Two more weeks means three more slaughterfests! Because last week's is getting fuzzy - and grad school means I've in fact got papers to grade - we'll be making these shorter and more brutal than usual ...

Anarchonquistadores vs Sisters [1850]

Chaos Space Marines
Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, melta bombs
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor
10 CSM - IoCU, 2 meltaguns, AC w/ powerfist; rhino w/ extra armor
9 CSM - IoCU, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer; rhino w/ extra armor
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, icon
10 Demons
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
Oblit
Oblit

Witch Hunters
Cannoness - MC blessed weapon, 2+ armor, 4+ inv, book of stubborn, paper of auto-pass faith
Cannoness - eviscerator, jump pack, mantle
8 Celestians - meltagun, heavy flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
5 Dominions - 4 flamers, VSS w/ brazier; priest w/ brazier; immolator w/ MM + smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS; rhino w/ smoke
15 Sisters - meltagun, flamer, VSS
7? Seraphim - inferno pistol, hand-flamer, VSS w/ power weapon
Exorcist
Penitent
Penitent

Game: KP, Dawn of War

Highlights:
- Chaos steals initiative! And takes it (to get around first turn of night fight whilst heavy guns get in place)!
- All sisters save the exorcist are beaten to a pulp, through combination of CSM rampage + demon slaps.

Lowlights:
- Shooty CSM not deploying on the board in woodland cover, and spending 2 turns running back to where they should have been.
- All chaos firebase deploying in one corner, and completely running out of targets by turn 3/4.
- Deathscreamer rolling a 1 (no wound) for its first volley, another 1 in combat (wound), a 2 in combat, then a 6 in turn 6 to vaporize the last sisters squad, when a half dozen units were ready to assault them anyway.
- Seraphim + eviscerator canny absorbing an ENORMOUS amount of firepower before the blastmaster levels the squad, leaving the eviscerator to be finally punked by the deathscreamer.
- Dreadtasm (all 3 dreads marauding in posse) shenanigans: first turn, reserve on and keep it together; second turn, 2 fire frenzies & 1 sanity, resulting in 4 dead sisters from 1 plasma, a shaken dread with a trashed plasma from 2 PENETRATING plasma shots from his buddy, and another shaken dread from another sterling plasma pen. From here the dreads kept it in their pants more or less, with 1 patrolling the backfield, 1 dying to exorcist, and another ripping apart a pentitent, an immolator, and a sister squad before sheltering behind the immo hulk from the exorcist's rockets. He was, of course, the dread who double-penned the sane dread earlier ;D

CHAOS WIN

A fun game for sure, where victory was never assured, but the sisters lack of combat teeth meant that while he could button up and ride out my AP3 and power weapons with SotM, eventually he was losing the stat game and raw attaks were beating him apart. He's since upped all his VSS to eviscerators, which makes none of those squads quite the easy KP they used to be.

Also, while the dreadtasm I just have to distance myself from and learn to laugh a bit, the deathscreamer, particularly if I'm wanting to run him in a rhino instead of providing fire support, really is irking me. Great model + versatility means he's not leaving soon, but I have been doing a lot of thinking about alternative models. I really like the Huron model, and powerfist leaders seem to be a doable thing, so I was thinking about something like:

Chaos Lord - MoT, powerfist, combi-flamer/melta

Some possibility there, and cheaper than the deathscreamer currently - also, been thinking about counts-as-ing Huron himself, but while he does have 2 things I love (warptime + heavy flamer), I really want the 4+ inv and don't think he's totally worth dropping 20 points from somewhere in the list.

But back to the carnage! Now with 300% more demons!

Khorne Demons vs Sisters [1500]

Khorne
Skarbrand
Gorefiend - unholy might
16 Bloodletters - icon, render
16 Bloodletters - icon, render
8 Bloodletters
8 Bloodletters
Demon Prince - breath of chaos, unholy might, iron hide
Demon Prince - breath of chaos, unholy might, iron hide

Nuns
Cannoness - eviscerator, jump pack, stubborn book, autopass faith paper
10 Celestians - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
5 Dominions - 4 stormbolters, VSS w/ stormbolter; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator; rhino w/ smoke
10 Sisters - heavy flamer, meltagun, VSS w/ eviscerator
8 Seraphim - hand-flamers, inferno pistols, VSS w/ eviscerator?
Exorcist

Game: 2 objectives, table quarters

Khorne's back for some rompin' & stompin', and the girls got in the way ... I feel like mech sisters are the perfect anti-demons (especially khorne demons) army, so this was gonna be a dicey affair ...

