+ Khorne Demons vs Tizz Milksops +

Last Friday was Game #2 with the bloody demons of blood, and this time in an entertaining matchup against the 1000 Sons! This one would be pure 4.0, as the changes we usually play for 4.5 weren't going to matter (deployment and LoS mostly).

Khorne Demons vs 1000 Sons [1500]

Skarbrand
1 'Fiend of Khorne'
12 Bloodletters - instrument, icon
12 Bloodletters - instrument, icon
12 Bloodletters - fury
12 Bloodletters - fury
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos

vs

Sorcerer - MoT, wind of chaos, warptime, wings, icon
Lord of Genericocity
Dreadnought - lascannons, heavy flamer
7 1000 Sons - AS w/ doombolt, icon
7 1000 Sons - AS w/ doombolt, icon
7 1000 Sons - AS w/ doombolt, icon
10 Lesser Horrors
10 Lesser Horrors
Defiler - extra ccw

Deployment: Sons, sons, defiler, sons, dread (banished to the far right flank). Sorcerer, super chicken, quasi-horrors all in reserve.

He won the roll and made me go first ...

Demons 1
I went with the 'wave of flesh' drop, all the bloodletters first. Scatters took 3 squads closer to their automaton targets (but not dangerously so) and 1 squad a bit farther back but I knew he'd close the 12" gap for rapid fire anyway so no worries.

Sons 1
He shuffled that squad into rapid range, and the dread fire frenzied ... into my bloodletters (area terrain to its left blocked LoS to friendlies) and killed 2 to start it off. Defiler smashed 6 from one squad and fire from the sons managed to whip out one icon squad and strip a good amount of demons from other squads. But in short: not enough dead bloodletters.

Demons 2
No demonic reserves arrive, so the bloodletters line up each against a sons squad and prepare to do this themselves. Which they do, each combat exactly doing 7 wounds after inv saves, killing all 3 sorcerers along with their icons.

Sons 2
Just the sorcerer arrives, striking a good 20" away from my demonic shocktroops to insure some of his demons will see the table. The defiler smashes another 6 bloodletters off the table and the dread pops another one off with its lascannon.

Demons 3
Everybody shows up, summoning around the remaining bloodletter icon. 2 bloodletter squads move towards the sorcerer, keeping their distance with the knowledge that the generic demons can assault after summon UNLIKE themselves ... Skarbrand and the 2 princes bellow at the defiler, causing 1 glance that is ignored (shaken). The 3rd bloodletter mob (and the largest) charges the defiler to silence its cannon and hope the render can do his thing. He can't and a couple demons are crushed with Skarbrand's rerolled hits.

Sons 3
10 demons summon off of the sorcerer's icon, right before the sorcerer explodes into the super chicken, removing the last icon and leaving the other 10 demons to drift in the warp. The dreadnought blood rages into the area terrain ruins near it and while my render demon gets 2 rending penetrates on the defiler he also rolls double 1's ... and the defiler pulps a couple more with Skarbrand's reroll.

Demons 4
Not wanting to wait for his demons to leave their difficult terrain bunker, I move 8 bloodletters up within 12" of his demons. Then instead of being at least a little cautious I slam the fiend into the horrors, with the hope of killing something and holding them up. Sadly the fleet roll is 1" too short to make it into terrain, which means the fiend is assaulting into cover instead of from within it. With no offensive grenades the 'horrors' easily kill it with Skarbrand's reroll. Elsewhere Skarbrand saves the bloodletters' bacon by killing the defiler 5 times over (with no explosion).

Sons 4
The dread fire frenzies again, into my bloodletters killing 2. His horrors push through cover and assault my bloodletters, killing 7 for the loss of 3 with Skarbrand's reroll, and popping the last thanks to No Retreat. The greater demon moves to the left, away from my menacing princes.

Demons 5
Skarbrand started his sprint towards the super chicken, the twin princes move to deal with the horrors and the remaining bloodletters try to gain some cover to avoid losing any more models to the dread (3 in one squad and 6 in the other). The princes breath on the horrors, and despite him trying to pull models out of 6" one prince manages the charge, butchering the generic thingies with Skarbrand's reroll. Skarry himself fleets well and charges the super chicken, brutalizing it into small parts thanks to his own reroll.

Sons 5
The dreadnought keeps his cool and takes a potshot at Skarbrand, but the shot is saved by his 4+ inv.

Demons 6
Bloodletters gain some cover and everybody watches as the Main Man begins the long run into the dreadnought (about 24").

Sons 6
The dread fire frenzies a third time, into Skarbrand for 2 wounds.

Demons 7
With a strong fleet, Skarbrand hits the dread and frags him several times.

DEMONS WIN

This game was always going to be he shoots me back to the warp or I hellblade his face in, and the hellblades won. Wiping out all his squad icons and vessels in 1 round - without Skarbrand around for rerolls that mattered to me - was quite fortuitous, though the generic demons were as a pain against my bloodletters as I expected, with basically identical stats but cheaper. His walkers performed perfectly IMO, his defiler racking up 15-16 dead bloodletters (!!!) and his dread scoring 5 bloodletters or so and 2 wounds on Skarbrand with all those favorable fire frenzies.

Listwise, I still like the mathhammer behind taking 2 fiends vs 5 flesh hounds - better in soooo many ways really - but 1 fiend wasn't going to be as useful in this case, more of a tank hunter when you give it +1S as well. 40 points for a beast with 6 S6 rending attaks (and hit-and-run) is a good buy, and I've got some conversions in mind to make some proper "gorefiends." Skarbrand I like but his reroll causes me more anxiety than its worth - like against I5+ enemies and those in cover - and I think a 270 point bloodthirster w/ might is far better vs 300 point Skarry.

Building: Demon Prince #2
Painting: Ogre Ironguts