3,000pts : Double Star Dragon HE vs Tzeentch Heavy Daemons

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Sinsigel
Posts: 357
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:34 am

3,000pts : Double Star Dragon HE vs Tzeentch Heavy Daemons

#1 Post by Sinsigel »

I played a 3K game with an acquaintance of mine last saturday. Both of us had revised our lists after the sudden FAQ allowing max 50% of lists on Lords.
I came up with double star dragon while he took out both Kairos and Lord of Change. Lister were like following

High Elves

Lords
Prince(Star Dragon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lion Cloak, Star Lance, Armour of Destiny, Dragonbane Gem, The Other Trickster's Shard)
Archmage(Level 4, Star Dragon, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, Ironcurse Icon) - High Magic

Hero
Noble(BSB, Great Eagle, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lion Cloak, Lance, Dragonhelm, Golden Crown of Atrazar, Potion of Strength)

Core
13 Archers(Standard Bearer, Musician)
11 Silver Helms(Shields, Full Command)
5 Silver Helms(Shields, High Helm, Musician)
5 Ellyrian Reavers(Musician)
5 Ellyrian Reavers(Musician)

Special
9 Dragon Princes of Caledor(Full Command, Banner of the World Dragon)

Rare
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Frostheart Phoenix


Daemons of Chaos

Lords
Kairos
Lord of Change(Level 4, 1xGreater Gift, 2xLesser Gift) - Lore of Tzeentch

Heroes
Herald of Tzeentch(Level 1) - Lore of Metal
Blue Scribes

Core
20 horrors(Full Command)
10 horrors
10 horrors
10 horrors
10 horrors

Special
3 Screamers
3 Screamers
3 Screamers
3 Screamers

Rare
Skull Cannon
Skull Cannon
Skull Cannon

We played Battleline and I got the first turn. Archmage earned Soul Quench, Apotheosis, Walk Between Worlds and Arcane Unforging.
Pictures below show deployment

Image


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Daemons deployment


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High Elves Deployment
The archmage is on the red dragon, whereas the prince is mounted on blue dragon.

Turn 1

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All units except archers and bolt throwers march forward. Eagle noble lands in front of archmage to block flaming cannonballs.
Magic sees archmage casting a single soul quench to boost his ward save to 3+, and his dragon's to 5+ against warmachine weapons.
Shooting sees few wounds chipped from screamers.


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Two screamers lie dead after magic missiles and shooting.


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Three units of screamers charge star dragon prince, but one of them fails.
Kairos casts chain lightning to phoenix which I dispel with scroll. Magic phase ends without doing anything.
However, the skull cannon in the daemons' left flank(facing the phoenix) kills the phoenix with a single shot.
Another skull cannon manages to hit and wound my eagle noble. Unfortunately, he fails his 2+ ward save and the cannonball instantly kills him.
Thankfully, the Star Dragon and the Archmage survive the bouncing cannonball, and the third skull cannon shot at the mage.
In close combat, screamers manage to deal zero wound to both prince and the dragon while the prince kills a few.
Screamers however hold.(I forgot to use the other trickster's shard during the entire game)

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The eagle noble is down......


Turn 2

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Dragon Princes and the archmage charge the horrors in front of them.
Silver Helms also charge horror units respectively, while reavers successfully charge kairos.
During magic phase archmage boosts his and dragon's ward save by 2 points.
Shooting sees no wounds inflicted to screamers.

Screamers still hold without suffering from daemonic instability despite many being killed.
Dragon Princes and Archmage wipe out horrors, overruning right into the Lord of Change in front of them.
11 Silver Helms kill the herald (the BSB) and win the fight, although steadfast horrors still hold.
Reavers and kairos deal zero wounds to each other and the combat continues.


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Horrors next to lord of change charge dragon princes, and a single unit of screamers charge bolt thrower.
10 Horrors in front of skull cannon charges 4 silver helms who were stuck in CC with other horror unit they charged before.
Kairos casts Comet of Cassandora successfully, putting the marker near the 11 silver helms unit.
Nothing paticular happens in shooting phase.

In close combat horrors and lord of change are wiped out, whereas 5 silver helms charged by horrors are defeated, and caught.
Kairos kills a single reaver but the reavers hold. Bolt thrower was destroyed.


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At the end of Turn 2.


Turn 3

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Dragon Princes successfully charge the skull cannon but prince fails.
Archmage charges into the flank of horrors. Archers also charge the nearest horror unit in front of them.
Magic sees archmage casting a single spell, as there was no viable target for direct damage or magic missile.

Dragon Princes destroy skull cannon and overrun into another skull cannon.
Archers also decimate horrors, and on the other side archmage and silver helms destroy the remaining horrors and reform.

Image

End of High Elves Turn 3


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Horrors charge archers, and screamers charge the last bolt thrower.

During magic phase, the comet finally falls down and kills some silver helms and the archmage with 3+ ward save.
Dragon however passes monster reaction test. Horrors cast infernal Gateway to Prince and deals 6 wounds to Dragon.
Skull Cannon then finishes off the dragon.

