I just played a game more or less with this list.
Since it was a for-fun game, I thought I'd do something a little more interesting and took out a bit of stuff to add in some extra characters (POW! Take that, foot!). So, the final list looked like this:
Grotesquerie:Haemonculus w/ Scissorhands, Vexator Mask, Sindriq's Sump (Warlord)
3
Grotesques- Raider w/ Dark Lance
3
Grotesques- Raider w/ Dark Lance
RSR Detachment:Archon w/ Agoniser, Animus Vitae
- Venom w/ Splinter Cannon
Lhamaean- Venom w/ Splinter Cannon
Succubus w/ Glaive, Parasite's Kiss
4
Incubi w/ Klaivex
- Raider w/ Dark Lance
5
Kabalite Warriors w/ Blaster
- Venom w/ Splinter Cannon
5
Kabalite Warriors w/ Blaster
- Venom w/ Splinter Cannon
5
Scourges w/ 4x Haywire Blaster
5
Scourges w/ 4x Heat Lance
3
Reavers w/ Cluster Caltrops, Heat Lance
3
Reavers w/ Cluster Caltrops, Heat Lance
3
Reavers w/ Cluster Caltrops, Heat Lance
Ravager w/ 3x Dark Lance
I was originally planning some sort of competition or army split between my ~100pt character trio, but that basically got thrown out of the window immediately.
Anyway, I was playing against Orks with a Biker warboss and biker painboy in a squad of biker nobz, 3 trukks of 'ard slugga boyz, and a trukk of nobs and painboy. The sergeant Nobz all had power klaws, the warbokk had power kalw, lucky stikk and attack squig, and the bikers had a mix of stuff.
The mission was Eternal War 1. One objective went in the middle, and 4 others were placed basically in each table corner. They were largely ignored (you'll see why).
Grots got 4+ FNP from Grotesquerie, Combat drugs were +1Ld and my Warlord trait was useless (Dark Artisan – presumably his Pain Engines were sent through the wrong WWP and are still waiting at whatever passes for DE luggage collection). Haemonculus joined the Incubi, Succubus and Archon each led a Grot squad.
My opponent won the roll off and elected to deploy first. He put the bikers on the left, with two ard boyz trukks next to them. The Nob trukk went just right of centre, and the final ard boyz trukk went to the right of that.
I deployed the empty Archon venom and lhamaean venom on the far left, with one unit of Reavers in front. The Succubus/grot raider and a warrior venom went to their right. The scourges and ravager went behind some terrain in the centre, with the second unit of reavers in front of the ravager. Then, on the far right, there was the other warrior venom, archon/grot raider and haemonculi/incubi raider with the final reaver unit in front.
My plan:
1) He has very little shooting, so I won't be too aggressive with my assault units.
2) His Warboss unit is key here. My shooting is really ineffective against that many 2-wound models with 4+ saves and FNP. I'll need Grotesques and possibly Incubi to kill it. So, I'll try and whittle it with the venoms and slow it down with various units. The succubus grots will die to it, but with Rampage I'm hoping they'll do some decent damage in return (the succubus might even be able to get a wound on the warboss).
3) My other grots and incubi will focus on the nobz – hence their transport needs to die first. Once those are dead, I'll hopefully have enough PfP bonuses to be able to take on the Warboss and his squad. If I can charge it with both the archon grots and the haemonculus' incubi, that should be it.
4) The ard boys are less of a concern. I'll probably just end up going after them with whatever's convenient at the time.
I failed to seize the initiative.
His first turn was very short – his entire army just move forward and then went flat-out for extra distance. The nobz ended up a bit more central, the right most ard boyz went to the far right, alongside some ruins. The other units didn't move much laterally.
I moved the empty venom to the left, the lahmaean venom dumped her near the objective (a vain attempt to hinder their movement) and retreated a bit. The reavers in front moved forward to get close to the left most ard boyz trukk. The succubus raider shifted a bit. The left warrior venom disembarked its cargo into blaster range of one of the ard boyz trukks, and then retreated. The scourges jumped to shoot the Nob trukk, whilst the ravager angled to shoot the right ard boyz trukk. The centre reavers moved to shoot the side of the nob trukk, and the archon and haemonculi raiders positioned themselves to fire dark lances at it. Finally the right-hand reavers moved up to the nobz on the right.
So, a lot of AV10 open-topped trukks and not much cover, vs. 6 dark lances, 3 Heat Lances in melta range, 4 haywire blasters and a couple of blasters. Guess how many I got? 1... That's right, one trukk went down (the nob one – they disembarked at the back). . I got a couple of the Warboss' squad with Venoms though (very poor saves on his part), but that was it for shooting. The reavers near the nob trukk retreated a bit, whilst the other two reavers charged their trukks. The right-hand reaver squad brought that trukk down, but the other one failed miserably.
