Hey everyone, Reecius here with a battle report from the recent Hammer of Wrath GT held this passed weekend.
The event was held at Game Empire, which is a really cool store you should check out if you find yourself in the area. Frankie, Pablo and myself piled into the car and trekked up to Pasadena for a fun weekend of gaming with friends. It was also fun to play the old ITC missions one last time!
I brought a super fun army I have been playing around with in our local league (which has over 60 players in it!). It’s a Khorne army built around my old Khorne Daemonkin army. Here’s the list.
Khorne Daemon Battalion:
- Skarbrand
- Khorne Daemon Prince with Wings
- Bloodletters x 20: Icon, Instrument
- Bloodletters x 20: Icon, Instrument
- Bloodletters x 20: Icon, Instrument
World Eaters Battalion:
- Dark Apostle (Warlord): Brass Collar of Bhoroghaster
- Exalted Champion: Power Axe
- Cultists x 40
- Cultists x 25
- Cultists x 10
Super Heavy Auxiliary
- Renegade Knight: Double Battle Cannon, Iornstorm Missiles
CP: 13
The army is a blast to play! Seriously one of the most enjoyable armies I’ve put on the table in a while. It’s mobile, very hard hitting, relatively resilient and fun to play against as your opponent is wasting models wholesale which pleases Khorne, as he cares not from where the blood flows! Really a good time, reminds me of playing my Orks to a degree but with more blood and skulls, as is appropriate for our lord and master who sits upon the Skull Throne, horrifying be his name.
I’ve gotten in a few games with it and have been refining the list. I have found that playing the CSM Battalion as Iron Warriors for the Fearless Walord Trait is better but holy molly, when those World Eaters Cultists go in hard with Skarbrand shouting them to glory…they do Khorne’s work! So many attacks with re-rolls to hit and wound from the Dark Apostle and Exalted Champion it’s bananas. However, they usually die horribly before that happens, lol. Plus, I use the Blood Reavers from AoS as my Cultists who are very pleasing in the eyes of Khorne as they do many push-ups and have helmets with very manly looking horns and spikes on them. And, of course, the World Eaters are Khorne’s chosen legion. So in the end, my choice was a simple one!
Beyond their impressive abdominal muscles though, the Cultists also serve as invaluable board control units that score objectives and zone my opponent out.
Typically I give the Dark Apostle the Unholy Fortitude Warlord Trait to make him less appealing to all of the stupid Shieldbreaker Missiles flying around out there.
The Knight I use because it is what I have and I love the model. For his many years of service shedding blood and reaping skulls for Khorne, he’s been dubbed EL MASTADONTE! Not just the Spanish spelling of one my favorite metal bands, but also an appropriate moniker for him!
The way the army plays out typically (although it is quite flexible if needs be) is to keep the Bloodletters in reserves, each with a Banner of Blood upgrade. This plus the Instrument allows them to once per game charge 3D6+1″ and a re-roll if a Khorne character is nearby. This means out of reserves they only have to roll an 8 on 3D6, 1 out of 2 times (or if you roll 2 higher numbers and a 1, with a CP re-roll). The odds are quite good that you make the assault–even better if you play a band like Pantera very loud when you roll the dice as this music is pleasing to Khorne.
If my opponent has firepower to smoke Skarbrand on turn 1 before I can do anything with him (which in the current meta is a LOT of lists, lol) then you deepstrike him, too. If that is not the case, then you start him on the table to keep the rest of your army fearless and buffed up with an additional attack.
EL MASTADONTE hangs out in the best location relative to the current situation. Typically this means as faaaar back in the rear of my deployment zone as possible to avoid getting shot to bits, lol. However, in situations where this is not a major concern then you can deploy him on the line where he charges forward blasting his battlecannons into the enemy and then kicking puny weaklings into outer space as Khorne would have it. Usually though he just gets blown up before doing anything cool, haha.
He’s very hit or miss. Occasionally he has great games where he’s just awesome and then in some games he just does nothing and is a massive points sink. However, I wuv him and so I brought him along to see if we could compete in the current competitive meta.
Game 1
- Opponent: Jessica and her Necrons
Her list from memory:
- Cryptek with Cloak
- Cryptek with Cloak
- Overlord with Warscythe and Veil
- Immortals x 5
- Immortals x 5
- Immortals x 5
- Wraiths x 6
- Tomb Blades x 6 with a 3+ and twin Tesla Carbines
- Destroyers x 6
- Scarabs x 3
- Pylon
ITC Scenario 4
A tough list with some burly firepower in the Tomb Blades and Destroyers to take out Infantry, and particularly in the Pylon to waste my Knight and Skarbrand. This would be a tough game if I wasn’t able to chop-chop the really shooty units quickly.
Deployment was spearhead assault (deployment 1) which was tough for me as it gave my opponent so much real estate to put between us. And once again, for 9 games straight, I lost the roll to go first, lol, but then I seized the initiative! Huzzah! This meant poor EL MASTADONTE would get at least one round of shooting in before getting blasted by the Pylon! However, in his excitement to please our master Khorne his aim was off and he killed a grand total of 2 Immortals…..next time, buddy. Next time!
