Daemons of Chaos vs Dwarfs 2250 pts

warhammer fantasy battle tournament report :-

"Angered by the loss of his 'little doggies', the Khorne general and his Bloodletters charge my Dwarf Lord..."

(game 5 in another great tournament series of battles by David L)

source : bugmansbrewery.com

credit : David L

25-Feb-2009

Dwarf Army List

Dwarf Lord, shieldbearers, great weapon
MRoSteel, Resistance, Stone, MRoChallenge, Furnace (286 points)
Thain BSB Strollaz, Guarding (175 points)
Runesmith, shield, great weapon, spellbreaker, spellbreaker, Stone, Furnace (136 points)
Thain, shield, great weapon, Stone (76 points)

10 Thunderers, shields (150 points)
15 warriors, shields, banner, musician (150 points)
24 Longbeards, full command, Battle, Stoicism (363 points)
17 Hammerers, shields, full command, Stoicism (276 points)
13 Hammerers, shields, banner, champion, Battle (218 points)

bolt thrower, engineer, Penetrating (86 points)
bolt thrower engineer, Burning (65 points)
Stone Thrower, engineer, Accuracy, Penetrating, Burning (155 points)
Organ Gun (120 points)

2250 exactly


I put the MRoSteel on my Lord in an effort to combat fighty Vampires and Daemons, plus any dragons that appear. Of course, that only works if the Daemon/Vampire player is dumb enough to engage the Dwarf Lord. All games I've played say I should not beat VC with 10+ power dice and the regen banner is totally unkillable (even with the flaming stone thrower and bolt thrower). I think the Anvil is absolutely necessary against VC, but I didn't feel like retooling, so I took this list. Maybe I won't meet any VC.


General tournament note:

And now for a temporary diversion to the whining phase...

To my disappointment, lists at Bayou got much harder this year. All driven by Daemons and VC, because they've raised the bar so high everyone else feels compelled to move up. The two most rude lists I saw were both Daemons (and sadly one got 1st overall and the other best general). I really think both those were min-maxed well over the top. You could easily argue for several of the VC lists as well. Pretty certain 7 out of 8 VC armies contained the regen banner. The one that didn't take it earned the "arm chair general" award for being a good guy with a friendly list and losing a lot. The prize for that was a 40K rulebook. The worst of the other 7 VC was 25th in battle (beating 63% of the field).

There was also a Star Dragon, another Dragon, Teclis, 11 more special characters, all 5 Empire armies had Popemobiles, etc, etc. The current trend of army books and common builds is bad enough to seriously dampen my interest in Warhammer. Call it whining if you want, but I enjoy games less when they are dominated by a super character and a super unit.

Friday night random games with Mike Grajeda's demons and Jesse Garrett's VC. Slaughtered hopelessly both times, although against Mike I brought it upon myself. In retrospect, not the best choices for pickup games since I played both of them during the tournament!! So more on them below.

Demons of Chaos Army List

Mike had 3 wins until he ran into David Bowman's Daemonic Legion of super death in round 4. Bowman, who is plenty good enough to beat everyone using any list, brought a min-maxed list of flesh hounds and flamers. The people I talked to figured Mike had no chance and the expected result occurred. Bowman's dice never cursed him for bringing the pain and he won best overall.

Herald of Khorne on Jugger, 0+ armour, S7, flaming
leading ~18 Bloodletters
Herald of Slaanesh, Siren Song, level 1 wizard
leading 19 Daemonettes
Herald of Tzeentch on disk, BSB, any lore (Metal), -2 leadership banner

12 Horrors
12 Horrors
6 Furies
6 Flesh Hounds
5 Seekers
3 Fiends
3 Fiends

No lord, only 3 heroes. Not mass magic, limited flesh hounds, few flamers, infantry units above min size that aren't Nurgle or super-Tzeentch casters. It's the friendliest Daemonic list in the tournament! Of course its still demons, and its FAST, so this isn't going to be easy. And Mike Grajeda is a really good player.

I learned something from playing him Friday night, and the other Daemons Saturday night - CASTLE. It sucks, but any other option is suicide. So we'll be using a 2 ft table.

I decide a little bit of hill is better than nothing, so put Thunderers and a bolt thrower up there. In order to give them some protection, I put the small Hammerers with Dwarf Lord in torpedo formation in between. They strollaz forward first turn, and I fully intend to expand frontage to block the front of the hill on my first turn. However, I estimated the size of the hill terribly and a 6 inch move didn't get me off the end. Other Hammerers with Runesmith west of the hill, bolt thrower on the table edge. Longbeards with BSB east, then Organ Gun, warriors, Stone Thrower, all angling back towards the table edge.

Mike has Seekers and Furies on extreme west. Difficult terrain makes a slight gap, then he stacks Fiends, Flesh Hounds and Horrors. East of that are the two infantry blocks. Going way east is the BSB, other Horrors and Fiends. The eastern Horrors will take a while to get in combat, but they'll be in magic missile range by turn 3. The eastern Fiends are so bleeping fast they don't care about needing to cross the entire table.


