First impressions of Codes: Khorne Daemonkin

Image courtesy of Games Workshop

I got my skulltaker edition the other day and played my first game against eldar with a slaughtercult and a charnel cohort. Here is what I learned.

The hounds are worth their weight. Scouting them up really messes with the enemy's target priority. I say take two squad of 8.  I think there is going to be a decent debate about where to take the hounds, either in the Gorepack or in a Charnal Cohort.

I deep struck two squad of blood letters and thanks to BftBG it was very liberating not having to worry about mishaps. I could be a little more daring with their positioning. If they died, who cares? two tithe points! If they got blasted next turn, who cares? two tithe points and they are keeping shots off my other guys. If they live furious charge and a tithe bonus will assure I wipe out whatever I assault.

I think Berzerkers are dang near useless. Why should I take them when I can run cheaper marines that have bolters and a CCW for two points per and combine them with the tithe bonus that gives them rage and furious charge? If they are getting charged then I failed in my positioning so I don't need counter attack. I have the ability to go to ground. I can use my bolters to double tap after I disembark from my rhinos. The tithe bonus, especially with the slaughtercult, makes them better than berzerkes, especially for the points.  Thier only saving grace is WS 5 and if you have the points take them, but I think more can be done with CSMs

I ran my lord as cheap as I could on a juggernaught with a sigil and goredrinker. I put him with a full squad of spawn so he wouldn't lose anything out on majority toughness. I think as long as you hug terrain it shouldn't be much of an issue. Goredrinker is nuts. I want to pair goredrinker with an axe of khorne so later in the game he a cheaper, faster abaddon. All it takes is 8 kills.

A squad of 8 bloodcrushers with a herald that gave hatred was a major beatstick. With all the target priority shenanigans these guys were able to move up the field and wreak havoc. I think they are a glass cannon, though. Enough shooting and they will fall pretty easy. That is why comboing them with other fast moving units like hounds works well.

If a rhino is being used don't mess with blowing smoke. You want them dead for that tithe point. Move them flat out for that extra 6 inches instead. A quick aside, if the enemy kills my rhino can my marines assault in my next turn? I remember there being a rules debate about this but I don't remember.

I used my cultists as objective campers but it brought up a really good issue of objective placement. I say place them in a potential mid field or entice a bias to one side and make sure the enemy gets it. Khorne Demonkin can move so fast that having units sitting in the back on objectives is a waste. Put those cultists up front early to get the blood tithe points for that army wide FNP or to summon some demons.

The tithe overall is great but not much past option 4. 5 and 6 are situational. I think if you can take advantage of some shooting with the skull cannon on some bunched up enemies then go for it. But summoning stuff that can't act for one or two turns is almost useless, not to mention sacrificing a character somewhere. 7 and 8 I think are really almost useless. Unless you can put a prince or thirster out on turn two, or one somehow, then they aren't going to have enough effect on the game to make it worth while. Besides, if you can get one out that early then the enemy is dying so fast you aren't going to need him or your models are dying so fast that putting even a thirster out there isn't going to make a difference. Coming in turn 3 and flying they might only effect two units.

+1 attack characteristic will help your guys survive or finish subsequent rounds of assaults really nice. Army wide FNP is super awesome. If you know you are going to mass assault something the rage/furious charge tithe will smash the enemy and save you from having to buy berzerkers.

I think the artifact armor on a flying demon prince would be cool but that is 250 points and would be too expensive by then.

Overall this codex is great and will take a lot of people off guard. As someone said elsewhere losing units really buffs your army

‘Ard Boyz Style Tournament 03-20-2010

I played in an 'Ard Boyz style tournament this weekend and took 3^rd place. The lists were 2500 points and I took a full on World Eaters list.
My list:
HQ:
Kharn
Demon Prince w/MoK


Elite:
5 Chosen w/ Autocannon, Melta Gun, Flamer, IoCG

5 Chosen w/ Autocannon, Melta Gun x2, IoCG


Troop:
4x8 Khorne Berzerkers w/Skull Champ & Pfist, Rhino
2x10 Chaos Space Marines w/ Aspiring Champ &Pfist, 2x Melta, IoCG, Rhino


Heavy Support
3x Vindicator w/ Demonic Possession


Strategy:
Beat everything into submission. The Demon Prince was my anti-walker/anti-tank/Bullet Sponge.


Game 1: World Eaters vs Space Wolves

The mission was 5 objectives, one in the center and one in the center of each table quarter.
I played a goof fellow named Brad and in his list he had Logan Grimnar, two Rune Priests, 2 sets of terminators w/ assault cannons, 2 sets of long fangs, 3 set of grey hunters, and a group of scouts that outflanked. Everything but the scouts, who outflanked, were in drop pods. I barely glanced at his army list or even at his army after I deployed and moved on my first turn, then I noticed he had drop pods. All of my rear armor was exposed.
Strangely enough, he didn't get behind my vindicators and his shooting on his first turn was uneventful. His squad of grey hunters put a good hurt on my Chosen on one edge of the board.
On my turn (top of 2) the demon prince and a squad of Berzerkers got into position to assault some grey hunters. One of the terminator drop pods had scattered right in front of the vindicator wall and all but one lived after he made 3 invulnerable saves. The demon prince and berzerkers made quick work on the grey hunters squad, but a powerfist took out some berzerkers before the last one died on his turn.
On Brads turn he brought in some other stuff another long fangs and Logan Grimnar moved in to get close to the demon prince. His shooting killed the demon prince off leaving Grimnar open for the 6 berzerkers who took shelter.
Turn 3, the berzerkers moved in on Logan, shot bolt pistols at him, and the assault took him down, only removing one berserker. I positioned some vindicators, melted the lone terminator, shot at the other grey hunters.
Brad brought in another drop pod of terminators and a grey hunter squad, and again his shooting was ineffectual. Some berzerkers and a vindicator took out the grey hunters and the terminators that came from their drop pod were also vindicated. The CSMs I had shot and assaulted the last grey hunters squad and the two sets of berzerkers assaulted the other long fangs squad and rune priest wiping them out.
Time was short so brad got to finish his turn where pretty much all he had left was a long fangs squad. I think I finished the combats on his turn for all of his other troops and what not.
In the end I controlled 3 objectives and contested the rest, a massacre. Kharn and a squad of berzerkers never left their rhino. With bonuses I was at 22 points.


