BR29: Nurgle Daemons vs Dark Eldar - 1000pts

Another game between TDC members! This time my Nurgle Daemons square off against facelessabsalom's Dark Eldar.

The Armies:

Dark Eldar (DE)

HQ
Duke

TROOPS
8 Warriors
Raider, night shield, splinter wracks, grizzly trophies
5 Wyches
Venom, extra splinter cannon
5 Wyches
Venom, extra splinter cannon
5 Wyches
Venom, extra splinter cannon

HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager, night shield
Ravager, night shield
Ravager, 3 disintegrators night shield

Nurgle Chaos Daemons (CD)

HQ
Great Unclean One, Greater Reward (fleshbane & armour bane), Exalted Reward (Grimoire), Mastery Level 1 (Haemorrhage)

TROOPS
10 plaguebearers, plague ridden, icon, instrument
10 plaguebearers, plague ridden, lesser reward (18" S8 AP4 soulblaze), icon, instrument

HEAVY SUPPORT
Daemon Prince, 2x Greater Reward (WND +1W, 18" S8 AP1 lance), Daemonic Flight, Hellforged Armour
Daemon Prince, 2x Greater Reward (re-roll invulnerable saves, 18" S8 AP1 lance), Daemonic Flight, Hellforged Armour

Mission: Relic
Deployment: Dawn of War
Night Fight on first turn: No
First Turn: CD
Warlord Trait CD: Warlord has Hatred
Warlord Trait DE: Princeps of Deceit (redeploy)
DE Combat Drugs: Splintermind (pain token)

Deployment:

The Dark Eldar won the role off for deployment and for first turn and decided to go second. I deployed my two daemon princes behind line of sight blocking terrain, and decided to deep strike the two plaguebearer units and the great unclean one. The Dark Eldar spread out their forces across their deployment zone, keeping one ravager in reserve to deepstrike.

Turn 1 (CE):

The two daemon princes shuffled 1" to the left to make sure they couldn't get shot at by any of the Dark Eldar. The warpstorm table blessed the battle field with Nurgle's rot inflicting a single glance on a venom, which it deflected with its flicker field.

Turn 1 (DE):

Unable to see any of the daemon princes, the Dark Eldar moved up. The venom and the ravager on the left moved flat out up the left flank so that they could get shots on the daemon princes next turn. The wyches moved up and disembark into the central area terrain piece but failed to make it to the relic. They then ran in their shooting phase, and made the relic, however the relic can only be picked up at the end of the movement phase.

Turn 2 (CD):

The gods favoured me and my two plaguebearer units arrived from reserve, one of them using their instrument to pull the Great Unclean one in. The first squad deepstruck in to the central ruin and didn't scatter. The other squad deepstruck within 6" of the first squads icon (meaning they didn't scatter), landing next to the relic and picking it up. The Great unclean one deepstruck within 6" of an icon (meaning he didn't scatter), landing right next to the wyches. All dangerous terrain tests were passed. The Daemon princes both swooped up ensuring they ended their moves in cover/area terrain. The warpstorm was silent this turn. One of the daemon princes fired into the Duke's raider making it explode, killing three warriors in the explosion, they passed their pinning and leadership tests. The other daemon prince fired into a near by venom to no effect. The plagueridden fired his reward into the near by wyches but missed. The great unclean one caste haemorrhage at the Dukes squad, but missed.

Turn 2 (DE):

The ravager in reserve didn't come on. The Dark Eldar moved to engage the daemon prince in 5+ area terrain. The nearby wyches disembarked and snapfired into the daemon prince managing to inflict a wound despite needing 6s to hit and a 2+ cover save (shrouded combined with stealth from defensive grenades). The daemon prince passed its grounding test. The two near by venoms and disintegrator ravager fired into the daemon prince to no effect, and he passed all three grounding tests. The venom and ravager at the top of the table fired into the prince as well but both failed to hit. The duke and his squad rapid fired into the daemon prince but only inflicted one wound thanks to needing to hit on 6s and 2+ cover save (shrouded combined with stealth from defensive grenades), bringing him down to two wounds. He also passed the grounding test (five grounding tests passed!). The wyches near the relic moved away from the great unclean one, and ran in the shooting phase to cover more distance. The wyches on the left disembark from their venom and fired into the plaguebearers (including throwing a plasma grenade) who lost a single model (go 2+ cover saves!).