Turn 1

I lose the roll for first turn and he advances. Western Fiends 18 inches straight at me, actually going past the LOS of my Dwarf Lord. West edge Seekers and Furies are more conservative. The BSB stays hiding behind a hill so I cannot shoot him. Since he flies, he can catch up quick when combat starts.

I roll double 1s to stop a horror missile at my Hammerers and it rolls well enough to kill 3.

End of Daemon turn 1


Per plan, my Hammerer units move forward slightly and expand frontage. The nearby Fiends cannot charge anything but the Lord, the Seekers cannot hit anything but Hammerers. The Furies cannot get to the hill bolt thrower.

Stone Thrower guesses badly at Bloodletters and produce a hit that re-rolls to another hit. What a waste of good rolls! Western bolt thrower hits Seekers and produces a '1' to wound.

Hill bolt thrower can only see extremely east, but that is enough to see the Fiends. With the Thunderers and Organ Gun, I wipe out the unit!!

End of Dwarf turn 1


Turn 2

Mike now reveals the slight weakness in my Hammerer deployment. Because they moved up, the western Hammerers are now in front of the bolt thrower. So the furies charge and are past my Hammerer front, so don't have to engage. It's only 2 furies against 3 crew, but he's unit strength 6 so autobreak is certain. On the other hand, Mike would later tell me, despite his playing Dwarfs, he forgot my Hammerers with Lord with stubborn and immune to fear. So he flanked them with the Seekers and hit the front with Flesh Hounds.

His other stuff continues its advance and the flying BSB moves up to cower behind the building.

Furies kill one crew, ward saves the wound I inflict, destroys bolt thrower, and pursuit leaves them still on the table.

Seekers cannot handle Toughness 4. 5 Flesh Hounds (one had to hit my Lord) kill one Dwarf. In retrospect, doing the math, expected kills from the hounds is just over 2. The unit champion smashes a Seeker, the Lord and Hammerers smash a couple Flesh Hounds. Instability knocks both units down to 2 each.

End of Daemon turn 2. Note the second unit of Fiends barely visible at the right edge.

I now make a big mistake. Seeing the Seeker flank sitting there, my other Hammerers charge in. Sounds nice, but that is only adding 2 static CR and maybe a Seeker kill, and I won the first round without that. Plus the enemy units have only 2 and 3 wounds left. The main problem with this charge is I have to maximize contact. That means my eastern most charging Hammerer must go corner-to-corner, which puts me behind the other Hammerer unit. So my front Hammerer unit will block the back one from further movement. In ASCII form:
__SS1111111
__SS1111
22222
The highlighted in red model being the problem.

My stone thrower shoots at the Bloodletters, guesses perfectly, but now insists upon scattering to nowhere. Bolt thrower shoots fiends and rolls a '1'. Thunderers shoot Bloodletters and get 3. Organ Gun decides fully ranked enemies are dangerous, so shoots the Daemonettes. Just 1 dies, but that is the 4th rank.

Combat wipes out the Seekers and Flesh Hounds.

I was so excited to have killed 3 total units I forgot to take a picture!


Turn 3

Angered by the loss of his "little doggies", the Khorne general and his Bloodletters charge my Dwarf Lord. This is gonna hurt. Furies charge hill bolt thrower. Eastern fiends, having crossed most of the table, charge the Stone Thrower.

Trailing Horrors wheel further west, around the Bloodletters. Daemonettes continue to hang out at extreme charge range. After much debate and examination of positions, the BSB decides to get into it. He flies over to land behind the Bloodletters. Mike is very concerned about my ability to see the BSB and my Dwarf Lord's Hammerers are blocking Thunderer LOS.

Transmutation of Lead on my Dwarf Lord is scrolled.

Fiends kill Stone Thrower and overrun off the table. Furies kill bolt thrower and overrun into western Hammerers. Mike was thinking they'd hit my Lord's unit, but the eastern guy that is making my unit stuck behind the Lord's unit is, well, behind the Lord's unit. So the furies hit him and have to maximize over there.

In the real fight, my Lord challenges and the champion accepts. It hits and wounds with both attacks. I then roll 1, 2 and 1, 2 for armour saves. My lord, as resistant to damage as I can seriously make him, just nearly died to frickening unit champion!!!! At least I kill the champion.

The general, jugger, and other bloodletters chop up numerous Hammerers. It isn't pleasant and only 3 survive. I hold

End of Daemon turn 3

I really want to go help the Dwarf Lord, but Siren Song on the Slaanesh Herald means my Longbeards cannot do that. I consider racing forward to pound down the Daemonettes before the Bloodletters can get through the Hammerers and come help, but the BSB should ensure the demons won't go away quickly enough to matter. Assuming I can keep beating them to begin with. However, the deaths of many Hammerers in close combat has opened LOS from Thunderers to his BSB. The loss of the 4th Bloodletter rank means the Organ Gun can see too, if the Longbeards stay back. I decide I need to get rid of the BSB in order to ever kill daemons so the troops stay put and load weapons.

