1500pts Dark Angels v Chaos Daemons - New Codex Battle!

Morning folks.

Monday night myself and Sanguinius took part in a battle of the new Codexes between my Dark Angels and his Daemons of Slaanesh. We both had new books we wanted to try out and out of curiosity, to see how bad things were with the Daemon Warpstorm tables.

So, the lists stacked up something like this:

Dark Angels

• Belial (sword and storm bolter)
• Librarian (Terminator armour, Psyker lvl 2)
• 1 Deathwing Dread (Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod)
• 5 Deathwing Termis (3 Storm Bolter and Fist, 1 Assault Cannon and Fist, 1 Storm Bolter and Sword)
• 5 Deathwing Termis (3 Storm Bolter and Fist, 1 Assault Cannon and Fist, 1 Storm Bolter and Sword)
• 10 Tactical Marines (Plasma Cannon, Plasma Gun, Vet Sarge with Plasma Pistol)
• 5 Ravenwing Bikers (2 Plasma Guns, Vet Sarge)
• 1 Ravenwing Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile, Hull Multi Melta)
• 1 Ravenwing Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile, Hull Multi Melta)

 Slaanesh Daemons

• Keeper of Secrets
• 3 Squads of 10 Daemonettes
• 2 Squads of 15 Seekers (was it 15?)
• 3 Squads of 4 Fiends
• Slaanesh Chariot-thing.
• (Probably some more stuff too that I've forgotten)

The mission was to claim Daemonic elements of unknown power (the Scouring) setting up the battlefield in Dawn of War. In a twist, we played Scouring where we didn't reveal the points of each objective until after the game had been decided.

I kept my Deathwing units off the table, hoping they could get a bit further across the board or drop in and get to objectives that were a bit further way. But, being the complete and utter fool I am, completely forgot about Scout moves on the Ravenwing bikers and then also forgot to decide what turn my Deathwing were showing up, so I rolled 1-3 turn 1, 4 - 6 turn 2 and they were destined for turn 2.

As for the Daemons and this dreaded "There's so much stuff to roll for!" whine that's being going around. Considering it was the very first time we've used the Codex, it took all of 5 minutes. Each Sergeant in the Daemonette and Seeker squads had a lesser gift, the Chariot driver had a gift too and the Keeper of Secrets took one. All in all, few minutes rolling and writing down, then done. It only took that long because we couldn't remember what certain weapons and special rulesdid when rolled for (lash of slaanesh).

Turn 1 went to the Daemons, being an objectives game I fancied going second. Big mistake. Daemon horde blitzed over the table thanks to the Daemon of Slaanesh rule, which meant they were all up in my face to deal with on Turn 1.

First Warpstorm roll was the Nurgle one, which as there were no Daemons of Nurgle in the Daemon army, meant only I was affected. Roll for each unit, on a 6 they take a S4 blast hit. Only thing that got hit was a Land Speeder, and wouldn't you know it, rolled a 6 again for a glancing hit.

In my turn, my Drop Pod and Dreadnaught came down near the Slaanesh home objective, managed to flame 2 of them away, but the rest became pretty angry. Land Speeder shooting was pretty ineffective, but the bikes and Tactical squad managed to chip away at the Fiends nearby.

Turn 2 for the Daemons and they were into assault. All the reserves showed up thanks to Instruments in the units, and they all dropped within range of the Keeper of Secrets with his Warlord trait teleport homer thing he rolled for. That meant that pretty much the entire Slaanesh force was heading towards my Tac Marines and Ravenwing Bikes.

Warpstorm time and this time it was the one where a random Daemon character is determined and then has to take a Daemonic Instability test on 3D6. One of the Seeker sergeants bit the dust as a result.

Then the rest of the force went after my Ravenwing Bikes, a unit of fiends and the Chariot chasing them down, 1 made it through to fight in the next round. My Landspeeders and Dread got glanced to death pretty quick from a load of Rending hits.

Turn 2 for the Dark Angels and Belial shows up with his Deathwing bodyguard, hoping to harass the back objective where my Dreadnaught was battered. The Librarian and his Deathwing head over on the right flank to deal with some fiends and Daemon-free objectives over there.

Split fire and Vengeful strike was pretty cool to use here,  along with Malediction from the Librarian (although I completely forgot it later on). But I didn't manage to do any real damage.

Turn 3 for the Daemons and the Seekers and Keeper of Secrets turned to deal with the new threat of Belial and his Deathwing. The Fiends on the far side of the battlefield went hunting down the Librarian and his Deathwing instead, which is where the new Daemonic lack of Eternal Warrior and new Instability came into effect.

Warpstorm this time brought about -1 Invulnerable saves for the Daemons, which was pretty handy for me.

As far as assault goes, Belial's unit got whittled down a ton, but Belial remained standing, ready for another round. A few Daemonettes and Seekers got killed, but the entirity of the Terminators were wiped out.

In the other Assault, my Librarian had cast Malediction on the Fiends who charged in, I completely forgot but it didn't make much difference. I think I lost a Terminator, but in reply the power fists battered the entire Fiend unit.

Turn 4 for the Daemons and it was pretty much consolidate towards objectives. Belial still had a Daemon circle around him so no one else was getting in. The Librarian and his terminators were safe on the flank.

Warpstorm time and this time it was the "choose a random enemy Psyker..." which meant my Librarian, as the only Psyker, failed his 3D6 LD test by rolling a 15. Then he was replaced by a Slaanesh herald which buggered off near an objective to become a denial unit.

Assault time and Belial offered a challenge out to the units, no takers, which meant he then got swamped by the remaining Daemonettes, falling down to 1 wound.

Turn 4 for the Dark Angels and not much to do, other than try and capture the objective with the Librarian-less Terminator unit, by sweeping the newly spawned Herald off it.

Belial was finally pulled down by the weight of Daemons around him failing pretty much all of his Inv saves from the rending.

//----------//

We ended it on Turn 4 as I didn't have much left that could do anything, and with all the faffing around between 2 new Codexes, we'd over-ran on time.

It finished about 10 - 4 to the Slaanesh Daemons who had multiple objectives, Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Linebreaker, whereas I managed to cap the 4pt objective.

All in all, the new Daemons are really fun to use, Slaanesh stuff is EXTREMELY fast and Rending is icing on the cake the fact that pretty much any wounds through me are ignoring my armour saves is nasty. Combine it with Psychic powers, not having to stand around waiting the turn after you deep strike in anymore (since you can deploy on the board) and they're really cool.

Warpstorm wasn't as horrendous as it was made out to be - although losing my Librarian to a random roll was a bit meh, but oh well... And it does really help if you go Mono-God as you can roll results that don't affect you but can still affect an opponent.

As for the Dark Angels, if I had remembered half the special rules and brought them on when I was supposed to, I probably would have done better (lets face it, it can't have gotten much worse?) but that's new Codex syndrome for you. Give it 3 or 4 games and I'll be alright.

Deathwing now are lovely. Split fire really helps with some situations, as does Vengeful strike (twin linking on landing). I'm thinking I may swap some of the Storm Bolters for Storm Shields at the front however, just to start taking wounds on.

My Librarian didn't get much chance to do anything with his powers so I can't really comment on it. Whatever spell he had where the enemy unit cast on it has to re-roll 6s to hit and to wound, would have really helped to stop the amount of Rending getting through.

All in all, a really good game v two new Codexes and I'm excited to see a grudge match with my Khorne Daemons v Slaanesh Daemons to have two of us go head to head with Hatred on the go.

Bye for now!