Turn 3 (CD):

The plague bearers shuffled about, one squad screening the squad with the relic. The plagueridden fired into the wyches on the left but missed. The daemon prince on the right, vector struck an empty venom making it explode, the resultant 6" blast killed one of the duke's warriors. The same daemon prince fired it's lance at the ravager but it jinked. The warpstorm table again blessed the battlefield with Nurgle's Rot but no 6s were rolled and it didn't affect any units. The great unclean one, used the grimoire on the flying daemon prince, but it backfired, he then charged the wyches who failed their fear test making them WS1. They attacked with their S4 plasma grenades (the only thing that could hurt it) but to no avail. The great unclean one struck back re-rolling to hit and to wound thanks to hatred and poison, killing three wyches (4+ invulnerable are really good against MCs). The wyches fled, but the great unclean one coulfn't run them down due to slow an purposeful. The other daemon prince charged the duke's squad, charging out of a crater to get a 2+ cover save against overwatch (poison 3+ overwatch is scary). He challenged the Duke, who got to strike first (maybe charging through terrain wasn't such a good idea). The duke inflicted two unsaved wounds (rending 5-6+ poison is really good against MCs). The daemon prince inflicted two wounds on the duke. If the duke saved them he would have won combat by two forcing the daemon prince to take an instability test at LD7 (charging the duke was a really bad idea...), thankfully the duke failed one of his 2+ shadow field saves and died to instant death! Nurgle be praised! The warriors fles, and the daemon prince couldn't pursue because of slow and purposeful. He consolidated back into the nearby crater to ensure he at least got a 3+ cover save against shooting next turn. It Will Not Die! on the daemon prince was unsuccessful.

Turn 3 (DE):

The ravager deepstruck in from reserve, scattering just shy of the board edge. The fleeing wyches continued to run, and snapshot into the flying daemon prince to no effect. The wyches on the left killed another plague bearer. Three ravagers, two venoms, and the survivors of the duke's squad, who rallied (meaning they could only snapfire), fired into the daemon prince on the ground, inflicting one wound between them (go 2-3+ cover save!). The daemon prince was now down to two wounds. The nearby wyches charged the same daemon prince. He struck two down before they could swing. The remaining three only had 6 attacks (defensive grenades), hitting to 5s and wounding on 6s, with a 3+ armour save, so they failed to do any damage. They fled but the daemon prince couldn't sweep because of slow and purposeful.

Turn 4 (CD):

At the start of the movement phase the great unclean one used the grimoire on the daemon prince with a re-rollable invulnerable save and it was successful, giving him a 3++ invulnerable save that he could re-roll. The daemon prince in the crater vector struck the four surviving duke enhanced warriors, killing them all. The daemon prince then flew off the board entering ongoing reserve. The daemon prince with the 3++ invulnerable vector struck the ravager with disintegrator cannons making it explode. In the shooting phase he fired into the venom making it explode as well (RAMPAGE!). The warpstorm table saw Khorne bellowed with rage but his wrath had no effect. The plagueridden fired into the wyches killing one, and inflicting soul blaze, however it went out without doing any damage. The great unclean one tried to cast haemorrhage on the wyches but failed to hit (BS3 and witchfires are a bad combination). It Will Not Die! on the daemon prince was unsuccessful.

Turn 4 (DE):

Both wych squads rallied, one firing into the flying grimoired daemon prince. The two lance ravagers and the venom moved up and fired into the same daemon prince to no effect, and failing to ground him. The venom immobilised itself in terrain. The wyches in the woods fired into the plaguebearers and charged them. Combat was fruitless on both sides, but the icon meant that the plaguebearers were the victors. However the wyches passed their leadership test.

