Next battle was with The Sunder as the main players (as my Daemons can only go so far currently), you can read the batrep here It was quite interesting to get them together again, there's some good opportunities for cross over abilities and bonuses that I need to maximise to help counter the lack of points for the special and fancy units. The final game was once again Daemons only, this time against Blood Angels.
Blood Angels 500pts
Deployment
A lot of capable shooting, backed up with some good combat prowess wasn't a great force to be facing and less so without any cover to work with. However with only the Relic to really worry about there was opportunity enough, it was a matter of seeing what I could do to make the most of my advantages.
Turn 1
I get first turn and decide to keep it as whatever happens there's a lot of bullets coming my way! There's nowhere to go so the only real movement is advancing up a squad to claim the Relic as I wait to see what happens next.
As expected, what happens is lots of bullets but with the Stratagem to increase their save by one and another to auto-pass Leadership the remaining Daemonette holds on to the Relic - for now at least as a single Daemonette won't last long.
Turn 2
The surviving Daemonette moves back as far as she can, but there's not much that can be done as there's nowhere to go. I send the Fiends and Prince up to remove the flanking Scout squad for one less thing to worry about (though the Prince perils, keeping the standard of poor psychic showing). I drop in my reserved Daemonettes behind the other Scouts but they can't make the charge even with a re-roll which isn't ideal. My plan is to try and survive with the Relic and use the Prince and Fiends to push back, but it all depends on if I can obstruct those Assault Cannons...
As expected the line Daemonette can't last, nor can the other squad which is badly reduced with only two left after morale. I'm running out of models quickly and can't expect to hold the Relic unless I get lucky... Go forth, Lord Crutch!
Turn 3
I've got to throw everything I have in as quickly as possible, and try and even the scales. Fortunately the Enrapturess can do this, moving up to gain sight on the Scouts and claim the Relic she shoots them down. The Prince and Fiends Advance and charge the Razorback, just managing to strip it down. With the rear Daemonettes moving up I'm back in the fight, it all rests on how much damage I can inflict so turn 3 will likely be critical both ways!
The Death Company and Corbulo move up, unable to add much with their shooting but the Scouts reduce the Daemonettes and take out the Enrapturess. Corbulo charges the Daemonettes to take them out, but this lets the Prince activate first. Even with a Stratagem to improve their Feel No Pain the DC are no match and four are taken out! Nobody is going to be able to claim the Relic now, so it's now a slugging match...
Turn 4
The Prince has no problem finishing the job, though unfortunately it had to be in the combat phase (he's near useless as a psyker it seems!). I can line myself for some good charges next turn which is just as well as Assault Doctrine and all sorts fires off and the surviving Daemonettes are wiped out after their charge.
The rest of the game is straight forward. The Techmarine moves up but can't do much good. In turn 5 the Fiend engages him and the Prince moves up to Smite the Scouts and prepare for a charge next turn as he failed his. In return the Fiend is finished off, causing a roll for the next turn - it's a two so the game ends! My opponent thought he'd be able to grab the Relic if it had gone on until I pointed out there was no way in hell the Techmarine would outrun the Prince
It was a pretty epic game, and I ended up doing a lot better than I had expected but once again the Prince needed to do the real work along with the Fiends who were again great with their speed and threat for it. All the more so, had the game gone on the Prince would have tied it up easily for me. Hopefully in larger games with more units this won't be the case, as it's not a good plan to rely on one or two models to win you games...
I was glad to get lots of Daemon only games in, aside from the aim being to have a full Detachment of Daemons ready for this it's given me a lot of useful experience to learn the army so I'm feeling like I have a good practical grasp of them now. They're certainly fragile, and much rests on getting those charges in when you need them but very quick. It was quite different to have only the single ranged attack too (which fired maybe half the time ), there's a certain purity of purpose in only caring about stabbing
I'll have a bit of time to mull over my Daemons as I work on other projects as a short break, but after some more Daemonettes and of course the Keeper of Secrets I think I need a Soul Grinder. I've been looking at it for a bit now, and figured that it would be a nice reward for my hard work so far