1850 - Daemons vs Harlequins

[calypso2ts]

Not a formal battle report, but I had a chance to play Garner's Harlequins. I brought (at his request) just about the most brutal Daemon list I could field. From memory the lists were:

Harlequins
3x Shadowseer (Veil of Tears, Shriek, Reverse Invis)
3x Death Jester
1x Solitaire
2x Harlequin Troupe (5 models ea w/ Kisses/Embraces) Dedicated Starweaver
1x Harlquin Troupe (12 models w/ Kisses/Embraces)
2x Harlequin Jetbikes (4 models ea)
1x Voidweaver

Daemons
1x Herald of Khorne w/ Lesser Gift, Juggernaut
1x Herald of Tzeentch w/ Exalted Gift, Disc
1x Herald of Nurgle w/ Greater Gift, Locus of Fecundity (Iron Arm)
1x Herald of Nurgle w/ Greater Gift, Mastery 2 (Enfeeble, Cursed Earth)
1x Fateweaver (Invisibility, Cursed Earth)

10x Horrors (Dark Flame)
10x Horrors (Possession)
10x Plaguebearers

16x Flesh Hounds
9x Screamers
6x Plague Drones w/ Venom Sting, Plagueridden w/ Greater Gift

I had some pretty stellar powers with Cursed Earths and Invisibility. We played Emperor's Will and an objective scored in each table quarter at the end of your turn.

Garner snagged the first turn and took it. It was going to be a slugfest no matter what - and I was a bit surprised at how fast his army was. Rerolling failed 1's on invulns and charging after runs are great bonuses. I had to eat the first assault, but I had some 2+ hounds and onlya handful of wounds got through my hot rolling. The return strikes were brutal and I kept the Grimoire running on the Hounds with Cursed Earth support for most of the game. Some pictures of the game with both of our beautiful unpainted armies!

Highlights:
Flickering Fire Soul Blazes some bikes turn 2 - it burns the rest of the game until the unit is put out of its misery by the Dark Prince Thirsts. 
The same Dark Prince Thirsts strips 2 wounds from a Khorne Herald - nearly killing it after rolling 6 hits on it!
Flesh Hounds eat over 140 S4 attacks.  They lose 4 total wounds and win combat!
Shadowseer fights off possession by a Herald on a 9!
Horrors get mulched by Enfeebled Harlequins, but the Blue Horror attacks kill 4 in return
Other Horrors win combat against a Death Jester...then get off Possession and turn into a Bloodthirster.  He whips out the Death Jester.



















The little Starweaver that could - makes 3 saves with 1 HP left, finally deciding to give the Harlequins a little bit of luck.

[hyv3mynd]

How many points was this?

[calypso2ts]

We played 1850 points as a practice game for Garner for the upcoming ATC. He wanted to get a game against another assault army.

The game actually took a long time for us to play out with all the close combat attacks being thrown around (3 hours or so).

[dudeisuck]

Yup, he got some really good defensive powers, 4 cursed earths!

The hounds only took 4 wounds from the initial charge, that was ~102 attacks, 15 hitting on 3s with fleshbane, 15 hitting on 3s with old school rending, 40 hitting on 4s old school rending, and 8 kiss attacks/ 24 regular attacks hitting on 4s. All except the fleshbanes and kisses, that were wounding on 2s, were wounding on 4s.

I can't wait to try it again. Now I think I know what I have to do.

[hyv3mynd]

Yeah you mowed my hounds but I didn't have psykers or grimoire. I feel harlies are a lot more brutal on a 4x4 at 1250.

[dudeisuck]

Also, I def need to roll sanctic vs daemons. The primaris would have done really well for me, even if he had more deny dice

[calypso2ts]

Jun 4, 2015 21:24:46 GMT -5 dudeisuck said:

Also, I def need to roll sanctic vs daemons. The primaris would have done really well for me, even if he had more deny dice

Multiple Cursed Earths was brutal - but so was getting Invisibility on Fateweaver. Between the two I had Invisible Plague Drones and 2++ save dogs. I would have straight up lost one of those units if I did not have both Invis and the Grimoire in place.

It was definitely strange playing another army that wanted to assault and did so in such a different manner. Both armies have a 5++ base, but the harlequins put out high initiative wounds to survive while the Daemons have T4 and a ton of wounds to weather the storm.

I was sitting on 11 dice this game to Garner's 6, plus all the psykers in the army meant I was denying on a 5+ for Screamers/Drones and a 4+ for the Khorne Collar. Santic though would have been better - only Fog of Dreams is really an effective power against this kind of army.

[nettik189]

Dude, im surpized tou dont roll santic for santuary either making your guys harder to kill

[dudeisuck]

I rolled 2 fogs, but couldn't get it off with your dice pool. Much sadness.

[koszkamade]

Sanctic when you are not elder or GK is a bit of a risk. Perils on any roll of doubles seems frightening. Then again, hammerhead harries would have been brutal!

[nettik189]

The nice thing about santic is most of them are WC 1 so you only have to throw 2-3 dice if you want.