Turn 5 (CD):

Night fell. At the start of the movement phase the great unclean one used the grimoire on the plaguebearers in combat with the wyches and it was successful, giving them a 3++ invulnerable save. The daemon prince in reserve came on and vector struck the venom destroying it and firing intot he ravager who managed to jink his gaze. The warpstorm table saw Nurgle's Rot bless the table a third times, but alas again to no effect (even with the two re-rolls from the instruments)!The great unclean one stumbled forward in an attempt to support the plaguebearers but didn't make it. The other daemon prince, switched to a glide and engaged the two wyches in the forest slaughtering them. The plaguebearers won combat again, but the wyches held. It Will Not Die! on the Daemon prince was unsuccessful.

Turn 5 (DE):

Both ravagers fired at the grounded daemon prince in the woods, inflicting a single wound, leaving him with one remaining. The wyches fired at the same prince and assaulted him. He failed to kill any of them, but fortunately managed to save the one wound they inflicted.  The plaguebearers won combat killing a wych and the wyches in turn broke. Slow and purposeful again prevented a pursuit.

The game ended. Nurgle was Vicotrious!

CD VPs: 6 (relic, slay the warlor, first blood, line breaker) DE VPs: 0

Overview

I haven't played relic or dark eldar with my nurgle daemons before and I have to say I was very lucky, not only with both my plague bearers coming on at once, but also with the first squad not scattering and as a result the icon's giving me pin point accuracy. As usual the instruments guaranteed that the GUO would hit the table turn 2, unless I failed three 3+ reserve rolls. The icons also ensured that he landed in cover without scattering.

My list can have a tough time with MSU so I was also fortunate to get two S8 AP1 lance gifts on BS5 models, these were invaluable at taking out the Duke's raider turn 2. With the relic secured, I bunkered down, and focused on causing as much damage with the daemon princes as possible. This kept the Dark Eldar focused on them rather than on eliminating my scoring units. Though those troops still required a great deal of fire power to eliminate thanks to their 2+ cover saves.

The key turning point, was when the duke failed his third 2+ invulnerable save of the game. Had he made that save, the daemon prince he was fighting might have crumbled due to instability (testing on LD7 as he would have lost combat by 2).

I'm really enjoying this Nurgle list, despite the lack of "competitive" daemon units: Fateweaver, Biomancy Spam Daemon Princes, Khorne Dogs, and Screamers. Shrouded and defensive grenades are very powerful tools, if you focus on positioning and maximising their effects. Slow and purposeful is frustrating at times, but this army is not design to win by killing alone. It overwhelms the opponents target priority turn 2 and then tries to stymie the opponent with its resilience, focusing on winning the mission. I have found the almost complete absence of shooting and the focus on assault is very refreshing in such a shooting heavy edition.

I think the key to beating it is probably focusing on the troops. Though that's easier said than done with the three monsters running around.

A massive thanks to facelessabsalom, he played a great game, and things could have been very different were it not for my inability to fail grounding checks!

Hope you enjoyed the report.

Wait no! That's not how it went down! The game went on to turn 6 and you rolled bad on your demonic tests and got your army wiped out!

Jokes aside, it was a tough game. Really nice list there mush!

I think an objective game like crusade would have been a lot closer. I would have been forced to try and hunt your troops rather than focus on eliminating your fire power. Not to mention the lack of mobility of my own troops might have made it hard to secure objectives without risking open ground. Luck was really on my side the whole game: good reserve rolls, accurate deepstrike, rolling two lance rewards (though arguably had I not rolled those I might have got 4+ FNP doubling the survivability of my daemon princes), not failing grounding tests, etc.

I see what you did there. Edited the report for your own benefit:D (it was in the pictures all along)

A great report again. I almost liked the Duke after reading the report. Almost...

Vasara wrote:

A great report again. I almost liked the Duke after reading the report. Almost...

Yeah, granting FNP made the explosions less painful, the venom blades with 5-6 rending were really quite deadly, and could have turned nasty with daemonic instability tests.

On another note I found an interesting tactical suggestion for the dark eldar when I posted a link to this on warseer.