Turn 1
Khorne wins The Roll and makes the sisters go first, and so they faff about and wait for the demons to show up, whilst the seraphim chill in low orbit.

The chaos gods agree with my decision and send down the first wave: both big 'letter squads, a wee eighter squad and the gorefiend. Scatters are minimal, and the big 'letter blobs try to keep close to the sister's corner without drawing the fire of every sister next turn (just most of them). The fiend scatters unfortunately closer to the girls, right in the path of the exorcist, and the eighter plops down near my own objective in the opposite corner.

Turn 2
Girls start brutalizing them some demons, vapping the fiend with rockets and cooking the closest big squad down to 7 or so. The dominions tanked toward the khorne objective, and got some help when the seraphim + canny dropped back there and killed 4 of 8 bloodletters. With no backup really intended to save those 'letters I mostly complained about SotM and invincible seraphim ...

Skarbrand didn't feel like playing, though a demon prince and 8 more bloodletters did, crawling out of the blood-soaked ground near the closest icon to the sisters. The prince yelled at the foot sisters squad, exploding 5 heads and sending them fleeing (but not quite to the edge), whilst the 7-of-16 bloodletters charged the rhino that slewed to a halt in front of them (cooking them with flamer fire in the process). With all those attaks they could only manage to shake it. The 4 letters by the khorne objective charged the seraphim with no high hopes, but despite SotM loads of sisters died for 1 dead demon, leading to a failed -3 break test and a caught seraphim + canny squad! Result!

Turn 3
Fleeing girls rallied, girls in the shaken rhino hoped out and completely wiped the fresh 8-demon squad (heavy flamers bad!), a few bloodletters died from the other big squad, the DP took two wounds from the exorcist, and the dominions dismounted and started hammering the last 3 bloodletters on the khorne objective, killing 1.

Skarry B continued to forsake joining the battle, though the other prince joined his twin brother, dropping with a nice line to yell at the sisters who trashed the 8-demon squad last turn. Which he did, but only popped one. They were charged by the 7 demons from the original big squad, only to lock them down for minimal loses due to SotM love. The wounded DP yelled at the exorcist and blew its tracks off, then charged in and detonated it, with no wound caused to him or his brother. The other big bloodletter squad, still at 11 strong, charged the last loaded rhino and exploded it, killing a girl in the inferno for no demonic loss - AND pinning the squad in the burning crater. The 2 'letters down by the other objective cowered inside the building sheltering the objective ...

Turn 4
The girls were running low, and the greater demon had yet to show up ... The rallied squad from earlier advanced on the wounded DP but couldn't wound it, whilst the celestians continued raining fire down from their perch in a building near the objective, this time wounding the other DP once. The Dominions succeeded in dropping another bloodletter, while their rhino slammed through both walls of the infested building (because it could). Combat continued to lock the demons down, with some bloodletters dying from the larger squad and the other squad gutted entirely, leaving 4 girls free near the objective (and an angry DP).

Skarmaster continued to be a tool and not come play, as the number of models who could benefit from his reroll dwindled ... The DP with 2 wounds piled on the previously rallied squad (after yelling at 1-2 of them), managing to take a wound but not get through the SotM invulns. His brother climbed into the celestians' building and screamed 7 of them to puddles, then assaulted the other 3 and was locked down similarly. And the other bloodletter squad continued to smack the girls, with little result (but not too many dead demons).

Turn 5
- RECAP -
Objective 1: 1 bloodletter vs 5 dominions + 1 rhino
Objective 2: 2 bloodletters (fighting) + 1 DP (fighting nearby) + 1 DP (fighting farther away) vs few girls (fighting) + few more girls (fighting) few celestians (fighting) + 4 girls + 1 rhino

THIS COULD BE IT! So the girls continue along, with only the dominions being able to move, looking into the building's windows to bring the last bloodletter into their sights - they miss / fail to wound / hit the building. With faith severely drained, SotM only goes up on one of the DP fights, leaving the one sisters to die by bloodletter (leaving 2 free) and the other to be smacked by the other DP (leaving the eviscerator). The other DP can't quite stuff the celestians with their inv save.

With no choice, Skarbrand finally appears, off the icon held by 1 of only 3 remaining 'letters on the board. He yells at the 4 sisters sitting on their objective, rupturing 2 of their skulls, but they easily pass their break test. With faith running low, the demon princes are largely free to finish of the nuns and then stomp on their corpses out of sheer spite. And then the last bloodletter down on the khorne objective pounds through the objective 1 building and slams into the dominions, killed 2, taking no wounds back, breaking and catching them! Delicious.

