Rookie Battle Report

Rookie Battle Report: Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation versus Space Marines (Imperial Fists)

Before I begin, let me inform all Warhammer 40K fans in Singapore (citizen, tourist, permanent resident, visitor, otherwise) that a new gaming shop has opened in Bugis+, and has already been open for a while now. Battle Bunker has a new shop in the 3rd floor of Bugis+, just go behind the giant Gong Cha sign and you'll see a shop with more tables than the outlet in Funan IT Mall, which will sadly close in June. Oh well. Anyway, check it out if you have the time, and there's always someone eager to play Warhammer 40K with you!

Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation deployment

That's what happened ot me today. I was moving my army from Funan IT Mall to Bugis+, hoping for a game, and I got one. It was a bit unexpected, though, because my opponents (yes, plural) were a couple of very young kids. Fortunately, one of the kids' dads is a veteran, and he helped me out a lot. I offered to have a match with them to show them how Warhammer 40K works (admittedly, the veteran's son a ready knows how to play, so the introduction was more for his friend).

However, kids being kids, they're easily distracted, and they have...um, curfews. So we could only play one match. Kind of sad, but hey, that's how life is. Anyway, we decided to play 2,250 points because one of them wanted to bring 3 Terminator squads, so I was like, all right, I'll bring my usual Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation list, I'll just add 2 Kastelan Robots. It was 2v1, the fan already having a sizeable Space Marine army, with 3 tactical squads, 3 Terminator squads, a Chapter Master and a Devastator squad. His friend borrowed his models and also had a Chapter Master, a scout squad, a tactical squad, 2 Dreadnaughts and 1 Predator with lascannon.

Well, it was only one turn, so...I guess I don't have to worry about dividing the report. Anyway, I let them deploy first (actually, the kids got too eager and deloyed first before I could roll, but whatever). It's a teaching session, meant to be relaxed, so it's fine if we make mistakes. I bought the rulebook because I guess I needed it to explain better, sigh. I'm not buying starter sets for the rulebook because I don't need those models. I need the templates though. Argh.

Anyway, after teaching the friend about rules and the 4 phases (thankfully we decided not to play Psyker, so it was easier to teach the other 3 phases), I started off by moving my Kataphron Destroyers with plasma culverins forward so that they can get within range. Apparently the veteran's son wanted to play siege, so he grabbed a bunch of terrain, turned them into a fortress, and hid all his models under cover. I was all right with that, the emphasis was to show his friend how the game works, how to roll dice, the sequence of actions, etc.

I scouted my Vanguard and Ruststalkers into the center ruins, and infiltrated my Infiltrators not far behind. Then I moved the Ruststalkers and Infiltrators forward as well as the Kataphron Destroyers (sorry for repeating myself, I'm tired). I think that's basically all I moved.

My Ironstrider Ballistarius again did absolutely nothing. I had used the Protector Imperative Doctrina to increase my Skitarii's BS by 3, though their WS was reduced, so most of my shots missed, and the guy had twin-linked. However, he still rolled a freaking 2 for his lascannon when I fired at the Dreadnaught...useless bugger. My Rangers fared little better, their arc rifles being out of range of the Dreadnaughts. Their galvanic rifles and arc rifles just bounced off the tactical squad's armor and cover. Oh well.

Vanguard did well, they ripped apart a Tactical squad in cover through sheer number of plasma caliver shots. The Infiltrators were impressive as usual, murdering a squad of scouts with flechette blasters alone. The rest did subpar...while the Onager Dunecrawlers killed 3 Devastators with their neutron lasers, the last Devastator and his Sergeant lived. The Imperial Knight failed to rend the Dreadnaught with his Avenger Gatling cannon, even though I scored quite a lot of hits, I didn't even get a single 6. I had a glance with the Stormspear rocket pod, but the Dreadnaught made his cover save. Argh. My Kataphron Destroyers continued attacking the Devastators, but bad rolling meant I scattered 5 out of my 6 plasma culverin shots and had 3 hits...I think I killed the Sergeant. The heavy grav Kataphron Destroyers had better luck, I think wiping out another tactical squad, but the Imperial Knight's rapid-fire battle cannon, due to one scattering pretty badly, took out only 3 from another. That was my shooting in a nutshell, with 3 squads dead, I scored First Blood and 3 kill points.

