War of Attrition

 After the success of last week's game, the stars aligned to again allow Da Masta Cheef and I to play another game at the 750 point level. Only this time I wanted to play something totally different as the marines just didn't satisfy me enough to run that same list again. After scouring my lists and miniatures for options I decided to run with a Chaos Daemons of Slaanesh army.  I hadn't played them in ages and thought that they would make for an interesting challenge against the Primaris guns. 

Siph vs. She Who Milks.

I chose three units of Daemonettes, two of these units have a banner and a musician simply due to my older models not having those options. My Fiends of Slaanesh are in a 5 critter squad. Yes they are unpainted while I try to figure out if I need to make their bases bigger or not. My Herald of Slaanesh is the old half-snake bodied Chaos Champion model whom I have named Sourkiss. And finally my original Keeper Of Secrets, She Who Milks, as... a Keeper Of Secrets. I had intended to run her as a Daemon Prince but I needed to fill the points so I figured what the heck, let's try her out. With the only "shooting" coming from the two psykers, I expected to be gunned down with ease.

The Slaaneshi Daemons gather.

The Ultramarines gathered and they are as follows: Two Primaris Lieutenants (the painted one is the Warlord), a Primaris Ancient, Assault Intercessors (5 man unit), Intercessor Squad (10 man unit), and 5 Hellblasters. The Ancient and one of the Lieutenants hadn't even been in Cheef's possession for a full 24 hours yet, fresh from their previous owner. 

Ultramarines (just pretend they're all blue).

We selected a mission from the Open War deck and ended up with War Of Attrition for the mission, the quarted deployment zone, and Champion for the Twist. I made the Herald my Champion and his Lieutenant was the Ultramarines Champion.

Open War!

For some reason we decided to play on a smaller board than last week. This would have a crucial impact on how this game turned out and I will discuss it more at the bottom of this report 

Deployment.

Turn 1.

Cheef won the roll off and chose to go first. He immediately declared the Fiends as his Priority Target, which I think was probably wise.

It's a Ruse!

The Hellblasters unleashed hot death on the closest Daemonette unit, leaving nothing left but a steaming pink mist. I was honestly worried that the Daemonettes would be gunned down faster than WW1 soldiers leaving a trench. The Keeper of Secrets took a few wounds as well, but was still at maximum strength.

Bullets and blasts strike the daemon horde.

And the Slaaneshi horde surged forward and fast. The Fiends are incredibly quick as is the Keeper. The Keeper put the psychic power Delightful Agonies on the Fiends to give them a bit more resilience.  They smashed into the Assault Intercessors, slaughtering them. 

Fast and furious.

Both Primaris Lieutenants joined in the melee as well and despite dishing out some wounds neither survived. 

On Cheef's Turn 2 the Hellblasters all but vaporized another unit of Daemonettes leaving only the Aluress.

Turn 2 overview.

Slaanesh Turn 2, the Keeper Of Secrets and the lone Alluress charge the Hellblasters. The Fiends, who were again blessed with Delightful Agonies, charged the troops on top of the bunker. Although the Keeper did Perils 3 Wounds off of itself while casting Smite on the Hellblasters prior to the charge! The Hellblasters successful took some wounds off of the Keeper via Overwatch attacks, but even on it's second stat tier the thing was an absolute beast in close combat. When it was over, there were no Hellblasters left. 

The tide turns.

The Fiends became locked in melee with the Intercessors on top of the bunker, who held firm compared to their peers. They were joined by the other battle squad who assaulted into the the Fiends also. 

Ganging up on the Fiends, the way they like it.

The Keeper Of Secrets stormed up the field in pursuit of the Primaris Ancient while the Fiends whittled away at the two Intercessors squads.

"Bring it!"

The Alluress joined the fray, killing off the last of one of the Intercessor squads.

The final cuts.

With the fall of the Intercessors, it was down to the Primaris Ancient to hold the line against the Keeper of Secrets.

Face off!

At one point he broke away, and got a few more licks in on the Keeper. The Keeper was down to just 4 Wounds left. It wasn't even about survival at this point, it was about defeating that damned Greater Daemon. 

The final gambit...

Tenaciously, the Ultramarines made it to Turn 5, with the Primaris Ancient standing alone against the comparative horde of sex starved daemons descending upon him. But a potent Smite from the Keeper of Secrets finally brought him down. And this is how it ended. Slaanesh definitely claimed this world, may the orgy comense!

Mind blowing final stand! 

Well, that didn't go the way I thought it would! The Daemons of Slaanesh were like a combine vs. a wheat field. Quite incredible to behold, but also too good. I need to add some more lower powered daemons, probably Steeds, to fill in the points and reduce She Who Milks down to a Daemon Prince. My two three most important (to me) take aways are:

• Don't take Greater Daemons in a list below 1000 points. Or even 1250 points. They are just too dominant, and yes, a points sink, but a bit too much for an opponent with just 750 points to bear. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
• Don't reduce the battlefield foot print. I get why GW decided to do this in this edition for smaller game sizes, but yeah, it speeds up the game, but the assault armies gain an unbalanced edge for it. The shooty armies will be able to shoot more on the bigger table, but I believe that they should be able to shoot more. 
• Stick with Objectives. Focusing on holding and securing objectives is a core element of the game now. Yes, you can have your "let's just kill each other" games, but the meat grinder just isn't as challenging, or as fun, without those additional focal points that Objectives give to the game.

The army played like clock work and I found them easier to run than the Space Marines. Honestly, I think the 8th edition Codex armies to be easier to operate, the 9th edition ones seem to be too bogged down. Cheef and I definitely prefer the closer, more challenging, type games. This wasn't that. I don't play games to crush my opponents soul, or sour their joy of the hobby, but to have fun, so I regret that this went this way.  I'm not saying Cheef or I didn't have fun, but we would prefer the more balanced games.