My Cultists rushed up the table confident that the Crons wouldn’t have enough units in range to kill 40 of them…and I was wrong. So very wrong, lol. Those Tomb Blades are vicious and between they, the Destroyers and some hot dice on the Immortals, I saw my 40 strong unit go down to zero, leaving me unable to use Tide of Traitors. Ouch. In retrospect I realize how dumb of a move that was. I should have just held them back out of range of the Crons and then used Tide of Traitors to teleport up the table on turn 2 when the rest of my army came in to overwhelm the Crons with targets instead of giving them a single, important target to focus all of their attention on. Lesson learned.
On my turn two, the heavy hitters arrived from deep-strike and all 60 Bloodletters, Skarbrand, the Daemon Prince and the unit of 25 Cultists made it into combat. When that happens….all you can say is: Khorne’s will was done. Crons just don’t have the ability to withstand that type of melee punch. Even the Wraiths just evaporated to that hay-maker. As an example of the degree of mayhem involved, each unit of Bloodletters (assuming they took no casualties to overwatch) could pack in 60 strength 5, AP-3 attacks, hitting on 2’s with a re-roll, dealing 2 damage on 6’s to wound. That is bananas. All the multi-wound Cron units just couldn’t take the double damage wounds and they quickly folded. From here the Crons just didn’t have the ability to resist the onslaught and the devotees of Khorne pushed in to take the backfield and then chop the Pylon into bits, too.
A good play from my opponent was using Veil to teleport a unit of Immortals and the Overlord into my backfield to nuke the 10 Cultists holding my objective…well, I won’t forget about Veil a second game! Khrone was not pleased with my shortsightedness, lol. My opponent also had terrible RP rolls, literally failing all of them. I was killing entire units frequently due to the amount of damage I did in melee, but when she could roll them they all came up short. I think if my opponent had used the units of Immortals sacrificially to create a buffer zone where I would be unable to deep strike in and charge the good units, she could have then hit me full strength with all of her firepower and really nuked me.
In the end, it was a victory for the Blood God!
Daemon of the Match: The Bloodletters this game went ham. They killed so much stuff it was crazy. Crons are particularly vulnerable to them and Khorne was pleased at the Necron oil that was spilt in his name.
Game 2
- Opponent: Salty John, who went 6-0 at the BAO and fought his way to 2nd place!
His list from memory:
LoW Detachment: House Terryn
- Knight Gallant: 2+ Armor
- Knight Gallant
- Knight Crusader
Super Heavy Aux: House Raven
- Knight Castellan: Relic Plasma
Astra Militarum Battalion: Cadia
- Company Commander: Kurov’s Aquilla, Grand Strategist
- Company Commander
- Infantry Squad: Mortar
- Infantry Squad: Mortar
- Infantry Squad: Mortar
ITC Scenario 6
I knew this was going to be a tough fight! John has been on the warpath with this list. Also, Knights have been drop-kicking 40k players in the nethers all over the world lately. So, I knew this would be a real test of my army’s abilities. Knowing Khorne was with me gave me strength!
We played deployment 1 again, which would be interesting for both of us as John had melee Knights and I had a melee army. I hoped it would give EL MASTADONTE some breathing room to avoid getting the Castellan in the face for a turn. So, once again I put Skarbrand and the Bloodletters (great band name!) into reserves and waited for the game to develop before bringing them in. I deployed my Cultists in position to pick up a few objectives if they moved and advanced but generally stayed out of range of John’s heavy hitters.
He went first and came at me, shooting what units he could but didn’t do too much damage. Annoyingly though, he blasted my Aspiring Champion with a Shieldbreaker missile on the first shot of the game. I hate that thing, lol. EL MASTAONDTE’s big contribution this game was barely killing a single unit of Guardsmen with his mighty Battle Cannons but luckily, it took them off of an objective and prevented my opponent from killing more units than me that turn and gave me the hold more objectives point. So, despite it being a puny kill in the eyes of Khorne, strategically it was a really solid play as the game ended up being so close. He survived the initial volley from the Castellan somehow and put some more wounds on the Crusader before getting blasted to bits.
From there we came towards one another and I got a lucky break when his Gallant failed a charge on turn 2 after using the advance+charge strat, even with rolling 3d6 dropping the lowest result on his charge. Phew! That allowed me to counter-charge on turn 2 with my Bloodletters out of reserves and with my Daemon Prince who quickly established himself as an Imperial Knight’s worst nightmare!
A Daemon prince of Khorne with Skullreaver (relic Khorne Axe) is absolutely devastating to Knights. With 6 axe swings on the charge (plus his Malefic Talon, which I often forget to swing!) at strength 11, AP-4, D6 damage, hitting on 2’s, re-rolling 1’s, also re-rolling failed wound rolls against Titanic units AND dealing an additional D3 mortal Wounds on a 6 to wound! It’s savage, he kills a Knight in one round of combat. In this game he went into the Gallant, chopped him in half, then went in to the Castellan and did the same to him! Just obliterated them, it was glorious to watch and Khorne was greatly pleased.