In his turn, the biker squad multi-charged a venom, the succubus' raider and a disembarked warrior squad. The left boy squad charged the Lhamaean and the failure-reavers. The middle one charged the scourges. The final one charged the successful Reavers. The Nobz charged the last reaver squad, but rolled poorly and failed the charge. All other charge targets were annihilated. The right-hand boy squad consolidated into the ruins.
In my turn, the Scourges arrived and I placed them about 15" away from the Nobz. I elected not to charge the right-hand ard boyz with incubi (in cover, sigh). Instead, I put that raider near them – hoping to draw them out, and aimed the righthand venom at them. The archon raider and ravager moved alongside the raider to draw beads on the nobz. So, I aimed 5 Dark Lances and 5 Heat Lances (4 from the newly-arrived scourges, a 5th from the last Reaver squad) at the Nobz... and promptly missed with 4 of the dark lances. The Heat Lances got a single nob. The archon venom got two more of the biker nobz (both had been previously wounded - IIRC as a result of the raider and venom they charged both exploding). The final reavers then retreated back from the nobz.
The forcibly-disembarked Succubus' grot unit was surrounded by bikers and an ard boyz squad (the one that killed the scourges). I decided to go after the boyz - since they'd need 6s to wound the Grots, and I could hopefully route them. Well, the succubus challenged and immediately rolled 3 3s to wound, leaving the nob alive – who then proceeded to pulp her with his klaw. Sigh. The grots also failed to do more than a few wounds - leaving most of the boyz alive. They stayed in combat.
In his turn, the left ard boyz went after the scourges, the right-hand ard boyz went after the reavers, the nobz went after my raiders and ravager (I'd put them close together to deny him cover), and the bikers went after my left grots. He called a Waaagh to get the first 3 into combat. The Grots attacked the bikes (I think they might have got 1), and then died to the warboss. The Nobz got all 3 vehicles, the reavers died and the scourges (surprisingly) only lost 2 and stayed in combat.
The Archon threw his Animus Vitae at the Nobz, but it must have been a dud as it rolled a 1 to. The left empty venom picked off another Nob from the Warboss' squad, leaving just the Warboss, Painboy and 2 nobz alive. The other two venoms fired at the middle ard boyz squad, inflicting a few casualties.
The Archon squad and Haemonculus' squad both charged the nobz. The Archon challenged and made up for the Succubus' earlier incompetence by dicing the Nob leader so enthusiastically that a nearby nob was also wounded! The Incubi, buffed by the Haemonculus, cut through most of the others, and the Grots and Haemonculus mopped up. When the dust cleared, there were just 2 left who failed to scratch the Incubi armour. Unsurprisingly, they elected to flee and were cut down for their troubles.
In his turn, the right-hand boyz shot up 2 of the Incubi, and the Warboss squad moved near to the Archon's squad. The middle boyz charged my middle venom and destroyed it. The Archon was in range of the bikers, so I sent him after them, and the Haemonculus with his 2 remaining Incubi went after the left boy squad. The right-hand venom disembarked its warriors and prepared to open fire on the right-hand boy squad. The venom and warriors killed about half of the boy squad.
Overwatch saw the Haemonculi's last Incubi die – leaving only him and the Klaivex alive. It was enough though – buffed by the Haemonculus and rampage, the Klaivex proceeded to cut down the Nob and all but one of the boys. The last boy ran and, surprisingly, escaped. The Archon's squad did less well. He challenged but both the warboss and painboy decided they had other things to do and let a nob sergeant accept. He was brutalised by an agoniser, and the last Nob was killed by the Grots. Sadly though, they didn't get to enjoy their victory for long as the warboss mashed the entire squad.
In his turn, the warboss and painboy charged the Hamonculus and Kliavex. The Klaivex cut down the painboy, but the haemonculus did nothing and both were turned to paste. I called the game there.
Whilst it didn't go well for me, this game was a hell of a lot of fun. In many ways, it actually got more fun when my left flank completely collapsed and it turned from a raid into a last stand for the guys on the right – as the orks encircled them. The Haemonculus-Klaivex tag-team also amused me no end, and I think I'll award the Klaivex man of the match.
By the way, Brom, I'm willing to concede entirely that 2 CCWs are better on a Haemonculus than Scissorhands. In 2 rounds of combat (about 6 hits) my Haemonculus rolled a single 4 – everything else was just 1s and 2s. I think I might just start using him as a bullet-sponge and let his squad do all the work. In contrast, my Archon's performance makes me feel really bad about not buying him a proper save.
Subject: Thoughts on this list? 
Wed Aug 26 2015, 17:17