Turn 6
The battle continues! Two sisters + 1 rhino hold the WH objective and a rhino contests the CD one, and after shooting the final bloodletter the rhino triumphantly does wheelies with that objective secure. The last two sisters shoot and assault the final two bloodletters, easily dispatching them and denying the demons any ability to score.

Skarbrand however is unimpressed and orders his demon princes to yell at the women, and the insolent whelps crumple unconscious.

DRAW

100% happy with a draw vs mech sisters, and it was a fun game to be sure. Khorne demons kind of drive me mad with how slow they are, but when you drop all up in the other dude's junk (o_O) I guess that's in fact kinda speedy. Skarry not showing until he had no choice was kinda irksome, and ultimately his rerolls mostly helped the eviscerator chicks hit the DPs more (hitting on 5+ vs WS7). Epic lumberjack action by that bloodletter vs dominions though, high five to that goaty demon.

Khorne Demons vs Tau [1500]

Tau
Shas'el - missiles, plasma, shield, multi, target, 2 shield drones
3 Crisis - twin missiles, target, 2 marker drones
12 Fire Warriors - uberwarfish (SMS, etc)
12 Fire Warriors - uberwarfish (SMS, etc)
Hammerhead - uber (SMS, etc)
Hammerhead - uber (SMS, etc)

Game: 2 objectives, pitched battle

Mech tau then? Yowza ... This could be very bad, with all those fast tanks loaded with a lot of high rate of fire or template guns. Ah well, don't think I've ever faced tau with kr0n, so here goes ...

Unit Breakdown:

Skarbrand - showed up turn 2 as planned, distributed rerolls like a champ, bellowed a fire warrior unit off the table (killed 3, they failed break and ran like fishmen), ran down the table and gutted the crisis team in one go, ran back the other way and tore the shas'el a new one, caught a railgun slug with his 4+ inv but then copped 2 wounds off 2 SMS wounds
Gorefiend - dropped with the first wave, absorbed an epic amount of firepower with his 5+ ward (seriously, so many 5's and 6's), lasered in and assaulted the crisis team before Skarry could get to them and killed 1 suit + 1 drone before being clubbed to death (should have gone for a hammerhead and trusted in Skarry's reroll power to hit it)
16 Bloodletters - dropped first wave, absorbed a DRUNK amount of fire (including 24 fire warriors) whilst keeping the icon waving for the big guys in coming turns, evaporated the other fire warrior squad in vengeance and would die when assaulting the shas'el after being reduced to just 3 models (hey, they killed his drones!)
16 Bloodletters - scattered on top of a hammerhead in the first wave and died :'(
8 Bloodletters - dropped first wave on the chaos objective, and spent 6 turns kissing the dirt and enjoying a 3+ cover save against the attention of the tau grav tanks, but holding it in the end
8 Bloodletters - kindly dropped turn 2 and shook a warfish before cowering on the tau objective for several turns, eventually holding it with 2 bloodletters
Demon Prince - dropped turn 3, chased devilfish around and succeeded in wrecking one by yelling it's engines off (immobilized) and eventually catching and destroying the other with its ten foot long brass sword
Demon Prince - dropped turn 4 with mostly just vehicles left, so followed Skarry around and managed to yell 1 wound off the shas'el before S-Brand tore its face off

CHAOS WIN

I was seriously worried about the battle, but the pressure I exerted so early in the game made him pop his fish-o-fury too soon, leaving his troops very vulnerable to a horrific death. Khorne obliged, and from that point it was a question of him trying to wipe bloodletters out and force a draw, while Skarbrand and his noisy friends chased them around. Frankly he might have tried to power some tanks in and contest an objective in Turn 5 or 6 and chance a draw that way, though I guess I did have a lot of MC waiting for him around the objectives. Entertaining game though, enjoyed.

Painting: Ogre Irongut
Building: N/A

Got in the third battle with the demons, this time against good old marines. My list was the 1500 one below, except with 5 flesh hounds + Keranak instead of the 2 fiends (also 4 less bloodletters). We decided to play pure 4th edition for this one, as pure 5th would have been preferrable but clearly neither of us has the rules yet (and didn't feel like mixing in rules here and there).

Khorne Demons vs Space Marines [1500] - He took:

Terminator librarian + 7 terminators (2 assault cannons, many powerfists)
Jump chaplain (lightning claws, furious charge)
Dread (assault cannon, heavy flamer)
Dread (lascannon, missile launcher)
6 Tactical (lascannon)
5 Scounts (snipers, missile launcher)
10 Assault Marines (furious charge, 2 flamers, fist veteran)
2 Tornados

Demons won the roll for side and gave the marines the side with just one huge ruined building (15" x 30") partially in it, along with a rocky hill to the left and a small wrecked shuttle part to the right. The dreads set up in the building, the tacticals a floor up and the scouts at the top level of the ruin. The terminators and assault marines deployed to the left of the building, and the tornados went down left and right flanks.

