CSM/Daemon List For Dark Star GT and a RTT Report

I have been painting up a storm getting ready for the Dark Star GT which is this weekend. Last year’s Dark Star marked my first venture into Grand Tournament gaming, and with my 5^th edition Tyranids finished tied for 13^th in generalship (though fell to 44^th after factoring in my lack registration points due to signing up through the waitlist and getting second to last in painting). I really feel I can place well this year, A) Because my list might be a bit cheesy (due to the White Dwarf daemons still being legal), B) I have greatly improved as a player this year, and C) my army is fully converted and is already at a three color minimum (with a more forgiving paint rubric than last year). This means I have three days to finish my bases and do enough highlighting to get those points too. I even have a fancy new display board (made from a large portrait from I got at a thrift shop) to help my score in that department. My list, the last hoorah of Tzeentch daemons spam, is similar to what I played at the Indy Open;

Typhus

25 Plague Zombies

10 Plague Zombies

10 Plague Zombies

10 Plague Zombies

Heldrake (Baleflamer)

Heldrake (Baleflamer)

6 Havocs (4 Lascannon)

The Masque

9 Flamers of Tzeentch

5 Horrors of Tzeentch

9 Screamers of Tzeentch

Soul Grinder (Phlegm)

Aegis Defense Line (Comms Relay)

It is hard to get motivated to paint some of these models which I don’t plan to use anymore (specifically the Masque and screamers), but all in all I am glad to get some of these models done, especially the zombies, as even before any of their green layers they are looking pretty sick. I had a chance to bring this army to a three round RTT that had 19 players at it, most of which were preparing for the Dark Star.

Round One: Joe w/ Triple Heldrakes and Tzeentch Daemons

This game was against ‘Emo’ Joe (also known as Twitch). Yes, the same one mentioned here. Joe was running a very similar list to mine, except he was using a sorcerer and 1K sons instead of Typhus and zombies, Blus Scribes instead of The Masque, and plaguebearers instead of pink horrors. We had played two lists similar to our current ones a few weeks prior, with me just sneaking out a win. This game was hammer and anvil, which made the movement of dragons very interesting, as the dragons were each of our primary means to taking down other flyers. The mission was emperor’s will and the relic.

I seize to go to go first and received my non-preferred wave (horrors and Masque). My horrors scattered eleven inches toward his front lines. I had all of my zombies spread across my backfield so as to prevent any deep strikes there.

Joe gets his non-preferred wave, just a unit of screamers, and uses them to get first blood by killing the horrors. I get all of my reserves in, using them to kill all of his flamers and most of a 1K son squad (as well as the sorcerer who I Masque’d to the front of the unit). He is an incredible deepstrike onto my screamers with his flamers, but I rolled my saves well. This allowed me to get rid of his flamers. By my fourth turn I had killed all of his ground forces (except for the bearers who I tied up with zombies) and spent my time positioning zombies so that he couldn’t land his heldrakes. I won holding one objective and with Typhus camping on the relic.

Round Two: Mike with Imperial Guard and Grey Knight Allies

His list had three vendettas, two griffins, some vets, and combat squaded purifers, strikes, and purgators all in rhinos. The mission was crusade and a modified kill points. I seized for first turn again and started de-meching him for first blood. I also got my preferred wave. My daemons really did their job, with the heldrakes just moving around to prevent their own death via the vendettas. I used my zombies (and later daemons) to make sure he could not grav shoot onto any objectives and took the win. My list is build to take down MEQ and light mech, so I didn’t have much of an issue here.


Round Three: Phil with Grey Knights and Imperial Guard Blob  Support

Just like the last RTT I played in with CSM, Bugeater GT winner Matt Root was also undefeated, and I knew facing him would be bad news due to the speed of his wraithwing/nob biker list. Luckily I was paired with Phil who I had play tested against prior and felt confident about. Phil also was one of the guys I went to Indy with; he finished 5-2. Our mission was three objective crusade and a modified emperor’s will. Essentially this resulted in three objectives in a line 12” from his table edge and two 12” from my table edge in dawn of war.

In this game I rolled to get to go first, and Coteaz was not able to double roll it away from me. I get my preferred wave. I deep strike my flamers so as to get some pot shots at the blob from between two of his tanks, but instead scatter eight inches toward the tanks. This allows me to get five hits on his manticore (which was out of sight from the rest of my army) and wreck it for first blood. Without the manticore he would need to come forward to hurt my objective holders, unfortunately Typhus and my big zombie squad was coming across the table already to engage him. My screamers worked on the henchmen he had put on the flank. I tabled him on turn five.

At the end of the day I ended up tying for best general, though on tiebreakers Matt took that title (due to me not getting first blood in round one). After paint was factored in (and since I was still unpainted in February I only got conversion points) I came in 4^th place…which is not bad for an army that is grey plastic. The winner of best overall was Scott, my Necron playing friend who despite not being near the top of battlepoints, took the win through a solid paint score and being the only one to max out their sportsmanship score.

Hopefully I cap match Scott at the GT this weekend. I feel that with five rounds it may be hard to eek ahead of all the other hobby painters, but if I put my best foot forward, and bring the best looking army I have ever done on the table, then maybe I have a shot at glory, or at the very least a plaque for being the best CSM player (there are eight players registered as CSM and another 13 people who are listed as unknown). I think what I need to really do though is focus on having fun. This is a list where I don’t need to be as perfectly focused as Nids, where I can have a good time saying my last goodbyes to Tzeentch spam and get ready for my real first hello with the daemon book as Adepticon looms ever larger over the horizon.