Disciples of Belakor v Guns, Guns and more Guns at Beachhead Brawl Super Major

Second time at Beachhead Brawl, it had ended up being the penultimate tournament I'd attended before Covid and felt like a different lifetime ago despite it taking place at the tail end of 8th edition, back when Iron Hands were at the top of the tier list as Marines blew their opponents away from long range whilst sitting in devastator doctrine all game. The more things change, eh?

Brutal Midfield brawl as Dark Angles clash with Disciples head on.

So, I went into the tournament with the aim to build a list that was as resilient to shooting as possible, I'd been to a RTT with Disciples of Belakor before and both there and in casual games I'd been impressed with them in this respect. The aim of the list was to give as few soft targets away as possible - in particular those with a bad profile v Mortar attacks which is why the list ends up with no Daemonette/Bloodletters, both otherwise excellent units I didn't fancy getting shelled off with artillery (spoiler warning, this did end up being a very important consideration.) This is what I came up with:

So as a quick rundown - I wanted to run Disciples of Belakor army of Renown for 4 reasons - 1, I wanted to use a pretty decent mix of all the gods units anyway so the restrictions weren't too bad, 2, without Daemonette/Bloodletters I needed some Obsec which Nurglings get in DoB, 3 Beasts of Nurgle can get full hit re-rolls in DoB (which combo's really well with their 6's to hit to 2 mortals ability) and finally they get access to 3 strats of note - move through enemy units in movement and/or charge phase, a Janky morale strat that could be used to heal or bring a dead model back on a wound (which works with the Beasts ability to heal up to resurrect one at full health in effect) and 2 CP ability to reduce the damage of a failed save to 0 to completely no sell a hit from say a Hammerhead or Multi-melta making the big/medium demons really obnoxious to shift.

I didn't really want to run any big demons either in the current meta with so many armies having ways to just ignore toughness with 6's to hit auto-wounding on Votaan/Eldar/Guard so the aim was to have as many units that were awkward to shoot rather than fewer big units that were easy targets to gang up on.

For the units themselves - Belakor is an auto-include in the most literal sense in the army and unquestionably the next choice given their heroics in my last RTT (write up also on site) were 2 squads of Beasts. There provided much of the jank in the list and were the unit I made sure to inform my opponents their rules of the start of the game - 6-inch heroic, high mortal potential (10-12 if given full-rerolls from Belakor) strat potential to stop units falling back and healing to full at end of every phase combined with T6 7 wounds 4+/5+ Deamon saves to make them an absolute pain to deal with. Next up was a big squad of fiends and a Tormentbringer on Hellflayer to give them a 5+ FNP. These combined with the Beasts and Belakor gave me 4 units that could go into midfield and hopefully exchange blows in a brawler way as opposed to being a pure trading piece with it hopefully getting either an over committal/under committal given how each unit had its own form of defences to make damage allocation difficult.

Flamers of both the regular and Exalted variety were next - despite the nerf these are still great units and a vital source of infantry for Banners/action points with a trio of Skull Cannons for 2 reasons - popping transports and filling up Khorne slots - with a desire not to take Bloodletters it was really a choice between these and some Flesh Hounds and again, the extra toughness to help v mortars was a strong reason to take the Cannons. Finally, Nurglings gave me some much-needed obsec/forward deploy, a Changecaster for some mortal's potential and a Hellflayer to ensure I had enough Slaanesh units rounded the list out.

Mission 1 - Secure Missing Artefacts v Ross Tully's Craftworlds

My Secondaries: Banners, Reality Rebels, Warp Ritual

Opponents Secondaries: Behind Enemy Lines, Wrath of Khaine, Banners,

Pregame thoughts: Very confident about this pregame, but some potential stumbling blocks. As the mission were the objective moved, I was able to move the Eldar home objective into the open and potentially clear it at long range with Skull Cannon as they didn't really have any unit aside from Avatar that was happy tanking the damage from them repeatedly. In addition, craftworld didn't look like they had the firepower to trouble me - outside of a real high roll from the Fire Dragons which I could null one of failed save if needed. The Avengers/Hawks and Spiders did have the required type of firepower of mass damage 1 to cause me/Belakor in particular trouble (Hail of Doom Shuriken spam does fell like a very bad matchup for DoB) but there didn't seem to be enough of it to worry me. As such it felt like I could keep a distance and with flamers/Cannons keep a ranged duel to a reasonably even level with my superior defences if not firepower and with likely a superior secondary game over Eldar, the Craftworld were probably going to have to commit first with much squishier units especially when they roll of for first turn giving me easier chance to rack up a 12 in final turn. The Avatar, clearly designed to be buffed up with FNP from the Farseer did provide a unit that could cause problems but I was confident Belakor could duel it well enough, especially if I could deny the fortune at any point. The 2 Phoenix lords with their phase caps and obsec were the real potential stumbling block as units I was unlikely to be able to deal with a single turn and steal an objective, but as Eldar builds go this was one, I was happy to face.

Eldar deployment, back objective I've moved into open so my Skull Cannons can threaten primary.

