If you love Chaos, checkout how resident Khorne expert Horton did with his bloody mad army at the biggest tournament in the south: Warzone Atlanta!
I recently had a chance to attend Warzone: Atlanta. It was an excellent event which you can read my overall review of here.
I got to play 5 great games at Warzone with my favorite army, Khorne Daemonkin! How did I do? Let’s take a look.
I used the following list:
Fist of Khorne!
Kharybdis Assault Claw
20 Berzerkers, Icon of Wrath, 1 chain axe, Berzerker Champion with Axe of Khorne and Power Fist
Gorepack!
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
3 Bikers, melta bombs
3 Bikers, melta bombs
3 Bikers, melta bombs
Gorepack!
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds
3 Bikers, melta bombs
3 Bikers, melta bombs
3 Bikers, melta bombs
1849 points of awesome! This is the most fun version of KDK I have played, and I will be playing it more in the future.
Round 1 vs Necrons:
This game was a Warzone original, combining a mix of Kill Points with 4 Relics across the board that you got points for moving toward the enemy. I played against Ian, a great guy who had just gotten into the hobby. We had a fun game, but ultimately his necrons, resilient as they were, could not stop the full on Khorne rush. The game ended on turn 7 when the last metallic skull was claimed by a swarm of fleshhounds.
33/33 Battle Points
Round 2 vs Tau:
Round 2 had the toughest mission for me, Primary Objective Kill Points! I knew this next game would be very matchup dependent. I got to play against Joe, a nice tau player with a brutal list! He had massed marker lights, some kroot and the dreaded Taunar battlesuit! I knew this would be a tough one, but I felt like the Fist of Khorne would help give me an edge. We set up, with the Khorne army set to go first, but Joe seized the initiative! It got brutal quick as the tau bore down on the KDK, but with an MSU army, the taunar really did not have any good targets. My turn 1 saw me drop the fist of Khorne right in front of Joe, but I did the unthinkable, I stayed inside!
Joe then intercepted and killed the Fist, but I choose not to assault, and instead ran forward. At the end of my turn 1, I had 19 Berzerkers, and 11 other assault units all right next to Joe’s army. And that was essentially the game. He fired back and killed a lot, but my turn 2 saw a massive multi assault and wiped out nearly everything Joe had. I killed all of Joe’s NON-Taunar units by the end of turn 3, and then just locked down the taunar with flesh hounds until the game ended at turn 7. When the smoke cleared I had won by 1 kill point, and won the secondary objective of Table quarters.
23/33 Battle Points
Round 3 vs more Tau:
Round three was an objective based game, where one objective nominated by each player in secret would disappear at the end of the mission. Overall a good mission, but it takes some getting used to. The secondary was marked for death. You had to nominate 3 units in the enemy army to destroy, getting 3 points for killing one, another three for killing more than your opponent, and the final three for killing them all. My opponent was a great guy, also named Joe, and his tau army was based around 2 optimized stealth cadres, a riptide, one of the tau fortifications, and some troops.
Due to the sheer volume of firepower and limited amount of LoS blocking terrain on the table I knew this would be a tough one. To make matters worse, he got the infiltrate warlord trait and infiltrated the ghostkeels! However, I was able to use scout to avoid getting shot by backing up. I only lost a unit of bikes on turn 1. My turn 1 was critical, as I dropped the fist of Khorne and did not get out. This time, the fist got intercepted by the whole tau army, but lived with one HP left! I flatted out the Fist to put pressure on a different part of the board and advanced up the flanks with a few hounds.
Return shooting was minimal the next round due to intercept, but he did manage to kill the Fist, but it was with his last few shots, and 20 berserkers got to disembark. I got lucky here, and a marked for death stealth suit failed to jump away far enough in the assault phase to avoid a berserker charge. My berserkers were able to move up and multi charge a stealth team and a unit of kroot, wiping out the stealth team and reducing the kroot to just 3 or so models. I had gotten a marked for death, but figured the berserkers were done for, but miraculously, my opponent rolled snake eyes to stay in combat!