It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, though. Before getting cut in half by my Daemon Prince, the Castellan dropped EL MASTADONTE and Skarbrand like they were made of cardboard, earning Kingslayer. The Crusader was cutting through Bloodletters and Cultists like a buzz-saw, but with each Knight I took down John’s ability to fight back became greatly reduced. The Bloodletters overwhelmed the Crusader eventually, as their AP-3 attacks and double damage on 6’s cut him down and those who were left plowed into the Gallant. By turn 4 (as is often the case with this army) almost all of both armies were dead, Khorne be praised! However, strategically that meant neither of us had much left to work with. My Cultists were grabbing objectives and getting shelled by Guard Mortars, and were pushing up into my opponent’s deployment zone to try and grab some more objectives but I was falling behind on the scoreboard. I was losing my ability to score points and John started to pull ahead on me. It all came down to a few micro battles on the field to determine victory. I had been able to hold him off from getting his last Old School points by sacrificing Cultists to move block his Knights and managed to battle back to a draw on the scoreboard turn 6 when a unit of Cultists rolled a 2 on their morale check to stick to on the table longer than they had any right to with a single Cultist remaining (a roll of a 3+ saw the unit scooped!). This sealed a tie for me against all odds as it denied John the kill he needed to pull ahead of me. In the final action of the game, I had 2 Bloodletters fighting 3 remaining guard Infantry on an objective for all the marbles. If John kills them, he wins. If I kill them, I win. If we don’t, we tie. I had the “sarge” and a mook left, roll 3 dice, get 3 hits, then three wounds! Holy molly, the Bloodletters do it! All three remaining Guardsmen get cut down leaving me with one more objective and one more kill for a two point victory!
What an awesome ending to a great game.
Victory for the Bood God!
Daemon of the match: Daemon Prince! He cleaved two knights in half like a boss!
Game 3
Opponent: Derek and his Imperial Knights. Derek is the #8 ranked Imperial Knights player in the ITC!
His list from memory:
House Raven Super Heavy Detachment
- Knight Porphyrion
- Knight Warden
- Knight Warden
Cadian Battalion
- Company Commander: Kurov’s Aquila
- Company Commander
- Infantry Squad: Mortar
- Infantry Squad: Mortar
- Infantry Squad
- Earthshaker Platform
ITC Scenario 1
More Knights! Khorne must have been pleased with my victories to present me with such a worthy opponent in the Porphyrion! That thing is beastly, particularly with the strats and such available to it via the Knight dex.
So, yet again, my Knight didn’t have long to live, lol. However, as we rolled up Hammer and Anvil, this again put a lot of real estate between EL MASTADONTE and his inevitable death. And Skarbrand went into deep strike with the Bloodletters. I deployed very defensively again to avoid getting Gattling Cannon’d to death early game. Derek wisely moved one unit of Guardsmen to the front of his deployment to create a buffer zone to push back my Bloodletters back.
I won the roll to go first and I saw a chance for glory! EL MASTADONTE charged up the field to blast the Earthshaker Platform and, once again, blew it, lol! He totally whiffed. Son of a….
Shockingly though, EL MASTADONTE survived the first turn despite standing right in front of my opponent’s army and the insane firepower leveled against him. Khorne decided to give him a chance to redeem himself after his pathetic first turn, lol. In retrospect I absolutely should have killed the Guard squad Derek put out front as that would have cleared things up for my deep strikers coming in. As I blundered on that, I didn’t have a lot of good places to land to really deliver a killing blow to my opponent. Had I taken out the pesky little unit I would have gotten right into the guts of his army quite easily and just skewered everything. However, Khorne smiled on me despite my misplay as one of my Bloodletter units rolled an 18 on the charge from reserves, which with the +1 and the phantom inch meant they would touch any unit within 20″! That allowed me to reach waaaaay into his backfield. And, further luck saw Skarbrand also make his charge from reserves (that re-roll for charges from being all Khorne is awesome) and this allowed me to use my pile in and consolidate move to get his aura over the Knight I tagged with the Bloodletters. While I couldn’t hit him as I was too far away to declare him as a target of my charge, it did mean if he wanted to leave combat he had to pass a leadership test on 3D6…which he failed in my opponent’s turn! This meant that unit of Bloodletters was safe from shooting in combat and that Knight couldn’t then shoot as it was locked. Nice!
On the other flank, another unit of 20 Bloodletters hit the Porphyrion and did quite a bit of damage to him, also forcing him to pull back to avoid my third Bloodletter unit coming in turn 3.
This gave me some breathing room. My opponent’s movement lanes got all gunked up and many of my units couldn’t actually be shot. More importantly though, it kept him in his backfield for another turn letting me continue to milk my board control and wrack up points. The Knight Porphyrion though, was pissed, lol. He popped the House Raven strat and the absolutely lit up Skarbrand and EL MASTADONTE in the same turn, leaving nothing more than blood, oil and smoke in their stead. The un-locked Warden backed out of combat and ripped into one of my Bloofletter units with his gatling cannon then charged into one unit of Bloodletters killing more and the Porphyrion charged in and stomped on the other unit, too. Ouch. That was a lot of my army smushed in one turn, lol.
Turn 3 I brought in my last unit of Bloodletters to gobble up what remaining troops my opponent had. They also went in hard to the Porphyrion and did a lot of damage to it, bringing it under half strength. Further good luck that turn had also come my way. I took a risk and moved “Daemon Prince Knight Smasher” up very aggressively past any other units to screen him, hoping I’d make my charge from reserves with the last unit of Bloodletters so he wasn’t standing out in front with a giant “shoot me!” sign on him, which luckily I had done with the Bloodletters into the Porphyrion. This allowed him to charge one of the Knight Wardens already engaged with Bloodletters (also avoiding Overwatch) and then cutting yet another knight down with his axe! WITNESS ME, KHORNE!!
