Men and Daemons

Road to Adepticon, Part I

In preparation for Adepticon. I adjusted my work scheduled so I could get a few free weekdays this month to try to get a ton of practice games in. With two different events to compete in...and rusty as hell with my Empire. (I've only played 4 games with my Empire since late October) I knew yesterday was going to be rough, and I was right. I managed to squeak in 4 games yesterday and man where they brutal- as they should be in prep for a tourney environment., I tried out a new list yesterday featuring the Emperor of the Empire himself, Karl Franz. I've run Karl before and my results are pretty similar...while his static bonuses (18" leadership 10, Magic Resistance 3, 4+ Ward Save) are great, they become awesome when combined with presence of the Imperial Banner, which allows re-rolls of any psychology tests for everyone in range. So with both the BSB and Franz in the same unit, your looking at re-rolling Break Tests, Panic, Fear, and Terror on Leadership 10. For an army whose main problem is that it runs away easy being an enviroment where asll the top tier Armies are immune to psych and cause fear, terror ..etc., this is huge benefit. Not to mention the Emperors legendary Hammer Ghal Maraz..hit most things on a "3" as auto wounds with no armor saves with unsaved wounds being d3 wounds. All this sounds great except that he and the banner are 1/4th of your army.


The reason I mention Daemons is that in my playing Daemons last the 4 months I've played 15 games and only lost 3 games outright and 1 that was an objective win for Bob's Ogres even thou I tabled him. and one was the fluky auto-kill of my GUO via the Blade of Realities in my last game with Nate. The other versus Bills Wood Elves in 1500 pt painting challenge match up.
My tourney record for 2008 playing the Empire was 3-7-2..... So my soft Daemon lists (soft vs tourney standards, they aren't easy by any stretch) are winning about 85% of the time while my Tourney Empire is good only about 40% of time. So it was no suprise yesterday that playing Daemons had made me Lazy...it dulled my thinking on the fragility of my Empire, even with Great Emperor himself...if you don't use your brain your going to get crushed...hence some recaps from yesterday.

My List

Empire
Karl Franz, BSB with Imperial Standard, Captian on Pegasus, Warrior Priest
Swordsmen, Greatswords, 4 detachments, Flagellants, 1- Handgunners w/ HLR, 2- "Vanillia" Knights, 2 Great Cannons.

Game 1. Vs Alex's VC
VC Lord on a Dragon, Blood Knights with Vampire Hero, 2- Zombie Blocks, 2- Skeleton Blocks,
The Black Coachs, 2 units of Hounds, Bats.

Bad Deployment, Both cannons misfire on turn 1, Dragon in my rear, blood knights in my face..
massacre by turn 4....we reboot so I can pull my head out.

Game 2 vs Alex's VC

Much better deployment makes for a much better game, again dice rob me of key hits on the Dragon from my cannons, a long overrun killing some dogs exposes my Greatswords to a flank charge from the bloodknights.. while my Flagellants frenzy pulls them to far away and they got locked with some Skeletons all game. The Emperor can't handle the Dragon and VC lord alone with addtional support from the GS or Flaggies. I stick it out 6 turns but cant protect my cannons, another massacre but a decent showing despite.


Game 3 vs Ken's DoC
Bloodthirsters, 3 Heralds (Khorne on Jug, Nurgle, Tzeentch, ) Horrors, Letters, and Plaguebearers, pair of Fiends, Fleshhounds and Nurgling.

Brutal list but my head is in the game this time....BT eats a cannonball turn 1 takes a pair of wounds...Flys behind my big block Flank charges Karl Franz's unit. while the Khorne Herald charges in my face....despite counter charges...the Juggernaught killing blows the Emperor and I fail my ward save he's dead before ever getting a swing, BT eats my BSB...unit breaks and is destroyed..however the leaves the BT open to alot of shooting next round and my lowly handgunner gun the big guy down...despite losing my point soak..its pretty even at turn 4.
Greatswords chew up the dogs...but both my units of knights tied up by Nurglings they whole freaking game...I kill them and keep both units on the table..but sure could have used else where in the game. My Flagellants tie up plaguebearers all game but eventually die but my Peg Cap kills both fiends with detachment support. In the end Ken's get solid victory soley by the point cost of his Heralds..I needed to kill the Tzeentch herald and I couldn't too much magic with the Hellfire banner was tough combo with only 3 DD.

Game 4 vs Anthony's Orcs and Goblins

Orc- Grimgor, Block of Black Orcs, 2 big Blocks of boys, 2 block of Night Goblins with 3 fanatics each, pair of Shamans on Boars...10 Squighoppers, 4 Bolt throwers, 2 Doom Divers.

Anthony rolls the "Waaggh" spell which is brutal as both his Shaman have powerstones , thanks to an irresitable force he gets Waagh off 3 turns out of 6 and and it would have been four if I didn't roll boxcars on the dispel pretty solid game outside of that...flaggies kept Grimgor tied up long enough to keep him and the black orcs out of the game since they were postioned on the flank side to help protect the doom diver, Fanatics wreaked absolute hell thru both our lines
Franz slaughtered in the minor combats he was in but I couldn't get the unit into anything other than Goblins, My Greatswords got hit by both units of Boys and so went down after a while
all in all not a bad game...but with a 1000 point block left unscathed, I only killed about 800 pts of his stuff vs his 1600 of mine..with supplementals he pushed it up over 1200 and a massacre.

Notes: rough day but all fun games...I don't think I will run Karl Franz as the extra 200 I get back helps me get what I was desperately lacking today , a 4th block..even better a hammer block unit. I've had the most success with my 3 Priests giving three blocks all hatred plus other options with Flagellants in for good measure....plus the magic defense goes up to 6 dice.
Captain on a Pegasus has got to go all well as at 150 points he didn't earn them back at all
even thou in some circles he's a must a have for me...it's not working, unfortunately for me
the new steam tank isn't out until may...but you will see it on the battlefield for me this years.
I'll update my progress on my next mega game day coming up 3/24.