DE vs Daemons Games Garage

During Gaming Day in Games Garage, I had the pleasure of going up against Patrick's Daemon army as the second battle of the day. We rolled Blood and Glory as the scenario and Patrick's 3 Heralds of Apocalypse army is as follows :

Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut (General)

Herald of Nurgle (BSB)

Herald of Tzeentch

25 Bloodletters of Khorne (Full Command)

35 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (Full Command)

20 Plaguebearers of Nurgle (Full Command)

2 units of 6 Flamers

2 units of 5 Flesh Hounds of Khorne

2 units of Chaos Furies

All in all, this is a very solid Daemons list which is hard to deal with. As far as I can tell, this list has a counter for anything that makes it into the battlefield and is very balanced for all scenarios. With 6 Fortitude Points for Blood and Glory, his Herald-led Bloodletters accounted for 3 FP. I had only one plan for this battle, giving up everything else, I would try and snipe his General and Bloodletters with my Knights. Everything else does not matter.

The battleground a hill and a river on the center line of the left side of the battlefield, while a Grail Chapel with a fence and a marshland separated the battlefield in the middle. I deployed with a refused right flank, which had only 1 unit of Dark Riders and my Executioners. In the center, I had a SpearElf unit right in front of the Chapel with the Hydra and Chariot beside. The Cold One Knights were deployed beside these with my Black Guards screening and my Cauldron of Blood right behind. The left flank had my Crossbows and 2 RBTs facing the enemy across the river with a Dark Riders unit screening.

I had 8 FP from my General, BSB, Standards in 2 Dark Riders, Spearelves, Crossbows and Cold One Knights.

Patrick had 1 unit of Flamers and 1 unit of Flesh Hounds deployed in front of the hill, ready to cross and wreck havoc on my flanks. The other unit of Flesh Hounds was on the right alone, while the 3 main blocks of Infantry faced off my Knights and Crossbows in a very congested center/left. The other Flamer unit was deployed on the side of the Nurgle on the right to try and pick wounds off the Hydra.

I had erroneously thought that the Flesh Hounds were War Hounds, and found out differently to my great dismay when my Dark Riders on the right charged the Flesh Hounds who shrugged them off nonchalantly. On the left, the Flamers dealt easily with the Dark Riders and the Flesh Hounds started crossing the hills. In the center, Patrick's 3 infantry blocks approached cautiously, all the time throwing out spells at me while the Furies came to hunt my war machines.

DE v Daemon : 6 FP v 6 FP

On my side, after losing the flanks, I used the Chapel as cover for my Chariot and Black Guards to approach his infantry blocks while my Spearelves tried to threaten his Flamers across the fence. I decided to sacrifice the Executioners and angled them in front of the Flesh Hounds to direct their charge away from the main battle and delay them (which worked as those Flesh Hounds only managed to come back to haunt me in the 5th turn).

I started peppering the Furies with crossbow shots and magic but only managed to kill off 1 unit before the other RBT got charged. The Hydra and the Knights remained very static during this early skirmish period though, the Knights moving forwards while my Hydra moved backwards and waited.

Turn 2 saw a very drastic change in my fortune. I tried an ambitious charge with my Dreadlord charging out of the Knights towards his Horrors together with the Chariot as support. My intention was to contact his Horrors, stop the magic from the Horrors and give his Bloodletters a counter-charge against my inverse-save Dreadlord. This would open up the flanks of his Bloodletters to a counter-charge from my knights. However, I failed my charge distance from my Dreadlord though my Chariot made the charge. Aiming all my attacks on the Tzeentch Herald, I made 3 wounds on him, and Patrick subsequently failed 2 of the ward saves. Magic is down! 

Patrick continued hunting down my war machines with the Flesh Hounds accounting for another RBT while the Flamers took out numerous Crossbows. At the end of turn 2, the battlefield looked like this :

Without further ado, Patrick sent in his Bloodletters against my Dreadlord while the Horrors and Chariots grinded out. The Plaguebearers entered the Chapel while the Flamers moved to snipe my Sorceress which had moved out of the Crossbows which expectedly got charged by the Flesh Hounds. My Hydra had started an immediate trek to my left flank to shore it up.

 I had expected my Dreadlord to kill some Bloodletters to make the combat close but did not account for their ward saves. In the end, my Dreadlord lost combat by 3 and fled past the Knights though they did not panic. Luckily the Bloodletters failed to catch my Dreadlord but ended up pursuing into my Knights. This gave my Dreadlord the chance to rally behind the Knights and attempt a counter-charge.

The Flesh Hounds hit the flanks of the Crossbows but only managed to kill one Dark Elf and I subsequently passed the break test. This allowed my Hydra to charge into the combat and this turned the tide in favour of my Crossbows. 3 Flesh Hounds died and the rest crumbled, letting my Hydra overrun into the Flamers.

My Chariot fled from the Horrors though (oh the horror!) though again Patrick rolled low on the pursue roll. The Plaguebears moved out of the building to threaten the flank of my Knights.

My Chariot rallied and my SpearElves charged the rear of the Plaguebears (who unveiled a Standard that denies flanking) to tie them down while the Bloodletters and my Knights continued to grind. This is where things got interesting. Even with their superior number of attacks, the Bloodletters had trouble getting past my Knight's 2+ armour save and 5+ ward save (from Cauldron of Blood) while they only had the 5+ Demonic ward save. My Knights held the Standard of Hag Graef which gives me ASF and thus, free rerolls to hit in each round of combat. This eventually proved to be the Bloodletter's undoing.

By turn 6, my Hydra and finished off the Flamers on the left while the Flesh Hounds on the right had managed to come in and remove my Spearelves. But what proved crucial was my Dreadlord locked in combat against his Herald of Khorne in a challenge. The rest of the Bloodletters were killed by the Cold One Knights.

DE v Daemon : 5 FP v 5 FP

In the very very last round of combat, the Herald went down to his last wound after failing his ward saves. Losing combat, Patrick rolled a 10 for his break test, and then 10 again for his reroll and subsequently lost his General to Instability. 

DE v Daemon : 5 FP v 3 FP 

Daemons reached the Breaking Point limit and lost!

This was a very very hard fought battle and the only reason why I managed to win was that the scenario was Blood and Glory. My whole battleline was already crumbling and although I had managed to deal with his Bloodletters, I had nothing left to face off the other 2 infantry blocks. I had managed to secure my left flank but both my Hydra (1 wound left) and my Crossbows (3 guys left standing) had the wind knocked out of them. I still had 5 Knights left with my Lord but with the Flesh Hounds on the right sweeping down to support the 20 Nurgle Plaguebearers, I would not have survived.

Patrick was very unlucky in losing his General to the Instability test. Lucky!