In his turn he backed out of combat and lit me up, yet again, leaving me with not so many Bloodletters left. However, I had dominating board control and was earning a lot of points. At this stage, had I played it smart I could have locked it up with a big win. However, that is not what I did, lol. I made one huge mistake: I used my last remaining Bloodletters to charge his Knights, dealing a good amount of damage but I forgot one big, important rule, lol. When Knights leave combat, they can walk over Infantry. I mistakenly thought I could charge AND move block them but all I did was allow the Porphyrion to walk over my remaining Bloodletters and then obliterate my Daemon Prince who was in position to charge in next turn and finish off the massive Knight as neither of them would be able to get around the Bloodletter screen and shoot or charge him. Doh! So….big mistake. Now, all of a sudden a sure victory was very much in doubt as my best weapon to kill the Knights was now dead and the Porphyrion was on the wrong side of my Bloodletter screen.
This left both my opponent and I with hardly anything on the table as is so often the case with my army. I had a few Cultists left, two CSM characters and that’s it. My opponent had a badly damaged Knight Porphyrion and a slightly less damage Knight Warden. I then used the last two CP I had been sitting on all game to use Tide of Traitors to send a unit of 40 cultists up to try and steal his last objective. It took the attention of his remaining Knight Warden for two turns to deal with them. With all of that though, turns out two banged up Knights is a lot better than some Cultists! I had to fall back and sacrifice unit after unit to preserve my lead trying desperately to stop my opponent from stealing victory from the jaws of defeat. By systematically sacrificing one unit after another I was able to deny him two critical Old School points and prevent him from scoring 4+ points a turn, thereby securing victory by 1 measly point with only my Warlord left standing in the very back corner of my deployment zone and a furious Knight Porphyrion about to deliver the Emperor’s justice upon him, lol! What a great game.
Result: Victory for the Blood God (with a single model remaining)!
Daemon of the match: Bloodletters rolling an 18 on their charge, lol, allowing me to tie units in combat and avoid a critical round of shooting.
Pictured is Jeff Poole who went on to win the event with his Eldar!
Interlude…
So, a 3-0 day for the champions of Khorne vs. some vicious competition. A better result than many would have hoped for. I spent the night preparing for combat the next day by listening to metal as Khorne would have it.
Game 4
Opponent: Paul Bowmen and his Eldar soup.
His list form memory:
Harlequin Outrider Detachment: Soaring Spite
- Shadowseer: Twilight Pathways
- Solitaire: Kiss
- Skyweavers x 6: Haywire x 6, Zephrglaive x 3, Star Bolas x 3
- Skyweavers x 6: Haywire x 6, Zephrglaive x 31, Star Bolas x 2
- Skyweavers x 6: Haywire x 6, Zephrglaive x 31, Star Bolas x 2
Drukhari Spearhead Detachment: Black Hearts
- Archon: Labyrnthine Cunning, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Power Sword
- Ravager: Disintegrators x 3
- Ravager: Disintegrators x 3
- Ravager: Disintegrators x 3
Battalion: Alaitoc
- Farseer: Doom, Executioner
- Warlock: Quicken
- Guardian Defenders x 10
- Rangers x 5
- Rangers x 5
- Wave Serpent: Vectored Engines
- Shining Spears x 8: Star Lance
Having defeated his spouse’s Necrons, I knew this Bowmen was out for vengeance! Paul had an interesting list but one I felt confident I could defeat if I played well. Once again, poor EL MASTADONTE was living on borrowed time with all of those Haywire weapons. Poor guy, lol. But, the rest of my list was well equipped to take on the Eldar and chop them up on strength of numbers. Humorously, as he had Agents of Vect, I just blew every CP I could pre-game putting units in reserves, giving everyone a relic, etc. lol. Take that, Vect!
We were playing ITC Scenario 3, and rolled up Vanguard deployment which was great for me as it put a lot of distance between EL MASTADONTE and those Haywire weapons. Paul got first turn and took it and played exactly correctly, coming at me whole hog, leaving only his Shining Spears back to see how things developed. He kept me pinned back in my deployment zone as I fought to get the Solitaire and Bikers off of me. He also zoned me out very well, not giving me a lot of room to come in with my reserves (all of the Bloodletters, my Daemon Prince and Skarbrand). I was able to drop Skarbrand and a unit of Letters in my deployment zone which helped a ton to plow through all of the heat and keep my Cultists from running away, however, it gave Paul two turns to get the bonus point and score more objectives than me which was smart as he knew I’d break free eventually and then he’d be falling back as I swarmed him, grab Recon points and hold the objectives with him unlikely to take them back.
Interestingly, the Solitaire didn’t do as much as he usually does. The Cultists, who typically were fairly mediocre this tournament, kicked his butt! Just throwing a lot of attacks at him with re-rolls from the support characters overwhelmed him and thankfully removed him as a threat before he could jump behind them and try to assassinate one of my characters.
The game started to swing back my way on turn 3 as the rest of my army came in and the Bloodletters started to do their thing. Paul was running low on units and turn 4 it looked grim as my Daemon Prince killed the 6 remaining Shining Spears by himself in a single round of combat! EL MASTADONTE had actually survived the Haywire fusillade (barely) and was marching up field blasting and kicking things which was fun. This left my opponent with just a handful of models left and as my Cultists had surged forward with a full strength Skarbrand and the remaining Bloodletters, I controlled the middle of the table. However, lol, I made one, giant, huge mistake….I ran out of time! DOH!