NIght429 wrote:

Also, knowing that DE could not pick up the Relic on their turn before the Daemons had a chance to arrive, they could/should have used turbo-boost moves to castle around the relic, preventing the daemons from being able to deep strike on it. Then DE could have been entrenched in the cover with the relic blasting away at the Daemons in the open instead of the other way around.

Thoughts? It seems quite solid, of course dangerous terrain tests would be a risk, but a minor one at that.

I play the relic usually so that every turn i can i move one of my models on top of the relic to prevent opponent taking it. I even use flat out in stead of shooting a good target to achieve this goal. Even one infantry model on top of the relic is enough to prevent opponent movement to it due to 1" distance that need to remain. Run or assault move doesn't allow relic capturing.

NIght429 wrote:

Also, knowing that DE could not pick up the Relic on their turn before the Daemons had a chance to arrive, they could/should have used turbo-boost moves to castle around the relic, preventing the daemons from being able to deep strike on it. Then DE could have been entrenched in the cover with the relic blasting away at the Daemons in the open instead of the other way around.

Hm... That's true, I could deny you cover saves and relic by doing that. But I don't like rolling for tests, I'ld easily fail them and die. My concern is that I get trapped in the middle while you can DS around me and have your DPs flying around and covering everything.

Awesome as always. I sure do wish they were more frequent! I'm interested in the decision to take so many wyches. Could you speak to that?

eohall wrote:

Awesome as always. I sure do wish they were more frequent!

Thanks, and so do I. But unfortunately life is quite busy at the moment!

facelessabsalom wrote:

NIght429 wrote:

Also, knowing that DE could not pick up the Relic on their turn before the Daemons had a chance to arrive, they could/should have used turbo-boost moves to castle around the relic, preventing the daemons from being able to deep strike on it. Then DE could have been entrenched in the cover with the relic blasting away at the Daemons in the open instead of the other way around.

Hm... That's true, I could deny you cover saves and relic by doing that. But I don't like rolling for tests, I'ld easily fail them and die. My concern is that I get trapped in the middle while you can DS around me and have your DPs flying around and covering everything.

Yeah but DE are not a "play it safe" army. You gotta be willing to lose a raider on a 16% chance in exchange for a clear tactical advantage. You saw how hard it was for you to punch Mush's guys while they were entrenched in cover.

I think moving flat out to secure the centre has a lot of merit, especially in the relic.

If you are up for it facelessabsalom we could play the exact same game from the start of your turn 1 and see how it works out. Maybe starting your third ravager on the board as well. Could be an interesting learning experience for both of us.

@ehohall, My list has alot of wyches, because I love wyches. It's not a competitive list, just a for fun list and trying to utilize duke and his DS. If I had splinterborns and warriors, things would look different I believe. Wyches vs flying DPs? I don't think so. Warriors can at least shoot em and try to ground them from afar. I had wyches doing basically nothing worth doing on many of my rounds, which was bring down the DPs fast so that I could start shooting his troops. Then go tie the guo down, snatch relic and dance around him.

Mush, I'm up for another game next week, same time etc. But we gotta play a game with my Imperial Fists another time!

facelessabsalom wrote:

@ehohall, My list has alot of wyches, because I love wyches. It's not a competitive list,

Wyches with haywire in venoms are actually our most competitive troop choice in this edition. Though they are not exactly great against daemons, especially when they don't field soulgrinders.

facelessabsalom wrote:

Mush, I'm up for another game next week, same time etc. But we gotta play a game with my Imperial Fists another time!

Sure, sounds good. We can just to an imperial fist game if you would rather, make things a bit different.

Again i think that Venom Wyches should have Heka with Venom Blade, not taking her just so narrows down units role. I think spending points here worth it.

Great report, as ever, although I am even more terrified of Daemons than ever! Did you actually only lose two Plaguebearers in the whole game?! Eek!

commandersasha wrote:

Great report, as ever, although I am even more terrified of Daemons than ever!  Did you actually only lose two Plaguebearers in the whole game?! Eek!