Fire Dragons and Fuegan hold the building on the right on previous pic

Striking scorpions deploy midfield inside the building - Beachhead ruled all ground windows were closed.

Chaos Deployment - was wary of Scorpions charging Belakor due to hits-auto wounding on the Exarch so Nurglings/Hellflayer screen them out

Beasts and Flamers on left near objective to ensure early banners or potentially advance around building to threaten Scorpions. Ended up going second so they did banners.

Eldar win first turn and start moving, my Tormentor Hellflayer on bottom of shot is protected from shooting due to combination of Nurglings being closer and within 3 of the Fiends.

Avatar rolls max advance and immediately gets as close as possible

Ross later told me they had World Eaters arriving today, Eldar moved up with an aggression Khorne would be proud of.

Eldar clean up Nurgling screens and my Hellflayer easy enough. Scorpions take out a Beast and are almost taken out in return - I spend a CP for Draught of Terror and Craftworld have to spend 2 to Auto-pass to stop a Beast potentially coming back.

Fiends and Tormentor move up aggressively to claim some delicious Eldar souls for Slaanesh.

Skull cannons line up shots into the Craftworld backfield and take out 4 Reapers to just leave Eldar on the objective. Both Tzeentch characters end up within 3 of bigger units so screen them v shooting again.

One Flamer squad lost 2 members turn one, but lines up shots into Dire Avengers taking out the majority of the squad

Heavyweight clash turn one with Belakor dueling Avatar (ok the Flamers charged in as well to ensure I had objective.)

Combat time as both Slaanesh units in shot destroy there fragile Craftworld opponents

Avatar rolls hot on FNP and only takes 4 wounds from Belakor before dealing back 9 even after one gets nulled with Blessing of Belakor

Both Beasts ended up fighting the last Scorpion, mostly to allow the far squad to slingshot into midfield.

Fiends consolidate into Warp Spiders to force some CP from Eldar to fall back and shoot.

Craftworld take a hammer blow turn one - backfield isn't looking particularly great either.

Craftworld dead pile at top of shot in the tray compared to...

...much smaller dead pile on Demons side after T1

Moody lighting as Shining Spears prepare to counter attack into Fiends.

Asurmen moves in to help the Avatar out and Hawks chip away at Demons before jumping back to safety.

Craftworlds hold the objective, but the counter attacks stalls hard into the fiends with there FNP, Fuegan low rolls into the Chariot who phase caps the Phoenix lord in return.

Craftworld get the right fate dice and Asurmen murders Belakor doing 3d3 mortals, with Belakor failing all 3 saving throws in addition to take him out.

Belakor had used the Khorne strat to deny the Farseers fortune cast on the Avatar. The Avatar easily murdered the last Flamer and chose to consolidation into my Beasts (given they were going to charge anyway) to try and tie up them. The Beasts rolled 4 6's and deal 8 wounds to the Avatar.

Chaos have taken some casualties, but realistically game is already over.

Beasts pour into the middle

No need to try anything risky, Skull Cannons ensure they take out the last Reaper to deny Eldar primary.

Fiends kill the Warp Spiders, I try and kill Fuegan with smites + Bolt from Changecaster/Hellflayer but only do a wound, lash do another before Fuegan gets a hint of revenge killing the Tormentor

Asurmen takes the full force of Flamers to phase cap him before Beasts finish him off in combat.

Craftworld game in tatters they go for some BEL points with the Hawks but have to expose them

Rest of Craftworlds army try for some last scrappy points.

Minor inconsequential low roll when Flamers fail to do much damage in shooting + combat v the Hawks which allows them another turn of BEL

Middle objective is about as safe as its possible to be.

Hawks fall back for BEL with Skull cannons charging into position to shoot them in my turn.

Beasts make a half-hearted attempt to get to the Farseer who ends up being the lone Eldar model to survive the battle.

Final result - Demons win 95-57

Postgame thoughts: Comfortable win for Demons, Ross admitted he over-committed too early and I was able to punish Eldar heavily and really set them up on the back foot for pretty much the entire game. The Avatar and Asurman did genuinely threaten to cause problems when they killed Belakor but when the Beasts ate up the Avatar the Craftworld fightback and contest disappeared with only a small-scale scraps going their way after that.

Round 2 - Conversion v Matthew Edginton

My secondaries: Reality Rebels, Warp Ritual, Banners

Opponents Secondaries: Inflexible Command, Banners, Boots on the Ground.

Pregame thoughts: Well absolute acid test of my 'let's try and be resilient v artillery build.' Having played guard a few times in casual times I was reasonably confident pre-game about this, overly so given how things started as I underestimated Expert Bombardiers out the game, thinking my large amount of natural -1 to hit + Warp storm for another -1 to hit would keep me largely safe. Main thoughts pregame were just to focus on Cadian/Kasrkin murder as much as possible to limit guards primary and try and make Boots as awkward to score as possible. Otherwise, plan was to largely rush forwards keeping the Tzeentch characters hidden at the back with a cheeky Skull cannon/Chariot nearby to ensure that Guard couldn't easily clear my home objective via mortars.

