TMI: The Headless Horde Rides Again!

A little early this week, but I hope to have another TMI to post after tomorrow as well. This is a special Friday edition, where I had a day off, the kids were gone, so I was looking for a game. I wanted Malifaux, but beggars and all that.

Actually, that's a bit harsh. I wasn't force into it or anything, I had asked if anyone had wanted to play, and Patrick had stepped up. And, since he was helping me out, I offered to let him pick the game. He wanted to try out his IG list, and with the league, everybody has been throwing down Malifaux(WOO!). Also, I was not at all against bring out my Chaos Space Marines. I have been wanting to play them, but they have taken a far back seat to play testing Leveticus. Anywho, enough blather, on to the game.

I rolled diagonal deployment and Kill Points(or whatever stupid name it goes by). I also ended up with second turn. As you can see, it was a very heavy ruin board, I basically pulled all of the ruins off that shelf and put them on one board. Mostly out of just being lazy. He deployed all over his corner, heaviest in the largest building, with Creed at the top. I spaced out fairly well, planting most everything behind ruins, and both Princes in ruins. Turn one he was able to smoke a rhino, though I may have over reacted, I don't really remember, it was one of the LoS problems. Anyway, turn two, I zipped both of my Daemon Princes across towards his line, with the Black Mace DP going for his center, just to the right of the biggest building, while the Warlord DP went for his left(my right) flank. In hind sight, I probably should have sent Black Mace all the way to the left, and rolled up that way, chewing a squad each turn. Or more, with the Mace. A rhino on my right moved forward, or at least tried to, but got immobilized. I was able to get a command squad to run, but that was basically the extent of my turn.

On his turn two, I promptly forgot all of my psychic powers, including endurance and iron arm, total skills. He took one DP to one wound, wrecked a rhino, whose occupants got into range of a Vendetta, and took the other DP down 2 wounds. Having FNP and +T on each DP may have helped, but I derped. On my turn, I charged in with both DPs, hit two of the Vendettas and whiffed on the third(though I thought it jinked, he said no*shrug*). On of them ended up with locked velocity, so as I dirty cheater(but legally) moved one squad into position where he couldn't move, and bye bye. The other was just shaken, which it had jinked, so whatever. The Black Mace Daemon Prince actually took a wound and died before its mace could do its job. The other got locked in combat. The highlight of the turn was that I forgot to fire my Heldrake.

Turn three, he sent the shaken Vendetta flying off the board, took out another rhino, and tried to thin my squads and, of course, killed my forgotten Heldrake. On my turn, I damaged the on table Vendetta, but rolled a shaken, yet again. Neither my other Heldrake or the Cultists came on. I damaged more of his squads, but nothing major. The Warlord Daemon Prince stayed locked in combat, again.

Turn four was more damage for me, my Chosen squads are starting to become targets now, and I took heavy casualties, including overheating plasma. I began to do more damage, knocking squads down, and forcing break tests, which they seemed fairly capable of passing. My Heldrake came in, and I dropped a flame on his Warlords squad, but rolled a couple ones, so the astropath and Creed lived. He had brought his Vendetta back on and flew the other off, the one that came on targeted my finally free DP, but failed to kill him, and was killed on the following turn.

Turn 5, saw the return of the final Vendetta, which also targeted my Warlord, and was able to finish him off in a suicide move. I managed to kill it and bring two squads down to a man, but only one of them broke. This brought me to 7KP vs Patrick's 7KP + Warlord + First Blood, if the game ends, I lose by two.

Luckily, it did not(SURPRISE). On turn six, he made a gamble to try and kill a lone Chosen and failed. Knowing that he was calling it at the end of 6, I moved the said Chosen up and ran him, needing a 4, but getting a 6, to give me Line Breaker. The Heldrake hovered back towards the giant building and dropped a flamer on Creed and his buddy, incinerating both. My other two squads of Chosen fire long range plasma and cut down the lone Guardsmen making a run at my lone Chosen. In the end, it was a 4 point swing, giving me a 2 point win.

I was fully prepared to lose, forgetting all sorts of stuff, and giving Patrick every chance for the win. I think he made a couple mistakes as well, but less glaring or rookyish. I personally would have skimmed my board edge when I brought on my Vendettas, but he was worried about Ruins+Shrouded(now that I had realized I had Shrouded). He gave me two easy kill points out of the hover Vendettas. I think I should have taken the flank with the other Daemon Prince, and made him split his force, instead of putting one DP in prime killing position, while the other looked like a lesser threat. I am also becoming acutely aware that this is a late game army, something that doesn't do well in tournaments, where there may not be a late game. My Rhinos put me behind early, but give me the advantage to catch up later. I am not looking to change my list, I like the concept and how it plays, I am just going to have to work hard on my speed, my turns must be lightning fast, to offset anything my opponent does. And, with this force, I have the low model count to do just that. It is strong in pick up games, I just need to make it strong in tournaments. However, it is not a big win army. It is also not a big loss army either. I feel it may be relegated to mid table obscurity, but maybe...

Well, that is it for now, I hop to get back to you guys in a couple days. I am off to contemplate strategy and look at doing some painting.