I may have managed to get permission for a trip to Adepticon this year - realistically the Da Boyz GT is the only chance I have to play in a large 40k event each year.  Last year I, unfortunately, finished poorly overall due to my lack of painting and the strict composition rules enforced.  When it comes to battle points, however, I was in the running until the end and on Turn 5 of my last game I believe had a shot at Best General.  Unfortunately, a little bit of luck (or lack thereof!) and my own mistakes foiled that.

This year I want to bring a fully painted army (I know I know I took some unpainted models with me last year to a GT), which means buckling down and deciding what I am going to play now.  I do have some CSM models - but without the new rules and with unpainted cultists, helbrute, lord and chosen I do not see myself prepping those models in time.  That means pure Daemons again, and it also means I need to flesh out my list.  Fortifications are, generically, out for Daemons since there are none that really benefit them.  Instead, I am planning to bring the following list...

1850 - New Thoughts on 1850

I spent a lot of time thinking about the list I posted the other day, and for some reason I am just not feeling it when it comes to the composition.  It has some elements I like, but I want to try something different and experiment a bit against some good competition at this weeks RTT.

The rules allow allies, fortifications and I believe terrain placement.  With that in mind I want to follow a few design rules as part of the experiment:

1 - Larger units of Daemons are the way to go this edition - especially with respect to troops
2 - Fateweaver is awesome this edition (for now at least!) and a force multiplier - but I am not bringing him
3 - The new units have incredible maneuverability and damage output - they form the new core of a daemon list
3a - I only have 6 Flamers and 9 Screamers! I have just about all else in quantity
4 - The new assault rules make having to break transports with shooting a thing of the past
5 - Other than FMC, Daemons have no good way to deal with Flyers - this reality I accept and rather than implement bad solutions, I will ignore them completely.

With that in mind, here is the initial list I plan to run - please tell me your thoughts.

Warlord: Herald of Khorne Blessings of The Blood God; Fury of Khorne; Juggernaut of Khorne 
HQ: Herald of Tzeentch - Master of Sorcery; We Are Legion; Bolt of Tzeentch; Disc of Tzeentch

Elite: 4x Bloodcrushers of Khorne
Elite: 6x Flamers of Tzeentch

Troops: 7x Plaguebearers of Nurgle
Troops: 7x Plaguebearers of Nurgle
Troops: 18x Daemonettes of Slaanesh
Troops: 18x Pink Horrors of Tzeentch w/ Changeling

Fast Attack: 9x Screamers of Tzeentch

Heavy Support: Soul Grinder of Chaos - Phlegm
Heavy Support: Soul Grinder of Chaos - Phlegm

I actually did try to hit sacred numbers as much as possible - or multiples of them at least. I was a bit torn on the Crushers versus Fiends, but I wanted a more durable Warlord for the missions and someone that could take down an enemy in a challenge. Skulltaker would be better, but I am not sure where to free the points up. Notably, I plan to DS the crushers disgustingly close to enemy lines.

1850 - Tournament - First 6th ed

With two games squarely under my belt, I think it is time to attend a tournament.  Actually, I do not expect great things from this particular outing but I will have a camera and a write up on some of my thoughts.  I plan to attend the Millenium Games (plug) 1850 tournament, which is a qualifier for the end of the year store championship   Luckily, I have already qualified so this is a great excuse to grab 3 competitive games in a row.

The real question is what to bring with me for an army list.  Here is a list of everything I have available to me for the tournament...