Marines won the roll for first and took it.

Marines 1
Speeders moved over 6" ... Everybody else kinda stood around waiting for the carnage.

Demons 1
After much deliberation, I went with the heavy first wave and got it. Skarbrand aimed for the corner of the big building farthest from the termies & assaulters, and scattered off it to the NW. A prince aimed for the same spot and scattered SW, and the other prince aimed for the same spot and again scattered, this time N. 12 bloodletters with icon finished up my drops, and managed to stick on that cursed spot. Skarbrand yelled at the scouts atop the building, killing 2, and the SW prince breathed on the tactical marines and melted 4 of them. Having a shooting phase = totally sweet.

Marines 2
Due to the wonders of area terrain, it looked like retaliation would be minimal this time around. The assault marines hoped the corner of the building and unloaded on the SW prince, getting 0 wounds past his T5. Likewise the dreads and most of the tornado shooting, which managed to put 1 wound on the beast. The lascannon tactical failed his target priority and blasted a bloodletter into atoms instead of hitting the prince, and a scout put a wound on Skarbrand with a krak rocket.

First assault of the game, the chappy and crew slammed into the prince standing in cover (frags meant we'd go simul). The prince slammed 3 wounds on the chappy but only 1 got through his 4+ inv, and in return the chappy gutted the big demon. Massacre moved the assault marines away from the bloodletters glaring at them ...

Demons 2
More demons! 9 bloodletters (render) and 12 bloodletters (icon) made it this time, both summoning off of the icon squad in the marines' general direction. Skarbrand pushed through the area terrain, fleeted a weak 2" and stopped near the dreads - without a 6" assault through difficult terrain he'd miss the terminators on the other side and just jump on a dread instead. The living prince hoped up on the building to play with the 2 tactical marines and the icon bloodletters headed for the chappy's squad. Unfortunately they were 9" away, and 2" out of difficult terrain meant they'd have to charge the land speeder precariously nearby ...

With no yelling this turn it was right to fighting. Skarbrand didn't roll high enough so charged 1" into the fisty dread, detonating it and racking up a few dead assault marines and 4 dead bloodletters in the 6" explosion! He consolidated into the shooty dread right next to him. The prince brutalized the tacticals (4 wounds) and massacred 3" up to stand on the level below the scouts. The icon bloodletters, short 1", charged the land speeder instead. With Skarbrand bellowing encouragement they managed many hits on the speeder, but only ended up trashing the assault cannon (and being nicely packed for the flamering to come).

Marines 3
Mobilize! Libby + terminator friends pushed up into the ruins to take on Skarbrand, and the chappy + assault friends moved over (1" with a flopped difficult terrain roll!) to cook the letters. Which they did, killing some. The wounded tornado flew clear and threw some heavy bolters in as well, killing them down to about 6 demons.

Assault time is the best time! The libby managed 1 wound on Skarry, but it was swatted away with his 4+ inv before he could try force weapon nonsense on him. The big guy responded by gutting 4 terminators, and then by saving all the powerfist wounds that came his way except for 1. The dreadnought kicked about but was largely ignored. Over in the other combat the chappy brutalized three bloodletters, enough to remove those in base contact with his slower assault marine retinue. Another bloodletter popped from No Retreat!, leaving 2 to hold the marines in place ...

Demons 3
The rest of the demons showed up, summoning another 9 bloodletters (render) nearby the terminator-Skarbrand fight and the 6 flesh hounds (Keranak) looking at the gimped speeder on the right. The prince climbed up to the top of the ruin, screamed at the scouts and exploded all of their heads. And 2 squads of bloodletters descended upon the chappy's squad ...

Shooting out of the way, Skarbrand weathered a round of the libby flailing against him (couldn't summon the 6+ to wound the main man) and gutted the rest of his terminator cadre. The libby held. 5 bloodletters (render) slammed into the assault marines accompanying the chaplain, leaving them in bloody bits with their WS5 (rerolled!), S5, I5, A15 charge. The other squad of demons all funneled their attaks into the chaplain, causing 14 wounds and misting the guy with ease. Though he did take down 1 bloodletter with his own I5 attaks, but whatev.

Marines 4
Speeders scooted around a bit, accounting for 1 bloodletter and 1 flesh hound. In the fun phase the librarian again couldn't wound Skarbrand, but summoned the inv saves to stay alive one more turn. Oh, and the dread kicked at the demon but couldn't manage a hit, despite Skarry yelling at him.