Paul and I playing in the background.
The event organizers were using chess clocks on the top tables and I had just not played my time intelligently and I clocked out on turn 4 in a very strong position as I started killing more units every turn than him and would also start to hold more objectives each turn and get Recon, etc. All of that though, was not meant to be. Paul then, who still had over 30 minutes left (wow I was playing slow!) got to play out his last three turns and of course, easily beat me at that point. Le sigh. Khorne does not support the slow of mind!
So lesson learned, ouch. I will never time out again. I have to say though, I am glad it hapenned. Glad I lost? No, not at all. But I am glad I didn’t get to unfairly (and unintentionally) slow-play my opponent. I had half the time and I simply did not use it intelligently. Tough luck for me and well done to Paul who played through a very touch match-up to win!
Result: Victory for the Eldar!
Men of the match: Cultists! For the first time in a long time they had a really good game and as they had so many units thrown in their face they were able to overwhelm them with numbers and plow up the table.
Game 5
Opponent: Luc and his very nicely painted Death Guard+Magnus!
His list from memory:
Death Guard Battalion
- Daemon Prince: Suppurating Plate
- Sorcerer of Nugle on Palanquin
- Plague Marines x 5: Blight Launcher x 2
- Plague Marines x 5: Blight Launcher x 2
- Pox Walkers x 18
- Blightlord Terminators x 5: Bubotic Axes
- Deathshroud Terminators x 3
Super Heavy Aux
Super Heavy Aux
The bash brothers! Ouch, that combo is tough to overcome, and the rest of the list was nothing to sneeze at, either. This would be a tough battle, but a fun game. Also, EL MASTADONTE didn’t have to worry about getting obliterated turn 1 for a change of pace. Huzzah!
We were playing ITC scenario 2 and we rolled Hammer and Anvil deployment. I luckily got first turn and had actually deployed Skarbrand on the table this time as there were no long ranged threats that could smoke him in a single shooting phase. Apparently EL MASTADONTE had been saving up all his mojo for the last game because he went HAM! First volley he lit Magnus up dealing a lot of damage and continued to hammer him, even through the various psychic buffs, managing to take him out by turn 3. WITNESS ME, KHORNE!!
The game was very fun, Luc was an awesome opponent and we both laughed that it was going to be very bloody as we both had essentially melee armies. Luckily for me though, his Plague Marines were kitted for shooting which is not nearly as deadly as melee Plague Marines whom are devastatingly good in combat with psychic support. Getting first turn allowed me to apply a ton of pressure early and jump on the middle objective with my 40 strong cultist unit.
However, amazingly, Luc killed them dead to the man turn 2 with psychic support, shooting and a charge from Morty. Yikes, I didn’t expect that! Luckily I had double covered the objective and I kept the heat on, sending in wave after wave of Bloodletters (starting on turn 3, as we were both being cagey early game) into Morty to keep him from moving into my lines. As stated above, Magnus had to fall back to try and avoid EL MASTADONTE due to taking too much damage early game but was unable to hide from him and me destroying him turn 3 was huge as I don’t know if I could have handeled he and Morty coming into my army full strength at the same time. However, Morty was just reaping my Bloodletters with ease and eventually Skarbrand had to roll up his sleeves and get in there in an epic fight worthy of Khorne’s attention! As both of these characters hit so flippin hard it really just came down to who charged whom. And a full strength Skarbrand into a wounded Morty is a bit of a foregone conclusion, leaving him dead at Skarbrand’s feet. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! Keeping Morty tagged in combat was critical as it prevented him from being able to charge where he wanted to go and kept him in his deployment zone most of the game.
From here, despite having lost over 100 models, lol, I had the upper hand and Luc was forced to play defensively, unable to get back in the game. Also good to note: my Brass Collar of Bhorghaster FINALLY came in handy, baby! This World Eaters relic is amazing as it allows you to Deny the Witch and if you do, they automatically Perils which when combined with the Daemonic Possession strat means the Psyker takes 2D3 Mortal Wounds! It kicked in twice in this game, helping me to take down Luc’s Daemon Prince.
The Deathshroud Terminators were very interesting, too. They soak wounds for Morty making him even more obnoxiously hard to kill which is one of the reasons why Morty was able to wade through 60 Bloodletters by himself, lol. The Blightlord Terminators had a rough game as my opponent had forgotten shoot them when the deep-struck in (I had totally forgotten about them too, to be fair, they were out of sight), leaving them open to getting pummeled by my Daemon Prince.
Also, having had the fear of clocking out put in me, I played lightening fast. I went through deployment and all 6 turns in one hour and 3 minutes, lol! So, even with a very high model count like my army, it can be done. The dice app helps a lot to resolve all of those attacks and I highly recommend it for an army like this when you attack with a big unit that throws a lot of dice.
In a very fun game the result is: Victory for Khorne!
Machine of the match: I never thought I would say this, but it was EL MASTADONTE! My little robot done did good!
Final result, Khorne goes 4-1! And, ironically and most importantly, finished in 8th place for battle points! Khorne’s number! I must have pleased him for such an auspicious placing!
What I learned:
Khorne armies are a blast to play, holy smokes. Everything is dying like crazy all over the board, exactly as it should be, haha. You have to think about what you are going to do in your opponent’s turn though, so that those long turns (2 and 3 when your units come in and hit combat) can go smoothly and don’t eat up too much time. You really need to be conscious of how you are going to get your heavy hitters into combat when you need them to, and to think about when to go all in and when to hold back a bit. Some games it made sense to go whole hog turn 2, some games like my last, I waited until turn 3 to bring anything in. And in other scenarios, it made sense to come in in waves.