Thanks. Yes the two plague bearers were the only casualties. But each daemon prince is 260 points, so when one dies I lose a quarter of my army, and both of them were down to two wounds. The nice thing is they don't lose any effectiveness until they are dead. They are very survivable if you don't let your opponent focus on a single prince: by flying them off the board, using grimoire, or making one a more appealing target (landing it on the ground, as opposed to keeping it in the air).

The list on the whole is designed to be very hard to destroy outright, the idea being it forces your opponent to play the mission rather than try to table you, which can be a a problem for lists that are designed to drawn you in firepower.

I really liked this report. It was solid a flowed fantastically as always. I did spot a minor problem, when a monstrous creature swoops it doesn't gain the benefits of cover if it ends its move in terrain so your daemon princes would have only got a 4+ from shooting in the building from their stealth and shrouding. Just like flyers, monstous creatures have to jink or dive as the rule is called to gain the regular 5+
Only then could you have gained the 2+ as you flying rather than landing in terrain.
They work quite similar to flyers but if are looking for the dive its on pg  49 of the BRB.
Other than that there is no specification on claiming cover saves but it can be inferred that like flyers it has to jink in order to claim the 5+ that would have your stealth plus shrouding to stack on.  

I loved it overall and its interesting to not see the buzzards for a change, but man those daemons are tough!

The Duke almost had the chance to pull off something great... almost..

Well, I look forward to when these armies clash in the future, cheers

Shrike423 wrote:

I really liked this report. It was solid a flowed fantastically as always.

Thanks for the feedback as always.

Shrike423 wrote:

I did spot a minor problem, when a monstrous creature swoops it doesn't gain the benefits of cover if it ends its move in terrain so your daemon princes would have only got a 4+ from shooting in the building from their stealth and shrouding. Just like flyers, monstous creatures have to jink or dive as the rule is called to gain the regular 5+
Only then could you have gained the 2+ as you flying rather than landing in terrain.
They work quite similar to flyers but if are looking for the dive its on pg  49 of the BRB.
Other than that there is no specification on claiming cover saves but it can be inferred that like flyers it has to jink in order to claim the 5+ that would have your stealth plus shrouding to stack on.

This is actually incorrect.

No where does it say flyers can't benefit from cover. A Razorwing, if 25% obscured by a tall enough building will get a cover save, the same way a raider obscured by a building would. Razorwings don't benefit from area terrain not because they are flyers, but because vehicles don't benefit from area terrain. The evade manoeuvre is just a way to get a cover save in the open by taking evasive manoeuvres. The game still uses true line of sight to determine cover. There is no abstraction that the flyer is flying high above the battle field. For example if you have large enough terrain you can even block line of sight to a flyer. Your opponent can't say "Hey! That plane is flying so I can shoot it even though I can't see it because it's actually high above the battle field". The model represents the actual position of the flyer (all planes fly at ridiculously low altitude in 40k, so that they can see the faces of their victims, because it's grimdark).

The same applies to monstrous creatures in swoop mode. If they are 25% obscured by terrain they get cover just like any other model. Also as they are not vehicles so they benefit from area terrain, regardless of whether swooping or not. That leave a swooping nurgle daemon prince with a lot of options to get cover:

-25% obscured by a ruin or hill: 2+ cover save.
-In area terrain: 3+ cover save.
-In area terrain and within 8" of the shooting unit: 2+ cover save.
-Enemy unit has to draw line of sight through a forest: 3+ cover save.
-Enemy unit has to draw line of sight through a forest and is within 8": 2+ cover save.
-Performing a dive in open ground to get jink: 3+ cover save.
-Performing a dive in open ground within 8" of the shooting unit: 2+ cover save.

The whole idea behind the nurgle daemon princes is you leverage the terrain advantage. As for the fluff justification, I see swoops as high speed low level sprints meaning terrain plays just as much as a role as it would for a foot based model.

I quickly forgot and now don't have much time playing anymore. Sorry mush!

Haywire wyches in venoms is cheese! Mainly because of the synergy/combo. Running only wyches w/o haywires or venoms and expecting them to hold objectices/kill stuff is not cheese