Chaos deployment, try and hide Belakor abit a little to be outside of Rapid Fire teleporting Kasrkin, otherwise Fiends are closest unit incase I go first and can get some charges off

Nurglings on the left to get a head start on the objective

Guns, lots of gun. Most of which don't need line of sight.

Chaos win first turn and charge forwards.

Have a decent turn, Skull Cannons and Flamers take out a good amount of Cadians on the objective and Fiends with FNP on make charge and kill a sentimental.

Kasrkin in building next to Chimera, can't get at them this turn so Flamers hide so they can counter attack.

Overview going into Guards turn 1, dead pile is top of shot.

Sentinel on left moves from building to tag my Flamers

A mass of infantry jump out around Finial of Nemrodesh 1st Banner

Belakor goes down in almost no time - 2 Kasrkin squads almost drop him by themselves. By the time the dust settles Flamers, Belakor and Fiends have been murdered. Beasts get to Heroic into Kasrkin to keep objective safe and do some murdering.

Plan was to keep Guard pinned in, Beasts are going to have to do that solo now.

Safesty place is in combat - Nurglings tri-point the Sentinel before the Skull Cannon charges in and the Hellflayer piles into it as well.

Changecaster hides infront of the wall so can stay behind the Hellflayer to try and protect it from mortars from the front/Kasrkin deep striking behind.

Combat time! The left Beast squad allocates it takes deliberately badly to leave things alive to leave it in combat with 3 squads to leave it with best chance to remain in combat.

Sentinal takes a Exlated flamer barrage and Skull cannon to the face without blinking.

Seeker chariot is safe from direct LoS firepower but the mental strain and worry about artillery causes the model to break apart.

Militarum turn 2 - Beasts manage to stop the fall back and all the direct LoS shots suddenly have no target.

Guard take the middle for the first time - aim is just to keep them off it for as long as possible now.

Sentinels take the charge to my Tromentor Hellflayer and behead them whilst the Skull Cannon finishes off the sentinel. Also featured - my terrible handwriting on my notepad.

Even without a direct target, Milatarum manage to blow away my Hellflayer but Changecaster survives shooting on 3 wounds...

...but Kasrkin had teleported across the table and made the 9 inch charge, killing the Changecaster and removing my banner.

Beasts turn to be frustrated as they can't kill there way out of combat and can't go back to secure middle.

Blurry pic of my turn 3 after movement - remaining Skull Cannons prepare to take out Kasrkin in middle whilst Flamers jump south.

Its a race of time now to see if Guard can overturn primary deficit before Demons run out of models. Two big charges as Flamers make it into softened up Kasrkin and Skull Cannon does same in middle to limit primary again for Guard

Guard are slowly freeing themself as there well of infantry dry up as they find it hard to score Boots on Ground points

Skull Cannons exposed whilst everything else hides behind walls to limit direct shooting.

Sentinal on left is still alive but Nurglings ensure objective is still mine.

Guard prepare to line up everything into one of the Beasts squads

Demons turn 5 position. Still cowering away hiding.

One Beast squad is finally removed, so attention turn to last.

Beasts are removed from table at last but end of battle has come.

One last shelling before Demons take the win.

Final result - 85 - 59 to Demons

Postgame thoughts - Praise the Beasts! Dear lord did I underestimate; Expert Bombardiers and the sheer quantity of buffs guard put out, combined with the Kasrkin and the "Banner of ignore all the defensive rules" devastated my army out the gate. I typically expect Belakor to take a full shooting phase to kill - with every game I've played v Guard in friendly games Belakor taking 19 damage in the shooting phase (3 times clinging to a wound, dying only once due to taking a wound on a perils that would have otherwise been a fourth timing living on a wound) but a larger amount of concentrated units around the Banner of ignore all the defence in this game destroyed him in record time well before halfway through Guards first shooting phase. Heroic doesn't really cover what the Beasts did this game, 5 of them (later 6 thanks to one coming back to life) pretty much took on about 1500 points head on whilst the remainders of both armies scrapped around on the flanks. Technically the scoreboard was pretty one sided but the game felt anything but with just about everything apart from the Beasts hiding on the edges of the board popping out to destroy any Guard that left their quarter of the table as they did their best to duck, dip, dive and dodge the ceaseless artillery raining on them. Very happy to escape the game with a win.

Game 3 - Abandoned Sanctuaries v John Spence's Iron Hands Successors

My Secondaries: Reality Rebels, Banners, Warp Ritual

Opponents Secondaries: Codex Warfare, Behind Enemy Lines, Retrieve Battlefield Data

Pregame thoughts: Ever since facing Nassim's Iron Hands back at a Kent GT I've had more than a healthy fear for the souped-up Iron Hands Relic Contemptor with its fearsome rate of firepower and mortals' potential had potentially to really rip into most of my squads and whilst Daemons to fare better against melta/Grav spam than most armies they are still very scary to face down. On the bright side, the combination of BEL and RBD as secondaries on the Iron Hands side did potentially allow me to play a more passive game if I could weather the attrition damage and hide, especially as I ended up going second and Iron Hands were very light on combat units, potentially allowing me to boss the 3 midfield objectives well - Banners wasn't a great pick on the mission in general but it played very much into this aim.

