After testing my combat patrol list in a couple games I was roped into playing a 5000 point per side apocalypse battle. I threw together a list and was going to be squaring up against our local worshiper of Khorne and his new minion the bestial and huge An'ggrath. The demon lord is a big as my Revenant Titan and is a gargantuan creature. It was Painted by Dark Future Games own Csvinton.
So I decided to run the Phoenix Court of Khaine. Mostly because I did not have all my Fire prisms and I did not have any of my super heavies with me, mistake number one.
The game started out ok I took out a couple Daemon princes and a blood thirster as well as a lord of change. An'ggrath was the big problem literally. All my bright lances and the two squads of fire dragons only wounded on a 4+ and his invulnerably save was decent and he was making a lot of saves. The Phoenix Court of Khaine, for those of you not familiar, is an apocalyptic formation that includes the Avatar and all 6 Phoenix lords It gives the Avatar 1 additional close combat attack per Phoenix lord in six inches. It doubles the range of his ranged attack and makes his fearless aura double in range as well. It also makes him immune to Plasma weapons as well as melta and flame weapons.. Jain Zar, Karandras, Maugan ra, and feugan were the only ones besides the Avatar that could hurt An'ggrath. Despite the Avatar getting 6 additional attacks, one for each Phoenix lord, he and the Phoenix lords only wounded the huge daemon on 6's.
The mass of Bloodletter closed in and more Princes came in on turn 3. Flamers wiped out my Fire Dragons and a clever use of Daemonic gifts kind of made me cry shenanigans in its level of cheese. I won't repeat the combo as I don't want to spread the cheese to more people. So I killed a bunch of monstrous creatures but a bulk of my fire had to go to An'ggrath as I could not just ignore him or really keep him at bay. Granted he would have raped my Titan but at least I have range with the pulsars to punish him a turn or two along with the cobra and the scorpion. I think they need to rethink the points cost on this guy because its not enough as is.
I really think the Daemon codex needs an overhaul of epic proportions. All the troopers having Invulnerable saves is excessive and upsets me that certain choices in my army list that should have them but don't.
I will never play a battle like this without super heavies again. The formations are nice vs the infantry and such but I needed weapons that just wounded with no rolling. Between my Titan, cobra 2 and scorpion I would have taken the beasty down, instead of only getting him down to 3 wounds, out of 8, which granted is ok but not when I have the rest of the army to deal with as well. I actually ended up scooping in turn 4 due to the fact the Baharoth was the lone survivor of the formation and the rest of his army was withing striking distance of my tanks, the only ones besides Eldrad and his warlocks that could injure An'ggrath.
In retrospect I should have used all my pathfinders. They could have offed the Daemon lord with much better efficiency. More distortion cannons and my titan would have helped too.
So lesson learned. Don't bring an army to a Titan fight.
I think we have a rematch next week and I must plan something devious and brillant to survive and take down the minions of Khorne once and for all.
Until then.................
Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