Organ Gun produces a '2' which re-rolls to another '2'. Mike makes the ward save. Thunderers get 8 hits and 5 wounds. Mike makes 3 ward saves. Dead 285 point BSB and the banner of "I swear too much"!!!

Furies kill one Hammerer and combat res reduces them to a single model. My Lord challenges and the Herald (and his jugger) must accept. It's dicey, but re-rolls keep the Lord alive. 0+ armour and 5+ ward keep the Herald alive. That leaves just 3 Bloodletters trying to kill the last 3 Hammerers. He gets 1, but so do I. Hold.
On the positive side, there are so few bodyguard Hammerers left, the western unit can now get past them.

End of Dwarf turn 3


Turn 4

Horrors charge into western Hammerers, where the last fury is fighting.
Fiends return to the table and walk west behind my warriors. The eastern Horrors arrive nearby.

With his 4 usable power dice (and my 5 dispel), magic makes my Organ Gun stupid. It will pass all its tests, so this won't matter.

Western Hammerers take a casualty, but pop the last Fury and 4 Horrors. Still stuck fighting 6 Horrors, so no help coming to the Lord.

Bloodletters get another Hammerer, my unit champion makes an armour save and lives. He is all that remains of the bodyguard. I hold.

End of Daemon turn 4

The Bloodletters have only one rank at this point, so if my Lord can keep making his armour saves, I don't really need Stubborn, I just need unit strength to avoid autobreak. The Bloodletters at this point are only unit strength 10. The Thunderers are unit strength 10, and have a rank. Because of the challenge and the positioning, the Thunderers would only touch the Herald, not any Bloodletters, so they couldn't be killed. So CHARGE!!!

Or not. Thunderers fail fear.

With the Fiends behind me, something has to turn around. The Horrors are also close to charging the Warriors. By turning around and walking to point blank on the Fiends, I'm pretty sure the Warriors get out of Horror charge range. With 2 ranks, banner and numbers, I should hold or even beat the Fiends. It's time to go Daemonette hunting, so the Longbeards (with BSB and cheap Thain) advance fully.

Organ Gun puts 10 hits on the Fiends, but only 2 wound and Mike saves 1.

One Hammerer and 6 Horrors die in the sideshow.

In the fight for life, my unit champion makes TWO armour saves to live again. Hold.

End of Dwarf turn 4


Turn 5

Fiends charge warriors.

Daemonettes back up as the Horrors advance into flanking position.

Magic pulls my last scroll.

Charging Fiends kill 2 Warriors, which is average. Instability inflicts 3 wounds, wiping out an entire Fiend.

Western Hammerers finish off the Horrors. They are finally free to help my Lord ... assuming he lives.

Unit champion makes another armour save so protect the Dwarf Lord again. That's 4 saves of 5+!

End of Daemon turn 5

Time to help the Dwarf Lord! Hammerers charge into combat. We end up having to dice off to see if its front or flank and front wins. I also send in the Thunderers because they have a rank that the Hammerers lack.

Longbeards almost move up into the face of the Daemonettes, but then realize the Horrors might be able to wheel and rear charge the warriors. So instead I must slide 1.5 inches east, which should block that.

Organ Gun decides that trying to remove a Daemonette rank is pointless when I won't have Longbeard ranks, so blasts the rank-breaking Horrors. 6 splatter. Good shooting!

Two remaining Fiends get just one Warrior and roll an 11 for instability, wiping themselves out.

My pile-in troops do no damage, but the Dwarf Lord finally gets a wound past the Daemonic armour and ward saves. Mike passes the resulting instability test though.

End of Dwarf turn 5


Turn 6

Double charge at the Longbeards. Cheap Thain will use his great weapon.

Slaanesh Herald barely kills the Longbeard champion. Horrors and Daemonettes do nothing. Longbeards kill one Horror, Thain another one. Someone drops a Daemonette. He has two ranks, but I have BSB, war banner, numbers and two extra wounds. Daemonettes stubbornly hold, but the Horrors poof. I have ranks again and that Stubborn only works once.

However, my tank Dwarf Lord finally exhausts his tank. Seeing his lord fall, my last bodyguard dies in shame. But he made 4 armour saves at 5+ beforehand and will be honoured fondly forever.

End of Daemon turn 6

The Slaanesh Herald, looking for some success, issues a challenge that my cheap Thain accepts. That strength downgrade on Slaanesh is harsh and T5 protects. Two strong cuts from the Thain chop the Herald in half. I win combat but not enough daemons pop to matter.

The Khorne general is so exhausted from pounding ineffectually on my Dwarf Lord that he hits only 1 Thunderer and his jugger cannot even do that. Combat resolution does nothing there.

I have 3 healthy infantry blocks, Thunderers and an Organ Gun, plus 3 characters. He has one healthy infantry block, half a block, and half a character.

Victory for the Dwarfs!!

Definitely my tightest and most fun game of the weekend. If you read this Mike, thanks a ton for the game. And thanks for bringing a Daemon list that doesn't make people cringe yet is still quite powerful.

With bonus points available for table quarters (yeah right), 3 enemy core units (nope), and keeping your most expensive model alive (poor Dwarf Lord), my victory produces only a 17.