Agent of Chaos Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 On Sunday I attended a small 1000 point tournament at my local game store and thought I would share some summarised battle reports and general thoughts which other Khorne players will hopefully find useful. Although traditionally a 2000 point player I am starting to enjoy the nuance of 1000 point games and the challenge of writing take all comers lists. After more than a few variations I settled on the following list; Allegiance: KhorneMortal Realm: GhyranDaemon Prince of Khorne (160)- General - Trait: Immense Power - Artefact: Ghyrstrike Aspiring Deathbringer (80)- Bloodaxe and Wrath HammerBloodstoker (80)Slaughterpriest (100)- Blood Blessing: Killing Frenzy 5 x Blood Warriors (100)- Goreaxe & Gorefist5 x Flesh Hounds (100)5 x Chaos Knights (160)- Chaos Glaives5 x Skullreapers (170)- Daemonblades - 1x SoultearersTotal: 950 / 1000Extra Command Points: 1 The Daemon Prince with Immense Power and Gyrstrike is a beast for his 160 points (I wrote about it here;) The aim for the Knights is to get a charge in ASAP to keep my opponent busy while the Skull Reapers advanced behind supported by the Aspiring Deathbringer. The Bloodwarriors were just there to objective camp while the flesh hounds would sue their speed to plug holes or chase distant objectives. Game 1 vs Slaanesh (Take & Hold) My opponent brought a Herald on Exalted Seeker Chariot, Herald on foot, Alluress, Soul Grinder, 1 x 3 Fiends and 2 x 10 Daemonettes. I charged the fiends with the knights, knowing the fiends do more damage to multi wound models but thinking that if I could just get 2 of my glaive attacks through I would kill one and be well on my way to holding that flank long enough for the daemon prince and skullreapers to work through the rest of the army. Sadly my glorious charge resulted in only 2 wounds caused with the -1 to hit from the fiends proving disastrous for me (the slaughter priest failing Killing Frenzy on them certainly didn’t help). Over the next two rounds of combat the fiends wiped the knights without taking another wound. The Soul Grinder and Alluress were taking pot shots at the Skull reapers as they plodded up field, eventually getting into melee with a unit of daemonettes and struggled badly to finish them off, while the flesh hounds took on the other damonette unit, drawing the exalted chariot into melee in the process (spoiler: it didn’t go well for the hounds). The Daemon Prince sensed his chance to make a difference and flew over the lines to successfully wipe out the Exalted chariot however died to the fiends the following turn. We ran out of time just as I was starting my turn at the bottom of the 3rd round, with the fiends, soulgrinder and a summoned unit of seekers bearing down on the blood warriors guarding my home objective. By then I was sitting on 8 Bloodtithe, having not used a point all game, with only the stoker and a single skull reaper remaining. The stoker had moved to the centre of the board by then so I was planning to summon a herald to then summon 10 flesh hounds for a desperate charge on his home objective being guarded by a summoned unit of 5 x daemonettes however I was completed zoned out from being able to even fit the herald in. I would have liked to have summoned a Bloodthirster instead for the 8 tithe and attempt to earn some kill points, assuming he made his charge, but we were out of time and I wouldn’t have been able to make up the difference anyway so we called it there. Result: Minor Loss on kill points (600 to 360) Thoughts: Since Wraith & Rapture dropped Slaanesh is a really bad match up for khorne and I was left pretty unimpressed by the melee prowess of my army versus his. Having to reroll hits of 6 is brutal on Skullreapers (and Bloodletters, not that that I had any) not to mention the negative hit debuffs and I found my units generally outclassed in melee which is all kinds of wrong for the god of war vs the god of enjoying stuff. I haven’t used Skullreapers that much and found them fairly uninspiring; elite khorne murderers that hit on 4+, no rend and 1 damage? The mortal wounds from daemonblades are nice when they happen but the fact they can rebound if you roll a 1 is not cool. Even the leader with his Soultearer and mutation failed to do much this game. My poor rolling did not help my impression of these guys so will run them again but geez, they would want to start performing. The slaughter priest also failed to turn up, only passing bloodboil once for a couple of wounds before the Soulgrinder lined him up and put him out of his misery. Meanwhile all I achieved by killing his exalted chariot with the Daemon Prince was gifting him enough depravity points to immediately summon another one if he so chose. Overall a tough game and a matchup I expect will continue to be a nightmare for the foreseeable future. Game 2 vs Nurgle (Total Commitment) Funny situation this one. My opponent brought the wrong case of models by mistake and so instead of the Tzeencth army he had planned and practiced with he played a Nurgle list featuring the Glotkin, a Herald, and 3 x 10 Plaguebearers (with no gnarlmaws). Such is life. In further hilarity we were supposed to be playing Scorched Earth but I left him to set up the table and he accidentally swiped his ipad left and set up the wrong scenario. We didn’t realise until turn 2 or 3 and so played it out anyway- I was glad as Scorched Earth seems to come up a lot as a tournament battle plan and Total Commitment doesn’t affect either of our armies (in terms of having to set up your whole army on the table with no reserves). Its also kind of cool how the battle is fought down both flanks given there are no central objectives which makes for a much different tactical challenge. I matched up the daemon prince, knights and slaughter priest against the glotkin and 10 x plaguebearers on my left objective while the flesh hounds, blood warriors, skullreapers, stoker and deathbringer went after the Herald and 2 x 10 Plaguebearers on the right hand objective. The combined charge of daemon prince and knights on the Glottkin managed 14 wounds (out of 18) but he slowly healed up from there and eventually wiped both units. However the knights lasted long enough for me to overwhelm the right hand side and hold 3 out