First Game of 6th Edition - Finally!

I had a chance to play my first game of 6th edition, and although it was a little rough at some points - it was overall a great experience.  Before I go any further a mini rant...

I loaned out my new 6th edition rulebook to some other games while I was playing for a few minutes.  In that time they managed to smash the corners and peel off that nice outer lining.  I take good care of my things, and now my 6th edition book looks worse than my 5th edition/4th edition already.  If you borrow people's things, especially their $75 rule book, be respectful of them and return them in the same condition

...okay, that helped a little bit.  I was steamed all night about the book being wrecked but I tried not to let that get in the way of having fun.  I played a variant of the list I posted here for 1850 which was...

HQ
The Masque
Herald of Slaanesh - Seeker Mount, Musk, Pavane
Herald of Slaanesh - Seeker Mount, Pavane

Elites
6x Fiends of Slaanesh
6x Fiends of Slaanesh
3x Flamers

Troops
18x Daemonettes
5x Horrors w/ Bolt
5x Horrors w/ Bolt
5x Horrors w/ Bolt

Fast Attack
17x Seekers of Slaanesh

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder

I played against a Black Templae player who had Helbrecht, Grimauldus, 3x TLLC Razors, 2x Drop Pod Dreads and 2x Vindicators.  He reserved his Vindicators, 1x Razorback and both dreads - at which point I knew I had pretty much won the game given I had gotten the reroll reserves warlord trait.

Pro tip - it is almost always a terrible idea to reserve against Daemons unless you are faster than them and can shoot them off the board when you come in.

As predicted, this game was a bit of a massacre and we had some rules mix ups - I was in a bit of a hurry and let it slip.  For example, my opponent was allocating wounds like in 5th edition, rather than rolling them and removing the closest models which I let slide.  Overall though I love the changes to Fiends and Seekers.

I hate to label this a battle report without a recount of some battle so here is a synopsis.  We played Capture the Relic with the diagonal deployment.  There was no Night Fight turn 1 and my opponent advanced both razors to the center and kept Grimauldus on foot with some servitors.  I got my preferred wave of 2x Fiends, 1x Seekers and 2x Horrors.  My shooting failed to even remove a Hull Point and I prepared to eat the pain...

My opponent disembarked, took some pistol shots and got in a Vindicators, Dreadnought w/ Pod and a TLLC Razor.  Unfortunately, I used Lookout Sir! to spread the wounds out, and made a ton of saves (I was hot, I felt like I had Fateweaver).  The rest of my army came in and I secured First Blood!, Kill the General and started towards the opponent's deployment zone.  In the center I crushed everything with Fiends, Flamers and The Masque .

The counterstroke did limited damage and the Fiends took the day while Daemonettes moved to secure the relic and I pinned all the reserves back in my opponents deployment zone.  There was a slight mixup by my opponent who thought I had taken my Turn 5 (I had not) and at one point took 3 turns in a row - I was winning significantly enough I was willing to let it go.  In the end I took it 3 - 1 (I lost my Slaanesh herald for the command point) and my opponent had a single dread on 1 hull point and 2 vindicators left.

I was unsure how their overall reduction in threat range would play out, but they are much faster now than in 5th edition.   Fleet lets them reroll their runs, they can move 12" Seekers are not slowed by terrain and Beasts auto pass their dangerous terrain due to Move Through Cover - and roll an extra dice for those terrain tests.

As it turned out, the Wound Allocation that the Herald supplies to the Fiends greatly increased their survivability - the unit with a herald had 6 fiends with 1 wound each, while the one without had 3 Fiends with full wounds.  Also, I was not particularly impressed by the addition of Hit and Run to the Seekers but I am going to leave this one up for future evaluation.  I was really hoping they would rend out a dread I sent them into - but unlucky rolls left it alive while they ate a counter charge from a unit of Black Templars.  One thing to remember is that the Slaanesh Herald is not a CC monster...at all!  She is best declining challenges, keeping Hit and Run on her unit, and using her 2+ to remove the back seekers.  I did love the huge Seeker footprint, however, and a 12" move makes it even better.

On a final note, transports are no problem at all anymore.  I felt safe with the enemy tucked away in their boxes - they couldn't  charge and I knew I was going to rip the vehicle apart.

Next report will have pics and I am working on an analysis of the new Screamers, Flamers and chariots when I get a new White Dwarf!