Slaanesh Daemons vs. Astra Militarum, 1000pts Campaign Battle

Scouring with Dawn of War setup

Our gaming group has started a campaign.  Rhys and I had the honor of fighting the first battle.  My Slaanesh Daemon army attacked his Astra Militarum territory in a 1000 point battle.  Each week you build upon a base list so you don't want to go too heavy against any one opponent with list tailoring.  Luckily Daemons have some flexibility with gifts.

40 Daemonettes hugging the center with a Grimoire Herald

I ran a pure Slaanesh list:
Herald w/steed, loci of grace, greater, lesser
Herald (Warlord), loci of Beguilement, exalted
19 seekers, heartseeker w/lesser
20 Daemonettes, alluress w/lesser
20 Daemonettes, alluress w/lesser
170 Soul Grinder, MoS, Baleful Torrent


Rhys ran an interesting list w/Bullgryns.  Thankfully, no Wyverns, Manticores, Wyverns, Eradicators,or Wyverns (did I mention I was happy not to see a Wyvern).

See above, no Wyvern.  Not seen, my relief

CCS w/flamer in chimera
PCS w/flamer
10 Guardsmen w/Grenade launcher
10 Guardsmen w/Grenade launcher 

Veterans w/2 plasma in chimera
Vendetta
3 Armored Sentinels
5 Bullgryns

Setup

Dawn of War deployment with The Scouring.  I tried to group the objectives as best I could on one side so I wouldn't spread myself out too thin and hoping to utilize my speed to get to the objectives as needed. Neither of us had Psykers.  I rolled on the strategic warlord table and got infiltrate but rerolled (due to CAD) and got Night Fighting/Night Vision.  My thinking here was that I would get there by turn 2 anyways (wrong!) and didn't need it.  When going first, the ability to deploy 3 units (I only had 4) after his deployment would have been invaluable.  I was trying to get -1 to reserves hoping to let my Soul Grinder live against the Vendetta when it came on, but night fighting wasn't bad, but it didn't really help me either. Rhys got an extra command which ended up being useful.

For gifts I got  the 18" lance with my greater gift then rolled adamantium will for all my lesser gifts.  Considering he had no Psykers, I swapped them for etherblades.  Corrosive Breath would have been nice.

Painting in progress, herald has brown base

I did win the roll to go first and deployed along the side with the objectives. Both squads of daemonettes in the center and the seekers able to grab some cover as needed just off to the right.  I made sure everything was in range of the grimoire.  My first big mistake was deploying the Soul Grinder in the corner rather than centrally.

His deployment had him castle up in the far left corner, as far from my Soul Grinder as possible since he had no answer for it until the vendetta arrived.  The Bullgryns (proxied by Obliterators) were in front to give cover saves to the platoon squads.  The chimeras hugged a hill to hide side armor with a CCS in one and plasma vets in the other.

Ready to Roll

The center and lower right objectives were 3s.  There was a 2 in the upper left that a platoon controlled and the other 2 was atop the center right objective.  The 1 was in the upper right the 4 was at the top directly across from my seekers.  After failing to size, it was my turn.

Turn 1

Given the deployment, I had two choices for how to attack.  I could go for the full on assault and hope to overwhelm him on turn 2 with all my units or I could play it cagey and stay out of range, draw him out, and play to the mission by staying on the objectives.  The most vulnerable squad would be the center, since his army would have clear line of site to them if I charged through the middle.  So, first thing's first, I attempt to grimoire the middle squad and failed dropping them to a 6++.  Play to the objectives it is.

I move the squad up to the left behind the stacks hoping to draw him over, and away from the objectives.  I hide as much as I can to limit the damage.  Since I don't fall back from morale tests, I don't have to worry about losing 25%.  The middle squad drops back behind the terrain to hide and the seekers move up behind the middle right terrain piece (we really need more true LoS blocking pieces of terrain, we barely have anything that can even hide a Rhino).  The Soul Grinder brings up the rear.

The warp storm brings down the wrath of nurgle, but does nothing.  All units run to hug more cover.

End of my turn 1

His choices were to move into range of my seekers along the top or shift down and try to kill the daemonettes. He chose the latter.  I miscalculated the position of the grenade launcher and with ignores cover kills 5 or 6 then another 2 with the sentinels' shooting.  I lose more than I wanted, but still manged to keep him in the corner.

Turn 2

I continue to push forward with the soul grinder and wait it out.  The daemonettes on the left move away from his side of the board.  The hiding troops move up to get behind the seekers, I don't really have much of a plan for them other than to get to objectives and be in range to throw out the grimoire as needed.  It goes off this time on the exposed squad, thankfully.  Warp storm is calm, everyone runs, but I forget about the 3" bonus movement and only end up getting 1" (with fleet re-roll) so the squad doesn't get out of range of as much as I would have liked and the Soul Grinder creeps along as well.

