I've finally played a game of 10th edition 40k. As ever it was against Pete as Matt continues to refuse to bow to the GW marketing machine or peer pressure.
I decided to give my Daemons a run out for a couple of reasons. Firstly I wanted to get my Lord of Change on the board for the first time and the nature of my army meant I didn't need to make any decisions about army building.
Pete's Space Wolves were selected for much the same reasons: it was pretty much everything he has painted and he can't use his Primaris Marines in Horus Heresy or 2nd edition (unlike his Imperial Guard or Eldar).
ARMIES
Daemonic Incursion
Lord of Change with the Everstave (Warlord)
Daemon Prince with Wings
The Changeling
Changecaster
Exalted Flamer
10 Pink Horrors
10 Pink Horrors
6 Screamers
3 Screamers
6 Flamers
Burning Chariot
Champions of Russ
Ragnar Blackmane (Warlord)
Primaris Librarian
Primaris Lieutenant with Frost Weapon
10 Assault Intercessors
10 Intercessors
10 Hounds of Morkai
3 Bladeguard
3 Eradicators
3 Inceptors
3 Aggressors
Redemptor Dreadnought
When I looked at what I was facing I'll admit I got a bit of a sinking feeling.
DEPLOYMENT
In a clear statement of how we both thought the game might go, the noble sons of Russ stood out in the open, and the craven servants of change cowered behind cover.
This was my first game and I hadn't realised at this point that cover which didn't completely obscure me was worthless as it only improves armour, not invulnerable saves.
I had my Flamers Deep Strike whilst Pete had done the same with his Inceptors.
We were playing the free mission in the downloadable rules which allows you to deploy objectives pretty much wherever. So Pete placed two in his deployment zone, whereas I had to put one a little further forward to allow my Shadow of Chaos rule to affect the middle of the board.
We rolled for first turn and I won, which I'm not entirely sure was a good thing.
DAEMONS TURN 1
With none of the Space Wolves within range I advanced a little to allow my units to shoot and to give my fast melee units a chance to strike in the following turn.
The Lord of Change killed a handful of Intercessors and a couple of Hounds of Morkai fell to the Daemon Prince but otherwise very little damage was done.
I did manage to spread the Shadow of Chaos to the middle of the board, so there was that.
SPACE WOLVES TURN 2
Pete's right wing advanced at pace. Ragnar, the Librarian and the Assault Intercessors headed straight for the objective screened by Screamers and the Hounds of Morkai made haste towards the Pink Horrors sat on my central objective.
The shooting phase was as painful as expected, perhaps moreso.
Screamers and Horrors took pistol fire as the prelim to the inevitable charges they would face and the Lord of Change was reduced to only 6 wounds (out of 18) by the Redemption Dreadnought, which has a frankly offensive number of guns.
In the combat phase the Screamers we're almost destroyed and the Pink Horrors were turned into unit of Blue Horrors.
DAEMONS TURN 2
In the command phase the Horrors failed and lost control of their objective. I'm not sure they should have taken one as the number of Blue Horrors left was not less than half than the original unit size, however this is a grey area that needs further research so the upshot was I only scored 1 victory point.
Shooting was somewhat desultory again, but I did get more aggressive with the smaller unit of Screamers, the Daemon Prince, the Lord of Change and the Burning Chariot.
I did bring my Flamers down to protect the objective being threatened by Ragnar's advance, but they didn't make a massive impact.
On the upside, the Daemon Prince eradicated the Eradicators, the Screamers took the Intercessors below half their unit size, and the Chariot did the same to the Hounds of Morkai - which were things that would be significant later.
Predictably the Lord of Change ate a faceful of overwatch from the Redemptor and then was slapped senseless in combat.
At least I'd got to play with it for two turns.
SPACE WOLVES TURN 2
In a move that allowed us to pretend it was a close game, both the Intercessors and Hounds of Morkai failed their Battle Shock tests meaning Pete only scored 1 victory point as well.
Pete countered my Flamers by bringing his Inceptors down and combined with the Assault Intercessors and Aggressors adding their formidable firepower began the process of whittling down my units defending the objective.
On the other side of the board the Daemon Prince somehow weathered the storm of fire from the Redemptor but was pulverised in the subsequent close combat.
The Librarian leant his weight to the Hounds of Morkai but the Burning Chariot was still getting the better of the fight.
DAEMONS TURN 3
By this point things looked bleak. I managed to hold on to both objectives thanks to the Blue Horrors in the centre passing their Battle Shock test, which meant that briefly the score was in my favour.
With no shooting of note, the close combat phase saw the Hounds of Morkai almost wiped out, and just the exalted Flamer left.
SPACE WOLVES TURN 3
With two more victory points in the bag, guns blazed and all but the Changeling, a Changecaster and a handful of Blue and Brimstone Horrors were left to try to hold the objective on my left.
The Burning Chariot totally fluffed the combat and do lost control of the objective after the Horrors were wiped out by the Redemptor.
At this point we called the game as there was no real way I was going to score any more points, and Pete was going to pick up between 2 and 4 in the final round.
We had the final score at 7-3 to the Space Wolves (possibly 7-4 depending on how Horrors interact with Battle Shock) but it's a scoreline that flatters me as it felt like a curb-stomp.
POST MORTEM
I think I deployed badly as I should have put all my shooty units together to defend objectives and benefit from the Lord of Change'd buff and my fast attacking units should have been put together to attack in force.
I also shouldn't have advanced on the first turn. The shooting damage I did wasn't worth moving into range of Pete's guns and allowing him to charge on turn one.
I should have used the Flamers to capture an enemy objective. I don't think I can win a straight fight against Pete's army, but I could possibly have outmaneuvered them and play the objectives.
I don't have the means to take out the Redemptor, so avoiding it is the best bet.
At the moment the jury is out for me on whether 10th edition is something I'll play more of. Despite mistakes, the nature of 40k makes it feel oppressive in a mismatched game. The sheer volume of rerolls Pete's units were getting from innate rules felt overwhelming in that it meant almost everything he tried was successful, whereas I was far more subject to the whims of the dice.
On the up side, the rules are much better for casual players like ourselves and genuinely allowed us to take a pick up and play approach.
I'm going to stick with the Daemons with this game and try to learn how to get the best from them.
It may take some time...
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