of 4 objectives for a turn (which gave me a crucial 1 VP lead) before he killed my priest and took my home objective to square it up again. As we were playing on a 6x4 table we were too far away from each other to meet in the middle and so it stayed that way up until turn 5. In hindsight I probably should have sent the daemon prince after the unit of 10 plaguebearers camping his left hand objective but it didn’t matter in the end. Result: Major Win (by 1 VP) Thoughts: a fun and close game. Going so close to killing the Glottkin was pretty cool and it was touch and go as to who would secure the opponent’s objective first. I didn’t spend a single Bloodtithe point all game as I always had it in my mind that I would need to summon in order to threaten the left hand objective once I’d secured the right side however the way the last 2 turns played out there was really no point. As such I continue to be very underwhelmed by our allegiance ability as for the second game in a row I basically operated without any allegiance benefits from it whatsoever. Game 3 vs Karadron Overlords (Relocation Orb) My Opponent brought an Admiral, Khemist, allied battlemage, Gunhauler, 3 x Endrinriggers, 2 x 10 Arkanauts and 1 x 10 allied Dwarven Ironbreakers. I gave him the first turn so he moved the gun hauler to the middle to claim the objective while the rest of the dwarves moved up slowly behind. The knights charged the gun hauler in my turn and caused exactly enough wounds to take it out and claim the objective. The orb then moved my way in range of my hounds, I won the double turn so the hounds took the orb while the knights charged the endrin riggers, killing 2 and wounding the 3rd who singlehandedly killed a knight in return before running away to battleshock. A combination of shooting and melee from the Admiral accounted for the knights however their job was well and truly done by then. From there it was a slowish slugfest as my Daemon Prince, skull reapers and warriors churned their way through the Dwarven infantry. A highlight was the Daemon Prince flying over the lines and splitting his attacks to kill both the Khemist and Battlemage in one round of melee (before being pin cushioned by Skyhooks in the next round). Another highlight was using 2 bloodtithe to dispel chain lightning from the battlemage, my only use of bloodtithe in 3 games! A funny situation arose as the Dwarven Ironbreakers held the line in a forest and were the last unit to die in the 5th round despite me throwing everything I had left at them. At one point the wounded Skullreaper leader was charged and surrounded by 10 Arkanauts who failed to finish him off (it was a real “stands alone!” moment for any Rerolling One’s fans out there), he then killed them all with a little help from the Aspiring Deathbringer, and then in my turn the skullreaper leader charged the remaining 2 ironbreakers in an effort to finally finish them off, whiffed all his attacks and was killed by them in return. Result: Major Win (6 VP to 1 VP + tabled my opponent) Thoughts: Poor Karadron, they seem so limited at the moment but are such a cool looking army and concept; I really hope GW give them some love soon. Admittedly I was pretty lucky with the way the orb bounced around as I could always get to it when I wanted. Also winning the double turn in round 2 meant I could take out the Endrinriggers which meant it was my game to lose from there. I finally got to use bloodtithe! As it was only a beginners tournament the full results were not released however with 2 major wins and a minor loss I believe I would have finished 2nd or 3rd out of 7. Although I love how brutal the Daemon Prince can be in combat with the combination of trait and artifact I gave him, he dies so easily in return that Im not yet convinced if he is the best option or how best to use him. As stated earlier I feel Skullreapers are slightly underwhelming and really need to be buffed hard with extra attacks and killing frenzy (being stoked is essential), at least until they activate all their rerolls. Getting them into combat before they are shot to bits is a challenge in itself while an “elite unit” that hits on 4’s with no rend and 1 damage, particularly one in a khorne army, just doesn’t feel right. I still love my chaos knights, even though they failed miserably against the fiends and underperformed against the Glottkin, they pretty much won me the 3rd game and stayed alive just long enough for me to win the 2nd. Given the rule tweaks I was tempted to try out Bloodcrushers this time around however after the knights once again did a job for me I think the Juggerlads will stay in the summoning box (that is if I ever get the chance to actually use some blood tithe!). The slaughterpriest was dicey as I knew he would be outside gorepilgrims but I was pleased with the Aspiring Deathrbinger and the Bloodstoker always pulls his weight. If anyone has any questions/comments about the list/tactics/opposing armies etc send them my way. Thanks for reading and, as always, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent of Chaos Posted January 7, 2019 Author Share Posted January 7, 2019 Stands alone!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mincemeat Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 Fantastic writeup! Good to see Chaos Knights getting some love, I'm really enjoying using these guys lately (despite my inability to roll a 4 or high for any hit roll ever) Skull reapers I find work best in their battalion, the extra damage on the odd wound roll helps but the really great thing is them buffing korgoraths to 8 attacks, throw in bloodsecrator buff and the beasties get scary real fast. You're right on bloodtithe being hard to use, most of the rewards seem so underwhelming only the auto unbind and occasional apoplectic frenzy seem worth killing units for. Congrats on the victories, blood for the blood god! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent of Chaos Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 Cheers @Mincemeat! I feel your pain on the Knights hit rolls! I only own one unit of Skullreapers and one Korgi currently so can't run their battalion but good to know they can be useful in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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