DAEMONHUNTERS versus Chaos Daemons

Game: Warhammer 40,000 5th edition
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War
1st turn: Daemonhunters
Points: 1500
Location: 278.M41, Mandag, Hexen Sub, Skolarii sector
Background: The Blood Angels have held off the Chaos Daemons long enough for the Inquisition and their Imperial Guard allies to arrive on Mandag. Their first task is to secure the remains of Mandag's sole spaceport and thus allow further Imperial reinforcements onto the planet. Inquisitor Severus leads the attack.


Daemonhunters with Imperial Guard allies

• Inquisitor Lord Severus, thunder hammer, bolt pistol, sacred incense, sanctuary, 3 combat servitors, 2 acolytes with power armour and bolt pistols, 2 familiars, 2 hierophants, 3 mystics
• Inquisitor Kurven, Psycannon, power armour
• Inquisitor Mabus, Incinerator
• Eversor assassin
• 6 Stormtroopers, 2 flamers, rhino
• 6 Stormtroopers, 2 melta guns, rhino
• 6 Stormtroopers, 2 plasma guns
• IG infantry platoon
• Command section, junior officer, missile launcher, 2 plasma guns
• Infantry squad, missile launcher, grenade launcher
• Infantry squad, missile launcher, grenade launcher
• Infantry squad, missile launcher, grenade launcher
• Armoured Fist squad, flamer, Chimera, multilaser, heavy bolter, heavy stubber
• Sentinel, multilaser
• Leman Russ, heavybolter
  

Chaos Daemons

• Bloodthirster
• Winged Slaaneshi Daemon Prince
• Daemon Prince
• 10 Bloodletters, Standard, Musician
• 10 Bloodletters
• 5 Bloodletters
• 7 Daemonettes
• 8 Flesh Hounds
• 8 Flesh Hounds
• 3 Flamers
• Herald of Tzeentch

Terrain and deployment
Gary had painted up more ruined buildings and had put them together in a two foot square area in the middle of the board. This created quite a dilemma for me as it closed off my shooting lanes substantially and would give the Daemons places to hide before launching an assault.

Fortunately I won the choice of deployment zone and I went on to pick the side with the tall building. I put my command squad on the top floor, two infantry squads below and Inquisitor Severus amongst them. Another infantry squad stood to the right of the building while my plasma gun stormtroopers took the left side. Everything else I stuck in reserve.

My plan was to hold the building using the mystics to get free shots at the dropping Daemons then counter charge with my reserve units.

The game
For the second game running, Gary got his second choice starting Daemons. The daemonettes lost a model when they materialised in the temple and the winged daemon prince landed nearby but scattered backward. The other daemon prince also warped in here. Two bloodletter squads put pressure on my right flank.

My mystics performed terribly and failed to predict the arrival of any unit. Nevertheless, my shooting phase killed lots of bloodletters and daemonettes.

The flamers, Tzeentch herald and a flesh hound unit warped in on the left while the Bloodthirster came in right in on the front left of the ruin. The other Daemons began to tighten the noose. My stormtroopers were wiped out by the flamers, herald and daemon prince shooting. The last daemonette charged into the building but was killed by the guardsmen.

I got my Armoured Fist squad, Sentinel, Eversor and both rhino stormtrooper units which were each led by an Inquisitor. My number one priority was to take out the Bloodthirster so Mabus and his stormtroopers zoomed up to rapid fire the beast, taking off a wound. My command section also shot at the Bloodthirster but I rolled four ones for the plasma weapons and they killed their wielders. The missile launcher missed. Then my junior officer wounded it with his laspistol. Eh?

Inquisitor Severus decided it was time to strike and charged in with his unit. They dragged the Daemon down.

My other shooting took the flamers down to a single model and killed the herald. The Sentinel burst onto the right flank and shot up a bloodletter squad from behind. It initiated an assault and tied the Daemons up for a turn before it exploded.

Gary threw all his Daemons forward in a desperate attack. The bloodletters on my right contacted my exposed guard squad which had been shooting superbly in the game so far. The guardsmen died to a man. The winged daemon prince and some bloodletters charged into the guardsmen that had killed the daemonette and killed them all in a couple of turns.


The flesh hounds charged into Severus' retinue. They caused horrendous damage and my unit was reduced to just two models but I then revealed my secret weapon; sanctuary. Severus pushed all the Daemons out of combat and into the sights of my guns. Nice!

My Leman Russ came on on the right flank but it's battlecannon missed all the bloodletters for two turns running. That meant I was forced to charge the Eversor into the last bloodletters. The assassin took one squad down to a single model and then took out the last three from another squad when he blew up.

The second flesh hound unit warped in on the right and managed to slaughter Mabus' stormtroopers. Mabus fled the battle. That meant I could shoot them up and wipe them all out.


The winged daemon prince had worked his way up the right flank and destroyed the Leman Russ in combat.

The heavily wounded walking daemon prince stalked through the building, shrugging off shot after shot until finally Inquisitor Kurven took it out with his psycannon. It had passed at least eight saving throws while on it's last wound.

The last action of the battle was my units shooting the winged the daemon prince out of existence and thus wiping out the entire Daemon army.

Result: Win, enemy army wiped out

Learning points

• I only won the game because Gary didn't play to the mission. He would always be way ahead on kill points so he could, and should, have kept at least one model alive to win but he just threw his models into the meatgrinder. Going all seven turns helped me too.
• My shooting was average overall despite Gary's protestations. My heavy and special weapons such as the battle cannon, missile launchers and plasma guns all underperformed but my above average small arms fire made up for it. It's a funny thing when you play a shooting army - people always notice the lasgun that causes a wound but they always seem to miss the preceding three missile launcher shots which do nothing.