Iron Hands mid/right Flank

Iron hands mid/left flank - pretty much on combat unit for them is on left.

Overview of deployment - no forward deployment so Nurglings on flanks to try and screen upfield if I win roll off to go first

Otherwise Fiends in middle so they can threaten any middle objective with Beasts/Flamers on either flank. Belakor can't hide so goes direct in middle.

Iron Hands win first turn and start lining up shots

Drop pod has to come in deployment as Iron Hands guns all cluster together.

Scouts jump out of transport for some early BEL, but Beasts Heroic in, killing them and slingshot upfield.

Iron Hands patient on left flank, keeping back.

Iron Hands did 10 wounds to Belakor, 7 from Contemptor alone but all the multi-melta shouts bounced of his save. Demons rush upfield in response.

Beasts move up on right and Flamers take objective

Skull cannons and Flamers on left line up shots as Demons end up outshooting Iron Hands taking out a few speeders and a Sternguard squad. Changecaster back puts a banner down.

Iron Hands whittled down surprinsgly well, one Chariot hides in ruin to ensure I have a second wave incase Fiends bounce

3 really nice charges - Fiends kill the other Sturnguard squad and pile into Contemptor, both Devesator squads and Speeders, just to their right behind the wall Beasts make a decent charge into Eradicators and Flamers annoy the Speeder in combat.

Prepare to lose the Flamers on left - they killed a Speeder and force a response from Iron Hands with Beasts nearby to counter attack.

Iron Hands position going into turn 2.

Contemptor tries to free its way unleashing a barrage of shots into the Fiends, but protected with 4+ invul and FNP they stop all the infantry from shooting. Eradictors fall back from the Beasts, only to be HI back into combat and killed. Speeders fall back and shoot Belakor to minimal effect.

Iron Hands get there first kill of the game taking out the Flamers in combat, but Nurgling ensure I still have objective.

Tormentbringer and Beasts move in and deal swift revenge

Its a bloodbath in the middle as Demons move up. Flamers annihilate most of the infantry left, Belakor (off his base) destroyes the Contemptor and the Beasts make a pain of themself.

Iron Hands fall back for BEL and Skull Cannon charges in for more brutality.

End of turn 2 and game is well beyond a contest already.

Demons win 94-34

Postgame thoughts: This went way better than expected in just about every way. Belakor led the way tanking I think 7/8 saves against the Melta, failing one which then got reduced to damage 0 due to Blessing of Belakor, which mean that I actually ended up outshooting Iron Hands on turn one in terms of damage dealt which was a nice surprise. Probably the most damning statistic from the game was keeping Iron Hands to 0 on Codex warfare, despite their fearsome array of heavy weapons they didn't manage a single unit destroy with them all game as the Fiends realistically won the game for me turn one with their charge/pile in tagging what felt like everything on note with the Beasts playing an excellent supporting role

Game 4 Recover the Relics v James Brown's Votann

My Secondaries: Warp Ritual, Banners, Reality Rebels

Opponents Secondaries: Ancestors Wrath, Bring it Down, Lay Claim

Pregame thoughts: Only my second game v Votann which bring together the worries about what they can do. After some Googling/help from the Hydra Discord overnight felt much more confident. Whilst Judgement tokens getting around toughness -1 to hit's was an issue Votaan didn't have a lot of units that could deal with Belakor with the Hearthguards volkite-esqe guns being the main concern as well as the potential mortals from Beam weapons. Given the relative lack of mobility on Votann side combined with me going second giving me a great chance to deny Lay Claim points at the end, as well as Bring it Down being a relatively low capped secondary in the match up which again provided an aggressive approach meant I could be very passive up in the match up as even as favourable primary game from Votaan could be swung by the secondaries in my favour, with end of game scoring on my side and a fairly forgiving primary on the mission it was going to be hard for Votaan to push outside of the two Berserk units which could cause a problems, especially encased in their Land Fortress which I had no intention to shoot.

Votaan deployment with - Bikes were in position so they could pregame move back to cover space for a teleport, Nurgling at bottom of shot to stop them moving up towards me

Chaos deployment, the upside down objectives are for end of game Votann scoring.

Terrain is very healthy - other than Belakor I'm able to hide most my army

Bikes move about screening whilst Land Fortress get within range of Belakor

Belakor takes some damage but army is largly fine. I'm reasonably conservative with my movement - I try and kill the bikers at top of shot with Skull cannons to dent primary whilst Nurglings tag Land Fortress to stop shots into Belakor/get objective

Moving into position to strike next turn - Flamers and cannons only managed to kill Bike so Votann scoring isn't affected but I can get my banners up.

Votann T2 - realisation that its going to be hard to outscore Daemons when going first without playing aggresive.

Reverse shot of battle, still not much exposed for Votann to sink teeth into.

Chaos primed to strike if Votann over commit, will outscore Votann if they don't.

Votann push Land fortress with beserker cargo up, kill Nurglings with the other Raider but still fail to do much damage only killing a couple Flamers.

Fiends consider there choice of target before going into Bikes and Chaos prepare to to strike hard.

