Tourney Training - 2500pts Delves vs Daemons Advice/comments

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Bies
Noble
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:53 pm

Tourney Training - 2500pts Delves vs Daemons Advice/comments

Post by Bies »

Had a game in preparation for the tourney on 1-2 May, naturally I managed to find the 1 gamer who played Daemons and the 1 gamer who knew jack all about the game while seeming to know every little nuance and trick when it suited.

My list:

A bit on my list- I've tried to make it as balanced as possible so that I can take on Daemons, Vamps, Delves and lizards no worries. Now I know for a fact that there will be two dark elf deathstar lists.

1 will be Crone, 3 characters (ASF banner, MR3, half str shooting on unit) in 10 shades with 2 Hydras and 3 cross bowmen.
1 will be characters and shades as above, 4 bolt throwers, 3 crossbow units

I also know that every daemon list is going to have skull taker and the majority will have 2-3 10 man horror units

Lizards will have 2-3 Engines of the gods

Vamps will include either mass mages for invok or Bloodknight deathstar.

Everything else I'm not worried about. So below is my list and then I've talked about what I intend it to do - if you find any holes or items/things that can improve the list please let me know.

Characters:
Dreadlord - Dragon, Pendant, Potion of strength, caledors bane, heavy armour, shield, sea dragon cloak : this guy is, apart from a lot of fun, a solo heavy hitter. He's designed to hit characters, wounded greater daemons and units of heavy cav/infantry. With str7 for two rounds of combat he can also make a mess of stegadons as they get no scaly skin save.

2xMages - lv1 with 2 dispel scrolls each : pretty obvious what these guys are, they're my magic defence. Against lists with hydras they're going to go with fireballs otherwise probably chillwind from dark magic and aim at shooty units to stop them firing back at me.

Core:
2x10 crossbowmen - these are the base for the missile section of the army (which is added to in special and rare) they form the firebase to take down small enemy flankers and usually they're deployed (from my use of them so far) towards the wings of the army

6 dark riders - musician : no crossbows makes them less versatile but it really brings the points of the unit down. They're mostly going to be used as warmachine hunters or redirectors to cover the cold ones.

Special:
2x5 Cold One Knights - musician: cheap at 143pts (or so) each they still hurt on the charge with 5 str4 and 5 str6 so a good mini hammer that can take on small units of infantry and cavalry on alone. With two means I get a few more bodies on the table and can redirect/hit more targets. I was contemplating going back to 1 unit of 6 with full command and standard of slaughter (+d3 CR on charge) but feel the extra bodies are more helpful.

5 shades : OK 5 is probably a little too few and with no greatweapons they're again not as versatile as they could be. But it's a difference of 40 something points from 5 naked to 7 with GW and tbh they're just a bunker for 1 of my assassins.

14 Black guard - full command, champ with ring of hotek, standard of Hag Graef (ASF banner). So this is a bit of a points sink unit at 277 pts (about) which puts it at 130 more then any other individual "unit" in my army (compared to COK). That said they can dish out ALOT of punishment. The hotek is probably not the best thing to give the champ but I need it in the list and its the only real spot to stick it.

Assassin 1 - Rending stars, manbane, AHW : so this is my big creature/chariot slayer and he deploys with the shades - hence the bunker comment above. His job is to wound large creatures early on and just hassle and annoy from the enemy lines.
Assassin 2 - AHW, Rune of Khaine (+d3 attacks), touch of death (killing blow) : this is my character slayer and it goes without saying what he does with 5-7 attacks at str4 with killing blow!

Rare:
2xBolt throwers : ok now most people say 2 Hydra's are cheesy and "optimum" now I've said before and I'll say it again, Bolt throwers are better. These are the final touch to my shooting element and combined with the shades, rending assassin and crossbowmen pump out a significant amount of shots.

Hydra: because frankly 2 bolt throwers are enough and I felt the extra combat/pysch potential of a Hydra was worth it (and I had 1 painted already).


The list I came up against was ALMOST themed (I was very shocked at the idea theme could enter a list here). It only needed 1 change to be a very strong list but I essentially fought a WEAK daemon list (I know didn't think it was possible either...)

Bloodthirster - str7 flaming attacks, other stuff I dunno.
Skull taker on Juggernought
Herald of Khorne on Juggernought, BSB with stubborn banner
Herald of Tzeentch - knowing all of 1 lore, d6 str4 shots each shooting phase, on disc.

3x12 Blood letters (had they been horrors this list would have been a challenge)

5 seekers of slaanesh
2x5 hounds of khorne

2 juggernoughts - champ + standard
5 flamers - pyro.

OK . I just spent an hour trying to use Battlecronicler to give you an idea of the game but failed horrible (lack of a mouse may be an issue) I really hate how it auto wheels and shifts a unit around when I all I want to do it put it back 2 inches... bloody annoying!

Anyway you're going to have to visualize until tomorrow when I can spend some more time (not at 1am) trying to figure out how to use it

Will post the battle report tomorrow I swear. It's a good one as it was a close game and a very frustrating one- I actually had to shove 2 guys away from the table after they became too vocal as arm-chair generals and went nuts at my opponent after he questioned why I was re-rolling my his for the 4th time, "beause my entire friggin army has hatred like I told you the last 3 combat phases"

Thankfully the happieness of destroying shifty Daemons played by 4 other people against me made everything worth it.
Not another 1...
W/D/L for 2010
40/7/18
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