As for the list, poor EL MASTADONTE struggles in the current meta where so many armies have the firepower to just blow him to bits. Also, the Rapid Fire Battlecannons, while cool and potentially devastating, are very swingy. I have considered dropping him but in a test game without him I found I really wished I had some threatening long ranged firepower. He is very useful for blowing through screens and forcing my opponent to deal with him. Plus, when he goes into combat, he’s no joke, particularly when paired with Skarbrand’s buff.
Skarbrand himself is super fun to play but he is very easy to kill in this current meta. I find that really you only need him for that turn you come in hard and that if he also makes his charge from out of reserves then it typically means curtains for the other team. If he survives into turns 4+, then you are likely smashing your opponent. But, even with multiple games him only lasting 1 turn, his impact on the game was significant.
The Cultists were OK. With World Eaters and Skarbrand they could potentially get a crazy number of attacks. But, they often just got obliterated before doing much, lol. Also, I have to have a character than makes them fearless or don’t bother using them. Unless you just run a bunch of 10 strong units, morale is a killer for them. It stinks to go away from World Eaters but I think I am going to have either use Abaddon or go Iron Warriors and use the Fearless Warlord trait. That way you actually keep them on the table and are able to use Tide of Traitors.
The Daemon Prince was absolutely an all-star! He hits so hard it is bananas. 4 Knights to his name that event and it should have been 5 had I not goofed. He also walked through the very tough Blightlord Terminators, Shining Spears, and anything else that stood before him. Easily my best unit. Second mention goes to the Bloodletters who were just so useful in being able to enter in to melee from reserves and deliver such a vicious punch.
I’d like to try out some other units, too. Karanak would be very useful for his ability to attempt to Deny the Witch twice in a turn and to grab objectives or jump into a fight where needed. Also, as this list is very CP starved, getting another Battalion in there for more CP would really help.
Great games and a mega fun event! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
I have a pair of questions for you:
1-What’s your point in setting the Cultists in large units and not in MSU?
2-What do you think about a double thermal cannon knight as an anti-tank option instead of a crusader? In the list I’m cooking I think I have enough anti-horde,
1.) to get maximum impact out of Tide of Traitors and any buffs you put on them such as VotLW, etc.
2.) That is an interesting option I had not considered. I am leaning towards double gattling cannons as they’re consistent. Double thermal can be devastating but if you flub the # of shots roll it can be pretty disappointing.
Yeah, the Gattling has the advantage of not only avoiding the randomness of its brethren options (though admittedly the twin Battle Cannons end up relatively consistent, since 4d6 isn’t generally gonna skew _too_ low), but also has superior performance against heavy infantry and light vehicles. There’s a reason most Renegade Knight players go with all Avengers.
Yeah, if you roll well, the battle cannons are better but always getting 24 shots is so good. Especially in a scenario in which you only get to shoot a few times, better to know what you’re getting.
Been lurking for a bit on your site absorbing info.. and your articles are always interesting to read. But you have out done yourself with this one. A very entertaining read. Cheers
Glad you liked it =)
Daemon Prince Knightreaper makes me want to add one to a list I’ve been theorycrafting.
He hits so hard it is crazy. He’s squishy though, so you have to play him carefully.
Would 2 be better? The list has room for them.
He’s dependent on the Relic to make his attacks really hit hard, so more than one isn’t an option.
That guy is a badass, though. I love the idea of him chopping a Knight in half every turn.
Yeah, AP has it. He’s a unique dude, as without his relic he’s pretty meh. With it though, holy crap he a savage!
Although, you could take a second DP of Khorne with Malefic Talons. He has 8 strength 8 attacks on the charge (9 if Skarbrand is around) which is no joke.
Psssst, Reece. It’s”MastOdonte” in Spanish. Sorry.
Damn! lol
Dude awesome writeup. How about some pics of your army?
And any thoughts on adding in a Chaos Castellan or Gallant?
And are those Bloodletters UNBASED?!? (SHAME SHAME SHAME)
My Bloodletters are all on 32’s my good man! The army isn’t painted fully so I don’t post any pics, yet. However, I will get them up as I paint the army.
Glad you enjoyed the writeup!
Good aesthetic choice, bad crunch choice.
I have 50 genestealers on 32’s so I know why. BL/Stealers on 25mms is like trying to play Barrel of Monkies 40k.
Blood letters on 28’s is much better but they’re meant to be on 32’s.
Truth, my genestealers are always linking arms when I try to move them.
I know, right? Lol, they and Letters do always try to stick to each other, haha.
Awesome right up, great to see others finding the way of Khorne. There’s something incredibly satisfying about shredding infantry with talons, peeling back armour with claws, and ripping the wings off jets with barehands. Khorne is no showstopper but I do think they are a little underrated now with how well they can perform
Glad you enjoyed it! And yes, playing Khorne is seriously a blast.
Great read! That second game, just reading that was tense. I can only imagine how actually playing it out felt! Makes me want to pull out my MaulerFiends and Flesh Hounds again, but I need to wait one more week since I’ve locked in my Slaanesh list for OFCC next weekend already.
