Revel in the glory of Khorne, for he has gifted Chaos players with a top 5 placing at the NOVA Open. Come see the Blood God’s MVPs and battle reports form each game.
The Games: I had 8 great games against 8 great opponents and I learned a TON in each game. My experience with this list before NOVA was still pretty limited so I was really looking forward to learning more about how to play it through experience.
Round 1 Vs Cosby’s Imperial Guard: Cosby had an all infantry IG Blob list backed up by some inquisitors and Old man Yarrick himself! His army was incredible well painted and a joy to see on the tabletop. He chose to score his objectives at the end of the game, and I went for the progressive option. I was able to bog down a really nasty conscript unit with the soul grinders and then send all the hounds into the other blobs. Preferred enemy psykers on the hounds from the gorepack was a HUGE deal here, as it really let the Hounds chew through the blob squads.
We had a truly epic combat ensue between Commissar Yarrick and the Bloodthirster. Yarrick was stuck down by the mighty D Axe twice, but stood back up each time and continue the fight, which was pretty amazing to imagine. In the end, the D-Thirster finally defeated the commissar, but not before Inquisitor coteaz was able to strike down the daemon with his daemon hammer.
In the End, the Hounds carried the day and I got full points in this one.
MVP: Preferred enemy psykers
Round 2 vs Bruce’s Eldar: Bruce was running a really cool list that combined Eldar and Dark eldar. He had 4 big units of Jet bikes with scatter lasers each with a warlock, and 2 or three farseers, and three radiers full of fire dragons, one of which had an archon with webway portal. We faced off in another objective game where I chose turn by turn scoring and he chose end game. As shooty as his army was, the hounds really through him for a loop. I went first, and his first shooting phase was not as good as it could have been. His low unit number of jetbikes could not engage the level of assault rush that I was bringing and I managed to connect with one of his farseer units in my turn 2. However, Bruce was far from defeated and he used his superior mobility to jump to my backfield with the rest of his army! As powerful as this was, it meant that I did not lose any models in his turn, and the red wave of hounds just turned around and rushed back. The big moment in the game came from the D-thirster, who, not being as far forward as the hounds, chased after the jet bikes and managed to pull off a 10 inch charge to connect with a unit of 8 scatter-bikes, a warlock, and a farseer, breaking them and running them down with his handy-dandy initiative 9.(the D-axe makes his strike at Initiative 1, but his unmodified initiative is still 9.) The hounds kept swarming the eldar and I managed to get full points in this one as well.
MVP: The D-Thirster
Round 3 vs John’s SW/IG/BA: John has a powerful Assault list that combined the powers of the Space wolves, Blood Angels and Imperial Guard. He had 2 packs of fenrisian wolves with battle leaders on thunder wolves, and IG blob with priest, sang priest and 50 dudes, a 30 man conscript blob with a sang priest and a handful more IG support elements and a dreadnought in a drop pod. This mission was The Relic and 4 other objectives, and we each chose the end game mission. John made me deploy first, but then stole the initiative! He drop his dreadnought down onto the relic, but scatter off, and then rushed up the board with the blobs and wolves. This was actually a big mistake that he and I later discussed. By advancing on me, he came right into my threat bubble and got pounced on by my heavy hitters. It took the whole game, and I lost 95% of my army in the process, but I was able to chew through his army and eventually table him on turn 6. This would not have been possible without bloodpoints. I summoned 9 blood crushers throughout this game and needed every one to pull out the win, as their S6 on the charge was a big deal in finally knocking out the FNP blob that had a priest in it. It was a great and bloody game that ended in Daemonkin getting full points.
MVP: Blood Points
Round 4 vs Tony’s Eldar: Tony had an exceedingly mobile eldar list full of jet bikes, warpspiders, swooping hawks, venoms, wraithguard in a Raider, fire dragons in a Raider, and a FW Warp Hunter. We were playing in a table quarter control game, with number of units earning quarter control turn by turn, and points alive controlling a quarter for end game. Tony chose end game, and I chose turn by turn. I also had the first turn, and my war lord trait was stealth ruins. Tony had a DE formation that let him deep strike 2 venoms full of wracks on turn 1, so he opted to reserve his whole army and play for the end game. Having learned a valuable lesson against this tactic in a game at ATC, I used my first turn to spread out pretty evenly between the middle of the board and my deployment zone. A lot can be said about this game, but essentially, I had so many units all over the board that there was nowhere safe for Tony to send his units without them getting assaulted. A big moment in the game was when Tony his his D-Scythe Wraithguard in for the kill against my D-Thirster. However, thanks to low rolling from Tony and Good rolling on my part he only lost 2 wounds. This let me absorb the overwatch with a weakened unit of hounds, and then send in the big man to finish off the wraithguard. I ended up getting all the points except warlord in this game, giving me the win, but Tony did manage to control 2 quarters at the end, giving him some points.
MVP: Flesh Hounds
Round 5 vs Ben’s Necrons and Eldar: Ben had Super durable assault force in the form of 24 Wraiths, one of which was from the Canoptek Harvest, backed up by the Crimson Hunter Formation. We played in another form of objective game and I chose progressive and he chose end of game. I could say a lot about this game, but essentially, Ben was overly aggressive with his Wraiths and assaulted some small units of flesh hounds that I had just thrown at him. While he won the assault hands down and took no damage in return, he was unable to clear out these little units completely and then he got hit by a massive counter assault that did a ton of damage. It took 6 turns, but I was able to eventually push him back into his deployment zone and Max out the primary and get 2/3 of the secondary I believe. Ben did manage to get all of his secondary against me. This was still a brutal game that saw me suffer extreme casualties, with maybe 1500 points of my army getting taken out. Ben was a great opponent, and I hope we can play again.