Game 2: World Eaters VS Slaanesh/Nurgle

Luck could not have been more in my favor. Of all the other games everyone else won a massacre and most of the bonus points putting them at 23. Because I had 22 I was at the back of the pack of the "winners". All of the losers had 0 points, except for one person who had 1 bonus point. Because of this I was to face the player with 1 bonus point. So that meant all of the others were playing seasoned veterans high on their glorious victories and I was playing an already demoralized opponent.
This mission had two moving objectives that scattered 4d6" every turn if a scoring unit was not within 3" at the start of every player turn. As luck would have it on turn 5 the objectives scattered within 6" of each other on turn 5 and I was able to spread and hold both objectives with a single troops choice.
The gentleman I played is named Ashton and he had a Terminator lord, 2 sets of terminators that were deep striking, 2 vindicators a Las/bolter predator, a nurgle demon prince with warptime, 3 squads of chaos space marines, and 1 squad of noise marines with a blastmaster, and 1 squad of plague marines. The only armor he had were the vindicators.
The first couple of turns was just moving. One of my vindicators put a hurt on some plague marine killing a couple. His vindicators did nothing as he shot at my vindicators as mine were possessed.
I don't recall all of the turn sequence and what happened in what order but here are the highlights. His plagues were wiped out by squad of berzerkers after being thinned out by a vindicator. I sacrifieced a CSM squad to be able to get my berzerkers into position and they brutally slaughtered the CSM when it was time.
One group of his terminators deep struck in and shot at a couple of things but did nothing. I moved a rhino in to be able to assault. On his turn he blew up the rhino and assaulted into the crater, going at initiative 1. The berzerkers still did a good job and tied them up until they were wiped out.
His other squad of terminators and chaos lord were a complete waste of points. They deep struck in and stunned a rhino. One vindicator swung around, fired with a direct hit, and wiped out all but one puny terminator, which was promptly melted. Oh what a world, what a world!
My vindicators blew up one of his and immobilized the other. I forgot to move the demon prince in to assault but on my next turn the demon prince was able to smash his last vindicator to bits then swooped over and did the same to his predator, and finally assisted in wiping out the blastmaster noise marine squad.
His demon prince was whittled down to one wound with the help of autocannons and Kharn's plasma pistol and was killed quite easily by a squad of berzerkers.
Of the 3 CSM squads he had two were killed by berzerkers and Kharn put all 7 of his attacks onto them wiping them out.
His last man survived while Kharn overheated and saved his plasma shot and a squad of 5 berzekers failed to cause any wounds, but then promptly pounded him into the dirt.
I completed wiped the board of Ashton's models and lost only 750 or so in victory points. I also obtained all of the bonus points to score 24 points and placing me in first place!


Game 3: World Eaters VS Orks
The game was Dawn of War, Annihilation.
I really wasn't looking forward to this game as I had never played orcs before. I played Topher who had two 30 man boyz squad with a nob leading them who had a power claw, two battle wagons and 3 or 4 trukks, 2x2 deffcoptas, and a squad of commandos. One of his HQs was a generic one and the other I don't remember. One of the boyz squads, lead by his other HQ, had feel no pain. Oh, there also two nobz squads, the ones with 2 wounds and they were all different, his other HQ was leading this squad.
I made too many errors this game. The vindicators lived only long enough to fire one shot. The berzerkers killed tons but couldn't survive the overwhelming number of powerclaws hitting back. The demon prince was smacked down with all of the ungodly amount of powerclaws, too. All I did this game was hang back and try and place my rhinos to be able to get the assault off and that didn't work out to well as I forgot/didn't pay enough attention to the battle wagons and trucks and they were able to move up, disembark, and cause some real damage. The Waagah didn't help either.


Results

I lost only to a major (or minor, I forget) victory. If either one of us had won this game with a massacre we would have gone on to win the tournament. That was not the case as I took 3^rd, Topher took 2^nd, and another fellow took first. I won $20 for my efforts, which is nothing to complain about!


Other Thoughts
I was very fortunate to be able to play the opponents in the beginning that I did. I feel that if I had more experience playing orcs I could have done better and would have used a different strategy. However, even with a great deal of more experience, a massacre and a win for the tournament would have been hard to pull off.
This was the first time I had used a Khorne Demon prince and he did pretty well for what I intended him for: acting as a bullet sponge and letting my other units get into place.
I spent a lot of time painting my Kharn model and several people gave me praise for my efforts.
I bought a drop pod with the money I won. I am going to use it for apocalypse games.