Demons 4
The flesh hounds zipped over to pounce on the hurt speeder, which they did, netting a fine number of hits (with no reroll, out of Skarry's ANGER range) and immobilizing the craft, pulling it down like the frisbee it is. Most of the bloodletters bunkered down in the main ruin to hang out until the end of the game, though the fresh render squad flooded into the librarian. Once again the ancient marine couldn't wound Skarbrand, but instead of dealing with the 'hero' Skarbrand smashed that annoying dread and let the bloodletters' 27 attaks obliterate the marine.

Marines 5
The last speeder put wound #3 on Skarbrand! But he called it a game at that, as he'd have a max of 1 turn to finish Skarry if the monster's fleet roll wasn't up to catching the speeder next turn.

DEMONS WIN

A deliciously brutal game for Khorne, marred by poor deployment on the marine player's part. As he noted, he should have deployed everything in his terrainless right corner and hammered my demons as they came in. Though admittedly with his small number of units I wonder if this would have been enough to stop the flood ... And in that event I wouldn't have put Skarbrand down first turn, but likely would have either gone pure bloodletters for the first drop or the big icon squads + the undivided princes.

MVP: Skarbrand!

Building: Dread #2?
Painting: Dread #2?

I feel like posting something, but have neither pics to show nor a battle to report on. Hence, you get a few armylists instead! Here we have the 1500 & 2000 point versions of my CSM army that see most of the action, as well as the 1500 Demons I'm burning to try out some more before I get started on painting it ...

UNDIVIDED CSM 1500

HQ
Chaos Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, icon, melta bombs

ELITES
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plasmas, 2 powerfists, 1 chainfist

TROOPS
10 CSM - IoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 1k Sons - AS w/ doombolt
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, sonic blaster
12 Lesser Demonettes

HEAVY SUPPORT
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
1 Obliterator

TOTAL
1496 points

---

UNDIVIDED CSM 2000

HQ
Chaos Lord - MoCU, demon weapon, bike, icon
Chaos Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, icon

ELITES
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plasmas, 2 powerfists, 1 chainfist
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor

TROOPS
10 CSM - IoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 1k Sons - AS w/ doombolt
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, sonic blaster
8 Lesser Demonettes

HEAVY SUPPORT
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
Defiler
1 Obliterator

TOTAL
1999 points

---

KHORNE DEMONS 1500

HQ
Skarbrand

ELITES
2 Gorefiends of Khorne

TROOPS
12 Bloodletters - icon, instrument
12 Bloodletters - icon, instrument
11 Bloodletters - fury
11 Bloodletters - fury

HEAVY SUPPORT
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos

TOTAL
1496 points

Current Records
---------------
CSM Many:A Few:Not Many
DEMONS 1:1:0

Building: 2 Gorefiends
Painting: Ogre Ironguts?

Last Friday was Game #2 with the bloody demons of blood, and this time in an entertaining matchup against the 1000 Sons! This one would be pure 4.0, as the changes we usually play for 4.5 weren't going to matter (deployment and LoS mostly).

Khorne Demons vs 1000 Sons [1500]

Skarbrand
1 'Fiend of Khorne'
12 Bloodletters - instrument, icon
12 Bloodletters - instrument, icon
12 Bloodletters - fury
12 Bloodletters - fury
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos

vs

Sorcerer - MoT, wind of chaos, warptime, wings, icon
Lord of Genericocity
Dreadnought - lascannons, heavy flamer
7 1000 Sons - AS w/ doombolt, icon
7 1000 Sons - AS w/ doombolt, icon
7 1000 Sons - AS w/ doombolt, icon
10 Lesser Horrors
10 Lesser Horrors
Defiler - extra ccw

Deployment: Sons, sons, defiler, sons, dread (banished to the far right flank). Sorcerer, super chicken, quasi-horrors all in reserve.

He won the roll and made me go first ...

Demons 1
I went with the 'wave of flesh' drop, all the bloodletters first. Scatters took 3 squads closer to their automaton targets (but not dangerously so) and 1 squad a bit farther back but I knew he'd close the 12" gap for rapid fire anyway so no worries.

Sons 1
He shuffled that squad into rapid range, and the dread fire frenzied ... into my bloodletters (area terrain to its left blocked LoS to friendlies) and killed 2 to start it off. Defiler smashed 6 from one squad and fire from the sons managed to whip out one icon squad and strip a good amount of demons from other squads. But in short: not enough dead bloodletters.