Dragon Princes destroy second skull cannon and reform in conga line to shorten the distance between them and the nearest screamers.
Screamers wipe out last bolt thrower while horrors destroy archers.

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End of Daemons turn 3


Turn 4

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Prince and dragon princes charge screamers, and the lone star dragon charges Kairos.
Silver helms manage to charge blue scribe but fails due to lack of space thanks to star dragon landing on narrow space.

Without any magic and shooting left, High Elves proceed to close combat.
Dragon Princes destroy screamers, but kairos holds due to miserable roll of dice on Star Dragon.

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End of High Elves turn 4


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Screamers move so that dragon princes cannot charge.
Skull Cannon moves and shoots down all silver helms using flank shot.
Kairos still survives as star dragon lands only 2 attacks, wounds only once, and was blocked by ward save.


Turn 5

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Dragon Princes charge horrors and the prince moves out of the screamers' line of sight.

Dragon Princes wipe out horrors but star dragon still fails to kill kairos.


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Skull cannon charges star dragon and Screamers move a bit, without flying over the prince.
Kairos casts withering on Star Dragon, lowering its toughness to 4.
The impact hits and ensuing attacks from bloodletter remove 5 wounds from the dragon, but the star dragon finally kills kairos
before fleeing and getting caught by skull cannon.

At this point, we decided to end the game and High Elves achieve victory through VPs.
(Star Dragon prince and dragon princes were left on the board whereas daemons only had screamers and single skull cannon)

Getting the first turn through +! bonus for deploying first helped, but the daemons player's mistake on first turn
(charging the dragon with screamers) was what really enabled my dragons to reach close combat.
The Lord of Change was too close to my cavalry and dragon too.
(The lord of change attempted to cast 18" glean magic on my archmage.)

There were some bad lucks for me during the game
(Dragonhelm noble BSB and phoenix getting shot down bysingle cannonball, star dragon taking 3~4 combat rounds to kill kairos),
but the boosted ward save on archmage's dragon helped it survive and make it into combat.

However, if the daemons took the first turn and focused shooting cannons on my dragons from turn 1,
I doubt both star dragons would've made it into combat.
Even if the dragons survive bombardment through their sheer number of wounds,
archmage might have been shot down rather quickly.

If facing an army with 3 flaming cannons(against which dragonhelm and dragon armour really helps in preserving points) can still wreak such havoc upon my list,
I can't imagine how badly my army will get wiped out should I face 4 ironbalster ogeres or double S-tank & triple great cannon empire army at 3K.

If there is one thing I learned from this game, it's that I should better leave dragon lords on the shelf
until the combined stats from End Times become official rule for next edition.
3 cannons can still destroy my key characters ruthlessly, and I see no fun in that.

Another thing about my list is that I want to put secondary caster for carrying scroll,
because obviously a mage on dragon will get shot down quickly by cannons.
But that will leave already character heavy list even more less room for other elements.
The Dragon princes will dwindle and my noble has to abandone his eagle, which I don't think is a good idea.
So I will be keep running the list without secondary caster for a while.
Below is the revised list.

Lords
Prince(Dragon Armour, Star Dragon, Star Lance, Charmed Shield, Talisman of Endurance, The Other Trickster's Shard)
Archmage(Level 4, Star Dragon, Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon) - High Magic

Hero
Noble(BSB, Lance, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lion Cloak, Great Eagle, Dragonhelm, Golden Crown of Atrazar, Potion of Strength)

Core
16 Archers(Standard Bearer, Musician)
15 Silver Helms(Shields, Full Command)
5 Ellyrian Reavers(Spears & Bows, Musician)
5 Ellyrian Reavers(Musician)

Special
7 Dragon Princes of Caledor(Full Command, BotWD)

Rare
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Great Eagle
Frostheart Phoenix
Nicene
Posts: 1018
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2011 9:11 pm
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains

Re: 3,000pts : Double Star Dragon HE vs Tzeentch Heavy Daemo

#2 Post by Nicene »

What a bloodbath!

I think your BSB really needed a Charmed Shield. Could you not find 2 points for it?
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=61399]my MSU army list/battle reports[/url]

[quote="Nyeave"]Omg it's a parrot chariot - a parriot... :D[/quote]
Sinsigel
Posts: 357
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:34 am

Re: 3,000pts : Double Star Dragon HE vs Tzeentch Heavy Daemo

#3 Post by Sinsigel »

Nicene wrote:What a bloodbath!

I think your BSB really needed a Charmed Shield. Could you not find 2 points for it?
Charmed Shield might have helped in this particular matchup's first turn.
However, the shield can be easily stripped off by using BS-shooting,
and taking the charmed shield means I have to wear dragon armour instead of dragonhelm.