This was huge, and totally changed the game. The next few turns consisted of me hiding, and getting shot, while the berzerkers finished off the kroot and were able to jump on another stealth team. It was looking like it would be a draw, as my few remaining models could contest several objectives, but at the last moment, my opponent failed a critical dangerous terrain check on a drone that was walling me off from an objective, and I was able to shoot the gap, contest the objective and win the primary by 1 point. It was a super close game, and one I only won due to luck.
18/33 Battle points
Round 4 Vs the Bark-Bark Star!
I felt good about the mission in game 4, Relic and progressive objectives. That is what KDK is really good at. Then I saw my opponent’s army: a 7 source super death star of Fenrisian wolves and characters, the dreaded Bark-bark star, piloted by Will Bundy! To make matters worse, my opponent generated invisibility! I knew it would be tough, but I had a plan. I won the roll to go first and knew that if I could get the relic first, then I could simply wall the Bark-Bark star in with waves of hound units and keep it there.
At the end of the game I would have only a handful of models, but it was a valid strategy. I was ready to implement it when my opponent seized the initiative! With that, the invisible star moved up to pick up the relic, and cover 3 objectives! At that point I knew that I simply could not win the primary. If an invisible star gets the relic first, then there is just nothing that can be done about that. However, I had a plan for progressives. I sent most of my army onto the left flank, where an objective was held by a narrow strand of only 3 wolves.
I then shot and assaulted those wolves with 15 flesh hounds and 20 berzerkers from the Fist of Khorne, and was able to just barely kill them. Yes. Over 120 attacks to kill three 8 point models. The rest of my army held the objectives it could and walled the star in, so it could not hit and run toward me. This was essentially the theme of the game. I formed walls and controlled where the star could go. When we reached turn 5 and time was called, I was able to win the progressive objective mission, but lost the relic. It was a great game with lots of positioning craziness on both sides, and I earned all the points that I possibly could have given the scenario.
15/33 Battle Points
Round 5 vs Eldar Seer Council
This was a weird round. The objective was progressive kill points. You earned points in 3 ways: getting 1 kill point, getting more than your opponent, and killing an HQ. The secondary was end game table quarters. I got to play against a great guy named Phil, and he had a Seer council Eldar list with a wraithknight and void shield. He went first, and deployed his seer council and skatarch wraithknight. I deployed 3 bike units, 1 hound unit, and outflanked everything else. So, Turn 1 he powered up his star, and jumped his wraithknight off of the board.
I had forgotten he had gate of infinity, and he jumped over and killed a bike unit. This forced my hand, and I had to use the Fist of Khorne to land on his void shield, which worked and gave me a turn 1 KP as well. The rest of the game though was just us running away from each other. I couldn’t advance on him because he had a star that could just tie me up, and the guns to just shoot down MSU, and he could not advance on my, because my outflanking hounds were on every side of the table.
It became very clear by turn 3 that I would lose progressive kill points, but win table quarters due to my massive amount of units. So, we just stopped playing. That is not something I usually do, but we talked through it and saw exactly what was going to happen. My units were all over the board in every corner, and his jetbikes and wraithknight were just sitting in the exact middle of the table, while his star chased after units to kill them one at a time. We shook hands and called the game. I personally did not like this mission at all. It forced our armies into very weird situations where I felt encouraged not to interact. Oh well. Sometimes missions are weird like that.
12/33 battle points
And, so, with 5 games behind me, I came in 24th in battle, at least I think so. It was around there. I was happy with the finish, but would have liked to have done better on day 2. I will say that I was VERY happy with the KDK list. The Fist of Khorne was an absolute all-star every game, and the 6 units of bikes were very good. To anyone doubting Gorepack bikers, they did wonders for me. I felt like I had a list that could compete with anything at the tournament and if Warzone happened again tomorrow I would take the same army. It was a great event and I strongly encourage you to check it out!
About the Author: Horton Doughton