1000 points - Slaanesh in 6th Edition

I referred to a number of the changes made to the rules for 6th edition and their impact on Daemons here

For this army I want to head back to my roots as a purely Slaanesh player - partially because I think they have become really really good - but mainly because the reasons I stopped playing them have partially disappeared.  (you try rolling a 6, 6, 3+, 5+ to kill a moving vehicle for a few weeks and see how you feel about it).  The new Slaanesh list I am going to start with is:

1250 - 4 Player FFA - Revisited

With the tournament coming up tonight I have made a few revisions to my list (some pictures to follow tomorrow on the painting progress).  The rules and original list can be found here.  I managed to complete the bodies of all 19 Zombies who will be my stand in Slaanesh Plague Bearers.  To make them appropriately Slaanesh'ish they will soon have all the paraphernalia needed to be Slaanesh devoted addicts suffering the results of their addictions.  I also forgot to bring along my Daemonettes which means I am going to have to make a few swaps for this list.  The new list I will take with me tonight is:

1500 Point Throne of Skulls Event

Millennium games is running a Throne of Skulls style event with a few hitched (common to the types of events being run).  I am hoping to get out for both the ToS tournament and the 1250 team tournament lock in following it.  The major points for list construction are...

Special Characters: -5 points
Duplicates: -2 points
Triplicated: -4 points
Dedicated Transports: -2 for each over 3

1250 Points - 4 Player FFA

I am prepping now for a 1250 FFA tournament, with some unique rules.  Each game is Kill Points with 4 total players on the board.  Each player is assigned a board edge and 1'x4' deep of dedicated deployment space.  The player across from you on the board's units are worth 3 KP each, while the ones to the side are worth 2 KP.  There is also an objective in the board center that is worth 4 KP a turn it is held.

The last time this event was held, the winner was determined based on the total KP achieved in the tournament which had some interesting effects in the later rounds when a player put up a massive score in the final round by holding the central objective.

As a Daemon player, there is a unique chance to grab that objective and to remain a low profile target, I am planning to bring a small number of very resilient units with me for the tournament.  This will reduce the shooting going into me, since 1250 points shooting into one of my units is likely to just allow another player to harvest that Kill Point.  Since special characters are allowed in this tournament, it seems like a great time to break out Fateweaver.

1000 Point Random Partners Tourney

After much consideration I finally decided on a 1000 point list for tomorrow's 'Random Team' tournament.  Remember the requirements for the tournament are - no replication, no special characters, 1 HQ, 1-3 Troop and up to 2 choices from the other slots.  Nova style missions. First the list, then some rationale:

HQ
Keeper of Secrets

Elite
6x Fiends of Slaanesh
4x Bloodcrushers w/ full kit

Troops
12x Daemonettes
5x Horrors w/ Bolt

Heavy
Daemon Princess w/ Mark of Slaanesh, Pavane, Iron Hide, Aura of Acquiescence

I was a bit restricted in what I could take to this due to my limited diversity of painted minis (I have 2 Grinders done, 12x Fiends for example).  I really wanted to take Seekers instead of the Daemon Princess (and instead of the Bloodcrushers), but the steeds are just about done for them while their riders are still languishing on the sprue.

With that in mind I want to saturate the board with high toughness units (or to have the option to drop in some standard units as well if I face a lot of poison before it goes down).  I am relying on my opponent to help open transport vehicles - but in my experience at these kinds of events players tend to bring more foot heavy armies (nothing like being blown off the board Turn 1 while your opponents Gaunts point and laugh) and there tends to be a shortage of special weapons.  I expect this to be exacerbated by the 0-1 restriction on individual selections which should help make my big guys last a bit longer.

Even if they do perish in a firey death, I will be putting a lot of pressure on our opponenets and even in standard team tournaments people tend to 'play their own army,' which will hopefully make dealing with my in your face Daemons a bit more difficult.

Tonight though, I have some final prep work to do on the crushers.  I have the other 3 basecoated, magnetized and generally ready to go for this tournament.  Unfortunately, they are not all going to be at the quality of my first model by game time.  I blame a leaky kitchen sink that I spent 3 nights fixing along with two electrical outlets that were not to code that had to be rewired.

Team Tournament - 1000 Points - Random Partners!

In spite of failing to provide updates in almost a month, I have been busy painting away.  There has been a slight distraction with our family expanding from two to three, but I think I am ready to hop back into the painting bandwagon.  Naturally, the best motivation to get some painting done is an upcoming tournament and I am targeting  a random team tournament at my old stomping ground.  Here is the overview thus far (it may change)

No shared abilities or transports between allies
Random partners - first round truly random, second round pairings from the top/bottom half of players
Modified Force Org - 1 HQ, 0-2 Elite, 1-3 Troops, 0-2 Fast, 0-2 Heavy
--> No single selection other than troops may be taken more than once.