The friend had left when I fired the first shot because his mother came. So I only taught him the basics. Oh well.

Shooting phase

The son continued on, with his father's help, and the counterattack was fierce. The 2 chapter masters rained down 2 S10 AP1 orbital bombardment pie plates, dealing a couple of wounds to my Kastelan Robots, who failed his invulnerable saves and Feel No Pain, and Instant Death killed all 3 of my heavy grav Kataphron Destroyers. Ouch. Oh, right. Because his mother called, the father suggested he deep striked his Terminators in the 1st turn for fun, and I agreed. I mean, it's for fun, and for learning, so it's fine with me! And I'm happy to obliged. So all 3 Terminator squads Deep Struck, 2 of them didn't scatter, but the 3rd one with storm shields and thunder hammers scattered right into my Infiltrators and Deep Strike Mishap. He rolled a 3, and I happily placed the Terminators deep inside his deployment zone, behind the buildings. They are going to take a long time to reach any of my units.

His Predator fired at my Ruststalkers from inside a building, and as they were right behind a wall, they had a cover save and made it. The 1st Dreadnaught came out and shot at them, but surprisingly he missed his multi-melta. He did cause a wound with a storm bolter. I think. The other Dreadnaught also fired, and while his multi-melta hit, I think he rolled bad and didn't wound. His storm bolters and combined fire from the tactical squads' boltgun fire killed 1 Ruststalker and wounded another. Ouch. That's so sad.

His 2 squads of Terminators fired upon my Kastelan robots and plasma culverin Kataphron Destroyers. All my Destroyers died to combined stormbolter and assault cannon fire. Ouch. So 2 kill points to my opponent. My Kastelan robot took a wound from the other assault cannon, but rolled a 6 for his Repulsor Grid, which meant I deflected a shot, only for me to roll another 6, so the Rending shot with AP2 killed the assault cannon Terminator. My Infiltrators, amazingly enough, made their armor and invulnerable saves from his Scouts' (combat squadded them) sniper rifles. His final tactical squad, coming from reserve, put a wound on one of my Infiltrators, but that's all he could do.

He charged his Dreadnaught into my Ruststalkers, killed one with hammer of wrath, and proceeded to mis-roll his hits. He did no damage to them, but with 4 attacks, I scored 2 hits and glanced 2 hull points with Haywire thanks to mindscrambler grenades. Not to mention, I already glanced him with overwatch. So the Dreadnaught died, giving me another kill point. Not bad!

The game pretty much ended here because the father and son had to leave when the mother came calling. Too bad. I was at an advantage, despite losing my anti-Terminator heavy grav cannon Kataphron Destroyer squad, having wrecked his Devastators, wiped out about half his army and stuff. I think I would have destroyed one Terminator squad in the open (no cover saves!) with my plasma caliver Vanguard, and the other one with combined fire from my neutron laser Onager Dunecrawlers (again, no cover saves because they Deep Strike into the open) and probably Knight Crusader, who will melee them with S10 AP2 Smash if I have to. The Ruststalkers were ready to tear apart either the tactical squad in cover, or the Predator (they have Haywire thanks to mindscrambler grenades and prehensible dataspike). The Infiltrators were ready to move up and charge into the newly arrived tactical squad from reserve. There wasn't much the guy had left to answer my threats, most of them have been nullified and were awaiting death in the open. Ha ha ha...it was a good thing the game ended on Turn 1, or it wouldn't have looked very pretty. Oh well. On the other hand, I might roll bad rolls, and I had already used up my Imperative Doctrina, so I probably wouldn't get as many hits. Not to mention he still had that Terminator squad with stormshield and a 2nd Dreadnaught (not much use, he would have died to my Ruststalkers sooner or later) hiding in the back. Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have brought the Knight Crusader, he had no answer to it at all. Then again, I need something to destroy his Terminators...actually, even with my heavy grav cannons gone, I still had my Vanguard, so I might still have the advantage. This is difficult.

End of game - only 1 turn, and so many potential moves, but kids will be kids.

Anyway, it was extremely fun, and I look forward to coaching and teaching more little kids in future!