Demons 2
No demonic reserves arrive, so the bloodletters line up each against a sons squad and prepare to do this themselves. Which they do, each combat exactly doing 7 wounds after inv saves, killing all 3 sorcerers along with their icons.

Sons 2
Just the sorcerer arrives, striking a good 20" away from my demonic shocktroops to insure some of his demons will see the table. The defiler smashes another 6 bloodletters off the table and the dread pops another one off with its lascannon.

Demons 3
Everybody shows up, summoning around the remaining bloodletter icon. 2 bloodletter squads move towards the sorcerer, keeping their distance with the knowledge that the generic demons can assault after summon UNLIKE themselves ... Skarbrand and the 2 princes bellow at the defiler, causing 1 glance that is ignored (shaken). The 3rd bloodletter mob (and the largest) charges the defiler to silence its cannon and hope the render can do his thing. He can't and a couple demons are crushed with Skarbrand's rerolled hits.

Sons 3
10 demons summon off of the sorcerer's icon, right before the sorcerer explodes into the super chicken, removing the last icon and leaving the other 10 demons to drift in the warp. The dreadnought blood rages into the area terrain ruins near it and while my render demon gets 2 rending penetrates on the defiler he also rolls double 1's ... and the defiler pulps a couple more with Skarbrand's reroll.

Demons 4
Not wanting to wait for his demons to leave their difficult terrain bunker, I move 8 bloodletters up within 12" of his demons. Then instead of being at least a little cautious I slam the fiend into the horrors, with the hope of killing something and holding them up. Sadly the fleet roll is 1" too short to make it into terrain, which means the fiend is assaulting into cover instead of from within it. With no offensive grenades the 'horrors' easily kill it with Skarbrand's reroll. Elsewhere Skarbrand saves the bloodletters' bacon by killing the defiler 5 times over (with no explosion).

Sons 4
The dread fire frenzies again, into my bloodletters killing 2. His horrors push through cover and assault my bloodletters, killing 7 for the loss of 3 with Skarbrand's reroll, and popping the last thanks to No Retreat. The greater demon moves to the left, away from my menacing princes.

Demons 5
Skarbrand started his sprint towards the super chicken, the twin princes move to deal with the horrors and the remaining bloodletters try to gain some cover to avoid losing any more models to the dread (3 in one squad and 6 in the other). The princes breath on the horrors, and despite him trying to pull models out of 6" one prince manages the charge, butchering the generic thingies with Skarbrand's reroll. Skarry himself fleets well and charges the super chicken, brutalizing it into small parts thanks to his own reroll.

Sons 5
The dreadnought keeps his cool and takes a potshot at Skarbrand, but the shot is saved by his 4+ inv.

Demons 6
Bloodletters gain some cover and everybody watches as the Main Man begins the long run into the dreadnought (about 24").

Sons 6
The dread fire frenzies a third time, into Skarbrand for 2 wounds.

Demons 7
With a strong fleet, Skarbrand hits the dread and frags him several times.

DEMONS WIN

This game was always going to be he shoots me back to the warp or I hellblade his face in, and the hellblades won. Wiping out all his squad icons and vessels in 1 round - without Skarbrand around for rerolls that mattered to me - was quite fortuitous, though the generic demons were as a pain against my bloodletters as I expected, with basically identical stats but cheaper. His walkers performed perfectly IMO, his defiler racking up 15-16 dead bloodletters (!!!) and his dread scoring 5 bloodletters or so and 2 wounds on Skarbrand with all those favorable fire frenzies.

Listwise, I still like the mathhammer behind taking 2 fiends vs 5 flesh hounds - better in soooo many ways really - but 1 fiend wasn't going to be as useful in this case, more of a tank hunter when you give it +1S as well. 40 points for a beast with 6 S6 rending attaks (and hit-and-run) is a good buy, and I've got some conversions in mind to make some proper "gorefiends." Skarbrand I like but his reroll causes me more anxiety than its worth - like against I5+ enemies and those in cover - and I think a 270 point bloodthirster w/ might is far better vs 300 point Skarry.

Building: Demon Prince #2
Painting: Ogre Ironguts

Having looked around at other khorne armies (there aren't many!), I've some things to think about and some things I'm already doing that seem to be good ideas. Here's where I'm headed for 2k Khorne demons at the moment:

HQ
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne, icon
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne

Troops
12 Bloodletters - icon
12 Bloodletters - icon
12 Bloodletters - fury of khorne, instrument
12 Bloodletters - fury of khorne, instrument

Fast Attak
6 Flesh Hounds - Keranak

Heavy Support
Demon Prince - MoK, iron hide, unholy might, instrument
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos, instrument
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos, instrument

Total
1998 points
61 models

Heralds all pair up with a nice big bloodletter squad for the drop, and first wave would ideally be 3 princes + 1 bloodletter / herald squad. Figure the heavy armor first wave might be better than going mix drop or "naked drop" with all the bloodletters (which is a possibility, all 48 at once then icon the princes down).