Tormentor/Exalted flamer hold objective as army moves up.

Last bike had moved up with obsec just outside of Beast Heroic range - I could have covered entire objective with HI but needed the space for Flamers to put banner down.

Flamers push on right to ensure objective is mine as Belakor and Beasts charge into the Land Fortress

Fiends tear through the Bikes and tag the Land Fortress again.

Skull Cannons and 2 Flamer squads cripple the Hearthguard squad

Land Fortress gets destroyed by Beasts/Belakor and 2 Beserks die as the transport pops to limit there counter attack.

Other Beserk squad starts to disembark and go into the Fiends.

To add insult to injury 2 of the Hearthguard fled thanks to Daemon leadership/attrition modifiers

Reverse shot - this side of battlefield is pretty much lost already to Demons especially with Votanns limited mobility

Beserks still present a real challenge, especially with most of my shooting on the far side of the table

Hearthkyn move up as Votann need all the damage they can muster.

Kahl/Thunderkyn Teleport into my lines but fail to dislodge anything.

Concussions mauls with full re-rolls obliterate the Fiends with serious overkill.

Axe Beserk squad charges Belakor but can't take out the Prince and are killed without difficulty

Beserks are a pain to deal with, but everything else is coming up Disciples as I can commit with impunity.

Belakor and Beasts charge into the Land Fortress but both low roll into it. The top of shot side is completly overrun with Demons

I move away from this objective despite my banner to ensure the Thunderkyn/Khal can't slingshot into a useful position, as it turns out the Skull Cannons take the Thunderkyn out - a very cautious play but just allows no room back in for miracles.

Serious of low rolls from the Demon, but its works out well. The Tormentbringer horrificly low rolls into the Beserks killing only 2 who murder it back without even needing to fight on death only for the last 3 to run to avoid a minor issue for me. Belakor and the Beasts mostly bounce of the Land Fortress as well.

Changecaster moved forward to try and do some mortals. Changecaster failed to do mortals.

Overrun everywere but Land Fortress manages to send Belakor back to the Warp

Forge Master cowers at back before Demons come for it.

Final score - Demons win 97 - 50

Postgame thoughts: Very happy with this, with Votaan worried about me teleporting units into the backfield they were caught early on between pushing and holding back and scoreboard pressure could slowly build in my favour. Broadly as hoped scoreboard pressure did force them to commit first as the attrition at range damage was going very slowly for them with demons roughly keeping pace - when things committed was able to blow them away, albeit with some luck around the Berserks making the process smoother than anticipated. Chatting after the game realised that me and James actually work literally the other side of the road from each other so hopefully get another match in future.

Game 5 - Death and Zeal v Mani Cheema's Dark Angels

My Secondaries - Warp Ritual, Banners, Reality Rebels

Opponents Secondaries - Codex Warfare, Oath of the Moment, Behind Enemy Lines

Pregame thoughts - So this is a tough one. Both of us want to be in mid-board but Mani's list has both more durability thanks to the perma-transhuman and damage output with the Thunder Hammers to take my army on with more fast disposable assets and better ways to get obsec. On the bright side - there is much less shooting here than all previous lists which is nice and there's no doubt the terminators are going to be aggressive and the Beasts do have the potential to do some serious damage to a squad. Belakor's fight last and the mortals from the Changecaster do give me a nice edge to help soften things up and mess with the fight phase. Plan is to draw terminators in, try and take out one, keep the rest tied up in the middle then run away from them and smash the flanks - largely happy to realise I'm not gone to own the middle for long, but putting enough pressure that it allowing the flanks to be clear of terminators. Mental Interrogation might have been better than Ritual here with game plan, but only needing 3 casts for 12 points is nice.

Chaos deployment, Nurglings for some cheeky obsec on a flank away from the terminators.

Dark Angels hiding back - I can turn one charge them with Fiends, but I elect not to as I win the roll of for first turn (I'd have much rather gone second.)

Chaos after T1 movement. Belakor hides behind a chariot/flamer to limit the amount of space for terminators to get to him.

Flamers plant a banner, on the other side of the wall at the top are the Incusors and my Beats fail their charge into them to leave me with a problem on the left.

Keeping back for now and chip away 2 terminators but its a slow, skippable turn.

Keeping Beasts back out of charge range - I want DA to move into centre and try and hit them at once next turn.

Sneaky cannon shots and sneakier Nurglings

A white wall emerges from the ruins

Speeder advances up into my lines for BEL

More and more and more bodies emerge

First terminator squad charges in

Incursors take fight to Flamers and Nurglings staying out of HI range of the Beasts.

Sea of bodies with obsec granted to them all over the objective - not claiming that this turn.

Belakor isn't charged, needless to say both Demons Hellflayer and Exalted flamer are murdered swiftly.

Reverse shot of the middle taken by Mani

Beasts can heroic into terminators - they use the chance to move up but stay outside of engagement range.

Terminators pile an inch away from Belakor

Incursors beat up the Flamers, taken down the banner and are about to trap Nurglings in combat. Annoying set back when I can't divulge many resources away to flank.

Its go time! Both beasts prepare to go into the left brick of Terminators, Belakor flies over to try and take out characters.