The vendetta fails to arrive.  Rhys shuffles around, bringing the sentinels further down the left side and takes some shots at daemonettes but my 3++ rolls hold and I only lose 1.  He's still leery of the seekers and won't get too close.

Turn 3

I continue shifting everything to the right.  The grimoire goes on the soul grinder to protect against the vendetta.  Unfortunately, the warp storm ebbs and reduces it back to a 4++.  I'm content to hold the objectives.  The soul grinder shoots at a chimera but does nothing.

The vendetta once again fails to come on.  Rhys starts to push forward towards the objectives.  His CCS chimera moves on top of the hill and manages to kill a few seekers.

Turn 4

With the Chimera exposed on the hill and the vendetta definitely coming on, I decide to rush the Soul Grinder up.  He had no melta, so couldn't really hurt me and since the grimoire went off I was sitting pretty with a 3++, but I should have rotated my rear to the edge of the table.  The lower squad of deamonettes start to shift back toward the center, hiding behind terrain. The far right daemonettes continue to occupy the length of the right side so they can quickly get to whichever objective is needed. 

Tzeentch helps out with Storm of Fire and hits 3 units.  Two scatter off completely, the third scores a direct hit against a bunched platoon squad and I roll all 10 3+'s to wound, wiping out the squad and finally earning first blood.

His vendetta comes on in hover mode, the chimeras press toward me, while the sentinels move further down towards my daemonettes, and the remaining platoon squad camps on the 2pt objective in his corner.  Some shooting from his sentinels and chimeras kills a couple more seekers.  The vendetta scores 3 hits, 2 pens & 1 glance on the Grinder.  My 3++ saves one of each but he rolls a 6 on the damage chart to blow it up.  Bummer, that hurt.

Calculating the odds of this happening for an individual shot at S9 AP2, TL BS3.

• To hit * pen av11 * 3++ save, 3/4*2/3*1/3 = 1/6 to score a pen
• With AV2, he gets +1 to the damage roll and an immobilized or explodes result would cripple it.  Immobolized odds 1/36, explodes 1/36.  Odds of rendering the SG ineffective per shot is 1/18.
• With 3 shots 1-(1-(1/18))^3, roughly 16% chance. 
• Of course, going the other way, the odds of rolling 10 3+ to wound against the platoon squad was 2/3^10, only a measly 1.7%.  

Turn 5

Time to make my dash to the objectives in case the game ends on 5.  I detach the herald with the loci of grace and join the right squad so I can lance the vendetta while they spread lower to hold the 3pt objective.  The seekers get grimoired try to get in range of the chimera, but have enough of a tail to still hold the 4pt objective after charging.  The daemonettes at the bottom rush out to take the other 3pt.  The lance shot is saved by the vendetta jinking. Unfortunately, the seekers fail their charge, needing 9"(due to terrain) but getting only 8".  If I had kept the locus with them they would have passed.

failed charge

Rhys moves as much as he can around to bring his firepower to bear on the seekers, but forgets to get the veterans out of the chimera so loses out on a some lasgun shots.  The PCS in the vendetta (I forgot about them) gets out flames the daemonettes.  I fail save any of those wounds.  The vendetta still gets 2 hits even at BS1 and vaporizes a herald and and another daemonetts

He shoots everything left at the seekers and I fail 8/10 3++ saves and lose most of the squad, continuing a round of bad dice rolls.  The armored sentinels charge the daemonettes.  Hammer of Wrath kills a few, but neither side does anything during the actual combat, and I lose a few more to daemonic instability.

Luckily for me, the game ends at turn 5 with a daemon victory. I held the 4 (by an 1/8"), and both 3s (thank you Objective secured) while Rhys held a 2 and a 1.  For secondaries I got first blood, but he got last laugh.  Neither earned linebreaker or warlord.  Daemons win 11-3.

Conclusion

Definitely the most unorthodox game I've ever played.  Much more of a chess match than a normal 40k game.  The warpstorm caused the only kills of the game for me, earning me first blood.  He managed to kill over 2/3 of my army and might have wiped the rest out in another turn.

Rules Mistakes

1. Fleet does not give a re-roll to  move through cover, only to run and charge dice, oops.
2. During turn 2 I forgot to add +3" to my run moves, that would have helped the Soul Grinder and both squads of daemonettes.
3. Obviously, the Soul Grinder deployment in the corner was a poor decision.  I think I was trying to get cover saves.  Considering it has a 5++ wouldn't have done anything.
4. Never swap infiltrate for anything in an assault list.
5. I need to be more patient with movement and space things out better

Deployed poorly, still a badass

Overall, I think I played pretty well, if unexpectedly.  I didn't miss out on too many rules and limited my mistakes once the game actually started.  I've put a lot of thought into daemonic gifts now need to put some thought into the warlord traits I want to take depending on the situation.  I'm happy to get a win though.  We'll see who I'm able to fight next week for round 2.