Painting: Nurgle bases
Building: N/A

Finally got the 5 models I needed built this weekend and got the first game in with my Khorne Demons with the new codex. Unfortunately it was against Sisters, which may be the perfect match up against demons, particularly ones with no shooting and with all power weapons. Brutal short range fire and the ability to pop inv saves if I ever hit combat is just very very hard to fight.

Khorne Demons vs Witch Hunters [1650]

I took:

Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne
8 Bloodletters - icon
8 Bloodletters - icon
8 Bloodletters - fury of khorne
8 Bloodletters - fury of khorne
8 Bloodletters - instrument
8 Bloodletters - instrument
6 Flesh Hounds - Karanak
Demon Prince - MoK, iron hide, unholy might, blessing of the blood god

He took:

Cannoness - jump pack, melta pistol, S5 power sword
Inquisitor - 2x heavy bolter servitors
Calidus
13 Sisters - 2x storm bolters, VSS
10 Sisters - melta, flamer, VSS w/ plasma pistol
10 Sisters - melta, flamer, VSS
7 Seraphim - 2x flamers, VSS w/ power weapon
6 Seraphim - 2x flamers, VSS w/ eviscerator
8 Retributers - 4x heavy bolters
Exorcist
Exorcist

Maybe something else and I'm sure more kit in there too. We played many 5th edition rules, including the One Roll to start, LoS + cover saves (no screening), run. He won the One Roll and let me choose side and go first. With nothing to set up he deployed everything but the Cali and waited ...

Deployment (L to R): Retributers in building, seraphim, exorcist, 10 sisters on rough hill, seraphim (cannoness nearby), exorcist, 10 sisters in bottom of building, 13 sisters over the next two floors, INQ team on top.

Demon Wave: I split my army in half, and got the wave I wanted first. 8 bloodletters (icon) + herald, 8 bloodletters (music) + herald, 8 bloodletters (fury), demon prince.

Demons 1
I needed to silence the heavy guns and figured I could slog across the two feet from the retributer bunker to the mass of bolters waiting in the taller building on the flank, so struck everything towards the table middle / left. All the bloodletter squads scattered back away from their original drops, but with run rolls (apparently you can run / fleet after striking in 5th, or we did here anyway) they repositioned fairly well. The prince plopped down between all the letters, rolling the only HIT.

Sisters 1
Time to kill some demons. 10 sister squad in the middle walked down their hill to line up shots, both seraphim squads jumped around to line up their flamers and exorcists scooted for LoS on the DP. Flamer templates splashed all over the squad with icon, destroying it and the herald and also wounding the DP a few times with overspray. DP died to exorcist and small arm potshots from the squads in the far building. Retributers said NO and obliterated the fury letters with the other seraphim's help and my last squad of demons was reduced to 4 demons + herald. Wow. Of note, my rolling for inv saves was about statistically average, with some good ones and some bad, but I failed nearly 90% of all the 3+ armor saves I took on the DP and heralds. His rolling was, as usual, amazing - the retributors missed I think 4 shots the entire game.

Demons 2
Everybody but the last 8 bloodletters (icon) w/ herald were ready to play. I decided to try to force the other flank and get some points, so dropped the flesh hounds and some bloodletters (music) w/ herald inside the building that all those infantry squads were in, and the other bloodletters (fury) out front of it. Run moves repositioned a bit.

And finally, combat! The 4 bloodletters + herald over by the retributers charged the seraphim right in front of them, and the girls popped 3+ inv saves as predicted. All the same, 12 WS5 S5 I5 and 5 WS6 S7 I6 (rending) attaks are hard to say no to, and 2-3 seraphim died. The rest failed their break and were caught.

Sisters 2
Time to kill some demons. Seraphim jump over and line up on the letters outside the building, hill squad moves back atop the hill and 1 exorcist lines up. Retributers destroy the bloodletters + herald near them, combined fire gut the letters in the open, 5 bloodletters die to 26 rapid firing bolter shots from 1 squad (O_O) thanks to good saves from me (saved 8 of 13 wounds), and the hounds go unscathed.

Upshot, the Inquisitor tried to cast Scourging but rolled 6-6, dying to a PotW test as Khorne ate her head ;D

Demons 3
The last herald + bloodletters (icon ha!) strike in, deviating near the hounds and losing a couple models in the process. Herald + letters inside the building push forward to hope for assault and the hounds push through cover to go for the seraphim in the open.