Changecaster lines up some big casts...and does nothing.

I try and get my fights last spell of but its denies, as such my Fiends elect not to charge into the terminator squad (they might not have anyway) and go for the Speeder instead to try and tag things in the backline.

The top 3 Beasts with re-rolls go first and whiff on there first hit rolls with 0 mortals. I re-roll everything and mange to deal 12 to avoid immediate disaster.

Chariot goes in to deal with the Incursor

End of combat Belakor has killed Apothecary and Talonmaster, 7 terminators are dead as is a Speeder but I really needed to kill the full squad as DA prepare to counter attack

DA ignore Belakor and move in to destroy everything else in the middle.

Remaining Speeders move over to objective - obsec Nurglings keep control of it but they are chipping away effectively at units.

Mass terminator charge into me, the Beasts spike there saves and survive surprinsgly well but the Tormentbringer is annihilated many times over.

Decision time, I feel like I have a chance to break the back of the castle here and go in. My other option is to move Belakor away and take out a Talonmaster and Speeder.

Given I have the objective I keep Belakor in the middle and try and crack the castle, if I can do enough damage I feel like I can win the game off the back of it.

Decision 2 - potential to get into Nurgle disciple and splash some mortals. Elect not to so I have CP to interupt next turn. In the end fail/denied all my key spells from both Belakor and the Changecaster.

Skull Cannon takes out the Champion but Belakor fails to kill anything in combat, the Beasts hold up reasonably well given the situation but as DA strike first in ongoing combat without the fights last spell on it gets very one sided quickly in the middle.

Sadly last pic of the game I took - only turn 3. Everything not called Belakor on the demons side in the middle dies and i'm powerless to stop the terminators getting onto my objective on the top and Ravenwing make there way around to my home objective with changecaster to seal the deal. Nurglings hold on valiently and Belakor makes a pain in DA backfield to keep some points ticking over - DA only take a lead on primary right on the end of the last turn as I deny them well enough, but secondaries firmly in there favour throughout.

Final result - 94 - 67

Postgame - Aaagh. Felt like a real missed chance. Nurgling picked up lots of primary, Beasts did some damage and Belakor killed plenty of characters but just needed one more big punch turn 2/3 which I couldn't land. Changecaster was a serious disappointment this game - felt like they had a few chances to go big but continually low rolled on casting and did a grand total of 1 mortal wound in the game. Belakor didn't do much better with DA denying both casts that could have made a unit fight last as well and low rolling smites. With the hindsight of this turn 3 I'd have moved Belakor to go kill speeders and move back into the centre turn 4 but I felt at the time I had a real shot and doing a crippling blow to the terminators, something which didn't pan out - a fights last and potential to keep things in combat as well to get extra swings in might have just broken the grip DA had on the centre. As it was, I couldn't crack the castle and DA managed to slowly crack open the flanks as a result. Mentioned Warp Ritual earlier - it worked out in the end but was probably a mistake and I'd have liked not to pick banners here (only score 3 in the end from it) but I'm not sure what I'd have picked instead, Despoilers and going all in on going first for an easy 8 would probably be the pick or looking back Assassinate would have gone well, but it wouldn't have made a material difference here. Tough match up, but not impossible and would love to have a second crack at it.

Game 6 - Tide of Conviction v Martyn Cooper's Astra Militarum

My Secondaries - Warp Ritual, Banners, Reality Rebels. Could probably have predicted that.

Opponents Secondaries - Inflexible Command, Boots, RND

Pregame thoughts - Lots to like on my side here, mission forces guard to be aggressive and close so hopefully I can cause some real pain. The extra Leman Russ > Artillery also isn't a bad thing with lots of the AP wasted v the Demons. Like Before the Relic Banner and Kasrkin both are real threats and the Rough Riders to provide a very credible counter-charge option compared to previous game v Guard. Reasonably confident about this going into it still, felt like a good match up/mission. I went second which I wasn't thrilled about (I'd have love to get into position early in the mid table to threaten out) but did mean that I had inevitability on end game scoring and could take things slower as a result.

Chaos face down Astra Milatrum, by which I mean anything of value hides from them.

Astra Militarum had first drop and put Scout sentinal on left which had a big impact, I then put Nurglings mid/right so they could screen Belakor who had to go centre right as result.

Guard deployment - can be a bit less worried about my shooting.

Tanks at the back, one Rough Rider squad on each flank - as the only real counter charge option they were a high priority but were kept hidden and away from fight for most of game.

Guard win first turn and move up aggresively charging with the Chimera onto my objective via Nurglings.

Probably a misplay here - Kasrkin teleport turn one to the only space were there space and kill a beast + some flamers. Not ideal targets for them and I don't have to worry about screening Belakor from teleport now.

I typically always include on super blurred out photo with no value and a silly caption, so as per tradition, here is this tournaments version. Enjoy.

Belakor takes the opening barrage well enough and can prepare to move up to try and tank a second round.

Greedy play here - I send Beasts rather than Flamers into the Kasrkin knowing theres a good chance they won't kill them, and can use there morale strat to get a Beast back. It takes the Beasts out the game for longer than I'd have liked, wish I'd just sent Flamers in and moved Beasts upfield earlier.