Daemons at Adepticon

For those who do not follow the GT scene, Bill Kim took his Daemons to the final 16 in a field rife with Grey Knights (they must have known he was coming).  I want to talk a little about the list he brought.  Taken from Blood of Kittens it is...

HQ
Fateweaver
Skarbrand

Elite
6x Fiends of Slaanesh w/ Unholy Might
6x Fiends of Slaanesh w/ Unholy Might

Troops
14x Bloodletters w/ Icon of Chaos
5x Horrors w/  Bolt of Tzeetch , Changeling
5x Horrors w/ Bolt of Tzeetch
5x Horror w/ Bolt of Tzeetch

Fast Attack
16x Seekers of Slaanesh w/ Icon of Chaos

Da Boyz GT - Pregame

It has been a while since my last post, a recurring theme with Blogs it seems.  However, I am going to buck the trend and just continue to randomly update regardless of how long a time period has gone by.  Last weekend (October 21-22) was the Da Boyz GT.  For those that have never heard of this event, it is a heavy comp based event where the comp score is predicated on 'exploring' one's codex.  This means specifically that no units can be duplicated.

Since this is a major event (over 100 players typically) it would mean lot's of Grey Knights.  I faced two of them, I will provide some battle reports and pictures to go with them as well.

Naturally this presented a problem for me as a mono-Slaanesh player, I did not even meet the minimum score required to play.  Instead I Slaanesh was forced to Ally with the devious Tzeetch for this game.  As you can see I was nailed pretty hard on the Comp matrix and all the new models meant I was unable to get to an acceptable painting standard.  Interesting note, I have not updated any of my painting because I have lot's of barely base coated models I painted rather than meaningful progress on the others.  Here is the list I ran, and associated Composition Matrix score.

Slaanesh-Tzeetch Daemons

1250 Last Man Standing List

Tonight I will be heading out to a lock in at my FLGS where the feature event is going to be a last man standing tournament.  Each game is played on a 5'x5' board with a single objective in the center (worth 3 points per player turn held) and 4 players (each allowed a 1250 point army).  Winners are determined based on the sum of Kill Points, Objective points and remaining Kill Points at the end of a 5 turn game.  The order of a turn is randomly determined.  The full rules can be found here

Slaanesh Awakes!

I have tried a few times to begin a Warhammer 40k blog, but it seems every time I stumble at the 'choose a name' page.  This time, however, I have finally come up with an interesting name that will draw 1980's fans and maybe some warhammer fans alike.  This blog will chronicle the development of my Slaanesh themed Daemon army and is broken into categories discussing list building, strategy/tactics, painting and modeling.  I would like to start by discussing my current (partly painted) collection and the army list I plan to populate.

I plan to complete painting of this army in time for the 2011 DaBoyz tournament which is a composition heavy event.  As a part of the DaBoyz gaming group, I ascribe to their gaming philosophy (found here).  The army I am building mirrors this philosophy in its formulation - mainly it is representative of Codex: Chaos Daemons while remaining faithful to Slaanesh.  Without further adiue I present my initial army list for painting and playing.

HQ

Keeper of Secrets

Herald of Slaanesh - Chariot, Might, Musk, Icon

The Masque

Elites

6x Fiends of Slaanesh

6x Fiends of Slaanesh

Troops

12x Daemonettes of Slaanesh

12x Daemonettes of Slaanesh

6x Daemonettes of Slaanesh

6x Daemonettes of Slaanesh

Fast

12x Seekers of Slaanesh

Heavy

1x Soulgrinder

1x Soulgrinder

1x Daemon Prince

Tomorrow I will provide some pictures to demonstrate the style I plan to use for this army in a painting article and discuss how I achieved the effects.