And finally, combat! The hounds easily charge the seraphim, who pop +2 init and kill 1 hound. They lose 0 in return and hit and run away, sealing the dogs' fate. My opponent lets me make base with the herald + 3 bloodletters in the building, though my difficult terrain roll might have been 1" short (hard to tell with multi-storey buildings). 11 sisters die, unit breaks and is caught, my squad consolidates off to the side of the building.

Sisters 3
Time to kill some demons. Cali comes in and lines up to blast the newest bloodletters (but does nothing against Ld10 & 5+ inv). Other sisters maneuver to put out the pain. Flesh hounds disappear, herald + letters alongside the building are hit and leave just the herald alive. In the building, herald + letters are reduced to herald + 3 demons. The seraphim and cali who flamed them BOTH fluff their difficult terrain rolls, falling short.

Demons 4
Herald inside the building breaks off from his unit and runs for the sisters who had walked off their hill last turn to cook the hounds, while his bloodletters move to smack some seraphim. The other herald walks the 1" to charge the sisters in front of her.

And finally, combat! The herald from the building kills a handful of girls, but they hold. The other herald manages to kill 1 girl(with 5 S7 WS6 attaks), pathetically taking a wound in return I think. The 3 bloodletters against invulnerable seraphim kill 0-1 (9 attaks should kill 1.67 inv girls, so not THAT bad a fluff), for no loses. Seraphim either don't care or hold.

Sisters 4
Exorcists back up 12", cali moves to assault the letters right next to her. And the cannoness made an appearance and charged the herald near the hill in the back!

In combat, the hill herald put all 4 attaks on the inv 2+ cannoness, punching 3 wounds through her save and instantly killing her. The other girls fluffed but held. The other herald kept smacking with little result, taking another wound. And the 3 bloodletters against inv seraphim did nothing, losing 1 to a seraphim, 1 to the callidus and 1 to No Retreat.

Demons 5
Still alive in Turn 5! The hill herald broke his sisters but didn't catch them (by 1), yet their low retreat put him 1" behind them and set to push them off the table next turn. The other herald may have died this turn, clubbed to death.

Sisters 5
The fleeing sisters were pushed off the table, no chance to rally with enemy too close. And then exorcists and retributers fired down the table and took out the last demonic herald.

SISTERS WIN

That was painful, and confirms most opinions that the Khorne demon army doesn't work well at all. Striking and then having nothing to do but die was rough, and the inv saves from the sisters made combat not even a sure proposition. I don't totally think I made a mistake in trying to overload the side with the heavy guns, but just lost models so much faster than I expected - the initial response from the sisters killed 20 bloodletters, 1 herald and 1 prince easily. If I had dropped in the cover of the other building and went from that flank over I would have avoided the first turn double seraphim response but would have been facing a 24" run into retributers and 2 exorcists, a real nightmare. My mistakes were more in consolidating into LoS of things and sticking heralds with squads with instruments (the least likely place to tie combat!), which were completely minimal.

So ... yuck. I want to play an army with heavy plasma & ant-tank weapons (read: almost all 40k armies), then see how I do. Flamers + heavy bolters were absolutely brutal, and I don't think too many armies besides Sisters take them in such numbers, cause they have other options!

Painting: Nurgle bases
Building: N/A

Apologies for the 40k down time, still revamping my nurgle skaven army for fantasy. I hope to get a game of 40k in soon, so should have more exploits of my CSM to post up. I suppose army pics would be in order at some point ...

Bigger news though is getting the old Khorne Demon Legion out of storage and back onto the table soon. Have a handful of models to build (currently in the mail) and then I'm aching to see what the hell these naked bloodletters can do. List is currently:

HQ
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne, blessing of the blood god = 135
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne = 130
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne = 130
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne = 130

Troops
8 Bloodletters - icon = 153
8 Bloodletters - icon = 153
8 Bloodletters - fury of khorne = 138
8 Bloodletters - fury of khorne = 138
8 Bloodletters - instrument of chaos = 133
8 Bloodletters - instrument of chaos = 133

Fast Attak
6 Flesh Hounds - Keranak = 125

Total
1498 points
58 models

The old demonbomb version was only defeated once, will the record continue? Or will nearly 0 anti-tank capability shoot the army in the foot? Stay tuned for carnage either way!

Presents from The War Store arrived on Saturday! Stuffed in that box is Bregen himself, Fourth Apostate of Khorne.

Painting: BSB, gutter runner, more nurglings
Building: Keranak