Possibly trying to get too clever here - don't go all in on comitting keeping Fiends/Flamers back and hiding abit - not a wrong play neccesiarly but I was playing for the last time spike and possibly needed to be more aggresive.

Near disaster here - I put 3 Skull Cannons into Chimera which largely wiffed and left with awkward situation. If I destroy it in combat with only Belakor Kasrkin can disembark and steal objective. Should have commited Exalted Flamer/other Flamer squad here to ensure I overkill it, as it is I have to surround it with things I'd rather hide to ensure Kasrkin can't disembark onto objective. A couple die when emergency dismebarking causing others to flee at least.

Beast comes back to life as last Kasrkin hides in corner for boots points.

Beasts on right flank fail to destroy Chimera and lock it in place (good) but fail to kill it in Guards turn to limit pressure I can put upfield.

Gameplan very much stalling as Cadians steal my objective

If Chimera dies, Beasts are in a really good position to cause mayhem, alas.

Belakor takes a battering and is taken out by the mass of shooting. There's what feels like a million guard in the far building next to the Leman Russ pumping out mortar shots.

Demons turn 3 - like last Guard game attention turn to kill infantry and trying to push them back as Fiends charge upfield and Flamers move in to start tagging.

Cannon moves up to ensure I don't repeat my mistake of undercomitting again - Exalted flamer rolls hot on shots to ensure its not an issue.

Hero Nurgling gets forgotten about and steals objective with minimal effort.

Kasrkin trying to hide and have to decidate a Skull cannon's shooting to pick them off.

Things go well on right flank - Chimera is destroyed (kinda yay) Fiends take out most of a infantry squad and Cannon manages to take out 4 Rough Riders to limit counter attack.

Guard infantry repulsed from my midfield

Decide combat is safer for the chariot than bieng in the open again, along with the Flamers I wrap another Leman Russ

Beasts try and make it back to the fight, whilst Changecaster stays at back, safe from mortar fire thanks to a just out of shot skull cannon

Both sides are struggling on primary - Guard stopp ordering for damage and bring out the obsec.

Russ gets danger close and my Skull Cannon is blown away

Rough Riders commit and I send Flamers up, they combine with the Beasts on right of shot to trap the 2 Russ in combat (to minorily limit them.) I forgot about obsec and guard get a surprise 12 - more than same as both of us previously combined at this stage.

Blurry pic - but same trick again. Skull cannon hides out of direct LoS (not worth shooting its gun at Russ) to ensure the Exalted Flamer can't be targeted by mortars which it can tank well.

Beasts charge into combat with Russ and keep it in combat. Outflanking guard arrive on left to keep boots ticking over.

Score is very tight at this stage - I'm slightly behind and playing for end of game scoring almost entirely at this stage. Skull cannon makes advance roll to ensure its well hidden.

Leontus comes into the fray to kill my Flamers. I send my Changecaster forward to finish the Ritual - I want to keep them hidden for last turn scoring but decide I can't gamble on them dying as I need one final cast of ritual. The Beasts on the left make a huge roll to exactly remove the Obsec Russ in the Guard turn to both give me primary and put me in a position to deny guard again. Looking back - 1 less 6 and I just lose outright here.

Changecaster doesn't survive the turn - even with the Russ's locked in combat again and again they just keep blasting away. This time the other Beasts make a huge roll right at the end to remove themself from combat and take the point after Leontus takes my midfield left in his turn.

Demons win - 79-65.

Postgame thoughts - This was close and much closer than final scoreline does credit for - certainly one, possibly 2 combats were 1 less mortal proc for the beasts and guard win. For most of the battle guard were scoring much better than I expected and when they got a 12 on turn 4 with Obsec things were getting very tight. Thankfully the Beasts Spiked on mortals at a couple of critical times to free themselves up otherwise I think guard would have taken the win. Think I arguably played a bit too passive with end game scoring in mind and almost didn't make it - especially as I probably threw away a flamer unit keeping a Leman Russ locked in combat when it didn't really mind + I could have used the Beasts strat to keep it trapped potentially anyway. Beasts were again finishing the game with 4 of them, potentially should have had more. Last turn the Gatekeeper cannon spiked and did 7 or 8 auto wounds v the squad on the top left and my tired brain for some reason thought they needed exactly a 5 on the dice to pass, rather than a 4+ invul. About 5 minutes later I realised I'd rolled at least one 4 and 6 and counted them as failed in my head costing me at least one Beast. No idea why this was the case, and thankfully didn't matter in the end, but probably a good indication that I wasn't at my best (although Martyn was probably in a similar boat with a hangover and voice going.) Couple of mistakes here - firstly not making sure to kill the Chimera, little bit of a low roll on the dice but on a potentially critical moment should have make sure to overkill it rather than let it live and probably should have sent Flamers back turn one rather than raise a banner so I could push the Beasts forward earlier and cause more of a pain to the Guard. They were more aggressive than I anticipated as well which didn't help, really capping my primary and I badly needed the last turn swing that the Beasts were able to deliver - they started slow but more than made up by the end of the game with 2 critical moments of obsec Leman Russ murder as I limped over the line at the end with a scoreline that really should have showed a tighter game. Martyn ended up finishing as top Imperial Player (separated out from Marines.)