Haha, that is awesome! I am glad you enjoyed reading it =)
It was a crazy game, literally came down to the last roll of the dice. And the funny thing was, I rolled 2 dice off of the table and the third roll to determine the game stuck and was the number I needed! One of those great moments in tabletop gaming that makes you love it.
Also, I reckon you might be able to go 5-0 if you kick your heavy metal up a notch or two. Try Manowar, Slayer, and/or Bolt Thrower instead of the Pantera 😉
May I suggest Debauchery, when seeking Khornes favour its the music I turn to.
Kill, maim, burn
Hack Slash Kill
Blood God Kills
Are some good ones to get started with.
Huh. From the name, I would have thought they’d be more of a Slaaneshi band.
Uhhh, yeah, that needs to happen! Hahaha
Amazing article, Reecius – downright inspirational. Your passion for the army really came through. I love the detailed write up and I look forward to reading more about this legions exploits in the future!
Thanks! It was a lot of fun to write it so I am very glad yo enjoyed it.
Khorne Daemon Battalion:
Skarbrand
Khorne Daemon Prince with Wings
Bloodletters x 20: Icon, Instrument
Bloodletters x 20: Icon, Instrument
Bloodletters x 20: Icon, Instrument
World Eaters Battalion:
Dark Apostle (Warlord): Brass Collar of Bhoroghaster
Exalted Champion: Power Axe
Cultists x 40
Cultists x 25
Cultists x 10
——-
World eaters section with one “world eater”?
I guess the army won in the “buy-models” phase!
Passion? sure.
Would be fun seeing someone win a tournament using a terminator themed vanilla sm army with or without lots of passion..oh wait, forgot we´re talking 8th here.
Meanwhile:
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2018/08/40k-the-unbeatable-list-wargamescon-2018.html
Same old meta as usual. The comment section is worth reading through, it says it ALL.
Don Tomaso, you are such a curmudgeon, lol.
I never claimed my army was a World Eaters army (even though, mine absolutely is, lol). Who cares if there were only two powered armor models? Like I said, this army was based on my old KDK army which had legions of berserk humans fighting for Khorne. It is a high model count, yes, lol, that was always the intent. And dude, I was using Skarbrand for crying out loud, when was the last time you saw that in a list that did well? Sheesh, you only focus on negatives, man, lol. The perception is that Khorne Daemons can’t win games, and I just went out and did it. But no, you focus on the fact that some part of my list didn’t meet your standards? Why even comment, haha?
A player with a unit of 10 Terminators just won the BAO…in 8th. So, it can be done. And if you want to see someone go win an event with Space Marine Terminators then do it yourself. Prove it can be done instead of just complaining.
As for the remark about the BoLS comment section, well, I can only lolz to that. That has been a den of relentless negativity for years. Of course there will be complaints there, that has always been the case. If you went in expecting anything but that you were on a fool’s errand. BoLS is a great site but there has always been a consistent thread of negativity in their comments section, unfortunately.
In the meantime, people actually playing the game are having a ton of fun. And as for Nick’s list…what are you complaining about with it? Lots of unit variety, lots of great generalship required to play it well. It’s NOTHING like the lists form 7th ed, for example. So, absolutely not the same old meta, whatever that meant.
Reece! Super impressive! How do you remember so much detail of every game?!? Are you taking notes the whole time? This was the best 40k novel I’ve read in years. Thx!
Thanks! Actually I keep the score sheets and looking at when what points were scored keep the details straight in my mind, actually.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Reece:
I do it just to mess around and have some “fun” with you guys in a overly sarcastic manner 😛
It apparently hits home every single time based on the usual defensive stances when flaws in 8th are pointed out in a somewhat “mean” manner.
But you as you are in the thick of it KNOW I am right. I was right from the get go with my criticism about point costs etc that were all, every single one, addressed in the CA.
I am right about power armor as I am right about flamers and templates as seen in the usual winning lists.
People, the ones not having a blast using the latest eldar codex creep, are not particularly happy about this and you would know this if you read the adequate sections on the main boards.
Sure, skarbrand is fun to see again, I agree but what about the lower codex creep halves of the armies?
Lets talk about this seriously, so far all you have done yourself is to avoid even touching the subject.
Power armour is a joke in 8th and everyone (except a few butthurt fanboys in here) knows this.
Skarbrand you say? Ok. When was the last time anyone had stable success and fun using a vanilla SM army themed with terminators, cents, assult cents, vindies or whirlies?
A quick fix to this (for starters) could be to make power armor negate the first -1 rend and terminator armour negate the first -1 rend and the first 1 damage to a minimum of 1.
Think of it, how much would that alone solve for the pa codexes that have zero staying power and very sub par damage output?
And as for meta, you think I am joking when I say the new buy-models-phase?
Not the same old meta? What, are codex creep 8th hordes out of fashion because the occasional death guard army managed to win you mean?
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2018/08/40k-take-a-look-at-the-biggest-list-from-wargames-con-nom-nom-nom.html
Tell me how did that latest chaos “marine” list that won look like? 5 marines and 200 cultists was it now or what?
This may seem fun to you but the elite-themed armies are not seeing anything fun in this after flamers and templates were nerfed into the ground..like I said from the get go.
Try facing that khorne army of yours with a deathwing list or cents and we´ll see how fun you will have. Entire codexes need to be brought up to the dark eldar level of power in order for variety and fun to be back in the game.
