1850 - RTT - G2 - 9-8-12

Game 2

Deployment: Diagonals
Mission: The Relic
Opponent: Imperial Guard

My army list can be found here.

HQ
Company Command Squad w/ Plasma Gun, Med Pack, Banner

Elite

Troops
Platoon w/ Lascannon, Sniper Rifles, Cloaks, Snare Mines
Veterans w/ 3x Melta Guns, Demolitions
Veterans in Chimera w/ 3x Plasma Guns
Veterans in Chimera w/ Lascannon, (maybe melta guns?)

Fast Attack
1x Valkyrie w/ three Lascannons

Heavy Support
2x Leman Russ Executioner w/ Plasma Cannon Sponsons and Hull Mounted Lascannon
Leman Russ Vanquisher w/ Multi-melta Sponsons and Hull Mounted Lascannon
Leman Russ Battle Tank w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons

I do not have a copy of the guard list, but I believe I have everything correct - at least that is relevant.

Deployment

I win the first turn, and choose to take it.  A bit of the opposite of normal philosophy, but I want to land on or near the relic turn 1 with a large unit of Horrors, pick it up and then just run away for the entire game - forcing his scoring units to follow me away from his firebase.  My warlord trait was reroll hits on enemies with 3" of an objective (useless) and my opponent gets the redeployment trait (useless against Daemons)

My opponents deployment is actually pretty good overall. He is spread out enough that I cannot just smash open all his vehicles, although he left a nice looking target with the Chimeras.  He also has pretty good fire lanes and the Command Squad can issue orders to both sets of troops.  The Valk is, naturally, in reserve with embarked veterans with Melta guns.  He tries to seize and fails, so we are off.

It is Night Fight on Turn 1, which is great for me!

1 Daemons

I want an aggressive first wave that can assault into his tank line quickly. I also want to drop an annoying number of Flame Templates onto his Executioners/Chimeras.  Further, I plan to bring the Grinders in after his flyer so I can get behind it and then pile into assault - or take out the meltas firstI select:

Horrors
Screamers
Bloodcrushers
Daemonettes
Flamers

I then fail to get my preferred wave on a 2 - bugger that.  All is not lost, though, since I kept some hitting power in that wave too.

Both grinders come down just about where I want them while the Plagues scatter a bit butu stay out of line of sight.  I am using the hill to generate cover for the grinders, which should be 3+ once Shrouding is accounted for based on the range of his guns.   I Phlegm and bolter the sniper marines - assigning the bolter rounds first in hopes of ID'ing the lascannon, but do not kill enough.

The other grinder is a champ and drops its pie plate right on top of both Chimeras - who fail their saves.  I stun the nearby Chimera and explode the far one.

I kill off 3 infantrymen and their lascannon, which is great news for me.  They fail their leadership, but are within 24" of the banner and make the reroll.

In other news the back corner occupied by the tape measure is where my second Plaguebearer unit landed, scattered and were destroyed with a mishap.  Netting my opponent First Blood! for this game.

1 - IG

The gauntlet has been thrown down and the guard need to respond in a big way.  They start with some sniper/lascannon shots on the Plagues, and take down one from the front.

Next the stunned plasma squad disembarks and takes some pot shots at the grinder along with the Vanquisher and Executioner squadrons.  They manage to drop 4 or 5 glances onto the Grinder, but with cover and Night Fight I save all but one of the shots.  This really demonstrated how devastating those Executioners can be, I am glad I was not packing power/terminator armour for this game.

The Leman Russ takes a shot at the other grinder with its Battle Cannon and Weapon Destroys the Dreadnougt Arm with the Harvester Gun.  Only 3 more hull points to go.

Unfortunately, that is all the damage I take - I was a little nervous that some bad luck on my side would wipe all three units from the board and I would auto lose.

2 - Daemons

I roll for reserves and get Daemonettes, Screamers and Bloodcrushers in.  I want to threaten his Leman Russ, so I drop the Daemonettes so a good run move and charge can assault it next turn, while the Screamers get ready to Turbo Boost right in front of the Executioners to avoid the blasts.  the plagues move over and grab the Relic.

I knock down the plasma squad to 3 models with a grinder Phlegm shot while the Screamers use their Slashing attacks to put a dozen wounds into the other veterans who promptly die a horrible death.  

It may not look it, but I am 1" from the Russ and spread out to minimze plasma damage.

The Daemonettes roll a 1 for their run, so I use the fleet reroll to make it a 3 and they spread out a bit.  In the meantime the Soul Grinder made its charge against the guardsmen and ran them off the field of battle 

2 - IG

This turn is picturless, mainly because it is unremarkable.  This is a problem because the guard needed something big to happen.  The command squad takes a plasma shot, but fails to hurt the grinder.  I save 6 of 8 wounds on a 5++ on Daemonettes and lose 3 screamers (it should be 2 but I temporarily forgot they had 2 wounds each!) to enemy fire.  The Valk stays out in reserve, knowing what is good for it at this point.

3 - Daemons

I get in the Flamers and Crushers while the Horrors, that I really wanted, stay out and deep strike conservatively with both, scattering back about 11" with the flamers and hitting dead on for the crushers.

Everyone moves forward, and I lineup charges on the Chimera with the Grinder and the Executioners with the screamers.  The Daemonettes attempt to rip apart the normal Russ.

After runs by the Bloodcrushers and flamers, the board is poised for some carnage.

The grinder tips over the Chimera, then the explosion kills a guardsmen which causes the whole unit to flee 11"!

The Daemonettes rend the snot out of the Leman Russ, and wreck it on Hull Points while avoiding an explosion. 

The Screamers wreck both executioners due to armorbane and AP 2.  I avoid an explosion here as well.

3 - IG

The Valk stays out for another turn, declaring it wants no piece of this fight.  The fleeing guardsmen make it off the table, while the command squad once again fail to glance the grinder.

On a positive note, the Vanquisher uses its multi-meltas to wreck the Grinder in what has become the bermuda triangle of vehicles.

The dwindling guard firepower just cannot take down so many large tough targets and it is my turn.

4 - Daemons

The Horrors Deepstrike but scatter badly, I wanted to shield the plagues with them and/or pass off the objective.

More importantly, I move to protect the relic with my crushers nearby and wait for his Valk.  I finish off his command squad with the Daemonettes.

4 - IG

The Valk comes in and takes some pot shots at the Plagues, which I save.  This picture is from the next turn when I move all my Horrors behind it to shoot and the Screamers neraby to block his movement.

5 - Daemons/IG

I have this one, but my opponent makes a go of it and tries to shoot down some plagues.  he gets the relic one, but I grab it back on the turn 6 that we roll.

I gave up First Blood! with my deep strike mishap, but I get all the other points.

Daemons take it 5 - 1

Closing Thoughts

I think I lucked out a little bit in my wave selection int his game.  The Grinders were much stronger against the IG than I had anticipated, and even if those Meltas had gotten there, my other Daemons would have eaten the squad.  I really cannot fault my opponents play on this one, other than to say he left his Chimeras a little too close together - I might have put one behind the hill.  Otherwise, it was not a great matchup with so many assault bodies on my side of the field.

An interesting alternate note - thus far I have played 3 games of 6th with Daemons, and in all 3 cases I tabled my opponents.  This is at least, partially, an endorsement for how much better Daemons are now that they can freely assault vehicles to wreck them.  Further, I do not think most players have transitioned well from the 5th edition to 6th edition mindset for construction and tactics.