I was taking to Starsmash the following list:
Baron
Haemonculus with Shattershard
2 x 3 Trueborn with 3 Blasters & Haywire Grenades in a Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
9 Wracks in a Raider with Disintegrator Cannon
8 Wyches with Haywire Grenades in a Raider with Disintegrator Cannon
5 Wyches with Haywire Grenades in a Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
3 Wracks in a Venom with 2 Splinter Cannons
3 Beastmasters, 4 Krymerae & 4 Razorwing flocks
2 x Ravager with 3 Dark Lances each
Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances & 4 Monoscythe Missiles
For Game 1 I was facing the following Daemons list:
Fateweaver,
Bloodthirster,
3 units of 3 Flamers,
3 units of 5 plaguebearers.
10 pink horrors
1 big unit of 9 screamers,
10 flesh hounds,
5 slannesh daemonic cavalry.
A very fast list, with 3 big units in the screamers, hounds and cavalry.
I had first turn and moved into the middle of the board. I circled the beastmasters with the vehicles so they could be flamed much if he decided to go for them.
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| [Note: My opponent was using tyranid gargoyles as screamers, and the hounds are hiding in the ruins, the slannesh cav are behind the ruin on the far right hand flank] |
However both our armies had glass cannon assault units, so after i wiped out the hounds I got charged by the slannesh cavalry and got wiped out myself, giving way the warlord secondary vp.
The screamers with their speed managed to charge a vehicle and wreaked it, but now outside of fateweavers aura and not having a 4+ save fron boosting my army turned on them and reduced them to a couple of models that wyches killed in combat.
A trend over the tournament was that once my units got out of their transport and killed something to get a pain token they died the next turn, and this was no exception with some flamers making a mess of them the wyches.
An interesting tactic came up when the Bloodthirster mishaped and I got to place him anywhere on the board. I decided to place him 11" diagonally away from corner of the board facing the corner. This meant that he couldn't run off the board without rolling a double six, giving him the hard choice in his next turn; either fly off the board and waste a turn or glide to stay on the board and face the majority of my army's firepower as I was retreating towards that corner. In the end he tried to run off the board, but didn't make it, so in his next turn he decided to fly off the board, which meant that the bloodthirster did not have any effect on the game until very late (he came back on turn 4 swooping so couldn't charge anything until turn 5).
With the beastmasters, large wyches & large wracks gone or gutted, it was now a rearguard action, with my remaining forces retreating while my remaining vehicles poured firepower into the daemons.
Although the game was a bloodthirsty one, I wouldn't make up the disadvantage of having the large kill point total my army has, and the game ended in a loss for the Dark Eldar.
The daemons had some small 5 man units of plaguebearers as additional troops, however you have to focus so much effort to kill the fast threats of flying monstrous creatures, screamers, flamers & cavalry that by the time they arrived there is little to kill the small but very resilient plaguebearers.
Being a kill point mission also helped the daemons as the plaguebearers could hide in ruins and go to ground if necessary, plus they didn't have to spread out to threaten multiple objectives. However this takes nothing away from my opponents good play.
This was second game against Fateweaver, and it cemented in my mind that Tzeentch daemons are definitely a top tier list (note: my opponent only had a unit each of screamers and flamers). Just like you should always ask yourself "How will my army deal with MEQ ?" you should now also ask yourself how will I deal with Fateweaver Tzeentch Daemons - Answers on a postcard...
Given the time since the tournament, the rest of the Starsmash games will be a more summarised version, with another post detailing where I think the meta has moved.
Work continues on my Voidraven which is being painted bit by bit this week. Pics will follow later this week, with the first raiding parties to have the Voidraven deployed are due to make contact with enemy this weekend (the MAD II tournament).
Rathstar