Daemons, Deathwing, and Conversions

First order of business...the Daemon vs. Xardian's Footslogging CSM batrep. I didn't bring the camera, so you'll have to rely on my memory and good old MS paint diagrams.

The Battle Report
Scenario: Table Quarters w/ 4 Objectives

Xardian's CSM, the Red Team
Lord w/ Mark of Tzeentch, meltabomb, power weapon, Disc of Tzeentch ('L')
3 Large (15-16 man) squads of CSM; Icon of Chaos Glory, Champ w/ Fist, 2 specials (flamers or a meltagun) ('M')
2 Squads of 4 Terminators Each (3x PW/Combi-plas, one w/ powerfist/heavy flamer) ('T')
2 Havoc Squads (10-man w/ Chaos Glory; one with 4 missiles, one w/ 2 autocannon, 2 missiles)
1 Squad of 8 Lesser Daemons

Chaos Daemons (as inspired by Stelek), the Blue Team
3 Heralds of Tzeentch (Chariot, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch, Soul Devourer) ('H')
3 units of 5 Fiends of Slaanesh ('F')
4 units of 5 Plaguebearers ('P')
2 units of 8 Bloodletters ('B')
3 Daemon Princes (Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze) ('M')

Chosen Half: 2 Heralds, 3 Fiends, 3 DP

The Battlefield
Objectives (the Green X's)
Grey Blobs: rocky area terrain
Black Polygons: 2-story buildings



Turn one?
I win the roll, and let him go first. He sets up with a large squad on both objectives, and a squad headed down towards the bottom. Havocs are in tidy little shooting spots.

I…promptly fail to get the correct half of my army; the Chaos Gods flip me a ‘1’. Plague Bearers come down on two of the objectives, and one squad gets ready to hide some. Bloodletters come down behind the Plaguebeaers, and hope to use them for cover. My Herald comes down without incident, and promptly accounts for 3 marines that are in the open.
Turn 2
The guns come on. He wipes out the Bloodletters on the far flank; they were going to think about end-running and assaulting a squad. The other squad gets cut down to half, and his Lord detaches to go charge the plaguebearers. They promptly tie combat.

I roll a Daemon Prince, a Herald, and all three fiends. One squad of Fiends promptly strikes off the table and dies from the mishap. The Bloodletters find a gap in the chunk of Plaguebearers, and get into melee with the Lord. We tie combat with two wounds.

Turn 3
He promptly one-rounds the Daemon Prince with some Terminators and plasma. Damn if he’s not got a lot of icons and a lot of room to deep-strike stuff. Marines advance and pour fire into a Herald, and get two wounds on it. Marines shuffle, and don’t assault. Can’t say I blame them. Shooting occurs; stuff dies, and then the Bloodletters hack a wound off the Lord and the Plaguebearers finish it off.

The other Herald and a Daemon Prince join the fray. The Prince looks around and picks a spot to pick on Havocs with. He then picks on Havocs. My Fiends and Bloodletters promptly massacre one of his squads; the other Fiends promptly engage the Terminators and beat ‘em up. The Plaguebearers charge the nearby marine squad after the Heralds soften them up; there are two models left when the zombies hit: the Icon and the Champ. Champ falls. The third herald, who just arrived in left field, guns down more marines. Now it's not reflected in the diagrams, but the Summoned Lesser Daemons DO beat down a wounded Herald, and the other one takes two Fearless wounds.

Turn 4
A Daemon prince goes ‘poof.’ Damn, that’s happening with some kind of frightening regularity…his Daemons and last Terminators arrive. He proceeds to LIGHT UP the Bloodletters, and they die. They’d consolidated into cover by the Havocs, gone to ground, and STILL busted out a bunch of 1’s and 2’s. His Daemons tie up the nearby heralds in CC, and the remaining dude in that squad just keeps lasting. He’s made about 7-9 power armor saves by now. My Fiends finish off the Terminators that had KO’ed the prince.

My last Daemon Prince arrives; it and the herald light up the marine squad on the far side and whittle it down to a handful of fellows. The mostly-full Fiends proceed to help eat up the Lesser Daemons, and the remaining Fiend charges into his Terminators, and actually kills one. The Daemon Prince and Herald finish off that last, depleted squad.

Turn 5
His Terminators finish off that last, recalcitrant Fiend. They consolidate towards the nearest Plaguebearer squad. Additionally, I FINALLY finish off that straggling marine. At this point, he thinks it’s looking pretty grim.

In my turn, I lay claim to the other two objectives, and we toy with a turn six. It’s not enough to dislodge me.

Victory: Daemons.

Casualties:

CSM: 3 large CSM squads, Terminator squad, Lord, Daemons

Daemons: 2 Daemon Princes, 2 Bloodletter squads, Fiends x1, Herald x1

All in all, a bloody, brutal, fun throw-down. I'd wanted soemthing other than my dice-damned Eldar, especially after the last weekend. We also completed our trade, so I'm out some more mothballed Marines and up 2 Vypers and a well-converted Wave Serpent. I have plans for them...

Daemon Conversions

I'll eventually put up more pics, but part of the point of starting Daemons was, for me, the conversions. Someone recently chanced across my blog who's doing Daemons for much the same reason; go check out Lady Falcia's conversion blog. Interesting paint scheme and theme, and while I've seen Dryads used as Horrors, I haven't seen them incorporated in that manner.

But, I'm looking for Bloodletters...I ask Xardian, and he suggests good old Sisters Repentia. No one uses the blasted things much any more, and I could probably e-bay them for cheap. Knock a few Eviscorators out, and replace 'em with hammers. I mean, Bloodletters have a big, bad, power weapon, so why not go that route and use someone with a big two-handed weapon? I mean, I'd looked at some of the Fantasy folks with Great Weapons, except they tended to be metal and expensive. Not really what I'm looking for, for starters.

The Chaos-Wing List

I think I figured out what to do with the remainder of the points; I hand the Librarian a combi-weapon and trade out the last Cyclone Missile Launcher for an assault cannon. Then, I don't have to buy a damned thing. The army would then look like...

Belial

Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Combi-weapon (probably melta or flamer)

4x Terminator Squads w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist

1x Terminator Squad w/ Assault Cannon, Chainfist, Apothecary

2x Command Squads w/ 2 meltaguns, Apothecary

Total: 1850, aw yeah.

The command squads give me more apothecaries and make you make me take more saves. Ha.

And, I've got plenty of Terminators, and more than enough bodies. Tiem to think more on the conversion theme, but I'm thinking in terms of robes (to cover up the Imperial iconography) and some head swaps, and probably chaosing-up some Chainfists.

There's also the issue of covering up a whole lotta Crux Terminatus.

On the Painting Front: Tau

...man, assembly-lining 32 kroot is fun. Sure, we'll call that 'fun', but at least after that the Tau army I'm working on is damn near painted. Still 5 Crisis Suits, 2 Broadsides, and a hammerhead down, but it's getting there. Got a Crisis Suit painted up (mostly), and got the Fire Warriors done up.