First up, I very much enjoyed the article. That sort of real discussion on how to problem solve game situations complex enough to bother considering is what strategy articles should be.

That said, I disagree pretty strongly with how you anticipate the early game flow to run. Partly I think this is because you assume from the outset that the Daemons army would take second turn. I know that's typical, but for these two armies, these objectives, and that BA opening position, I actually feel that that's a mistake for two reasons.

The first is that the BA castle is composed entirely of rhino hulls... these are hard to see through, hard to reposition on the fly without hurting the defensive formation, and just simply are valid targets... there's too much exposed perimeter. Lucifer engines and the space required for achieving a strong new position suggest BA can and must be mobile early. Daemonic Assault, particularly going first, offers the means to hem in and choke the tanks, clog them up with each other, and channel continuous pressure through superior agility to stop the BA army ever bringing its full force to bear effectively.

The second reason compounds the issue... the BA army has reserved both it's only CC threat AND it's single shootiest unit (the land raider). Until the deathstar shows up, the BA force lacks decent tools for damaging the DPs OR the fiends! If they were to start the game with hurricane bolters on the table things would be different, but if Daemons can go first they play their second turn before the LR of doom arrives, period. If the Daemons player sends units in the right order to the right place, all I can see for BA to do is take it on the jaw and wait.

Let's assume Daemons rolls first turn and gets their preferred wave. If I were playing them, here's what I'd decide:

DP's are slow and only good up close (template range), can soak considerably more fire than almost anything else in the army, get nothing out of 4+ cover (can't even go to ground), and plow through every non-terminator BA unit in combat including rhino chassis. They can reasonably deploy much closer up than anything else available, and they're the best thing for obstructing tank movement. They both want to show up first turn. But they'll want to be split up, since the only CC threat to them can't be 2 places at once. But if you're forking the BA castle and have the terrain pictured, the DP's can't stay 20" out from table edge. That means there's a 50% chance they're chargeable turn 2, so you actually want first turn. More time before the threats arrive, and move position games before you need to get (more) cautious.

Next pick: all 3 Fiend packs. Their charge reach plus non-need of offensive LoS means they have special deployment flexibility, critical for ensuring scatter-friendly choices about your overall formation. Their CC threat means the two DP's out there taking it on the nose have countercharge support turn 2, which helps the DPs restrict BA's space. No charge on arrival means showing up turn 3 wastes the unit, so you probably want them in wave 1 anyway. Their shooting vulnerability makes them love night fight during arrival, another point for choosing first turn, but going second they can "run!" around a corner so it's not a total loss
Remember that Fiends especially (but not only) are vulnerable to the LRC itself (more shooting dice than any BA squad!), which definitely makes going first look better for a Fiend-heavy wave... by the bottom of 2 if they're not in combat they've had 18+5D6" move already, in top of 2 they've had a D6" run and can definitely be shot.

For the last spot, the 10 PB's with Icon are big enough to survive "left over" firepower in BA's shooting phase; ideally, Daemons' deploy strategy should be to give BA a headache about efficient shooting allocation in turn 1. With BA's first shooting turn cramped by a mobility-stifling deployment and low rate of fire (per phase and per unit), Daemons should aim to punish BA's clumping by complicating his T1 move phase. If you castle with 3 sides against mass deep strike, you risk blocking your own units' LoS in a non-uniform way. Daemons wants to split up BA shooting between incompatable target options and maximize sub-threshold damage (2 wounds to a DP etc). To that end, Daemons avoids presenting targets too squishy to force hard choices about what shoots it,.
PB's are a waste of time to shoot and can deploy on the other side of town from BA's guns(even in the open during night fight) so they meet the critera. Their icon also reduces their load on your other forces since they'll need less pre-emptive support. Even better, PB's don't crowd your aggressive positioning at all; this wave's members span 3 distinct sets of deployment criteria. That will help a lot with Daemonic Assault's standard frustrations.