Negating another ones strategem for 3p when you ar swimming in them generating more every turn?
Yeah, really “fun” for the cp starved custodes player to face, really fun.
Sure, a lot of people are having a blast with 8th, I know this..meaning dark eldar and nid players ad IG foremost. The power armour half of the hobby is sitting there stuck with cultist lists and the vanilla SM players wonder why eldar get multiple -1 to hit stacked and chapter traits for entire armies and why blueberryman is nerfed time and time again when even a razorspam-blueberryman list is a joke when it comes to tournament levels.
You ought to look at this from the non eldar/nid/ig players perspective, not everyone has a 300 model horde list that laughs at the pathetic jokes templates have become and that use the latest codex creep books to have a blast with.
Read through the prevailing fix sm etc etc threads on all the top boards, they are there for a good reason and then I´m not even going to mention the GKs. You seem to be to colored by this little forum here where people think 15 hellhound lists are “fun” to face for everyone..right before GW nerfed them. This game is about more then eldar nids and guard having a blast and sm trying to have fun with their scouts screens because codex creep you know.
Discuss or deflect, your choice man. You ARE in a position that could make a positive difference after all.
Ah, the good old “I was just joking you guys it’s only internets” defense, combined with “you know I’m right you just won’t admit it.” A classic.
Sorry your army is bad and you’re a bad player, dude, but if you think that’s somehow Reece’s fault you’re even more delusional than you come off as in your posts. It’s true, Nids, Eldar, DE, and IG are at the top of the pile right now. But DG, TS, IK, and Tau are chasing close on their heels, and we’ve seen significant tournament wins (GT+) from literally almost every faction in the game, aside from stuff like Inquisition and the like.
Maybe power armor will come back in vogue again with SW or this year’s CA; maybe it won’t. That’s the nature of the game- what is powerful and popular in the meta shifts over time as new books are released and players adapt to the existing books. Just because BoLS/DakkaDakka are full of internet conspiracy theorists and whiney babbies doesn’t mean that the game is broken forever.
Ha ha oh wow I just noticed that you also were complaining about Custodes. There’s this guy who is doing well with Custodes right now, his name is Geoff Robinson. You might want to look him up? I bet you could learn some stuff about how to play the game.
They also took top battle points at the LGT with I think a near perfect score.
Great write up Reece. I’ve always liked how you will take lists that are different or combos that people say “can’t do it” just because they are fun or to challenge the status quo. Playing different things make you such a better player than just always playing THE number one meta list. That said, I can tell that you enjoy this army. It really comes through in the write up. Give us more like this. I also my old KDK army. I have a killer World Eaters collection and Khorne demons that you may have inspired me to get back out on the table. I’m really hoping these Angron rumors pan out too!
Thanks! Yeah, I can’t recommend the army enough, particularly if you play it the way Khorne intends: full blast aggressive!
And I agree, while we could certainly win more if we played the tip of the spear lists, I find great satisfaction in winning with “bad” armies, or finding combos that may not be readily apparent.
Thanks for the very detailed and fun write-up. That must have taken some time, so thanks for sharing.
I have a rules question: In Game 2 you wrote that you moved 18″ in a single charge. I thought you could only declare units within 12″ as a charge target. Or did you charge something within 12 and just moved around them? If that is so … man, that is just brutal 😀
Yeah, that is exactly it! I hit the closest unit and then went past it to tag units behind it. I couldn’t swing on them but as Skarbrand also made his charge I used his 3″ consolidation and pile in to shimmy up into range of the units I tagged, locking them all down in combat! It was critical to me winning the game.
Great write up. Love the list and love me some Khorne. I think you probably would have done a bit better with a double gatling cannon knight, that said I like the idea of a double battle cannon knight as well. Just wish it wasn’t so expensive to run.
Glad you liked it! And yeah, I am experimenting with double gattling cannon, now. Probably going to stick with it. I just love EL MASTODANTE too much not to play him, lol.
Thanks for the write up, your enthusiasm comes across!
I recently started playing a high model count army with plenty of khorne mixed in with some psychic and shooting, so it plays every phase of the game. The first few turns are slow though.
I am pre planning my turn so that I just do it when it is my turn, have dice pools ready, but between moving, psychic (often another move off warptime in there), shooting and assault phase + buckets of dice and consolidates etc as khorne units often fight more then once a turn… It is not a quick process!
Now it does speed up a lot as the game goes on and everything dies, but any tips for those first few turns? Like do you use a dice app, movement trays or anything?
Glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah, I feel you. I try to do as much in my opponent’s turn as possible. I get models ready that are going to deep-strike, think about what I am going to do, etc.
The dice app is massively helpful. When I have 90 to in some extreme cases 160 attacks from a single unit, often with re-rolls to hit and wound, it’s bananas. When you have to plow through that much rolling, the dice app saves you minute of time, each time you have to do it. I only use it in those cases though, if it is like, 30 dice or less I don’t both with it. I like rolling the bones but when it is in the hundred+ range it’s just a chore.
I am working on movement trays for my boys, too. I find that that helps loads.
Ultimately though, I think you just need to be aware of the clock and not waste any time.
I bought that Skarbrand in the auction because of this article. My model shelf is just going to be full of red next to the BA.
Great meeting you at NOVA, I was wearing the FLG shirt on Thursday
Hey, that’s awesome! I hope he does as well for you as he did for me =)
Great meeting you as well.