Army Deployment and Scout Moves
I was very glad for the Vanguard Strike deployment - Hammer and Anvil can be rough. The pictures below show the table setup and how we both deployed.
As I said above I think it's better to start everything on the table when fielding a relatively low number of concentrated units. I have also recently switched over to just one full Grey Hunter pack (Loaded for Bear) as it tends to dish out more damage and is harder for the enemy to remove. The objective secured drop pod can be quite a challenge for the enemy to remove when they've got all the other units up in their grill shooting and assaulting. My advice is to place it right on top of an objective if possible.
I scouted all three biker squads straight towards my opponent's Bastion (forgot to list his fortification in the first post) with a squad of Horrors on top, the three Heralds embarked inside and the Screamers directly behind it. My opponent held one of his Daemon Princes in reserve along with the other squad of Horrors. I staggered my deployment so that the three biker squads would not form a bottle neck during the initial surge, which worked out well. The one biker squad to my left could react to my opponent's first moves... He couldn't really afford to concentrate on them with the BikeStar, other bike squad and Grey Hunters all up close and personal.
1st Turn - BikeStar
The Grey Hunters' drop pod lands just to my left of the Bastion and does not scatter. The Grey Hunters disembark surrounding one side of the Bastion while all guns have unobstructed line of sight to the Screamers. Note I made a mental blunder by not placing the drop podclose enough to my opponent's Emperor's Will objective... I chalk it up to be being overly excited. The BikeStar and one one biker squad moved up and trained all their armor piercing weapons on the Bastion. The other biker squad moved up as well, remaining to my left in anticipation of enemy reserves next turn.
The Rune Priest successfully casts Invisibility and suffered one wound from Perils of the Warp - the Daemons were unable to deny it.
Shooting then commences. My opponent made a bit of a mistake going to ground with the Screamers to avoid wounds from plasma and he still lost one Screamer and took another wound in the process... Really nice to get in one shooting phase before the 2++ re rollable invulnerable save comes online! My bikes were unable to glance or penetrate the Bastion. Note that I opted not to drop the Chapter Master's Orbital Strike this turn.
No First Blood but I'm feeling okay at this point. Barring really bad luck I should be able to shoot the Screamers again and assault them next turn. Looking back I might have had a decent chance to drop Fateweaver for First Blood and Slay the Warlord but the goal was to establish positional dominance, much like how jy2 often discusses his Maximum Threat Overdrive (MTO) tactics.
1st Turn - ScreamerStar
The three Heralds exit the Bastion and join the grounded Screamers (apparently this is legit now). Fateweaver swooped over the closest biker squad along with the first Daemon Prince for the vector strikes but only manage to kill one biker.
Onto the psychic phase - this took awhile to complete since there were so many spells to cast but the end result was not much significant damage taken on my end... The Runic Staff came in quite handy versus some of the maledictions cast on my BikeStar. I used all my warp charge in an attempt to cancel Cursed Earth for the ScreamerStar but it still went off along with GoTN. Fateweaver, the first Daemon Prince and one Herald all suffered a wound apiece due to Perils of the Warp... That's what happens when you're rolling that many dice all in one go.
No assaults this turn... If it had been me I might have charged one of my two biker squads with the Daemon Prince rather than swoop.
2nd Turn - BikeStar
This was my turn to pull off the Beta Strike ! The left most biker squad moved up a bit to lend their grav guns versus the Bastion while the BikeStar and other biker squad circled around the right side of the Bastion to shoot it and multi assault. I took a risk here hoping that I wouldn't finish off the Bastion while shooting... Even if I did I could still assault the Horrors if they came crashing down from the lofty battlements up top along with the ScreamerStar.
Again the Rune Priest was able to successfully cast Invisibility and did not perils this turn. Yet again the Daemons were unable to deny it.
First I dropped the Chapter Master's Orbital Strike on top of the Bastion, penetrating the fortification along with vaporizing several Horrors up top in the lofty confines of the battlement. Next all my grav guns and both multi-meltas focus fired on the Bastion but only were able to strip away two more hull points.
Next came the multi-assault... BikeStar selects the Bastion and Screamers, fully enclosing the fortification. A meltabomb from the Rune Priest explodes the Bastion and the remaining Horrors are all crushed in the tumbling pile of rubble. I elect not to charge the Grey Hunters since they can't Hit and next turn. Another Screamer is trounced by a Thunderhammer. Everyone engaged remains locked... the trap has been set !
I see me some proxies... oh noes !!! : (
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