...So turn 1's "Plan A" cramp BA mobility with forward DPs on two fronts, split incoming fire, tank with 4W 4++ Eternal Warriors, support DPs with hidden Fiends, and use PBs to fill a hole or table quarter with tarpit + icon. You ensure the center is a no man's land with Fiend range, threat of shooty reserves, and by not offering good LoS there. You try to squeeze and encircle BA's fortress, use their hulls to shield from other hulls, keep them clogged, and keep them a half beat behind. Prioritize applying pressure and seizing tempo over long-term safety/gain.

On your Turn 2, you shouldn't been charged (unless 6 Assault Marines hopped out of a transport and assaulted a DP), but you've hopefully forced BA to break up his castle some, as neither a charging DP nor 3-tank Breaths are ok. You have screens and threats in place, and BA's defensive position is disrupted... this seems like an ideal moment to place your shooty stuff, right? Note that you roll reserves for 5 shooting units. You're also about to assault with at least 2 units of Fiends after plenty of chance to crack a razorback (4x BS5 AP1 krak missile).

You're probably getting another resilient large model to mend your net with, and in contrast to a first-wave Chariot's defensive use of jetbike movement, here you use it aggressively, by being somewhere that counts for a turn before you dive for cover, potentially by ignoring the BA unit cordoning off a soft spot. The much-increased chance of immediately capitolizing on Gaze and Breath this way should be obvious too.

Another net maintenance possibility comes from the Changeling's squad. If they're not busy shooting unmounted Marines they can go to a safe area of a weakly contested quarter and sit there as a tempting isolated target. If he splits something off to cash in on them (hard and/or dumb in his position) you can ensure it spoils his allocative efficiency to do so, as well as forcing an chance with dice to be taken.

Conversely your fragile Bolt Horrors can appear in safe, arm-length spots without punishment from night fight or insufficient screening.

Likewise the small PB's would be a liability in the first wave, but do their job better the longer they take to arrive. Or arriving turn 2 in the second wave, they might consider picking fights with the 5 Marines in the ruin, which would be too reckless turn 2/wave 1.


So turn 2's positional goals:
Reinforce the worst-hurt (likely dead) DP's flank with Fiends and/or a Herald.
...and/or: Create a bottleneck on his flank, then cork with Fiends in combat.
Strengthen midfield with Bolt Horrors.
Maximize table quarter holdings with Changeling and/or small PBs.
Restrict potential LR access on vulnerable angles.
...related: Continue to interfere in BA's movement logistics

...putting it together: Attempt to force an extreme-flank commit from reserve deathstar (at fiend/herald or surviving DP spearheads)
...avoiding the trap: you lose if Fiends eat the Crusader's full weaponfire while it's contents charge a seperate high-value target.

Your material goals in T2:
Neutrialize the Heavy Flamer.
Target rear-corner enemy tanks for terrainification.
Conserve at least 1 onboard unit appropriate for anti-terminator.

So ideally, you create LoS shelters and strangle BA lateral expansion using combat at forward corners, his own tank hulls in back corners. You also want to force the termies to pick between your windward DP (leaving them on the wrong end of the board) or your leeward fiends (leaving them in a ranged killzone)... don't let them reach a herald. If your DP is in combat with 2-3 wounds, he could opt to maximize his thunder hammer or fear your rampage... the DP will die, you should respond by immobilizing the LR and kiting the termies through the tanks. If your DP is used up, he'll want to maximize his 2+/fnp thus will go with the fiends: the fiends will get mauled, then you use HnR followed by every gun available (reliably 1+ Herald, so breath/bolt/gaze to start with).

Assuming this goes just as planned (fingertip-tap-tap) you pretty much just need to shut down that Crusader before things get simple. You may not survive the big scrum that follows, but you should still have have troop units ***-scratching elsewhere, and his assault marines should be dead. So you win on table quarters: note only troops can contest them.



You're even decently well off with the unfavorable wave. Essentially you cower at the back turn 1 and let his tanks drive up for range, probably trying to tempt a 12", 1-gun advance (into your move+shoot range ideally, you do have 4 Bolts). Fiend arrivals would be placed on the flanks to break him up into teams, DP's would probably dive in and try to anchor transports to the center, Heralds would peel off to hunt Predator side armour, PBs would take a seat wherever's most in his way. If you can keep his Terminators running to catch up for a bit, it should be pretty workeable.



At least, that's how she looks to me.