Round 6 vs Aaron’s DA/SW/SM: In this game I got to play the man who would end up winning the tournament. He had a very powerful list based around a super deathstar of a ravenwing command squad full of characters and psykers. The Biggiest things were that he auto-passes Hit and Run, and when generating powers he got invisibility. We played in The Relic mission in hammer and Anvil deployment, which is the one game I really didn’t want to play Aaron in, and I HAVE to go towards the center, and I have the least amount of room to spread out. I chose progressive, which means I cant pick up the relic, and Aaron chose end game. Maybe this was a mistake, Im still not sure. My plan in this game was to never assault the deathstar, and to use my hound units to create layers of hounds and trap the unit in his deployment zone. However my plan was thwarted by a combination of a unit of infiltrating scouts and low run moves. I went first and tried to pin the unit in, but did not quite have the space and Aaron was able to pull off a triple charge turn 1, killing lots of Hounds. We battled it out and in my opinion it was a close game with a lot of back and Forth in the Action. The D-Thirster was a total Boss in this game, and even though the unit was invisible every turn, the Daemonkin Warlord managed to Kill 2 Cyber Wolves, an iron priest, a wolfguard battle leader, and Sammael! It was pretty Epic. Aaron managed to grab the relic on turn 4 and due to random game length the game ended on turn 5 giving Aaron the Win. A 6th turn would have allowed me to score more points for sure, but it still would have been tough to win, but it was not out of the question, as I had 6 blood points ready to cash in and some assault units in good positions. But, Aaron carried the day. It was a really fun game and I look forward to playing Aaron again. At the end of the battle though I just couldn’t help but thinking, “How much different is this matchup if he does not roll invisibility?” Lots.
MVP: The D-Thirster!
Round 7 vs Sashya’s Space Marines: Round 7 was a table quarter game vs a White scars gladius strike force that was very well painted and piloted by a very nice guy named Sashya. He had a good mix of drop pods and razorbacks, and 2 Ironclad dreadnoughts He also plays Daemonkin, and we talked for a while before the round started about how awesome the codex is. In this game, we each chose turn by turn control of objectives and I chose to go second. I failed to consider just how many units a Galdius has, and by going first, Sashya was able to counter any moves I made into table quarters to gain control and he kept me from getting any points on the primary. However, I still killed an incredible amount of units in this game and was able to score all of my secondary goals and the tertiary. Time became an issue in this one. There was no slow playing, but we each had sooooo much stuff that we only managed to get through turn 4, which hurt each of our scores. Sashya pulled out the victory here but I learned a valuable lesson about how to engage the gladius.
Round 8 vs Jack’s Daemons: In Round 8 I was set to play Alex Fennell, but he dropped out of the tournament, which was a bit of a bummer since I was really looking forward to playing him. We have played regularly over the years and always have great games. Instead, I got to play Jack, who is also a great guy and we had a great game. Jack had “Nanavati’s list” as he put it. 2 Big units of screamers, 2 heralds of tzeench, fateweaver, 2 nurgle heralds, 8 plague drones and some pink horrors. This was a 6 objective game where you could earn points for number objectives controlled compared to your opponent either turn by turn or end game. I chose turn by turn, and he chose end game. Going into this, I was not concerned in the least about this list, but I saw that it is deceptively good at objective games. I was able to spread out and get lots of points on the primary early, but the secondary points were difficult. Despite his drone star whiffing and getting stuck in combat with 6 rounds, and then my counter charging with 18 hounds with Rage, I was not able to bring down his plague drone unit like I had hoped. Our lines crashed and when the smoke cleared we had essentially tabled each other, however, with second turn belonging to jack, he was able to summon jet bike units from combat and boost onto objectives, giving him 6 points, and he was able to accomplish most of his secondaries. The Drones eventually broke free of the hounds that had sought to bog them down and the nurgle herlads with bale swords took out the D-Thirster, but not before he had locked down a screamer star and killed 3 or so screamers and a herald on disk. The game ended on turn 5 as a draw and we shook hands. It was extremely bloody, with about 1700 points of my army being destroyed. Despite the draw, I was still able to get 13 points from this game, which I was happy about.
MVP: The D-Thirster
Overall, I ended up coming in 5th place in the event and had a great time. Every game was fun, challenging, and educational. It was also very interactive. My list was one, that win or lose, really has to get involved with the opponent to get work done and regularly tables itself upon the enemy army to win its games, which can make for a really fun game for both players.
Unit Review NOVA Edition: After playing 8 rounds, how did the units in the army perform?
Bloodthirster: A total boss, and game dominating beast. Never leave home without him. Seriously.
Bloodletters: These guys were really good at NOVA. When part of the total threat package of Daemonkin, their furious charging power swords are a threat that cant be ignored. Especially when you give them Rage!
Flesh Hounds: These guys were the core of my list and they did not disappoint. The Fleah Hound is just crazy good right now and I think that competitive daemonkin armies have to have at least some of these guys in their list.
Chaos Bikes: The bikes really did impress me at NOVA. They are great at grabbing objectives and an incredible threat to so much eldar stuff. They were also really good at helping clear out vehicles from the gladius and taking challenges to protect other units. I am considering adding more to the army.
Soulgrinders: And this is where the good news stops. While I can’t complain too much since my list as a whole did very well, the soul grinders really didn’t do very much. They were extremely underwhelming and I was not impressed with them at all. The threat of the bombardment cannon is great in theory but not in practice, and the anti-air auto cannon at BS3 just did not get the job done.
With the experience from NOVA under my belt I hope to devise a modified version of my daemonkin list to unleash upon the tournament scene. Will it work? Who know? Will it be fun? Absolutely!!! And at the end of the day, that is the most important thing. If the army isn’t fun, why play it?
Truer words may have never been spoken!