So, 5-1 overall with a loss to Mani who won the overall event winner made up a more than respectable outing for the Disciples as I finished toward the bottom end of the 5-1 bracket finishing 11th out of 124 players - my 2 games v Guard pushing my score down compared to the others in the same range. Was noticeable there were a lot of very high scores above me, anecdotally it looked like a lot of games were real blow outs when one shooting side went first v another leading to games with plenty of 100's scores. I have to say I'm really not a fan of the meta at the moment at the moment, whilst the players than had 5-1 or better had a nice mix of lists it really felt like overall oppressive shooting heavy meta (even with decent amount of LoS blocking terrain at the event) exacerbated by how hard it is to interact with some of the lists and the passive scoring of Guard/Marines. It was weird that Vottan of all things felt like the most 'fair' shooting given they actually had slow speed/poor secondaries to balance out their firepower and occasionally some of my defensive rules mattered v them. Felt like bringing an infantry based CSM list like I was running in Nephilim would have probably been a real nightmare given the match ups I ended up playing.

I really liked the list overall as a response to the current meta. Comparing to the other demon lists that were there that tended to have another big guy (often Skarbrand to deny fall back) and more Daemonettes/Bloodletters I much preferred my variant with Beasts/Skull Cannons as alternatives. Skarbrand feels like too much of a risk personally - worried they will get shot of if I start them on the table, or screened out of action if he's in deep strike (even with Belakor's Warp Locus which I feel would only force me to play more defensive which him to ensure I can deliver Skarbrand, when I often want Belakor acting as a damage sponge.) It was noticeable that without question the unit every single opponent waxed lyrical/complained about of mine was the Beasts and they were unquestionably the star of the list. Given their lack of speed I wouldn't want a third unit and they really need Belakor's re-rolls for damage and they can be swingy, but when they are good, they change games in a way few other units can match - at the same time they can secure objectives via heroic, tie up large amount of units, tank and be a damage sponge and with extra jank when needed.

In the really good units - Flamers/Exalted Flamer and Skull Cannons. Flamers took a pretty hefty nerf which reduced them from - seriously murder everything, to serious murder infantry and chip away at anything else. They also fulfil a really crucial role of being able to plant banners and often act as a clean-up squad for things trying to break out when I'd pinned them in - consistently awesome, especially in the current shooting heavy meta. Skull Cannons didn't change a game as much as anything else but just contributed time and again in lots of ways, securing my backline, screening out things and often tag teaming with Changecaster to make my home objective super resilient to mortar fire

Belakor is a hard unit to rate. The army doesn't exist without him, and the only match he really got close to getting his points back was the one I lost v Mani. Was horrendous into Guard, bit disappointing v Craftworlds and very good into Iron Hands/Vottan without killing much. Very handy for Warp Ritual, incredible buffs on Beasts and his unique spells didn't come up successfully once but powerful options. If I could steal a Chapter Master from Marines and have them follow the Beasts around and spend the rest of the points on something else (Soul Grinders always look appealing to me or more Fiends) I would, but it's not an option.

Nurglings, Hellflayer and Tormentbringer on Hellflayer all get a - hey you did an ugly job well. None of them got there points back once, but wasn't there aim. Nurglings helped with screening and objective control and did well, Hellflayer tended to act as a distraction 'hey shoot this' and Tormentbringer's buff/spells were useful - not sure I need the relic, it's been disappointing in literally every single game I've used it, but the potential of 8 Damage 3 attacks feels like it must be good at some point! If I had better strats I'd drop the relic, but I'll probably keep it.

Only really disappointing unit is a unit I know is good - the Changecaster. Fun fact, every single time they tried to cast Bolt of Change they failed and across 6 games I think they only managed one Smite as well. Part of this was semi-deliberate, with banners so often they stayed at the back and had the option to teleport around to catch up and did force some screening from players. In match ups were Nurglings had to forward deploy, they were probably the best unit along with the Exalted Flamer to keep back, put a banner up and could swing up field later if needed. A very poor tournament for a good unit.

Changes for the list is hard, because of the nature of the Army of Renown. I'd be happy to drop the Hellflayer, but nothing jumps out as a good replacement as it would have to be Slaanesh, and I'd have to drop another unit to get my next choice (more Fiends) and keeping the balance of God/points is really tough then. Exalted Flamer and Hellflayer getting dropped for Fiends works as a nice upgrade in power, but really leaves me lacking on Banners then, especially if Flamers are taken out the fight early. In a previous (much less optimised) edition of the build I had Korvax Knights in as allies. These were very good and provided some vital obsec, but they did provide an easier target to shoot a lot of the time and lead to some cases were Reality rebels felt very stretched which wasn't ideal. Not sure there's an easy way to tweak the list, as much as make a new list entirely with its own pro's/cons as there plenty of other good Daemon units (Flesh Hounds/Screamers in particular I'd like to have depended on how meta evolves.)