And by taking dragon armour and charmed shield, BSB's armour save is lowered to mere 3+,
whereas if I take dragonhelm I can also take lion cloak. Then the BSB gets solid 2+ armour save and 1+ armour save against mundane shooting.
Daemons aren't the only army I play against. Lizardmen, empire and other armies are but few of my opponents.
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Swordmaster of Hoeth
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Joined: Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:01 am
Location: On the path of an outcast

Re: 3,000pts : Double Star Dragon HE vs Tzeentch Heavy Daemo

#4 Post by Swordmaster of Hoeth »

Hi Sinsigel,

Thanks a lot for the report! It is great to see a game where new lords/heroes allowance is used as it provides the example of what armies we might see in the near future. Of course playing at 3K is different than smaller games but it was very interesting to read about this game regardless.

I had a feeling it was a "gunline" vs "dragons" type of the game. Tzeentch army had the advantage in the magic phase with many magic missiles backed up by very dangerous skull cannons. However, it was not a match in close combat. If you managed to get to the fight on your terms without losing too much on the way you would have a good chance to win. If you suffered significant casualties on the go then obviously the situation is different.

I think you did the right thing by moving forward as fast as possible. It was indeed bad luck to lose frosty in a single turn of shooting and even more so to fail that 2+ save with your BSB. I also think your opponent made a good decision of charging the dragon to hold it for some time as otherwise you would have your pick on where to fight.

I like the charge of Reavers to keep Kairos pinned in place and it is just a pity that star dragon kept failing its attacks and didn't finish the daemon earlier. I was also surprised that Skullcannon didn't come to the rescue in the meantime. From the pictures it looks like it totally ignored the combat until the last moment.

All in all the glorious charge forward paid off and you carried the day, congratulations!

One question I would have in addition is about how does it feel to play with higher allowance of characters?

Cheers!
Image

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Sinsigel
Posts: 357
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:34 am

Re: 3,000pts : Double Star Dragon HE vs Tzeentch Heavy Daemo

#5 Post by Sinsigel »

Swordmaster of Hoeth wrote:Hi Sinsigel,

Thanks a lot for the report! It is great to see a game where new lords/heroes allowance is used as it provides the example of what armies we might see in the near future. Of course playing at 3K is different than smaller games but it was very interesting to read about this game regardless.

I had a feeling it was a "gunline" vs "dragons" type of the game. Tzeentch army had the advantage in the magic phase with many magic missiles backed up by very dangerous skull cannons. However, it was not a match in close combat. If you managed to get to the fight on your terms without losing too much on the way you would have a good chance to win. If you suffered significant casualties on the go then obviously the situation is different.

I think you did the right thing by moving forward as fast as possible. It was indeed bad luck to lose frosty in a single turn of shooting and even more so to fail that 2+ save with your BSB. I also think your opponent made a good decision of charging the dragon to hold it for some time as otherwise you would have your pick on where to fight.

I like the charge of Reavers to keep Kairos pinned in place and it is just a pity that star dragon kept failing its attacks and didn't finish the daemon earlier. I was also surprised that Skullcannon didn't come to the rescue in the meantime. From the pictures it looks like it totally ignored the combat until the last moment.

All in all the glorious charge forward paid off and you carried the day, congratulations!

One question I would have in addition is about how does it feel to play with higher allowance of characters?

Cheers!
Thank you for commenting.

Ever since I started playing dwarfs as my second army 3 months ago, I tended to use HE 'for fun'.
That means I cared less about the competitiveness of my HE lists.

Of course that doens't mean I write lists without thinking, but it does mean I began to play in order to use the models I like, rather than winning.
Star Dragon Prince was what i focused on after that change in my mind, and the new FAQ simply allowed me to field more dragons and a lv4 mage for bonus.
That was probably the most satisfying thing about the new FAQ. : More Dragons on the field!

After all, HE characters are not like lizardmen characters.
They are like one-man army with its high toughness, good mundane armour save and 4~5 S7 attacks per model.
HE characters simply lack such robust strength or, unlike Dark Elves, good mundane armour save.
Nor does putting more mage significantly increase magical firepower, as we don't have source of extra power dice.
Hence my choice for more characters on monsters, particularly Star Dragon which never dies from single lucky cannonball, and has S7 T7.

However, as i mentioned several times before, with current rules allowing cannonballs to hit both character and mount with single shot,
even double star dragon lists won't be that effective in large games.
Particularly if HE goes second.

Another drawback is that since I have invested so much points on characters, adding a scroll caddie would leave my list with even fewer troops.
But then again, if I have no scroll caddie, chances are that a cannonball shoots down archmage quickly and leave me with no scroll to use.
That's why I decided to shelf my HE dragon lists until the new merged profile for characters on monster(e.g. Karl Franz Ascendant, glottkin)
becomes official, just like the 50% allowance on lords.
Until then I will be just shooting some cannons with my dwarfs. :(

About the skull cannon in daemons' left flank being idle, the cannon was busy shooting at star dragon and the remaining silver helms unit.
After obliterating both targets it charged and finished the star dragon.
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