Battle Summary: Mixed Daemons vs. Chaos Space Marines (1250 points)

This is a battle report concerning an outing of my mixed daemons (a reduced points and modified version of my usual army list) against generic chaos space marines at 1250 points. I'm also linking this battle report in to the Aftermath campaign for the first time. Although it is Forces of Disorder versus themselves, I thought the battle was sufficiently interesting as to deserve a full write-up.

This is my opponent's list:

HQ: Daemon Prince, Wings, Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission (155 points)
HQ: Chaos Sorcerer, Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission, Personal Icon, Bike (160 points)

Troops: 10 Noise Marines (5 with sonic blasters, 1 with blast master), 1 noise champion with power sword, 1 personal icon, Rhino Transport (335 points)

Troops: 5 Plague Marines, 2 with melta guns, Rhino Transport (170 points)

Troops: 8 generic lesser daemons (104 points)

Heavy Support: 2 Obliterators (150 points)
Heavy Support: 1 Predator with tri-las-cannons (165 points)

Initial thoughts: A rare lash of submission army to face off against! At least there isn't a land raider here (phew).

Here's my list, a slightly modified version of my more typical 1500 points list:

HQ: Herald of Tzeentch on a Chariot, with Bolt of Tzeentch (95 points)
HQ: Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut with Fury of Khorne (115 points)

TROOPS:
13 bloodletters of Khorne (208 points)
11 plaguebearers of Nurgle, icon of chaos, instrument of chaos (195 points)
9 pink horrors of Tzeentch, chaos icon, bolt of Tzeentch, The Changeling (195 points)

FAST ATTACK:
5 screamers of Tzeentch (80 points)

HEAVY SUPPORT:
Daemon prince with flight, breath of chaos and iron hide (200 points)
Soul grinder of chaos with tongue (160 points)

Set Up.
The game is a pitched battle to be fought over 3 objectives.
On the board, there are scattered imperial ruins and the odd hill or three on an otherwise mostly empty board. Plenty of lines of sight can be had, but whole squads can easily conceal themselves behind walls and in ruins.

My opponent places one objective in the centre of his edge. I place one objective rather near to the first. My opponent then places the third close to the other two ... almost forming a triangle of objectives near his end of the board. I'm very very happy with this set up and I think I've already got the advantage here. It's either going to be a very big win, or an epic fail at this stage I think!

Early Turns.
My opponent wins the die roll and chooses to go first. This makes me very happy. I suspect that my opponent hasn't faced too many daemon armies before ... which is always a bonus. The plaguemarines park themselves on top of one of the objectives. The noise marines aren't too far away. The daemon princes lurk behind the rhinos. The obliterators go to a hill on one flank of the board edge with a largely clear line of site to everything. The predator goes to the other corner and sits pretty. The chaos marines hold their breath as the warp tears open.

My first choice wave comes on the board. I deep-strike my pink horrors of Tzeentch near to my opponent's obliterators without scatter. My soul grinder scatters and heads back to the warp temporarily thanks to landing on some sharp terrain (ouch!) -- he'll have to come on in later turns and goes back to my reserve pool. The herald of Tzeentch sets up a bit of a way back from the rhinos that are on top of and near to the objectives. In fact, he's probably closer to the predator than the rhinos. The screamers scatter to almost dead infront of the plague marine's rhino. Well, it could have been worse.

The pink horrors let rip on the obliterators with their warp fire and bolt of Tzeentch. They ultimately cause three unsaved wounds. That means there's only 1 obliterator left, with only 1 wound. The herald of Tzeentch takes aim at the predator and vaporizes it. Horrah! I run the screamers to spread out in front of the Nurglesque rhino.

In exchange, the noise marines make short work of the screamers after they're bunched back up by the opposing daemon prince. I use the Changeling against the obliterator. Oddly, my opponent decides to with-hold fire. The obliterator is no-where near charging range of my pink horrors thankfully.

Meanwhile, the Tzeentch herald takes one wound from the plaguemarines shooting from the back of their rhino.

In my second turn, the soul grinder makes another entrance, this time coming in exactly where I wanted him: in front of the rhinos. My daemon prince also enters play, scattered by 4 inches to the side of the noise marine's rhino.

I move the pink horror squad away from the obliterator and tear him to bits with warp fire. He comes out un-scathed. But my bolt of Tzeentch finishes him. Daemon armies with AP1 weapons can be very scary sometimes.

The herald destroys the noise marine rhino. The soul grinder causes the plague marine rhino to explode. Job done very well here.

Middle Turns.
The opposing daemon prince charges my soul grinder. The soul grinder becomes immobile, but the daemon prince dies horribly. The sorcerer on the bike thunders toward my herald. He uses the lash to bring the herald closer, and then charges him in close combat. Let me tell you, pink horrors are not built for close combat. The herald goes back to the warp with celerity. The noise marines move closer to the pink horror squad and my daemon prince, without causing a single wound(!) whilst the plague marines hunker down on the objectives.

My bloodletters and Khorne herald come in to play on this turn and scatter behind a building. They craftily run around the building and place themselves in charge range of the plague marines. Here they are pictured doing said sneaking:(all my other pics from this battle didn't work out very well ... which is a shame as I don't often take pictures of battles as I never seem to have my camera on me!). I fly my daemon prince in to the heart of the noise marines. I manage to win the combat by 1 wound (dragging down another noise marine along the way). One wound left for my prince, and too many noise marines left quite frankly.

In turn 4, although the plaguemarines see what is coming from around the building, they only take down 2 bloodletters. My daemon prince gets killed thanks to the noise marines. My plaguebearers come in to play off the pink horror's icon, between the noise marines and the horrors. Meanwhile my soul grinder picks off a single, snotty-looking plague marine.

The bloodletters charge right in to the plaguemarines and kill them all in one turn flat. That's what bloodletters do. And they're good at it. The noise marines charge my plaguebearers. And get tar-pitted in an on-going combat that the plaguebearers look like they can stale-mate for a long time.

Meanwhile the chaos sorcerer on the bike tries to zoom in to conest at least one of the three objectives. Using the lash, he pushes the bloodletters further away from the objectives.

Late turns.
At turn 5, the generic lesser daemons enter play off the noise marine icon. They help to turn the tide against the plaguebearers. But not enough. All 3 units are now tar-pitted together, away from contesting range of the objectives.

My soul grinder (whilst still immobile) manages to kill the chaos sorcerer. The bloodletters hunker down on the objective, whilst my herald of Khorne detaches from the squad and heads toward the noise marine melee to support the plaguebearers.

He never reaches there as the game ends at the end of turn 5. The daemons have won by a large margin. My opponent only has the noise marines and generic lesser daemons left.

Afterthoughts.
If you're playing against daemons, I'd suggest going second. Spreading the objectives out might also have impeded my single-minded progress. And two lash characters were just not needed at this points level. Another squad of troops would have been superior. A mostly fun game that I know my opponent learned a lot from. He later went on to win his next game with ease (against a drop-pod army) and went second :)